It took me a while, but I finally replayed this game.
Great job on the slightly reworked prologue; it more or less fixes all issues I had with it.
In general, the quality of the game increases vastly from Chapter 1 to Chapter 3. The first chapter feels more like a highlight reel than a flowing story with setup and payoff. We jump from scene to scene without any context or framing about what's happening or when/where we are.
For instance, if you don't ask Julia out on a date, then you could think that the MC's car trouble happens on the same day she visits his new office. If you do ask her out, then you'll realize there's an entire weekend between the scene at his new office and his car breaking down.
Chapters 2 and 3 are more intuitive in that regard, though the flow of time is still difficult to follow. The fast pacing also forces us to assume too much about what's happening off-screen. Do I assume that the MC sleeps with Julia every day, or do I only go off what the game shows and tells me?
This isn't helped by the game lacking any in-game exposition about how it treats relationships and not even informing the player if the MC is looking for casual hookups or an LTR after his year of grieving the relationship with Kim.
The result was that I suddenly found myself in a relationship with both Julia and Kimberly with no way out. If you kiss Julia, their relationship goes full steam ahead, and the same goes when taking Kimberly up on her casual offer. In my case, I didn't ask Julia out at the office, hooked up with Kimberly, and then kissed Julia at the park. I hoped I would be able to break things off with Kimberly since it was just a casual encounter, but this option never materialized.
I think many new players will fall into this trap and will grow frustrated, even if they're not expecting a harem game. Being forced to cheat on an LI because you didn't know the game treats every relationship as a done deal with no way out isn't to everyone's liking. It doesn't help that Julia is front and center during Chapter 1 either. While we meet several potential LIs, Julia is the only one available, with Kimberly coming across as a casual lay for old times' sake.
Then we have the soap opera that is the game's timeline:
- Keyla leaves when the MC is 14-ish (3 years in Okinawa + time in Buffalo).
- MC eventually gets in a relationship with Alessa until it's time to leave for college.
(Though those '10 years' comments don't match, since these usually reference the end of something, not the beginning, making it 7 years.)
- Zeke goes to Buffalo a few months before college.
- Keyla ends up in Buffalo as well, and they hook up.
- Zeke and Keyla come back together to attend college.
- Keyla meets the MC again, and they start fucking behind Zeke's back.
- The MC also keeps in touch with Alessa; she still considers them in a relationship.
- Alessa's parents divorce, she destroys her phone, and she gives up on everyone, including the MC.
- Some months later his mother and father move. Michelle kept in touch with his dad.
- Somewhere in between all of this, the MC is fucking Kimberly as well.
- The MC is still fucking Keyla but gets tired of going behind Zeke's back. She doesn't agree because she doesn't want to destroy the friendship between Zeke and the MC.
- Kimberly drops out in pursuit of an acting career. They keep in touch for a bit.
- Keyla and the MC stop fucking for a while.
- His father dies somewhere during his 2nd (?) year.
- Kim and the MC hit it off.
- Zeke fucks the entire cheerleader squad.
- Keyla changes her mind about destroying the friendship of Zeke and the MC and decides to tell him everything. She accidentally agrees to marry him instead. Accident or not, they wait until after graduation to tie the knot. Keyla settled.
- When the prologue starts, the MC remarks that he's right out of college. However, from context, it's clear he graduated about two years ago.
(He's 25 when he meets Kimberly again.)
- At least 6 months after Kim left, the MC changed his phone number.
- Assuming the MC was in college for 4 years and knew Kim for 6 years when she leaves, they've been together for 4 years. He's 25 when he meets Kimberly on the train again.
The biggest issue with this timeline is Zeke. How come he knew Alessa but didn't know Keyla? How come this horndog never sent the MC, his best friend, a picture of the girl he was fucking? Why was Keyla so against coming between the MC and Zeke but then suddenly wanted to go scorched earth?
Take Zeke out of the picture, and all of this becomes much more palatable. Then we'd have an MC who's too hung up on Alessa to give Keyla the time of day. Who gets hit by a whammy of losing Alessa and his father shortly after, and Kim is there to pick up the pieces. This is where Zeke could come in as a distraction to Keyla; she could still settle for him, maybe thanks to Zeke and the MC becoming great friends during college. Though, honestly, I have no idea why the MC is friends with him at all.
I'm not opposed to dumb teenagers doing dumb things, like fucking your best friend's girlfriend. It happens to the best of us. What bothers me more is that, even as adults, they (mostly Keyla) are still looking for excuses and blame. At a certain point, this sequence of events becomes uncanny as well. I can believe that Keyla cheated on Zeke, I can believe that the MC went along with it despite his friendship, and I can believe that Keyla eventually wanted to come clean. But accepting the proposal of someone she clearly didn't love or respect, and the MC calling it her being gaslit by Zeke into accepting... That's a bit much.
As the game progresses, off-screen time becomes larger. At the end of Chapter 3, it's the end of December already. If you kissed Julia, you've now been in a relationship with her for 3-4 months, but you don't really notice it. There's some lip service to seeing each other every morning, but the MC gets to decide who he spends Christmas with. The MC also remains very tight-lipped about his personal life, even with LIs who he turned down. The time they spend together becomes performative, where he can turn into a motivational poster spouting some platitudes to make them feel better. It never gets personal. He doesn't share something that happened to him unless the person specifically asks about it (like his father's death).
Finally, Cynthia. Why is she even in the game?
In a conversation with Dina at the start of Chapter 1, she's set up as the MC's FWB, but her first and only encounter is in Chapter 2. Narratively, she serves no purpose, and neither does the MC having an FWB. No matter your relationship status, if you ask her out, you'll fuck. There's not even a way to inform her about getting into a relationship and remaining friends.
And now for some stuff I really enjoyed:
- Poses and expressions are generally very well done.
The shoulder shrug is a bit overused when people speak, but I'd rather have that than a single render for an entire conversation.
- Similarly, backgrounds move during conversations and make the world feel alive. Great job!
- Loved the render in the cold with the visible breath.
- The pathing in itself is great. I enjoy that the game isn't a harem game and that actions have consequences.
I do lament the absence of a tutorial explaining how the game treats relationships and that a kiss automatically leads to a commitment. This can easily be solved by having Kim explain it at the very start of the game and would help players manage their expectations when they're suddenly locked out of content due to being in a relationship already. Color-coding choices to highlight their importance would be a bonus.
- Some conversations and subplots are really well written. For instance, I like how Alessa is introduced and how Michelle motivates her silence. This entire setup made me see Michelle as someone who lost so much that she couldn't bear losing someone else.
- Almost all aspects of the game improved as development went along. I respect this.
