What do I like in romance games?

So, let me try to understand why I play and enjoy playing romance games...

To do so, I'd first define them, or rather try to characterize them, to separate them into their different components and will take the exact case of the romance games I'm most fond of: ADVs or VNs-type romance games.
What makes them? First, the story, obviously, and its constituents: plot, characters and storytelling. But it's not all! You also have the visual aspect and sound aspect, themselves having characteristics and constituents: the visual aspect is characterized by being fixed drawings with only one frame being displayed on the same screen while the sound aspect can be separated into the voice, sound effect and background music components.
Now, let's consider them... None of them is an attribute of only romance games.

I once wrote about the different media:

Romance games are to me then a compromise between most of those media: the strength of a written text, the narrative power of comics, the sound effect of the movies, anime, and drama CDs. Of course, they also get the drawbacks of them [restricting effect of having pictures instead of just text, no motion, no real human being], but I think they make a good compromise.
...if all those aspects were given equal treatment, which is not the case.

When I read- sorry, play a romance game, I feel like reading a novel, but with visual and sound aspect. So, when it looks like the 'novel' aspect is what plays the most important role in me enjoying such games, the sound and visual aspect also play an important role as they make me prefer such games to 'normal' books: it's what gives romance games the little 'more'. And, since I do like the Japanese anime style of drawings.
But are they the only reasons?
I said 'read' then corrected myself into 'play'. 'Play'. Books, comics, movies, cartoons, and drama CDs and media in which the audience is a mere spectator: he can enjoy them, but never influence them. That, is something I often disagree with...and I'm sure everyone willed at least once to be able to change a book, comic, movie or cartoon's character reaction. This is the reason why I enjoyed "Books Which You're The Hero Of" when I was young... or playing RPGs. Of course, there's still a story, but you're still acting in it and making choices; not always the ones you'd like most, but a choice is better than none in my opinion. So, I also like such games because I read a story, which isn't mine, yet feels like it is, because it's written in the first person, and I have the ability to make choices.

So story, story then.
And because of that- what I want to enjoy are foremost books; one can understand why I prefer ADVs or VNs to any other type of gameplay.
But, why the story? And which kind?

I'm a bookworm, I always was. I always read books by the hundred and spent my free time [well, when I was young at least] reading books. My personal favorites always were mythic and legendary romances, but also modern tales of love, always the kind I think love stories should be, tragic: Tristan and Iseult, Lancelot and Guenever, Siegfried and Brunehylde, Medea and Jason, Romeo and Juliet, Honore de Balzac's stories, Choderlos de Laclos's Dangerous Acquaintances, and the like. I enjoy stories of impossible love, where society, fate, nature, divinities, etc. oppose the lovers, where love is a potent and poisonous nectar which turns its drinkers drunk at the first sip, making them lose all reason, yet so bewitching they can't live without drinking more while knowing only suffering, despair and death wait for them in the end, a dream so soft they want it to last forever though aware they'd have to wake up; where love is the only gain and its price can't be paid by any human being. Love should burn the lovers, passion should devour them, desire should consume them; their only wish, and the only thing they can't have, ever. For similar reasons, I enjoy stories where love is supposed to be the ultimate savior, the one thing which would redeem or save its heroes, but fails to; where people would doom themselves because of love.

The games we're talking are romance games, and romance is in the end the story of two people falling in love, and succeeding, despite the forces which oppose them, trying to find healing in love. Romance is overcoming those forces, being rewarded by love and paying the price.
My love for books and romance would naturally then bring me to them, like a moth to a flame, even more because of their other aspects: pictures and sounds, which complement my imagination and cater to my anime fan side.

Of course, it also means I don't enjoy all kind of romance games and stories. Just the ones matching, or nearing, the ones I quoted: Gin'iro, Air, GreenGreen, FATE/stay night...
Obviously, because such games are rare, I also enjoy games which have such an atmosphere: depressing, sad, where you can feel the [moral] sufferings and the tragedy of their existence of the characters as you progress in the game [Mizuiro, 21 ~TwoOne, Clover Heart's for instance]. Because of that, I tend to go after the introvert, asocial, reserved, never smiling and silent [shy?] kind of girls [Serika from To Heart, Sanae from GreenGreen, Rydia from Majokko A LA MODE, Mutsuki in Mizuiro, Akane in ONE, Shiina from Yuibashi, Vanilla from Galaxy Angels...] because their characters cry out they have potential for having suffered from life to become as they are. And, of course, I'm wishing for a tragic ending.
Intellectually, at least.
I'll be honest: somewhat, my heart doesn't agree with my mind. It hates such girl, because it thinks only smile suits a girl and that girls their age should be enjoying life instead. So it wants me go court such girls and bring a smile to their face. So, true, they both push me into going after such girls, but disagree on which kind of ending [happy or tragic] I'd wish for most. My mind usually wins, but that conflict keeps my interest because I enjoy how the events would make one prevails on the other.

