VN Ren'Py Abandoned Unraveling August [v0.3.04] [AugustEsoterica]

[hotdogBD]

Unraveling August [v0.3.04] [AugustEsoterica] crunched

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shoot? id rather hug the compressor.

 

[Tiur]

I guess the difference is as i see it the MC was in the wrong regarding Sam and Lily

And that's where our disagreement is going to sit, because I don't.

MC was undeniably selfish, he had reasons but he tried to make choices for Sam and Lily without consulting them, without giving them any say or agency.

What decision did he make on Sam and Lily's behalf? He helped Lily get away from a stalker like she had asked, confronted the stalker (which was between him and the stalker), and he decided to find his own place to stay, because Sam was coming on WAY too strong, and he didn't want to react too hastily or give in to her right away without knowing more about the situation and about how she actually felt about him.

They have every right to be angry at him for that. Esp Sam who has ALWAYS clearly had major issues where MC in concerned. I certainly don't think Sam was being entitled by being pissed at MC

These two statements are contradictory. Her entitlement and anger is specifically evidence OF her issues, which are her baggage to deal with, not the MC's.

for not even showing her some basic decency by flicking her a text to say 'hey, I'm ok, just tied up in some stuff I don't want you involved in right now but know that I haven't bailed on you'.

If I haven't agreed to give someone updates on what I'm doing, then what I am doing is my own fucking business. I let my wife know where I am when I end up taking longer than intended, but that's because we have lived together for over twenty years, and she has earned that consideration. No one else has.

Also, your argument for Lily/Sam not texting him holds true the other direction, too. If Lily didn't get his number from him at her job, how would he have gotten hers or Sam's?

Perhaps the fact that Akira's words and behavior don't line up should be a tell that how she speaks isn't exactly how she feels and that perhaps she has a persona she is used to showing the world? It felt to me (and was confirmed by the Dev) that the juxtaposition of her words versus her behavior was intentional. She is used to being automatically respected and obeyed and when someone pushes her buttons she doesn't know how to act so she falls back to getting defensive and bitchy.

Sorry, but that doesn't follow. She started out defensive and bitchy without the MC being at all pushy or resistant to her at first, and she behaved that way consistently even when the MC was doing exactly what she ordered him to. The "Push it" choice was one of the few cases where he WAS pushing back on her, and THAT'S when she acted differently.

How should MC have reacted in the classroom then? what would you do in that situation that would salvage it?

First of all, that situation was chosen by the developer. It didn't come from nowhere, and the characters didn't make those choices on their own. The dev decided to introduce these two LIs in this horrifically bad fashion.

Second, how would I salvage it? Easy. Fucking communicate.

"I'm not going to be your patsy, lady. I'm not even involved in this shit. You want the drive? Here, fucking have it. It doesn't matter to me in the slightest, because I wasn't even THERE for it. I was just trying to get an asshole to stop stalking a girl who didn't deserve it."​

If she continued pushing on it and trying to order me around?

"If you want to out the entirety of the military-industrial complex and brand me a war criminal just because I won't do what you say, then I'm fairly confident everyone who gave the orders I followed will rain hellfire down upon you to stop you, and even if you win, they will ruin you in the process."​

​

"Now, if you don't have anything else, I'm not even a fucking student here. You do not control me, and all you can do is let me go or have your mute goon murder me in cold blood. Goodbye."​

And then I'd have left the city. I do not tolerate being blackmailed and manipulated like that, and a confident MC I would enjoy playing as wouldn't, either.

 

[Niuul]

After reading the initial impressions of the update when I haven't played the game at all yet:

 

[Getoffmyname]

Second, how would I salvage it? Easy. Fucking communicate.

"I'm not going to be your patsy, lady. I'm not even involved in this shit. You want the drive? Here, fucking have it. It doesn't matter to me in the slightest, because I wasn't even THERE for it. I was just trying to get an asshole to stop stalking a girl who didn't deserve it."
If she continued pushing on it and trying to order me around?

"If you want to out the entirety of the military-industrial complex and brand me a war criminal just because I won't do what you say, then I'm fairly confident everyone who gave the orders I followed will rain hellfire down upon you to stop you, and even if you win, they will ruin you in the process.""Now, if you don't have anything else, I'm not even a fucking student here. You do not control me, and all you can do is let me go or have your mute goon murder me in cold blood. Goodbye."
And then I'd have left the city. I do not tolerate being blackmailed and manipulated like that, and a confident MC I would enjoy playing as wouldn't, either.

