Naomi just looks weird, I know the dev continues to defend the way she looks but I just don't see what appeals about her. Perhaps she's based on someone real? Total speculation of course.
Maybe we're dealing with a Chasing Amy situation, where the entire game is just the dev working through their own issues with a past failed relationship, and Naomi is modeled on "the one that got away".
I hope the mc x Ada possible. During the game w/o the ex and the cheater
At this point this is honestly the only ending I actually want.
Every other relationship has too much toxic baggage IMO.
For all that the game clearly wants to represent Naomi as the ONE TRUE LOVE who we want to devote every second to reclaiming, I am not even remotely feeling it. As other people have pointed out she has one of the least attractive models in the game (which certainly doesn't help), but there's problems beyond that as well. From the flashbacks their relationship seems incredibly shallow - if anything, I get the feeling their relationship was almost more a case of "in love with being in love" scenario, combined with teenage hormones. She wanted one person in her life who wouldn't leave her or want something from her (as she mentions), and he clearly got off on the validation of "always being there for you" (and let's be honest, the sex). They don't really seem to have much in common (she's into sports, he clearly isn't) based on what he clearly seems to remember as important defining moments in their relationship. It's not a deep romance, it's a teen crush. The MC is Romeo angsting over Rosaline until Juliet comes along.
Then add to that the fact that Naomi made absolutely no effort to reconcile or mend bridges herself. Yes, he was angry and lashed out, but her reaction was to give in to her own insecurities and run away without a moment of introspection.
Both of them are absolutely guilty for how things ultimately turned out. And the fact that she clearly knew there was something up with his mother yet didn't say a word leaves me very, very cold on her (especially when her unwillingness to talk ultimately contributed to the MC never being able to really meaningfully discuss anything with his mother, or potentially cope with her leaving effectively).
Which makes it kind of annoying when they
do finally meet and the MC spends the entire time more or less apologizing over and over again, essentially begging her to take him back. Hey game, if you're going to tell a story where I get to make narrative choices, let ME decide how he reacts in that moment, and if getting closure (and multiple budding relationships with other women) have finally left him ready to try and let go (especially when, you know, the one night he explicitly realizes he didn't have a nightmare about her was the night he slept with Ada - progress!). The only saving grace is that we got to make the choice of "Hey let's try again" or "I'm happy we're friends again" - I friendzoned her hard (and will continue to do so), and as far as I'm concerned, the final scene between them isn't a new beginning, it's just a better ending, and a way for them to both get catharsis before they move on.
To be honest, people knowing things and being blatantly obvious about knowing things but refusing to
tell anyone these things, no matter how much that person deserves to know those things, seems to be the root cause of 90% of the problems in this universe. If even a single one of these people had the capacity to actually
talk about important things with others, they'd all be a lot better off (and at this point I'm tempted to say that's the entire intended theme of the story - that and not hanging on to past regrets that keep you from moving forward).
Speaking of people knowing things but refusing to talk about them, Penny coming out of nowhere at pretty much the worst possible time to Mrs. Robinson us means I shut her down every chance I get. MC is
not ready for that crap on top of all his other issues right now, especially once she effectively attaches herself to the anchor that is our mom issues by bringing her up. The same goes for Lexa, who is prety clearly crossing
all sorts of boundaries (and is tied into the much bigger problem of what Damon is up to - more on this later).
Danielle is sympathetic, but also difficult. She does come across like a bit of a bitch crossed with psycho ex-girlfriend, so it's hard to feel bad for her (and her admitting that she used to break up with Damon just to get a reaction out of him doesn't help her case). But at the same time she is blatantly coming out of a relationship where Damon has been taking
massive advantage of her, which was in no way fair to her on
any level, regardless of his own issues. Ironically, her and MC evolving into an organic and healthy relationship would probably be kind of an ironically appropriate outcome that would benefit them both... but her own attitude, and Damon not being honest with the MC, makes it difficult to do anything other than reject her out of hand (without leaning into things the player knows but the MC does not). I just can't bring myself to be anything other than snippy and dismissive with her.
Speaking of attitude, Rose comes roaring out of the gate angry and offensive and there's no way I want any part of that. Sympathy gets stoked by seeing how upset she is about Chris (and it really is Chris' fault for handling things the way he does), but lashing out at people who aren't actually at fault kind of blunts that a bit. Picking the exasperated option at the studio (and seeing that she was genuinely hurt) did flip me into understanding mode (I followed her out and tried to cheer her up a bit instead of chasing after Mira), but even if that relationship eventually improves, I don't necessarily see it ever going romantic, especially when I wouldn't want to come between her and Chris (regardless of their troubles).
