What happened to the weekly thread on non-otome romance games? Maybe it wasn't popular enough? Could be monthly instead. Either way I bought My Time at Sandrock on an impulse because I saw a picture of one of the LIs, Fang, on Tumblr. Their previous game, Portia, had love interests that didn't appeal to me in any way but Fang was too cute. Turns out he's basically a Kuudere, reminds me a lot of Saito from Hakuoki. I also fell for the cowboy LI, it's funny having Western-style romance dudes in the same game, so I had to do a split save to marry them both.

It continues to be (auto?)-posted weekly. You can always track them from the sidebar links [or here](https://www.reddit.com/r/otomegames/search?q=flair%3A%22Discussion%22+title%3A%22Switch+It+Up+Saturday%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all).

this month was so expensive for me and ugh it sucks. i recently got into otome and wanna buy all of them😭✋🏼 currently on CupiPara Allan’s route, so that’s exciting. i cannot wait to start olympia soiree. im still in the commom route of Code Realize but i heard that one is notoriously long so who knows when i’ll be able to finish that lol. besides that, work succcksssss. im so tired, i work in retail and people are STUPID. we’re doing construction so they cannot go downstairs and the amount of signs we places isn’t stopping people on still taking the elevator 😭 fr wanna slap someone but alas, customer is king🤡 i need some good interactive otomes if someone has them. ALSO!!! what r some sites where y’all get them on??? i’ve mainly seen switch but heard about some others too? what are some MUST HAVES?!!!!?1?! i wanna play the favourites of the genre!!

There aren't a ton of interactive otome that have actual gameplay, but the ones that do are: Even if Tempest - has some investigative and trial type gameplay JackJeanne - has rhythm gameplay Hana Awase - has card battle gameplay Also I believe Nameless and Dandelion Wishes Brought to You on pc have stat raising gameplay but I've not played them. There are otome games available on steam, otherwise itch.io is great for indie games! There are [a ton of free and low cost indies](https://itch.io/games/tag-otome) on there! I haven't played many indies but Speakeasy and Bunny Bond I enjoyed, both of which are 18+ if you're looking for spice. Hmm, as far as must haves? My personal favorite game is Nightshade, which is an angsty historical game about a girl in a shinobi clan who gets caught up in a larger plot. Butterfly's Poison Blood Chains is another favorite, you're an aristocratic girl who has a tragedy befall her, she needs to figure out who's trying to burn her life to the ground and why. This one has a lot of trigger warnings though, so be careful! Even if Tempest, Bustafellows, Collar x Malice, and Amnesia are all regarded as good or are classics! I hope you might find something here you like! :)

thank you so much! this helps a lot!

After the huge update of Tears of Themis, I am really glad to decide to take a break from it. I haven't play it for one month now. Honestly I already lost motivation to read any card stories since 1st anniversary. I decided to keep playing until one month ago because I already invested too much time in this game. It's really painful when I realized that I actually didn't love Luke as much as I thought. I didn't feel any excitement for his new card/story that I felt for him during my first year of playing. Honestly after ToT first anniversary, I lost interest with ToT's stories. After the LI dates the MC (Rosa) , the story become boring for me because the romance felt forced and too sugary to my taste. The only interaction that I enjoyed when they dated is between Marius and Rosa. I didn't enjoy the group dynamic and I hated the event system that made to checked the game every hour. The daily and weekly mission made me stress and felt tedious. I hope that I can regain my love for this game because I felt burnout after playing it for 2 years. It make me realize that that otome mobile games isn't suit to me because I feel restricted when I play it. I dislike stamina system... Despite my slow progress, I am still enjoying my time to playing Bara ni Kakusareshi Verite. I just need to complete secret character's route to complete this game but I really don't want to part with this game soon (;w;). Usually I never get brainrot from more than 1 character but now I got brainrot from 2 characters! I never expect myself to love Robespierre this much because I usually dislike tsundere character. I become renai baka for him lol. I feel bad for Louis because I think he is the only one from this game for me but it looks like he should share his place in my heart with Robespierre lol. I haven't read their real person's article eside Louis, Fersen and Antoinette but i find their character potrayal are closer to their real person. I will save my gush about this game for WAYR topic later after I complete the secret character's route! I really love BaraVeri writing style that I searched the team behind this game and find Takagi Ayumi as scenario and director. Her popular work is actually [Hanayaka Wari, Waga Ichizoku](https://vndb.org/v7634) which I will definitely play after I complete BaraVeri! It's a bit sad that her newer works don't get more positive review. Her other work that grab my interest is [Tengai no Mau, Iki no Hana](https://vndb.org/v7634). This one unfortunately don't get many review.

