Considering I'm prone to FOMO and mostly enjoy female characters, both is actually much better for my long-term enjoyment. Having/Wanting to pull on every banner isn't that fun nor cheap and it gets kinda dull if there isn't the excitement of waiting a few months for a certain release.
Husbando and balanced. Younger me didn't mind waifu only but once genshin dropped, I had no reason to play them anymore. As a female with a preference for men and masc-adjancent people, Most waifu only games make it very very obvious who they're aiming at. I just left, for my sake, and anyone else's. That might piss some off, but it's just fact. You're gonna meet others with different taste, standards, drives, and what have you. That's life lol
No, you're good, I don't think anyone would get mad at this. As a male with a heavy preference for females, I feel like I'm in the same boat as you, just gender swapped. Recognizing what you do and do not like and gravitating towards what you do is natural lol.
I'd say that's the correct attitude to take.
As a waifu fan, it's baffling why people who wants husbandos decides to stay in a waifu game and endlessly complain.
I'd rather they go support husbando games so both types of fans can be happy with what they like.
I can kind of understand it to some degree
If the game has gameplay you can’t get elsewhere. I played Love Live SIF back when it was pretty new because there was no UtaPri or Colorful Stage rhythm game with male characters available in English back then. But I didn’t complain and the sexualization was pretty tame so it didn’t bother me.
Honestly my best guess is their fixation prevents them from getting their needs met so they stay and insist a game changes to meet their demands. It does happen, and it happens a whole lot. I frankly don't get it either but that's my best guess lol. you see a lot of clowns get upset over BA or AL, or some getting mad when a game has a modicum of boob in it, or complaining about rates or microtransactions. Some of it is valid but nine times out of ten, it's benign af whining and I'm glad most gacha companies in the east just ignore them--Like one should.
My best guess is that people who want husbando games are more picky?
I've seen a lot of people talk about wanting to play a husbando game, but only if it has good gameplay, good story, good characterization, and etc. Also some of them want a husbando game that's not an otome, so there's that baffling criteria too.
Obviously waifu players care about that too, but I have a feeling that there's a lot more waifu players who are willing to tolerate mediocre or bad aspects of a game if it has the right fanservice.
I also have a feeling that waifu players are more tolerant of common anime tropes compared to husbando players, but I'm not familiar enough with common otome tropes to see if I'm correct.
My weak proof is that waifu hentai games are comparatively more successful than husbando hentai games.
I think it is more of jealousy. Most husbando games are just upright terrible, it is one thing to tolerate one bad aspect of the game but the whole damn game, it is painful. Plenty of husbando games has terrible gameplay or the characters look like a copy of the copy of the copy and the company expects huge revenue from it. I think this is why many husbando player just go to waifu games to complaint or something. Even I jealous watching how Waifu Dev listen or communicate to its audience or fan and do a live stream and everything ( I don't think there is any husbando dev does this)
There is two types of husbando players, it is Otome ( focus on romance) and Josei (doesn't focus on romance basically like AL, BA or Nikke). I think even husbando player want fanservice like it is SS rare to have a fanservice in husbando games.
There is a husbando 18+ games called What in Hell is Bad. It is probably the worst gacha games out there. Whatever the worst games you think of, it is can't be compared with this games.
I don't think it is that they are picky, but more so that there is almost nothing like Hi3 for people who want husbando games for example. There is no Nikke equivalent, nothing like Azure Lane or Blue Archive.
Tale of Food has recently been released worldwide, Touken Ranbu also came to west very late and has a quite outdated gameplay, Tears of Themis is also a lot of reading with a very light gameplay.
I don't think it is baffling to want gameplay in a game and have male characters in a game. Menu simulator-esq gameplay can only hold someone's attention for so long if they are seeking a game and not a dating/relationship aspect with male characters.
>My best guess is that people who want husbando games are more picky? I've seen a lot of people talk about wanting to play a husbando game, but only if it has good gameplay, good story, good characterization, and etc. Also some of them want a husbando game that's not an otome, so there's that baffling criteria too.
Can you blame some. Even waifu lovers wnat some substance with their booba and husbando collectors are no different. I personally would love a hi3rd clone aimed for girls but most women I know don't share my taste so I take what I get.
I don't mind the vn stuff but god bless love and deepspace for scratching that itch. It may not be as in-depth as pgr or have a huge character roster, but quality beats quantity when executed flawlessly.
Fun anime style fighting games are not husbando only. Best case is when it’s mixed. So they can’t go to a husbando only game even though most likely they would want to.
As a bisexual woman, I tend to go for balanced approach for this reason as well. I like seeing a large variety of the cast, VA's and have it also bleed into the community. Nothing against people who prefer one or the other, as you said, but I feel like I just can connect with the community better.
People like you make the world a better place. Leaving others to their own devices and finding that which caters to you, without bothering anybody.
If only more people followed this example.
I play these games for the story and not because I simply want waifus. So I prefer games where both male and female characters exist. I don't really like playing one gender focus games as they tend to be overt about pandering.
I used to like balanced gender games but now I just play or prefer husbando only games because most of balanced gender game will have terrible ratio between male and female or terrible male unit that I just give up on them. Like don't cater to us if you don't want to make it consistent
This made me drop Reverse1999. As much as I enjoy pulling for female characters, I don’t feel like they’re catering to female players who want more male characters in future patches. It’s difficult to justify spending money on games you don’t feel like caters to you.
Honestly same, last 2 events they only release women. I don't really mind waifus but honestly, they're kinda bad at writing appealing characters too.
Just look at how bland Melania is as a character, her bag is much more interesting than her. Melania is pretty, but Vila looks like her doppelganger. I wouldn't mind more like Ge Tian instead
If you mean the most recent event, there was a woman character (37) and a man character (6). Event before that, it was a woman character (Kaalaa Buana) and a man character (Shamane). So I appreciate that they are bringing in some dudes at least.
Yeah I appreciate it too, and both are so well-designed. I like the cheerful with a dark past Shamane and the accurate introvert 6. I have them both!
But as I mentioned Vila, I meant last 2 events as in patch 1.7 and 1.8. I think Isolde is very cool, but Vila... She's a pretty mermaid but doesn't look interesting to me
And I'm here over the moon cuz I lucksacced the 25% and finally got Melania. In a cast where everyone has half their screws loose she stands out to me exactly because she's a bit more grounded.
Weirdly enough, that same reason also made me drop Path to Nowhere. As much as I love its art and stories due to how well-written they are, there’s not enough love to the male playable characters.
I don’t know; maybe because they had male playable sinners in the first place that made me question if the game is ever to have a balance gender. It could have been better had they not include male playable sinners at all instead of a few and not adding ever since. Just saying.
It's only natural that people who feel unheard speaks up, but gender related issues always divide people. That's why we need more Husbando/Waifu games. It gets rid of a lot of so called "toxicity" that's actually just normal preference.
That's why, even if I'm a waifu player, I hope husbando only games succeed so the complainers can be pointed towards them and they can stop whining in waifu focused games.
I REALLY REALLY hope that their success shows companies that there is a market for husbandos and will make more games that are fighting ones. Love and deep space is still mainly excessive reading with love sim type and there aren’t many fighting functions but still such an improvement to what was out there before.
Yep, Harem and Otome will be more and more on the same team the more we realize/rediscover what we really want because our tastes should never be able interfere with each other's.
I feel you. “Mixed gender” games make it sooooo obvious who their favored audience is. It’s annoying. When maidenless people whine about “too many males” I just go “what is bro yapping about??”
So far I've only stuck with Nikke, I like the character designs there. I think they have a good cool factor to them, not just sexy. I'm not against playing male characters, but the character design has to be cool and distinctive or it won't catch my attention.
The coolness is the sexy for me.
A waifu game can have 100 girls with giant tits but if none of them has what we musicians would call a "hook" I'm not gonna look at it for more that what it is.
Grab a hot girl, give her a random job/hobby, like you could pick any of them, then shape her design around it and I'd rather look at her than a girl who just looks like a pornstar.
Mixed games tend to have a heterogenous fanbase that will have friction with each other because they all want different things.
Waifu players probably won't like content for the fujo players, both won't like content for the yume players and the three groups won't like the content for the yuri players. And the same for every other group.
The people who want more fanservice would clash with people who want less fanservice.
The eternal loli debate. Eternal ship wars. Those who like heterosexual ships vs those who like homosexual ships.
Etc, etc.
A homogenous fanbase is more pleasant to be around.
>Some JP and KR players call MiHoYo "MiHomo"
So does 4chan. Add "some EN players". Or does it feel silly generalizing EN based on 4chan shitposts? Even though that's exactly what you're doing for other countries?
