The games you counted didn't have an objectively better story. Most of those games, while great in both their design, characters and scenes, the story in them isn't anything that out of this world. Their settings aren't that different from TT, the only difference is that while the general setting and emotions in the game are the same as Taffy Tales, they're building up to the scenes a bit slower. Rather, they're pretty standard in terms of their settings and story, with the dialogues being pretty good.
I didn't say that they had an objectively better story, i said that i feel that these games are better overall.
If you fixed the issues you noted, I'd say it's pretty much like fixing "all the issues". I'd say that this would be a great game in that case, but as it's obvious, you're not going to agree with this.
For me story as it is right now in the game feels really off. Probably because story doesn't flow very smoothly (which might have been a bug, since i had a lot of problems with this game), or because some scenes feel very out of place, like that scene at the start of the game in shop. And i honestly don't know why i said that game would still be bad even if they fixed story and bugs, i guess it's because i was in a really bad mood, and was being an asshole to feel somewhat better. Sorry for that.
You haven't played Dark Neighborhood, so you haven't seen the huge ass dick the MC had for half of the game. Let go of the meat scepter, it is in the game, and you complaining about the size is just something that you seem to be bothered by. Let there be that 1 guy in this game with a 13 inch dick, let there be women who are into that. It's all a fantasy.
Just for you i downloaded Dark Neighborhood and played it a little, but if you mean that MC's dick at the start of the game is huge, and that it can be compared to dick of Taffy Tales MC's, then i dunno man. Dark Neighborhood MC has dick that reaches his bellybutton, but Taffy Tales MC has a dick that reaches his nipples, and it's twice as thick as Dark Neighborhood MC's dick. It's really too big, and you can see it in blowjob scenes. They all look awful. I just don't understand why they do this. At the start of a game when MC was standing in front of a mirror his dick looked completely fine, but in blowjob scenes it looks thrice as long. Just... why???
A town uncovered is a far older game than Taffy Tales, it's older by over a year from the first released build, and there was a period of over 6 months where they did no proper updates and had a number of promises broken. You talking about "A town uncovered" as a good example isn't exactly a great idea.
Camp pinewood is also almost a year older than Taffy Tales.
Just to be clear, i'm not talking about current updates for most of these games, sorry for that one. I played most of them quite a time ago. But i remember that i played Camp Pinewood when it was at version 0.5 (right now it's 2.2.0), and it had more content and felt better to play than Taffy Tales right now.
There are about 50 scenes in this game that have characters being "exposed". Most of the games you counted also didn't have too many sex scenes, and had a long period of building things up, now you are expecting Taffy Tales to focus on the sex scenes? "A town uncovered", which is one you talked about, maybe has a slightly larger amount of naked/sex scenes, even though it started over a year earlier (Maybe like 10 more at most? considering that it got a few cheap shots with the "alt world").
So, about "A town uncovered"... Yeah, i fucked up on that one. I played it when it was at version 0.12, and it was pretty nice, there were some problems, but i liked it. Art style was nice and cute too. But to refresh my memory i tried it now, at version 0.24... And holy shit, nothing fucking changed. There is basically no new content. And game feels even clunkier than before. I honestly didn't think they would fuck up so badly.
About 50 scenes where characters being exposed... I don't know, i honestly feel that it's not true. Like when i try to remember some scenes, there aren't many of them, 10 or so and then some that i don't remember, maybe 10 more if i have to be generous. It's either that i don't remember them, which honestly could've happened, or it's that scenes where characters being exposed don't mean the same thing for both of us.
Okay, after writing all of this i went into gallery in game and there are 73 (if i'm not completely retarded yet) scenes in game, and even though some of them are just reused scenes with minor adjustments, even if we won't count them it's still around 50 scenes. I was kinda surprised that it had so many, and that 0.10 update had 18 scenes added, basically the whole Gerda's storyline. That's really nice.
Coherent narrative that doesn't make you wonder "Wtf happened"? You should have a number of examples for this? The teacher's story, Clara's story, Gerda's story and Priscilla's story seem all good to me (They are progressing on the fast side, but at least there's at least some reasoning behind each scene). Darnell had the hospital scene out of order (As I remember), but if you make it a bit later, that'll also become ok to me.
There were few, the biggest one being that this "jerking off for money" didn't make sense because dialogues between Clara and Teacher about it played only after a got my first money. Which probably was a bug, but it still made me go kinda "wtf???".
I feel that character stories are good (with the exception of Clara's, but i already explained why), Priscilla's and Gerda's stories were my favorite, especially Gerda's. Darnel's story are kinda stupid, but i liked where they were going with this "sending Darnell to hospital" scene. I don't really hate this guy and would actually like to befriend him, but it's just me thinking aloud.
