The final two bonus 'dates' got released. I have mixed feelings about some of the humor at times. Some parts can be pretty genuinely funny, but others are just so... out there.
- The Secret Path with your fish is clearly supposed to be REALLY out there and like the Alien Endings of Silent Hill so I'll give it a pass.
- Penny's humor, while occasionally grating because she's a bit abrasive and in your face, does genuinely come from a good place and I do have some friends who look and act similarly to her.
- Some of the bonus dates like the one with the cop are clearly playing up their more obviously porno elements for laughs. And most of the dates usually come around to some pretty decent moral or exploring some sexual kink, with some being more heavy handed the first one with Jake (?) than others. Polyamory is ok, trying things outside of your sexual identity can help you find something you might otherwise not discover, be yourself, stigma against sexuality can affect even big name celebrities, the age divide and stereotyping in the gay community can make a lot of people reasonably uncomfortable, threeways/poly relationships require communication and acknowledging people's levels of comfort, and dom/sub relationships are a thing.
But the date with the twins kind of comes across a bit... out there even for the dates. You try to have a night to yourself and keep finding your goldfish staring at you, which I found genuinely funny because of irl experiences of finding eyes watching you and losing the moment and because of the goldfish's role in the secret path. You then get SUPER High and... apparently stuffed the goldfish up your ass... To get the actual date, you need to call 911 and the two ambulance attendants are who you end up getting fucked by... After they pull a goldfish out of your ass that somehow survives the experience... and they have no problem then eating and fucking said ass. Did I mention that they're twins? Not trying to discount the gay-twins fantasy idea, but this felt pretty awkward and out there even for Coming Out On Top.
Spoony Bard
I haven't thought much about this VN in the last few months. Glad to hear that it has story expansions or added content.
Ink Dagger, have you seen anything which indicates that *Coming Out on Top* is (or was) a New Zealand exclusive? Because I don't think this was ever true.
I'm American, so its obviously not. Never heard anything about it being exclusive and I got it when it came out.
The Story Content is also free. They're like maybe 30 mins 'dates' that usually have some theme or moral about sexuality and a sex scene by the end if you play your cards right. The first two were really kind of odd; I get the impression the writer wasn't quite sure what to do with them yet and the first one was also a reward for a Patreon Donor so that probably didn't help in some respects.
Obscura is trying to get COOT on Steam.
When I was browsing Tvtropes in the recent past, I saw a handful of articles that mentioned that the visual novel "Coming Out on Top" had only been reviewed by NZ Gamer. The troper then inferred that it had only been released in New Zealand. I haven't read much about "Coming Out on Top", and I don't know much about it. That said, I do not think the person's information is currently accurate. I learned the following from a few minutes of web searches:
As far as I can tell, *Coming Out on Top* can be purchased anywhere that it's legal to purchase adult / LGBT software. It does not appear to be restricted to New Zealand. However, I might be incorrect. If I made a mistake, let me know.