A doubt about BL games coming from a noob who's never played one before!

[Leviathan_01]

As the title suggests, I've never even seen a BL game before, much less dared to play one. I think the closest I've ever come to something BL was watching Banana Fish, haha. On the other hand, I think I've played quite a few otome games, considering I've been playing them since I was 13-14 years old! Since I saw that there are people here who play BL games and I don't have any friends who play those types of games, I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about them. My doubt is whether there's much difference between BL games and otome games? I've always wondered if there's much difference in the narrative of BL games compared to otome games, and if the protagonists also have attitudes and personalities that aren't often found in the protagonists of otome games.

 

[Sir.Hikari-desu]

As the title suggests, I've never even seen a BL game before, much less dared to play one. I think the closest I've ever come to something BL was watching Banana Fish, haha. On the other hand, I think I've played quite a few otome games, considering I've been playing them since I was 13-14 years old! Since I saw that there are people here who play BL games and I don't have any friends who play those types of games, I thought it would be a good opportunity to learn more about them. My doubt is whether there's much difference between BL games and otome games? I've always wondered if there's much difference in the narrative of BL games compared to otome games, and if the protagonists also have attitudes and personalities that aren't often found in the protagonists of otome games.

well first of all i think if you play "cute or moe" story in otome i think bl is not what you are looking... for now if you wanna start with something cheese and little pervert go with gakuen heaven 2..... or the first one ( play the remixed version or the ps2 without the sex scenes ) i think you can even start with silver chaos (action and little gori) or maid hajimemashita (super chesse and funny)
you can start with those :3

 

[Wonted]

Most BL has very defined characters, not to say that they're all interesting but they are their own people, very rarely will you find someone you can pretend is a Mary Sue or could be a conduent for yourself. That and BL has a tendency to be explicit sexually, there are some that don't follow that, but they are more the exception than the rule. Some romance stories do have substance but a lot of them are tied by the physical relationship first and then the emotional one follows, so you can expect that as well. Honestly, I think that's about it, difference wise.

 

[testeeee]

Usually BL games are rated 18+ because of sexual content, and there's usually way more violent or disturbing stuff than in dating otome games. ALso, the protagonist is not a self insert but has his own story and personality. The choices in BLVNs are also to pick whose route you want to be in, and which ending youll get so its not a dating sim because you dont have to try to make the LI interested in the MC. You just watch the story unfolding, but you pick which story you go for

 

[Marrychan]

I think BL games has more freedom in terms of writing stories and characters, especially the protagonist. I personally like it a lot; the positive thing is that you can choose from lighter to more explicit content if you prefer, and there are MANY options. My first game in the genre was DRAMAtical Murder; I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner, but it's one of my favorites.

 

[Leviathan_01]

well first of all i think if you play "cute or moe" story in otome i think bl is not what you are looking... for now if you wanna start with something cheese and little pervert go with gakuen heaven 2..... or the first one ( play the remixed version or the ps2 without the sex scenes ) i think you can even start with silver chaos (action and little gori) or maid hajimemashita (super chesse and funny)
you can start with those :3

It's not like I specifically enjoy cute or moe games... I think because I've played a lot of otome games, I've gotten used to something lighter and more story-focused than something darker and more explicit. I think the closest I came to being explicit and dark was DL and Butterfly's Poison XD I like them, but I think among those types of games I prefer something more story-centered, like Hakuoki or Collar x Malice! But hey, I'm a huge fan of cheesy and funny things too, so I think I might end up giving Maid Hajimemashita a chance! I saw that it's available for PC, but unfortunately my laptop is a crap, I barely use it nowadays. Is it possible to play it on some kind of emulator or on Switch?

 

[Leviathan_01]

Usually BL games are rated 18+ because of sexual content, and there's usually way more violent or disturbing stuff than in dating otome games. ALso, the protagonist is not a self insert but has his own story and personality. The choices in BLVNs are also to pick whose route you want to be in, and which ending youll get so its not a dating sim because you dont have to try to make the LI interested in the MC. You just watch the story unfolding, but you pick which story you go for

So in BL games, the player can choose which route to take right away instead of making choices that lead to a specific route? There are no other choices besides choosing a route and an ending? It seems pretty straightforward! The protagonist having their own personality seems interesting, but if the plot always relies on sex, I might not like it very much... If I end up playing BL, I'd like to try something lighter, haha. I already feel awkward and embarrassed when something sexual happens in otome games, so I think my reaction would be the same in BL games, so for now I don't see myself playing something like that!

 

[Leviathan_01]

Most BL has very defined characters, not to say that they're all interesting but they are their own people, very rarely will you find someone you can pretend is a Mary Sue or could be a conduent for yourself. That and BL has a tendency to be explicit sexually, there are some that don't follow that, but they are more the exception than the rule. Some romance stories do have substance but a lot of them are tied by the physical relationship first and then the emotional one follows, so you can expect that as well. Honestly, I think that's about it, difference wise.

I don't self-insert when I'm playing otome games so a protagonist with a strong and striking personality already appeals to me a lot! But as for the tendency to focus on something sexual... Well, I feel a little detached from that! If I end up playing a BL game, I'd like to try the exceptions as my first experience with BL games, haha. Not that I don't like something explicit, but usually when a scene like that happens, I feel awkward and end up dropping it for a few days depending on the situation. Between something more focused on explicit content and something more emotional, I prefer the latter!

