It is indeed fixed!
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To be fair, Remi didn’t only fail the escape attempt, she was made to watch as her friends were executed for it. And the previous captain only kept her alive for his own amusement. Along with Remi, those people were probably some of the founding members of the rebellion, and it probably didn’t have as much support back then, so I get why it made her so disillusioned and averse to risk-taking at first. It’s why she was initially reluctant to help you and Terez.
As for Ferrado, you made some really good points there. They’re at least partly responsible for a lot of the railroading that you go through, so I understand why some people would dislike them. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed all the ROs in Heart of Battle, lol. Because of the existing power dynamic, I guess there’s always going to be a bit of controversy there. But that’s if you’re taking the story seriously and actually roleplaying as a prisoner, as opposed to playing it as a self-insert (not that the latter is wrong, to each their own).
I noticed that when I turned them down and refused their job offer, Ferrado still offered to help the arena by donating money and providing improvements… but the quality of their aid was noticeably lower than when I didn’t turn them down. Even if the MC has been a jerk to them personally, that shouldn’t mean that the other fighters don’t deserve better, more humane treatment, especially after the harrowing accident where they could have been crushed to death. So yeah, Ferrado still has a lot to learn when it comes to putting their ego to the side.
In one of my playthroughs, it did lead to an interesting situation where my MC kind of took advantage of Ferrado’s crush on her at first, hoping to use them to get out, only to escape through another route and fall for them for real. Looking back on it, it makes me wish there were more ways to challenge the imbalance between the two of you. In the end, I found them to be an interesting character, just probably not in a way that makes them the ideal romantic partner. (At least not for someone of the MC’s background)
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It’s funny because I have the exact opposite issue with Ferrado, if you lean in with taking what she has to offer, she’s way too caring about power imbalance and not abusing her power for someone who’s a noted social climber and influence monolith in a very bloody and brutal empire with cutthroat politic.
If anything, her romance should have been about curbing said enthusiasm for throwing her power around, be it for your sake or against it.
Biggest exemple of it for me was how long it took her to put her foot down with the magician dude who kept trying to kill me basically, given the setting, her rank compared to his, how hard he try to talk back and how I had her affection basically maxed, that dude should have been dead the day after I met him. Roman consuls had much higher ranking guys killed on sight for less and they were in a much less secure position than Ferrado.
Though to be fair I didn’t finish Heart of Battle cause it tried to get me to take a hard stance on an issue where no side was really compelling and I was much more interested in the actual characters than the faction nonsense. Still liked it overrall.
Same for her helping the resistance regardless, I would have liked it much more if she helped them purely for my sake since frankly, she has no reason to share their ideals (and wouldn’t have reached such a high status if she did) and doesn’t benefit from it at all so that left her lover as the only logical reason to somewhat inconvenience herself like that.
Personally I did roleplay as a prisoner but like, in context I did commit the crime and I can’t imagine ancient era prisons or military prisons being all that more fun than gladiator school so I was mildly okay with going with the flow while still looking for a way to get a better life or escape.
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I romanced Ferrado and just like @Dragomer I found it rather tame. Their position is superior but they’re so scared of abusing your trust they will walk on eggshells around you even if you actively oppose them. Yes, I did roleplay as a prisoner and took a similar approach of trying to take advantage of their crush.
Imma be real, I liked them the most because they were the most flawed character in my eyes and had an interesting conflict going on, and when it comes to these games I don’t try to hook up my MC with characters who are perfect - I look for an arc. Something that enhances MC’s story. And I think Ferrado does.
Ferrado doesn’t look to hurt MC (or they would yeet @Zyrios MC into the fire), but they’re petty, spoiled, self-righteous etc. They have a saviour complex, they are rather naive (about life outside of their billion dollar disney castle). And I find that interesting and I wish the game stretched past the epilogue so I could experience how that story evolves for MC who romanced them.
I understand being scarred, otome scarred me more, but I don’t think it’s as bad as the relationship in the game you described.
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Hey, fair, I had totally forgotten about that part. And in Remi’s defense, you do have the option to help her bounce back, so it’s not all bad.
That was going to be one of my other points, but I didn’t know if it was just a “me” thing or not, so I didn’t include it - for all her claims of wanting to change the system, if you don’t dance to Ferrado’s tune (romance + contract), her help seems a lot more reluctant, and of much lower quality. Plus, at the endgame, she outright refuses to help you escape, despite all her claims of wanting to (the specific skill check, if you can’t meet it, says, “Ferrado doesn’t trust me enough to help me.” Wut? Why the hell am I obligated to earn her trust? I’m the prisoner, here!).
She kinda flip-flops, doesn’t she? First it’s not acting against your wishes, on the heels of having acted against your wishes twice, then it’s swearing to help the revolution regardless, but offering much less support if she can’t get in your pants, then it’s claiming to care so much about you, but only stepping in at the last straw with Velez, and the big one for me is still her claims of “not falling for a fantasy,” but then crying herself to sleep if you shut her down.
Honestly, I would’ve laughed out loud if that had happened, that would’ve been hysterical.
“If I can’t get in your pants, THEN NOBODY WILL!”
Oh, definitely not. That game was infuriating, whereas this game is actually fairly decent. I’m not comparing Ferrado to it, I was wary of her romance because of it. Once bitten, twice shy, you know.
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What game are you talking about if you don’t mind? I don’t remember a game called ‘Otome’.
Yup, that was honestly a bit weird while playing as someone who was 100% chill with getting to live in her disney mansion free of charge and I imagine there’s the same awkwardness if you’re playing a hardcore freedom kind of character. I guess she was designed with a ‘one step forward, two step back’ kind of approach in mind?
