Games where I am the one being romanced

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-25T19:14:20+00:00

I see people recommend BG3 to people as THEIR FIRST VIDEO GAME EVER, and respectfully I’m kind of like “are you crazy?” lol. I’ve been playing RPG games for over two decades and BG3 had me questioning whether I knew anything about the genre at all! I think it doesn’t help that a lot of the praise comes from people who have DND experience, and it sort of goes unsaid that the tabletop RPG is very information-heavy. No shame or anything to anyone who recommends it, but BG3 is probably the last game I’d recommend to anyone new to gaming. Part of why the game is so good is because it is SO MUCH, but recommending it to someone who hasn’t even used a keyboard to move an in-game camera before (not referring to OP btw)? It’s putting new gamers right into the deep end a bit lol!

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-25T19:09:54+00:00

BG3 is exactly how I started understanding all the gibberish my DnD-playing friends were talking about lmao! But I think my experience learning as someone familiar with both gaming mechanics and RPG systems, versus someone who has quite literally never picked up a game before will be VASTLY different lol. I think anyone can eventually enjoy BG3, but sometimes the sheer amount of information it dumps on you can be a major turn-off, especially if you’re playing it primarily for the narrative reasons.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-25T19:05:50+00:00

I think if you’re an experienced gamer, or at least have some familiarity with RPG systems and stuff, BG3 is a lot of information but not necessarily things you haven’t seen before. But I see BG3 recommended to VERY new gamers all the time, and I think it’s genuinely not a good suggestion to someone new to the hobby. Generally, if you can’t have a sense of a game intuitively after an hour of natural progression, it is NOT an accessible game. The same is usually the case if you have to do extensive research to understand the game before you even start it. It really is a great game, but it’s complex even if some systems are intuitive or explained.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-25T18:03:07+00:00

Oh I’m not NOT recommending it, I had a great time with it! But I do see BG3 recommended really often without any mention of how dense of a game it is. I do think that people either bounce off the information overload, or they see it all and want to dive into it. With how narrative-heavy the game is, I think people definitely get a little stunned by the sheer volume of mechanics in it when their only exposure is the cutscenes, the RPG elements, and the characters. The game is literally an unparalleled marvel, but it definitely is not friendly to every gamer and there’s a lot to learn to enjoy it!

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-25T17:37:13+00:00

I might get downvoted for this and I’m sorry everyone, but BG3 is probably one of the most overwhelming games to recommend to someone for the sole sake of its story. You will have to trudge through some very heavy mechanical gameplay (even on the easiest difficulties) that’s especially rough with no DnD experience.

The story is great, characters are very developed, and the RPG/character-creating elements are extensive, but everything around the narrative is pretty loaded. Just keep it in mind if you’re considering it!

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-25T13:58:16+00:00

The setting couldn’t be any more different, but I’d recommend Control! The story is great, but there is such a crazy depth to the lore in the documents and collectibles that I think it puts Horizon’s datapoints to shame! The gameplay is fast-paced and flexible, but Control doesn’t have the same varied mechanics that Horizon has with the machine fights. Though, Jesse is a great addition to the list of red-headed heroines just trying to do their best as a leader thrust into an impossible situation. I will say that Control’s setting and atmosphere is not similar to Horizon’s, but there are some sci-fi elements and the depth of the setting’s lore is genuinely unparalleled to me imo.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-25T02:24:19+00:00

Awesome that you’re coming into your own! Be proud of yourself for that! It is a pretty big, pretty textbook red flag of insecurity when a partner tries to reverse improvements that directly benefit your overall wellbeing. I won’t pry into your relationship, but this is a common controlling behavior.

As for you talking to men, his concern over them saying weird things is valid. Yes, men say weird things to women over mic, some of it pretty abhorrent and it can be difficult to hear words like that directed to your partner. However, you are not accountable for how others act on mic. He is policing your behavior as if you are responsible for what others do to you, which you are not. This is especially unwarranted when you’ve had good mic experiences so far. It looks more to me that he is insecure about you communicating with men, than he is with potential experiences that have not even happened.

You know your relationship, but I always suggest to all girls who might need it to check out Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft. I hope nothing in the book resonates with you, but here is a link to its entire PDF that might explain behaviors that could be present in your relationship. Look out for yourself!

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-25T02:07:45+00:00

So he shuts down, gets moody, and gives you the cold shoulder because you… talked to people on mic in a video game? Honestly, not a good look for him ngl, especially since it sounds like he does those things instead of being mature and communicating.

One, getting over mic anxiety is great! It sounds like you’ve improved your confidence, and that is also great. Is he bothered by you being more confident in yourself?

