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Mammon wrote:

Xandra wrote:I actually get really frustrated when I love a certain character and the protagonist dislikes them too strongly. xD I'm like, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU GIRL JUST FALL FOR HIM ALREADY. Very frustrating. To avoid this, I'd give the player the freedom to determine how the protagonist feels about each character as much as possible. That doesn't mean making the protagonist a bland, blank slate. It just means giving the player a set of options any time the protagonist runs the risk of becoming too opinionated one way or another without the player's say.

Yes, we wouldn't want the reader to get frustrated by the protagonist's opinion of a likeable guy/girl and thus elevate that character's likeablity even further. There's no way that such a method would make people argue even stronger for them to be best Waifu or anything *cough* Re:Zero *cough*.

I know it's a mean thing to do to an audience, but not giving them the respectable attitude they like is an effective way to make them care about a character even more and feel more accomplished when the protagonist finally pays attention to that character.

I think it depends on the reader, and also quite a bit on the writing itself. If it was in first or third person I probably wouldn't mind so much, but I'd it was in second I would be angry at the game telling me, "YOU feel this way." As a matter of fact, game, no I do not.

And while that does have a higher chance of making the love interest likeable ("Poor misunderstood baby!"), you run a significant risk of making your protagonist unlikable, which is killer. I can skip a route if I want, but I can't get away from a protagonist I don't like without putting the game down.

I think it depends on the reader, and also quite a bit on the writing itself. If it was in first or third person I probably wouldn't mind so much, but I'd it was in second I would be angry at the game telling me, "YOU feel this way." As a matter of fact, game, no I do not.

And while that does have a higher chance of making the love interest likeable ("Poor misunderstood baby!"), you run a significant risk of making your protagonist unlikable, which is killer. I can skip a route if I want, but I can't get away from a protagonist I don't like without putting the game down.

Took the words right out of my mouth. I agree it depends on the reader and how things are written, but the majority of the time this backfires and just makes me dislike the MC. That's not to say I think giving a character more crap than they deserve is a bad strategy for putting them in a more sympathetic light. It can certainly be effective, but in a dating sim it's risky to use the MC to accomplish this. I'd prefer to use a different character, like a member of the supporting cast.

Xandra wrote:I'd prefer to use a different character, like a member of the supporting cast.

^That's a very good point.

It's fine if the MC is naturally more abrasive - I like an MC with personality - but I want some redeeming qualities, too. And if MC's a jerk to my favorite LI for most of the VN, I'm gonna be pissed.

On the other hand, if some other character is a jerk to my favorite LI and MC puts a stop to it (for any reason, even if it might be a selfish one), that's sympathy points for the LI plus a more likable MC.

Meh, it works for me because my MCs are never truly likeable or a neutral slate for the reader to rely to. They are dislikeable in a very specific way that makes them bearable, and are very clearly their own person rather than a conduit for the reader. For a more normal-MC writer, I can see your point.

Doesn't mean that I think that making the MC like everyone is a good idea. Never let this be an absolute law, both the character that acts completely out of line but the protagonist bears it or shrugs it off, and the character that acts tsundere with the MC internally monologuing about how annoying she is can both be just sooooo tiresome.
Verbose writer that gets paid to write: Hey, this is what VNs usually have, right? Enjoy a ton of uninspired that stuff.

Nor is what I say 'make the MC dislike the character more than the audience.' meant as 'make the MC hate their guts.'. It can be something like I did in S&Y, making Yandere-chan think of Sebastian as best buddies. Even in the WiP, people were instantly rooting for this friendzoned kid because Yandere-chan wasn't.