Recommending Story-first games

[Raife]

Anyway, I don't think this is the best thread for your holy crusade to save those poor souls' money.

Yes, indeed.

 

[noping123]

I strongly agree with you, desmosome. Those on 'anti-milking' crusades should ask themselves: 'am I really motivated by altruism, or by a some combination of jealousy, resentment and/or disappointment?'

No doubt, there are many genuine cases of fraud or milking. But most of what I see, on this site, is misdirected and sophomoric petulance that frequently strays into bullying.

I have been following some of the devs who post on this thread for years. They are honest and hard-working, and often put tremendous pressure on themselves to hit self-imposed deadlines and meet fan expectations. Many of them, as noping recently pointed out, are amateurs with demanding day jobs and family responsibilities. They are real people, with hopes, dreams and a great deal of creative passion.

The idea that these people are engaged in some sort of 'milking' enterprise -- presumably by teasing work that they don't really intend to complete -- is contemptibly wrong and morally repugnant. And yet... many if not most of them have been accused of 'milking' at one time or another by self-appointed scolds who are really just poorly-disguised trolls.

Speaking only for myself: I've had a fair amount deal of financial success, and choose to support devs I admire... not in order to receive regular game updates, but just because I am inspired by their creativity and work ethic. My support for Tlaero, for example, is inspired by the fact that I think she's a brilliant person and creative artist... and I want her and Mortze to follow their muse. It's not because I want her to deliver a new episode of _Toro 7_ next month. I'm supporting artists for their own sake, not an AVN subscription service.

Finally, those of us who follow jufot's thread regularly do so, in part, because we want to see more of a certain type of story-rich AVN produced. That entails frequently backing devs with very small fan-bases and earnings, who cannot dedicate enough time to produce regular game updates. They often beat themselves up for being unable to public new episodes frequently; that self-criticism is frequently inspired by accusations of milking. I've had to talk sqwl out of quitting a couple of times after such abuse, for example.

One last enjoinder: remember, there are real people behind those dev handles. They are exposing a little bit of themselves in their work, and can sometimes be hurt, badly, by misdirected attacks. Tread lightly, and examine your own motives carefully...

I just wanna add to this - you mentioned self-imposed deadlines, which I know I'm guilty of, and I suspect it's sort of the norm.

I don't announce much in the way of release information until I'm confident I can hit a target, but internally I always have a target deadline I want to hit. There's a number of reasons for this - not the smallest of which is, I do have people supporting me on patreon. (Not a ton, but still some). The internal deadlines I usually set are a sort of personal metric of "If I don't release by then, I'm letting these people down". I have extended that internal deadline before if I realize I'd have to make more sacrifices than I'm comfortable with to make them, but it often leads to a lot of LONG hours spent working on stuff - much moreso than I honestly probably should be doing. (Note: I'm not complaining about it at all, it just probably isn't the most healthy thing to sometimes put 14 hours in a single day into it).

There are many devs who do exactly this - even if there's no formal announcement, they know how long they "should" take (I quote should for a reason there), and anything worse is often felt like to them as a disappointment - so for anyone to come along and say anything along the lines of them milking anything, just gets to me.


For example, I've seen a LOT of people accuse DPC of milking. And yes, he's at the point now where a single update takes a full year for him. He also puts out a level of content that is quite staggering. I did the math not too long ago - based on how long things take me to do, assuming he has a lot more experience and can work more efficiently/has a better workflow/can do things quicker than I can, he likely works between 12-14 hours per day 6 days a week, with a slightly lower schedule on the 7th day.

Say what you want about him, or his game, or anything else, but anyone working that hard is NOT milking anything. For every dev that actually IS milking people (and honestly, in those cases it's usually pretty obvious) there's another dozen facing accusations who are working their asses off trying to produce a product they can be proud of.

 

[Tlaero]

One last enjoinder: remember, there are real people behind those dev handles. They are exposing a little bit of themselves in their work, and can sometimes be hurt, badly, by misdirected attacks. Tread lightly, and examine your own motives carefully...

Truer words were never spoken. The exposure is real, and raw, and emotionally crushing. I've lost whole weekends struggling with something some random person said about me, going over and over in my head how I want to respond, even though I know that I can't say any of it publicly. And, when I do respond, as positively as I possibly can, I then spend the next few hours dreading the angry responses.

Thank you, Raife. People like you and moskys, who stand up for us and say the things we can't say, are more helpful than you could ever know.

