Shoujo-ai/Yuri routes in otome games?

This can sometimes become a topic of debate, but I was wondering what you guys think of shoujo-ai and/or yuri routes? Does it bother you that there's homosexual content in a game marketed and targeted towards a heterosexual female audience?

Better-known examples are Yaehara Daria from Gekka Ryouran Romance and Amami Kyouko from Chou no Doku Hana no Kusari.

It depends on the character herself. I so would have preferred a yuri route in Hakuoki with Princess Sen than the route with Mr. After kidnapping you I suddenly am attracted to you and want you to be more than a baby maker Kazama.

I have yet to actually play one of these, but I like the idea in theory. It bugs me that most of the time when you do get a route with a girl in otome games it's just a "friendship route" :/

I put 'I dislike them'.

But, at the same time, sometimes it depends on the character. Rapuzel's friendship route in Zettai Meikyuu Grimm? Adorable. Ibara-hime's yuri route? Well, to be fair, I didn't like her character all that much to begin with.

There's also some amount of repetition it seems with doing the Utena thing and making the female character to be 'prince'. And, the traditional prince character sorta bores me regardless, so having the yuri twist really does nothing for me. Really, rather than turn the main character into just another DiD, I'd much rather get to see the one who grows stronger unto herself. (But then, that seems to be against the grain of things in otome regardless. =.=0)

It really doesn't bother me, and as I'm a completionist I finish those routes if they're in the game though they're not my thing. However, I remember in Love & Order there was a yuri route you could go through, and I wasn't interested in any of the guys and ended up really liking her's! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So overall I guess I don't prefer them, but I'm fine with them, and sometimes they can be surprisingly good, so I think they deserve a chance.

I've only gotten the opportunity to play one shoujo-ai route (Colette in The Royal Trap), but it was SO sweet

I'm a fan of them always having a shoujo-ai option. I think dating sims with a male lead should also have a male option. It just adds more variety to the game.

I don't dig chix
So i voted a no

Some OELVN with yuri/shoujo-ai routes: The magical diary & lucky rabbit reflex

Going after girls are usually not my cup of tea, so I put "depends on the character." I'm not wholly objected to it, but I think I'd rather not chase after those who "come on too strong."

Uhhh, its not really my cup of tea :/ the only game I've played like that was Ristorante Amore, which was a pleasant surprise of a game for me. I didn't mind much, but as I said its not for me.

As long as the route is good I don't mind. I feel the same about yuri routes as I do with the bishie routes. It's all about good characters and a good story.

Well I really like cute girls and cute boys and just want to love them all.

So I prefer a game to have a girl route as well. That said, if I want to go after girls I can easily play a pure shoujo ai/yuri VN.

I can understand some people might not like having a girl option, but it's not like you HAVE to go through the route, and so it's just a nice bonus for those that do like them.

I've have a similar discussion with some guy friends about gay characters in games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect and the general consensus was that it's fine if they're there, if they weren't around the people who liked them would miss out and anyone who isn't into it can just blank them. Of course then they'd argue that characters like Zevran were all up in their grill about it but he was up in everyone's GRILL so I hardly so the issue, if you're a lesbien you have to deal with him and if you're a het girl trying to woo Alistair you still get him in your face. It's part of his CHARM. Really he's kind of a gentlemen because if you say no he backs off like SNAP, he aint interested no more but Alistair cries and CRIES and then you give him pity sex.

I GOT OFF TOPIC THERE.

ON THE OPTION OF, "Only if their story is good or whatever." Since I like girls the same as dudes I will like to see them regardless of story. And by that I mean I'd rather have the option and be disappointed with a lousy character then none at all. Same as any VN really, I'll play most games even if the guys are terribly put together. BUT THAT'S MORE A PERSONAL CHOICE SO IDK.

Thanks for the responses, guys. Some places where I go, they get a lot of hate. I'm kind of glad everyone's minds are more open here.

I don't mind them at all. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Plus I see it as the MC and the love interest romancing each other, not me. So even if I'm not into say, BxB, as long as it's well-written and I like the story/characters, I'll enjoy the route.

(I actually love GxG so I like seeing more routes like that included. I don't think I've ever played a pure yuri game...)

So I prefer a game to have a girl route as well. That said, if I want to go after girls I can easily play a pure shoujo ai/yuri VN.

OKAY so I thought a bit after this and went on a shoujo ai VN hunt. Because I actually only have the one at the moment...

I have Aoishiro and honestly the romance is very mild, the characters are all pretty cool though.

And then all I can think of is the "A Kiss for the petals" series which personally just seemed kind of like lesbian porn for dudes. The games are kind of cute though I guess.

The majority of the female/female routes I have played have been in 'regular' games with the other routes mainly being male. And they've all been pretty awesome, so I think I'm gonna have to say "Yes, please do keep these options open for players."

