Late to the party and my post will probably include many other people’s opinions who spoke before me but yeah… still decided to share my thoughts with you. One less to count as ‘silent majority’ pleased with the content of this thread.
Spoilers ahead, but what are you doing here before finishing the game?
I’ll focus mostly on Kerry for obvious reasons.
First thing that came to my mind after finishing Kerry’s storyline was ‘why is he even considered as a full-fledged romance option and not a one night stand?’
To begin with - you’re in a rush, you fear for your life, you feel pressure to meet with Hanako, yet somehow it’s the peeerfect (yeah, but no) time to slow down, let Johnny take control over you, and shorten your lifespan due to the pills from Misty (in the end they don’t really impact the progress, but uh, that’s not what we’ve been told at the beginning). So quite a sacrifice.
I won’t dwell on Kerry’s personal quests - they’re not exactly my cup of tea - but it doesn’t matter, that’s not the point. Personally I wouldn’t even bother chasing after the rockerboy due to my condition (yup, I mean that tiny ticking bomb in V’s head) but I wanted to experience this romance option. Alright, I can turn a blind eye on the subject of most of his personal quests and focus on what’s next.
‘A Like Supreme’ mission, a gig in Red Dirt. Kerry mentions something about things ‘before him trying to shoot V/Johnny’ while giving V his revolver. Oh, a foreshadowing? You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention!
(And even after the last pill V rushes himself to finally meet with Hanako but nah, she can wait a few days more. Quite the timing, no?)
Terrace in Dark Matter seemed to be a perfect start to go deeper. Then… nothing. Just a kiss out of the blue (as many before me wrote in this thread – I’d love to see hints that V and Kerry are attracted to each other). At the beach, when V decides whether to start a relationship or not, it was said (the internet told me) that ending romance will cause Kerry’s relapse. And I was like WHAT? All the progress he made seemed to be fueled by meeting Johnny, V being himself barely scratched the surface.
The beginning of their relationship was fast and intense, I can live with that. But it was quite sad to discover that after ‘Boat Drinks’ nothing interesting happens. Well, nothing happens, to be precise. But as they say hope dies last, so when my corp started talking with Kerry about leaving Araska, I thought ‘Oh, so maybe now they can open up to each other?’ then V… just cut it short. That dialogue seemed to me to be such a perfect opportunity when V finally had his chance to make some progress and he just let it go, he gave up. We never have any occasion to bring up what he said that night in Red Dirt or confess about V’s condition.
After completing Judy and Panam storylines and confessing to them that things were getting worse, seeing how they cared for V and promised to help somehow, I didn’t even get the CHOICE if I wanted to talk to Kerry about anything important. So compared to interactions and dialogues with female companions, I just felt like I got left with one big nothing. Yup. My expectations were high not because of marketing-made hype, but based on what I experienced with Panam and Judy. I don’t say they’re perfect but they delivered much more.
Time flies by, bomb’s ticking, and if we want to see text messages from almost 90-year-old teenager in love (they’re naively cute, but extremely cringy
) we have to linger for about a week more. Not to mention that when Kerry texted V after Boat Drinks I decided to come by and seeing the same mess all around and K. 24/7 stuck on a couch was… not what I hoped for.
I guess my attitude would be completely different if Kerry was a one night stand. (And yes, I noticed that there are no males among one night stands. Why?) It’s not that I cannot see his inner demons, his inability to talk about them directly. I think there’s much more to offer. I would like to see him and V had more time to grow attached, to open up, to see this relationship fully developed, not stuck halfway.
As I said before, the timing is not very convenient, the pace of storytelling is broken-down, your gradually worsening condition is frozen
ex machina and all of this breaks immersion, like, A LOT.
Instant friendship with River didn’t engage me at all. Too many shortcuts. I won’t elaborate on his construction, I didn’t play fem V, but I still see there’s no room for developing anything deep between the two of them during gameplay.
Please, fellow players, don’t say
it’s not a dating sim. WE KNOW. I could agree with you on that aspect if everyone from The Romanceable Four was served equally ‘undercooked’. And yes, there’s no need to meet all of LIs in the very first minute of gameplay, but c’mon, just before a point of no return? If there’s no way to make all romance options equal ‘because it’s not a dating sim’… why to bother at all and put any of them in this game?
The fact that River and Kerry are not the part of the main story seems strange to me from the perspective of plot construction but okay, not gonna argue that this is the one and only proper way.
Still, I truly believe that it is possible to write a scenario where Kerry’s and River’s lifepaths meet with V’s smoothly, they have a real impact on his/her life and vice versa.
I do want my slice of escapism, and I don’t want it to be thinner than the other’s.
Also:
Why would Kerry interact with V before Johnny introduces them? – folks before me already suggested some explanations, I can add one more: when you call Dino Dinovic and tell him you’re in the mood to party, he says something about Kerry setting up one and he’ll get you in. For me personally K. could be introduced by one of the fixers. Even if not strictly by sending V a job offer, but with Dino – the door is already wide open. Just a thought.
There’s no place for those men in this plot means only that the plot is half-baked.
Judy and Panams plotline exists irrelevant to romance – and I see no reason why it couldn’t be the same for River and Kerry.
Because they didnt manage to put the female love interests into the main story. They were already there. – sounds like they were forced to work on a half ready scenario and it’s a miracle that they still managed to put those men into it.
If a character feels forced and unnecessary it says something about their construction and construction of the storyline.
