Revamp v0.04.2 + Original through Epilogue
The best VN that I have played.
Pros
A school setting is a trope for the MC to fuck everything in sight, with a regular stream of new targets added to keep the audience coming back for more. This side steps the trope and sticks telling a story rather than a fuckathon.
Zack is the MC who the player sees and experiences things through. It would be insulting to call Braden a LI. The story doesn't pack the punches if Braden isn't developed in parallel to Zack. The best example probably is The Pool Scene. The scene doesn't have the impact if Braden's issues with water weren't slowly peeled back, or the recent beach scene prior to it. The shower part of The Pool Scene doesn't have the impact if Braden along with Zack had not been developed in certain ways prior to it.
By avoiding the Harem trope, Aaryn tightly focused on two characters which allowed the LI to be developed into a co-lead character as right as the MC. The story would not have worked as well without that.
- Two Main Supporting Characters
It goes deeper than the focus on two leads. There are two supporting characters that chew up more than 95% of the time spent on or with supporting characters. The focus allows them to develop as characters, for their relationships with the leads to grow, and for them to have more impact.
In the Discussion thread, Aaryn metioned that people didn't initially like Mikhail as they saw him as a threat to Zackden. That got a laugh out of me as it is exactly what I felt. Then Mikhail became a mentor and rock for Zack, or perhaps better put, we all began to see that is what Mikhail was intended to be. Over time when Mikhail had a talk with Zack, offered some advice, or was there to listen, it had more impact that there was one rock for him rather than spilling his guts about different items to different characters that happened to be at hand.
Mom Fucker / Max started as a joke that was so annoying that you wanted him to Get The Fuck out of the game. Over time he developed into a complex, strange, funny, fucked up and impactful character. Who would have thought.
Mikhail and Max don't have the impact they do if Aaryn had a half dozen supporting characters to split that time with. Each with being a favorite with different elements of the fanbase that needs to be serviced with each supporting character needing their hero/impact moments. The collection of characters would either have been half baked, or extra time spent developing a half dozen supporting characters at the expense of the primary Zackden story.
Two decisions to tightly focus on a pair of leads and a pair of supporting characters greatly improve the story. It is almost a form of self editing by a writer, which not many do and few pull it off as well.
A sign of how great is Ash as a character: reading the Discussion thread backwards, at a certain point it is just Ash. Whatever came before is simply subsumed into Ash and that's what we know him as. We just go with it as more is peeled back.
His impact is so strong, his development so deftly handled, that there is no moment in the VN that choked me as much as the Bus Stop Moment. A lot of other moments choked me up, but that one did the most.
- Avoids the Break Up Trope
When Zack & Braden have their first rough spot, 99 out of 100 would have Zack go hook up with Mikhail or someone else. It would be an excuse to transition into a Harem VN. Braden would accepting it once they got back together and Zack got around to telling Braden that he was fucking other people. 98 out of 100 would eventually have a threesome with Braden and the new LI.
This didn't for a moment head in that direction. Thank god.
It felt like effort was put into the variety of facial expressions, especially when Zach and Braden were talking and interacting. It is impossible for a game as long as this with as much dialogue as it has not to recycle a lot of basic facial art. This felt like attention was given to facial changes at different beats in conversations to a degree that it regularly felt fresh. As so much was story and conversation driven, that was a big positive.
Could Be Improved
Aaryn has often acknowledged this. It is greatly improved in the Revamp. Really this could be improved is one he is dealing with/dealt with. A backdoor positive.
- Jock Strap 1 & Jock Strap 2
Jock Strap 1 has a place as athletic underwear under the singlet, and as a tease towards Zack. It gets overplayed as Braden's regular underwear under everything.
Jock Strap 2 is horrible. I don't feel the tease element improves on Jock Strap 1, which already lost its impact by that point. It is worse as it becomes Braden's underwear for the rest of the story. It looks bad, no one would wear it under regular clothes or even the singlet, and the jock aspect is already played out. Just awful, and often distracting in a not-good way because it's so unrealistic.
Braden's boxers and briefs were fine. I thought he looked the best/hottest in the boxers, but the briefs had a purpose as a change in wear and there probably are people who think he looks hotter in those.
It would have been much better to get through Jock Strap 1, skip Jock Strap 2 entirely, and get back to boxers and briefs. I wouldn't want a thong in the place of JS2 given Braden's body issues. Keep the initial JS1 scenes to get the tease aspect, and get back to normal everyday underwear.
Sorry if I ran that one into the ground. I don't have any real negatives about the VN, so picked the one thing that annoyed me the most.
Sequel / Spinoff
Please no sequel or spinoff.
This tells the story that needs to be told. The endings are perfect, whether one picks Chapter 10 as the real end, or views the Epilogue as the real end.
I am an Epilogue person as the two have laid their souls bare to one another so much in the story that they warrant being together at the end.
What happens after the end of the VN? Who knows. They are college freshmen, soon-to-be college sophmores, who are in love for their first times. Straight, gay or bi, how many of us are still with our first love, or who we were with our freshman year in college? That is one of the beauties of the VN: it leaves the future open to the reader.
A sequel removes that beauty.
None of that isn't something Aaryn hasn't already written. Just want to encourage him to stick to his initially guns on there - the story is inspired and excellent, landing well in its close.
Some people suggest a sequel, such as Ash in the setting he is off too. Ash is perfect as he is with a finish that one never would have expected when first meeting him. His future lives on far better in our own minds to navigate.
A lot of us impulsively would like to see
more of the hotty Cody. There is something wonderful about a minor character that floats through the story as minor, has limited impact, never is pulled into a harem, yet sticks with us because visually he is cute as hell while not doing anything sexy or sexual. That wonderful aspect would be lessened if we had a spinoff that invest as much time in Cody as we saw with Zach and Braden.
Rather than a spinoff or sequel, I am happy to wait for a new story by Aaryn that comes from the heart to the degree that this one did. This is a very personal story. To mix two metaphors, I would rather see him push himself to mine a new vein when inspired than going back to the same well.
Highly recommended.