Personally I don’t mind Ash being ruthless considering my mc is also pretty ruthless, plus they live in a Mafia world where moral ground kinda don’t matter, it’s like a dog eat dog world you show a bit of weakness, others will surround you like a pack of hyena, mc having a somewhat smooth life is partly because of Luka/grandpa/Ash keeping those animals at bay
7 Likes
You forgot about this part:
Ash is not a good person. Ash will try to be a better person for MC if that’s what MC wants. You can consider it unhealthy, you can dislike that - so how about (for example!) roleplaying your MC as a person who’s in a toxic friendship with their problem friend?
The author said she won’t add a way to break MC’s friendship with Ash and that’s a red line: that would add too much variation that would have to be accommodated. This is a text game, true but it still has to have some plot consistency and every change costs time spent on improving that branch.
A branch which will take time to be properly fleshed out. A branch where MC’s childhood friend will be no doubt upset that they broke it off with them.
And that will come up: Ash is still Morozev’s enforcer and Luka won’t stop including them in his life just because MC doesn’t like them anymore. This is at least an extra 50k words of content.
Respect that. Don’t tell us how your MC would ideally act, they are not real: you can play someone better suited for this adventure.
19 Likes
Wow your point is top notch I couldn’t have said it better myself.
For me game is a way to be somebody else which I’m not in real life, so that’s why I’m fine with the way author portrait Ash character as they are. Because I know this is a fiction and no need to be serious to take on everything. It is good to have an opinion but you need to have a respect to other people opinion.
5 Likes
Ok. I know it was explained well but am I the only one here who got frustrated when the enemies correctly guessed our real identity despite us wearing a mask? I mean, hello enemy? Can’t you see I’m wearing a mask? I’m hiding my identity, you know? Can you respect my mask and just pretend you didn’t know me? Just act as if I’m just a regular Morozov mob?
7 Likes
You know, this is what my MC feels like whenevee these bastards guessed his name correctly.
MC: wears a mask to hide his identity
Commisioner guy: You said family. So are you Luka’s nephew then?
The Arrogant Mob Boss: You must be the Morozov heir.
MC who wears a mask:
Meanwhile Superman…
laughs in Clark Kent
23 Likes
Do you play on the old save? If not, that may be a bug.
1 Like
You need to start from the beginning. Don’t use your old saves
1 Like
Ah yeah I did
Oh thank you.
1 Like
@jay-walker Thank you for laying it our clearly; I couldn’t have said it better myself 
I know with a pretty customizable MC (and I really tried to accommodate some range on appearance, personality, and some views and goals), it’s easy to forget that MC is still one of the author’s characters too.
They are not a blank slate that you’ll be able to fully insert and project all of your personal views and morals into. They have their own set biases, background story and experience that shaped them into who they are in the story, and some cornerstone values that they will prioritize over other views, including people in their life that they really care about.
And I also want to thank you for being considerate and explaining how big the costs in effort and time and how exhausting it would be for the author to implement some things, especially those that are not planned or in the original outline.
@Knoez My sentiment as well. I’ve always seen fiction and stories, whether they are novels, games, movies/films, and tv shows, as a way to escape reality for a while, which is what makes them so fun to me.
It’s interesting to read about characters that in real life, we would probably not agree with or even like. And the IF medium is even stronger because you can play as a character that are probably really different from who you are in real life.
And yes, by the end of the day, it’s still fiction and a story that is meant and written to hopefully entertain the readers/players.
@bored92 Who’s to say that Luka or Grandpa have not already started to pull some strings to do it 
There’s a reason that the Mayor has decided to cut all contacts with the commissioner’s family. It’s just not worth the risk. And the Mayor sending an expensive car for MC as a birthday gift is also meant to be a gesture of peace to the Morozovs, even though he didn’t dare to attend the party.
It’s as if he is saying, “I know one of my ex close allies have somehow managed to do something stupid and piss you off, but my family and I did not condone or approve of it, and we’ve got nothing to do with it. I hope it’s clear that my family and your family got no beef. Whatever happened to the commissioner and his family is none of our concern.”
@Isabel This is a good point 
It is also meant to be a moral choice. It’s just I feel like some readers’ perspectives of him is too skewed to the good side instead of him being more of a grey characters with some good and some bad.
But, yeah, what I might do first is to try to make his connection with the Nemesis Project and how his contributions and how he has helped them more explicit in the story. I feel like I might have implied it too much and it got lost somewhere along the lines.
Thank you! 
I’m always open for typos and grammar stuff!
@Knoez @Jonard_Conejar Yup, you’re totally right. The only reason MC can live a pretty comfortable and smooth life as a ‘civilian’ is because of Luka, Grandpa, and also Ash who have been keeping those hyenas at bay.
In the underworld filled with criminals, people would have no problem taking advantage of other people’s weaknesses and use their corpses to climb up the ladder, much more for soft-hearted and naive people. It’s just like evolution, the only people hardened enough to survive in it have to be ruthless. You can’t really feel bad about having to off your enemies and let them go easy because most of the time, they would certainly come back to retaliate and haunt you, either deliberately or involuntarily.
