VN Ren'Py Our Life: Now & Forever [v1.5.2 Beta] [GBPatch]

[Necso04]

4 years and no sexual content... hmm
Good, good...

 

[ClockworkGnome]

She may not be everyone's cup of tea, and she's not my favorite character by any means, but I appreciate what she does and how she is for the MC.

Definitely don't want to minimize your own life experiences, but it's worth pointing out that you can both be sort of right about this. Because it feels like you're coming at it from different angles.

It's entirely possible to say that Opal is a caring, loving, supportive mother who wants nothing but the best for her child, and who certainly tries to be the best mother she possibly can. It's entirely possible to point out that she is, in many ways, a much better parent than parents in couples who are harsh, abusive, or otherwise terrible. A financially stable same-sex couple can just as easily be horrific parents as any other.

But it's also entirely possible to say that she is still somewhat irresponsible for deliberately attempting to be a single mother without any real support structure to help (as opposed to being thrust into single motherhood by death, divorce, etc). She chose to fulfill her own desires while ignoring or downplaying the potential negative impact that would have on her child. Especially when she would absolutely have to work hard to support two people without financial support from a spouse, parents, etc. One could argue that your character was EXTREMELY lucky to have moved into a cul-de-sac with very supportive families and kids your own age - if circumstances were different (say, her job sent her to a different town), you could just as easily have wound up living in a neighborhood with no kids, where you have to spend most of your time cooped up in the house as a latchkey kid waiting for mom to get home. The MC could have been incredibly lonely, depressed, and utterly miserable, all because Opal wanted to be a mom.

The problem with "wanting a child despite not wanting a partner" is that it is, at heart, an inherently selfish act. At least in the sense that you are to some degree putting your own wants and needs ahead of the potential impact it will have on the child in the future. Without even getting into sociological or psychological discussions of intra-family dynamics, the financial situation alone is an issue. Sure, she starts off with what seems to be a stable job, but what if she was fired and couldn't find a new one? What if she got too sick to work? What if you got sick or injured, and she couldn't afford treatment or medicine? Buying clothes at the thrift shop isn't an inherently terrible thing, but it dramatically increases the odds that you're going to get picked on at school for being "the poor kid". And as we've seen, her having to work late (thus potentially leaving you alone or missing incredibly important milestones) is a regular enough occurrence that it's an issue - one that might have been greatly offset if you had a father (or another mother, or a live-in aunt, or whatever).

As your own character can point out in the homeroom scene when the teacher asks everyone to hold up their phone, that would be an incredibly embarrassing moment for any student who didn't have a phone (congrats on spending the rest of the year getting picked on for being the lame poor kid!). And you almost were that kid - as tight finances and fear that you weren't responsible enough to get one earlier (ie, you'd probably break it or lose it and all that money is wasted) means you didn't get a phone until shortly before school started. That's another tangible example the game gives us that, while you aren't starving or homeless, money is definitely tight enough to cause noticeable issues.

And the fact that you had to move to the cul-de-sac in first place is tied to her fiancial situation. Which resulted in her having to completely uproot you from the life you'd already made elsewhere, whatever friends you had, everything you'd ever known. That can be incredibly traumatic for a child - and while it's certainly something that any couple (or widow/widower/divorcee/etc) might have to go through as well, deliberately choosing to be a single mother dramatically increases the odds of it happening (and the MC is lucky it only had to happen once - some families wind up having to move every few years).

The fact that a financially well-off hetero couple can beat, bully, abuse, or utterly scar their children by being terrible parents doesn't necessarily mean Opal isn't an irresponsible parent because of the situation she herself deliberately created. Both can be bad in different ways.

That being said, I'd argue that a lot of whether or not Opal is a bad parent is going to depend on how you play your own MC - an MC who picks all the "obviously mom loves me and I love mom" dialogue answers is clearly in a much healthier place than one who picks a lot of the "I hate mom for caring about work more than me" options.

