But he has some valid points i think we discussed aswell time ago. He has this crtique because he has to change mid development.. and i think its fair to do it. His older game had similar issues with rereleasing chapters which does alienate current fans of his work .. and if the product fails to generate enough new ones .. youre cutting yourself . I think without the changes of the story .. just the better renders he would be on the first page of the filtered "by rating" games here which is a shame because he belongs there.
Ofc you can argue the good old "its his vision he can do whatever he whats" and its somewhat true.. he will do whatever he wants but many ppl see the game worse (writing). but changing charactermodels, and have a mc which considered letting vic die to chapter 4,5 he cuddles and let girls sleep on him did not give credit to his trauma. He did suffer for years and now he is in some days in college, did have 2 therapie sessions and hes another guy
I get its about healing ... and not succumb to pain and trauma ... but all he did need is school and some sleepovers. Its weird
Although your reproaches are true in many points, this works both ways. Why don't you take into account the fact that there is a long distance in terms of feelings and emotions between the MC who's rambling this nonsense about letting the suffering stranger die to escape living the life in pain and the MC who went through a series of deep emotional moments with Vic and developed a true bond of trust and friendship with her (hospital, his promise to her, her revelations about being bullied)? And this isn't the first time this scene has come up to prove that the MC is a crazy maniac at that moment. He may be on the edge, but he still struggles with it. How did you guys even read it as he was seriously going to let Vic die, have you all been bitten by Marla?
Isn't it obvious that he was echoing his dark thoughts as he inspecting Vic. "I live in pain and suffering, I want to end this -> She will live in pain and suffering, maybe it's better to let her go." But his actions say otherwise, he tries to help her the best he can (questionable efforts, but that's not the point). While the adult and supposedly responsible Marla runs around in circles waving her gun.
And besides school and some sleepovers, he constantly pushed himself into social interactions, although at first he was mostly faking it (read the new dialogue with Nami in his room after his first day of college). But meeting new people and being involved in their lives seems to have caused a change in his attitude towards himself and others.
Were the changes too fast? I think everyone has their own pace in this matter. I remember that Richard Bandler, the co-founder of neuro-linguistic programming wrote something about how the brain learns quickly: "...And change doesn't need to be slow or painful. If you can learn to create something as sophisticated as a phobia, fear or compulsion, you can learn to use the same ability to do something different in the same situations." Maybe Nika's willingness to constantly push himself to connect with people is that "something different" that caused a fast change in his state of mind and is the key to his healing.