Tlaero

 

[Raife]

I just wanna add to this - you mentioned self-imposed deadlines, which I know I'm guilty of, and I suspect it's sort of the norm.

There's a number of reasons for this - not the smallest of which is, I do have people supporting me on patreon. (Not a ton, but still some). The internal deadlines I usually set are a sort of personal metric of "If I don't release by then, I'm letting these people down".

Just bear in mind that one of those people is me, noping... and you'll never let me down. My support for you is not predicated on deadlines, real or self-imposed.

 

[Raife]

And you could take a look at my full rankings

You must be registered to see the links

if you like (A note about Melody in here, it's the first game I played when discovering these vns and it helped me tremendously at a difficult time in my life, so it holds a special place into my heart and is not rated - I can't give it a rating, since it's objectively far from being as good as the best there are but it brought me more than any).

Thanks ahead for anything

Hmmmm... your tastes prioritize visuals and porny elements a bit more than mine, which is perfectly fair play. (I do agree with you wholeheartedly on _Being a DIK_'s quality_... although jufot, who suffers from NACGB syndrome, would beg to differ .)

Have you tried _Isabella: Dark Paths_? Badtimestales has posted his latest update (his best yet) on Patreon, but it has not migrated to F95, yet.

 

[camube]

Hey guys, I just read a whole bunch of pages from this thread. You see, I'm a big fan of story driven vns. I loved it for years. I took kind of a break from vns for a year or so, and returned a few weeks ago, first finishing the updates of the ones I already know and then looking for some new gems. I found a few I liked, and then... Eternum happened.

I loved this thing so much, it instantly made it to my top 10. And I just finished it. It was so good. One of the very best.

But it gave me that dreaded feeling - how the fuck am I going to find something that remotely gives me any feelings at all after so much fun, laughter, passion? So I started looking around and I must say, looking at the overviews of the games I didn't play yet, I didn't find any that gave me the impression I was REALLY missing out.

So I read this topic thoroughly, and well... I'm even more undecided, since there are LOTS of propositions and I definitely don't have the time to try them all! I can try a few but I'm really tight on my schedule lately.

So I thought, if some of you would be so kind and give me just ONE recommandation that you think I would really like according to my tastes, I would be very grateful. If you don't have the time or the will to do so, that's perfectly cool too, don't worry about it, we're cool

So my top 20 are :



And you could take a look at my full rankings

You must be registered to see the links

if you like (A note about Melody in here, it's the first game I played when discovering these vns and it helped me tremendously at a difficult time in my life, so it holds a special place into my heart and is not rated - I can't give it a rating, since it's objectively far from being as good as the best there are but it brought me more than any).

Thanks ahead for anything

Is that 1 to 20 in order or not in order? If you want us to give you one recommendation, tell us the most important thing you want from a game?

For example, to me it's engaging story. So it's pretty easy to ask for recommendation from other people because I focused on a thing when I make my question.
I also know setting that doesn't interest me, which is medieval period, so it's pretty easy to skip those settings too. At least until I exhaust my options or if the game is highly acclaimed. Good story is good story.

Generic recommendation though, I like Arson Betrayal, Projekt Passion, and Above the Clouds. Arson Betrayal for plot, Projekt Passion forplot and humor, Above The Clouds for humor.

I gave you that recommendation because DeLuca Family is your number 3 game.

I've thought about something for a couple months now, how many games would I even still remember and looking forward to it's continuation if life gets busier. And to me, there is very few games on that tier, and DeLuca Family is on that tier. I'm fairly certain i still want to play DeLuca Family years from now.

 

[kotte]

Finally, those of us who follow jufot's thread regularly do so, in part, because we want to see more of a certain type of story-rich AVN produced. That entails frequently backing devs with very small fan-bases and earnings, who cannot dedicate enough time to produce regular game updates. They often beat themselves up for being unable to publish new episodes frequently; that self-criticism is sometimes inspired by accusations of milking.

It can make me so mad; when you have found a good AVN, with a dev that is obviously putting their heart and soul into it. And then the trolls start on this forum, bashing them for infrequent updates, for including topics they don't like etc. I've tried many times to raise my voice in the dev's defence, but sometimes i doesn't help. A couple of really promising devs left the AVN scene completely after a flame war on this site.

I'm happy to have found this thread though, it seems to harbour a lot of people who see the hard work behind the games.
Actually, this thread is the first place I go to when I log on here (maybe after "Latest Updates"...).
Thank you all

 

[JerryC]

Hmmmm... your tastes prioritize visuals and porny elements a bit more than mine, which is perfectly fair play. (I do agree with you wholeheartedly on _Being a DIK_'s quality_... although jufot, who suffers from NACGB syndrome, would beg to differ .)