And there's no real wrong way to interpret it. Maybe one kid is just like "this is the way things are because it's the way things have always been", and are very resigned to the idea that they don't get fancy clothes and lots of vacations (and maybe they resent Baxter for being rich because of it), and are very supportive of their mom because they feel like it's "us against the world" and "mom doesn't want to work all the time but she has to because she loves me and needs to take care of me". While maybe another version of the kid is very much aware that "we're poor because mom was selfish, and now all the other kids with fancy toys and new clothes and big families get to have so much more than me it's not fair", along with "I wish I could have a dad like other kids, but mom ruined that too".

Personally, I played it more like the self-sacrificing little martyr most of the time who makes excuses for it (and who comforted mom the few times she gets upset about things), which ties in to being the most conflict-avoidant kid in the entire school (always trying play mediator and conciliator). But now the diner thing is kind of the last straw (especially with Tam and Qui constantly pulling apart while I keep trying to drag them back together), and I'm going to be a sulky little tantrum-thrower for a bit. But I totally understand if someone else is going to play it as "Opal is a monster and I'm going to treat her as such" (especially since we are talking about hormonal teenagers here).

 

[ClockworkGnome]

Diner scene is shorter unless Qui and Tam are jealous and fighting with each other which kinda makes the scene unbearable to play a little bit especially when they force Mc to chose one or none at all lectured me when I asked if we could walk together and I felt like trash when I chose Qui so I went back and Chose Tam still felt awful this poly jealously playthrough is going to end up destroying me.

I basically wanted my MC to sulk and tell them both "I'm not going, enjoy it without me", but the game doesn't really give you the option (I get it, it's a significant scene and they don't want people to miss it). But the update would have been even shorter for me if it had let me.

I'm also playing as being borderline obsessed in love with Tam but still wanting to keep Qui as a close friend (meaning my character's viewpoint is that she's going to force these two to get along if it damn well kills her - or them). But I'm in such a sulky funk that I have pretty much zero fucks to give for their crap so when they try to get me to decide between walking to the bridge or the park I just say screw it and go home alone. And probably go punch some trees in the woods on the way like the emo teen that I am.

We definitely need a "redecorate your room" scene soon - in my head-canon my MC basically trashes her room when she gets home because of how pissed off she is at everyone and everything.

 

[CuriousKiyo]

Definitely don't want to minimize your own life experiences, but it's worth pointing out that you can both be sort of right about this. Because it feels like you're coming at it from different angles.

It's entirely possible to say that Opal is a caring, loving, supportive mother who wants nothing but the best for her child, and who certainly tries to be the best mother she possibly can. It's entirely possible to point out that she is, in many ways, a much better parent than parents in couples who are harsh, abusive, or otherwise terrible. A financially stable same-sex couple can just as easily be horrific parents as any other.

But it's also entirely possible to say that she is still somewhat irresponsible for deliberately attempting to be a single mother without any real support structure to help (as opposed to being thrust into single motherhood by death, divorce, etc). She chose to fulfill her own desires while ignoring or downplaying the potential negative impact that would have on her child. Especially when she would absolutely have to work hard to support two people without financial support from a spouse, parents, etc. One could argue that your character was EXTREMELY lucky to have moved into a cul-de-sac with very supportive families and kids your own age - if circumstances were different (say, her job sent her to a different town), you could just as easily have wound up living in a neighborhood with no kids, where you have to spend most of your time cooped up in the house as a latchkey kid waiting for mom to get home. The MC could have been incredibly lonely, depressed, and utterly miserable, all because Opal wanted to be a mom.

The problem with "wanting a child despite not wanting a partner" is that it is, at heart, an inherently selfish act. At least in the sense that you are to some degree putting your own wants and needs ahead of the potential impact it will have on the child in the future. Without even getting into sociological or psychological discussions of intra-family dynamics, the financial situation alone is an issue. Sure, she starts off with what seems to be a stable job, but what if she was fired and couldn't find a new one? What if she got too sick to work? What if you got sick or injured, and she couldn't afford treatment or medicine? Buying clothes at the thrift shop isn't an inherently terrible thing, but it dramatically increases the odds that you're going to get picked on at school for being "the poor kid". And as we've seen, her having to work late (thus potentially leaving you alone or missing incredibly important milestones) is a regular enough occurrence that it's an issue - one that might have been greatly offset if you had a father (or another mother, or a live-in aunt, or whatever).

