VN Ren'Py Our Red String [Ch.14.1.4 Beta] [Eva Kiss]

[mehGusta]

Well, a lot of these romantic options are mutually exclusive so it's far from harem making. And while pretty much each girl has a romance option, in all of these cases that's all it is, an option. Ian can always make it instead just casual arrangement, from simple hookup to some sort of FWB deal.

to requote BlandChili again, but an emphasis on one certain line: "...casual relationships too, but allowing Lena to just go out and get picked up..."
meaning beyond casual relationships.
just one-night-stands. characters that show up for one event and then never again. that's what i want.

or what i mean with harem-maker typical protagonist, is that once a female character is introduced as available for the main character, she needs to have a possible romance option. at least that is very typical for harem games. for example AlwaysFan, which i actually like (for other reasons), there is a character (Carmela) who shows up just for once scene in a optional scene in one specific route. and that alone suffices for her to become part of the harem.
it's like in fear of offending any player who might get attached to random female characters, they have to be included in the fantasy happy ending.
of course ORS isn't like that, but it still comes of as strange that lena has characters like robert and john, who are obviously not going to be lasting relationship options (casual nor romantic), ian doesn't have those.
i would already be surprised if ian even gets a casual partner who he will never be able to advance towards romance.

 

[ffive]

just one-night-stands. characters that show up for one event and then never again. that's what i want.

I'm not sure if Lena actually has this kind of content then too, because IIRC even for stuff like hookup with Jack the game records possibility of it evolving into something more. Robert does in fact have romance path (and is a recurring character obv, not a one time hookup) and for John it is unknown if he wouldn't get it included down the road.

 

[mehGusta]

I'm not sure if Lena actually has this kind of content then too, because IIRC even for stuff like hookup with Jack the game records possibility of it evolving into something more. Robert does in fact have romance path (and is a recurring character obv, not a one time hookup) and for John it is unknown if he wouldn't get it included down the road.

but you do see how ian has it "worse", right? because even recent addition louise has already a love stat.

 

[stuffygames]

Given the whole being cheated on in the past dymanic between Ian/Lena, and Lena having her inner 'kind of' turmoil about sleeping with him when he has a gf, but also being empowered by it somehow, and Ian dreaming of Gillian, who could be Mike's gf? It seems almost too obvious for me, and while the writing is pretty good, it isn't super complex, the happy ending is Lena/Mike after Gillian gets her heart broken by Mike cheating with Lena, then sympathizes with Ian and begs him to take her back, which of course Ian cannot refuse, back to square one pretty much.

 

[dapothegreat]

Best LI for Ian: Holly, Lena and Alison, honorably mentioned Cherry and a Gillian recognising she made a big mistake.

Holly, no matter her version, clearly likes Ian for being himself, shares his passion for writing, even wild Holly is a rather sweet, nice and intelligent young woman. Very good fit.
Lena depends on how we play her, can be a great match for Ian, a really good friend or just a fuckbuddy. As said, depends on the playstyle.
Alison, like Holly, is one of the few LIs liking Ian for being himself. Both had school crushes on each other, but never acted on it. Goes to Jeremy only if Ian does not see her visibly swung fence post with "I wanna be with you in a relationship" on it and even if she is with Jeremy, one move by Ian and Jeremy is history.(Unless Ian and her like threesomes)
Cherry seems to be a good LI, but as a side character is rarely seen.
Gillian and a reconciliation has to be seen in future chapters if an option, but what we saw so far hints strongly towards Gillian being aware having made a big mistake with leaving Ian.

Worst LI for Ian: Louise, Cindy, Emma

Louise has extreme character issues, Stan in comparison is an angel as a flat sharer. Needs therapy, her mental stuff is so severe.
Emma and Perry deserve each other, Ian is simply a "fuckbuddy plus" for her. It is very clear Ian is just a substitute. Something that taints her unrepairable for me is, I know some activists in her mold and can only say: No, thank you!
Cindy mainly popular due to her looks, is/was Wade´s girlfriend. Is high maintainance and would prefer Wade if he get´s his groove back.

I like Allison alot for ian u can tell she been inlove with him for a while. I'm a little sensitive towards louise out of experience but they gotta give her some self respect man it just looks bad and she dont look bad at all.

 

[Ray_D]

Me, relaxed, with no expectations for the next update, enjoying the madness of the thread.

 

[sliszt2]

funny how times change, when i said the same thing way back everyone lost their shit and went full white knight simp mode

Same here brother

 

[IlikebeingaDIK]

Holly

She has the charisma of a fucking doorknob. She exists for dudes with a morbid fantasy for shy inexperienced women because it's easier to feel confident next to a clumsy blabbering idiot.