 

[Leviathan_01]

I think BL games has more freedom in terms of writing stories and characters, especially the protagonist. I personally like it a lot; the positive thing is that you can choose from lighter to more explicit content if you prefer, and there are MANY options. My first game in the genre was DRAMAtical Murder; I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner, but it's one of my favorites.

I always consider the plot first, so I think I might end up liking it. The people who answered seem to agree that BL protagonists have more personality, so I'm quite tempted and curious to try a BL game to meet good protagonists! But at the same time, I'm hesitant about the frequent use of more explicit scenes, since the other answers also said that it's something present in BL games. Aside from the fact that I feel quite embarrassed, I think if it's used frequently I might end up not liking it, since personally, I think it will impoverish the narrative. BTW, I think I saw Dramatical Murder somewhere a few years ago; the blue-haired character looks very familiar. I think maybe it was when I was searching for suspense anime or something like that XD

 

[testeeee]

So in BL games, the player can choose which route to take right away instead of making choices that lead to a specific route? There are no other choices besides choosing a route and an ending? It seems pretty straightforward! The protagonist having their own personality seems interesting, but if the plot always relies on sex, I might not like it very much... If I end up playing BL, I'd like to try something lighter, haha. I already feel awkward and embarrassed when something sexual happens in otome games, so I think my reaction would be the same in BL games, so for now I don't see myself playing something like that!

It's not that straifghtforward. Sometimes, to end up on a route, you just need to click on 1 choice but its not in a format like "ill chose X route" or "ill chose Y route", but something more like "agree/listen to Y" or "agree/listen to X", if you see what i mean. But also, sometimes you have a few small choices to pick in the common route, and once you reach the end of the common route the game will analyze for which character you picked the most answers. Like, if you picked 3 answers that are X leading but 5 that are Y leading, then youll end up in Y route. For the endings, its the same : either you have 1 choice to make, or several choices that will lead to one ending or another. Sometimes, theres also choices which matter more than others for both the route choice and the ending choice.
Sex is part of the plot, but it doesnt necessarily rely on that. I recently played a very long BL game in which sex scenes were indeed important for the story, but were like 1% of the route. Some BL games are very sex centered tho, with a lot of sex scenes. Also, you need to keep in mind that a lot of r18 BL games have scenes of noncon, which can vary in intensity/violence/coercion.
Also, for the most popular BL titles usually theres a PSP/switch version in which there is no sex. For example, there is for Dramatical Murder, Togainu no Chi, Luckydog1,... Maybe you can look for this if you want to play popular BL games without the hentai scenes. But also, you need to keep in mind that those titles were titles rated 18+ at the beginning, so the hentai scenes were meant to be part of the story. So, without them, you can feel that its lacking something and some character development is lost. For ex, i played the og r18 Luckydog1 one, and then i played the switch version later. The switch version didnt replace the hentai scenes with other scenes (or very rarely), but just deleted them. So there is less content, and sometimes it can lead in some misunderstandings character-wise.
SO if you want to play BL games but dont want sex scenes, you can either pick a BL game which isnt rated 18+, or you can play the non r18 version of an original r18 title. But if you pick the second option, id advise you to look online if the non r18 version is worth playing or not.

 

[Riou1]

So in BL games, the player can choose which route to take right away instead of making choices that lead to a specific route? There are no other choices besides choosing a route and an ending? It seems pretty straightforward! The protagonist having their own personality seems interesting, but if the plot always relies on sex, I might not like it very much... If I end up playing BL, I'd like to try something lighter, haha. I already feel awkward and embarrassed when something sexual happens in otome games, so I think my reaction would be the same in BL games, so for now I don't see myself playing something like that!

Ehh it depends on the VN, something like Dramatical Murder only has like 1 or 2 proper H scenes per route and that's the case for a lot of other BL VNs as well. Ironically the lighter BL VNs usually have more sex scenes in order to make up for the lack of plot compared to the darker ones.

 

[Riou1]

Also there's a difference between Western BL VNs and Japanese BL VNs.

Western BL VNs - Usually lighter slice of life plot, tends to have more sex scenes in general which are usually all consensual, even the bad endings usually aren't that bad (it's mostly just stuff like you break up with your LI).

Japanese BL VNs - Darker (but also usually more interesting) plot, fewer sex scenes usually but some routes have dub con or straight up rape, bad endings are also pretty bad (they have rape, death, gore, a lot of them just aren't for the weak of heart).

Personally as a vanilla person I usually do fine with Japanese BL VNs as long as I avoid the routes with non-con H scenes and also avoid all the bad endings, if you avoid these I think you can find BL VNs rather wholesome as a whole (but tbh I never played an Otome to know how big the difference is between an Otome route and even a rather relatively vanilla JP BL route).

 

[king犬]

For me, otome games focus on immersing oneself in the story, while BL games focus on following the characters' narratives. In BL games, R18 elements explicitly indicate love between two characters, while purer storylines feel more like friendship. I think the best thing about BL games is that most of them have voice acting for the main characters.

 

[Sayuuki]

I've played many japanese BL VNs, but I started with otome and I play otome to this day.
Most BL VNs are quite heavy on the plot, especially the ones favored by the fandom. They do get darker, sometimes much darker than otome, but there is actually a lot of otome out there that has stuff just as crazy as BL. In BL they dwell on it longer or make it a focus point, meanwhile in otome i've found it's usually bad end material or stuff that gets 'redeemed'.
Percentage-wise, the sex is usually no more than 20% of the game most of the time. Usually it's somewhere at 10-15%.

I personally prefer BL because the protagonist is always very well defined and they are voiced.