VN Ren'Py Summer's Gone [S1 Steam + DLC] [Oceanlab]

[BobTheDuck]

I think Bella is not manipulated by Vanessa. she's just insensitive that's why she doesn't know how to read people. and also, she doesn't scare easily, that's why maybe she think Vanessa as a weird and idiot person. just my opinion.

I mean, Vanessa is basically grooming Nami in front of Nika. It might be called charisma, but that's what I mean about good manipulator not signposting. It's one of the reasons Vanessa has the snake jewellery, and wears a roman emperor style tiara. She sees herself as elite and able to twist anyone to her will, and believes that they will love her for manipulating them. That's why she lashed out at Zara when Zara interrupted her strip.

Vanessa's manipulation isn't based on power or coercion, it's more the manipulation like Pavlov's dog. Bella's too impatient to notice she's being played.

 

[vanilla1Popcorn]

I have to ask... drunk, high, or fapping?

i'm just bias

 

[vanilla1Popcorn]

I mean, Vanessa is basically grooming Nami in front of Nika. It might be called charisma, but that's what I mean about good manipulator not signposting. It's one of the reasons Vanessa has the snake jewellery, and wears a roman emperor style tiara. She sees herself as elite and able to twist anyone to her will, and believes that they will love her for manipulating them. That's why she lashed out at Zara when Zara interrupted her strip.

Vanessa's manipulation isn't based on power or coercion, it's more the manipulation like Pavlov's dog. Bella's too impatient to notice she's being played.

Every time you comment, your details are always on point. You're really good at explaining things, Bobtheduck. is that u ocean?dummy account?

 

[vanilla1Popcorn]

Is Ocean also working on a new game called Shattered Memories?

 

[BobTheDuck]

Every time you comment, your details are always on point. You're really good at explaining things, Bobtheduck. is that u ocean?dummy account?

Nah I'm just Bob. I like Ocean's games, I try to pay attention to the details and I probably have played the game in different releases too many times. My main job is editing details so I have a tendency to focus on the little things ...other than my typos.

I doubt Ocean will ever come back posting here. It's easy enough for him to view the thread without logging in if he wanted to see all the "dev bad! Bad dev!" comments when he's having too good a day and needs to bring himself down to normal.

 

[Ray_D]

Is Ocean also working on a new game called Shattered Memories?

Not that I know of, for now the only thing I know is that allegedly WIAB episode 4 will be released.

 

[Dee6902]

I think Bella is not manipulated by Vanessa. she's just insensitive that's why she doesn't know how to read people. and also, she doesn't scare easily, that's why maybe she think Vanessa as a weird and idiot person. just my opinion.

Just my two cents. Although both have cases of manipulation, correct me if I'm wrong but Nika's tactics you could say is more exploiting smaller things and pushing peoples button like mentioned in the second game with Nadia and Zara but even the first one when he flustered Bella by simply talking about her eyes. He hasn't really changed his personality. While Vanessa, and i'll say we don't actually know her interaction with Bella, has actively changed how's she's perceived and actions completely when Nika and Nama were over as well. Only other thing I can think of is Nika playing with Nami's "love" life which Definity counts more that the Basketball games. Vanessa scares me, but i'm interested to see her interact with more people especially Bella again.

 

[Ray_D]

I think Bella is not manipulated by Vanessa. she's just insensitive that's why she doesn't know how to read people. and also, she doesn't scare easily, that's why maybe she think Vanessa as a weird and idiot person. just my opinion.

Bella is just a little retarded and Vanessa definitely knows how to move and manipulate, if nika is an average manipulator vanessa would be a competitive manipulator. Just remains to see how ocean does to handle that in the future.