BUT I will continue looking.

SORRY if this is drivel and not helpfull and whatever, I just felt like updating what I said.

^ Nah, that is helpful! This is what this topic is about, I guess. =D I agree with the "A Kiss for the Petals" series is more like a nukige than a standard VN with more plot. It was short and cute, so I didn't mind.

I was also curious and did some research myself, using the Visual Novel Database. Sadly, since they're user edits, I can't vouch for it being 100% accurate. I searched for both shoujo-ai and yuri. Adult content will be marked accordingly.

Anyway, here's what I've come up with:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [Upcoming]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [Upcoming]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [Upcoming]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [R18+] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [Has an all-ages and an R18+ version. Set in the same universe as The Second Reproduction]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [Upcoming]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [R18+] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [Upcoming]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [Full version upcoming]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [R18+] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] [R18+] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The first shoujo-ai route I've ever played was in Love & Order(Dorothy).It wasn't bad,but it
felt,for the lack of a better word,weird.
As for what I think - I don't mind as long as there aren't more female love interests than male ,but it's really not my thing.

I've been hearing mixed reviews about Love & Order. I'm still interested in trying it out, if only for the fact that it's a Law & Order reference. Very thin line of reasoning on my part, I know.

Thanks for the list!

And yeah A Kiss for the Petals is cute and after thinking about it I decided to play some of them again MY OPINIONS AREN'T WORTH DIDDLY SQUAT

I'd probably play a game about snails in love so I really can't say anything about the worth of a game.

Laramie Castiel wrote:I've been hearing mixed reviews about Love & Order. I'm still interested in trying it out, if only for the fact that it's a Law & Order reference. Very thin line of reasoning on my part, I know.

Curiosity should be your only reason.

If I remember correctly(it's been a while),the story was interesting,but the romance wasn't handled very well.The gameplay is basically you helping with different cases and getting praised if you do a good job.Screw up and your colleagues will start hating you forever.Once a character likes you enough you can ask him\her on a date.

I'm not surprised about the mixed reviews - it's not a bad game,but could have been a lot better.

Laramie Castiel wrote:I've been hearing mixed reviews about Love & Order. I'm still interested in trying it out, if only for the fact that it's a Law & Order reference. Very thin line of reasoning on my part, I know.

The actual ending to the game is very abrupt, which left me disappointed. I still enjoyed it though. It's not straight otome game, it has tasks for you to do for your job. Here is the demo link:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Dududu wrote:Thanks for the list!

And yeah A Kiss for the Petals is cute and after thinking about it I decided to play some of them again MY OPINIONS AREN'T WORTH DIDDLY SQUAT

I'd probably play a game about snails in love so I really can't say anything about the worth of a game.

No worries! I hope you find something that might interest you in that list. I can vouch for Gekka Ryouran Romance having one shoujo-ai route. As for Sumire no Tsubomi and Toiro Komachi, they're both contain one yuri route. Though honestly, Toiro Komachi is a pretty weak game, and the yuri route felt like it came out of the ass end of nowhere.

OPINIONS ARE WELCOME HERE YOU SILLY DEAR~ [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

LOL, then have you played Haatoful Kareshi? Pigeons in love, not snails. It's a waaay better game than it seems.

The_Cat_Lady wrote:If I remember correctly(it's been a while),the story was interesting,but
the romance wasn't handled very well.The gameplay is basically you
helping with different cases and getting praised if you do a good
job.Screw up and your colleagues will start hating you forever.Once a character likes you enough you can ask him\her on a date.

I'm not surprised about the mixed reviews - it's not a bad game,but could have been a lot better.

shymel wrote:The actual ending to the game is very abrupt, which left me
disappointed. I still enjoyed it though. It's not straight otome game,
it has tasks for you to do for your job. Here is the demo link:

Thanks for the info, guys! I'll definitely check out the demo.

After I've made the list, I realised just how little there is of shoujo-ai/yuri games targeted towards a female audience. I feel sorry for lesbian gamers that have no interest in pursuing men...

Hmm, considering I prefer no Yuri/Shoujo-ai in my otome games (friend routes are win though ^^) I seem to have a rather large history of playing such routes, lol.

The Royal trap only had 2 endings where you ended up with a girl and one of those were, from what I could see, completely platonic. The other was less so, since it was stated early that the girl was homosexual and the last scene showed them

Spoiler:

, still I'd call that pretty softcore barely shoujo-ai, there weren't any kiss scenes.

