When she made TINR (This Is Not Romance) I guess...
All joking aside though... I don't think you interpret the intent of Gatobob in making these games as well as you think you do... The idea that the game is intended to be some kind of enjoyment of toxic abusive relationships is... clearly not the case. It's not that Gato wanted to make a game where you play a character who is enduring a toxic relationship with an abusive and murderous person... It's primarily a horror game about being abducted and trying to survive and escape from psychopaths. While most games do include some nature of staying with or reciprocating with the abuser it's generally not considered a good or desired ending. You are not in fact intended to want your character staying with these people... You are supposed to want to escape. At least in the moment... The fanbase has made it pretty clear that many of them have the "stab me daddy" approach to the characters... Strade and Lawrence especially, but implying that that's a direct intent of Gatobob and the games are a failure because they shy away from this aspect is definitely a misread of the intent.
It's kind of like saying Silent Hill 2 sucks, because you can't get raped by Pyramid Head. There are likely many fans who would want to indulge in a fantasy of that, but that's not the intent of the game.
No, I didn't "misread" at all, my post was a complaint, not of confusion of game intent; I know this particular game is heavy on the escape, and not the staying, I'm mainly complaining about
all of Gatobob's games, and using this as an example to realizing where she's going with her work. I just remember way back when, when Gatobob was advertising Boyfriend to Death, they had this heavy hitter "opening statement"/advertisement (seen on reddit and even on their homepage, I believe?), that said something along the lines of "This is a dark romance game/don't play if you can't handle it/the point of the game is to explore psychological abuse/for people who like dark romances/Fetishes by fetishist" yadda-yadda. If you google search for any "mature/adult otome" or abusive/toxic LIs, Gatobob is as much a favored name as Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome is to porn games for women.
Now, I get just because Gatobob begun with a toxic romance game doesn't mean they have to stay that way, or didn't/can't change their narrative, I'm saying that none of their games have that feeling that it wants you to
enjoy S&M, despite being
heavily S&M and reaching out to people who likes that kink. You only get the S&M parts when you mess up, maybe one or two "soft core" (yes, I'm a little far gone) scenes to set the mood, but everything else is reserved for if you "lose" (Yes, I also know some people like losing).
Gatobob came up when Bad Ends were the popular/sane approach to enjoying toxic/kinky shit, clearly they were inspired by Japanese games that saved rape/abuse for bad endings (like Amnesia, to name a few). And I remember people were very vicious to Gatobob for even making BFTD, so of course they needed disclaimers and Safe, Sane, Consensual spaces; this is kind of a thing developed between dark topic writers, we discuss allowing "aftercare" pages/trigger warnings/and hard stop buttons (I will even do so myself, for my own dark works) so the masses don't accuse us of glorifying rape/hurting people. Just because Gatobob is very considerate and found a healthy avenue for keeping sane, doesn't mean she intended to work on shaping people's mental health and producing content that picks "the right thing to do".
IF Gatobob's games are to attract people who prefer to "escape psychopaths", they wouldn't be so heavy handed on the abuse and futility of the situation (Silent Hill doesn't advertise sexuality with Pyramid Head at all, so it's ridiculous to expect that; Gatobob lays rape by LI pretty bare, so, of course I'm expecting it.
I was asked if I was a virgin, and blond fuck really liked my answer, what else am I supposed to expect when he buys me? Little Shit didn't even take it); I get it's horror, but vanilla people who don't want the abuse couldn't even stomach Gatobob's
intros, let alone the full game, and kinky people who like the horror and abuse will be very disappointed in that you can only get the abuse when pursing failure/bad ends.
<--- that's my point.
Of course, I'm sure there's a middle ground of people that likes what Gatobob is doing, (some kinkster that loves the horror, but simultaneously wants
to cockblock it???) the world isn't black and white, different strokes and all that, but I just think the development of their games are...
off. It's strange to make an abusive, toxic, gore, dark topic game, but then have not only the playthrough, but also the endings (the prize for people who play VNs), to be narrated in
avoiding all of that delicious "abusive/toxic/gore"? In the end, it kind of makes you question why even play, if the goal is to not experience it?
Gatobob is stuck in, what I call, the "Bad Ends" trap, that's why they still make a game where there's multiple Bad Ends (with all the good kinky shit), but a few (usually 1 or 2) Good ends, with either the "Yeah, I showed that asshole" satisfaction, or the, my favorite, "Uh-oh, they still got me!" satisfaction. The point of all of Gatobob's game is to naturally fail, get your S&M kink high, then when you've learned how to play, and ready to reach the "true end", avoid all the S&M and "escape" (the path I had to take to get the end I wanted avoided majority of the horror). Making games where the highlight of abuse/violence is in failure, in a game that's valued in its abuse/violence, is what I mean when I say the intent is wrong; Gatobob clearly favors abuse/toxicity, but their games only allow me to indulge in it when I fail, making me kind of resentful at losing.
I believe the real problem is that I don't like "Bad" ends, and I don't like failure; I find that many "Bad ends" even the "good ones" are... lackluster. I don't play my VNs to reread/skip through already played content, to try and "solve the case", I play my VNs to enjoy the story, and for the romance (I understand that this particular game may not have had romance in mind). I don't want to replay games, I want to make choices and enjoy that my choice gave me a satisfactory end (I play romance VN for the relationship dynamic/buildup, not the adventure). Gatobob's games are design for you to flounder and replay, it's sort of impossible for anyone to ever get those 2 "good" endings on their first play through (I clearly used a walkthrough, because I know Gatobob likes random events, and throwing curve balls), and if you did
magicallycheatingly get the good ending on the first run, the story turns very mundane, as now all the abuse/violence has been avoided.
