Well, as far as I can tell, 33% of male ROs do not either die or betray you… 
It just happened that the guy who didn’t was the one I didn’t try… 
Otherwise, I found it pretty good (aside from the final battle), but, yeah, you probably shouldn’t go in expecting fun romances… 
I mean characters with their own motivation and weight in the story.Not just be there for players to romance
Other posters have nailed down a lot of important things.
I also just want to add that I find it extremely frustrating and annoying when whether or not being “successful” at a romance depends on rather arbitrary choices. I, playing as the MC, want to have a role in determining how the relationship develops without “losing” at the romance.
Like, I want my MC to be able to tell RO that RO is being a dick without losing all chances at winning over RO. I want my MC to be able to challenge RO and RO to challenge MC back in the course of developing a relationship.
Too many romances in Choice games are just “say the nice / obviously romantic thing to RO and win their heart and body.”
Then again, it is nice when you can use Romance bonus Relationship points to keep a love interest on your side. Ask my Paladin who Romanced the Thief in Lost Heir, exposed his shenanigans to the party when he picked the fighter’s pocket, and still retained max Relationship with the Thief.
Let’s see…
I don’t think a romance necessarily has to be connected to the plot. But it shouldn’t halt it either.
I don’t think a character has to be independent to stand on their own. In fact I like the idea of someone who’s dependent on others to show their personality. They don’t need to have a reason relating to experiences but if they do even better.
I loath when the LI has tragedy immunity especially when it can still happen to other characters. But i don’t want mandatory tragedy either (though it’s more tolerable, I don’t expect someone to give up their own motivations for me)
I hate having to be super nice to someone. People in real life don’t get that from me, so evil romances and ones where you’re rewarded for being mean are fun for me. So Vi and Lani from Through Broken Lenses and Totem Force respectively are some of my favorites since they like it when your mean. And Lucid allows you to stock up so many points you could let your kid die and they’ll still love you.
I don’t like emotional interactions. Tin Star for the most part was pretty casual from what I remember, and the instance where I do remember something overtly lovey dovey gave me a stat boost, so that bribe made me happy anyway.
It has to be making them be a character and possible friend first and a well developed romance option second. For example in Mass Effect so many people like Garrus as a character because the guy’s cool and badass and you’ll get that whatever play you have, which makes him more engaging for the romance he had with my female Shepard.
I was thinking really all the way back to Choice of Broadsides where you have the three different ladies/men at home you barely interact with and marry against the same gender rival/friend you have who you have the option of romancing for a special ending. Which was the more popular? I didn’t romance him but I still recognized that.
Wait, are we talking in game or are your real world relationships this “casual”?
P.S DON’T TAKE THIS PERSONALLY BUT I COMPLETELY DISAGREE.
I generally dislike people who bring a lot of their emotions into conversation with me, the ones that I do like are people who are so nice I haven’t had a bad interaction with them.
So I cringe at any emotional dialogue really.
Well you have certain Ideals and Ways of conducting a relationship and I will withdraw my disapproval and I hope that any relationships you conduct in goes well.
A character with their own motivations and an active role in the story, especially one after they go out with MC, which has to be dealt with. Having to sacrifice opportunities in the game to make the relationship work, as in Choice of Romance, Choice of Robots and Hero Project with Jenny Yu. A character who’s convincingly in love with the MC is always nice.
My purpose is to try to allow you to get close to these side characters in a way different from friendship or being allies, so the reader gets a chance to see a different side of them. I definitely do see your point about how it’ll end up with the same characters anyway.
Very good point, I’ll have to allow for lots of criticism/disagreements without ruining the relationship entirely.
Huh… you know, I think the thing that most makes an interesting in-game romance for me is a character I love, and believable and organic interactions with them. The chance to get to know them in other ways, too, like having a friendship or an… enemy-ship? …with them, like you said, is always a plus - besides anything else, it adds replayability as you get to know the character in a different way.
Plus a character that can stand on their own, that powers the story in their own way in a way that isn’t purely being your RO.
My favourite romances are a bad idea for the main character, the NPC, or both, for whatever reason. They feature NPCs with:
-a strong enough sense of self that they’ll break up with the PC if treated badly or if the PC goes wildly against their morals
-but who the PC can reasonably disagree with without the romance breaking
Bonus points if they make decisions due to their circumstances or ideology that cause them or the PC problems. (Dragon Age 2 is a perennial favourite for this reason.)
Well, I do agree that that would be a good reason to make them love interests, but I still feel that it would be a bad idea to make them disposable love interests.
Also, the age-old sociophilosophical dilemma: To whom do we open up more? Friends or Lovers?
(Which itself is a ridiculous question as a lover should also always be a friend, while not every friend needs to be a lover)
When I used to make NPC mods, I included friendship content that was only visible to PCs who weren’t romancing the NPC. It was quite fun to think about how the character would behave if they had no romantic interest in the PC.
In my WIP I’ve tried to do the same, so that it’s satisfying to interact with the characters even if they have no romantic connections.
YAY. You already have one fan. :D
I’ve talked about it before a bit, but—even though I’d generally rather play an ace/aro character, I find with CS games I nearly never do, as it essentially just cuts out NPC content. Not just romantic content, but the ability to be around a character, learn more about them, all that. And then there’s very seldom any material (whether some time-sensitive activity, or friendship-only sections) for a PC who isn’t in a romantic relationship. So I would love to see more of the latter. (:
Ah, thank you! 
I’ve written a bunch of asexual romantic content in the game, so that there’s hopefully a nice even spread of types of romance for different kinds of PCs and players. How successful it is remains to be seen, but I enjoy getting to know and learning more about characters throughout my playthroughs, so I figured it would be fun to write it too!