Disliked Elements, Mechanics, and Tropes

[Shiro_XKuro]

Things I dislike
Choice ot games feel like status raising most the time but that’s fine but I don’t like it when the game suddenly force you to use to status that you didn’t raise(I am looking at you lost heir 3) in order to not get bad ending or gain forced transformation. I am talking about Lost heir 3 in general cause despite having many classes, some class are just not as useful as the rest.

Things I hate.

First of all I would say the choices in Samurai of Hyuuga. Why? Well my answer would be there’s attunement systems that raised based on whether our choice reflect or personality that we chosen before so if chosen right, we get attunement increase, if chosen wrong our attunement decrease.
Well the attunement part is annoying but bearable. But the most annoying thing in Samurai of Hyuuga is the choices given are vague in what status it represents most of the time. So it kinda annoying when you pick it and your attunement end up decreasing because the choice you pick is different from what you think it represents.
I wonder if you actually get what I am saying but to put it simply, you want to be charming but the choice you take is opposite of charming because the wording is vague. I replayed that game many times cause I hate it when I get “attunement decrease” and that game is frickin long so I really suffer mentally playing it cause i always replay replay replay and replay. And now I had enough. Will wait for next book before doing my infinite replay works noble phantasm.

Second thing I hate is romance is sometimes just a piece of fanservice line that never matter to the plot. You romance them but they never help you or be there when you are in trouble. They just convenient fanservice that aren’t matter to the story. While I understand not all story are driven by romance, it just that the romance in become superficial when the romance if just fanservice. You get one line of I love you then they dissappear and only present during epilogue.

Conclusion.

I dislike game forcing you to raise certain status in order to survive something unavoidable in the game.

I hated vague wording in choices.
I hated romance being a fan service only most of the time cause I play CoG for romance and it made the romance superficial.

[Psychisto]

I hate that there’s no save and load in cog like here in the forum like why should I replay the whole game to try other choices or avoid death !
Also I like setting my MC’s personality and I really hate it when the MC doesn’t react as I want
And when there’s too much options for the appearance too it’s boring

[redfield]

I hate it when the game doesn’t allow me to get reasonably angry/hurt without loosing significant relationship points.
So, this NPC gets to be angry at the MC and the relationship bar doesn’t budge but when MC gets angry or act hurt, automatic minus in relationship points with that character. Like, let me wallow in sadness and anger for now, I’ll be fine later.

[Odysseus]

The one thing I really dislike in CoG books is hard coded choices, where no matter what you do something is going to happen.

For example, in one book which I was really enjoying, the author killed off the only RO I was interested in and that just killed off interest in the story and its sequel for me. I thought it was because I made a wrong choice but the author just wanted that character to die as part of the story (which is fine) but in that case don’t offer them as an RO

[justme]

Which game is that?

[MoSalahscores]

@ParrotWatcher

The problem arises when personality traits are used to force the player to make decisions, either by taking the choice away from them, or by penalising “acting out of character”; by treating personality traits as trainable stats, which they really shouldn’t be.

This perfectly describes one of my biggest issues even with some of my favourite games. A “charismatic” individual cannot be be expected to act so in every encounter, same with a stoic or any other personality trait

@Hex

I think it’s fine for the mc not to succeed at everything, provided that losing a specific challenge isn’t going to result in instant death. It should always be possible for the mc to at least make it to the end, even if it’s not to the best ending of a route(Assuming the game in question has branching endings, Ideally I want my project too anyway.)

Have you played Magium? It’s not from COG but it’s probably one of the best ever textRPGs created. You have to get your build right or you could run into some really nasty surprises that you probably wouldn’t want to live with

[ZipZoop]

Magium is kind of railroady though, if you dont have a point in a certain stat, someone dies. And the mc’s powers is kind of eh. I like the paladin guy you meet though, very cool

[MoSalahscores]

@ZipZoop

Magium is kind of railroady though, if you dont have a point in a certain stat, someone dies.

But the game continues.

@Hex

It should always be possible for the mc to at least make it to the end, even if it’s not to the best ending of a route

By the way having the stats to prevent that death means you lose the arm wrestling match to impress a certain RO.

[NatariSky]

I “hate” when certain characters can act as bitchy/assholish as they want towards the Mc, but when I return the favor (which is rare, especially if they’re the author’s favorite), it’s a problem. The relationship bar drops. I should be allowed to treat characters the same way they treat the Mc.

It’s not that much of a problem for me but it’s annoying.

[AbyssalPlacebo]

What I dislike isn’t actually a choicescript mechanic’s fault, but more toward individual author’s implementation of NPC relationships, like what @NatariSky stated above.

I dislike when the game “punish” you for having low relationship stat with certain, if not all, NPCs. In that regards I appreciate Seraphinitegames’ implementation of relationship, as low number reflects MC’s feelings toward the NPC through the written monologue, and it makes things interesting since low and high relationships can hide or unhide some interaction choices.

Personally I think MCs should be able to bitch any characters they find unsavory instead of being forced to build rapport with everyone for favors. Take example if my MC has low relationship with NPC A, and in some scene MC is dying or something, but A is bitter toward my MC they let MC die and game over. Or when the players are forced to lick up to some NPCs for their in-game items that will boost skill stat, etc. If so then at least throw an option for my MC to be a manipulative asshole (please, I’d love it)

[comradelenin]

A few of my pet peeves have been said before on here. I think the worst one has to be the lack of saving. Literally every COG game I’ve played has had me start over from the beginning because I picked the wrong choice. It’s especially a pain when the you think one choice means one thing but it actually means another thing. Dialogue is especially rife with this issue. The longer the game, the worse this issue becomes.

