Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.41.0] [Selebus]

[worthlesspeon]

And future resets are going to be worse, because he hates it when people give away answers.

Well, as long as the scripts remain accessible, he's not really going to be able to stop that. And even if he hashes the answers or something, at that point someone can just make a mod to bypass the puzzles.

And really, eventually if it becomes impossible to progress, it'll effect his bottom line, at which point there'll be some changes. Then again, the man isn't exactly forward thinking. He refuses to split up the game into chapters, volumes, or whatever. But also says that this game still has probably a decade of development left. At some point the file sizes are going to be too large to be practical.

 

[barglenarglezous]

Well, as long as the scripts remain accessible, he's not really going to be able to stop that. And even if he hashes the answers or something, at that point someone can just make a mod to bypass the puzzles.

And really, eventually if it becomes impossible to progress, it'll effect his bottom line, at which point there'll be some changes. Then again, the man isn't exactly forward thinking. He refuses to split up the game into chapters, volumes, or whatever. But also says that this game still has probably a decade of development left. At some point the file sizes are going to be too large to be practical.

Most of the people backing the game -- or at least the ones on the Discord -- have bought into the mindset, so the impact on his bottom line would be negligible.

 

[van321]

Finally finished the game up to present. Once you get past the cringe edgelord nihilism, the characters are absolutely wonderful.

S Tier: Maya, Rin, Yumi
A Tier: Ayane, Kirin, Noriko, Sana
B Tier: Ami, Chika, Io, Makoto, Miku
C Tier: Futuba, Molly, Nodoka, Touka, Tsuneyo, Uta
D Tier: Otoha, Yasu

 

[worthlesspeon]

Most of the people backing the game -- or at least the ones on the Discord -- have bought into the mindset, so the impact on his bottom line would be negligible.

I doubt the active discord users are representative of the backers as a whole. Remember, he censors and bans people who don't agree with the mindset. So of course the perception is near 100% of the people there buy into the cult.

Even now, his subscribestar is a few thousand away from the peak patreon numbers. And I don't think we know the dollar amount the subscribestar was earning prior to the patreon crackdown, so the reality is even less.

 

[LooLoo Baloo]

Finally finished the game up to present. Once you get past the cringe edgelord nihilism, the characters are absolutely wonderful.

S Tier: Maya, Rin, Yumi
A Tier: Ayane, Kirin, Noriko, Sana
B Tier: Ami, Chika, Io, Makoto, Miku
C Tier: Futuba, Molly, Nodoka, Touka, Tsuneyo, Uta
D Tier: Otoha, Yasu

I agree with most of these especially S tier but but I think Otoha is underrated. She's great

 

[jamyong]

I just read through the Baby Finches for the first time (missed it on the 1st playthrough) and I was curious what theories there are in regards to what Sensei was talking about with Maya. Does anyone have any idea what the redacted words might be? Also, how likely is it that the original Sensei actually jumped off the roof with Maya right there begging him to stop?

 

[van321]

I agree with most of these especially S tier but but I think Otoha is underrated. She's great

I do think Otoha has a lot of potential to be more interesting. For example, Chapter 1 Maya I would have been ranked in probably C or D tier, but she has become one of my favorites as she grapples with her own existential crisis. But right now, Otoha is just "the straight-laced woman" and plays second fiddle to Rin's development or Niki's development. I would like to see more Otoha-focused content. Likewise Yasu seems more like a plot device than a love interest (much like early Maya). Both characters I expect to improve with time.

I just read through the Baby Finches for the first time (missed it on the 1st playthrough) and I was curious what theories there are in regards to what Sensei was talking about with Maya. Does anyone have any idea what the redacted words might be? Also, how likely is it that the original Sensei actually jumped off the roof with Maya right there begging him to stop?

Keeping in mind that it's a happy scene (and that it goes off the rails pretty quickly), I interpreted Sensei went to talk to Maya to let her know someone may have found out about them. Kind of like Ayane being extremely cryptic about her pregnancy, I interpreted Maya talking about finch behavior and living fetuses in a dead womb as an uncomfortable conversation about her being pregnant. Since Sensei knows now everyone will find out, he jumps off the roof.

I suspect the reason Maya is so insistent that pregnancy is the key to entering the time loop is that she believes SHE got into the time loop that way.

 

[k1n5l4y3r]

I suspect the reason Maya is so insistent that pregnancy is the key to entering the time loop is that she believes SHE got into the time loop that way.

