Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.48.0] [Selebus]

[barglenarglezous]

To become a chicken, you first have to begin as an egg.

Metaphorically, the students are the eggs. They're fragile and easily broken, but they're incubating. Eventually, they will hatch, and grow into full chickens. But at every stage of their life cycle, men want to devour them.

Kaori is trying to save them, and I suspect this is partly because she has a piece of Sekai inside her.

Sekai is the world. The world of Lessons in Love is the town of Kumon-Mi. The town that has two halves.

This is a game rife with duality. What if Sekai has a light/dark split, and the light resides within Kaori, while the dark is following Akira around? The Light knows the destructiveness of the cycle of abuse, and is using Kaori to save as many girls as she can -- which is why Kaori is set up to be a Christ metaphor. But poor Kaori is jumbling much of the message right now because she's still recovering from brain damage suffered in the accident.

Meanwhile, the dark half is tormenting Akira, pushing him to perpetuate the cycle, to become worse of a person than she ever was, because he is little more than a blank slate and she is no longer burdened by a conscience.

 

[Comiies]

To become a chicken, you first have to begin as an egg.

Metaphorically, the students are the eggs. They're fragile and easily broken, but they're incubating. Eventually, they will hatch, and grow into full chickens. But at every stage of their life cycle, men want to devour them.

Kaori is trying to save them, and I suspect this is partly because she has a piece of Sekai inside her.

Sekai is the world. The world of Lessons in Love is the town of Kumon-Mi. The town that has two halves.

This is a game rife with duality. What if Sekai has a light/dark split, and the light resides within Kaori, while the dark is following Akira around? The Light knows the destructiveness of the cycle of abuse, and is using Kaori to save as many girls as she can -- which is why Kaori is set up to be a Christ metaphor. But poor Kaori is jumbling much of the message right now because she's still recovering from brain damage suffered in the accident.

Meanwhile, the dark half is tormenting Akira, pushing him to perpetuate the cycle, to become worse of a person than she ever was, because he is little more than a blank slate and she is no longer burdened by a conscience.

I dont think Sekai has even a shred of "good" in her.At best she is a no-empathy traumatised child abuser.At worst she i,again a no-empathy Child abuser BUT she is so far gone that she thinks that her "love" is a good thing.

 

[fdsasdf_p]

Earlier today I was rewatching a couple of events, and in the last Yumi one she seems to imply that the "rapey detentions" were within the cycles.

Spoiler: Wake me up when it's over

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Furthermore, whoever (same one that made the time-skip happen to "beachmas") shows Akira rapey detention Yumi (presumably, although it could also not be in school) could even show him stuff from before the cycles? It probably would make more sense for it to be within it since they make a point to highlight when showing something from his past.

Spoiler: Redeemer

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However, what's confirmed to be before the cycles is Akira going after Yumi to pull her away from her life of petty crime, and that's confirmed to be before the cycles because she wasn't alone in the arcade (stealing from pachinko machines), and this level of normalcy doesn't exist inside the cycles (Yumi is always alone from the beginning of the game).

In conclusion, this may point to Akira's concern with Yumi being genuine in terms of trying to save her because he saw himself in her (the reason he became a teacher), or, at the very least, not realized in terms of malicious intent.

I'm taking whatever evidence I can get for the Yumi/Akira wholesome ending.

Edit: adjusted minor points as I searched for the screenshots.

Some mental gymnastics I did because I want to support this ship as well:
Did pulling Yumi away from conducting misdemeanors happen before cycles began?
(This is to examine how "confirmed" this is since any source of information regarding Sensei's past doings with Yumi has always been Yumi only)

• Compared to detentions that Sensei referred to as "No. Too much work", pulling Yumi away from conducting misdemeanors requires A LOT MORE work and most likely does not lead to penis happy time at all. Therefore, this type of deed is a lot less applicable to horny iterations and comparatively more applicable to past Sensei when he still mentored students to a certain extent.
• Yumi noticed Sensei's change quite early on in ways no one else could. She had no business being that perceptive if she didn't have some past interactions with him that left a sizeable impression on her. And I am willing to believe that the aforementioned impression was on her positive note. Otherwise, she wouldn't even have a reason to be so bothered by the personality inconsistency of someone she vehemently disliked.
• Continued from point2: believing Yumi's past interactions with Sensei being somewhat positive also gives Yumi a non-kink reason to masturbate to Sensei and justifies her role as the token tsundere.

