Exactly! 
3 Likes
After reading the game, I think the complaints about moving on are a bit unreasonable. Itâs been, what? A weekend? Maybe a little longer. You want to move on, but thatâs not how emotions work
47 Likes
Yeah, itâs literally two days: you start Friday evening, get dumped and go to sleep at Andiâs, next day you get the apartment room and spend your day there, and then second day is the hanging out with roommate of choice and then orientation at work.
30 Likes
Iâve seen these as well. Iâve noticed complaints that could easily be nullified with just a few more chapters tends to be so common with WIPs. We just donât have the complete story yet, so people pick apart the little that we do have. Itâs a patience thing. The story is developing, and the way that MC handles this breakup is clearly intended to be their story arc - in true sitcom protagonist fashion, they have an adversity to overcome, and theyâre starting at the proverbial âbottomâ.
38 Likes
This 
The complaints about Rainn remind me a little of the ones with Infamous when people were at first moaning that they had to be either exâs or ex friends with Seven.
Thatâs the hook. Every story has to have one event that happens to mc that captures readers interest.
I, for example, wouldnât be interested in a story about war or superheroes or space as theyâre not my cup of tea.
Eventually youâre going to be able to have your mc move on from Rainn, otherwise there wouldnât be other ROâs haha, but obviously not soon as like others have said itâs been a few days.
Iâm pretty sure later on in the story you can cuss them out/ cut them out of your mcâs life lmao
33 Likes
I think the complaints come from how big the 1st Ch is making it feel like a little more time has passed than it actually has on a first read and from the Mc being more defined(?) than the normal self insert Mc. Since the Mc has something of a hard personality when dealing with the main story that ignores some of the choices that you can make that would contradict it.
But, yes, the issues people have are things that can resolve themselves as we get more chapters.
2 Likes
I think the issue is how many times the game asks you to reinforce your feelings towards Rainn. I was doing a real depressive run so I appreciated the opportunity to be really sad when the topic of Rainn ever came up. But if your decision is to âget over itâ then it feels like the game is ignoring your choice. You chose to âget over itâ but the game keeps shoving in your face that you have, in fact, not gotten over it.
I get that in real life, but in a choice novel it is kind of the antithesis of the design ethos of honouring player choice. Look at all the other options. The depressive option lets you be sad, it honours your choice. The angry option lets you be angry. The move on option doesnât let you move on.
Donât get me wrong, itâs kind of an issue with the design of the game. The author wants to give you a chance to develop your feelings so needs to keep checking in with you as to how youâre feeling right now, but I can see how, for someone who chose to get over it, that could get frustrating.
6 Likes
Sure, but thatâs because of how our minds work â you might wish to get over something but your mind is still going to dredge up the memories no matter how much you want it not to. Itâs basically an equivalent of a skill check that fails.
I think itâs a matter of how you look at it. If you are given an option which you canât succeed because associated skill or whatever is too low, is this game not honoring the playerâs choice, or just player selecting option which they canât succeed at, which is frequent enough part of the experience? Thatâs how you could look at it: MCâs hidden skill to âget over itâ is too low to succeed.
Some games use a âdisabledâ option that you cannot select for this sort of thing, but then this doesnât allow for MC to have text variants for such decision, since itâs not selectable.
18 Likes
This.
The problem is that these âchoicesâ are in fact illusionary at best and false at worse.
You want to write a sad cat yowling their pain and despair all day and night? Fine, do so. Donât give the false choice to âmove onâ if there is no choice in reality.
It is especially rude for the player that chooses their MC to be of the âflingâ only type ⌠a three year fling is a long fling, but a fling is something that ends AND you move on.
A bad design is a bad design. Restating how a choice you make is in all reality a non-choice more than a handful of times is not good design.
Edits:
Not repeating illusionary choices more than a few times is âbad design?â Your straw man argument here is that I would consider a non-choice as âbad designâ because it isnât giving me the choice to âmove onâ.
Explicitly and straight-forwardly not allowing a MC to move on (at least until this point) is a better creative design choice than the current one.
Except you canât even pretend to. That is why the ânon-choicesâ are so fictitious. You canât even fake it until you make it.
I would be okay if the game allowed you to do so at all the times it gives the non-choice.
An example where the game actually allows this is the bar scene with A and where you fake it in front of the ownerâs son.
That is part of the reason I felt that scene was written well. It allowed me to fake it.
I think you are conjecturing this fact and really have never tested it.
Just to be clear: this may be your issue but my issue is that these choices are indeed illusionary. I am not sure why you think my issue with the design is that these choices are âpresented at all when some players donât want to see it.â
4 Likes
And redundancy isnât an argument. Some players not liking the outcome doesnât make for bad design, and the alternative of not providing them option to âget over itâ would be contested just as much. Would you also call that bad design, even though what you state is the crux of the issue was no longer present?
My argument here is that even if the game didnât provide this illusionary choice, the players would complain about not being able to move on just as much. The issue isnât that choice is illusionary, it is that this content is presented at all when some players donât want to see it.
When what you consider better creative design would be complained about just as much as what you consider bad design, it doesnât exactly make for convincing argument than one of these designs is objectively worse than the other.
19 Likes
Itâs not a âfling,â itâs a proper relationship MC and Rainn were very invested in some months ago before something happened that made R retreat into their shell. Even if your MC was the casual relationships type, they gave this one serious commitment a go and stayed until dumped.
