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Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

BiscuitB

Well-known member
Member
Obviously I didn't talk about extreme changes, but that make playing enjoyable. For example, I don't like how in some revenge stories, you are not allowed to be angry or vengeful. I almost never take the more violent path of revenge, but I understand the frustration of many of not being able to do it even if it makes sense with the character you are playing.

I don't remember the game name, but it's the one where you play as heirs who see your entire family die and are married against your will. Playing and trying all the options and combinations, I never felt like my character was truly traumatized, angry, or even sad. It seemed like the author halfway through gave up on writing a story with the gravity of those themes.
And I understand why people want the author to make changes that make sense for the story, the protagonist, and the themes discussed.
I hope you understand me, because I'm not good at explaining, especially in English.
No I get you, and I know the one your talking about Crown of Ashes and Flames. That one was a but of a disappointment nowadays cause it just felt like what I did wasn't really vengeful. It's like you said authors don't really understand about how people deal with revenge and for something like that such a deep as your whole family dying due to one person. Like you'd go full anger/revengeful like old boy or lady vengence (great movies by the way), but now they don't seem to really care and it's fallen flat, like your a passive NPC in a story about "you"
 

God

Well-known member
Member
Ruo? Xiwen? Sure, they don't get much romantic content, still not nothing.
I get that giving some ROs more content than others is not ideal, but it just feels so funny that people will complain about the lack of romance even in a non-romance-focused game. It's like everything is obligated to cater to the romance crowd nowadays.

What about authors who do the opposite with female-coded MCs and "dominating" male(-coded) ROs?
Dude he literally dropped multiple updates that were for Mei and Ai focused, do you know what that means? Female Wu Heir couldn’t play the update at all, imagine being a Patreon and being like oh yeah these next few updates aren’t for you thanks for the money tho. Hope these authors are paying you guy’s the way you’re ignoring faults and glazing like this.
 

yourstalkeroutside

Well-known member
Member
Am I the only one who is fine with that route?
Nope. That's why Aura Clash > POMA on the female MC department. Got no problem with having no/bad romance options in this genre as a female MC, but limiting content is a big annoyance. Which is 98% of the problem with playing female Wu Heir. Hell, even Dao Ascension is somehow better than POMA when it comes to female MCs and that game is riddled with pronoun errors. Ruo/MC banter is why I'm still playing, dude's as funny as Jack sometimes.
 

yourstalkeroutside

Well-known member
Member
Ruo? Xiwen? Sure, they don't get much romantic content, still not nothing.
Ruo has romance content? I have the dude's relationship bar at 98% and has played every scene with him, outside a couple scenes you can read as both romantic or platonic, one of which is a POV scene, Ruo has nothing. Xiwen has more content on Ai's route than his own, and his sole date is still bugged. The only 'romance' you get as a female Wu heir is one guy who tries to marry you during side content with your cousin, and that's just a hookup scene. It's pretty much nothing.
 

seneya

Well-known member
Member
Hope these authors are paying you guy’s the way you’re ignoring faults and glazing like this.
Nope. And I'm not a patron, so I'm not paying the author, either. I play an update if there's content that interests me, and skip it if there's none. And I barely even comment on IFs nowadays, let alone "glaze" them.
Do you know how many times I've seen a WiP update with content of zero interest to me? It's a goddamn WiP. Patreon doesn't give you what you want? Unsubscribe.
But thank you for getting mad at me for not being mad, I guess.
I'll shut up now, cause by gods did I not expect this kind of reaction to a simple opinion.
 
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God

Well-known member
Member
Nope. And I'm not a patron, so I'm not paying the author, either. I play an update if there's content that interests me, and skip it if there's none. And I barely even comment on IFs nowadays, let alone "glaze" them.
Do you know how many times I've seen a WiP update with content of zero interest to me? It's a goddamn WiP. Patreon doesn't give you what you want? Unsubscribe.
But thank you for getting mad at me for not being mad, I guess.
I'll shut up now, cause by gods did I not expect this kind of reaction to a simple opinion.
No you’re being disingenuous ignoring the whole discussion. I said Poma romance sucks and you said it’s not a romance game yes it’s not, then you said others get more content proving my original point the others in this case is Mei 100x and Ai. You used Xiwen and Ruo as an example they get nothing even a female Wu Heir who’s been complaining about Mei getting more attention than the others. If it’s not a romance game how come Niki always finds a way for Mei content? I’m not really mad just said you ignored the faults to glaze which you did by bringing up Xiwen and Ruo which they have nothing in comparison to Mei you can combine their content and they don’t compare.
 

