Recommending Story-first games

[camube]

The fuck happened to this thread?.

It's just the topic of the day, or the week.

I'd personally find more enjoyment talking about Deluca myself than Friends in Need.
It just so happen to be the thing people talked about today and since it's started from my post and since I'm kinda free I replied cuz I enjoy talking with you all.

I would talk about Deluca Family all day and enjoy that more if that's the current topic.
Similarly when y'all talked about Race of Life, i read it but I didn't really enjoy Race of Life that much so I didn't participate.

It was a post that turned into discussions, it's nothing more than that.

I did say I didn't go out of my way to install the Taboo Patch for a long time.
Cuz I didn't realized what's in it. And when I install it, it was tedious to even install it.

What you show with your screenshots are the options locked behind the Taboo Patch.
Without going out of your way to install the Taboo Patch, players don't have the option to make Nikki mascara running like that nor do they have option to do that to Ashe with the MC's dick the way you show in your screenshots.

That's point 1.

Point 2, Writers write. We may not like what they write but that's independent to how skillful they are.
just because Neon Ghosts or anyone write things that is disagreeable, does that at all diminish their writing capability?

No.
Their skills are their skills and what they write is what they write

If we go back to my initial post that catalyzes all of this, it was pretty short.

https://f95zone.to/threads/story-first-games.86340/page-232#post-13856848

Nikki story on that early update was a long time ago. From that time until it reaches Risa update just now span years. And in those year or two, I don't even bother mentioning Friends in Need in this thread cuz that's how little Friends in Need stays in my head, which is not very much at all.

Compared to say, Deluca or Projekt Passion, which as y'all regulars know, I mention over and over. Those games are in my head.

Y'all like stories. We all here in this thread cuz we like stories.
I think Neon Ghosts is a good writer and I was impressed with this Risa update so I mention it.

that's it.

But realjitter, the writing , i'm telling ya, it's like shakespeare meets stephen king, you have to read it, please,. It's THE hidden gem amongst hidden gems, I swear. You're missing out if you don't. Wait.., don't you dare close the fucking door on me. You're making a mistake here, everyone will tell you the same. It's deep dude, really deep..."

I didn't really go about proselytizing it the way you portray me

Point 3, Western AVN is a medium that gives us readers choices.

Friends in Need has 2 default choices, Nice choice or Asshole choice.
"Asshole" here in this particular game means "blackmail". F95zone thread also has "blackmail" tag applied to it.

The 3rd choice, Criminal Assault, is not a default. It's on a patch outside the game.
A person has to go out of their way to unlock that 3rd choice.
If anyone install that 3rd choice patch, that is on each person themselves.

We as a reader gets to choose what we want to read.
No one here is turning a blind eye to anything.
Just don't choose the options you don't like.
And for your particular screenshots, don't install it. It's outside the default Subscribestar game to begin with.

That's one of the feature of AVN. The freedom to choose what we want to read.
We don't have to complete everything and explore all the routes.

I'm repeating myself with saying the 3rd choice of not being a default choice to provide a context of my view.
I also did mention it to my initial reply to Jufot https://f95zone.to/threads/story-first-games.86340/page-232#post-13857777

But let's say Friends in Need the game came with 3 choices to begin with, Nice, Asshole, and Criminal without having to go out of our way to install anything. I'd still wouldn't choose the third option. It's there sure, but most of the time I'd just leave it alone.

Point 4, I like Western AVNs because of it's brevity. It gets to the point quicker compared to Japanese AVNs.
My view of Neon Ghost being a good writer despite what they write is rooted in that.

Japanese AVNs touches subject matters that is equally or even more disagreeable than what Neon writes. Also dives far, far deeper into the subjects they write too (cuz the playtime is also way longer).

Anyway, I'm at my limit of discussing Friends in Need cuz it's not a fun talk anymore.

Let's pivot to discussing some other games instead.

 

[noping123]

the priority basically goes like this, as far as patron count etc goes.

#1 - visual quality. This is king. It doesn't matter how little sex you have, or how shit the story or the writing is, or anything else. High quality visuals are going to bring in patrons regardless. The cap for this is unlimited - though with bad enough story or writing, ive noticed they tend to cap around 500 or so

#2 - Sex. Looking past visual quality, how much sex is in a game makes a big difference. The more there is, the more patrons you'll pull, and the lower visual quality you can get away with. This usually caps out around 1k patrons or so unless the visual quality is also there. Occasionally you'll do better, but it's rare.

