Ren'Py Shattered Minds [v0.15] [eXtasy Games]
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The whole purpose of a power play is to show off one's abilities. But there is no "power play" to be had if the MC is going to forget the whole thing. So it's all a completely wasted effort on Ava's part.
Regardless, my primary issue here is not the lack of precedence for Ava's abilities, it's her contradictory behavior.
Ava is a mastermind villain, efficient, calculating, she bides her time, she makes the MC do the dirty work and interferes only when she needs to.
Ava doesn't like complications. Using the powers is fine, but getting away with a situation without using powers is even better. This is because the overt and extensive use of powers can quickly cause complications, a lesson the MC struggles to learn properly.
Along that same vein, it's better to not have loose ends to tie up in the first place. The destruction of the agency base in and of itself is a massive loose end. Ava and the MC's mind control powers seem to be limited to in-person interaction, and probably cannot manipulate the agents 100+ miles away at another base.
The main thing Ava knows for certain about the agency is they specialize in dealing with super-humans, so she is going to avoid a direct confrontation with them in any capacity.
So from Ava's perspective, the best course of action would actually be to help the MC subdue Camilla into being his double agent than to take this unusually aggressive course of action that had a million unknowns. She doesn't know how many agents are present, she doesn't know the extent of their facility's security. Her "power play" came with far too many risks. It doesn't fit the character's established profile.
As you just said, we don't know much about Camilla. So where are you getting your assumptions from that Camilla isn't a rookie? Or simply couldn't be overconfident in her abilities to deal with the MC? She is clearly not immune to ignorance, so she can be outwitted - she knew the MC was the son of a powerful mentalist due to the agency profile, but still fell into a trap anyways. And undressing the MC and tying him to a chair could hardly be considered extensive countermeasures. What should have happened is agents on the other side of a 2-way mirror pressed a button that sealed and gassed the chamber the moment Ava tried to break free.
My scenario operates on the concept of procedure. I'm pretty sure assaulting a civilian during broad daylight in the middle of suburbia USA is not a part of any agency's procedure. It's more likely they'd attempt to kidnap him while he's asleep and vulnerable. But even that comes with its own array of other risks. Which is why I think Camilla would return to question the MC a second time. A person can be questioned more than once during an investigation as the circumstances change and new details come to light.
Observing a character's struggles and growth in a story is fine when there is actual struggling to observe.
The problem with this whole arc is it blatantly wrote itself into a corner - the MC blundered so hard by trusting Ava that it should have cost him his life. But the MC didn't get so much as a slap on the wrist for it, only because Ava conveniently wasn't strong enough to permanently take control, boo-hoo for her. It's plot armor at its thickest. This didn't set or raise any stakes, it only confirmed what we all already suspected of Ava. So it was incredibly off-putting to see how hard the dev is holding the MC's hand.
As absurd as this game's premise and its story are, it's not a parody game. It takes itself seriously just barely enough to warrant some cricitism wherever there is a spot of some particularly bad writing.
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- Oct 17, 2017
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it's savor the moment, bask in the fear of the other. it's thre reason people often gloat.
it isn't relevant the fact the MC forget, it's the despair of the moment to be the only thing relevant.
and ava rememeber that, so when she is trapped can endure better her jail time.
you put a lot of unsubstantiate element in ava character. she is a villan, yes, but "mastermind"? the MC made a lot of stupid errors, be better of that don't make you a mastermind, just a competent villan. questionable her efficent calculating e "bides her times", because the section end whit her explicit saying to have miscalculate the power grow of MC and his body isn't able to keep her indefinitively, so she need to relinquish the control and return in her cage. it's literally the opposite.
it's questionable the "avoid complications" too, expecially because she want be in the situation when the MC cannot resolve it by himslef and he need to leave ava in control of the body to resolve all this mess, mess ava engenirized. and having the fucking super police kidnapping you, put in a special facility naked and with the power disabled it's a big "complication".
yea, but no one is saying ava is a supergenius with everything covered. it was ava doing to put the MC in that situation, because she need him let her take over willingly. so she need a situation where the MC is forced to do so.
and she need that situation in the future, because she cannot take the full control yet.
ava is obviously a entity external to the MC, not what she said be an anthropomorphization of MC power. and her power set more vast of the MC. but the snippet with the MC father (another powerful mentalist) and the things he made before be eliminated can perhaps give the MC the tool he need against ava.
the contrary, it fit well with ava character, not what you thing ava character is. expecially because we have see very little of her before that section.
first ava is to strong for the MC body to sustain her indefinitely, not the other way, second it's show ava can miscalculate and she isn't the unbeatable supervillan you think she is, but in the same section we see a buried memory of MC father. you don't need to be a genius to think perhaps some buried memory will give the MC the tools to turn the table with ava.
they are mostly the girls in the gym. so they exist in the game, but you cannot interact with them yet.
