NOTE: I mention towards the end of this video that I was surprised a woman wrote it because they were called "Daniele" - turns out it's the Italian spelling of Daniel and they're actually male. Sorry for any confusion. Hi all! So, just a quick note if you’re looking to comment. When I made this video, I had

not now babe, a random youtuber just posted an hour long video essay about something i’ve never heard of

Young consent ages (13-16) are so teenagers in a relationship can consent to EACH OTHER, not full grown adults. It baffles me how people are like "oh but the age of consent is-" shut up.

This game feels like if someone first played What Remains of Edith Finch, then watched Lolita and then huffed lead paint for 7 hours straight before sitting down and making a game

It shocks me that a "dress with a bow in the back" is described as mature and elegant. When I picture a dress like that I immediately associate it to little girls, preteens maybe, but never with a mature woman. The fact that the writers made that association is disgusting and disturbing.

i like how nicole states that “rachel must have had a reason for her suicide” AS IF YEAR LONG ISOLATION IN A HOTEL WITH A PREDATOR ISNT A REASON?!?

"A man who understands space-time better than he understands consent." what a line.

I genuinely thought this was building to Nicole’s breakdown as she realized her father had groomed her too, but no, it was just an ad for degeneracy.

What hit me most was the CW for suicide, but not for sexual abuse/abuse. Why would there be no content warning for SV, right? Well maybe because nobody of the studio thought SV is part of this game, therefore no CW needed. Which is so disturbing.

If I remember correctly Humbert doesn’t meet Dolores again “decades and decades” later. She’s barely 18, married, pregnant and desperately broke. She’s in such bad shape she is actually reaching back out to her abuser, and he doesn’t find her attractive anymore--as a girl in her late teens. It’s all levels of messed up.

"Two adults took a defenseless child and ripped her to pieces." Thank you for calling it what it is and stating it so plainly that it cannot be misconstrued.

A ROCKING HORSE!? WHAT TEENAGER HAS THAT?? There was no way Rachel was older than 10 i don’t care what the story says. Only a CHILD has a rocking horse

I feel like the dissonance in how they designed Rachel's room is meant to make her death more sad. Like the creator's go "Oh, you don't get it, it wasn't grooming because she was so mature", and then immediately turn around and go "Isn't it tragic that someone so young, basically a child, was murdered?" Whatever makes the dad look better and the mom look worse.

The whole "she's so mature for her age" is literally Groomer Talk 101.

This game could’ve been so good…like have it be a big heartbreaking reveal that the “woman” The father cheated with was a child. We experience the pov of the main character as they learn that their father was a monster. Boom, that’s it-that’s the horror. Ghosts aren’t necessary. The game could end with the main character visiting the grave of the young girl. I mean they didn’t even try.

They paint Rachel as only the victim of the mother. This beautiful girl was killed by this older woman out of jealousy. I’m shocked they were able to justify the father’s actions and even the brother’s, and that the worst thing that happened here was her murder. They don’t show her as the victim she is. This family came along and absolutely ruined her life and then gets blamed for the downfall of said family?

Worth noting: Our Protagonist insists stubbornly that the messed up child's room couldn't have possibly been her father's doing, but at no point in the game is there ever any alternative provided. It very much is his doing, and she's very much in denial about that fact. Also the fact she had a learning disability and he wrote the R-slur on the chalkboard is not a coincidence. Despite all the talk about how he "loved" her it's pretty clear he didn't and he probably demeaned and belittled her constantly to maintain control over her.

This whole game is the personification of the sentence "But Lolita seduced him!" that so many people use, specifically those who totally missed the point of that book.

Jesus the idea of using the victim's brother as a mouthpiece to justify the father's actions is just so gross.

There's a few uncomfortable moments where Nicole and Rachel get paralled thematically. Having Nicole's father implied to have equally loved them is horrifying, and the scene with the blizzard in the fire made the possibility stick out to me in the first place, when Leonard says the 'wrong' name. Rachel's brother is also involved in this grooming, and is, in a way, reflecting those feelings onto Nicole as well and.. its an awful, terrible revelation.