#3 - Name recognition. This is generally more important than writing or story - simply how well known the dev is. Someone who's made a name for themselves in the past, that comes through with a mediocre or shit story is going to do better than someone with a well written one by an unknown. From what I've seen, assuming you don't have the visual quality or sex to go with it, this tends to cap out around 500ish.

#4 - Story. Just like above, the other 2 are more important. Given 2 games where the above 2 are equal, the one with the better story will do better, but it's less important. At this point we're starting to hit a cap of about 100 or so patrons - assuming you don't have a ton of sex, super high visual quality, or name recgonition.

#5 - Writing. This is different than the story - we're just talking the sheer quality of the actual writing/dialogue vs the story being told.


None of these are set in stone of course - there's exceptions to everything, but in my experience and from what I've seen, this seems to be the general trend of things.

I actually did want to elaborate on this just a little bit more.

If you ask the majority of players, or run polls, or anything like that - you will never get this answer. Overwhelmingly the responses you will get are "Story is most important to me" - you will see this time and time again every time you ask players - and it's incredibly misleading.

Completely ignoring my games for a moment and pretending they don't exist - I have seen some extremely well written games get ignored time and time again despite being praised over and over for the quality of the writing and story - because they either have low visual quality, or none (text-based). I've even seen a couple get recently abandoned despite being really well done - because the support just did not exist.

At the same time, games with absolutely mediocre at best stories are topping the charts left and right - and it's because of how good the visuals in those games are.

If you look at the games that get talked about the most? (outside of this thread) They're almost always the best looking ones - because those are the ones being played the most.

The sad truth is, to the majority of players (the VAST majority) story doesn't matter. The only time it matters is if you're looking at 2 games of equal visual quality - and then sure, players will prefer the one with better story. But 99 times out of 100, the better looking game will get a LOT more supported (as in orders of magnitude more) - despite the mediocre or sometimes poor quality of the writing.

This isn't to say that all good looking games are poorly written - some (very few, but some) manage the best of both worlds. They manage to combine stunning visuals, with good writing. And there are plenty of great looking games that are written... not great, but well enough.

All of this is to say, most people will tell you that to them, story is the most important element - but aside from a small minority, they're lying to themselves. It's not an outright lie, because they actually believe it when they say it - but when it comes to supporting games, actions speak louder than words.

 

[jamdan]

I think "story" means different things to different people. We've all read reviews that praise a games story, while the same game may not even have a story to someone else.

Story may mean an engaging plot. It may be fun characters. Or for some, it's "does this game contain fetishes I like? " . Some like consequences, some don't. And it goes on.

So overall, story like everything else, is open for interpretation.

For your list, I think it's fairly accurate. But I'd add "gameplay" to the list somewhere. Some people don't like gameplay at all, and others won't play games that don't have it. I'd also flip "sex" with "art quality". Or more specifically, "fetish content".

 

[FatGiant]

I actually did want to elaborate on this just a little bit more.

If you ask the majority of players, or run polls, or anything like that - you will never get this answer. Overwhelmingly the responses you will get are "Story is most important to me" - you will see this time and time again every time you ask players - and it's incredibly misleading.

Completely ignoring my games for a moment and pretending they don't exist - I have seen some extremely well written games get ignored time and time again despite being praised over and over for the quality of the writing and story - because they either have low visual quality, or none (text-based). I've even seen a couple get recently abandoned despite being really well done - because the support just did not exist.

At the same time, games with absolutely mediocre at best stories are topping the charts left and right - and it's because of how good the visuals in those games are.

If you look at the games that get talked about the most? (outside of this thread) They're almost always the best looking ones - because those are the ones being played the most.

The sad truth is, to the majority of players (the VAST majority) story doesn't matter. The only time it matters is if you're looking at 2 games of equal visual quality - and then sure, players will prefer the one with better story. But 99 times out of 100, the better looking game will get a LOT more supported (as in orders of magnitude more) - despite the mediocre or sometimes poor quality of the writing.

This isn't to say that all good looking games are poorly written - some (very few, but some) manage the best of both worlds. They manage to combine stunning visuals, with good writing. And there are plenty of great looking games that are written... not great, but well enough.

All of this is to say, most people will tell you that to them, story is the most important element - but aside from a small minority, they're lying to themselves. It's not an outright lie, because they actually believe it when they say it - but when it comes to supporting games, actions speak louder than words.

