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Can the number of LI affect the quality of otome?

M

MarietaStay

New member
乙女
Aug 30, 2025
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Usually in otome there are consistently 4–5 LI, plus there might be a secret character. But there are otome like Hakuouki and Kamigami no Asobi that feature 7 or more LI. In Kamigami no Asobi, in my opinion, a large number of LI doesn't make otome better—quite the opposite, in fact. The LI themselves are a collection of archetypes and cliches, and for me, that's a downside because otome lacks uniqueness and the LI don't really grab my attention.

I believe that the number of LI does have an impact, and the more there are, the less attention the otome's creators pay to them and to the plot as a whole.
 
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id argue that kamigami no asobi was bad not because of number of lis, but because its a br*ccoli game LOL

to be able to keep a good balance between all lis' stories, your writers have to be like, REALLY good. as long as the writer knows what shes doing, i believe that even 20 love interests will feel like a breeze
on the other hand, the lesser number of lis doesnt automatically equal good story and/or romance. i heard that navigatore, despite having only one love interest and a beloved writer (nakayama satomi), has mostly mediocre reviews. same with l*ds, which couldnt even balance their existing four and then five lis before introducing a new one but thats a different topic

so ultimately i dont think the amount of lis impacts the quality of a game that much.. there are definitely other aspects to keep an eye on as well.. something like that
(i personally like being presented with a comical amount of men to fall in love with)
 
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Although I agree that most of the games with lesser LIs that I read have overall better writing but I feel it all comes down to writing in the end. Charade maniacs had better routes as well as bad routes but the game wouldn't have worked if there were less LIs. Same with norn9. So for all these plot heavy otomes I feel having more LIs fine at the end. Although I wish we had both quality and quantity.
 
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ninnikuryona said:
on the other hand, the lesser number of lis doesnt automatically equal good story and/or romance. i heard that navigatore, despite having only one love interest and a beloved writer (nakayama satomi), has mostly mediocre reviews. same with l*ds, which couldnt even balance their existing four and then five lis before introducing a new one but thats a different topic
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That's something surprising. I haven't played it yet, but I know it only has one LI and, I think, 17 endings in total.

I think it's partly about the number of LIs and how much room there is to explore all the themes involved in their stories, and partly about the writers' skills.

I have the idea that less is usually better because the writers can focus more on the characters instead of just giving us glimpses of them. However, it's true that some titles work perfectly with a larger cast.
 
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I think 5 or 6 LIs is the sweet spot because gives players variety to hopefully find one who their type but not being so much that the writing gets compromised. Otome with large casts can and have worked in the past but personally I feel like there have been more misses than hits.
 
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If the games length increases with each LI, then hypothetically, no. But if it doesn't, it ends up crunching for time, or doing LI fanservice in other LIs routes (distasteful)

You'd need a good writer to really get away with a lot of LIs anyway... Once you go past the five or six mark I think you need a strong common route /or/ multiple common routes to keep things cohesive, but I can't really say for certain. I've never played anything with an absurd amount of love interests.
 
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osanajimimi said:
I have the idea that less is usually better because the writers can focus more on the characters instead of just giving us glimpses of them. However, it's true that some titles work perfectly with a larger cast.
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ultimately i agree with that. for a game to have a good balance between a huge number of lis, the game must be long. not just long, but loooooooong. but then it creates an issue with the romance-plot balance, like for example distortedcode. a good vn with a great storyline, but despite only having four love interests, the romance was lacking, presumably because the story was the main point. same with jack jeanne -- people call it an otome with one of the best stories ever, but despite being at least 80h long, and despite having an okay number of love interests, many people thought the romance was lacking. on the other side of the spectrum, ive heard good thing about romance in sympathykiss, but the story is basically nonexistent there (allegedly)

ultimately i do still think otome should lean more into the romance aspect, since its a romance genre and all.. regardless of the number of available love interests and all. but even there, a good writing is needed for everyone, so that fans of certain characters werent left underwhelmed with their romance. or "romance" w
 
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If there are too many LIs and it's gacha games. The proportion of content needs to be balanced, and the gacha rotation too. So, the fans of one LI won't feel their fav LI is negelected by the company.
 
