MagicalExplorer
Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim
Erotic video games—eroge—are, for the most part, chock-full of things to ridicule.
And there are plenty of reasons to lampoon them, too. Let’s start with the protagonist’s family, shall we?
Most of the time, the eroge protagonist’s parents aren’t around. Coincidentally absent. Whether it’s an excuse to have a childhood friend or little sister character wake him up every morning, or to simply turn a blind eye to how he can easily bring girls back to his room, the full explanation remains a mystery. In-game justifications for this phenomenon vary. Sometimes, his parents are away on an overseas business trip, while other times, he’s living on his own or in a dorm. Occasionally, the parents will be dead from the very start.
On top of his parents being absent, he gets to have a beautiful younger sister to take care of him, too? It sounds ridiculous, but it’s par for the course in the world of these games.
Indeed, slightly peculiar living arrangements are the norm for an eroge hero.
The things to poke fun at don’t stop at their family situation. Their special Eroge Protag Privilege ability is just as silly.
For example, in titles where the protagonist cross-dresses as a woman to attend an all-girls school, his secret will never get out for some reason. In fact, his identity stays so safe that you’ll have to assume it’s down to him having special powers or something. In one particular eroge, the main character manages to get through a whole swim class without getting found out. Though, in that case, a ghost attends the class in his stead, so it’s bit more understandable.
Right, a ghost takes his place. Of course the truth wouldn’t get out. Makes total sense.
All that being said, however, the story will commonly play out with his identity getting discovered with such contrived timing that you’ll be shouting at your screen. The wig tightly secured to the main character’s head during an intense gym class easily slips off in a scuffle with one of the heroines later on.
Oh yeah, a tussle with a heroine will do that. Very reasonable.
Not to get too off topic, but to the average person, the entire premise of Guy Dresses as Girl and Attends an All-Girls High School would be extremely unusual and difficult to accept. In the world of eroge, however, it’s so normalized that even the most casual of fans can immerse themselves in this scenario free of skepticism. Only those truly new to the genre will find this strange at all.
Another example of Eroge Protag Privilege is the hero’s high popularity.
Beautiful women flock to the main character like moths to a flame. Pretty little sisters and stepsisters affectionately refer to him as big bro. A gorgeous childhood friend comes to wake him up every morning without permission, only to recoil and slap him in embarrassment after throwing off the covers to reveal his morning wood. An elegant student council president, gifted with superb intellect and the beauty to match, turns meek and modest when the sex scene comes around. Don’t forget the petite, baby-faced teacher who clearly looks like a kid despite having graduated college. They’ll all convene around and lust after a guy who lacks any redeeming qualities outside of a basic degree of cordiality. These girls must all be succubi or something. Or maybe the protagonist is actually an incubus?
Granted, it’s not just the main character who’s abnormal—the same goes for his potential partners, too.
Lovey-dovey heroines with speech patterns that would be an instant turnoff in real life. Girls skilled enough in combat to baffle a professional martial artist. Housewives who look just as young as their high-school-aged children. Heroines. Who look. Like. Elementary schoolers.
However, no matter how young the girls may look, the games make sure to include a disclaimer reading All characters appearing in this game are over the age of 18, so that the esteemed gentlemen playing can choke their chickens free from worry.
The stories in these games are similarly screwy. Even when put up against the narratives of TV shows, anime, or manga, eroge are on a completely different level.
Here’s a good example: In one game, a male protagonist lives with his father and his siblings, all of whom are male. A men-only household, in other words. Next to them is a home where a mother lives with her daughters. So a women-only household. Now, the father of that house full of men wants a daughter more than anything in the world, and the mother next door in the women-only household wishes she had a son. The two parents rack their brains before they have an epiphany—
—yup, they swap a son with a daughter.
Totally reasonable for an eroge. A brilliant plan, really—brilliantly foolish. Just like that, the main character is traded away and suddenly ends up with his own harem.
Genre buffs would probably eat it up, praising the wonderful narrative setup. The average person, on the other hand, would probably be left wondering who came up with such a contrived plot device.
The same thing holds true for that title from earlier where the protagonist disguises himself as a girl. A harem gets dropped into his lap. While I can’t speak with authority on the subject, there are also eroge known as nukige that prioritize sexual content above all else. This subgenre features overly lewd scenarios that even veteran players might find hard to stomach.
To make a long story short, eroge exist in a kind of exaggerated version of reality, where common sense doesn’t hold true.
Even if you ended up in that reality, outside of a select few titles, you wouldn’t have any problems as long as you were the main character. He’s the center of the eroge world and extraordinarily popular, after all.
But what if you found out that you weren’t, in fact, the center of that universe? One wrong move, and that fantasy could turn into hell itself.
“Oh no, you gotta be kidding me…”
The image reflected in the mirror was both me and not me. Or rather, I should say that the person in the mirror moved exactly how I wanted him to but didn’t look like me.
To top it all off, I had seen his mug before…
“This is totally that eroge protagonist’s…loser friend who’s always hanging around…!”
I collapsed to my knees.