Lena

You play the damn character, it's like jacking off to your own reflection.

Alison

Vomited a little. By the time she talked to Ian she already been sending pics to Jeremy and tryna fuck him. In what world does pursuing someone while fucking their best friend makes for a 'good' LI?

Gillian

So... Your 'honorable mention' is a character who cheated on Ian, traumatized him then shows up again when his situation got better? And for what? Cuz she admitted she fucked up? lol

 

[Back]

Cherry seems to be a good LI, but as a side character is rarely seen.

Haven't played the game in a good long while but from what I've gleaned from the discussion thread here that seems to be largely true. I just can't help but also think of her as a side character even when trying to focus on Cherry during certain playthroughs too. It almost seems like Eva has forgotten about this character (much like how other characters were evolved differently and then essentially dropped). Whenever Cherry pops up it feels more like an afterthought addition to the game than anything else sadly. She just tags along with some other character that advances their story or a plotpoint instead of Eva allowing her some spotlight for that character. Other characters inevitably have more content and thus are more popular according to Eva's polls which then gets more development time, I assume, which feeds the cycle more. Cherry seems like an interesting character too and has her moments and wish she had more time in the sun too, but it is what it is.

 

[Lindaweidong]

• Not updated yet? It's been dragging on for another week, it's really infuriating

 

[ExtremeLips]

• Not updated yet? It's been dragging on for another week, it's really infuriating

End of August... beginning of September.... after my birthday... mid September... few days...

 

[IlikebeingaDIK]

of course ORS isn't like that, but it still comes of as strange that lena has characters like robert and john, who are obviously not going to be lasting relationship options (casual nor romantic), ian doesn't have those.
i would already be surprised if ian even gets a casual partner who he will never be able to advance towards romance.

Lena is fetish catalyzer. It's considerably easier to squeeze fetish scenes using her as the central point (black guys, gang bangs, big jacked dudes, rich old dudes, women, sex work, adult content creation, D/s dynamics, etc.) than it is to do it with Ian without losing coherence with the 'universe'.

Ian is more narratively constrained. You can't give him endless one-off partners without having him approach these potential partners which would effectively fuck up his grounded character design. He'd become a Jeremy without the dick size. Ian ends up hooking up with characters he has proximity/history with which will, logically, spark a relationship.

 

[Saerwen]

Louise would be appealing if she wanted retarded when it came to romance. Ian plows her and all of a sudden that equals they are dating? Girl needs to be sent to a medical stint and get her head checked.

Alison... ugh. She hooks up with Jeremy then goes on the whole 'I'm waiting for that SOMEONE' mantra... Like girl, take a hint. I'm not interested. Normally, her breeding kink would have a massive appeal for me. In this case however, not so much. The whole needing a condom then flip flopping to not and back again makes me want to throat punch her and leave by the road side. Either go on the fucking pill or take it like a champ.

Buddy, the majority of women when they have sex it equals dating. Otherwise, they wouldn't be angry when guys tell them that they aren't interested in a relationship. Although, it would be nice of them to be honest before they have sex, but alas, it's rarely the case. So, I'm not surprised that my girl wants a relationship.

 

[Saerwen]

to requote BlandChili again, but an emphasis on one certain line: "...casual relationships too, but allowing Lena to just go out and get picked up..."
meaning beyond casual relationships.
just one-night-stands. characters that show up for one event and then never again. that's what i want.

or what i mean with harem-maker typical protagonist, is that once a female character is introduced as available for the main character, she needs to have a possible romance option. at least that is very typical for harem games. for example AlwaysFan, which i actually like (for other reasons), there is a character (Carmela) who shows up just for once scene in a optional scene in one specific route. and that alone suffices for her to become part of the harem.
it's like in fear of offending any player who might get attached to random female characters, they have to be included in the fantasy happy ending.
of course ORS isn't like that, but it still comes of as strange that lena has characters like robert and john, who are obviously not going to be lasting relationship options (casual nor romantic), ian doesn't have those.
i would already be surprised if ian even gets a casual partner who he will never be able to see advance towards romance.

Lena can't have a harem though.

 

[sztrb]

The idea is for them to experiment together so that's not really a permit for either of them to fuck some third party on their own. It's not an open relationship. The "experimenting together" starts after a while with potential threesome with Louise and then maybe Emma down the road.

In the meantime if Lena cheats on Ian at the club and he finds out about it through Jeremy, this creates a possibility to switch to actual open relationship during discussion in Ch.13 at Perry's beach house.

