WELL, PICK THE BEAR THEN!!! 
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I don’t necessarily mind villain POVs, but I only read them on the first playthrough then skip over them in ever subsequent one.
I liked Murphy’s POV in 1. MC outing themselves in the hospital visit added a nice flavor of suspense of “they don’t know that he knows” sort, and I love cat and mouse games. Falk was hardly a villain, and Sin was utterly boring and undeserving of his name.
I also understand less and less why Team Bravo has to be vampires. They never do anything particularly vampirey.
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I dont actually mind romance in this book being simple four templates, to an extent i dont even mind the lack of player agency all that much - it was always supposed be a linear novel type book with just different romances choices in a nut shell after reading first 2 books expecting anything more was foolish of us if i am being honest.
If that was all most people here would’ve gritted there teeth and stuck to the end with not that much complaints, issue is we are are book 4 and we frankly dont know all that much about ROs then we did in book 1, hell even about rebecca(except that she is/was? a terrible mother) and rebecca is the golden child here!
Issue here is this simple linear romance story could’ve been easily ended as a triology will is being forcibly dragged to 7 books, i know some people say it is due to plot reason but what plot reasons there is virtually no progress since book 2, book 3 was very clearly a filler and atleast half of book 4 seem to be as well, even if it isnt amount of content in them doesnt justify a sole book.
I think most major problems of wayhaven stem from the fact that this concept simply isnt doable for 7 books, if it had been a triology i genuinely believe complaints would’ve been significantly less.
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Because at some point–likely in b5–the whole “MC’s blood is too overwhelming and tempting for me, but no one else!” bullshit will probably come to a head and they will get to a point where they can’t “resist” the call of the blood and want a little bitey bite. So they’ll distance themselves or some other stupid shit until a mcguffin comes in and fixes it so they can tolerate it again (but they’re still perpetually tempted because “angst”).
The rest of UB couldn’t give less of a damn about the MC’s blood. Supernaturals find it interesting, but ultimately don’t care. It’s just the LI who is driven insane by the scent of the blood because the LI isn’t an obstacle enough through their stupidity/lying/resistance and must have another shovel of shit thrown on top in the form of bloodlust so they can vamp out (finally) and maybe actually behave like vampires for once before they go back to behaving like Fae with no actual power. 
Yeah. It’s better than rinse and repeat constantly, which is what we have now with the “romances”. Same shit, different day, with no actual progress because we’re treading water till b5 or b6. Cutting it down to three games would’ve solved that, at least, and we could’ve had some resolution with M and A in the final chapter of b3.
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You know, in hindsight, there is something funny about the fact the Agency’s plan to protect the MC, whose blood is basically supernatural steroids, is to have them guarded by vampires, the supernaturals that literally drink blood.
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How has this never occurred to me-
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Mainly because the team is a well tested group with trustworthy senior agents, also because they were the first to become acquainted with the MC so they’ve built up a rapport working together as well.
I think UB got put on the MC because of Rebecca. It’s Rebecca’s kid and the Agency seems to have no problem with allowing her to interfere despite her conflict of interest.
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I do believe that the whole blood drinking will be like the culmination of the romantic plot, like a full show of trust from the MC and in turn I believe that it will work as a catalyst for the team members to tell the MC more about themselves, and in the case of M as a mcguffin to allow them to remember their past.
Like you said the rest of the team doesn’t really care about the MCs blood so I feel like wanting to feed is a stronger urge when in a romantic relationship with a vampire, it is likely prompted by the attachment to the person in question, and the urge is even stronger because of the MCs blood being special for supernaturals.
I will say that I very much so still enjoy the story even with the way things go in terms of the romance, I feel like there still has been progress, the status quo of the relationship does change, right now at least with M and N both like to be around him to the point that they will spend the night together, in the case of M they feel more comfortable around them, and N basically has settled into a bit of a domesticity with the MC, they start at the MCs house before being called back to work.
It to me means that these kinds of things happen on the regular because no one seems to act like it is a new thing, the fact the A knew that N was at the MCs shows that it was a place they frequent, really the biggest thing is that the status quo keep being moved ahead by stuff that causes problems in the relationship due to whatever is going on in a specific book.
I feel like this book will for the most part reverse the feelings of the romanced vampire being a danger to the MC, where now the MC is the dangerous one to them, it is a reversal of their roles, I’ve played it very much to that concept, my character feels scared that they would hurt them since the powers they got are very much so a counter to vampires which causes their healing to slow down.
