What are your least favorite routes?

[Pastels]

This might be a hot take but... I tend to avoid childhood friend routes. Sorry to everyone who likes that trope, but I feel that they can be really repetitive. If I read one childhood friends-to-lovers route, I've read all of them. Also, routes that include LIs that seem nice in other routes, but in their own routes, turn into major red flags.

 

[kamilya5]

Tomonari takamura from Kimi wa Yukima ni Koinegau

 

[Beannie]

kazuma from lover pretend :( he felt really annoying to me, and how he handled things just made me want to punch him too LMAOOO also the amnesia trope was not really my cup of tea

Kazuma is my favourite LoverPretend LI, haha,but I can totally see your point.

Agree on the amnesia thing tho. Feels a bit like a easy solution for lazy writing ><

 

[Ted]

Seiya from RIP 9. I love this guy, but I was eager to finish his route soon

 

[Somniari]

Seiya from RIP 9. I love this guy, but I was eager to finish his route soon

it's funny how there's this type of characters that is really adorable as a character, but you wouldn't want them as a partner

 

[orionsbestie]

Yang's in Piofiore Fated Memories (1926 is a whole different topic, loved that one to bits. loved that whole game tbh). I felt like smacking him over the head, rolling my eyes and spent the whole route hitting my pillow out of stress. Immersion wise I was terrified (and that's a good thing! The route had great ideas and the atmosphere was>>>>) but...

I think Yang is pretty cool as a character but his route was... underwhelming to me. I liked the action and all, but it didn't get me into his head enough and his lack of actual care for the MC made me feel like he never evolved or developed, like he remained static while literally everything else in the route was fast-paced and changing constantly.
Also the whole MC having that "Well at least he admits it!!!" to the Falzone and Visconti got me ???? Lili, my baby, my sweet summer child, my other self, my sister, my heroine of the day, you're supposed to be your smartest self in this route and that is n o t the redeeming quality you're trying to make it out to be orz. I could also just be too much of a Dante girl to get it, I lowkey think that Dante fans are Yang's (the character's) natural enemies /j

Also Henri's ending in Fated Memories. You could not pay me to believe my MC fell in love with this guy she's talked to a handful of times and not only ran into a building in fire for him but also threw away her whole life to run away with him in the span of... little under three months. This is what pushed my final Fated Memories ranking to be: Dante = Nicola > Orlok > Gilbert > Finale >>> Yang >>>>>>> Henri. Again, I could just be too much of a Dante girl to get it.

Also Cupid Parasite's Allan. I think it's an unpopular opinion but I really hated it. Even before the route started, his CGs made me very uncomfortable. Particularly that kabedon scene in the common route, he felt so aggressive and for the first time made me actually feel like *I* was being harassed and took me out of the rest of the light hearted comedic tone of everything else, including the comments of other characters in that scene. It felt very jarring... Then later we spend the whole game reading the MC every now and again mentioning Cupid and Psyche, only for this route to seem to be going in that direction and then turns out they're angels!! two halfs of a whole!! and the only foreshadowing of this was a couple mugs in one throwaway scene! And don't make me even mention the timeskip amnesia plotline because that was also jarring and *dumb*. Haven't been able to pick it up again to finish the secret route after that disappointing run.

 

[mistysea]

Kazuma's and Eiichirou's routes in Lover Pretend. The start of Kazuma's route was fine- but then part way in it just became a massive mess. Went from thinking of the guy as a dorky puppy to not being able to stand the sight of him lmao
As for Eiichirou....ugh everything from the man himself to his route was an absolute disaster

 

[chiorins]

i don't like anything related to playboy character route or MC enduring all the abuse with stockholm syndrome

 

[pinkpinkatron]

Madarame's route from Slow Damage, it's just terrible in every aspect.

 

[okita-so-go]

This is the Shed route of "Puss in Boots."
I don't dislike it, but it wasn't a satisfying ending.

 

[sylvenna]

I'm usually okay with age-gap romance, but I did not enjoy Benkei's route (Birushana).

I think it's got something to do with him acting too much like a father figure and a devoted vassal. I just can't see him in a romantic light with Shana at all.

 

[sylvenna]

Kazuma's and Eiichirou's routes in Lover Pretend. The start of Kazuma's route was fine- but then part way in it just became a massive mess. Went from thinking of the guy as a dorky puppy to not being able to stand the sight of him lmao
As for Eiichirou....ugh everything from the man himself to his route was an absolute disaster

I also dropped Kazuma's right away when *that* happened. It was such a shame because I love Furukawa Makoto.
Why did the writer have to go there?

 

[yukari13]

Shiki from Togainu no Chi - the man has nothing going for him outside of his sex drive. Also there's no actual plot besides constant sex and mindbreak. Doesn't help his role in other routes is minimal at best and despite having strong ties with two other LIs.

True End in sweet pool - the game only has one LI all none of his endings outside of red river were interesting. The game failed to make him interesting and Youji lowkey has more chemistry with Zenya and Makoto(neither of them have romantic endings).

Madarame from Slow Damage - N+C tried to recapture Shiki's vibes and did a bad job. Somehow this guy is even less relevant and could've been removed from the game entirely.

Kouichi and Maki from NO THANK YOU! - I usually like older LI and don't mind if they're morally grey, but both of those routes were boring. Both of them had no chemistry with MC and sex scenes were very forced, uncomfortable and repetitive.

Ango from Lkyt - somewhat similar problems to previous examples, but he was an interesting character at least. Too bad he kept mentioning

Spoiler

his dead wife

in the most inappropriate times.

Matsuda and Takara from Paradise - I enjoyed how both of those routes started, but after LIs did 180 on MC I couldn't help but sigh. Takara's route was supposed to be the True End, but it left me with more questions than answers.

Naruomi from Nie no Machi - the game's writing is overall not perfect, but the nosedive with this route was obvious. His personality was also strange and not explained properly. His fandisk route was even more unenjoyable.

 

[Foxfire]

Ikki from Amnesia.
Naruomi from Nie no Machi.

 

[Ted]

it's funny how there's this type of characters that is really adorable as a character, but you wouldn't want them as a partner

Right?
Although in my case I would definitely date him lmao, but I didn't really fall in love with the way their romance develop in his route. Like... I was expecting something more? Idk

 

[potatochips]

Usually not a fan of Ore-sama, narcisstic types.

Also childhood friend tropes are usually not my favorite.
It's usually an instant minus for me BUT sometimes I'm good with it if it's done right/ if there's an interesting spin.

I usually like funny comedic characters so I went into Nagakura's Route in Hakuoki thinking it was gonna be fun (It was very boring ).

I also did not like Madarame in Slow damage, I had to skip through that one ...

 

[mizumachi]

goemon from tengoku struggle, his route just unfortunately super dragged on for me and i didn't care or like the central conflict. also yuri from nameless, i really dislike any routes where the heroine feels like she HAS to change herself for the love interest

 

[freidynes]

recently, yori from illusion of itehari. it just became funny to me later on bc of how unlikable he is imo.

 

[甘味鎮痛剤]

Speaking of the Musashibou Benkei route in Birushana Senki ~Genpei Hika Musou~... I felt the emotional shifts were really abrupt. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of his character design either.

 

[lylophy]

I'm also not a fan of childhood friends. This trope appears in almost every game, and it's incredibly tiresome, given how predictable and repetitive it is. Shungen from Birushana is the worst, he's overprotective and totally disrespect Shanao. Sakyua from Norn9. Gill from CupiPa. Hino from 7'scarlet.
I also don't like misunderstandings/misunderstandings and lover pretend trope. After I finished the common route in Cupid's Parasite and started Shelby's route, I was hit hard.
And I don't like manipulative guys, like Gretel from TaishoxAlice, Yori from Itehari

 

[Fornstrand]

I'll gladly jump on the childhood friend hate train and take this opportunity to complain about Keisuke from Togainu no Chi. He foolishly follows Akira even though he has zero fighting ability and quite predictably becomes a huge liability in what is practically a battle royale. He really has no good reason to participate in Igura. Keisuke is literally only there because of his unhealthy attachment to the MC and an alarming lack of common sense, and the worst part is that he doesn't get much more interesting than that, even when off the rails. To be honest, I generally think that Rin is the only good route in the whole game, but Keisuke just deserves this paragraph more than others.

 

[pepology]

Hokuto from Him, the Smile & Bloom… I just can't with him-

 

[Miwa333]

Benkei route from Birushana because compared to other LIs routes, his route is pretty underwhelming for me :')

 

[neroro]

Any childhood friend route will be the last few i would do (if i have to) or sometimes not at all. They're very predictable and repetitive.

 

[Nekosen]

Mink, Kuroba, any route in steam prison, Ozmafia itself