Have you tried _Isabella: Dark Paths_? Badtimestales has posted his latest update (his best yet) on Patreon, but it has not migrated to F95, yet.

Hey friend, no I didn't try it, will take a look, thanks! And yes, visuals are pretty important to me I guess... But as an avid reader your comment make me wonder if by giving too much attention to it, I didn't miss more hidden gems.

Is that 1 to 20 in order or not in order? If you want us to give you one recommendation, tell us the most important thing you want from a game?

For example, to me it's engaging story. So it's pretty easy to ask for recommendation from other people because I focused on a thing when I make my question.
I also know setting that doesn't interest me, which is medieval period, so it's pretty easy to skip those settings too. At least until I exhaust my options or if the game is highly acclaimed. Good story is good story.

Generic recommendation though, I like Arson Betrayal, Projekt Passion, and Above the Clouds. Arson Betrayal for plot, Projekt Passion forplot and humor, Above The Clouds for humor.

I gave you that recommendation because DeLuca Family is your number 3 game.

I've thought about something for a couple months now, how many games would I even still remember and looking forward to it's continuation if life gets busier. And to me, there is very few games on that tier, and DeLuca Family is on that tier. I'm fairly certain i still want to play DeLuca Family years from now.

The list is in order yes, more or less, as you can see from my Google sheet with ratings. If you based your recommendations off of TDF, I very much look forward to check it out! That game is incredible.

Interestingly enough, I followed the same reflection as you did a year ago, and chose to stop playing all vns that I didn't enjoy enough so that I would not remember them in some time. It was enlightening as of what I really enjoyed or not.

 

[camube]

Hey friend, no I didn't try it, will take a look, thanks! And yes, visuals are pretty important to me I guess... But as an avid reader your comment make me wonder if by giving too much attention to it, I didn't miss more hidden gems.



The list is in order yes, more or less, as you can see from my Google sheet with ratings. If you based your recommendations off of TDF, I very much look forward to check it out! That game is incredible.

Interestingly enough, I followed the same reflection as you did a year ago, and chose to stop playing all vns that I didn't enjoy enough so that I would not remember them in some time. It was enlightening as of what I really enjoyed or not.

No, that was just generic recommendation. I didn't recommend those in comparison to DeLuca.
I don't think you should compare them to DeLuca either for various reasons.
In particular, Above The Clouds is incomparable to DeLuca because Above The Clouds focus on humor, absurd humor at that.

I still don't know what aspect in games that you want to focus on, so I can't give you pointed recommendations.
Our preference is not the same either because for me I put Acting Lessons way above BaDIK for now.

I like BaDIK as a game more but as a story, BaDIK just about to start it's conflict part. All 8 episodes feels more like a build up so far.
It's nowhere near number 1 to me because the conflict part of the story structure hasn't begun.

 

[JerryC]

No, that was just generic recommendation. I didn't recommend those in comparison to DeLuca.
I don't think you should compare them to DeLuca either for various reasons.
In particular, Above The Clouds is incomparable to DeLuca because Above The Clouds focus on humor, absurd humor at that.

I still don't know what aspect in games that you want to focus on, so I can't give you pointed recommendations.
Our preference is not the same either because for me I put Acting Lessons way above BaDIK for now.

I like BaDIK as a game more but as a story, BaDIK just about to start it's conflict part. All 8 episodes feels more like a build up so far.
It's nowhere near number 1 to me because the conflict part of the story structure hasn't begun.

Yes, the story of BaDIK is still building up, but for me the setup is an important part of the story itself, and as such the game deserves its place (IMHO of course).

Now, what are my preferences... I guess first and foremost, it's the game characters that really make it for me. I will take Eternum as an example, as it's the last one I tremendously enjoyed. I really love most of the characters in that game. Each one has a really distinctive feel, none is bland, they're full of colors. There is a small issue though, it's that all other heterosexual males except the MC best friend (who's in love so won't be competition) are assholes and dumbfuck perverts. That's the only reason I didn't gave the game a 10/10. Waifu Academy has the same issue.

For me to be really enticed, after the colorful characters, it's the storytelling and the pacing. In Eternum there isn't a dull moment. It's fun and surprising all the time. That's an aspect I find much better in CoBD and BaDIK than in DA and AL, for example.

