I agree with this assessment. In general the game has unusual pacing such that the events can feel disjointed. The earlier chapters had a similar feeling, with scenes that abruptly end and begin. I believe the initial explanation offered was that many game/sim-like options were removed. However, this chapter seems to revert to the early pattern, so it just seems like an issue with the developer's pacing in storytelling.
One thing that drags down this chapter is that the game seems to believe you've forgotten about every character (and, to be fair, nearly 1/2 a year since the last update does warrant some screen time). On top of that, there is no overarching plotline that feels like it is driving things forward, no tension or timeliness. Vague threats of Avila and Brennus/Danes are simply things other characters talk about, but have no real presence to be concerned about. Even the ominous presence of Marius, who seems to be the villain in earlier chapters, is completely defused and forgotten about now.
Up until the climactic events of the chapter, we are largely just wandering through the castle being accosted by each love interest for sex at every turn. The MC seems bored of having sex with beautiful women, and this unfortunately comes across in the mood and feel of the chapter.
I also have my concerns about the usefulness of the climax toward driving the story forward. The game so far has had some tension because it created some conflict between the MC's sexual escapades and his service to the kingdom. The plotline as it may develop suggests that the MC will soon be able to have a much freer hand to do what he want. That defuses things and makes me think the story is running out of steam.
It's good that there seems to be a plan toward actually ending the game rather than having it drag on forever, but I hope it ends on a strong note rather than a weak and faltering one.
I agree. The game is honestly structured in such a weird way that I can't tell if the climax of this update is supposed to be the midpoint or the inciting incident. Like, was everything before setup and now we're moving into a more fluid thing where we have influence on things? I mean, the title is "To Be A King," so it sort of feels like the throne being up for grabs and who exactly is going to claim it (the son, the oldest child, the queen, you, or some other faction) after the king dies seems like it would be where things really get rolling, but if that's the case then what was all that other stuff we were doing beforehand?
The narrative's false starts with plot points like "Can we trust X?" just seeming to resolve themselves doesn't help things.
Also, I obviously can't speak for everyone, but I find it really hard to be invested in the whole idea of "Protecting the royal family" as a plot point when we really don't get an opportunity to do so, or even just see our character do so.
There's a lot of telling without showing. Characters tell us about suspicious things, and we say we'll follow up on them, but we don't really. Maybe we pass that information along, but there really doesn't seem to be any initiative taken to try and find threats or anything. We're told that the political and military situations are precarious, but we don't really get to see that anywhere or consider how to resolve things. We can't debate the merits of one alliance over another or have any real way of influencing them for example.
Narratively, I feel like it was a mistake to introduce one faction as anything more than a name in dialogue with a potential love interest earlier than the other, particularly when the faction that gets introduced is the enemy of the one that we are already kind of negatively predisposed to. This only gets worse when the other faction gets introduced in a frankly throwaway scene that doesn't even deign to give their representatives names. At least if there was another love interest, say the other king's younger sister, there'd be some potential to be invested? Like, they get sent as an envoy to get oldest princess to come home with them, but their fallback plan is her being part of a marriage alliance instead, and it could be hard to have positive relations with both of them.
At least then you could have the story potential of having characters with their own agendas trying to recruit you to their side and you might actually have to consider what you'd get out of allying with them. And maybe spending time with them or your other love interests could cut into your time actually doing your job so that when things happen like a kidnapping or whatever, you'd feel like maybe if you hadn't been slacking you could have prevented things from going sideways?
I think this might be why so many visual novels are set in schools/office jobs, because the minutia of the day to day tasks aren't really interesting to most people, so people don't really complain if you just gloss over them.
But we're talking kings and successions!
I honestly feel like the premise of this title is let down by its execution on so many fronts. I thought that the earlier roughness was just the result of the releases essentially being proofs of concept that would be refined in later updates, but I'm pretty much certain that's not the case at this point. A lot of things feel like half-measures for lack of a better term, like they started developing the concept, but just stopped before it got fully developed. It feels really weird that we have a character like Aristhenes, but not a counterpart to him, with both of them being potential allies or enemies depending on our choices. It's weird that one of the two warring factions trying to court our favor is represented by a character that we are encouraged to try and marry and we have multiple chances to interact with, and the other is represented by a guy labeled "Envoy." And I realize that the things that would help elevate this thing in my eyes would be a lot of work, and clearly work that the developers, for one reason or another, don't want to put into, at least not into the things that I'd have liked them to address.
Take for instance the kidnapping plotline. I already griped about our lack of ability to influence the investigation and rescue, but I also think it would have been good to be able to influence who was targeted. Obviously, this would have required shuffling scenes around a bit, but maybe it could have been whoever you had the highest affection rating with? Or Marius himself gets kidnapped if you've done side content that addressed security concerns? Or maybe certain parameters could mean Kaylan gets kidnapped and you have to choose between helping in the search for her or securing the royal family, and the intrigue is whether or not her kidnapping is targeted at her father or you to make you unable to focus on your duties. Or maybe if you did a *really* bad job the king would just flat out be assassinated and you'd get a game over where you either got exiled or executed.
Like I said, that'd obviously be a lot of work to implement, especially because it'd kinda be zero-sum. A player wouldn't be able to see all that content in one play through, finding themselves in a situation where choosing to accept one invitation would lock them out of another.
But whatever, I guess. They're making money with their current priorities, so seems like it's working for them.
