For you, our little robin, we offer the finest of sins.
- "Good Evening... The fact that you're here tonight means... You saw what we did... didn't you?"—Victor
Ikemen Villain: Wrapped in Wicked Romance is an otome visual novel for mobile platforms. It is made by the Japanese company Cybird and is the sixth entry of the Ikemen Series.
The game is set in London, England, during the reign of Queen Victoria. The player takes control of a young woman (default name "Kate", but you can change it).
While working as a letter carrier, you stumble upon Crown, a secret organization whose cursed members serve Her Majesty the Queen. Using their ill-fated powers, the Crown members carry out assassinations and fight evil with evil… Unfortunately for you, you’ve now witnessed their crimes.
With your life temporarily spared by an agreement to become their “Fairytale Keeper,” witnessing and recording their evil deeds, you’ll have to tread carefully as you work alongside the nine sinister yet gorgeous villains. After all, fairytale villains never get their happy endings…and the dark and twisted path you take with him might just drive you mad…
The game was released in English on March 28, 2024. It features nine romanceable characters:
- William Rex: The Immoral and Self-Righteous Monarch. Crown's top member, known even to Her Majesty as the King of Villains. A proponent of personal freedoms, he acts uninhibitedly in the pursuit of helping people "become their own master," all while tempting you to fall into a dark world of sweet, poisonous sin. His curse is the Queen of Hearts, from Alice in Wonderland.
- Harrison Gray: The Easygoing and Popular Lying Fox. A seemingly carefree member of Crown who loves to tease you. An avid reader with a penchant for mystery novels, he also has a sizable sweet tooth. He lies frivolously and often, masking his true intentions. However, it appears he has a secret "certain purpose" for joining Crown. His curse is the Lying Fox, fairy tale unknown.
- Liam Evans: The Irresistibly Charming Cheshire Cat. A young, spirited, and attractive member of Crown. In between his duties, he works as a stage actor. Although he charms everyone around him without effort, there are times when he seems lost to loneliness... His curse is the Cheshire Cat, from Alice in Wonderland.
- Elbert Greetia: The Monomaniacal Wistful Earl. A melancholic nobleman. His porcelain-doll beauty often attracts fawning attention. He collects beautiful objects to the point of mania, only to leave them discarded messily around his room. Is there a tragic reason behind this intense desire? His curse is the Evil Queen, from Snow White.
- Alfons Sylvatica: The Hedonistic Phantom. A hedonist who indulges in an excessively decadent lifestyle. As elusive as a phantom, he prioritizes ephemeral pleasures above everything else. Perpetually dishonest, he'll play you for a fool... and with you like a toy... His curse is the Magic Mirror, from Snow White.
- Roger Barel: The Egotistical Former Doctor. A former doctor whose skills now benefit the Crown members. Although he may appear respectable, he's an egoist who'll stop at nothing for the sake of his research. However, he seems to harbor a specific ambition he's never shared with anyone... His curse is the Hunter, from Snow White.
- Jude Jazza: The Cunning & Ruthless Mobster. A cold-blooded man who relishes in other's misfortune and despair. As the president of a questionable trading company, he's earned himself many enemies. He always fulfills his promises and expects the same of others, holding a special one close to his festering heart... His curse is the Thirteenth Fairy, from Sleeping Beauty.
- Ellis Twilight: The Happiness-Obsessed Oddball. Crown's youngest member and Jude's assistant. He is kind and thoughtful toward everyone, but something ominous lurks beneath his gentle surface... He has a peculiar obsession for the "happiest moment" in other's lives and his own definition of "love" he's striving to prove. His curse is the Briar Bushes, from Sleeping Beauty.
- Victor: Her Majesty's Eccentric Gentleman Aide. Crown's free-spirited leader and the queen's personal aide. He's dedicated to fulfilling all of Her Majesty's wishes, though often in meddlesome and unexpected ways. Nevertheless, he takes great care of all the Crown members, the player included. His curse is....?
Tropes applying to certain characters in specific can be found on the Characters page.
Ikemen Villain contains examples of:
- Allegedly Free Game: A lot of content is locked behind Diamonds. Though you can get Diamonds through login bonuses and a few other methods, it tends to take a long time and the reward is often a paltry amount, encouraging players to just buy them with real money. Even if you stick with the basic Gold currency, the prices for some items can get ridiculously high.
- An Interior Designer Is You: Some accessories are not worn, but rather used to decorate the room your avatar stands in. The backdrop can also be changed to other sceneries.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Some clothing items can be obtained from clearing story events or missions. Clothing and accessories raise your Beauty Points and can be used to dress up your avatar.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: The game offers a subscription for a monthly fee of $5 for extra items and bonuses.
- Cash Gate: As usual for Cybird's Ikemen games, purchasing a certain item is required to progress the story at certain points. You can either pay Gold for the normal version, or pay Diamonds for the premium version.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: As expected for an otome, every suitor is considered very attractive in-game.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Being cursed does not lead to a happy life. Sure, it gives special powers, but those powers come with their own troubles.
- Liam, for example, has a cat's impulsivity and curiosity, which means that he's frequently tempted to try dangerous things just for the experience - like jumping on the train tracks when he was five years old, and just barely getting out of the way in time. He's frequently drawn to try potentially suicidally dangerous new experiences as well, and the records of the last person who had the curse before him indicate it's linked to this specific curse.