The atmosphere is also invaluable. Take DeLuca for example. Now, each character is deep, the storytelling is dope, the pacing is not the fastest but it fits the setup really well... And the atmosphere of the game is incredible! Every scene is believable and well told, even when the events in it seems... Unlikely, to say the least. That's an important plus in my book.

After that, there are various elements I love... Humor is great, I didn't play half an hour or Eternum without bursting into laughter and it was awesome, but it's not necessary depending on the setup. CoBD is not that funny, right? On the same note, visuals seems to be really important in those types of games for me, but for example I like Lust Campus way of telling things and humor even if the visuals are simple. I guess, on that point, it's more ugly visuals that repel me than great visuals that appeal to me.

Also, I don't like incest, usually, and parental incest I just can't. So it's a no for me. Lots of people recommended me LoML in the past, but I couldn't : ugly visuals and parental incest, I stopped quickly.

I guess I came here hoping for another bang and another relatively new shot of passion like Eternum gave me, in the end. Your questions helped me clarify what I like in those games though, thanks

 

[boobsrcool]

Hey guys, I just read a whole bunch of pages from this thread. You see, I'm a big fan of story driven vns. I loved it for years. I took kind of a break from vns for a year or so, and returned a few weeks ago, first finishing the updates of the ones I already know and then looking for some new gems. I found a few I liked, and then... Eternum happened.

I loved this thing so much, it instantly made it to my top 10. And I just finished it. It was so good. One of the very best.

But it gave me that dreaded feeling - how the fuck am I going to find something that remotely gives me any feelings at all after so much fun, laughter, passion? So I started looking around and I must say, looking at the overviews of the games I didn't play yet, I didn't find any that gave me the impression I was REALLY missing out.

So I read this topic thoroughly, and well... I'm even more undecided, since there are LOTS of propositions and I definitely don't have the time to try them all! I can try a few but I'm really tight on my schedule lately.

So I thought, if some of you would be so kind and give me just ONE recommandation that you think I would really like according to my tastes, I would be very grateful. If you don't have the time or the will to do so, that's perfectly cool too, don't worry about it, we're cool

So my top 20 are :



And you could take a look at my full rankings

You must be registered to see the links

if you like (A note about Melody in here, it's the first game I played when discovering these vns and it helped me tremendously at a difficult time in my life, so it holds a special place into my heart and is not rated - I can't give it a rating, since it's objectively far from being as good as the best there are but it brought me more than any).

Thanks ahead for anything

I rec

AOA Academy
Project Atmosphere
World of Wonders
A Foreign world (very early)
A shot in the dark
dreams of reality
Friends in need (vanilla/nice path)
Savior
This Time
Name 88s triangle

 

[camube]

Yes, the story of BaDIK is still building up, but for me the setup is an important part of the story itself, and as such the game deserves its place (IMHO of course).

Now, what are my preferences... I guess first and foremost, it's the game characters that really make it for me. I will take Eternum as an example, as it's the last one I tremendously enjoyed. I really love most of the characters in that game. Each one has a really distinctive feel, none is bland, they're full of colors. There is a small issue though, it's that all other heterosexual males except the MC best friend (who's in love so won't be competition) are assholes and dumbfuck perverts. That's the only reason I didn't gave the game a 10/10. Waifu Academy has the same issue.

For me to be really enticed, after the colorful characters, it's the storytelling and the pacing. In Eternum there isn't a dull moment. It's fun and surprising all the time. That's an aspect I find much better in CoBD and BaDIK than in DA and AL, for example.

The atmosphere is also invaluable. Take DeLuca for example. Now, each character is deep, the storytelling is dope, the pacing is not the fastest but it fits the setup really well... And the atmosphere of the game is incredible! Every scene is believable and well told, even when the events in it seems... Unlikely, to say the least. That's an important plus in my book.

After that, there are various elements I love... Humor is great, I didn't play half an hour or Eternum without bursting into laughter and it was awesome, but it's not necessary depending on the setup. CoBD is not that funny, right? On the same note, visuals seems to be really important in those types of games for me, but for example I like Lust Campus way of telling things and humor even if the visuals are simple. I guess, on that point, it's more ugly visuals that repel me than great visuals that appeal to me.

Also, I don't like incest, usually, and parental incest I just can't. So it's a no for me. Lots of people recommended me LoML in the past, but I couldn't : ugly visuals and parental incest, I stopped quickly.

