by redle » Wed, 19May15 02:32
Think I missed that whole February discussion when it happened. It has been quite some time since I played either but here's from what I recall.
My personal thoughts are that, yes, LWT1 was a much better game than LWT2. It has nothing to do with the writing (not directly anyway). One was a slow continual growth of a relationship between the PC and 1 or 2 ladies (depending how the player played it). By the end the player either succeeded or did not and could basically see every single thing the game had to offer in a single playthrough (not that a player would necessarily be so successful on a first playthrough). The goal was obvious and drew ever closer. Tension grew. Lust grew. And the relationship and excitement grew.
Two was a completely different game that had nothing in common with the style of One. In two there is no clear goal. The path to seeing everything isn't in playing the game well. There is no real strategy, success, or build-up. Instead the path to seeing everything is to play the game over and over and never choose the same combination of choices twice. Instead of being one long story of a guy's life, it is quite a few mini-stories that are all mutually exclusive. That is not to say that the mini-stories were bad. But at most Justin could actually live through a single one, making the rest a "make-believe dream sequence."
Do not get me wrong, it is tough to keep things interesting after a relationship is in full swing (in both the real world and in games). In the beginning everything is new, which is automatically tense and exciting. There's a reason the standard adult games start at the beginning. Pretty much none say, "Okay, this man and woman are in a serious relationship; have sex regularly; are generally happy with life; story begins..." While that might be a great place to be and life to have, it does not make for much of a game. Okay, the goal of this game is to not let anything change. At this point a game must either destroy what existed and let the player try to get it back, or try to corrupt it down one or another fetish route. If one destroys it, well that basically just is the same as saying the relationship is starting from scratch. The fetish route means the developer now needs to pick and choose specific fetishes (which will instantly polarize much of the potential fan base). And it is just hard to keep escalating.
Two was short play-time-wise even taking the entire game as a whole. But if one looks at it from the perspective of, what actually happened in Justin's life... well that would only be 1 play through only. That makes it minuscule. And while more is frequently better, to take such a short game and add in new female primary interests actually made the game less. There wasn't time within the game to go after both of the 2 main women we already had. Going after someone else just took more time away from them.
I still enjoyed both games and both stories. But the first had more the feel of an epic adventure. The second had the feel of several pilot episodes for unrelated spin-off series based on said epic adventure. The writing was enjoyable in both. The scenes were enjoyable in two. They just could not be combined into one large story arc. And actual game-play was pretty limited.
As for the commentary on other sites and cheating wives (bad) and incest (good), personally I'm not much for either one. But I think understanding it is pretty easy. The core concept is, "Everything that exists is mine. No one else can touch anything that is mine." As an example, I'm sure you can find examples on the same forums where cheating wives are actually "good." The difference is of course whether the PC is a participant in the cheating (either the PC is the wife or the wife is married to "random NPC 5" and cheats with the PC). Cycles back to the NTR statements.