It's not remotely the same, but I gotta say I felt like this at times with Future Fragments. Like, how does it take almost 8 or 9 years to make a sidescroller? No doubt, it might end up being the best R18 sidescroller metrovania ever, but man...it's really dragged on and more than once I thought if I was in their shoes, I'd be in no hurry to complete either.
But then again, I back Star Citizen. Which has$500 Million+ in backing over its lifetime. It is a marvel even as it is now, and is doing things no other game has ever done, and I love playing it and I don't regret one penny. But the last 2 years have been really slow for new features and I've spent very little on it this year.
Gamedev cycle is only as difficult as we want to make it. For example, Flash games in the 2000s were thrown out at quite a rapid speed because they weren't overcomplicated and
still served their purpose. Even when more advanced games appeared, it was only a matter of motivation/inspiration. If someone is interested in what I mean, LoK forums are still out there.
So, where does it leave the games like Pure Onyx or FF? Well, it is true they are more complex and prettier. That's a good value...but is
some of that stuff really worth it?
FF is the prime case of wasting time and money for something completely "empty" from ero-game perspective - voice acting. Yes, good quality moans, hits etc. are a huuuugee plus...but absolutely no one cares about hundreds of lines of B-tier movie script being read out loud. Same with weird-ass power-ups that are not exactly balanced to one another and player ends up using "meta". So, in the end, you end up with a product that doesn't excel at anything is just overall average because you made sure everything was just that -
fucking average. In the end, you waste time and postpone the release simply because of something NOT NEEDED.
Pure Onyx is a different end of the spectrum - here, you put all you eggs into one basket (graphic / ero-scenes quality) and hope that you'll make a super-duper omlette at home. What is the result of that? Sure, you made that big-ass omlette...but it is bland like a concrete wall mixture (since you forgot about anything else to spice it up) and you won't even eat the whole thing, throwing half of it into trash (quality and updates of animations are way better than it's necessary).
Gameplay is still, after years of development, an abyssmal experience and looks similar to those 1$ fighting games that appear from time to time on DLsite. Story is non-existing.
It's important to know where to put your energy and resources.
