Hi to all!
Next part of thoughts about our major characters after replaying from the start.
Hana: Our resident gothic rocker girl and future madame. First off, I mentioned it in earlier posts already, but is worth repeating, normally I find women tattooed to the degree Hana is a real turn off. TD and GIL made a character where this is not the case, thumbs up.
Hana is a girl on a stony road. Her mom has Huntington´s, one of the worst diseases you can get, her passion music is not really bringing in money (Eros Massacre is not the best group you can find, it is not clear if they can improve to a level they can make real money), her Dad suddenly turned up after two decades of absence and wants to make her his heir.
Hana has her head on correctly, so she knows that August is a gangster and pimp and is less than keen being pulled into this "enterprise". But he has the money to help with the health costs of her mom. So she becomes a bartender in the PC club, a rebellious one. Hana is not against prostitution, but against the abuse of the women working in the club.
We can also see a facet of her problematic growing up during the birthday party. Wheras Mina wants to leave her sheltered upbringing behind and is not keen on settling down, Hana can imagine settling down with the right guy pretty soon.
Hana and Mina are, in my opinion, clearly created as opposing mirror images. That begins with the hair colours, clothing style and draws through the whole game with Hana having a very problematic upbringing (Mina a sheltered one with few true problems), her being openminded and far from being a prude (Mina is not closeminded, but there is a difference due to her growing up). There is also a difference when it comes to sex. Hana has few hangups and probably a "sex bucket list" too, but she also would not mind much if this bucket list mostly stays fantasy. In Mina´s case this is different, due to her life so far she is really keen making her sex bucket list come true.
We players can either help Hana and August reconcil or stoking Hana´s anger even further. I theorise that helping a reconciliation means continuing of the club operations in whatever form is more likely, while fanning Hana´s anger makes a destruction of PC in the end more probable. Hints we can see is that Edwin can tell Hana she is a good person and could make changes in how the Club operates.
Another point I find interesting is that our hero can be the catalyst of Hana and Ian becoming more friendly with each other.
As an aside, I played the beginning of the Hana/Mina/Edwin throuple and while it is nicely done, I am not really a fan of it. Roleplay technically the conflict potential outweighs the benefits quite a bit. For Mina I think the options a) couple relationship, b)reconciliation with introspective Ian and c) meeting someone new better than this throuple. Similar for Hana a)GF choice, b) Fuckbuddies (maybe upgraded to GF later), c) meeting someone new and d) coming together with an introspective Ian I find more fitting. There are characters ingame where a throuple might fit, but I doubt this one. hot and nice, but not really fitting. Just my opinion.
I feel if we truly go for Hana, full GF status it should be. This pic says quite a lot.
Sophia: The inventor of the sex drug and Abel van Doren´s chosen successor (even if most people in the game think she is simply his nurse). One of the best characters ingame, a cool calculating, amoral, eccentric, but also a bit nerdy genius. As Chuck once mentions, her briiliance is even greater than those of Abel, a reknowned medical inventor, but van Doren can live comfortably with this, as we can see with his reaction.
But as it often happens, this much brainpower comes at a cost. Genius and madness are not far from each other and so Sophia´s behaviour is rich on eccentrism ("I was fast gathering that Sophia was an odd woman") and her social skills as one outcome rather mediocre. She unnerves even Kathleen and she has few contact or conversations with anyone in the club, save for Chuck and their chess duels.(And these chess games have a different reason altogether)
There is a scene where Edwin and Sophia meet in the club´s bar. While these meeting is more a test and Sophia also wears her special perfume, something our hero is aware of and fights against the influence, there is the option to have the two connect. And they do, Edwin is questioning himself why it is so easy to talk with Sophia and it is pretty obvious at times even Sophia touches subjects she would not do so with others in the club beside Abel.
Additionally, if you choose Sophia during the sex event in the blue room it has impact. You loose quite a bit of points with Kath, which is not surprising. Sophia is much in opposition what Kath stands for.
Among the women in his life Vicki stands very much for the "angel" side of morality, for Edwin being a good and decent guy. Kath is clearly the "devil" side, wanting to lead Edwin towards baser instincts, sadism and reveling in it. Sophia stands for something of a middle third path. She clearly loaths Kath and what she stands for, but is also willing to get her hands dirty if the end goal is sound. See her experiments with the person in the PC cellar. (Even if that could be a ruse. We never see what is happening in there, unlike some other bad things happening in the club and beside Abel and Sophia no one else goes into this room, not even Kath. So there are the two possibilities that either the experiments happen or that it is a deception woven by Abel and Sophia.)
I personally think a deception is likelier since Abel and Sophia provenly have access to own black ops labs, so they absolutely do not need the club for tests at all. But no matter how much of Abel and Sophia´s bad deeds are staged to at least fit a little bit better in, she is a dangerous woman when needed.
She is amoral and a ends justify the means girl, I think Sophia would not blink if tough decisions had to be made. Still, there is a core of goodness in her, it has to be since she is Abel´s chosen heir. Whatever else Abel is, it has been hinted at several times that he is also a humanitarian. He would not pass on his life work into the hands of a person devoid of a spark of good.
Sophia also has a kinky side, given her eccentrism not completely unawaited. She has no problems testing her inventions on herself, in the case we saw a gangbang to test a new version of the sex drug. It is pretty clear from the circumstantial evidence that she got off on it and was not coerced, even if sex normally takes a rather backseat position in her life so far.
Abel and Sophia have a quite Daimyo/Samurai-like relationship. She does not question orders by Abel, she carries them out. Still, this is more rarely than it seems at first look. For instance, there was zero risk when Abel offered her to Chuck once. Both were aware of Chuck´s near pathological need to win something first, before being able to enjoy it. And so far we did not see an enforced order done by Abel in game. He is clearly fond of her as we saw in a couple scenes, e.g. "my Sophia" spoken with clear fondness. That Sophia is carrying out his orders and stuff without hitch has several reasons. A big one is hinted at during the "home invasion".
During their talk, Warren is a topic and how despite his capabilities he is forced to live out of the club. There is a "camera change" onto Sophia then.
Sophia is clearly not Warren, but her eccentrism foremost without doubt limits her options to rise high no matter her obvious genius. Abel has recognised the gem she is and made her his protege.
Both doctors know a lot about the club, staff and members, things not commonly known. It is also very clear that their main goal is to either take over or destroy the PC club, specifically it´s current leadership and Chuck in special. As I mentioned in the part on Abel, I would truly like to know how that came to be.
If you are connecting with Sophia, there are some further small hints that more could develop between you and her. After the "home invasion" she will say goodbye to you. While completely mundane for most people, we cannot forget that Sophia Lundgren normally gives a flying fuck how she comes across to others. (And if you do not connect she will leave without a word) Additionally the "home invasion" comes supiciously shortly after the meeting. The two doctors could have sat on their knowledge for a lot longer instead of helping a guy in over his head.
I know that it is too far into the game for a full romance described between the two, but it could still happen with a lot of it described in the epilogue.
I also know that Edwin and Sophia´s meet was more a test (and both recognise it as well) to see how our hero is and how he fits into Abel and Sophia´s plans for the club. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly given their personalities) the two can hit it off rather well. And as I wrote in other posts, a romance with such an eccentric woman would be a refreshing brush against the stroke when it comes to the love options for our MC.
Further having connected earlier, our hero might become an option for being the husband of Sophia in the future, due to this connection. There will be few men who can connect well with her, so this might raise Abel and Sophia´s interest in our hero.
more when I have time
