kyrt Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 How do you choose your favorite or your first visual novel heroine (or hero for those otome/BL games) in each game? Do you look for looks, personality, relatability, cohesiveness (how well a character fits for what you know of the main character), or something else? What about these various traits will make or break whether you go for this heroine or hero? Is there anything that completely turns you away from a particular heroine/hero? and one more question who is your favorite visual novel heroine/hero and does your favorite fit the criteria you just mentioned or are they outside your usual criteria? If they fall outside your criteria why do you think this is when you look for something different in other characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eclipsed Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 I'm pretty shallow and entertained quite easily so forgive my simple minded responses that lack fruitful in-depth reasoning and analyses. How do you choose your favorite or your first visual novel heroine (or hero for those otome games) in each game? Do you look for looks, personality, relatability, cohesiveness (how well a character fits for what you know of the main character), or something else? What about these various traits will make or break whether you go for this heroine or hero? Is there anything that completely turns you away from a particular heroine/hero? I have two choosing phases. 1) First impression: Is she pretty?2) Long-term: Do I like her personality? Obviously when it comes to actually choosing, 2) has more weight than 1). ~~~ Personality will make or break a character easily. For me, if she's a tsundere or kuudere, automatic win. Know-it-all/genius types that have a bit of sass are also cool. Combine the two and you have Kurisu from Steins;Gate Big no-nos are overly *poisonous* attitudes. Isuzu from Hoshizora no Memoria being a prime violator with her excessive "Go jump off a bridge" comments every 5 seconds despite everyone being so nice to her. and one more question who is your favorite visual novel heroine/hero and does your favorite fit the criteria you just mentioned or are they outside your usual criteria? If they fall outside your criteria why do you think this is when you look for something different in other characters. Favorite heroine: Uh, I'll get back to you on this. I have too many favorites and I don't think there's an absolute common trend. I do tend to favor tsunderes though. Edit: I'm on the same boat as Rose. No ultimate bias, but there is a bias for each VN I've played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 All of those are valid methods and I consider all of them, aside from cohesiveness which I usualy don't care that much. Beauty always gets a heads-up since you know how she looks before knowing how she is, but it sometimes loses in the end. I think personality is the most important one since following a route while disliking the girl is plainly painful. I swear, if I had left Yumiko's route (Grisaia) for last, I'd have killed myself. I don't think I have an absolute favorite, but I usually have one for each novel, like Saber (F/SN), Tonya (Ayakashibito) and Sachi (Grisaia). sirjabberwock 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monmon Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 I dont mind any kind of Appearance(but i hate fat and bald protag/main char though, YES ACCEL WORLD I`M TALKIN ABOUT YOU!!!) Anyway Somehow i prefer long hair heroine rather than short but i dont know why, since i dont think i got fetish for long hair. Personality wise,Tsundere will be the first or second heroine that i will play and Deredere will the last/first. Absoolut fav? For english vn i`ll pick Amane from Grisaia(Usually i pay no mind char like her but somehow i really love her, and she is one of those char that i like even though she lack of Tsundere attitude.) And i`ll take Aiesu(アイエス} from Majikoi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clephas Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Abnormality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melo4496 Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 I dont mind any kind of Appearance(but i hate fat and bald protag/main char though, YES ACCEL WORLD I`M TALKIN ABOUT YOU!!!) I understand how you feel about that protag in accel world Personality. I tend to like Tsunderes because they're a pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezeefreak Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Normally I choose the one who I like the most at start and think will have a good route. So I have a good start and don't feel bored to fast. Mostly that one will remain my favourite the whole game. And what kind of heroine I'll like the most? Good question! If there is an osananajimi than you can say that will be the #1 for me with a possibility of 95%. If not it will be some honest and passionate and maybe little shy character who really likes the protag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SieghartXx Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 A mix of personality, looks and (in case of the hero), a bit of relatability (just a bit, can't say I can relate to school fighting heroes for example). My favorite heroine... There are too many out there, lots come to mind, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some anyway. Makina from Grisaia, Kyou from Clannad, Yuiko from Little Busters!, Shizuru from Rewrite, Kagome from Comyu, Kazuko from Majikoi and I could be here all day. I don't know if I have a favorite archetype (such as Tsundere, Osananajimi, etc), or maybe I just don't realise it. As for heroes, if he's not a wimp, I'll probably like him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
