Your Views on "Love Blooming in the common route and the True Heroines"

[N_G]

I have been into VNs for an year or so and I've found that quite a few VNs have a True Heroine around whom most of the common route or even the whole VN revolves. Also, the VNs with heroines already in love with the mc in the common route.

Personally, I have found many of them(the ones I've read) very irritating. Taking an example of Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai which made me think about this topic. The main heroine is way too innocent and her love for the mc and being jealous in the common route can be excused as comedy but these tropes can be very irritating if one doesn't like the main heroine very much(I didn't).

Also, when we have such type of scenarios the mc automatically becomes dense as a brick and his thinking ability becomes that of a 10 year old, always following the "main heroine", which was more or less what happens in the above novel.

Now taking another example, Hoshimemo which could have been my best read, was literally spoilt by the Red head Asuho whose behavior in "any" route screamed that she's in love. I found it very annoying, as apart from giving hints every time she was on screen she didn't really have a personality and would always get on my nerves. I hated her so much that I would skip any scene revolving her even if it was important to the story.

Other stories like Chrono Clock, Happymaher which had the love struck Immoutos really make the overall experience unenjoyable for me at least.

I'm currently reading PE and again this is looking an apt example to the title. 

What are your views on this? And how do you handle such elements?

 

 

[adamstan]

I'd like just to chime in about Princess Evangile. While it's true that some heroines have a backstory involving the MC, and it may seem that the common route pushes us towards Rise and/or Chiho, I think there isn't "main heroine" in this VN - all routes are ~equal. (And I liked them all, to the extent of rereading PE recently )

As for the topic itself - it doesn't bother me. I havent read the VN where I'd dislike one heroine so much that it would spoil the game for me yet - I even liked Chisato from KoiChoco, who would also fit this topic

Edited May 26, 2019 by adamstan

[nihilloligasan]

The presence of a "true heroine" always seemed odd to me. Isn't the point of a game with multiple heroines to let the player have preferences and make their own choices? Doesn't it make the other options less valid? If so, what's the point of including them in the first place? Why not make the entire game about the so-called "true heroine"?

[Stormwolf]

22 minutes ago, nihilloligasan said:

The presence of a "true heroine" always seemed odd to me. Isn't the point of a game with multiple heroines to let the player have preferences and make their own choices? Doesn't it make the other options less valid? If so, what's the point of including them in the first place? Why not make the entire game about the so-called "true heroine"?

Yeah i agree, it's plenty weird. It can say whatever it want about not having a true heroine, but when when the game focuses on one heroine so much more than the others then you're going to sit with a feeling of her being the intended girl all along.

But this in itself is not the worst thing in the world. But when they do it, they better be damn sure the heroine which the vn focuses on is the best one of the lot. Quite a lot fail at this. KoiChoco is one such offender, as Adamstan mentioned. Chisato is one unlikable cunt. If the main heroine is unlikable then that to me is like a normal ending being better than the true ending, which obviously renders the vn absolute garbage. Naturally i can enjoy the other routes, but the vn as a whole will leave a bad taste when i'm done.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Stormwolf

[Okarin]

18 hours ago, nihilloligasan said:

The presence of a "true heroine" always seemed odd to me. Isn't the point of a game with multiple heroines to let the player have preferences and make their own choices? Doesn't it make the other options less valid? If so, what's the point of including them in the first place? Why not make the entire game about the so-called "true heroine"?

Depends, mostly on the story and themes of the novel. In Little Busters it makes all the sense Rin is the main, canon heroine, and the one who shares all of Riki's path. Other heroines are OK but in the end they're left aside. Likewise I haven't played Hatsuyuki Sakura, but I believe Sakura the heroine is "special" and is considered canon route.

I agree there are novels where the canon status is more blurry, especially in moege.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Okarin