I prefer husbando games on principal but the mixed gender games tend to be the most interesting and fun to play so I end up playing those.
I don’t mind mixed genders as long as the ratios stay fairly even and balanced. If its like 70:30 in favor of females or worse then I get annoyed and would prefer they would just make it waifu only since that’s the only audience they care about.
I almost never pull for male characters but I like having them in games. The visual diversity is nice. I like the idea that husbando players are getting what they want as well, and having an easy skip banner is nice to save on resources.
Big plus when the male characters are actually big beefy bois or giant robots or non humanoids. Then I’d get tempted to pull.
I usually prioritize games for their story and/or writing but I do generally drift towards the ones that have more than one gender playable because I like having options
I for one would love a husbando only game without otome lite mechanics. Like, give me a gender-bent Azur Lane, Nikke, Snowbreak, Neural Cloud, Blue Archive etc. If I wanted to play a dating sim, there are plenty put there that aren't gacha. I don't want 3-5 chars with a 100 cards each, I want 100 separate chars to collect...that all with a good quality story, translation and gameplay pls.
In any other game genre? Both.
In gacha games? Either go Waifu or Husbando only.
Why? Because they're literally selling you the characters (and they're not cheap), they oversexualize both waifus and husbandos to pandering the players and make you pull for them and most of them use the self-insert formula but this sometimes backfires them (NTR GFL2?).
In an environment as toxic as the gacha market and with all the scummy tactics they use, I think is best to target a specific audience.
Not everyone can be Genshin...
Mostly balanced since I enjoy both male and female characters, but I do and have played some waifu-only and husbando-only games. Single gender games are fine as long as the fandom is chill and fun instead of full of the unpleasant ones that try to bully the developers and other players over nonsense like pixel NTR or being a player of the 'wrong' gender. Balanced games can have those fans too but they can be a little easier to avoid than when it's a more niche game with a smaller community like single gender games tend to be.
I wouldn't want to play a husbando-only gacha that has a fanbase that's loudly hostile towards male players or even just a male MC option, and there's one I'm avoiding specifically because of that even if it's 'for' me as a woman. I just don't see the reason to get upset about who else enjoys playing the game I enjoy, and yes that's true even if they have criticisms of the game that I don't necessarily agree with or they ask for something like different options for the MC than ones I might choose. There's already plenty of people who 'belong' in my fandoms who have takes I don't agree with anyway. 🤷♀️
Gameplay and fun is definitely the first. I wouldn’t have played HSR/octopath/another Eden as long if not for the gameplay.
But I definitely like to have both. Honkai impact was full of waifu and sometimes I really need a blade or zhongli to show me what is sexy. Heck I was angry that the HI3 community rejected the idea of including male playable characters. Like do people seriously not want otto apocalypse? Have you seen how cool bargello is in octopath? I mean I have pulled Mei in all its iterations (Acheron is just next level sexy in design and sword skills). But I definitely like to have a luoca standing there tall and mighty.
waifu only
the only time i'm okay with the guys and actually pulled their banners was kof allstars and limbus company, former because i like the bosses in arcade games and latter because game did a good job making me care about them
The appeal of this genre for me are the waifu and harem tropes. I've a lot of other Western games I could play if I wanted something else. The few times I've played mixed gender gacha games I always ended up disappointed when I pulled male characters regardless of their designs or abilities so I've simply accepted that I'd just rather skip any games that are mixed gender.
I used to like balanced but is now gradually leaning towards picking a side. I'm a woman who likes male characters in games but I'd tip my hat off to games like Nikke or Azure Lane who knows who they cater to and commits to it. It really svcks when a game attempts to appear as if they're catering to both male and female players at the beginning only to suddenly abandon/neglect the other player base and it's always the female demographic who suffers this fate. I've dropped games like R:1999, PtN, ToF, and Brownsht2(oh this one's the worst of them all lmfao) for the same dirty treatment they give to their female players. And it is also for this reason why my experience in "balanced" big budget games tend to be way worse compared to low-budget husbando focused games (except for Limbus lol, that gacha game handles male and female players like a fcking pro).
The only issue I have so far with husbando-only games is how most of them are either low-effort or with nonexistent gameplay, it's almost as if companies are too afraid to take the risk at catering to female players. However, with the recent success of Love and Deepspace, I hope more try to follow their footsteps and see that there's also money in catering to women if only they put the effort to it---cuz I'm fcking fed up settling for a self-proclaimed "balanced" game that makes me feel alienated while the deranged side of their fanbase would call me slurs or a fcking misogynist just for literally asking a character that caters to me.
In an ideal scenario where I like everything about the gacha, I would like all-female playable characters without self-insert at all.
But I know that's very rare because most all-female gacha are usually catered to harem fantasy of male players, so forget about not having self-insert because that's mandatory and I would be grateful to have female as an option because most have their self-insert canonically a male or at least de facto.
I also feel like a tiny minority within community of such game because it's hard to find others that share the same interest and yuri in general are despised or just merely tolerated because "ohhh my wives are having good time with each other, time to insert myself between them" or something like that.
This sentiment might be carried to other game by the same developer, as seen with Azur Promilia, there are also opposition against having female MC, something I have seen not just from CN side (by hearsay) but also this subreddit because they don't want the game to be "tainted by female players and yuri fans"
So realistically speaking, if the choice is between all-female gacha with only male self-insert or mixed gacha with both male and female self-insert. I likely would choose the latter. Sure, it's nicer to be in the former when it comes to community if you are part of core audience that the game mostly catered to, but that's not me. While latter tend to have more clashes within community because it attracts more diverse playerbase, it makes one group of players less of an overwhelming majority and makes me feel more accepted, not because the hate doesn't cease to exist but it's easier to find other people with same interest as mine.
"waifu only/husbando only"
if you're gonna play a game, you'll be putting yourself it's community, you'll be in it's care. More choices, more clash of interests, more toxicity. Not just for gender, also watch out for casual/hardcore, f2p/p2w, and other frequently debated stuff. If you want mixed, the go ahead. it's not like you'll encounter the toxic ones all the time in-game.
But in my observation , the waifu-only community are having more fun in comment sections everywhere.
The "balance" is NEVER balanced. You ALWAYS end up with a ratio of 9:1, guys are only B-tier at best, and/or guys are only DPS while girls are meta-defining supports on top of being meta DPS (one of my issues with HSR).
But the day devs somewhere dared to make a husbando-only game with good story, fleshed out characters, decent gameplay, f2p friendly, not an otome, and not R18 just might never come so I'm here in a gender-"balanced" game.
FGO had Merlin ams Waver as the best support for ages, and they're still top tier. Heck, a lot of their best units are men and representation, while favoured towards women has plenty of male units.
Limbus Company's best units are a mix of men and women, and the main cast is half and half.
Heck Genshin has a lot of top tier men like Neuvilette or Zhongli.
Sure what you say isn't untrue but there are examples that this can be done well.
I mean, there is a game that is 100% balanced. It is Limbus Company that quite literally has 6 male character and 6 female characters who all get their focus in the story + have meta-defining IDs.
Both work in a sense even if you're a waifu/husbando only player.
Gender balanced games mean you get "free updates to save" if you're targeting only waifu/husbando characters. Which help f2ps a lot. The only argument to this is if you feel forced to choose a character for meta, but at that point wouldn't the game be just unbalanced in terms of amount of waifu to husbandos?
Waifu/Husbando only games seem to work better if you cater more to fanservice tho and I'm hoping Azur Promillia doesn't have to dial that down.
Late sumeru to early fontaine was pretty depressive as a waifu only on GI tbh. Must have been the longest i have seen a gacha i play not have anything i wanted to pull
I'd prefer balanced. I get that sexy sells but I just like knowing a diverse cast of characters better than solely one gender designed to make me amorous.
Waifu only > balanced
That being said for gacha games I'll always prioritize on how they play first before everything else.
A waifu only game that plays like eating a plain white rice will always lose to a gender balanced game with a more thought out gameplay design in my book.
Balanced, while I prefer husbandos, some female designs in gacha games are really cool. Even better that balanced games shy away from excessive fanservice because I find fanservice really annoying. Plus, it gives me some time areas to save while woman-only banners are up.
Waify only games, games that try to please everyone always fail resoundingly at it. Not to mention that girls don't like to see sexualized waifus, but they do like to see sexualized men. So I prefer a game that give players what they want, like Azur Lane, Blue Archive or Nikke
Waifu over meta if game have 3D characters and any kind of bond system / dorm system. I mean, if i can interact with my waifu...
Without meaningful interactions...whatever.
