You might just want to wait until Episode 1 is out and binge everything then, because the prologue has a fixed central relationship with E. That’s intentional and not something that’s going to change.
The kind of agency some people are asking for would realistically just turn this into Chapter 1 instead of a prologue. This section exists to establish MC, the world, and key relationships that the rest of the story depends on. It’s setup.
Part 1 of the prologue also had to cover a large span of years, so it naturally has more structure than later parts. The goal there was to balance that scope with enough depth for players to actually build connections with the characters and the world.
I could throw in multiple romance options and heavy branching this early, but they’d be shallow, underdeveloped, and ultimately weaken the story. I’m not really interested in giving players a list of options you barely know just for the sake of early “freedom.” Such as “this is your childhood bestfriend Cece who is now 22. Do you secretly love her?” (Despite never having met this character). The point is that by the time the story opens up, you actually understand who these people are and why they matter.
Another thing worth clarifying is that, during the prologue, MC is more guided by the author than by the player, by intention. The purpose of this section is to establish who MC is, what they’ve gone through, and the relationships that shape them going into the main story. As I said before, this whole section came about after Episode 1, so there are simply plot points that cannot be changed and must be represented as MC will later “recall” them. Kind of like ‘Back To The Future’ and how you cannot change the past.
Post-prologue, there’s a lot more freedom in both romance and personality, but this part isn’t meant to be that. MC has to act and experience things in a certain way here for later events to land properly.
I’ve also seen a few comments saying choices don’t matter (like the summer one), which…isn’t the case??That choice immediately leads into different scenes depending on who you pick, and it sets a permanent variable that carries forward into future parts of the story. The differences aren’t always instant in terms of long-term impact, but they are there and do matter.
More broadly, this is a long-form story with pre-planned character arcs and motivations. The prologue is structured the way it is because it’s setting up a much larger narrative. The railroading here isn’t arbitrary; it exists so that later on, when the story opens up, the player has a meaningful foundation to actually shape things from.
Because of that, judging how “interactive” the story feels at this stage doesn’t really reflect what the full experience is aiming to be. This is a prologue by design, not the main body of the game. I understand that due to it’s length it’s easy for many to slip into comparing it to a full IF, but that’s still not accurate as this section was never intended to be played exactly like one.
Part 2 also opens things up more in terms of personality and how MC expresses themselves. There’s more room for tone, attitude, and variation there compared to Part 1, which was more structured for setup, as had I allowed the player to be snarky, or rebellious etc., then a lot of future plot points would have made little sense. In a sense, MC simply had to be somewhat of a victim in that first section.
Valid things like pronoun errors have already been fixed and will be included in the next update alongside Part 2.
If the structure of the prologue isn’t for you, that’s completely fine, you’ll probably enjoy it more once Episode 1 is out. But this section is doing exactly what it’s meant to do. I really would recommend a lot of you just wait until the main game’s demo section is out with episode 1, if feelings of railroading are that bothersome to be honest. The prologue’s purpose is just to explain how MC became the person you’ll meet in Episode 1.
Very well described! 
Not fair because they don’t want to be go-between? Not fair because they’re interested in E? Or me?
I fully trust in my ability to disappoint two people at once. 
