Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[Zoklitsos]

Come to think of it, Shepherds of Haven is the same too with her VN (though thank god it's not anything like Merry Crisis and the great purging of interesting content for pretty pictures). And the SoH author also has a patreon that has never followed the "Some authors have Patreons to help support their writing. Any ChoiceScript-based content that you give to your patrons must be released to the general public within two weeks of giving your patrons access" for like three hundred years!

...I'm starting to think the overlords might have favourites.

The Shepherds Of Haven author had some sort of agreement/deal with COG from way back in the day (when she was also a mod of the forum, if I'm not mistaken) regarding the whole patreon thing and rules. I forget the details, but technically she's the only author actually allowed to do this as far as we know. All the other popular HG authors breaking the same rules, on the other hand... that's a different story altogether lmao. But idk who knows, they might have some sort of agreement with COG too (press X to doubt) and we just don't know about it.

Also, what's this thing about a SOH visual novel? I much prefer text based IFs to visual novels like many of the people here and share a lot of the opinions expressed about the Merry Crisis VN, so this is making me feel very skeptical lol. I quite like SOH (despite having a fair number of criticisms for it too) and used to be a patreon supporter and would keep up with updates eagerly a long time ago, but at this point it's been years since I first discovered it and I'm burnt out by slow progress and abandoned WIPs in general so I don't really check on it often and am basically just waiting for it to be completed. This is the first time I'm hearing of this

 

[mis07]

This is all speculation but I’m just going to assume that they had that rule set up, which almost no authors knew of (did they even read the terms before submitting their work?), but in order for authors to not leave COG (since most authors really like the patreon exclusive business model, smh) they probably just pretend they don’t know that almost all COG WIPs have patreon-exclusive content that exceeds the two week limit ('exceeds the two week limit' is too charitable for them not making it public at all).


Besides the exclusive POVs (Which I’m hoping will be in the final product), I’m content with SOR since it only is exclusive for a bit before going public. Everyone else annoys me, especially with how there aren't clear answers to whether or not the POVs will be included in the game or if this content will even be archived, making it a morally questionable choice to have people paying to read this content. I have a feeling that without people making HTMLs of the POVs they would eventually be lost.

 

[BiscuitB]

Gave the Merry Crisis VN a go after all the feedback, and wow. It's like comparing The Sims 3 to The Sims 4.

It's so... lifeless now. It was missing so much of the little things that I had enjoyed in the IF like the deeper relationship with the family, the little decisions that affected the story and characters around you, being able to bounce between routes, and the array of choices that didn't make everything feel so linear. Then I went back to the IF to feel something, only for that to be gutted too. Like damn man, what a let down. I wish she had decided to create a VN for a new story, not one I had liked for years. I'm praying this act of war doesn't happen to CTOS either.

I would've preferred them finishing the IF to then create a VN Port like if people want to play it that way. It another thing when people create VN from IF. Someone mentioned this previously but in an IF they describe the RO hair, skin, any sort of blemishes etc. so you get a image in your head of what this person looks like to you, when you create the VN and they don't look like what you hope it's kinda gives the ick because that's not what I saw or visualised.

 

[Glitch]

I haven’t tried the latest Paper Mask update yet, to be honest. Her games tend to be a hassle to get running they make my PC fan sound like a jet engine, and I’ve even had a few shutdowns. I really wish there were an option to turn off all the animations. Since Paper Mask didn’t have many, I actually appreciated that. And seeing some of the negative feedback… I’m not in a huge rush to try the update.

Spoiler

When I first played Oathbreaker, I bounced off pretty early. But after hearing so many good things and with a second season out, I pushed through, mostly for Virion. That’s when I realized that a lot of the choices, especially around personality, don’t actually change much, Paper Mask was the same. I really liked the beginning, but once Max showed up, it started to lose me. The MC’s reactions just didn’t match how I was playing. I was going for hard to get, but they fell for him the moment their eyes met.

Cursed Covenant and Glam Pursuit gave me some hope for her games, though. They felt way more interactive, the stories themselves are great, but the impact of player choice is still lacking.

I’ll probably check out Chapter 3 at some point, just to see what everyone’s talking about… if my PC behaves. I’m also pretty disappointed she dropped the male MC option for future games. In games like Paper Mask, where the main character doesn’t have tons of agency, I always prefer playing as a guy.

---

And what’s going on with Merry Crisis ? I remember her saying she would keep both the IF and the VN, without changing the IF version. Now I’m hearing that the IF was changed as well.

I always appreciated the author for being consistent with updates, they were substantial, with plenty of meaningful choices, so I’m a bit confused about what’s happening now. What’s the reason for not leaving the IF version the way it was ?

 

[Ireth313]

. What’s the reason for not leaving the IF version the way it was ?

From her tumblr: You might notice less of the branching scenes in earlier chapters, as I'm trying to prioritize making sure I'm able to finish the game (in a satisfactory manner) and tie up all the loose ends! In the end, I still might be able to go back and do a second-pass once the story is complete
But she removed a bunch of scenes that DID get resolved pretty fast? I know she put some back in (didn't check which), but there were some small scenes with buying gifts for your family or with picking the family tradition, or deciding if your family is Christian or 'Christian', or doing smth as simple as picking your bestie's gender. Bigger stuff I liked, like not going to the reunion and having Qiu call MC and beg them to come meet them is also gone, as is my fav stupid impulsive making out in the alley during the first 'adult' meeting with Qiu. The Qiu stuff might've led to some branching, but all other scenes literally were already concluded?

 

[Glitch]

From her tumblr: You might notice less of the branching scenes in earlier chapters, as I'm trying to prioritize making sure I'm able to finish the game (in a satisfactory manner) and tie up all the loose ends! In the end, I still might be able to go back and do a second-pass once the story is complete

But why does she want to finish the IF version of the game first, wasn’t that the purpose of the VN ? I thought it was going to be something like Perfumare (even though I still don’t really see a difference between the IF and the VN there). I assumed she wanted to try her hand at VNs (the VN prioritizing visuals and being more compact in terms of choices is understandable but well, not always welcome) while still having time to finish the IF version afterward, not the VN taking precedence over the IF.

Is it because she realized she can’t publish both ? As far as I know, as long as the VN isn’t monetized, it should still be allowed on HG, no ?

And the scenes you mentioned are actually the same choices I picked too. I haven't checked the forum for a long while, and i am curious to see how the changes have been received.

 

[Ireth313]

As far as I know, as long as the VN isn’t monetized, it should still be allowed on HG, no ?

My bet VN is totally going to be monetized because she published the demo on Steam. I never saw her give any reasoning, but my guess is that she really wants it to be a VN. Maybe because it's less writing, who knows.
I looked at the forums and it's mostly devoid of any reaction, but I saw someone going 'wow it's so... streamlined. something's missing but idk what'. My brother in IF, a chunk of the game is missing (YEah, I know they were just hinting politely that the game felt less substantial, but it's amusing)

 

[100Poems]

"Some authors have Patreons to help support their writing. Any ChoiceScript-based content that you give to your patrons must be released to the general public within two weeks of giving your patrons access"

Honestly, the wording of this can be read in a pretty vague way. I didn't read all of the terms of this, so please inform/correct me.

But, is "ChoiceScript-based content" defined in a definitive way? Because if it only includes content that uses the ChoiceScript code, I can see how (some) POVs and (some) Side Stories would be able to evade this "rule" (that it definitely...followed).

Stuffs like betas or whatnot are definitely ChoiceScript-based though, but as others have said, I do think CG turns a blind eye to retain authors