I also want to talk about stats. Usually it’s hard to tell which choices increase which stat and how much of one you need unless the game tells you (which some do). I could be screwed out of the ending I’m going for because of a choice I made hours ago, and often a ton of the fun choices have ridiculous stat requirements.

I especially hate it when stats that judge skill level are tied to personality and motives. It’s far too restrictive when it comes to roleplaying options and what the author thinks about which stat ties to what may not match up properly with what the player thinks. Personality powers can work well but sometimes players want to subvert expectations.

Personality stats can be hit or miss. I think a good example of how NOT to do them would be Choice Of Robots. The first game I played on here and an otherwise fantastic work. The main issue I had was that the game kept lowering my empathy for doing stuff like supporting the military because apparently you can’t have weapons manufacturers who aren’t greedy sociopaths.

[Odysseus]

The book I was referring to was Dragon racer, again really enjoyed it until they killed off my mc’s ro then kind of lost interest

[No_This_Is_Patrick]

Doubt it really matters anymore since the series has been cancelled.

[MeltingPenguins]

@Odysseus

The book (…) was Dragon racer, again really enjoyed it until they killed off my mc’s ro then kind of lost interest

That’s honestly just plain bad writing. like, if you know you can’t provide a satisfying ending for an RO, don’t make them an RO.

Which brings me to another thing:
If you are writing a sequel, don’t introduce new ROs if the MC stays the same. Especially not just because your readers ‘demanded’ that character X gets made an RO… I have yet to see that being pulled off well

[Jacic]

@MeltingPenguins

if you know you can’t provide a satisfying ending for an RO, don’t make them an RO.

I think part of the problem, is some characters are written mostly as love interests for the MC, rather than characters in their own right with plans and goals they’re going to go after that don’t necessarily include the MC. (Can’t comment on Dragon Racer as I haven’t read it.This is just a general observation.) Not saying they’re all like this, but I do find non-RO’s often tend to be stronger characters and that makes them interesting making the push for characters that were never designed to be a love interest included. (See below as an example.)

All this Prodigal love

I think the Prodigal love comes, in part, from the fact that she’s one of the most developed characters of the series. Like Jenny, she was never initially intended as a romantic option, and so she’s there as more than just the love interest. I found that both Black Magic, and Lucky, suffered because they were romantic option first and foremost. Whereas the Heroes Rise trilogy is as much Prodigal’s story as it is yours. I’m not a fan of hers. But, I think it’s the way people love a good villain…

The problem with this is because their design was not to be a love interest for the MC, they DO often have their own story arc that in some cases can come into conflict with being a continued love interest. I agree, if they’re not suitable for it and were never planned as such, they probably shouldn’t be written in as one, but it can be hard. I’ve had PM’s with detailed arguments on why I should include people (some of which I’ve said will not be romanceable) as RO’s. It’s great that readers are getting that into games, don’t get me wrong (thank you for being that invested in something I’ve written!), but it can put a lot of pressure on authors trying to make everyone happy to include them, but ultimately that can backfire if they’re destined to dump the mc/die/disappear for storyline purposes.

But yep, need to be a little forgiving on this front IMO, and just be mindful when asking for RO’s, if the author hasn’t included them, there can be a reason why and continued pressure to have them included can result in no one being particularly happy with the end result.

[MeltingPenguins]

I think one of the best writing advice I’ve ever heard is:
Write every character as if they are the protagonist (of their own story).

Lotsa afterthought-ROs seem nevertheless quite ‘flat’ due to just fulfilling a role instead of really being a character in their own right, which then reflects with the sudden romance

[AbyssalPlacebo]

Fallen Hero sequel added some side characters as new ROs, and I think so far Malin nailed it. They are fleshed out in their own arcs, and this is only my biased opinion, but those new ROS are better in pacing the romantic stuff than the mad scientist (forgot their name, sorry) from the first game, who was intended as a RO from the very first.

[MeltingPenguins]

that’s what I meant:
FH has characters that are fleshed out from the start, so turning them RO, especially in a planned series goes a lot smoother than having characters that fulfil a role and are tagged on last minute (i.e. in the very last installment)

[ZipZoop]

not part of your convo, but I personally chose the argent RO lol. Ortega is a good person, he/she doesn’t deserve me lol. I like dangerous romance

[ArchivistAlpha096]

I prefer games where yeah, you have stats, but there’s only like 2–4 of them that actually coming to the game, and the rest are basically free to look at every once in a while and go, hey, apparently I’ve been a lot more bold recently, good for me.
I agree with, I forget who started the conversation about arrows, but yes, on our oh who is ““ baked into the story, intended as an RO from the start, or close enough that they can become an arrow, is the better outcome than just popping a new character and, or shifting a character who are meant to be an RO because people basically demand that they become an arrow.
Granted, to contradict my first point, it’s always nice when all of your stats affect things, but most of them just affect flavour tax, such as say you’re more intimidating than charming and you try charm your way out of something, and someone who knows you comments that they thought you would attempt to intimidate, as opposed to charm. Stuff like that’s good, if the person knows you, and comments on what they think you would do. no that’s only my opinion, and I can see some people not liking that.

For me, if a character, RO or otherwise doesn’t like you, it’s not so much I get annoyed if it’s for no reason, I honestly get more annoyed that there isn’t a good reason, since I believe that a character can hate you all they want, but if they have a at least in their mind, good reason for doing so, it generally makes them a better character.

For example, one of the RO’s in the current book I am working on specifically in the beginning at least, so you can change that as the story progresses, does not like the MC for something that the MC cannot control, but does not like the emcee for what is in their mind, a very legitimate reason. That, I think would make them a better character than just, hey, I don’t like you, because I just don’t like you, now deal with it.