- Aug 30, 2017
- 1,803
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Well, not much exploring, reading, or anything else during Late Night. But this is why I'm explaining that one can finish all the books long before the ending and have nothing else to do except path exploration that gains nothing anymore, because there are no actual consequences to the rest. You've given us this giant sandbox to explore — two fleshed-out cities plus all of Elsewhere — and other than Akane or the group sex with the Chosen — it stops mattering. Honestly, I would've preferred nailbiting timelines in which I could just barely finish everything before the end.
I'll fully grant that I'm salty about Book 3 and it's negatively affecting my impression of the entire game. I'm not going to expand on this until I've played it again, which probably won't happen until next year.
Even if you spread things out like a more rational walkthrough might, there's still plenty of dead time in Book 3; it's not inevtiable that it's all at the end. When I sleep at the King's Dragon, what happens? Nothing, unless I've gotten there earlier (sacrificing non-dead time) and triggered one of the two repeatable events. When I sleep with Emily, what happens? Nothing. But neither of those are avoidable events; we're forced to sleep one of the two places over the course of the book. When I go to any of the locations in which I've bedded one of the minor NPCs, what happens? Nothing.
You don't like repeatable events. Fine and understandable, though you've certainly written plenty. I think they'd improve your second and third books, or at least the third given the state of things with Emily2. And, as noted elsewhere, your main character isn't written as the sort of person who'd deny anyone other than Jenny. Perhaps that, more than anything, is the real issue.
