Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.42.0] [Selebus]

[angevarg674]

I can't help but feel like this game is gonna end with one big 'fuck you'. I get the vibe that the dev actually hates the player.

This, tbh. I can't help but feel like we won't get the story of a fucked up man, perpetuating the abuse he suffered as a child onto others learning to acklowledge what he is and seek help, but instead we'll get something cheap and "shock value-ey", if you get what I mean.
I get that Akira isn't a supposed be sympathetic, he's a groomer and a predator, but the game has given us a reason for the way he acts: trauma. So it would be nice to see this topic being treated with some level of maturity, but for some reason I just don't expect this of Sel

 

[DeSkel15]

This, tbh. I can't help but feel like we won't get the story of a fucked up man, perpetuating the abuse he suffered as a child onto others learning to acklowledge what he is and seek help, but instead we'll get something cheap and "shock value-ey", if you get what I mean.
I get that Akira isn't a supposed be sympathetic, he's a groomer and a predator, but the game has given us a reason for the way he acts: trauma. So it would be nice to see this topic being treated with some level of maturity, but for some reason I just don't expect this of Sel

I think it's already been treated with more maturity than I expected, tbh. Some don't seem to care, others seem to give him a pass, then others don't, and even more others have no idea what's actually going on, then there's a few that support what he's doing. Meanwhile he both demonizes and embraces himself depending on how he's feeling. Can't really get more mature than acknowledging right and wrong changes between individuals and circumstances, and the world moves on nevertheless.

I wouldn't really expect Sensei to become an ideal human or even stop being what he is. Even his growth so far is likely more of him becoming who he was before. Aka Maya's tutor, teacher, and secret lover, who seemed to be creeping on Yumi.

 

[saerav]

Hoping at least a few girls will get a happy-ish ending. Sensei can end up as their free use puppet for all I care. I do think it's too late for any happy endings though. "Everything is already g-":

Spoiler

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Everything's already good is what she meant to say of course! H-haha!

Also, was it mentioned anywhere if Akira's dad was a teacher? Sara seems to have dated a teacher in high school (or someone already made that connection, I vaguely remember seeing that possible theory connecting the two before in the thread).

As for a story, I don't think Akira isn't supposed to be sympathetic. Sure the creepy parts of him aren't. At first you disregard the creepy parts because you go in expecting a normal porn game and that point you might find them funny until more of the story reveals itself. But there's actual effort put into his character growth as he regains more memories and makes deeper personal connections with others; especially the scenes where he regains memories specifically (and Fireflies) have been quite touching. I don't know if there's a happy ending in story for him, but i also don't think it's quite as simple as "it's bound to be bad". There's more than 1 "God" at play here and they don't all seem to have the same goals or motivations (and we don't even know what is actually going on, ultimately).

I kinda don't think the whole mall thing is really... indicative of anything. It's a happy event, and Happy Events while having some indeed good pointers towards Sensei's past and future and everything, I don't feel like there's been a single one we can take at face value. Instead they are hallucinations or gods playing with sensei or a little bith of column a, little bit of column b etc. The whole mall story seems way more coherent than a normal happy event, but so do the conversations between plants, and that doesn't automatically mean that all the plants are sentient beings; instead it's a fun way for the author to address theories and maybe dump some additional info and we can sort of take talking plants a bit more easily as hallucinations.
I think it's similar for what we see in all happy events; since the characters and what occurs in these events seem to convey stuff that's contradictory to eachother (e.g. there's implications that this is just a video game, then refutations, etc. etc.). A lot of it i think just serves to obfuscate and further confuse until it all clicks in a later playthrough once it's all done (hopefully).
At least so far for me on my 2nd playthrough, a lot of stuff is clicking a lot easier knowing what happens down the line, or maybe I am just paying more attention.

I wonder how far away are we from any endings?

 

[JelF547]

You're definitely more optimistic than I am. I don't think anyone is getting an actual happy ending, besides maybe Nao (not Nao-chan) and those above it. I don't think the cycle will be broken. Sensei will get "close" then he'll be bluntly reminded that he's only playing the part that he was scripted to play, before being reset so that he can eternally struggle in vain. All while Nao watches, entertained, as the ants go around in circles. Any happy endings merely being "what ifs" meant to spice things up before being reset again.

Nao spoiled the ending:

Spoiler

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Edit: Lmao, I might be a Nihilist:

Spoiler

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I am currenty think of three most likely possibilities:

1) Sensei fights gods and fails. 3rd phase is about accepting his fate. Something similar to what you said
2) Sensei fights gods and wins. 3rd phase is about fixing what he done in process.
3) Conflict between goods and Sekai spirals out of control and problem solves itself. 3rd phase is reduced to aftermath

There is always forth possibility as well: Selebus outplays me again and does something even beter. Actualy it is more likely, especialy if he really rewriting plot right now.

