I just got a 24-Hr Free Pass for this story and I previously played a few chapters of the original, so I thought why not?
I don’t remember a lot from reading the original but the intro for the featured is so lackluster compared to the original. For starters, MC is, no joke, supposed to be the Normal Girl, while in the original she has a much more interesting background of a disgruntled actress/model (if memory serves). She is also a former hairdresser-now-turned-(pick whatever), which may be nice or not depending on whether you usually like MCs to be blank slates.
I get that the story is compressed to allow more gem choices or simplify the plot focus (since the original story isn’t even finished), but the other stuff Episode removed and/or changed are not for the best. For instance, we don’t get a mention of the other contestants’ names until the first fashion show challenge. And it’s obvious which one of the bachelors we don’t get a chance to be with due to how inconsistent each character introduction is.
The CC templates are, surprise not surprise, so limited save for the hairstyles. And like the original, some of the character designs are also questionable.
To look into positives though … I liked Savannah’s ‘frizzy’ hair, and choosing between a straight and bi branch is interesting, though I don’t know if the latter means we get to romance some of the broke girls or some of the bachelors are turned into girls. And Episode kept in the part where MC DIYed her runway outfit when you don’t choose the gem choice to get a spectacular looking gown, which cool. But I didn’t like how the choice bubble straight up lied about ‘letting Xiomara win’.
So yeah, pretty aight imo. If anyone else has read this, please contribute!
So, um, I chose Gabriel to be my first date, and I did choose to not kiss him, but then Elijah comes in and forcibly kisses MC? Either this is bad coding or Episode didn’t think this through.
Huh. When I heard it was going to be featured, I started the OG, but didn’t love it. Just not my thing. But I did notice a few of things that you mentioned. It’s a bit sad that they got rid of the fancy overlay work!
I actually liked the original, I read it a while ago though so maybe it doesn’t hold up to my standards anymore. Yes, the bi branch swaps Elijah and the guy who is meant to be mysterious whom I forgot the names of, into women and I think there is a trans woman as well but I can’t remember her name. I doubt Episode would go out of their way to make one of the other contestants a LI when it wasn’t headed in that direction in the original.
I also agree that the forcing a kiss was uncomfortable and pretty tasteless of them, I can’t remember if it’s in the original or not, though.
All I noticed was that you can’t stay with romancing Elijah/female variant unless you pay gems which annoyed me because it means you’re forced into the direction of another LI instead. The original seemed to have a better branching with more LI open from the beginning.
Makes sense. Of course I wasn’t expecting another LI when the original already has a few; at least I just wanted the introductions to be inconsistent for no reason other than that. Like I think Elijah/Elyse and Nikolai/Sophia were the only people who had their ages announced for some reason.
If I remember right, the kiss in the original happened no matter what, and kissing whoever in the featured is a gem choice. Again it’s been a while for me.
I am playing the Gabriel branch, so I would have to see if what happened with you and Elijah happens with me. Still pretty sucky. Though with how Elijah got miscoded during the kissing scene with Gabriel in the first place, I don’t have high hopes.
Yeah, maybe they were trying to shorten the length of the episode or the narrations or something? Don’t the other contestants get proper introductions in the Original? Hmm. I don’t know why, but Episode usually does rush through stories when they feature them in this way so I can’t say I’m surprised. Yeah I think the other are supposed to have ages announced but didn’t.
So I went back to read the original (turns out I didn’t read as far as I first thought). So yeah, basically (at least for) Elijah began with kissing MC’s neck and jaw before the choice to kiss him back or push him away. And the push him away choice was similar to when I chose to Push Him Away in the featured, only that MC interrupted him saying sorry .
So with the removal of the neck kissing from the original, I’m not sure if it makes the featured version slightly worse or not.
Also, surprisingly Episode also removed a lot of the fancy zoom work in the featured too, which is pretty disappointing
Oh, I do get frustrated alright. I’m getting frustrated over how this story is forcibly pairing me with this dude even though he’s so creepy. I rather want to be with Gabriel, questionable first kiss scene and all.
Yeah, Gabrielle (the French model) is the trans woman. I’m just kinda confused why she has a different hairstyle than Gabriel (his hairstyle exist for all bodies), but it’s funny how this is the second trans rep in a featured story and she has the same hair Jessica from A Little More Me.