VN Ren'Py Completed Melody [v1.00 Extras] [MrDots Games]

[Avaron1974]

I love how there are choices between the girls and i'm not railroaded into one ending, that made me enjoy this.

Melody is nice and cute in that *lets be friends and only friends* kinda way. Which leads me to my 2 saves, one for Izzy and one for Amy. I tried Bec's route and she did grow on me so I might do a third run for her but Izzy is my main with Amy a very close second. Bec's is a very distant 3rd and the rest are friend material at the very max.

 

[Enyos]

Melody would have definitely been my BFF in high school. Played guitar since age 14 and had very similar tastes in attire. While I don't find her as attractive as Amy, she has the interests and attitude that I adore.

Spoiler: Sophia

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Spoiler: Amy

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Spoiler: Izzy

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Becca is too shy for my tastes, and something feels a bit off with her. :coldsweat:
Bethany can go to hell... Her character model even makes her look like a total bitch, lol.

 

[Avaron1974]

I don't mind Bethany and I can see her point of view.

She had a lover that was never home and didn't put any effort into the relationship. She may have been the same but the MC certainly isn't an innocent party in their breakup.

She's being portrayed as the mega bitch here when all she's done is throw out a guy she was no longer in love with and cover herself financially which anyone with any common sense would do in a breakup where shared assets are concerned.

 

[Holadanjel]

Genial

 

[Enyos]

I don't mind Bethany and I can see her point of view.

She had a lover that was never home and didn't put any effort into the relationship. She may have been the same but the MC certainly isn't an innocent party in their breakup.

She's being portrayed as the mega bitch here when all she's done is throw out a guy she was no longer in love with and cover herself financially which anyone with any common sense would do in a breakup where shared assets are concerned.

I will definitely agree that the MC is partially to blame for the break up, but at least he stayed faithful in the face of groupies. The point at which she became a "bitch" in my eyes, is when he offers everything but the car with his equipment trailer attached to it, and she wants that too. She apparently is so spiteful in breaking up that she won't take the guitar he gave her, even when insisted. We're not entirely certain she was even faithful to him, and now she's dating someone else and still trying to hunt down the MC (possibly to apologize, but) most likely to try and take his property. It's just hard to see the MC as the bad guy from all of the inner dialogue that's played out with nary any ill will to another.

 

[Avaron1974]

I will definitely agree that the MC is partially to blame for the break up, but at least he stayed faithful in the face of groupies. The point at which she became a "bitch" in my eyes, is when he offers everything but the car with his equipment trailer attached to it, and she wants that too. She apparently is so spiteful in breaking up that she won't take the guitar he gave her, even when insisted. We're not entirely certain she was even faithful to him, and now she's dating someone else and still trying to hunt down the MC (possibly to apologize, but) most likely to try and take his property. It's just hard to see the MC as the bad guy from all of the inner dialogue that's played out with nary any ill will to another.

The difference being she has the law on her side, she went through a lawyer so everything she does is legal and above board. He ran off with a car which, without seeking legal help, is theft.

Granted I don't know how deep the dev is going to go into that part of the story but with regards to the breakup the MC did absolutely everything wrong and ran away while she went through legal channels and has everything going for her.

The flip side of that is I have no idea why she'd be looking for him, if anything her lawyer should be the one contacting him which screams forced drama by the dev and i'm not a fan of that.

 

[Jeff Steel]

can someone who is fan of this game, explain what he likes about it ? i think its terrible. i have the same issues as DmD (not surprise since this is pretty much the same game but without incest and faster pacing with main girl) reached content until probably 0.4 and then started to skip everything.
writing is fucking atrocious. it makes me want to shoot myself. i literally put my hands on my face and started screaming. who the fuck talks like these characters ??? where is the dev from ? because i never met anyone who talks like that. whats with the showing every single minor thought of all the characters ? half the dialogue is inner thoughts about every minor situation. character will have 5 minute monologue inside his head when someone knocks on the door. game is treating me like 8 year old autistic kid who cant understand basic human reactions and situations. its close to the anime overreactions level of annoyance.

Here’s my two cents on this issue. Both VNs have Hearsz as the main author and he has a style “somewhat” related to stream of consciousness. (Don’t want to get into a “stream of consciousness” debate but Hearsz imo has a derivation of the traditional SoC writing ... is there a traditional SoC? Probably not.).

It is not my personal style - mine being much more dialogue and pause oriented - am a big fan of Pinter Pause concepts where silence says so much. Hearsz style is to fill that pause with what the character is thinking.

I suggest that many of us have a lot of repetitious inner monologues going in our heads. (Not everyone, perhaps, but I’ve been monitoring some of my inner monologues and they can get repetitious.).

If it is a style that bugs too much, then I understand if you just can’t follow this VN. Certainly understandable as there are many forms of writing (esp poetry) that I’ll just skip.

 

[Jeff Steel]

The difference being she has the law on her side, she went through a lawyer so everything she does is legal and above board. He ran off with a car which, without seeking legal help, is theft.

Granted I don't know how deep the dev is going to go into that part of the story but with regards to the breakup the MC did absolutely everything wrong and ran away while she went through legal channels and has everything going for her.

The flip side of that is I have no idea why she'd be looking for him, if anything her lawyer should be the one contacting him which screams forced drama by the dev and i'm not a fan of that.

