What Otome/BL game would you NEVER recommend? And why?

[甘味鎮痛剤]

Yeah, I agree — I feel the same way about DIABOLIK LOVERS.

The game just has way too narrow of an appeal. The boys are handsome, sure, but the way the heroine just puts up with everything really gets on my nerves.

 

[kaenyu]

This actually made me stop and think. Usually even if I don't like a game, I would still recommend it to other people depending on their taste in the plot and character designs.

For a game to fall into the list of never ever recommending ever, hmmmm I would say... Hadaka Shitsuji.

I know it's less of a story game and more of a porn game, that's exactly why I can't recommend it. You'd have to be into certain kinks (or at the very least, not into, but okay with seeing it) to digest the whole game, there's an overarching story but let's be real the porn takes the center. Plot seems to be added on for the sake of it.

I'm personally fine with seeing the sex scenes but I don't wanna gamble recommending it to other people. Even to friends I know well it'd still be a no.
Same goes for any other R18 game heavy on the porn content which I can't think of right now. The other R18 BL/Otome I've played has a plot that is somewhat acceptable.

 

[切羽詰まる]

i've been in the community for some time now and i've seen people agree to disagree over what they like, what they dislike, and how one man's trash can be another's treasure and vice versa, so i'd say, it depends first on what your preferences are, especially when it comes to your favorites or your hard-stops. our standards are varied and we have different limitations and likes anyway, so no matter how controversial it is, it's only a matter of how you like your games cooked. i.e., if you dislike anything with shallow world-building, or if the romance department is too short then it's a no-no, if you dislike yandere elements, if you like it seasoned with trash, if there's a specific vibe or setting you dislike, or tropes you're particularly weak to, etc.

 

[makancurry]

Hmm tricky questions, when recommending VNs i usually choose the most safe type of VNs from what i usually play....
I guess i would be lying if i said i never recommend mada labo BLVNs, but they are certaintly BLVNs that is hard for me to recommend to people...
Among 3 series that have been released (Hadaka, Kanja S, ChukiEro), It's hard for me to recommend Hadaka most cuz one route contains extreme stuff like forced beastiality... Kanja S and ChukiEro have some extreme stuff too but mostly it's more adjacent to ridiculous sadism wrapped as love, which still hard to recommend to general people but still recommendable to some (Kanja S being the easiest for me to recommend cuz i love the game too much to not reccomend it)

As for Otome i don't really have any games i won't recommend (i haven't played many otome to begin with), i honestly would still reccommend DiaLover to some people (though with more precaution) cuz honestly the Seiyuu and those sucking ASMR is worth it :)

 

[801_9ma]

While I will try gacha games, I can't in good faith recommend them, especially as someone who fell right into their predatory tricks when I was more impressionable. The format itself preys on FOMO, and the games are always at risk of being shut down if one day they don't perform well, meaning that virtually, if you pay in the game and the game never gets an offline version once the servers go down, your money has effectively gone down the drain.

As for more traditional games, I can't think of any, really. In general if I talk about anything I've played and people are interested, I will give content warnings so people can judge whether or not they want to try.

 

[mammonsfluffysheep]

Hmm... while I obviously play them, I could never recommend otome or bl gacha games due to the predatory marketing and microtransactions. There have been Otome Games and BL games I don't like but I don't think there's any I wouldn't recommend as it's all up to individual preference.

 

[ruuuiii]

I don't have a game that i hate, but i wouldn't recommend vampire knight on ds (half baked story that strays so much, although the art was nice), and diabolik lovers (i loved everything about it except the story and writing. I have no idea if the other games are like this too or not, but the first one was formatted in these short stories that felt more like fanfiction to me than an actual vn :( i just couldn't get into it)
And of course otome games on mobile, they usually use those impossible gem or ticket systems that take so long that it's better if you just abandon it and go play something else.

 

[maiholii]

i don't know why there are so many toxic BL games, but i wouldn't really recommend Hadaka Shitsuji, because the MC is so cruel, and if i'm not mistaken (it was a long time ago, i kinda forgot) we had to be cruel to get the good ending or something? not my cup of tea, but then again, i don't even know why i played that in the first place LOL.
The second one, is LKYT, this one is actually has a good story, good action scene, but the plotwist is plotwisting for me , and my poor heart can't handle it. so it's actually a recommedation from me if you wanna suffer, but if you expect a fluffy romance, then no it's just not what i expected, but it wasn't that bad.

 

[puinnai]

Definitely Ozmafia. It's the only otome game I have genuinely disliked. The plot is all over the place, the love interests are awful, the protagonist gets on my nerves, and basically we don't get to know about her memory loss neither she recovers it until you play the true ending. I played the entire game, but basically forcing myself to do so (I shouldn't have done that)

 

[Yashalun]

There are some really bad games that I've played and wouldn't recommend to anyone, but if I had to choose one, it would be Torikago no Marriage (18+). I don't know how to explain it without giving spoilers, but I'd say only one route was worth it for me (Tsukasa). The rest of the routes in that version were terrible, and I like red flag games, but I have my limits here.

 

[Leviathan_01]

As much as I like this game, I'm in the camp that wouldn't recommend Diabolik Lovers. The game already has a bad reputation because of the anime, but even setting that aside, I think the target audience is very specific. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to newcomers to otome games or to anyone who can't handle the guys' abusive behavior! Oh, and the Genius Inc. games, the ones on the Play Store. They are absolutely terrible

 

[yukari13]

Room no.9, simply because it doesn't feel like a BLVN.
Sure, there's gay sex, but the leads are forced to do it and they hate it. Why do those guys think gay sex is worse than a physical torture or amputation?
I only liked one of the bad ends where they actually started to be sexually attracted to each other. The true end was very corny and unconvincing.

Not to mention the plot is very bare bones. The premise was interesting, but never elaborated upon. It's supposed to share the same setting with NTY, but nothing was done with that either.

 

[ruuuiii]

Room no.9, simply because it doesn't feel like a BLVN.
Sure, there's gay sex, but the leads are forced to do it and they hate it. Why do those guys think gay sex is worse than a physical torture or amputation?
I only liked one of the bad ends where they actually started to be sexually attracted to each other. The true end was very corny and unconvincing.

Not to mention the plot is very bare bones. The premise was interesting, but never elaborated upon. It's supposed to share the same setting with NTY, but nothing was done with that either.

Aa, thank you so much for this!! I really like the trope where one/few characters get confined somewhere and have to play by the rules to get out; i thought this game might be interesting but i guess it's not something i can get into,,
It's such a shame, but at least the devs tried something new (?)
Are there anymore games like this i should watch out for?? :(

 

[goldhumer]

Not to mention the plot is very bare bones. The premise was interesting, but never elaborated upon. It's supposed to share the same setting with NTY, but nothing was done with that either.

I could have lived without a "true" romance if there had been more branching that dealt with the psychological aftermath of the different choices the characters made. It was an interesting idea that immediately appealed to my own twisted taste of angst, but it ultimately fell flat with its, as you put it, "bare bones" plot.

 

[powerpuppyghost]

Hadaka Shitsuji (I think the sequel just got an English release) has a sadist protagonist tag but imo it should be EVIL PROTAGONIST you literally get bad endings if you are too kind to the LIs. I stop playing after one route in which the MC did some horrible things and became really sadistic yet I still got the bad ending saying I was to kind lolllll.