Magical Diary: Horse Hall had more clearly shoujo-ai ends, 2 complete routes (platonice friend ends available as well) and one random kiss scene. I found it amusing how nobody in universe gave a damn about anybody's sexual orientation, it was accepted as totally normal if you started dating one of your two best friends Hanako games always take a unusually open-minded approach when it comes to slash content XD

The original Queen of Darkness had some heavy yuri stuff, besides one normal route (I didn't play that route, saw just the CGs) there was also sexy BDSM torture of female prisoners and whatnot. However the remake seems to have cut those out, I didn't find any yuri in it whereas the first scene in the original game showed the heroine waking up with a random girl in her bed after a rape dream I haven't finished the game so I'm unsure though.

Chou no Doku, Hana no Kusari had Kyouko's route that I was FORCED to play through to unlock the true end. I say forced because I don't like her much ;;; She's...I dunno, blatantly sexual in a way I don't like. Though the amount was rather small, there was Yuri, mostly text-only. The FD also had some.

Kuro to Kin no Akanai Kagi didn't have any actual Yuri, but the bonus scene you get after finishing all the routes had some dream sequence where the heroine gets molested (rather happily, imo) by all the characters in the game (other than the oddball dream Onii-san but he's actually

Spoiler:

anyway so I guess it counts? lol). During that scene the heroine's best girl friend felt her up preeeeetty closely if you know what I mean.

The Alice series has Vivaldi, whom I adore as a great and funny side character and love the interactions she has with Alice as a female friend-but I never had much interest in playing her route. She only had actual routes in Heart/Anniversary in the other games she only had platonic friend events which I liked. They sometimes had slight shoujo-ai vibes in them still though, it's to be expected since Vivaldi is pretty charismatic and Alice is always fascinated by her, I remember this scene in Clover where she and Alice were contemplating how they'd marry if Vivaldi were a man and that made Alice doki doki much more compared to any guy who ever proposed to her in the games lmao However there are some crappy rose garden 3P ends in 3 of the games featuring her and I HATE THEM WITH A PASSION. I'd rather see open yuri rather thanhave OOC 3P ends since they don't make any sense, I'll stop before I
end up going in a rant XD

vocaotome wrote:
The Alice series has Vivaldi, whom I adore as a great and funny side character and love the interactions she has with Alice as a female friend-but I never had much interest in playing her route. She only had actual routes in Heart/Anniversary in the other games she only had platonic friend events which I liked. They sometimes had slight shoujo-ai vibes in them still though, it's to be expected since Vivaldi is pretty charismatic and Alice is always fascinated by her, I remember this scene in Clover where she and Alice were contemplating how they'd marry if Vivaldi were a man and that made Alice doki doki much more compared to any guy who ever proposed to her in the games lmao However there are some crappy rose garden 3P ends in 3 of the games featuring her and I HATE THEM WITH A PASSION. I'd rather see open yuri rather thanhave OOC 3P ends since they don't make any sense, I'll stop before I
end up going in a rant XD

Really? I always assumed she had full-fledged shoujo-ai routes. That's rather disappointing. She's such a good character, and she's cut out of most of the games

vocaotome wrote:Chou no Doku, Hana no Kusari had Kyouko's route that I was FORCED to
play through to unlock the true end. I say forced because I don't like
her much ;;; She's...I dunno, blatantly sexual in a way I don't like.
Though the amount was rather small, there was Yuri, mostly text-only.
The FD also had some.

I liked Kyouko, to be honest. I thought her route and ending was interesting. I especially enjoyed the writing during the final moments of her route. Maybe that's just me, though. I didn't think much of Kyouko until I went down her "path". I haven't played the FD yet, am looking forward to.

I finished one route (Jonathon's, which might make this mini-review of mine totally pointless for this topic) of Love & Order, and I gotta say, it really is just an "okay" game. The "mystery" was predictable and I hate to say it, rather uninteresting. The dating system felt robotic. They got the monotony of office work down pat, though, haha. I don't mind monotonous work, so that aspect didn't concern me. Dating sims will always end up feeling repetitive at some point. It was such a great idea, had nice art, but felt lacking.

I wish a bigger company took on Love & Order so there could have been more of practically everything- music, sound effects, hopefully better writing, give the love interests more individualistic personalities... the list goes on. I liked the "overarching mystery" idea, though. It just wasn't executed well. They could have made it similar to a multiple-route mystery or incorporated the love interest in such a way that they'd help you in different ways.

It's so disappointing because I really like the Law & Order series. I liked the reference to Jack McCoy in Dorothy McCoy, though, haha.

EDIT:
Also, in the bonus section of Love & Order, there was some reference to the creator's other game, "Sketchbook: Schoolgirls in Love and Other Assorted Heartbreak." Am I to understand that:

Spoiler:

I really like them. Most of the time it feels like the heroine fits more with her best friend than with any of the guys available haha. There's no insecurity, they trust each other, a lot of intimacy, etc.