Another telling thing is that, even with Nicole's explanation of it being a shrine it'd mean her father dedicated what is clearly a 20s Hollywood, sterotypical child's bedroom to his "lover". It's just another confirmation that he *did* see her as the child she was and was sexually attracted to that innocence in a predatory way. I doubt a man whose adult lover died would remember her with a wooden horse.

I was accepting of Nicole's deep denial until Irving broke down with his weird God and Virgin Mary comparison. At that moment I finally understood that this story about pedophilia was being romanticized.

This entire game can be summed up in one key sentence: "A girl died, NICOLE."

As a victim of grooming, the way they described how Rachel was suffering before meeting Leonard and how he was the light in her life really struck me with disgust. I’m way too familiar with that setting. Back when I was groomed (13) I was also in a vulnerable and depressive state. The man (21) who reached out to me knew I was an easy target because of my mental health and therefore used that to his advantage by treating me well and acting as if he understood me, which I needed the most at the time. He built a strong bond with me and every time I 'disobeyed' or did anything he didn’t like he'd pull a 180 and threaten me. Being full aware that I had no one else I could reach out to at the time. Even though I was being threatened I’d give in to him in the end because my unstable and young mind was deathly afraid of loneliness. Groomers don’t want to help you out of your void, they just want to be in control of it. Whenever I felt extremely down he’d comfort me but whenever I was progressing to a healthier mindset and managed to hang out with my others he’d scold me and pull me back.

26:30 As a law student, I want to specify that “hey, it’s legal in this one specific spot” is a horrible moral standing to take. A lot of things are legal in a lot of places. Legal does not mean good. In my state we allowed for a 14 year old to marry a fully grown adult if they had parental permission. It doesn’t get much more immoral than that.

I would like to add, as someone who lives in a state where the age of consent is 16, nobody cares about if a relationship is technically legal. If you’re almost 50 and have a sexual relationship with a 16 year old, people are still going to see you as a fucking creep. Nobody is going to be like “well it’s legal, so I guess it’s fine.”

Nicole: I can justify grooming a child and causing her death but I draw the line at making a shrine Everyone: You justify grooming a child??

Never read lolita but your explanation makes me imagine a movie titled “Dolores” shot entirely from her perspective. I’m sure the original author would have found that concept interesting too

I felt so angry when Irving treated his sister's grooming by Nicole's father as a pure and unadulterated love. He as her brother was supposed to protect her, not enable her groomer.

What’s most frustrating is that this could’ve been such a brilliant game, had she ‘snapped out of it’ at the end, broke down crying, realizing the monster her father is. Irving could’ve been a brilliant character, pushing her to understand and un program herself from her families grooming. And understand the child victim that was left no narrative. She could’ve realized the real reason her mother broke up with her father- not because he cheated, but because she couldn’t face the embarrassing reality a man she used to love, had a raging obsession with a little girl he isolated and raped. This story idea is brilliant, had it been done right. And instead it was written by a room full of perverts who wanted to justify their attraction to their kids friends.

“She held herself like an adult. She had a dress with a bow in the back.” ????????? The game is really just contradicting itself at this point. Having a dress with a big bow on the back is so obviously a thing that little girls wear.

I’m kind of disturbed that they reveal the mother killed Rachel. It straight up says Rachel didn’t kill herself because she was groomed, but because she was a bitter jealous woman who blames Rachel for their marriage breaking up. On top of the Nichole’s “strong woman” thing in this game seems like it’s being portrayed as a defence mechanism that she needs to stop pretending so that she can embrace being with her father and his philosophy or something. Like the whole problem with this situation for Nichole and in the games narrative is just that Nichole is upset that her parents broke up and not that her father is a pedophile. Like this is just a problem because it’s an affair not an underaged girl in a relationship with middle age man. It’s all so disgusting.

You know what would've been an interesting story? Rachel's dad was the one who killed himself. Leonard dies. The mother never tells Nicole why they divorced. The affair was between Nicole's father and Rachel's father which destroyed the family. There! No pedophilia, no grooming. A tragic love story because they were in a time that didn't accept the love between these two men and drove one man to his death.