Which to me shows that the Ian/Lena relationship is the worst one in the game. Sans for Stan and Perry getting to fuck.

Lena is fetish catalyzer. It's considerably easier to squeeze fetish scenes using her as the central point (black guys, gang bangs, big jacked dudes, rich old dudes, women, sex work, adult content creation, D/s dynamics, etc.) than it is to do it with Ian without losing coherence with the 'universe'.

Ian is more narratively constrained. You can't give him endless one-off partners without having him approach these potential partners which would effectively fuck up his grounded character design. He'd become a Jeremy without the dick size. Ian ends up hooking up with characters he has proximity/history with which will, logically, spark a relationship.

The funny part is that Jeremy is a two pump chump. So, even if Ian doesn't have a massive dong, he at least doesn't cum from a girl just putting her lips on his dick.

I like Allison alot for ian u can tell she been inlove with him for a while. I'm a little sensitive towards louise out of experience but they gotta give her some self respect man it just looks bad and she dont look bad at all.

Between, Allison, Emma and Holly; its clear that Ian has a lot of girls who have genuinely been in love with him for quite a while.

I'd argue that Cindy could be thrown into that mix too.

Although, Emma is clearly the hottest option.

Lena can't have a harem though.

Pretty sure she can. In ultimate slut Lena, she can fuck Ian, Jeremy, Mike, that guy who gets his ass fucking curb stomped, Mark, the patreon guy who paid like $500 to be a one off character, Axel, old wrinkey balls Seymour and disgustingly enough small peen Stan.

Most of those are not just one offs either.

Seymour -
A known philanthropist.
Creates hundreds of jobs and pays he's employees well, unlike Ed and Molly for example, who were underpaying Lena and taking advantage of a mentally crippled guy named Perry.
Supports arts and young rising artists like Lena, Ian and Axel.
Paid for Ian's, Jeremy's, Ivy's, Axels and Jess's drinks like a true friend of the young generation.

Some advice for you...

Louise would be appealing if she wanted retarded when it came to romance. Ian plows her and all of a sudden that equals they are dating? Girl needs to be sent to a medical stint and get her head checked.

Brah, you don't fuck, do you?

Hot girls are a different breed. Besides, most girls/women aren't just going to let you stick your dick in their pussy and ass on an off chance that its a one time thing; not without a likely discussion beforehand.

They're appealing?

Don't get me wrong, being able to fuck either Alison or Louise is nice and the models are attractive but do people genuinely find romancing Louise or Alison a nice outcome for MC?

They're genuinely insufferable. Like truly unfuckingbearable.

Louise is a pain in the ass,

I mean, after Ian hooke up with her... she definitely has a pain in her...



Ass.

 

[Turret]

She has the charisma of a fucking doorknob. She exists for dudes with a morbid fantasy for shy inexperienced women because it's easier to feel confident next to a clumsy blabbering idiot.

You play the damn character, it's like jacking off to your own reflection.

Vomited a little. By the time she talked to Ian she already been sending pics to Jeremy and tryna fuck him. In what world does pursuing someone while fucking their best friend makes for a 'good' LI?

So... Your 'honorable mention' is a character who cheated on Ian, traumatized him then shows up again when his situation got better? And for what? Cuz she admitted she fucked up? lol

Hi again!
Holly can develop her charisma in rwo major forks of her path, that is not problematic. And once again, Holly is one of the few LIs liking Ian for being himself. For most others he is plan B or C or just a fuckbuddy plus. That weights more than Holly´s lacking self-confidence, which can be raised.

As for Lena, like I mentioned, it is our choice how well (or not) she fits Ian as a LI.

Forgotten you can meet Alison for lunch early in the game? You can lay your groundwork well before she starts posting pics to Jeremy. And unlike some fan favourites like Cindy, Alison is single and if Ian does not get the pretty obvious signs (esp. if you met her for lunch), she can do what she wants. It is made very clear several times by the game, that Jeremy has no chance against Ian with Alison as long as Ian shows even a little interest in her.

While I would be very reluctant to anything Gillian does considering how deep she hurt Ian, it is rather obvious the game is paving the way for a reconciliation path. Going by dialog, Ian and Gillian´s relationship was really good before her super-egotrip and she is recognising she fucked up big time. That is more selfreflection than can be said about some of the other LIs in the game.

 

[BlandChili]

though i may have complained that lena has no real romance options besides ian and holly (which are kind of a package deal and ian is also the other playable character of the game, making them both quite obvious exceptions), i do enjoy lena having random hookups!

