Abhai

Devoted Member
Sep 12, 2018
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Leap of Faith is a really good game. 2020 has been a surprisingly good year for high-quality, story driven games, with many new developers entering the space (thanks COVID?). For a first time developer especially, Leap of Faith is exceptionally good. I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more attention, and it took me so long to find it as it's right up my alley. I can only assume it's a matter of time.

Drifty is creating a compelling narrative with interesting characters. It has meaningful choices. It has a good and consistent tone, it's serious when it needs to, and humorous when it needs to. It has beautiful renders. It has a great and thematically appropriate soundtrack. It has fluid and fun animation sequences. Perhaps above all, it has a very high level of polish. It's hard to describe completely but everything from the UI to the game mechanics just screams high quality. It is so high that you can easily compare Leap of Faith to current greats of adult VNs like Being a DIK and City of Broken Dreamers and not feel bad in the slightest - Leap of Faith matches up or even surpasses them in certain cases. Everyone who is interested in story-driven adult VNs should play this game.

---

I now want to talk about my issue with Leap of Faith. I prefaced this with the overwhelming praise because the game deserves it, even if I do have problems with it. My criticism is because I want the game to be the best it can possibly be.

Minor spoilers ahead.

My primary criticism is to do with Episode 4, and more specifically what I see as the game pigeonholing, or forcing major decisions on the player far too early. The start of Episode 4 asks you to pick one of the love interests. This decision will affect who you go on a "date" with at the end of Episode, and from all indications, who will be your primary (if not exclusive) love interest in the game going forward. This is far too early for the story. I realize I am not the first to raise this issue, and Drifty has mentioned it already (8 chapters), but I wanted to give my opinion on it. The choice of love interest should have really been at the end of chapter 4, not the start (at a minimum, anyway). Both the player, and James as a character aren't really at a position to make such a choice. You barely know anything about much of the girls, or at least anything other than the superficial. Chapter 4 should have been getting to know each of the love interests, then deciding.

The clear casualty of this issue is Stephanie. When we have to decide at the start of Chapter 4, we have yet to have single real conversation with her, nor have we heard her reason for leaving. There's also a disconnect between the player and James, who the player is meant to inhabit. James may or may not be in love with Stephanie based on his emotions, but the player doesn't really have anything to go on other than a couple of flashback scenes. The result is incredibly gamey. Most people probably won't pick Steph initially, then they get to the conversation with her and hear her out, then they have reload back to the decision to pick her if they like her, completely breaking immersion. Alternatively, players may pick Steph on a whim, then hear her out, decide her reason is shit, then reload to pick someone else. In other words, the player is making a decision that really requires knowledge they only obtain after that decision.

While the issue with Stephanie is the most obvious, the same issue affects all the love interests to some extent (with the possible exception of Lexi). You only find out more about them during Chapter 4 after the decision, or worse, only on their specific path. The relationship and history between Linda and James is unclear, particularly how they broke up and James began dating Stephanie instead. Robin and Kira come across only as a sexually open/promiscuous couple who just want a threesome. Only after you pick their route to you learn about their desire to settle down and have a family (a possible point of tension?). Cece's condition (and the cause thereof) isn't really explained or meaningfully expanded upon, even if you do pick her path. Lexi seems to be the only one who seems to be more or less what she initially appears to be, but her path has issues too. Unless you specifically pick her path, she barely chases after you, bizarre given it's the primary reason she invited you and your friends. On her path, she states she's been throwing herself at you, which doesn't seem the case at all. Lexi also seems incredibly unfazed by all the other competing love interests.

Chapter 4 should have allowed you to go on all the "dates" with all the love interests (even if it means skimping or moving the sex scenes currently within the dates) and get to know them much better, then you decide which one to pursue, then you can get a sex scene. While moving the decision to the end of Chapter 4 isn't perfect and there are still some underlying issues, I think it's far better than how it's currently set out. I still think there needs to be more time/chapters, especially to develop some interpersonal conflict, competition and jealousy between the love interests (and James), but okay for Drifty's planned eight chapter length budget.