I need to ask you a very stupid question. Yes, I know, if I know it is stupid, why do you need to ask it... well, because I can't figure out the answer by myself, and believe me, I've tried.

I played Alive. Couldn't fall in love with it, but, didn't dislike it either.

I almost started to play No Such Luck, but, Sandbox really is NOT for me.

My stupid question is: As a storyteller, why choose Sandbox?

To my eyes, a Sandbox game is the same as dismantling a book, removing the page numbers and then, after throwing the whole thing up in the air a few times, give random pages to the reader and tell them to read it however they want. As in, the whole story may be there, but there's no structure, no order, no persistence, no sequence. How can this be called anything but a Mess?

I may have no right to ask this, so if that's the case, just ignore me.

Peace

 

[noping123]

To my eyes, a Sandbox game is the same as dismantling a book, removing the page numbers and then, after throwing the whole thing up in the air a few times, give random pages to the reader and tell them to read it however they want. As in, the whole story may be there, but there's no structure, no order, no persistence, no sequence. How can this be called anything but a Mess?

I may have no right to ask this, so if that's the case, just ignore me.

Peace

Short answer: It's not sandbox. It has freeroams. (If you've ever played badik - similar gameplay. Artemis has toyed with it too - though in lesser amounts). Any game with freeroams in them tend to get tagged "sandbox" on this site.

Now you can say what you want about freeroams, and some players absolutely hate them, and that's completely fair - but there's a big difference IMO between that and sandbox.

 

[Dessolos]

I think "story" means different things to different people. We've all read reviews that praise a games story, while the same game may not even have a story to someone else.

Story may mean an engaging plot. It may be fun characters. Or for some, it's "does this game contain fetishes I like? " . Some like consequences, some don't. And it goes on.

So overall, story like everything else, is open for interpretation.

For your list, I think it's fairly accurate. But I'd add "gameplay" to the list somewhere. Some people don't like gameplay at all, and others won't play games that don't have it. I'd also flip "sex" with "art quality". Or more specifically, "fetish content".

so much this . Yeah for me I consider story the main plot line not really individual plot points of the story that more like a side quest / side story to me. Tho it can be argue that is story 2. So for me I lean more in favor of those "side quest" as im more interested in character the a main plot in most games.

 

[FatGiant]

Short answer: It's not sandbox. It has freeroams. (If you've ever played badik - similar gameplay. Artemis has toyed with it too - though in lesser amounts). Any game with freeroams in them tend to get tagged "sandbox" on this site.

Now you can say what you want about freeroams, and some players absolutely hate them, and that's completely fair - but there's a big difference IMO between that and sandbox.

Oooooh... OK. That I can get behind. Not that I am a big fan of them, but I can get over it, no problemo.

Just a suggestion, maybe put that on the Dev Notes or in the Genre Spoiler. Like this Sandbox (freeroams only). Because like me there's a LOT of other players that will stay away because of it.

In that case it is even eligible to the VN prefix, or it should be for some reasonable staffers.

There's also a risk with the Sandbox fans dissing your game because it is not what they want.

For example, camube keeps mentioning Deluca's Family, I'll never play it, because it is Sandbox. Or, maybe it isn't, but it's marked as so, so, I'll never get near it. My loss? Maybe, but how many others think like me?

Unclear or Obfuscated details are NOT a good way to showcase a game.

Peace

 

[camube]

Completely ignoring my games for a moment and pretending they don't exist - I have seen some extremely well written games get ignored time and time again despite being praised over and over for the quality of the writing and story - because they either have low visual quality, or none (text-based). I've even seen a couple get recently abandoned despite being really well done - because the support just did not exist.

I'm highlighting this part of your post

I've seen Projekt Passion with it's extremely consistent release gets higher and higher number of patrons, and on the other hand I've seen Mad World with it's inconsistent release gets 0 support.
That is 2 extreme examples and an oversimplification at that but, I sincerely believe that Mad World should get more support that it had.
Even if the problem with Mad World is not just simply about the long release but also cuz Capella had the misfortune with his PC trouble too.

I feel like one of the big problem with most AVN games is discovery. The fact that most people (that are already AVN players) may not know of these games.
I really like Unravelling August and I didn't get to know about that game until Update 2. And Realm Invaders until Ep 2 Part 1 If a person like me that is fairly active on f95 doesn't discover the game at Update 1, the average person maybe doesn't discover these games until Update 4 or 5.

