Hi!! Thank you so much for your response :D !!
I did pick up on the fact that Crowe was intended to be emotionally manipulative, but it still feels rather unnatural/jarring/spineless for the MC to change their mind just because Crowe acts sad and makes them feel bad 😭😭 I feel like more obvious attempts at manipulation only work if the player can believe they’d successfully be manipulated by them ?? Hence why I suggested more subtle forms of manipulation that don’t take away player agency, or a more gradual progression that makes taking away player agency more powerful, or perhaps more choices that allow the MC to react to Crowe (or perhaps allowing the MC to realise that something is wrong after a lot of successful manipulation attempts) ??
I’m glad to see that the story will branch after the demo, and I hope you don’t mind my suggestions (ofc you can feel free to disregard them)!! I’m a writer myself, and for some reason, I tend to be more critical towards works I enjoy TwT .. So yes, I definitely did enjoy it, and I think the full game will be quite amazing c: !!