My point is, making a horror game that stimulates S&M, then saving the S&M for "Bad Ends" feels like a subvert of the kink; I played the horror to get the horror, I didn't play it to avoid it. I'd
avoid it to avoid it. Making the kink something players regret picking kind of tells the player to regret that kink, and I know Gatobob likes S&M/abuse fantasy, so why would she encourage avoiding it? Or, at least, that's how it reads to me. (I get it if other people don't pick up on this)
BTD2 is the only game of hers that I actually felt like it rewarded you with S&M, and not punished you; plus all the endings were satisfying to me, reaching them had equal part horror in it (I think the truly "bad" ends were achieved by just being absolutely obstinate, and boring the psychopath to
your death). Even the escape end still gave you the experience of the abuse. Obviously I only played Derek in this game, so I don't know how Celia and Mason go in their endings, but from what I heard of other comments, I'm not too far from the money on them being just like Derek. (I'll be playing Mason a little later... just... disappointed...)
I know this is out of order
, but I'll go check that TINR comic out, I really do love Gatobob, and have been following them for years, but I hadn't checked up on their website in a long while, and didn't know they had more things, I didn't even know they were making THIS game, (last time I looked, long long ago, they were working on some "Doll" game...? That was supposed to be their special baby, or something? Did their website change? I know their little group split, or something...). I did remember they had a comic going, but totally forgot in waiting for its update, thanks for the reminder!
I get you are disappointed that this game is not what you wished to be. But the others already said, it's not cause the dev "cant", but they do not wish to go that way.
I don't know Gatobob well, but from the little bit I learnt from this game, the dev care very much about mental health - there NEEDS to be an "escape" to these degenerations one way or another (even "happy" ending), it even mentioned in-game that if you feel unwell at any point you need to close the game.
That aside, I'm pretty new to this type of games (escape or not), are there any others that are finished / highly developed, that males are not in YAOI style?
Only heard of "Love Lock", but it's very far away from finished.
Yah, my big rant is above, I get what you're saying, but my complaint isn't that I'm saying they "can't", I just believe that Gatobob is stifled from indulging in a true yandere game (I use the term yandere, because it encompasses my meaning to love the psycho); maybe it's not what they want, that's fine, but it's feels misleading. Just as a recap, I remember hearing posts from Gatobob about finding the courage to post dark romances, I believe she even said people gave her shit for BFTD (I remember internet articles/posts freaking out over the game, and it really isn't even that bad); people really do give you shit for your kinks and fantasies, I'd know, I'm kin with Gatobob in this. Even I once imagine making a game where you get to "escape"/"stick it" to the abuser, from fear of the masses booing me off the stage; now in my maturity, I don't give a fuck, I love Yanderes, and I'm proud game developers have come this far to not shy away from making them.
I'm not blaming Gatobob for satisfying all parties, if she wants to add an escape to her games, that's fine and dandy, I don't want to take that away, I'm saying that the narration focuses on the escape, and not on the kink, even though the game is more satisfying in the kink; I feel she put more energy in "killing" the abuser, than being "abuse" by the abuser, and I'm disappointed (like, really, I felt giddy for the rape, and MC
only get mouth raped, once, I know it's primitive, but
give me that PIV; my kinky ass instantly thought "tsk,
weak~"; tis why I listed those games that focus on riding that high.
Onto your request, gosh, I wish I could list all my old games, I have them stored on my PC somewhere (might of deleted a few), I'll have to go through them to really find them to recommend; but to be completely honest, what you're looking for doesn't exist... yet. Most games like Love Lock is still being developed, and may very well be abandoned for all I know.
Plus, almost all the games I've played doesn't have erotica in it, either the characters are sex-less, like some damn kids cartoon, or you get a "fade to black"; I do recommend looking at
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stuff, they're the best in Yandere/crazy romances. The tone is a little cliche/basic, but it's fun if you don't mind on the nose content. Also, if you haven't, check out
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other works, they're in the same vein as this game, so don't expect much, but Gatobob got the erotica for sure. Most of the games I've played are old/amateur stuff, that won't live up to the quality of Gatobob, or even Love Lock's play; I've a few Japanese game recs, but they're no where as gritty as English games, the closes I can get to is Diabolik Lovers, but don't listen to the community, it's very,
very tame (in the context of the thread we're in). Ephemeral - Fantasy on Dark's yandere is pretty... something, but it's more psychological/emotional abuse than physical, I was just impressed with how... shit that man is.
I don't know what you mean by "YAOI style", I'm assuming you mean anime/Eastern? You're going to be hard pressed to find Western art with Yandere/abusive LIs, because Westerns are still squeamish about GTA, let alone rape romances, and people who like that stuff, first find it in a Japanese medium that continues to influence them. I have a few Choice of recs (maybe 1 or 2; I will,
and I have, killed for Winter
Umf~
), and my repertoire consists of anime themes, but if you want to know more, shoot me a PM and I guess I'll try and explain my yandere collection... (hesitant because they're not really Gatobob quality).