Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

[seneya]

The last post on the game's tumblr is dated to 22 December of 2024, btw. So that's several months ago. I wonder what happened.

 

[Lovecraft]

Make it an explicitly toxic romance with Luceris trying to forget (a harmful coping mechanism), and the knight enabling him with his, ugh, love. Make the fact that it's a bad, toxic, destructive relationship very obvious in the narrative. Make the knight become progressively more and more delusional (self-gaslighting), and the king more and more of a mess. Drinking. Drugs. Whatever. He's supposed to suffer from the loss of his wife, right? So show that.
Man, all my ideas for ACoAaF can be summed up as "make the story horror-level dark" lol

It would have honestly much better. The game doesn't decide on what it wants to be is it a psychological horror on what the cycle of harm does to a person is it a slice of life romance or is it a slow burn revenge fic so it fails on all of them

 

[Gone_Dead]

See this cuts into what Lovecraft said, I had to stop playing and checked their tumblr and then I realized I’m not the target audience. They mostly seem fine with the king some want to just forgive him and most asks are clearly about romance lol. I felt like I played a totally different game. I seen lots of asks that hates the sister more than the king. I think most used the “want to move on from the past” which is crazy because your whole family being murdered isn’t something you can move on from

I was expecting an absolutely unhinged revenge story where we can commit atrocities worse than the King to make him suffer and in turn losing ourself. I expected this to be one extreme and the other extreme to be the MC not avenging their family and whatever comes with it. I certainly did not expect it to be the romance story of Luceris and Lancelot from the pov of MC while the reader seethe in front of the screen. It's the thing Aot fans say, "Aot is the story of Mikasa told by Armin in the pov of Eren" which absolutely enraged me considering Eren the MC, achieved f uck all in the end and became a ***** in love with Mikasa while showing no interest in her throughout the story. I assume it will be something similar to this in the IF.

 

[God]

I was expecting an absolutely unhinged revenge story where we can commit atrocities worse than the King to make him suffer and in turn losing ourself. I expected this to be one extreme and the other extreme to be the MC not avenging their family and whatever comes with it. I certainly did not expect it to be the romance story of Luceris and Lancelot from the pov of MC while the reader seethe in front of the screen. It's the thing Aot fans say, "Aot is the story of Mikasa told by Armin in the pov of Eren" which absolutely enraged me considering Eren the MC, achieved f uck all in the end and became a ***** in love with Mikasa while showing no interest in her throughout the story. I assume it will be something similar to this in the IF.

You know while doing my extensive research on Tumblr I came to two conclusions, one the author likes to see MC suffer and is a self proclaimed sadist. Second is all the real revenge lovers left at the beginning of the story, so many people wanted to use the prince as a tool of revenge they had to make a FAQ saying no love interests would support that and he had nothing to do with what his dad did, which is quite ironic if you ask me

 

[Farafare]

See this cuts into what Lovecraft said, I had to stop playing and checked their tumblr and then I realized I’m not the target audience. They mostly seem fine with the king some want to just forgive him and most asks are clearly about romance lol. I felt like I played a totally different game. I seen lots of asks that hates the sister more than the king. I think most used the “want to move on from the past” which is crazy because your whole family being murdered isn’t something you can move on from

romaticized stockholm syndrome simulator

 

[mrstankylegs]

See this cuts into what Lovecraft said, I had to stop playing and checked their tumblr and then I realized I’m not the target audience. They mostly seem fine with the king some want to just forgive him and most asks are clearly about romance lol. I felt like I played a totally different game. I seen lots of asks that hates the sister more than the king. I think most used the “want to move on from the past” which is crazy because your whole family being murdered isn’t something you can move on from

Good point there about finding out you're not the targeted audience when you check the aurthor's tumblr. That's what happened to me too. Like, even the ask supposedly acknowledging his actions summed them up as 'left a child homeless', and that he takes care of them. Girl you made it sound like he's their landlord who evicted them I think it's a lil more than that

Make it an explicitly toxic romance with Luceris trying to forget (a harmful coping mechanism), and the knight enabling him with his, ugh, love. Make the fact that it's a bad, toxic, destructive relationship very obvious in the narrative. Make the knight become progressively more and more delusional (self-gaslighting), and the king more and more of a mess. Drinking. Drugs. Whatever. He's supposed to suffer from the loss of his wife, right? So show that.
Man, all my ideas for ACoAaF can be summed up as "make the story horror-level dark" lol

I think THAT is what they want, in theory. They've talked about how they never claim these two to be healthy and such. It doesn't come across that way for me even a little, personally, but I also canNOT find myself invested in his love life at all whatsoever. Author obviously likes him and expects me to feel the same, but I do not. Surprise (not) surprise, forcing a child to marry you after killing their whole family isn't just some uwu quriky villain thing. I don't like him, I don't care about him, so yeah ain't no way I'm gonna be interested in his romance subplot. (Diversity wins! The man who forced you to marry him now has a boyfriend? Come on.)

