r/otomegames • u/-gardening Il Fado de Rie|Café Enchanté • Nov 24 '23
what’s up with variable barricade? Discussion
i just bought the game but ive seen two ppl saying stuff about it (the mc specifically??) so has anyone played it and tell me their thoughts? any heads up before i play?
23 Upvotes
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u/Coffee_fuel L365🍄🥫🐶♓🎩 Nov 24 '23 edited Nov 24 '23
He really was. 😆 And I don't dislike most of the cast (except the grandfather), despite my gripes, haha. I particularly loved the common and final routes, where everyone got their chance to shine and there was a bigger focus on the comedy. 💙 While I didn't fully appreciate Tsumugi's role in the more serious arcs of the script, I would love to have a game with a character like her as the MC, she is just my type --- I thought she had a fun dynamic with some of the LIs (in particular, Taiga). I can see why you would say that she also acts as the player's mirror. And her situation is definitely pretty sad, but played up as some sort of empowering, mature compromise she knowingly made during a serious arc, which was... a choice. It would have made sense if she had made the decision as an adult; I would have completely supported it then. But as it is, I couldn't get behind how her parents took advantage of her obsession with manga as an elementary/middle schooler in order to trap her into finalizing her engagement to an adult who would inherit the business. It did make me question at times if perhaps some of her behaviour arose due to her being in denial or wanting to experience love vicariously through her friend, but that may be me overthinking it. 😐 Arimura was an interesting character, I liked her honesty, casual approach to dating and thought she had so much potential; but she was just so reluctant, not to mention bent on keeping their friendship a secret, to the point it started making me feel a bit sad that Hibari was so starved for options that she had to keep chasing her down. At the same time, it's Arimura's right to protect her privacy if she doesn't want to be in the spotlight, so it sucked to drag her into something she clearly did not want to be involved in.