It is basically a book where the Romantic Interest has to be a more proactive partner with comforting the MC and being willing to put themselves in potential danger, the same way they may see the MC putting themselves in every time they go against the supernatural, because normally Unit Bravo is not the one in the most danger but rather the MC, but now the MC while in danger is not the most vulnerable to their opponent.
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Maybe. It’s being pushed too much as a problem, and it’s stated (on Mishka’s tumblr, at least) that the MC’s blood is addictive, which kind of indicates that allowing the LI to feed would be bad, instead of something that satiates them or locks in whatever connection they may have with them.
Nothing is ever used in this game to actually make things less angsty with the LIs, only more angsty, so I’m betting the blood thing will be a blowup instead of a culmination of the romantic plot. I especially feel this way since I think b5 is when the blood blowup will happen, and it’s the most angsty of all of the installments, per the author.
As for M… I’m not convinced they’re going to remember their past to any large extent. They don’t want it, they only care about the “now” (not the future or past), and basically have no use for anything other than the moment they’re in. If the MC learns about M’s past, I think it will be from the rest of UB after M loses their shit, and I think the MC may have to sit by and watch M’s memories get locked away again, even stronger than before (we’re supposed to approve of everything the Agency does, so going against them seems to be the automatically wrong path). I could see Mishka writing it so that making M lose their memories again (for the protection of everyone around them, as well as them) causes M to lose their memories of the MC, albeit temporarily. That seems like something she’d salivate over in M’s route, because it’s a good way to torture M-mancers with more of M’s “I don’t give a shit about you” shtick.
Even if that’s not where it’s going, b5 is going to be nothing but pain, especially for M and A-mancers. I think F-mancers may be the only ones to not get any real angst, since F would actually do anything to stay with them.
That might work if we had seen any indication or hint that it works that way. Perhaps, if A (in all the other three routes) had brought it up to the LI–pointing out that the blood may be a problem, given how vampire romantic relationships work even with humans who don’t have super duper special mcguffin blood (and it wouldn’t even have to be flat out said early on, just hinted at)–but it’s not. None of the vampires think about it. Rebecca–who supposedly cares oh-so-much about the MC–doesn’t mention it or even warn the MC that being with a vampire could be more dangerous to them than they realize.
So if this is used out of the blue, it’d be lame as hell. Really, if this had been a theme from the first flirt option–with the LI worrying about getting involved–it would’ve given A a valid reason to run away from the MC every time they have a twitch of a feeling. Hell, it would’ve made M’s route more interesting, too, since their unwavering belief they don’t want to be with the MC romantically could result in them attacking the MC for their blood at some point, and that makes them realize their feelings (now there’s some understandable M angst for you, especially if they go from actually believing they don’t care to outright denial because they don’t want to face the fact that it’s dangerous).
Of course, if that’s the case–and vampires thirst that much for their lover’s blood, and it’s blown out of proportion by the MC’s mcguffin blood–then how the hell do they ever get an actual relationship that isn’t dangerous to the MC? If you want to go the tragedy route, then MC and LI could never be together because the vampire’s thirst (rooted in their love and soulmateyness with the MC) would be too dangerous for them to ever be together. You could throw a bone with an option to become a vamp, which would be “protection” for the MC and say it’sthe only way for MC/LI to be together. But just saying it’s this way then forgetting about it after it produces the angst scenes that are planned? It’d be one more stupid plot that’s forgotten.
I agree with this. Mishka tends to like using the role reversal thing often, too. In b1, the MC was hurt bad so we could get the newly chosen LI to react to it, while in b2, the LI could be badly injured so the MC could fuss over them. I assume b4’s focus on the MC being a danger to the LI will set up b5, where the LI will be a huge danger to the MC.
If we’re forced to hurt the LI past what happened right after we gained these powers from Li-sar, I’m hoping the MC will have the option to pull away from the LI altogether and refuse to be around them because they fear hurting the LI. It’d be nice to have M and A chasing the MC for a change, instead of the other way around.
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…and does the Agency have only one of those?
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This week’s update…
She hasn’t said which chapter she is working on in a very long time. I suppose that’s “spoilery”.
BTW, if you are one of the fans who joins for the quarterly specials and M is your favorite LI, don’t bother. The M spring special is a big ol’ nothing burger. Just back and read last year’s fall scenario… it was the last really good one.
