You made only 1 LI and its a male? You cant customize that person gender? How? You did lesbian moms but couldnt do that option to LIs? Ugh
Viewing post in Our Life: Beginnings & Always comments
The problem is that by not giving a choice between a male or female love interest, the devs are explicitly excluding anyone who would otherwise be interested in the visual novel. That was the make or break for me, for example, when it showed up in an email Itch sent me for a game I follow updating. I was quite interested in it until I found out that the only love interest is a single male character.
Cove is semi-customizable because people can change as they grow depending on their experiences and we wanted to show that. Letting his gender magically be whatever the player wants isn't what we had in mind, he's still a normal person. But it also wasn't possible for our small group to give a totally separate female LI equal time as Cove. The game would've been so large we'd have never finished it. It's a downer, but we, and players, have to accept that means some people won't be able to play. Our Life is a series about quality in the love interest, not quantity. We weren't going to make a female LI second fiddle purely for the sake of having one. It would've been insulting to ask people who love women to still play our game 'cause we threw them a bone while giving every spotlight to the male lead. So, B&A stars Cove while having minor side romances for a couple other dudes.
People who want to romance a woman will have to wait for Our Life: Now & Forever. But, honestly, the first game was made with a 'seeing if it's possible' approach where we figured it out as we went along, with a pretty modest budget too. The next game is in early development but is already simply better in terms of features/how everything works together. We've learned a lot since first starting the franchise. People who prefer ladies are gonna have a lot of extra quality in their game thanks to their patience, haha.
As someone solely attracted to women (and sometimes nonbinary peeps) I can understand the disappointment of not having a female-presenting love interest. However, this game is an absolute diamond for friendship. I can truly say that I don't feel left out or that I have had a "lesser" experience of the game because I became best friends with Cove. Sure, I miss a few CGs, but I personally don't mind. I encourage you to enjoy the friendship route if you haven't already - it's golden.
Just to give my input, I agree with being put off due to it not having a female love interest. It sucks not getting that option. That said, I have played through this a couple times and I really enjoyed it, and that's with not being on good terms with Cove. This game is still really well made and plenty enjoyable even when rudely ignoring all of the dudes. At no point did I feel like I was getting a lesser game/story for not being friends with them. Since it's free, I'd completely recommend giving it a try. There won't be a romance aspect, but it's still great without.