What is an immediate red flag for you guys?

[seneya]

and a third "friendly" option that's borderline just being rude

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of some CALIBRATIONS here???"

Bonus:

characters talking in therapy-speak.

"Your feelings are valid, now please put both halves of that man down."

 

[AwooChan]

God-Cursed.
Speaking of, games that suggest that instead of growing a spine and learning to face adversity, MC should surround themself by a harem group of people who protect them and do everything for them out of pity love. In other words, infantilization of MC.
Edit: Connected to that, characters talking in therapy-speak.

Hey man, if I had terminal god cancer I'd build myself a harem too!! Jokes aside though, the therapy speak and over emotional characters is pretty jarring especially in a medieval inspired fantasy setting

 

[miaomi]

i think this should be an enough incentive to reduce the number of ROs and provide sufficient variations for immersion points. because this just alludes to another red flag for me, which is the huge number of ROs that to some degree end up looking discouraging. like from the get go i know that i'm abt to be faced with caricatures in place of characters just to fulfill some check list, as well as choices that bleed into each other with how similar they are. also it also one of the reasons authors could give up.

I think the reasoning behind having so many ROs is to fit the preferences of a wide amount of readers. But I personally think all you need are 2-3 well written ROs. I mean, even just one RO written extremely well with a lot of variation in dialogue and dynamics would be amazing. I get the appeal behind romance in IFs but sometimes it feels like writers are using the setting/lore as pretext for the romance. Or you know, the story is really good but the romances feel tacked on. OR there are so many romances in the IF that the writer can't give them all enough care and you're able to tell which one is their favorite or they have the most inspiration for when writing. You're also able to tell which character they weren't really interested in writing due to how little content there is for them. So yeah, a lot of these issues could be fixed if ROs were limited in some capacity. I always anticipate that the ROs are going to be lackluster if the IF has more than like, 5-7 ROs. And even that amount is pushing it in my opinion. Often times it feels like a character was conceived by the author for the sole purpose of being romanced and with little thought to how they'll contribute to the overall plot.

 

[f8butterfly]

I am glad this seems to be uncommon but another red flag of mine I've just remembered is when authors create a romance-focused story and they've marketed their game as such but then come out and say that the best option to play in their game is to not romance anyone at all or to break up. I've noticed a few IFs and VNs that say this and I would prefer to not play a romance game if that is what they have to say about their game and its romances. Especially when they hide behind an excuse like saying friendships are just as valid. No one said they weren't. You're writing a romance game, that has nothing to do with your audiences opinion on friendships.

 

[685Zek]

when authors create a romance-focused story and they've marketed their game as such but then come out and say that the best option to play in their game is to not romance anyone at all or to break up.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever read and I'm glad I never came across this being argued in the wild. What's next, a racing game where the best way to play is DNF'ing out of every race?