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I'm all for long stories with a small cast. Many LIs = less time for story and romance development. Many LIs should stay in gacha games, as they can endlessly add content there (untill the end of service).

ninnikuryona said:
same with jack jeanne -- people call it an otome with one of the best stories ever, but despite being at least 80h long, and despite having an okay number of love interests, many people thought the romance was lacking
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I see it every time and every time I'm baffled by it. Like yes, they didn't have 18+ scenes (they are minors, ofc they didn't), but have you seen the romantic tension and delicate relationship development? People don't need to be naked or indulge in deep kisses to be close to each other 😭 It's one of the most romantic games there is, in the most "otome" way possible and I'll stand on this hill till the day I die 😂
 
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I think the number of characters will affect it, but it depends on the screenwriter's skills and cost considerations:

Multi-role, multi-dubbing, increase the limited cost. The common route is long and the personal route is reduced. Hidden characters have less content (or directly become the ending of the truth)

For example, Koei Tecmo's 《Angelique"》and 《Harukanaru Toki no Naka de Series》two games: multiple male characters can be attacked at the same time, but their respective routes are not long and the endings are short. In addition, there is the friendship ending of the supporting actors.

As long as the script is good, I can accept it.
 
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satory said:
I see it every time and every time I'm baffled by it. Like yes, they didn't have 18+ scenes (they are minors, ofc they didn't), but have you seen the romantic tension and delicate relationship development? People don't need to be naked or indulge in deep kisses to be close to each other 😭 It's one of the most romantic games there is, in the most "otome" way possible and I'll stand on this hill till the day I die 😂
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your opinion is totally valid! as valid as opinions of those who believed the romance part was lacking. no one is saying anything about r18 scenes, since its obviously an aa title, but i wouldnt put it past br*ccoli to tone down actual romance in order to sell the game to more people. especially considering how they refused to label this game as otome at first
 
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Too many LIs can impact the development for sure, but less LIs doesn't necessarily mean better routes as well! It depends on the game's runtime and structure I think. Something like Hakuoki (routes divided between two games) or Norn9 (more than one MC) are the most common ways to deal with titles with a huge cast, but I'm always interested in new, creative ways to develop the relationships

For me, if the game is too short for the amount of LIs, I will worry about the common route; in my experience, it usually means the routes get a bit repetitive when bringing up the main plot. However it all depends on the writers experience and abilities!

On the other hand, some games may have three or less LIs, but still have weak routes of the writers aren't as careful. Sometimes with a single LIs the routes may suffer trying to balance romance and plot properly, if the writers either tone down the romance (believing that since it has one LI, players will naturally cozy up to him easily), or neglect the plot too much (so the game feels a bit disjointed). In the end, although the amount of LIs can impact the game, it certainly isn't a rule, nor the main drawback ;b
 
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I think it depends on whether the story supports it. In Hakuok, for instance, there are easily 12 LIs by now. I've played through the franchise a few times, and it works well without getting boring.

In the Starry Sky franchise, on the other hand, there are only three for each game, and their routes are quite short; I have to say that three love interests were absolutely sufficient there, and more wouldn't have done the games any good.

Norn9 handled it well too, featuring three heroines where each route introduces new story elements. It's the same deal with 9 R.I.P., thanks to the different arcs, it doesn't get boring, as each arc offers a fresh storyline.

In Homura: The Crimson Warriors, however, I felt five LIs was really too many, because the story revolves too heavily around the narrow scope of the Battle of Osaka Castle. I started losing interest after the third playthrough.
 
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it really depends on the type of otome game it is. tokimeki memorial girl's side for example is an otome game where i feel like to get the most out of it, you really need a huge array of love interests. but in general, i think the sweet spot is around 4-5, with MAYBE route 6 being either a secret character or a general truth/finale route.

saying that though, 9RIP is one of the more traditional, strictly visual novel otome that i think, for the most part, is able to juggle alot of lis well, but i think that's in part to the multiple common routes that focus on a specific pair with the routes themselves being short. blackish house as a duology has 8 lis too but imo the routes all being very long and fleshed out (and most importantly: written well) shows that it's possible to not sacrifice quality for more men
 
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I think it's more difficult to keep the balance if it's many LI (cough 9RIP cough)
Like there are more chances that some routes will be good and some are...ugh

(Blackish house has 8 LI and all routes are well written but it's rather exception)
 
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I think it affects the quality if it is not implemented into the game properly. But I liked Sympathy Kiss, so I think it's possible to make decent game with many LIs
 
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I think so.Because a story always needs to have a central theme.The identity of the LIs affects how closely they're connected to the core of the story.The more LIs there are, the more people are on the sidelines of the story.These people's story experiences often aren't satisfying, even though their personality is unique.Unless the overall worldview and the focus of the plot are different in each branch, with completely new settings every time.
 
In theory, I don't think the two are directly related. The quality of a game ultimately depends on the skill of the developers and writers. However, in reality, if the development time and resources are fixed, then it definitely has an impact. Having too many LIs usually means less time and care can be given to each route, resulting in shallower plots.
 
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