Did rapey detentions happen during cycles?

• Honestly I found Sensei's answer toward Yumi's question unsatisfying. Despite being the most honest he can, this "No. Too much work" reply is a statement based solely off Sensei's tendency rather than memories. In other words, Sensei himself cannot distinguish deeds done by other iterations from deeds done by his past real self anyway, making his answer alone less of a fact but more of a conjecture.

(though instead of questioning the concreteness of what Sensei said, I think this is just Selly giving this loose end a forceful closure)

• The biggest reason I believe that rapey detentions could only take place during cycles is that Yumi certainly would've tried to beat Sensei to death if she ever found herself in those situations before the cycle began. She should be even more feral, unruly, and rightfully be on the worst term with Sensei when the game started. Since none of this is likely true and there wasn't a proven reason for this particular pre-loop memory to go poof, the possibility of rapey detentions being done only by iterations instead of past real self is much higher.
• Pre-loop Sensei doing rapey detentions would imply that he was "actively cheating" on Maya. Despite still lacking a direct proof, Sensei at the time being loyal to Maya is objectively more possible than Sensei already being the womanizer among his students, and having rapey detentions with Yumi prior to cycles began contradicts the idea of "Sensei being loyal to Maya" (thought I admit this is a weaker claim and is quite susceptible to future development).

Edit: I realized I didn't have a conclusion, that is yes I also think Sensei during pre-loop times was once being genuine about Yumi's situation, and all the rapey detentions were from other iterations during loop times due to the reasoning above.

 

[SaDeBiX]

Guys who has cards of Koikatsu Ami with a new hairstyle from 4 chapters?

 

[fdsasdf_p]

On the topic of Cocks though.Why do you guys think Kaori is so obsessed with saving all of them? Is it maybe a childhood thing or symbolism of sorts

 

[barglenarglezous]

I dont think Sekai has even a shred of "good" in her.At best she is a no-empathy traumatised child abuser.At worst she i,again a no-empathy Child abuser BUT she is so far gone that she thinks that her "love" is a good thing.

I get the desire to paint Sekai as a moustache-twirling villain, but considering the other characters in the game have more depth than that, we should assume there are complexities to Sekai beyond that as well.

We should also contextualize that the Sekai we see in-game may in fact be multiple entities:
1) A psychological construct created by Akira to cope with his intrusive thoughts, giving them a face that isn't is simply so he can feel better about himself.
2) An external force (that we know exists because of the park bench scene with Yasu) that appears to be quite malevolent.
3) Any individual appearance of her might also be Himawari, because that's always a risk when you have a shapeshifter.
4) A memory seen through the lens of her victim

We know, from Ami's stories, that Sekai was also a loving mother. So there WAS a shred of light to her. But there's a lot to her that we don't know. We don't know if she was a bad seed, or simply an innocent who fell for the wrong kind of man and became a monster -- but given the theme of the game, and her inisistence that Akira perpetuate the cycle -- she's aware of the cycle of abuse and very likely a victim of it herself.

It's also important to realize, for as much as Akira was in love with her, we have yet to see THAT version of her through his eyes. We see only the abuse so far, but surely there must have been something that prompted him to eventually fall in love with her -- and we're going to see that at some point.

 

[Comiies]

I get the desire to paint Sekai as a moustache-twirling villain, but considering the other characters in the game have more depth than that, we should assume there are complexities to Sekai beyond that as well.

We should also contextualize that the Sekai we see in-game may in fact be multiple entities:
1) A psychological construct created by Akira to cope with his intrusive thoughts, giving them a face that isn't is simply so he can feel better about himself.
2) An external force (that we know exists because of the park bench scene with Yasu) that appears to be quite malevolent.
3) Any individual appearance of her might also be Himawari, because that's always a risk when you have a shapeshifter.
4) A memory seen through the lens of her victim

We know, from Ami's stories, that Sekai was also a loving mother. So there WAS a shred of light to her. But there's a lot to her that we don't know. We don't know if she was a bad seed, or simply an innocent who fell for the wrong kind of man and became a monster -- but given the theme of the game, and her inisistence that Akira perpetuate the cycle -- she's aware of the cycle of abuse and very likely a victim of it herself.