While it's not as a big deal, I also find the forced choices and passage of time also annoying. Yeah I know devs have to limit choices and can't explore every combination of choices, it does at times feel really artificial. At the start of Chapter 4, there's no real reason James can't do more than one of the options. There's no real reason James can't text Steph (it takes like 5 minutes) then go visit Lexi. Robin's and Kira's conversation seems like in only takes ten minutes. The only two that seem like they take any substantial length of time is Cece and Lexi's choices (but James always has time to visit Linda after?).

The passage of time during Chapter 4's "party" section also confused me. It's one of those cases where I can't tell if I'm just an inattentive idiot, or it was poorly communicated to the player. Initially I thought the whole party sequence takes place over one night/two days - Lexi's song showing a flashforward. This is probably because I was first on Lexi's path where they say they would have a date tomorrow, so I took it at its word that the date was the next day? Then I though maybe the party sequence takes place over a few days (no more than a week). Now I see here on this thread people saying the time skip is a few weeks, which is why Cece has a tan? I'm really not sure what the passage of time is meant to be. If it is meant to be more than a few days, than it raises the issue of why James fails to spend more time having deeper and meaningful conversations with people other than his chosen love interest (and Linda I guess). Also don't Chris and Kira have jobs to go to? Like at Chapter 4 end summary screen, it says about Kira and Robin "In fact, you've dismissed both of them completely. They are completely ok with being just your friend". So over possible weeks we're at Lexi's, we don't get a single other opportunity to talk to them about being a couple/throuple, other than the very first night? Even with both of them being pretty into it? Like why not?!?

The weird, inconsistent passage of time really confuses the narrative. I'm left feeling like Chapter 4 is incomplete, even though it's meant to be finished and is by far the largest and most extensive of the chapters.

Most of the other issues I have with Chapter 4 have already been well articulated by ename144 in this good post.

Anyway enough from me. I've been really critical but I have to reiterate even with my complaining, this game is really fucking good.

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if i may say it so - you got it all wrong there man - the text in spoiler should be out-of-spoiler, while everything else, aka the great-wall-of-text, should better fit in the spoiler/s (just for the sake of this thread, eyes, fingers etc);)
 
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1337Bob

Member
Jan 31, 2018
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Thanks for the kind words. I hadn't thought about it in quite those terms, but you do raise a good point.

I feel like we get a decent sense of who the girls are by the end of Chapter 3 (with the obvious exception of Stephanie), but we do see them almost exclusively in light of friendship. Cece's kiss goes completely unexplored for a full chapter, Linda's kiss was a decade ago, and Lexi is (ironically enough) more or less a fangirl crushing on the MC despite barely knowing him. Kira and Robin are shown in an overtly romantic light (especially Kira), but then the revelation of their existing relationship winds up re-framing most of the romance anyway. And the implications of that change are likewise ignored until and unless the MC has a talk with them.

Perhaps that's why the romances feel so underwhelming relative to my (considerable) interest in the characters? I'm not saying the MC needed to have lewd scenes with all of them before making a choice, but a little more time to explore how he might feel about each girl specifically as a potential lover probably would have been a big help.
Yeah I felt I could have gone into more specific detail about the development of the characters and the romances. I guess I may as well do so now, though I feel this post will be a bit rambley and ranty. As I sort of implied in my post, there really needs to be much more time spend developing the relationship between James and the love interests. But I understand the limited time that Drifty wants to finish this game in. He's set himself essentially 4 more episodes to not only deal with the chosen love interest, but to deal with Cece's condition, James' father whatever Steph may or may not behind the scenes, and Matt being evil. All that in 4 episodes is a tall order.

While it's hard to lay out without knowing exactly what Drifty wants to do with the second half, I would have liked to have seen a longer story structure, something like:

Episode 1 - Prologue - Getting to know James and Chris, begin to introduce love interests
Episode 2 & 3 - Act 1 - Introduce all the love interests, James begins to develop relationships
Episode 4, 5 & 6 - Act 2 - Interpersonal drama, conflict between the love interests. Foreshadowing and introduction of non-romantic conflict.
Episode 7, 8 & 9 - Act 3- Final choice love interest, then non-romantic conflict happens. All conflict resolved in the end.
Episode 10 - Epilogue - Resolution and how all the characters turn out in the long term.

