This is going to be a rant. I feel slightly insane since I haven't seen anyone else talking about this. MASSIVE PLOT SPOILERS BELOW FOR THE GAME ESPECIALLY BB'S ROUTE YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!
I wanted to love this game. I seriously really wanted to, and I do love all the main characters so far. Like, I really enjoyed BB's route, Lane was slightly funny (I have not done his route yet), and Amelia was also interesting. But there's one thing fully keeping me from enjoying the game, and that's going to be the way the female MC is written. I've only played BB's route so far, up until midway through Shift 3. BB is a great character, I have no issues with him really, but my issue is with the way the female MC treats BB.
She finds out that he used to serve in the military, and her response to that is to repeatedly keep harassing him about why he had "no woman." BB rightfully tells her that he just didn't, because that wasn't a priority — he was in an active warzone, so yeah. BB tells the MC directly, "I was focused on the job." And her response is, "While your mates were looking at pictures of their loved ones." Like, I'm sorry, but wtf?! 💀 Just pour salt into the wound, why don't you? She has already known he had a semi-neutral relationship with his family, so this basically doesn't imply anything great.
He went into the military at around 18. He seems lonely, and she decides that instead of comforting him or dropping the topic, she'll just keep pointing at the fact that he had no one. It made me want to stop then and there, but I powered through for BB.
The rest of the conversation went HORRIBLY. BB informed her about his living conditions, and that he mainly ate MRE meals and drank strawberry milk. The MC doesn't offer him any sympathy or anything. Instead, she tells him, "Honestly, it feels like you're an inmate," and, "You're going to tell me you sleep on a cold floor in a tiny little room with nothing but a blanket?" And I know the tone is trying to go for humorous, but it's just not funny. Then she calls BB a "lost cause" because he's rarely home and he spends all his time working or on his bike. LIKE WHERE IS THE SYMPATHY, AND WHY IS SHE SO GODDAMN RUDE TO THIS MAN FOR LITERALLY NO REASON?! 💀 The thing that truly sent me over the edge was, after she called this man a lost cause for not having a fully furnished apartment, she dead-ass looked at him through his visor helmet and said, "I'm saying you CHOOSE to live worse than a prisoner."
WTF. WTF. WTF. And BB, of course, doesn't really respond to this either. IT MAKES THE MC LOOK LIKE SHE'S EVIL OR SOMETHING! One-sided banter at this point is just bullying. He NEVER says anything like this to HER; he's just taking all of this for no good reason, mind you.
And then she dropped the final nuke. After making fun of this man who was in the military, definitely saw some fucked up shit, she knows he doesn't really talk about his family, he never had anyone important enough to him to have a photo of to comfort him while at war — she tells him, "You ever think about how a girl would feel walking into a room that's just a mattress and a pile of MREs." Like, what? What? WHAT? WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS ABOUT YOU?! WHAT IS HAPPENING?! WHY DOES HIS LIFE NEED TO BE ADJUSTED AROUND YOU?! YOU'VE ONLY KNOWN HIM FOR 3 DAYS! YOU DIDN'T EVEN OFFER ANY REAL HELP! YOU'VE JUST BEEN JUDGING HIM THE WHOLE TIME — WHY DOES HIS ROOM NEED TO CHANGE FOR YOU?! WHO ARE YOU? I know this line was meant for FLIRTING reasons, but it doesn't feel like it, since she's been PUNCHING DOWN the whole entire conversation! She made fun of his room not having much in it, she made fun of what he ate, and now she's implying that his room needs to be changed up FOR HER.
I feel like the female MC is constantly punching DOWN on BB, even as he reveals all this stuff to her that he didn't have to. It doesn't feel like banter or jokes, since BB NEVER JOKES BACK. He just TAKES it all; he doesn't defend himself back, not really. And I bet if he made fun of the MC for working at a run-down gas station and living in a dingy apartment, that wouldn't be okay all of a sudden. I dunno. It's just fucked up.
Then, I haven't seen the whole MC x Lane stuff since I haven't done his route yet, but from what I've seen of Lane, he does make rude jokes and whatnot, which is whatever, it doesn't offend me. But what I find interesting is the MC all of a sudden doesn't "joke" this meanly to Lane. She apparently only likes doing this to people that don't roast back.
The other thing that made me want to slam my laptop shut was the female MC reaching peak delusion — but it was kind of darkly hilarious after everything she said. The female MC told BB, right after making fun of him for not having a picture of a woman with him while in the army, after she made fun of him for not having a fully furnished room, after she made fun of him for eating MRE meals, after telling him he lived like an inmate, after scolding him for not ADJUSTING his room to HER preferences (he's known her for 3 days max) — she told him, "Most people tell me I care too much. 🥺" I was speechless at this point. I had genuinely nothing left to say. This is apparently the MC's greatest quality. She cares too much. Wow. Just wow.
I powered through, since BB is really well written. I was just confused about a couple of other points. BB said he was illiterate, which is interesting because... I don't know how you can be ILLITERATE and in the military. Nor do I understand how he would be able to get a driver's license for his motorcycle?????? But despite this, he somehow managed to text the word "window." BB can't read or write, but he said he picked the word through autocorrect, which makes 0 sense. Like, how does he know the difference between "window," "witch," "where," etc. if he's illiterate? IDK.
Then, if I remember correctly, during the night of Shift 1, after the female MC got choked out by a male customer (we never talk about it — she just got choked out, it was only mentioned for a little bit in Shift 1 and then we just kinda... forgot this happened, or something. It's never really discussed or brought up again 😭), in my playthrough I had her watch some TV before bed, and she found out someone had been murdered close to or by her workplace. She was like, "Whoa, that's crazy, anyways..." LMAO.
BB in Shift 3 offers to fix the door he had kicked open for her, and for some reason she starts arguing with him over fixing the door. This makes 0 sense to me, since you got choked out only days ago, you know there may be a murderer in the area, YOU WORK THE NIGHT SHIFT, you're working ALONE tonight, and the broken door leads into an ALLEYWAY — and somehow, for some reason, you want to argue for WHAT? I don't understand. I didn't get it.
But yeah, maybe BB should've just let the MC get fully choked out during Shift 1. Hell, at this point, after seeing her personality, I'm sorry, but I don't blame him. Everyone else though ? They're VERY well written I only have issues with the female MC only. I also like the interactive map parts of the game play. I like snooping around and finding out information that way that's super fun. I do enjoy the feeling of mystery too that's also done very well. My only complaint is the female mc. Maybe she is written better in Lane's route.