Emily is Away VS Emily is Away Too

[Zinx]

So, with the whole aspect of immersion and story, which one do you think is better? Why do you think it is better? While I am not "too" good at remembering the first one's story, I personally loved this second one and I am curious on other's thoughts as the reviews have appeared to be dividing on this.

[Spartan322]

Ignoring multiple playthroughs, I'd say I'm gonna have to go with the first game, but that's probably because I saw a kind of glitch in the Matrix on my first play. While playing chapter 2 I made the mistake of responding to Evelyn's "had sex before" question with the "eh kind of" option thinking it meant similar to Emily's "only third base" response, except it just makes you say yes, which bugged me, at the end, it screwed me up because I went through the whole game very invested until I hit chapter 5, and she comes back at me saying "you said yes" which I didn't mean say, and thus the entire game screwed me from there.

While the flakey character is a clever kinda teenage realism trick, if your willing to give the player true choice, (unlike the last one) on meaningful decisions, it can ruin the game if you pick a response that states your intentions but it subverts what it is actually saying. The thing that sucks about it is if I had unwittingly made that decision on my own, it would've been a huge impact that would hurt me and I'd be fine with that, but its the fact that the decision was made without my knowledge (until it was too late, and I didn't even know how bad that was at the time) and as a result, screwed me. There are a few points where this kinda happens, but nothing comparable to that point above.

[Hobbes]

I much prefer the first one.
The second one has more options, it's technically a better game, the multiple endings are nice and the story is cute too with how they try to trip up some peoples natural instincts, especially in games.

In saying all that, to me, the first game was still much better, just simply because the first games story was much more poignant. It stuck with you for longer and for me at least, is very relatable. Not necessarily in the romantic sense, just with how you can slowly drift apart from people. The second game, while cute, isn't something I'm going to remember.

[zuligan]

The First one was a masterpiece, feels so real!! This reminds me more like a Date Game, those from animes, Visual Novels. But I still love bouths!

[*Sam]

They both had good messages about relationships between people. I personally found that the second one invoked a stronger feeling of highschool nostalgia, plus it's message about being true to yourself is something that a LOT of people need to hear :)

[poisony]

Originally posted by Hobbes:

I much prefer the first one.
The second one has more options, it's technically a better game, the multiple endings are nice and the story is cute too with how they try to trip up some peoples natural instincts, especially in games.

In saying all that, to me, the first game was still much better, just simply because the first games story was much more poignant. It stuck with you for longer and for me at least, is very relatable. Not necessarily in the romantic sense, just with how you can slowly drift apart from people. The second game, while cute, isn't something I'm going to remember.

I agree. The first one has a better story overall, and the fact that it doesn't have multiple endings makes it easier to be a consistent narrative. It's more memorable and to the point.

That said, I really think the second one built up something nice with the fake websites and making the player deal with two characters at the same time. I wouldn't mind seeing an iteration of that.

[Lord Hawkeye]

I had a similar experience to that of Spartan322, only the difference was my choice on drinking. I stayed true to myself the whole game and I am a social drinker. I don't drink alone nor do I drink to get drunk. I will however politely sip my one drink for the night if there is drinking going on. Emily doesn't give you a social drinker option. Its either a no, and hell no or a yes. I picked the no hoping what would be written would be that of a social drinker, it was not. Heck even when she gets drunk I passed no judgement on her, instead offering to hear her problems and try to help. And once Emmy and myself were a couple its repeated just how perfect we were. You would think at some point it would come up in a social situation and we could chat about it. But no. And because my drinking answer to Emily didn't match up perfectly with Eve's when she finds out she quickly over reacts, assumes the worst, ends everything and lays the blame on me. And that bothered me. I was punished unrealistically because the game forced me to pick between "lie to Emmy because there wasn't a correct choice" or "lie about myself to both" by making sure my answers matched.

[Spartan322]

Originally posted by Lord Hawkeye:

I had a similar experience to that of Spartan322, only the difference was my choice on drinking. I stayed true to myself the whole game and I am a social drinker. I don't drink alone nor do I drink to get drunk. I will however politely sip my one drink for the night if there is drinking going on. Emily doesn't give you a social drinker option. Its either a no, and hell no or a yes. I picked the no hoping what would be written would be that of a social drinker, it was not. Heck even when she gets drunk I passed no judgement on her, instead offering to hear her problems and try to help. And once Emmy and myself were a couple its repeated just how perfect we were. You would think at some point it would come up in a social situation and we could chat about it. But no. And because my drinking answer to Emily didn't match up perfectly with Eve's when she finds out she quickly over reacts, assumes the worst, ends everything and lays the blame on me. And that bothered me. I was punished unrealistically because the game forced me to pick between "lie to Emmy because there wasn't a correct choice" or "lie about myself to both" by making sure my answers matched.

A common problem with choice based games is not being able to say what you want, which is a bit dumb in this case because every choice you have could be split into 3 options, "yes," "no," and "sometimes" or "maybe" but the game doesn't ever give you that and so your forced to basically give reponses that you never really meant to say.

[probskay]

The first had a very, very stong theme: Futility. There was nothing you could do. I made a different discussion post already where I discuss the strengths of the first one that the second didn't, so I won't go much further here. I believe the first was much stronger because of that theme, but I think the second simply needs some revising in order to be a stronger and better game.