I guess I came here hoping for another bang and another relatively new shot of passion like Eternum gave me, in the end. Your questions helped me clarify what I like in those games though, thanks

i think you've played the majority of avn games that is story-based in existence, no?

Arson Betrayal is heavily plot-driven so i don't know about the characters requirement. I really enjoy playing it though.

Pale Carnations characters is like real people to me, but the subject matter is pretty niche. You may or may not like it.

Forget Above The Clouds, it's really funny though.

Projekt Passion has great pacing.

 

[JerryC]

i think you've played the majority of avn games that is story-based in existence, no?

I guess so

 

[Dabigoh]

I rec

AOA Academy
Project Atmosphere
World of Wonders
A Foreign world (very early)
A shot in the dark
dreams of reality
Friends in need (vanilla/nice path)
Savior
This Time
Name 88s triangle

AOA Academy has been abandoned.

I bring this up just in case you didn't know. I'm making the assumption that since it is on your list that you aren't aware, but I make no judgement either way.

While it was no literary masterpiece and it had it's share of problems, AOA Academy was one of my favorites and I was anxiously awaiting the release of the next chapter. For some reason, on the week that the next chapter was to be released, the Patreon project was removed and the game thread was flagged as abandoned. No word from the author.

Anyway, I'm just passing this along in case there were other closet fans like me and hadn't already heard the bad news.

 

[JerryC]

AOA Academy has been abandoned.

I bring this up just in case you didn't know. I'm making the assumption that since it is on your list that you aren't aware, but I make no judgement either way.

While it was no literary masterpiece and it had it's share of problems, AOA Academy was one of my favorites and I was anxiously awaiting the release of the next chapter. For some reason, on the week that the next chapter was to be released, the Patreon project was removed and the game thread was flagged as abandoned. No word from the author.

Anyway, I'm just passing this along in case there were other closet fans like me and hadn't already heard the bad news.

Well, I hadn't... It wasn't one of my favorite, I ranked it 24 out of the 92 I played, but I have that custom of giving any abandonned project a penalty of 1/10 on its rating and a few ranks, so it will drop further. I'm still disappointed, as even though I wasn't a huge fan, I liked it enough to play it on every update. Too bad.

 

[jufot]

So, Arisushi and JuniorTheJunior's One Night Stand has finally reached its end. I've written about it once or twice, but this latest chapter deserves its own post. Spoilers below.

---

First, the "normal" route.

After the previous episode, David and Elena finally make their way to a hotel. The place is cheap and shady, like David; and not very memorable, like a one night stand is supposed to be.

Stepping into the room, Elena is aware of what she wants, perhaps on a near-unconscious level, but she doesn't understand why. The why is what frustrates her so, and makes her question herself at every step. Why is she here, with a much older stranger, who readily admits he just wants to fuck her? The answers to that are hinted at throughout the game, but they evade her still.

> She simultaneously felt like a woman who was being lied to, while also being treated just right.

That right there is a one sentence summary of the entire game. It's this little dance they are having, of desire and passion, but also of manipulation and fear.

Meanwhile, David is also conflicted, but for a different reason. He knows this is nothing more than a one time encounter with a stranger, and has to resist the temptation of trying to make it something more. His inner conflict is palpable.

> A part of him wanted to follow and join her.
> But that was not what tonight was about.
> Not for her.

After the act, they both find what they were looking for - clarity. Elena, having achieved her goal, moves to leave. David is melancholic, but tries to do the right thing.

D: I won't forget tonight for a long, long time. But YOU should.
E: Aren't you the guy who said this night was to be remembered forever?
D: Well... Maybe I just realized YOU don't need these kind of memories as a crutch to live your life. So forget everything.

I felt this was true to life. An older, lonely, and troubled man like David has much different expectations from a night like this than Elena, who is so young, vibrant, and full of life. The temptation to ask her to stay is immense, but he knows that wouldn't be the right thing for her, so he lets her go. It was all quite touching and beautiful!

Alas, this route also contains my first and only criticism of the game - the epilogue. I'm not a fan of epilogues. They almost always cheapen the story and are used as narrative clutch for a Hollywood-esque happily-ever-after ending. It's not quite that here, but it's close. I feel the game would have ended on a much higher note at the hotel.

---

Now, the "corruption" route. I use scare quotes because that's not exactly what's going on, not in an AVN sense. But it's what the devs use, so let's stick to that.

> Altruistic as his words were, his strong grasp on her shoulders told a completely different story.

