4.30 star(s) 196 Votes

jhustrue

Well-Known Member
Mar 3, 2020
1,473
2,669
The problem with this developer is always the same, very visual, very technical, but his stories have zero structure, i spent about two hours reading each line of this VN and I still don't understand half of it, come in and out characters that are supposed to interest me, why?

Then we move on to scenes like the one with the spiders, senseless tonal changes, from humor to melodrama in seconds, suddenly a sister or another woman who never presented her before appears already with a dense story behind, etc, etc, all this just tells me that the developer doesn't have a clear structure in his story, he puts things that have meaning to him, but the reader doesn't understand shit.

For all those who want to do their VS, less is more, simplify your stories, make it enjoyable for the reader, create a structure (first act, second act and third act), previously present certain important characters for your stories, define your MC well, etc., only the visual is not enough in my opinion.
The story hasn't done shit in these two chapters, so don't feel bad. It's basically just a way for the dev to show off his animations and renders and literally nothing else. Honestly, I prefer the old version if this is all we see after all this time. Who gives a shit if there's 1k renders each update if you don't do shit to progress the plot.
 

jamdan

Forum Fanatic
Sep 28, 2018
4,366
23,439
He knows writing is his biggest weakness. For me, I generally agree (not including the constant reworks and perfectionism). There isn't anything subtle about his writing, everything is very dramatic and often overdone. Honestly, the spider scene was completely pointless. The snake thing too. Very dramatic for the sake of being dramatic.

I kinda feel the same about some characters. The MC in this looks ridiculous, personally. Miru doesn't look Asian anymore. The same things that negatively impact the story leach into the characters, being overdone and overly dramatic. I think this is largly because he has reworked them all so many times, that who they're meant to be sort of gets lost along the way.
 
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JB08

Well-Known Member
Aug 6, 2016
1,316
1,696
What was used to make the animations in the game? Like the scene that plays when Leia calls MC? I didnt know Daz and their assets were capable of doing that. Ive always wondered. Like Katie putting on her stocking or Leia closing up her coat, the background traffic lights when Leia is in her car, etc.
 

WastedTalent

Active Member
Dec 11, 2020
953
1,524
For as long as this has been in development seems like there should be more to it. I saw an earlier post saying the dev is working on multiple projects and splitting time and that's ok, but so far from what I've seen we're missing some content as well such as the camping trip. Is this because of the remake? Or is it something else? I like the art and the story even though we still don't really know much about what's actually happening or why? I guess I just really like what's here so far and am looking forward to more just wondering if this is one of those that's going to be in development for years and then one day poof it's abandoned? I also agree with a comment I saw about the rewriting of most material. I thought the original writing was way better and this reworked relationship with MC and Katie doesn't seem to fit. One minute they are sworn enemies the next they act like besties or something... Leia acting more cold and distant than before is concerning to say the least. The MC is made out to be the one at fault for everything when we know it's Katie's fault for the lies and manipulation's she created. To me by making this switch you basically are trying to make the mc unlikable or make us pity him for having such terrible people to call family. Why isn't the family owning up to their part(s) in all this? Why should the mc or the player for that matter have to be on the defensive all the time. When will he/we speak up and be like fuck all of you. I didn't just leave I was humiliated that everyone believed something that wasn't true and no matter what I said, did, or how I acted nobody believed me. Now, to this little liar... what has been her punishment? Oh that's right mommy and daddy pay for her to goto college and reward her. The little bit of plot that this started with originally has changed drastically and not for the better imo.
 
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Seagal

Active Member
Oct 10, 2017
540
2,218
Off the top of my head, 3dcg, animation, big ass, big tits, creampie, exhibitionism, groping, male protag, milf(no sexual content yet), oral, romance, teasing, twins(MC+sister no content yet), vag sex. As far as I recall, there's only sexual content with the girlfriend as of yet.
Thanks.

I guess it'll be a while (if it ever happens at all) then before there's actual sex with either sister or the mom. I don't think the old version had sex with either sister, but it was getting close. I could be remembering that wrong, however.

Why the need to rework games like this I'll never understand. It was already a good game, and now it's been over 4 years with no end in sight. The odds of this never being finished are extremely high. Subscribers to this guy should get used to hearing the sound of a toilet flushing.

Sorry for the little bit of venting. I do appreciate the info, however.
 

WastedTalent

Active Member
Dec 11, 2020
953
1,524
Thanks.

I guess it'll be a while (if it ever happens at all) then before there's actual sex with either sister or the mom. I don't think the old version had sex with either sister, but it was getting close. I could be remembering that wrong, however.

Why the need to rework games like this I'll never understand. It was already a good game, and now it's been over 4 years with no end in sight. The odds of this never being finished are extremely high. Subscribers to this guy should get used to hearing the sound of a toilet flushing.

Sorry for the little bit of venting. I do appreciate the info, however.
There was an option for something with one of the family. I don't want to spoil. and not sure how to do the spoiler thing but you can message me and I'll say if you want to know.
 

Wills747

Engaged Member
Dec 14, 2018
2,446
5,133
My compressed unofficial android port of Where it All Began Ch2_Full
Usual gestures, save name/delete, seethru textbox, resizeable game and dialogue text.
Scrollable textbox - no more text off the bottom of your screen
Lots of other stuff, currently testing tabbed options/prefernces
Alternative persistent saves/log location
 

botc76

The Crawling Chaos, Bringer of Strange Joy
Donor
Oct 23, 2016
4,475
13,381
Jesus, all that time, just to be back at this point?
Sure, it looks better, but story and writing wise it actually seems a bit worse. So melodramatic and pretentious.

I still like the game, I do think despite his quirks and weaknesses Oceanlab isn't really a bad writer, but in regard to these reworks/remakes, he is his own worst enemy.
What will happen in two years? He will probably be at about the level the game was before he rebuilt it from scratch, by then we will have new, better software and hardware and then what? Will he start over once more?

I get the urge to bring the beginning of your game to your current level of skill, but if your development also is quite slow in general, it's just not practical. I dabble in writing myself and I know the feeling that stuff just isn't how you want it to be and so you rewrite and rewrite and rewrite it, but that can lead to completely losing your drive, because if you rewrite the same page 25 times it will seem as if you make no progress at all, which will in turn frustrate you even more than just continuing to write with a quality you deem halfway decent.

Once you finished the story, there's still time to rework the parts you don't like. Once you finished your game, you can go back to the first few chapters and remake them then.
Doing it like this, with two games AND slow development in general, I fear this will just lead to a big fat nothing in the end, which would be a real shame on many levels.

Miru's new look is fine, she looks more half-Asian than Asian now, but still hot as fuck, Leia, I think I actually liked her more in the original version. The automatically progressing sex scenes which can't be rolled back and will completely skip once you press a button suck. This just isn't practical, especially not in a program like Ren'py where we are used to clicking to progress text and images.
IDK, of course in the end it is completely up to Oceanlab, but if you ask me, my personal opinion, this overhaul isn't worth the loss of time and progression. Not at this stage.
 
4.30 star(s) 196 Votes