- Jun 4, 2022
- 284
- 2,118
All I am trying to say is... yes, there is a LOT of choice. You can be faithful, you can be nice, you can be a greedy bastard and I appreciate it all very much! The number of choices in the game is exemplary! Almost nothing is forced on the player. I mean, what other game gives you options for minor things like "dirty talk" or "no dirty talk" here and there? You can even affect how other characters speak (Katie).I don't understand your reasoning so much....
BUT: the game (in my opinion only of course) still heavily encourages you to go after as many women as possible, and if you don't... you are penalized with a lack of content. It's not a major nitpick, it's just an observation and it's nothing that really annoys me, it's just a pet peeve.
I just generally feel most VNs would greatly benefit from fewer LIs and fewer random encounters and instead more fleshed out main LIs with more scenes. I feel you are encouraged to be the sleazeball and liar and that can make you feel uneasy eventually, which is of course also a sign of good writing, you feel uneasy because of the writing (since the game more or less has the characters behave in believable ways when they find out certain things, they are upset, hurt, devastated etc). But again, it's nothing super major, just an observation. I felt like the worst person in the world when Jo found out about the spyware and how the scene then unfolded. Again, it's more praise really than anything else of course.
The movie night scene when you try to romance all three of the women in the house is also utter insanity in a very fun way, if you like juggling chainsaws... but also highlights the fact what a complete ass the MC has become (or you, the player). And if you really manage to focus on just 1-3 characters... you miss out on so much. That is maybe only something for the 2nd playthrough. Who wants to play a game only to never see 70+% of the content? People play these games to see as much content as possible?
If you do it here... it can make you feel uneasy because the game is more realistic than the usual power fantasies. Which is absolutely not a bad thing, the opposite. But maybe a game (any game) shouldn't encourage the Pokemon approach then and make it a lot more satisfying to just go after 1-3 LIs? Instead you meet Mabel and Porsche (both very attractive, probably more attractive than most main characters), you have characters like Wanda and Angel which do nothing really for the main story (they are lots of fun of course, but not essential), you have the super thirsty neighbor, the religious nutjob Theresa etc. and because of the number of characters in the game there are long stretches where you will never interact with any of your favorite characters. If you also ignore Monica (to focus on the sisters) you get even less content. Who wants that from a pure gameplay perspective? So you will engage with them all in the end. Or most at least. Which in turn makes the MC an asshole. I ditched Monica before movie night (I reloaded), it was too much for me
If the writing was worse, if it was the stereotypical power fantasy with paper thin characters none of that would be of any concern, but since the characters are much better written than in many other games it does matter, I think.
About the points... you never know how many points you need for anything, you are absolutely encouraged to give the "best" reply with the most points, as in any other game with a points system. There is a tracker for the points for a reason. Especially early in the game on any path I would assume most people are concerned with maxing out points so you don't accidentally lock out a character or a scene, it doesn't matter as much later in the game when certain relationship statuses have been locked in. It's never revealed in the game how many points you need for anything or ff the points even matter at all.