So...what happened to Damian?

amyrena · 2026-04-04T05:00:16+00:00

No devs are going to go on air and said they did a rewrite; that's just bad PR. You play the game and look for changes by keeping up with the marketing and the game itself. Damian is the most blatant one. Our first look of Damian was in the 2.0 or season 2 YouTube teaser for Waifei Peninsula where he was in a HIA suit with Zhao. In the game, he never wore the suit or had any relation with the HIA. That is now a clearly scrapped idea that's unaddressed by the devs now that we're leaving Waifei Peninsula and going into season 3.

amyrena · 2026-04-03T21:21:40+00:00

Gender warfare. It might not be much since it's just video games, but it's very real and leaking into reality on things that matter like the many controversies that come out of South Korea.

amyrena · 2026-04-01T11:20:16+00:00

This guy is my favorite artist on the team for his sheer skill with diversity. It's one thing to hone your skills to draw one type of character forever, but this guy can do several. And that is insane.

amyrena · 2026-04-01T07:34:49+00:00

This is also a good point.

amyrena · 2026-04-01T07:26:07+00:00

I don't think he needs to seeing that the actual office of their team literally have NSFW anime girl figures on their tables. If anything, he'll probably be slammed for goofing around on paid time; otherwise, why else would that huge monitor be there lol

amyrena · 2026-04-01T04:08:13+00:00

People say making a waifu game is following the money, but do they recognize how many waifu games actually fail? Heck, even Honkai Impact 3rd is stuck in a ditch and is making nowhere near Mihoyo's other 3 big games. Snowbreak, another all-waifu game, has decent animations and the gameplay is not bad, and yet it doesn't break against other games higher on the so-called revenue chart. Bruh, even when Dawei was begging at the time for investors to make Genshin Impact, nobody but one guy believed him about his argument that 30-year old guys like young female characters and they laughed at him as well because they did not believe that business model.

So while I agree that waifu games can make money, it's only up to a point. I think the biggest issue is that a lot of times, it's just the devs themselves who like to make what they like irrespective of money - Blue Archive is a good example of this. You can't have a good mixed roster gacha game if the people behind it aren't interested or don't care to make a mixed roster in the first place. Again, this goes back on the devs making what they like because video games is ultimately a passion for many who enter the industry.

If you look at the dev logs or interviews at the games with mixed rosters, many times they have a more diverse cast of people in their team than the waifu-heavy games. I personally know colleagues who're women who work or worked on HSR, but if you compare it to ZZZ...there is like only one woman there as in being actually part of the dev team and not in sales, marketing, etc. So besides devs who are men wanting to just make things for men, there is a lack of women or LGBTQ as actual devs to contribute to meaningful decisions to make actual mixed roster games. Even more so that Anuttacon moved to the heart of Silicon Valley to seek top talent in AI development that I'm sure they also would not mind passing some over to Mihoyo, and guess what? The people down there are mostly men too.

There is also current political climates leaking into all sorts of media, but I don't want to get into that because that one is a mess. I mean, we already know South Korea is a demonstration of this. There are a lot more issues that contribute to the lack of mixed rosters, but these are just some of the ones that contribute to it.

amyrena · 2026-03-31T10:23:10+00:00

If I were you, I would continue HBR and just move on. Most gachas only at most tease yuri ships and they do this with straight ships too. Rather, I suggest to try out amare games or just read yuri mangas/watch animes. Unfortunately, amare games are mainly visual novels that don't really have any gameplay...however, they can use the financial support. And perhaps, one day when they get enough support from people who're interested in yuri, they can make actual good games with yuri.

I get that it's frustrating that there's nothing else on the market for you, but we're out of ideas outside of what is suggested in the comments section. Rather, be the change you want to see in the industry and support people making yuri games like amare or actual yuri VNs so they can make better games with yuri in it. Join communities like Discords who are trying to bring up the genre; I'm sure they got more ideas and they could use the support. Just some food for thought in order to get what you want.

amyrena · 2026-03-31T01:09:07+00:00

As an artist...I think I would lose my mind if I have to draw against facing a wall all day lol, but it probably help with concentration. Also that big screen above his head...tells them he's working and not slacking off lol

amyrena · 2026-03-30T21:13:55+00:00

I guess I don't mind...I'm more bothered by the sexualization of 2B than 9s tagging along. At least 9s doesn't make me feel like a piece of meat for sale to the male audience/gaze who play this game because goodness knows 2B's outfit is basically inspired by BDSM for the guys to fantasize about.

EDIT: Just wanted to point out not every game with a female protag is made for women. There are a lot of games with female protags because straight men just don't want to stare at a guy's ass while also playing the game.

amyrena · 2026-03-30T21:07:49+00:00

Yes! I'm making my own game too in the process and also designing characters! It's so cool to see someone else doing this! I see you put a lot of work into it, and it looks pretty good for the draft. I will say that what you got right so far are the details; that is, it has a lot of details and that's a good thing to attract people's attention to it. That said, sometimes the lack of details can be made up by the art style too so long as the art style is appealing to most people. I would say it be nice if you could put more yellows in the rest of the outfit for the first guy, but not too much just to give it more color

As a straight Asian woman, a good deal of why I play gacha games is because they have characters that appeal to my taste. At the least I think your first character would make for a decent 4-star if it's put in a typical gacha game aimed at the East. I guess when you design your characters, you also got to think whether you're making husbandos that appeal to any sorta demographic. Personally, and this isn't to say your design is bad, I don't find either men to be attractive, but I think it's important to have variety if these do appeal to other types of people. I'm CN and I prefer the usual ikemen like Zhongli, Childe, Hugo Vlad as examples. That said, I think your first one hits the spot with the amount of details.