I’m advocating for a bit more nuanced Beth. She can make one of the more intriguing antagonists. We’ll see if my ideas make it in or fall to the cutting floor.

 

[TiffanyMonroe]

I don't mind Bethany and I can see her point of view.

She had a lover that was never home and didn't put any effort into the relationship. She may have been the same but the MC certainly isn't an innocent party in their breakup.

She's being portrayed as the mega bitch here when all she's done is throw out a guy she was no longer in love with and cover herself financially which anyone with any common sense would do in a breakup where shared assets are concerned.

As a groupie you would expect her to know what she was getting into when she started dating him seeing how she met him when he was on tour.
But I see your point, it was his fault for settling down with a damn groupie.

 

[Jeff Steel]

But Melody ain't batshit

At least, I hope MrDot won't make her to be... lol

She still has unresolved issues with the death of her mother, rejection by her step father, and unresolved issues on control over her antisocial behavior. Sounds like she’s like at leas pt 1/3rd of the world in having a list of issues to work through.

 

[Jeff Steel]

Oh please no! From the background and opening, I was under the illusion that he was close to Amy's age, which would make him too young. However, there is a lot of alluding to him being older than that...

These character musings and not a plotted foreshadowing - they are bits put in during the writing process. At the VN creation I pointed out that an incest connection was an anathema for Patreon when one suggested the connection. (If there ever is a connection, then it would have to be a post Patreon twist. I just can’t see as an attorney that any good comes from touching the incest issue ever while posting on Patreon.)

 

[Black Skull 343]

View attachment 157300
I feel like this is foreshadowing.

Hes kinda like flipping the bird at paetron while making a joke, I hope...

 

[Nick Bruno]

Id like to point out at the beginning of the game the MC talks about what happens in the game in past tense and never says anything about a weird coincidence. All he has to say about Melody is that he profoundly loves her and that probably wouldn't be what someone would say if they were trying to smash their long lost daughter, more like someone who built up a healthy relationship with a "stranger".

 

[Philip Screwdriver]

Id like to point out at the beginning of the game the MC talks about what happens in the game in past tense and never says anything about a weird coincidence.

Good point. That actually hadn't occurred to me.

 

[Philip Screwdriver]

The difference being she has the law on her side, she went through a lawyer so everything she does is legal and above board. He ran off with a car which, without seeking legal help, is theft.

Are we sure about that? If @Jeff Steel is a lawyer, he could speak to this, but why would Bethany have the legal right to all the MC's possessions when they weren't married?

 

[Safetydummy]

Wow, this was yet another fantastic update! I have to say that between DMD and this game that MrDots makes some of the most gorgeous women in any game! They all have such unique and distinct personalities- it's hard not to like any of them or want to be in a relationship with any of them (except for Bethany, is she made deliberately unattractive?). I think the 3-4 that I like that most have to be;

• Xianne- hopefully she'll become much more than a background character.
• Sophie- is just the cutest li'l thing.
• Rebecca- she's really pretty (with and without her goober goggles). I'm going to actually feel bad when it comes time to choose between her or Melody...
  
• Melody- she just seems to get cuter with each update. There's just something about her eyes. Things are really starting to heat up with her- it will be interesting to see where this next update takes us.

The walkthrough does seem to be all over the place and considering these updates are episodic- it appears that some choices/rewards/penalties aren't realized until it's too late. The Amy/perfume/Arnold at dinner thing still kind of ticks me off (I even did a restart, following the walkthrough, and still couldn't get the right outcome- Amy's route is forever closed).
I would think that you'd get bonus points for NOT checking the phone, because you respected her privacy and property- the photo should have been a reward for that...

The only 2 critiques that I have for this update- that triggered my OCD...

• Unless they bought those paint-rollers in Magical Unicorn Land- how can the walls not look painted after they finished... uh, painting?! I know it was just a BG, but it bugged the Hell outta me that the walls didn't look any different.
• Who carries around an open condom? Did it come out of the machine like that? Did he open it on her front porch to show it to her? Why was it out of the package? Why?

 

[Nick Bruno]

Good point. That actually hadn't occurred to me.

yeah, i just went to replay it and it hit me.

 

[JeefZ]

That looks like a good guess, even if it's not!

Kinda no, but close ,face kinda close, no sorry

 

[JeefZ]

Oh please no! From the background and opening, I was under the illusion that he was close to Amy's age, which would make him too young. However, there is a lot of alluding to him being older than that...

No he was supposed to be couple years younger than Amy if I remember correctly from the start?

 

[Avaron1974]

Are we sure about that? If @Jeff Steel is a lawyer, he could speak to this, but why would Bethany have the legal right to all the MC's possessions when they weren't married?

Common law marriage, it's when 2 people live together and share payments. Almost the same rights as a married couple without the actual marriage.

When 2 people live together like that, unless a prenup or other legal agreement is made, all property and finances are shared. She pre empted and went through a lawyer which gave her headway. He just ran away which while writing an email saying she could have it all.

He didn't seek legal advice of his own nor did he try and fight so in the eyes of the law he gave up any rights to any property. We only have one brief internal monologue saying he worked his ass off for the car not that he paid for it himself in full.

Unless he has paperwork with his name on it he is, if you'll excuse my language, fucked like a cheap Saigon whore.