I dropped it the beginning of Step 4. It was just too woke. But please hear me out...
At first I wasn't sure about this game since I didn't really like the illustration style, but everyone was raving about it so I gave it a try and bought all ML-related DLCs (yes, even the wedding one although I won't be able to play it after dropping this game). I don't live in the US and I don't watch a lot on YouTube, Tiktok or even Netflix, this means I did hear people complain about lots of "woke" content nowadays, but I never understood what they meant... until I played this game.
Now I get it.
Everything feels so into your face which makes it forced and unnatural. It would have been so much better if there was a one-time short introduction at the beginning asking for my preferred family setting, my preferences and even how I want the male lead's preferences to be. Instead, those questions popped up during the story and it destroyed the immersive feeling every single time. The first thing that got me off guard was that it was mentioned that my character had "moms". Not only, but two. I thought it's not a big deal and it won't be mentioned that much, but I was so wrong. They appear so often and there was even a short text mentioning changes in the US laws that made it possible for them to wear rings in public - I don't care about that at all, in my country nobody would even mention that since it's natural for same-gender couples to be officially together. But that wasn't all. There were all these weird questions, for example the state of my breasts or if I got them removed / bandaged. Or if they are (not) growing because I took hormones or something like that. Then I was asked multiple times if my sexuality has changed. And at one point, the male lead made a big deal about it to tell me his sexuality, which is demisexual and panromantic. I had to google these terms to actually understand what he was talking about. And of course one of the friends changed genders mid-story. AND OF COURSE the love interest has a developmental disability. GOD.
That was the last straw that broke the camel's back. I had to drop this game. It got ridiculous. Again, I don't mind how other people live their lives or whom they love, but all of this happened at the same time, in the same game!? I think there was nothing that didn't happen. What made it so unbelievably bad for me was that all of these things happened instead of showing some afford to make it feel natural, for example, going with 1 or 2 of these topics and use them more sparingly.
But no, instead the developers/writers decided for some reason they had to include everything. I hope what I'm trying to say makes sense. It would have been SO MUCH BETTER if all these topics would have been spread across 5 or even more games. There is nothing wrong about wanting to mention and include all that... but it was just way too much. It got comical at some point. Honestly, with everything that happened I expected all the parents ending up in some kind of open relationship together. At this point, it wouldn't have shocked me at all, but I HAD TO DROP IT before it got worse. Now I'm trying to forget about all the forced stuff and try to remember the good memories and moments.
And for me personally, this seems to be the difference between "being inclusive" and "being woke" - at least from my interpretation as someone who isn't from the US and had no clue it's so important for indie game studios to force this kind of agenda and forgetting to make it at least feel natural.
The remaining one star is for the amount of choices - it was really fun to have the feeling that I am shaping the main character and the male lead based of my choices. I played 3 DLCs and loved especially the "Reflection" moment - it was super interesting to learn more about Kyra and Cliff, but the "Happiness" one was amazing as well! I guess without the DLCs all the "woke" options and decisions would have been even more noticeable, so I'm glad I bought them. And I DID like the interactions in general with the male lead a lot.
Just all that unnecessary stuff turned it sour for me. It felt like the team had some kind of checklist and included everything to reach a 10/10 on a wokeness scale. It feels just so... artificial. That's why I'm writing this wall of text here.
I do NOT want to offend anyone. I'm trying to give constructive feedback and explain why this game was such a disappointment for me. Of course, I could have researched and read more detailed reviews, but usually I just read what the story is about and play it blind. I did expect the "familiar everyday moments". But there were so many "unfamiliar" moments, characters and subplots that surprised me. I'm pretty sure the facts that my character has two mothers and the male lead's disability wasn't even mentioned in the "Story" part of the game explanation and I think those were quite impactful informations...
I'm not offended, but I am amused. Who do you think made this game? Not straight people, trans people, nerodivergant people, and people of color. Many of the team falling into multiple of those categories. But you're only allowed to have one or two of those or it's just going too far! It's ridiculous that people not like you made stories that were relatable to them and comment on the actual real world implications of what it's like to be a part of those communities. It's great that you're not a total "anti-woke" troll, but your critiques are still entirely silly.
Wow. I spent a lot of time writing out my thoughts, trying to give honest feedback without being offensive, and you call my critiques "entirely silly"? That's pretty disappointing coming from a developer...
