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

4.50 star(s) 286 Votes
Discussion Reviews (286)
jaw1986baby

jaw1986baby

Chasing Redhead sm0ls
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Jun 2, 2017
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Segnbora said:
The way this worked out makes me wonder how DmD's going to end. I mean, it probably doesn't matter, since any player can "cheat" the relationships right there in the menu, but I suspect people will be livid if the game takes a "she knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake" approach to the ending(s) and ignores the player-controlled relationship settings. "Ha, see? You should've been faithful to D all along. Sucker!" I mean, I'd laugh hysterically if they actually did something like that, but I also wouldn't bother to replay the game to get the different ending.

Like many here, the division between Melody's good and perfect endings never really made much sense to me. It's only there for out-of-the-blue forced replayability, which is my least favorite kind. If there has to be branching, I prefer it to come with klaxons and strobe lights, like in Deliverance, or be subtle and intertwined but still obvious, like in Depraved Awakening. Melody's version is somewhat unfair, in that if you're actually playing the game (rather than following a walkthrough or using a mod), there's no in-game dialogue cautioning you that you can't have sex with Isabella, Amy, or Rebecca. (Especially as you can have sex with all three of them...just not past a certain point.) Moreover, Melody enjoys sex with Sophia and Xianne, which is hardly something that interferes with her ability to tour.

I can easily understand the logic behind unexpected pregnancy arresting her career, and the game does signpost that possibility by introducing a discussion regarding fertility and then giving players the choice of where to come, but the game never once suggests why a willingness to engage in threesomes and/or foursomes with two of her best friends should lead to the same ending. Worse, why in heaven's name would Koko object to sexual adventurousness? Hell, she'd be more likely to ask to join in. It's a made-up, out-of-thin-air content gate, and an illogical one.
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Keep in mind

At the time the were still not in process of wrapping up DMD so this was their first game ending

They gave paths to live happily ever after with characters other than Melody who the game was named for and is the focus of/reason for the story. That was kind of rare for these types of games. Really rare. But they wanted the best career payoff "Superstar" to have some gates. That isn't too strange if you are fair and look at other games. It just didn't match what some others might have felt was best. Having kids, a loving family, and still paying bills with music is the BEST ending to some players. Having a regular 4some and making it well enough to live off music may be BEST for others. That is why they called that one Superstar and not best. So you cannot have it all 1. Baby plus superstar or 2. 4some plus superstar. They learned from that and the new game has the main goal of the Hotel separated and the women are far, far more flexible in being a main LI who can stick around to the end.

Plus they knew they were going to Have Xianne and Sophia be a canon thing, so they go off on their own in any ending and the 4some doesn't last.

So could they have made it easier to get it all?
Certainly
Did they need to?
Not really

Just complete a game, establish the dynamic to pay for DMD to continue and finally finish, and learn for the next project what options to consider or to force.

I mean:
If I had my way, Sophia would have become a redhead and married the MC and we both would have been sleeping with Rock Star Melody as part of her team...... but you know, not my game.







PEACE
 
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Segnbora

Segnbora

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Aug 30, 2017
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jaw1986baby said:
That was kind of rare for these types of games. Really rare. But they wanted the best career payoff "Superstar" to have some gates.
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Sure, but here's the difference in how Melody versus, say, Depraved Awakening accomplished the same thing.

In the former, there's a content gate that you can't possibly know about until it's too late. Yes, you can assume (and you'd be correct), but while the game nudges you away from Amy (your doubt over whether or not it's a good idea to bang Melody's aunt), Rebecca (Melody asks about the cat that wanders around as if it knows the place), and Isabella (a reminder that she'll continue to live an itinerant lifestyle), it does nothing of the sort with Sophia and/or Xianne, much less their possible interactions with Melody/Melody and the MC. With the other NPCs, the game tells you what you need to know. It doesn't hit you over the head with it, but it's in the text. Whereas with Sophia and/or Xianne, the text gives you every indication that Melody's really into them. In other words, it's telling you the opposite of what you need to know. That, to me, is bad writing. And it's not like they couldn't have slipped a line or two in there; the game's intolerably wordy already. Surely yet another internal narrative expressing uncertainty about Xianne's unabashed sexual aggression, or a conversation between the MC and Melody wherein they wonder if having Sophia as a bandmate and a lover is wise — this could very easily work just before the point the MC is considering having sex with his former/current bandmate and former lover — would take care of this oversight.

