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hallo! welcome 2 my blog; well i dont really use this as a blog but more like a space to rant. so a journal? this is my place for ranting abt otoge and anime, talking about upcoming events in my mundane life, and talking abt my hyperfixations. meow!
good and bad mcs thursday, june 26, 2025 feeling: neutral

since playing variable barricade and code realize (and then amnesia..) i've realized like. god damn. we need more otoge with mcs that are actual characters and not just self inserts so im gonna write about that because why aren't there more otoge like that? i get that the mc is meant to be someone to project yourself onto but i feel like every otoge that has a mc that's soulless and stupid ends up being really shitty..

ok case in point is amnesia and dialovers.. i've played both but i didnt finish dialovers bc. i hated the gameplay a lot and the mc, too and it was also just so overly freaky (sidenote: why is dialovers so common as an entry to otomes???? like ik a lot of people who got into it in middle school which is just crazy because that game is essentially just an eroge).. moving on. both those games have really passive and unassertive mcs who kind of just roll with the punches and whos entire personality is based on how the player chooses to react to events; and most of the time, to get the good ending, you need to just accept whats happening and not fight back at all. the mcs have absolutely no personality and are just.. blank slates to self project onto which is fine i guess but i feel like that ends up making the story really bland. while otoge are dating sims, i personally view them more as interactable romance stories (i think i mentioned this in my last post)- like, there's a set plot and most of your choices are just about which of the li's you decide to date. i dont have an issue with games that arent like that, for example mobage, because the format doesnt really allow for linear stories. but i think that otoge that are one-off and not further updated (so most otoge released on steam, switch, vita etc) are a lot more enjoyable when they're a story first, a dating sim second.

when you look at games like variable barricade and code realize, the mcs are completely their own people. i bring these 2 games up in particular because of the differences in the personalities of the mcs; variable barricade's mc is incredibly headstrong, doesn't take shit from the li's, is assertive and can be outright rude (and this personality is written into the story- it's NOT a result of player choices). code:Realize's cardia, on the other hand, is passive and suffers with a lot of inner turmoil, and doesn't assert herself like vb's mc. but the two are still their own characters and not really someone you can self project on. :clap:

why does this work? well, i think it works because by allowing your mc to be a character and not just a blank slate (forgive how much i'm repeating words here im not that smart), the story is allowed to not confine itself to being shallow in an effort to allow the player to feel like they're really in it, and instead, the story can be deeper and more plot heavy and thus, more immersive. in code:Realize, cardia has a fully fleshed out backstory as well as an internal struggle that affects her day to day life, as well as having an internal monologue and her own character arc- that being her desire to see herself as human and overcome her belief of being a monster undeserving of love. while this is related heavily to the romance in the game, it's not something that is meant to just apply to every player if that makes sense? cardia also has her own character card that's visible throughout the game, which is something that many otoge don't have. she's clearly not meant to be a self insert, which leads to the story, as i said, being able to be more of a story that isnt fully dependent on the romance aspect of the otoge.

undoubtedly, though, the best example of this is vb; vb is, i think, the first otoge i've ever played with a mc that's FULLY VOICED :thumbsup: and also doesnt fit into the trope of submissive, clueless mc like most otoge. while code realize's mc being so fleshed out is also a product of the setting of the game (it's set in the 1800s, so it's not like you can relate to her in the first place), vb is set in modern-day and thus has the prerequisites to be a normal otoge. but the mc herself, as i mentioned, is headstrong and often acts without player input (the options you make in the game are dialogue-only, and only have to do with the li's), and, as well, often the right choices to make to get a "good ending" are actually choices that go more in line with the mc's personality than the player's. for example, in taiga's route, the final scene requires you to outright reject him in order to get a good ending.

anyways. i know that this is totally pointless and hard to follow i'm really not a good writer unless its for fanfiction but i still needed to put this out there. the lack of otoge with actual mc's and not just self-inserts is really killing me and makes it so hard for me to find actual good otoge with good storylines and plots and like UGH anyways. thanks for reading.