That all makes perfect sense if you ignore that she didn't want the drive back, had a knife to his throat making it clear that saying no was not an option and finally that black ops are specifically designed so the operatives can easily be abandoned by their country if it becomes politically preferable.

 

[Alfred the Fallen]

How should MC have reacted in the classroom then? what would you do in that situation that would salvage it?

Easy.

Don't let the bimbo in high heels put a knife to his throat totally unnoticed. He knew she was there, so she didn't have the element of surprise or anything going for her. That scene didn't make her look skilled and dangerous, it made him look stupid and inept. She wasn't even the threat that got him to work for Akira anyway. He was worried about what she knew, not what Val would do.

Akira and Valentine are both dreadfully awful characters. Akira constantly berates you for being worthless, and then wants you to work for her? What the fuck is that about? Why would she want someone who she thinks so poorly of?

Another thing that would greatly improve the game was if we had some sort of carrot to go with the stick that Akira currently holds. Have her promise us some money or something to help the characters we like in some way.

That one scene where Valentine invites herself into your room should be optional. I already know that I want nothing to do with her, so forcing her on us is just going to make me want to quit playing. We can't even stop her from spending the night and kissing us in front of the girls we are actually interested in. That one scene killed most of my interest for the game.

 

[Tiur]

That all makes perfect sense if you ignore that she didn't want the drive back, had a knife to his throat making it clear that saying no was not an option and finally that black ops are specifically designed so the operatives can easily be abandoned by their country if it becomes politically preferable.

Again, these are all factors the dev chose to include in the scene. There's no actual black ops here. And you ignored the first part of my answer that you quoted, which was "fucking communicate". I gave off-the-cuff quotes.

Conflict generated through people not being honest with each other is one of the laziest-written forms of conflict, and if the MC just fucking told her why he had gone to confront Frank (which I believe dialogue implies she knew already), and then refused to do what she said (because he's NOT FUCKING INVOLVED IN HER BULLSHIT) and called her bluff, she'd have had to either back down, or commit. SHE started the conflict, so any consequences of it are on her. This is why she's a bad LI: she chose to ACTIVELY do evil to the MC: she is FUCKING BLACKMAILING him. There is no way around that without a rewrite.

Regardless, though, the MC was weak and spineless: he broke first. He didn't call her bluff, or challenge her to give him some reason to work with her, and thus he gave her all the power in the situation, because the dev chose to write it (and him) that way.

 

[Getoffmyname]

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Akira

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People show a different side of themselves all the time, Akira was dealing with someone that she believed was a threat and potentially actively undermining her hostility makes sense. Sure she is derisive and dismissive but she is also totally thrown off balance so she is lashing out to keep him at arms length. People can be more complicated than bad cos they act this way under certain circumstances.

Not everyone has to like every character, not all content is gonna be forced on everyone. I dont mind a character having to grow a little to redeem themselves, it makes for interesting story telling.

 

[simonauuu]

I loved 0.1 and 0.2. I saw so much potential in 0.1 that I backed the dev immediately upon its release. I loved Sam, Lily, Casper, Lua, and Fray. I found Liz Fell intriguing. The story was fun. The humor was fun. There were some interesting hints at broader stories at play. It was great getting to rescue an LI from a stalker, even if that turned into something else afterwards (and I'm a little disappointed that 0.3 suggests that the Frank choice made didn't matter except for a tiny change to the insults Akira/Valentine threw toward the MC). I was starting to actively care about the characters.

Hopefully this gives a proper idea of the mindset I had, and the excitement and enthusiasm I had for the game when seeing it was out for my support tier to play, and when launching and starting to play 0.3.

And then I started playing 0.3.

Now, I'm normally one who defends an MC NOT being a raging asshole to confident and self-possessed girls, even if they get kinda bitchy, but this entire update was basically LI after LI just shitting on the MC and the MC letting them do it with little to no complaint. If that's what the dev wants in the game, so be it, but it would have been nice to know ahead of time so I didn't waste my money.

(This is LONG, so I broke it up into spoilered sections by topic.)