As your own character can point out in the homeroom scene when the teacher asks everyone to hold up their phone, that would be an incredibly embarrassing moment for any student who didn't have a phone (congrats on spending the rest of the year getting picked on for being the lame poor kid!). And you almost were that kid - as tight finances and fear that you weren't responsible enough to get one earlier (ie, you'd probably break it or lose it and all that money is wasted) means you didn't get a phone until shortly before school started. That's another tangible example the game gives us that, while you aren't starving or homeless, money is definitely tight enough to cause noticeable issues.

And the fact that you had to move to the cul-de-sac in first place is tied to her fiancial situation. Which resulted in her having to completely uproot you from the life you'd already made elsewhere, whatever friends you had, everything you'd ever known. That can be incredibly traumatic for a child - and while it's certainly something that any couple (or widow/widower/divorcee/etc) might have to go through as well, deliberately choosing to be a single mother dramatically increases the odds of it happening (and the MC is lucky it only had to happen once - some families wind up having to move every few years).

The fact that a financially well-off hetero couple can beat, bully, abuse, or utterly scar their children by being terrible parents doesn't necessarily mean Opal isn't an irresponsible parent because of the situation she herself deliberately created. Both can be bad in different ways.

That being said, I'd argue that a lot of whether or not Opal is a bad parent is going to depend on how you play your own MC - an MC who picks all the "obviously mom loves me and I love mom" dialogue answers is clearly in a much healthier place than one who picks a lot of the "I hate mom for caring about work more than me" options.

And there's no real wrong way to interpret it. Maybe one kid is just like "this is the way things are because it's the way things have always been", and are very resigned to the idea that they don't get fancy clothes and lots of vacations (and maybe they resent Baxter for being rich because of it), and are very supportive of their mom because they feel like it's "us against the world" and "mom doesn't want to work all the time but she has to because she loves me and needs to take care of me". While maybe another version of the kid is very much aware that "we're poor because mom was selfish, and now all the other kids with fancy toys and new clothes and big families get to have so much more than me it's not fair", along with "I wish I could have a dad like other kids, but mom ruined that too".

Personally, I played it more like the self-sacrificing little martyr most of the time who makes excuses for it (and who comforted mom the few times she gets upset about things), which ties in to being the most conflict-avoidant kid in the entire school (always trying play mediator and conciliator). But now the diner thing is kind of the last straw (especially with Tam and Qui constantly pulling apart while I keep trying to drag them back together), and I'm going to be a sulky little tantrum-thrower for a bit. But I totally understand if someone else is going to play it as "Opal is a monster and I'm going to treat her as such" (especially since we are talking about hormonal teenagers here).

Signature checks out lol.

 

[ClockworkGnome]

Signature checks out lol.

I believe in truth in advertising!

But yeah, I'm here on the porn game forum mostly looking for games with deep stories and philosophical overtones, and complex characters where people can spend hours discussing the various interpretations and permutations.

And also the occasional bit of hand-holding.

 

[Princess Groundhog]

I believe in truth in advertising!

But yeah, I'm here on the porn game forum mostly looking for games with deep stories and philosophical overtones, and complex characters where people can spend hours discussing the various interpretations and permutations.

And also the occasional bit of hand-holding.

Sick sick

 

[youraccount69]

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[aFairReviewer]

4 years and no sexual content... hmm
Good, good...

Good sir they're in middle school currently. I really hope your hard drives are clean!

 

[arp5737]

To be honest, imagine living with a single, constantly busy mother

I was the person who originally wrote this comment and I'd like to clarify a few things. I'm honestly very surprised that a single comment of mine started such a discussion and encouraged people to share their own experiences and feelings. I also find it kind of funny that I feel safer sharing my opinion on porn site than in any other Our Life space....

but I have a hard time seeing this specifically as an issue

I was specifically talking about the Home moment, where it says: Your friends already knew your mom wouldn't be there. Your parent wasn't coming to get you on a rainy day. That's what they thought of when they thought of you. It was another way your mom's choices kept her from you, one that happened all the time. Your heart clenched. And you were the only one in the cul-de-sac who was like that. Qiu and Tamarack didn't have to worry about that kind of thing. When one grownup was working or doing some other adult thing, then they still had the second there.
The game doesn't let the MC go home alone in this scene, and I don't see anything bad, unusual or weird with going home alone.

