Post by bitshiftgames in Cruel Serenade comments

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Different flavors for different people obviously, nothing wrong with that. But yes, unfortunately what I call the "trained" ending, with him being used but escaping is essentially the "middle" ending depending on how you look at it. Pure obviously would be no captures. But I suppose middle is debatable, because maximum corruption leads to the trained end, whereas SOME corruption either leads to the ordinary victory, a temp defeat and then the ordinary victory, or a full defeat where he doesn't leave the island. Thematically though, I tend to think of the trained end or slutmode end as the middle path.

What were you looking for, more specifically though？ You don't have describe specific scenes or anything, just broadly what were you imagining as the ideal middle way? What would it look like? Obviously not going to change this game, but I can always consider ideas.

Vraptor13028 days ago(+1)

Was kinda worried I was coming in too strong, I respect the effort you've put on this project a lot, forgot to mention I do love the style, specially the main character. If you want to hear my thoughts, I admit I agree the "middle road" I imagined is not a great fit for what's built here, mechanically it would involve the ability to actively engage with the sex battling, rather than just being overtaken by an enemy, making it an option along with the normal attacks, maybe even giving xp for k.o. an opponent that way since normal sex here gives none. And for the story I guess it'd be something like a glitch? the clips and hypno not entirely working as intended as he would not turn into an obedient slave, but keep his personality and goals while becoming open to sex and nudity, he might still need to fight off hypnotic attacks since he'd be on the brink of giving in but would pull through regular battles when needed. An example would be what I mentioned on the previous post, getting the normal ending where the boars die, but leave with the clips on hand instead of tossing them into the sea.

bitshiftgames28 days ago(+1)

No no, you're perfectly fine. People are free to talk about things they dislike about the game (and in fact I encourage it) as long as they're not being really shitty and rude about it, which you weren't.

"mechanically it would involve the ability to actively engage with the sex battling, rather than just being overtaken by an enemy."

I'd highly recommend you check out the sequel, GutterTrash, if you haven't already. Definitely more of that there. Though to be fair, there is SOME engagement here too, at least in terms of choosing to actively participate, go along with it, or struggle.

In terms of the rest of it I can see what you're saying, but essentially that's what the Trained end is for: he's defeated, but he THINKS he won, and continues on with further adventures, keeping the clips and conditioning. Again, I'd encourage you to play GT if you haven't to see how all this starts to mesh together.

Appreciate the thoughts though, I'm always glad when people care enough to think this stuff through and try to articulate what worked or didn't for them. I can't hit everything obviously, but I definitely take it into account.

Vraptor13028 days ago(+1)

Glad to hear, and I'll think about it. I'll let you be, but to finish, what you said is a point that sticks with me "thinks he won", I've played these kinds of games for far too long and that always rubs me the wrong way, to do the fun part you have to sacrifice the main character's goals, it's hard to find a game where the mc gets into the fun willingly or at least enjoys in a way that isn't portrayed as a negative while also achieving a definitive win in the end, I guess I always end up getting too invested in the plot.

bitshiftgames28 days ago (1 edit)

Again, different things for different people. But there are actually a LOT of games out there that are just ordinary sex, darker stuff is actually pretty rare, especially in western games. If I'm understanding you right you're basically saying "why can't this be a game where the hero can just enjoy having sex without the dark overtones?", but those overtones are the whole point. That's the kink. The drive of these games has always been to have that darker flavor, they're very much games where the bad end is the good end, ie what you as the player are actually trying to achieve. They're about sadism and masochism, though more mental than physical, and obviously not as brutal as that might imply. But if that's not your flavor, that's entirely fair.

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