Hello Steam,
Well, Episode Five is finally in your sweaty hands. For those of you who have played it, I hope you enjoyed it. I do apologize again to everyone who had to restart due to a bug with some of the saves. I believe I've identified the issue and it shouldn't repeat for the next release.
I am working on the game's final update, which will include Episodes Six, Seven, and Eight. I'm roughly 1,900 renders into it (I'm not starting from zero because I've been working on it while waiting for the animations from Episode Five). I don't know how many renders I'll need for the final release but the final three episodes will be shorter than the three that came before, so I'm optimistic this release cycle will be shorter than the last one.
Less than 10% of those who have purchased Leaving DNA have the achievements from Episode Five (and less than 50% even have the achievements from Episode Four) so I will avoid any direct spoilers. Still, I want to make a comment about the final three episodes and if you haven't played Episode Five then it would be better for you to skip the spoiler section below.
Spoiler section:
There was a lot of sex and romance in Episode Five, the most of any episode. Some of you may have taken that as a shift in the story, and you're thinking that now Leaving DNA will finish out like any other dating sim AVN with cute dates and romantic moments with the LIs. Thinking that would be a mistake.
The opening scene of Leaving DNA is a woman being beaten to death while her child listens. This was done very purposefully. Not only does Jimena's death and the subsequent fallout trigger the rest of the story, but as a scene her brutal murder sets the tone for the rest of the game. The warning page at the beginning says "Leaving DNA contains dark themes of sadness and tragedy." We've hit some of that so far, but the ending scene of Episode Five should indicate that we've still got plenty of dark ground to cover.
I encourage you, as I always have, not to approach Leaving DNA the way you approach any other AVN, with an expectation of fun romantic content for your favorite LI. Now more than ever this will only lead to disappointment. While it does contain romantic choices and adult sexual content, Leaving DNA simply is not a traditional dating sim AVN.
End spoiler section
Check out my latest public render here.
Thank you for supporting the game.
--Monk