As a CSA survivor, this feels like a punch to the gut. I knew people think like this about CSA survivors, but seeing something so blatantly and unabashedly paint a CHILD as the reason their lives are ruined is horrific, and terrifying. This is the reason people like me don’t want to tell people; because we’re so afraid we will be blamed for something we could never control. A child doesn’t ruin your fucking life. You can sleep and forget about it; but it will never leave that child for as long as they live. This is an agonizingly disgusting game, and I hope the developers and writers know they’re awful.

I was groomed between the ages of 9 to 16. Dozens of people over the years have implied or outright told me it was my fault, or that I probably enjoyed it. Do you know how fucking disgusting that is? A 9-year-old girl does not know she isn't ready. 9 year olds want to be grown-up, they want to be like the big kids, do what the big kids do. Every kid wants to be told that they're special and they're ready for things earlier than everybody else. A groomer takes advantage of that. Blaming a child for being tricked by someone intending to trick them is like blaming a dog for playing with a toy. Edit: I left this comment 8 months ago. Please stop talking about fascism in my replies.

I find it crazy how people will use 'the age of consent is 16' when that law is put in place so that 16 year olds can interact sexually with each other, not so 50 year olds can assault 16 year olds.

About not giving Rachel chance to voice her opinion: it would be kinda cool, if for the most part of the game we were hearing Nicole's father's voice, his perception, his worldview, redacted or intentionally misunderstood by the daughter that idolised him, not hearing a word from Rachel, only for it to do completely 180° turn after we find Rachel's room, where this image would shatter and we would finally hear the poor girl, that Nicole previously refused to listen to preserve the ideal image of her father, but to whom she could not play deaf any longer.

This is pretty much “Age is just a number” the video game. That along with the creepy the creepy use of spiritualism, which… a lot of groomers have used as a way to convince their targets that they’re “mature for their age”. This could, *could*, have been a hard hitting story about a person being in deep denial and how they realize that their parent was in fact a monster… but instead it’s just an apologists wet dream

Lolita is so interesting and infuriating because the point is that you're supposed sympathize with Humbert and then go "I'm sympathizing with a pedophile? What in me relates to this monster?" It's not just about getting into the mind of a monster, it's about realizing the darkness that is also found in you. Too often we write off bad people as monsters and that allows us to get away with monstrous behavior because *we're* not a monster. When you read Lolita you're not just supposed to be analyzing the book, you're supposed to be analyzing yourself. Nabokov was angry about people viewing it straight up as a love story, and even said that he never should have published it in English- he only should have ever published it in Russian, because Americans weren't *getting it*. When he published it, he even stated that he didn't want the cover to have Dolores on it at all, he wanted it to be stark. And yet, my copy of Lolita has sexy nymphette Lo and a blurb from Vanity Fair: "the greatest love story of all time". Fucking kill me.

Nicole could be so interesting: someone who is determined to ignore the family’s evils in order to live with herself, the kid who SAW A CHILD LIKE HER being abused. The horrible way they all describe the suicide, the blame they put on Rachel, it could all have been such an interesting commentary on victim-blaming and how we erase survivors… oof.

They could've had a good story. They could've had Nicole be completely pissed at Rachel at the start, not realizing who she is, only the woman who tore her family apart, thinking she wads just a homewrecker, etc.. But slowly, eventually, when she reads through notes/gets further into the hotel, she begins to realize that Rachel was a vulnerable child that was groomed by her father. First, Nicole doesn't want to believe it, who would want to believe something like that? But she reads more and more notes from her father and realizes Irving was Rachel's brother, and it just all comes crashing down for Nicole when she finally realizes how sick and evil her father was. I think it would've been a really dark scene when Nicole finally finds Rachel's room and it hits her how young Rachel was, and how vulnerable she was. The game could end with Nicole visiting Rachel's grave and giving some sort of apology.

this game is the definition of "tell me you touch kids, without telling me you touch kids." for these writers.