I have another theory about that, I suspect Maya is Sensei's daughter, in the christmas event iirc or someother, there was a flash image with a girl that looked like Maya, on top of Sensei,but the eyes were somewhat different, there is also a lot of mystery surrounding Maya's past, even her beign part of their life for years nobody knows of her parents.

 

[barglenarglezous]

I suspect the reason Maya is so insistent that pregnancy is the key to entering the time loop is that she believes SHE got into the time loop that way.

Note: If she entered the loop pregnant, then every reset would return her to the exact point of the pregnancy she entered it in, similar to how pregnant Ayane became not-pregnant Ayane after the reset.

This doesn't invalidate your theory -- and there's evidence to support that this is, in fact, the case. The volume of food she eats, for example. The recurring egg theme and the constant references to baby birds definitely indicates that pregnancy is a major theme.

But she does explicitly state that she is not pregnant in one event -- though she could easily be lying to avoid triggering Sensei.

 

[AgumenticR]

God I forgot how ridiculous this game can be for the fucking reset events. I swear to progress naturally you have to take more notes than I took in medical school. Does anyone actually find this kind of thing enjoyable?

Well, yes and no. I like the puzzles idea in general, but I am not a big fan of the ones that refer to the lines scattered in the updates released months ago - my favourite puzzle in Life of Prizes was the chili one, for example, which was very in style of old P&C games. On the other hand, when I was replaying the game after the revamp, I actually did notice the answers to all the puzzles I forgot, like the Book of Infinite Pages one, and solving it all honestly felt pretty good. But still, less of that, more of chili.

 

[van321]

I have another theory about that, I suspect Maya is Sensei's daughter, in the christmas event iirc or someother, there was a flash image with a girl that looked like Maya, on top of Sensei,but the eyes were somewhat different, there is also a lot of mystery surrounding Maya's past, even her beign part of their life for years nobody knows of her parents.

What is unclear to me is there appears to be an alternate universe with an older Maya (she pops up when Sensei's mind goes haywire a bunch of times as well; this is who I think you are referring to as potentially Maya's mother, but I think it is older Maya) and an older Noriko (she only pops up once), the one which Maya got sent back to and "wanted to be sent back" to the time loop.

It raises the question... was Sensei actually a tutor of a bunch of middle school kids who taught them nihilist philosophy, or... was he a tutor of college-aged or graduate school-aged students? Do characters other than Maya, Noriko and Sensei exist in that alternate universe of college tutor Sensei? Does Noriko's pop star sister even exist? Is that the REAL universe in which Sensei killed himself? Is Kumon-mi a kind of Purgatory that Sensei and Maya are caught in for their sins?

There appears to be no discernable reason for Maya's scathing hatred for Noriko based on what is known in the Kumon-mi timeline, though information is still incomplete.

 

[barglenarglezous]

LOL, I see Selebus is still a little salty about it.

Spoiler

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

 

[Glewey15]

I doubt the active discord users are representative of the backers as a whole. Remember, he censors and bans people who don't agree with the mindset. So of course the perception is near 100% of the people there buy into the cult.

Even now, his subscribestar is a few thousand away from the peak patreon numbers. And I don't think we know the dollar amount the subscribestar was earning prior to the patreon crackdown, so the reality is even less.

The discord is 100% a cult. when I used to play (im here to see if the game is worth picking up again) I tried to go into the discord to ask for puzzle answers they got very offended. they pressed me so hard to figure out why i didnt really want to read the secret events (too edgy for me, I just want to learn about the characters and fuck them). a guy even said that the game was better than therapy for him. I wouldnt be suprised if the dev had an ego, there are a lot of people in that discord who like the game a little too much.

tbh though if your game has a lot of depression themes and you have characters that are suspiciously aged, its guaranteed a portion of your audience will probably not be ok in the head.

 

[worthlesspeon]

The discord is 100% a cult. when I used to play (im here to see if the game is worth picking up again) I tried to go into the discord to ask for puzzle answers they got very offended. they pressed me so hard to figure out why i didnt really want to read the secret events (too edgy for me, I just want to learn about the characters and fuck them). a guy even said that the game was better than therapy for him. I wouldnt be suprised if the dev had an ego, there are a lot of people in that discord who like the game a little too much.

tbh though if your game has a lot of depression themes and you have characters that are suspiciously aged, its guaranteed a portion of your audience will probably not be ok in the head.

Ha that reminds me when I mentioned something to the effect of "I generally play games to escape from the shit I have to deal with in real life, last thing I want to do is study it" and one of those guys responded seemingly bewildered and said something about how "LiL is more real than real life" not fathoming that even a game as dark as this can be an escape. Not like the game out during a global pandemic or something like that. Fuck me if I wanted to decompress from all the death I saw on a daily basis.