It's also important to realize, for as much as Akira was in love with her, we have yet to see THAT version of her through his eyes. We see only the abuse so far, but surely there must have been something that prompted him to eventually fall in love with her -- and we're going to see that at some point.

Since we cannot be sure if the Sekai we see throught the game is the real person OR a projection for the sake of the convo i will assume the former.I do so because of how similar Sekai(in Akiras eyes) is compared to the flashbacks we see.

Now you said that Sekai in fact had a tiny bit of goodness into her since she treated Ami with love and was very affectionate towards her.Now this will get into moral territory so there isnt really a "Correct" answer so im just going to contribute to the converstation in hopes that it inspires something productive.Now then.

Saying that Sekai was even a tiny fraction good because she treated Ami with love and affection doesnt sit right with me.For me a parent is not good because they treat their child with love and affection.That is the bare minimum every parent has to do.

Now unto the Akira lines.Akiras "love" stems not from a healthy romantic relationship but from constant abuse and emotional manipulation.Sekai not only abused Akira(As far as we know ONLY sexually so no verbal abuse or no physical abuse) but she also had plans to take him and Ami away from Nozumo.His "love" for Sekai was just the result of the aformentioned repeated abuse and manipulation and nothing more.

Now you can ask "How was that accomplished?".I will point out 2 very important events to understand where all of this stems from.The happy event where we see akira being in a elementary(perhaps even younger but i cannot tell for sure) classroom with Sekai as the teacher.We also see a flashback of Sekai helping Akira with his hw(Also i just rember we see her playing peek-a-boo with him at some point when his name was revelead.Hype event).

In short Sekai did the bare minimum for Ami so in my opinion she cant be considered a good person at all just from that and Senseis "love" is the result of years long abuse and manipulation.

PS:I will also apologise in advance if any of my remarks sound aggressive or rude.My aim is not to admonish you(Or anyone that i engage with) but to have a productive convo about the game.Praise be!

 

[Antosha]

When I was young they were 30+ yo wizards. Fucking inflation

How long is average cock nowdays?

Based on the VNs hereabouts, somewhere between 15” and 2’. (~40-60cm)

Seems about right to me.

Since we cannot be sure if the Sekai we see throught the game is the real person OR a projection for the sake of the convo i will assume the former.I do so because of how similar Sekai(in Akiras eyes) is compared to the flashbacks we see.

Now you said that Sekai in fact had a tiny bit of goodness into her since she treated Ami with love and was very affectionate towards her.Now this will get into moral territory so there isnt really a "Correct" answer so im just going to contribute to the converstation in hopes that it inspires something productive.Now then.

Saying that Sekai was even a tiny fraction good because she treated Ami with love and affection doesnt sit right with me.For me a parent is not good because they treat their child with love and affection.That is the bare minimum every parent has to do.

Now unto the Akira lines.Akiras "love" stems not from a healthy romantic relationship but from constant abuse and emotional manipulation.Sekai not only abused Akira(As far as we know ONLY sexually so no verbal abuse or no physical abuse) but she also had plans to take him and Ami away from Nozumo.His "love" for Sekai was just the result of the aformentioned repeated abuse and manipulation and nothing more.

Now you can ask "How was that accomplished?".I will point out 2 very important events to understand where all of this stems from.The happy event where we see akira being in a elementary(perhaps even younger but i cannot tell for sure) classroom with Sekai as the teacher.We also see a flashback of Sekai helping Akira with his hw(Also i just rember we see her playing peek-a-boo with him at some point when his name was revelead.Hype event).

In short Sekai did the bare minimum for Ami so in my opinion she cant be considered a good person at all just from that and Senseis "love" is the result of years long abuse and manipulation.

PS:I will also apologise in advance if any of my remarks sound aggressive or rude.My aim is not to admonish you(Or anyone that i engage with) but to have a productive convo about the game.Praise be!

I agree with you — though I’m more of the opinion that the ghost Sekai we see is a projection, Akira’s internalization of what Sekai was/did to him.