There is basically no interpersonal conflict (specifically conflict over affections) currently in the game. As you point out in your original post, all the love interests are more or less just okay with whatever James picks. They don't really feel like they have any real agency as characters. I particularly like your line that it feels like a "harem game without the actual harem". In fact, the love interests barely acknowledge each other at all as rivals for James' affections. The only times I can explicitly recall it ever brought up at all, outside of Robin and Kira who are tied together, is Cece being (pleasantly?) surprised upon learning Kira and James have had sex, and James telling Lexi not to worry before he goes to meet Steph. The last one is particularly egregious as by that point you're already locked into Lexi's path so any threat that James might pick Steph over Lexi is toothless. It wastes a huge potential as a point of conflict, and reinforces my point that the decision of primary love interest should have been made later. Linda also vaguely acknowledges she's kind of missed her chance with James in her conversation.

Here are some examples of the interpersonal conflicts I would like to be explored (or explored more):
- Internal conflict with Linda between pursuing James herself and helping Cece get together with James because she thinks it will help Cece as a good friend.
- Internal conflict by Cece over whether to pursue James herself or to help Steph (or others)
- Jealousy from Linda over Steph's return (as it stands now, Linda just welcomes Steph completely).
- Internal conflict within Steph over whether she should even fight for a second chance and potentially ruin James' budding new relationship(s).
- Tension between Lexi and all the other love interests. James should be trying to balance spending time with his gracious host and his friends.
- Actually have any of the love interests actually confront James that's he's pursuing/being pursued by someone else

As it stands now literally none of the love interests really butt heads at all. As you point out the only real interpersonal conflict with any real teeth currently is Robin's and Kira's, but that only occurs on their path, after you have already picked them.

The relationship between James and the love interests needed to be explored more deeply too. Some examples:
- Do James and Steph actually still love each other? There needs to be awkward flirting attempts, weird looks at one another and attempt to rebuild their relationship. Is it platonic friendship? Is it love? Oh right it's predetermined by your earlier choice. Right now James loves her on her path, and doesn't love her not on her path. It's completely binary.
- Lexi should feel insecure about the other love interests. James should spend more time building up her trust, and be more open about his previous escapades with the others. I actually find it frustrating I can't force James to tell Lexi "hey yeah I'm kinda dating the other women." Is Lexi even aware that over the 5 women James has brought to her home, he has (possibly) slept with 4 of them? Maybe I'm forgetting, but I don't think Lexi is even fully aware of the extent of James' and Steph relationship? As James reveals more of his insecurities due to Steph, Lexi should reveal more about her insecurities due to the vapid and superficial relationships of fame (and trauma). Eventually culminating in intimacy.
- James and Linda should have talked more prior to Steph's reappearance. She should be an outlet for James venting about Steph. Linda could of taken advantage of Steph's absence and tried to more aggressively swoop in, setting her up for conflict when Steph returns. (This kinda only occurs to a limited extent on the first night at Lexi's).

I'm rambling now and I've forgotten if I had any else of note to say, so I'll just end it there.
 

Malicre

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Oct 23, 2018
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The whole cheating thing revolves around Holly. It used to be that you had the option not to commit to one of the girls (giving you the opportunity to hook up with Holly instead). Unfortunately that got changed in the last update meaning that now you either have to cheat or get involved is some three-way to get with her (none of those which works for me). A pity really because I would have loved to play her on a solo as well, but I guess that's just me being greedy.
That actually triggers the hell out of me and yea i know holly is a late addition that was never suppose to be anything significant but damn it's such a low blow that her route is going to consist of you either being a cheater or already in a throuple.

Not having a "no one" option in chapter 4 was one of the few things i didn't like about the update.
 
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Razrback16

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Jul 20, 2020
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Ya I am finally current and finished Chapter 4. Good discussions here as I was just reading through this page, and a lot I agree with. I really like this game - loved the ending scene with Lexi, she's so hot, but I was honestly not even concerned about the sex scene as it was unfolding because I was more concerned about her character's intimacy issues (a sign of a well-written scene by the author), but there are definitely some story flow and detail issues that could use some work.

