I liked the update, but my problem was how it ended. It just ended right there and then. Jessica should have been having some thoughts on her way back home, maybe Mr Parker says something in the or does something, some thing happens when she reaches home, anything so it leaves a nice cliffhanger ending rather than the one we got. I just didn't get it.
I joke around and criticize this dev enough that I'll give a straight-up reply to this and comment on the update for once (the one a year, lol):
It was fine but it should be a textbook case, a warning to new devs, in how not to get to the point of the main character fucking.
In this case, the time in the story itself is fine but because this dev releases an update a year it happened far to late (real world) for it to have much of an impact. I guess that's my opinion but it was a bit anticlimactic due to how absolutely uncommitted and obviously bored this dev is with his own creation.
AWAM has a similar but backwards issue where the dev is finally at a place of about an update every 4 months but the story pacing is so incredibly slow and tedious that if his main character ever manages to get fucked it'll be anticlimactic due to having taken 25 real-world years to get there. It's way too late in the story where this was is paced decently if this update if the first you play. It just took forever to get here in terms of release dates and everyone knows it'll be another year yo get another 10 mins of story.
So a new dev should take heed and learn from those two failures, IMO.
The difference is that I think AWAM is lost at sea while JOHN could come back to being excellent if the dev ever got back on a decent schedule...BECAUSE the story pacing isn't bad in and of itself.
As for the story, it was clearly trimmed. A lot fewer renders between actions (which may be necessary if they ever wanted to get back on track...which they don't) but it wasn't awful or a major setback. It just feels like the dev may be trying to get this over with and that may not be a ba thing if they can't be bothered to work more than 20 hours a year.
The Mayor doesn't interest me but that was fine. I think I'm like most where I think the crux or focus of the story is with Palmer. I don't mind that and their bit was fine but rushed. Again, anticlimactic due to time.
I'm not sure if I'm on one path or another but I noticed in the picture folder that there are two ways it can happen with Palmer and I got the bedroom version. Not sure how to get the version where they stay on the couch. Random? Previous choice? No idea.
The kid in at the office is...fine. Doesn't excite me or bother me but maybe that's because they've done very little.
Oddly, I find the marriage the most boring aspect so the less of that there is the better for me lol. I just find her husband boring, vigilante or not.