by LIE » Fri, 16Dec16 20:32
Hey there.
As an introduction, I would like to say that I've been closely following Tlaero's and Mortze's works for awhile in the past, and after recently playing through the newest game, I couldn't help but post some feedback and criticism about it.
First of all, I have to point out something that not many people are probably willing to admit to themselves who struggle with the same things as I do. Games like these are a huge help with overcoming some of the more difficult stages of my life. Games like these hold huge potential in exploring genres that normal games would still hardly dare doing in this day and age.
I have to point out that I do not intend to straight up shit on this game for no reason, or because I dislike it. On contrary, I like this genre, these authors and the story they're making so much, that unlike ignoring "Finding Miranda" and going about with my day, I've actually decided to create an account here and post this lengthy piece of review with hopes of seeing it improve later down the line.
I'll start with the things that I like about this game:
Character depth: It's surprisingly unusual to see characters in the game about finding a person to date with with this much thought put into them. There's layers of complexity, backstory, personal problems, and character development that we see Miranda go through. It's a fresh breath of air from your usual games with the eerily similar formula of "Find a girl in a particular scenario > Try and score points with the girl > Hopefully have sex with her by the end of the game".
World Building: I like how "Finding Miranda" is set in an established universe of the previous two games, and how the three connect with each other, building their own unique world. From passively observing events of the second game unfold before our very eyes, to witnessing some background information on the details of the events happening during it. While not something new or unique, as there have been games in the same genre in the past attempting to build their own "universe" with the characters from previous games, this one makes it seem a bit more organic and less "forced", although even here some parts felt like they were there just for the sake of rubbing this idea of "Shared Universe" into the player's mind. I'll touch on that briefly a bit more down the line.
Graphics: It's safe to say that those are some of the finest work of art I've seen to date, with how the lighting, the poses and characters are carefully being put into the scene to make a good, coherent story. They are great to look at, and I hardly found this "stiffness" in the characters that one would usually observe in these types of games, however some facial expressions could have used some more work. I'll also go into that one with more detail later.
Now, from this point on, I will dedicate the second portion of my thoughts to things I didn't like as much, and things I wish to see improved in the future.
Choice of protagonist - while it's a huge step up in building the characters for your games from games in the other genres, I felt a steady "formula" building with the games written by tlaero, and couldn't help but point it out. My genuine thought about 3/4th of the way into "Finding Miranda" was "I wish I was actually playing a game from Miranda's perspective in this story". Not only has the Protagonists been hardly relateable in the past few games, they also had way less interesting story arc than our "companions".
On one hand we have a story of a character who is going through some emotional trauma, seeking a way to overcome their problems and solving the conflict ahead of them, growing as the characters and becoming better as time goes on, and then there is the main protagonist who we play as, that helps them on that journey. Not only do we not get a chance to be immersed into the characters by picking the stuff we'd like to do as ourselves, we're actively discouraged from doing so, because the game actively forces us to be either "generic timid character A" or "generic aggressive character B", with no grey line in between. I would say a controversial thing most likely, but if I was to choose to play a game where I'm a support role to a more exciting character arc, but being a male, and a game where I have a truly interesting story to go through, with character development and overarching story, but being a female, I'd much rather go with the latter.
I think a way to fix this problem would be either by not shying away from making a game with female protagonist (I'm sure there are other ways to appeal to the male demographic that way. We all like to stare at female parts, and since Tlaero's protagonists are shown in 3rd person anyways, I doubt that'd be a huge problem), or by not restricting the protagonist to adhere to a certain trait, punishing them for missing the clues on how these particular people would talk or react. Why not just 'reward' the people who follow a specific trait with bonus sexy scenes instead of punishing them by removing them completely? Personally, I'd much rather follow what -I- would do in that situation than attempt to figure out what the -game- wants me to react like.
Facial expressions - As I pointed out earlier, while the graphics to this game are probably the best 3D renders for an adult interactive game I've seen, there are still areas to improve in, and that's to do with facial expressions. As an example, and this has been prominent throughout many parts of the story, when a character is written as having some sort of emotion during a scene, for example - sadness, a picture would show a character with an over-exaggerated face of that particular emotion.