Though on that note, while some people have implied issues between Chris and Ada, I don't really get that vibe at all. Sure, Ada went into the bar meeting assuming he wanted to get back together with her (and seeing things from her perspective contextualizes that interaction that way to the MC), and Rose
clearly suspects it's the case (at least emotionally if not physically), but most of the conversation you have with Chris alone kind of comes across like someone who has clearly made his peace with the past and moved on. He doesn't want to
be with Ada as much as he just wants her to find her own happiness, because he does still care about her, even if they're not together (which, honestly, is exactly what I kind of want the MC/Naomi relationship to evolve into). And while Ada is definitely conflicted over whether or not she made the right choice (which is why some part of her was hurt when she realized Chris really
was with someone else), she
did go to that meeting with the express intention of using you to get him to move on (because you're her "boyfriend"). And it's entirely possible for her to care about him and want him to be happy without still being
in love with him. Being with you is clearly helping her get over him in the same way being with her might be helping you get over Naomi. Both of you are essentially learning from the mistakes of your pasts to potentially avoid making the same mistakes again. And you're clearly helping her reevaluate aspects of her life in ways she apparently never did when she was with Chris - your own pain gives you far deeper perspective into her issues, which in turn allows you to give her advice to help fix them.
(Though I hope agreeing with Ada on the first night that our age difference was too significant and not having sex didn't completely lock that path forever. Especially considering we eventually
did sleep together later.)
Mira's about the only other alternative I even
remotely consider, but her own broken bird tendencies are going to become a problem eventually (I basically feel like I'm her Manic Pixie Dream Boy come to magically heal all of her angst and live happily ever after, and that only goes so far before it starts feeling obsessive/co-dependent). And I also feel like it's going to be a
major problem if/when it comes out that Damon has deliberately manipulated us together because he sees us both as broken people who need fixing, and he's decided the best possible solution is to stick us together so we can fix each other.
I'm at the point where I'm almost starting to view Damon as the villain of this story, and it's making me wary of where things go from here because I kind of feel like there's never going to be narrative pay-off for that. He's making a huge mess and I'm not sure it's ever going to be completely fixable. He refuses to talk about his personal issues, even to his best friend (understandable to some degree), but those issues are snowballing and compounding problems for other people beyond himself (he's kind of ruining Danielle's life for one, he's clearly hurting Dion, he's jeopardizing his father, and he's creating problems for the MC and potentially losing a LOT of trust when everything comes out). On top of which, he's very much meddling in MC's life without permission or knowledge (forcing the Naomi reunion without asking or telling us, blatantly pushing Mira on us, and the very distinct likelihood that he's going to the therapist to get her advice on how to help US, not himself - which would be
incredibly unethical on her part, btw). Yes, from his perspective he's clearly doing it with the best of intentions and for what he sees as good reasons, but it's also extremely disrespectful in a lot of ways, and it has the potential to backfire
spectacularly. In a realistic scenario, he almost certainly makes things far worse rather than better, and probably drives a wedge into their BFF relationship that will
never heal.
And to touch on what I mentioned twice above, when all that finally comes out there's a very good chance it would poison multiple relationships instantly. Is MC going to be mature enough to be chill when he realizes whatever relationship he has with Mira is entirely because of Damon's obsessive need to fix things? Or is it just going to result in so much resentment and pent-up rage that he winds up lashing out again (especially when Damon's actions help justify the "everyone I love always betrays me mindset" MC's mom, dad, and even Naomi have been slowly building up), hurting Mira, and leaving both of them even more broken than when they started? Especially when a complete lack of trust is going to leave MC wondering just how much Mira knew and when (the club scene is going to count against her here).
I'm just afraid none of that will ever be addressed, and if MC ever figures it out he's just going to be "Oh well, you just wanted to help!" and immediately forgive Damon for everything because they're friends. Which would be an unsatisfying and unrealistically shitty ending. Or you'll have the option to explode on Damon and call him out for all his bullshit, but then the game will treat MC like the bad guy for lashing out again and it'll give you the bad ending where you wind up alone forever because you can't just accept the moral it's trying to force on you.
(I'm also half-expecting mom to come back and offer up a lame reason why she left and have the MC immediately accept her excuse because the game clearly sees that as the only acceptable option, and that's the point where I call bullshit and nope out. Especially because I already have suspicions of why she left, and I do not even remotely consider them a justifiable excuse.)
