If you can, please try to keep demo quality discussions out of this thread, as it is focused on ROs we, well, hate.
If you wish to discuss specific demos, I can point you to each game’s thread. Otherwise, if you wish to talk about demos in general, please create your own thread so we can keep this one on track.
I recommend this thread if you want to chat about what makes a good demo:
Petition to change this threads name to aspects of wayhaven and SoH we wholeheartedly hate.
Seriously, we have people like vofademp throwing a tandrum over a games aspects and Juniko’s character arc being weird and not very likable
This thread is like a therapist for some people, LMFAO
I wholeheartedly sign this petition
I enjoy the game for the historical theme and not necessarily the stellar story. But yeah, Dangerouse and Andrea were tolerable. But Piero and Fiametta were both a pain…
Hm. Thinking about this whole thing, the type of ROs I really, really barely tolerate is something that can be described by a russian untranslatable anecdote rhyme “хочу ли я, могу ли я, говно ли я, магнолия” - “should I, can I, am I the worst of the worst, magnolia”.
The ones that keep angsting and angsting and angsting and thinking, and doubting and do it for so long it grows beyong reasonable human behavior – the worst cases of magnolia among the ROs I remember usually came from romance - focused books, be it A or, I don’t know, maybe Manerkol? I also remember being quite annoyed with Ioco’s magnolia, but it wasn’t that severe and it felt reasonable.
Ok, there’s either something I’m missing or you’re using the wrong word in the translation.
A magnolia is a tree, or its flower.
There’s an anectode in russian that I’m using as a descriptor. In original, it looks somewhat like this:
"Наркоман просыпается, смотрит в окно, силится вспомнить, как называется дерево под окном:
It doesn’t really rhyme in english, but the translation looks somewhat like this:
"A drug user wakes up, looks outside and tries hard to remember how the tree under his window is called like.
Ah, I see. Thanks.
Honestly, all I know about Russian is yes, no, the name of several foods (courtesy of Life of Boris on youtube), and anu cheeki breeki iv damki, but that last one is due to playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and is also terribly impolite.
That said, I would never have thought an anecdote about a drug user struggling to remember the name of a Magnolia tree would fit as well as it does for A’s idiotic behavior as an RO.
Get out of here, Stalker! 
I said come in, don’t just stand there! 
Hey a fellow S.T.A.L.K.E.R player 
anyways about the topic there are far more Ro’s that i feel neutral towards or just not interested in rather then outright hate or dislike with the only exceptions that I can think of being Black Magic and Jun/Junko for reasons that other people have already gone into. I guess Camellia too from Pathfinder Wrath though having a full blow psychopath(Or would she be a sociopath) as a romance option is quite unique for a video game
Not sure if I hate Cam’s romance, but the fact that it is simply doomed cos of her condition is both disappointing and brilliant. I feel like that there should be more ROs with disabilities. (Would like some title-drops if there are games with them). I do remember getting acquainted with Racter in Shadowrun: HK. Liked the character so much, which probably piqued my interest into this niche.
But I suppose the problem with ROs with disabilities is writing and presenting them correctly. Sadly, I know two things about writing: jack and shit.
Played it, same thoughts as you tho: not sure if it counts as a disability
Not necessarily sure it’s a disability, per se, but there’s the one girl in Blood For Poppies who can’t feel emotions and is doomed to die if the player doesn’t take certain steps to try and prevent it.
But then, the player is also doomed to die if they don’t take certain steps to prevent it, so that’s hardly a surprise.
I was needing a new read
What I really hate is when the mc have to be a punching bag or agree to everything the ROs say to romance them, and when you have to suck up to jerk ROs and can’t call them out on their bullshit.
The ROs in Moonrise were kind of a miss for me, I have to admit.
We have Peppy Roommate who the story says you have a very close relationship with at the start, who basically shames you into letting the girl responsible for turning you into a werewolf stay at your apartment. (uh, excuse me? This is the girl who turned me, against my will, into something I didn’t want to be, and you’re trying to tell me I’m in the WRONG for wanting to tell her to take a hike? Huh, now?)
We also have Mysterious Yet Sexy Coworker who actually leads the rebellion against the Masquera- ahem the secret cabal of supernatural beings who more or less run the world, and she all but hurls herself at you… but if you try to reciprocate, she shuts you down for your troubles. In fact, the only way to romance her, as far as I know, is to actively overthrow her rebellion, which I do not understand.
And then we have Magical Super Awesome Werewolf Goddess, which I think speaks for itself, and if you don’t acknowledge her Mary Sue status, she immediately stops being interested in romancing you at all. (No, really, she asks you outright if you believe she’s a goddess, and if you say no, she gets completely turned off. And then Peppy Roommate hooks up with her instead, because God forbid we blueball the Magical Super Awesome Werewolf Goddess.)
Honestly, it didn’t matter to me which side I wound up fighting for, I just let myself be taken by the beast and ran off into the trees at the end anyhow.
I tried a Darcy route, but it was so frustrating how you are expected to restart a relationship without any discussion about your past or any apologies from Darcy. The only time they show remorse is when they try to stab you in the back AGAIN and you call them out on it. Then they only apologize for not defending you one out of multiple times.
I’m not looking for a model relationship from a game, but dang you are essentially treated like a doormat throughout that relationship… it is so unhealthy.
That’s how Darcy is whether you’re in a relationship or not. Just… really not a good person. And you’re forced to be friends with them for plot reasons even though it makes no sense at all that you ever would be unless you are just as awful of a person.
? Where is the option not to be friends with them? I never chose to, the game just declared that I am. That’s what I hated so much about that game; it seemed like no matter how much you attempt to drive home that you hate Darcy, the game goes “nevertheless you somehow became friends.”
That is what I’m talking about, though I don’t know how early that is since that was more than half my playthrough before I was just done with that game.
You’re not forced to be friends with them. You ARE forced to work with them, which is a different thing.
Oh, that, yeah, my bad.
I think he meant as in the early early game, where you’re reliving past memories and Darcy basically just forces themselves on you whether you like it or not, and the game just forces you to go along with it.