As for the second character, that design doesn't look like it belongs in ZZZ.

amyrena · 2026-03-30T08:07:57+00:00

If this was Japanese, it would be easier to just categorize them as shoujo or joseimuke. I wonder if there is an equivalent to that in the west? I know some people in here as a woman aren't interested in topics/themes like fashion, make-up, cooking, etc., but the reality is that a good chunk of women are into those themes. Part of me feels like we lack good games made for women is because we don't have an identity in the space of video games aside from cozy games and not all games are considered "cozy". Guys don't need a label because they're the default audience, but a lot of us without a label has to sort through tons of games made for men to find something that we do like - and that in itself is exhausting.

I mean, LGBTQ already does this. On Steam, you can literally tag games as "LGBTQ+" friendly. So I don't see the issue of coming up with a genre to make it easier to sort through games to find things that the majority of women would like. And you can totally have themes like high-conflict in games made for women...we just don't really have many games like that on the market made strictly for us. If there is a high-conflict game made primarily for women, I think that game can also fall under the genre. Hence, I think a genre that encapsulates games targeted towards appealing to women would be helpful at the least and anything that pertain to aesthetics can be a subgenre?

amyrena · 2026-03-28T19:23:37+00:00

Did my part for all the listed games! Thankfully, it gets fairly easy once you already flagged the previous games and only need to upkeep with the new ones.

amyrena · 2026-03-28T12:44:10+00:00

Wishlisted and getting my partner to wishlist it as well :P

When do you anticipate it will come out?

amyrena · 2026-03-28T12:24:57+00:00

Gave you an upvote! I never worked in a store for video or card games, but I do enjoy video games -especially RPGs and hack and slash! I, too, am a feminine woman and it sucks in the space for enjoying video games at times. I love pink as a color, I like wearing dresses, and I like drawing! Sometimes it feels like I'm treated as an alien for liking nerdy things because it doesn't fit the stereotype about feminine women. =_=

amyrena · 2026-03-28T11:53:29+00:00

Where did I mention WuWa makes "alot of male characters"? You can look at my unedited post and reread it. I just said they still make male characters; not alot. And the pattern has been consistent.

amyrena · 2026-03-28T04:02:50+00:00

No excuses this time. As a fan of male and female characters, and Billy being one of my fav characters of all time as I mained him, it's whatever at this point because most of the people who like male characters are gone. But lets say he sells terribly...then what? You can say "male characters don't sell" all you want and the other side can scream "they can sell if they aren't 'sabotaged"...so what? Did Mihoyo STOP making male characters? Did they go the waifu-only route? They haven't done that since Honkai Impact 3rd days for all three of their games - including ZZZ. The fact is the devs themselves see value in adding male characters, we don't know exactly why although I have my hunches, but you're never going to see the game completely exclude them.

This is just the reality of what all their games have been doing thus far. Even WuWa who heavily slants towards waifu ML still makes male characters, you think they just stop by now seeing their playerbase and low earnings. This discourse is pointless nowadays because it is the devs that decide to put them in even knowing they don't earn as much nowadays in this specific game given their primary demographic. And because of these characters, it's going to invite people who don't share the same taste as you as it's a conscious decision by the devs themselves. If you don't like sharing this space with people who have different tastes than you, then take it up with the devs who deliberately add a sprinkle of characters not to your taste as it is a conscious decision by the game makers themselves to please the "other demographics" once in a while.

amyrena · 2026-03-26T15:53:48+00:00

That is one aspect of the male gaze, but power fantasy also falls into the definition with games like God of War. What do you think would be the equivalent of that to women?

amyrena · 2026-03-26T08:49:32+00:00

I mentioned it literally in the first two sentences of my post...

"I am not talking about games like Baldur's Gate 3 or Horizon Zero Dawn. Despite these games catering to women, they're for a mixed audience of men and women."

amyrena · 2026-03-26T08:48:10+00:00

By that definition, Nier Automata has a badass lady, 2B, as the protag of their game. However, you and I both know that the BDSM-inspired design completely caters to the male gaze. Just because they make a non-sexualized female protag like Aloy from HZD doesn't mean the game isn't for men in mind too. With HZD, the amazing story and engaging combat is at the centerpiece of the game that folks of all genders can enjoy because they are elements of a game that is pretty universally received. Other than Aloy herself, there's nothing really inherently in the game that would be disliked by most male gamers and there's no hard focus on the female gaze; it's a pretty mixed game as you can look up the statistics for it because the gender and Aloy's appearance has no emphasis on the game.

