I Read whole thing. Lets talk about suspension of disbelieve, say you're reading a romance novel and the 2 main characters get in a huge fight but a fairy comes along and fixes everything, would that make sense? Yes, the author NEVER said there AREN'T any fairies but does that mean a fairy magically fixing everything makes sense in the context of the story?
I'll get the tag discussion out of the way quickly if you don't mind.
This is a VN. I don't know why it's not tagged, i don't know how tags work in these cases. Maybe the sandbox or the fact that you can choose the order of events in a limited fashion excludes that tag, but if it was up to me, i would have marked it as such, since we are watching a story unfold. But the sandbox tag is right there, so you had your warning on that front.
The sandbox elements have been a long discussion here and while i never really took a side in them, your criticism there is fair.
But if you read back, you will notice that i never said i don't understand why you don't like the sandbox and never defended it either, so you are doing a bit of shadow boxing there.
Suspension of disbelief: yeah, everyone has different thresholds and it's perfectly possible that this story crossed yours somewhere. That's a valid opinion. But instead of relying on a fairy, i gave a lengthy explanation of how the situation and the characters' background makes a harem situation possible. If that's not enough, then then either it's a matter of your taste, not the writing quality, or i just seriously can't imagine what kind of harem game you could enjoy.
The 4 main women:
Before anything else, i will 100% agree with you that more discussions about their inner conflicts and everything else is welcome and the game should have more of it. Those were my favorite parts of the recent updates.
Chrys: you are not wrong, but it seems to me that you are underestimating the extent of her role playing and how walled of she is at the start. You correctly point out her abandonment issue, but that is exactly what drives her at the start. She is definitely not acting in her best interest at the start, but she thinks that this is what she should do. Correct me if i'm wrong on this one, because my memory is foggy, but i think she and another woman (Riley perhaps) talked about how much they didn't like this whole situation at the start.
Riley: i agree with you here. I don't remember the details of MC's thought process there because it has been years, but until i replay the early parts of the game i'll just rely on your more recent memories.
Harper and Valentina: I'll agree again. Honestly if this game had different routes and for example the harem building didn't work out in some of them, then the scenario where MC ends up with either of these two is probably the easiest to write.
For Felicity you have to keep in mind 3 key details:
She saved MC twice. With the dino-crisis she saved MC, Mrs Powell and gave them a chance to stop the villains while she risked everything.
MC immediately asked for the opinions of Chrys and Aremisia and they were basically on the same page. Artemisia also confirmed that Felicity was not lying.
MC blames himself as well for all this, since he is the one who brought the spy in.
I actually like how she has not been completely integrated to the academy and most of the women there are not happy about her either. Her and Loverstruck's presence must result in some serious scenes in the near future. Not to mention the MC's new devotee. So i think most of Felicity's debate is ahead of us in the story.
On to the MC himself.
I'll have to disagree with you right away. You said yourself that MC is a "goody two shoes" at the start, but he lies to everyone for months, executes a million dollar burglary and he was seconds away from just killing Felicity on the spot when she confesses. He engages in self-destructing behavior in Valentina's story as well. He is tested quite a lot and while it might not change his overall demeanor, i do argue that his personality has changed significantly since the start of the story.
His attitude towards his grandfather is also significantly swayed by the fact that Mrs Powell herself has forgiven him. Also, grandpa's most recent scene is, in my opinion an interesting mix of a slow chance to reconnect and an ultimatum of what he must do if he ever wants his grandson's complete forgiveness.
Regarding your misquoted comment, i still find it a bit strange that this comment triggered that manner of reaction, but that part is your business and the misunderstanding is cleared up.
In the end i just wish you to find something you like out there. Despite our differing opinions on this game it seems to me that there is a significant overlap in our story preferences, so maybe we'll meet again in another thread, Have a nice day.
