There's a bunch of stuff that annoys me about the game, although overall I think it's worth playing and I appreciate the Fans Of This Game(tm) will ignore any criticism and deflect, it's whatever. My opinion if you're interested:
The dev blatantly didn't plan out the characters arcs (in terms of how many chapters until X), because it's an enormous, drawling slow burn for multiple chapters, the plot only really picks up from the point where Sterling reads his dad's diary (which is an exposition dump about 3 characters we don't really know at that point) and then accelerates to warp speed by the end. I completely agree with the guy saying he needed to put more "day to day" scenes in, not just keep the plot moving faster and faster as, frankly, he can't keep up with the pace.
It's a rush job at the end-game, he's trying to do way too much in too short a time frame. Despite waiting a year for an update, and with such a big update, everything feels like it needs more time to breathe. I'll cover the character arcs/flops now:
- Catherine is a complete waste of potential. You had... wait for it... a redhead teenage girl. Great start. But wait! She's an insane cartoon character bouncing off the walls. She's comic relief. She's such comic relief that she can't actually star in a proper sex scene. The sex Olympics was silly/funny, not sexy. She's too much, it spoils the vibe. He needs to seriously reign this dumb behaviour in and make her act like a real person for five seconds, or re-write previous content, so it can get to the point she's a desirable character who can do porn not nonsense.
- Ophelia is great as always but we have no time with her. This sucks. For the love of God put more "mom and son sneak around the house fucking" scenes, why wouldn't you do this, why would you immediately get bored with this after years of buildup? Such a shame.
- Suddenly we have a mass orgy with the Asian family (and hilariously the writer needs to bring in the 3rd sister who we haven't even seen up until now because fuck it, we're ending this arc now dammit). It was ok. Again, rushed, a shame.
- Drew is a fairly pointless character. He's not a proper antagonist like Hunter (seriously, what impact has Drew had on the household? He literally sits in his room screwing the redhead). He appears to be an insert for gay/trap/futa lovers. That's it. You could get rid of all of that and it wouldn't really matter to the story. In retrospect the whole Keira/Nora/Drew/Lucia stuff is just... padding. I would have preferred some scenes where Drew actually tries to make a move on the girls, or Sterling, or something. Is Sterling going to fuck Drew? Probably not I guess.
- The scene between Brenna and what's-her-name, the psycho redhead was really jarring. It literally came out of nowhere that "girl that Drew is fucking" becomes "super psycho villain" and is... what... anally raped by Brenna... with a strap-on... then leaves and never returns. This is... such a weird scene. It might have worked better with some sort of build-up or context with, I don't know, Sterling sleeping with her, or seeing her getting to first base with Catherine.
- Keira/Nora becoming turbo-sluts in the space of a week. It's ridiculous. It doesn't even work in the context of "muh drugs" - one minute they're having incest threesomes with Hunter, then it's 15 years in isolation in Canada, then they're normal around Sterling, then they have no interest in Drew or Hunter, but immediately go to orgies with Sterling, then reveal they've been 69-ing in their Nunavit log cabin for the last decade. Ok. I wish he'd taken one chapter to introduce them and have some build-up or tension, maybe have them tempted back into slut-dom by Hunter/Drew, then a chapter where Sterling wins them over, then a final chapter to wrap it all up.
- The dog stuff is hilarious and can stay, I don't find it hot but whatever.
- The Flora / Ophelia stuff is hot. Anything with Flora and Tefnut is great. More of this please.
In closing I think a post-game patch / mod that would improve this a lot would be to allow the player to visit the different characters over the course of the day and (depending on the chapter) view general non-plot scenes with them. Why can't we simply go to Brenna's room and have the choice of sex scenes with her? Why not have a bunch of options with Ophelia? It would just be simple shots/animations and some sex dialogue to fap to. It would be a lot easier to produce than a What If or a new chapter, but would really flesh out the gameplay more and give more to work with, not lock everything into plot scene plot scene plot scene end.
Anyway, I'm sure you'll all hate this but wanted to throw it out there. There's an awful lot good about this game, it's a great game, that's what motivates me to write a critique. It's fixable - WWG if you read this just pause on writing chapter 13 buddy and flesh out what you already have with the optional scenes. And take your time with closing off the main plot. If we can wait six episodes to get to the point of an Ophelia blowjob we can enjoy another couple chapters with some general sex scenes, outfit changes, going on a date or alternate location, etc.