I specifically love the Our Life series

I feel the same way. Also I love what these games were created for comfort; there's no ongoing bullying, homophobia or other painful things that many people go through in real life. I love how they show different conflicts and situations (finding out you're adopted and having that talk in OLBA, experiencing life with a single mother in OLNF, learning about Tam's situation with uncertainty, etc.)

the teacher asks everyone to hold up their phone

I completely agree with this comment, but also an interesting thing i noticed: even if you choose to make your MC an outcast in S2, as long as you're friends with Tam and Qiu they'll still share lunch with you. Even though Qiu is considered super popular and in demand. I find it very heartwarming. Your friends are always there for you, even if school mostly feels like hell (+ both of them step in to defend you in homeroom scene if you share it.)
I wrote my first comment because during my whole childhood, I deeply envied my friends for the simple fact that their parents spent any time with them at all: such as sharing a meal, going shopping, or just enjoying time together at the playground. I know what it's like when your parent is always away or too busy to acknowledge your feelings.

But I'm in such a sulky funk that I have pretty much zero fucks to give for their crap so when they try to get me to decide

This is very funny but i did the same thing. I really hope we'll get kind of Hide-and-Seek situation in S2, where our MC's can just go, "I am too tired of choosing - I care about you both. Either make up or I'm leaving. Bye."

 

[Blahauqjqjqiqoqhqbjq]

Honestly NO OFFENSE TO THE DEVS or anything,i appreciate their hardwork but omg the prologue was so underwhelming i expected so much more.(Compared to the step 1 prologue). hopefully the moments are better!

 

[SPAR97AUNfsgytb]

4 years and no sexual content... hmm
Good, good...

I am more worry, Ren Py game and still no compressed version?

 

[TheRudeSandStorm]

Honestly NO OFFENSE TO THE DEVS or anything,i appreciate their hardwork but omg the prologue was so underwhelming i expected so much more.(Compared to the step 1 prologue). hopefully the moments are better!

This is not the end yet I'm pretty sure, the prologue is probably a bit longer. Gbpatch makes prologues like it's a moment. If it's not then color me surprised

 

[ClockworkGnome]

but also an interesting thing i noticed: even if you choose to make your MC an outcast in S2, as long as you're friends with Tam and Qiu they'll still share lunch with you. Even though Qiu is considered super popular and in demand.

The thing is, it's established that Qui is mostly fed up with the idea of being the popular kid, and is making absolutely no effort to maintain it. And that his disdain and distance is just making him seem even cooler to people, because teenagers are all super-emo and the disaffectation just impresses them even more.

It would be way more heartwarming if he was actually concerned about maintaining his social status but still willing to be friends with you, because then he'd be taking a risk and sacrificing to be your friend in spite of it potentially harming his own popularity. As-is, being friends with the outcast kid might actually be a plus for him - because if people start to turn on him, they're more likely to just leave him alone.

Though I will say I did like that the game gave you the choice to decide how popular you are (something we don't get to do in real life!). They could just as easily have gone for something more realistic and had it be random (the same way it randomizes whose homeroom you wind up in), and just had you work around the way the other students have chosen to see you, regardless of how you want them to see you.

But I lost out on a lot of that nuance because I decided I was relatively popular (not Qui levels of popular, but still relatively well-liked).

Though that's also created an interesting scenario for me as well. Between being popular enough to have lots of other friends, having the game randomize me so that I'm in homeroom alone (Qui and Tam are stuck together), and taking on multiple extracurricular activities that the other two aren't doing, it actually creates the perfect conditions for me to completely grow apart from both of them. Which means staying friends with them is very much a choice -I- am making rather than something I'm forced into solely because I have no other real options.

