Thanks for the acknowledgement and the courteous disagreement. And, yeah, a good chunk of my reaction is opinion, but as the reactions to my post show, it's not an opinion even remotely unique to me. My objections have struck a chord with a LOT of people who were formerly fans of the game.
And fundamentally, yes, a big chunk of it is that I DETEST control being taken away from me, and I don't like playing characters who are fine with that happening to them. I do not play submissive characters. I also strongly dislike domineering women. There's a difference between strong and domineering, and I felt that Akira more than tipped over that line.
A few minor notes to clarify my mindset:
And one of my major complaints is that we CAN'T control that here. The MC specifically says he likes Akira for being a bitch to him.
I'm talking about narratively-earned behaviors, not character-based permissions. The characters in question did something horrific to the MC, and have threatened worse, and that precludes starting the relationship in any other fashion. The issue here is that the banter is being treated as banter when there is no context that supports it being banter. Friendship + insults can be snark and banter. Hostility + insults just can't, and there are few things MORE hostile than holding a knife to someone's throat and forcing them to obey you at threat of ruining their life or killing them.
Edit: didn't mean for the post to be lengthy, but it seems I just can't help being verbose.
While there's merit to the fact that the knife-to-the-throat thing was over the top (and frankly something I disliked about the update as well as I mentioned in a previous post), let's not forget that the MC came into the meeting unprepared, as he tried to blackmail Akira as well!
The thing is that she called his bluff and caught him.
And I'm with you on the fact that I hate passive doormat characters as well and tend to prefer dom ones, though those can come in different ways and don't always have to be Rambo. Considering the circumstances in which the MC's bluff was called out and he got caught, the next best alternative is biding his time. He is never being a passive bitch about it, even when he lost control, he does it "kicking and screaming" as it were.
I disagree with the way you are framing the blackmailing situation with the MC though. Not that that's a good thing cause it's not, it sucks to be on the receiving end of it but bear with me and put yourself in the shoes of someone extremely powerful, dominant, calculating, intelligent, ruthless, and that does not shy away from having to deal with "dirty work" directly or indirectly and that just had your very carefully laid plans ruined by some unknown quantity out of the blue.
You then start looking into what the fuck happened and see a guy you've never seen or heard of before. You research this individual and find a file that was not supposed to exist that has information that is bad enough to be classified in that manner, probably something that automatically places this unknown individual as an extremely dangerous being.
Then you aren't yet sure if this is an independent actor or not, and need to ascertain yourself so that whatever happened last time doesn't happen again. At the same time, you see that his specific skillset could be very valuable to you.
What do you do? Be honest. Forget the fact that it's Akira, a domineering woman in this position.
As for me, I know for a fact that I would want to try and ensure I can make use of this individual while at the same time I'd ensure my own safety and the safety of my plans, through any means necessary. If it were me, I'd even go and place Sam and Lily (whom I'd surely know about after researching the unknowable quantity individual) under observation and I might even use them as blackmail chips to get my unexpected opponent to comply. Failing all that, I'd kill him and be done with it.
Now objectively analyze what Akira did. I really don't think it warrants the kind of reaction that have been aired out as of late in this thread. If anything, Akira took the MC very seriously, while he came unprepared (which is ironic since he's the one used to being underestimated, and fell into the trap of a cerebral opponent who took him seriously).
And take into consideration that she never even mentioned Lily or Sam as collaterals. She certainly knows about them, and I'm fairly sure it's because she wants a good relationship instead of a strained one. But at the same time, through the blackmailing she's making it clear that she isn't afraid or using the stick, and she will have you do what she wants no matter what.
That last sentence certainly makes a lot of people's blood boil, but the fact is that the MC lost for now, and should now bide his time. And frankly, the things that have happened since actually go in line with what he needed. The main issue is the way things unfolded, because Akira didn't approach the MC as an equal, and instead came out swinging. I do think that it was correct of her to do so that way though, due to the reasons I mentioned above.
Hopefully we can find some common ground here. Mainly, the thing that I really want out of our discussions is to get people to play the update and make their own judgement instead of letting you, or I, or anyone else for matter do their thinking for them. However, I felt like a lot of people read your lengthy post and didn't even bother to give it a try even if they were enjoying the game a lot at v0.2, as evidenced by the big amount of reactions and comments that followed that post.
It'd suck for the game if some people that would've otherwise really enjoy not even give it a chance, and I for one am really looking forward for future developments of this game and would be very vexed if the dev lost heart in it.