- Darker and Edgier: Befitting a game that revolves around dating "villains" in the dystopian Victorian London, the story frequently deals with dark elements such as torture, self-harm, suicide and themes of dubious consent - all of which will be given Content Warnings if present.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Played with. Victor warns the MC from the beginning that those who are Cursed are doomed to meet tragic ends, and records of past Cursed individuals indicate that he's correct. Thus, getting involved with a Cursed person isn't likely to lead to a long and happy life of growing old together. Nor can a Curse be broken. Part of the romances is the MC having to accept that fact if she continues to pursue her love interest - they might be together and happy for the moment, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a long and happy life, or that it will end happily.
- Fairytale Motif: The Cursed Ones and their powers are based after various villainous figures in fairy tales, paticularly Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. Though, as it's pointed out, it's speculated that the curses predate the fairy tales and fairy tales may have been written about Cursed individuals in the first place, even if now it's impossible to tell which came first.
- Freemium Timer: Of the energy meter variety.
- Players are given five free story tickets each day and must use story tickets from their inventory if they want to read beyond those five. These additional story tickets can usually be obtained by watching an ad or buying them with Diamonds.
- Escorting costs 20 Action Points. Players have a total of 100 AP, and 1 AP is restored every 3 minutes (in other words, waiting from 0 to 100 would take a grand total of five hours). AP can be restored by watching an ad, using items like Tea Sets, or, again, paying Diamonds.
- Government Agency of Fiction: Crown, a secret agency directly under Queen Victoria's control that employs Cursed individuals to perform missions that must not be connected back to the monarch. The premise is that evil in England should be punished with the evil of the Cursed individuals; since their curses enable and in some cases encourage them to perform evil deeds, shouldn't that evil be used for good?
- Of course, the other side to this is that Crown missions need deniable plausibility and thus can have no witnesses — so when the MC walks in on them committing murder in the prologue, several of them seriously consider if they should kill her out loud. Victor makes up the job of Fairytale Keeper as a way for the MC to prove she'll keep her mouth shut and can be trusted to keep Crown's secrets; once her trial period is over in a month, it's assumed she'll go back to her original job and normal life and pretend Crown never existed.
- Guide Dang It!: Maxing out the Love Meter often requires a walkthrough, as it requires you to consistently pick the dialogue option that nets you the most Romantic and Dramatic points.
- Hostage Situation: In William's route, the Queen's Privy Council arranges for a number of people William has sponsored in the past to be arrested and interrogated for their connection to William. Their goal is that William will show up to rescue the prisoners, while in the meantime convincing the interrogation victims that everything is William's fault and the only way to prove their own innocence is to show their loyalty by killing him. The genius of this plan is that William will have no compunction about harming the corrupt police and guards, but won't use violence or his powers on the innocent, nor defend himself from them.
- I Choose to Stay: The MC usually finds she would rather stay in Crown with her new friends and lover than return to her normal life. Which is coincidentally exactly what Victor warned her about.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: You’re given limited closet space, so eventually you will likely have to either buy more with Diamonds, or sell old pieces to make room.
- Luck-Based Mission: Getting the 4- or 5-star Gacha usually is this, unless you want to spend a lot of Diamonds/Tickets to up your chances of success.
- Microtransactions: Real life money can be used to buy Diamonds, the game's premium currency.
- New Game Plus: You get different ending rewards for your room and avatars depending on which ending you pick, and you have to go back and get the other ending to get the other rewards. Additionally, some chapters from his POV are only available after reaching both endings.
- Play Every Day: The game encourages this with login bonuses and events that reset every day.
- Psychic Powers: Those who are Cursed receive supernatural powers related to their specific fairy tale.
- Recycled Premise: Players coming to this game from Ikemen Sengoku may notice that the basic concepts of the two games' premises are very similar: A young woman with a normal life has a fateful encounter with a handsome stranger that leads to her being trapped in a time/world completely different from the one she is used to, where two factions are on the verge of war and a third party in the shadows is secretly manipulating both sides for their own nefarious goals. The difference is that Ikemen Villain has the player entering the dark side of England rather than literally changing worlds or eras, and thus often encounters people she knew from her old life or new people who are unaware of Crown and needs to keep the secret from them.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: The Wrapped In Wicked Romance event has the MC pretend to be the Villains’ lover for a day so that she can understand them better for her role as their Fairytale Keeper.
- Socialization Bonus: Players can send likes to other players' profiles; giving a like rewards 20 Gold, and receiving a like rewards 10. Players can follow up to 50 people and have up to 100 followers, and players who follow each other are considered friends and can send each other messages.
- Supervillain Lair: The Crown’s headquarters is Big Fancy Castle with gothic architecture and built in a remote forest.
- Timed Mission: Completing special in-game events and missions is this, given that they're only around for so many days.
- Victorian London: The game takes place in the England under the rule of Queen Victoria, and thanks to her association with the Cursed Ones, the MC gets to learn about all the dark sides of the Victorian Era.
- Villain Protagonist: As the name implies, the male leads are self-proclaimed "villains" who commit immoral acts on a frequent basis, though some are nobler than the others.
- Virtual Paper Doll: Your avatar can be dressed up in various clothes and accessories. This also goes for an avatar of a guy of your choosing.