This is very funny but i did the same thing. I really hope we'll get kind of Hide-and-Seek situation in S2, where our MC's can just go, "I am too tired of choosing - I care about you both. Either make up or I'm leaving. Bye."

I'm just kind of hoping for the eventual option to pretty much just smash the table and be like "ENOUGH! I AM TIRED OF YOUR NONSENSE! STOP ACTING LIKE CHILDREN!" Basically, the moment where all of the angst boils up as anger instead of just resigned sadness or dull acceptance (or trying to ignore or run from the problem).

Either that, or have a moment where you can ask them to stop being passive-aggressive and actually talk about why they don't get along anymore. Because I can very much see an undercurrent of "Why are they like this? What did I do wrong? How do I fix this?" My version of the MC is very much a taking on too much responsibility sort of personality, and she's internalizing the whole mess to at least some degree, as if it was her fault. "What could I have done differently to prevent this? Is there something I could have done if I'd noticed the problem sooner and stepped in?"

"Emotionally desperate unpaid therapist" is kind of how I played the last game as well. Which is how I accidentally wound up with Baxter in the end.

 

[ClockworkGnome]

This is not the end yet I'm pretty sure, the prologue is probably a bit longer. Gbpatch makes prologues like it's a moment. If it's not then color me surprised

I was curious if we were going to get to see the bridge/park scenes with Tam/Qui next update, or if we're just glossing over those narratively (especially since you can skip both of them).

I suspect we're going to get a confrontation with mom after we get home and she gets home from work, where we can tell her it's fine, sulk, or get really angry about it. It feels like it would be a missed opportunity to end the prologue without addressing it (unless there's a moment later where it comes up again).

 

[arp5737]

The thing is, it's established that Qui is mostly fed up with the idea of being the popular kid

I totally understand this, but also, Tam is much more self-conscious and insecure in S2. Even so, she would still choose to sit with her friend at lunch, and it’s a deliberate choice.

not Qui levels of popular, but still relatively well-liked

I think no one in Golden Grove can ever be as popular as Qiu at any point. (Or be good in ballet as they are)
For now, I’m just really happy that this game exists at all on this forum, even though no adult content has been released yet. I just wish there were more forums or spaces where I could express both my positive and negative feelings about the Our Life games.

 

[ClockworkGnome]

I totally understand this, but also, Tam is much more self-conscious and insecure in S2. Even so, she would still choose to sit with her friend at lunch, and it’s a deliberate choice.

Yeah, but Tam's an entirely different sort of animal. Like, while she's far more insecure and less popular, that insecurity doesn't seem to translate into trying to be more popular, or actively chasing approval, as much as she's more pulling inward and trying to avoid upsetting people. She's conflict-avoidant, but not really proactive.

For her the crisis wouldn't be choosing to sit with an unpopular friend and having to deal with social ostracism (which doesn't seem like something she cares about), it would probably be trying to say no to someone she didn't like wanting to sit with her (where she very much wants to tell them to get lost, but doesn't have the confidence to do so).

The scene with Vianca is kind of telling there. Vianca is clearly popular (and very much trying to be), but Tam is very much intimidated by her and making no real effort to try to pretend to be closer to her. Which kind of underlines that while Tam may be very much concerned about people's opinions of her when directly confronted, she doesn't seem to be overly bothered by the idea of how people will interpret her actions in the long-term (likely because her long-term fears tend to be along completely different lines - ie, her parents). In the same vein, you can go through the same quandary - when Vianca asks for your phone number, and you can potentially give it to her even if you don't want to because you're too afraid to say no, or you can just tell her outright she's never getting your number.

Sure, Tam could have tried to completely ghost you at lunch in favor of sucking up to cooler kids or avoiding getting picked on by proxy because of your unpopularity, but that doesn't really seem like it would be a concern to her regardless. It's less blind loyalty to you specifically as much as just not being as invested in the popularity game. A mindset she very much shares with Qiu, just for very different reasons.

Though all of this could easily get explored or deconstructed in future moments - we haven't really seen a lot of anyone's current mindset in Step 2 yet.

