- Nov 23, 2023
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- Aug 23, 2023
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I don't think anyone disputes the idea of a choice in theory, but rather its history of being applied in this game. Don't get me wrong, I do hope it turns out to be brilliant this time because, in my opinion, so far, every time he presented a choice, what followed ranged between mediocre and awful.
When comparing both paths of the Nodoka's blackmail, if Yumi stormed out then the following events barely make sense. If Kirin didn't blackmail Ayane, you lose Ayane fighting back and Kirin actually being human trash instead of just talking about it. If Akira was a bad homie, then the game just forcefully brings it into a stalemate between the two of them anyway, after you miss a bunch of stuff.
And it's always about missing. I have stated this before, you cannot make a good branching narrative on a game where branches only ever go one way. Io's third event is supposed to happen - and if one chooses to "miss" it then her eventual development will either not make as much sense as it should have, or there will barely be any development either way in order to maintain narrative cohesion.
That's the point I think most people are making. It's a worry about where this will go from here, rather than what happened right now.
- Nov 23, 2023
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I'm glad you understand exactly what I'm trying to say.
I just finished the whole thing after like 6 hours, I feel like the initial impact is mostly gone as well. Initially I came here right after I saw the Io event because I sincerely was not expecting it, at least not this update, even though quite a few people in here literally called it before when we saw what her events were called.
Now in hindsight, and again having the initial impact mostly gone, I completely agree with you regarding the significance of the scene and how it all comes down to the 2 sides of the coin; I mean Io herself literally said it, there's 2 possible outcomes. In retrospect, that was a very good event and I'm honestly glad Sel is not afraid to bring up these kind of subjects and instead is capable of creating these scenarios that can create such an impact on us that we are still going on about it, even if some might find it annoying. I think this is part of the beauty of coming across such an interesting story and proof of how invested we are, even if Sel himself comes across as an asshole sometimes or we get the occasional "filler/empty" update, he is pretty damn good.
I still believe in what I said earlier and do wonder how will the story develop after that, but there is really not much we can do but wait till her next event by the end of the year.
That all being said, this was a pretty damn good update IMO.
That is indeed a very good way to summarize it. The choices have mostly come down to "do you want to miss some of the next few events or not?" without a way to have the missing context presented in a different way, it's just not there.
- Apr 24, 2021
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- Sep 29, 2019
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Hm, some random thoughts on this update:
May have missed a few things. Been busy lately and probably will be for a bit, so I'll have to check it out again at some other time.
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- Jun 28, 2019
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I think the purpose of Io's scene (at which it was quite successful) was to cause a reaction of visceral disgust in the player (and hopefully Akira) in regards to the way Akira uses sex. Akira resorts to sexual contact both as a defense mechanism and as a crutch to avoid connecting on a more emotional level. On some intellectual level he knows this is a morally wrong, but up until now he's never had a reason to actually believe that it's wrong. Every time he starts a sexual relationship with a girl, it does successfully lead to them growing closer and even to an emotional connection that he doesn't have to work for. Even his most heinous actions (with Ayane/Kirin, Nodoka/Yumi, Molly, Ami/Noriko) involve him being a more passive participant, and have generally just led to him growing even closer to his victims in the long term.
I think Selebus is trying to beat us over the head with just how destructive Akira's mindset is. As such, I will be absolutely shocked if this leads to things improving for Io, even in the long run, since that would undermine the scene's narrative purpose. I expect this is the first step on Io's path to becoming absolutely broken, if she isn't there already. I'm expecting to see an Io with "wishing well eyes" sometime soon.
I do have concerns as well for what Sel's aversion to branching narrative means for the future, but not as much for Io's story. I think he can handle that with a bunch of missed events until the point where the branches are brought together again when she is inevitably reset. I'm sure it will lead to a less cohesive narrative if you decided to leave, but for me that's fine. Sel is telling a linear story, but the fact that choices exist in the first place is integral to his narrative method.
What does concern me is how Sensei's character development and the overall plot can progress if he decides to leave. I think he needs to break someone with "consensual" sex in order to move forward. And with all of SekaiDolia's talk of breaking people in order to fix them, it seems like Sensei needs to observe someone being broken and reset as the first step towards what I'm assuming the dark path is going to be. So I just don't see how the plot can move forward after leaving, even with missed events and a lack of narrative cohesion.
