Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[seneya]

I like trash collecting and red flags but all these stories have are assholes with no redeeming qualities.

At least the author is very open about it.
I mean, yeah, it's both misery p o r n, and misery p o r n. To Crown A King is outright labelled as erotic horror. I'm no stranger to dark content, but these stories are too bleak even for me lol

characters speaking about the MC as if they’re a child

One of them is an actual groomer, and the king is just f-ed up ten ways to Sunday.

You can either be: anxious, scared or terrified.

That's the point, I think. Once again, erotic horror.

These are clearly stories meant for a very specific audience with very specific tastes.

 

[Parallax]

I wonder about the increased number of such games with female MC only... She is often some hapless princess (or noble or villager whatever) doomed to some form of oppression. Another example - the queen's pawn.

I bloody hate it. Topics like this don't encourage me to try games with FMC at all. If there are any with a strong MC they are usually those made by lesbians for lesbians.

Gender-locked male are no better given their pitifully small numbers and the fact that they are always about war or martial arts.

 

[seneya]

She is often some hapless princess (or noble or villager whatever) doomed to some form of oppression.

My problem with this type of game, as well as the "pathetic wet cat MC" games in general, is that I dislike games that give no other option but to wallow in trauma and... wait until someone comes and saves you, I guess.
It's a personal thing, but for me, it's the opposite of empowering. Empowering, to me, is when there is an option to toughen up and, eventually, fight back. To at least try to take control. I am especially tired of the "supposed badass actually falling apart and kinda pathetic" archetype (Remember You Will Die, looking at you).

 

[bosslady]

Oh my, I opened this thread to complain about this game. It was recommended to me because I like red flags and morally ambiguous ROs. But as it turned out, all of this author's games are just pandering to a single fetish. The main character is always a childlike, naive girl who either loves what is happening to her without understanding it, or doesn't love it but can't do anything about it anyway.

Yeah... I tried reading it and while I can't say it is bad per se, it is very... hopeless for me. MC can't do anything except hope they win some dude's heart so he can save her (if she is lucky). Can't imagine reading more of that more than once. She has no agency on her own and it is not fun to read.

 

[Ireth313]

I wonder about the increased number of such games with female MC only...

I think the dark romance trend from books (and mainly booktok) started seeping into the IFs like toxic waste. Tbh what irks me the most is that a) ROs in such games always fall into two categories: stoic with an emotional depth of a spoon or b) childish tsundere. Of course, 99.9% of them are male.

It's a personal thing, but for me, it's the opposite of empowering. Empowering, to me, is when there is an option to toughen up and, eventually, fight back. To at least try to take control. I am especially tired of the "supposed badass actually falling apart and kinda pathetic" archetype (Remember You Will Die, looking at you).

Tbh same. And I especially hate when IF authors who write sad damsel Fem!MC seem to like making snide remarks along the lines of 'oh, I don't want to write Yet Another Strong Woman Character'. Girl, where are all those strong female MC games you are talking about??
I think there's good 'big strong is falling apart' type (e.g. Exile and Fallen Hero where you can at least inch MC forward to being well-adjusted), and then there's just misery pron...

 

[seneya]

I think the dark romance trend from books (and mainly booktok) started seeping into the IFs like toxic waste.

The romance -> NSFW -> dark/kink NSFW pipeline basically

oh, I don't want to write Yet Another Strong Woman Character

I still remember the era of otomes, when people complained about there being too many weak, naïve, damsel female MCs. Now lo and behold, suddenly it's the opposite.
(hello Amnesia where to get a good ending with one of the characters MC had to thank him for keeping her in a dog cage)

I think there's good 'big strong is falling apart' type

Fair enough, I'm just tired of every other MC out there spiraling like a snowflake to the ground. Let me spiral upwards dammit.

 

[SasariRomanii]

Fair enough, I'm just tired of every other MC out there spiraling like a snowflake to the ground. Let me spiral upwards dammit.

Whole world's going to the sh*tter and these mofos choose to write dark depressing stories like we don't get enough misery irl

To make matters worse, they treat these heavy elements with little respect, rushing to conclusion in one page like, one paragraph MC's completely shattered then the next they're healed and a-okay and making friends... yey...

