I feel that what Venefica did was still plenty impressive, what Vili and Aiko do isn't on the same level as changing your body's internal chemistry to the point of smelling different and having different tasting breast milk. Yeah, it's not some ability restricted to the high tiers, but physical modification vs genetic modification wouldn't be the same, and i feel Venefica's falls into the latter.
Also, Vili isn't just an ordinary mg, she's a bit higher on the hierarchy, so it's not like ordinary imps could use this ability, same with Aiko, but since she's put as a challenge in a major location, I can assume she's not low ranking either.
Casual and lighthearted stories doesn't mean they are allowed to just not give a shit about most writing rules and norms.
Also, those aren't even mutually exclusive, why is the concept of though provoking narratives have to be attached to some grim dark and serious stories? Any story can be though provking if the author has enough balls and intelligence to say something, teach you about something, or put a different perspective on something, offer social commentary and so on. Not to mention that serious storiess could easily be casual and lighthearted.
The argument of "The characters are the focus" would be stronger if the characters themselves are actually well written, but they're nothing spectacular, you can summarize the character arcs (those that actually exist) in a single sentence. The characters aren't the focus of the writing, as we'd actually be allowed to know more about them. The characters are FAN SERVICE based on shallow tropes which aren't expanded upon. The game's magnum opus of Kotone could only barely qualify as an actual character story, everything else feels like a sitcom quality, you enjoy it, but you can't call it good can you? Some of them don't feel like characters, just charicatures made for a specific kink.
It would also help if MGD was a dating game instead, those are examples of weak grand narratives with strong character narratives, but MGD only has a very barebones ""dating"" mechanic and what you're rewarded by raising it, and as I said, the characters aren't up to par on a character driven story.
MGD isn't a casual and fun story, it's a low effort story full of holes (as in lacking content) that gives you the impression that it's casual because your tired brain doesn't have anything to think about. It's a porn game, coomers come her to coom, not read deep and though provoking stuff, and thus why even bother making it? Just slap some justification, for whatever main kink you want and boom "Full save?" "How to use console?" "Where is the cheat mod?" People who can't even gather the willpower to give a shit will come, these people would never criticize a story because they weren't reading it, half of their playtime is spent with their hands on their cock.
You can't call the criticisms misguided, especially when your rebuttal really just sounds like "it's not that deep" and I hope you agree with me in the fact that this is the worst rebuttal to any sort of criticism on any kind of media. Being casual, being a porn game or any other rebuttal which argues that the game doesn't deserve harsh critique of its narrative because the nature of the game is so on and so forth (i just went over these) just isn't a good excuse.
If MGD was a cartoon made for children, i would've given the credence that you're asking for here, but it's a PORN game made for ADULTS (hopefully, though the longer I am on this platform the more i doubt the ages of people)
Trying not to be too antagonistic here, but these opinions don't mean anything, in terms of providing to the discussion
MGD relationships:
Encounter 2 dimensional trope incarnate
Beat it
Get some dialogue option, pick the one that screams "I'm not an ass"
Go back, maybe do that a few times
Oh would you look at that, it wants to meet you now
Go meet the mg
Pick every "I'm not an ass" choice repetaedly (which are often the same exact choice)
Unlock new interactions which hardly develop her character which now you'll have to repeat, aswell as new sex scenes
Repeat until "Oh hey, I think you're kinda cool? Wanna be my BFWB (best friend with benefits)/Lover(very loosely)?"
Congrats, you've now 'developed a relationship'
The only person I'd accept that descriptor for would be Kotone, it's the only actual 'relationship' you develop which isn't bland
I'm trying to say this in the nicest manner possible... isn't that kinda childish?
This isn't an insult to your intelligence btw, more so questioning what kind of world of sunshines and rainbows you live in. We're already shown that the world is far from innocent, humans and mg have been at war for 100 millenia, humans could still be kidnapped and raped (you can't fucking say 'you like it' even if its femdom, non con also requires consent) by mg who are hardly anything but kind, the only thing preventing them from doing something worse is the enchantment. It's like preventing a person who wants to diet from eating by sewing their mouth shut, their desires aren't gone, you've just stopped them from engaging in them. While the mg near the main town are mostly not callous due to their close human interaction, we are warned SEVERAL times about the capital and beyond, that the enviorment won't be the same and to take proper caution. If proper authorities which comfortably accept living with mg say that, it has to come with reason.
It feels like you're averting your eyes from this cause you want the... "illusion of innocence"?
Again, not criticizing your for disliking snuff content, just questioning why you're going through a piece of media with the expectation it's 'innocent'.
That's if its even filed, or reported. A guy willing to (best case scenario, though I'm sure that's not going to 100% be the case) become a succubuss' "lover slave" wouldn't care, though even if they did, how would they report it?
An enchantment which decides to not work sometimes for some reason, I wouldn't put my trust in a revolver with 5 empty chambers and only 1 bullet, would you?
It doesn't really matter how they themselves interpret death. In Shrift the lampas are intelligent, barghest's can't be excused either but they're practically children mentally (stated by that one professor i believe), and any other intelligent girl in there is 100% aware of what they're doing, though glad you aren't letting the Arachne case go, it still poses me off to this day.
Of which we haven't seen much, i'm still half with you, we haven't seen much of succubi and how the general population treats soul eating, knowing thresh i doubt there will be some dark reveal but, no conclusive evidence to understand the succubi in MGD, so the worst and best case could be possible.
This is just very naive, this isn't an issue about being 'stuck in the past', it's being understandibly skeptical. Again, the wars have went on for a 100 millenia, do you think that doubt would be unreasonable here. And as phenir said, there are still plenty of dangers, they CAN still suck souls, but it's the same as murdeur would be for humans, would you do it if you could get away with it? Most succubi easily could.
Hmmm, kinda unsure if that's how it'd work, the person itself would have to be powerful, more powerful than imps slimes or petty lizards, so just taking you out of the continent wouldn't be feasible for most, everything else is fair though.
The enchantment prevents everything that causes physical harm, we've yet to see if it has an effect on anything but the physical (assuming the enchantment actually works). Under the assumption that it doesn't Cathrine and any succubuss could steal souls. Under the assumption that it does, it still wouldn't work, your soul isn't being harmed here, it'ss being relocated and stolen, but they might not be able to eat your soul (hopefully, and this is all if the second assumption is the correct one).
Phew, that took me 1.5 hours, I love arguments so much
