Why is the MC in some games so "poorly dressed"

[TurtleLover]

I just thought of a weird thing I've seen in some Otome games, where the MC is dressed much more "plainly" than the other characters. It makes sense to have the characters be designed well, but it looks very odd if it's in a historical setting and the MC's outfit looks plain compared to the others. Is this just a thing I've noticed or does anyone else feel the same?

 

[tf_charge]

I just thought of a weird thing I've seen in some Otome games, where the MC is dressed much more "plainly" than the other characters. It makes sense to have the characters be designed well, but it looks very odd if it's in a historical setting and the MC's outfit looks plain compared to the others. Is this just a thing I've noticed or does anyone else feel the same?

I'd say in those cases it's often the devs leaning heavily into giving the self-insert role to the MC, since there's generally less things that would trigger self-inserters in a plain-looking outfit. You'll notice in games where the MC is given a lot of attention on making her their own person, she'll most likely have a more distinctive design and appearance.

Allowing the MC to be customizable would remediate this issue somewhat, but that's usually pretty hard and time-consuming to implement, especially in visual novels with many CGs.

 

[m000000]

Maybe it's because the romanceable characters are supposed to stand out more than the MC. People usually end up being way more interested in the love interests than the protagonist anyway.
And for players who like to self-insert, I feel like they'll start seeing the MC as just another character instead of "me." Would be nice if there was some kind of customization option, though.

 

[a4015]

Could it be because the developers thought players would have a hard time relating to the female lead if she were too glamorous? I like female leads who wear pretty clothes too, but I think there might be people who feel a disconnect from that. Of course, this is just my guess, so it might not be the case, but

 

[sylvenna]

Could you give some examples of MCs that you think are poorly dressed? I'm just curious

 

[bravelyflee]

I always assumed it was to make it easier for the artists to draw all the CGs. MC usually appears in CGs more than any other character, and the more complicated her outfit is the more time consuming it would be to draw.

 

[heartimpact]

yeah i think i have to agree with what a few other people said being the MC is plainly dressed in order to be more self-insertable. sometimes the MC doesn't even have a face like with so many other MCs you play as in galge games. as for customizable MCs, it'll most likely be a 3D game like Love and Deepspace to implement CG style shots, but even that game's mostly first person POV.