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ichthyocentaursMan, not only did I not post in April (month go by too fast) my single post in March was really early lmao. oops. I keep meaning to but it's always like the last thing on my mental list, and then it's 1 am and I have to go to bed. (I'm trying to not tumblrize and actually tag normally and just post a post without a cut lol it's scary lol)
At any rate I wanted to write something about finishing Tender Loving Care, the PC game that is mostly the butt of jokes but honestly I think is pretty sick and great.
I'm a fan of reassessing weird games that get bad reputations in the General Gaming Community, though I guess it's always worth something that this game doesn't have that bad of a like... general score, if you look at user reviews people who actually play it tend to think it's ok, and most of the issues are fair enough to bring up. And practically speaking the people who say "it's not much of a game" are not super wrong. So it's not hugely dire, no matter how much it seems to be. It's just like, shitty word of mouth usually inspired by popular youtubey people or whatever, but then people parrot what they say, which is so fucking stupid to me lol.
To summarize: Tender Loving Care is an FMV erotic suspense/drama. It's the story of a husband and wife who experienced a tragedy, leaving the wife in a depressive stupor in denial of the truth and the husband more or less going untreated as he supports her. Their psychiatrist suggests a live-in nurse to try and ease the wife back into reality. And then. The troubles begin.
There's just not that many games like this. It's pretty similar to movies of this ilk, but feels fresh because it's a game! You might say hey, why wasn't this just a movie? well, there is some interactivity. The game starts with you meeting their psychiatrist after the events of the game have occurred, and you're looking back on it. There's basically stages: you watch an FMV video, you answer questions, you explore the home for extra FMV events or other information, you answer more questions, and it starts again. The "quiz" answers will change the ending you get, but it's not straightforward like a VN with a clear path, because there's hundreds of possible questions and you won't get all of them in one playthrough. They're presented as a psychological test: some of them will be what you think about what's happening in the game in a very subjective way, some of them will be about your general opinions, some of them will be what you think about erotic art, etc. etc. I'm not going to say it's accurate or particularly meaningful, but every chapter you can go into the menu and look at a psychological profile of yourself and it was fun to see it be fairly accurate (at least, from my perspective.)
Of course, this only works if you actually try to answer the questions according to your actual feelings, and aren't fucking around. I would never want to play this game with another person, let alone stream it, because sometimes it honestly does ask awkward or embarrassing questions, especially about sexual topics like your feelings on voyeurism, or like this one time I got some very interesting cartoon animal images I had to answer questions about lmao. I get why people react with derision but the game was clearly designed to be played by one person, alone. (This is a problem I have with people jokingly playing Seaman too; yeah of course it's going to be dumb if you say you're a gigolo and tell him to fuck off every time you speak to him. You get back what you put in.)
It's cool to play a game as a weird observer like this. I like how despite your answers influencing the endings, you can't actually DO anything, in the same way you might watch people heading for a trainwreck during a movie or show. You're passive, but in a way, not. Every character in the house has a diary you can read to try and get more information to answer your questions more accurately, and sometimes the game will pull the rug out from under you on purpose. Honestly, I love this. I love that this game can essentially trick you because you have no ability to change your answers based on previous information. It's gone and all you can do is kick yourself for being judgemental in one direction or another.
Because these twisted up relationships are REALLY a trainwreck. If anyone reads and wants to play this, I don't want to spoil it because the motivations and actions of these characters will make you go "nooooo" and you're powerless to change any of it. Kinda great when you're peeking in from the future; everything is already written. I got a frankly amazing ending out of several possible, but none of them are good (though weirdly, one is like 20 minutes long and probably feels the most "complete" and satisfactory), which feels right considering the genre and how the game starts.
There's maybe one or two things I wish were different (for example they probably expected the player to be a cishet guy who would be conflicted when presented with boobies), but not... really. Overall the story's pretty dramatic, but it has its moments of humor (there's a radio you can inspect that has a Dr. Ruth-like call in show with funny relationship stories). The acting is a bit 90s FMV, but overall I thought everyone did a decent job. The story as laid out is pretty nuanced if you get into it and I think is probably the most adult thing because everyone has shitty actions they're doing for reasons they think they are right. It's not cool on the internet to say yeah, that sucked but I understand why it happened, and I pity all the characters in this situation.
The only other bad thing is that I think they put out a very similar game called Point of View (which is similarly difficult to search for) and I can't find it wait I think I found it. It is now hours later since I wrote the majority of this and I am sleepy so idk if there's a good way to end this but just. Try shit even if popular cool people say it sucks. If you want. I'm not your mom it's just my suggestion.
Also games like this walked so IMMORTALITY could run. That one doesn't need champions though lol.