But she wasn’t his mother. She was his much older brother’s wife, which is a slightly different moral dynamic. Still creepy, though. And some folks have theorized that she was his teacher, which would be all kinds of f&&$ed up.

 

[LessonsInDissonance]

Since we are talking about cocks I gotta be that guy and say that I am extremely happy with the penis I have and I wouldn't change it, feel free to be jealous

 

[JelF547]

Based on the VNs hereabouts, somewhere between 15” and 2’.

Seems about right to me.

Spoiler: Above average sized penis

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[Antosha]

Since we cannot be sure if the Sekai we see throught the game is the real person OR a projection for the sake of the convo i will assume the former.I do so because of how similar Sekai(in Akiras eyes) is compared to the flashbacks we see.

Now you said that Sekai in fact had a tiny bit of goodness into her since she treated Ami with love and was very affectionate towards her.Now this will get into moral territory so there isnt really a "Correct" answer so im just going to contribute to the converstation in hopes that it inspires something productive.Now then.

Saying that Sekai was even a tiny fraction good because she treated Ami with love and affection doesnt sit right with me.For me a parent is not good because they treat their child with love and affection.That is the bare minimum every parent has to do.

Now unto the Akira lines.Akiras "love" stems not from a healthy romantic relationship but from constant abuse and emotional manipulation.Sekai not only abused Akira(As far as we know ONLY sexually so no verbal abuse or no physical abuse) but she also had plans to take him and Ami away from Nozumo.His "love" for Sekai was just the result of the aformentioned repeated abuse and manipulation and nothing more.

Now you can ask "How was that accomplished?".I will point out 2 very important events to understand where all of this stems from.The happy event where we see akira being in a elementary(perhaps even younger but i cannot tell for sure) classroom with Sekai as the teacher.We also see a flashback of Sekai helping Akira with his hw(Also i just rember we see her playing peek-a-boo with him at some point when his name was revelead.Hype event).

In short Sekai did the bare minimum for Ami so in my opinion she cant be considered a good person at all just from that and Senseis "love" is the result of years long abuse and manipulation.

PS:I will also apologise in advance if any of my remarks sound aggressive or rude.My aim is not to admonish you(Or anyone that i engage with) but to have a productive convo about the game.Praise be!

Spoiler: Above average sized penis

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Doesnt everyone have that experience?

 

[Moonflare]

How do you know? Shinobu exists and nobody bats an eye

Excuse you, she's called Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade.

And, I mean, if you've seen Kizumonogatari she's very much an adult woman. She's just so powerful and old that she chooses/accepts to become young/"fragile" again. It's a wonderful metaphor tbh.

There are many examples that were "inspired" by her that are just lolis with the justification of being a 400 year old vampire though. Arifureta is the most obvious example in recent memory, since it's not just the appearance but the protagonist actively engages her sexually.

 

[Comiies]

Excuse you, she's called Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade.

And, I mean, if you've seen Kizumonogatari she's very much an adult woman. She's just so powerful and old that she chooses/accepts to become young/"fragile" again. It's a wonderful metaphor tbh.

I actively forget her adult form exists since her kid form is funnier to watch.Also kizu was peak and every day that all the monogatari LN volumes arent translated into english so i can buy them is another day filled with pain misery and suffering.

 

[Moonflare]

I actively forget her adult form exists since her kid form is funnier to watch.Also kizu was peak and every day that all the monogatari LN volumes arent translated into english so i can buy them is another day filled with pain misery and suffering.

such a masterpiece that it doesn't even deserve being called anime, it went beyond it.

 

[DeanNoriko]

Just to add my two cents on the "right path" discussion:
I categorically agree with (I believe it was) Moonflare's take that, while it is up to every individual, the intended path by the author would be the green path, simply due to the fact that it has the most/all scenes, while other paths often have content cut short or removed altogether. This is true and makes sense, however, I want to also stress that the dev made a conscious decision to make this game an interactive VN instead of a kinetic novel, including diverging paths and alternating dialogues and scenarios, so I don't think anyone not following that path should feel bad or automatically think "welp, it's not canon!".