Seriously. I already said it, but with how the author fawns over these two, why not just write about them? Why bother with the game when they seemingly don't care about the MC at all. (The way they write MC you'd think they hate MC, tbh.)

 

[God]

Good point there about finding out you're not the targeted audience when you check the aurthor's tumblr. That's what happened to me too. Like, even the ask supposedly acknowledging his actions summed them up as 'left a child homeless', and that he takes care of them. Girl you made it sound like he's their landlord who evictexd them I think it's a lil more than that



I think THAT is what they want, in theory. Theylve talked about how they never claim these two to be healthy and such. It doesn't come across that way for me personally, but I also canNOT find myself invested in his love life whatsoever. Author obviously likes him and expects me to feel the same, but I do not. Surprise (not) surprise, forcing a child to marry you after killing their whole family isn't just some quriky villain thing. I don't like him, I don't care about him, so yeah ain't no way I'm gonna be interested in his romance subplot. (Diversity wins! The man who forced you to marry him now has a boyfriend? Come on.)

Seriously. I already said it, but with the way author fawns over these two, why not just write about them? Why bother with the game when they seemingly don't care about the MC at all. (The way they write MC you'd think they hate MC, tbh.)

They just are a “sadist” they enjoy making MC suffer, my question is how will they stretch this two games since the author wants to make is a duology. I’ll be surprised if this gets finished tbh

 

[Lovecraft]

You know while doing my extensive research on Tumblr I came to two conclusions, one the author likes to see MC suffer and is a self proclaimed sadist. Second is all the real revenge lovers left at the beginning of the story, so many people wanted to use the prince as a tool of revenge they had to make a FAQ saying no love interests would support that and he had nothing to do with what his dad did, which is quite ironic if you ask me

Hah! So the sins of the father only applies to Helios but not the MC wonderful. If no love interests support your action then why the **** would you place it in the game? This if is marketed as romance if but if you do the revenge path then no body supports you? This is blatant railroading since even the narrative discourages you to pursue revenge

 

[seneya]

so many people wanted to use the prince as a tool of revenge they had to make a FAQ saying no love interests would support that

See, this is why I'd want to move the story into the psychological horror territory instead. It just doesn't work out as a revenge story.
Starting with the fact that the MC has literally zero power or control of the situation. This means the author literally cannot let them take any overtly aggressive actions because then Luceris could simply unalive them and the MC has no powerbase to oppose him. Hence, the most that can be allowed are petty acts.
Second is that the, quote,

story where we can commit atrocities worse than the King to make him suffer and in turn losing ourself.

is a great idea! But it doesn't mesh well with the dating-sim aspect, which is what most of the readers seem to be there for.

so many people wanted to use the prince as a tool of revenge they had to make a FAQ saying no love interests would support that

This is an example of what I'm talking about. The revenge part is clearly an afterthought, the story is a dating sim with all the death and trauma as just an edgy background.
But for a psychological horror, a powerless MC would've worked out just fine.
Ah, whatever. It is what it is.

 

[God]

Hah! So the sins of the father only applies to Helios but not the MC wonderful. If no love interests support your action then why the **** would you place it in the game? This if is marketed as romance if but if you do the revenge path then no body supports you? This is blatant railroading since even the narrative discourages you to pursue revenge

Here’s your answer you just can’t be too evil okay? He can slaughter your whole family and parade you around and they love him but remember they have a good moral sense…

 

[Farafare]

Hah! So the sins of the father only applies to Helios but not the MC wonderful. If no love interests support your action then why the **** would you place it in the game? This if is marketed as romance if but if you do the revenge path then no body supports you? This is blatant railroading since even the narrative discourages you to pursue revenge

And the game about revenge... makes me wonder what the lamest revenge options author will come up with. Misplace Luceris shoes? Put a bug in his glass? Wash his white clothes with the red ones?

 

[Gone_Dead]

You know while doing my extensive research on Tumblr I came to two conclusions, one the author likes to see MC suffer and is a self proclaimed sadist. Second is all the real revenge lovers left at the beginning of the story, so many people wanted to use the prince as a tool of revenge they had to make a FAQ saying no love interests would support that and he had nothing to do with what his dad did, which is quite ironic if you ask me

Lol irony indeed. The author has no problem doing that to MC. I thought this was an Interactive Fiction? Which means the readers steer the story by interacting with it? Besides, a good writer must be able to put themselves in different perspectives however exhausting it might be. I might not like certain topics but if I'm gonna give the readers a full experience, I should suck it up and do my job. Like any other good IF authors out there. Some authors see IF as a medium to insert their OC's and fantasies instead of telling a branching story they crafted. Hell SOH was more linear than a lot of IF's but I still was able to read it to the end cuz the world and the characters pulled me in.

 

[Lovecraft]

Here’s your answer you just can’t be too evil okay? He can slaughter your whole family and parade you around and they love him but remember they have a good moral sense…

What does level of revenge even mean? No seriously what does it mean is the first level inconveniencing luceris by puring salt in his coffee and the tenth level burning down the Kingdom howling at the sky while the flames devour you but you don't care since you died the night your family died?