傍観者 Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Cold personality always intrigues me. It makes me wonder what kind of events did that girl go through that make her become like that? If there are any tsundere or kuudere I'm probably gonna like them the best. She's got to be of appropriate age for the protagonist, though. For instance, in Canvas 2 - Tomoko's tsundere, but I still like Kiri the best. I like shy girls too (Hanako from Katawa Shoujo, Mizuki from Edelweiss). Unless they're weird (Yukie from Majikoi freaks me out). Clever types attract me as well. Combine that will a little clumsiness and you'll have one of my personal favorites - Haru from G-Senjou no Maou. I usually dislike deredere (or any overly clingy characters), unless it feels somehow unnatural, which makes want to discover if there's something else going on. Think about Amane from Grisaia no Kajitsu (I like Yumiko better, though). Of course, appearance plays a good role as well. I'm not gonna like her personality if I don't like how she looks. As for the hero (protagonist), my favourite type is pragmatic one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katatsumuri Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 I look at appearance first, but in the end, I feel like it's mostly a matter of how interesting I find the character to be. And since my definition of interesting is derived from my enjoyment, my favorite characters tendto be varied, with the only prevalent feature being that they are usually longhaired and with bright hair-colour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwd2 Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 All of the above plus others, I can't really put it in words, it's the heroine as a whole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 I don't know if I cast my vote right. I picked relatability, but how much doesn't it overlap with personality? You can relate with the character likes and/or dislikes, sometimes hobbies or even their pasts, which are not related with personality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyrt Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 How do I myself choose a heroine in a game? I thought about this for a while and while i originally was going to say personality I've realized that isn't completely true. There is no particular personality trait that I actually look for or go for first. There have been too many times in the games, novels, anime, etc... that a character's initial personality is simply false. I don't pick a heroine based on appearance because quite frankly you don't judge a character on their mask. I do not really pick a character based on how relatable to my own personal life a character is so that one is out as well. The idea of cohesiveness or how well a heroine clicks with the character I'm currently viewing the story of or playing as is probably my biggest motivator for choosing a heroine. I basically go with what feels right whether that is for the character or for the story )I should probably change cohesiveness to go with the flow or something). Honestly I probably take a bit of everything in deciding which character to go for. In regards to something that completely turns me away from a heroine/hero it is when they are complete copies of another character and don't have any interesting quirks about them to make them more unique. I admittedly will play all the routes so I guess it doesn't completely turn me away but it does irk me a bit when shoddy writing forces characters to be too similar. I also have noticed that I tend to do loli routes second to last (because they more often than not annoy me) unless they click with the hero right off the bat. My favorite visual novel heroines are Tsugumi Komachi (Ever 17), Haru Usami (G-Senjou no Maou, Beatrice (umineko), Sumika and Meiya (muv-luv series), Amane (Grisaia no Kajitsu) I have generally just gone on whim based on their interactions with the character and what I thought fit well. Amane I did not do the route for her til second to last...ended up doing Yumiko first because deemed her a threat with the box cutter and was curious why box cutter? (at the time I actually was working at a place where I used a box cutter regularly so perhaps I chose her on the relatability aspect). Generally my favorites fall into the criteria I mentioned and are often the first route I do. It is also quite possible that the reason my favorite heroines are the first route I do because of something called anchoring and I quite possibly end up liking main heroines in games more than other characters possibly because of the propinquity effect. The anchoring bias is the tendency to anchor oneself with the first piece of information given to them...sometimes this can also refer to the first person they meet. Since often times the first character you meet in a visual novel is in fact the "main" heroine this probably has a strong effect on which characters I personally tend to go for first. The propinquity effect is related to this because as it is a essentially a sociological term for the tendency of people to form friendships and relationships with those that they encounter more often probably helps matters as well. Once I am on a route I grow to like characters even if I initially disliked them because I'm essentially spending more time with them and becoming more familiar since I'm seeing more of them and getting more of their personality beyond the initial mask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XReaper Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 i choose her mostly cause of her personality, i like girls who show guts no matter how cruel life my be. AND cause its a vn or other fiction i wont have to worry about bad