Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[game_hunt3r]

KaE is just going to rewrite the whole thing 5 more times because "this time I'm a better writer and the quality should reflect it" bullshit

This. I knew it was over when the author decided to write the three branching origin stories, yet they have the writing speed of a very relaxed sloth for the actual story, but go a hundred miles an hour on short stories, questions and lore. The best we can expect is one of the childhood routes finished next year and a rewrite to match it.

Then again, when you're that popular and your audience is that desperate, you can basically do whatever you want and beat the dead horse until retirement. Just look at The Abyss.

 

[kecap asin]

Wonder what will happen first? KaE finishing the childhood arc, Llama finishing BoC chapter 5 or Wayfarer chapter 4 View attachment 31255

The slowest race I ever seen. Its like looking at the three snails competing to each other

 

[stardust9604]

I've

Realistically, BoC Ch5, followed by KaE and then Wayfarer.

Say what you will about Liamagirl, but at least she writes... Sometimes... Whenever it's a full blue moon?

Regardless of her glacial pace, at least she writes something. KaE is just going to rewrite the whole thing 5 more times because "this time I'm a better writer and the quality should reflect it" bullshit followed by Wayfarer.

Honestly, out of all of them, Wayfarer is the only one actually good, in the respect that quality stays the same throughout. The only thing that really slows Anna down is the one-word-per-thousand-years thing.

Wild thought but GTA 8 before Wayfarer Episode 5???

I've played wayfarer and was surprised for how long it was the first time but man the updates are going to take ages for each chapter that comes out. BoC does try to get things out even though she's rewritten some parts of the story multiple times already but KaE is a no for me. That thing to me is in the Shadow realm. Multiple rewrites that don't even progress the story that much turn me off from any potential work in progress

 

[O1O]

KaE finishing the childhood arc

How I'm going to be when FatedFlame finally finishes KaE

 

[yourstalkeroutside]

How I'm going to be when FatedFlame finally finishes KaE
View attachment 31379

Yeah, the real question is which one would finish first between the three (We all know it's the reader's lifespans).

 

[Ireth313]

Wonder what will happen first? KaE finishing the childhood arc, Llama finishing BoC chapter 5 or Wayfarer chapter 4 View attachment 31255

I wonder if it is a full Act 1 and not just the bits for those who are romancing Aeran... *Sighs in Melchior romance*.
That being said, Wayfarer has been one of three IFs I have ever been super excited about supporting but, man, I just couldn't shill out a not insignificant amount of money (considering my country's conversion rate) to get content once in a blue moon. I do get why it's slow (because it's good writing, good interface, a lot of lore), but I'll repeat myself again: Anna should've just found a coder and focused on the writing.

 

[Hackett Thrail]

I wonder if it is a full Act 1 and not just the bits for those who are romancing Aeran... *Sighs in Melchior romance*.
That being said, Wayfarer has been one of three IFs I have ever been super excited about supporting but, man, I just couldn't shill out a not insignificant amount of money (considering my country's conversion rate) to get content once in a blue moon. I do get why it's slow (because it's good writing, good interface, a lot of lore), but I'll repeat myself again: Anna should've just found a coder and focused on the writing.

Bro at least the Aeran stans are getting something... There are only 2 women ROs and the one I'm interested in won't appear till the beginning of act 2... So episode 6 or whatever the ****.

Basically I'll have actual grandchildren irl before I meet Alexis

 

[xeroxo]

Has anyone played the newer releases? Cheerleader's Choice, the Paul Wang Hunter game and Imp and the Impostor? Did you like it or not?

 

[Ireth313]

Basically I'll have actual grandchildren irl before I meet Alexis

I go for both female and male ROs depending on the MC I roll with, but I feel for you. Like Aeran is a great char, but I wanna meet more people!

Speaking of, I think that he is a kind of bestie character done right, because you start at the point where you can become besties again if you like him or drift apart completely. That's souch better than most IF that do 'here's your designated friend with a set personality, you ADORE YOUR BESTIE', and there is no way to shape that friendship at all.

That being said, to me Wayfarer is a type of an IF that has romance and it's cool but I like the story on its own well enough that I could've played through it even keeping my MC single.

