Talks about otome games, drama cds, and occasionally provides advice? Running away endlessly from my backlog of hobbies.

Ilinox

My response would be "What do you think the story of Love and Deepspace is about? Removing all the bells and whistles, what do you think is the core of the story?" IT'S ABOUT THE FUCKING INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE PLAYER CHARACTER AND THE MEN (pun intended)! The story is about a woman basically being the center of everything and the men whose lives revolve around her.

I don't believe the majority of people know what they want, understand what's practical, or even comprehend the design of a game. A game needs an identity, a core that everything else serves and Love and Deepspace still has one despite how much I criticize them for sucking at it. You cannot have a game that's a perfect 50:50 on the elements people want because now the game has no identity.

The reason heavy gameplay games (rolling my eyes at this description) end up having "romance on the side" if they have that option is because romance can only be at the side since their identity is placed on something else the gameplay serves. It's precisely why Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail has those character dates and interactions but it's on the side and they don't go deeper into it, because their game design is not on developing romantic interpersonal relationships.

Open world and realistic graphics have decimated people's brains, and it's even worse now that AI makes it more "accessible" for everyone to literally generate slop. Most of these people seem to lack an understanding of just how much intention matters in terms of story, design, and everything in the creative world.

Like you said, Tears of Themis is doing exactly what it says it's going to do on its package. It's a slightly futuristic realism setting about a group of characters who are the epitome of justice and who uphold that justice, so if people are wanting fantasy, science fiction, or the men to show rancid yandere sides then they're in the wrong place. The intrigue and lore comment pisses me off too because the people who claim Love and Deepspace have that don't realize that Love and Deepspace's writing is shit and they're just deluding themselves into trying to put pieces together for the game's writers. 1.5 years later and still no coherent timeline can be put together without headcanons and guesses, don't make me laugh.

It's most definitely some form of internalized misogyny and I think it was apparent when LaDS produced all those "not like other heroines" tweets that tossed the rest of the otome game community under the bus. It's also because of this internalized misogyny that I continue to laugh out of anger at all the queer discourse about otome games because otome games are still working on dismantling internalized misogyny and Asian feminism is not Western feminism, so these people need to sit their asses down instead of talking over "gross cishet women".

My response would be "What do you think the story of Love and Deepspace is about? Removing all the bells and whistles, what do you think is the core of the story?" IT'S ABOUT THE FUCKING INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE PLAYER CHARACTER AND THE MEN (pun intended)! The story 

 about a woman basically being the center of everything and the men whose lives revolve around her.

I don't believe the majority of people know what they want, understand what's practical, or even comprehend the design of a game. A game needs an identity, a core that everything else serves and Love and Deepspace still has one despite how much I criticize them for sucking at it. You cannot have a game that's a perfect 50:50 on the elements people want because now the game has no identity.

The reason heavy gameplay games (rolling my eyes at this description) end up having "romance on the side" if they have that option is because romance can only be at the side since their identity is placed on something else the gameplay serves. It's precisely why Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail has those character dates and interactions but it's on the side and they don't go deeper into it, because their game design is not on developing romantic interpersonal relationships.

Open world and realistic graphics have decimated people's brains, and it's even worse now that AI makes it more "accessible" for everyone to literally generate slop. Most of these people seem to lack an understanding of just how much intention matters in terms of story, design, and everything in the creative world.

Like you said, Tears of Themis is doing exactly what it says it's going to do on its package. It's a slightly futuristic realism setting about a group of characters who are the epitome of justice and who uphold that justice, so if people are wanting fantasy, science fiction, or the men to show rancid yandere sides then they're in the wrong place. The intrigue and lore comment pisses me off too because the people who claim Love and Deepspace have that don't realize that Love and Deepspace's writing is shit and they're just deluding themselves into trying to put pieces together for the game's writers. 1.5 years later and still no coherent timeline can be put together without headcanons and guesses, don't make me laugh.

It's most definitely some form of internalized misogyny and I think it was apparent when LaDS produced all those "not like other heroines" tweets that tossed the rest of the otome game community under the bus. It's also because of this internalized misogyny that I continue to laugh out of anger at all the queer discourse about otome games because otome games are still working on dismantling internalized misogyny and Asian feminism is not Western feminism, so these people need to sit their asses down instead of talking over "gross cishet women".

how do you feel about somebody asking for a "lads that focuses less on player-romance and more on gameplay, with a similar focus on story"? isn't that just a genshin but focus on men?

Person above is a Hoyoverse player btw, and dismisses Themis as a throwaway title with "a negative budget, no intrigue, no lore, too modern-day, no fantasy (e.g dragons/mermaids), no past lives, no alternate timelines." Bet you can't tell what game they're referencing as the model. 

I genuinely can’t stand how people dismiss Themis for its gameplay (or LBC, or MLQC, or any other 2D otoge) when, at the end of the day, it’s par for the genre. It’s a visual novel. Of course the “gameplay” is limited—you’re supposed to be there for the story, the characters, the emotional arcs. That’s the whole point. If you don’t like the writing? Totally fair. Trash it. God knows I could list a dozen flaws myself. But you (or any REASONABLE person) don’t go into a VN expecting hack-and-slash mechanics or open-world exploration. The gameplay is minimal on purpose. If you’re dismissing it because it doesn’t have combat systems or triple-A production values, and calling it a “negative budget” game for doing exactly what it’s supposed to do, then yeah—fuck you. Themis was never trying to be Genshin in the first place. The genre illiteracy is real smh. I wish I was as eloquent as you are when making points because I know my temper so I didn't bother replying. 

They don't actually want to prop up women in the gaming sphere, way too many not-like-other-girls with superiority/inferiority complexes in both Hoyo/PG spaces. If you want Genshin-but-men, that’s fine. Say that. Ask for it. But don’t pretend otome games are somehow lesser just because they don’t do what ARPGs do. Just throwing other women under the bus. fucking lol. Too many of these ppl want validation for liking “real games” while still thirsting over pretty 2D men—but they’ll bend over backward to distance themselves from anything labeled otome or romance-heavy. I want to call it some form of internalized misogyny tbh. Hetero romance is cringe, so fuck the firefly/castorice/ayaka/whatever girl hoyo is peddling in HSR/Genshin fanservice but also omg Phainon is so cool, aww Xiao x Traveler is peak. Ew Castorice phone call, cringe loser behavior aiming at incels -> aww, Phainon is showing you around his hometown. Crazy ass double standard. 

Ilinox

Adding on-to the vent posts TvT