There’s nothing interesting about that Seven shit our MC have to deal with. It all exaggerated and overdramatized like in some teen TV show.
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Funny enough, I haven’t actually tried that one yet. I was mostly thinking about Apartment 502 and Superhero Secret Agent when writing that.
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Oh dear, I don’t think I can support that MC should be able to not care about that breakup 
Not when it came with the threat of homelessness on top.
The plot hinges on MC being in love enough to leave their families, states/countries for their partner and the breakup is very recent (and not amicable).
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Them being pissed/sad about the breakup and the consequences of said breakup is understandable, but what really bothers me is the constant thinking about Rainn afterwards.
Like, if I was in that situation, I would be 100% focused just on the threat of homelessness, and wouldn’t have the time or energy to think about my ex. And even when I did cross paths with them, I wouldn’t bother being broken up about them or giving them the time of day or a single one of my thoughts, because why should I? If they’re willing to throw me out and treat me like a burden just because of a misunderstanding, then I’m not about to keep giving them my attention or waste my thoughts on them. 
But even though I keep trying to have my mc move on and be the bigger person, it kind of feels like the narrative isn’t taking that into account? Idk, I haven’t played much of it/haven’t finished the demo rn, so maybe it does get better/take into account your choices more later on, but so far it doesn’t really feel that way to me.
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I half want to ask you to play through my (very short, very unfinished) old Halloween Jam entry, where the MC is forced to spend some time with their non-amicable ex.
Just so I can hear how badly I handled it, and whether I managed to avoid the worst pitfalls 
I think the author said you can move on fast and not give Rainn an inch (when they’ll inevitably have their come to Jesus moment) 
In the demo you can choose to be angry/sad/indiffierent/polite when you wake up in your new bed and focus on moving on 
Ah, I see. Well, if that’s the case, then ignore everything I just said.
(Also, ngl, while I probably won’t give them an inch/get back with them after what they did to my mc, the spiteful part of me is gonna revel in seeing them regret the breakup later on in the game lmfao)
Honestly, I’m a simple person: if I get to be the bigger person, completely ignore their bullshit and/or call them out on said bullshit, then I’ll be happy.
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I like to think that I wrote my characters more mature, and with less drama and bullshit, than the MC+ex dynamics I usually see pop up in WIPs 
I think this is the happiest solution to forcing past relationships on players like that. Personally, they tend to be hit or miss but the hits are usually BIG for me and endear me a lot like Ortega from FH or Qiu from Merry Crisis. The misses are just a nuisance because I haven’t been given reason to care even half as much as the plot and MC do.
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This one feels very nitpicky, but in games where you have a whole party, like Dragon Age, bg3 etc, I hate that companions take up a companion slot for their quests.
Like, if Bob the companion I never use has a quest in Randomville, and he’s forced into my party, destroying my party composition, instead of the party having one more slot for Bob in this area.
Like I understand why you don’t get an extra companion slot for these games, but I really dislike it lol.
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I have a slightly different complaint, now that I’m sort of replaying Kingmaker: stop requiring incredibly specific conditions for dialogues to happen.
In Kingmaker, there’s relationship dialogues that only show up if you rest in an area map with the specific companion in your party. It doesn’t work if you rest in a city, in an inn, in the overland map. It doesn’t matter that I’ve already slept with person a bunch of times. Nope, it has to be at camp, in an area map.
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God, I hate that ‘Companion stuff happen during rest’ mechanic, I have no idea why so many CRPGs have it.
Just have a designated camp location for that like in DAO.
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How boring would that be? we just broke up .ok. Um. How do I… wait don’t think about it. How do you write 600 words about the MC not thinking about it 
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You write 575 words that have nothing to do with the breakup. That’s how.
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Please respect what @Sally_Forth has had to say about her own experiences.
