#sieun split-if

Hello!

Seb's update is up!

It adds 35K words of content (with code).

The update includes two routes: Sieun’s route and Seb’s route.

At one point in the game, an awkward question about the main RO may appear, which locks other routes.

Later on, this will be expanded with branching routes (🍅 and MC who got kicked out) but there wasn’t enough time to implement them before CH4.

To avoid blocking CH4 chronologically, I had to make some compromises.😪🥺

This date will receive some polishing within about two weeks.

Please report any bugs.😊

A

Mark

He would pin them against the mattress just long enough to make sure they were fully awake and ready to work.

Prue/Rue

At first, they’d totally take advantage of the closeness, snuggling even tighter… until they remembered they’d be late for their flight or the recording session, and have to deal with all those disapproving vibes and snarky comments about spoiled musicians. So, assuming MC didn’t wrap around them like an anaconda, they’d reluctantly wriggle free; they’re flexible. 😏

Sieun

That only works on Sieun when they don't have a hospital shift. Otherwise… RIP MC.

Seb

If you play "nice", you just talk to your neighbour and never get to meet Sieun; if you don't play nice, you ignore the whole thing. So the scene is entirely missable. I only realized it existed because of the questions in the quickstart from chapter 3

meeting him as doctor: longer interaction only if you go with him at a hospital; didn't think a mobster should want to, so didn't; Sieun seems pretty cold without that

Not going to your best friend's party but going home: this just doesn't seem like the right choice, since you said you'd go; it also looks like a "skip", since there are options like that later in the game, that just remove entire archs (eg going fishing, going to the Theater etc); so it's way too easy to miss Sieun's visit and concern

If you pick using subway, you miss meeting Sieun & the sandwhich part; subway is way more confortable than a bus

When choosing to take gun or not, it seems illogical not to; you then have to change the route, which doesn't seem like a particularly nice guy move; then you have to not use your gun, which is the opposite, a good guy move; then you have to accept that your friend gets shot; I reloaded, because I didn't want him hurt; so you miss out on Sieun's invite; without that part, the router loses so many scene and so much depth; like treating him like you own him and getting irrationally jealous dialogue and so on; it gives too much context early on to be so easily missable

If you miss all these scenes (which I did my first playthrough), you're left with something that looks too fast, too underdeveloped. Because almost nothing points to those choices leading up to more interactions with Sieun. It's a shame, because the entire Sieun route (& interactions with Seb & Dominic) are so intersting and well done.

Thank you so much!

I really appreciate you taking the time to break everything down so clearly. 🤎 You're absolutely right that some of Sieun's content is too easy to miss, and that's something I need to improve. I'll likely add at least one more mandatory scene with them.

There's a similar (if not bigger) issue with Seb—his romance currently relies on a single moment in Chapter 1.

The other problem is that Sieun's route has a lot of branching, and I think I may have gone a bit overboard with it. Right now I still have two unfinished branches for the male MC: 🍅 and another where the MC gets kicked out of Sieun's apartment during a date.😪

I really appreciate your thoughts.💖 It helps me see what isn't working as intended, and I'll definitely be revisiting earlier chapters and finishing these branches.

Prue/Rue – they aren’t possessive at all. At this stage of the story, if they sensed a real emotional threat to their relationship with MC, they wouldn’t say anything; they'd just suffer in silence, channeling their misery into music. But they’re only 22, early in their career, before their first tour, and they haven't hit any real bumps in the road in their relationship with MC yet.

Mark - he’s like a 0 when he’s detached, but he can jump straight to a 10, simply because he’s capable of eliminating a source of jealousy without a shred of remorse. But, it’s not very likely he’d ever reach that level, as he generally perceives himself as superior to everyone else.

Sieun can be overprotective and intensely attached. Part of it comes from their fear of betrayal, and during intimacy, they become very intense and a little possessive, simply because they care so deeply. At the same time, since a large part of their life is dedicated to saving others, they highly value their own space and respect their partner's independence.

We’ve said before that she’d approve of any choice that makes her kid happy, except for Mark, and that still stands. But going into a bit more detail:

Prue/Rue – she wouldn’t see them as a serious choice. Because of their age and music career, she would associate them with emotional distance and likely cheating.

Mark – NO! ❌ He’s too old, cold, complicit, and creepy. Plus, he hates her.

Seb – Barbara knows MC has a friend, but she wouldn’t approve if she knew he was a junkie–even if he’s devoted to MC.

This only really comes into play in Sieun’s route. The content differs depending on whether you play a female or male MC, since Sieun’s attitude changes based on the player's gender. First date is also written differently for male and female MC.

With a female MC, Sieun is much more possessive. They become very protective, shower the MC with compliments, and are almost blindly devoted to their partner, wanting to shield them even if the MC might actually be stronger.

In the male MC route, Sieun is more temperamental and harder to deal with as a partner. They’re also much more sexually open in that version.

Have I been missing this!!!

Here you go

SPOILER

Thank you!🤎

I’m not going to change Siuen. Hell no! I love them the way they are. The only thing I’ll do is go back through the early chapters and see if I can weave something in somewhere, because there’s clearly an issue with how they’re presented at the very start of the game—their romance route doesn’t get picked very often.

Your words really mean a lot to me.