I got the names wrong, but Clara's storyline isn't bad by any means. First, he sexually assaults her, then blackmails her, then helps her when she most needed it. This is the point which you missed, Clara has had no help for many years and has been struggling with her bills and commitments, no one helped her, other than the MC. MC, for her, is someone who showed dominance over her, but while doing that provided her something that she wished for, and also helped her when she most needed it. Basically he first abused her, which she liked in the inside, then also showed himself as a tree which she can lean on. Gerda and Priscilla's stories are basically of arrogant nymphs being attracted to the MC(Priscilla likely already had an interest in the MC initially, with the whole Tsundere thing). Gerda was in an unhappy marriage (sexually), the husband was a cuck who got off from being submissive, while Gerda actually wanted a dominating guy to take care of her sexually.
As i already said a few times, i haven't played Clara's story to the end since i disliked it from the start. From what i've seen he just raped and harassed her without any reason.
Gerda and Priscilla's stories make perfect sense, and they were the only thing i really liked in this game despite bugs and inconsistencies.
Now in terms of the story, there is the drug storyline linked to Darnell, there's the sister story (where she's seemingly being controlled by Darnell, and maybe Darnell's sister is involved, not sure tho). The Priscilla family storyline seems to have a sort of cultist/strange backstory (Maybe will get worked on later). The mother side doesn't seem to have a big backstory to it, but she's just a horny milf, who seems to have an immoral attraction to her son. The Clara story also wasn't bad. The teacher storyline also was linked to the drug storyline. At any rate, there is a DECENT story to this game.
Now how far will the story go, will there be a story focused update, who are linked, related, it all depends on where he wants to go, but an "heavily story focused game" doesn't need to match what you think is a "heavily story focused game", maybe it isn't that story focused in reality and the dev just thought that the points which I noted are the "story focused part", who knows. You are correct in complaining about the dialogue and the pace of the story (Not enough transition scenes before Priscilla takes Becca to the stables for example) .
I'm fine with that sister thing, but i think that they should not have added her right now, since there's only 2 interactions with her, one in school with Darnell, and second one when she gives you her lucky ball. Why would you add these 2 scenes right now? Should've had at least close these loose ends, so that i wouldn't have these questions.
Story is decent, sometimes even really good, but it's just really broken and doesn't add to a great experience.
As for everything else, i agree with you.
You are talking about bugs, and quest objectives not being good enough, and Darnell being in school. I noticed everything from the start, so I didn't need a walkthrough. I haven't had any bugs in this game in the later versions.
I would never think that ruler would be just lying in front of your sister's room. It's just completely illogical, since there are a few much better places they could've put it.
As for bugs... Well, i played the latest version too, but i had a butt load of bugs and problems.
Maybe Darnell is in school because of story reasons, but we have yet to see the story reasons? Until now, he blackmailed teacher to give him good grades, he likely arranged for the principal to get a BJ, why wouldn't he be allowed in school with these points?
I don't think he blackmailed her, it was probably for drugs. As for why he wouldn't be allowed in school is that he has bad grades, he harasses people in school, probably rape (but maybe not, who knows) and the biggest one of them is that he harasses Priscilla, who should never be harassed, you know? You could say that she just didn't tell her parents about it, but it's just lazy writing. For example, Darnell should've had his ass kicked out of school as soon as he harassed her, without even needing Priscilla to tell her parents about it. Because you know how fucked principal would be if he didn't heavily punish Darnell for it, and Priscilla told her parents about it? Really fucked.
Harry being blackmailed, as I remember, was to make him accept his role as a cuckold. As I remember the MC demanded Harry to let Gerda stay with him. Being able to openly fuck Gerda (And maybe Priscilla later) without it becoming an issue feels like a valid reason to me.
I may be wrong, but i blackmailed him before i started Gerda's story, and in her story there wasn't a single time when blackmailing was mentioned. I thought that being able to openly fuck Gerda was because she wanted it, Harry is a cuck, and mostly because of prophecy.
At any rate, continuing the "war of the text walls" doesn't really have a point, maybe there are others who agree with you, but at least to me, it's obvious that this is one of the more popular and liked games on this forum, so even through its faults, this game is liked by a lot of people.
I just don't know why so many people like this game. I mean, art is great, story isn't bad, but amount of bugs that this game has and incoherent narrative (to which i honestly have no examples, since i played this game a few days ago and i don't really remember it) which makes it not so enjoyable as it could be. Maybe it's just me who had a lot of bugs, then i'm just unlucky i guess.
I really feel that this game can be good, and definitely will be good after a few updates, but right now it's kinda bad.