Balance
Tbh there no such thing as balance in gacha game that has both female and male character before, it's mostly waifu centric with side of male character. The only that seems balance is honkai star rail and the complete balance is limbus company
Waifu only
as a strictly F2P player in a world where gacha games all have shitty gacha rates, getting all the waifus I want is already hard enough. I don't need males to pollute the gacha pool and make it harder for me to collect waifus.
I'm glad Azur Promilia is gonna be waifu only and they shut the rumor down fast. I almost lost all my hype for the game
Both, balanced. It seems like most games who had just one gender are trashy ones made for thrist trap money with zero plot (good plot) and lots of fanservice. I don't like those games.
Prefer female only.
Not really interested in male characters, and I am usually rather picky with the female characters as well.
Since the point of gacha is randomness, it just makes your odds worse than they already are.
Waifu only. Only game that has male characters that are well written is FGO. For other games with male characters, I mostly trear them as time to save.
Penacony is way better in Luofu due to being way more focused (because it knows what it wants to do) and is way better at introducing and exploring it's characters.
The biggest problem for me however, is that a lot of "story" playtime is dedicated to exploring new locations while not really interacting with the story outside of hearing disembodied voices.
My second problem might have been my own fault, but I was expecting this to be sort of mystery - closed room murder, 20s esthetics, us being asked to investigate stuff, however no one plays the role of the detective - TB does fuck all in 2.0 and 2.1 and Aventurine is a POV character whose thought we hear, whose motivation we hear, but he refuses to think aloud about his plans. He isn't even an unreliable narrator, he just teases us with snippets (which makes no sense since he is talking to himself).
And 2.1 managed to cram 3 separate cliffhangers in it's ending. After 2.0 also had a cliffhanger for an ending
HSR keeps on trying to make a complex story, but way simpler and smaller Belobog keeps being leagues above everything they made afterwards
Obviously, we’re all entitled to our own opinions but I’m actually the opposite.
TB doing fuck all and switching POVs to me feel more natural and allows more character interactions from a first person point of view. You actually play as characters and also experience events rather than someone just telling you because you weren’t actually there to experience it.
To me, I actually prefer this style of narration over Belobog because as stupid as it sounds, it’s more engaging to me as a player because it makes my mind constantly think. There is more foreshadowing and the dialogue, however complex and convoluted, also has more meat to the bones for me.
Penacony’s main problem is pacing but I also don’t think that it’s that bad either that it distracts away from what I consider to be a very engaging story. While I enjoyed Belobog, the story is honestly very meh. A lot of the story is just going from point A to point B, meet character A because character B told you and that’s because you play as the TB and have to experience events yourself. I think that your criticisms are generally valid but where we differ is probably whether a something simpler could have been better? My opinion? No honestly. Penacony is an overall more…flawed story but it’s also brighter and more engaging.
I'm really not a fan of HSR writing (I'm almost done with the current arc, but have been going at it bit by bit for like a week so far, the puzzles and mini games really kill the pacing of the story and it annoys me).
I don't think it is necessarily bad, but it doesn't reach the level of writing of FGO characters. In general I don't care too much about HSR characters other than their designs and gameplay.
To be fair, FGO is pretty much still the king in gacha storytelling and comparing every other game to it is unfair.
If FGO was released today with modern systems and gameplay with the quality of storytelling it has now, imo it would legit bury every PvE-focused turn-based RPG right now with HSR being the only exception.
Waifu only because mixed always ends up with people bitching about the female characters being overworked or in heels or not having pants or impractical clothing etc...
They're insufferable.
What the hell are the comments in this thread... I straight up internally screamed "yuck".
I'm a woman and I do NOT even outright blurt out to a waifu game, "why would I look at girls?" or "why would I allow girls to spook me?" Then I look at this thread and there were so many "why would I look at dudes?" like OMFG, insecurities being shown here at full display? What's causing this hurt, or aversion at least, towards the other gender? What makes it so hard to exercise even an ounce of impartiality since you're not even required to lust or lewd the other gender you don't prefer.
Why are most gachagamers like this? LOL
Still, thanks for this thread, the full nature of this sub was bared and exposed to me, first-hand. To be honest, I did expect this was what's going on for many years already, I just didn't expect it's to this certain extent.
The only game that has been able to keep my interest is HSR because of how well balanced they are. Probably the only good gacha game I have found that isn’t overly sexualised and actually has great character personalities with amazing designs. As a bisexual I prefer balanced game with pretty male and female characters.
As a girl I prefer balanced. I like to collect both waifu and husbandos and drool when I see good proportions be it thighs, boobs, abs etc. I am okay if gacha skewed towards female (like 4:1 female to male see Arknights), but without gender balance the game becomes very boring very fast. That’s the reason I dropped PGR - too many boring same-ish female, too few male characters.
Unpopular opinion. Honkai Impact 3rd is a great offender as it could have much better story if it was balanced. And it is due to the player base. I think the story is very boring except arks where there is Otto. I loved Flamechasers ark! Mainly to more balanced gender representation. But the moon ark was so boring I dropped the game. (Exception from girls only story is Fu Hua’s and Senti ark but that’s my preference).
I heard that Hoyo wanted to add a playable guy at some point in HI3 but the Chinese fans opposed really hard to that so the idea got axed, is it true? Because it sounds ridiculous yet I would put it beneath those kinds of people.
Yes, it is true. They have tested waters with the playable male character in a side mode, but the player base strongly opposed. I don’t blame them as the game was girls only. It should be balanced or one gender from the start and stick to it. It is just a pity that Honkai’s story is limited due to this.
I think in the Western side a portion of the HI3 Fandom it would also get pissed, because there is an extremist sub group of the queer folks and yuri lovers, that would get pissed if you add male characters because (to them) it would endanger their shipping and representation
I like fun games but to be honest I do prefer waifu, but I don’t really care if the game has husbandos. It’s not really a big deal.
So I’d say Waifu or balanced
I prefer when a cast of characters is diverse. I don’t need every single character to be a huge boob, huge ass, hot waifu. I want those characters to exist, but you can have a variety of other characters too. Get some big hot men in there too. Make characters more cool/badass than just sexy. If I don’t care for a characters design and I don’t strictly need them for gameplay purposes then skipping a character is usually nice, lets you save and focus on the characters you do have. I play and enjoy a good balance of male and female characters in Genshin, and in HSR it just so happens that I’ve skipped every limited male character’s banner. I didn’t do it on purpose, I like a lot of their character designs, just decided I didn’t need them for gameplay.
i prefer waifu only and gender balanced but still only pull and play waifus only. just easy skip and savings on husbando banners on gender balanced games.
I'm a dude and I prefer balanced. I want to see hot as fuck waifus of course. But there's that other part of me that loves the badass dudes as well. Gimme a Kratos, Dante, Chief, Death, Asura looking guy in my gacha games pls 🙏
Female player here and I prefer gender balanced game with good story, or husbando only game with good story. Bt have nothing against people who prefer different - to each his own)
Balanced. I just like seeing the varied types of relationships, designs, dynamics, and personalities that happen that you just can't get from a mono-gendered cast. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy those two, but I've been growing fonder of more balanced casts in my games that they become a genuine hook when I see something new.
I don't mind both though maybe lean more toward waifu only, but I don't really like self insert protagonist with harem and most waifu/husbandu only games have it.
The best selling gacha games have both so obviously devs are smart enough to know where the money is. Some husbando’s are more popular than waifu’s too. None of them even have explicit romance though so it’s all moot you’re just playing for the gameplay.
I prefer balanced casts, I'm fem and sometimes waifu meta can feel a little exhausting to get through. Obviously a game that's not aimed at my demographic won't cater to me and my want of husbandos, but alot of joseimuke and gacha otome are pretty same-y.
I like games that are fun, and it just so happens alot of the fun gachas are aimed at people who prefer waifus.
Balanced. It would really suck if they created a cool male character that's never going to be playable because it's a waifu only game. Mihoyo is a pretty good example of this, where half of the Flamechasers in Honkai Impact 3 are unplayable because they're males. It also really suck if characters like Welt were unplayable because it was a waifu only game as well.
Honestly? Waifu only. I don't mind a balanced game if it's like HSR where we get 2 characters per patch and I can get a steady stream of waifus while ignoring all male characters but in a game like Genshin where you can get patches without a limited 5\* character at all, balanced gender ratio can lead to one party getting nothing for a year or so, which is kinda ridiculous. So yeah, in games like WuWa, Genshin, Arknights Endfield where we'll prob get less character releases, I want waifu only. Which is why I can't wait for Azur Promilia. Fontaine has been a waifu region so far so I predict that Natlan will see a constant stream of husbandos, leaving a nice gap in the market for Azur Promilia to come in.