Im guessing Io went through the same situation with Akira and sekai. It would explain why Io being so repulsive to doing any sexual act.

The real plot twist of chapter 3 is that Sekai isn't the worst xD

 

[DeSkel15]

Everything's already good is what she meant to say of course! H-haha!

Also, was it mentioned anywhere if Akira's dad was a teacher? Sara seems to have dated a teacher in high school (or someone already made that connection, I vaguely remember seeing that possible theory connecting the two before in the thread).

As for a story, I don't think Akira isn't supposed to be sympathetic. Sure the creepy parts of him aren't. At first you disregard the creepy parts because you go in expecting a normal porn game and that point you might find them funny until more of the story reveals itself. But there's actual effort put into his character growth as he regains more memories and makes deeper personal connections with others; especially the scenes where he regains memories specifically (and Fireflies) have been quite touching. I don't know if there's a happy ending in story for him, but i also don't think it's quite as simple as "it's bound to be bad". There's more than 1 "God" at play here and they don't all seem to have the same goals or motivations (and we don't even know what is actually going on, ultimately).

I kinda don't think the whole mall thing is really... indicative of anything. It's a happy event, and Happy Events while having some indeed good pointers towards Sensei's past and future and everything, I don't feel like there's been a single one we can take at face value. Instead they are hallucinations or gods playing with sensei or a little bith of column a, little bit of column b etc. The whole mall story seems way more coherent than a normal happy event, but so do the conversations between plants, and that doesn't automatically mean that all the plants are sentient beings; instead it's a fun way for the author to address theories and maybe dump some additional info and we can sort of take talking plants a bit more easily as hallucinations.
I think it's similar for what we see in all happy events; since the characters and what occurs in these events seem to convey stuff that's contradictory to eachother (e.g. there's implications that this is just a video game, then refutations, etc. etc.). A lot of it i think just serves to obfuscate and further confuse until it all clicks in a later playthrough once it's all done (hopefully).
At least so far for me on my 2nd playthrough, a lot of stuff is clicking a lot easier knowing what happens down the line, or maybe I am just paying more attention.

I wonder how far away are we from any endings?

"Everything is already good." She says after crying and begging to be taken somewhere else, then she's interrupted and the next time we see her she's crucified and begging for help. Honestly, that's even creepier than saying "gone".

There's virtually nothing known about Sensei's father, except apparently dead by diabetes. It does seem implied to be Yuu who was the protagonist from Selebus' last game though. Saki, Sensei's mother is also from that game and seemed to be the main love interest who was taking care of Yuu. Yuu was also seemingly insane, which might be where Sensei gets it from. Yuu even did that "sssssssss" thing and talked to plants (one was named Josh and Saki gave it to him). I've actually been thinking that when Nao says "I AM YOU", It's actually saying it is Yuu.

Overall: Yeah, I wouldn't take anything in this game at face value. Whether it's happy events or not. As for the ending, I think we're quite a bit away. It feels like we are around the middle imo.

 

[DeSkel15]

I am currenty think of three most likely possibilities:

1) Sensei fights gods and fails. 3rd phase is about accepting his fate. Something similar to what you said
2) Sensei fights gods and wins. 3rd phase is about fixing what he done in process.
3) Conflict between goods and Sekai spirals out of control and problem solves itself. 3rd phase is reduced to aftermath

There is always forth possibility as well: Selebus outplays me again and does something even beter. Actualy it is more likely, especialy if he really rewriting plot right now.


The real plot twist of chapter 3 is that Sekai isn't the worst xD

Personally, I think the gods are the least of Sensei's problems. They even seem like puppets at times, just playing their roles.

HOPE and the Angels for example go on loop during the 'How I Feel' happy event, just like the girls do at times.

I wouldn't be all that surprised if Sensei ends up teaming up with the gods before too long. Yasu's recent 'Frankencense & Myrrh' event seems to have implied Sensei is going to work with her god soon. Unfortunately, it seems someone else will suffer for it:

Spoiler

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I'm thinking these two are who Sensei and we should be wary of:

Spoiler

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Or at least whatever is taking their forms.

 

[JelF547]

Personally, I think the gods are the least of Sensei's problems. They even seem like puppets at times, just playing their roles.

HOPE and the Angels for example go on loop during the 'How I Feel' happy event, just like the girls do at times.

May be, but honestly I don't think that what Sensei seeing are real gods. Maybe except Nao.

