Sheesh, I take a weekend off to play some other games and I miss all the fun!
Yeah, an aunt could have made sense but it's not necessary. If the only thing that appeals to people is the specific taboo of incest then there are a lot of other games to play.
Personally when I first played the game I saw the Incest Patch/mod and thought "oh, it's one of those situations". But once I read the information and thread I knew it wasn't supposed to be and the mod was just someone bending the game to fit their own desires.
I hope that this game won't drag on, feels like we are getting a ton of sex scenes with very little progress on the plot which, to me, feels like filler. As I've said before if the MC has fucked everyone and this game is a vanilla sex game then we've seen it all already. Obviously Elaine and Theresa were exceptions to that... Anyway, I know I am not the average perv and I am sure most people are thrilled to see it.
Honestly, I think this game could be changed to the standard incest setup without much effort. Between the slow burn for Monica's romance, Katie's cool act and Jenna's obsessive secrecy, "forbidden" relationships with them would be more or less unchanged. It's only in the more recent chapters where Katie learns about Jenna, or where Monica learns about either of her daughters that you'd have to finesse the story much.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sick to death of incest stories, so I'm very happy this game went another route. I just think it's more a cosmetic difference than it is a structural one.
Katie seems very polarizing in the love or hate category. I just don't understand if you don't like her... why keep seeing her optional content?
As for Francois, I thought he made a great straight man (comedically speaking), but I suppose you will be happy to know I don't see him returning anymore. Four times would be jumping the shark.
I don't hate Katie, but I don't really connect with her. On paper, her combination of snark and tenderness should be a perfect fit for me. But in practice, it seems like we can't quite agree on
when to go with snark and when to stay tender. The end result sadly turns her positives into negatives.
Also, while I don't feel as strongly as some others, I do think her compulsive insecurity has grown a bit irritating. If it were limited to the FWB route that would be one thing. But it's just as strong on the romance route, even though we've been indulging her whims for quite some time now. Just my opinion, of course, and I will say I thought the duet with her in the bathroom worked really well, so maybe this is the start of a new phase for her.
As for why I see her content, she's pretty much the focal point of the game. Technically, she shares that role with Monica and Jenna, but Katie's outsized personality and possessiveness put her a step ahead of the others. Combine that with the fact that Lily and Debbie have a much larger role than Jolina or Zarah (AND that the game bent over backwards to herd us into a threesome with them), and it's really no contest. So even if I disliked Katie significantly more than I do, I'd probably still wind up playing her route just to see what I was missing.
(In comparison, I've never done anything sexual with Monica and feel like I can still keep up with the game.)
Oh, and Francois: I think he can make an excellent straight man, but even George Burns needs new material from time to time. You started to do that with the casual dress in Episode 19, but then dropped it to go back to the incest well. So I'm fine if we never see him again, but if he does come back just make sure to have some new ways to tweak him.