Just because your team falls into various diverse categories doesn't automatically make your storytelling immune to criticism, unless you created this game just for your own team and didn't care about the average user in the first place. My issue wasn't with inclusion in general - it was with how you crammed everything in at once, making it feel forced and unnatural.
Again, it is good to stand up for representation of marginalized groups in media, but what I've been trying to say the entire time is... was it really necessary to put every single one of these topics and groups in one short game instead of using a gentler approach and saving some of these topics as main points for future games?
I'm really shocked that you are disregarding other players' feedback and even think their opinions are silly. There is nothing wrong with having different opinions and agreeing to disagree. Isn't the point of releasing a game to have a wide range of people play and enjoy it?
If you can't handle critique without getting defensive, maybe you shouldn't respond to reviews. I gave your game a chance and shared my honest opinion. Calling that "entirely silly" just makes me glad I stopped playing when I did. I don't regret buying the DLCs, I just regret reading your answer and seeing how you really think of people with different opinions. All the best.
I think you're very naive with hopefully a lot to learn. This isn't a critique on how well our characters were written or how accurate they were to real people in those groups, your problem is clearly that they are what they are in the first place. You are saying "Hey, people who put in the time and effort to make this game, can you include less of yourselves in it so it stops being off-putting to people who don't want to read about you?" Can you really, truly not see why I can't take it as reasonable advice?
But congratulations on finding your first made-by-and-for-queer-and-neurodivergent-people game ever. You might be shocked to realize one day that there’s lots of games like that and it turns out there’s no such thing as a story with an "unnatural" amount of “inclusive characters”. People have made games where every character was gay and/or trans or so on and that doesn't make it "forced". The world doesn't have ten queer people who aren't allowed in the same room. Often, people who are minorities hang out with other people in that community.
Our players themselves are queer, and trans, neurodivergent, and people who are willing to empathize with those groups without getting uncomfortable when they realize the game isn't including them for the benefit of helping straight cis people feel at ease with them, it's actually so the people in those communities can have something that makes them happy.
"Was it really necessary to put every single one of these topics and groups in one short game instead of using a gentler approach and saving some of these topics as main points for future games?"
Yes, it was! Minorities aren't just talking points. They're not some theoretical concept that only exist to be side characters in fictional stories. They are alive in reality. They play games and they make their own games. The whole world doesn’t revolve "average players" who don't mind seeing minorities in a "gentle way" as long as they’re not "crammed in". Please realize that.
I don't reply to real reviews, and if this had been somewhere other than a public comment section I wouldn't have engaged. But I'm not gonna let our players see a comment like yours and not make it clear that we're not here for you. They don't deserve to be talked about like this, so I will continue to disagree with you.
Also, check out our second game in this series. You think we included everything woke here? Not true. Our Life 2 is even wokier!
And I will add one more thing that might be a missing piece here. We already knew what you said. Anybody in a minority group who intends to make stories more about their own experiences and those of people like them know before they even start development that some players are going to dismiss the game for being woke. That's the reality of being in the minority! But we did anyway. No matter how many “average gamers” tell us to tone it down on the “PC nonsense”, we’re simply not going to. We’re just as allowed to make games that center on us as anyone else is.
Let me see if I'm understanding this correctly. You believe that the game has presented so many societal issues on its plate that, to you, the characters and occurring events are more like token representations instead of actual people and events?
(If that is the case, i have my own opinions on that matter. However if you want to drop it and move on, i will respect that. Good day.)
You sound like you want us to think you have a magical life in some magical country where nobody needs to care about diversity because nobody has a problem with anyone who is "different" to begin with. If that's true and not just a new tactic of the anti-woke crowd, I'm happy for you because you truly don't need this game, you're living it without even realizing it. But please understand that 99.9% of us aren't as lucky as you, and I don't understand why it would offend you that some writers are trying to give other people a glimpse of the kind of life you're blessed to be living.
I understand where you're coming from. For me, immersion is one of the biggest contributors in playing a visual novel, so this mini-review kind of helps me. The game won't exactly be everyone's cup of tea, but that's alright. It's us who decide to play it or not.
And as someone who doesn't really follow all the woke stuff (never was exposed to it, nor saw it promoted in my life), I'm glad I didn't download this. No offense to the developers.
That wouldn't be so much of an issue if that guy's review didn't sound like a schizophrenic, terminally online rant.