read my comment again and you will see why that doesn't apply, also an alternative: a cellphone with the same function.
I don't recall seeing any cellphones and they may not even exist in this world. It obviously has some differences to our own world with some aspects being very technologically advanced and other being inherently "retro" in a way that feels woven into the world rather than as some current trending aesthetic. Their internet is called the quantumnet and a flashback to 10 years ago features a car with AI almost arguing the route of a journey.
Currently, I don't see much of an issue with the hint system but only because it's barely needed at this level of content. It's very easy to track down the two characters you can progress the story with.
Canonically speaking though, how do laptops and cellphones even have these tips? I personally don't need my tip location to be immersive so if a tip menu for any screen were to be included it wouldn't even need to be tied to a device in my opinion, because it doesn't even really make sense within the story in the first place. If it
has to be tied to the world in an immersive way, then maybe tie it to the old guy in the MC's head or something.
I understand and respect your complaints when it comes to your personal preferences for gameplay. I agree there should be sandbox/free-roaming/point and click tags in place, it seems like everything made in Renpy automatically just gets slapped with the VN tag.
Regarding the thick prologue and what it means, I'm pretty sure it has been stated in the past that even Poly thinks the prologue is too much in its current form, which is why the skip button was added.
It was seemingly doled out like that as a part of the whole proof of concept demo thing so players knew the stakes and understood the world and what it contains. I believe the intention is to go back and edit it down at some point and bring chunks forward into more manageable flashback exposition, but I assume that would need plot-relevant events going on for them to fit so we won't see those reworks until the MC starts investigating his "accident" or whatever.
Back to the cell phones though, the world-building that's in place is one of the things I really love about this game so far and I'd like to see it continue as Poly envisions it. He simply may not want to include cell phones because they're too convenient for avoiding some plot points. Consider how many older movie plots just wouldn't be able to happen as easily if they were set in a time where all (or even just one) of the characters have a cell phone.
Sorry for the text wall.
