Bro, just get me right, I'm not trying to validate your opinion or criticize it, but it's kind of weird to say you don't have a baseline on the MC's state of mind. I can right away remember of two these baselines.
You're right about the first one. His hallucination, or whatever it was, was a baseline in a way.
The day before, the MC exclaimed that he didn't know how to move on. The day after, he
met with Ella and Maddy, who encouraged him to try and move on. To, like you say, find his missing part.
And I do believe this is his intent, but this doesn't mean that he can just flip a switch and doesn't feel guilt or shame. That he is trying to put himself out there, doesn't mean he has to like everything that an LI says or does. He's allowed to have doubts, to add some nuance to what he's experiencing. It's entirely up to players to fill in how genuinely the MC is trying. Is he going through the motions to try and feel something for someone who isn't Ella, or is he getting genuine feelings for them?
The bridge, I don't see as a baseline because this gets
resolved by Charlotte. He's at his lowest point there, and Charlotte's intervention helps him overcome it. You're right though, and I agree with you, that this event does reaffirm that he's still struggling.
From my notes:
Code:
"Were you seriously on the bridge because you condemned a young father left with a newborn
baby in his arms after the unexpected death of his wife for not thinking clearly and not asking
for tests that he didn't even know existed?"
This feels overly simplified to me. While this was a tipping point, it ignores all underlying
reasons. At the end of the day, he feels alone.
Also, with the MC having stood there for over 10 minutes (that Charlotte knows of), it would've
been interesting to see a glimpse of his inner struggle. He'd be thinking of being responsible for
Maddy's death, for not deserving to live, or wanting to be reunited with his family. About Ben
and Vicky, and how disappointed they'd be in him.
Her speech I also took as a message to players. Everyone grieves differently, and it's impossible to really put yourself into someone else's shoes. But these same words can apply to the game as well.
If there's no prescribed way to grieve, and players can fill in how the MC is grieving, then the game needs to offer a wealth of choices to support this. But, because this is an impossible task for any dev, he needs to guide the player somewhat by having the MC telegraph what he's going through... How he translates the player's choices into his own motivations to do (or not do) something.
At the end of chapter 2, the game still supported my interpretation of the MC. But for how long? When will the game say "you haven't fucked Sarah yet, she's tired of getting nowhere with you, this is a game over"?
And, let's be honest... Most players will just take the path that leads to a lewd and declare the MC
healed, with little thought given about his inner journey.
Sometimes I feel some disagreement, resistance regarding MC's actions.
Right, this is something I experience as well. I try my hardest to not self-insert, but for roleplaying I require feedback from the MC.
Let's say there's some AVN with a meek MC, then I'll make meek choices for him. That is, until the game/story makes this MC grow and learn something.
But then, I might focus on what I would do, not what was actually said in the story. It's like having in mind 2 versions, the one written and the one corrected by myself.
I find this challenging in TMP.
yossa999 is right that there are some events that let us infer what the MC is truly feeling, but we still don't know what he's actually thinking. If this was an entirely kinetic story, it would've been much easier. But, we're also tasked with making choices, to guide the MC while trying to read his mind.
I bet you like Marcel Proust and Leo Tolstoy. I can't read them.
Never read them... Maybe I should
These notes are my way of working through things. I write down my impressions and what I think something means. Sometimes, I'm entirely wrong and misinterpret things though.
He is mostly shown as mid-to-late thirties man, I don't expect him to grow a lot at that time span.
To me, it's more like meeting various circumstances and perhaps overcoming a challenge or two, and developing some relationships with people (like Lisa and her mother Charlotte; could be also with his own mother etc).
I don't mean he has to be an entirely different person at the end of the story. I do expect being taken on a journey of the MC either learning to love again, or to be happy/content with the (possible celibate) life he's living out before his expected return to Ella and Maddy. Or, maybe he goes about his grief in all the wrong ways, becoming a sex-addicted manwhore because he keeps trying to find that missing part in women's orifices. (Or any other potential way he could turn out.)
Yes, sometimes I wish we players had some more choices. In that case though, what would you achieve by removing the hand? You are in or out. You like her and want to get closer, or not. If you distance yourself like that, it's a signal to her that you are not interested. With the obvious outcome: she might not throw you out at the moment, considering your mental struggle, but what would you expect later?
To me, removing the hand would be just unnatural, because she needed emotional support. I wouldn't be a cold bitch to her like that. So not having that option is a way the developer tells you about the MC.
(That he either likes Sarah or at least has empathy).
Honestly, I'm just not sold on Sarah as a whole. All of this (lake+apartment) happens in a span of two days, with Sarah immediately being (overly) invested in the MC, in my opinion. Yes, removing the hand would tell Sarah that he isn't comfortable with this. And, as adults, they could talk it out. And, if Sarah doesn't like it, then sure, end that path and have the MC live with the consequences.
But, talking isn't something this MC is good at. Consider that Charlotte knows everything, while Sarah still knows next to nothing about him at this point. It's not clear to me why he didn't confide in her about his loss. Was it just easier with Charlotte because of the circumstances? Is he invested in Sarah somehow and afraid to scare her off? Or, seeing how the MC hasn't expressed more than a platonic interest in her, does he just want to keep his distance? (I'm leaning toward a combo of the 1st and the latter.)
As to "what would you achieve", that's up to the developer and Sarah's personality. Knowing her, she'd just joke again about the MC needing to drink some more so she can have her way with him.
About "You like her and want to get closer, or not."... That's the crux of it for me. If I'm right about the MC not having any real feelings for Sarah yet, then does it matter? I think he's there because she distracts him. In a way, he's being opportunistic, but this doesn't have to mean that he feels comfortable with this sort of intimacy.
IMHO that's quite alright. If the story will require, the dev will tell us more, but it's not something that would really need explanations right there.
And it seems to me not too hard to guess: the mother wanted to control MC, and that can screw up a child's life very easily.
In particular, she could try to ruin his wedding with Ella (and the like)...
You're right, I share that opinion. From context we can guess that his mother looked down on his friendship with Ben. With Ella being worse off than Ben during their teens, it's easy to guess what Mother thought about that relationship. It speaks to Ella's character and her love/respect for the concept of family that she reached out to her.
And, just as an aside, please don't confuse my opinions for criticism. While I would appreciate some more handholding here and there, I'm not shitting on this game.