 

[vanilla1Popcorn]

Not that I know of, for now the only thing I know is that allegedly WIAB episode 4 will be released.

it's funny, I asked chatgpt who's the most manipulative in oceanverse.
his answer is
1. Maya from shattered memories
2. Nika from Summer's gone
3. Vanessa from summer's gone
and I immediately searched the game but I can't find it, I asked gpt again , he ssaid ocean didn't release it yet. lol

 

[BobTheDuck]

it's funny, I asked chatgpt who's the most manipulative in oceanverse.
his answer is
1. Maya from shattered memories
2. Nika from Summer's gone
3. Vanessa from summer's gone
and I immediately searched the game but I can't find it, I asked gpt again , he ssaid ocean didn't release it yet. lol

1. is a AAA game on steam, definitely not Ocean. It's a survival horror.

 

[Ray_D]

it's funny, I asked chatgpt who's the most manipulative in oceanverse.
his answer is
1. Maya from shattered memories
2. Nika from Summer's gone
3. Vanessa from summer's gone
and I immediately searched the game but I can't find it, I asked gpt again , he ssaid ocean didn't release it yet. lol

chatgpt is not very reliable, but if you want to meet a real professional manipulator I would suggest judge holden.

 

[vanilla1Popcorn]

1. is a AAA game on steam, definitely not Ocean. It's a survival horror.

i know , the silent hill one. but gpt really talked about other game . he talked about ocean, gpt said he mentioned it once in his pantreon. his parallel project.

 

[BobTheDuck]

i know , the silent hill one. but gpt really talked about other game . he talked about ocean, gpt said he mentioned it once in his pantreon. his parallel project.

Doesn't sound like one of the one's Ocean's already spoken of, but working titles change. We only know the vagues about planned games, which he's got outlines/concepts for. I imagine he toys around with the broad scripts in his spare time in order to keep SG and WiaB in line with his future plans. I also think Ocean would be dead in the water if he started a stealth project on the side, diverting subs money to a separate project.

 

[Mamaragan]

When it comes to MC, between his attempt to manipulate people in high school, manipulate Sai with Nami, or his little "plan" to get back at the holdersons using vanessa, his attempt at manipulating the women at the book club to get Noji at the top, or hacking into an innocent woman's phone.
I feel like he's just a wannabe manipulator. Like those edgy emo kids back in high school, but with nno raw talent to be one. But as Ayua said, his little game can have unforeseen consequences, that I feel like he's going to learn the hard way.

 

[N1ghtcrawler]

Also Vanessa's manipulating Bella by pretending not to be smart.

Vanessa's manipulation isn't based on power or coercion, it's more the manipulation like Pavlov's dog. Bella's too impatient to notice she's being played.

Vanessa didn't pretend she wasn't smart. People behave differently around family members, friends, coworkers, and strangers. And Vanessa is indeed a spoiled rich girl and a very narcissistic person. She may have worn a mask around Bella, but it doesn't necessarily mean it was an attempt to manipulate her. From all we know, Vanessa probably acted around her the way she acts around her friends - discussing shopping, fashion, guys and gossiping.

Moreover, such behavior is not a sign that a person isn't smart. And given Bella's habit of putting derogatory labels on people left and right and jumping to conclusions, I'd assume she played herself. Again, anything that comes out of her mouth should be treated with skepticism.

How many times have we discussed this already?

As a model, Bella is better, but as far as personality traits, Bella's a loose canon, and Mila is far more trustworthy. You're judging Mila for things she did when she was a teenager, without keeping in mind Bella's an even worse level of two facedness. Consider how she treats Kate and even Robyn - 'judgemental, bigoted, cowardly' completely describes Bella.

I'll raise your disagreement by 1

Bella is judgmental. How many times does she judge Nika on his looks and lack of wealth? And the same for MIla, but that's a different thing as we discover there is bad blood, but she still judges Mila on her poverty, much like the people she despises. And doesn't she judge the Holgersons without having any real proof of anything? Our whole perspective on Stefan is biased on Bella's judgment. THen the way she talks at the diner, also judging people for ostentatious wealth. And judging NIka over Elsa being out of his league and him staring hopelessly...

Bigoted, well see above. She is bigoted toward poor people, and poor people germs.