The fact that she was disabled too is very disturbing. Disabled people have higher rates of sexual abuse and abuse in general. It's so uncomfortable.

Don't think I missed all the Christian iconography and Nicole's mother mentioning her "marching against abortion". If I recall, suicide is seen as one of the greatest sins someone can commit in Catholicism and immediately damns them to hell, regardless of how 'good' they were in their life. This all reeks of generational inundation of extreme religious views and lack of any personal investigation of very sensitive topics. So glad this game hasn't made the rounds in bigger name KZfaqrs and garnering it undeserved attention

The fact that the wiki says, and I quote: 'The developers sought professional advice for the game's depiction of topics such as child sexual abuse and suicide, to portray them with sensitivity.' And then seeing all this handwaving of grooming and assault, it angers me, like why get professional opinions on how to portray sensitive subject matter in your game when your gonna frame it as "oh it wasn't rape, its TrUe LoVe" Like wtf.

Can we please talk about the amount of respect she had with everyone? Like, she's the only person I've seen who doesn't call Dolores "Lolita", which is so fucking bad. Imagine being abducted by a pedophile and having your whole legacy being the nickname your abuser gave you. Anyway, nice video overall

The Japan age of consent thing is especially stupid because the extremely low places where it IS 13 really only covers couples that are within 2 years of each other. So a 13 and 15 year old and I'm pretty sure it requires approval from the parents. That rule applies for the entire country for anyone under 18. In fact in Japan you weren't even considered a legal adult until you were 20 (this changed like a month ago and is now 18)

A game that ends with an interactive suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning is a "unique" storytelling choice

The fact that you actually pronounced the words the way they're supposed to be said, like rape instead of grape and pedophile instead of pdf file, instead of censoring yourself for the sake of monetization, has already earned my respect. Excited for the video.

For all the people freaking out having S/A in a game isn't bad, pretending that it's ok and making it look like Rachel wanted it is the bad thing. Also making the family the victim is horrible. If you put S/A in a game you have to be careful and informed. This game is not it. Edit: Thanks for all the people who explained it in depth in the replies!

There's something so creepy about the way this game looks at women, let alone young women. It's like they view strong, independence as bitchy, rude, defiant, and seriously in need of an older "gentleman" to guide them. The way Nicole says I love you and her father says "I love you, Rachel", holds implications. The way Irving describes his own sister as a "beautiful luminous creature". Seriously, everyone in this story is either predator or prey, and the prey put the predators on a pedestal they never deserved.

Actually most suicide attempts are really impulsive and are thought about for less than 15 minutes. That's how strong the feelings can be. So something I do when I'm feeling really down like that is set timers and tell myself just to wait because odds are, you won't feel that way (or at least that strongly) soon enough. I hope this helps someone!

She shouldn't be being portrayed as recklessly killing herself to ruin both families, she should be being portrayed as a desperate victim looking for some way, any way, that she can take control of her situation and exert some form of self control that her captor can't do anything about. That's what actually causes suicides in those scenarios, that desperation to prove that you still have the autonomy to find a way out, and maybe devastate the person tormenting you, even at the ultimate personal cost.

I will say this, as a victim of grooming, this is one of the most blatant “pedophiles actually love their victims” I’ve ever seen. It’s fucking disgusting. It’s not love. It’s obsession. It’s not love. It’s control. It’s not love. It’s insane. Nearly everything they did to describe Rachel is how pedophiles get to their victims; vulnerable, they’re in a position of power, “you’re so mature”, etc. This IS how grooming is and they tried to manipulate it into saying “this is true love” and the fact that they REFUSED to let the victim have a voice in this game speaks volumes.

"she wore a dress with a bow on the back" is a line that had potential that was ultimately wasted, especially with it coming after the claim that Rachel was mature for her age, as the idea of a dress with a bow on the back is one that can be associated with youth and a sort of childishness, like a Christmas dress a child would get and love because of the pretty bow. If done right, it would've shown how Rachel was a child who was groomed and abused (and arguably kidnapped) and juxtaposed the line before it, to show just how sick and twisted this "relationship" was and that the idea that she was older than her age was an excuse and further victimization of a girl who is already dead and gone.