* Lack of jealousy / concern from Lexi regarding all the females MC brings - especially since a number of them get touchy / feely / kissy with him.
* Stephanie's handling - there's a real disconnect there with her story. I feel bad for her character after she tells the story, but as the player, without having been a part of any of the backstory personally, I just don't care much about her - I'm all in on Lexi and had no problem just selecting the neutral path with Stephanie and dismissing her as a LI.
* Some of the relationship management I thought was kinda poor - for example I actually ended up having to do two playthroughs to get Lexi because for some reason the game interpreted me not being interested in her and she was grayed out in the beginning of Chapter 4 as a selection for me even though I'd basically only gone after her in the playthrough as well as later when talking to Holly it wouldn't allow me to say I was interested in Lexi even though I'd selected mostly pro-Lexi choices throughout, trying to always indicate that I was interested in her and rejecting pretty much every other girl, so I had to actually whip out the walk through and I went through a 2nd playthrough to make sure I selected everything that gave +Lexi points, so I think some of that stuff is a little too tightly coded with too little margin of error. As someone else said, there are just situations in the game where it wants you to make a decision before you have enough relevant information to do so and then punishes you if you make the wrong decision even though you had no way to be informed enough to make the decision, lol.

Very curious to see where the game goes narratively. Since things are going excellent with Lexi at the point Ch4 ended, I'm wondering what kind of insanity is on the way with regard to her ex boyfriend, etc. Gonna be interesting.

Again for the Dev - I'd be happy to buy this game if you ever put it on Steam.
 
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EZ8lt

Engaged Member
Dec 24, 2019
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I thought everybody loved Cece, but after the last few comments I see that I was mistaken.
Not everyone likes the overly dramatic baggage girls that people feel like they must protect. I certainly don't, especially if there are better alternatives. Guess it depends on how much of a white knight you want to be.
 

Arigon

Engaged Member
Aug 27, 2020
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Hum
I am team Lexi all the way... I did not have an issue. In one playthrough I was interested if there was a way to get Linda, CeCe and Lexi, as that would be the Quad... but adding Stephanie and Holly would seem rude and leaving out Robin and Kira seemed dirty.... But I am a dirty old man who redeemed himself and still ended up with just Lexi....

Linda's ex boyfriend (Matt) who stole her clit ring from the MC from Jr. High is the threat, and I think he plans to hurt Chris, the MC, Linda and especially Cece.
 

1337Bob

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Jan 31, 2018
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Not everyone likes the overly dramatic baggage girls that people feel like they must protect. I certainly don't, especially if there are better alternatives. Guess it depends on how much of a white knight you want to be.
Yeah but she's hot.
 

Malicre

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Oct 23, 2018
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Yeah but she's hot.
Eh shes middle of the pack imo, hell the only girl in the game i find attractive is Lexi and if i had to pick one of them to date irl it would be Kira which is ironic considering i find her to be the LEAST attractive out of the bunch.
 
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Razrback16

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Jul 20, 2020
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Eh shes middle of the pack imo, hell the only girl in the game i find attractive is Lexi
Ya that's basically where I'm at, too. That's one of the key reasons it was so easy to narrow everything down to basically a solo Lexi path - I just don't find any of the other girls very attractive. Steph and Cece are cute. But Steph is nowhere near Lexi and Cece has so much emotional baggage that I'm just not interested in taking that past friendship, ever.
 

L0MBR0

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Jan 19, 2020
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That actually triggers the hell out of me and yea i know holly is a late addition that was never suppose to be anything significant but damn it's such a low blow that her route is going to consist of you either being a cheater or already in a throuple.

Not having a "no one" option in chapter 4 was one of the few things i didn't like about the update.
I don't wanna keep harping on about Holly but I kinda feel sorry for her too (Drifty has a way of doing that with all of the girls it seems). She's had all of this "mindless sex" leaving her feeling empty and it seems like she genuinely longs to be in a stable relationship. She's obviously recognising that potential in the MC but also loves her best friend Lexi and Steph and would never do anything to hurt either of them. It therefore seems so out of place for Drifty to even contemplate a cheating path with her (especially since James's character doesn't portray himself as being a fuc*ing douch either). So yeah, the whole Holly thing is rather unfortunate and I'm sure as hell not gonna cheat on someone just to get a "scene" with her. All of these characters have much more depth to them than just being simple fap material (many here have even said they don't care so much about the sex) although of course I don't mind it either, but you get what I'm saying. Seems like the gentlemanly thing to do now would be to try and hook her up with Chris.