At any rate I wanted to write something about finishing Tender Loving Care, the PC game that is mostly the butt of jokes but honestly I think is pretty sick and great.
I'm a fan of reassessing weird games that get bad reputations in the General Gaming Community, though I guess it's always worth something that this game doesn't have that bad of a like... general score, if you look at user reviews people who actually play it tend to think it's ok, and most of the issues are fair enough to bring up. And practically speaking the people who say "it's not much of a game" are not super wrong. So it's not hugely dire, no matter how much it seems to be. It's just like, shitty word of mouth usually inspired by popular youtubey people or whatever, but then people parrot what they say, which is so fucking stupid to me lol.
To summarize: Tender Loving Care is an FMV erotic suspense/drama. It's the story of a husband and wife who experienced a tragedy, leaving the wife in a depressive stupor in denial of the truth and the husband more or less going untreated as he supports her. Their psychiatrist suggests a live-in nurse to try and ease the wife back into reality. And then. The troubles begin.
There's just not that many games like this. It's pretty similar to movies of this ilk, but feels fresh because it's a game! You might say hey, why wasn't this just a movie? well, there is some interactivity. The game starts with you meeting their psychiatrist after the events of the game have occurred, and you're looking back on it. There's basically stages: you watch an FMV video, you answer questions, you explore the home for extra FMV events or other information, you answer more questions, and it starts again. The "quiz" answers will change the ending you get, but it's not straightforward like a VN with a clear path, because there's hundreds of possible questions and you won't get all of them in one playthrough. They're presented as a psychological test: some of them will be what you think about what's happening in the game in a very subjective way, some of them will be about your general opinions, some of them will be what you think about erotic art, etc. etc. I'm not going to say it's accurate or particularly meaningful, but every chapter you can go into the menu and look at a psychological profile of yourself and it was fun to see it be fairly accurate (at least, from my perspective.)
Of course, this only works if you actually try to answer the questions according to your actual feelings, and aren't fucking around. I would never want to play this game with another person, let alone stream it, because sometimes it honestly does ask awkward or embarrassing questions, especially about sexual topics like your feelings on voyeurism, or like this one time I got some very interesting cartoon animal images I had to answer questions about lmao. I get why people react with derision but the game was clearly designed to be played by one person, alone. (This is a problem I have with people jokingly playing Seaman too; yeah of course it's going to be dumb if you say you're a gigolo and tell him to fuck off every time you speak to him. You get back what you put in.)
It's cool to play a game as a weird observer like this. I like how despite your answers influencing the endings, you can't actually DO anything, in the same way you might watch people heading for a trainwreck during a movie or show. You're passive, but in a way, not. Every character in the house has a diary you can read to try and get more information to answer your questions more accurately, and sometimes the game will pull the rug out from under you on purpose. Honestly, I love this. I love that this game can essentially trick you because you have no ability to change your answers based on previous information. It's gone and all you can do is kick yourself for being judgemental in one direction or another.
Because these twisted up relationships are REALLY a trainwreck. If anyone reads and wants to play this, I don't want to spoil it because the motivations and actions of these characters will make you go "nooooo" and you're powerless to change any of it. Kinda great when you're peeking in from the future; everything is already written. I got a frankly amazing ending out of several possible, but none of them are good (though weirdly, one is like 20 minutes long and probably feels the most "complete" and satisfactory), which feels right considering the genre and how the game starts.
There's maybe one or two things I wish were different (for example they probably expected the player to be a cishet guy who would be conflicted when presented with boobies), but not... really. Overall the story's pretty dramatic, but it has its moments of humor (there's a radio you can inspect that has a Dr. Ruth-like call in show with funny relationship stories). The acting is a bit 90s FMV, but overall I thought everyone did a decent job. The story as laid out is pretty nuanced if you get into it and I think is probably the most adult thing because everyone has shitty actions they're doing for reasons they think they are right. It's not cool on the internet to say yeah, that sucked but I understand why it happened, and I pity all the characters in this situation.
The only other bad thing is that I think they put out a very similar game called Point of View (which is similarly difficult to search for) and I can't find it wait I think I found it. It is now hours later since I wrote the majority of this and I am sleepy so idk if there's a good way to end this but just. Try shit even if popular cool people say it sucks. If you want. I'm not your mom it's just my suggestion.
Also games like this walked so IMMORTALITY could run. That one doesn't need champions though lol.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-11 08:30 am (UTC)I smiled at this. Good advice! I'd never heard of Tender Loving Care, but I found this post interesting to read; I do enjoy trainwreck relationships.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-16 05:54 am (UTC)It's a very interesting game! Probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it deserves better than being treated like a total joke among people who know about it. :')