VN Ren'Py Seeking Closure [v0.8] [Captain Crystallo]

[byaaahh]

I also have no problems with death of LIs or assault (off-screen in this case) as long as there are paths that can be navigated that allow the choice to save them.

My problem with AL wasn't the fact someone died, it's the fact that it was a forced choice with no way to circumvent it. I have only played Katy's route atm and everyone survived. I'm guessing if Katy doesn't get nabbed, whoever is doesn't outrun the stranger and El and whoever it is end up snuffed.

 

[SlowGoesSlow]

I also have no problems with death of LIs or assault (off-screen in this case) as long as there are paths that can be navigated that allow the choice to save them.

My problem with AL wasn't the fact someone died, it's the fact that it was a forced choice with no way to circumvent it. I have only played Katy's route atm and everyone survived. I'm guessing if Katy doesn't get nabbed, whoever is doesn't outrun the stranger and El and whoever it is end up snuffed.

On a few routes, it depends on if you were confrontational towards Paul or not if someone lives or dies. For example my mc wasn't the nicest towards him on my Solo Anna run and someone ended up getting hurt and someone also died. It was my favorite run at the moment since the MC basically has nothing at the end of the chapter. Which imo helps narratively explain why he's so broken when he meets Julia.

 

[paul175]

Hello,
maybe one of you can help me. When I start the game, I have to choose the language (English or Polish). When I click on one of the languages, nothing happens. The game freezes for a second, but the menu doesn't change. I have already downloaded it twice.

 

[Captain Crystallo]

Hello,
maybe one of you can help me. When I start the game, I have to choose the language (English or Polish). When I click on one of the languages, nothing happens. The game freezes for a second, but the menu doesn't change. I have already downloaded it twice.

The fix that works for most people is
"If anyone is stuck in language selection, you can bypass this by opening script.rpy and delete --> jump languange_chooser under label splashscreen"

Hope this helps.
Edit:
I'll finally delete the language chooser in the next upload. It's very much pointless right now, and many players have had issues with it. Apologies for that.

 

[byaaahh]

On a few routes, it depends on if you were confrontational towards Paul or not if someone lives or dies. For example my mc wasn't the nicest towards him on my Solo Anna run and someone ended up getting hurt and someone also died. It was my favorite run at the moment since the MC basically has nothing at the end of the chapter. Which imo helps narratively explain why he's so broken when he meets Julia.

On my Katy route I think I was kind to him on 2 of the 3 interactions (apologise in the forest, I sided with Denise in the park and I heard him out after I caught him peeping on Lara) and everyone lives. I'm thinking the death in the hospital happens a few years after the incident as they are in the city. Whether it's El taking her life because the trauma, or maybe just MC's mother, who knows?

 

[SlowGoesSlow]

On my Katy route I think I was kind to him on 2 of the 3 interactions (apologise in the forest, I sided with Denise in the park and I heard him out after I caught him peeping on Lara) and everyone lives. I'm thinking the death in the hospital happens a few years after the incident as they are in the city. Whether it's El taking her life because the trauma, or maybe just MC's mother, who knows?

Yea, that tracks. Just one big compounded trauma sandwich.

 

[paul175]

The fix that works for most people is
"If anyone is stuck in language selection, you can bypass this by opening script.rpy and delete --> jump languange_chooser under label splashscreen"

Hope this helps.
Edit:
I'll finally delete the language chooser in the next upload. It's very much pointless right now, and many players have had issues with it. Apologies for that.

Thanks it works

 

[FillyPunk]

On my Katy route I think I was kind to him on 2 of the 3 interactions (apologise in the forest, I sided with Denise in the park and I heard him out after I caught him peeping on Lara) and everyone lives. I'm thinking the death in the hospital happens a few years after the incident as they are in the city. Whether it's El taking her life because the trauma, or maybe just MC's mother, who knows?

Interesting. I was nice all three of those times and Briana dies so I'm confused as to what all the triggers for the different outcomes are.