As an aside, speaking of Vianca, I spent most of her scenes hissing at her like a cat because my character views her as a threat. She has clearly set her sights on my precious Tam, and I will fight her. I also picked the more stand-offish options to Serenity for the same reason - in my universe it's entirely possible that part of the reason why Tam is so self-conscious and insecure now is because I have apparently spent four years being incredibly judgmental about anyone who wants to be friends with her.

Which can make for an interesting thought exercise - as presented, it's kind of implied that Qiu and Tam have just changed because that's life, and it was mainly lots of outside factors that have nothing to do with you (because they change the same way no matter what choices you make in Step 1). But what if you are directly responsible for their changes, in-universe? Did how you treat Tam dampen down her enthusiasm and make her more self-conscious? Did constantly hanging out with unpopular kids (you, Tam, Ren) cause Qiu to stop caring about being popular? Since part of Qui's shift is going from being the kid who always tries to compromise to keep everyone happy to the kid who doesn't seem to care about anything, is part of that just being constantly worn down by Tam and the MC's contrary nature?

 

[sqeegy]

Definitely don't want to minimize your own life experiences, but it's worth pointing out that you can both be sort of right about this. Because it feels like you're coming at it from different angles.

It's entirely possible to say that Opal is a caring, loving, supportive mother who wants nothing but the best for her child, and who certainly tries to be the best mother she possibly can. It's entirely possible to point out that she is, in many ways, a much better parent than parents in couples who are harsh, abusive, or otherwise terrible. A financially stable same-sex couple can just as easily be horrific parents as any other.

But it's also entirely possible to say that she is still somewhat irresponsible for deliberately attempting to be a single mother without any real support structure to help (as opposed to being thrust into single motherhood by death, divorce, etc). She chose to fulfill her own desires while ignoring or downplaying the potential negative impact that would have on her child. Especially when she would absolutely have to work hard to support two people without financial support from a spouse, parents, etc. One could argue that your character was EXTREMELY lucky to have moved into a cul-de-sac with very supportive families and kids your own age - if circumstances were different (say, her job sent her to a different town), you could just as easily have wound up living in a neighborhood with no kids, where you have to spend most of your time cooped up in the house as a latchkey kid waiting for mom to get home. The MC could have been incredibly lonely, depressed, and utterly miserable, all because Opal wanted to be a mom.

The problem with "wanting a child despite not wanting a partner" is that it is, at heart, an inherently selfish act. At least in the sense that you are to some degree putting your own wants and needs ahead of the potential impact it will have on the child in the future. Without even getting into sociological or psychological discussions of intra-family dynamics, the financial situation alone is an issue. Sure, she starts off with what seems to be a stable job, but what if she was fired and couldn't find a new one? What if she got too sick to work? What if you got sick or injured, and she couldn't afford treatment or medicine? Buying clothes at the thrift shop isn't an inherently terrible thing, but it dramatically increases the odds that you're going to get picked on at school for being "the poor kid". And as we've seen, her having to work late (thus potentially leaving you alone or missing incredibly important milestones) is a regular enough occurrence that it's an issue - one that might have been greatly offset if you had a father (or another mother, or a live-in aunt, or whatever).

As your own character can point out in the homeroom scene when the teacher asks everyone to hold up their phone, that would be an incredibly embarrassing moment for any student who didn't have a phone (congrats on spending the rest of the year getting picked on for being the lame poor kid!). And you almost were that kid - as tight finances and fear that you weren't responsible enough to get one earlier (ie, you'd probably break it or lose it and all that money is wasted) means you didn't get a phone until shortly before school started. That's another tangible example the game gives us that, while you aren't starving or homeless, money is definitely tight enough to cause noticeable issues.

And the fact that you had to move to the cul-de-sac in first place is tied to her fiancial situation. Which resulted in her having to completely uproot you from the life you'd already made elsewhere, whatever friends you had, everything you'd ever known. That can be incredibly traumatic for a child - and while it's certainly something that any couple (or widow/widower/divorcee/etc) might have to go through as well, deliberately choosing to be a single mother dramatically increases the odds of it happening (and the MC is lucky it only had to happen once - some families wind up having to move every few years).