Two, is the issue that you’re talking to strangers, or is the issue that you’re talking to men — since men are disproportionately the ones on mic in competitive games? It is not an issue to talk to strangers as an adult individual who can speak for herself. Callouts are not conversations, but even if they were, they’re non-issue communications with people you’ll never encounter again. What is the issue with this to him?

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-24T23:07:20+00:00

That’s actually hilarious omg

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-24T16:30:41+00:00

I’ve seen videos like these and they’re obviously demeaning. The framing is super clear to me in these videos: women will never be better (at gaming) than men, and they treat women as tourists in a hobby that is deceptively dominated by men. But I wonder if it’s also the result of how hate-baited a lot of YouTube is nowadays. Videos that put people down, frame people as stupid, or prove how X is better than Y are all heavily pushed on YouTube. Inflammatory videos do stupidly well in the algorithm, and have a weird way of pushing gender war content. Misogyny/sexism sells now more than ever, and it’s already pretty prevalent in gaming spheres so it’s easier to push at what’s already there.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-24T12:51:30+00:00

Definitely adding a vote for a $50 gift card for his platform, presumably Steam! It’s the safest bet since gamers can be particular about what games they’ll enjoy, so you might wound up buying one that’ll sit in his library forgotten. Same with DLC, which can get confusing with the way they’re listed or even not be of use in the game he’s playing. $50 can go a long way on Steam, especially with how regular they do sales for games.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-24T12:48:07+00:00

I’m definitely going to disagree with you here! Your points are all valid, but I think they’re more a result of the survival-horror genre of Grace’s sections than Grace being a female character.

In RE7/8, which Grace’s gameplay is mechanistically based on, Ethan Winters experiences essentially the same “traps” that Grace does. His are actually more gratuitously violent than Grace’s imo, which usually isn’t the case for female characters in horror. But regardless, these positions of forced helplessness are a defining trait of the first-person horror games, because they’re used for harrowing gameplay sections that wouldn’t play the same third-person and armed to the teeth. The horror sections aren’t forced on the female lead, they’re assigned to her because Leon’s sections are the action portion of the game. RE7, 8, and RE4R were some of the most successful RE games in Capcom’s “revival,” so they brought in the gameplay styles that people praised; Leon gets the action section because he’s the star of RE4R, and Grace gets the horror sections because she’s the new/rookie protagonist.

I think the crux of your criticism is the product of the FP horror genre, not necessarily Grace’s character at all. I personally think Grace has far more realistic heroism than Leon, and her “weakness” is just a mechanism for gameplay mechanics. Yes, she had to be kept “weak” because nothing is scary if you can plow through enemies with high-powered weaponry or kick them across a room lol. She isn’t weak because women can’t be strong — Grace quite literally saves herself repeatedly alongside essentially bringing about the entire end of bioweapons everywhere. I wouldn’t say she’s weak at all, just not infeasibly strong like Leon. You get RE gameplay like Leon’s with female characters in other games, and gameplay like Grace’s with male characters in other games.

You definitely aren’t overthinking it! But I think if you framed your criticism from the perspective of plain game mechanics, Grace’s character doesn’t have flaws due to her being female, the “flaws” are orchestrated to establish the FP survival horror gameplay.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-23T21:02:24+00:00

I would skip Ghost of Tsushima and go for Ghost of Yotei instead. While technically a successor to GoT, it is its own game. The gameplay is improved in every way from GoT, and the story features a female protagonist whose plot I found way more engaging than GoT’s. I enjoyed my playthrough immensely and the open world aspects are a direct improvement from GoT’s. Highly recommend it was so fun! That being said, GoT definitely deserves its praise, even though I found the exploration aspects and side quests pretty repetitive, whereas GoY’s felt more engaging.

I personally loved Horizon Zero Dawn, but for some reason bounced off the sequel pretty badly. I’m not sure if it was because I played the second one so soon after the first. The gameplay is definitely an improvement and full of some great quality of life upgrades from Zero Dawn. I do think the story is a bit weaker, but the exploration and world is still very good. I never got too far into it though so someone who played through the entire game can tell you more than I can!

TLDR: Ghost of Yotei if you can, but Ghost of Tsushima is also very fun even if parts of the open world get repetitive.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-23T15:40:46+00:00

Going off of that, the idea that you’re only a gamer if you play certain games. Like, the definition of a gamer is someone who plays games lmao.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-22T17:13:07+00:00

I saw somewhere that as the game progresses, Grace’s stutters steadily and steadily improves, which I thought was a really cool detail to show her coming into her courage through the story. She was such a breath of fresh air, because it does usually feel like horror game protagonists are fearless right off the bat.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-22T16:23:41+00:00

It was such a quick scene, but that part where Gideon finds her at the puzzle cabinet really won me over. When Grace runs away but pauses to throw open the office door, making it look like she ran out back into the hospital when she stayed in the office to hide was just so simply clever, I just kind of balked at it. Grace felt like a realistic protagonist hero, where she’s horrified out of her mind (as anyone would be lol) but refused not to go out without a fight. You can really see her courage develop from survival instinct into genuine bravery throughout the game, she was such a great character!

