That’s a really fair point, and I don’t necessarily disagree, but I also feel like the Wayhaven MC is kind of limited. I know when people tend to talk about “games that have main characters who are more set by the author,” people tend to say things like Samurai of Hyuga or Fallen Hero, but I’ve always felt like Wayhaven was a game that also had a fairly limited MC. Not a bad MC necessarily, I obviously enjoy the games quite a bit, but I’ve always felt like the romance choice (where you can automatically get with whatever member of UB you want) only really works because the main character is limited into being someone that a member of UB would find attractive.
So I think sometimes there can be a little bit of a disconnect, because I read something like this …
And I think it should be more like, “even if that’s something that people want their MCs to be able to do,” rather than saying it’s what an MC would do, since the MC written by Sera wouldn’t. The MC as written by Sera is going along the romance path as Sera wants to pace it–which is a perfectly valid writing choice, but not something that’s going to appeal to everyone.
Like, taking A’s route in specific–if the main character could be banging other NPCs, would A take that as a rejection? Or a sign of disinterest? It might change the way A interacts with the MC, or thinks about them, and so might have effects on how A deals with their own feelings about the detective. Which could change the pacing from what Sera has in mind for them and their romance path.
Same for being able to ask A out early–would A say yes if the MC came onto them right away, or would A panic and pull away because that’s too much commitment too fast? Or because they don’t know if the MC is very serious about them, and A clearly needs someone to be serious about the relationship? If A rejects the MC early on, shouldn’t the MC get the choice to move on? Would A also move on? Again, it would probably change the way A interacts with the MC, and change the way their relationship developments.
(And then ditto for all the other characters. Sera has a pace in mind, and the main character kind of needs to conform to them.)
Some of the draw of the individual UB members isn’t just who they are or what their character is, but also what their romance path is. M is intense and physical, A is slowburn and full of pining, etc. So choosing to romance A isn’t just about getting to romance A however the MC would want to, but also about signing up for several books of pining and slowburn, just because that’s how it’s written, and A is the pining and slowburn option. It doesn’t have to be enjoyable to everyone, but I’ve always felt like Sera was pretty up front about this being the case