The one thing I'll push back on here is that as a person with ADHD (I don't know that Edwin has it, necessarily, but I do) I can absolutely 100000% confirm that I will start doomscrolling or replying to Discord messages or launch a stupid phone game even while part of my brain is actively screaming THIS IS STUPID DON'T DO IT YOU HAVE SHIT TO DO and the rest of my dopamine-starved neurospicy brain replies "yeah whatever I'll do my shit later."
So, yeah. That bit didn't stand out to me as weird, especially.
Doesn't even have to be anything ADHD related. Procrastination and burying yourself in some most vapid, pointless shit just so you can avoid tackling head-on something you (sub)consciously dread is a common enough defense mechanism.
fair enough
Here is what is probably happening.
Mina fans read on f95zone that she is in a lesbian scene, or they look at the in-game scenes for Mina and it shows a Mina scene that they haven't found yet.
So they think, "I want to see Mina, and since Mina says she wants to explore her kinky side, it shouldn't damage my girlfriend relationship with her if I encourage her to experiment."
So they "loan" her to Veronica. Not only to see the scene, but to advance Mina's list of things she wants to try.
They think, "if I'm a controlling boyfriend, I'll lose her, so I'll let her free and decide, and then come back and get her later." And this is a realistic thought that often works in real life with girls. Those who take all a girl's attention, sometimes lose the girl. She thinks him "clingy."
On the other hand, you are correct.
In other situations, and with different girls, you would want to stay with Mina the whole time.
The problem is . . . a game can't offer all the choices there would be in real life.
In real life, the guy who wants to be boyfriend has the option to circle back and show his interest in Mina again, after "loaning" her. And I was expecting something like this in the game . . . because why shouldn't I be able to see ALL the Mina scenes?
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The other issue is . . . by having so many different paths, you create different Mina personalities.
In one path, she's the sweet romantic girl.
In another path, she's a bi sexual who doesn't really care about romance much.
Her personality is different for each path.
There's not one Mina personality, but many.
But shouldn't there be only one Mina? Then the players could better predict what to do around her.
The recent romance scene feels compatible with loaning her to a girl at the concert. After all, it was only a "loan," and Mina was curious about it, so how does this forbid a romance path with Mina?
On the other hand, it is the case that people change based on what they do and what happens to them. So, it is realistic to have Mina's personality develop in different ways through different paths.
But those who play multiple playthroughs to see all the Mina scenes get confused about who she is.
"Is Mina like this? Or is Mina like this?"
And then the choices feel arbitrary. Because they don't play your game with one playthrough, but keep replaying for all the scenes. And now they don't really know who Mina is because when you see all the scenes, she's quite inconsistent.
But isn't THAT how girls really are? Inconsistent?
So why not have all the scenes with Mina available for every playthrough? It would make the update feel longer, and it would solve the problem of too many paths.
