Options reveal route direction?

[MoonByte]

I don't really know how to start this question, so I am just gonna be direct with an example:


I backed The Office Type when it first started it's kickstarter and have been thinking about this feature of theirs a lot.
Since my own game also features a love-friend-aquaintance path, I was actually curious about the reception of such a feature.
Like, I can easily see this being "activated" when the player has "beaten the game" once (similar to how "Coming Out On Top" shows your relationship progress change after a choice). But having it unlockable would require a lot of coding to have EVERY menu exist double and thus change the wording when activated. So the alternative would obviously be: have it generally be visible.
Like, you get four options and instead of the usual guessing game (including possibly needing a walkthrough at some point), the game just tells you directly from the beginning: "1 is love, 2 is neutral, 3 is friend and 4 is enemy".
Maybe, maybe not, in combination with the progress bar mentioned above.
I am really not sure, if a player would appreciate that or if they would feel like being babied.

So question itself:
What is your opinion on the game telling you which choice leads onto which path?
And I mean: right from the first play, not something you unlock!

[KouhaiChan]

Personally I would not like it, it wouldn't feel much like a "game". I like having to actually think of how my choices will affect the relationship between characters in the story (such as the mc and the potential love interest) instead of having the answer right on the screen. It is interesting to see what choices I make cause different kinds of endings (bad, normal, good, or true endings) and gives me more motivation to switch up choices and add game play time and experimentation for the player. I think it is ok if it was an unlockable option, but personally I don't think it should be needed. That is just my opinion though, others might like that idea since it is certainly different.

[parttimestorier]

I don't think that's something I would want to see on my first playthrough either. I like to go into most VNs without really thinking about route choice, just picking whatever I feel like and seeing what happens. Directly telling me which choice will lead to which route would take away the fun of that. But I think some people might like it depending on the genre of the game. For instance, if you're writing a light-hearted romance that's just focused on dating the character you think is cutest, people might appreciate direct route selection so that they can get right to the part they're most interested in.

[Imperf3kt]

My personal opinion on matters such as these is:
It's optional

Actually, I suppose rather than a personal opinion, this is a personal requirement. If it is included, it must have a way to be turned off.

Basically, it translates to a very simple sentiment: the player chooses whether to use it or not, and this is presented in an obvious way such as an option in the preferences menu.

Now, as to whether I think i would appreciate such a feature, that one is simple; no I would not.
On a second playthrough, it may be nice for trying to reach routes you've not been to, but on a first playthrough, the fun comes from not knowing the outcome.

[catfriend3000]

Personally, seeing the different route options laid out like that seems to make the actual decisions ("Get to know you better!") useless because players might start not caring about the action the choices lead and only focus on the path they want.

That's not to say that having route markers for choices is a bad thing. On top of my head, I can think of Seduce Me and Cinderella Phenomenon having a system that lets players know if their decision was the romance option/led to the good ending, which I think works really well. But the difference is the indicator for the romance/good came after the player made the choice. With that system, people who like to experiment can still freely pick without the route being laid out like that. But for people who just want a certain ending, they can get an indicator quickly and not lose much time.

So I guess I'm okay with instantly knowing which route the choices lead to after making the choice, optional or not. But having the routes laid out isn't very attractive to me. But I'd be fine, like others, with the upfront indicator if it was only available after the initial, blind playthrough.

[timepatches]

I have to agree with a lot of the opinions in this thread - I personally like it, but it can be divisive, and must be able to be turned off.
Cardinal Cross did this well (with little personality indicators next to each choice), but didn't necessarily state outright the actual outcomes, only the attitude of each choice and which would directly lead to romance. I think indicators like this are helpful if you're looking to impose a time limit on choices, like Cardinal Cross did, since it helps the player get a feel for each answer faster. It, however, could be turned off.

[trooper6]

I don't mind when there are indicators about what sort of personality trait of the MC the answer indicates. I.e. I like it when the purpose of the choices and the indicators are to help you customize and personalize your MC. I'm not into it as a way to move the player to whatever romance/friendship route with a non-player character. If the game maker wants to make it so I as a player can just choose what I want to happen directly, I'd prefer it to be a bit more up front. In other words, just have a menu choice at the beginning of the game where you just chose what you want to happen and then have the rest of the game be a KN.

[Mutive]

To me, I think it would depend on how complicated the choice system is.

I agree with others that it's going to not feel very game like if literally all I do is hit "toggle relationship route" when I want that option.

But if there are a number of choices that all affect the relationship route (or anything else), it'll feel more gamelike (i.e. what happens if I'm sometimes friendly, sometimes romantic?). Especially if some of the dialogue is really ambiguous (i.e. "I like you, but..." vs. "I really do care for you...") explicitly calling out which one is supposed to be "relationship-y" vs. "friend-y" could be helpful.

[bobconway]

For me, this depends heavily on the kind of game it is, and the extent to which it's done.

In games where the impact of choices are shown immediately, in some manner (directly via a "+1 affection" popup or similar, or indirectly by allowing constant access to a stats/relationship screen), I think there's no real harm in showing hints in the options, such as "Give him a hug (+1 affection)" versus "Walk away (-1 affection)", since that information can be derived anyway.

But I *also* think that such transparent stats tracking is more appropriate to games where stats are the focus, such as stat-based dating sims.

In games where the story is the focus, having such explicit tracking arguably takes away from the immersion... it starts to feel like you're really playing a game ("Oh, picking White Zinfandel subtracted affection points, so I should roll back and try something else") as opposed to paying attention to the story.
(This is actually how I played CooT's demo when it had explicit affection indicators, and I *think* the final game didn't end up having them? Although it's also been a while since I've played through it.)

The Office Type, from what I've seen, feels very much like a stat-based game with its huge number of routes and emphasis on romancing (or not!) each character. So I think I'd appreciate the more explicit information there. It actually reminds me a lot of Persona 5, when you're facing the final question in each LI's route, where the game explicitly prompts you to think carefully about your answer, and it felt like it made sense there, too given the game's heavy stat-based component.