Tangled Up

I should have something clever to say, but I don't.

Er...I'm kind of ashamed of myself that I haven't deleted this app. Not because it's NSFW or anything like that (it's pretty tame) but because it's really kind of lame. Actually, I know exactly why I haven't deleted it.

It's easy.

What I mean is that even though it's your standard ticketed otome-style app, the grinding part of it is super simple. You have to bake things in a cafe. Why? Who knows. It doesn't make any sense. Not much in this app does, to be honest. But it's super easy. You pick a dish and then pop in later and do it again. It also gives you enough diamonds through daily logins and gacha stuff that you don't really need to buy anything to progress, though the free tickets do refill really slowly. It takes very little time commitment. Maybe ten minutes a day? Fifteen?

Because, let's face it, I'm not keeping it because the story lines are particular good. They kinda suck.

Let's step back and start from the beginning though.

The main character is a scientist / researcher working at a Zoo. I named her Robin Darwin. So far so good. She sounds like she should be smart and motivated, right? She moves to a new city and somehow winds up living in the same place as a whole plethora of uber successful hot guys with jobs ranging from actor to clothing designer to figure skater to...well, you get the idea. The guys (in the app) are all paired up all ready for a good old fashioned love triangle. I first tried the Olympic swimmer and whoever he was paired up with and only got about 3 chapters in and went meh. BORING. Then I tried the brothers Gray (bartender/wannabe director and his little brother, the actor). Finished their route and wound up with the blonde one even though his surprised face looked like his eyeballs were constantly popping out of his head in a very disturbing way (and he's surprised WAY too often).

Problems? Yes. For an intelligent woman, she's pretty damn stupid. And the further I got in it, the more I didn't care about either of the guys. One feels manipulative and scheming. The other is childish and jealous. Things move both too quickly and not fast enough. And apparently all it takes for the MC to fall in love is somebody paying the slightest bit of attention to her. The romance really isn't believable to me at all. She's got no agency, man.

But I kept the app because it was something to read in-between waiting for MM chats and each ticketed episode is actually quite short, so very quick reads (too short, if you were looking forward to it). Anyway, started a new route, this one with the ridiculously flirty fashion designer who calls you stupid names (Miss Fairy?? Really?) and the petulant loudmouth ice skater that is his childhood friend and is constantly making angry faces to show how angsty he is. And once again, I'm somewhere around chapter 5 or 6 and feeling like they are both stupid as anything and so is she. Even the stuff with her job is frustrating -- she's supposed to be this amazing researcher but it's the guys she works with (who are also romance-able) that actually seem to make the breakthroughs.

But I still haven't deleted it. Because it's easy.

That's kinda sad.

EDIT: Was checking it this morning and realised one of the things that annoys me. Nearly half of the MC's dialogue boils down to her saying/thinking the character's name. There were about 10 screens in the last episode I read this morning and literally three of them were her going:

   Lumiere...

And that was it (And, yeah, he's got a stupid name. It's hard to take him seriously between that and the Miss Fairy business.). What is he, a French lightbulb? A candlestick?

Which makes me think, in a roundabout way of the anime KonoSuba where every time someone says "Kazuma" (the main character's name), he's all deadpan: "Yes, I'm Kazuma." or "Kazuma here." or something similar. And how there it's really funny and cracks me up and this, on the other hand, just makes me groan. BECAUSE IT IS POINTLESS with the repetition of it. I realise that dialogue is actually what I'm known for in my writing. It's my thing. And this -- this is absolute shit dialogue. Once, maybe twice you could get away with this. But with as many times as they use it? It's just lazy.

EDIT 2: So, thought I would update this. I did finish the Lumiere/Yangze route. I really wanted to smack Lumiere and the MC but he was a modicum better than Yangze and at least he had cool clothes.

Then...and this is where Love Tangle really made me mad...they announced a new event for the launch of a new character named Ike. There were all these bonuses AND he was paired up with a character that I'd thought would be interesting (Moses--another researcher type), so I tried it. And, for the first time, one of the characters felt actually interesting and not annoying -- spoiler...it wasn't Ike. Ike is super annoying. Alpha male, weird avatar (dark/tan skin with silver hair?), and he calls the MC "little bunny" FFS. Absolutely loathed him. But Moses was lovely! And every choice I just picked the one that felt right and they were all for Moses. Finally, I thought, a decent route!

Ha.

But then...I get to the decision point where you have to pick one of them. And...you can ONLY pick Ike. Moses isn't released yet. I somehow missed the "Coming Soon" on his avatar when I started the route (maybe because I started it via an Ike pop up). GROAN. There was no way I was going to play through for Ike even for the event bonuses. Really, really don't like him.