 

[Boehser Onkel]

think i am gonna drop out of playing
at start of ch4 now and there are to much things for my taste that dont seem right to me
to much interaction with ppl i actively try to avoid through choices , pointing to anna , fleur , susan , elena ;
the mc forced to "working" for the hotel owner - as a guest , on vacation ;
if this is canon for the whole game i am better with quit playing
played it at the start back then but had a "break" here at F95 cause ...health issues..,
i may take a look at a later time again

anyways good luck with your game again Captain Crystallo

btw somethings missing here



well , another point to drop : inviting Seb in the present ...

 

[byaaahh]

Interesting. I was nice all three of those times and Briana dies so I'm confused as to what all the triggers for the different outcomes are.

I'm guessing because Katy gets kidnapped on her path and being an athlete, she outruns the stranger and manages to find help. It may also have something to do with the stranger bothering Denise at the club. I'll need to do the other paths to see what's up.

 

[Captain Crystallo]

think i am gonna drop out of playing
at start of ch4 now and there are to much things for my taste that dont seem right to me
to much interaction with ppl i actively try to avoid through choices , pointing to anna , fleur , susan , elena ;
the mc forced to "working" for the hotel owner - as a guest , on vacation ;
if this is canon for the whole game i am better with quit playing
played it at the start back then but had a "break" here at F95 cause ...health issues..,
i may take a look at a later time again

anyways good luck with your game again Captain Crystallo

No worries, sorry to hear the game isn't for you, but that's completely fair. It's far from perfect, as I'm still learning how to write, pace different events, etc.

Good luck to you in everything you do as well.

 

[CatGamergrill]

Chrome Detecting downloads as Dangerous , Is that False positive ?

 

[MikesDK]

Why has Brianna been close to forgotten in this one? wasent she supposed to have a complete story and ending with only slightly fewer scenes then the mains? and yet theres been nothing with her at all and in some cases she can get killed off even before any kind of scene with her....that just feels weird and worng.

But still love the game and lots of other girls to go after but was just wondering about Brianna.

 

[Dessolos]

Why has Brianna been close to forgotten in this one? wasent she supposed to have a complete story and ending with only slightly fewer scenes then the mains? and yet theres been nothing with her at all and in some cases she can get killed off even before any kind of scene with her....that just feels weird and worng.

But still love the game and lots of other girls to go after but was just wondering about Brianna.

Haven't played the update yet but if I recall wasn't Brianna the MC's friends sister. unless you are speaking from strictly a story point of view I swore Brianna is only 16 or 17 something like that so there can't be any scenes with her.

 

[MiltonPowers]

Why has Brianna been close to forgotten in this one? wasent she supposed to have a complete story and ending with only slightly fewer scenes then the mains? and yet theres been nothing with her at all and in some cases she can get killed off even before any kind of scene with her....that just feels weird and worng.

But still love the game and lots of other girls to go after but was just wondering about Brianna.

Haven't played the update yet but if I recall wasn't Brianna the MC's friends sister. unless you are speaking from strictly a story point of view I swore Brianna is only 16 or 17 something like that so there can't be any scenes with her.

Brianna is listed as a secondary LI. But I haven't found any scenes with her on any path. (Not that I minded, I wasn't interested in her anyway, she came off as too young and that younger sister trope to me). There hasn't been any with Sylvia either, but she's a future/present girl. So I'm guessing Brianna will develop in the present timeline (if she survives, of course).

 

[SlowGoesSlow]

Brianna is listed as a secondary LI. But I haven't found any scenes with her on any path. (Not that I minded, I wasn't interested in her anyway, she came off as too young and that younger sister trope to me). There hasn't been any with Sylvia either, but she's a future/present girl. So I'm guessing Brianna will develop in the present timeline (if she survives, of course).

Yea, Brianna's a minor in the past timeline and hasn't been shown yet in the present.

 

[Fellas]

Came for the Micaela model, and stay for Anna. Good game

 

[Captain Crystallo]

Why has Brianna been close to forgotten in this one? wasent she supposed to have a complete story and ending with only slightly fewer scenes then the mains? and yet theres been nothing with her at all and in some cases she can get killed off even before any kind of scene with her....that just feels weird and worng.