Obviously, a character experiencing grief or anger or denial or any number of things after a breakup is a legitimate option for a writer to explore, but sometimes people just go their separate ways and it really isn’t a big deal. They don’t have to make an effort not to think about the breakup, because they’re thinking about what they’d like to do this weekend, or that big project they’ve got going on at work, or how corrupt politicians are these days, or whether the creepy guy next door who only comes out at night is actually a vampire.
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I mean, like I said, in all the stories I’ve seen so far, there’s usually some other plot point for mc to worry about beyond the breakup, so it’s definitely doable.
In Superhero Secret Agent you’re literally an undercover agent, and I’m not sure why the author decided to make one of the ROs the ex by default instead of giving you a choice in the matter.
In Apartment 502 it makes more sense because that’s how the whole story starts and the breakup itself is messy, but like I mentioned before, I personally wouldn’t be focused on my ex at that moment as much as the threat of homelessness, and I also wouldn’t bother giving them the time of day even without that because of how they treated me.
Beyond this though, it’s definitely possible to write a story where a breakup happens and where it isn’t absolutely angst-ridden and/or the main focus of MC’s life even after it happens, or where the MC doesn’t constantly think about it afterwards. And the very simple solution to that is just writing MC going about their life normally: dealing with their daily struggles, juggling work and studies if they’re a student, hanging out with their friends and family, etc…
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I think the problem really stems from a lack of choice in the matter. The player should be able to choose whether to break up or not, whether to do other things or not etc.
It’s a choice game, and people should have choices. They shouldn’t have choices made for them and circumstances forced on them by the writer.
Like in Zip! where you have this whole fight scene that has a totally forced outcome. I can see how annoying that is, like how can you give me no choice in a choice game? 
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Yeah, incredibly missable dialogue is also a scourge.
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Forcing character traits and relationships on a player character that had an option to ignore them before really boils my piss these days.
My V hated Silverhand for many related and unrelated reasons - from being a terrorist to treating women and sex workers like shit, and they’ve argued. Near-constantly, haven’t seen eye to eye in almost every situation, my corporate was very eager to remind him that as a corpse and a Militech deserter he really has no fucking higher ground to stand on. The sole exception to this was the situation with Kerry.
And so my V wants to survive and get his happy ever after with Kerry and sphinx, and the game seemed to be pretty lenient in this regard - it was only Johnny who kept blabbering about becoming a legend and dying in a blaze of glory, and I’ve developed a reflex to block him out the second he opens his mouth. My specific V wants to survive, misses his corpo days and only dislikes how dependent on office politics he was to move ahead, not on doing what he does best - smashing heads.
Ending comes around, I pick Devil after NUSA one proved to be absolutely mindbreakingly dumb (yes, do tell your boyfriend that the invasive brain operation will surely take only a month, V) and progress through Arasaka tower. The tarot reading for Reversed Devil is deliberately incorrect, we trudge on, we slap Smasher, we smash our head against the floor for the 7th time (yes, I’ve counted).
And then, despite me telling Johhny that he has no right to force his morals on me and that I always hated him and wanted him gone, he starts reading morals about betraying myself and my principles. “Bitch, what?” was the reasonable response when my V heard that, and he expressed just that.
Imagine my joy, then, when in the ending V is constantly being harassed by Johhny, nightmares and absolutely hamfisted attempts to show how it all sucks, oooh, how you feel oh so bad for betraying your non-existent dream of becoming a legend, oooh. Random-ass screamer in the middle also did not endear the writing to me either.
I thought it was only bad with Songbird and her near-constant “woe is me, I was a 19 year old grown ass woman that hacked a military mainframe because I was reckless and stupid and now I’m so sad and dying and V, aren’t we so similar”. It managed to get worse.
Jesus fucking Christ, why is dying of brain cancer in Bumfuck, Ohio and giving up your body to an ass that ditches your friends and lover immediately the second he gets full control treated better than actual survival and freedom from a brain cancer parasite inhabiting your head?
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