Every game has events that must be repeated to achieve a goal. Some games have grind fests, others have moderate or barely any grind at all. I would rate this game at low grind since the points needed for love/trust are acquired as the story progresses quite naturally.
So... yeah, I did the math a while back.
Love and trust max out at 1000 at season 4 and each class/training/studying gives you 6 points to either love or trust or both. That's 167 study and/or training sessions PER character PER stat on average. So let's assume, in a game day, you go to class once, study once and train once and you do that for just Jean. That's 83 game days PER character. Unless you're blowing through the game mindlessly and fast forwarding through all the dialogue, the fastest I can go through a day (excluding events, showering, dates, going to the mall, etc. Just class room, train, study, sleep. Obviously, with those, it'd take longer) is 2 minutes. Which is 2.76 hours per character, 8.3 hours in total for JUST leveling for just the first chapter. I don't know about you, but I would call a full shift at a job a grind. Like, that's what they literally call it. "Getting back to the grind." And this is just chapter 1 of, well, I'm assuming there will be 3 or more chapters. It is kind of pointless to chapter things if there's only 2 chapters. And if you assuming the leveling for chapter 2 and 3 is the same as chapter 1 (which, it won't be. Leveling systems aren't linear but multiplicative), playing this game, you would have blown 24 hours (rounding down) on JUST the leveling. 1 full day or 3 work days at your job or 1 average gameplay of Chronotrigger (not 100%, just start to finish with 1 ending) on JUST leveling.
But if you feel that losing a day's worth of work dedicated to just the clicking part of a game isn't a grind, sure.
Of course, if story is not what someone wants in a game, then they would call this a grind fest. Many of us wanted more out of a game than just "see LI, say: hey babe, skip to sex scene." It gets boring after a couple of chapters of VN or sandbox game for some people that want something different from the game. We still like adult oriented games, but adding some actual story and thought to it is what at least some want.
It's not an either or situation. Someone can like the story AND think the game is a grind. Like, I played FFXI in the loldrg days. I soloed my drg from level 50 to level 75 (TOAU. Pre level 99 cap) and it took me 5 years. I enjoyed it, but it was still a grind. And again, 8.3 hours. 1/3 of the day. 1/2 of your waking hours in a day JUST on leveling.
This is why I for one would not utilize your cheat system.
Cheats are like accessibility options. They're there for people that need them. No one will ever think badly of you for not using it. Announcing proudly that you're not going to use it however...that's like announcing publicly that you're going to quit facebook or twitter. The usual response is "Sir, this isn't an airport. You don't need to announce your departure."
...I could just as easily unpack the renpy files and look at anything I want.
How do you think I made the cheat?
I have literally seen time and again someone use a cheat code or mod on a game they were really enjoying only to play the cheat version for one hour and throw it away out of boredom and disgust.
Then that's on them, isn't it? If they ruined the very thing they enjoyed for themselves, that has nothing to do with cheating. That's like reading a book, skipping to the end and then going "Well, they shouldn't have let me skip to the end of the book." That's also the same argument nintendo had against let's play videos when they tried to DMCA them all or claimed copyright on them all. No lack of cheat option or anything will prevent someone who is prone to ruin something enjoyable for themselves from ruining something they enjoy for themselves. No one is forcing someone to apply a cheat. I'm not pressuring anyone to use it. I literally wrote "So here it is for anyone that wants to use it.". If someone is impatient enough to want to skip to the end, they'll do it with or without the cheat (asking for save files, watching a play through, etc.). The cheat has nothing to do with someone wanting to ruin the game for themselves.
You have to pick and choose what you want and go find it.
No I don't. I can crack open this game and make a mod of it. I can make a game inspired by this one as this one did for RLE. I can literally make a rival game to this one with near the exact same plot and gameplay and art but just slightly different and compete with this one. I can start a mod, start a patreon and poach people to subscribe to me for a mod of this game. I'm a programmer. I can literally make entire company's tech infrastructure from scratch. How do you think I got this cheat out so quickly? It took me an hour to get it running. The rest of the day was spent making it user proof on 2 operating system. And what I wanted to do, literally because I had a few hour with nothing to do before I had to get to bed, was make a cheat injector for this game. Seriously, here's the
post. You can't dictate what I have to do or how I enjoy the game. No one can.
This is the false dilemma fallacy. All of what you wrote is a false dilemma fallacy. It's not "it's a not a grind or you hate storyline." nor "You can either use the cheat or you can like story." nor "You can enjoy the game as it is or you play adult games for the adult part." It can be both, or neither or some third option. But you using a false dilemma fallacy, quite frankly, shows dishonesty and/or willful ignorance and/or unjustified pride (possibly of the GAMERZ(tm) variety). But I'd like to give you a benefit of the doubt. I never deemed, dictate or pressured how anyone should play or enjoy the game. All I've simply stated is, there might a kernel of truth in a very belligerent post. I highly suggest you do the same.