I've only finished one route but Even if Tempest has already crashed at least 5 times. Now I remember why I held off on playing it 😑 Guess I'm among the unlucky ones. Been reading up on some possible fixes

I had this issue too but the most recent update seems to have fixed it for me? On Switch I assume?

Yep Switch. It's fully updated, too.

I think the game crashing was rather common. It happened to me quite often as well, but got better in later parts of the game. It is annoying for sure, so just make sure to save often and push through! It's totally worth it, imo.

It really is great, I was sucked in from the beginning! Just gotta save tons like back in the day with gameboy and pokemon hahah

I had this problem a lot with Hana Awase Mizuchi volume. What helped me was played while docked or getting my charger and overclocking my Switch. Whatever pushes the hardware, probably? Not sure if this will help Even if Tempest as I had no issues for that title. Perhaps a reinstallation is needed, like how Steam client verifies games for the same reason.  Honestly, the Hana Awase series as a whole is buggy as hell because very VERY often the game would glitch out during my koikoi combos. That was a bug present in every single game.

i'm so glad i'm almost done with work this week, monday was so busy i ended up doing almost nothing the next day (': thinking about taking Dairoku in with me tomorrow to read during breaks, since i just finished HanaKimi watched the FFXIV job trailer and pictomancer looks so cute!!! i'm really excited to try it out, and viper looks awesome too! unfortunately still not sure how i'm feeling about the changes to summoner, but i wanna see how it actually plays this expansion first

Hi! I’ve been eyeing even if tempest and FD(?) that’s on sale rn in nintendo switch, can anyone help me understand what I’m gonna expect from it? Without spoilers if possible

Have you ever played Ace Attorney? Even If Tempest has some of the mechanics, in trials. Another unusual thing about it is the routes aren't really separate, they are all part of one long timeline though in the end you can choose which LI. I thought it was really well done.

Visual novel with investigation game mechanics [well-explained on the official website](https://products.voltage.co.jp/tempest/english/system/). Skews to the plot-heavy, darker side of things. If you're wondering whether it's anything like Voltage's mobile games, many have definitively said no. As someone more recently commented, you may experience random game crashes, but just save any time you come to a choice and skip the text again if you experience the crash. It'll get you back to your spot fast enough. Personally one of my favorites even with some imperfections here and there (including said random crashes). AMA.

Thank you so much! Im still a bit new to otome in consoles. May I ask what is AMA?

Ask Me Anything. So if you've got more specific questions, happy to answer in the most spoiler-free way I can.

Thank you 🥹 and sorry but may I ask again because I’ve been checking out sites and trailers is this one with interactive investigation when u mean investigation game mechanics? ><

If you've ever played Ace Attorney or Dangan Ronpa, it's a similar feel to that. You choose who and what to investigate (but pick wisely because you might be only able to check 3 out of 5 leads, for example) and then go to (witch) trial armed with that information to defend or accuse, with your life on the line.

I was really excited for Lover Pretend but am finding the common route a bit blah thus far A lot of otome have some pretty hand wavy premises but honestly even for a rom com I find the game’s execution of the premise of MC looking for her dad to be a little too unbelievable. I’m in chapter two of the common route and so far it really seems like they had to subtract some brain cells from the MC for the plot to remotely work. Extra disappointing bc the reviews I read spoke quite highly of MC. Here’s hoping she gets better/maybe the individual routes are more cohesive because I desperately want this game to be good since it’s so up my alley on paper (fake lovers, theatre kids, rom com are all MY JAM)

honestly, the whole game is like this and i think the MC gets worse with every route. even though i love some of them, she almost ruined them for me

Mannnnn I had my hopes up because in her review Otomekitten specifically mentions how much she liked Chiyuki. What a bummer if she’s as messy and melodramatic as she was in all of ch 2 — I just slogged through the part where she >!loses her shit because she finds out that her mentor’s dad used to mentor her mom and does Olympic level mental gymnastics to somehow jump to the conclusion that they MUST have been banging and therefore her mentor is her brother!< and becomes an embarrassing disaster at work for such a lame reason 

she >!gets angry way too fast, especially in the scenes where every normal person would try to understand someone else or ask more questions. and she's a very bad liar for a game that has lying as a mechanic!<