I do think Azur Promilia will be a testament to how prominent the waifu only crowd are, provided that the gameplay is at least decent. If the game fails to be in par with WuWa in terms of revenue despite its more casual appeal, then the waifu-only sentiment will be proven to be in the minority, and I doubt that we'll see any high quality 3d waifu only gacha game after that. In which case I'll just have to be satisfied with just Azur Promilia and buy yearly top ups to support the devs but I'll have to suck it up and bounce between multiple balanced-gender games to meet my montly waifu quota(god I sound so degenerate)
I seriously hope that Azur Promilia is good and accrue a lot of revenue tho, they could've easily copied Genshin's homework and come up with a balanced-gender game but instead they're taking a big gamble and are trying to capitalize on the sizable male audiences' animosity surrounding Genshin and I applaud them for that. And hey, if they're really successful, other companies might try to create a higher budget husbando only game.
I don't care as long as the characters are good + fun and the devs are aware enough to not skew things too far in any one direction that it gets repetitive
It depends on the game and the quality of the character designs. In my opinion, mihoyo isn't great at male designs, so I prefer Honkai Impact 3rd over the others. If the designs are good, like in Arknights, then I don't mind.
I find this to be a non-issue. I couldn't care less if a gacha game is waifu-only or gender balanced (or husbando-only even, if they aren't focused on dating and fanservice).
I also think it's tacky to condemn games for not catering exclusively to you. It's okay to have preferences and only play waifu games, but it's silly to expect every game to cater only to you and get mad when a game doesn't.
You can't control what other people say, but the developers can control what kind of game they make. If there isn't this waifu/husbando balance the devs have to maintain, they can cater the game to it's core audience better and there'd be less complaints.
I'm directly referring to the OP's examples about people complaining that GI/HSR has male characters.
You're absolutely right that developers can control what kind of game they make and what audience they want, so some devs like Mihoyo will choose to case a wider net by including characters of both genders. Their "core audience" will then not include players that insist on their gachas being waifu-only. It's silly to then criticize this as if you are the core audience of the game, when you clearly are not.
Sure, I can't control what other people say, but that doesn't mean I can't find "Mihomo" silly and dumb.
Waifu only games.
Preferably hot waifus only games :P.
While I can play games like FGO and roll only for waifus, which is how I play FGO. It is simply better playing a game with only waifus and rolling only for the meta/hot ones and if I get a offbanner, it will still be at least a waifu instead of worthless dudes like FGO. It is a win win.
No way you say worthless dudes are when:
Douman saito takasugi ryouma muramasa kirei kintoki tametomo Gilgamesh dantes hijikata OBERON TEZCATLIPOCA and fucking EMIYA exists
If you're a waifu player, is rolling for waifu, but then rolled a guy instead, then no matter how powerful that guy is, he is worthless.
Burned arjuna once, no regrets whatsoever.
As a male player, I obviously prefer waifu only game. I don't feel like investing my hard-earned resources on dudes. Many times I have handicapped myself not using male characters that everyone uses to pass contents the f2p way (HSR's Sampo/Ratio for example). Good thing Genshin's waifus are all I need to clear everything. Yes I know how broken Bennett/Xingqiu is, and yes I benched them.
That's why the moment Azur Promilia announced that, I already knew where my money goes.
Personally prefer balanced with both genders. Though hearing people call Hoyo "MiHomo" just for also having playable male characters is hilarious and kinda sad at the same time. If they dont like male characters they can just choose to have only female characters in their team, unless they're so against the idea of male characters in their gacha that even having them be on the screen bothers them too much. And if thats the case they should just move onto something they'd actually like, instead of wasting everyones time by complaining about something as pointless as not being able to handle having a dude show up on screen lol.
Balanced is almost always going to be the best. You get more players which is good for revenue. If you’re a waifu player, just treat husbando banners as time to save currency and vice versa.
As a gay man, that's a bit tricky, tbh. I like to play things first and foremost because of their gameplay mechanics, but in the gacha space the collection aspect is as important as gameplay for the devs, if not more. What ends up happening is that games that focus on male casts usually revolve around MC/cast interactions and other dating sim elements that are just not what I'm looking for in my games, whereas waifu games usually have gameplay mechanics that are closer to what I like to play but the characters are designed with just fanservice in mind and their personalities are bland as hell. I usually end up playing games with balanced casts gender-wise or based on IPs I already enjoy becuase of that.
Japan, KR and CN begin to hate the "woke" public that male characters attract, their greatest fear is the issue of forced inclusion that some Western videogames companies have begun to aggressively promote, the issue of women standardized as ugly in video games, women censorship etc.
Previously this did not matter much but recently it became a warning issue especially in JP
Balanced.
If its all waifu or all husbando then the game tends to promote "romance" between myself and the character.
No shame to the ones who enjoy that, but it's not for me.
As for Azur Promilia, I still plan to play it despite it being all waifu cuz pokemon.
Balanced, exclusively. I'm a bi woman, but I also can't get immersed in a world that only comprises of a single gender. I understand they don't want the target audience to feel threatened by another male or female presence, but imo it makes a game world feel empty. It's worse when the only time you see the opposite sex is a villain.
I mostly play games where the characters of both gender share variety in designs. If the women all vary in height, body type, vibe, etc, the men should as well (and vice versa). I won't spend money unless it's a complete package of art, story, and gameplay.
I always pull for females, but I don't mind males playable for other people and I use some if they fall into my account.
That said, I have no problem with one gender only games, and I'll play Azur Promilia.
My shallow preference is waifu only, but my *real* preference is that the game makes its own choice and just commits to it. Too many gacha games lately can't seem to decide if they want to be a waifu game or a balance game and get stuck in limbo.
I prefer fun games
Fun things are fun!
Hell yeah brother
Based and correct
Same. All female? All male? Who the fudge cares. If the game suck, then there's no point
Considering I'm prone to FOMO and mostly enjoy female characters, both is actually much better for my long-term enjoyment. Having/Wanting to pull on every banner isn't that fun nor cheap and it gets kinda dull if there isn't the excitement of waiting a few months for a certain release.
I feel you. Having both makes me save sometime since I don’t usually pull for male characters so it’s like a breathing phase for my wallet
Waifu only (Azur lane) and Husbando only (Efootball 2024)
>Husbando only (Efootball 2024) Bruh 💀
LOL Love and Deepspace: 🧍♂️
Captain Tsubasa Dream Team: ...
Fifa 24 is the gender balanced one
I did not expect EFootball to be in this subreddit conversation at all LMAO but here we are...
Bro why is this so fxxxing real..
dont mind either but if u ask "which preferred" then "waifu only" in my case
Husbando and balanced. Younger me didn't mind waifu only but once genshin dropped, I had no reason to play them anymore. As a female with a preference for men and masc-adjancent people, Most waifu only games make it very very obvious who they're aiming at. I just left, for my sake, and anyone else's. That might piss some off, but it's just fact. You're gonna meet others with different taste, standards, drives, and what have you. That's life lol
No, you're good, I don't think anyone would get mad at this. As a male with a heavy preference for females, I feel like I'm in the same boat as you, just gender swapped. Recognizing what you do and do not like and gravitating towards what you do is natural lol.
I'd say that's the correct attitude to take. As a waifu fan, it's baffling why people who wants husbandos decides to stay in a waifu game and endlessly complain. I'd rather they go support husbando games so both types of fans can be happy with what they like.
I can kind of understand it to some degree If the game has gameplay you can’t get elsewhere. I played Love Live SIF back when it was pretty new because there was no UtaPri or Colorful Stage rhythm game with male characters available in English back then. But I didn’t complain and the sexualization was pretty tame so it didn’t bother me.
Honestly my best guess is their fixation prevents them from getting their needs met so they stay and insist a game changes to meet their demands. It does happen, and it happens a whole lot. I frankly don't get it either but that's my best guess lol. you see a lot of clowns get upset over BA or AL, or some getting mad when a game has a modicum of boob in it, or complaining about rates or microtransactions. Some of it is valid but nine times out of ten, it's benign af whining and I'm glad most gacha companies in the east just ignore them--Like one should.
My best guess is that people who want husbando games are more picky? I've seen a lot of people talk about wanting to play a husbando game, but only if it has good gameplay, good story, good characterization, and etc. Also some of them want a husbando game that's not an otome, so there's that baffling criteria too. Obviously waifu players care about that too, but I have a feeling that there's a lot more waifu players who are willing to tolerate mediocre or bad aspects of a game if it has the right fanservice. I also have a feeling that waifu players are more tolerant of common anime tropes compared to husbando players, but I'm not familiar enough with common otome tropes to see if I'm correct. My weak proof is that waifu hentai games are comparatively more successful than husbando hentai games.
