Choose Me is an OEL otome Audio Drama.
Each CD will have a different story in which you listen through the tracks and, near the end, pick between the two love interests by selecting their specific audio track when the time comes.
As of the writing of this article, only the Mark or Doug
story is available, though it includes a promo recording for the next story, Carlos or Ryan.
The stories and general dialogue (bar any Ad Lib) are written by Michaela Laws, the writer of Our Honeymoon and one of the series creators of the OEL Visual Novel, Seduce Me, and they all three share some of the same voice talent.
No connection to the 1984 film Choose Me.
The Choose Me series provides examples of the following tropes:
- Audience Participation: Technically possible. There are spaces in the dialogue and notes in the scripts that indicate where and how you reply to questions and comments. Plus, you choose which character gets the final audio track.
- Informed Attractiveness: In each story, you choose between two love interests that both think you're attractive regardless of actual appearance. Physical traits aren't mentioned specifically for obvious reasons.
- Love Triangle: The big draw is choosing one of the love interests.
- No Name Given: For you, but it's worked around. No one addresses you by or asks for your name.
- Player and Protagonist Integration: You specifically are addressed by the characters in the audio tracks, though there are elements of backstory given to you.
- Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Sometimes characters will do this in reaction to your lines, so it's possible to listen to the stories and get the gist without checking the script.
- Story Branching: One branch in this case and that's choosing the love interest to hang out with.
- Taking a Third Option: Both choices are available in the track list regardless of initial choice, so it's more than possible to listen to the stories with each of the two end scenarios. You can also play through both choices back to back, though that messes the narrative cohesion.
- The Voiceless: While you do make comments and replies in the stories, it's only written in the script as general impressions and not recorded in the audio, so there's also no way to choose something different as a response (bar the choice tracks at the end).
Choose Me: Mark or Doug is about a secretary (you) at an architectural firm. Your coworker and childhood friend, Mark, tells you about a new fancy bar called Euphoria that opened up and you decide to check it out. While visiting the bar, you meet an intriguing bartender named Doug that also happens to be the owner and manager. While chatting with Doug, Mark shows up to check out the bar as well. Things get tense between Mark and Doug, both of them wanting your attention, so it comes down to you choosing whether to spend time with Mark or Doug.
The CD is 11 tracks long in all, though only the first 8 are the story. Tracks 1-6 are played straight through for the set-up and characterization and next are the two tracks you select from (track 7 for Mark and track 8 for Doug). The last three tracks are interviews with the voice actors and a promo for the next Choose Me scenario (Carlos or Ryan).
Tropes:
- Betty and Veronica: Mark and Doug, in that respective order. Mark is the familiar coworker and childhood friend while Doug is the suave bartender you've just met.
- Childhood Friend Romance: If you choose Mark. You two used to be playmates and are now coworkers as well as friends.
- Maybe Ever After: When choosing Doug.Doug: "To our new friendship... and maybe something more. Who knows? Only time will tell."
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Presumably why you went to Euphoria on your own after Mark mentioned it to you. Over the course of the story, you tell both Mark and Doug you had a hard day at work.
- Jazz: The intro, outtro, and background song in most of the tracks is a smooth jazz song, courtesy of the bar setting in most of the story.
- Office Romance: Mark is a coworker at the same architectural firm, though not under the same boss.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: There are conflicts on which color goes with which character overall, so here's the details:
- The names of the love interests are color-coded in the script. Mark's name is in blue while Doug's name is in red.
- In the character illustrations, Mark wears glasses with red frames while Doug has blue eyes and blue accents on his uniform.
- From a personality standpoint, Mark appears to be the Red Oni, passionate and temperamental, while Doug appears to be the Blue Oni, cultured and calm.
- Sexy Secretary: Two men are competing for your attention and you literally just met one of them. Mark also tells you at one point that he's heard other men at work talk about you as well.
Tropes:
- Office Romance: Both love interests are said to be coworkers. Carlos is specifically mentioned as your boss.
- Road Trip Romance: The set-up is a car ride with two coworkers that butt heads constantly and are both presumably romantically interested in you.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: A distinct possibility since the love interests you choose between are always fighting. In the promo track, a friend calls you to make sure you'll be alright being stuck with them.