I mistook the "Chat" button for the comments and now I have a suicide-hotline in my search history, thanks KZfaq.

at first i thought "oh these are some messed up themes i wonder what the game is gonna do with it" but TRYING TO JUSTIFY them was the last thing i expected. really gross great video btw

as a queer person, all of the bullshit speeches about love make me angry. this wasnt forbidden love. this wasn't desperately wanting to be with the love of your life in a world that judges you for being who you are. this is sickening. this is the story of a disgusting man taking this little girl's life away before she even had the chance to live it. I hate how pedophiles try to portray this as love and try to pretend like our struggle is theirs. they had a choice and we didn't.

This game legitimately had so much potential, it could have been a dark commentary on how families will often blame the victim and keep loving the assailant despite their straight-up evil actions and how far in denial they are willing to go, but instead it takes the route of ACTUALLY victim-blaming and essentially doing what families in real life do jumping through so many Hoops to try and explain away Behavior that is unforgivable.

This is an excellent deconstruction of what is essentially the brain child of a room full of perverts fantasising about a world where an adult can romantically or sexually love a child

Could’ve been so good if Nicole slowly realized her father was a monster and as she talked about him more and more she would realize he’s not the man she thought he was.

This game is not just gross, but dangerous. This game is saying that pedophelia is a good thing, people are going to see this and think, they're right. How this game was even allowed to be published is dusturbing.

I personally dont think theres anything wrong with Nicole’s dad sounding like he does, after all a groomer doesn’t have to sound creepy or sick, a groomer can be anyone. Had this been a better game, they couldve even used his comforting/fatherly voice as a way to show one of the many ways in which he couldve manipulated and taken advantage of Rachel. Unfortunately, it seems like the developers genuinely wanted to paint Nicoles father in a good light, despite everything, so I guess his voice was unintentional.

I think "What Remains of Edith Nonce" would have been funnier.

27:00 tbh even if it was legal that doesn’t even matter. legal age of consent doesnt mean it’s suddenly moral. 16 is a child just because the law says they can consent doesn’t mean anyone over 18 should be taking advantage of that.

That sounds like a really atrocious game. And it seems, that the writers really don't like women. The men can do nothing wrong, but Nicole is unpleasant, her mother a murderer and Rachel just the boytoy for Nicoles father without a hint of getting justice. All the while the two men in the game get to explain themsleves in great detail and no one questions them. Not a mention of child grooming and rape. I really won't touch that game (and I might from the description, because it sounds like a mystery - I loved Edith Finch and would have put it in that category). Thanks for going through with it, so we don't have.

As a victim of sexual abuse, everything about this game and story is making me nauseous. Like, physically uneasy and a feeling like I'm gonna vomit. If I had played this game when I was a teenager, only years from getting free and the height of my struggling, I would get messed up. A lot.

Aside from the main point of your video, I loved the detailed critique of the obvious plot holes that result from Rachel’s autopsy. Any autopsy performed by a well-trained professional - even 30 years ago - would instantly notice that the wounds resulting in her death do not match up with the wounds that she sustained from her fall. Couple this with the numerous lapses in judgment from practically every character in this story, and the entire plot crumbles. And this is without even beginning to examine the blatant predator/groomer sympathy sprinkled all over the game. I’m glad that you made this video or I might have picked up this game and accidentally supported things that I really do not wish to support.

The sure audacity of the writers to make this a "love story". The main character is either the dumbest person alive or the most ignorant. There is no way this could be seen as romantic.

Honestly they could have “saved it” if she completely freaked out in Rachel’s room finally realizing that she was a child. That her father was a monster and that all the adults lied to everyone to cover up for that monster. She was a child herself so she didn’t understand that a 16 year old is not an adult. She should have fallen down on the floor and started apologizing to Rachel. But no they had to do that. There is denial and then there is just…. THAT… WTF Also about the autopsy. I’m a forensic chemist and I study cases. There were several suspicious deaths that were ruled as a suicide due to a reason or another. It’s awful but it happens more often then you imagine.