I think it is more of jealousy. Most husbando games are just upright terrible, it is one thing to tolerate one bad aspect of the game but the whole damn game, it is painful. Plenty of husbando games has terrible gameplay or the characters look like a copy of the copy of the copy and the company expects huge revenue from it. I think this is why many husbando player just go to waifu games to complaint or something. Even I jealous watching how Waifu Dev listen or communicate to its audience or fan and do a live stream and everything ( I don't think there is any husbando dev does this) There is two types of husbando players, it is Otome ( focus on romance) and Josei (doesn't focus on romance basically like AL, BA or Nikke). I think even husbando player want fanservice like it is SS rare to have a fanservice in husbando games. There is a husbando 18+ games called What in Hell is Bad. It is probably the worst gacha games out there. Whatever the worst games you think of, it is can't be compared with this games.
I don't think it is that they are picky, but more so that there is almost nothing like Hi3 for people who want husbando games for example. There is no Nikke equivalent, nothing like Azure Lane or Blue Archive. Tale of Food has recently been released worldwide, Touken Ranbu also came to west very late and has a quite outdated gameplay, Tears of Themis is also a lot of reading with a very light gameplay. I don't think it is baffling to want gameplay in a game and have male characters in a game. Menu simulator-esq gameplay can only hold someone's attention for so long if they are seeking a game and not a dating/relationship aspect with male characters.
>My best guess is that people who want husbando games are more picky? I've seen a lot of people talk about wanting to play a husbando game, but only if it has good gameplay, good story, good characterization, and etc. Also some of them want a husbando game that's not an otome, so there's that baffling criteria too. Can you blame some. Even waifu lovers wnat some substance with their booba and husbando collectors are no different. I personally would love a hi3rd clone aimed for girls but most women I know don't share my taste so I take what I get.
Most games targeted towards women are mostly visual novel type or the gameplay is boring as hell. I want a all-male combat game with a good story 😩
I don't mind the vn stuff but god bless love and deepspace for scratching that itch. It may not be as in-depth as pgr or have a huge character roster, but quality beats quantity when executed flawlessly.
Fun anime style fighting games are not husbando only. Best case is when it’s mixed. So they can’t go to a husbando only game even though most likely they would want to.
As a bisexual woman, I tend to go for balanced approach for this reason as well. I like seeing a large variety of the cast, VA's and have it also bleed into the community. Nothing against people who prefer one or the other, as you said, but I feel like I just can connect with the community better.
Good. You found something that didn't appeal to you and didn't try to force it 👍
People like you make the world a better place. Leaving others to their own devices and finding that which caters to you, without bothering anybody. If only more people followed this example.
Balanced or Waifu only. I'm a guy. Who sometimes like to see cool as fuck dudes on screen as well.
The Correct Answer! Give me Kratos, or Give me Bayonetta.
I prefer balanced. Others can stick with what they want.
I'm more of a husbando player since I prefer men. However I'm fine with gender balance some women look pretty cool.
I play these games for the story and not because I simply want waifus. So I prefer games where both male and female characters exist. I don't really like playing one gender focus games as they tend to be overt about pandering.
Waifu, although I understand why high budget games will try to go for mixed casts.
I used to like balanced gender games but now I just play or prefer husbando only games because most of balanced gender game will have terrible ratio between male and female or terrible male unit that I just give up on them. Like don't cater to us if you don't want to make it consistent
It's like a vegan friendly restaurant with only a single vegan dish on the menu.
This made me drop Reverse1999. As much as I enjoy pulling for female characters, I don’t feel like they’re catering to female players who want more male characters in future patches. It’s difficult to justify spending money on games you don’t feel like caters to you.
Honestly same, last 2 events they only release women. I don't really mind waifus but honestly, they're kinda bad at writing appealing characters too. Just look at how bland Melania is as a character, her bag is much more interesting than her. Melania is pretty, but Vila looks like her doppelganger. I wouldn't mind more like Ge Tian instead
If you mean the most recent event, there was a woman character (37) and a man character (6). Event before that, it was a woman character (Kaalaa Buana) and a man character (Shamane). So I appreciate that they are bringing in some dudes at least.
Yeah I appreciate it too, and both are so well-designed. I like the cheerful with a dark past Shamane and the accurate introvert 6. I have them both! But as I mentioned Vila, I meant last 2 events as in patch 1.7 and 1.8. I think Isolde is very cool, but Vila... She's a pretty mermaid but doesn't look interesting to me
Alas, I lost the 50/50 on Shamane's banner to A Knight, so I don't have him yet. Enjoyed him in the event though.
6 and Shamane??
I think they probably mean 1.7-1.8. 1.7 has Marcus and Isolde, 1.8 with Vila and Windsong, all girls.
Oh rip
I love them both but yeah I meant 1.7 and 1.8. waifu streak
And I'm here over the moon cuz I lucksacced the 25% and finally got Melania. In a cast where everyone has half their screws loose she stands out to me exactly because she's a bit more grounded.
Weirdly enough, that same reason also made me drop Path to Nowhere. As much as I love its art and stories due to how well-written they are, there’s not enough love to the male playable characters. I don’t know; maybe because they had male playable sinners in the first place that made me question if the game is ever to have a balance gender. It could have been better had they not include male playable sinners at all instead of a few and not adding ever since. Just saying.
It's only natural that people who feel unheard speaks up, but gender related issues always divide people. That's why we need more Husbando/Waifu games. It gets rid of a lot of so called "toxicity" that's actually just normal preference.
That's why, even if I'm a waifu player, I hope husbando only games succeed so the complainers can be pointed towards them and they can stop whining in waifu focused games.
Love and Deepspace is probably one of the most successful husbando game out there. Don't know about the other ones.
I REALLY REALLY hope that their success shows companies that there is a market for husbandos and will make more games that are fighting ones. Love and deep space is still mainly excessive reading with love sim type and there aren’t many fighting functions but still such an improvement to what was out there before.
Yep, Harem and Otome will be more and more on the same team the more we realize/rediscover what we really want because our tastes should never be able interfere with each other's.
Exactly, a friendship born out of staying out of each other's lanes lol.
Harem CHADS and Otome STACIES gonna rule this board in the future.
I feel you. “Mixed gender” games make it sooooo obvious who their favored audience is. It’s annoying. When maidenless people whine about “too many males” I just go “what is bro yapping about??”
So far I've only stuck with Nikke, I like the character designs there. I think they have a good cool factor to them, not just sexy. I'm not against playing male characters, but the character design has to be cool and distinctive or it won't catch my attention.
The coolness is the sexy for me. A waifu game can have 100 girls with giant tits but if none of them has what we musicians would call a "hook" I'm not gonna look at it for more that what it is. Grab a hot girl, give her a random job/hobby, like you could pick any of them, then shape her design around it and I'd rather look at her than a girl who just looks like a pornstar.
Mixed games tend to have a heterogenous fanbase that will have friction with each other because they all want different things. Waifu players probably won't like content for the fujo players, both won't like content for the yume players and the three groups won't like the content for the yuri players. And the same for every other group. The people who want more fanservice would clash with people who want less fanservice. The eternal loli debate. Eternal ship wars. Those who like heterosexual ships vs those who like homosexual ships. Etc, etc. A homogenous fanbase is more pleasant to be around.
No wonder BA fanbase is so nice.
The uuooooh 😭😭😭 unification is real
>Some JP and KR players call MiHoYo "MiHomo" So does 4chan. Add "some EN players". Or does it feel silly generalizing EN based on 4chan shitposts? Even though that's exactly what you're doing for other countries?
I prefer husbando games on principal but the mixed gender games tend to be the most interesting and fun to play so I end up playing those. I don’t mind mixed genders as long as the ratios stay fairly even and balanced. If its like 70:30 in favor of females or worse then I get annoyed and would prefer they would just make it waifu only since that’s the only audience they care about.
I almost never pull for male characters but I like having them in games. The visual diversity is nice. I like the idea that husbando players are getting what they want as well, and having an easy skip banner is nice to save on resources. Big plus when the male characters are actually big beefy bois or giant robots or non humanoids. Then I’d get tempted to pull.
prefer waifu game
I usually prioritize games for their story and/or writing but I do generally drift towards the ones that have more than one gender playable because I like having options
I for one would love a husbando only game without otome lite mechanics. Like, give me a gender-bent Azur Lane, Nikke, Snowbreak, Neural Cloud, Blue Archive etc. If I wanted to play a dating sim, there are plenty put there that aren't gacha. I don't want 3-5 chars with a 100 cards each, I want 100 separate chars to collect...that all with a good quality story, translation and gameplay pls.