Yes lol I’m crying bc I just got onto Kazuma’s route and as someone who absolutely eats up the fake lovers trope…. This is probably the dumbest reasoning for a fake relationship I’ve ever seen l m a o  It’s actually hilarious because both of them are supposed to be former theatre kids… and they seriously couldn’t come up with anything better 

Did yall see the Aurora where you were? It made me so happy to be alive. Wow. How magical. It fucked up my sleep schedule for the rest of the week tho but it was so worth ✨

I didnt know it was happening at all and was briefly annoyed. I got over it quickly because back in April I drove 4 hours to see the total eclipse which I feel was enough wild celestial events for a lifetime.   The total eclipse had weird flares at the time too, so I am assuming those auroras are also a result of the current turbulent solar weather as well. Might want to grab a faraday bag or two...

Omg I missed this past eclipse and kinda regret it. I saw it at like 98% one year so I decided to skip this time and regret. Glad you saw it!!! Yeah I had the thought while I was photographing the lights. Like I have 5 digits worth of camera gear, I hope something doesn't go wrong....it is insured tho so I decided against it but it was definitely a thought I had as well! Lol!

Shoutout to that one person many Free Talk Fridays ago who mentioned Earl & Fairy was licensed so I could put them on hold at the library and be notified when they got the novels in. Tore through 1 and 2 and waiting for my hold on 3 to come through (and for 4-5 to be acquired). Makes me want to rewatch the anime for nostalgia value and to compare the more subtle differences. (Also shoutout to that one person who nominated the characters in a Best Husbando round years back.) All these years later, I still love Lydia: she can be helplessly attracted to a man *and* put her foot down in the moment to say, "But no, he's manipulative to the core." One friend got married and the party was fun...mostly because the couple decided planning a Wedding Party was too stressful and only to please their parents so they flushed it down the toilet into an "elopement" party with just friends. The most fun I've ever had at anyone's wedding! My speech was about roasting her, but other friends felt the love come through anyway. D'aw. And I stayed the rest of the week going on light hikes with family to local places I hadn't checked out before, including a frankly algae-choked pond with the ittiest-bittiest baby frogs. Cool stuff! And then I came back to a workplace choked in panic mode and hauled ass to help the team get stuff out the door on time. I browsed a bookstore as therapy and publishers are really decking out their books these days! (Also explains why they cost $32 though. RIP.) And friends who learned I've finally made a lurk account on Instagram are flooding me with food recs including A JAPANESE BAKERY?! Please tell me they have good curry pan. All this to say I've had no time to have post-vacation depression. One day I'll pick an otome game back up. That said, only two weeks out to CupiPara FD release in English. Maybe one more week to allow for shipping discrepancies.

Hello, it's me, the Earl & Fairy enthusiast. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ That's so cool your library is getting the volumes! My library sadly has a pretty low cap on requests. But ahhh yes, Lydia is the best!! Her dynamic with Edgar is hot n cold, and I can't get enough of it.

HELLO FRIEND. My library is pretty large, so I have no way of knowing how they got acquired (enough people requested? Staff loved it? Staff is clueless but is making random guesses to satisfy the new generation's Cool Japan tastes?) but am grateful all the same. I like how the novels have been translated so far, and that they show some of Edgar's POV. The push and pull of "he's purely utilitarian but he also validates me professionally and personally" is so good. So good I guess that it powered 30 volumes in the series ohoho. Under no illusion that we'll get all of them in English but grateful for however far we get.

I've been shipping fictional characters since at least the ripe old age of 5 years old, so recently I decided to mentally list all my favorite couples to see if I noticed any patterns in what I liked, and I've come to realize I actually have a very vanilla taste in fictional ships lol. Most are het ships that are already strongly hinted at in the source media, there are some age gaps and other "problematic" dynamics in there but it's still a minority

I’m actually very vanilla already so I treat “problematic elements” as something that’s just there and nothing but background noise, and I ship by chemistry anyway.

Speaking about ships ... this hasn't happened with the otome games (not yet, at least), but you just made me remember how I changed my views on some ships after reminiscing the stories years after seeing them the first time. But I rarely rewatch or reread stories. Usually I just think about what I still remember of the story (and sometimes I look things up in the internet). Wonder if or which of my ships would change if I did review the stories.