On the other hand, if you are an F fan, it’s probably worth joining this month for the scenario. And I’m sure N and A’s will be good, too.
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I have met these people. The Agency doesn’t even have ONE of those.
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I know why, but it’s still pretty funny when you think about it.
Even if you ignore the team itself, they’re handled by Reb. And the Agency seemingly doesn’t care about nepotism; they really are sucking up to her.
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I think Mishka keeps making characters thinking everyone will like them as much as she does despite the inherent bias from making them(something that I feel is pretty common for authors). Which is why we have so many characters that go “hiii… byeee.”, cause other than Elidor I don’t really remember anyone else from the agency. With your reactions being limited to “wow, so cool!”, “they’re cool, but they’re no UB” or “omg, they’re m-monsters!”
Plus, she also doesn’t want you to dislike any of them either(villains too), you can only like them or feel bad for them, unless they’re disposable like Ostin and the auction chick or Murphy (who if she ever brings back will make the agency even worse, especially if you catch him).
On the other hand, we have Rebecca who everyone keeps trying to make excuses for her horrible parenting, because she’s apparently the greatest agent in history despite being human, with UB telling you to give her a chance as they cower whenever she gets mad.
I expect that the new Villain/RO despite killing in the name of sustenance will be given some reason or quick backstory to bring them down to sympathetic villain, cause you wouldn’t actually like an evil RO, would you?
Also, I’ve noticed that everyone’s main save are the A/M routes, how many actually tried the LT route?
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It’s not my favorite–I couldn’t bring myself to finish Book 3 on the LT route. First of all, I prefer A to N, and the LT you have the option to be with N while A and MC pine for each other. (It’s consistent with their characters, don’t get me wrong, lol. I just don’t like N enough to spend so much time with them.)
The LT also just makes me feel bad in a way I find unpleasant, rather than like… gratifying or satisfyingly messy, I suppose. I just felt a bit like a homewrecker? (Fairly certain that F all but confirms that that’s how it feels for UB.) If you want to sow chaos for its own sake, though? Could be fun.
It also kills A and N’s individual storylines; so I guess if you hate that part, it’s a good escape from that. Their backstories don’t really come up, iirc. A is now standing aside for their best friend, pining for MC and in denial, and N is in emotional turmoil because they can sense something is up with A. But I prefer their individual storylines.
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My husband was playing it with two different MCs–one male and one female. The way he was playing it (which took a lot of OOC head canons and dialog) was that the male MC was a player and using Nat to make Ava jealous and the female MC started out afraid of Adam but then decided Nate was shit at protecting her and had turned into a yandere that freaked her out. It was hilarious with my husband playing this, too, but after the demo, he’s not playing Wayhaven anymore, because he thinks it’s too stupid.
And I think you’re right about all these extraneous characters–she expects everyone to love them all and care, even though we see them like for two seconds. I really couldn’t care less, and it feels like filler. I’d rather ditch that crap and have another LI scene in each game. We only get a few decent LI scenes as it is, with a smattering of half a second looks or hand touches here and there. I want more romance in my romance game. And less… other crap. It’s like buying a box of chocolate covered peanuts and, upon opening the package, realizing each piece of candy has a tiny nut fragment in it!
I’ve wondered if Rebecca was originally the MC. She’s so Mary Sue god-mode it’s not even funny. She beats up a bunch of thralls without mussing her hair. Why not send her out and let everyone else sit on their ass? She could probably take out the roomful of trappers in b2 in the time it’d take to blink.
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Originally, I went LT cause back then I deliberately tried getting as much affection as possible in these games and that meant treating all the ROs like I was going for all of them cause it would raise it the fastest. Now the in-game reason is because while my Mc does care for both, A’s denial irritates him, so when it’s just him and N they’re normal but when A’s around he’s an asshole flaunting the relationship trying to get them to admit they’re feelings.
Fair reason, I generally feel disconnected enough to not be bothered by it. It’s not like there’s any consequences to it for now.
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For sure and to clarify, I suppose, I didn’t feel guilty but I did feel guilted by the narrative and that was annoying because it just didn’t connect with me. An attempt was made, but it just didn’t hit.
But I’m more an “MC has two hands” sort of person anyway so it’s probably just not for me. (And again, it was weird to lose the vampires’ personal storylines… and kind of made me wonder how much they’ll even matter to the characters in the future, if they can be excised from the story like that).