DISCLAIMER: Despite the opinion expressed here, WW is by far one of the most dedicated developers on this site, and deserves all the support he gets. Superhuman is a far more coherent and enjoyable work by virtue of its plot (rather than just its pornographic content) than 99% of games on this site. And its porn content generally rivals its plot, which is saying a lot.
Ooof, I should probably keep my clearly very unpopular thoughts about this update to myself, but I'm drunk and feeling dangerous. My personal biases (opinions and literature experiences) heavily influence my enjoyment of this update, obviously.
The update, even if you ignore Aglaecwif v Laurie (which I don't wanna; my vote counts, godsdammit!), left me highly disappointed.
Michael vs Oscar and Michael vs Lightning Monster were dynamic fights with oodles of action and twists. Michaels' prep was ingenuous, and his tactics exciting. MC vs Valravn was even better. As far as I'm concerned, MC vs Valravn is the best fight we've had till date.
MC vs. Deryl, on the other hand? Reminded me of the GiantBossTM fights of the noughties, where you exhaust their moveset by dodging it, attack as they "recharge", and rinse and repeat. And find a safe space when it telegraphs its massive AoE. Very basic. And boring. I love Theoden's charge, but kill me instead of telling me about every hew and stroke of his blade during that charge.
Alice (and Laurie) vs The Bat was fun, albeit short. But the rest of their fights relied far too heavily on the Rule of Cool. "Look, Alice lvl2! So awesome!" Meh. MC's lvl2 was epic. Alice's was so telegraphed, I just wanted to be done with it. The same goes for Michael's powers, of course, although the latter is somewhat better as we realise he needs actual combat to develop. But, again, that was so obvious, I really did not derive much enjoyment from the scenario.
Ella's fight did nothing for me either... 2Bleach4Me, if you know what I mean. Even worse if she's actually dead, as it's a really disappointing end to one of my favourite characters. As I said, personal biases.
Now, before the next section, I should point out that I generally enjoy occasional exhibitions of MC's helplessness. I like the fact that he isn't (yet) the one ubermensch to rule them all. Nico casually kills him? Makes sense. Need lvl2 to fight MonsterKlaus? Duh. Valravn can stomp the unoptimised? Absolutely. Heck, I support lvl1 Deryl, given MC's injuries and Deryl's prep, taking on lvl2 MC. Narratively, I consider it a very logical culmination of the situation.
But Deryl got wanked to high heaven in this update. Let's get the meta out of the way: Deryl gets to impregnate milfylicious monster (regardless of consequences, because you can bet your arse he isn't dying due to that choice), save Laurie, and survive (in one form or another)? Fuck that noise. Imma cheat.
However, more importantly, Deryl should never have been the main boss for MC, let alone requiring lvl3! Even if he's a Variant, this feels like MC just grows way too slowly. MC already fought to a standstill against a low-level Deryl. This fight should have been an efficient curbstomp. Don't even get me started on the whole, "hesitation," bit. MC hesitates and immediately dies because, "Only the strong get to hesitate," but Deryl can hesitate and not get pulverised instantly by a lvl3 MC? Uh-huh... He became a Variant at lvl2. This is just far too much of a wank. And, before anybody else tries to point it out, yes, my frame of reference is a validation fantasy with the MC at its centre. That's simply how the game is structured. At this point, however, it feels like the best thing about the MC is, "Muh poWaH so spEsHuL!" The whole harpoon thing... made me groan. Might be an uncommon reception to the new move, but eh. To shift gears to meta, it feels like WW has lost steam with MC's powers, so he's started relying more on the Rule of Cool with EyeMC dead end. After months of prep, MC felt very undeveloped, as opposed to Deryl with prep. At this point... gimme MichaelMC or DerylMC, please. They're proper alphas. And I absolutely hate the whole alpha-omega terminology. It doesn't even hold true for wild wolves, let alone humans!
Also, to anybody who might think otherwise, I love Deryl. I would have my MC help him get with the harem of his dreams, even if it includes Alice. But I still need my MC to feel a bit special due to his own efforts/intelligence! So, if you want to agree with me just because you hate Deryl, feel free to do so, but know that I fundamentally don't agree with you.
I was hyped for the fight due to its implied scale, but, at the end of the day, I can't really consider it as anything more than, "quantity over quality." The fights could definitely have been cut down by a lot without loss of any information.
If you thought I'm heavily biased till now, hoo boy, will you hate the next section. So another disclaimer: The following sections are based purely on personal preferences. To a certain extent, the previous section can be considered criticism, but not the following section; it's just a rant.
At the end of the day... I'm an avid reader. So this game, despite its admirable plot (given the income of the creator), largely attracts me due to the addition of porn. But I'm not interested in NTR and FeMC (getting fucked; love futaMC). That leaves 3 scenes. Except one of them (Aglaecwif) is not legitimately obtainable. So I'm left with 2... Except, while FullNTRLiz is a bona fide badass (and semiNTRLiz is a fuckwit), RomLiz is probably the most boring character in the game. That leaves one scene... which is a boring handjob with Deryl's girl (bros before hoes, as Carefree247 pointed out) and another girl who is oversaturated with scenes. And the entire bonfire scenario felt highly out of place as it is narratively treated as the aftermath of the fight. Plus, in a situation where only certain girls would get scenes, I would have appreciated scenes with the more ignored girls (Angelina, Demi, etc.; and I don't even like Demi!). Not the most overrepresented characters, i.e. Liz and Alice.
Finally... I absolutely hate the direction of the game. The lore drops did very little for me. Some aliens, a rift in the ocean, and the Gods that the aliens worship. Leans more into, "MC powah so special," and less into, "MC pretty resourceful badass." (Michael, Deryl, and quite a few of the girls easily fulfill the latter condition and more). I believed (my fault, obviously) that MC would be the most important bastion against eldritch invasion because of himself, not his powers.
And... an arc about the twins? I like Amber, but she's a cliche, and I don't even like RomLiz. The only way I'm going to actually like the next update is if NTRLiz dies (might actually choose Liz NTR on main route), but I highly doubt that's going to happen. And, no, we're far too late into the game for the upcoming storyline to warm me up to them. Next update will decide whether I unsub from the game or not; sadly, I believe it will be the former. Shame, it's one of the few games on this site worth supporting.
I have not mentioned Laurie's death because others have already mentioned it. I agree with any opinion that suggests the whole scenario was massively contrived. MC should've easily prevented it, regardless of derylwin. MC et al should've terrified Jared out of his puny little mind. MC et al should've put Charlie et al on edge. This is just another example of MC getting lowballed for the plot.
I do not intend to defend this opinion (still might), so feel free to ignore it, hate it, or abuse it. But, if possible, definitely support WW. We need to encourage development of games of this quality. If you've read this part, thank you for reading an intoxicated idiot's rant... I need to get a life...
P.S. A bit of context: I am far more receptive to sci-fi graviton spheres and lasers than, "Animal Kingdom OP!" I am simply far to aware, from a very (very) young age that disproportionately proportional levels of strength/force are largely due to size and engineering, while not irrelevant, has a far more minor role. So, yeah, Mantis Punch and Mantis Harpoon are whatever.