Finished playing the update last evening and here's my thoughts about it.
Characters
In this update, so many new characters got introduced and it felt very overwhelming. i feel like most were introduced to create drama between the girls, but seeing as they were ALL on the end screen with stats, which leads me to believe they will all be LI's, i think its too much. Side characters arent bad. Not everyone has to be a LI or else you will end up with very few scenes with each and ultimately slow developments for each. I think for example, Roxanne, Evangeline, the 2 porn brats and their pimp granma, Celeste, they should all have been side characters.
I also found that a lot of characters feel very similar to LoF. The MC's old friend has very strong Linda vibes and even looks. Once again we have the lesbian couple that out of nowhere decide they both separately want to get dicked by the male MC right away day 1 and 2 (and the MC can end up doing both, yay lesbians?), at least, they feel like they will have some part of in the story, as opposed to the lesbians in LoF that had nothing to do with any of the story except be filler content from start to finish and could easily just have been non present and not take anything away from the story. Also, seriously, who name a character Nyah?
In my 1st playthrough (blind) of Ch1, i had assumed i'd go after C seeing i knew a bit about her from LoF and she looked ok and to check which LI i'd like to go after, since when a game has that many girls, it gets to convoluted too fast and i dont want to do 6000 saves for everything and just end up doing like 2 or maybe 3 at most and to no ones surprise, i missed like 99% of the content with everyone. I decided to set my aim on C, Geneva and Lin. Rerun #2, i guess i didnt clean the right parts of the trailer, yay me, scum saving time. In this chapter, i guess it became clearer i'd only have 1 or 2 saves. I was satisfied with Geneva and C. With Lin, i feel like it will gonna be a long and huge headache and i dont have the patience to wait for the next 6 episodes of staying a virgin monk to get to hand holding. It also made clear who i'd not want to go after, so not that bad. There was some character developments, which is always nice. Some characters were a major annoyance to me, like the cam girl brats. I assume it will be like LoF, it will become better after 8 chapters, when you can play it in 1 settings and understand, but will be a slog in the meantime. I liked that there is some exclusivity between the LI's, that pursuing one prevent another, for example Lin and Synne. I prefer non harem games to limit you a bit and not be a fuckfest with all in the same playthrough.
Also, i dont know if its the artstyle, but like LoF, i feel like a lot of the girls look meh.
Plot
It was ok, for what little we saw, but i already am seeing holes coming. I tought in Ch1 that we were sent to some kind of recluse island so we could hide, but in Ch2, it looks like this island is pretty much tourist / party central with the highest traffic you could think of. It is clear to me that everything will be centered on that drug. I was wondering why if theres a big drug facility on the island, most people didnt even seem to know about it even though it seems it is very well known it exist to many people. Then i figured that if people from the mainland knows about the drug, the people on the island have a facility AND that the big marketing of the island is that all the girls are willing, you can easily see that its some kind of rape/kidnapping/sex tourism theme for the story. Maybe also some kind of medical arc with cloning themes with what we learn about weekly blood testing from some people. I hope it will be a bit more complex than that.
Free Roams
While i do not dislike them per se, i feel like 75% of them could have been removed. Especially in Ch2. The whole eipsode felt like a giant free roam (much like what the other popular college VN is now, a giant free roams with some scenes in between). I dont really care about timers, as ive never felt i needed more time to do what i wanted. All the girls cant be had in 1 game, so missing some stuff is ok, but even then, i never ended up feeling like i missed anything. The single only time i felt that the timer hindered me was during the 1st cleanup of the trailer. And it was more because of a convoluted impossible to know fact that i needed to clean the back 1st to get on the Geneva path and that the timer only gave you just enough time for that.
Second trailer cleanup should just have been a regular scene, as the timer allows you to do everything else to completion, so just pointless clicking to bring you to clic on the dresser to continue the story. On the bar roam, i had time to do everything with time to spare. Same with the hotel free roam. You can see the floors with npc's and you have enough time to interact with all of them. Only going to empty floor punishes you, and even worst, theres nothing to gain going on them.
The beach one though, that was a shit show. A big giant 7x3 grid with only 1 interaction per "level". Way to much pointless clicking. A simple "up" and "down" sections where you can see all characters from that side and just clic on them to interact would have been much better instead of always, up, left, right, right, left, up, etc to cover all the spaces. The most infuriating part was to find all the shit the LI's wanted. I could see the goddam beer cooler, and for the love of me couldnt get it, until after 10 minutes i gace up and decided to "end the free roam", which lead to another free roam. WTF?! Dont call the option "end free roam" just call it "continue to free roam part 2)". I was so pissed, everything was in part 2, including the new arrow to go to the bar area. And even worst, the end of chapter cliffhanger happens IN the free roam.
Phone and perks
I only hope the phone will not be like in LoF, where its only a device for very obscure time gated things to look at to unlock a scene else it closes a route unless you look at it every render. As of now after 2 chapters, i still didnt find any use for the hacking device. It lets you steal some money, which is irrelevant for now and most likely will also be in the future, and on the phone spying, i feel its gonna be yet another obscure plot to punish you for not knowing EXACTLY when to turn it on to spy the conversation to open a path to something while the other 95% it will be useless.
First of all, having tried both MC's archetypes, as of now they are the same, bar the stats. Stats which can change. Which means sadly, more thresholds to punish you and make you miss events by not having the right number in the right stats. I didnt see or feel anything yet from any girls about having preferences for muscular or more intelligent type.
As for the perks, i feel either they are must have or trash. I feel like the perk allowing you to be more aware of things going around you is gonna be the only way to unlock certain things or not get fucked over. I think it was nice for example when it gave you a hint that Anita was having trouble, but that you still could enable the scene without it, like a tutorial easier mode for your 1st game to miss on less things. But for things like getting your phone stolen without noticing it, its only punishing. Also romance felt very mandatory to enable getting on most LI's routes with more than random flirting. I felt especially on the beach that every LI had a romance dialog.
On the other hand, extra cash and double stats growth feels worthless for now and for the future i fear it will be a mandatory thing for you to be able to have the required amount of money/stat to unlock a scene with a girl. Extending the roam timer also feels like trash. Furthermore, your archetype no longer prevent you from choosing any perk.At least, it could have given you a free perk depending on which one you pick, instead of basically just some stats difference.
I will still continue playing the game as it is still of higher quality than most games here and after so many games i know it will be most likely be pretty good once its completed as we dont know and cant piece all the facts yet, but my main concern is that i prefer games that reward you for picking options or perks by giving extra scenes or content, not a game that punishes you for not having picked something by missing interactins basic to the story. A game aint that fun if every LI is hidden behind convoluted and obscure choices and that you need a walkthrough to even get a LI. If you cant even end up with at least most of them with no perks and just using basic dialog options that would appeal to the girls, thats a problem.