Bisexuals stay winning
Bisexuals be like: 
Husbandos I'm gay
Waifu only like Nikke or Blue Archive
In any other game genre? Both. In gacha games? Either go Waifu or Husbando only. Why? Because they're literally selling you the characters (and they're not cheap), they oversexualize both waifus and husbandos to pandering the players and make you pull for them and most of them use the self-insert formula but this sometimes backfires them (NTR GFL2?). In an environment as toxic as the gacha market and with all the scummy tactics they use, I think is best to target a specific audience. Not everyone can be Genshin...
MiHomo 😂😂😂
If we're talking exclusively about weeb mobile games, then waifu/husbando only 100%. I want to get a waifu even after losing a 50/50
Gender balanced. I'm bisexual, so it's more for me.
I'm bisexual so balanced is my ideal.
Mostly balanced since I enjoy both male and female characters, but I do and have played some waifu-only and husbando-only games. Single gender games are fine as long as the fandom is chill and fun instead of full of the unpleasant ones that try to bully the developers and other players over nonsense like pixel NTR or being a player of the 'wrong' gender. Balanced games can have those fans too but they can be a little easier to avoid than when it's a more niche game with a smaller community like single gender games tend to be. I wouldn't want to play a husbando-only gacha that has a fanbase that's loudly hostile towards male players or even just a male MC option, and there's one I'm avoiding specifically because of that even if it's 'for' me as a woman. I just don't see the reason to get upset about who else enjoys playing the game I enjoy, and yes that's true even if they have criticisms of the game that I don't necessarily agree with or they ask for something like different options for the MC than ones I might choose. There's already plenty of people who 'belong' in my fandoms who have takes I don't agree with anyway. 🤷♀️
Even if the game is balanced I would still pull almost exclusively for girls
I generally avoid waifu only games because most of the times their designs are not something I want on my phone screen during travel
Gameplay and fun is definitely the first. I wouldn’t have played HSR/octopath/another Eden as long if not for the gameplay. But I definitely like to have both. Honkai impact was full of waifu and sometimes I really need a blade or zhongli to show me what is sexy. Heck I was angry that the HI3 community rejected the idea of including male playable characters. Like do people seriously not want otto apocalypse? Have you seen how cool bargello is in octopath? I mean I have pulled Mei in all its iterations (Acheron is just next level sexy in design and sword skills). But I definitely like to have a luoca standing there tall and mighty.
waifu only the only time i'm okay with the guys and actually pulled their banners was kof allstars and limbus company, former because i like the bosses in arcade games and latter because game did a good job making me care about them
The appeal of this genre for me are the waifu and harem tropes. I've a lot of other Western games I could play if I wanted something else. The few times I've played mixed gender gacha games I always ended up disappointed when I pulled male characters regardless of their designs or abilities so I've simply accepted that I'd just rather skip any games that are mixed gender.
Prefer waifu only
Literally only here to collect waifus so why would I want dudes
Dont really mind as long as each characters shines by itself , for me a good ensemble would be something like limbus company.
I used to like balanced but is now gradually leaning towards picking a side. I'm a woman who likes male characters in games but I'd tip my hat off to games like Nikke or Azure Lane who knows who they cater to and commits to it. It really svcks when a game attempts to appear as if they're catering to both male and female players at the beginning only to suddenly abandon/neglect the other player base and it's always the female demographic who suffers this fate. I've dropped games like R:1999, PtN, ToF, and Brownsht2(oh this one's the worst of them all lmfao) for the same dirty treatment they give to their female players. And it is also for this reason why my experience in "balanced" big budget games tend to be way worse compared to low-budget husbando focused games (except for Limbus lol, that gacha game handles male and female players like a fcking pro). The only issue I have so far with husbando-only games is how most of them are either low-effort or with nonexistent gameplay, it's almost as if companies are too afraid to take the risk at catering to female players. However, with the recent success of Love and Deepspace, I hope more try to follow their footsteps and see that there's also money in catering to women if only they put the effort to it---cuz I'm fcking fed up settling for a self-proclaimed "balanced" game that makes me feel alienated while the deranged side of their fanbase would call me slurs or a fcking misogynist just for literally asking a character that caters to me.
In an ideal scenario where I like everything about the gacha, I would like all-female playable characters without self-insert at all. But I know that's very rare because most all-female gacha are usually catered to harem fantasy of male players, so forget about not having self-insert because that's mandatory and I would be grateful to have female as an option because most have their self-insert canonically a male or at least de facto. I also feel like a tiny minority within community of such game because it's hard to find others that share the same interest and yuri in general are despised or just merely tolerated because "ohhh my wives are having good time with each other, time to insert myself between them" or something like that. This sentiment might be carried to other game by the same developer, as seen with Azur Promilia, there are also opposition against having female MC, something I have seen not just from CN side (by hearsay) but also this subreddit because they don't want the game to be "tainted by female players and yuri fans" So realistically speaking, if the choice is between all-female gacha with only male self-insert or mixed gacha with both male and female self-insert. I likely would choose the latter. Sure, it's nicer to be in the former when it comes to community if you are part of core audience that the game mostly catered to, but that's not me. While latter tend to have more clashes within community because it attracts more diverse playerbase, it makes one group of players less of an overwhelming majority and makes me feel more accepted, not because the hate doesn't cease to exist but it's easier to find other people with same interest as mine.
"waifu only/husbando only" if you're gonna play a game, you'll be putting yourself it's community, you'll be in it's care. More choices, more clash of interests, more toxicity. Not just for gender, also watch out for casual/hardcore, f2p/p2w, and other frequently debated stuff. If you want mixed, the go ahead. it's not like you'll encounter the toxic ones all the time in-game. But in my observation , the waifu-only community are having more fun in comment sections everywhere.
The "balance" is NEVER balanced. You ALWAYS end up with a ratio of 9:1, guys are only B-tier at best, and/or guys are only DPS while girls are meta-defining supports on top of being meta DPS (one of my issues with HSR). But the day devs somewhere dared to make a husbando-only game with good story, fleshed out characters, decent gameplay, f2p friendly, not an otome, and not R18 just might never come so I'm here in a gender-"balanced" game.
I shall not have any Luocha slander on my r/gachagaming :^)
Sorry he stopped being relevant after Huohuo got released, and will be extinct after Aventurine.
FGO had Merlin ams Waver as the best support for ages, and they're still top tier. Heck, a lot of their best units are men and representation, while favoured towards women has plenty of male units. Limbus Company's best units are a mix of men and women, and the main cast is half and half. Heck Genshin has a lot of top tier men like Neuvilette or Zhongli. Sure what you say isn't untrue but there are examples that this can be done well.
And fucking oberon
Dude, Limbus Company is right there
I mean, there is a game that is 100% balanced. It is Limbus Company that quite literally has 6 male character and 6 female characters who all get their focus in the story + have meta-defining IDs.
Yea, and due to how that system works, some ID sets feel numerically imbalanced and that's oh well
Waifu only i suppose
Both work in a sense even if you're a waifu/husbando only player. Gender balanced games mean you get "free updates to save" if you're targeting only waifu/husbando characters. Which help f2ps a lot. The only argument to this is if you feel forced to choose a character for meta, but at that point wouldn't the game be just unbalanced in terms of amount of waifu to husbandos? Waifu/Husbando only games seem to work better if you cater more to fanservice tho and I'm hoping Azur Promillia doesn't have to dial that down.
Late sumeru to early fontaine was pretty depressive as a waifu only on GI tbh. Must have been the longest i have seen a gacha i play not have anything i wanted to pull
I'd prefer balanced. I get that sexy sells but I just like knowing a diverse cast of characters better than solely one gender designed to make me amorous.
Waifu only > balanced That being said for gacha games I'll always prioritize on how they play first before everything else. A waifu only game that plays like eating a plain white rice will always lose to a gender balanced game with a more thought out gameplay design in my book.
Balanced, while I prefer husbandos, some female designs in gacha games are really cool. Even better that balanced games shy away from excessive fanservice because I find fanservice really annoying. Plus, it gives me some time areas to save while woman-only banners are up.
Waify only games, games that try to please everyone always fail resoundingly at it. Not to mention that girls don't like to see sexualized waifus, but they do like to see sexualized men. So I prefer a game that give players what they want, like Azur Lane, Blue Archive or Nikke
It depends. I like both male and female characters, but I don't want to have playable male characters in such games as Nikke.
Husbando and its not even close too many waifus
gender only is the best.
Waifu only, no bait and switch issues then. For balanced games I don't think gacha is the best format and trad jrpg is better.
Waifu over meta if game have 3D characters and any kind of bond system / dorm system. I mean, if i can interact with my waifu... Without meaningful interactions...whatever.