It's the kind of story that looked really promising till the ending ruined it. With Nicole's extreme denial, her conspiracy about Rachel being murdered, and the whole ghost thing, the game seemed like it could've gone with some kind of disillusionment/anti-mystery plot like Edith Finch. Shame the writer decided on such a bizarre, creepy thesis.

i love the Lolita book. it's such a good book, 10/10 the book is so often misunderstood. it was made TO be gross and disgusting, to show the truly horrible parts of humanity (that's why anti-censorship is so!!!! important), and it's supposed to make you feel grossed out. i love how interesting fiction can be. i love it

I've put off the video for a year, having been groomed myself and had my personal demons used as a way to treat me like a bad guy and my abusers as the victims, this hits hard. If the father was blamed more instead of the diabled child (or you, know, the entire game and the mother was just a piece of shit human), this would have been an amazing game that calls out predators like this, but instead the writers said "blame the diabled child who was raped instead of the grown ass man who raped her" makes me worried about who the creators of this game really are. Do they just not understand, or do they really think this way about CSA and sucicide victims?

I hate most about this game in particular is that the protagonist essentially says “Never mind he was a pedophile, he would never create a shrine to a dead person!” like really? THAT’S the thing you’re concerned about?

Another really bad aspect of this game’s writing is that the devs obviously thought they were writing a feminist protagonist, but the fact that Nicole apparently marched against abortion rights, constantly blames Rachel for her own grooming, and refuses to see her own father as anything but a Christ figure is proof that they have no idea what the hell they’re talking about

Something else i observed thats uncomfortable asf is that everyone has a say on what Rachel is: mature for her age, smart, sensitive, whatever... except Rachel herself. never once do we hear any of her thoughts or dialogue or any of her input in general. it really says a lot when youre obsessed with someone incredibly vulnerable without giving them a voice at all

When I heard you talk about how the writers described a 9 week pregnancy as a "baby", everything clicked for me. The age of consent stuff, the setting being in Montana, the downplaying/ignoring and even glorifying the act of a middle aged man grooming a child, the misogynistic depiction of the man's wife, the insane and unrealistic way Nicole is written, etc.. Everything points to the writers being libertarian/conservative freaks. I'd love to know the story behind the development of this game, because there is a lot of talent behind the art direction, set designs, and other artistic aspects of this abomination. How did so much talent get completely wasted on tasteless storytelling and overall bad writing.

It could've very easily become an incredibly effective horror game if Nicole's realization of Rachel's age and the fact Leonard was an abuser had resulted in horror and disgust on her part. It makes me wonder if the writer is himself a groomer.

Cannot fathom how they literally show a creepy kids-room shrine built by the father for Rachel, highlighting that even if she was "mature for her age" her childishness and her vulnerability is what the father was attracted to,,,,,, and then STILL treat the father like a Christ figure for the rest of the game,,,, the absolute AUDACITY

I honestly wish that the story was about Irving trying to avenge his sister, who was too young to even try and grasp why her "relationship" with Natalie's dad wasnt one of mutual love like she thought it was, but one where she was being taken advantage of by a disturbed older man who separated her from her family via manipulation. Imagine if Irving, when hearing Natalie talk so dearly about her father, gets angry with her and has to cut the phonecall in order to not blow his cover, that he is tha brother of the young girl her father was involved with (if you want to take the route of Irving haunting the hotel, maybe he could've turned off the lights in his fury). Honestly I could go on and on about rewriting this, it could have been something actually significant but instead its... THIS

I love how you have a moment in this video where you’re like “usually I do 5 things I like and dislike but this isn’t a review exactly” yeah no, this is a public execution

One thing I noticed, Rachel is supposed to be 16, right? Near adult teenager, yet nothing we get in the game seems to reflect that, outside of just explicitly telling us "she's 16" everything from her "room" to her explained mannerisms to the emphasis on her dress having a big bow on the back like a child's dress all correlates with a MUCH younger child, like a 12 year old at best. I get the feeling the writer actually did want the character to be significantly younger, but knew that would absolutely destroy his career so he "aged her up" a bit to be at more of a (in his mind) justifiable age, which didn't really work because a middle aged man dating his 16 year old student is still pretty messed up even if it's legal in some places.

