There are a few things that come to mind when I look at the title of the post. I'm not super far into the game, I'm at the confrontation between June and the Mc when he finds out their royalty, so maybe it gets better. I mean it in a genuinely nice way, but I somewhat doubt it? Just to point out a few things, you're constantly being saved by everyone around you. I can understand on a base level, you're a prince/princess and sheltered. But it just makes me feel like no matter what options I pick, I'm forced into being extremely frail and small, despite both my actual self and invisioned self being on the taller, larger side. Even if Damon gives you a knife, there's no options to use it, or even just threaten someone with it. Then also the whole moment where you shout at June for wishing death on your father/family. Don't get me wrong, I get why a lot of people would choose the option if it was one, but I don't like it personally. From a character perspective, all I've heard about my father is that he's horrible. Literally making so many lives worse due to his rulings. And from the memories I uncovered, he's barely even a father to me. Both me and the only member of the family I cared about disliked him. I've even actively spoken out against him, even if I'm not fully decided on my opinions. I have literally said that he got what he deserved (or something similar enough) to Aya. But now I'm yelling at June, despite knowing he's been hurt, and that people in his life suffered due to my father?? Just feels stupid.

This is less of an issue than the top part, but I can also feel, as a guy, this was made for female players. Nothing wrong with that, don't get me wrong, but it makes a little jarring to me personally. I won't go into every time somethings happened to this affect, but I'll give one or two. One is all the times the male characters offer you their hands. I'm all for guy friends to be able to hold hand, but I don't think it's wild to say that it was put in there with a female player in mind? There's also the creep hitting on you at the bar and not taking no for an answer. Don't get me wrong, resident homosexual(Bi but same difference) here, it doesn't bother me that this dude both likes men and is a creep. It just feels like something, again, written with a female player in mind. I don't want to be misunderstood so I'll say again, no issue with that whatsoever. I'm sure there are plenty other games with a male mc in mind, even if you can play as any gender. But I'm just saying, some dude hits on me and doesn't take no for an answer, I'm swinging then and there. Hell, if I had a knife on me like the mc does if you accept it from Damon, I'm pulling that out right away.

These opinions are probably just me, but feel free to send messages agreeing or disagreeing. Again, I want to say that I love Andromeda 6. I bought it like three years ago and have played it a little every now and then. Was ages since my last time playing so I barely remembered anything though admittadly. Regardless, it's a great game and I say these things with no hate in mind, I just want to talk about my experience with the game.

I agree with you re: male characters. The story and romantic elements are written as if you are a female protagonist regardless of if you are or not, with the exception being if you romance Ryona or Aya as an actual female protagonist. Then you become very male-coded very quickly. I think the story could easily be reworked so you could choose to be a reserved, gentle, submissive protagonist or an outspoken, rough, dominant one, regardless of player gender selection (easily reworked as in the story structure is already good so changes wouldn't break it - not that it wouldn't be a labour intensive task). 

I agree so much! I love A6 but I didn't really like how I was forced into being technically defenseless throughout the majority of the game even as a dude who I also envision as really tall. And I have to TOTALLY agree about the father one, I didn't get why we yelled at June either if our father wasn't really much of a parental figure to us. I hope that we get more options in the future, as I heard that they are adding some more options into first episodes. 

I think this is a very helpful, honest, and accurate review. Disclaimer: I’ve only played the demo before deciding the full game wasn’t for me. But I did so because, after reading the game devs’ Tumblr and playing the game, I could tell this game was meant for people who wanted to play as a very meek, submissive, damsel-esque character. Even playing as a woman, I felt restricted in how I could act and the relationship dynamics in this game, so I can’t imagine how it feels for people of other genders. That is, unfortunately, how most otome games are structured - for a submissive, heterosexual, female protagonist- but it’s appreciated when there’s more flexibility, in my opinion. I believe this game was originally marketed as for an LGBTQIA+ audience, and while I don't see that anymore (?), there definitely are some issues with that tag. This is something I think anyone wanting to play a queer or non-traditional romance dynamic in this game should read first.

There can be very restricted dialogue and limited branching (if any) in VNs . I defitely rage quit this one a couple times, and I remember being really put off by a particularly egregious moment (a very weird conversation after nearly being sold by a certain character) that was quickly patched, that I think tripped up a fair few players (and is still not very satisfying imo). 

I played the game mostly out of curiosity, as the concept had so much potential - Anastasia x space politics, 'what's not to love?' I thought - but I found I could only continue by constantly reminding myself that the MC wasn't anything like me, and that I was reading a set story and character. My feelings towards events and dialogue were rarely represented in the game, and there were times when I had to wonder if anyone would identify with them, and if so, what kind of person would they be? Obviously someone a lot younger and forgiving than me lol. 

All I can think is that the author(s) had a very specific vision for the main character, namely: 

1. they would not be a traditional protagonist, so to speak, in the story (little or no driving the action and solving problems)
2. they would be mentally quite young, sheltered, and emotionally unguarded
3. they would be an empathetic and passive lens through which to view the characters and events 

All of which admittedly has an unfortunate "submissive/ conservative feminine" flavour to it :/

It definitely was not to my taste, and I lament that these are quite popular traits to assign a VN MC, probably in an attempt to make things simpler all round, and I can think of multiple games where at least one of these applies. In contrast, the most memorable and satisfying protagonists for me tend to be people that solve problems and contribute on their own merit, not because they're necessarily powerful or destined, but because they have smarts and grit. Even better if they're at least a little bit odd in some way.

Hello, and thanks for your feedback!

While we are fairly limited by how many choices we add into the game, and we do have a base "personality" to keep in mind for the MC, the earlier episodes are on our list of tasks for major editing and extending. Episode 1 and the first half of Episode 2 have had some editing work done, which is reflected in the latest update, but we have plans to continue working on these before the final release. We have a very small team, so while this is being worked on alongside the Episode 10 update, we do expect it to take some time.

We know that A6 is not to everyone's taste, which is to be expected, but hopefully the edits will improve on the story and add some more varied choices, especially in the earlier episodes. We will also keep in mind how MC's gender is presented throughout the game and focus on improving this, and as we work towards our more in-depth character creator we're hopeful we can achieve this. 

Overall, we are incredibly proud of Andromeda Six and MC's journey and development throughout the story, and we feel that the most recent episode really shows how far MC has come :)

Thanks for the topic, feeling very seen rn (although, i am neither masc nor tall). Also am in agreement with myorangepeel's, pratprat06's and Jelly_Fish_Field's contributions. Wish I could upvote, but I can't so I'm commenting.

I like the concept of A6 and love when there are options to play non-humans in SFF genre games (it's actually a huge gripe I have when playing games that have other sapient people besides humans and there isn't the option to play through that lens), but that's sort of where the OC customization felt like it ended. 

I also found myself thrown out of the experience by the lack of agency (both as the player and for my imagined characters) and when the writing conflicted with previous choices I made, e.g. also chose to not like the king and was then baffled by the MC yelling at June. The RO routes are doing the heavy lifting when it come to possible replay value, which for me ended up mostly renaming the MC and then skipping through until those scenes, and that didn't feel satisfying at all. Which makes the "meaningful choices" tag ring false to me.