But still love the game and lots of other girls to go after but was just wondering about Brianna.

As others have mentioned, Brianna is meant to be a LI in the present timeline and has yet to have her time to shine and properly develop (and isn't old enough to have sex scenes).
Sylvia only appears for a few seconds in an optional scene in the past timeline, but that also doesn't mean she won't have a much bigger role in the present.

 

[ename144]

As for the tone, it will continue to shift, going from the more somber moments after Chapter 8 to a more "tranquil" atmosphere in Part 2 that will allow for different relationship stories to play out before the story crescendos again at the end. However, the main purpose behind this event is definitely to explain why the MC eventually ended up being in the headspace that Julia found him in. Is death\rape necessary to push him to that point? The answer to that will very much depend on who you're asking.

Speaking personally, I respect thematically dark material considerably more than I actually enjoy it, so take what I'm going to say with a grain of salt. But to me, it seems like your reasoning is flawed.

If death or rape is meant to explain why the MC is in such a bad state at the start of the game, then allowing our choices to avoid the death/rape is effectively breaking the game. As much as I prefer to keep everyone alive, I don't see how that can be a good option if the price is narrative cohesion.

And I do feel like the story lost a lot of cohesion in this update. The MC quips from his hospital bed that things couldn't have gone much worse while I'm sitting here behind the keyboard amazed everyone got off so lightly. Susan genuinely seems to believe it's her fault when a guest at her hotel is kidnapped far from said hotel. Even the disappearance of Anna feels like it should provoke curiosity more than it would anger or dread - all the more so since we in the audience already know she survived.

Would I prefer it if the situation had been much bleaker and the MC's discombobulation made more sense? Well, I'm not exactly rushing to replay the game to find out, so presumably not. But I'm still significantly less invested in this game than I was a chapter ago even though things ended relatively well, so I do think something has gone wrong here.

IMHO, you need to refine your vision for the game a little. If you really feel that serious psychological trauma for the MC is important to the story you are telling, then you need to commit to the bit. Crank up the trauma even when we make the 'best' choices and accept that some of the audience might not be able to stomach it. You don't need to go overboard; there should still be some happy moments amidst even the worst tears. But you do need to ensure the MC is well and truly raked over the coals in every scenario.

Alternatively, if you want to preserve player choices that can save characters from their fates - and this is certainly the approach I would prefer you to take! - then I think you need to relax on the bleak tone in the aftermath when we do manage to avert the worst. Yeah, everyone is going to be on edge, but they there needs to be a strong undercurrent of relief mixed in with the fear and confusion. IMHO that just did not come across in the game as it currently stands, which makes the accomplishment feel invalid.

On a tangentially related note, I also really hated the MC's interaction with Joseph. I have no idea why the MC is so obsessed with him. I get that Joseph is supposed to be bad news, but the MC still acts like he's the devil incarnate even though we haven't actually seen him do much of anything yet. This is made worse by the utterly braindead way in which the MC insists on "confronting" him over and over again, only to throw a temper tantrum when Joseph fails to cower before our righteous accusations. Like, what exactly is the MC thinking here? If Joseph really is some criminal mastermind then running off half cocked is obviously going to play into his hands, and if he isn't a modern Moriarty there's no reason to keep going after him.

Maybe this would make more sense on other paths, but in my game it got to the point I found Joseph marginally more sympathetic than my own avatar. I doubt that was the intent. I'm sure Joseph still has a role to play in the story so I get why we need to establish the antagonism, but could we at least get a choice to skip the final meeting with him in this chapter?

Anyway, those are my immediate thoughts after playing the update. Take them for what they're worth.

 

[byaaahh]

I've got a question, Do the ego, empathy and lust tags affect anything?

Also I just did my Anna run and being too nice to Paul (side with him 3 times) results in him letting the girls go, whether that determines Katy's leg being broken or not I'll need to test.