Idea to make this game work: Fully lean into the 90's/80's fashion for Rachel, make her be a childlike teen. Her room was literally pink with a teddy bear, she wouldn't have been this mature woman. Make her nervous and panicked. Make notes from the father about Rachel, trying to twist Nicole's views. Make Nicole finally realize her father was a monster, realizing her justifying of her father's actions was the most disgusting thing she could've done. Make her mother not a killer, but someone who was horrified about what her husband did to an innocent girl, leaving her husband and trying to help the girl. *Help Rachel.*

When i played this game, i had a blissful experience. I missed the first phone call and so spent the better part of an hour wandering around the map, making observations without Nicole's inane commentary, and thinking "wow! I love how loose and exploratory this game is!" But eventually i had to turn the game off and when i started it back up it reset the game, and i got the phone call, and everything got worse from there >:(

(Spoiler) Humbert Humbert meets Dolores again when she is 17 so it hadn't been decades since they last met. But she is heavily pregnant and ends up dying I think during childbirth(I dont remember the exact reason why). So she dies at the age of 17 I believe. Her story is so tragic.

You know, the original premise kind of had potential...the concept of a "daddy's girl", somebody who idolized their father their whole life, discovering that their father has something as abhorrent and disgusting as grooming and CSA could have been really interesting. But that would require the talent to write actual character development and the basic understanding that pedophilia is bad, both of which the writer of the storyline clearly doesn't posess... The way the father is handled in this game is absolutely disgusting and honestly, the whole game is just dangerous. For one it excuses and justifies child abuse as something positive and thus normalizes and enables grooming PLUS it literally gives a step by step guide to suicide...what?!??! How can you justify releasing this to the public?!

This game could be so amazing if Nicole had no idea how old Rachel was and slowly she realised that her father was a creep. She still idolised him but then she changed her mind. Or second idea, Nicole and Rachel is the same person! We are now 40 and come back to the motel but we have amnesia 😊

While you were narrating this story, I was thinking to myself: maybe she is exagerating, It can't possível be that bad. Maybe the reason as to why the father seems to be glorified is because the main character admires him so much that It can't deal with the reality of what he did. So she invented this "mistery" as a way to redeem him. But nope! When the dead girls brother started to talk about how pure and saint their "love" was, I realized: Oh God, It IS that bad!

As an italian It's so weird to see how other people percive the reality where young girls over 14 can have sex, legally Here in italy it's not considered pedophilia nor rape if she's 14 or older and actually in south italy it happens that even younger girls gets pregnant and marry to much older guys It's so disgusting to me but also a "normal" thing in my country idk what to think

Yo Nicole’s straight lying to herself if she thinks that riddle her dad gave was good💀💀

Nicole is one of the most hateable character ever created and the fact that I feel like she can actually exist in the real world is just terrifying. A woman who doesn't want other woman to have choice regarding their own body, a woman who thinks victims of grooming are to blame for being groomed, a woman who thinks horrible person is not bad as long it's their own family member.

I think Irving is what really shows the game's borderline malicious intentions. Sure, it's weird that the mother is super villainized, but there are women out there who would rather get their revenge on their husband's underage affair partners rather than show sympathy to an obvious victim. And Nicole idolizes her horrible father, but we can presume he's been teaching her to be okay with his behavior since she was a child. All of these things could show that this is just supposed to be a really dark story that the writer isn't trying to tell is okay. But you don't write a grooming victim's brother justifying the crime as some whirlwind fantastical romance that actually gave her life meaning or whatever. Not unless that's what you WANT the reaction to be. I don't like to presume terrible things about the writers, but this whole game reeks of the creator trying to justify his own predatory thoughts and I just HOPE that isn't true.

