Have you ever progressed through multiple LIs' routes at the same time?

[Neomii]

Have you ever progressed through two or more Love Interests' routes at the same time? (Route-hopping? if that's even a word)
For example, you start Li A's route, but before finishing it, you start Li B's route as well. So then you end up hopping between the two whenever you feel like it, rather than the usual focusing on a single LI's route from start to finish.

I just started a new otome game, and two of the Lis *reaaaalllly* caught my interest equally. I'm tempted to play both routes simultaneously but I'm hesitating due to a few factors. I'm worried it might make it harder to stay emotionally invested or remember specific plot details, or worse, I might mix up plot points between the two and ruin the experience for me.

So I'm curious, has anyone ever thought of playing like this? Maybe even actually go through with it? Or is it just me lol.

 

[Yashalun]

I've thought about this a few times—especially with the Diabolik Lovers games, since they're episodic; I considered playing Episode 1 with all the guys, then moving on to the next, and so on. But I feel the same way you do: I'm worried I'd lose the thread of the story. I have played two otome games simultaneously before, and I found that I ended up paying more attention to one than the other. By the time I finished one and tried to pick up where I left off with the second, I'd already forgotten details—it felt like the magic was lost. Since I lose interest when juggling two games, I figure the same thing would happen if I tried juggling two routes at once, which is why I haven't tried it.
But don't worry—that's just my experience; there are plenty of ways to play. I think some people have tried it that way and it works out perfectly for them—they end up enjoying every character's route—though you have to accept that spoilers are a possibility. If you're up for it, why not give it a try for a few hours or a little while? If you don't like the experience, you can always switch things up; if you do, you can just keep going that way.

 

[Lynettee]

What probably happened to me is that I was playing a route and it bored me so much I had to switch to another one—like with *Diabolik Lovers* and Laito's route. The same thing happened with *Mistonia* and Alfred's route; I switched to Linus's instead, then went back to finish Alfred's later, hahaha.

 

[Daisy Magnus229]

Tempted, but I never do it. My memory is the worst, so if I hopped to LI B's route, I'd forget what LI A's route even was, lmao. So, I always restrain myself. I was almost tempted to do it recently in Kimi ni Madoi tho lol

 

[koten]

I always feel like I have to complete a route with all the endings before I move on to the next one. I feel like if I hopped back and forth I'll end up getting a bit confused on what happened in each one.

 

[maya_chan1]

I haven't really tried progressing through multiple routes at once! I usually prefer to focus on one route at a time and get fully immersed in that character's story before moving on to the next one.

 

[はなび]

I've never thought to do this before in the same game. I feel like once I'm in a route, I'm locked into it until I finish it because even though I can save at any time, it still psychologically feels like I lose my progress if I reload to try another route before I finish my current one. It's like, in any given game, I just continue on with my latest save no matter what, because it feels like reloading to a previous one and doing something else that is completely different (if I'm not finished and still plan to continue my original save later) is blasphemous to me somehow?

However, this only applies when within one single game. I've taken breaks from routes to play other routes from different games before. I think because that is completely separate so I don't feel like I'm carrying on from the "wrong" save file? Although I also try not to do that because I want to stay focused on one thing at a time, so that I don't get confused and properly appreciate each story individually. Doing that would probably just be when I'm really bored and not enjoying the story.

 

[dogiwall]

I don't do it because I most likely can't handle it, I get confused by trying to read multiple fanfics at the same time so that same thing would likely apply to this scenario lol

I don't think it would make sense to do this narrative-wise either.

 

[satory]

A long time ago I used to read up to five books at the same time, and now I read books and also play games simultaneously If the route wasn't what I expected/wanted to read, I switch to something different. It can be anoter route in the same game, can be something completely different. Not very efficient, but hobby is not required to be efficient, as long as it's interesting.