The game tries to emulate real life in alot of ways, you know like in a movie a character always knows what to say? And its always flows great and all that?
I like those types of dialogues, you can look at them as poor attemt at making a funny scene if you dont like it, but i look at them as imitation of life, when you say something stupid and you dont have the right word to save the convo and you keep diggin your grave, it happens in life even with the most "charismatic" people, no matter how chad Ian is, he would still say stupid stuff, its like when you on a date with Lena and you start talking about her being a model, its like the most generic thing to ask a model about and she trows a "-" at you, so you get a chance to save the conversation with your stats.
People are really harsh on this game here sometimes, i think the problem is they get used to games were MC is always right and he has the biggest dick and everyone is constantly sucking on it in all conversations, i never liked those types of games personally.
I would agree with everything you said except for one big caveat -
All the male-mc(Ian) conversations go like this, they're clumsy like real life.
On the other hand, all the Lena-mc conversations flow very easily, as well as the LI's and third party males amongst each other. Your statement "no matter how chad Ian is, he would still say stupid stuff" - is correct! - but that's not really the relevant statement. The relevant statement is "no matter how chad
Axel is, he would still say stupid stuff"...... and he doesn't. None of his competitors do. From the start it feels like the deck is stacked against Ian, because it is, by choice of the dev.
This is my beef with most games in the cheating-corruption genre. The male mc (or non-mc, just generic male bf/husband) is nothing more than a prop for cheating fantasies. You have a small amount of control, but at the end of the day when he walks into a room, the frame is already pre-determined, the social hierarchy is already rigidly cast.
I have a feeling that person doesn't mean Ian getting tongue-tied, because if that's all it took to make him "the most unlikable protagonist" then that'd make for the most petty complaint.
Hopefully they can clarify what they meant.
My specific rant in that earlier post was how Ian is written equally as an insecure mop and a douchebag to his friends. The screenshot is at the first conversation with Wade after you see his gf cheating, and there's NO option for what would be the most natural response - you tell your good friend his gf's cheating on him. To tie this in with the upper half of this post - these responses sharply contrast with the way the female mc and other LIs converse with each other - they're very direct and natural (or they have a choice to not reveal indiscretions, but it's a choice!)