It's wild how even though you said in the review "This game will later venerate Leonard" I genuinely didn't believe it until the final part of the video. I just listened and went "Surely they know what a horrible monster they've created, surely they're aware of how disgusting this all is" I genuinely couldn't fathom they could write all this atrocious shit and then say it's okay at the end. Then you described the ending... Nevertheless to say I'm completely flabbergasted

The absurdity of that Freudian Slip--referring to that room as a _kid's_ room, despite implying maturity--was just depressing. There was little thought put into this game.

In addition to Humbert telling his version of reality in Lolita it is also noted in the prologue of the book that this whole account is essentially written to Humberts jurors in order to lay out his case, so he is definitely motivated to make himself look as good as possible to them.

So if it would be okay with you, allow me to say I do feel they were trying to go for something. Maybe I'm overthinking but here's what I got: Nicole idolizes her father despite the things he's done, just how some children do in response to abuse and dysfunctional family life, and is deep in denial, trying and pin the death on something else and ignore her father's role, even putting the tragedy under property value. Her father is defied because she deifies him. Nicole is very clearly a terrible and harsh person, full of herself despite her insignificance, a classic spoiled brat. She's also an embodiment of a very real attitude people take when their parents do this sort of stuff. Everyone focuses and blames Rachel for her own death, legitimizes or deminishes the father's part, tries to justify her age gap, to normalize it to others, and even kill her out of blaming her for the abuse she suffered, and ignore it's evidence to maintain the delusion of a idealized reputation. It's a common thing for people to victim-blame and try to justify or ignore abuse and horrific crimes on others in real life, try and normalize it even. They try and diminish the responsibility of abusers in society and ignore the evidence in front of them. It's a horrible thing you see quite often. They sensationalize her death, make half-formed ideas about it, theologize about it, publish it in magazines and obsess over it and make ghost stories out of it, glorify it, like we see with a lot of true crime where these atrocities are all but glorified and their victims forgotten. Everything except recognize it for the hideous situation it is. All of this is a clear attempt to robbed Rachel of her voice. It's a tragedy where the characters are the villains and Rachel was their crime. This game is likely trying or supposed to make you uncomfortable. It places us in the shoes of an unreliable narrator, deep in denial and delusion. It could have been attempting to be a harsh critique about how society responds to and deals with pedophiles and abusers, letting the actions of the characters contrast against a background so obvious that it's supposed to make us reflect on these things in the real world. In the end you either acknowledge your character is the villain and punish yourself, or remain in denial like a lot of society. It might be giving them too much credit but if this was their goal, then to pull this off they needed an intensely good writing staff, impeccable even, and based off this is clear to me that I don't think they had the skill to pull it off well. Instead they simply became the thing they were criticizing and became almost glorification of the behavior. Undoing even the best possible interpretation of what they were trying to do.

Your summary of Lolita was a fantastically articulate one for a novel so complex. I’ve heard a lot of synopses and analyses of the book, and not many of them are able to capture the dichotomy of how genuine and truthful Humbert’s feelings are to him, yet simultaneously exist ultimately in selfishness and blindness. He’s utterly guilty, but not malicious, and the glimpses of Lolita’s rebellions to his actions aren’t just the only times the reader sees them - they’re also the only times he sees them. Humbert manipulates himself just as much as he manipulates the audience, because it’s the only way he can keep the illusory walls of his ‘paradise’ from disappearing. The incredibly delicate layer of pity this adds, which is dangerously close to a sympathy he doesn’t deserve, is masterfully crafted by Nabokov and makes the novel all the more difficult to approach and discuss. Absolutely brilliant video.

As disgusting as it sounds, I think Nicolle was also somewhat groomed by her father. That is where the denial is coming from.

This game seems like it was written by dudes who say “technically Lolita is not pedophilia it’s hebephilia”

Even talented people, capable of developing full videogames can be horribly disturbed in the head. This game brings up some uncomfy memories from my own experiences. The parallels of wearing the facade of being warm, supportive, and moral extremely well. Child predators can truly be so manipulative and decieving, it's no joke😢