Projekt Passion is great with extremely consistent release and also, every release has a clear Open, Middle, and End so it feels like I'm playing "an episode" instead of a continuous story that get cut in the middle just because (most AVNs are like this)

So to add to your post, maybe Consistent Release would help devs on getting more eyes?

I don't know how many download you get for No Such Luck but maybe there are more eyes that haven't know about it yet perhaps

 

[Dessolos]

For example, camube keeps mentioning Deluca's Family, I'll never play it, because it is Sandbox. Or, maybe it isn't, but it's marked as so, so, I'll never get near it. My loss? Maybe, but how many others think like me?

it's no longer sandbox only . It use to have a sandbox mode ( full experience ) and one that was just free roam without mini games I personally don't consider free roam sandbox but that's on each player to decide for themself or not if free roam is sandbox or not to them. Since it came to steam it added a VN mode.

 

[camube]

Oooooh... OK. That I can get behind. Not that I am a big fan of them, but I can get over it, no problemo.

Just a suggestion, maybe put that on the Dev Notes or in the Genre Spoiler. Like this Sandbox (freeroams only). Because like me there's a LOT of other players that will stay away because of it.

In that case it is even eligible to the VN prefix, or it should be for some reasonable staffers.

There's also a risk with the Sandbox fans dissing your game because it is not what they want.

For example, camube keeps mentioning Deluca's Family, I'll never play it, because it is Sandbox. Or, maybe it isn't, but it's marked as so, so, I'll never get near it. My loss? Maybe, but how many others think like me?

Unclear or Obfuscated details are NOT a good way to showcase a game.

Peace

Deluca Family has VN-esque mode. I don't remember what it's called though.

It also by now, pretty recently, has codex talking about the history of the families in the past prior to the game beginning. The codex are pretty fleshed out.

It's good! It's one of the best game on this site.
You gotta try it, at least try theVN-esque mode. I would say you probably still feel it's sorta clunky but, if you can navigate No Such Luck, you can navigate Deluca.

It has a colorful cast of side characters too.

Deluca's events all have titles / names. and the one called Arrendersi is soo good I would be happy talking about it with y'all here all day. It's been a year+ maybe since I play it but it's still fresh in my mind due to how good that event is.

What's great about Deluca is that what's already out in itself is good, but what's coming ahead should hopefully far better. Cuz at the moment things barely just start moving. It hasn't "begun". But it already shows some very small sign of it being epic in the future.

I'm looking forward to play Deluca in 2027 or somewhere there when one of the character Luna would face off with some entity. Or Gracie would face off with someone else. Deluca the game is like a hatchling right now. It's "barely started". And we fans are all looking forward how things are gonna roll in Season 2

 

[365 others]

Projekt Passion is great with extremely consistent release and also, every release has a clear Open, Middle, and End so it feels like I'm playing "an episode" instead of a continuous story that get cut in the middle just because (most AVNs are like this)

I'm 100% with you on this. That is something I love from Projekt Passion. Even if there are still untied knots, It does not leave me with the impression of just being dropped mid scene.

That sadly happens very frequently, and is one of the reasons I tend to read only completed games or the ones with a ton of content. I hate the eerie feeling of not knowing if the vn is just going to leave me in the middle of nowhere.

 

[FatGiant]

Deluca Family has VN-esque mode. I don't remember what it's called though.

It also by now, pretty recently, has codex talking about the history of the families in the past prior to the game beginning. The codex are pretty fleshed out.

It's good! It's one of the best game on this site.
You gotta try it, at least try theVN-esque mode. I would say you probably still feel it's sorta clunky but, if you can navigate No Such Luck, you can navigate Deluca.

It has a colorful cast of side characters too.

Deluca's events all have titles / names. and the one called Arrendersi is soo good I would be happy talking about it with y'all here all day. It's been a year+ maybe since I play it but it's still fresh in my mind due to how good that event is.

What's great about Deluca is that what's already out in itself is good, but what's coming ahead should hopefully far better. Cuz at the moment things barely just start moving. It hasn't "begun". But it already shows some very small sign of it being epic in the future.

