I think the reason it stuck out to me so much is because most of the time this IS a by-the-numbers fantasy hentai game, although this probably sounds harsher than intended. You start with an elf girl in your bed offering herself to you and soon enough you're told you need to fuck as many different girls as possible with no qualifications other than that you're basically the chosen one and a male. Nearly every encounter is a girl dripping with excitement at the mere thought of you, some even willing to devote their entire lives to you after knowing you all of 10 minutes. Complete a contract, maybe talk to them once or twice, and sexy times occur. Nothing quite so serious about that. Clearly you intend to have meaningful plot and serious subject matter, so why not have that all throughout the game, instead of certain jarring scenes? It's less like me complaining a horror game is too scary and more like me complaining that a game I was playing shocked me with horror. From what I remember virtually nothing in game (up until it's in your face) indicates anything truly serious. I mean seriously, one of the contracts involves enchanting the MC's dick so he can fuck a powerful monster to sleep, and not only is this plan completely rational, but the monster in question is in fact desperate for a mate because they failed to start a male harem. If you wanted a serious game, why not make it serious? There's no blood or wounds even in dire combat. Ray is thrashed several times and the most I've seen have been torn clothes and maybe a few scratches, dsspite being described as beaten, bloody, and near dead. I agree wholeheartedly that these scenes are impactful, but they stick out sorely. Beyond simply their placement in the story rather than plot relevance, what use was the first scene? Just to make me feel bad so I can feel better later? You seem to have ignored when I said that it's hardly the worst thing I've seen, but I'll reiterate that it's true. It's not the level of violence or the implication of harm that discomforted me, it's that these scenes feel out of place in an otherwise carefree world. To my knowledge, no one even dies before the first scene (besides an exception that clearly doesn't apply). All that being said, my score is probably closer to a 4/5 than a 3/5, but to be perfectly honest it really won't affect you. I never intended to be mean, but clearly you took offense anyways, so I don't feel reserved in saying that you won't sink under the weight of one middling review. I'd be willing to bet that a good chunk of the population would commit real murder to the tune of $11k a month. Oh well. I still enjoy the writing and will likely continue to enjoy it in the future.
"Clearly you intend to have meaningful plot and serious subject matter, so why not have that all throughout the game."
"From what I remember virtually nothing in game (up until it's in your face) indicates anything truly serious."
"these scenes feel out of place in an otherwise carefree world."
Did the allegories to racism, trauma, loss of loved ones, and tragic backstories in the first three areas not even hint to you that the game takes itself seriously in the midst of the fun? This is all here from the very first contract, and these themes are recurring through a lot of the early story contracts.
It sounds like your eyes glazed over a lot of moments involving characters you didn't care for but were hyperfocused on certain specific moments as being out of place because they involved characters you felt a deeper connection to. In reality, those scenes fit in just as much as the others.
Just walking through the start of the game we have Mimi, a tragic character defined by her trauma and inability to connect with others — an introduction to the inequality and real problems of the new world you'll be travelling through.
Later we have Davy and Isadora, hot off an awful losing battle in which their entire crew died. It's a story of revenge, and a trauma that continued into her optional Mistral Village quest.
Misty Woods repeats this; it's almost cliché how every single character there has yet another tragic backstory. It's a town of outcasts who, despite appearing to be abandoned by the rest of the world, have found a place to be together and loved.
The early scene with Quistis shows that blood, death, and dire circumstances are certainly not off the table.
I don't think most players get to this point and don't expect the ride ahead to be wild and have bumps. Frankly, it'd be boring if it didn't.
The feelings you have in regards to the scenes you complained about were my
exact intention, and based on the escalation of conflict and stakes, I don't think either the headshot scene or the Eris threat scene were out of place. And I'm just gonna say it; by the time the final episode comes out, shit's going to get even more wild, and I'm really excited for it.
"I never intended to be mean, but clearly you took offense anyways,"
I'm not offended, but I am frustrated at a pattern I've seen emerge on this website. I often browse reviews for the games here, highly rated or lowly rated. I've seen a growing amount of people leave reviews bashing intentional and sometimes even high quality aspects just because it didn't fit the norm, or it wasn't as accessible.
You're entitled to your own opinion, and I love critique; it's one of the core reasons I've been able to make games people like, but sometimes there are dangerous critiques that developers and even players probably shouldn't listen to. I genuinely believe that if I were to smooth out the edges and make my game more safe and accessible to suit your sensibilities, it'd be a much weaker experience with less of an identity. Perhaps you can agree with that much.
"my score is probably closer to a 4/5 than a 3/5, but to be perfectly honest it really won't affect you."
That affects me and every player that looks up this game. They'll open the reviews and their first impression will be a 3/5 for up to a month. Not only that, but my game was knocked down on the F95zone ranks by several places, firmly sitting at a 4.6 now. I'll be honest, that sucks and makes me feel like shit after spending two years working as hard, carefully listening to feedback and polishing my game, only for someone to say: "That scene was a bit too violent, 3/5". I wouldn't mind if it were something objective and fixable, but it's such a subjective take that what it really comes down to is that if you really feel so strongly about it the game might not be for you. But at the same time, you've said you love the game and think it's more of a 4/5, so it's harder for me to understand your angle.
