So I've binged all of this game in under a week or so, so I've picked up everything in a single stream instead of via monthly updates. Disregarding the blatant escape/power fantasy nonsense which I get is part of the point, I've really enjoyed the characters, the mystery, and the general story telling. However outside of a few notable exceptions (I've re-read most of Rin's events so many times, Maya's too, and Niki is queen) the third chapter has had a large change in character consistency and voice that is really starting to bug me.
I'll start with voice. In the literal sense, starting at chapter 3 most of the characters are starting to sound the same. Damn near every character has said "I'm not not something something blah blah" recently. There are some text tricks in dialogue boxes to make it seem different, but most of the characters are saying the same things in the same way.
A notable exception to the above that leads to my next point in regards to character consistency is Chika. Her character has completely new aspects to her all of a sudden (weirdly violent, a lot more crass). She was a creampuff before, and now it feels like she's being shoved into a sassy inner city latino girl archetype. It's like the author stated she's Philipino, now we need to cram her into stereotypes. Touka too. I don't get the reasoning or idea behind her Christmas present at all. Touka has rapidly become one of my favorite characters in this, and she went from naïve bumbling but super kind to all knowing mommy in like...no events. There was no progression to the point she is at at the end of this update. "You are not going to hide from your emotions in me". She has had very little social experience and she is spitting lines like this? And she buys an entire apartment building and doesn't consider Chika's situation at all?
On another note, I really don't understand why this needs to be set in a first year high school setting. I had the same problem with Persona 5 where all of these huge complicated issues are looming above, and teenagers neither have the emotional maturity or experience to deal with any of this in a reasonable manner. Imagine if Rin were like 19, and how much more sense her character makes. Makoto too, daddy issues don't end at 14. Maya is an exception, but you can't really call her 14, who knows how old she actually is at this point, but she also acts like it. Noriko is the biggest stand out to me. How do you expect a teenager to be as accomplished, well thought out, emotionally in control, for absolutely anything she is saying.
Set it in college age, it doesn't lose anything and becomes much more believable. Sensei is still a shitheel for banging his students and most of the consequences of people finding out are the same. If there is a child abuse component to the story, then write the teenagers like teenagers and not mostly well adjusted adults with some trauma triggers.
I'm only nitpicking this stuff because I am truly enjoying the story being told here. I haven't appreciated a character as much as I have Rin in a good bit because she feels so real(screw otoha for real though and Rin's inability to get over her bullshit and move on). Maya is being written incredibly well given what her back story is as well. Sensei is being conveyed as a generally decent but profoundly broken person in a very believable (albeit horrible) way appropriate to the genre. The overarching question of who is running this simulation has me guessing constantly about who is in charge of it, who is controlling it, who is it benefitting, who is real, etc. constantly. There is just enough hints and clues dropped here and there to make it seem there is a coherent plot, which I hope turns out to be true.