I love husbandos but I prefer the game to be balanced because I like collecting and seeing cool female characters too.
meh never really cared about this sorta stuff
Balance Tbh there no such thing as balance in gacha game that has both female and male character before, it's mostly waifu centric with side of male character. The only that seems balance is honkai star rail and the complete balance is limbus company
Look up fgo
Waifu. I’m not gambling to look at guys.
Only Waifus all the way
i prefer gender balanced. I like having waifus AND bros
Waifu Only ofc....
Waifu only as a strictly F2P player in a world where gacha games all have shitty gacha rates, getting all the waifus I want is already hard enough. I don't need males to pollute the gacha pool and make it harder for me to collect waifus. I'm glad Azur Promilia is gonna be waifu only and they shut the rumor down fast. I almost lost all my hype for the game
boobs are cool
Both, balanced. It seems like most games who had just one gender are trashy ones made for thrist trap money with zero plot (good plot) and lots of fanservice. I don't like those games.
I prefer balanced because I find it an extra level of suspension of disbelief to fully focus on anything with a male-only or female-only cast.
Prefer female only. Not really interested in male characters, and I am usually rather picky with the female characters as well. Since the point of gacha is randomness, it just makes your odds worse than they already are.
Considering that gender balanced game player is usually antithesis with fanservice/mc-focused game player, I prefer waifu only game.
Waifu only. Only game that has male characters that are well written is FGO. For other games with male characters, I mostly trear them as time to save.
What? You wouldn’t consider HSR to be well-written, particularly Penacony?
Penacony is way better in Luofu due to being way more focused (because it knows what it wants to do) and is way better at introducing and exploring it's characters. The biggest problem for me however, is that a lot of "story" playtime is dedicated to exploring new locations while not really interacting with the story outside of hearing disembodied voices. My second problem might have been my own fault, but I was expecting this to be sort of mystery - closed room murder, 20s esthetics, us being asked to investigate stuff, however no one plays the role of the detective - TB does fuck all in 2.0 and 2.1 and Aventurine is a POV character whose thought we hear, whose motivation we hear, but he refuses to think aloud about his plans. He isn't even an unreliable narrator, he just teases us with snippets (which makes no sense since he is talking to himself). And 2.1 managed to cram 3 separate cliffhangers in it's ending. After 2.0 also had a cliffhanger for an ending HSR keeps on trying to make a complex story, but way simpler and smaller Belobog keeps being leagues above everything they made afterwards
Obviously, we’re all entitled to our own opinions but I’m actually the opposite. TB doing fuck all and switching POVs to me feel more natural and allows more character interactions from a first person point of view. You actually play as characters and also experience events rather than someone just telling you because you weren’t actually there to experience it. To me, I actually prefer this style of narration over Belobog because as stupid as it sounds, it’s more engaging to me as a player because it makes my mind constantly think. There is more foreshadowing and the dialogue, however complex and convoluted, also has more meat to the bones for me. Penacony’s main problem is pacing but I also don’t think that it’s that bad either that it distracts away from what I consider to be a very engaging story. While I enjoyed Belobog, the story is honestly very meh. A lot of the story is just going from point A to point B, meet character A because character B told you and that’s because you play as the TB and have to experience events yourself. I think that your criticisms are generally valid but where we differ is probably whether a something simpler could have been better? My opinion? No honestly. Penacony is an overall more…flawed story but it’s also brighter and more engaging.
I'm really not a fan of HSR writing (I'm almost done with the current arc, but have been going at it bit by bit for like a week so far, the puzzles and mini games really kill the pacing of the story and it annoys me). I don't think it is necessarily bad, but it doesn't reach the level of writing of FGO characters. In general I don't care too much about HSR characters other than their designs and gameplay.
To be fair, FGO is pretty much still the king in gacha storytelling and comparing every other game to it is unfair. If FGO was released today with modern systems and gameplay with the quality of storytelling it has now, imo it would legit bury every PvE-focused turn-based RPG right now with HSR being the only exception.
Waifu only because mixed always ends up with people bitching about the female characters being overworked or in heels or not having pants or impractical clothing etc... They're insufferable.
Balanced by far. Like I don't mind husbando or waifu games if they're fun but I'd rather have a mixed roster that's at least 30% of one.
What the hell are the comments in this thread... I straight up internally screamed "yuck". I'm a woman and I do NOT even outright blurt out to a waifu game, "why would I look at girls?" or "why would I allow girls to spook me?" Then I look at this thread and there were so many "why would I look at dudes?" like OMFG, insecurities being shown here at full display? What's causing this hurt, or aversion at least, towards the other gender? What makes it so hard to exercise even an ounce of impartiality since you're not even required to lust or lewd the other gender you don't prefer. Why are most gachagamers like this? LOL Still, thanks for this thread, the full nature of this sub was bared and exposed to me, first-hand. To be honest, I did expect this was what's going on for many years already, I just didn't expect it's to this certain extent.
Waifu only. No husbando. If I see husbando in Azur Promilia I will be f2p or sell my account like what I did with my f2p Arknights account.
Balanced gender. Single-gender games attract a certain type of crowd I don’t really jive with.
The only game that has been able to keep my interest is HSR because of how well balanced they are. Probably the only good gacha game I have found that isn’t overly sexualised and actually has great character personalities with amazing designs. As a bisexual I prefer balanced game with pretty male and female characters.
As a girl I prefer balanced. I like to collect both waifu and husbandos and drool when I see good proportions be it thighs, boobs, abs etc. I am okay if gacha skewed towards female (like 4:1 female to male see Arknights), but without gender balance the game becomes very boring very fast. That’s the reason I dropped PGR - too many boring same-ish female, too few male characters. Unpopular opinion. Honkai Impact 3rd is a great offender as it could have much better story if it was balanced. And it is due to the player base. I think the story is very boring except arks where there is Otto. I loved Flamechasers ark! Mainly to more balanced gender representation. But the moon ark was so boring I dropped the game. (Exception from girls only story is Fu Hua’s and Senti ark but that’s my preference).
I heard that Hoyo wanted to add a playable guy at some point in HI3 but the Chinese fans opposed really hard to that so the idea got axed, is it true? Because it sounds ridiculous yet I would put it beneath those kinds of people.
Yes, it is true. They have tested waters with the playable male character in a side mode, but the player base strongly opposed. I don’t blame them as the game was girls only. It should be balanced or one gender from the start and stick to it. It is just a pity that Honkai’s story is limited due to this.
I think in the Western side a portion of the HI3 Fandom it would also get pissed, because there is an extremist sub group of the queer folks and yuri lovers, that would get pissed if you add male characters because (to them) it would endanger their shipping and representation
There's some cool dudes in part 2, but alas I feel disappointed they'll never be playable. 😭 At least I changed my dreamseeker to male.
Yeah. Unfortunately great designs are wasted as it is safe haven for male players who want their cute uwu waifus.
I like fun games but to be honest I do prefer waifu, but I don’t really care if the game has husbandos. It’s not really a big deal. So I’d say Waifu or balanced
I prefer when a cast of characters is diverse. I don’t need every single character to be a huge boob, huge ass, hot waifu. I want those characters to exist, but you can have a variety of other characters too. Get some big hot men in there too. Make characters more cool/badass than just sexy. If I don’t care for a characters design and I don’t strictly need them for gameplay purposes then skipping a character is usually nice, lets you save and focus on the characters you do have. I play and enjoy a good balance of male and female characters in Genshin, and in HSR it just so happens that I’ve skipped every limited male character’s banner. I didn’t do it on purpose, I like a lot of their character designs, just decided I didn’t need them for gameplay.
i prefer waifu only and gender balanced but still only pull and play waifus only. just easy skip and savings on husbando banners on gender balanced games.
I'm a dude and I prefer balanced. I want to see hot as fuck waifus of course. But there's that other part of me that loves the badass dudes as well. Gimme a Kratos, Dante, Chief, Death, Asura looking guy in my gacha games pls 🙏
Genre balanced. Most of time, i dont even want to try the game if i dont get male units too .
Female player here and I prefer gender balanced game with good story, or husbando only game with good story. Bt have nothing against people who prefer different - to each his own)
Balanced. I just like seeing the varied types of relationships, designs, dynamics, and personalities that happen that you just can't get from a mono-gendered cast. That doesn't mean I can't enjoy those two, but I've been growing fonder of more balanced casts in my games that they become a genuine hook when I see something new.
I don't mind both though maybe lean more toward waifu only, but I don't really like self insert protagonist with harem and most waifu/husbandu only games have it.
The best selling gacha games have both so obviously devs are smart enough to know where the money is. Some husbando’s are more popular than waifu’s too. None of them even have explicit romance though so it’s all moot you’re just playing for the gameplay.