looks either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ariurotl Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Re: reading order - If there's a specific order implied by the authors (i.e., the routes "branch off", like for example in Sharin, G-Sen and, to some extent, Grisaia), I usually go along with it. In other cases, I read the routes in order from the least interesting heroine to the most interesting one to save the best for last. Only very rarely do I like a heroine so much that I go straight for her route. Did that with Riho from DEARDROPS, which was a mistake in hindsight, considering how short and insignificant other routes turned out to be. As for choosing the favorites, personality trumps everything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EldritchCherub Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Pretty much depends on my mood and general impression of the heroine/hero. I may have overworked for myself for the day and require an uplifting character to quell my boredom so in that case I will go with a mix of good looks and relatability in order to ensure I am thoroughly entertained. This can have a chance of backfiring in the case of Chinami from Hoshizora who wouldn't quit yapping like some energizer rabbit, she just kept going and going and going... In other instances I look for a mix of good looks (does that make me shallow?) and personality. A well-rounded character who is able to interact with the protagonist without telling him to die or make him feel uncomfortable about his/her way of life. They can be mysterious, but not so much that I'm left scratching my head at their motives. Some examples of these characters are Kosame from Hoshizora and Irina from My Girlfriend is the President. They were strong characters who knew what they wanted and seemed like they would be a good match for the protagonist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zalor Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Abnormality. Lol, I believe that coming from you. As for me, I decide these things on a whim. There is little consistency to the heroines I pick other than the fact that usually, they tend to be quiet or reserved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoom909 Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Picked other 'cause it won't let me pick Appearance & Personality at the same time "Big no-nos are overly *poisonous* attitudes. Isuzu from Hoshizora no Memoria being a prime violator with her excessive "Go jump off a bridge" comments every 5 seconds despite everyone being so nice to her." Agree with this. It makes the game funny but I don't want her as a girlfriend. Similar situation with Chinami Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HMN Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 i have a thing for kuuderes,i'd go for them regardless of anything else,it's just interesting to see how the protag will break her out of her shell... as for my favorite heroine it's yumiko of course!! that should be common knowledge around the forums by this point.... just look at that cuteness!! how can you say no to that face? i'm gonna have a heart-attack... *insert more fanboying here* 傍観者 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monmon Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 i have a thing for kuuderes,i'd go for them regardless of anything else,it's just interesting to see how the protag will break her out of her shell... as for my favorite heroine it's yumiko of course!! that should be common knowledge around the forums by this point.... just look at that cuteness!! how can you say no to that face? i'm gonna have a heart-attack... *insert more fanboying here* I think we need rules about spamming Yumiko's emoticon in whole forum, like permanent ban for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HMN Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 I think we need rules about spamming Yumiko's emoticon in whole forum, like permanent ban for example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApxRbC9-Z2w you can't stop yumiko brah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monmon Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApxRbC9-Z2w you can't stop yumiko brah MOD!! WHERE R U MOD!!! We need your shiny banhammer!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApxRbC9-Z2w you can't stop yumiko brah MOD!! WHERE R U MOD!!! We need your shiny banhammer!! You guys need to fucking relax. @Thread Just remembered that I usually dislike lolis and that sometimes make me leave them for latter, even those with interesting personalities. Not Like I only posted this because I wanted a 500th post or anything like that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmsful Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 still no tohsaka rin emoticon @Thread I will always like a character when it has most of the criteria I need for it to have Monmon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nohman Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 I picked other. The route order I chose usually has nothing to do with how much I like a heroine. I usually try to get a spoiler-free consensus on the quality of each route in whatever I'm reading and work my way from worst to best. I care less about a specific heroines traits and more about how good the story is when it comes to picking what I read. I obviously still have preferences for what makes a character personally attractive though. It's a mix of appearance and personality. I prefer older-looking, strong willed characters. Nagging is a plus. Which is why, among other things, Amane from GnK is my favorite VN heroine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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