Before anyone jumps down my throat HEAR ME OUT. I love Ais and was really excited to try his Chapter 1. The potential for banter and a slow burn was all there. Obviously, there was pacing issues that have been brought up a lot in this sub. What I haven’t really seen were any complaints about the MC. And that was the main thing that rubbed me the wrong way with Ais’ preview.
(Also I played as the Exile so not sure if that affects anything here. And I played she/her pronouns so I’ll reference MC as female.)
Her reactions just seem… immature? Extreme? I’m not really sure how to describe it. For example, she was really judgy of Ais’ “red eye thralls”. Her reaction of the severed head and freak out on Ais was kinda blown up. I also played the Leander route, and her whole speech about how he betrayed her and doesn’t know if she can trust him at the end had me eye rolling (You’ve known him like two days and this is the first mess up you know about? This man has literally saved you from the streets?? It was just a reaction I would expect from some teenager having high school drama.)
While these reactions are reasonable, it’s just not how I would play the character. And I think the overall lack of choice in reactions is what’s bothering me. For Ais, I feel like we should’ve been given a choice on our reaction to the head. On whether or not we leave the brothel. On whether or not we flinch from him. For Leander, a choice on how we approach his “betrayal”. I just feel like I’m being dragged along instead of actually having any choices.
I know this game is still in development and it’s an indie game. It deserves leeway and the team is doing a great job overall - the artwork and music is phenomenal. I genuinely enjoyed Mhin and Kuras’ routes (haven’t done Vere’s yet but I’ve heard good things.)
However, I don’t think that should bar it from criticism. The kickstarter raised over $800,000. It’s been in development for 3 years, with no solid release date. In comparison, Our Life: Beginning & Always raised $24,000, and released the full game in a year - with a solid personality system. Obscura never did a kickstarter, yet is consistently releasing chapters and has a solidly written MC. I know TS has a bigger undertaking, but I would really like to see a bit more in the writing department with the amount of support they’ve pulled in.
Anyway, sorry this turned into a slight rant but I have no one to talk about this with in real life lol please proceed with any torches and pitch forks! Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts.