What are most shocking routes you’ve played?

[h4kusa]

I've been thinking about the routes that genuinely shocked me.

My first ever otome was DYNAMIC CHORD feat. Liar-S. I went for Seri first and it was... a lot. I can't say too much because of spoilers, but even though I knew he was "problematic," I didn't think it would be that serious for my first game!

More recently, I played Masato route in Moshi, Kono Sekai ni Kami-sama ga Iru to Suru Naraba. I knew that he is a dangerous brother type character, but my expectations were way lower than the reality. It's definitely one of those routes you don't forget easily.

Does anyone else have a route that they still haven't moved on from? Or one that went way further than you expected?

 

[a4015]

I played the Ozeru route in *BLACK WOLVES SAGA: Bloody Nightmare*. The voice actor's voice that played after the ending gave me chills.

 

[Marrychan]

I've recently been playing Piofiore, and I'm going in blind on the routes I'm entering and playing. My second route was Yang, and well... it's not that I didn't expect something like that from him, I got his bad ending right away, but heavens. I spent five minutes wondering why? It genuinely shocked me, I won't go into too much detail because of spoilers, but yeah, I'm the naive girl who always gets screwed over first.

 

[raspberyll]

There are three that stuck out to me most.

In Black Wolves Saga, that small section about Auger and Mejojo's mother when they both were younger made me gasp when I realized what was going on in that scene with the bookshelf.

Taisho x Alice Shirayuki, near the ending of his route also made me gasp. I didn't expect it... It's really hard to talk about it without spoiling his route but I think most people who have played his route will understand what part I'm talking about. It was just really unexpected and it still stands out to me for its shock value...!

I've also played Dynamic Chord's Seri route... I usually love those types of routes but his definitely a lot, I agree... I took a few breaks during his route because it was just... yeah. I don't want to spoil anything but it was definitely the hardest for me to sit through, even though I like to think that I have a high tolerance for those types of routes.

 

[Leviathan_01]

I've recently been playing Piofiore, and I'm going in blind on the routes I'm entering and playing. My second route was Yang, and well... it's not that I didn't expect something like that from him, I got his bad ending right away, but heavens. I spent five minutes wondering why? It genuinely shocked me, I won't go into too much detail because of spoilers, but yeah, I'm the naive girl who always gets screwed over first.

I think it's canonical to go through Yang's bad ending on the first try and come out both shocked and outraged when playing blind lol I felt the same way about already expecting something like that from him. The worst part of his route is that I was doing everything right, but because I rewound and made a certain choice, a CG appeared and I was happy thinking I had made the right choice, so I stayed until the end just to get a bad ending ಠ⁠,⁠_⁠｣⁠ಠ Everything was going so well, too well... it was obvious that something was wrong, but in my head this was the "I can fix him" route lol Another cool thing that I don't know if you noticed is

Spoiler

the flower in his status, which unlike the other LIs, instead of clear and colorful, has to be stained in Yang's to get his good ending. I think it's a nice touch, it gives the impression that there's no way to fix him, it's either accept him as he is or... be trolled by him in the end!

 

[Leviathan_01]

Yang totally caught me off guard with his bad ending lol But if we're talking about the first one that shocked me, then Toma from Amnesia Memories, that's a classic

Spoiler

I bet nobody predicted him being a freaking yandere (I, at the ripe old age of 14 when I played it for the first time, at least had no idea!)

 

[sariaflower]

Majima's route in Butterfly's Poison! I probably shouldn't have been surprised though considering all the obvious foreshadowing (that clearly went over my head) but it was shocking when I was first playing it through ◤(¬‿¬)◥

 

[censhu]

while noa got me in the feels more, sera definitely wins for most shocking in blackish house

 

[voIuvreles]

I vaguely remember Destiny's Princess Oda Nobunaga route being so wild like... I know his route is kinda problematic but I didn't expect the twists.

 

[Sacchie]

shuuen no virche definitely shocked me in terms of 'otome game' scenario.. I never expected otoge can be this dark yet beautiful? I did played Block wolves saga yeaaarrss ago, it is very dark but I didn't remember it being beautiful..
this seems dangerous cause I might start associate those darkness with beautifulness and Over Requiemz just setting another fire on me :')

 

[mistysea]

Another vote here for Toma's twist catching me off guard- even the mc in his route matching his freak once she got her memories back was something I didn't see coming lol
Also didn't expect the tonal shifts in the Cafe Enchante routes- that game was great at making you relax and think it was a fun lighthearted story, before suddenly doing a full 180 on you and trying to absolutely obliterate your heart
As for a twist I both didn't expect nor like well that would be Kazuma from Lover Pretend's personality switch up in his route. It's been ages since I played it but I STILL grimace every time I think about it

 

[abc135]

Some endings in Butterfly's Poison really shocked me. Poor Yuriko. Also pretty much all routes in Over Requiemz.