It is true that she is somewhat lacking in the romance department, so I get why some users would prefer to see additions there over just purely sexual options. I think we are supposed to count Stan in this category too, though part of the appeal with him to many players is the degradation aspect I think, "Lena getting with the fatty," to be blunt so therefore his route lends itself less well to romance.

The only real issue there is that any romances introduced at this point would probably end up feeling rushed, with the assumption that we are in the game's final stretch now. Unless Eva decided to rework them into the story with retroactive content. Fuckboys can always be introduced randomly, no one expects them to have emotional impact on Lena.

however i would hope ian gets some too! right now he is a bit too much of a harem-maker typical protagonist who has to have a romance path for each girl.

Sure, he is sort of on the extreme end where almost all his routes have optional romantic themes you can pick. I'm guessing that's why quite a few people are so eager to get him with Ivy too, that she seems uncomplicated when it comes to romantic potential.

to requote BlandChili again, but an emphasis on one certain line: "...casual relationships too, but allowing Lena to just go out and get picked up..."
meaning beyond casual relationships.
just one-night-stands. characters that show up for one event and then never again. that's what i want.

I'm not sure if Lena actually has this kind of content then too, because IIRC even for stuff like hookup with Jack the game records possibility of it evolving into something more. Robert does in fact have romance path (and is a recurring character obv, not a one time hookup) and for John it is unknown if he wouldn't get it included down the road.

Yes, I think in general Eva tends to not allow us to just be super casual. Even a cameo like Jack who could have been entirely a one-off option gets the "relationship" treatment where you can optionally keep open the possibility of seeing him again or even dating him potentially in the future. It'd be nice with some sexually nonchalant characters too who don't need a whole wind-down section after battering up Lena's insides, discussing the future with her. Lets us meet some people who just leaves Lena mind-blown and well-fucked in the bathroom stall without all the chit-chat!

We see it with John too where we're told Lena is going on a date with him, but then we don't see the date and go on to just have a generic sex scene with him. I feel like he's designed the wrong way, when Lena tells us she considers some fool a "dating option" we should see the date and get to decide if he's interesting enough to bang then. Otherwise just let us be wholly casual and call him up just because Lena's holes are full of slutty need and she needs someone to scrape them clean...

but you do see how ian has it "worse", right? because even recent addition louise has already a love stat.

I don't even recall if John is added to the agenda for Lena. I would like Eva to feature a few characters with Lena and Ian both that don't get pages there and are just clear sexual options.

 

[Meiri]

We really just need a release already, conversations are getting absurd now

 

[Yellowie The Goldie]

Lena is fetish catalyzer. It's considerably easier to squeeze fetish scenes using her as the central point (black guys, gang bangs, big jacked dudes, rich old dudes, women, sex work, adult content creation, D/s dynamics, etc.) than it is to do it with Ian without losing coherence with the 'universe'.

Ian is more narratively constrained. You can't give him endless one-off partners without having him approach these potential partners which would effectively fuck up his grounded character design. He'd become a Jeremy without the dick size. Ian ends up hooking up with characters he has proximity/history with which will, logically, spark a relationship.

Not to mention Ian is an average dude while Lena is borderline hot model levels of attractive. Ian's main advantage is his charisma and intellect whereas Jeremy has the height and cocky attitude. (Which apparently gets him women? Good for him.)

It's more believable to have Lena get chased by all manner of dudes because she's...well, an actual hot girl. Ian only has 2 women chasing after him at first: Holly due to her crush on him at the workplace and Alison: due to their old friendship and her desire to rekindle it. (which leads to something more)

Right from the very beginning you have Robert the Simp begging (and trying to manipulate his way) for m'lady's time. Then you have Mike at the club, Stan at the shared flat (the higher grade Simp: worse stats all around). And who is going to forget the king of all simpdom, Seymour? Heh.

 

[Hooah]

Not to mention Ian is an average dude while Lena is borderline hot model levels of attractive. Ian's main advantage is his charisma and intellect whereas Jeremy has the height and cocky attitude. (Which apparently gets him women? Good for him.)

It's more believable to have Lena get chased by all manner of dudes because she's...well, an actual hot girl. Ian only has 2 women chasing after him at first: Holly due to her crush on him at the workplace and Alison: due to their old friendship and her desire to rekindle it. (which leads to something more)

Right from the very beginning you have Robert the Simp begging (and trying to manipulate his way) for m'lady's time. Then you have Mike at the club, Stan at the shared flat (the higher grade Simp: worse stats all around). And who is going to forget the king of all simpdom, Seymour? Heh.

I mean, I don't know that I'd call Ian average. He's got a nice job, physically fit, attractive, fairly well endowed. He's not like Axel or Simon, but he's a cut above the average fare.