Relationship problems in a romance visual novel

[Nekobiker]

The protagonist does not really care about Heroine C & D that much at the common route (no choice would ever make him change his mind, that is).

I understand the layout. It's quite pedagogical already, so the only thing you have to worry about is hinting which path the player has to take in order to get to heroine C and D respectively. Judging from your character summary, it should be pretty obvious already, so I don't think anyone will be confused.

There is a manga in this blog post about NTR where the protagonist and the 'stolen lover' is his little sister, and they're just siblings, nothing else. The post points this out:

However, the subculture has extended the meaning of netorare to include situations in which the protagonist is not actually in a relationship, much less married, but has a girl he is desperately infatuated with. He doesn't take steps to approach her, however, and watches powerlessly as some other guy seizes the opportunity. All examples of netorare I know of in loli manga are of this general form.

The only trolling I could sense in the story is if people just dislike the fact that a heroine goes out with any other guy aside from the protagonist. The route in itself, puts the protagonist on the position on whether he will remain friends with the heroine in her love life or he will just move on (to someone else).

You're right. My definition was outdated. Still, the key words here are "doesn't take steps to approach her". Give the player the ability to take those steps, and if they do, they get the heroine for themselves. If they were given by the author an opportunity to be proactive but didn't seize it, it's perfectly justified that someone else swoops in. The protagonist isn't given any means to take control of the situation and "watches powerlessly". The player is railroaded into this. I think that's what really rusters (normal) people's jimmies about netorare. Give the player a chance to seize the heroine, and if they don't take it, they only have themselves to blame.

If the heroine being "stolen" is a sister... I don't even understand. How can someone feel sexual jealousy because of their sister getting a date, unless the player and/or protagonist has a serious sister complex? But if I suspend my disbelief for a second, I can totally see the problem. The protagonist can't have the heroine for himself for obvious reasons, so he really has no choice but to watch helplessly... unless you give him the chance to sabotage their relationship, so that she's alone again (wow, that sounded pretty evil). If the game is open to incest, then there's nothing stopping the author from letting the protagonist seize her as he would any other heroine.

Also, a non-pursued or a dumped heroine going out with someone else is perfectly fine, realistic and must be used more. I'm sure you've noticed that even in non-harem eroge, the heroines not pursued by the player will often find themselves suspended total romantic vacuum. The protagonist isn't interested in her, and she's not interested in the protagonist. Despite this, the heroine will show absolutely no interest in getting a boyfriend, and no guy will ever approach her. She's just left there, sitting around and waiting for the player to pick her in the next playthrough. I think the purpose of this norm is to create a feel that "dem bitches be all only mine, I just have to browse and choose at my leisure". The male audience takes this for granted, and will get upset if any author deviates from the axiom. I really don't like this attitude.

Another interesting topic here are friendship endings: nonromantic endings that are still centered on a specific heroine. Since there's no romance between the protagonist and the heroine, there's nothing stopping the heroine from getting a different guy for a boyfriend. Still would still fall into the wide definition of NTR, but I think it depends on how you handle it. Like any fetish does with their element, netorare takes cuckolding (or pseudo-cuckolding in this case) and bring it to the forefront of the whole story. This may be helped by handling the heroine-NPC relationship more subtly, i.e. be less in-your-face about it.

I did not say anything about the two (romance and happiness) being mutually exclusive. There can be endings which are about, 'We'll be together forever, blah blah' but some are about, 'We might become lovers, but not now.' The latter might count as a troll ending. Given that the 'romance' is not the only central theme, I dunno... @_@

The thing is, even though you promised romance, you only need to give one genuinely romantic ending for each heroine. After you've satisfied that rule, you can have as many additional ones as you want and make them as trollish as you want.

By the way, I've enjoyed reading your blogs, and I like your ideas. I look forward them coming to fruition. I don't often see other girls who prefer eroges over otomes