Pretty much - one’s a scumbag reporter out to prove, even moreso, that people in their profession are dicks, and the other is a professor who ripped the rug out from under you because they’re an overambitious dick. It adds up, really.
(Note that not all journalists are bad, it’s just that there are A LOT of bad ones.)
I think he will stop doing that, once he understands what’s going on. Right now, he’s totally drawn to the MC and it’s overwhelming for him (hence the “can’t stop thinking about how your lips taste against mine” comment at the end of b2), and the only explanation he can come up with is that it’s sex. It’s all he knows.
Every now and then, he just blurts out something that isn’t flirty or “horndog” at all, usually when he’s isolated with the MC (like walking down the street in the demo and him saying that no one would be better off for losing the MC). I think he just has to figure it out, then he’ll be comfortable enough not to turn everything into an innuendo. But if the comment is there to make, he’s gonna make it, lol.
As for ROs I hate, it’s a fairly short list: Jun (SOH) and Manerkol (TSSW). I typically like the bad guy (I wanted to marry Darth Vader the first time I saw Star Wars as a kid), but those two go beyond bad guy into psychopathic, and I don’t like psychos. Book 4 of SOH was enough to make me permanently walk away due to Jun’s “romance” (sorry, but enslaving my MC is not the way to my heart, and the author forcing the MC to still be in love with that sick asshole really irked me). And Manerko… just no.
Other than those two, I don’t really hate any RO that I can think of. I want to slap Adam in Wayhaven, but that’s because he acts like one of those ridiculously overwrought love interests that make me roll my eyes. But I don’t hate him, mainly because I love his friendship route. I’m just suffering through his romance to see what happens (it took me like 13 tries to get an MC that wasn’t like “screw this asshole” by the end of the second book, but thankfully I found one that is so laid back, she just shakes her head at him).
That said, I dislike Nate’s more than Adam’s because Nate is just… blech. But I still play it because I’m curious and hoping it all turns to shit soon. It’d only be fair given what an angst fest A and M’s paths are. But you can’t hate Nate… it’d be like hating a puppy, which is impossible.
What do you think about F? Similar opinion as about N?
@ Cingulum_diaboli No. The only problem I had with F was finding a MC that worked with him. I love Felix (the snark is awesome, as are the honest comments) but he gives off that little brother vibe, and he really seems younger than my MCs as far as maturity goes. I finally settled on a very young, just out of school MC that is unprofessional, fun, and likes annoying Adam. She works well with Felix, and it’s amusing to read it. Even F’s underlying clinginess and insecurity doesn’t bother me in that path because of my MC. With a different MC, it was impossible for me to enjoy the route.
I don’t think I ever really gave much insight as to why I’m not a big fan of F, so what the hell, here goes:
Keeping in mind that F is from another world and basically had to be taught human mannerisms and speech in order to even function on Earth, I still say the fact that they have the tendency to just mouth off at the first excuse, whether they mean to or not, is a big dent in my approval of them. Granted, their main company is Unit Bravo, who are also somewhat lacking in social graces, but still, you’d think after enough missions that they might have learned better when to pipe down - if not out of respect for the individual they’re speaking to, then at least for the sake of not damn near blowing their entire mission out of the water (book one, once again).
Then there’s the much more obvious “never stops flirting, even if it runs the risk of crossing boundaries.” If your first instinct when we meet for the very first time is to try and troll me by going in for an uninvited kiss, I’m probably going to slug you. The joke ain’t so funny when you’ve got a sore jaw, I’d imagine.
To immediately contradict what I just said, if you go no romance at all, suddenly the flirting ceases outright, which I’ve mentioned previously to be just a tad too unrealistic, even for this particular character. But that’s more to do with the author’s handling of the romance mechanics in general, rather than a quirk of F, particularly.
I also don’t like that F is so eager to goad people into starting drama with each other. Even if they view it as a funny joke to see two people bickering, I certainly don’t, and I don’t appreciate them constantly trying to drag my detective into it - in particular with regards to shooting A on first meeting. My detective was legitimately concerned that she was about to get attacked by four strangers, acted to defend herself… and you’re laughing. Seriously? Seriously. Even if you don’t take my actions seriously, consider that I just shot your teammate without hesitation. That doesn’t concern you at all? Because it should, superficial wounds or not. That, if nothing else, is a firm reminder of what you risk by exposing yourselves, I should think that, alone, would be enough of a warning bell for you.
So, yeah, I’m not F’s biggest fan on account of loose lips, lacking social graces, and a propensity to not take shit seriously that they should be. However fun a person is, if they treat their job like a comedy act, I have very little faith in them.
Now, granted, a lot of it might also be a coping mechanism for their own personal drama (going no romance gets you stuck with F as your buddy by default when you go to the fair for the first time in book two, you see), so I can be persuaded to forgive it to a certain degree… but at some point, you gotta just hold the character accountable for their own crap. So, for me, that means that F sits squarely in the, “I don’t hate her but we’re also not friends” box.
i don’t have all that patience lol but i tried her route at the beginning of book 3, I even went out of my way to blatantly flirt with her but I think the most interesting thing that happened in that scene was the conversation between M and F. I think my problem will only be resolved after replaying and choosing a no-romance route, if only I wasn’t so lazy… (and yeah, I can’t be mean to Nat, but I can’t romance her either. I think she will continue as bff)
Why do I laugh so much at this?
I think this doesn’t bother me with F because I look at him like a small, often ill-behaved child (which could possibly stem from him coming from another world where it was, apparently, hellish, so I can cut him some slack there). Sure, you may shake your head, roll your eyes, or want to smack him for being an ass, but much like a child, he just says whatever pops into his head and doesn’t know any better. Impulse control is something foreign to F.
