Well, can't say i disagree with it.
Not to take anything away from GGGB, that game was fantastic and I still play it occasionally, but ORS is on a whole new level, story wise, graphics wise, you name it. It is plain better and also judging from the fact that it is just her second project, she improved it a metric ass ton.
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GGGB vs ORS
It's been a while since Good Girl Gone Bad was finished and Our Red String started development. Looking back on my first game and deeper into the second one, I can't help but compare them and see what lessons I can extract from thet.
The structure and gameplay mechanics in ORS are very similar to the ones in GGGB. The focus was to create an interactive story where the player can influence the plot through several narrative choices. I wanted him to feel he had the power to actually shape the story in a meaningful way, that his actions have a clear effect not only on the outcome of the plot but on the characters themselves. And I wanted to trim all the fat from the experience: no stat grinding, no pointless roaming around and no cumbersome game play cycle. Just a streamlined and engaging story that moved forward and evolved with your choices.
GGGB was my first attempt at something like that and I had no real idea of what I was doing. All I knew was that I wanted to push the branching mechanics to the extreme and give the player as much sense of agency as possible. With that in mind I took the potential of a fairly bland starting point and pushed it in different directions, giving Ashley wildly different possibilities: she started as a fairly normal and innocent girl and could end up becoming a gang leader, dealing drugs and shooting people, and everything in between. The only real mechanic other than tracking the different choice variables was a simple Good vs Bad point system to help the player keep track of his standing, and those points interacted with the gameplay giving you access to special dialogue options and choices, similarly to Mass Effect.
ORS basically takes that system and builds upon it. Instead of a binary point system, now you have different stats and a complementary mechanic with Will points, implementing them to the gameplay in a more dynamic and intrinsic way. The backbone of the experience still is the choice-driven branching storyline, but this time, instead of pushing for the most outlandish variety possible, I wanted to explore choice and consequence on a deeper and more nuanced level. I’d say ORS is building up on what I learned with GGGB, a more mature and better structured version of what erotic VN storytelling is able to offer, but the motivation behind both games is practically the same.
What is your opinion on the matter? Do you think ORS improves on the gameplay compared to GGGB? And which approach do you enjoy more?
I second that, the improvement from GGGB to ORS feels astounding to me in all levels, not just the obvious graphical aspect, but the writing and gameplay itself. It's a really well crafted VN, porn aspect apart, and really feels like the work of a mature creator. I think Eva expresses it clearly in her post, while GGGB was more of a fun playground ORS is a really solid and well-crafted experience
Counterpoint, the chaotic fun of GGGB made the agency more meaningful, and it complemented the porn aspect of it really well. ORS with its grounded story and (mostly) grounded characters, well, I just have a hard time imagining how it would go about doing some of the really wild things GGGB did.
You just wait for Chapter 6.
Indeed! Althought it was a great story, some of the endings, in my opinion, were a little disappointing. ORS storywise seems a much better and more mature game and the pacing of progression and story development also seems much more coherent. There's always stuff each one of us think it could be better or more to our liking. For me for example it's the type of stats choose that I'm not particulary a fan, since I feel I'm constantly having to decide if the characters are full on pervs or smart and charismatic, like you can't be one without the other. However I do understand the decision and trust the developer to still deliever a great story I'll certainly enjoy.
i wonder, she said ORS is more mature, so she definitely tries to make the sex scenes seem less "porn-y". that's really great, but what does that mean for any gangbang/orgy (i would be surprised if this game won't feature any threesomes) scenes? admittedly i could look for other games if that would be what i am looking for in a VN, but it's evakiss skill in making choices coherent and story progression believable what draws me to her work. and i would argue that making scenes feel plausible is the actual spice which makes the sex/kink so much more enjoyable. so i am anxious how any gangbang/orgy scene for ian or lena could work here and hope evakiss gives them a try, even if the current outlook of the story may not fit it all so well for it.
Ya I am wondering how long before ORS completely goes off the wall with drug use, prostitution, gangbangs, orgies, etc. GGGB has the whole reality TV star and rapper angle, and the drug use started pretty early. I guess with ORS Ivy is probably a partier, Jeremy is probably a partier (though Jeremy seems a bit more grounded), the cafe boss can be a sugar daddy, Minerva can be a sugar mama....
Well, not sure about porn stud route for Ian, but he can become more like Seymour, using other people to serve his goals.Not sure what the endgame for the protagonists is going to involve, apart from writer career (Ian) and sing-a-song writer/model (Lena). It does make me wonder if there's going to be a pornstar(-like) ending for Ian
I think Seymour would be the gateway for that, hosting parties for powerful old men and women.