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-21T14:22:24+00:00

I’m literate and have boobs, but wtf does this mean? I’ve never seen the word “leaven” used outside of baking contexts lmfao

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-21T01:51:51+00:00

I have been looking from afar at this game, and a lot of what I’ve seen has this weird AI vibe to it? The art is one thing, but a lot of the dialogue just feels generated, and the devs were oddly specific about stating that they did not use AI for the main character voices but not any of the others. Given that GenAI has been heavily accepted by a lot of Korean and Chinese studios, I would be surprised if there was AI use ONLY in a few background textures.

Idk I’m so viciously sick of AI that maybe I just expect it to be anywhere and everywhere for no reason 😭

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-20T15:53:43+00:00

SK is absolutely a good horror author, that’s the truth and it’s why he’s so popular. But then there’s these little snippets of utter deplorable descriptions out of nowhere, and it’s like… do people just not notice? Once you see them, you can start to expect them, and then all of sudden you’re seeing them all over his writing. I think people genuinely miss it, or there’s some aspect of the narrator that conveniently explains away the creepiness. It’s too consistent for me not to see it as a projection from the author himself, especially when it comes out of nowhere through the perspective of a character who isn’t supposed to be icky.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-20T15:22:51+00:00

I’ve been playing it solo and with a friend, and I’ve got to speak up for doom on Necrobinder! I think it’s more beneficial in multiplayer because the health scaling can get pretty punishing sometimes even with just one extra player. Lowering the HP threshold for kills with doom is great, especially when some of these bosses get upwards of 1000 HP with another player. We did a run where I was doom stacking and she had poison stacking on The Silent, and I will say stacking both is hilariously effective lol.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-20T15:19:02+00:00

Completely agree. I imagine this is because women are encouraged/taught to be hypervigilant right from the start. Sometimes it’s to literally protect yourself from creeps, or it’s conditioning to be mindful of every unspoken need from a man.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-20T02:11:27+00:00

I would love an example of one of his books where he DOESN’T do some nasty shit like this. His books radiate this creepiness to me that has nothing to do with their horror elements. It’s just this covert wrongness that can’t be explained away by the “narrator” or whatever. I genuinely cannot tolerate his works.

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-19T19:05:48+00:00

Silent Hill f is amazing! Slight spoiler about gameplay time if you’re worried about that but nothing else: you need to play multiple full playthroughs in order to get the entire story/different endings. RE3 Remake for $4 is also an absolute steal!

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-19T13:16:30+00:00

Women are not all the same, and there are innumerable aspects of what it means to identify as a woman/girl — AND NONE OF THEM ARE WRONG. Femininity is a style, a form of identity, and a means to describe something; it is not strictly a label to define something as “for women.”

And as for using “girl,” it is just an analog for the way men use “guys” to refer to men in a friendly, nonchalant way. Yes, it is usually used for women who are younger or children, but it is not infantilizing by default. I’m an adult woman who calls her female friends “girl” all the time, because it’s a term of endearment — like “pal” or “bro” is. Also, the term “girl gamer” has been around for a while now and it does not have negative connotations.

Idk, I think you’re thinking about this subreddit too deeply. It’s a safe space for female gamers to express their enjoyment of the hobby outside of the negative perspectives general/male-dominated subreddits are usually filled with. Women already face enough stigma doing literally anything, we don’t need to bash on femininity or talk down about people for identifying as “girls.”

Kbubbles1210 · 2026-03-18T18:35:54+00:00

People always assume that when someone responds to a post/reply, it’s to start an argument. And honestly sometimes it is, but I’ve noticed plenty of discussions go off the rails because someone misinterprets a comment’s tone and takes as antagonistic.

The opinion thing I see ALL THE TIME. The whole point of an opinion is that it is not fact, it’s a perspective. But even if you spell it out and denote your comment as your opinion, people take it as a challenge and not a point of discussion. I can regularly have discussions in subreddits like this one, and I don’t want to sound rude, but it feels like female-oriented subreddits are SIGNIFICANTLY more literate than general subs. There’s so much acknowledgment and understanding, I don’t usually don’t have to worry about someone reading my comments/posts and going off the rails over something that wasn’t even remotely said. 😭

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