In Depraved Awakening, there are also multiple outcomes and endings...but they're paths, not gates, and they're not necessarily exclusionary. There's more than one way to get to whatever content/LI you're after; I think only the assassin requires needle-threading, and all the choices are presented as just that: choices. None of those choices are hidden from the player, like Sophia/Xianne is in Melody.

Obviously, the game's long over and none of this matters; nothing's going to change at this point. But even more sophisticated games like Deliverance occasionally make this mistake: being explicit (even if it's subtle) about the consequences of your choices, but then gating content due to a choice you couldn't possibly predict would wall off that content. I don't mind if someone wants to make all the gates impenetrable to the player (though it's certainly not my preference), but making all but one of them explicit is clumsy, and specifically telling the player that a choice is welcomed by the primary love interest, only to cut the player off at the knees as a result, is worse than clumsy.
 
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Skeltom

Skeltom

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Oct 9, 2017
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Uthuriel said:
DPC and his games are highly overrated to begin with...

I guess if you like your bitches to be crispy? I wish there was a mod so you could leave them both in that house... :KEK:
Or maybe if you never went to a college... :KEK:

Making life harder for modders is a major dick move though.
Not sure why devs would waste time on shit like that...
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It's true. I think it comes down to the devs treating the projects like babies they need to protect instead of of what it actually is, a source of income. At the end of the day what should it matter to them how someone chooses to play a game in the privacy of their own home? Who benefits from the dev acting like that? To me it just seems like the they're saying "Your not playing my game the right way".
 
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ArmoredCascade

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Sep 27, 2018
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when does Melody actually become pregnant? i thought i remember her telling her Aunt and MC and Melody tell her they are dating
 
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ArmoredCascade

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Sep 27, 2018
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what are the points to get Melody to open for Koko? she just told me that she would've asked Melody to but her Manager got someone else
nvm it looks like im heading to the European Tour ending for Melody ending
 
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ArmoredCascade

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Sep 27, 2018
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when MC and Melody at one point had sex MC wanted to try anal Melody suggested to use her dildo at the end it says cum inside her or pull out well people been telling me always to cum in her but when i click on cum in her i went from having
382 points down to 367? what gives i want to get her pregnant though
after that when i try to cum inside her points been going down? why?
 
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Billie'sBitch

Billie'sBitch

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May 25, 2022
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Could i get a late game save file please , i lost my save files and i dont fancy clicking half a million time to catch up.
 
Segnbora

Segnbora

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Aug 30, 2017
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cxx said:
yes and to get perfect ending with melody it is actually needed.
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Right. You can dabble with everyone else, for a while, but this appears to be the one thing you can't do at all if you want the "perfect" ending.
 
cxx

cxx

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Nov 14, 2017
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Segnbora said:
Right. You can dabble with everyone else, for a while, but this appears to be the one thing you can't do at all if you want the "perfect" ending.
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can't dabble at all besides izzy in the beginning but then needs to break up with her later. unless cheats enuf points to get perfect ending even if had 3some sex until last day.
 
Segnbora

Segnbora

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Aug 30, 2017
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cxx said:
can't dabble at all besides izzy in the beginning but then needs to break up with her later. unless cheats enuf points to get perfect ending even if had 3some sex until last day.
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Not true. You can have some sex with the aunt and the neighbor and still get the perfect ending.
 
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4.50 star(s) 286 Votes