The objective of the games is usually to pick the choices given to you correctly so that you end up seeing the true story ending of one or several of the game's characters.

So let's say you start the game where the character you're playing gets stood up on a date. The story might explain what your character is thinking. Then it offers you these choices:

What should I do now?

1. Head home immediately.
2. I don't feel like going home now. See if [my best friend] is home.
3. Stay and look at the view for awhile.

If you choose choice #1. You end up running into Kaoru. You then end up going to her place for Christmas. Which eventually leads to other things. Maybe if you don't choose this option you could still end the story being with Kaoru, but it won't be the true ending. You'll just end up being good friends with her. (Some games might have three or more different story endings for a character)

If you choose choice #3. Maybe you end up meeting Haruka because she comes by later.

If you choose choice #2 maybe you end up on the road to seeing the story ending of another character besides Haruka and Kaoru.

Sometimes the choices are not about ending with one of the characters. It might be about developing the mindset of the character. If you end up choosing only the lazy options, your character might end the story being a lazy person. If you always choose the mean spirited options, your character might end up being more of an uncaring person. If you choose only the hopeful options, your character might accomplish more things over the course of the story.

Some ren'ai games have few choices while some have a lot. One game I played only had like six decision points all together. There wasn't much freedom to it and there wasn't much variety in the way the story could play out. Some games I've played had a lot of choices like thirty or fifty. Some of the choices make no difference what you choose while some decision points are crucial. Some games have a lot of overlapping events. When that happens you can normally fast forward through the parts that repeat themselves.

Normally you can't go very far down one girl's path and still successfully switch over to another girl's story. If you aren't consistent in the way you are going, you usually end up with no one, the "consolation prize" girl or you end up getting a Bad Ending. Splitting your time between everyone is a good way of ending up with no one. If it's an action story or a story about a stalker you might end up being killed.

When you're trying to see the girl's story in the game you usually want to go to where she's located too. If the girl is a swimmer, it's pretty obvious that you're more likely to run into her near the pool. So if you're given the option of going to the pool you do so. Sometimes though...the game's scenario writer plays tricks and requires that you run into or help another girl first before you can move along with a girl's story. You might have to help her friend first before the first girl will open up to you. So if you're avoiding her friend you'll never be able to complete the first girl's story. There are other story tricks too.

Edited 2 times by Terence T T Aug 7 10 2:52 PM.