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So...you do use the grappling hook in episode 1, you just need to do, y'know, the climbing part. 

Health isn't used in the traditional sense of an HP bar, but if you take damage then it affects how much you level up after the episode is over. 

I'm continually puzzled by you being convinced there's not skill checks in the game. No matter what path you take through episode 1, there's TONS of skill checks, and you get notifications for what you've failed or succeeded at. 

In progress interactive fiction games are browser based all the time, just look through the rest of itch.io's library. Using DDLC is indeed a horrible example for this, because you're comparing a game that intentionally is made to look like a traditional visual novel dating sim with an interactive fiction game, which plays much more like a digital choose your own adventure book.

So much of your "this is definitely AI" proof is just "it feels that way" or "trust me bro". 

But as someone else said, the development of this game AND the design of it's UI predate the widespread use of AI/LLMs. 

If you don't think so, then I can't convince you. But trust me bro.

Do I need to continue?

There's "hating criticism" and then there's "locking a thread because it's just a long essay about how awful everything is because it doesn't suit my particular tastes". 

We get it dude, you want to play a manly macho man who wows everyone with how dominant and powerful he is. 

That isn't this game though. It's a game where your character understands the world that they're in, and that world isn't going to just bend over for them so you can have your action movie moments. 

Your thread wasn't locked because you were critical, people have been critical about aspects of this game since the beginning.

It was locked because you were being unnecessarily rude, and the author can decide whether or not they want to tolerate that on their page.

Hello and welcome to the consequences of your actions.

Oh I totally get that! And it's like DnD where some nights the dice just HATE you. For comparison, there was a player in the games Discord who thought he was overpowered because he never failed  😂

RNG baby. I've done several playthroughs so far, and sometimes I've felt like an athletic powerhouse, or silver tongued devil...

And other ones I just look at Aeran and think "why do you hang out with me? I suck, dude" 

Hey, I'm not the developer, but  I have been playing the game since the early stages. I figured I'd pull this information from the game and share it!

For regular skill checks in Act 1, the player character’s chance of success is as follows:

Level 5 — 40% chance to pass

Level 6 — 45% chance to pass

Level 7 — 50% chance to pass

Level 8 — 55% chance to pass

Level 9 — 60% chance to pass

Level 10 — 65% chance to pass

Level 11 — 70% chance to pass

Also, if there ever was a check you really wanted to pass, save scumming is always an option, but nothing is locked behind skill checks in the game.

However, failure is very much intended to be a common thing in this game. It never halts your progress or kills you, but just moves you down a different path. If you're picking the right dialogue options in the investigation section, for instance you can still get all the information you need, regardless of skill checks!

Think of it more like Dungeons and Dragons rather than a more video game style of RPG! 

Wonderful game and a one of a kind story. A metric ton of choices which actually matter and lead down different paths. The story, characters, and level of detail are all top notch, and I can't wait to see where things continue on from here.

One of my favorite things about this game is that, even though some of the stat checks can be brutal, there's no massive failures or game overs.

Miss a persuasion check? That's fine, you just have to move forward without additional information. Miss a strength check in an attack? You get hurt, but the battle still goes on, and you can win in a different way.

So don't always bother with save scumming trying to get the "most ideal" outcomes. Think of it as simply writing your own unique story instead, and see what consequences your actions (or lack of actions) have!