Do you think in this game it's how the LI's are portrayed or more the MC himself? He comes across as extremely passive in a lot of the situations. I mean, I get that it's part of what he's going through but it's to the point where other parts of the story are trying to progress regardless of that and it affects the perception of those he's involved with. Seems like you blame Els for not jumping him and Kana for doing so too enthusiastically.
I'm kidding, but do want to recognize that he's not been blameless himself.
That's a very fair question and probably hard to answer for any game thats still being developed with us knowing only parts of the story, but I'll try.
As far as Els goes, it gets worse every episode. The first real 1on1 Interaction we get is at her new apartment and tell me how often has it happened in your life that you needed to tell a friend that you wanna hang out more one on one for it to happen ? I mean that's supposed to happen naturaly/organicaly but for Els it feels like she just fliped a switch in her head and now all of the sudden she wants more 1 on 1 friend time and opens up, its eerie and a bit creepy.
Then the tit for tat question thingy, I get that it's most likely a tool (imo very poorly) used to enhance the story, but man it's the opposite of friendship. Friendship is about doing/sharing things without expecting anything but friendship in return and now those 2 are caught in a loop of "Yea okay, but only if you do it too." I was very pleased that we had the option as the MC to put an end to it, in the car ride back from the garage and I hope that really does end that disaster of a friendship dependency.
Then how she treated her dad. Dude gets out of the car, greets them, says ONE sentence about MC's car and she goes bitch mode. They go inside, he asked about MC living with Allister and she goes bitch mode again. MC and her dad talk about the military and she gives him the stare of death. Not even all of those combined justify her reactions to each of those by themselves. It's like she goes nuclear at the slightest chance of losing even the tiniest bit of control and I HATE control freaks.
The pool scene - everything that happens is her doing : she goes to the pool, undresses and jumps in and then says something along the lines of "happy ? its rare to get me naked!", but the MC didn't get shit, it was all her from A to Z and now she expects a fanfare and a firework display ? That scene felt like the MC is supposed to feel grateful that she graces him with her almighty knockers, almost as if she has that entire scene backwards.
Completely breaks the MC's trust by using her old intelligence contacts to get the MC's file, now I get she wants to help, but the ends doesn't justify the means, this constant theme of her believing she knows better than anyone else is triggering. If she wants the MC to come clean and share, earn it - the hard way, the RIGHT way, but you don't go behind your supposed friends back against his wishes, that was again a total bitch move.
And finally the constant switch between hot and cold. "I'm very fond of you" vs "...under the delusion that I'm interessted in you.", "care deeply about you" vs "I'm immune to your flirting" at the garage she gets mad for the MC flirting and then when they go christmas shopping she gets all hand holding in the cinema and on the street. She has to make up her mind and either not hold back because she's afraid the MC will say "no" or just be the best friend she can be, the back and forth is super anoying.
Like right now, she is at the very bottom of the pile for me, I wouldn't even trust her to heat up Lasagne for the MC.
As for Kana, it's really only the sex scene that was super bad, and I can understand that one can blame the MC for being passive as soon as anything gets real, but we have ample confirmation that the dude knows how to fuck, he literally makes every woman he touches have her eyes roll back into her head, but here he acts like a blow-up doll. As I said, I believe Kana is salvageable, and there is nothing wrong on principle with having a girl thats aggressive in the sack, but I sure hope they have a more balanced sex life moving forward, because that scene just lacked any and all intimacy or balance.
As for the MC, he's clearly still hung-up on Zaina on top of his myriad of other problems, in particular blaming himself for literally everything, which admittingly is getting really old too, but I guess that's part of the main arc and we just have to live with it untill the game offeres a solution to it.
Vi or Amrith would, in many ways, be perfect, but I just can't see them as viable GF's because they are 2 very important pillars that hold the MC upright and allow him to heal. Plus the whole big brother angle makes it feel just not right.
So here's hoping for Kana 2.0, Serena or Ines to turn into women that could give the MC what he needs and deserves.
