On the most recent update, I like the original versions of the massage and nighttime better. The new massage positioning isn't realistic like the original and the the nighttime doesn't look like someone trying to sneak one in with all that hip action. Lucky the bed doesn't squeak, I guess.
Change for the sake of change isn't necessarily a good thing.
heya, thanks for checking in with the feedback. I'll actually take this a step further and say that change for the sake of change is never a good idea.the focus of the revamp is not to rewrite or really change the story even if i feel like there are mistakes in it (there are). it's mostly a visual overhaul, polish on the writing, and removing the loop at the beginning. these two changes on the other hand were very purposeful and i feel like they're drastic improvements from the original.
the original massage scene is very rigid with terrible camera angles. I was using stock poses that are very robotic to the point that it didn't seem like there was much life in the the characters at all. For the reavamp, the same poses were used as a base, i just did more fine tuning to make the characters actually touch this time and they have facial expressions; but both characters are basically in the same position they were in before and the writing didn't change that much. I just have more camera angles and more pictures but nothing was removed that I recall. in fact, I'm honestly so surprised by your take on this that I'm actually confused on what part you thought wasn't realistic compared to the original. this version felt way more realistic to me because there's just more life in it. I can barely look at the original images, they're terrible, lol.
The nighttime scene had some changes that i was concerned about and i talked about this on the patreon in a lot of detail because i actually did expect some backlash but people ended up being super receptive to the change. The original nighttime scene is very revealing-- which in my opinion-- later negates the purpose of Zack trying to peek in the first place. Why peek if he's already got a full side view? the other concern was that i purposely deleted the chair in the original game just so i could get the revealing shot of braden. as I was building these scenes, I ran into the same problem again, the friggen chair was in the way and i got frustrated and had to move it. but then i thought more about that and that didn't make sense either. there was emotion and frustration with that chair for me as a creator and there was story there. the more i thought about it, the more it made sense to have a much more restricted view of the scene to frustrate zack and to actually capture the layout of the room rather than making objects in the room literally invisible just so we could see more. here zack could finally have a clear shot but something so minor as a chair being in the way is almost infuriating. that totally fits with the beginning progression of the story and it just felt stupid that i ever took it out to begin with.
the "hip action" you noted was an addition that's very much in canon with how braden is in the later parts of the game-- something that zack doesn't really know about yet-- but it's certainly not untrue for his character and it's fun to see that without actually knowing the context yet. braden has a wild side and this is literally a sneak peek early on. In terms of the beds squeaking that wasn't something i ever thought about because they jump in and out of the beds constantly throughout the story so if they were squeaky, I felt like that would have been mentioned at some point during the narrative; jokes would have been made-- stuff like that. Plus, they're wooden framed beds and I've never heard one of those squeak-- just the springy ones but maybe that's just me.
While I did expect that backlash about the nighttime change, it never came. the community was pretty happy about this change and you're actually the first voice that i've seen that didn't think it fit the story. we've talked about it pretty openly on the discord and most people had the same take: they regret not getting to see more of braden like the original but admit that this version does make more sense for the sake of the story-- which has always been the main focus-- aaaaaand it doesn't include invisible chairs.
Sad and surprised that you liked the original better but I definitely don't do change for the sake of change. everything has to make sense to me and honestly-- the more change I do, the more work it is and I would like to do less work since it's a revamp. I dont want to be working on the same game for the rest of my life. I actually put a lot of thought into changes because i'm super protective of these characters. but if you have more feedback on the unnatural massage I'd love to hear it 'cause you kinda lost me there.