The problem with that is we rarely feel one particular emotion at the time, even if it's dominates the other ones in our mind, and they're often mixed in with the others. Depending on the situation, one might feel anger and sadness, or sadness and surprise, or sadness and contempt. Not only that, but there's also levels of each emotion, ranging from being slightly sad (I forgot to wash dishes earlier morning, now I'll miss the first 15 minutes of my favorite show cleaning them), to downright breakdown.
In Mortze's renders, instead of showing that they're complex humans with complex emotions, they seem to be fully committed to just 1 expression that is dictated by the narrative: 100% sadness, or 100% happiness, or 100% disgust, or 100% contempt. A good facial expression would be a mix of two emotions, or even three, where, for example, eyebrows would show a slight sadness (forming that "pyramid"-like shape), while the mouth would curve in a wide smile, indicating that they're really happy about something and are holding in their tears because of it.
Branching choices - Now the name might sound weird, because who would hate the branching choices? But hear me out on this one: The way "Finding Miranda" did it might seem like a start in a good direction, but it falls a bit short and is very under-developed compared to the rest of the otherwise finely polished game. It seems to be there to encourage multiple playthroughs, but all it does is force users to save their game at that particular moment and go through all 4 choices in a row, before continuing on with the main story.
As an example: At some point during the game you are given 4 choices to pick where to take Miranda on a date. It is done in an interesting fashion, by that you aren't just given a list of 4 choices, but have to actively look around the apartment for "inspiration". After the date is done, the game progresses as usual, assuming that it connects back to the "general" storyline at the end of it. The best way to go about this is to simply, like I said earlier, create a save and go through all 4 choices in a row, and then continuing with the story. All this does is take you out of experience and promotes this "save scumming" instead of trying to keep you engaged with the characters and the arc that surrounds them.
A way to fix that would be by introducing a much broader branching arc. The first day (which ends on you going home after the visit to cafe) can actually be sliced around to take you to the end of the day on similar paths but with different conditions. On 1 branch you could be playing out this "timid" character that decides not to pursue Miranda, and proceed how it went in the main game - Miranda approaches you, Is guilts you into going after her, and you go have a coffee, since you have been out of "the game" for awhile and aren't really good at picking places for the dates. On another branch you can, yourself, decide to approach her and ask her out on a date, which, subsequently, opens up two new branches, where you can pick the place where you want to go, out of three available. Then you go on that date, have the same conversation and end the day. For an added bonus, you can -slightly- vary what happens during each of the scenario, like with the "guy hitting on her" in coffee shop could also be her talking to a bored bartender that is fishing for a bigger tip, or one of the characters from a previous/future game can have their little easter egg.
This way, you're given four set of choices that feel natural and don't encourage you to save-scum just to see all of the content and still enjoy the story for what it is. On first playthrough, it would factor in how -the players- want to proceed with the story, even if, ultimately, it is forced down the same path from A to B, while "completionists" will feel like they have a lot more to explore and come back to on their second playthrough.
Imagine if alphabetical letters were "story set pieces" that progressed the plot forward, while numerals were the "deviations" on the path between. Right now the game feels like AB4C, encouraging to save in between B and C, go through all the content, then continue on. The game would be much better if it was like A44C, so that it looks like there's more choices, when in fact it is just an iteration on the first formula, with carefully hiding "B" by making it look like there's 4 different choices to choose from, when all 4 of them are iterations of the same plot development with -slightly- different circumstances.
I could probably rant for a bit more, but I feel like I've already given a substantial amount of criticism to think about. Don't get me wrong, I still like the game for what it is and think that you guys produce one of the best contents in this genre (no offense to Chaotic), but it is for that reason that I wish to point out some of the bad things so that I could see you guys get even better at it. I hope that some of what I've written helps you later down the line in the development of your new games!
![[img]images/icones/icon10.gif[/img]](./images/smilies/icon10.gif "smile")
![[img]images/icones/icon15.gif[/img]](./images/smilies/icon15.gif "drole")
in my opinion you guys keep proving that you are the best team making these kind of games around 
) and a happy-but-not-perfect ending;
![[img]images/icones/icon18.gif[/img]](./images/smilies/icon18.gif "bizarre")