The story gives you the option to pine after them, be sad, be angry, etc., but that doesnât erase the years of your life you spent on Rainn and suddenly having this empty space on your heart/life where a whole ass person used to be. You donât suddenly forget and move on four days after a breakup. You can pretend you do but still have them plague your mind in the meantime.
31 Likes
It gives the illusion of choice(for now), between being a serial dater, not actually wanting to move together, among other choices. It is possible to at least start moving on early and still make sense. The whole fling backstory is probably the easiest way, as it can be used as a coping mechanism by falling back to old habits.
1 Like
Although Iâm quite uneasy about Râs behavior, I think we should respect the established process of breaking up with R. That is the starting point and also the reason for creating subsequent situations in Apt 502. And itâs still too early to know what R thinks about that breakup. R may be terrible, but there will come a time when they have to pay for their mistakes. Itâs very easy to like a character, but isnât it quite successful when an author makes you hate a character? Iâm quite looking forward to that.
Moreover, Nik has also answered question related to this breakup process on Tumblr.
8 Likes
I feel like a lot of people are underestimating just how serious the end of a long-term relationship usually is. The MC and Rainn were together for three years. The MC was willing to leave behind their family and friends, along with almost everything they know, and move to a different state, or even country, to be with Rainn. It was a serious relationship they saw as having a future. They didnât even have the time to gradually drift apart and fall out of love. Instead, they were completely blindsided by the breakup, having their entire future change in an instant, while isolated from whatever support network they usually have. Itâs a huge shock.
Despite all this, the MC doesnât fall apart and lie in bed for days while refusing to shower. They go out, befriend new people and start a new job. Most of the time, theyâre capable of being upbeat and cheerful. No, theyâre not completely over their ex, because people donât get over a three-year relationship in less than a week. They can be working on it, however, and the existence of ROs other than Rainn indicates that the MC will be able to move on.
Nobodyâs obliged to like this aspect of the game, but itâs a significant part of the story and features prominently in its description. Complaining about it is like playing a game about fighting dinosaurs and then complaining that youâre forced to fight dinosaurs in it. If you refuse to buy-in to the basic premise, the game probably isnât going to be to your taste.
57 Likes
Just there is a think called Flavour choices based upon variables in minor choices choose by the players There are in choicescript since first time code appear.
There is not need to have a redundancy or destroy illusion of choice as you can have a simple hidden stat tracking all this and doing a flavour text if statements with flavour paragraphs no need fancy code at all.
That is how all complex game that offer replay value work.
There is not need of cause a problem because it has been solved in 2011.
Only need writer planning the different options and the flavour text that come with it.
8 Likes
Went through the post seems the author has no intention on changing the moping, which is fine, at the of the day sheâs the one writing it.
I also read some the comments and gotta say, the whole âItâs a 3yr long relationshipâ mightâve hit harder if it wasnât a long distance relationship since those are not only harder to maintain but also hard to progress, especially with someone as busy R. Personally, having the person that I should care about so far away that I need a flight would make it harder for me to feel attached.
Saw someone mention that at least the Mc is still going out to work and making new friends despite the situation, instead of becoming a depressed mess, which honestly with how in love the story makes them out to be it would make more sense if the did.
Another one also gave the idea that the Mc does move on(or at least gives a good enough impression that they did) and everyone is confused or weirded out at how easy they do, calling into question whether or not they actually cared about R.
Never said they didnât occur, merely that they are more difficult .
@loomy Fling or not, it is possible to move on that quick or at least handle it better. My reaction to the breakup wasnât âOh My God! The love of my life left me!â It was âOh My Fucking God! Iâm homeless and broke!â cause priorities. I can be sad later.
8 Likes
Based on my experience from those around me, I believe long-distance relationships do occur in reality and can sometimes lead to happiness, but only in cases where both individuals are committed and make efforts to maintain the relationship. As for Apt 502, possibly due to the limited information and initial setup, I think the effort only came from the MCâs side, which is why some players, including myself, felt uneasy about breaking up with R. However, itâs precisely because of this long-distance relationship setup that we have the main character in New York, in the story of Apt 502, with quite conflicting emotions about R. I think it serves as a plot device.
I still think that this likely wonât even be a discussion in just a few more chapters. All we have is a prologue and chapter one where the main character was just dumped by someone they clearly loved enough to move their entire life for. How can we even discuss whether or not the breakup choices so far are a bad design when we have yet to really even see the design or the beginning of how things will develop? It just doesnât seem productive or useful, especially considering itâs obvious that things wonât be staying the way they are. The story doesnât end with chapter one.
Weâre only at the first chapter and itâs worth it to give Nik (and any WIP author) the benefit of the doubt and a proper chance to implement their vision.
42 Likes
ok letâs be real for a second 
itâs canon that Rainn canât be a fling, the MC was serious about them, so much so that they were willing to move states (or countries!!!) to start a life with them. For MCs who never committed before, Rainn was supposed to be the one that got them to settle down, the âOneâ if you will. you just donât move on from a relationship like that in 2 days. The choices are probably going to have more impact later in the story bc keep in mind this is like⌠chapter 1 lol. i think we should just give it a little time lol
41 Likes
Thereâs also the possibility that itâs filling/building a hidden stat. If you consistently enter the âget over itâ options or the âlove is for sapsâ or âI just want him backâ or whatever, if may open up or block other options later. This is very early in the game, as others keep saying.
11 Likes