- Apr 18, 2022
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Did you forget that she released another superhuman while escaping? If she deleted her trace well enough, they would pin it on him, not her.
Remember she was trying to make her move her, to get complete control over MC. She needed something big as this and thought she was ready to pull it off.
No, no. That is not how it works. Where are YOU getting the assumptions that she is. There is no indication and you would likely have been part of the crowd complaining how stupid she was and MC had convenient plot armor saving him from the agency by having a rookie agent trailing him. You are defending the position, because it was your own idea, but it goes strictly against all your other complaints. You can't have it both ways.
She took the right precautions given what she knew. You have effectively argued against yourself here, because of her knowledge, she wouldn't just have been a rookie, but incredible stupid to interview the MC on her own.
You neatly left out that the MC was given a injection to inhibit his powers, but they couldn't foresee the existence of Ava and know that her powers would still be intact.
So, it set and raised the stakes from thinking something is bad about Ava to knowing she is bad. While I indeed would argue it was heavily hinted at, it took a lot of people with surprise, so you can't really argue that it didn't changed the stakes.
To the both of you, I gave my opinion for the dev to assess if by some chance they're reading this forum, not for you. You want to disagree with my assessment and cite minor details as to why, good for you. But at the end of the day, I still believe I'm right, you believe I'm wrong, nobody is going to change anybody's mind, and that's how it is going to be. I'm not going to continue arguing with strangers about the quality of a story in a porn game. Good day to both of you.
- Oct 17, 2017
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I always love "this is my opinion and you cannot say anything at all about them". when a lot of "opinion" are in reality supposition denied by actual facts. and facts are you are unable to defend your position because it's not rooted in reality, but in what you thing of reality is.
and yes, they are minor details, but al least they are the things the game show us, not what we think the game show us (but in reality not).
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chatgpt know english grammar a lot better then me.
(translate: no. i don't use them)
- Apr 18, 2022
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*knows, *English and *than. Quite a powerful statement you gave us here, leaving us wondering whether you did it on purpose or not.
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No matter who the intended audience is, one should expect others to chime in then written in public. But this is more than just opinion being shared. Some of the things you stated were factually wrong, like presenting a false dichotomy. If you think criticism is warranted due to the story taking itself seriously enough, when why isn't commenting on the validity of said criticism warranted?
How do you think the dev would take your criticism, if you can't handle being criticized yourself? Do you think he is taking it in a better stride or what? You literally recommended a rewrite and gave your suggestion, why are we not allowed to hold your take under scrutiny in the same manner as you did the current story?
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Since I have both seen you here and on Discord as a thoughtful and well spoken person, I lean to the "on purpose" side. I mostly chose to comment to highlight the hilarity of the sentence for those who might have missed it.
I agree with you that there is the right kind of criticism and the wrong kind of criticism. With how the conversation was already going, I foresaw myself regurgitating on points against an endless assault of red herrings.
If I were to say, "Most water on Earth is liquid," you or the other guy is going to respond with, "what about ice? Ice is water, but solid!" I would then have to remind you of the fact I said, "most water." Then someone is going to say, "what about comets? Those aren't liquid either!"
Even you can see how much of a waste of time that is.
So I've nipped the discussion in the bud, and opt to agree to disagree.
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no, they aren't intentional, my english is atrocious, it's not my first language and i suck at learning (and using) languages
and then you need to add
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just because life said "fuck you".(i don't have dyslexia or dyscalculia at least)
comet aren't part of earth, so take them in consideration will be simply wrong. (talking about unrealted things in a discussion)
the word doing the heavy lift here is "most" most mean a significative majority. so if you speak the true you need to proof that majority. if someone had proof of the opposite is natural call you wrong and prove his point.
because the amount of ice and water on the earth can be estimate they are two numbers, two numbers can be comparate and you can say for sure "a significative majority of the water on the earth is liquid" or not. so in conclusion you are talking about facts and pretend they are not disputable opinions.
proving my point. in the end.
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In that case, you hide it well. In any case it doesn't make the sentence any less fun, as it dutifully pointed out what you were trying to convey.
Here I was hoping Bill's mom would be next in line for the harem and be added with Billie's quests. Hopefully we can get Carol's mom at some point also.
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- There is a roadmap showing what each update entails and the get an overview with each release. It seriously baffles me how people can miss this. It gets posted quite a lot.
- Linda (Bill's mom) won't be added with Billie's quest as she has to be available to those that simply erased Bill's memories. You literally tell her to make sure Bill isn't home, when you come over.
- No one is named Carol and currently the only unavailable mothers you have seen, who likely will never be part of the harem, is Sarah's (called Angelina) and Luna's (called Sonia).