Robert is best boy and I'll tell you why in a second
Realistically? They will be a repeat of approaching Jess and compared to Lena there isn't much 'variety' you can mix in to spice up his potential hook ups without having to tap into weird unrealistic scenarios. Proximity/history really matters to make Ian's encounters feel 'interesting' and rewarding to pursue as a player. If Louise was just a random bitch Ian meets at the pub instead of Lena's close friend and Jeremy's 'ex', nobody would give a fuck about that encounter.
Alison and Holly aside, Ian doesn't have any other character that was in love with him from the get go and while most girls have heart options with him, it takes investment for it to actually devolve into a relationship with them.
As for whether it breaks character design or not: there's a fine line between making a character 'realistic' with some healthy ego preservation in mind and making him REAL. Extremely attractive male MC who does have it easy by virtue of looking good won't be relatable. Average looking MC with average looking male experience won't be rewarding to play as.
'grounded' implies the character is reasonable. A woman like Lena can stumble on bodybuilders, guys with big ass dicks and millionaire sugar daddies, but it's still really fucking rare. Lena found every trope in a month. A IRL version of Ian can have a similar dating experience as his in-game counterpart, he just won't be getting 8 baddies including his married boss, a successful bookwriter and 2 literal models in the span of a month.
- "Proximity/history really matters to make Ian's encounters feel 'interesting' and rewarding to pursue as a player. If Louise was just a random bitch Ian meets at the pub instead of Lena's close friend and Jeremy's 'ex', nobody would give a fuck about that encounter."
and a random fuckboy for lena is somehow more interesting?
i'm sure that nobody will throw a tantrum should john never appear on screen again, but people will still like it that john appeared in the first place. the reason for that can be many. one which is most likely the main one, is to make lena slutty.
so the reason why john appears and how interesting he is, has nothing to do what makes his encounter interesting in the slightest.
what this means is that for random bitches for ian, one would just have to write a compelling encounter for her. for example jess didn't have to be jess. she could have just been a random and new to the franchise, porn star meetup and work as impressing jeremy, maybe axel, or create drama for existing relationships of ian. there are a myriad of options that would have worked and there are still a myriad of options to include new random encounters in the future.
in all fairness proximity/history are not needed to make it interesting (at most it is your preference).
- "Extremely attractive male MC who does have it easy by virtue of looking good won't be relatable."
that's the thing. male protagonists are never relateable to me for obvious reasons.
but sure, maybe that just means i am not the target group for this game. though honestly i also never looked at lena and thought "wow! she is just like me!"
generally speaking a character will always have features you won't be able to identify yourself with. and you cannot tell me that a character becomes likeable the more akin they are to me. you don't even know if i like myself!
that's another thing i don't get. in games like MMOs some guys always argue that they can't play female characters, because they are not girls and can only play as themselves. and others can't play male characters because they rather want girl's asses bounce in front of them.
is it so bizzare to play as a character with a defined story? i never play myself in games. i am myself my whole life, why would i want in my hobby of escapism to be myself?
or looking at it from a different perspective. are games with cardboard cutout nobodies as protagonists insulting me? "here look at this entity with no character, no personality and no redeeming quality! that is basically you!" well thanks!
tl;dr: there is no reason to make the protagonist relateable to the player, as a) it is impossible to relate to every player and b) otherwise power fantasies wouldn't work ever, as for example Doom as nobody is like the doom slayer.
