Quite honestly, I can not see how anybody would be able to mistake this game for a "sweet, fluffy otome", not to mention "a lot of people". I certainly didn't, because it was obvious that the creators took inspiration from the Old World of Darkness, and there is a reason why it's called that and not World of Sunshine and Rainbows. I still didn't appreciate being stubbornly railroaded into disaster, especially considering that the game offers fifteen different endings.
Clearly, we have different opinions here, and that's just fine. But assuming that the discontent stems mostly from the crushed hopes of people who for some unfathomable reason excepted some saccharine dating sim completely misses the point.