What is something from an IF game or series you enjoy that makes you uncomfortable/ throws you off?

Nope you ask and they wave it off. You have to base them off some/thing (you can type it in) and you’re always attracted to them. They’re is one other ro who does change gender based on your orientation but they’re in the sequels and are there initially mostly to mess up your relationship with black magic who you had to get with (at the very least in early versions) All the other ro’s are locked and don’t get as much focus as ro’s.

It’s not that trope because they are in line with your orientation no matter what. Though they do the same femme fatale seduction actions and style, which made a few people comment that the guy seems predatory.

Oh, I guess I got it wrong then.

You might have been thinking of Lady Vice, a character in the same game who does have orientation-ignoring seduction powers. I remember doing a playthrough with a gay male MC and getting lines like ‘who cares if you’re gay, you want her anyway’.

That said, she’s a repugnant villain, not a character you’re supposed to actually like (and Black Magic in particular despises her).

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The bigger issue with BM was (to a number of people) that they were very much shoved into the player’s face as ultimate RO with no real chance to say no. (You can have a relationshipstat of 12 with them and still enter a relationship… a good number of people were not happy)

This! Also iirc BM also feels disdain for MC even if MC is an underdog and doesn’t vote out Lucky (and isn’t romancing BM)

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ooo that’s a

y i k e s

from me

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That was a whole other can of worms iirc (drop me a pm for details)

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I feel the unintentional voting out of Black Magic or Lucky should had a more in dept reconcilation story telling… i was hoping there could be choice or interaction for MC to say sorry or either Lucky or black magic could forgive MC if their relationship stat was high enough …

Especially Lucky who was MC childhood friend should be given a choice for MC to explain what went wrong … this part is totally the feeling of " either my way or highway"

The Black Magic and Lucky romance route had so much potential to explore

The podigral romance route was famous for some people because unintentionally Podigral had been view as a forgiveful person by coming back to save MC, her nemesis …

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Ehh… Idk I always thought that Prodigal viewed MC as more of a playmate or something and respected them like the sort of relationship Naruto and Nine Tails have (in later half of Naruto Shippuden) . :stuck_out_tongue:

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There is in general so much potential in HR that seems, in lack of a better word, wasted. But that’s a discussion for a whole other (private) thread

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Well… personally, the Good turning of Podigral may be view as “Face Turn” in wrestling term, and trust me… “Face Turn” always garner huge pop and response from audience , who consider such action as a redemption move from the “heel”, where the “bad person/villain” finally see the light to become good :-):stuck_out_tongue:

Face turn of Podigral was a Nostalgia move , and it was no surprise many root for her afterthat, especially when she died in the end :slight_smile:

@MeltingPenguins i agree with you :slight_smile:

Yeah, I love redemption arcs for malicious characters especially when they’re done right, a good example is Jaime Lannister in GOT/ASOIAF, he turned from one of the most hated characters to one of the most loved characters!


Also another thing about an IF series I love that I didn’t like was convoluted plot of Versus which I feel could have made tad bit simpler.

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I think what bugs me most in IF are *fake_choice options. I know why they’re there, but if they don’t actually do anything or change the story in any discernible way (aside from, sometimes, a stat change being hidden in the code), they shouldn’t be there.

It feels like lazy writing to me. I’m guilty of having done it once or twice, but I’ve also noticed that many of the issues people have with bugs come from *fake_choice options - particularly stacked ones.

Now, if we are talking plot wise - I don’t like being forced to lock myself into a romance with a character before I’ve gotten to know them. It’s one thing to flirt, but it can be difficult to even know if you’re going to like the character, without having seen any interaction with them. (For instance, my favorite romance in any game, aside from Sem :heart: , is JP in Tin Star. So much interaction happened before you could even attempt to initiate a romance, and it felt so much more fulfilling.)

Same goes for friendships, etc. I also understand that, for story purposes, we are often forced into having positive relationships with characters, but, for instance, in Totem Force, I absolutely hated both of the friends your character has. They’re obnoxious and judgemental and boring. It was nice being able to tell them off, but it was just annoying to continue having to deal with them - they still treated MC as their best friend, despite my MC treating them like utter horse dung in attempts to get them to leave me alone.

I know there is a limit to how much an author can write - God, do I - but, in my opinion, if you want to emphasize character interactions, at all, you need to really do so, like in Way Walkers. Otherwise, just go the way of Life of a Wizard/Mobster, or perhaps Choice of Broadsides.

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Honestly, some of the biggest things I have trouble with are arguably the biggest draws of most of these games.

I think, frankly, most of the romances are awful in every single one of them with a couple of exceptions. Writing a compelling love story is difficult, but making one with a character that’s often a vessel for the player and can be any variance of personalities? It’s a tall order to try and balance out player choice with actually writing a compelling relationship.

Also I don’t really have a problem with some of the more inclusive aspects, but a lot of them can be really distracting when they don’t make any sense like people have stated here and there. One that comes to mind is Stronghold, which treats androgynous and agender people as the same thing, but also has characters declare that they are such like it’s a third gender as opposed to the lack of defining as one.

I agree with you, 100%