IIRC, Hope had never directly called himself god and avoided direct questions. We have a bunch of other gods here: Yasu's god, someone who Maya names god, possibly unnamed fourth god from "All For You" (Think back to the holy trinity and question why it was ever deemed a trinity in the first place since the cross has {b}four{/b} points, not three.). It is also a fair assumption that there is a god who can just reset Sensei if he displeases him. Gods seems to be a serious problem and we actualy know almost nothing.

At this point, we know almost nothing about them, but that they are important. For instance, history of callous ball of light and wired god can be interpreted by just Sensei's rationalization of his trauma. Speaking of Hope, we have seen that Sekai is using angels, so either she is already a god or angels not always related to gods.

I honestly don't know is there a real god(s), or just supernatural creatures who pretends to be them. I just don't see any idea underneath current setup but common "fight god" trop. It might be, I admit it, my conclusions are possibilities, not even hypotesis

 

[DeSkel15]

May be, but honestly I don't think that what Sensei seeing are real gods. Maybe except Nao.

IIRC, Hope had never directly called himself god and avoided direct questions. We have a bunch of other gods here: Yasu's god, someone who Maya names god, possibly unnamed fourth god from "All For You" (Think back to the holy trinity and question why it was ever deemed a trinity in the first place since the cross has {b}four{/b} points, not three.). It is also a fair assumption that there is a god who can just reset Sensei if he displeases him. Gods seems to be a serious problem and we actualy know almost nothing.

At this point, we know almost nothing about them, but that they are important. For instance, history of callous ball of light and wired god can be interpreted by just Sensei's rationalization of his trauma. Speaking of Hope, we have seen that Sekai is using angels, so either she is already a god or angels not always related to gods.

I honestly don't know is there a real god(s), or just supernatural creatures who pretends to be them. I just don't see any idea underneath current setup but common "fight god" trop. It might be, I admit it, my conclusions are possibilities, not even hypotesis

I mean, not to be crude, but gods are supernatural creatures. I do agree that these numbered gods are likely just creatures that are called such things though.

Also seeing as how Long Maya could send Sensei back in time if he answers a question wrong, and implied she could send him back to the beginning, I don't think you even need to be considered a god to reset Sensei.

I do think it's the god of wires/the second god/User 2 that's behind the resetting and affection process stuff, but fortunately they seem to:

Spoiler

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want to protect Sensei. Whether that's actually good or true, I'm not sure. It also seems to require permission to do things, and seems to be the god that Maya prays to.

As for the other gods, the way I see them is:

The first god is User 1/Nozomu/HOPE/Yasu's god, etc, and it seems to want to use Sensei for it's own means which don't seem good:

Spoiler

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Nozomu itself translates to Hope, and Yasu's god seems to share traits with this god. Many eyes, dead but not dead, callousness, the light, etc.

Then there's the third god who is User 3/Pareidolia and seems to claim to not be on Sensei's side, but plans on using him for good:

Spoiler

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and is the only one who knows how to use him, or so it says.

Then there's the apparently 4th god, User 4, etc. The one who might need to be everything:

Spoiler

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and it might be what Pareidolia has seemingly warned us about:

Spoiler

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Overall: the gods seem to be derived from Sensei. Wanting to use, protect, or be something to him.

Btw, Sekai and HOPE seem to be related due to Nozomu/Hope being her husband. Same with Ami, and Mangled Ami, etc, being their daughter, hence the callous god stuff. They all seem connected. That could be why Sekai has seemed to alter the Angels after the beach, since they serve her as well. Of course, she may have just usurped HOPE. We haven't really seen it since if I recall, and Yasu could just be being deceived at this moment.

Of course, there's also "the world" which might be another name for Sekai, but at this point "the world", Sekai, Nao, and User 4 are all enigmas. Then there's this "the old one" that's around now, and Nao-chan. So, yeah, not entirely sure what's going on at the moment.

I don't think "killing god" is really what the game's going for though. Even if an Unnamed Baby claims otherwise:

Spoiler

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Of course, I could be wrong, and if so, I apologize Unnamed Baby for not trusting you.

 

[Angra Shadow]

I don't think "killing god" is really what the game's going for though. Even if an Unnamed Baby claims otherwise:

I agree, I don't see LiL as the type of narrative where things can be resolved with such a direct conflict.

 

[Angiboat]

Nao spoiled the ending:

Spoiler

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Considering the fact that nothing changed until the player got there, I think there's definitely a shot at some options having some amount impact.
Before we get on terminal 23 it was basically a repeat of Sensei being reset after one cycle and sometimes making it midway into a second one to be reset anyway. Now he's getting his memories back, people that don't show up are showing up and weird things happen that didn't happen before.
I know Selebus loves to do the players with "muh you don't have a choice" often but our actions can have consequences.

