Good day or night everybody.
Alright, My first post ever on this site. I`m usually just a spectator and I don`t normally get involved enough to comment on something.
But this game, I`ll admit; after playing GGGB, it is quite a different beast.
I "sped" through it, it was great, I was involved. I steered Ian with my morals but also mindful of the context he lived in. And a context that my mind could connect to.
I played him insecure with Lena, after all, he`s kind of a pushover, still reeling from Gillian. I didn`t pursue her on as him, as I felt he`d not have enough selfconfidence and that the situations really didn`t favour it naturally: first time to take Lena`s path is after seeing her naked unexpectedly, doesn`t feel right if you don`t want to come off as a creep or just interested in her body. Second chance is right after, thanks to Perry. It is now more private but still not right; she`s been nice to you and the situation doesn`t favour a heart to heart, then again, you`ve just seen her naked. It doesn`t feel right to pursue right now.
There`s a third time to get on track but what`s the context? Time has passed since you saw her naked, you`ve interacted with her some more, you`re interested but do not have that security; that drive to take the lead. And as Ian, you MUST take the lead in this game. So, everything is aligned now to seem like you do like Her whole, not just her body... everything but Ian`s security and drive to take the lead... then Jeremy, "the player" comes in and he talks some sense into Ian, that he has to act now, she`s slipping away, last chance. So now, not only is the timing less akward, but a friend is giving him some drive of his own to help him. Just what Ian needed to take the iniat- It`s gray
The option is gray
...
WHY? WHY is the option grey?
If you`ve played Ian as someone that is awkward and an introvert, and also someone that doesn`t want just some fling, this is the perfect time to choose to pursue Lena. It is in character to do so, but the game believes the cards are now down and I`ve already chosen, the option to choose right there but grey. I was in denial, there had to be another chance, after all, the game is about choices and where they take you, but choice is not just a matter of what you decide but when. So there had to be another oportunity, right?
So I activated the skip dialogue command and now truly sped through the content, there had to be another chance, I didn`t involve Ian or Lena in any other relation, preparing for the time the option for Ian and Lena to start a relation. And then the Holy Grail of opportunities came. Lena meets Cherry and Drama ensues, Lena walks away, and Ian leaves his friends to find out what happened. Lena opens up: A heart to heart, a broken one to another one, unknowingly. A heart to have they never had before, never allowed themselves before. Lena had just explained what had broken her, it was the same Ian had gone through and he had unknowingly played the part in her being like this with Cherry around, he just didn`t know.
He`d be devasted too in Lena`s shoes, he had lived through the same after all. So he`d try to support her, walk her home, he`d leave his friends, he cared for them, yes, but this was more important. Lena had already rejected offers to be walked home, so here she could too again and try to drive off Ian, either way, Ian would talk what happened with Gillian, be it on the way home or still outside the store, either way, Lena would now understand Ian just as now Ian understood Lena. Lena could still reject Ian`s offer to be walked home but she would understan now. They could remain friends as before but now something else could be born.
But nothing, just a goodbye from Ian and returning to his friends, here truly and decisevly the game lost me, it was definitely a good game sure, something greater than what had come before, sure.
But then I tried again, this time being more active and going for Lena Head on. Seeing what I had lost with being passive originally, And... They fucked and sent nudes before ever truly talking about their feelings, several weeks of that and the most I got was a "Maybe we should talk between us soon about where we stand truly" What? No, just no.
Sure heart broken people go for flings, be it just after breakup or a year after or whenever, it happens all the time. But if I am both steering them towards taking this as anything but a fling, why do they treat it as such and not have a heart to heart as I believe they`d want to and need to to feel safer with the other.
As I said, the game had lost me on my original walkthrough, and it seemed a second one didn`t help. So now I`m here, writing how a magnificent project didn`t quite meet my expectations.
So now I`ll add something more to this. I believe that the male protagonist and his personality was a wrong pick for the game, let me explain further. While the prospect of a broken heart being reignited is always something can relate to, almost universally, I find the game struggles to keep tied Ian`s context with the choices it presents. From going from dumped to player it is a huge jump, and to me it fills like a male fantasy outright, not because it can`t happen, but that due to the way Ian has lived up to now and how short the game`s time frame is, justifyng Ian trying and managing to bang every chick that ever appeared on screen is jarring... at least to me.
So, what I believe would have been better is a Male protagonist that was a player in his teens, but that due to life he had the last years to truly devote himself to surviving as he no longer had the support of his parents to be the player he was in his teens. But now he was not just barely surviving, he now had some breathing room. He had grown since he was a teen, but did that mean he wanted to play the field like he had before, just now harder with more experience, or take another path? Either way, his past could very well haunt him whatever he chose.
I find this character still interesting if somewhat less so than Ian, but you could go crazier and still feel like a natural development from what was there at the start.
Anyways, this is only a comment from a single person, I don`t intend to offend with it but instead to hear others.
