Wow I completely forgot about this "Emperor's touch" thing since it's been about 2 years since I touched the prologue. The game should mention it again sometime later, like Nulkan saying "wow these girls fall for me too easily due to the emperors touch" or something like that. Or maybe make it part of the story a bit more, making Nulkan wonder if the girl loves him for who he is, or if it's just the "Emperor's touch" (and the girls will of course say they love him). It's such a forgettable part of the story briefly mentioned in the start that it should come back up sometime later.
While I believe having a superpower is an easy/lazy way out to explaining why Nulkan has a harem of lovely ladies, I ultimately don't care that much because it's a sex game first and foremost. Taifun can just say "idk Nulkan is hot as fuck" and I will give it a pass. I read manga with more bizarre stories before. It's not gamebreaking or anything like that. I'm not as upset like that other dude.
If every single member of the harem got a Dynae-style fleshed out romance story, the game would take at least 10 years to finish.
Finally, I said this update is half baked because I usually expect a new world + story progression per update, which is the norm. Although the H scenes are appreciated, I don't really care about the commission side chicks, which Taifun admitted he's way behind schedule on when he declared a "commission update." Anyway I'm a freeloader so whatever. Taifun is working hard and deserves all the money he can get.
For one, it's comically lazy. Nulkan has the personality of a brick, and he shifts from sub to dominant really fast, shifts from acting like a horny teenager with his highschool crush and to a grizzled, world-weary man in seconds depending on which girl he's with. This game is explicitly set on the ROMANCE aspect, yet also acts like it's totally not a harem, despite it clearly being one. So it has the worst of both worlds while not having any of the strong suits of either genre.
None of the writing around this guy is consistent. His losses don't feel genuine, and he's not portrayed to be hyperintelligent or have any particular tactical literacy, we're not told why or how he's so good and why he should be emperor beyond Hazel telling him that Izuin is always part of his destiny (which isn't true, the Night Queen's introductory scene disproves that) and that he's just "a good man".
Your point about the ET is particularly sailient. And personally, if a game goes out of it's way to have a pre-story story in the way of explaining Shuggerlain, include a small mythos and it's past and go so far as to have a story well into the 20-30K word range, I believe it's alright to hold it to an actual standard and stop treating it as JUST an H-game.
Space Paws did not have this problem because it did not have stakes, character deaths, and overall had a very lighthearted tone save for Alison scenes/the ending romances. The non-sequitur of "Oh it's just a sex game" WOULD work there, because the story is an afterthought.
Also, even Dynae's romance is dogshit. Nulkan gets over the whole "assisting in the genocide of my people" thing too quick and is mighty comfortable with her like a day later, no resentment or lingering distrust and acts buddy-buddy with her immediately.
She also has no reaction to the Emperor's Touch. I mean ffs she's right there.
Then their relationship blooms (first sex scene) because...they killed Tregor together. And that scene felt even weirder because later on they espouse how revenge is bad and how they're gonna be as bad as their enemies if they do that but it's never brought up again that Dynae stabbed this guy in the chest with the express purpose of giving him a slow death while both of them screamed and shouted about how they're gonna get them all. Feels like this should be rewritten lol. Also the anachronism of how Dynae knows about a collapsed lung and the medical term associated with it despite this being a medieval fantasy. Again, just another writing mistake.
Then, the most hilarious bit is just a bit later, just before the ceremony.
Talking with Nadine has her ask if Dynae is his gf, then Nulkan answers no, which is logical- at that point, it's CANONICALLY 5-6 days into the story (you can't get to that point earlier or later. You're still on-rails.)
Talking with Dynae then has him ask "are we breaking up"?! when she tells him things are gonna change which is...yeah. You can probably play the laugh track now.
And if you go on a date with her after that, you get arguably the worst scene. She reveals she has the added borderline deus ex machina ability to essentially peer into the past with 100% accuracy if it's her own memories, and Nulkan sees that she has a 0 perception stat because she missed Tregor with a giant energy ball "by a few meters" which ended up destroying the wall, thus KO'ing Nulkan and allowing the Araxians to quickly overwhelm them and exterminate the entire village.
You are given two choices upon this revelation- immediately forgive her, or don't (and if you don't it's like the MILDEST possible breakdown. Not even a backhand or a shouting match.)
If you don't, Saraith the promiscuous cow-a literal DEMON- comes to lecture you for being too hard on Dynae because...she indirectly led to the slaughter of your entire village, including your son, but she's a strong girl and you should be good to her.
This scene has no impact on their relationship. (not that there IS much of a relationship beyond that. Dynae has a sudden character shift into being really wise/petulant at random moments. You get two extra sex scenes but one of them requires you do a boring fetch quest and the other is in Syqua. And neither of those change anything. Dynae becomes a plot device after ascending into an Oracle. The most entertaining scene with Lolynae is in Syqua where they play a boob gag and it's actually kind of funny.)
