Otome games!

Cheritz is more or less the gold standard in otome games, as far as I'm concerned. I was very disappointed to learn that their next game was going to be a phone app, since I only game on PC (I don't even own a smart phone), but I'm glad to hear it's up to their usual high standards. I hope they make lots of money from it and get started on a PC game next

Hey, I didn't know there was an otome thread! Nice to see y'all~

Finished Mystic Messenger and loved it. I'll definitely give Nameless a try in the future, not sure for Dandelion since I'm not really a fan of stat-raising...

I also have Norn 9 and Code:Realize in my backlog, while anxiously waiting for Collar x Malice's release and hoping for Kenka Bancho Otome to be translated. I'm reading the manga translations and it's hilarious, I love the characters.

If I may throw in a rec: AreaX, created by Zeiva, who also created XNote (it's set in the same universe). It's a sci-fi dystopian time-travelling visual novel that is also otome. I personally like how snarky the heroine is, and the guys are pretty lovable too. Currently my favorite Zeiva game, and one of my favorite otome V Ns.

I don't much like stat raisers either, but Dandelion more than makes up for that annoyance, IMHO. At least watch a Let's Play!

I'll have to check out those two you mentioned, since I see they're on Steam.

Has anybody heard of Romancin' Dudes by Chick and Nugget. It's the most self aware otome game there is. It's still in development, but once it comes out it's going to be free. I'm excited to get it.

That sounds pretty neat.

Out of Let's Plays I'd recommend for Dandelion, I'd say Cry and Dodger's is pretty good. Sure, they make a lot of jokes, but overall, their commentary is very funny, making the Stat-Raising parts much less boring. Sadly, it seems the Let's Play is discontinued, but thankfully, they did two routes altogether!

I've gotta play Nameless too, one time...

edited 1st Jan '17 6:46:34 PM by Revaryk

Collar x Malice is amazing. I still have to finish Mineo's route and do Yanagi's route, but it looks like I'm putting that on hold since I haven't played in like a month. ^_^;

Shiraishi is the best guyshi.

Will play more Vita otome games some day, definitely wanna try Code: Realize and its sequel.

I played the demo of Romancin' Dudes back in January of last year, it was great but (like most English V Ns) it's one of those "who knows if it will ever be released" deals.

edited 27th Apr '18 1:13:46 PM by Ruise

Are there any visual novels translated into English yet?

I've been really interested lately in the vampire Visual Novel Red Embrace: Hollywood but I'd have to wait till spring in America before the game officially arrives, but when is spring in America (time-zone difference)

I discovered one (well, two) for mobile/iPad back in January that I'm still writing fanfiction about— there's a surprising amount of depth compared to most otome games I've played, although the stories in the first app are on the lengthy side and all have the same first handful of chapters (they branch off from each other at different points, but 1-5 are pretty close to identical for all the love interests, and then three have the same chapters 6-9ish while two go a separate route— eventually splitting into their five individual stories, but just getting there can take a while— I found it worth it though).

...That last bit probably didn't do much in its favor. It's good, I promise. The fact that I'm still endorsing it despite recognizing its shortcomings might count for something at least. It's called "Scarlet Fate", in the Shall We Date? family of games; the second game is "Scarlet Fate 2: Seasons of Love" or something like that (most of the stories in there are not sequels in the traditional sense, but some of them do contain spoilers for the original game). I think there's a FTP version of Scarlet Fate, denoted by a plus sign next to the title in the store, although that version is cheesier and (I would think) annoying to have to go through the same 5ish chapters for every character when you only regain 1 story ticket every handful of hours.

I recommend Akifusa's route in Scarlet Fate; when you get through that, if you're interested, Tomonori has his own (considerably shorter, to my disappointment, but still with decent content) story in Scarlet Fate 2 (it's the "Winter Snowflakes" one— not Aterui's). Be warned, Akifusa's hit me in all the feels. I cried— perhaps the first time an otome game has made me do that, I can't remember any other time. If you're looking for something light, fluffy, and purely comedic, this may not be a good choice. However, if you're looking for something rich in story and emotionally compelling, with a female protagonist who defies most typical otome MC stereotypes as an added bonus, go for it.

