So, I've been playing one of my three saved routes each day, to make the update last a little longer, and now have done a quick catch-up on the ~40 pages of updates since the release. Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but my sense is that around 2/3rds of the comments have been overall negative towards ch11, many centering on length of gameplay, absence of significant plot development, and continued lack of any M/F scene with Ivy. And around 1/3rd have been overall positive, citing Holly corruption, a knockout Cindy and scene, and the inventiveness of things like the shower scene, Lena's mirror scene with Seymour, and Ian's naughty dream of Gillian. That's a broad impression; I know everyone will have their own particular likes and dislikes.
I find myself in the middle of things. For what is there, I liked the update quite a lot. Holly's my girl, and two of my saves are solid HollyxIan and solid Holly corruption (ie. everyone but Ian), so I was over the moon with the two IanxHolly scenes, the shower scene, and the pics with Mark - though we should've gotten more than just two. (FWIW, I didn't get the bug in my IanxHolly game where she went with Mark anyway.) The idea of HollyxRobert is a pairing I never even thought of, and now I really want it... so Holly can gain both corruption and confidence by being the too-willing sub Robert wants in bed, and then dumping him because he's a whiny bitch.
In my ChadIan playthrough, where he just wants this to be a harem game, I went with Cherry early on, partly because Alison is way too needy, partly to cockblock Perry from Cherry. (ChadIan scores with Emma and steals Cinders too, he's alpha all the way. No homo.) And I haven't seen more than a couple of posts talking about it, but I have to say I was really impressed with Cherry's social scenes in the art gallery and bar, and the long sex scene with Ian at her apartment. I like the increasing complexity of Cherry as a character, and the sex scene was very hot.
Unlike most people, I think Seymour had a stellar chapter, basically controlling Lena's entire perception of herself by the end of the mirror scene (if you play that way), to the point that Lena honestly wants to ask him to touch her, though it doesn't happen - this time. And even if your Lena rejected him a long time ago (as she does in my LenaxIan route), there's the development I should have seen coming but didn't, where Seymour approaches Ian with the initial overtures of a similar (so far non-sexual) relationship with Ian, strongly hinting that he can be handed the book contest on a platter.
But also, like most people, I felt ch11 to be "short" or at least "shorter" after the heft of ch10. No Axel or Jessica or Nat at all, Jeremy and Emma only for brief exposition stuff, treading water with Cinders (and Wade and Ian, no matter your playthrough), no advance in the MMA tourney or Ian's work for Victor or the status of the café. The barest appearance of Miranda as basically a background character. (In my HollyxIan game, she starts chatting with Holly at the end of Ivy's class, preempting Holly in the shower with Ivy entirely - Ivy and Lena have fun instead.)
One or two people have mentioned that the impression of a shorter update has more to do with the non-sex situations, and I'd agree. My take is: too many characters are in a waiting period. Ian's book is submitted but the contest won't be over until September, Holly's second book is done but not yet published, Emma's community center hasn't done another event yet. Wade's not in another tournament yet, the nebulous MMA thing doesn't seem to be on the horizon, the Wildcats situation has been decided for Cindy but (it's implied) little or nothing has started with that. Billy's big new agency plans haven't come together yet. Point being, there's not enough stuff for the characters to just talk about in ch11.
Also, there's no real group hangout, which is always good for chat. The closest thing we get is the art gallery & bar after, but that's with a very limited number of people. Where's a good game of pool at the Fortress? Where's a pizza hangout with the Cards Against Humanity knockoff game at Perry & Ian's place? Partying at Blazer? A trip to the mall? Lena writes a song in this chapter but there's no group event like a concert or a life-drawing session at the café. And I don't need a retread of those things specifically, but my point is without a real hangout somewhere in the chapter, it feels a lot more like just a string of sex setups and payoffs. And I like those. But I also like the way Eva's characters interact in a non-sexual way, and not really having that makes the chapter feel slim.
Here's the thing. I think most of us were surprised by Eva's structure to this chapter. I'd also say that's on us to adapt to and accept, not a legit way to complain about Eva or the game. We all pretty much expected that, since ch10 was the planned midpoint, what was set up in the first half would start getting resolved in the second. And I'm sure it will, just not yet, and that's thrown us. Instead of starting to consolidate and resolve plotlines (MMA, Wildcats, LenaxHolly, etc.), Eva is letting those be for now, and is laying groundwork for new minor or maybe major plots: Gillian's return, Ivy starting to come onto Ian and perhaps vice versa, Holly expanding from lesbian sex to non-Ian hetero sex, Lena's Mom's illness being more of a story thing than I think anyone expected, Ian being able to sleep with Alison even if he's been rejecting her so far, Stan maybe getting a kiss from Lena and --horrors-- the potential of a real relationship with her. Our expectations for ch11 seem to have run up against Eva's actual storytelling, but that's not on Eva, that's on us. And I include myself in that - I wanted more story progression than we got. But at the end of the day, what's here, I really like.
And I wanted to see Ivy with some guy - any guy - and utterly dominate both his ego and his dick. But during her convo with Ian, where she has all these questions for him, and observations on how he shouldn't trust this person and that person, I realized: yes, Axel and Seymour are the big bads of the game. But what if Lena tore up Axel's pictures and refused to talk with him, what if she rejected Seymour's offer? There still needs to be an antagonist - and that's Puppetmaster Ivy. She's already been showing her true colors with how she treats Holly, and Lena has been steadily given opportunities to fall into her clutches. And now she's starting to get interested, in her self-centered and deliciously evil way, in Ian as well.