 

[TheLarceny]

Guys how to get this update happy event?

 

[FireCazador]

Guys how to get this update happy event?

After doing Nao events go to shopping mall at sunday

 

[Juice86]

You're definitely more optimistic than I am. I don't think anyone is getting an actual happy ending, besides maybe Nao (not Nao-chan) and those above it. I don't think the cycle will be broken. Sensei will get "close" then he'll be bluntly reminded that he's only playing the part that he was scripted to play, before being reset so that he can eternally struggle in vain. All while Nao watches, entertained, as the ants go around in circles. Any happy endings merely being "what ifs" meant to spice things up before being reset again.

Totally agree. Your ending predictions seem solid to me.

A while ago I made a tongue in cheek post to bait Dev on his subscibestar and it got response I expected. Which was funny.
It confirmed for me that not only he's not one to change direction of game or his vision, but also he feels strongly about it. Which I don't mind at all, since I like 90% of the stuff he does anyway. I would think less of him if he listened to the $5 plebs like me & the free players anyway.

Combine this with everything we've witnessed so far in game story and it's pretty self evident how the game will go. Not saying I can predict it fully.. but in a general sense the ending chapters are going to playout similar to the first 3 chapters. This doesn't seem like a dev that would do a 180 and change styles and the way the story is going abruptly.

I mean anything's possible, there could be a happy ending. But I would bet against it. Happy endings are overated anyway.. when I see them in horror movies it makes me wanna barf.

 

[barglenarglezous]

I mean anything's possible, there could be a happy ending. But I would bet against it. Happy endings are overated anyway.. when I see them in horror movies it makes me wanna barf.

The most we're gonna get is bittersweet.

A core concept of the game is finding beauty in suffering. There ain't gonna be no sunshine and rainbows.

 

[barglenarglezous]

Got a gut feeling that Norkio's gonna get another clost cucking in this update. I just feel it in my bones.

She's gonna hide in the closet to try and ambush-hug Akira, only to wind up watching him with another one of the girls.

This is gonna be a running joke until she gets to boldly go where all 19 of her classmates had already gone before.

 

[AbsoluteA522]

Big request here

Spoiler: Characters and supernatural beings

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[Angiboat]

Big request here

Spoiler: Characters and supernatural beings

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Spoiler

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Honestly it's just impossible to tell most of the time and even one piece of info can easily change who you think did what to who, I bet other players could bring up one scene that makes me have to immediately change what I think are correct connections because a lot of the things the gods do overlap (like User2 and User3 talking with ////////// before text, User2 and User3 both being "nice" to Sensei, Hexadecimal talk being the signature of one of the three main guys only for another to start using it)

 

[DeSkel15]

Considering the fact that nothing changed until the player got there, I think there's definitely a shot at some options having some amount impact.
Before we get on terminal 23 it was basically a repeat of Sensei being reset after one cycle and sometimes making it midway into a second one to be reset anyway. Now he's getting his memories back, people that don't show up are showing up and weird things happen that didn't happen before.
I know Selebus loves to do the players with "muh you don't have a choice" often but our actions can have consequences.

I definitely could see that "we" are what's going to be able to change things, and Sensei simply would be unable to without us.

The only problem I see, is that Nao seems to be the one deciding how what we choose will affect things:

Spoiler

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There's also how she implies that there's no such thing as free will:

Spoiler

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implying that the choices we are given are not really choices to begin with. We are scripted to choose what we choose as those choices are a part of the script.

In other words: We might only be thinking that things are different. In actuality, we might have helped Sensei regain his memory and had Maya face "new" things countless times before. Everything that's happening could have already happened before, and we're just not aware of it. All of our actions and choices and their consequences are just a part of the story.

Nevertheless, if there is a loophole, I do think it's "us".

 

[franas]

No gallery unlocker for v 032 ?

 

[barglenarglezous]

Honestly it's just impossible to tell most of the time and even one piece of info can easily change who you think did what to who, I bet other players could bring up one scene that makes me have to immediately change what I think are correct connections because a lot of the things the gods do overlap (like User2 and User3 talking with ////////// before text, User2 and User3 both being "nice" to Sensei, Hexadecimal talk being the signature of one of the three main guys only for another to start using it)

There are some pretty big challenges to trying to align each girl with a god.

1) Is the god's presence in a given scene with that girl because of her, or because of Akira?
2) Was that actually the girl, or was that the shapeshifter?
3) Are Bound Cyclops Ami, Broken Scribble Ami, Amy, and Ami all aligned to the same god? (Maya has the same issue)
4) What do we do when multiple gods appear to be involved in a scene?