I may be late to the party but the endings man... I don't have to repeat what so many others already stated. But let me tell you something: As someone who loves writing VN storylines and characters with a deeply routed love to twisted endings I, by no means, expect every ending to be happy. This is coming from someone who repeatedly tries to kill characters via plot that are dearly loved by readers, who's not afraid to jump right into depressing topics and especially from someone who has a thing for fleshing out abusive routes. HOWEVER, no story ever should only punish the reader, especially not VNs. I felt horrible playing through the game three times till I got the special Randal ending and it made me angry. Not because of the ending but because it was the special ending. It did, infact, destroy all my eager to play any other route, I did eventually but I never bothered for the secret endings anymore. The worst routes should always be the one easiest accessible, they should leave behind the desire to do better. A VNs replayability relies on this concept. The harder it is to get a good ending the more rewarding all the spent hours feel. It's not even about the happy end at all, it's about treating the players right and reward their efforts and support with the right thing. I wish Randal's special ending was just MC and him leaving effin LA behind and ditch everything. They could have been on the run for their whole existence, traveling from country to country and hide here and there, helping other vampires and people along the way. It haden't been a happily ever after ending but it had been one that felt more fulfilling, getting Randal out of the spotlight, out of the leader position he was caught up in, doing good things on the way to help others AND to help Randal and his inner demons, make him more free, more spirited, more who he chose to be. It had been an unlife on the run but it could have been a damn good run. (Randal is just the route that pisses me off the most, to be fair).
I love the worldbuilding, I'm a big sucker for VtM so the whole concept resonated with me deeply, the three houses, what they stood for, everything. The characters were all so unique but I just feel punished for spending hours on hours especially to a special route. I don't think this is how special routes are supposed to be, they should be rewarding, they ask so much of the player's time... having MC being literally abused by the person that loved them is just shattering the whole motivation to play any other route or find any more special endings. And the normal endings aren't good either... None of them. There is a reason I didn't pick this game up again for 2 whole years and I just played it again and still feel like it's not worth it. Money spent on something that could have been a masterpiece but ruined it with the endings all together. No one wants to rinse and repeat a sob story over and over again. The story may stick with the people for longer than other stories but as said, VN's are dependent on replayability and this one just fails at that.