[Spartan322]

Originally posted by sashkab56:

The first had a very, very stong theme: Futility. There was nothing you could do. I made a different discussion post already where I discuss the strengths of the first one that the second didn't, so I won't go much further here. I believe the first was much stronger because of that theme, but I think the second simply needs some revising in order to be a stronger and better game.

The first game had a bunch of themes, (playing it over and over, you kinda lose some though) it gave you a lot of wisdom and tools for dealing with real life and it gave you a nostalgia and look back on the past. The problem with EiA2 is it doesn't really have this. Aside from that fact, I believe its clear that Kyle doesn't understand what design he should of given 2 and so tried to stick a lot of 1 in it. (which held it up alright for a bit, but it did start to slide and I think harmed the experience)

[NoxilNobody]

I'd say that, from my point of view, the first chapter reflected better the majority of our reletionships in the early 2000. At least, it depicted almost identically one of my own relationship with a friend, so I felt more close to that case.

The second one, on the other hand, I see it like an actual new friendship or love interest than a depiction of past events. The possibility of different endings helps this kind of idea I have, because it's like you're creating new bonds irl than other, and I liked this way of storytelling.

However, I can see how and why so many people felt a much stronger connection with EiA1, for the reason i explained earlier, and I kinda agree with that. But still, I think this second chapter has done a great job of storytelling and nostalgia moments, expecially with the use of fake sites and stuff.

[Erenussocrates]

Definitely the second one I'd say. Just the existence of different endings wins it over.

[TheSecondFlock]

I haven't played #1, or watched anything on it, but I just read it's plot summary, and it's by far the superior narrative.
Spoilers for #1: You always get a "bad ending" in #1, but the game is more of a story than a game, it is meant to evoke emotions and you don't "lose" by playing any particular way, because the narrative structure won't change much regardless of the options you select.

Three things irk me with number 2 in a major way: Firstly, the game is more like a game than a novel, where your multiple choices affect the outcome of the game, so when you get a bad ending, you feel defeated as you could have gotten a better one, where as in the first you can understand that the story was meant to end that way. But this leads into the issue that the game locks you out of any possible good endings if you mess up in chapter one, and the unassuming player won't know that until a few hours and much emotional investment later. Not only are these all-important selections presented at the beginning of the game, some of them are poorly worded, and clearly don't need 3 responses. For instance, Emily & Evelyn both ask you about settling down in the future, but one asks about the general idea of it, where the other asks you for your plans straight out of college. And choosing a non-matching answer for any one of these dooms the rest of your playthrough, which leaves an extremely bitter taste in the mouth. Lastly, seeing two playthroughs play out, the dialogues for Emily & Evelyn in chapter 4 are almost the exact same at multiple points of the chapter for the "chosen" girl and the "ditched" girl respectively. This comes off as laziness, as I the immersion is ruined as I recall having the same conversation during the last play through.

[Erenussocrates]

I think having multiple endings is always better than a kinetic railroaded novel. Kinetic stories are boring.

[Spartan322]

Originally posted by Erenussocrates:

I think having multiple endings is always better than a kinetic railroaded novel. Kinetic stories are boring.

This is kinda a dumb statement, there is a point to choice in games, but that's not what the first game was about. Aside from that, the fact you see it as railroaded and boring is part of a problem of understanding, you don't seem to grasp the point of the first game if that's what you believe. (also its not suppose to be replayable, though the second one really isn't replayable either, even though it has "replayability" mechanics, which don't hold up well) Also, it wasn't really railroady because that's how a lot of people work, especially in those types of relationships. Next up, the choice system in the second one is also kinda terrible for full player influenced choice, given how it doesn't express what you actually plan to do as a character. The fact of the matter is that the first game didn't give you choice for good reason (and it worked so much better) and second uses choice horribly and needs a lot of choice reworking to be decent. I prefer a consistent experience with a proper point to a gamey experience that has features like "player choice" written on it, the fact of the matter is that we don't need play choice if it doesn't have a point to make in the game, and here it kinda didn't.

[cameron]

Originally posted by Lord Hawkeye:

I had a similar experience to that of Spartan322, only the difference was my choice on drinking. I stayed true to myself the whole game and I am a social drinker. I don't drink alone nor do I drink to get drunk. I will however politely sip my one drink for the night if there is drinking going on. Emily doesn't give you a social drinker option. Its either a no, and hell no or a yes. I picked the no hoping what would be written would be that of a social drinker, it was not. Heck even when she gets drunk I passed no judgement on her, instead offering to hear her problems and try to help. And once Emmy and myself were a couple its repeated just how perfect we were. You would think at some point it would come up in a social situation and we could chat about it. But no. And because my drinking answer to Emily didn't match up perfectly with Eve's when she finds out she quickly over reacts, assumes the worst, ends everything and lays the blame on me. And that bothered me. I was punished unrealistically because the game forced me to pick between "lie to Emmy because there wasn't a correct choice" or "lie about myself to both" by making sure my answers matched.

Yeah! I was trying to stay pretty honest so when they both asked what music I liked I said their respective ones, not to lie necessarily but I don't really have a favourite genre and I loved both of their songs! But I did totally lie about the drinking to the other one. :^) So i spent the past two hours fixing this. I really felt for evee afterwards too because she talks about how she values honesty so much, and in real life thats the one thing I really value also.