What do you think of female routes in otome games?

[Yashalun]

I'm talking about routes where, instead of a male lead, there's a female lead (of any kind). Examples include Pashet from Ozmafia, Vivaldi from Heart no Kuni no Alice, and Jaehee from Mystic Messenger.
I know there are very few, but honestly, I feel like the vast majority are boring and focus mostly on friendship—something that many otome games include without needing to create a special route for it. Plus, I just don't like female routes. When I know there's one like this, I prefer to skip everything to collect the CGs and finish the game that way.

 

[ninnikuryona]

im fine with them! that is, as long as they dont take up half of the overall number of love interests. and if there are two male lis and one female li or a similar ratio, its also kinda icky to me..
the entire premise of the otome genre is female mc and male lis anyway, so as long as the game follows that pattern, im cool. again, i love my girlies, and if theres a genuine "friendship" or even outright romance route, im allllll for it!! but if i feel the need to see some yuri, id rather boot up an actual yuri game.. or open a yuri manga!:D so im not gonna feel sad or disappointed over no yuri routes in otome^^

 

[fr4pp3cinn]

im fine with them! that is, as long as they dont take up half of the overall number of love interests.

I'm with you on that! I like female routes, as long as we get mostly male LIs in the game, so like 4 male LIs to one female route seems balanced to me (like London Detective Mysteria or Gekka Ryouran Romance).
I don't really like mixing up too much, it feels like the less labels we have for female-targeted stuff, the easier it is for companies to launch less stuff under the guise of "it's all female-targeted!" (like how merging shounen/shoujo manga just means less shoujo lol), but maybe that's just me

I'm really into yuri as well, so a bit of fanservice doesn't hurt lol (I do prefer if they're on the romantic side though...), but I do think it's nice seeing a MC get a more developed relationship with a female character, and seeing how they interact!

 

[ninnikuryona]

I don't really like mixing up too much, it feels like the less labels we have for female-targeted stuff, the easier it is for companies to launch less stuff under the guise of "it's all female-targeted!" (like how merging shounen/shoujo manga just means less shoujo lol), but maybe that's just me

I'm really into yuri as well, so a bit of fanservice doesn't hurt lol (I do prefer if they're on the romantic side though...), but I do think it's nice seeing a MC get a more developed relationship with a female character, and seeing how they interact!

omg yes! labels merging/mixing/removal always hurts female-oriented media first and foremost lol, we already have examples with shoujo manga being completely sidelined and the g******i stuff thats somehow still going on.. and its getting worse!!!!!!

and yeeeaaa like i have my fair share of female npcs that i would LOVE to see in romantic/friendly/more involved situations, but im just not sure if it would work in otome most of the time, since a lot of otome games tend to treat yuri routes as fanservice, just like you mentioned;; and im not the biggest fan of being blueballed! (or whats the feminine analog.. blueovaried?)
it would be awesome if there were more yuri visual novels, and not just western ones;-; though i am obviously happy that there are so many yuri releases on the en side^^

 

[Gyte]

I get what you mean, otome games are usually focused on female MC x male LI, so I understand why female routes can feel out of place or less interesting
But as someone who plays otome, BL, and yuri, I actually enjoy them. I like seeing different dynamics, and they can feel refreshing to me.
I also feel like "otome" has become a bit more flexible over time(like shoujo), even if not everyone agrees with that , and that's fine. In the end, everyone enjoys games differently, it's all just entertainment.
For me, the issue isn't their existence, but how they're written ;(

 

[luvsubaru]

i don't usually play female routes, but i've played before priya's routes in my candy love since it's a game that i really like and they were good routes!!

Spoiler

and their wedding cg is my second favorite of all the wedding cgs in the game. i remember people online saying it wasn't a good choice for the mc and priya to wear the same damn dress to get married, but i thought it was very cute, they're matching!!

 

[fr4pp3cinn]

and yeeeaaa like i have my fair share of female npcs that i would LOVE to see in romantic/friendly/more involved situations, but im just not sure if it would work in otome most of the time, since a lot of otome games tend to treat yuri routes as fanservice, just like you mentioned;; and im not the biggest fan of being blueballed! (or whats the feminine analog.. blueovaried?)
it would be awesome if there were more yuri visual novels, and not just western ones;-; though i am obviously happy that there are so many yuri releases on the en side^^

Yeah, the thing I like about actual romantic female routes in otoge is how the relationship is written from a female POV!
There's some nice yuri VNs in Japanese, but they come out mostly of the indie side... actual commercial yuri is very male-targeted (and most localizations are for that market). The western yuri VNs are really doing amazing stuff, but I'd love to see Japanese yuri VNs with female writers too :(

 

[Karoliuxx]

I am not into women so if it is a romantic route i just skip it, if it is a friendship route like Jaehee i will try reading it.

