u/iF_Blow

So the last scene in S3 with the MC and Quinn has sparked quite a bit of discussion as to what it means. In the discussions so far, most people speculate that it's a flashforward scene to a potential future moment in S4. I agree that that's probably the most likely outcome.

With that in mind, I'm beginning to think a potential Quinn death is coming. We know DPC isn't afraid to have LIs die (insert comment about a house fire). I can see the climax to Quinn's story, depending on choices made, that the MC either saves Quinn from ODing on drugs, or they both OD and only the MC survives.

I don't typically do FAFO routes intentionally for most games. However, I could see myself enjoying some drama if it's well written and not just pure consequences. For example, the drama surrounding Josy after breaking up with them in ep9 can be sad, but I thought it was written well and made sense as part of the overall story. However I didn't feel that way about Heather in ep9. It doesn't really make the story any better. It was just pure FAFO and I wouldn't really ever intentionally step that landmine other than to just unlock the scene, then reload my save.

With that in mind, would you say there's any value in intentionally stepping on Zoey or Jade landmines or any other breakup scene for that matter? If they're written well, then maybe I could see myself doing them. But up until this point, I would just do Zoey and Jade stuff on an Others route because I don't see the intrigue behind cheating or breaking up with you MG for them.

I want to start experimenting with different routing options. I'm going to have to speed run through S1-2 a lot for the things I want to try, but it's going to take forever. Even with the skip feature, the free roam and mini game sections still make the game pretty long. I could play without mini games, but I want them to be on for any save files I create for future updates/releases. There's also some saves where I want the pink rose VIP pass, but also don't want Rusty to sell his car while I believe requires mini games to be on

So I was thinking of installing scrappys mod just so I can add money to my wallet and turn the mini games on/off as I go. If I have to play S1-2 brawler and the slider game a million times just to gain money, I might lose my mind. I don't want to fuck up any paths like playing Thruple and Quinn on the same run or anything. Just want to play through the game faster.

Some of the scenes I like the best are when the LI stands up for the MC (usually against the antagonist). I think it's a great way to display the LIs personality and that they actually care about the MC and aren't just a sex bot. I recently finished a Cosy Cafe playthrough where I noticed they do this type of thing quite a bit. Are there any games/moments that stand out to you?

Just finished my first playthrough of Cosy Café completely blind and boy do I have a lot to say about this game. It's a harem game, which I generally prefer. It also gets a ton of inspiration from traditional Japanese animation culture similar to MBIML. From character archetypes to visuals to dialogue choices. As someone who's aware of the differences between that culture and my own, but doesn't watch any anime really at all, it was interesting. I didn't really get it before and some parts of it I still don't. But it was intriguing to say the least. A big thing to note about this game is there's no routes to follow. You don't really make choices throughout the game that cause the story to branch out. It's just a singular story that you read through. I don't mind, but to some that's probably a deal breaker.

The overall plot is decent. Highschool senior inheriting the family restaurant only to get wrapped up in some elite secret society. Seems interesting enough. I like the Founding Families parts of the story more than the rest. My main take away is it feels like the game is struggling between the highschool aspect of the story and the founding family side. It comes off as 2 stories trying to compete for control with the highschool arch usually losing. Despite that, I think all of the current story elements are pretty good and I wouldn't completely get rid of any of them if I had a time machine. I think there's just a very tricky balance to find with the amount of stuff going on.

The characters themselves are good, but have some notable misses. Depending on what kind of LIs you like can also have an impact. If you like submissive LIs, this game is for you. But there isn't a ton of variety outside of that. There's no dominant LI. No enemies to lovers. All of the LIs are different flavors of submissive and the MC is the dominant one.

Lucy is great. Victoria is great. Characters like Sarah and Akatsuki aren't really my style, but I could see the appeal if you are more into Japanese culture than I am. Catherine started off as whatever, but had really grown on me. But characters like Hannah and Misaki I think are really forced and I don't care for them at all. If they were completely removed for the story, I don't think I would really care. The issue with Hannah is that I think Brian hasn't really been set up as a more dislikable villain for me to care about Hannah that much. You helping Hannah starts out as you doing it as a favor to Alison. Eventually it evolves into you helping her because you want to, but the motivation for you wanting to isn't really there. Hannah's story arch could work if they expanded more of Brian as a character and made him less of a punchline. And Misaki is just confusing all around. Her introduction is stupid. Pretty much every interaction between her and MC is stupid. Her backstory is stupid. Just everything is stupid.