 

[God]

I’m not really a picky person when it comes to getting into IFs, and even the most loved IFs are just good to me. I even love some heavily hated stories. So when I start one there’s only a few problems that makes me quit, just an overly nice MC just puts me off immediately the helper of all kind yeah I’m good. The obvious Author’s Pet character when you know it’s the author’s favorite character. Being railroaded I know most cannot make so many different branches, but if you give me an option to not do something dumb and the MC does the stupid **** anyway it puts me off. Last thing this is the biggest one, when the author clearly adapted the story from a book or novel and you can tell MC was created last just to be able to make it a IF, we all thought of a certain IF right now, but it seems to be happening more and more right? Like the story does not change if the MC did not exist. The MC is clearly the least favorite character, if I see another Author say I just don’t know what to do with the MC I lose all emotion and just shrug.

 

[Lovecraft]

Lol irony indeed. The author has no problem doing that to MC. I thought this was an Interactive Fiction? Which means the readers steer the story by interacting with it? Besides, a good writer must be able to put themselves in different perspectives however exhausting it might be. I might not like certain topics but if I'm gonna give the readers a full experience, I should suck it up and do my job. Like any other good IF authors out there. Some authors see IF as a medium to insert their OC's and fantasies instead of telling a branching story they crafted. Hell SOH was more linear than a lot of IF's but I still was able to read it to the end cuz the world and the characters pulled me in.

Soh can't be compared to Crown of ashes since its characters are charming and even if the plot is railroaded at points and it's quite linear it's actually fun to play

 

[Gone_Dead]

See, this is why I'd want to move the story into the psychological horror territory instead. It just doesn't work out as a revenge story.
Starting with the fact that the MC has literally zero power or control of the situation. This means the author literally cannot let them take any overtly aggressive actions because then Luceris could simply unalive them and the MC has no powerbase to oppose him. Hence, the most that can be allowed are petty acts.
Second is that the, quote,

is a great idea! But it doesn't mesh well with the dating-sim aspect, which is what most of the readers seem to be there for.

This is an example of what I'm talking about. The revenge part is clearly an afterthought, the story is a dating sim with all the death and trauma as just an edgy background.
But for a psychological horror, a powerless MC would've worked out just fine.
Ah, whatever. It is what it is.

That's the thing tho. The romances aren't even good enough for it to warrent being a dating sim. I've seen ifs with better romance which aren't even a dating sim. Besides, how is the reader to romance anyone under these circumstances? The author needs to be very meticulous inserting romance with such a premise much less advertising the if as a dating sim.

 

[Gone_Dead]

Soh can't be compared to Crown of ashes since its characters are charming and even if the plot is railroaded at points and it's quite linear it's actually fun to play

I agree. Unlike most people on reddit, I actually rate SOH. I hear people saying Wayhaven is better than SOH and I'm like wth are you taking about? Wayhaven is a good romance IF. That's it. Otherwise I wouldn't compare it with SOH.

 

[God]

I agree. Unlike most people on reddit, I actually rate SOH. I hear people saying Wayhaven is better than SOH and I'm like wth are you taking about? Wayhaven is a good romance IF. That's it. Otherwise I wouldn't compare it with SOH.

Me who has a low opinion of both hiding, I used to love SOH but really don’t like linear stories much, but my taste of anime and manga changed a few years back and I can’t help, but cringe at SOH. Just aren’t my medium anymore, for Wayhaven I was an A romancer and I just got fed up tbh plus MC bothered me too. I’d rate them both good for what they are trying to be and genre imo. I won’t be in a rush to play either and SOH I think I dropped like book 3 or 4 so I’ll pass.

 

[Gone_Dead]

Me who has a low opinion of both hiding, I used to love SOH but really don’t like linear stories much, but my taste of anime and manga changed a few years back and I can’t help, but cringe at SOH. Just aren’t my medium anymore, for Wayhaven I was an A romancer and I just got fed up tbh plus MC bothered me too. I’d rate them both good for what they are trying to be and genre imo. I won’t be in a rush to play either and SOH I think I dropped like book 3 or 4 so I’ll pass.

I understand. There's a bunch of cringe scenes that I tend to ignore. I barely scrolled through book 4. I'm not a fan of linear books in general but I can suffer through it if the world building and characters are good. SOH has its faults but in no way is it a bad book.

 

[God]

I understand. There's a bunch of cringe scenes that I tend to ignore. I barely scrolled through book 4. I'm not a fan of linear books in general but I can suffer through it if the world building and characters are good. SOH has its faults but in no way is it a bad book.

Yeah think last manga/anime medium I got into was TOG manhwa Like I was never into it heavily anyways but when covid hit I just never went back to anime or manga. I still know about a lot from memes and such. Feel like I know whole JJK story not reading or watching a second just from memes tbh. I will say SOH is good at what it wants to be, I will say if a certain romance option is true it really is living up to its anime comparisons