Or she was made half and half in an attempt to satisfy ‘both side’ so to speak?
Also kinda unrelated but it was kinda goofy to me when I saw the equivalent of a member of the Roman Triumvirate talk about power imbalance in a relationship in an empire and age with active slavery and prisoner camps being used as hostages, I couldn’t help but giggle a bit.
Tame really is the right word, I’d even extend it to the other ROs and the characters in general. For the setting and situation, everyone except that one ex-military gladiator gang boss was really freaking tame and even often cordial.
Even the one guard who has it out for you just kinda bother you and stop you from gaining fame (which is gained through risking your life anyway) and easily apologize and admit he fucked up before leaving.
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It’s not called otome, it was an otome game - or rather, it wasn’t. Otome games are Japanese dating sims aimed at heterosexual female audiences where you’re Some Gal and your goal is to hook up with Some Dude. This is the opposite, a Galge (probably “garuga” in proper Japanese), short for “gal game,” where you’re Some Dude and you’re trying to hook up with Some Gal.
I think the game in question was called something like, “My Billionaire Girlfriend”? It was a really cheesy title of that nature, and the company who made it pumps out carbon copies of that game format by the dozens - My Robot Girlfriend, My Vampire Girlfriend, and so on and such forth. And they’re all terrible and try and squeeze you for cash in order to unlock the good ending or the more spicy dialogue choices, like the scams they are, so I wasn’t surprised that the story sucked. Didn’t stop me from hating it, though.
Especially since she would have played an active hand in that, to some degree, right?
“The power system in Coritan is corrupt to the core, the rich and powerful hold supreme authority and anybody who dares speak out is forced to fight and die in blood sport!”
“My sister in Christ, you wrote the laws.”
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Would depend a lot on some world building specifics we don’t have but at the very least, she has to play a part in maintaining it as it is, given how much her and her fellows are talked up and how powerless Velez is the moment she actually tell him to knock it off.
At the very least we know how doomed the arena alone would be without the financial support she and her equals provide and even the blood thirsty one isn’t interested enough in said Arena to send any actual help by their own initiative when it’s literally in danger of crumbling so it’s not even like she’d get much pushback.
Literally just present it as a cost cutting measure and done, problem solved. Ferrado talks like a teenage idealist but it clash a lot with the fact that she is also supposed to be the number one cutthroat of the Coritan high society and thus supposedly has the power and ruthlessness to get what she wants when she wants it, at least when not opposed by her very few peers who don’t seem to care one way or another.
Your joke is hilarious either way tho.
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“You,” in this case, meaning the group you, directed at the Illustrious College on the whole.
But otherwise, yeah, I agree with what you’re saying.
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I just realized it kinda make Ferrado a mix of two other characters in another Gladiator game that’s sadly not on this forum anymore that I forgot the name of, I just remember you could play a gaul kid who get sold by his dad alongside his little brother and the game ended in your first gladiator match where the geeky member of the group get his throat cut open.
She’s basically a mix of the ‘master’ in that game who’s a rich and ruthless (but somewhat fair) ex-gladiator turned pseudo-noble, fully capable of just getting you out but unwilling outside of giving you his favors if you do a good job and his innocent and nice daughter who’s appealed by the whole thing and desperate to help you out of that hole but powerless to do so cause she’s a kid and it’s her dad who has all the power.
So yeah, a funny connection I just made and a very paradoxical character when you think about it.
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You see, I really love a bad otome game, is kind of my guilty pleasure. But I hate these titles that you have to pay for some choices, so I don’t usually play those “free to play” otomes. Sometimes you have to pay with money, sometimes you pay with minutes of your life that you spent watching adds.
But… There are exceptions. If you all excuse me I will now cry remembering how much time I spent collecting stars to unlock the premium choices on The Last Legacy just for the authors leave the app without ending the story 
at least the story of Last Legacy is (was? I don’t think they will ever finish it) really good.
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“I was stating, not complaining.”
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Every big speech about injustices turning out to just be one giant humblebrag would be the greatest twist in history.
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Same here the story was just too short for me to get invested in any of the characters
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Ferrado was so tame it was boring.
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Yeah, if you’re gonna do something as spicy as, “(theoretically) corrupt noble buys you out of the arena as personal muscle and falls for you,” it really oughta raise more eyebrows, in my mind.
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Would have been much more fun to have to restrain Ferrado from making all your opponents reach the arena ground already half dead than to constantly deal with the weirdly ethics-based cockblocks in advancing the relationship.
Not like we even fight much to begin with.
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I’m gonna preface this by saying that this is just my opinion, and that I might be wrong about the game I’m going to talk about here. I know it’s very beloved by the community, but I just couldn’t get into it. 
So, two ROs that I didn’t like were Ortega and Mortum from the first Fallen Hero game. But I think “Didn’t like” is a bit of a misnomer, because I really felt kind of indifferent towards them for most of the story, and then increasingly frustrated as they started showing up more. I think one shortcoming there is that it feels like the game has a very specific idea in mind for how your character is supposed to relate to those two (the MC is melancholic and distant towards Ortega, and intrigued by Mortum), and anything outside of that makes the story feel a bit clunkier, so, even if they are very proeminent characters in a long story, I just can’t get into them at all.
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Do Itch IF games ROs fit on this thread or not? Because I have yet to find a single ROs from one of those worth even remembering.
The fact that most of the content of those games tend to be ‘pet quirks’ in the MC’s customization scene that are referenced to once or twice and then forgotten because they would easily take over the story if they weren’t just glorified flavor text doesn’t help with leaving any place to make the ROs memorable.
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