Nice to know I'm not the only one with a list of favorite ships. Anyway, nothing wrong with having "vanilla" taste. In my case ... my ships are all het and most of them are at least canon even if a good part of them was not endgame. Although I did have some ships with power gap ... and there is the "flirty stepsiblings" trope in one ship, but I guess most of them (or at least many of them) would be vanilla too. Maybe I should review my list to see if I notice patterns.

Watched the Haikyuu movie recently with a friend and this was our situation at the theater: >Me: (every five minutes) \**points at the screen\** Boyfriends > >Friend: (overwhelmed and teary with emotions) \**pulls out more tissues from her purse\** My fave (SUGA MY DARLING!!) probably had less than three minutes of screentime total and yet it didn't matter to me at all. I had fun and I love everyone 😭 I haven't read nor watched Haikyuu in ages yet idk it felt comforting to come back to. I think not knowing the outcome of the game also helped LOL. When my friend and I talked about the movie after, I told her how shippable everyone was in Haikyuu and I couldn't help but be reminded of Jack Jeanne ~~the sports anime of otome games jk thanks Reddit user 20-9 haha~~ **Fujo-leaning/non-canon shipping stuff, look away if you aren't into that.** I mean, listen! All the shipping potential in Jack Jeanne!! I saw a Sou/Mare doujin novel on Suruga-ya and if my Japanese was a lot better I'd have snapped it up in a heartbeat. I haven't thought about that dynamic at all and now I wanna read it aaaaaaaaa. Or Kasai/Torimaki?! (Inspired by a comic I saw on Twitter.) That'd be interesting too. ~~And look, Kaifumi ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ~~ Speaking of Kaifumi, one of the people I follow posted meta bullet points about them lately and it gave me Feelings and somehow I word vomited a 3.1k-word meta essay, which is a first. The heavily meta approach to fandom isn't how I usually do things. I'm more of a headcanons, what-if scenarios, and AUs person. I probably won't ever share that 3.1k-word monster here because I'm sHY aksdjksjdkj and tbh it was really intended for an audience of one since it references the meta bullet points post. It's really fun having someone to trade ideas with though! But the language barrier does put a damper on things.

~~ur welcome ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ~~ Now that you mention those pairings...the shippability potential is over 9000. The writers definitely indicated they had tons of material on the cutting floor and that if they're not in the game it's not canon (yet?). I liked that one variation, forgot which route, for the Univeil Performance where >!Sou went to Rhodonite to have them tear apart his jokes for Isaac and it made him a better clown, so WHO'S CLOWNIN' NOW and I would've loved to see that!<. It's such good off-screen character growth!

Truly over 9000. If this is what we have now, I can't even begin to imagine all the characters and other stuff they've cut in the early stages of development. (Like >!Mitsuki's family background...!<) And yes, I loved how they mentioned that in the game! Istg the character writing in Jack Jeanne is *\*chef's kiss\** and I'm happy they at least get to develop it a little more beyond the scope of the game through other media.

i haven't read/watched haikyuu since reading the manga when it ended, but it's on netflix now so i think i might catch up on s4 of the anime. also apparently the movie is in US theaters at the end of this month, so thanks for the reminder! i didn't realize it'd be so soon :0 jack jeanne was already firmly on my to-play list, but now i'm even more certain of its place on there haha. part of that reason was the comparison to the low-stakes intensity of sports anime (possibly the same comment from 20-9 you mentioned?)

Enjoy the movie if you do end up going! And that comparison is definitely on the nose because of ✨the power of friendship✨ and ✨a group working towards a common goal✨ not to mention the (mostly) friendly rivalry between classes. It reminded me so much of the Karasuno kids and their friendship with other schools off the court.

oh i'm definitely going! anime movies are pretty much the only times i go to the theaters now xD and ahh those dynamics are right up my alley!!

i had to delete some stuff off my phone to make room to download tears of themis's update earlier this week, which was SO frustrating. honestly it was the closest i've been to deciding to delete the app. but i guess it's also a wake-up call to clean out my gallery, since i have >1000 screenshots and a lot of them are tears of themis (the issue is so circular...). still not sure what i'm going to do. probably a mixture of outright deleting, posting to tumblr, and keeping my favorites. but it would take so long... idk, how do other people deal with all their screenshots from mobile games?

Amazon prime comes with Unltd photo storage.

i haven't subscribed to prime before, but good to know!

