That Asian chick in Grandmas house… shit me to tears… I could never work out how to unfriend her because I got too far through before I realized she shat me!
I think one of the problems with most harem games, just to name an example Nephilim. It starts nice, you get the first LI, and you slowly build up something. Then we get another added, first you feel you are cheating on your first LI, but then you find out it's a harem game, and from then on it's like 5 new girls every update. Where you are still fixed in knowing the name of the first one, and half the second. But MC already fucked 100's of woman....
Yeh... nope...
Another 'nice' example was that game of a guy that comes home after many years, his stepmom did something bad, destroying his reputation. Of course he has GF, he even has 2. And starts of love interest with all 3 sisters.... Which is nice...
but then again BOOM, 5 new LI's every week, were you start to wonder if it's a different girl or if you already fucked her. And how can he fuck multiple girls a day.... 7 days a week ???? It's not a godly like Nephlilim...
While I'm playing the game I can remember most characters names pretty good, but after im done with it they kind of fade. Unless the characters really stood out, whether for good or bad reasons.
I am better at remembering faces or the situations where I encountered the girls; so remembering anything but a few names will be unlikely. You tend to instead categorize into like "bratty girl", "aloof girl", "leggy girl", "shy girl, ""hot, blonde girl" etc.
I've got the memory of a fish, so I don't remember any names at all at the top of my head, my brain just makes the connection through a combination of teh thumbnail and name (and in cases that I haven't played it in a very long time. Fun fact, my memory is so bad (or selective, call it what you want) that I once forgot my birthday, was only reminded when I started getting birthday wishes, and my roommates wouldn't believe me in the afternoon that it was my birthday (considering we had spent the whole day together and I hadn't given any indication of it baing so).
I just go remember who I like, either by looks or personality, I have played incest focused games and not gone for incest just because I liked another chick more, a good characther is just a good characther (ah, and redheads, I always remember redheads)