Itfo, The Exile, and Fallen Hero are good examples of broken MC done right — in my opinion. They don't feel fetishy or too much like edgelords (Remember You Will Die is a try-hard definitely, and don't start with author's very clear favoritism towards certain characters *cough* Orla *cough*)

Even slice of life IFs aren't exempt from these wet-cat MCs; Apartment 505, Paved in Ashes (the author herself labelled this one as slice of life, but like b*tch where), Love and Leases, etc. Sure there are personality choices for these IFs but if I'm being honest I don't feel it, there's just not enough attention to details to make significant difference between one personality to another because in the end the base is the same — unfortunate wet-cat, just one cat is smiling, one cat is constantly crying, and so on and so forth

Imma cut my rambling short cause this is getting out of hand

 

[bosslady]

don't start with author's very clear favoritism towards certain characters *cough* Orla *cough*)

Really? I haven't played it lately, but a look on Tumblr and all I'm seeing are Jax posts and asks (don't know what people see in him, he looked like an *** to me)

 

[seneya]

he looked like an *** to me

Got his hookup scene on the last update and yeah, mega a$$.
(and the way MC behaved in that scene was so ew to me)

 

[ADB446]

Got his hookup scene on the last update and yeah, mega a$$.
(and the way MC behaved in that scene was so ew to me)

The way you described it makes me want to read it out of morbid curiosity . I just found RYWD to be so boring when I first read it that I dropped it and haven't read it since. It's not a bad story, it's mostly just a me problem. I lose interest when it comes to ifs with set MCs, besides Fallen Hero.

 

[Ireth313]

Even slice of life IFs aren't exempt from these wet-cat MCs

To be fair, I think that's a very rom-com trope: the whole thing starts with MC experiencing something awful, then moping, and then with the power of love MC gets better. So mopey MCs in the beginning of slice-of-life don't surprise me all that much. Tbh my biggest gripe with Apt 505 isn't even MC being pathetic but the fact that we basically can decide EVERYTHING about MC, e.g. style, job, whether they are bold or shy, pick a career and even get career-specific things but for some reason the family dynamic is set? Like what if I don't want my MC to be obligatory middle child or be chummy with their parents? *tabs my sign that says 'please don't force meaningful relationships upon your non-set MCs, dear IF writers'*.

Now lo and behold, suddenly it's the opposite.

I honestly don't remember which genderlocked fem!MC author wrote it, but I remember one person saying that 'she is too not-usamerican' to write an assertive MC. Like, very adorable of you to think that america invented tough women, but you don't have to know of feminism (e.g. women in historical settings) or live in a western country to be a woman with a backbone

 

[SasariRomanii]

Really? I haven't played it lately, but a look on Tumblr and all I'm seeing are Jax posts and asks (don't know what people see in him, he looked like an *** to me)

It's definitely Orla and Jax (and all her OCs, really) and wouldn't you know it Jax is an Orla simp. Not even kidding, people on her Tumblr talks about how Orla is "a girl's girl" when girl is out there pimping other unfortunate girls and sleeping around with her employees

And no matter what your merc does, remember Orla is so much better and cooler! In chapter 6 disloyal merc can finally be "free" of queen-girl-boss over here, but it's treated as she benched/kicked out the merc and not the merc just deciding to leave her. Like why even give the choice to be disloyal, if the MC ends up crying over her like a kicked puppy anyway? And the author likes to say loyalty-this loyalty-that b*tch no this is codependency

But atp the author's clearly a b*tch (just peep at her Tumblr pages and her recent band IF Can't Save Your Love From Dying)

 

[SasariRomanii]

Also notice that lots of new IF authors are fresh out of highschool teenage girls. No wonder most won't get finished

 

[bosslady]

Eugh I had to unfollow the author of To crown a King, the asks were getting way too weird for me. Like this is a kink people are enjoying instead of a genuine exploration of dark themes. Dunno, they were too *teehee* about it.

 

[seneya]

Like this is a kink people are enjoying

I think it's pretty obvious that's what it is
And since the author plays along, you get what you get
I mean, if the author herself (?) says that the solution to MC's problems is someone giving her a good ****... lol (and I get it might have been a joke, but an author's words DO set the mood)

 

[mihochicoine]

Sometimes I read people's complaints about games in here, and it makes me want to play those games more... Some of them I didn't really get into the writing style or setting within the first half hour of playing so I started something else and eventually just uninstalled the game... And then people complain about the story going in a direction that interests me ..

 

[mihochicoine]

I am especially tired of the "supposed badass actually falling apart and kinda pathetic" archetype (Remember You Will Die, looking at you).

Damn, I just found that one last night and started the first few pages, thought the whole possessing other bodies to do mercenary work was a cool concept but was disappointed by the first death scene... I was hoping that last bit would improve but based on what you've said I've begun to doubt that is the case

 

[Drumbell]

'she is too not-usamerican' to write an assertive MC.

That sentence is so ****ed up in so many levels

 

[God]

Eugh I had to unfollow the author of To crown a King, the asks were getting way too weird for me. Like this is a kink people are enjoying instead of a genuine exploration of dark themes. Dunno, they were too *teehee* about it.

No lie I watched someone ask a new author do you accept NSFW asks? And once they got the green light stuff got weirder and weirder for things that are irrelevant to the story. Like why does it truly matter the weird random stuff they ask?

 

[seneya]

Like why does it truly matter the weird random stuff they ask?

What, you don't think RO d i c k size is plot-relevant?