Like I like the mystery aspect and I even can deal with some of the edgy shit... but good god the fanbase and dev can be insufferable

 

[barglenarglezous]

Ha that reminds me when I mentioned something to the effect of "I generally play games to escape from the shit I have to deal with in real life, last thing I want to do is study it" and one of those guys responded seemingly bewildered and said something about how "LiL is more real than real life" not fathoming that even a game as dark as this can be an escape. Not like the game out during a global pandemic or something like that. Fuck me if I wanted to decompress from all the death I saw on a daily basis.

Like I like the mystery aspect and I even can deal with some of the edgy shit... but good god the fanbase and dev can be insufferable

...and this is why I ignore the chat channels and only stick around for the Announcements and Progress updates.

 

[jasonmoritz]

Finally finished the game up to present. Once you get past the cringe edgelord nihilism, the characters are absolutely wonderful.

S Tier: Maya, Rin, Yumi
A Tier: Ayane, Kirin, Noriko, Sana
B Tier: Ami, Chika, Io, Makoto, Miku
C Tier: Futuba, Molly, Nodoka, Touka, Tsuneyo, Uta
D Tier: Otoha, Yasu

Agreed on S tier. I have Molly higher up on my list, though, since I could relate to her better than the other characters.

 

[EscapeEvade]

So... at the risk of getting lambasted a bit here...

I haven't played this in several updates (I think 0.22?). I recall that there has been some turmoil with I think Steam releases, Patreon, and sex content. I thought it was something like a Part I release had no sex content but a Part II release did.

Is that still the case? Am I totally wrong in the first place?

Also sounds like perusing the last few pages this is getting increasingly complicated. Not that it wasn't in the first place, but that the story is stepping up the complexity big-time?

 

[barglenarglezous]

So... at the risk of getting lambasted a bit here...

I haven't played this in several updates (I think 0.22?). I recall that there has been some turmoil with I think Steam releases, Patreon, and sex content. I thought it was something like a Part I release had no sex content but a Part II release did.

Is that still the case? Am I totally wrong in the first place?

Also sounds like perusing the last few pages this is getting increasingly complicated. Not that it wasn't in the first place, but that the story is stepping up the complexity big-time?

There was briefly a time where there were two versions of the game.

Legends of the Huggy Boy, which had no sex but a lot of hugs
Lessons in Love, the game it's always been

There was a patch you could download to turn Huggy Boy into Lessons in Love, but Huggy Boy was solely made to appease Patreon.

Patreon deleted the page anyway, and Selebus promptly stopped supporting Huggy Boy.

HOWEVER, the compressed and Android versions linked on the first page are missing two folders that result in the game looking and behaving like Huggy Boy even though Huggy Boy hasn't been updated in several updates, so if you're trying to get caught up for more than one update, you want to do a full-size download.

While all that was going on Selebus also reworked the first quarter or so of the game (Chapter 1 up to the beach event), so it more closely matches the tone of the rest of the game now. This has not been a popular change -- where the original version eased you into the denpa stuff, the new version drops you right into it. But people going through it to see what's in it are finding new things and between that and the new updates, the theory gears are turning a bit more than usual.

 

[iebb03]

there appears to be an alternate universe with an older Maya

I haven't seen an older maya, but maybe I've missed it. In which events she appears? There's a younger maya that flashes in some events, and appears during the recent reset. The only other one I can think of is a dark-haired, green-eyed character with a ponytail that appears in Good Boy but I think that's just a younger Sara

 

[EscapeEvade]

There was briefly a time where there were two versions of the game.

Legends of the Huggy Boy, which had no sex but a lot of hugs
Lessons in Love, the game it's always been

There was a patch you could download to turn Huggy Boy into Lessons in Love, but Huggy Boy was solely made to appease Patreon.

Patreon deleted the page anyway, and Selebus promptly stopped supporting Huggy Boy.

HOWEVER, the compressed and Android versions linked on the first page are missing two folders that result in the game looking and behaving like Huggy Boy even though Huggy Boy hasn't been updated in several updates, so if you're trying to get caught up for more than one update, you want to do a full-size download.

While all that was going on Selebus also reworked the first quarter or so of the game (Chapter 1 up to the beach event), so it more closely matches the tone of the rest of the game now. This has not been a popular change -- where the original version eased you into the denpa stuff, the new version drops you right into it. But people going through it to see what's in it are finding new things and between that and the new updates, the theory gears are turning a bit more than usual.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunate about the compressed part since the game is so big without that.