It's interesting with a decent amount of content. The sandbox doesn't seem too grindy in terms of stats. I think it was an improvement to change away from Kyla Ren being used for the image of the player. I'm looking forward to ch.5 continuing.
Considering the dev was arrested, I don't foresee the first one not being considered abandoned. Even if they gave his computer and storage devices back if/when he gets out (highly unlikely), there's definitely no chance that they will leave everything on them untouched. For the second it's been...
Their last update on their Fanbox site was 08/21/23 relating to map creation, so they're still working on it. Looks like it's going to be going sandbox, but I'd kind of expect that given it was going in the RPG direction. I'm guessing this is another with only one person working on it.
Last message from the dev on Discord (not quite an hour ago):
"I am still alive. My monitor got fried during a storm last Friday. I am waiting for my new one to arrive later this week. Will update then."
If you get their desktop app and have a VPN, you can bypass that. When I hit my limit, I just switch my VPN off and then on again (it's set to change the virtual IP address each time) and it resets the limit while still being able to continue where it left off.
The notice in the OP about the patch being freely available on the SubscribeStar page should probably be edited or removed. SubscribeStar made a really stupid update/decision where, unless the dev goes about creating an actual "Free" tier (like Blackheart Games did), there are no more public posts.
Seeing everything about the update, I will hold off until the next version before trying to play new content and making my own judgments. There's still a chance of the MC pulling something that proves people wrong (both in-game with his mom and what she said, and those in the thread that don't...
Any particular reason Brittany is called Zero2 a couple of times now (I don't think that was the case in the previous version)?
Specifically in upWHall.rpy line 40 and script.rpy line 352. I'd think it'd make more sense for those instances to be replaced by [bn]
At least they're making updates public. I've seen some that put the game completely behind a paywall after the first release and the only way to play any of the updates is to subscribe or pirate it.