The fact that a financially well-off hetero couple can beat, bully, abuse, or utterly scar their children by being terrible parents doesn't necessarily mean Opal isn't an irresponsible parent because of the situation she herself deliberately created. Both can be bad in different ways.

That being said, I'd argue that a lot of whether or not Opal is a bad parent is going to depend on how you play your own MC - an MC who picks all the "obviously mom loves me and I love mom" dialogue answers is clearly in a much healthier place than one who picks a lot of the "I hate mom for caring about work more than me" options.

And there's no real wrong way to interpret it. Maybe one kid is just like "this is the way things are because it's the way things have always been", and are very resigned to the idea that they don't get fancy clothes and lots of vacations (and maybe they resent Baxter for being rich because of it), and are very supportive of their mom because they feel like it's "us against the world" and "mom doesn't want to work all the time but she has to because she loves me and needs to take care of me". While maybe another version of the kid is very much aware that "we're poor because mom was selfish, and now all the other kids with fancy toys and new clothes and big families get to have so much more than me it's not fair", along with "I wish I could have a dad like other kids, but mom ruined that too".

Personally, I played it more like the self-sacrificing little martyr most of the time who makes excuses for it (and who comforted mom the few times she gets upset about things), which ties in to being the most conflict-avoidant kid in the entire school (always trying play mediator and conciliator). But now the diner thing is kind of the last straw (especially with Tam and Qui constantly pulling apart while I keep trying to drag them back together), and I'm going to be a sulky little tantrum-thrower for a bit. But I totally understand if someone else is going to play it as "Opal is a monster and I'm going to treat her as such" (especially since we are talking about hormonal teenagers here).

Ackkk, I'm so sorry it came off like that, lol! I didn't mean for it to seem like I was totally dismissing the idea Opal isn't perfect. I just drank too much coffee that day, and typed too much. TT

I for one really like playing all routes of a game, so I know you're right when you say playing as a more pro-mom MC gives healthier interactions. The fundamentals of the choices stay the same to avoid being problematic, but the MC can definitely shift the dynamics a lot depending on what they do. Although, the changes are mostly from how the MC reacts, than the mom herself.

I agree that there a lot of issues that could've been easily avoided had Opal had any form of support, that goes for families too, for example having supportive in-laws helps much more than absent ones.

I think overall, Opal is pretty good, at least from a human aspect. To a degree, it's selfish of her to be completely alone, without anyone else, and have a child-- But she is mostly financially fine, was likely better off before having a child, and was more than qualified to have a child overall. She's definitely at least an average parent, I don't think she was any more or less. Her not being able to afford a phone for the MC feels a bit questionable, since she definitely could've afforded a phone for them much earlier, but likely not the one they give the MC in the Step 2 Prologue, had she given them one sooner.

With more attention, you can tell that the MC gets a touchscreen phone, while their mom still has a broken flip phone. I'm sure the mom could've afforded any older model of phone, but she got the new ones so that the MC could feel more comfortable with their peers, especially before high school started. I think it's not too unusual not to get a phone in middle school, since I also got mine at the start of high school. High school is when kids pay more attention to that, while in middle school, you can just barely pass it off.

On the next point, I feel like Opal moving to the cul-de-sac when the MC was 10, and then staying there and being able to not worry about moving after that, isn't too bad or unusual. It's more on the bright side of being a lower income family, and the neighbor was likely better than the previous home, too.
In terms of affecting a child, there are some pains and anxiety, but it's the kind that you can overcome with time, especially if you're now able to stay somewhere supposedly forever until you decide otherwise. But that might just be my own bias!!!

Most of this stuff with Opal depends on your perspective, and I had a lot of fun reading your reply. I initially felt extremely surprised playing Our Life NF, because so much of it, I'd actually gone and done myself. It felt kind of like, what if? I had a home, and I didn't have to move? There were many times I was able to click with my peers as a child, before moving a week later and never seeing anyone again. This game is like a warm blanket compared to real life, where most things can be railroaded by an adult when you're young.