Harwoof

Active member
Member
No you’re being disingenuous ignoring the whole discussion. I said Poma romance sucks and you said it’s not a romance game yes it’s not, then you said others get more content proving my original point the others in this case is Mei 100x and Ai. You used Xiwen and Ruo as an example they get nothing even a female Wu Heir who’s been complaining about Mei getting more attention than the others. If it’s not a romance game how come Niki always finds a way for Mei content? I’m not really mad just said you ignored the faults to glaze which you did by bringing up Xiwen and Ruo which they have nothing in comparison to Mei you can combine their content and they don’t compare.
At this point make Mei and ai Canon romance, I don't know much about female mcs romances but where did tigress and caihong content go? Bro tigress straight up vanished.
 

seneya

Well-known member
Member
I’m not really mad just said you ignored the faults to glaze which you did by bringing up Xiwen and Ruo which they have nothing in comparison to Mei you can combine their content and they don’t compare.
I think I've been pretty consistent in saying that for me personally unbalanced RO content in these particular games is not a big deal, and yes, I play female characters in both (am a woman). I know that Mei is getting more content than others and it simply doesn't bother me. I understand it's an actual unpopular opinion for once.
Also, sorry if I was a bit rude in that last post.
 

Nikanor

Member
Member
Honestly i think that romance ruins a game far more often that not

Like in cyberpolice where the author was for what i can remember almost forced at gun-point to make ROs and include romance in a story that really didnt need it

It may be personal bias i know but still i cant give less that a flying **** about love and romance as a whole in IF
 

Foulwarden

Well-known member
Member
Female Wu Heir couldn’t play the update at all
Oh but we could, MWAHAHAHAsue me for changing a few lines of code

But seriously, I was a long-time subscriber, and Nikki used to pick RO updates based on polls (and guess who always won? Ding ding ding—you’re absolutely right).

But he has to be fair and actually distribute the content between male and female ROs, at least for the people supporting the damn thing.

And when the same side wins every time? Congrats, you’ve just locked out half your player base while still collecting their cash.

She’s supposed to get a 75k update or something soon so Tigress got that going for her
Finallyyyy honestly one of the most interesting one
 

Re336

Well-known member
Member
BTW do any of you my fellas knows any IF that doesnt include romance at all?
Don't know if this is the right thread to ask but f**k it lol. Finding games that doesn't have romance at all is hard. Have you played soulbond: a ghost story? I think the characters there are still interesting even if you don't pursue romance relationship with them. Especially Charlotte. I love Charlotte so much. Story-wise? Not much happening for now so I can't really say. We get to find a terrorist and hunt a unicorn. But the flashback to our past is really interesting. That part is what got me hooked into playing. This one updates really slow tho. It went on hiatus for like 2 years I think? And the author only recently updates it again. It does update more frequently tho. The author even said that they'll have an update on November (hopefully) so that's something you can look forward to.
For now this is the only game I can think of. Maybe I'll tell you more through dm if I remember lol
 

MalloryV

Active member
Member
Honestly i think that romance ruins a game far more often that not

It may be personal bias i know but still i cant give less that a flying **** about love and romance as a whole in IF
I agree that if an author doesn't want to include romance, they shouldn't, but I don't agree that romance ruins games.

Most of the time it is so minimal that it can be easily skipped.

A bad game is bad regardless of whether or not it includes romantic interactions.

Romantic relationships are also part of human interactions, like a family relationship, a friend's relationship, an enemy's relationship, etc. And they help form possible plot points, scenes, situations, and much more.

↓ Spoiler Dragon age Origins (I don't know how to put it as a Spoiler).

