We will go through Gayphoreus with Castorice as the most successful character. All the gays and ships flop

Phainon and Cyrene are different from Castorice. The problem with Castorice is that they focused too much on the promotional stuff to sell her, rather than on her in the game. You and Castorice spend a substantial amount of time together, but that time is not spent getting to know each other (or her). There are large sections where you traverse with Castorice, and that time is NOT spent connecting with her. Her story should have EASILY made her FF-tier waifu if they tried to sell her as a waifu as hard as they tried with Firefly. Firefly was written and sold outside and inside the game as a waifu, while Castorice was not. That is their difference. Castorice's waifu pandering parts felt like they were just added as an afterthought.
>oh yeah, we should also add this waifu moment
And people like me, who enjoy that, can feel that.