Okay so Ladykiller in a Bind is good and charming and fun but it does get dark and manipulation-y in a lot of places, and the content warnings for the scenes near the end are serious business.

It felt pretty clear to me that the writing was aware of the gross/coercive elements, and recognized that they weren't okay. I recommend this game, but caution when playing is warranted.

@starkatt I had just...metric assloads of Issues with that game's writing, but I think its conversation system is one of the most important innovations in games since the first Telltale Walking Dead game.

So when people ask me if they should play it, I just have a very frustrated, borderline angry "I don't know maybe?"

@DensetsuNoGomez I'm curious what your issues are with it. I wonder how much they overlap with the areas of my discomfort.

@starkatt On the topic of The Sex/Manipulation Stuff...I feel like the game asks you to be kind of an asshole a lot of the time, but weirdly never really drops any meaningful consequences on you for it? Because that would get in the way of all the sex-having. I have to preface this by saying that I have not played through all the game's content, so there might be things I'm missing, but reading other reviews kinda backs up this impression.

@DensetsuNoGomez I think there's a fundamental narrative dissonance here that undermines any of the superficial ways the game nods to consent.

@starkatt I'm just going to say it: "skip sex scene" was the *wrong* choice. that button should have been labeled "withdraw consent" and with just a little bit of changes to the writing, it would have fucking worked, and I would be able to take the characters a whole lot more seriously in their wise-beyond-their-years "sex positivity".

@starkatt Also, the fact that you "have" a safeword but you can't use it during BDSM scenes? Except sorta to opt out of the flogging scene?

I don't mean to harp or sound like I'm nitpicking but consent is NOT just the permission to say yes. But then like, this IS a porn game that's supposed to be ABOUT having sex with people so I'm just supposed to expect my character is going to sex people whether I want to or not?

@starkatt This might just be a personal thing as well: but I really hated hanging out with all these spoiled rich kids guzzling booze like they're well into their 20s and all know how to hold their liquor. I get that's part of the fantasy maybe, but sorry, even with all the queer characters I found it totally unrelatable. Give me a We Know The Devil or a Spaceport Janitor over that any day.

@DensetsuNoGomez mentioning this since you're not following me: I launched another thread about some of my more-congealed thoughts. https://awoo.space/@starkatt/1192697

@starkatt #accurate

Another weird little personal problem with it: for a game so heavily influenced by anime to the point that one of the main love interests is an *explicit* anime nerd to the point of maybe being slightly self-insertish...your character's I-don't-get-it-fuck-off-nerdy-stuff-sucks attitude is just such a buzzkill downersaurus rex.