 

[Raistlan71]

Has anyone played the newer releases? Cheerleader's Choice, the Paul Wang Hunter game and Imp and the Impostor? Did you like it or not?

I played both, I liked the Paul Wang game however, the Cheerleader one I was very disappointed in, it claims there is romance in it yet there absolutely is none, you don't even so much as get to hold a LI's hand, nothing at all.

 

[Harwoof]

I suddenly remembered today that mind blind existed. I was its patron for about a year when the progress was fast and it was 'almost' finished and stopped when it started getting rewritten.
Literal years later the supposed game that was almost finished is still not out and the patreon is filled with side stories yet.
This will be an expanding trend milking the popular wip for as long as they can, literally the amount authors earn monthly by doing bare minimum, even less than minimum leaves no incentive to release the final product.
Genuinely think people need to wake up and promptly stop supporting these authors while actively supporting authors who focus on main story updates like our krog bro from an unexpectedly green journey, Adam from Amr 2, aura clash guy hell even the Dao ascension author are a few such examples.

 

[bosslady]

Didn't the author stopped writing because her mother has (had?) cancer? For Mindblind, I heard.

 

[Harwoof]

Didn't the author stopped writing because her mother has (had?) cancer? For Mindblind, I heard.

If that's the case I do take my words back but on patreon last upload was August 1st and it has 597 posts, so if it is a recent thing author still had plenty time before.

 

[hng21089]

If that's the case I do take my words back but on patreon last upload was August 1st and it has 597 posts, so if it is a recent thing author still had plenty time before.

i think it’s not a recent thing, she mentioned her mother had cancer in 2023, and i remember she updated the main wip 1 or 2 times since then, but it was long ago

 

[Ireth313]

Coming to be salty about Merry Chrisis. The author cut a ton of earlier choices form the beginning of the game (why do that if they have been coded in already? Makes no sense to me), most of which were the choices I actually always went for. Super disappointed she is basically castrating the game to fit into a visual novel form (also don't @ me, but I played the VN demo and came to the conclusion that it is 200% less fun, so I won't be buying *that*. A text IF as it was before I would've actually purchased)

 

[mis07]

I do hope IF and VN devs know that if you start using anti-consumer practices in your games, less people will buy them. Not only will it take away from people who would've wanted to purchase it but it also will increase the piracy of the game. If I need internet access to play a game in 2025 then I'm not buying your game.

 

[realman]

Coming to be salty about Merry Chrisis. The author cut a ton of earlier choices form the beginning of the game (why do that if they have been coded in already? Makes no sense to me), most of which were the choices I actually always went for. Super disappointed she is basically castrating the game to fit into a visual novel form (also don't @ me, but I played the VN demo and came to the conclusion that it is 200% less fun, so I won't be buying *that*. A text IF as it was before I would've actually purchased)

Huh? Merry Crisis was something I liked a while ago. Since when was it a VN?
Now dont get me wrong, I love VNs and maybe even prefer them to IFs sometimes. But when you have devs that are barely able to finish their IFs in text form and you start adding art, music and even more coding.. it usually doesnt end up well. No offense to the author, but theyre not the fastest when delivering updates. Especially considering merry crisis was supposed to be a secondary game compared to college tennis? or am i wrong?

If they pull it off then props to them for managing that, but im quite doubtful..

 

[Ireth313]

If they pull it off then props to them for managing that, but im quite doubtful..

She was almost finished with the IF, but when she had like 1-2 chapters left till the finish, she decided to make it's a VN, and IF comes secondary whenever she has time That's what she wrote with the update for the IF:
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.