 

[woodypei]

Oh yeah Seri from Liar S def shocked me too. I knew something was gonna happen tho cuz my friend played his route first and got so traumatized by his route she dropped the game haha. Meanwhile I loved it

Most shocking route I can think of is Raoul from PersonA phantom of the opera (R18). I remember getting full body chills from his route at a realization…(love that feeling tho).

Recent shocking one is probably Himuka's route from Olympia Soiree sequel. I had a lot of theories on what was gonna happen but I was totally wrong!! Pro tip if you're gonna play this game, play extra content at the very end, cuz my friend got spoiled by the big reveal in this route cuz of reading extra content beforehand hand

 

[mizumachi]

seri's route brings back nightmares i remember i was stuck in a bad ending loop and it got to a point for me where i didn't want a "good" ending with this man LOL i did chiya's route before his, so going from a literal angel to him didn't help me in the slightest

also taisho x alice epliogue's prequel story route. its easily one of my favourite routes ever (even if it isn't a traditional otome route but i'm counting it). seeing how far yurika went for love was the first time i was geniunely kinda terrified of an otome heroine

 

[Cove]

I would say shocking but actually impressed? I guess you can say I was shockingly impressed by it lol.

Yang's Route on Piofiore, he is always described as a man where no one really knows what he's going to do, he is extremely unpredictable. I was so shocked to see that the higher you have his affinity you'd end up getting his bad end. I felt like it was very meta for the game to even have it implemented in their game mechanics. I wish more otome games do something similar like this.

 

[koko36]

Yangs route since i got the bad end first (x.x)

 

[Cove]

Yangs route since i got the bad end first (x.x)

Oh yeah, Yang's route as a whole (aside from my previous post) is such a shock. There's so many messed up things he does to MC in each bad endings and there's just SO MUCH!! But yeah shout out to all the Yang fangirls, they're a real one for sticking out with him after all the things he's done lolol.

 

[Marrychan]

Yangs route since i got the bad end first (x.x)

Another person who fell into the same trap on Yang route, don't worry, this is quite common. Me included.

 

[Harmonea]

I'll give a third nod to Toma from Amnesia. It was my second otome ever, and I had never even heard of his particular trope. A friend of mine was playing through the game at the same time as me, and we were picking different routes and giving each other non-spoilery reviews of the guys while we played. I got to him first and was just like "I can't even say anything, this is completely off the rails and can't even give hints about how, but I love it."

 

[restingpeach]

for me, it's Shigure's route in Yoshiwara Higanbana. Considering there's a clear play order that must be cleared to reach his good ending, i ofc got the bad end first when I aimed for him in my first playthrough. Let's just say it was very shocking to me, esp when I completed the game, I just realized that most of it has been spoiled in his route!!

Also Iseya's route from the same game. It's tame compared to Shigure's but there's a shocking point that made me question his gentleness throughout the game

 

[oikawahs]

Gretel from Taisho x Alice!! I knew that the routes in the game will be weird as hell but I was genuinely shocked (and amused) with his route. Although, I admit that I got scared LOL

 

[YummyYum]

Yang totally caught me off guard with his bad ending lol But if we're talking about the first one that shocked me, then Toma from Amnesia Memories, that's a classic

Spoiler

I bet nobody predicted him being a freaking yandere (I, at the ripe old age of 14 when I played it for the first time, at least had no idea!)

Toma for sure for me, too! I went in to his route all excited because I liked him the most design-wise and what I thought his archetype was, and I was kind of right on that, I just didn't expect the other part of his character. 13 year old me didn't even know it existed!

 

[Neko-kami]

Rain from Armen Noir

 

[failedwebsite]

Aoba's bad end with Virus & Trip. If you know, you know.

 

[Rbymprism]

In one of the few BL games I was able to play, one route had a zombie outbreak or something, and I was kinda shocked bc it was taking a steer into horror VN territory even though I expected some weirdness from the other work of the circle's lol.

Spoiler

Twas Patient S Remedy from Mada Labo, (in)famous for Hadaka Shitsuji.