So I started over. Again. This time I'm working on Andrea & Henrik.

Mischievous guy apparently translates to opportunistic manipulator with the face of an angel and "confident and assertive" as low-key asshole with control issues. Seriously, this MC is terrible. She just goes along with whatever all the time. "Be my fake girlfriend (provide no explanation)" ... "Okay..."

I keep asking myself why I don't delete this one. And I keep coming back to the fact that it's easy. And now I'm kind of waiting on them to release Moses. And maybe it's that I'm hopeful. I keep thinking, hey, maybe this one won't be so bad...

EDIT 3: Yeah, so I finished the Andrea/Henrik one. I picked Andrea as he seemed at least normal annoying and not otherworldly annoying. And...well...all I can say is that I finished it and my opinion of the MC has, if anything, gone down again. I didn't even bother trying to get the "good" ending and went for the normal one.

So Moses still isn't released. I thought I'd go on to try Carter (the domineering bodyguard? retainer? of the Prince i.e. Henrik aka annoying amnesia boy that didn't actually seem to have amnesia once all was said and done) and Oliver (a "top" model friend of Joy's).

Carter, while attractive, is a raging ass. Oliver, on the other hand, is super sweet and kawaii. Almost too cute, to be fair. He's got pink hair. But I'm nearing the decision point and it really seems like the game is trying to push you towards Carter. Why? Why? Even when she's in the scenes with Oli, she's having nice thoughts about the horrible dude who's constantly belittling her and is just out and out mean. What's wrong with the writers of this app? Do they only like assholes? What horrible traumas have they had in their lives? Would it kill them to give the MC even half a brain and to actually recognise when people are mean to her? She's kind and forgiving to the point that it's ridiculous. And she nearly got kidnapped and the story kind of skipped right over that to have her go shopping...

OH. But here I am late in Chapter 3 and there's a little out of the MC's viewpoint scene with Oli and I swear to god I think they are trying to make him into another manipulative schemer opportunistic scumbag! FFS what is wrong with these people! What kind of choice is that?

Maybe I'll just quit this one and try the childhood friend vet vs. the taciturn scientist route. Though knowing this stupid app, they'll probably ruin the childhood friend somehow (he's been nice and supportive in all the other character's routes).

Edit Whatever: So. I looked it up on YouTube. Oli is a FUCKING SPY.

Stick a fork in me.

EDIT 4: I continued on with Carter, even though he was one of those never-crack-a-smile bossy types. BUT! I didn't actually finish his route because...They launched Moses! And were having a big event! So I switched. Buh-bye, Carter!

Yeah.

So, now I'm nearing the end of Moses' route and they've managed to piss me off again. I still like Moses for the most part but there's really nothing romantic about his route. They just work together. Really. When she starts thinking about him romantically, you're like...why? There's no indication of anything AT ALL romantic. So it feels out of nowhere. And then, instead, you get Timo (another romanceable guy in a different route who also works with her) suddenly being sweet and asking for her help and...TIMO confesses. WHUT? I didn't expect that. She's in love with Moses (but with no hints of romantic feelings happening between them at all other than they've spent time in the same room) and another man confesses he loves her. I thought, ok, sorry, Timo, I suppose you're just there to make Moses step up his game...but...er, no. Moses easily figures out what's going on and STILL there's really no indication from him that he's even interested in the slightest. He just blathers on about how he respects her as a researcher.

Basically, I'm disappointed as the only thing Moses' route has made me want to do is try out the Timo/Paul one. I'll finish it, though. It's like I've got to, somehow. Why, I don't know.

EDIT 5: So...I finished the Moses route and, you know what? EFF YOU Developers! You even managed to pretty much ruin Moses. Once they are together (and you have no idea why, since they went from oh yay we're humble colleagues and we respect each other so much to sleeping together without even really declaring they have an actual relationship...are they dating? Just Netflix & Chill? WHUT?), Moses starts teasing her in this kind of low-key asshole-ish kind of way. She's all, no, don't do that and he's all, oh, but I like it and so you must too... Jerk. Okay, he's not full on asshole, but between the romance seemingly coming out of nowhere and then this, BLEH.

At this point, I think I haven't deleted this app because it gives me something easy to complain about because it ALWAYS DISAPPOINTS ME. There'll be a glimmer of hope and then POOF! Gone.

Sigh.