How are people interpreting Ami's scene with Uta? At first I thought that Ami was probably acting in order to deflect having to talk about Sensei and Uta's picture, but then Uta leaves the room and it seems like Ami did actually want something to happen. I guess it makes character sense for her to be secretly bi, she wouldn't have wanted to admit the possibility that she could ever be sexually interested in anyone other than Sensei.
I need to mull over the supernatural stuff in the update more before I post about it, but I want to say one thing for now: I've seen some people commenting on Yasu telling Sensei that he needs to swim, but I'm like 99% sure that's actually SekaiDolia speaking. I'm not sure if Yasu and Touka are even physically present in "The Art of Drowning" with the way that they dissappear, it might all be in Sensei's head. If they are there, Sekai is talking directly through Yasu the same way she does through Kaori (which was probably enabled by Yasu touching Kaori at the end of the previous event).
I think Selebus is trying to beat us over the head with just how destructive Akira's mindset is. As such, I will be absolutely shocked if this leads to things improving for Io, even in the long run, since that would undermine the scene's narrative purpose. I expect this is the first step on Io's path to becoming absolutely broken, if she isn't there already. I'm expecting to see an Io with "wishing well eyes" sometime soon.
I do have concerns as well for what Sel's aversion to branching narrative means for the future, but not as much for Io's story. I think he can handle that with a bunch of missed events until the point where the branches are brought together again when she is inevitably reset. I'm sure it will lead to a less cohesive narrative if you decided to leave, but for me that's fine. Sel is telling a linear story, but the fact that choices exist in the first place is integral to his narrative method.
What does concern me is how Sensei's character development and the overall plot can progress if he decides to leave. I think he needs to break someone with "consensual" sex in order to move forward. And with all of SekaiDolia's talk of breaking people in order to fix them, it seems like Sensei needs to observe someone being broken and reset as the first step towards what I'm assuming the dark path is going to be. So I just don't see how the plot can move forward after leaving, even with missed events and a lack of narrative cohesion.
How are people interpreting Ami's scene with Uta? At first I thought that Ami was probably acting in order to deflect having to talk about Sensei and Uta's picture, but then Uta leaves the room and it seems like Ami did actually want something to happen. I guess it makes character sense for her to be secretly bi, she wouldn't have wanted to admit the possibility that she could ever be sexually interested in anyone other than Sensei.
I need to mull over the supernatural stuff in the update more before I post about it, but I want to say one thing for now: I've seen some people commenting on Yasu telling Sensei that he needs to swim, but I'm like 99% sure that's actually SekaiDolia speaking. I'm not sure if Yasu and Touka are even physically present in "The Art of Drowning" with the way that they dissappear, it might all be in Sensei's head. If they are there, Sekai is talking directly through Yasu the same way she does through Kaori (which was probably enabled by Yasu touching Kaori at the end of the previous event).
- Oct 2, 2019
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- Oct 15, 2019
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Damn, Io event is just fkng revolting. And music is a chef's kiss. Sel once again nearly crumbled my resolve to get all the events...nicely done(?).
- Jun 28, 2019
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There's no way to get to the dorms if you have the shampoo. You can fix your save by downloading URM and setting
escapeshampoo = False.
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- Jun 28, 2019
- 218
- 1,450
- Jun 28, 2019
- 218
- 1,450
Yeah, that's how much Selebus hates you (and hates good game design). Make a wrong decision and find out that you're softlocked twenty hours later.
Io's next event is close to the end of the chapter, it might be possible that this is part of the beginning into the dark route? I really don't think Sel will move her story into "she is getting better after getting dicked by the person she trusted", I could see her offing herself and that impacting Akira into realizing what he really did, maybe? idfk, very interesting how this will develop either way.
On the subject of Ami, I also thought Ami was just acting, being manipulative and trying to throw Uta off her footing... but it didn't seem like that after Uta left. Ami is such a fucking mystery, I can never tell if she is being genuine or not, but in this case it seemed like she really did want something with Uta; which is not that surprising if she is Bi, it makes sense given previous interaction with Ayane and other girls. I think the real thing to take notice of is how she thinks Uta is perfect, despite Uta talking about all she did when she was younger and how she feels about Akira having her picture, I think she is just attracted to the idea of a broken person, having a distorted perception of what "normal" is and seeing such imperfection as the definition of perfection itself.
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