i can agree that with some characters (Katie and Wanda above all) a classically romantic approach is not okay. and this rightly may or may not be liked.
however, it is not true that it is a lottery the end result, the reaction after each answer is almost always quite obvious (especially for wrong choices), there is no need for any walkthrough to stay close enough to the maximum score to not have problems.
it is also perfectly fine to play purely following instinct and temperament, but then it is part of the freedom to risk not getting the result you hope for. for example that the 100% "romantic" approach may not be successful with Katie is not that surprising (especially in the first part of the game), you are free to try the same that way but then it may be that you have to struggle more to convince her, maybe you will have a less perfect ending, maybe you will still have it in the end.
I repeat, the threshold mechanism is never 100% right, but here we are talking about a threshold 200 points below the maximum, a squeeze is likely to make a difference, it is true, but only if it is the fiftieth missed squeeze
I still don't agree because, first of all, you say that with characters like Katie or Wanda, romance doesn't work.
Well, I haven't tried the Wanda thing because I wasn't interested, but with Katie my responses and actions got a positive response from her, plus at the beginning of the game there is no room for romance, only choices to push situations to the limit: And for this I better list some:
- Katie's first appearance, you have to kiss her on the mouth in front of her mother instead of a hug or a kiss on the cheek like any normal human being would do.
- scene of the first real kiss in the room, you score the kiss, but then you stop scoring if you don't throw it at his neck.
- It turns out that telling him that he had a good time with his mother at dinner (even if nothing extra happened) or not telling him that the field smelled like shit does not give you points, and even subtracts you.
- massaging him with cold hands gives you points and not with hot hands (what a fucking difference can be so important for there to be that score difference in such trivial actions).
- massage your butt or crotch while sunbathing.
- having to forcefully say that you like her friends or let Debbie take liberties with you so that Debbie's score is over 10 and that gives you extra points with Katie.
- teasing her about her skirt for a long time and ending up telling her that I really like her skirt and getting a response from her like that's really cute, but TA-DA that doesn't score, the answer does that it is as long as his cock xddddd.
The worst of all is that the player is not aware that the answers he is giving are negative because, in fact, the story continues its course in the same way as with other answers, that is, Katie is sincere and begins to say what she feels for the MC, even to the point of tears, or saying that she's going to try to change to become a well-spoken lady, or catching her talking to her friends saying how weird she feels because she's in love, or having a feeling so strong that jealousy kills her.....
And then, when after the two openly declare their love for each other, and they start adding romantic things to the options, it turns out that they don't score you enough either for telling your girlfriend that he has a dick bigger than a horse (quote mine in an exaggerated way).
The only difference in the final development of the story is Katie's final answer to whether or not she agrees to marry the MC. Only that, because the candle date, the sex, and her request to get pregnant are exactly the same.
I honestly liked the game a lot, and in fact I was hooked on this little soap opera, and I was even satisfied with the ending even though I did not accept the wedding because I assumed that it would be resolved in the final chapter, that is, the 25th.
My surprise was when out of curiosity I wanted to play chapter 24 independently, answering the questions that the game asked you with the options that I also made in my complete story, except that I wanted to see what would happen if I hooked up with Natasha on the street. . to see what the breakup with Katie would be like, but not only did I discover that that would be a thing to resolve in the last chapter 25, but I also discovered that in that parallel world to my original story, where I even cheated with Natasha while Katie waited inside the comedy club, where they did agree to get married. That was when this whole discussion began and where I have been able to discover that the difference between Yes and No lies in the fact that the only thing possible for Yes is a higher score, and to get it you have to give absurd answers to what any mortal would consider abnormal in real life.
That's all. For my part, the discussion is over because it doesn't take us anywhere to continue debating about this.