I love romancing Alistar as an elf in DA, hardening him, making him a king, not being able to be with him, and sacrificing my character in the final fight. It's like legend/myth of the heroine who sacrifices her life not only for people, but also for her loved one.

Obviously, at the end of the day, everyone has their own opinion. 🐢
 
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xeroxo

Member
Member
I agree that if an author doesn't want to include romance, they shouldn't, but I don't agree that romance ruins games.

Most of the time it is so minimal that it can be easily skipped.

A bad game is bad regardless of whether or not it includes romantic interactions.

Romantic relationships are also part of human interactions, like a family relationship, a friend's relationship, an enemy's relationship, etc. And they help form possible plot points, scenes, situations, and much more.

↓ Spoiler Dragon age Origins (I don't know how to put it as a Spoiler).

I love romancing Alistar as an elf in DA, hardening him, making him a king, not being able to be with him, and sacrificing my character in the final fight. It's like legend/myth of the heroine who sacrifices her life not only for people, but also for her loved one.

Obviously, at the end of the day, everyone has their own opinion. 🐢
There's nothing wrong with romance in games, but I just hate that people (COG forum and HG subreddit) keep saying if there's no romance they won't play a game. Obviously the authors are going to see that and even if they weren't going to add romance, they might still put romance in the game just to appease the fans. Or they might get discouraged and feel that no one will read their stuff since it doesn't have romance.

One time I tried searching for no romance IFs on interact-if's Tumblr and on Reddit. Barely anything had zero romance. Funny enough, my favourite games do have romance in them but they actually add to the story e.g the Relics series. Plus playing without the romance doesn't take anything away from the story. At the end, all I care about is the story. If I wanted to romance fictional men I'd play a dating sim.
One of my favourite Twine games, Eikas, is not what you would call a romance game, even thoigh there is romance in it. It's less about the ROs and more about the PC and how they're settling into their new life in the village. I don't think it has ever made the list of recommendations anywhere. Meanwhile a demo with only a prologue will do well because it has a list of ROs on its description page (and there's a Tumblr to answer inane asks about what the RO's shoe size is). It might be riddled with grammatical errors and plotholes as large as a giant's footprint, but all that can be forgiven because...ROs!

I dunno, it just seems really silly to me to not play a game because there's no romance. Why not play it for the story? If you want romance there are plenty of dating sims, and romance is not even a niche genre, so why do people act like finding romance is so scarce that it's a dealbreaker for them?

Excuse the rant, sometimes the topic of romance in IFs really grinds my gears.
 

seneya

Well-known member
Member
↓ Spoiler Dragon age Origins (I don't know how to put it as a Spoiler).
DA is a good example tho because while romance is there, it doesn't take over the game and it still works within the confines of the story (so an elf PC can't become queen with Alistair, if someone doesn't do the thing with Morrigan someone has to die, etc.). I think that when people say that "romance ruins story", they mean cases where: a) romance takes over everything else/derails the plot and/or b) romance causes characters to undergo sudden 180 degrees changes in character and motivation.
Because let's face it...
Romantic relationships are also part of human interactions, like a family relationship, a friend's relationship, an enemy's relationship, etc.
...most readers don't care about fictional friends or family nearly as much as about ROs, hence romance growing to overshadow everything else. Writing a story about X topic? No one cares! ROs!
And they help form possible plot points, scenes, situations, and much more.
They can also be constrainig.
- need to make ROs attractive
- need to make them sympathetic (not too many faults, no severe faults, glossing over faults...)
- might need to force interaction just for the sake of progressing relationship
- required to stay close to MC (difficulty with plots that require them to go away for a while), cannot exit the story even if it makes sense plot-wise
- Strangled With The Red String if, in the middle of the story, you realize there's no genuine interest/chemistry, but also cannot demote RO to non-RO
- general tendency to fall back on tropes and stereotypes cause it's what readers know and expect

That's just me playing Devil's advocate, mind you. Romance is great when it's done right, but a lot of authors don't take a story-based approach to it.
I liked Solas' romance in Inquisition specifically because I thought it was a good story, but man were the forums post-release in disarray
 
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