 

[AmnesiaArya]

In some games, the writing in female routes is such that if you swapped the gender to male, the story would still progress exactly the same way (I'm calling out the Chinese game The 月华辉映之刻 here). These female routes are probably added just to give the player that "total heartthrob" experience where everyone is in love with them. I don't necessarily find it unacceptable, but I'd much prefer it if the script could capture genuine Yuri/GL feelings, rather than just recycling a standard BG (Boy/Girl) plot and slapping it onto a female character.

 

[ninnikuryona]

The western yuri VNs are really doing amazing stuff, but I'd love to see Japanese yuri VNs with female writers too :(

true!! its sad that all we have for popular yuri is the sono hanabira series, and theyre mostly produced by men haha;;
im not even sure on how many commercial yuri vns are written by women.. apparently the "flowers" series has some female sub-writers though, which is nice!
and there are also oshirabu and lip trip, which are written by a woman, and the latter is illustrated by an established yuri author! and theyre relatively fresh too! so maybe there will be a rise of yuri someday.....!
(though most yuri im seeing nowadays are from the cn devs)

 

[dzccc]

以下內容由機器翻譯：

看太多愛情劇有時會覺得無聊。

我喜歡有友情元素的電視劇。

例如，《光榮的榮耀》中泰的角色就刻畫得非常好──一個驕傲而冷漠的好朋友！

 

[Nihilistic]

As a pansexual person I enjoy all romances and honestly I find female LI's in Otome centric games to be refreshing and usually written well as I predominantly love character relationships growing than just smut that a lot of yuri centric games seem to push.

 

[sdmjssvkfd]

i'm not into women but i'm someone who enjoys otome, BL, and yuri since i just love romance stories of all kinds. i don't mind female routes at all but sometimes i think they aren't super well written which can be disappointing. sometimes it feels like just a reskinned BG route and at that point i'd rather they just have not included the route at all as i'd rather play or read yuri/GL that doesn't feel the exact same as a BG route but just with two girls.

 

[Cove]

I'm okay with one, but if it's half the cast I feel like its just a romance visual novel that's just using the Otome Tag for better discovery. Which sadly, a lot of people do.

 

[dreamilyshoujo]

I honestly don't care about those routes. If I wanted some yuri I would play some yuri game XD

 

[LapisWhale]

I don't mind it. If the rest of the game is well written, then I may want to read it, but I usually just skip =))) Also, I don't like too much mixing. There is a label called 'Dating Sim' if they want to include Girllove or even Boylove. After all, Otome means a female MC and male LIs.

 

[AlexaC]

I don't mind them, as long as there are routes with male LI. If I really like the game's art, I'll probably do a speedrun of the route to get the CGs.

 

[Dodo141]

I don't really care about it I'll just skip it

 

[Arisara]

Only one female route i played was Mason from Hustle Cat. I though she is boy at first hah But usually i skip female routes.

 

[MissMochi]

I honestly don't mind having a female route in the otome game but I agree with Ninnikuryona that I wouldn't want them to take up half of the love interests. I think it would be a neat little thing if we could romance a female best friend that's trying to be a wingman for us (like how I wish we could of romanced Claris from Cupid Parasite).

 

[NoveiaVonGeorgia]

I skip usually, I've not had a female pairing in otome game that piques my interest. Supportive female casts are for me makes me feel supported but not in a romantic aspect. Either they be a lovable mother figure, a sister figure or a best friend but never a lover.

 

[甘味鎮痛剤]

I don't mind heroine/female routes at all, but from the games I've played so far, those routes are almost always friendship-based rather than romantic. I'm not really looking for romance with them either — I'd just like the storyline to focus on becoming good friends with them, working together, or living alongside them.

 

[koten]

I don't really mind them but they're usually just friendship based and I feel like we can just develop our friendships during the main routes anyways.

 

[kotohabaki]

I have this funny thing where I don't care about some yuri routes that are implemented in some games but I would WISH there's a yuri route for games that DON'T have it lol

Either way, I think they're fine. At worst they're simply forgettable XD;;

 

[めいこ]

I don't think there's a problem. After all, in otome games, the protagonist is a female, so the characters that can be pursued shouldn't be limited to males. Rather, I hope more games can include female characters that can be pursued. However, most of them end up as friendship routes. Actually, I don't mind if it develops into a love story with the female characters that can be pursued.