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