I'm looking forward to play Deluca in 2027 or somewhere there when one of the character Luna would face off with some entity. Or Gracie would face off with someone else. Deluca the game is like a hatchling right now. It's "barely started". And we fans are all looking forward how things are gonna roll in Season 2

So, a fake VN mode. Thanks, but no, thanks.

I can, with some effort, accept a few free roams. But, mini games? Event based? No! I do play Badik, without the mini games and just the free roams are the bane of my existence. Truly NOT for me. Are the Events even canon? As in the story is changed by it's result, or, it's just a closed Event? Like a trip to Vegas?

Anyway, I'll think about it, but, probably not.

Peace

 

[noping123]

Oooooh... OK. That I can get behind. Not that I am a big fan of them, but I can get over it, no problemo.

Just a suggestion, maybe put that on the Dev Notes or in the Genre Spoiler. Like this Sandbox (freeroams only). Because like me there's a LOT of other players that will stay away because of it.

In that case it is even eligible to the VN prefix, or it should be for some reasonable staffers.

There's also a risk with the Sandbox fans dissing your game because it is not what they want.

For example, camube keeps mentioning Deluca's Family, I'll never play it, because it is Sandbox. Or, maybe it isn't, but it's marked as so, so, I'll never get near it. My loss? Maybe, but how many others think like me?

Unclear or Obfuscated details are NOT a good way to showcase a game.

Peace

In fairness, I have 0 control over the thread (Nor do I want it). The most I can do is create reports and hope a mod decides to respond to them (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't) - and then hope they agree with them enough to do what I ask. The honest truth is, I get almost 0 support from this site (Literally every single f95 based patron I've ever had, posts regularly in this thread and almost all of it comes from elsewhere. Discord, reddit, people finding my stuff on steam or itch.io, etc, even twitter) so I really am not going to invest energy into fighting with mods in the hope that my thread is "most appealing" or whatever. I won't try to stop people here from playing my games, but aside from bug fixes, I'm not really gonna care about supporting it either.

Projekt Passion is great with extremely consistent release and also, every release has a clear Open, Middle, and End so it feels like I'm playing "an episode" instead of a continuous story that get cut in the middle just because (most AVNs are like this)

The thing is - PP's initial support? Wasn't because of it's story. I'm not saying it has a BAD story - I'm just saying that is NOT why people checked it out. And a lot of the "discovery" you talk about? A lot of it comes from people playing games, and then talking about them. (Seriously. Discussions on forums like this, or reddit, or discord are a HUGE driver of people checking out games to begin with) - and while people may have played PP and enjoyed the story - that's not why they tried it in the first place.

 

[Dessolos]

So, a fake VN mode. Thanks, but no, thanks.

I can, with some effort, accept a few free roams. But, mini games? Event based? No! I do play Badik, without the mini games and just the free roams are the bane of my existence. Truly NOT for me. Are the Events even canon? As in the story is changed by it's result, or, it's just a closed Event? Like a trip to Vegas?

Anyway, I'll think about it, but, probably not.

Peace

not sure how VN mode plays as I refuse to replay it till S2 starts as the cliffhanger ending as I could not stop think about it for like a week or 2 even lost some sleep over it. But when I played the free roam mode when I first discovered the game the mini games were disabled so I would assume same would apply here. I always took the events more or less just a way to track your progress in free roam mode not sure how it is in VN mode. Not trying to convince you to try it just wanted share that bit of info if it was the mini games turning you away from even giving VN mode a chance. If not then np it's just not for you

 

[365 others]

In fairness, I have 0 control over the thread (Nor do I want it). The most I can do is create reports and hope a mod decides to respond to them (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't) - and then hope they agree with them enough to do what I ask. The honest truth is, I get almost 0 support from this site (Literally every single f95 based patron I've ever had, posts regularly in this thread and almost all of it comes from elsewhere. Discord, reddit, people finding my stuff on steam or itch.io, etc, even twitter) so I really am not going to invest energy into fighting with mods in the hope that my thread is "most appealing" or whatever. I won't try to stop people here from playing my games, but aside from bug fixes, I'm not really gonna care about supporting it either.

The thing is - PP's initial support? Wasn't because of it's story. I'm not saying it has a BAD story - I'm just saying that is NOT why people checked it out. And a lot of the "discovery" you talk about? A lot of it comes from people playing games, and then talking about them. (Seriously. Discussions on forums like this, or reddit, or discord are a HUGE driver of people checking out games to begin with) - and while people may have played PP and enjoyed the story - that's not why they tried it in the first place.

