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gascon-en-exil · 2 months ago

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Ranking the Jock Studio Love Interests, Take 2

I judged the jocks after the first demo, so now it's only fitting that I do the same based on the second. This one comes with quite a bit of character content even on top of the introduction of Jock Studio's various minigames and resource management systems, and perhaps unsurprisingly all this new material has caused my personal rankings to shift around some.

I still won't be including Ace or the two NPCs. Ace is still a hilarious MC but is fairly unremarkable in explicit scenes, being as adaptable to his partners as characters in that role typically are. Jacques gets to be delightfully campy and now has some mystery surrounding him and the clearly illicit nature of the club, while Matt seems to be straight but is also leaning toward bicurious and does get a shirtless scene if you can find it. Neither is developed enough to rank alongside the main jocks, though.

Beware of spoilers for the second demo, which just got its wide release today...although this is all still prerelease content so there's nothing too revealing. What is revealing however is the demo's artwork, which contains almost nothing in the way of individual character CGs that are at all SFW. Working around that to get images for this post was a bit of a challenge, although not a bad one to have by any means.

#6. Avan - down from #3

The biggest drop for me, because the second demo doesn't do all that much with Avan - and what it does, I'm not especially into. Contrary to my earlier predictions, Avan is clearly riffing on the trope of people in positions of authority secretly being huge subs. He's actually the most submissive of the jocks in this demo, and gets off on Ace taking the lead in explicit scenes and ordering him around. Also nipple play, which...eh.

But more than that, Avan gets stuck playing the straight man (no pun intended) to the antics of the other jocks and especially Yuuto, which cuts into his entertainment value a good deal. The suggestion that his character development will take the form of him admitting that he's just as much of a horny pervert as Ace or Yuuto doesn't seem all that interesting, and most of his student council business remains mysteriously offscreen so it's tough to dig into. Possibly he'll play a role in some overarching storyline involving whatever underhanded stuff Jacques might be up to regarding the legitimacy of the club, but at this point there's just not that much to enjoy about him if you're not into uptight wet twinks.

#5. Leo - up from #6

The bump isn't wholly on account of Avan dropping, because while I'm still not into his vibe sexually Leo gets some good shades of character development in this demo. It leans more on his nerdy interests as a gamer and computer science major, and it also plays up his tendency to overextend himself which manifests itself in one scene in a way that works in the game's energy mechanic. There's also the very brief suggestion that Leo had a difficult home life, one of the rare instances of any of these guys referencing their families.

He's also noted to be the only virgin in the club aside from Ace, so their explicit scenes play up their mutual inexperience. Leo is not at all shy about leaping into sex however, which I do appreciate at least a bit even if the overall package isn't really my type.

#4. Yuuto- up from #5

Yuuto seems to be slowly growing on me, even if he's just as random and hyperactive as before. His fourth-wall-leaning quips about acting like a character in a video game land better in a demo that's more about mechanical features, and with more dialogue there's more opportunities to pull humor out of his malapropisms. It's not just weird English and puns around Jacques' name either; at one point he manages to fuse a Japanese expression with a Spanish one and presumably ruin both of them in the process.

I am though picking up on another rather curious element of Yuuto's character, one I recognize from its appearance in one of the love interests of Camp Buddy. For lack of a better way to describe it, it's as though the devs want to explore pup play scenarios but aren't into the gear and the explicit kink dynamic that comes with that. Like the CB character, Yuuto is messy, hates bathing, has an affinity for literal dogs, and even has the exposed canine teeth that I suppose have to mean something in anime art styles. His version of the blowjob scene that closes out the demo even has him giving head on all fours, with Ace directing him like an overactive pup in need of discipline. I can't be the only person who can see that, right?

#3. Bryce - down from #1

There's no question that Bryce delivers the horny goods, as his scenes both explicit and otherwise draw ample attention to his bushy, musky armpits and well-developed ass and pecs. Humorously, because the demo ends with a blowjob and never ventures into anal, Bryce is the only character whose ass gets any kind of attention in explicit scenes - even over the more obviously submissive Avan and Leo.

But as a character...oof. Bryce's open, unrelenting homophobia is increasingly painful when it's no longer a one-on-one thing but instead has him casually dropping slurs in group settings. I get that the other characters can't call him out on that in a big way for the moment because he has to go through his development, but it's still tough to take him at face value as merely a grumpy asshole who doesn't want to be a team player. Worse, this demo offers no real hints at why Bryce is so desperate for cash that he's gone gay4pay, or touches on why he's so violently closeted beyond abstract references to the homophobia of his frat brothers and wrestling teammates. And since all of those guys exist purely offscreen, that means the only tangible source of homophobia in the demo is Bryce himself. He's definitely a character in need of a full-length storyline to make him actually palatable.

#2. Zayne - up from #4

Alright, I can admit that Zayne has more or less wooed me. He's far and away the most romantically-inclined of the jocks, and while that's accompanied by a teasing insincerity it does help him stand out from the crowd. There's still a good bit of mystery surrounding his character, particularly in a comment after his blowjob scene where he calls it his "first" but then doesn't elaborate, but unlike Avan's student council business or Bryce's bigotry the surface level here is pretty appealing on its own. Is Zayne already catching feels for Ace, or is he newly exploring his bisexuality so Ace was the first guy to give him head? We can only speculate for now.

The suave romantic Dom angle translates readily into his sex scenes, even if I didn't find them to be especially noteworthy for the most part. He is I'm fairly sure the only one of the jocks to have his being uncut worked into an explicit scenario, even if he's not the only uncut guy in the cast.

