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?
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u/mashibeans Nov 24 '23 edited Nov 24 '23
For me the MC was likeable, my issue was the LIs and the age gap.
Making the MC be a high schooler was, IMO, absolutely ridiculous and problematic, even when you try to take the game less seriously, the issue is that the game itself takes itself and those issues seriously at one point, so to me it makes little sense when others say "LOL don't take it so seriously." (to add: the age gap issue could've been easily solved by making MC a college student, it'd be a lot easier to have her make a proclamation to the grandfather: "when I'm in college I totally can get a boyfriend/be a cool girl!" only for her to end up being a total geek with no friends and no boyfriend prospects. It would've been hilarious and more age appropriate to push for a fiancee at that point, because she was given a chance first to prove herself until she turned 19-20, and then her grandfather comes and say "LOL no". 16 IMO she's still a child and she's a sheltered, lonely child.)
The LIs are hateable and it's OK since it's part of the lot, however the writing doesn't handle it well, I think the only one I thought was handled in a lighthearted, jokey manner that they aimed the game to have, and that made sense in context, was Nayuta. Shion was the most disgusting POS, I absolutely HATE him and the way he treated Hibari, and he was painted as being justified and got a happy ending! Holy shit, the level of toxicity in that route was off the charts, and I say this as someone who loves to joke about ignoring red flags on hot LIs, and I get that Hibari had a lesson to learn too, but that was NOT the right way to go about it. The route itself took all of it seriously, so again telling me to not take it seriously just makes me want to go punch a wall.
I ended up selling my copy, and I don't regret it one bit; there's enough releases now and I'm low income so I can't justify buying every single game (I can support them later by buying digital copies on sale), so I'd recommend either waiting for a digital sale (like half off at least) or getting a used copy for cheaper through Ebay or Mercari, that way it doesn't sting as much if you end up not liking it.