Plus, when you just left hell, most things really don’t seem serious to you in the big scheme of things (like A being shot by the MC–since Sera made guns completely ineffective, A was in no real danger, other than his pride {though if the MC had shot him with double ought slugs from a 12-gauge, A would’ve had a huge hole in him and likely would not have been in good shape!}). F doesn’t take much serious because he’s seen serious and it’s much ore dire than a vampire’s pride being wounded or insulting the MC’s apartment because it’s too dark/grandmotherly/etc.
Unlike A and M, who are intentionally dicks to the MC, F is just like… an annoying little brother who doesn’t know when to shut up. In a romance, he’s like a wide-eyed child (which is why I stuck an immature MC with him, because other MC’s would have friendzoned him right off the bat). Maybe over the course of the series, he’ll grow up a bit and be more mature.
I was determined to find a MC that could deal with A’s shit without either refusing to progress (seriously, with one MC, she made it to about midway book 2 and noped her way out of there, refusing to cooperate at all because, to quote her, “This man is batshit crazy, and I don’t do crazy!”). My MC now was not in love at first sight (unlike A) but she cares about him; the thing is, she’s just not taking any of it seriously until he stops behaving like a hormonal teen.
I stuck a MC with Nate that will drive him nuts, and it’s amusing me. She thinks she can fight (she’s mediocre at it), is stubborn as a stone (even more than my M-mancer, who has 86% in stubborn), and will do the worst thing possible in any situation. It’s hilarious watching N be stressed. XD
Right, and all of this is why I can’t bring myself to actually hate F. But at the same time, it’s also enough to turn me off of viewing them as an RO, and in the case of my perpetually hard-assed detectives (I can’t not make grizzled cops, send help), F is far more of an annoyance than anything else - maybe my one dude detective (I also can’t not make lady cops, SEND HELP) who had a gentle heart despite being a hardass might be inclined to take it easy on F, but the rest would rather they just go to a different room where they don’t have to hear them.
In my case, it’s more that Nat’s romance feels like it comes out of left field. Like, for curiosity’s sake, I made a detective who actively tried to engage in romance, and while I didn’t overtly flirt with Nat, I did choose the options that increased the romance score behind the scenes. Maybe that’s the problem, I will admit, but what ended up happening was when I locked in her romance, she just kinda out of nowhere burst into the detective’s room all, “take me you sexy beast,” which was not even remotely how she had been acting up to that point.
That, and, yeah, I’m much more happy with Nat as a buddy. She’s definite buddy material, but it would take a different sort of person than any of my detectives (barring that one guy) to go the next step beyond that.
I’m going to chime in here. F goes for a cheek kiss, which is just a form of greeting in a lot of countries. I don’t know if that’s how it goes in the Other World where they’re from, but “a kiss on the cheek” is the standard form of greeting in, e.g., Portugal when at least one of the people involved is female.
I did not know this, and now I do.
It’s “did” for any sane measure these days. Standard greetings over here (not France, but it used the same greeting pre… all of this) is now elbow bumps.
F only goes to kiss your cheek if they are a woman and you are a man, otherwise they try to kiss your finger. Both of which are just greetings, but… the latter is extremely antiquated as far as I’m aware. Does any culture still do that?
Yes, mine xD
Yes. It’s actually rather common here in the Caribbean, or at least it is in the circles I frequent.
And I’d like to think I keep up with the times, considering I’m 21…
I am actually familiar with the cheek-kiss. If I’m not mistaken, I think France does that. (Or… did, before COVID happened, I suppose. So yeah, not sure if that’s been given the boot or not.)
Huh, interesting. No one does that anymore here. We’d perceive it as someone being completely stuck in the past, and probably both misogynist and impossibly wealthy.
And over here in the America parts, we just don’t do it at all, unless you’re from the quote en quote “Old World,” or have family who are, so it’s not the first thing to jump into my head when someone goes for a kiss on first hello, I admit.
I guess I didn’t say where I’m from, yeah, my “here” was the US. I live in California.
Ha, same, nice XD
Anyhow we should probably not go too much further off-topic with the kissing by cultures topic, methinks.
It was very typical practice in my country. It’s still present and actually associated with my country.
I suppose it’s now considered rather old-fashioned among the younger generation… But If a man makes such greeting gesture (even if it’s not quite a kiss) to a woman, it would be a sign of respect and good manners “such a gentleman, wow.”. And it would probably delight most women. In Poland.
I heard a story that when Polish guy tried to do this to a woman from the USA, she accused him of molesting. Well, I… can understand her fears 
Different culture after all 
But the end of the topic!
Back to the disliked ROs, Winter was mentioned quite often. I don’t know the next two books, I read the Evertree Inn once (I didn’t like it very much), but now I’m interested in the series because of this RO. I want to see if I will hate them too, haha!
Is Sordwin better than Evertree Inn?
Sordwin is a much more expansive game than Evertree. This time you’re investigating the events surrounding an entire island community, on the orders of your benefactor whose business in Sordwin is suffering due to whatever these events, in question, are.
Past that, I’d say you’ll have to play it yourself if you want to find out more.
Personally, I think it’s a step up from Evertree. A lot of the puzzles in Evertree depended on you being willing to go around and snoop about the inn and talk to people, which, if you were to play a straight-lace introvert character like I did on my first try… well, that ends poorly. In Sordwin, you don’t really have the option to be a quiet little mouse, because the threat to your life is much more immediate (it happens the first night you get there, even!), and because the town is in such a state, going around searching for clues simply makes sense, if for no other reason than to give these poor people a break.