The "Problem" you're describing is something RPG fans especially CRPG fans have been discussing,debating and ruminating for decades now
in RPG circles it's called "player-sexual" paradox
it's more common in newer and mainstream games than older, classic RPGs
In older RPGs romances were specifically "locked" behind certain race/gender/alignment and sometimes even class
but newer RPGs let's you romance characters regardless of gender/race etc etc
so most of the romances end up feeling the same with very little variation
but it does allow game developers to "simplify" the different choices and outcomes and streamline it into a yes/no choices
whether the player is romancing the LI by the end of the game or not
so now instead of worrying about tons of different possible combinations by the end of the game in these newer games made it very streamlined and very accessible to the playerbase all of whom can enjoy a simple and easy to acquire romantic ending without worrying about failstates
for example in a modern game like BG3 every companion is "player sexual" by default so it doesn't matter what gender/race or class you're playing as if you pick the "right" options they would always be romantically available
but if you go back a bit further back even mainstream games like mass effect weren't completely plagued by player sexuality sure some character's like liara could be romanced by anyone but everyone had their own "core" personality and identity so that meant some characters were always going to be straight others bi and some gay and their different story lines and choices often matched their sexuality
but if you go way back say all the way to BG 2
romance options was very few and they were all almost exclusively centred around the core personality of the ROs
first the ROs interest in the player character were divided by gender then race then your alignment
so "romancing" someone in these old RPGs might be sometimes very frustrating since you could easily pick one "wrong" option and ruin it
but it also made it feel very special in a way since each possible path was very unique
for example a good guy MC romancing aerie is drastically different from a bad guy MC romancing Viconia
but let's come back to your questions
Most of the LIs in this game have a very strong central "core" personality or identity so I don't think they are ALL going to be end up the same or without a "default path" of their own because of the various possible choices and its effects
Veronica will always be Veronica
no matter which path you're on or which choices you make she is always going to have a "core", "central" or "default" personality that isn't going to change
it might be slightly different depending on your choices but it will always be there
let me give you an example
Kathleen is always going to be an evil hag who takes sick pleasure in tormenting the carnations
that is her "core" identity
sure she might warm up to player depending on your choices but even then she is still evil and she is still going to torment all the girls
but let's move on to a character that i like
Like i said Veronica is always going to be Veronica
she is very strong willed and determined but not the most brightest or cunning amongst the carnations
no matter what kind of choices you pick or the decisions you make her personality isn't going to change drastically from the established "core"
she isn't suddenly going to become a big brained genius who suddenly figures out a financial loophole to get rid of the debt she owes nor is she going to suddenly become a cunning fox who weaponises her sexuality to manipulate the game in her favour by sleeping with let's say Kathleen
that simply isn't her
but there are exceptions to this of course
for instance Veronica finds the MC not only sexually attractive but there is a genuine emotional connection too
but that doesn't mean
Veronica is going to suddenly fall for Ian just because she as a "bi sexual" woman falls for the MC in one of the many possible choices and outcomes
she is not going to find to fall for Ian even though she calls him "pretty boy" by default
these are expectional cases which is a result of player choices
speaking of ian
characters like ian have their own paragon/renegade type dichotomy as part of their core identity
Ian is either your bro or he isn't
there isn't any other choice
similarly the choices with regards to vickys storyline are also an either or scenario
so far there isn't much scope for these characters to end up as inconsistent even in different playthroughs with different choices
however there is some validity in your argument with say a character like mina or even hana
they're too entangled with so many of the characters that even if you DON'T pick a choice that doesn't affect them directly
there has to be too many variants to account for all possible outcomes of different choices when they are interacting with other characters
for example
during the last update mina reacts differently depending on whether if she has previously interacted other characters like Veronica
so far she her story is very consistent across different play throughs because her character isn't yet affected by feature creep or cluster of domino effects
maybe in a few years when things get too nebulous some of her paths might get entangled in contradictory choices and effects maybe then some of her paths might seem inconsistent to her baseline core personality/identity
for example
ian always cheats on mina and they both always break up so in some of the possible future playthroughs mina might get back at ian by sleeping with the MC and different "ians" could feel completely different about this
a reformed introspective "bro" ian might feel completely disgusted that MC slept with Mina when he is still in love with her
meanwhile unreformed fuckboy ian probably doesn't even care
maybe different ians react differently to mina sleeping with women
this nebulae of possible alternative choices are only going to get bigger and bigger as the game progresses further along and some of these choices are going to be definitely "better" than the other
no two choices are going to be the "same" but then again such is the nature of choice based games
i am more worried about the endings
somehow to tie in all these possible threads into a unified cohesive endstate with years worth of content will be a massive undertaking on just a technical side
but that's years away from now and no use speculating now
to answer your question
so yes i think in end some of the mina play throughs will be VERY different and Vastly superior to some of the other possible choices and combinations
like I said no 2 choices are the same/equal and so it's natural that some of them are definitely going to be better than the rest
as long as the overall narrative remains consistent it doesn't matter if there are minute different and smaller differences across the various possible outcomes
