I’ve written a few posts with some minor considerations for subtext before. To a certain degree, I think Visual Novels may have an issue with portraying subtext sometimes, due to the high prevalence of the crutch known as portraying character thoughts.

Because we’re given the leeway of seeing what characters are thinking, it allows us to put a lot more of what a character is thinking into dialogue that otherwise would probably need to be forced into being conveyed via subtext.

So as part of my exercise on this scene, I’ve been working a bit on trying to shift/reduce internal dialogue.

Because there’s a limited budget on what I can animate, not every reaction or nonverbal means of communication can be properly portrayed with my hardware currently, so sometimes, I have to devolve to resorting to internal thoughts.

But, on this NTR scene, I’m also attempting a subtle shift, which is still ongoing. The scene starts with heavy emphasis on Davide’s state of mind and internal thoughts.

But as I move towards the Alexis torment portion of the scene, I’m working on attempting to shift the internal dialogue more to her perspective and reaction to things.

Because since the goal is to get the player to feel bad, a lot of the camera attention needs to be on the tragedy and devastation that Alexis ends up feeling, reacting to, encountering, and dealing with.

And I’ll need to plan some subsequent events down this path.

For one, there’s the general idea that a lot of the “Alexis Corruption” renders that saddog did originally (via the pink hair highlights on Alexis) where she ends up basically as a prostitute for Davide can happen down this route.

Because when you get caught up with gangbangers and human trafficking, they’ll tend to keep you in your place so you keep making them money. You become a resource, and they’ll use various methods via fear, coercion, intimidation, and generally any tool they have to keep you in your place, which is that of having sex and making them money.

The drugs are there to dull your senses, and take your edge off of stepping back and analyzing the overarching situation. Plus, she’ll for most intents and purposes seemingly “disappear” from her family, who will naturally get very concerned.

So I see this having a billiards ball effect. It should cause Nicole to go into a cycle of depression at home, further emasculate Bruce and his role as a protector. It will probably cause Sam to grow vengeful/introspective, and the sudden disappearance of her little sister will cause the relationship dynamics in the household to change, such that Cassandra would probably run into a lot more issues/scrutiny. She’ll probably start getting criticized for being a shit older sister and not looking after her little sister. At the same time, Nicole and Bruce might start babying her more/restricting her freedoms more due to growing paranoia over possibly losing their other daughter.

This may also send home the message to that family that they are indeed in deep shit now with regards to the gang and actually being on unfamiliar, dangerous ground.