Not getting the girl/guy

[nefferinthia]

Has there ever been a VN in which you can pursue someone's path but they will not fall in love with you? I thought this was an interesting concept as it seems that in a lot of VNs the protagonist is wanted by every person who lays eyes on them. Of course in real life, people don't automatically like you and you just have to deal with that. Adding such a path would be ultimately frustrating, I admit but I thought it was a really cool concept.

[leon]

What would be the point? Realism? To do it just because it hasn't been done before? You said it yourself - it would be ultimately frustrating...

[nefferinthia]

Yes, it would kind of add to the realism. In a pure VN I think it would just be cruel but if you had a kind of statraiser/life-sim thing going at the same time it would be nice if not everyone would be within your reach.

[papillon]

There are plenty of characters who aren't obtainable in most games; they usually don't have paths.

I know at least one japanese game where one of the pursuable girls turned out to already have a boyfriend and was only interested in the PC as a friend. This led to some people having massive rages and saying some extremely inappropriate things. I don't mind making those players mad because those players are jerks, but you may not be prepared for nasty nerdrage aimed at your characters.

There are other games where the level of relationship varies a lot from path to path, so you've always clearly reached *some* sort of connection but they're not all the same. If the character isn't interested in you at all, what would you be spending the path doing, stalking them mercilessly while they ignored you? Creepy.

There are some games with paths that start out chasing an unreachable character but switch you to a more appropriate interest partway through, and this probably helps mitigate the frustration. If the super-popular boy really will never see you as anything other than a groupie who is useful at carrying his stack of books, but while following him around you slowly begin to notice his shyer, nicer little brother...

[nefferinthia]

That last paragraph sounds like a pretty nice option actually. I guess it really isn't smart to make someone waste their time on someone they can't possibly get a good ending for.

[fleet]

I don't see a problem with a VN such as you have described. While I haven't seen any VNs such as you have described, I've seen other types of games (Titanic: Adventure out of Time comes to mind) where there are multiple 'bad' endings and only one 'good' ending.

[gekiganwing]

Unfortunately, I don't know of any existing VNs about relationships that don't work out. The best example I can think of is the second Memories Off game, which apparently has an emphasis on couples breaking up.

It would be interesting to have a visual novel about relationships which are doomed to fail. If you're brave enough to write this, then there's a lot of concepts to deconstruct. (Starting with the fact that it's rare to have a high school relationship that lasts...) It would not likely be a happy story, but the main character might emerge as a wiser, more resilient person.

If you want to write about depressing topics, then consider a story where the main character has a bad habit of dating the wrong people, and the relationships don't work out.

A less bleak angle might be a story about a cursed person. This individual has been told that if they want to find true love, then they must endure __ number of rejections.

Another less bleak angle: imagine a game where in every character's route there is the distinct possibility of failure. Let's say that in this game, the first half of the story is about main character trying to pick one of the haremettes. And the second half is about whether the couple stays together. Include as much realism as you want.

This leads into another thought: what about incorporating the status of characters' relationships into gameplay? Here are there, you can find games in which it's game over if the main character doesn't earn others' trust. Also, consider creating a game in which the main character does not gain benefits, or gets both benefits and penalties, from trying to win the affection of more than one NPC.

[MoPark]

I think it all depends on how the story is presented. If it's presented in a realistic manner, not winning the affection of somebody would work well. If it's presented like a stereotypical romance VN, doing that definitely would cause frustration. It's all about how you write it.

[azureXtwilight]

Has there ever been a VN in which you can pursue someone's path but they will not fall in love with you? I thought this was an interesting concept as it seems that in a lot of VNs the protagonist is wanted by every person who lays eyes on them. Of course in real life, people don't automatically like you and you just have to deal with that. Adding such a path would be ultimately frustrating, I admit but I thought it was a really cool concept.

I admit, it is implemented it in doppelganger, but it's more mystery to romance, so even there are romanceable characters, some of the paths wouldn't lead to a relationship but more into solving the case along with said person or even reuniting said person with his loved one, or even the ending ends happily with them going into their separate ways. Dunno if it works in a romance-only game tho.

[fleet]

Having thought more about this, it can work. You play the visual novel, the main character (MC) and object of his/her affection fall in love, and then you read a text-only screen saying something like this.

#BEGIN#
Male and female dated throughout the summer.

When September came, female went to (insert location far from setting of visual novel) and enrolled at (insert name of famous university).

Male returned to classes at (Insert name of fictitious junior college) .

Male and female called each other for a while, but (chose one or the other) stopped after a year.

Main character had fond memories of love interest.

#END#

[Omnificent]

Bittersweet endings are delicious to me. I haven't seen a lot of games with an ending for not getting the girl/guy that wasn't a bad end/non-end, though.

[J. Datie]

I think it depends on intent, really. If it fits with the story, characters, theme and/or mood of the game, then why not? But just adding it in because other people don't have it is a Very Bad Idea. People figuratively walk the metaphorical path that others have created because they know that it's safe. People who stray from that path without proper preparation are likely to be eaten by a bear. Basically, what I'm saying is that I don't want to play HA! HA! I'm Being Different! The Game.