i wanted to like this game, but unfortunately it had a ton of bugs that would make it impossible to complete the game at times. i had to keep restarting over and over (the lack of a save function made this worse) to finally get there.
subtitles would have also been a nice feature to have as well.
but more than the bugs, or lack of qol features, i just really didn't enjoy the story at all. it didn't really feel like there was any substance... at all.
it didn't feel like this is how teenagers actually act or how they think or process things. it felt too movie-like, like how men in their 60s write what they think a teenage girl would be like... like as if they're attention hungry, or that they only feel emotions in extremes and are completely irrational, overdramatic.
eugh. it just comes across as cheesy and fake, with no real thought into how real teenagers really feel or act.
this 16?17? year old is making these huge drastic decisions because of her parents divorcing? and the romanticisation of her parents relationship? it's something that a 14 year old might do in one of those movies written by old men that i mentioned. or in real life, maybe something a 10 year old would freak out over but probably would not even dare go as far as this character has.
the way this is treated is like as if it's this huge thing, equivalent to something genuinely serious? just makes me cringe. it seems wayyy too overblown and far fetched to make any of it even remotely believable.
seriously, the way she talks about it and freaks out about this would make you think that her family was abusive or that they all just up and died or something. but it's just divorce???
she disappears on everyone without a trace over her parents divorcing??? jesus christ.
and the way she freaks out on everyone around her about it, getting into fights with people and questioning her relationship with her girlfriend because "oh if my parents divorced how can i expect my Own relationship to last? i have no life of my own outside of my parents relationship"
and then the whole "hi im police. we have no way to recover any of this data for your missing child because the charging port is damaged so that means you, mother, have to do it. but be careful because there's only so much time and if you run out of battery then it's all over and you'll never find out what happened to your daughter." is laughable. police don't need a phone's password, or any accounts passwords, or need to worry about the battery or charging port to extract data!
just more of that movie feel i was talking about, again!
idk, my conclusion for all of this is that i think this was written in a way that was trying to be dramatic and sad while simultaneously trying to be as safe as possible, in order to get as many people to click on it. can't make it about anything actually serious or real because that could potentially be too offensive for some and drive them away. it'd make characters too unlikable. it'd be unwholesome for it to be anything but safe and sanitary like this.
sorry i hated this so much, i really did want to like it! but i just really didn't.