What Out of Copyright Characters Would You Like To See A Game About?

[alias_sqbr]

There's a bunch of otome about out of copyright characters: all the Alice in Wonderland influenced games, Code Realise about various 19th Century European characters like Frankenstein, Ozmafia about fairytale characters etc.

But there's a whole bunch who never get to be sexy bishonen (/bishoujo/whatever the non binary term is)

A while ago I had fun pondering Australian examples on my blog, including The Jolly Swagman, The Man From Snowy River, and The Magic Pudding.

So who are some obscure or unusual out of copyright characters fictional characters you'd enjoy seeing in a dating sim/otome game? Extra points if they're not from the UK or US.

Copyright law is a mess, but anything from around 1920 or earlier is a fair bet.

Comments

[scytale]

...it's UK, but I will admit that my first thought was "JUST LET ME ROMANCE (OR BE) GAWAIN". My inner nine-year-old demands it. Gosh, just give me the game where I can go around being a knight and roleplaying chivalry and romancing all the knights and ladies. o.o

Kay would be the tsundere who is struggling with feeling out of place and inferior to his brother; Galahad Would Never Romance Anyone (except of course he would); one of the Orkney brothers is struggling with massive inferiority and taking it out on everyone (Agravaine?); romancing Gareth feels weird because you'd feel like you're just breaking him up with Lancelot; Mordred is the angsty secret character who needs to be talked out of destroying everything, and also inevitably my favorite.

Lynet would be very tsundere as well; Guinevere and Morgan...could go any way, really, considering all the ways she's portrayed. Nimue would be...hmm, magical and ambitious, maybe, if we want to go with the Merlin story?

(ETA: Expanding on the women a bit, and being more than a little self-indulgent -- I think Lynet's arc would be about feeling very trapped and having to depend on knights, when she just wants to save her cousin herself. Morgan's arc should be about digging into the Dark Secrets of Camelot. And Ragnell and Elaine would probably feature!)

I also thought of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I'll admit I don't know much about it -- lots of compelling characters who would make good routes, and I feel like it would do the war/tragedy/different side things that the Sengoku games do.

A Decameron inspired game might be fun, though I'm not sure that's about the characters and more about the meta of romancing people who are telling stories.

[waterscroll]

There is an otome game where you are a female King Arthur and date the various knights:
http://scrutinizingmasochists.blogspot.com/2018/09/yay-or-nay-princess-arthur-otome-game.html

It looks not-bad, I keep thinking I should check it out.

[scytale]

I just tried to find it and it's not on Google Play! D:

It's listed on the same page as Demon's Bond and Scarlet Fate, so I think it's one of the games that might have been taken down... https://shallwedate.jp/en/paid.html

[waterscroll]

Oh, boo.

Well, maybe it will come back?

[alias_sqbr]

Ooh, yeah, there's a lot of scope for Romance and Tragedy with King Arthur.

I haven't actually read the Canterbury Tales, but that could be interesting too, with people telling stories.

[scytale]

I have also not read the Canterbury Tales, but yes!

And it's pretty obvious what the routes would be!

[waterscroll]

Shakespeare is full of public domain bishonen.

In particular, I think Midsummer Night's Dream could work really well. Maybe you could play as Puck and decide which pairs to match up using love potions? Or play as any of the characters, and based on who you end up with all the other pairings also shift?

Or Twelfth Night, you could play as Viola and end up with either Orsnio or Olivia or possibly there could be routes with other characters as well.

I'd also love to see more historical otome that give different perspectives on historical conflicts and where you can date historical characters. I typed out and deleted a bunch that I'd like to see in particular, because really very many could work, especially those where you have historical records that tell multiple sides of the story. But to continue the Shakespeare theme, I think Richard the Third could be interesting, and Richard could be a terrible villain or a misunderstood woobie depending on your choices.