Cowardly, well, okay, not so accurate a descriptor, but about as equivalent as it applies to Mila. As Mila was beaten up her whole life, does coward really suit her? In her case it's pavlovian reflex, learned behaviour. Mila also has stood up for people, so coward doesn't fully describe her.

Edit: I focused on that bit and didn't flesh out my reply. 'she will do 10x what was done to her.' This is what most bullies start from. This is why she bullied Nami, sight unseen (how did that even happen?). Both Bella and Vanessa I have trouble with, in that I wouldn't be friends with them in real life, because I'd be switched off by their antics. As characters in an AVN, they stir up a lot of narrative choices, so they're great as antagonists, even if they're not 100% intended as such. Having such polarising characters works wonders for the depth of the story and where it can go. I imagine Adrianna will be similarly feisty.

In the same way, Kate is not meant to be a nice character, and her motives are underhanded. I can't wait to see how Ocean shoehorns her into the drama, much in the same way Vanessa is dangerous - but because of her connections to the Holgersons though, the magnitude of how she can screw Nika up is much higher than anything Kate can do.

It'll be interesting to see how nasty a piece of work Melanie is. I wonder if she'll be hidden in the background somewhere this update - I'm guessing it's too early to actually interact with her this next chapter.

 

[BobTheDuck]

Vanessa didn't pretend she wasn't smart. People behave differently around family members, friends, coworkers, and strangers. And Vanessa is indeed a spoiled rich girl and a very narcissistic person. She may have worn a mask around Bella, but it doesn't necessarily mean it was an attempt to manipulate her. From all we know, Vanessa probably acted around her the way she acts around her friends - discussing shopping, fashion, guys and gossiping.

Moreover, such behavior is not a sign that a person isn't smart. And given Bella's habit of putting derogatory labels on people left and right, I'd assume she played herself. Anything that comes out of her mouth should be treated with skepticism.

How many times have we discussed this already?

Still, Vanessa plays to people's preconceptions, she uses them against thmselves. Her theories about men; there is no way that her striptease was anything other than her playing with Nika, it wasn't a romance moment, but her fishing. Same with her playing with Nami, Vanessa drew out some of Nami's desires and amplified them. Same with Zara's competitiveness, she riles Zara, knowing her pressure points. So if Vanessa knows Bella thinks she's a bimbo, she'll amplify that preconception to control the situation.

She reminds me of Kellhus Anasûrimbor from

Spoiler: The Prince of Nothing series

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va "Who says I don't know Mila?"
scene sb1513 with dssa
mi "I have never seen or spoken to you before."
scene sb1514 with dssa
va "And yet, I know so much about you... Miss Steiner."



Vanessa read people and tries to ascertain their composition, what makes them tick. Whether a game or in earnest. Masking her intelligence is just another method to an ulterior motive, and she's more than likely to pursue that motive just to stack her hand. She's highly intelligent, and once curse of intelligence is the tendency towards boredom - intelligence solves tasks quickly, leaving the mind free for speculation, and then developing ways to keep the mind mobile and amused/content.


All through the dinner, Vanessa is observing and filing away notes - Noji being prudish, Nika and Nami having a very close relationship, Nami being more open sexually, Nika not falling for her games. She doesn't need to manipulate them yet, but she now holds those cards. Mila's first moment in the Benz house, and Vanessa's already pulling cards out, clearly defining a power imbalance.


As far as Bella goes, she might be a cunt in all her cuntiness, but aside from that, she's not completely imperceptive. The way she goes through the patient records (illegally) and the way she scoped out the Holgersons security with the intent to do illegal things shows she's perceptive. Her treatment of Brenda and the situation at the Relucia Diner, as well as her reflexes/intuition to stay alive while racing shows that she's not lacking perception, she's just careless in her self absorbed state.


Do you really think Bella would consider Vanessa an 'airhead' if she was present at the Benz's dinner? Of course she wouldn't. That means Vanessa wasn't being herself around Bella, because Zara implies Vanessa is basically playing nice for NIck's sake. So the full Vanessa more than what we've seen.