Anyway, just want to make it clear I'm not ranting at Drifty, I love what he's done so far and I'm especially happy that he managed to redeem Steph (I was hating a lot on her in the beginning and said some pretty nasty things). Some people complain about having to make a decision before getting the chance to hear her out but the previous chapter is called "Leap of Faith" for a reason.
Edit: 6/2/'21

There are also some general rumors that Holly's route is the "cheat-route", which it isn't. Of course you will have to "re-choose" if she's your gal, but the whole re-work of her path is to avoid the whole cheat feeling - or generally accept for yourself that your first choice might not have been the right one and deal with the consequences of that.

Anyway, I won't go into too much detail of it. Actually, I won't say much else at all but wish you a very good weekend. Have a nice one.
 
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BlasKyau

Devoted Member
Jun 26, 2018
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Never liked suicidal characters in that kind of games
Personally, Cece is the only LI that interests me. The rest interest me or very little or practically nothing.

In fact Cece's is the only path I'm going to play (I don't like to see more than one ending, so it's good for me that I'm only interested in Cece, otherwise I would have left the game)
 

Razrback16

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Jul 20, 2020
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My feeling on pregnancy stuff is I'm all for it in certain narratives, generally as you get toward the end of a game / story. If I'm on a solo route with a character I'm all for them getting pregnant toward the end, maybe having a scene or two that way (maybe find a way to give the player a choice on it since some aren't into that so they can opt out) to cement the player's accomplishments in the relationship and give them a happy end-game scenario.
 

Deleted member 2528490

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My feeling on pregnancy stuff is I'm all for it in certain narratives, generally as you get toward the end of a game / story. If I'm on a solo route with a character I'm all for them getting pregnant toward the end, maybe having a scene or two that way (maybe find a way to give the player a choice on it since some aren't into that so they can opt out) to cement the player's accomplishments in the relationship and give them a happy end-game scenario.
Yeah, that, I don't really mind. But the whole, knocking a chick up, and banging preggos is just totally not my thing.
 

Razrback16

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Jul 20, 2020
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Yeah, that, I don't really mind. But the whole, knocking a chick up, and banging preggos is just totally not my thing.
Ya for some banging a pregnant chick isn't their thing and that's totally cool - that's why I'd like to see the dev in that scenario give an option so people can just opt out. I'm fine with it though, it's not like something I actively pursue, but if it's with a meaningful character, I'm totally good with it. :D I think a pregnant Lexi in this game would be really cute and sexy toward the end of the game.
 

Englen

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Mar 17, 2019
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ep5_split56_56.png


Looking good there, Lexi.

First of all, I hope you enjoyed the Sneak Peek video last week. Also, I'm sorry if it gave you the impression that this next chapter will be all dark and gloomy. It won't!

Next, for the progress. I've done good work in all areas this week to give me a bit of a spread of the repeating tasks. Animation, script, dialogue and story renders are all coming along nicely. We're at 458 story renders and 4,241 animation frames. And this week I've also managed to work up a nice render queue, to avoid my computer idling.

As you may remember, Lexi and Holly won the threesome poll, and I've put a lot of work in planning the scene to make it fit the story as best possible, and also with Holly's reworked path. There are also some general rumors that Holly's route is the "cheat-route", which it isn't. Of course you will have to "re-choose" if she's your gal, but the whole re-work of her path is to avoid the whole cheat feeling - or generally accept for yourself that your first choice might not have been the right one and deal with the consequences of that.

Anyway, I won't go into too much detail of it. Actually, I won't say much else at all but wish you a very good weekend. Have a nice one.
 

Abhai

Devoted Member
Sep 12, 2018
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As you may remember, Lexi and Holly won the threesome poll, and I've put a lot of work in planning the scene to make it fit the story as best possible, and also with Holly's reworked path.
Love when fans/patrons are able to decide on game-plot scenes...Thats some true democracy on the work, and we all know that is the best regime by far. Sooo, what could be next :unsure:
Can we include some futa, or add some real ntr, perhaps all major girls should go bisex/lesbo..endless possibilities there, limited only by fans desires/kinks:KEK:
 
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