I did not set out to make this perfectly believable. As Tony showed, that would have been a very short and boring story.
I'd disagree. For relationships, sure. It'll be a short & boring story. For marriage, NO. Especially if there's kids involved or it was a long marriage.
It is a long, nasty and arduous process, it's never simple. You tend to see those Alpha/Sigma stories on reddit, forums or whatnot, where the guy is an Alpha/Sigma male and immediately dumps and divorce the next day, it's bogus stuff. The divorce proceedings itself is excruciatingly long. Worse if there's court ordered separation and marriage counseling.
Then there's the custody battle, splitting of assets, alimony, child support, selling the house and finding a new home. On top of that, the "pick-me-up game" is real as fuck and a constant throughout the entire process. Especially when you have kids, as a parent you'd re-think multiple times if divorcing, 2nd chances or open marriages is the right thing to do. Or if you're rich af and want to protect your assets. Prenups aren't really a valid contract for most countries and for most gen x or older, it wasn't a thing. If you took her back in, how are both parties gonna make it work because the victim definitely gonna make it hell. Constant surveillance, trust issues. It'll spiral from there.
There's also the revenge angle, there is no victim that did not have this cross their mind. Even the most beta man or woman will attempt to do it(even open marriages) or at least get a one up against the spouse. It's to get back,
regain some form of control in their lives. Taking legal action against the affair partner for alienation or informing her employer(if it's a co-worker). Involving the affair partner's wife or reaching out to relatives from both families. Then there'll be the toxic social war between the families/in-laws on who's right or wrong. False accusations, the guy gets accused of domestic violence, it'll turn into a new court case or lengthen the divorce. Do you get even or allow the victim to even the fields. Leading to open marriages which is another huge can of worms and a shitstorm that NEVER ends well. Mind you, we haven't even talked about the children and how they deal with the fallout.
Decisions on whether you split, 2nd chance, open marriage etc don't come to you magically, it's something you'd brood over for months and years because there are many considerations. You can't magically solve it in 3-5 business days like reddit says. The law and life doesn't allow it, its a multi-year process
regardless of the ending.
My parent's infidelity divorce lasted friggin 5 years until they finally divorced. 6 years if you include the affair before D-day. They didn't even play the whole game, maybe like 60% of it and it still took so long. By the time the divorced finalized, i had already left school and was in my 3rd week of Basic Training in the Army(btw, militaries tend to have a lot of domestic/marriage issues). After that it was 2 years of fallout(nope, it's not over yet, there is always an aftermath) until eventually my dad cut everyone out except me and my brother(my sister sided with mom) and remarried.
That said, i like the angle and direction you took for this game, leaning more towards realism and relatability. It's a little cathartic. Most games of this genre does not do this. In fact i've never seen any VNs that took this route. Honestly, for most games, the main point of this genre is the lewd content, very based and uninspired.