Like... in the IF version she cut existing scenes and choices that have concluded in the first 1-2 chapters to... finish quicker? E.g. there was a scene about you giving gifts to your parents after you come back home. Tell me how that small scene that makes your MC's relationship with parents feel a bit more meaningful is hindering the game ending? Will MC's father die if I don't gift him a bottle of his fav spirits? Make that make sense to me. It just looks like she tries to make the IF closer to the VN version and it doesn't do the IF any justice because suddenly instead of 4-7 meaningful choices you have 3 like in the VN, two being polar opposites and a middle wishy-washy one. I saw her answer to one of the anons on her tumblr that expressed disappointment to her switching to VN. She said that she feels like VN text is more punchy? And, imo, no, in her case it's not. Her VN version suffers from the plight of many English VNs: spewing one sentence at a time when those 2-5 sentences should've ideally been a part of a cohesive passage but got separated for the sake of fitting them into a tiny message box that is so tiny-tiny because you absolutely need to stare at a pointless huge background art without any character sprites As a result, you have a text with a very broken rhythm and messy flow that is only enjoyable if you are TikTok-brained. Japanese VNs are actually so much better at it because oftentimes they don't shy away from shoving the whole paragraph into a message box as is.

 

[niro]

i am here to vent about the vn-Paper Masks this time. i wish i never read or knew about this. this VN is the embodiment of ragebait for me. TRIGGER WARNINGS please the mc gives me second hand humiliation, i'm like, girl, stand up, please have some self respect but nooo. but that isn't even bad or the worst part of this vn. the "romance option", he's a monster in my eyes (I have sympathy for what he went through as a child but that doesn't mean it gives him a free pass to do what he had done to mc and still have that kind of attitude). i think i am just not the right audience for this type of story. for me, the LI abused mc. some might justify it by saying the mc said to do his worst or something like that but it reminds me of 50 shades of grey, which i consider sexualization/glorification of abuse in the name of BDSM but here, it's not even being sugarcoated as bdsm. the acknowledgement of THAT scene as what it was is lukewarm for me and i think some of the aftermaths especially some part of the conversation between mc and that di*khead, dare i say, is romanticized. his sorry text means sh*t to me, maybe because i am not the most forgiving person, but for me, it has the same energy as someone saying sorry after cheating/abusing/assaulting/r*ping. the saddest thing for me is mc is truly helpless and alone, not only she's poor but she is also doing a case of identity theft. if she wanted to ask for help, she can't without incriminating herself and also, the ro's family is influential rich and the ro himself is a lawyer or something like that...so there's really no help and my heart breaks for mc. i am still playing the game because i don't see it as a romance game, rather as a rescue mission, i am trying to save my girl/mc... i just hope the author allows some options where the mc doesn't end up with that horror of a man and hates him because the default mc still has feelings for that a*shole after everything (that scene is definitely the worst but he has done other worse things too.) i genuinely hate him. i don't care what happens to that man as long as he stays away from the mc

 

[realman]

Like... in the IF version she cut existing scenes and choices that have concluded in the first 1-2 chapters to... finish quicker? E.g. there was a scene about you giving gifts to your parents after you come back home. Tell me how that small scene that makes your MC's relationship with parents feel a bit more meaningful is hindering the game ending? Will MC's father die if I don't gift him a bottle of his fav spirits? Make that make sense to me. It just looks like she tries to make the IF closer to the VN version and it doesn't do the IF any justice because suddenly instead of 4-7 meaningful choices you have 3 like in the VN, two being polar opposites and a middle wishy-washy one. I saw her answer to one of the anons on her tumblr that expressed disappointment to her switching to VN. She said that she feels like VN text is more punchy? And, imo, no, in her case it's not. Her VN version suffers from the plight of many English VNs: spewing one sentence at a time when those 2-5 sentences should've ideally been a part of a cohesive passage but got separated for the sake of fitting them into a tiny message box that is so tiny-tiny because you absolutely need to stare at a pointless huge background art without any character sprites As a result, you have a text with a very broken rhythm and messy flow that is only enjoyable if you are TikTok-brained. Japanese VNs are actually so much better at it because oftentimes they don't shy away from shoving the whole paragraph into a message box as is.

I actually went and played it real quick its quite a downgrade to the IF. Might be the lenght but it probably took me like 1 hour or so of reading the IF, and the VN was like... 20 minutes long. It doesnt seem that bad to be honest but the same music over and over grinds my gears and theres a few visual bugs.

Otherwise, I didnt end up hating it. Its fine enough, but yeah removing the choices sucks