My goodness.
Just leaving aside the porn for a minute, this update has more or less sold me on the meta-elements. The entertaining mockery of the usual dev-shenanigans with minigames, paywalls and just about anything else you can think of really hits home. Leaving the in jokes aside, there's just a lot of fun with how the creator uses the meta elements. The literal hand of suspension of disbelief coming down to stop Sora's heart, the way the Protagonist tries to abuse game mechanics to his advantge, and the conseuqences thereof.
And then there's protagonist being an unrepentent horny villain, while also portraying a satire of the porn game audience was both entertaining and satisfying.
There's a real nasty dissonance when you're playing a character who is supposedly halfway decent person and yet they're a maniuplative predator. No moral judgment by any means on the concept, but it's always a bit jarring. This boy though? None of that, he's there for one thing, he's not pretending otherwise and he doesn't care about anybody elses morals. He is what he is, and that is a horny prick with his eye on the prize. No bones about it.
But somehow there's some actual plot going on here with the introduction of Pink Mob who might actually hold him to account, and might even have had some sympathy for the original protagonist if I'm reading her correctly. Looking forwards to seeing how that turns out now that our replacement Protagonist has gone and rewrote the world again after she explictily warned him against it.
Even Sayuri seems to be coming close to realising that her friend is gone, and is clearly suspicious about the sharp personality change 'Me' went through. Looking forwards to seeing what she does, and given both Pink Mob and her own intrinsic motivation if she finds out about the Protagonist's true nature that she may well be our planned female protagonist.
Oh, and of course extra points for King getting shot.
Kudos to Haptales for making such a distinctly hateable character. A vicious bully who puts on a charming enough face to be admired for his strength and social skills, and gets away with his cruelty because people like him to the point where his victims have no hope of justice or retaliation. He's actually pretty realistic in that sense, which is probably why he's so obnoxious in a way that the comical dystopian elements aren't.
There might be some elements to his story that expand on him beyond that, but he'll always be that prideful thug who beat the helpless and broken 'Me' for his own satisfaction.
Really good work with him as a character. In fact, that applies to just about all the characters, and that wasn't necessary for a simple porn game. But it seems that Haptales actually has a proper story in mind and it shows.
Also there's porn. And not a small amount either. The creator hasn't forgotten they're making a porn gam and that shows as well. So far one girl's route per update, and an appropriate amount of content for it. Which is quite good considering the more story-focused stories tend to have a very small ratio of actual pronography to playtime.
If anyone's reading this, if you don't mind meta-elements and enjoy this style of 3d-anime-esque models, this is worth a try.
