Behind the scenes: Erika's route part 1 of 6 (Patreon)
Content
(Warning! This post may contain major spoilers for the story! Read further at your own risk.)
With how day 19 ends, there's a time skip of 6 weeks. This is seen with all routes, but handled a bit different for them as well.
For Erika, things haven't been going as planned for her. She had hoped that once they confessed their feelings for each other, they'd slowly but surely open up to being more imitate. But it's been 6 weeks and the most they're comfortable doing is some very light kissing at times.
It's diving Erika wild and being the little sister she is, known to annoy her brother. She begins to worry that Brandon might be spending his time around other girls who are trying to seduce him.
The fun twist for Erika's part 1, is that you play as Erika! You get to see what makes her tick, how she really thinks about things going on in the moment and see what goes on when Brandon isn't around her at times.
There is intertwining moments that happen between Miki and Erika's part 1, they aren't required of course for your main route you wish to travel on. But if you play through Miki's route part 1 and wonder a bit about the situation with Erika, you may want to check Erika's route part 1 out to fill in some blanks a bit. Same can be said the other way around to a lesser degree with playing through Erika's route part 1, you may wish to fill some blanks with playing Miki's.
~Writer notes~
-This route came out to be about 5600 word count. about 1000 more than Miki and Nova's. It's bound to happen that some girls route parts will be a little longer or shorter, but they shouldn't feel short.
-I think fans of Erika will really enjoy the interesting way her route begins, the whole being in Erika's point of view for part 1 to help set the mood for her route. It just makes sense to put players in her view and understand how she's feeling, as it's more about how deep her feelings are towards her brother/new boyfriend.
-The idea of taking players out of Brandon's point of view wasn't actually an easy decision. I fought with the idea, "will people like this or will they hate being taken out of Brandon's shoes for a while?" The only other time in the whole game that plays with this idea was during day 18, when Erika and Joey are over. The pov switches to Joey's briefly and only because Brandon is away from what is going on. (my worry is that I've seen dislike before in other vn's that take players out of the protag's shoes, but I hope I can deliver on this.)
-Even if you aren't a fan of Erika as a character and if it isn't because of the whole family relations aspect. Then I'd suggest checking her route part 1 out at least just to see her pov and get a interesting difference in how things are seen for that alone.
-There was actually a little extra that was planned for both Miki and Erika's route part 1's that play on the following events after the end of what we see in their part 1 that will be in the game. This extra stuff will still be in the game, but takes place as Monday comes around.