#1. Derek - up from #2

Derek's vibes continue to be just what I'm typically looking for in a dating sim love interest, above and beyond his being the biggest guy with the biggest dick. Props for not making Ace deepthroat him during his first blowjob. Derek is still the gentle giant soft Dom, and even though like Avan he's frequently made to play the straight man (again, no pun intended) to the rest of the group he goes along a little more readily with the other characters' silliness so he comes off as less stuffy. He's also amenable to Ace directing softcore daddy kink dialogue toward him; twenty-four is young for a daddy, of course, but then daddies are always relative.

But what really cements Derek's place at the top for me is a surprisingly revealing optional scene where he admits that Ace reminds him of someone he used to know who went to the university. This guy is likely part of Derek's reservations with the adult film industry, and why he's so protective toward Ace in particular. I really wasn't expecting a character reveal of this level from any of the jocks in this demo, and having seen just about everything in this one I'm now actually a bit disappointed that none of the others get anything truly equivalent. That just makes Derek more endearing however: the raw sex appeal of Bryce combined with the smoother romantic appeal of Zayne, at least for me. Naturally if twinks are more your speed Derek may not rate as highly.

Bonus Round: Jock Pairings

And we're not done! The second demo surprised me again by working in elements of three of the nine community-chosen jock pairings that will get erotic CGs as part of the game's stretch goals and may also work into another stretch goal of allowing you to play matchmaker and pair up the characters with each other rather than just with Ace. That's one of the features I've been most excited about, so I really liked the inclusion here. These three pairs show up in several group scenes throughout the demo, with each one additionally getting an optional individual scene during the one free day. The following rankings are based mostly off those free day encounters since they're the best at establishing these characters' dynamics, but I'm taking into account the rest as well.

#3. Derek/Bryce

No, I'm not ranking them last because I want them both to myself. This is some prime beef-on-beef fantasy territory, and Ace's internal monologue does its best to sell their dynamic as Derek domming an unusually receptive Bryce.

The problem, though, is that the dialogue doesn't really bear that out. One of the things I like most about these jock pairings is that they present an opportunity to show off sides of the characters that might not come out in their interactions with the MC. But that's not present here, and it's instead just more of the same: Derek as the levelheaded mentor figure, and Bryce as the abrasive jerk who begrudgingly accepts someone else's attention.

Bryce's personality being what it is, this pair is unsurprisingly the only one of these three to not come off even slightly romantic, and that's liable to be the case for any of his relationships until late in his character development. It's also disappointing to see Derek, who as mentioned is protective of Ace for ambiguous backstory reasons and elsewhere takes up the mantle of Team Dad for the whole group, not even attempting to call out Bryce for how rudely he talks to and about the other club members. Sure, when these two get around to fucking it'll be undeniably hot...but having to put up with Bryce until he finally gets over himself is going to be a chore no matter who he's paired with.

As a minor plus, this scene also confirms that Bryce has some belly fat he wants to get rid of even if he refuses to change his diet or cut back on the booze. If you're into guys with a gut, that's about as good as you're going to get from this game.

#2. Avan/Yuuto

The established relationship pair, essentially, as they're roommates with an obvious odd couple dynamic. Avan's the long-suffering responsible one, while Yuuto's the agent of chaos. I've even seen people saying that they feel like they're breaking this pair up if they have Ace go after either of them. I don't think that's quite true, especially after seeing both of them in action in their explicit scenes and knowing that Avan is super submissive and Yuuto desperately needs to be collared and leashed...but hey, alpha pups exist so it's not wholly implausible.

Anyway, this pairing does contribute to my perception of Avan being one of the more boring jocks in the second demo. The biggest thing it adds to his character is showing that he's more reserved around Ace, as Yuuto is quick to proclaim that Avan normally sleeps naked and bathes with him and that the two are basically friends with benefits already. It's funny in the moment purely from how outlandish it all is, but it's going to take some development before we get to see Avan properly cutting loose. As for Yuuto...Avan is pretty much the only thing keeping him from dying of his own flagrant disregard for personal hygiene or getting arrested for indecent exposure, so that's nice I suppose. At least unlike Derek and Bryce I can see a path to a gradually developing relationship here.

#1. Zayne/Leo

Right from the start, these two are astonishingly cute for a side pairing.

The writing doesn't even go for the cliché of the popular guy crushing on the nerd, either; Zayne gets to display his academic capabilities in helping Leo with his studies, and Leo gets a bunch of positive affirmation over his geeky interests and his status as a "short king." Plus, he has a rare moment of downtime during their individual scene. Zayne also seems to be less insincere in his flirtations when it's not directed at Ace, so it's easier to buy him actually being interested in Leo or at least willing to be so at some point down the line. Zayne is kind of the anti-Bryce in that his side pairs are liable to come off as more romantic than the rest purely on account of his flirty banter, but unless he's got some dark secret about why he acts like he does that's not really a bad thing. (Though that does call to mind that Zayne/Bryce is another one of the player-chosen pairings. We may be in for some unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object antics here.)

It's impossible for me not to notice as well that this is the only one of these three pairings where both characters went up in my estimation, and how that might partially be the result of their interactions with each other. But it's hard to avoid it; these scenes between the two of them establish new dimensions to both their characters, and I can see them having a good bit of sexual chemistry as well once they get into it.

#Jock Studio #BLits

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