I also find the snake apt, with the temptation. I know it's obvious, but the archetypical serpent in the garden doesn't do anything, merely offers and opinion and a question (that which comes before determines what comes after etc.)

 

[MIkedante]

it's funny, I asked chatgpt who's the most manipulative in oceanverse.
his answer is
1. Maya from shattered memories
2. Nika from Summer's gone
3. Vanessa from summer's gone
and I immediately searched the game but I can't find it, I asked gpt again , he ssaid ocean didn't release it yet. lol

After ChatGPT answered to very simple question, in what I'm and my older sister is really good (I gave him our names of course) and that dumbass answered that we are both one of well known actors in our country, which we really not, and even showed me long list of non-existing roles we takes in existing movies and story series., instead of trying to find some relevant facts about us, I stopped using this tool, because it's more Ííííí Áááá, than AI.

Just imagine if Nika take Vanessa as GF. That duo will rule whole town.

 

[Massagecook01]

I'll happily call out Ocean when he's making bs excuses, as he did with the workstation AND the cable - both were complete bs. He could've used a cable from a fucking Macintosh and it'd been perfectly fucking fine. His excuse was like saying you can't use your new phone bc Samsung and Apple no longer ship phones w/ power blocks. That cable has been massive overkill for 40 years and will be for another 40. Hell, I've even pointed out the idiocy of leasing it rather than just building one himself.

Anyway, the people complaining here now... you have nothing to fucking complain about at this point. Development is moving. And wtf is with the crying about him focusing on getting the update out for WiAB? SG would likely be in even worse shape than WiAB today if its Patreon had gotten shut down than WiAB is now. SG is literally the porn game known for not having porn. There's a lot to criticize, but for the first time in fucking years we're going to actually get new content. Just fucking chill. He'll likely give you an actual reason to bitch in the next couple of weeks.

When he drops another clearly bullshit excuse, please, by all means, let him and everyone else know about it.

And to the dude moaning that Ocean's post work is shit... show me a single dev who is on his level and isn't absolutely fucking struggling their asses off to hit 700 render updates per year. Hell, you've got games like Casual Desires who have gone w/o an update for 17 months and just announced the next update will be 616 renders. And Ocean's at over 5000. That's an update that's bigger than the majority of the VN's on this site and his games are literally the standard every other VN is judged by visually. You can whine about him trying to be overly cinematic by blurring the backgrounds in certain close up scenes, but it's quite literally his visual style that has made him one of the most successful devs in the space. None of us, even other devs, have any right to fucking ridicule what he's doing visually until someone comes along who outperforms him in quality and quantity. There's a lot you CAN criticize, but visual quality isn't something you'll be able to justify any time soon.

So you care about the looks of the renders/characters more than the story progressing which hasn't moved forward since winter of 2023 and here we are now spring of 2025. please tell me why the hell does looks of a game matter more than the story progressing i fell to understand please help me understand this. because if I want to see pretty pics of women I will buy a playboy or a vogue magazine not play a AVN, and the evidence and proof shows Ocean cares more about the looks of summer's gone than the story which is why it's taking so long for a update. but if i see nami/bella/mila/victoria all pretty and shinny i guess i'll forget about each of their story's huh ?thats what i'm being told. what about the story of bella's twin sister, what about the date between nika and mila, what about the story of vic walking again, what about the story of nika's and nami romance. are we suppose to forget about all that and just focus on the beautiful renders and music only? because i can care less about pretty pic's and music, i care about seeing the progression of all the character's story moving forward and i'm sure i'm not the only one. bear in mind there are AVN's out there that don't look all that great but are popular but the Dev put's out updates on a regular and there are AVN's out there that look great and the Dev puts out updates on a regular and both their storys are amazing and then you Ocean who is far different when it comes to the look's of his AVN's and the story and he don't put out updates on a regular, so who sould get support ?

 

[Dr.TSoni]

Now that you mention it nami is a shitty person

 

[BobTheDuck]

View attachment 4753144

So the question really is: can I count the non-shitty characters on one hand, or is there anyonone completely unshitty in the entire Oceanverse?