Gormongous

Analogue: A Great Story

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I still feel weird about the forced delays, especially the delay between days 2 and 3 when I had uncovered the mystery but then had to wait to pick up a few somewhat less interesting crumbs. I think that if I had known ahead of time it would have those gaps, it would have bothered me less, but I was coming hot off of Analogue and really wanted more.

 

I'm trying to decide if I want to go through the other two paths or not.

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I still feel weird about the forced delays, especially the delay between days 2 and 3 when I had uncovered the mystery but then had to wait to pick up a few somewhat less interesting crumbs. I think that if I had known ahead of time it would have those gaps, it would have bothered me less, but I was coming hot off of Analogue and really wanted more.

 

I'm trying to decide if I want to go through the other two paths or not.

 

For different routes, the gap between the second and third day have different purposes.

 

For *Hyun-ae, it's probably the most information-rich but also the most clinical. You've discovered who was the ultimate cause of the Mugunghwa's three-hundred-year collapse, but there isn't much emotional to grab onto besides the implied mirror between Hyun-ae and Oh Eun-a. With *Mute and the harem, the third day becomes much more about the aftermath of the discovery of Old *Mute's fate. I like it better, from a visceral storytelling standpoint, but I miss the presence of Eun-a, who really ties everything together

 

I'm glad you liked it. These two games are among my favorites, but so many incidental things (the format, the presentation, the themes) make me worried that others won't connect like I have.

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For different routes, the gap between the second and third day have different purposes.

 

For *Hyun-ae, it's probably the most information-rich but also the most clinical. You've discovered who was the ultimate cause of the Mugunghwa's three-hundred-year collapse, but there isn't much emotional to grab onto besides the implied mirror between Hyun-ae and Oh Eun-a. With *Mute and the harem, the third day becomes much more about the aftermath of the discovery of Old *Mute's fate. I like it better, from a visceral storytelling standpoint, but I miss the presence of Eun-a, who really ties everything together

 

I'm glad you liked it. These two games are among my favorites, but so many incidental things (the format, the presentation, the themes) make me worried that others won't connect like I have.

 

I was playing with *Hyun-ae...

 

I guess the Oh Eun-a revelation was spoiled for me since she was a horrible person before her little sister died, so it wasn't the trauma that turned her bad. She had openly talked about manipulating the future emporer, working to get other women at the college fired, and disposing of the security lieutenant's husband. It was hard to have a lot of sympathy at that point. The other story that I uncovered on the last day was the Actress's fall, but I'd gotten enough crumbs of information from other entries that I pretty much knew what was coming there, besides some of the more... sensual... parts.

 

I have a feeling I'd like the *Mute side of the story better...

 

but when I started the game from the analouge ending I had with her, she was much more... romantic I guess? She was referring to herself as a wife right off the bat. I felt like we ended the first game with a much more plutonic type relationship, but I guess she didn't think so. I'm thinking of starting a completely new game so I can fill in my prior relationship as "Friendly" instead of "Flirty." Maybe I need to play the *Mute path of Analogue again instead, it seemed to flash by really quick so I might have just missed some innuendo. 

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I was playing with *Hyun-ae...

 

I guess the Oh Eun-a revelation was spoiled for me since she was a horrible person before her little sister died, so it wasn't the trauma that turned her bad. She had openly talked about manipulating the future emporer, working to get other women at the college fired, and disposing of the security lieutenant's husband. It was hard to have a lot of sympathy at that point. The other story that I uncovered on the last day was the Actress's fall, but I'd gotten enough crumbs of information from other entries that I pretty much knew what was coming there, besides some of the more... sensual... parts.

 

Over a year later, Katherine Cross wrote an in-depth post discussing Oh Eun-a's character and it's fantastic. Anything to resurrect this thread! Love's newest game looks great, since she's taking on romance and dating simulations in video games, with a healthy dose of deconstruction aimed at the Bioware model in particular.

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Lady Killer in a Bind? Just by what I've seen of it, I wonder if Steam will even allow this game on it's store. 

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Lady Killer in a Bind? Just by what I've seen of it, I wonder if Steam will even allow this game on it's store. 

 

It came out on Monday and I just finished it! I have a lot of thoughts.

 

First, the non-spoiler thoughts: this game is incredibly polished, especially with regards to the interface. Love has a mastery over RenPy now that makes her earliest games play like they're on another engine entirely. The dialogue system is not as revolutionary as previews on RPS and elsewhere had led me to believe, as it mostly consists of branch options appearing and disappearing as the conversation moves forward, but it flows well and there is the nice temptation to say something now or wait for a chance to say something better later. It is well-written on almost all levels, transitioning between steamy and funny without feeling really jarring. The art and music are good, especially the sumptuous art-deco backgrounds of the cruise ship and the downbeat jazz that plays during the daytime, but certain details on the characters doesn't read as well as they should, especially the hair. The game finishes comfortably in four and a half hours, though a hurried person could compress it down past four with relative ease.

 

The only problems I have with Ladykiller in a Bind as a gameplay experience are that auto-skip function doesn't play nice with the dialogue system, making it far too easy to skip past dialogue choices that you didn't take the first time around, and that certain interface elements (pertaining to scenes viewed and ranking in the game-within-a-game) aren't really explained at all. Both are going to be addressed by Love in a patch, I understand.