Like I said in my previous post, the theme of this route is David's repulsiveness, teetering on the edge of acceptability, and Elena's scared and excited submission to him. Even the most sweetly of his words are calculated and disturbing. The game is relentless with its infliction of tension here. Both to Elena, and to the player.

Apropos, the sex scene is very different from the other route. It's much more violent (though, crucially, not rapey) and focused on David's urge to use and consume Elena. We get hints that, for him, this is a reenactment of a previous encounter, which is yet another disturbing point in a night full of them.

Post nut clarity is a thing on this route as well, but differs quite significantly. Elena realizes that she was looking for liberation, to violate her own boundaries and become someone else, just for a night. The whole experience was degrading for her, but as long as it's limited to this one night, she can make peace with it.

On the other hand, David's aim is much darker. He is not satisfied by merely having used her body. He wants to mark her, damage her. Not physically, but mentally, and he gets quite frustrated when he realizes he can't read her reaction. How could he let her go if he doesn't know if it worked?

Elena leaves hurriedly, not willing to spend another second with him. In a bone chilling scene, he runs after her and catches her at a bus stop, in the rain, all alone, in the middle of the night, and the curtain falls.

Now that, is a much stronger ending than the other one. Thoroughly repulsive, but very well done.

---

I'll end this like my other posts, with some of my favourite screenshots from the chapter. Thank you Arisushi and JuniorTheJunior for your amazing work, you've really created something special here ❤

 

[kotte]

So, @Arisushi and @JuniorTheJunior's One Night Stand has finally reached its end. I've written about it once or twice, but this latest chapter deserves its own post. Spoilers below.

I stumbled over this little gem yesterday, had never heard of it before - and I really liked it!
I agree with almost everything that Jufot has to say, except maybe about the ending.

Alas, this route also contains my first and only criticism of the game - the epilogue. I'm not a fan of epilogues. They almost always cheapen the story and are used as narrative clutch for a Hollywood-esque happily-ever-after ending. It's not quite that here, but it's close. I feel the game would have ended on a much higher note at the hotel.

I didn't feel that there was an epilogue. In both paths, the final scene is just an image and everything and nothing could happen after that. JuniorTheJunior told me that they had planned for the story to be a little longer if they got more patrons, but since they didn't, this became the end. And I told him that I was convinced that this was good for the game in two ways:

1. The story is a lot better with an open, interpretable ending. I kept thinking about it today, in my mind I invented possible continuations. Mind you, I am closer to David in age than Elena, so I can totally imagine how it would feel, tasting something so beautiful but giving it up for her sake.

2. For the devs, it is a lot better to be able show a good story with a beginning and an end, getting the "Completed" tag here at F95. Makes me think about the discussion we had recently in this thread about devs needing an editor, helping them to kill their darlings. By ending the game where they did, they show that they can create a well-balanced story.

Now I am very much looking forward to what is next to come. Junior said that the next game will probably not be a cooperation between him and Arisushi. I hope they can create an equally good balance between good writing and good looking renders when working in other constellations.

 

[kotte]

I just realized that ONS reminds me a lot of Reconnect by L8ERALgames.
To those of you who liked ONS, I can very much recommend Reconnect.

 

[mr.AwesomeGameTaste]

yeah,the epilogue was the only big criticism I have,this is supposed to be a one night stand,and I totally understand how David would feel,but he should def set Elena free and just leave it there. I'm sorry but I don't see a way for them to be together,I also don't want to know what happened to them after. it should have ended there.

 

[Raife]

I felt this was true to life. An older, lonely, and troubled man like David has much different expectations from a night like this than Elena, who is so young, vibrant, and full of life. The temptation to ask her to stay is immense, but he knows that wouldn't be the right thing for her, so he lets her go. It was all quite touching and beautiful!

---

Post nut clarity is a thing

I strongly endorse everything you say here about this little gem. It's a great game.

The 'normal' ending was bittersweet... which is what life tastes like, if you live long enough. With a little wisdom, you start to understand that the sweet moments are that much more potent with a drop of something else. The bright moments are brighter with a bit of shade.

I concede that 'post nut clarity' actually is a thing... but it's more the absence of 'pre nut fog.'

I'm less convinced that 'post nut epiphany' is a thing. In my experience it's more like: (1) whoooohooo, damn, I'm Superman! Yes! (2) kissing, cuddle, (3) gotta sleep now...zzzzzzzzz. In other words, the post nut thought process lacks significant input from the frontal lobe.

But perhaps we can allow devs a bit of artistic license in this area...