I absolutely understand people having this OCD itch (OCD not being literał here of course, I know this is an overused/misused term) to collect all the CGs and see as much content as possible and avoid the dreaded FOMO. But personally, I am also one of the tiny bitch ass pussy players who tries to immerse himself with the MC (and oh boy, is this game making it awkward to do so, amirite?) and pick the options that either I think fits best to Akira and what his reasoning would be (considering that I am being given a choice instead of being fucked over by a cruel godGOD) or that I personally would simply prefer to do/not do.

I remember, for example, in the beginning of the game that I consciously chose to bone Sara simply because I thought it would be perfectly fitting for Akira Sensei to want to bone the hot Mom of one of his students (who I thought was off-limits anyway, given her behavior back then, not knowing that apparently all girls would eventually get lewd scenes), as well as Haruka (where admittedly, her honkers made me go all BOOBA which might or might not have influenced my decision making), the latter of which I later bitterly regretted by the time that weird Pareidolia event happened (you know which one I mean).
I get that this is ultimately the authors vision of what Akira's twisted mind would really want to happen, but given a choice, I would have liked to avoid that development and had a feeling I could cope explain my decision by the fact that Akira seemed to try and become a better person. I did so when confronted with the option to go the lewd path with Maki and refusing, but that was just shortly after Makoto's mental breakdown and Akira's emotions coming to surface. And to me personally, it did not feel right to betray her like that after these experiences. Though, again, I completely understand how in the author's mind this would be exactly what Akira would do. I just don't feel obliged to follow his reasoning and gratefully accept the option to choose a different path and build my head canon around that.

_____

Now on a totally different note (I want to avoid double posting), I randomly listened to a song earlier today which lyrics immediately made me think of this game. This might have already been discussed in the past, but have you guys ever made this experience? Do you have songs that either tonally or musically remind you of LiL? I am quite unfamiliar with J-Pop so I don't think I would know any songs that would actually realistically fit to be part of the soundtrack. Disregarding this whole awkward 4th wall breaking spiel with the alt-rock band Noriko brought in during the Dorm wars episode (I was not checking the forums then, but I hope everyone else also really disliked most of those sections).

Anyways, the song I listened to was Ace of Hz by Ladytron. Again, this would absolutely not be the kind of music I would expect to play during any scene in LiL, but I found the lyrics to be oddly fitting when interpreting them as Pareidolia/Sekai/HOPE convincing Akira to collect teenager's "hearts" like valuable cards, breaking them in the process. Maybe it's just me though.

Spoiler: Lyrics of Ace of Hz by Ladytron

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Also, talking about cards, I can't remember there being any theme or metaphors about playing cards (not trading cards) anywhere in the game, which I now find surprising, given that our Supreme Leader Selebussy is living in Texas, of all places. Then again, lore-wise, it would probably not necessarily fit the Japanese setting, because I am fairly certain they don't really play card games with the deck that is typically used in the West and instead something like Riichi Mahjong is much more popular there. I might be wrong though.

 

[Comiies]

such a masterpiece that it doesn't even deserve being called anime, it went beyond it.

That is why this series is by leaps and bound my favourite.I discovered it when i was young and rewatch it every couple of years.I cannot tell you how it gets better every time i do but it does.

 

[Comiies]

Just to add my two cents on the "right path" discussion:
I categorically agree with (I believe it was) Moonflare's take that, while it is up to every individual, the intended path by the author would be the green path, simply due to the fact that it has the most/all scenes, while other paths often have content cut short or removed altogether. This is true and makes sense, however, I want to also stress that the dev made a conscious decision to make this game an interactive VN instead of a kinetic novel, including diverging paths and alternating dialogues and scenarios, so I don't think anyone not following that path should feel bad or automatically think "welp, it's not canon!".

I absolutely understand people having this OCD itch (OCD not being literał here of course, I know this is an overused/misused term) to collect all the CGs and see as much content as possible and avoid the dreaded FOMO. But personally, I am also one of the tiny bitch ass pussy players who tries to immerse himself with the MC (and oh boy, is this game making it awkward to do so, amirite?) and pick the options that either I think fits best to Akira and what his reasoning would be (considering that I am being given a choice instead of being fucked over by a cruel godGOD) or that I personally would simply prefer to do/not do.