But I decided I was curious about Timo since he was actually the more reasonable love interest in Moses' route so I picked the Paul (childhood friend) vs. Timo (stern researcher) route for next. Instead of deleting the stupid app. Glutton for punishment? Yes, I guess so. I have deleted lots of other Shall We Date? apps but those all had the Princess Lesson stuff + the decorate your garden or whatever mechanics whereas this one, still, is the easiest to get stuff in. So, yeah, here I am again.

Just how do you pronounce Timo's last name, anyway? Every time I see it,
I think salmonella. Which isn't a good thing. Also, does he have another eye?

I'd gotten a bunch of story tickets from endings of other routes and it was some special 3X boosting thing for whatever thing the collecting thing is to win prizes (flowers? marbles? hellspawn? I dunno.) so I used them and powered through the first few chapters. And dammit, I think they may very well ruin Paul, Mr. Childhood Friend, for me too. He's been so nice in the other routes but in this one he immediately declares at his welcome party to Lilac Court (the place they all conveniently live) that the MC is his fiancé. Without having actually asked her. Without, in fact, having seen her in three years. She soon finds out he's actually gone so far as to ask her dad for her hand in marriage without having talked to her first. That sir, is a dick move. He's Mr. Confidence. And apparently this confidence stems from some promise they made each other when they were little kids that the MC doesn't even remember?

This is supposed to be romantic? He even goes full on kabe-don on her AT WORK.

Okay, Timo, you taciturn scientist you, you're looking better and better.

Except, somehow, the answers I have picked so far (which seemed reasonable -- insisting that no, you weren't engaged, etc. and the professional responses at your job vs. bringing up personal stuff like how someone insisting you're engaged when you haven't even seen them in years is a bit much) somehow point to Paul? How does that make sense? I swear these developers/writers just want to screw with the readers. They're holed up in the dark somewhere, snickering.

Edit 6: So, weirdly, while we were on holiday visiting family, I decided that I did like Timo (and he was probably gonna be my best bet for a satisfying story in this convoluted soppy mess that Love Tangle is) and wanted to be able to use the gems/diamonds whatever they were to unlock his extra bits as I read. Huh. That sounds kinda dirty. I mean the good graphics. Heh. Still sounds kinda dirty. You know what I mean. BUT, while I'm willing to spend some money on Ninja Shadow, I can't bear to give them any for this app. I know that doesn't make sense. It's the same company. It's just me. So I actually stopped playing his route so I could go play some other routes and earn the ending gems/diamonds/whatever. That's probably a little crazy. I'm a little crazy. It's okay. We're all crazy here.

So I'm playing through Ryan now, the other Gray brother (did Cody's route originally). I'd thought he was going to be my chosen LI the first time around but he'd seemed kinda sketchy so I'd wound up with Cody instead. I'm on Chapter 8 now and it's actually better than I thought it would be. People keep warning you about him but mostly he just seems like he's the kind of guy who can't admit to his feelings. So not as douche-y as I thought he'd be. So it's going okay. I'll do a few others before I do Timo's again as I'm at 81 doohickeys and I'll probably need close to 200. Maybe I'll find a few other pleasant surprises. Who knows. I don't have a lot of hope.

Edit 7: Finished Ryan and it's actually probably the best route I've done so far in Love Tangle (still holding out hope for Timo to come through for me). All of the hints of "ooooh, he's tricky, don't trust him" amounted to absolutely zilch. He was reasonable. Attentive. Pretty romantic. Not pushy. Straightforward once he admitted his feelings. So I dunno what the fuss was.

So now I'm continuing on with just racking up some gems.

So, if you complete both guys in a love triangle, you get a bonus image like this
one. Weirdly, she's wearing the same outfit in a lot of them. So I guess she only
wears a ruffled shirt and denim shorts when she's in a threesome. It's kinda odd.

And I thought, oh, hey, Ryan turned out to be a good surprise. So why don't I try out the route I ditched around the beginning? This one is with Miguel, a gold medalist swimmer (pinkish hair), and Nolan (blueish hair), a high powered attorney. Nolan has popped up a number of times in other routes and he's generally always a bit of an ass but will help you out in the end after making sure you understand he's a bit put-upon and you'll owe him later. Miguel has appeared too, but not as much, and seems to be more or less generically nice and the resident beefcake. There's also a bit of weirdness where the sprite for Nolan has this weird off-balance head issue where the right side of his head sticks out more than his left, no matter the perspective. Can't see it so much in this picture, but definitely in other ones. It bugs me. So I'm guessing that I'll probably wind up with Miguel between those two things (niceness & weird head). We'll see. I'm going to avoid any walkthroughs up to the decision point.