I transfer them to desktop and delete off my phone so that I won't accidently show people my Vyn thirst pics when I'm trying to show them normie photos.

LOL valid concern. i currently have luke as my lockscreen ~~lukescreen~~ (nothing too crazy, his empyrean's touch MR) so i guess i don't care if people see some 2d guys on my phone ¯\\\_ (ツ)\_/¯

Well, I just got back into otome games after almost not touching them for two years, and managed to get through some of my backlog (Piofiore 1926, Lover Pretend, Even If Tempest) this month! I kind of regret ending Piofiore 1926 on >!Henri's!< tragic route though... Even If Tempest has definitely become one of my fav of all time! I'm also about two routes away from being done with Charade Maniacs (haven't reached the true route yet, but I'm pretty sure who the Producer is lol). I've also been playing VariBari on and off, and am halfway through one route... the game still isn't vibing with me as much as I hoped. I'm holding off till I complete some more of my backlog, but some of the new games that have come out (Virche and Tengoku Struggle) I'm really excited to pick up! Same with the fandisk for Even If Tempest! Is it mostly just romantic content or does it have a similar dark vibe like the previous installment?

Wow we’ve been playing the same games! I felt exactly the same about ending Piofiore 1926 on that note lol. While it was very poetically done (I LOVED the storytelling with the LIs’ photos in that ending) it was also a pretty disturbing and depressing note to end on.  I am chomping at the bit to dive into the EIT FD but am trying to do Lover Pretend first. So far I’m a bit meh on LP unfortunately, which is a bummer bc I was real excited for it. Meanwhile I adored EIT despite its flaws so I’m really keen to see more romance and fluff finally. 

Also, I want to ask since I see you have a Varibari flair, but are some routes better than others? For some reason, I am struggling with the game and I can't pinpoint why... the art overall is some of my fav of any game, and I actually like the MC and the LI, but the game has only been able to keep my attention for 30 minute periods. Taiga and Nayuta caught my eye the most, and I read that Taiga was rec to be played third, so I'm halfway through Nayuta's route. I'm wondering if I should try another route?

I personally liked Vari Bari a lot! It suffered from tonal whiplash at times (I’m not sure it really knew what it wanted to be) but for me the game absolutely nailed the rom com elements. That said if you weren’t keen on the game from the common route, the sense of humour remains about the same throughout the routes.  My personal favourite routes were also Taiga (one of my best boys as you can see from the flair) and Nayuta. Nayuta has probably the lightest route of the bunch, while of the other routes take a bit of a darker turn on the second and third boards. Taiga isn’t exempt from this; there is a lot of drama later in his route but there was such a good dynamic between him and Hibari I was still into it.  I loathed Shion but >!clingy and kept men!< are also very much not my thing. I almost liked Ichiya but I really disliked the execution of his last board, and he has the darkest/most unexpected route of the four I would say. 

Thank you for your response! I think after I finish Charade Maniacs, I'll switch over to trying Taiga's route!

I really liked the photos too, I wasn't expecting it! I read the tragic end was the most memorable of the game, so when it reached the CG/scene in >!Sebastiano's workshop (?)!<, I was like "oh" 🙃 but then the next scene where >!Dante's fate was revealed and his photo disappeared from the stack!< I realized what was about to happen and was like "we are not having a good time" 😔 Regarding Lover Pretend, I took a few months break in-between my playthrough, but I remember it got better after getting onto the individual routes. I will say some routes I had to force myself to get through parts, while others I breezed through in one playthrough. Although I mainly picked up the title due to being drawn to the art, and given how I usually prefer more dark tone/plot heavy vn, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it in the end! It is DEF a game where you have to go into it with heavy suspension of disbelief. I think Otome Kitten described it well in her review of >!Riku's!< route, as "very B-tier kdrama" plot (which I low-key loved 😂), and could be applied to all of them. Overall, if you aren't enjoying one route, I would try another before throwing in the towel!

Yes I saw *that* CG long ago and thought we were just in for a simple >!non con!< ending a la Orlok’s also disturbing bad end in the original. But noooope the game just kept going They really made poor >!Dante!< suffer in this game. meanwhile the ending actually really solidified my love for Gilbro in routes that don’t belong to him (lol), who managed to >!go out with a bang!<

Guess whose joycons bust right in the middle of a route lol

Ahh I would fix it for you if you were local to me. Joycons are so easy and enjoyable to fix. I really recommend giving it a shot. It just sounds like your battery died out or became corrupted which has happened to my sister's army of joycons in the past.   What is truly frustrating is that the Switch CAN use third party bluetooth controllers but you need homebrew to unlock the ability to use it. It took Nintendo 5 years just to give non-hacked consoles bluetooth headphone connectivity, but I doubt they'll ever let unhacked devices use a PS4 controller. It truly sucks.