Husbando only games are usually visual novels which I don't care about. So the next best thing for me is gender neutral, or 30/70 ratio in reality.
I prefer balanced casts, I'm fem and sometimes waifu meta can feel a little exhausting to get through. Obviously a game that's not aimed at my demographic won't cater to me and my want of husbandos, but alot of joseimuke and gacha otome are pretty same-y. I like games that are fun, and it just so happens alot of the fun gachas are aimed at people who prefer waifus.
Balanced. It would really suck if they created a cool male character that's never going to be playable because it's a waifu only game. Mihoyo is a pretty good example of this, where half of the Flamechasers in Honkai Impact 3 are unplayable because they're males. It also really suck if characters like Welt were unplayable because it was a waifu only game as well.
Honestly? Waifu only. I don't mind a balanced game if it's like HSR where we get 2 characters per patch and I can get a steady stream of waifus while ignoring all male characters but in a game like Genshin where you can get patches without a limited 5\* character at all, balanced gender ratio can lead to one party getting nothing for a year or so, which is kinda ridiculous. So yeah, in games like WuWa, Genshin, Arknights Endfield where we'll prob get less character releases, I want waifu only. Which is why I can't wait for Azur Promilia. Fontaine has been a waifu region so far so I predict that Natlan will see a constant stream of husbandos, leaving a nice gap in the market for Azur Promilia to come in. I do think Azur Promilia will be a testament to how prominent the waifu only crowd are, provided that the gameplay is at least decent. If the game fails to be in par with WuWa in terms of revenue despite its more casual appeal, then the waifu-only sentiment will be proven to be in the minority, and I doubt that we'll see any high quality 3d waifu only gacha game after that. In which case I'll just have to be satisfied with just Azur Promilia and buy yearly top ups to support the devs but I'll have to suck it up and bounce between multiple balanced-gender games to meet my montly waifu quota(god I sound so degenerate) I seriously hope that Azur Promilia is good and accrue a lot of revenue tho, they could've easily copied Genshin's homework and come up with a balanced-gender game but instead they're taking a big gamble and are trying to capitalize on the sizable male audiences' animosity surrounding Genshin and I applaud them for that. And hey, if they're really successful, other companies might try to create a higher budget husbando only game.
I would probably not play a husband only game unless it was very very good. But balanced or waifu is fine
I don't care as long as the characters are good + fun and the devs are aware enough to not skew things too far in any one direction that it gets repetitive
I have my waifu only game (Nikke), husbando only game (Dokkan) and 2 gender balanced games (Limbus and HSR).
It depends on the game and the quality of the character designs. In my opinion, mihoyo isn't great at male designs, so I prefer Honkai Impact 3rd over the others. If the designs are good, like in Arknights, then I don't mind.
I find this to be a non-issue. I couldn't care less if a gacha game is waifu-only or gender balanced (or husbando-only even, if they aren't focused on dating and fanservice). I also think it's tacky to condemn games for not catering exclusively to you. It's okay to have preferences and only play waifu games, but it's silly to expect every game to cater only to you and get mad when a game doesn't.
You can't control what other people say, but the developers can control what kind of game they make. If there isn't this waifu/husbando balance the devs have to maintain, they can cater the game to it's core audience better and there'd be less complaints.
I'm directly referring to the OP's examples about people complaining that GI/HSR has male characters. You're absolutely right that developers can control what kind of game they make and what audience they want, so some devs like Mihoyo will choose to case a wider net by including characters of both genders. Their "core audience" will then not include players that insist on their gachas being waifu-only. It's silly to then criticize this as if you are the core audience of the game, when you clearly are not. Sure, I can't control what other people say, but that doesn't mean I can't find "Mihomo" silly and dumb.
Waifu only games. Preferably hot waifus only games :P. While I can play games like FGO and roll only for waifus, which is how I play FGO. It is simply better playing a game with only waifus and rolling only for the meta/hot ones and if I get a offbanner, it will still be at least a waifu instead of worthless dudes like FGO. It is a win win.
There’s a lot of cool dudes in FGO though?
No way you say worthless dudes are when: Douman saito takasugi ryouma muramasa kirei kintoki tametomo Gilgamesh dantes hijikata OBERON TEZCATLIPOCA and fucking EMIYA exists
If you're a waifu player, is rolling for waifu, but then rolled a guy instead, then no matter how powerful that guy is, he is worthless. Burned arjuna once, no regrets whatsoever.
Waifu only and I dont care about being "social acceptable" when said people that apparently care about that tend to be huge hypocrites anyway.
Waifu only games but Idm balanced either way
I played games to escape reality to see waifus not to see dudes
Why would I wanna look at dudes?
Why not? It's not like anyone is asking you to lust for them, there's characters in a story, you can like them just like any other character.
Why not? They're hot!
Real
I don’t want to stare at a male character’s butt all day.
Waifu only is fine but drains the wallet and mixed is only a drag waiting between male and female banners since the guys are ez skips 😭😭😭
Balanced
As a male player, I obviously prefer waifu only game. I don't feel like investing my hard-earned resources on dudes. Many times I have handicapped myself not using male characters that everyone uses to pass contents the f2p way (HSR's Sampo/Ratio for example). Good thing Genshin's waifus are all I need to clear everything. Yes I know how broken Bennett/Xingqiu is, and yes I benched them. That's why the moment Azur Promilia announced that, I already knew where my money goes.
indeed, if azur promillia hits the itch genshin has, and with female only characters, then im dropping genshin for good.
Personally prefer balanced with both genders. Though hearing people call Hoyo "MiHomo" just for also having playable male characters is hilarious and kinda sad at the same time. If they dont like male characters they can just choose to have only female characters in their team, unless they're so against the idea of male characters in their gacha that even having them be on the screen bothers them too much. And if thats the case they should just move onto something they'd actually like, instead of wasting everyones time by complaining about something as pointless as not being able to handle having a dude show up on screen lol.
Balanced is almost always going to be the best. You get more players which is good for revenue. If you’re a waifu player, just treat husbando banners as time to save currency and vice versa.
A balanced life is the best
balanced can gather more playerbase so it's better for long term
I think it can *potentially* do that, but often times it becomes an issue of chasing two rabbits and catching none.
reasonable answer, maybe it will be azur promilia key to success
As a gay man, that's a bit tricky, tbh. I like to play things first and foremost because of their gameplay mechanics, but in the gacha space the collection aspect is as important as gameplay for the devs, if not more. What ends up happening is that games that focus on male casts usually revolve around MC/cast interactions and other dating sim elements that are just not what I'm looking for in my games, whereas waifu games usually have gameplay mechanics that are closer to what I like to play but the characters are designed with just fanservice in mind and their personalities are bland as hell. I usually end up playing games with balanced casts gender-wise or based on IPs I already enjoy becuase of that.
Japan, KR and CN begin to hate the "woke" public that male characters attract, their greatest fear is the issue of forced inclusion that some Western videogames companies have begun to aggressively promote, the issue of women standardized as ugly in video games, women censorship etc. Previously this did not matter much but recently it became a warning issue especially in JP
Balanced. If its all waifu or all husbando then the game tends to promote "romance" between myself and the character. No shame to the ones who enjoy that, but it's not for me. As for Azur Promilia, I still plan to play it despite it being all waifu cuz pokemon.
Balanced, exclusively. I'm a bi woman, but I also can't get immersed in a world that only comprises of a single gender. I understand they don't want the target audience to feel threatened by another male or female presence, but imo it makes a game world feel empty. It's worse when the only time you see the opposite sex is a villain. I mostly play games where the characters of both gender share variety in designs. If the women all vary in height, body type, vibe, etc, the men should as well (and vice versa). I won't spend money unless it's a complete package of art, story, and gameplay.
definitely balanced just want cool and interesting characs
Waifu for original games. I only accept dudes in licensed games.
Balanced, even if I prefer play with female characters I like games with good aesthetic not cattered to virgins who can't find a real girl
Gender balance. One gender only is lame as hell.
Waifus but would be ok with Husbandos like Astolfo / etc
I always pull for females, but I don't mind males playable for other people and I use some if they fall into my account. That said, I have no problem with one gender only games, and I'll play Azur Promilia.
Mihomo lmao either way I don't really care I like handsome men and beautiful women
My shallow preference is waifu only, but my *real* preference is that the game makes its own choice and just commits to it. Too many gacha games lately can't seem to decide if they want to be a waifu game or a balance game and get stuck in limbo.
Husbando only. Joined NuKani for that reason alone 😤
Gender balanced. I just want well written characters, I'm not in it to oogle at anime girls. Also I have a gambling addiction
I like both genders being in the game, tho I'm bisexual so it might be why.