 

Spoiler thoughts:

Everything that happens on the ship is a masterclass of VN design, full stop. The way the characters are introduced, the way vote awards and choice unlocks push you to speak rashly while suspicion pushes you to play it cool and hold out for better things to say, all of it is superb. At night, I pursued the Beauty and, even though S&M isn't really my thing, her scenes were written in a way that turned on the heat anyway. Whatever my reservations about the ending, I was happy about the Beauty's part in it. During the day, I finished the Swimmer's route and got halfway through the Athlete, the Boy, and the President, which I think is intentional insofar as you can only complete one optional route per playthrough? The Swimmer's great, too, if only because you two have fun but there's no way to keep it from burning down in the end. You just get to choose how! Likewise, even though I didn't get to complete the Athlete's route, I enjoyed his writing immensely. Everyone's maneuvering against each other, but the Athlete's just a bro who wants to drink a beer and not be made to feel bad if he says something not-so-bright. Divine. If Love had the time and energy to make a three-week VN about fucking around on that cruise ship, I'd buy it for the price of a AAA game.

 

The ending, along with the frame story that feeds into it... I don't know. I wonder whether Love came up with the narrative device of two siblings commenting on a story and then built the silly "Mécontents sans Frontières" terrorists out of it, or vice versa. From how naturally the commenting flows with the game's writing, I'd guess the former, but the latter would be more in line with the structure of a previous game of hers, don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story: postmodern twist that reveals your protagonist is really a pawn in someone's else anti-establishment scheme. Maybe I'll feel different when I unlock the later epilogues with more playthroughs but right now it felt like the Prince kidnapped the Beast from a fun dating game and sat him down for twenty minutes to give a meme-filled lecture on the evils of capitalism: not bad, as far as lectures go, but not what I'm here for.

 

There was also an uncomfortable moment wherein you can have your character sit the Athlete down for some "real talk" about dating... the gist of which is that dating qua dating doesn't really exist, outside of fiction, and that people who have lots of sex are just good at making friends and then fucking those friends without getting labels attached to what they're doing. Ladykiller, as a creative work, seems as though it's generally open to different modes of sexual experience and expression, which makes it uncomfortable (like I said) when it sets that openness aside in order to better cast its viewpoint character (and player surrogate) as worldly and wise in matters of the heart (and the loins). I don't know, it felt very false to me in a game that's otherwise written so naturally.

 

Have other people played? Who'd you pursue? What're your thoughts?

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Ooh, is it complete, or just out in beta/early access? My wife seemed really interested in playing it when we saw it at PAX last year.

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Ooh, is it complete, or just out in beta/early access? My wife seemed really interested in playing it when we saw it at PAX last year.

Complete, just not on Steam. Because of its content, it's unclear if it's ever going to get onto there, but Love's promised keys to Humble buyers if it does.

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I'm part way through day 4 on my first play through. I'll save my thoughts for after at least finishing this play through, if not 2 more after that, but I am really glad that this has been selling well initially for Christine according to her twitter. I'm kind of relieved that I won't be broadcasting to my steam friends that I'm playing it too.

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I'm part way through day 4 on my first play through. I'll save my thoughts for after at least finishing this play through, if not 2 more after that, but I am really glad that this has been selling well initially for Christine according to her twitter. I'm kind of relieved that I won't be broadcasting to my steam friends that I'm playing it too.

 

I was telling the Slack that, although I'm glad the game is so sexual because Love's good at it, a small part of me wishes that it weren't, because it's a well-written "dating" sim without a lot of extraneous stuff, either narratively or mechanically, going on. It could be a really good gateway game to a certain type of person, a couple of my friends in particular. One of them, it might still be a good gateway game, but there's just no way the other would be receptive to me booting up a cross-dressing BDSM game for her.

 

Also, unrelated but very good is Katherine Cross' warm review on Gamasutra. Cross really gets Love's games and is particularly talented at bringing out what makes them special, especially in terms of character interactions.

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On a whim, I read the script for the deleted route with the President in Ladykiller in a Bind. I understand why Love got rid of it, since she wanted the game to be a safe space, but I think it's really well done? It's got huge issues with mismanaged consent, but that's the point and I think it's a good point to make, that there are no safe routes.

 

Honestly, the way it's used is what comes to mind when people ask, "When is a good reason to put sexual violence in a work?" Same as those two scenes (you know which ones) in Analogue: A Hate Story. Not that I'd ever give anyone guff for passing on them because of that content.

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42 minutes ago, Gormongous said:

On a whim, I read the script for the deleted route with the President in Ladykiller in a Bind. I understand why Love got rid of it, since she wanted the game to be a safe space, but I think it's really well done? It's got huge issues with mismanaged consent, but that's the point and I think it's a good point to make, that there are no safe routes.

 

Honestly, the way it's used is what comes to mind when people ask, "When is a good reason to put sexual violence in a work?" Same as those two scenes (you know which ones) in Analogue: A Hate Story. Not that I'd ever give anyone guff for passing on them because of that content.

 

I played LKiaB before she got rid of the President ending. The President was honestly my favorite character interaction (with the vice president in second place.) He ticked all my favorite character trope boxes of a stern rule following character. He also, I felt, played as a great foil to the Beauty as what an unhealthy dom/sub relationship looks like. There's no care given to the Beast, and instead she is used only for his enjoyment. I am sad that this story got taken out because I felt like it was a great wrinkle in the story, but I also understand how a straight man in this lesbian story was a rough edge that was desired to be sanded off. That doesn't make me less disappointed by its removal though.

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