I remember, for example, in the beginning of the game that I consciously chose to bone Sara simply because I thought it would be perfectly fitting for Akira Sensei to want to bone the hot Mom of one of his students (who I thought was off-limits anyway, given her behavior back then, not knowing that apparently all girls would eventually get lewd scenes), as well as Haruka (where admittedly, her honkers made me go all BOOBA which might or might not have influenced my decision making), the latter of which I later bitterly regretted by the time that weird Pareidolia event happened (you know which one I mean).
I get that this is ultimately the authors vision of what Akira's twisted mind would really want to happen, but given a choice, I would have liked to avoid that development and had a feeling I could cope explain my decision by the fact that Akira seemed to try and become a better person. I did so when confronted with the option to go the lewd path with Maki and refusing, but that was just shortly after Makoto's mental breakdown and Akira's emotions coming to surface. And to me personally, it did not feel right to betray her like that after these experiences. Though, again, I completely understand how in the author's mind this would be exactly what Akira would do. I just don't feel obliged to follow his reasoning and gratefully accept the option to choose a different path and build my head canon around that.

_____

Now on a totally different note (I want to avoid double posting), I randomly listened to a song earlier today which lyrics immediately made me think of this game. This might have already been discussed in the past, but have you guys ever made this experience? Do you have songs that either tonally or musically remind you of LiL? I am quite unfamiliar with J-Pop so I don't think I would know any songs that would actually realistically fit to be part of the soundtrack. Disregarding this whole awkward 4th wall breaking spiel with the alt-rock band Noriko brought in during the Dorm wars episode (I was not checking the forums then, but I hope everyone else also really disliked most of those sections).

Anyways, the song I listened to was Ace of Hz by Ladytron. Again, this would absolutely not be the kind of music I would expect to play during any scene in LiL, but I found the lyrics to be oddly fitting when interpreting them as Pareidolia/Sekai/HOPE convincing Akira to collect teenager's "hearts" like valuable cards, breaking them in the process. Maybe it's just me though.

Spoiler: Lyrics of Ace of Hz by Ladytron

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Also, talking about cards, I can't remember there being any theme or metaphors about playing cards (not trading cards) anywhere in the game, which I now find surprising, given that our Supreme Leader Selebussy is living in Texas, of all places. Then again, lore-wise, it would probably not necessarily fit the Japanese setting, because I am fairly certain they don't really play card games with the deck that is typically used in the West and instead something like Riichi Mahjong is much more popular there. I might be wrong though.

Ive actually talked about this before but this is Akiras unfortunate constitution as the protagonist of this world(Get cunted Nao)

Everything he touches will eventually break.Every relationship he forms will end with both people involved getting hurt beyond repair.Nothing he does will change this simple fact.Truly tragic.

 

[Riolol]

Just to add my two cents on the "right path" discussion:
I categorically agree with (I believe it was) Moonflare's take that, while it is up to every individual, the intended path by the author would be the green path, simply due to the fact that it has the most/all scenes, while other paths often have content cut short or removed altogether. This is true and makes sense, however, I want to also stress that the dev made a conscious decision to make this game an interactive VN instead of a kinetic novel, including diverging paths and alternating dialogues and scenarios, so I don't think anyone not following that path should feel bad or automatically think "welp, it's not canon!".

I absolutely understand people having this OCD itch (OCD not being literał here of course, I know this is an overused/misused term) to collect all the CGs and see as much content as possible and avoid the dreaded FOMO. But personally, I am also one of the tiny bitch ass pussy players who tries to immerse himself with the MC (and oh boy, is this game making it awkward to do so, amirite?) and pick the options that either I think fits best to Akira and what his reasoning would be (considering that I am being given a choice instead of being fucked over by a cruel godGOD) or that I personally would simply prefer to do/not do.

I remember, for example, in the beginning of the game that I consciously chose to bone Sara simply because I thought it would be perfectly fitting for Akira Sensei to want to bone the hot Mom of one of his students (who I thought was off-limits anyway, given her behavior back then, not knowing that apparently all girls would eventually get lewd scenes), as well as Haruka (where admittedly, her honkers made me go all BOOBA which might or might not have influenced my decision making), the latter of which I later bitterly regretted by the time that weird Pareidolia event happened (you know which one I mean).
I get that this is ultimately the authors vision of what Akira's twisted mind would really want to happen, but given a choice, I would have liked to avoid that development and had a feeling I could cope explain my decision by the fact that Akira seemed to try and become a better person. I did so when confronted with the option to go the lewd path with Maki and refusing, but that was just shortly after Makoto's mental breakdown and Akira's emotions coming to surface. And to me personally, it did not feel right to betray her like that after these experiences. Though, again, I completely understand how in the author's mind this would be exactly what Akira would do. I just don't feel obliged to follow his reasoning and gratefully accept the option to choose a different path and build my head canon around that.

_____

Now on a totally different note (I want to avoid double posting), I randomly listened to a song earlier today which lyrics immediately made me think of this game. This might have already been discussed in the past, but have you guys ever made this experience? Do you have songs that either tonally or musically remind you of LiL? I am quite unfamiliar with J-Pop so I don't think I would know any songs that would actually realistically fit to be part of the soundtrack. Disregarding this whole awkward 4th wall breaking spiel with the alt-rock band Noriko brought in during the Dorm wars episode (I was not checking the forums then, but I hope everyone else also really disliked most of those sections).

Anyways, the song I listened to was Ace of Hz by Ladytron. Again, this would absolutely not be the kind of music I would expect to play during any scene in LiL, but I found the lyrics to be oddly fitting when interpreting them as Pareidolia/Sekai/HOPE convincing Akira to collect teenager's "hearts" like valuable cards, breaking them in the process. Maybe it's just me though.

Spoiler: Lyrics of Ace of Hz by Ladytron

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

Also, talking about cards, I can't remember there being any theme or metaphors about playing cards (not trading cards) anywhere in the game, which I now find surprising, given that our Supreme Leader Selebussy is living in Texas, of all places. Then again, lore-wise, it would probably not necessarily fit the Japanese setting, because I am fairly certain they don't really play card games with the deck that is typically used in the West and instead something like Riichi Mahjong is much more popular there. I might be wrong though.

I personally think if you include choices in your game but don't properly flesh out both options or just have them lead to the same place then you are just wasting the player's time and hurting interest in your game. The fact that any of us are still here in spite of this is a credit to Sel's writing.

 

[DeanNoriko]

I personally think if you include choices in your game but don't properly flesh out both options or just have them lead to the same place then you are just wasting the player's time and hurting interest in your game. The fact that any of us are still here in spite of this is a credit to Sel's writing.

I agree with your there in principal. The ideal way would be to include diverging paths but actually flesh them out and make the impact meaningful.

At the end of the day though, in doing so he would create a lot more complex weave of storylines, having to both add content to all possible branches, as well as pay more attention to any plot holes and logical errors. This in turn would increase the development time and/or decrease the quality of the writing.
Ultimately, as much as everyone likes to hate on Selly (often times for good reason), I pity any developer for having to make such a decision. He chose to do a compromise that won't fully satisfy either side. However, as explained in my earlier post, I can personally very well live with the current set-up as I feel like I receive the option to alter the story marginally to my liking/head canon, at the expense of missing some scenes and the realization that the decisions I made actually didn't factually change much to the general story (so far).

Still, I have to this day refused to even think about picking the Stomachache option, despite everyone raving about it, simply because I would rather read through 3,000 pages of Tiermaker ratings of forum members than have to be faced with what canonically (?) happened to poor Io (I am tearing up just from the thought of it).

 

[Antosha]

Ive actually talked about this before but this is Akiras unfortunate constitution as the protagonist of this world(Get cunted Nao)

Everything he touches will eventually break.Every relationship he forms will end with both people involved getting hurt beyond repair.Nothing he does will change this simple fact.Truly tragic.

I get what you're saying, but honestly? If that's really where we're headed at the very end — everything/one falls to shit, whoo-hoo! — I'm going to find that really disappointing and, if I'm honest, boring. Not tragic. Boring.

We're all on a one-way trip through a garbage chute (resets notwithstanding). But it seems to me that brief triumphs against entropy are a lot more interesting than focusing on the bleak and unavoidable.

Yes, Sensei blows things up, even when he doesn't want to. Especially when he doesn't want to. So I grant that's a kind of tragic flaw.

But if what we get at the end of X years of this long, strange trip through the dark is that, yup, Sensei blows things up.... I'll be pissed.