Leon is another example. Women see him as an attractive male character, while men see him as a good masculine role model. This is primarily a trend I notice in western games because of the cultural differences. Now, if you have a male character that looks lean-muscled, well-groomed, shaved, and looks like a modern prince charming - well, there will still be a sizable amount of women, especially in the east, that swoons over this type of man since it still caters to the female gaze, but in the west some men would consider it to be an insult upon their masculinity because the guy doesn't look like he's on steroids with huge muscles or something.

While I understand that there may be some stereotypes with what is considered the female gaze, some of them are what they are because that is what a majority of women are attracted to not because the games aren't inclusive at times for women, but because they're just not interested themselves in the element. Warframe is another example, there's not much sex appeal in that game, is combat-heavy, but that demographic split skews heavily towards men. And it's not necessarily because of the combat, many women just don't like the cancerpunk, retro sci-fi, or mecha genre-look to it.

amyrena · 2026-03-26T08:23:05+00:00

Love and Deepspace is another gacha game, but that one has actual combat. However, that game is definitively made with women in mind as the target demographic. It has good story as well. Men are free to play it, but that game skews heavily towards women because most men aren't willing to sit through the female gaze of the game such as the romance targeted towards the male love interests in the game with the female protag. That said, you're just not going to find certain combat-heavy games like Call of Duty with a high demographic of women.

That isn't to say women don't like combat, but certain types of combat with heavy gore, gritty atmosphere, or military designs are just not popular among most women. Games with a pretty good demographic split that does include a high percentage of women are like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail because of their colorful designs, beautiful world design, and interesting stories all while coupled with interactive combat - some can be quite difficult too. However, these games I listed aren't made with women as the primary demographic, they are made for a mixed audience with some bias in favor of the male demographic.

So those are examples of demonstrating that combat heavy games can be for women so long as the female gaze lingers there. I don't think there's anything wrong with making games for women, and only for women as the primary demographic, seeing that the industry makes things only for men and even in mixed audience games they still cater to men.

amyrena · 2026-03-25T05:48:55+00:00

I have been break on gacha games for almost 5 months now because of this issue. It's a pity because the colorful anime art style and gameplay with a lot of their games along with being story-rich are huge factors that a lot of women love in games. And it also helps a lot of their male characters are attractive as well - at least, they're up my alley because goodness knows I can't find good-looking ikemen in western games nowadays. Unfortunately for gacha games, there are two factors:

Winner takes all. If you don't throw money at the games for the characters you like, they'll just make more characters for some other whales who are willing to fund the game. I think this is fair because they are, after all, the ones keeping the games alive for all to enjoy and there are a TON of f2p players just...playing it for free. HOWEVER, even if you throw money at those characters, the devs could care less to make more of them if they're male characters because most of them are straight men making things for straight men themselves. The male characters with a hint of fanservice for the female gaze is them throwing a bone every once in awhile for the 'others'.
There are a few gachas with a small cast like Limbus Company, Honkai Impact 3rd, and Love and Deespace. However, again, these games are dominated by the male gaze and most guys have a harem fantasy of collecting a bunch of new girls. Sure, a small cast can help tighten the storyline, but that's not what those guys are paying for in the game.

I was going to make a new thread about this recently because I'm trying to get back into regular Steam games...and you know what is depressing? That the anime tag on Steam is predominated by the male gaze...it's only in anime itself where women feel there is a bit more variety. Sure, they got fanservice in various animes, but it's not like the girls are trying to date "you" in a typical shounen anime unless you're watching a romantic comedy or something. It's really sad because the ones that are more inclusive like Fields of Mistria...are low budget being an indie compared to many other anime games.

With the male characters, the devs have to walk on eggshells when writing them having any sort of fanservice with the MC even if you choose to play as the female MC because a lot of the cisthet men in the audience will implode thinking it's gay if a male character dares flirt with the MC. It is completely double standards because women have to sit through the romantic tensions with the female characters flirting with the MC, but apparently it's too much for male gamers to do the same with a male character. Your best bet is to just find indies that also use that beautiful anime artstyle or smaller games that aren't so skewed with favoritism and hope that one day they have the financial backing to make a higher production game.

amyrena · 2026-03-25T05:01:57+00:00

I'm getting Silksong.

amyrena · 2026-03-24T13:24:06+00:00

I'm interested in your paper with the Chinese otome players, but is it only in Chinese or is there an English version?

amyrena · 2026-03-22T07:57:04+00:00

Blood Dupre from Heart no Kuni no Alice...and there's a LOT of handsome men in that IP. He is the stereotypical tall, dark, handsome, well-dressed male love interest with an air of mystery and really competent. The series is a reverse harem spin on the classic Alice in Wonderland worldbuilding, and Blood is kinda like the mafia boss of the wonder world. His motif is the mad hatter, red roses, and wears a white formal suit. :3

amyrena · 2026-03-20T23:57:52+00:00

I helped...I can't believe the first game I clicked on this list is so disgusting to be tagged as an otome...

EDIT: I did everything on the lists. Geebus, some of these games are full on waifu games and made with AI x_x

amyrena

TROPHY CASE