[waterscroll]

Ack, sorry, missed the non-US/UK piece...my head is now going to Bible stories. The whole David-Saul-Jonathan-Samuel tangle is pretty dramatic and they could all be written as bishonen, you'd probably have to write AU happy endings on some routes.

[alias_sqbr]

Oh my god, the BIBLE, brilliant! So many fun options that will absolutely never get made into real games. And yes, that mess has a LOT of potential.

[alias_sqbr]

SHAKESPEARE, YES. Twelfth Night the dating sim . You are very good at this game.

Yeah, I thought about mentioning historical RPF but that feels like a slightly different topic. Historical RPF specifically through the lens of Shakespeare could be interesting too, maybe something which plays around with the contrast between his take and other interpretations of events. Especially with Richard 3!

Ooh this has me thinking about a work that sifts through the many ways history and fiction have seen a character or person. LIke you play as Watson or Queen Elizabeth I, and the choices/endings line up to some extent with various popular/iconic interpretations. I feel like I've seen that done but can't think of where.

[waterscroll]

Yes! I was thinking the English reformation is a time period where we have lots of different takes on some of the historical figures. Maybe a choice between dating Queen Mary vs Queen Elizabeth? And for both routes you'd have an option between something more historically accurate (Mary marries someone else and then dies, Elizabeth leaves you b/c she doesn't do marriage) and an AU happy ending?

Or hm, what if you only have one option of who to date, but based on your choices you get a very different version of them, coming from a different historical account of their life? Queen Elizabeth would be great for that.

[alias_sqbr]

This is ringing SUCH a bell for me and I can't think of why. But yes, those would all be really interesting.

[scytale]

Maybe you could play as Puck and decide which pairs to match up using love potions? Or play as any of the characters, and based on who you end up with all the other pairings also shift?

Oh, yes please.

I would actually be interested in more otome where you match people up.


Or Twelfth Night, you could play as Viola and end up with either Orsnio or Olivia or possibly there could be routes with other characters as well.

Oh yes! Or both Olivia and Orsino! Both is good! :P And maybe an ending where they do end up with each other? I love this idea so much.

I'd also love to see more historical otome that give different perspectives on historical conflicts and where you can date historical characters.

I'd be interested in seeing a palace drama otome, I think. There's probably a time period you could set it in where you get the palace drama and escalating historical conflict.

[waterscroll]

Ok this is kind of out there but I've been thinking about it all night so why not:
Nathan the Wise (18th cent. German)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_the_Wise

The whole setup reminds me of an otome novel: 3 rings, 3 religions, 3 men, 3 perspectives on what it means to live a good life, one woman protagonist navigating between them. And I think the otome novel genre could be very interesting for thinking through questions of pluralism and tolerance and how they look different from different social locations.

And I'm sure Saladin would make a great bishonen.

[alias_sqbr]

Oh wow! That could be very interesting, even if you'd have to do some heavy adapting to make it romance unless you wanted it to be all incest. Plus of course the standards for religious tolerance have changed a bit since the 16th century.

One thing I liked about Akash: Path of the Five was how each path was about picking a friend/boyfriend but also a magical discipline/future life direction, even if it didn't a lot with that aspect. I feel like I've seen other games do stuff like that but am blanking. Anyway, paths as explorations of different life philosophies etc is always interesting.

[caramarie]

I am pretty sure there have been games involving Norse mythology before, but now I'm thinking of how the gods give Skadi a choice of husbands (in order to appease her for killing her dad) and she has to pick them by their feet ... the point at which you have to choose your route is built into it! And maybe some of the other options work out better than the canon, where they just can't stand where the other lives :p

[scytale]

This is such a cool idea!

I like the idea of Skadi either choosing without knowing who it is, and also a version where she gets a common route and gets to pick.

Also, so much worldbuilding potential, and "outsider joins new society" potential. o.o And the vengeance and honor and Skadi-ness of Skadi is deeply interesting to me.

And oh goodness, I kind of want to see the Loki route.

[alias_sqbr]

Ha! That's a classic otome setup! Except for the feet and some people are into that.