Spoiler: MAIN ISSUES:

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Spoiler: AKIRA AND VALENTINE (BUT MOSTLY AKIRA):

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Spoiler: SAM AND LILY (BUT MOSTLY SAM):

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Spoiler: SUMMARY:

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CLOSING WORDS:

TL;DR: 0.3 was a massive disappointment from a writing and characterization standpoint, it solidly ruined three LIs and the MC and damaged a fourth LI, and it directly caused me to withdraw my support and stop recommending the game to my friends, entirely on its own.

Nice write up, I see have you high bar in AVN. Which AVNs do you recommend? I am always open to playing high quality AVNs.

 

[wiseold6996]

I agree with this, and that's always the case for anyone's impressions of a game.


I can't agree here. He acknowledges and apologizes for something other people chose to interpret as a mistake, where he had no obligation, and he repeatedly takes insults and degradation without complaint or challenge, even when blatantly untrue. He also then has internal dialogue that shows that he basically likes the degrading and insulting treatment.

You've also dismissed the fact that we don't get to choose how the MC reacts to most of this. He's backed into a corner regarding events we had no control over and that the MC likely had no control over, either, and the MC's response (without player input) is to like being insulted, degraded, and humiliated. He specifically says he likes how Akira acts.

Beyond that, I think you're giving everyone some wildly unearned benefit of the doubt.

We may also have different definitions of doormats.

I clipped out the Sam part, but the possessiveness I'm talking about isn't about MC/Lily or MC/Casper. It's about the insistence that the MC is at fault for not acting like a child keeping his parents informed of his whereabouts at all times, and her attitude about Valentine at the MC's apartment. She is acting like she and Lily own the MC. And given that Akira had just told the MC that she owns him, I am not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt for that shit.


This is the part I called cognitive dissonance. That flirting during her meeting was completely out of place and out of character for her, and was so jarringly different from their other interactions, both before and after, that it felt like different people talking.


So you missed her insulting him throughout the whole library scene, and the repeated descriptions of her disdain and hatred? She had literally just called him her "pawn" before that starts.


We do know that she was willing to physically threaten the MC with a deadly weapon to his throat. She's also completely unapologetic about it. We also DO get a lot of insight into her personality in her scenes with the MC in his apartment, when she talks over the MC and tells him how he thinks and what he is, regardless of his or the player's opinion.


I'm just looking for a harem game where the MC isn't treated like shit (by people who are supposed to be romantic interests) for the entire duration of an update, and where the MC stands up for himself instead of taking and enjoying receiving heaps of abuse for, effectively, an entire day and a half or so.

I agree that, so far, the MC hasn't done anything worth being attracted to (since the one positive thing he's done with some actual agency just resulted in being treated like shit by four different LIs), but the insulting and degrading treatment he's received and accepted from Sam, Akira, and Valentine in particular, is enough to write them off for good. Since they're all central to the plot, I don't have high hopes for the rest of the game, because those impressions and interactions from this update are so egregiously bad that they will have to flavor every interaction from here on. The characterization won't make any sense if they don't.

Basically, I want to play a harem game where the LIs have a reason to at least like the MC, and vice versa. Those reasons are now missing from this game for four of the LIs, including the one who appears to be the primary LI.

If I were in the MC's place, Akira and Valentine's behavior so far has been enough to just make me leave the city again. I would have felt bad about leaving Lily and Sam, except that Sam showed so much insulting and possessive behavior throughout this update, too. Since the dev doesn't understand why people wouldn't like Akira, it is clear that we have wildly different priorities, and wildly different opinions of how much verbal and physical abuse is acceptable because someone is pretty.

Lmao MC can't even leave the city, Akira got him by the balls by having that file.

 

[Alcarinn]

I thoroughly enjoyed this update and looking forward to the next one. Keep up the excellent work!

 

[wiseold6996]

bruh the only scene in the update is the femdom scene. Don't tell me akira is only a femdom character. Hope we get to turn the tables on those two bitches(akira and val). Also no lua in this update

 

[duz1nn]

im loving the game , like what hell , i dont even know why to be honest , im not saying the game is bad or anything
but weirdely im loving this game D:
I mean , the girls are very awesome , they personalities and all ( well i just downloaded the game because i saw some cute faces and i thought , i will check it out , so i had no idea what i was getting myself into )
Not sure about the story , but i like everything so far , the comedy is very nice as well is not forced so is good ,specialy the girls.
Im invested in this , i wish u a good luck with your project and really looking foward to whats coming nexts

 

[BcinP]

It seem the game should have a female domination tag now

 

[JjJ5]

are there any lewd scenes is this update?

