While I admit that I haven't trawled every post from the last few days, I have not seen anyone express a reasoned argument about how Ocean could've handled the i-change any better.
I think WIAB always meant to have the criminal underworld element (at least since reworked WIAB Ch 1), so I don't find the mafia inclusion too unexpected. I don't really care either way. We'll see how it goes.
As to plot holes or things that don't exactly mirror real life... this is the OceanVerse, for goodness sake! "Old timers" should be well used to it by now. Heck, WIAB/SG have anthropomorphic snakes, spiders, rats, and raccoons, outrageously ostentatious female apparel (leading to many unabashed tit-slips), and gravity defying anime hairstyles. It's not planet earth, let alone anything resembling real life. In one way, thank goodness for that! If WIAB mirrored real life, the Zanes might've been wacked by now, so game over.
Ironically, there is one angle with the changes I am interested in because they may hint at one of the underlying mysteries in SG...
WIAB - Presumably, the "three judges" crime families (i.e. including the Giuseppes and Morellis) wacked the heads of the the Grimaldi and Pedersoli crime families, leaving William and Leia as orphans brought up by the Zanes. I expect the Zane/Arano syndicate to wack the heads of the Giuseppe, Morelli et al crime families by the conclusion of WIAB.
SG - There is no sign of the Giuseppes and Morellis so far in SG. It seems that ZPR dominate. Are the two surviving young children of the original "three judges" families living with Nojiko in SG?
Kinda cliché, I know, but also kinda poetic.
This. Sorry it took me a while to notice this post, great take.
Something about the IC stuff is simply, how AF will it last for 28-30 chapters? We've all seen IC games here, once the first sex scene happens, the taboo is gone, and then we realise there is next to no plot. So the better story based devs draw out the IC moment so long, then they get banned by the subscription platform, the game gets abandoned. Eventually, in 5-10 years, who knows if Steam will still accept this content? There was a time they accepted highschools.
So if the taboo slowly disappears once the first bang happens, what's left after that? Only the non lewd plot line. So any game dev that relies on IC needs to think, "is my non lewd plot line plausible?" People give the IC games with lewd content free passes because "omg lewds!!!"
So it's too early for lewds with anyone other than Miru really, even though there were some great foreshadowing moments with Zoey and Katie. For the lewds to have any meaning, for the 'mafia rule' to have any meaning, they can't just be dished up because people want lewds. If people don't like waiting until those things make sense, then the story is not for them. Currently it's like people who hate Sci Fi (genre changed to make the point as a generality rather than discuss mafia) are watching a Sci Fi simply because their favourite model is in it. They have no guarantee of sex scenes, but they watch the sci fi hoping for one, because they like the model.
We can talk about rational story writing, but what about rational playing? I don't watch films because of the actors, 90% of the time. I don't watch films because I'm hoping for a sex scene. I watch because the synopsis is interesting in some way. So, here on this site w have an outdated no unofficial OP. The mods should do something to fix it. Just put the steam synopsis there. Remove the tags. But who knows why the mods won't? I don't know.
Ehhh, got carried away. TO your point about the future events of WiaB and how they impact SG:
- I'm assuming you're right about Nika and Nami being hostages/wards of defeated rivals. In what form, I guess that's the question. Being raised by Noji, maybe Noji is trying to keep them out of the crime scene, and made a deal with the Zanes.
- the Zanes, Petrovas and Reveras make themselve a syndicate in some sense. Sasha has guards and seems to be under the same mob rules already with her butterfly and panda, Nika's on the wrong side of the tracks. Donna gets threatened to stay away, so presumably she's from a small family trying to get leverage. In SG we see that something has worked out between those families, even if in WiaB the Petrovas aren't maybe criminal at that point.
- Summer/Elsa's family are probably a Family also, who knew about Nika's background,, Romeo and Juliet, just like Leia and Willi. Wrong side of the tracks.
- The violent incident is now easily explained as warning Nika off. Summer's disappearance is she is sent abroad to the extended family off continent.
- I made a mistake earlier - I thought the Grimaldis were only locally wiped out, it's the Pedersolis that still have family off continent other than Uncle Silvano, we don't know about the Grimaldis having any other survivors but Willi. I'd be surprised if we don't see some other Grimaldi's or reatiners/loyalists seek Willi out at a later point.
- Nika leaving Wollust which was mentioned at one point, could just be for a basketball championship, but he might do some research via whatever he learns from Emilio while off continent, looking for leads about Summer.
- Considering Zoey has a business with Willi in WiaB including a share in the new gentlemen's club in SG (I wondr if Vanessa will be a Serpent there?) Stefan's comments at the Relucia diner about not knowing any Cyrus suggest he's wondering if Nika's part of a Family. Is Zoey still on good terms with Katie?
- Did you notice the Marla name on Dana's certificate? I'm assuming her husband.
I know I covered more than just the points you raised, but it's all kind of flowing around in my head finding equilibrium.