I'm not saying that F95 has a major weight in getting game support, but I wouldn't rule it out that quickly. In my case, all the games I've discovered and the developers I'm currently supporting I've found them here.

The only game I discovered outside of F95 was the infamous "The College" and I stopped playing it a long time ago.

As for PP, I found it here, and after playing it because of the story recommendation, I did end up subscribing because of it.

 

[noping123]

I'm not saying that F95 has a major weight in getting game support, but I wouldn't rule it out that quickly. In my case, all the games I've discovered and the developers I'm currently supporting I've found them here.

The only game I discovered outside of F95 was the infamous "The College" and I stopped playing it a long time ago.

As for PP, I found it here, and after playing it because of the story recommendation, I did end up subscribing because of it.

I'm ruling it out based on experience. Support from f95 is significantly less than 10% of the overall support I've received over the course of 2 games. It's not worth the headache of making sure people who play games for free have a good experience. That's just the blunt truth. I don't mind discussions - and occasionally someone here finds a bug or 2 which I always fix asap - but aside from that, it's not worth my time.

 

[365 others]

I'm ruling it out based on experience. Support from f95 is significantly less than 10% of the overall support I've received over the course of 2 games. It's not worth the headache of making sure people who play games for free have a good experience. That's just the blunt truth. I don't mind discussions - and occasionally someone here finds a bug or 2 which I always fix asap - but aside from that, it's not worth my time.

I hope I don't come as rude, or disrespectful... but if it's that bad... why are you here? This is a pirate site, and as per your own words it would seem it is more of an annoyance for you than something you can benefit from it. Why invest your energy and time in it?

I'm not trying to argue or to dismiss your view, I'm no developer after all, but If I'm honest I'm curious about how and why developers would chose to have an active role (regardless of how much active) in a site that leeches from their work.

 

[noping123]

I hope I don't come as rude, or disrespectful... but if it's that bad... why are you here? This is a pirate site, and as per your own words it would seem it is more of an annoyance for you than something you can benefit from it. Why invest your energy and time in it?

I'm not trying to argue or to dismiss your view, I'm no developer after all, but If I'm honest I'm curious about how and why developers would chose to have an active role (regardless of how much active) in a site that leeches from their work.

Because I enjoy the discussion - and this thread in particular. I don't post *too* much in it anymore (mostly because I just don't use this site as much as I used to), but I do read it fairly often either way. As far as my game threads go? Outside of responding to players occasionally (Again - I just enjoy the discussion tbh), I don't invest a single bit of energy or time into it at all. In fact, these days about 90% of my time on F95 is spent in this thread.

 

[realjitter]

the way you portray me

I wasn't portraying you at all or thinking about someone specific for that matter. Sry if I made it sound like it.


And as to what makes AVN's popular. Well, the way I see it, there's just a shitton of competition, so many games. I'm not in the know, but how many newer games from , let's say, the last 24 months are there who did pop off in a big way and accumulated a lot of supporters?. I'm sure someone can name a game a two, but compared to how many new games are reaching the surface basically every week... I don't know, you either get lucky and "hit the nerve" of many people somehow or you get unlucky and "go broke" with an (subjectively) pretty good game. There are just too many random factors that can play a role here, imo.

I also assume that the majority of AVN players are not exactly hardcore fans like many people in this forum. So the time those people actually spent with those games might not be very high. Worst case scenario, for a developer, would be someone who just uses AVN's to quickly rub one out . And I don't know, that might be more people than you'd think...

But again, idk, i'm just assuming. Maybe it's the exact opposite and the majoriy spends "X+" hours every day with this stuff.

 

[dreamchaser]

I just played "A Father's Sins" based on it being recommended in the games list in the 1. post. I have aborted after a few hours and feel like I wasted my time.
Yes, it's "story first", I just don't think the story is very good, or the characters very interesting (though shoutout to the barrista - she was a standout for me). The world building was pretty cliche driven, and very thin. And the characters didn't seem internally consistent to me, instead just acting by rule of cool, what would be funniest, or most melodramatic each moment. The random horniness of the MC was offputting too, mostly because it was so inconsistent (like the "Do I want to waste my mana on a spell to make her clothes transperent?" choices. wtf...).

It just never felt like an internally consistent story (and characters!) pulling me in, which is what I thought this thread is looking for.
So, just thought I'd voice my disrecommendation here.