That's all I have to say, and I really didn't mean for my initial post to sound like my opinion was the only supreme definite opinion, compared to everyone elses. TT
Like cookie dough, I usually overlook the flaws here and there, as long as the cookies turn out well. No one can get a perfect parent, and parents are humans with many selfish desires. I feel like Opal is one of the better possible parents out there! Of course, how Opal is, is purely up to each person's perspective, and there is technically no right or wrong. Especially with most of the things she does, it can have a drastically different meaning depending on how the MC reacts to it. If they're appalled by Opal's absences and constant inability to be there, and their mother doesn't address it despite noticing their discomfort, then she would be easily more unavailable emotionally, highlighting her absences physically. Making her come off somewhat irresponsible, while she's already generally a bit in the middle.

If the MC is perfectly okay with it, and their mother continues that way, then Opal becomes a generally fulfilling parent! And while occasionally irresponsible, seems to mostly minimize her flaws narratively.

 

[losercore]

This whole Opal conversation would be so much easier if there weren't so many options and ways to present it in game lmaoo

I won't say much, as I have a whole lot of nothing of value to add, and no particularly interesting personal experience to compare it to, but I'll say this - I think GBPatch is hinting a lot at some kind of actual big moment here, there have always been plenty of options, but with how heavily we can go at Opal for not being around, working too much, etc. and I think it'd be a huge missed opportunity, maybe even bad writing, if it all came down to nothing past maybe an 'I don't really like my mom' option in another steps prologue.

Then again, I'd say Opal's parenting being terribly damaging to the MC is about as canon as the MC having a crush on Tam or Qiu (or both) - all up to you! In my opinion, it's part of the in-between we have to imagine ourselves and hint at in the options we pick. I'm just crossing my fingers that it doesn't get sidelined as an option. I really, really love a good bit of angst, and I'm playing my MC as someone who keeps all her emotions so bottled up, I'm just praying for this moment for her to lose it, I made her with something like it in mind. She needs it.

 

[ggezwux]

I personally like that there's so many options to the point it's bringing a wider range of discussions by everyone. Not everything is black and white, hearing everyone's experiences with her whether it being positive, negative or neutral are all great as long as they're not being toxic about it! It's good that it's not "easier"! I personally love Opal but I def see the facts and truths in people pointing out her flaws and neglectfulness (and I do have my own experiences with my parents so I def spot it too). I do think also because the game is more focused on than LIs than it being a game where the NPCs are the main characters, Kab might not have considered all those flaws and how contradicting they can be but then again, maybe she has or maybe now that she most likely knows many of these flaws, she'll incorporate that being confronted in game. Maybe it'll lead to an important point.

Edit: I also think it'll def come up in Step 2, in Step 1 there's not really time to go into the family dynamics because it's the introduction to the game so yk. ++ Step 2 is supposed to be way more angsty now that we know the Golden Grove (main) cast. At least I hope so ahha

Friendly reminder that Qiu in Step 2 strictly uses They/Them pronouns as well :]

 

[CuriousKiyo]

But what do I think about Opal?
Well, my mc started out as a very reserved, objective, "It is what it is" kid due to a rough upbringing in part from coming from a shit place to live with low income. Pretty much the only person he could rely on was his Ma, thus he was extremely clingy. During the course of step 1, however, he learns to open up, tear his walls down, and enjoy the company of others (something that the game actually pointed out in step 2 by saying how he wouldn't have acted so social when he first arrived to town, which absolutely blew my mind. This game's sick), this all culminated in Home when, for the first time, my mc exploded. He felt betrayed by his Ma, and it was thanks to the friends he made along the way he managed to get through it (this was also the moment he'd develop a crush on Tamarack and swear he'd keep his friend group together, which kinda leads to another kind of self destructive attitude all together but that's a subject for another time.)
But it was not without his drawbacks, as the experience added another layer to his relation with his Ma. The love is just as strong, but when he feels like he's getting "betrayed" again, contempt that can only be born from true affection emerges and the often happy, sociable mc turns into a moody teen with a very short fuse.
Tldr: she's a very important in my small American town larp.