So, in conclusion, I like ADVs and VNs games, because I like reading novels and enjoy anime style art. Also, since I tend to prefer tragic romances, I naturally turned to romance games rather than horror or suspense ones, for instance.

It's a pity though I've never completely found the kind of story I love best: one with eternal damnation and reincarnations, of sin committed out of love and for love, of never reached redemption, where love would be the sword which allows victory, the Graal which heals injuries, the poison which destroys the body and the evil which corrupts the soul. TYPE-MOON's works give me hope, nonetheless.

Hmmm...I don't expect many replies to this thread.

 

ummm wow that was in depth useually i dont play romance games but i that was detailed to say the least im going to go look up romance games so in my next post ill have something smart to say other then 'nice discription'

 

You obviously didn't even read it, since you responded so rapidly.

And when I say romance games, I mean, in some cases, hentai games or dating sims.

 

i read all but the quote but you kinda lost me halfway through
and i have played one dateing sim but i didn't really think that much of it i dont think like that when i play games

 

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Hah, I laughed a lot.

 

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Well, those aside, you can't expect much of a reply other than the reader's introspective reflection on the post--of course this isn't meant as a criticism, however there isn't much of a foreground for the reader to go on.

Anyway, since your post exploded on possibly seven different tangents, I won't even begin to pretend that I know exactly what it was you were trying to say, but I will gather that I understand many parts of what you wrote.

I've only played a few of these romance games out of curiosity, but I understand what you mean. While there are visuals and sound aspects that decorate the story, there is just enough to not overwhelm the reader/player from the text that still encompasses most of the story's core. The ability to choose responses also helps, like you said before. A small window of freedom goes a long way in further unionizing the reader/player with the story that unfolds before him/her.

Although quite the embellishment on the purple prose, I do think it's worth noting what you wrote here. A part of me has come to like this flavour of romance over the past few years, for several reasons vastly different at their base. Firstly, it's not a ridiculous notion to say that love--well, 'great love'--doesn't parallel with happy endings. The industry of story-telling labels many of these as 'tragedies' but by what means? It's obvious that at the end of the day, other than the author's integrity to the work in question, much of the reception will not stand for anything other than a carefully puzzled string of 'fate' that leads its heroes off toward the horizon with all their thoughts, intentions--and possibly limbs--intact for the ever so bright future that waits for them.

And that's perfectly acceptable on its own.

However, I also find myself disagreeing with such happy endings when the love shown between two people fever with such great intensity. A love so 'great' that it deviates from all reason: how is it possible that such grandeur can end so... cleanly? It would appear far more genuine if such unreasonable love in turn produced unreasonable endings. A cruel, unjustly ending for the lover who loved so much isn't anything less than fitting for the love that was too great to control.

This still doesn't make it a tragedy, at least, beyond its literary category. There is no sadness in the smile of one who burns away to save the life of the other; there is no sadness in a death without regret. Such happiness can only gaze graciously at the shackles around its ankles as reason claims their short-lived life. With an unwavering resolve that isn't cursed by its methodical neighbour, it takes very little for such love--or happiness--to merit a tragedy.

Can't say I've seen/played/read anything like that, but something less specific, but may very lightly touch on a few of those... have you played/heard of the Shadow Heart series (PS2 2001-2004)? It's sort of old, but it's got a little bit of emphasis on unrelenting fate, that "guides and willing, and drags the unwilling", thus having some... unexpected things to happen, and at the end of the series: forces the protagonist to choose from two equally undesirable choices. I only played the first two games (as the third is a completely different cast/story) and pretty much enjoyed both. And that's the end of my shameless advertisement of Shadow Hearts.

 

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hentai games are fun......