To Villain or Not To Villain - Otome, is a passive antagonist enough? (Solved, thank you all for input)

[JenivereDomino]

So I'm in the early stages of writing, got about 26,000 words of dialogue which amounts to the prologue and 2 chapters, with choice based scenarios. Full outline plan is for prologue and 5 chapters of "common route", then splitting into 4 "romance routes" where the story will follow the goals of the chosen romance option, and a final 5th route which opens up from an alternative prologue after each of the other 4 routes have been completed.

Right now, I have a mostly passive antagonist, which is that the main character is cursed by one of the gods, with a general villain aspect of a cult who have their own goals in manipulating her to serve the will of the god that cursed her. I am concerned that I don't have a proper main villain antagonist, as the gods do not interact directly with the world. Some of the romance routes will have different story focuses, with different antagonists potentially to focus on, but I worry that the game might be lacking something without at least one recurring villain for the player to really hate. I also have a red herring villain in chapter 2 and 3 who will add some tension in, but they don't remain villainous in the player's eyes for long.

A cult leader could work for the story, but could be too cliche? I don't want to force an antagonist for the sake of it, and end up sacrificing some of the story because of that. I also have planned for one of the romance options to turn villainous in one of the other routes (which fits his character and backstory) but I know it is often helpful to have a character that players properly hate.

Is a cult leader too cliche? Should I skip introducing a villain unless I get to a point in the writing where it fits the narrative or would that leave the story lacking?

This is my first project but I think it is going well so far, I feel pretty confident in the premise, world, characters, and overall story, but I think if I'm going to add in a Big Bad that I'll want to at least hint at their existence soon.

[Silken Sail]

If you don't think a villain fits in the story, then my advice is not to force it. Keep in mind that villains and antagonists are not the same thing - all stories have antagonists even if they don't have a villain. The antagonist is just whatever stands between the protagonist and their goal. In some stories, that means the antagonist can be something obscure - like in Gravity where space itself is the antagonist. In others, like Raging Bull, the protagonist is their own antagonist.

So I would say that instead of shoe horning in a villain character to give readers a specific person that opposes the protagonist, find what force/thing is truly standing between your protagonist and what they want, and just make sure the conflict between the protagonist and that force is compelling.

[JenivereDomino]

I appreciate the feedback, thanks. In that case I think I will see what develops naturally, and go from there. I just didn't want players to feel like they're missing something without some "big bad" if you know what I mean.

[Mutive]

I'd argue for the cult leader.

The challenge with "cursed by the gods" or a generic cult or whatnot is that it throws the story more or less into protagonist vs. world. These stories are doable (so I don't want to discourage you if this is truly what you believe is best for your story), but they tend to be a lot more challenging to write than "protagonist vs. antagonist".

(This is part of why Gaston exists in "Beauty and the Beast". Yeah, sure the *real* problem is the curse that Beast is facing, but it's an easier story to tell when you also have Gaston being sexist towards Beauty, leading a riot against the Beast, etc. There have been versions of the tale without Gaston (that's the classic version, after all!), but there's a reason Disney added him! (It gives something more concrete to struggle against than "a curse" and also adds urgency to a number of decisions - if Beauty doesn't do something in time, Gaston will kill the beast/imprison her father/etc.) And even a number of classic versions have Beauty's sisters acting as antagonists...)

It might be helpful to do an exercise where you write maybe just an abbreviated story/summary of both options and see which one works better.

(e.g. in one "Protag is cursed by the gods and has to struggle with whatever the curse does" vs. in another "Protag is hunted by Antag, a fierce cult leader who...")

[JenivereDomino]

Thanks again for the feedback! I have now started to develop and add in the cult leader, as he will serve a good purpose for the story point I'm at. Ended up changing a few things around earlier from the overall plan, and then went from there. Setting him up for some early appearances, and he may not play much into some of the romance routes, but will feature more heavily in one of them which gives a bad end option that I'm really happy with (even though it'll make my favourite LI sad, poor chap)

I keep on and off hitting creative block, but I feel like it is still progressing in the directions I want. It'll probably need a lot of editing, but I'm at around 30,000 words which is quite a lot when I think about it!