But Kiki's character certainly has swerved from what was originally indicated, going from the innocent receptionist harassed by her manager whom the MC could offer to hire to his company or as his maid to save and/or corrupt [...], to now being a full-on deranged turboslut...
This is what togs answered on Patreon when reactions to the 1001 build started coming: “There's a significant number of people who do want something a little "darker", for want of a better term. Having Kiki to fulfill that seemed like a workable compromise as I wasn't looking to take some of the more core characters too far down that road. We'll be back to fun and games with the next update.”
I know there’s a bit more to that but it’s still a private conversation that is ongoing and I’m sure he’ll be here to address reasonable questions.
These changes are leading the game towards a darker path that was apparently requested by some patrons but that comes as a bad surprise for some players who had built up their expectations during the last two years.
That’s very true! Patrons and sponsors requests have always a bigger than expected impact because the money can be alluring at one point and the story twists it induces may be plot significant for many players. Then, “the offended part” takes off and devs are left alone with the “requesting part”. It needs to be seen if that ensures proper support for the game’s development. Even if it does, it’s already a different game.
I’m pretty sure similar request have been made specifically concerning Kari so there’s always the matter of who will be writing the story if patrons or supporters take the dev’s place even if it’s for a few moments.
I doubt that Togs would just give up after reading a few comments that are rather polite in comparison with what I have seen in other games.
I don’t believe he’ll give up but I’m still worried. Examples in the past are very consistent in their results: devs suddenly change the tone of the narrative, players and supporters get disappointed and leave, new players ask for the changes to go deeper and all of a sudden there’s a different game that not even the dev wants to do. I believe this is a passion work for togs but I’ve seen it happen so many times in the past, with devs that were also very passionate about their story and characters, that I can’t help but fear it’ll happen here too. And, even if the project persists, the forced content has already changed its nature for many players.
At the same time, I think it’s something rather easy to fix, even if it means adding another splitting path to the story. After all, Kiki will still be the PA and we’ll have to work with her and so on and so on.
I really hope togs goes back to “fun and games” like he said, because that’s where his creativity shines.
Yes, yes, that’s only my opinion!
