YMMV / Being A ΔΙΚ

• Base-Breaking Character: Madame Rose is controversial for several reasons, primary of which is the belief that she is a waste of development resources who does not contribute to the story or is particularly entertaining. It is entirely possible that the player may never meet her if they didn't win the DIK evaluation, or did but refused the VIP pass (which players often do as it contributes $10 towards the cost of new windows if minigames are enabled, making it less likely that Rusty has to sell his car to fix up the mansion; if minigames are disabled, players must refuse the VIP pass to prevent Rusty from having to do this) and all she adds to the game is a few lewd scenes, which is hardly unique. Some fans like her (she is fairly attractive), but overall fan reaction to her is pretty polarized.
• Broken Base: The minigames. Some players like how they add interactivity to the visual novel, while others dislike them for being intrusive and too complicated. While players who dislike the minigames can disable them, they can only do so upon starting a new game, and even if they do, they also dislike the minigames for taking up a good portion of development resources, leading to the release times between each episode being much longer than they would be without the minigames.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Sage agreeing to have sex with the MC in Tybalt's room during the Preps' party becomes this with the Episode 8 reveal that Tybalt is her hated adopted brother.
• Moral Event Horizon: Vinny was already an unhinged and dangerous person, as when he trashes the MC's room and pulls a gun on him in Episode 9, but he officially crosses it at the end of Episode 10 when he kidnaps Riona, who he had been stalking from all the way back at Episode 4.
• Narm: The ending of Episode 8 reveals that Sage is the adopted daughter of Stephen Burke and Jade Burke and by proxy, Tybalt's sister. However, the MC’s reaction to this is to have an internal Cluster F-Bomb, which can come off as a bit overblown and silly, especially since the entire twist hinges on the MC never bothering to check or ask for her last name. The fact that none of the other characters are surprised in the least at Sage’s familial relation to the Burkes doesn’t help matters, either.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Minigames can only be enabled or disabled at the start of a new game, so if a player decides that they don’t want to play certain minigames in the middle of their playthrough, they must start over from the beginning.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The MC of all people came off this way to some people in Episode 4. He storms out of Maya’s dorm after finding out that Josy and Maya are a couple and had been cheating on each other with him and continues to give them the cold shoulder throughout the entire episode up until the end when he finally musters up the courage to talk to them. While the narrative frames him as the one most wronged by the conflict and holds Josy and Maya responsible for not telling the MC about their relationship earlier, both of them had a very good reason to keep their relationship a secret, that being Maya’s homophobic dad. Not helping matters is that he wasn’t exactly faithful himself by acting on his feelings for both Josy and Maya at the time, and combined with him potentially choosing to sleep with other women, this makes his behavior throughout Episode 4 feel less like someone heartbroken by a twisted coincidence and more like a sudden case of Wangst.
• Values Dissonance: The era the game is set in seems to be the present day, but there's a lot of casual (and not so casual) homophobia that would not be kosher in American colleges today. Also, things like the rather brutal hazing for the frats and sororities that takes place at B&R is a lot less common today than it used to be.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Episode 9 is filled to the brim with beautifully rendered characters in their Halloween costumes and breathtaking Halloween decorations around the DIK mansion. The animated scenes are particular standouts, too.
• The Woobie: Several characters seem to be piled on by the universe who don't deserve it.
  • Maya. After finding love with Josy for the first time, she has her father turn on her due to his homophobic beliefs. This would be bad enough, except he then subsequently pretends to have calmed down, only to financially abuse her and exploit her trust in him by having her co-sign a loan and then taking control of the money, allowing her to study at B&R only if she cuts off all contact with Josy, causing a massive strain on their relationship. When she gets into B&R, she is immediately targeted by Quinn, who she has to interact with because she hears a rumour (spread by Quinn herself) of HOTs getting free tuition, which she sees as a path to free herself from her father's clutches. This leads her to do several things she is deeply uncomfortable with to get into HOT, only to find, once she has got in, that it was all a lie. That's not even getting into her relationship troubles with Josy and her involvement with the MC, which can get even worse if the MC isn't part of their relationship or if he breaks up with them.