 

[Tiur]

Akira is paying MC, she organized a place for him to live etc there is a carrot there for him too

This is not a carrot. This is "the bare minimum in order for him to be useful to her", and is just another symptom of her control/claimed ownership over him and of her manipulation.

People show a different side of themselves all the time, Akira was dealing with someone that she believed was a threat

Which she believed arbitrarily with no support, and which is a misunderstanding on her part that could be resolved with communication instead of bending over and taking it like the dev chose to have him do with no player choice involved.

Sure she is derisive and dismissive

And aggressively insulting, belittling, threatening, verbally abusive, and, oh, I almost forgot this part for a moment, BLACKMAILING HIM. That part is (or SHOULD be) a HUGE impediment to anything remotely resembling affection for her.

Not everyone has to like every character, not all content is gonna be forced on everyone. I dont mind a character having to grow a little to redeem themselves, it makes for interesting story telling.

If this was the intent, it was poorly implemented, because the other side was only barely shown once, in a narratively-dissonant fashion that did not convey what the dev told you they had intended to convey.

And a good chunk of content in this game IS forced on everyone. We do have to deal with Akira's bullshit, and Valentine's bullshit, and Sam's bullshit. We can only really avoid the lewd scenes themselves. We are told how the MC feels about most of the things that go on, without any input from us that might help shape him, which is why I suggested it might be better as a KN if the dev does not intend to let players have a meaningful say on the MC's important choices. THE MC clearly wants Akira and Valentine to be love interests, no matter how hard the players try to avoid them.

 

[aereton]

If the dev is active on the thread he will want to know you're part of a crew that likes to run devs off-site on the regular

heh, that would be even better, maybe then this site could go back to being a sailor's forum instead of a patreon red light district

 

[Tiur]

are there any lewd scenes is this update?

Depends on your definition, but for most people, the answer is "No". The closest things are:

• some renders of random (unnamed, non-LI) girls half-naked in the locker room and showering at the University during a montage.
• (avoidable) a weird down-blouse selfie of Akira that makes virtually no narrative sense. (Avoiding this requires being even more passive than the MC already is without choices.)
• (unavoidable) a manipulative kiss by Valentine that's clearly intended to drive a wedge between the MC and Sam/Lily.
• (unavoidable) an uncomfortable kiss with Lily that just makes her run off. (You can make the scene slightly longer and the dialogue slightly more intimate, but the end result is the same either way)
• (avoidable) a weird-ass scene of the MC licking Akira's palm when she tries to silence him in the library while being dismissive and insulting. During the scene, she's still hateful, insulting, and disdainful, and she instantly recovers after the scene and immediately resumes insulting and degrading the MC regardless of whether you avoided the scene or not. It's not sexy in the slightest. It COULD have been, but the surrounding events, dialogue, and behaviors of the characters make it not. (Also, again, avoiding this requires being passive.)
• (unavoidable) Casper and Sam walk into the MC's apartment without asking, when he's coming out of the shower holding a towel in front of him. Sam also insults him both before and after this scene, which again makes it decidedly unsexy.
• (unavoidable) Sam secretly rubs herself through her panties while sniffing the MC's underpants. Note that Sam ALSO insults him during this scene, even though it's just to herself.

 

[KoGa3]

Unraveling August [v0.3.04] [AugustEsoterica] crunched

Don't shoot the compressor!

 

[Hellspawn_Al Simmons]

What a fucking shite update. Both the MC and the LIs took a massive nosedive, and what is the point of the choices if they don't matter?

 

[Tiur]

If the dev is active on the thread

The dev was occasionally active on the thread right up until the day this release was released to my former supporter tier. As soon as I had played the update, I sent him a message in our Patreon conversation about the update, with a much shorter summary of the issues I was finding with it (along with some unrelated technical notes about a scene with weird lighting/shadows). I offered to provide more detailed feedback via either Patreon or Discord, but never got a response, and thus today I made my initial post here instead.

Given the response to my post, I have to think there was some pre-warning about what the response was going to be like. I also worry it'll just all get dismissed as "F95 being F95" despite my having been a long-term supporter until this update. I guess we'll all have to see, when the radio silence stops.