( Lol, who the heck wants to play as a male )............j/k, seriously though, that IS a part of it, but its also story development, ( which, imho mind you, has gotten better and better ). Now, the characters, now, I'm not saying "Get rid of Alexis", but to me she feels way to clingy, ( had to reject her, in fact, I did everything I could to minimize the contact between the MC and her, ( plus, it feels like her friend, from the cafe, was a bit too much, so I basically rejected her advances ), so, if there IS an option to turn both Alexis AND her friend, and ( ie keeping it purely platonic and friendly ), then I hope there is such a choice, ( if not, I'm totally fine with it, but at least I would've had an option to go that route on a 2nd plathrough ).
I can't say much about Ava, ( besides the events that occur in the game ), but I like her so far.
Kayla, ( now, playing as a female ), anyways, Kayla would be the one I would go after, as she feels like totally opposite of Alexis, so, Kayla is my favorite, and her story............wow, ( I have to admit, it brought a few tears to my eyes, and the scenes between my female MC and Kayla, were also great.
.......And as for the other girls, ( and I assume they are Kayla's friends more than Alexis' friends ), and them I liked
Ps! Now, the only negative, I personally didn't like, wasn't enough content for the female MC, which, isn't much, ( in which case I want more of ), but, from what I've played so far, its, imho, an improvement from last time.