I get what
Zedire is saying, this whole thing you posted is kind of the problem being mentioned. With this fact (it was discussed before, and I know the voice actors don't want to touch anything 18+ with a ten foot pole, but...), why did they make such a deep, life delving game like this, where we know we're going to become adults with the LI, we're going to be romancing the LI, know we can marry the LI, and not expect us to want to have sex with the LI? The fact that they employed child voice actors who does not want adult games associated to them sounds a lot like they never really thought they were ever going to do sex, ever, so weren't bothered by these restrictions, until they "grew used to the idea", since an 18+ content was created.
What I'm saying is, there's
plenty of voice actors who
can, and
will, pull off child voices, and also accept being associated with a adult content; but they didn't seek those people out when developing OL. I'm sure, in the beginning, they just did a casting call, and the people who showed is who we have, then when the topic of adult Cove having a sex scene was decided (likely years later), they asked these said voice actors, who they already hired, and these voice actors rejected the request (or already explicitly made clear they were never going to touch 18+ content), so they're locked out of every considering making such "canon".
To follow along with the above statements, OL is
revolutionary in it's story telling, it's a VN
life sim that follows not only a human growing from child to adult hood, but the developing romance one can have along that growing process; regardless of plot, it's hands down the best romance game we have right now
(prove me wrong). Dating, love, and sex is an integral part of a romance, yet GB Patch implemented the dating, the love,
but not the sex. Okay, sure, fine, but then years later, they decided they
will introduce sex??? and a large majority of their fans showed a desire for it, so they prove that sex isn't something they, themselves, wants to avoid, but more like just hadn't experience writing it until now.
And that's a damn shame, if only they came to this revelation before they hired these bashful VAs. (No hate, they're lovely, but I hope in the future we can live in a world that won't stone them for their choice in career genres...)
Of course, GP Patch is allowed to grow and make mistakes (not "mistakes", per se, more like "not think of everything"), they're an indie developer, and creators of all kinds learns something new everyday, but, and I've said this before, it feels like they had a "fear" of doing explicit sex, to not scare the "sensibilities" of their customers (that, or, like most developing writers, wasn't comfortable with smut themselves yet), and not because of any voice actors (of course, now with the said VAs hired, this is the case, but if they thought of sex in the early stages, they could have avoided hiring VAs with this damnable restriction).
If only we could approve of nudity and sex as much as we approve of violence and horror, we'd have less people thinking sex scenes are a taboo that even the most matures of games have to write as fade to black. (I can do a whole rant about the acceptance of gore or national TV over a naked body)
I agree with you on this, yes, as I stated at the top of this post, for some reason, people think sex is
so tAbOo~, you can't even make a game with a married couple having an explicit sex scene if they have children that will ever be integral to the plot and/or visible at any point. Well, in my country you
can, but as you say, a lot of people
steampatreonapplestoreetc. will throw such a stink about it, you won't get many sells, if you can even find a platform to sell it on! I agree to theorize that the 18+ content will also stay separate, just to keep the "purity" of the main game (this, if the VAs were not a problem, also).
To your second paragraph, once again, I think I believe what
Zedire meant, not to put words in their mouth, but I think they're not saying "romance must have sex in it", I think they're saying "sex is a factor of romance", and if anyone is going to do an introspection of coming of age, sex can (and often
is) a vital part of it, so to not represent it is not only disingenuous to our current society, but also a false fantasy that seems glaringly obvious in it's avoidance of it. Picture a story like this, but no one ever feels sad, they're just happy and satisfied all the time; it smells like fluff.
I'm not saying
every adolescent has had a sexual awakening (it would make me a hypocrite, of course), but I'm sure every single adolescent, of puberty age, if not severely abused and/or locked in a closet, have experience a sexual
scenario of some sort, and had to contemplate their understanding of the situation; from the barest of example of learning sex-ed, to actually exploring it themselves, and
everything around, backwards, and in between!
Now, in OL's defense, I've seen the game try to portray this:
Talking to Cove about your sexual and romantic preference; your mothers discussing Cove's "bad" influence (indicating they needed to "watch" you around him); flirting on the vacation; making him share the bed at his mother's house; sneaking into his room; etc. (I may have forgotten a few), these are examples of dipicting adolescent sexual expression, you, the viewer, can interoperate them as you wish, but they are moments for you to see an "underlining" meaning that may imply "
sExXx~". I like it, and I'm grateful, but I wish they could just be a
teensy bit bolder, and played around a little bit more with sex scenarios.
Example, how many of you have a "first time seeing 'porn'" story? How many of you were under the age of 18 for said story? Where's the "birds and the bees" talk? The wet dreams/the menarche experience? Wouldn't an unwanted erection (penis havers)/someone pointing out a bra strap(breast havers) scenario be embarrassingly realistically interesting? Where's the confiding in Cove that you wonder/know how babies are made? None of this is inappropriate to explore with adolescents, I see this all the time, even in PG-13 fictions with young protagonists. Sometimes people are afraid of "crossing the line" that's not even there (don't let minors be nude and/or have sex, and you're safe), sometimes people aren't thinking about these experience because "we don't mention our unmentionables and privates".
I, for one, think we should start mentioning it.