As for the male characters, most of them are misses unfortunately. Even the MC. Not really a whole lot to say about them. Most of them just aren't that well developed to give any informed analysis on. As I said above, Brian is underwhelming. The other founding family heads have potential to be good. We'll see where they go. The fact that it's not 100% black and white as to who is good and who is bad is an interesting way to keep the story interesting. The MC is way too much of a horn dog. It's honestly more comical than anything. The characters in game actually joke about it which kinda saves it in a way from being too bad. His motivations can be confusing at times. Yes he has a savior complex and that's completely fine. But you still need a reason to want to save someone before you save them. I also have to keep reminding myself that MC is an 18 year old because he often talks like he's 38.

I know it sounds like I'm dunking on the game, but I do like the game. The visuals are good. The dialogue and banter are pretty funny. The wholesome and serious moments are done well. The motivations for most of the characters make sense. They're only confusing a bit because the story elements that justify the motivations come after you expect them to. With the exception of Sarah, the MC often becomes interested in the different girls before spending any serious time with them. If you shifted around some story events and put the MC developing feelings for the girls AFTER learning about them, it would be pretty amazing. Even outside of the girls. If you learned that the Russel's betrayed your grandfather BEFORE the MC pivots to wanting to get involved in the Founding Family business, it would make way more sense. But he learns about it after making the change in personality kinda confusing.

Overall rating: 7/10. It's good. After the first in game week I was thinking probably 4/10 so I was surprised by the end of the current update. As far as harem games go, it's worth. It has flaws and the audience for this game is going to be more niche than most. But it's good at what it does.

I don't know if it's just me, but I'm starting to get turned off by AVNs that take themselves too seriously. By that I mean games with no sense of humor or character. All the characters are bland with writing that looks like more time was spent using a thesaurus than anything else.

I'm playing through Yesterday's Crossroads for the first time. I'm at the beginning still, but so far, this is how I would characterize this game. The MC seems like a melodramatic wannabe philosopher who has to go on some long soliloquy about life every chance he gets. None of the LIs seem to have any personality. If you removed one LI from a scene and replaced her with another random LI, but kept the dialogue the same, I don't think I could tell the difference. None of the characters seem to express any emotions other than blank stares.

I really hate to make threads that shit on specific games as I know the devs of AVNs put in a lot of time for little to no reward. The visuals of the game seem pretty good so far too. But I just can't with the MC in this game man. I just got to the part where you're on a date with Kimberly after you learn you'll be traveling with Kim to Massachusetts. At the end of the date you just go on this long 10 paragraph essay about life which is like the 3rd-4th one in the last 20 minutes of playing. I can't take it anymore. Say something interesting. Someone have a unique personality trait please. Is this considered a good game? Am I just not far enough into it to get it?

Yesterday's Crossroads isn't the only game like this either. Just the example I'm referring to now because I'm playing through it ATM. Games the focus solely of script writing and visuals instead of character and world building I struggle to look forward to. The most recent Artemis update was the last thing I played and that game handles these types of conversations perfectly IMO. There's a lot of serious talk about AI and society's relationship to it in Artemis. But it's balanced out by having a ton of lighthearted and funny moments too. Yesterday's Crossroads I don't think has had one yet.

Let me know if I should keep playing. I actually like it when I'm wrong about this type of stuff. I didn't like Pale Carnations or Being a DIK at first either and they're both amazing.

I want to preface this with me saying I like Intertwined. But God damn trying to play this game is a jumbled mess of figuring out how to stay on the paths that I feel like I just have to play with a guide. And even then, I feel like the guide is wrong half the time.

I'm playing through doing an Erynn run that includes Layla and Elena too. Trying no Alexis or Nikki/Cara for the first time. However, the Erynn path seems to have gotten dropped somewhere in my playthrough and I don't understand where. In episode 11, I did the photoshoot with Erynn and everything went normally. I got gallery scene #7. But in the guide, right after if you're not just friends with Erynn, it says you get scene #8. But I didn't. She also didn't wake me up the next day after the hot tub party to trigger the #9 shower scene. I don't really know where between the photoshoot and there you can transition to just being friends. I can't imagine anything that happens at the hot tub party would throw you off the Erynn path. I'm just not on it for some reason.

I've had Alex and Luna as my lock screen and background respectively since 9.0 got released a few months back. I've never really thought twice about it. I didn't really have anything better to put as my background.

Today at work, a female coworker asked me about it. I have the usual bs things I say to brush it off. Things like "oh it's just from an anime" or "from a videogame". I usually just try to dismiss it. Especially at work because it's not really a conversation I want to get in with coworkers. But she was persistent. Kept wanting to know more and more about what kind of game it was and what it's about. It got to the point where I either explain, or just refuse to answer (which probably would've been a worse way to handle it) so I cracked and had to tell her. Then she looked it up while talking to me and figured out what kind of game it was.

She took it pretty well and didn't seem bothered or weirded out by it, but I wanted to crawl up into a ball and die.