Talk:The Sophomore, Book 2/@comment-34138917-20180117202455/@comment-34435538-20180122180651

I agree with everyone here, sadly. I really enjoyed Book 1 and 2 of The Freshman, but noticed a sudden and jarring shift by Book 3. That may be, by and large, due to Professor Vasquez's death which was the primary character driving a lot of our story to new depths.. I don't feel like my character is central or even relevant to the story going on and instead the story changed from following a girl's (our character)  life /drama/struggles in college to becoming merely a catalyst to check in on other characters.

Book 3:  My MC had been dating Kaitlyn through Book 1-3, however, I made the choice to break up with her during the babysitting chapter. I regretted it almost immediately but I didn't want to use a new key and I hate replaying when I make a choice i'm not fully satisfied with, so I stuck with it, assuming I would have the chance to try again with her since she even hints at that during the conversation. Instead, there's not only never a chance to make ammends and rekindle our romance that is the subject of 2 books and 2 off-shoots, it's hardly even brought up again by anyone! I think the break-up with a central member of the friend group would have been something to cause a bit of drama but as far as I remember it's mentioned in passing maybe... 4 times through the rest of the book? And two of those times are to Zig to further push along his romance. No one else cares. Even the "drama" between Kaitlyn and Abbie takes central stage and is pushed as the falling out angle of Kaitlyn's story rather than our breakup. It was... definitely jarring considering the whole first book was about finding your LI and then Book 2 was about settling into a stable relationship with them.

Book 4 might as well have just been an off-shoot like the snowed in chapters or the Valentine's special, but with less to do with our character.. My character didn't really do much of anything, and had no chance to pursue love or her interests. Plus Zack annoyed me, and he had been consistently the best friend my MC had up until then.

The Sophomore seems to be following the trend even more that started in Book 3. Nothing interesting is really going on in anyone's lives, but the least interesting things are happening to MY CHARACTER. I'm pushed in to a friendship with Becca and she's only one I can apparently romance now because despite the fact that every other LI who was interested in me at some point is now completely uninterested and call me the mother of the group. I don't even like Becca. I think she's grating and a terrible person. In addition, it's now seeming like EVERY choice is locked behind a diamond choice. I'm not paying real money for this game. It's too expensive, but at least in the other books a lot of big choices were just free to choose with some flavor or romance related or new clothing choices being diamond. Now, it seems like getting to even just spend time with your friends, being encouraging or just... you know... talking to people is locked behind a diamond choice, so I'm stuck always telling my friends "nope, too busy."

At this point I feel like a non-character who doesn't really have a choice to do or say anything and I'm just being led through an increasingly boring story. I haven't started Book 2 of The Sophomore yet, but jumped on here to check if things improve. Sadly, it's looking like they don't.

EDIT:  So I started through Book 2 and just completed Chapter 3. There is an option during The Crown and the Flame viewing party where Zack asks how our relationship status is. Up until now, as I said above, I had broken up with Kaitlyn in Book 3 of The Freshman. However, I was able to choose I'm happy in a relationship or I'm happy being single. The relationship option allowed me to choose any of the characters we can have a relationship with. I chose Chris because to me it's always seemed like he and the MC are meant to be together... Anyway, I guess that is better than nothing. I wish that didn't have to form off the page and I had to headcannon how it happened, but still, I'm glad that was an option.

EDIT2:  Nope.. That choice just kind of broke the game. Chris now thinks we've been together for a year and took me on an anniversary date when we only started dating five minutes ago. I guess I should have just chosen Kaitlyn again.. At least that would have made some semblance of sense. I doubt the story would have ever mentioned I had dated Kaitlyn in the past anyway but now the story just basically wiped that away like it never happened so I KNOW it won't ever mention it.