Tomonori's own story, somewhat ironically, is a bit lighter in tone, but it still definitely has its heart-wrenching moments. (Tomo's my favorite character by the way. He's the reason I'm disappointed there aren't more fans of these games, since I would dearly love more content involving him.) Also a side note: his story succeeded, as early as Chapter 2, in making me realize that intelligence can be incredibly sexy.

I will say that I also tried Gentoka's story in Scarlet Fate but was disappointed. It had its moments, I guess, and the female protag had some really badass lines (and actions), but the pace seemed to drag at points (though the last couple chapters kind of made up for it), and it just didn't have the same emotional impact that Akifusa's and Tomonori's did.

So barely anyone plays otome so I doubt anyone will care much about this, but it seems there's an art tracing scandal going on with the perpetrator highly likely to be Mai Hanamura the artist of amnesia and collar x malice

I don't normally go for these types of games but my best friend has got me hooked on Shall We Date?: Obey Me! big time. So much that I've started putting together a headcanon English cast. (Not that anyone is actually interested.) Also Leviathan is best boy and anyone who disagrees can fight me (jk I'm not looking to start shit I just love him too much)

I'm more of a Mammon girl myself personally. He's just so delightfully dumb

I'm starting to get sick of Askys and their condescending lack of care towards otome games and their actual target audience even if they're literally the only company that makes consistent otoge localisations

So, I just discovered that theres an Otome thread here and I ended up making a new one .-. So I’ll just stick around here.

Importing this from the other thread, so what were your impressions on these? I'm familiar with the general plot of all of them and basically finished code realize so I'm curious on how you rank them, your favourite and least favourite of the boys and stuff you particularly liked or disliked in the plots.

I've played almost all of those. My favorite was definitely Cupid Parasite, I'm the romcom type rather than the Unexpected XTREME DARK Drama type Olympia Soiree did have one route I really loved for various reasons, while Code: Realize had an MC I really liked.

Surprised it's you're comfort game, I remember a lot of the impressions when it came out being surprise that despite what seemed like SOL setting the plot was more intense than people expected.

Aaaayyyyyyy, based fellow Impey enjoyer! Yeah the common route is pretty long and since half of it is an excuse to get all the guys together and providing teasers on all their route reveals it can be a bit of a drag. Though I don't remember minding it as much, mostly because there are much more dull common routes in other games (I love Hakuoki but it can feel like a history lesson with bishounens at times).

Yeah Cupipara is probably one of my favourites on the strictly visual and energy side of things as far as otome goes. It's so bright and poppy both it's aesthetics and characters I almost didn't realize that the artist was the same as café enchante. Gil seems to be a particular sticking point for a lot of people, some feel like the absurdity of his late route make it acceptable but it kind of goes from making him pitiful to making him seem creepy

When you get to Yang's route in piofiore do give me your impressions! His route is...a lot in some ways but you get Okamoto ASMR so it's all good.

If you need any recs for after you're done I'd probably recommend bustafellows and Taishou X Alice. Warning for the latter as the game goes on the trigger warnings for mental health, suicide ideation among other things gets more significant

Oh, even tho the routes of Enchante gets hella dark,I call it my comfort game cause I can enjoy the CG and the music. Plus there are a few rpg in-jokes and as someone who is getting into jrpgs as of late, I love it.

As for Taisho X Alice and Bustafellows, I can’t find them where I live. Cause Taisho X Alice All In One for switch is japanese only, and Even though it has an english translation on the eshop, I can’t seem to acess it on my switch. For Bustafellows, Finding a copy in the Philippines is really hard.

I played them both on PC via steam though I guess if you prefer switch games then that can't be helped

I do have a steam account, but I have no money to buy them digitally, and I only have a macbook.

Which is why one my 2023 goals I hope to accomplish is get a PC and some dough.

Edited by Ayumi-chan on Jan 4th 2023 at 4:29:07 AM

Best of luck until then!

Taisho x Alice is definitely pricey - it's on sale on Steam right now, though, at least in my country! For the next 40 hours, 60% off. Worth at least buying the first volume.

Just a question: I'm might be getting the Norn9 switch port this march, but I'm worried since it's trivia on this wiki says that the translation is a somewhat wonky. But is it worth getting?

I think the rerelease is getting a new translation but the original localisation is probably the worst of Askys yes.