Ash, Luka, and Grandpa are aware of these harsh truths and they have adapted some sort of Us (The Family and its allies) Vs. Them mentality. They are devotedly loyal to those they consider their family, but are harsh on those they consider to be enemies. It doesn’t matter to Ash (and Luka and Grandpa) that the target is a police commissioner and that he seems to be a decent guy, what they care is that he goes against the Family and deserves punishment and to be made an example out of to deter other potential rivals and enemies to go against them. Fear, intimidation, and fearsome reputation goes a long way in the underworld.
In a matter of survival, it’s either us or them who would come out victorious. And Grandpa and Luka will do anything to goddamn make sure that in all scenarios and fights, their Family will come out on top with as little risk as possible.
@OddCatGuy Don’t worry, they won’t do a 180 and immediately stop killing people. Their job is still being an enforcer. They would still need and would still kill the targets they’ve been assigned to. What they would try to rein in slowly ans start from is being too ruthless in front of MC and making them uncomfortable. To be honest, they would probably never be able to fully stop killing people as long as they still work as the Family’s enforcer.
@Crimson_Blood 
The commissioner knows because of a slip from MC (please forgive them, it is the first time they’ve ever done this sort of thing 
), but you don’t need to worry because he’s already dead before having any time to tell the information to anyone else.
The woman who was a member of the Nemesis Project is different though. Some of you might have already guessed or had suspicion about how she managed to figure out MC’s exact identity If not, then don’t fret; you’ll meet her again if you go down Ash’s route. Can’t talk more without getting into spoiler territory. 
Also, the Nemesis Project seems to already know about MC too, right? That they are the child of Yvette and Viktor, and are raised by the Morozovs and under their protection after Viktor’s death.
@Gintoki_Chan Yup, as @OddCatGuy and @Crimson_Blood said, you’ll need to play from the beginning and make new and clean saves
14 Likes
Lol, my short mc running through the walls while carrying ash 
.
2 Likes
In Chapter 2 this :
*if (ash_romance = 0)
*if (Genuine < 50)
“Hey! No takesy-backsy. You promised,” you give him a mock admonishment.
should be
*if (ash_romance = 0)
*if (Genuine < 50)
“Hey! No takesy-backsy. You promised,” you give ${ash_him} a mock admonishment.
1 Like
I do think it’d play into the whole “corrupt official” thing though. It’d make sense for him to be indulging in some more unethical hedonism. Right now his corruption and dubious character, which were intended to be relatively apparent if I understand correctly, weren’t all too visible. The adultery would add a certain sleaziness to his character without removing his sympathetic traits, so it doesn’t really reduce the nuance much.
1 Like
IMO, the commissioner should remain as he is (or perhaps even more benign). It drives home that the Family is in fact career organized criminals (not just a bank account for fancy clothes and fancier cars) and did not get to the top of the underworld by being nice, and that there is a difference between being nice to MC and being good people.
9 Likes
Except since there’s paths other than crime boss, the commissioner should probably be someone it’s at least understandable to kill. It should at least be a bit clearer that he knew he was covering up the assassinations. Not only is the MC supposed to have an option to become a hero or vigilante but Ash is the only friend who will follow you on these paths. Imo, killing people when there’s not a whole lot of justification to do so outside of “they’re against the Morozovs, and also a bit crooked” should be a thing you do on the mob path specifically.
With the proposed changes however, it becomes far clearer what his role in the organization was, and give more of a motivation for MC to want him dead, which means it’s a bit more sensible that the mc wouldn’t mind Ash’s actions so much. With more reason for mc (and the player by extension) to want him dead, it makes more sense that mc (and the player) would be upset at Ash’s actions, and conflicted about the job, but understanding of their motivations, which leaves the incident open to later discussion. It’s open to discussion regardless in game, but I think the character arcs flow a bit better if the assassination coverups are just slightly more explicit in text.
Given the fact that Viktor was killed by the same organization that murdered Amethyst, and his death was either covered up or lazily investigated by the police, I can picture the MC getting pretty angry at the commissioner for what he did. There’s room for some drama.
Yeah, there were enough clues in the scene with her, and we know what ability Cara had…
In Chapter 3 :
Only the first instance of “maître d’hôtel” is correct the 8 others are just “maître d’”.
When you choose to input your codename, if you input ‘Jackal’ the game tells you that it is the name of Luka’s boyfriend regardless of whether or not the player knows that.
In Chapter3_Mission :
You’re not too sure what she’s trying to glean since the only thing he’ll be seeing
should be
she’ll be seeing
1 Like
How long has this guy been commissioner?
I’m pretty sure he wasn’t commissioner when Viktor died, but I think the MC wouldn’t be happy to know that the police is still covering up for murders made by the Nemesis Project. If they had done their job, the MC wouldn’t still be looking for revenge ten years later. So I think the MC could relate to what happened to Amethyst.
Maître d’ is actually used in English. It must sound awful for French speakers though.
1 Like