Okay, after some issues, I've finally played this update... I'm usually pretty chill with these updates and there's no difference here, however I did find this to be a disappointing one. A lot of that may have come from the build up, but rather than that in terms of dev time, it's more about where we were at the end of the last update against where we went (and didn't go) in this update (I'm looking at Eve and Bree/Bree's hairbrush more than anything else!).
First, the issues - I've never had this in a game, but in the middle of me playing it (in fact, it was very close to the end of the update), my game closed unexpectedly, the .exe file went missing from the folder, and the folder got locked down. It took me a while (becuause I've never had it happen with anything else, either) to figure out it was my antivirus suddenly deciding to quarantine the executable. Why it did that, and why in the middle of playing, I don't know. I could understand if it was going to do it, doing it when I initially opened the file, but no...
Anyway, the update itself was disappointing as I say, because of what did and didn't happen. and as others have said, for me, it was largely "didn't happen". Someone described it as a "nothing burger" and I think that's pretty accurate. A big chat with Mike, phone/Ember chats with Mom, Becca, and Cassandra - all took a little while to go through, and I didn't feel any of them really did anything to move the story on. Cassandra possibly for the next update, as she said something about needing you later. Mike absolutely not, and that just felt like a recap of what happened last time, which is not needed in a game like this.
Sophie maybe sums up the reasoning though. A bit of foresight in the writing perhaps?
The sex scene (yep, just one, and "sex" is maybe open to interpretation) was good for what it was. Sadly, it wasn't much. I liked the scene itself, but it was over too quickly, with barely anything happening before both players were finished. The follow up was just a flash really, I thought there was going to be a blowjob, but it was absolutely nothing and completely not worth putting in.
(Side note: the gallery does bug me a bit, because it has a fair bit in there, but only a few are actual sex or nudity scenes. It labels stuff Intimate, Lewd, and Sexual - "Sexual" seems about right, but I can't figure out "Lewd" and "Intimate" because lewd appears to be non-sex nudity, but then is also used for several scenes with no nudity. I think the labels are being heavily overused, with most of them not worthy of a "lewd" label at all, and not deserving of a gallery spot either.)
The interactions with Kate were weird. Given how it went down, options may have led to something different, but I chose the options that looked most likely to smooth things over, with the intention of changing her mind. Instead, I ended up just accepting it and saying I'd "do it for her" - again, it might be that the different choices would accommodate this, but I wouldn't have dropped it so easily there. I'd also have told at least one of the others, especially the girls who were all pretty much saying "we have a few weeks" for whatever they were after...
So yeah, this really felt like filler. Mia is probably the only one we got any progression with, but to be honest, a fair chunk of that was already started in the last update.
Anyway, playing gave me an opportunity to go back through the gallery and the game to grab some screenshots, so here's my provisional (pending seeing more of the girls) set of ranking cards:
(Just my opinions based on looks, not ranked within each tier).
Something I noted when putting these cards together - they have almost the same expression, which counts for a lot, but does anyone else think Jenni and Lainey look like they could be sisters or something? They seemed pretty comfortable in each other's presence at Freya, so I wonder if they might be sisters who share...
And dreaming of the possibilities too.
