this season ended today. the next season starts in three weeks.

this is what crunch looks like.

& this environment of extreme crunch becomes more clear with every passing year through the games that are produced out of it.

this season had so much potential. the character designs are some of the best we've had. some of the dialogue is actually really well written, especially in regards to the clap backs your character is able to give to people giving her sass. steamy scenes - shower scene i'm looking at you - are some of the best written in the franchise

but this game is so fucking rushed.

the first thing to go, and this is nothing new from the previous four seasons, is branching. the first two volumes have you getting to know the OG boys before making your choice of initial coupling. they all have distinct personalities at THAT time. but as soon as you couple up with one of them all of their personalities are gone. jin, initially the jokey fun guy, the one i chose to couple with? he loses his humor. he just becomes "loyal nice boy." jack, the boy next door that was so kind to me in the first volume that i almost coupled with him anyway despite not really being attracted to him? he loses his kindness. he becomes the "rival boy that's always doing shady things like cheating on his partner in casa."

this immediately sucks. but no branching doesn't automatically make a bad visual novel. danganronpa is one of my favorite games of all time and i have no say over ANYTHING there. & characters losing their personalities, while blindsiding me & actively detracting from the games replayability (cause why on earth would i replay to romance jack after seeing how sneaky he was in my playthrough), isn't a deal breaker for me either. i can take this game where it's at.

but the second thing to go is downtime.

seriously, the pacing in this game is breakneck. i don't think i could name a single volume that didn't have a challenge. and i could name several that had three!! there's so little time to sit with the characters. all i know about my partners is what i learned on my first date with them. and i have NO connection with the islanders outside of my couple. at the end of the game, claudia was like "you're gonna be my bestie foreverrr!!" and i was like "did we ever talk?"

because of course, giving your characters personalities and relationships to each other takes hard work. and going from one pre-established kissing challenge straight into another is so much easier.

these writers really started to show their strain towards the final volumes of this story.

the reunion volume especially was just, Atrocious. they somehow found a way to combine the season 5-ism of turning every character into an insufferable jerk with the season 7-ism of hiding every interesting plot point behind a paywall.

IN ADDITION. in these episodes you are FORCED to express attraction to and KISS someone that you are not in a couple with. i ended the game with bea and now i have to watch myself cheat on her.

you can not convince me that they would have kept this plot point in if they had ANY amount of time to think about it. but they don't. they have a week to write these episodes, and they have three weeks before they have to have a whole new season storyboarded and the first volume written.

i hope it is obvious that none of my complaining here is directed at the writers. they are doing the absolute best they can under the horrible conditions they are given.

this is all directed at the truly despicable executives at fusebox that are enforcing these conditions, prioritizing monetary gain over the health of their workers.

none of this pressure is audience-enforced. i've read so many reddit posts & instagram comments begging for them to take time on their next season. everyone wants another season 2. but another season 2 can't happen (healthily) under these conditions.

three weeks. i see that number & i'm truly appalled.

i will be taking a long hiatus from fusebox's work. it's simply not fun anymore. & if & when i come back, because i truly love love island so much & i really do believe in these writers to make something genuinely good, it will be when i can tell that these conditions have improved. fusebox's executives will not get another penny out of me until then.