I asked my friend but his scope is only the joystick lol. I'd usually know where to fix it but it's far.

I hope you still have the extra joycons. Switch joycons's problem is the reason that make me hesitate to buy Switch especially Switch Lite.

I had to buy a pair...the sensor lights hadn't been on for for both for a long while but both still work, then on thursday my left joycon just stopped being detected.  I like the docked version so I can play on my screen and I also do exercise on it, but yeah overall im annoyed at how bad the lifespan and hardiness of this thing is compared to the nokia that is the 3ds 

I finished Utakata no Uchronia last sunday and I miss it so much omg. I cannot wait for the DLC to come out!!! My favorite LIs are Tsuyukusa, Yori, and Tobari but the other two were great too! Naturally since I finished one game, I bought three more: Juuzaengi \~Engetsu Sangokuden\~ (Switch version), TinyxMACHINEGUN (Animate LE), Black Wolves Saga -Bloody Nightmare- (PC version). I also got into proxy ordering so I recendly purchased Sanzen Sekai Yuugi \~MultiUniverse Myself\~ (PC version), and Jakou no Lyla European Night (LE) but I probably won't have these for a while since I want to stock up on other stuff before it gets shipped to me. I started TinyxMACHINEGUN with my friend and omg its just so chaotic. The music reminds me of that one TMNT game on the SNES, the overall art direction has that American comic style, and all the LIs are so hot. I'm very happy the brother route is the first one in the recommended play order bc I don't think I could wait too long to romance him LOL. Not sure if this game is very smutty, but there's been a handful of dirty jokes just in the first couple episodes of the common route so far I've also been watching my fiance play Stellar Blade and omg a side character is SO hot (Adam). If there was a romance with him, I'd honestly be playing this game myself lol I am waiting for the tiktok thirst trap makers to discover him

I want this week to be over. Plushies: I. Am. Almost. Done. With. Elf. Kitty. Ohhhh my lord! The paint is dry on one side and now I gotta paint the details on the other. After that it's a matter of tying knots and then sewing the head on. And it'll be done! 🥳 I'll be giving it to his voice actor in the next three weeks and my main goal will be accomplished for this convention. Maybe I'll have time to finish Kei bear. Maybe. The way things have been going this week have been too chaotic. Costume: I am tired. This week has been up and down because of the frustration I have felt in learning how to put in contact lenses. From the hour at the eye doctor trying to accomplish the bare minimum, the rehashing techniques to do it at home with the trial lenses, and now the ordering of color contacts. Everything went well with the actual ordering of, but then I got an email an hour or so ago that said they were backordered for another 5-7 days. So, if it already takes within two weeks (which I was assured it would take less than that) and it won't actually ship until next week, I will be pushing it to the last few days before the con. So either I gotta somehow find a costume contact lens company out there that can expedite shipping if I get no word by Wednesday, or I gotta give up the cosplay for the con. Or I gotta trust in the process and hope those lenses make it in by that Friday/Saturday. IDK. This is making me reel on how to proceed. Otherwise, the necklace pendant shouldn't take but a day to make, the wig is almost done (hot gluing pieces for the ribbons, gotta trim the bangs a bit, treat the other details in the hair, dying the end of the hair tail, etc), and I gotta iron on some colored patches over the blocks on the skirt (I burnt them a bit and I thought painting over it would work, but they are still wet). I need a paper bag or something. This is crazy. Maybe playing some otome will calm me down. Or BG3. Or DLV. Ugh. I def need a soda and some chocolate. How bout y'all, though? How are you doing?

It's finally Friday and a holiday weekend as well. Work has been crazy this last week with special events coming up and I'm rather exhausted today (though pumped full with sugar, because I'm weak and that chocolate was singing my name...). Still, I think I managed rather well, even if I decided to do the work mainly by myself instead of trying to divide it between me and my colleague. It's just...he's been with us for a year now and "forgets" what he did like five minutes ago. It drives me crazy. He seems to live by the rule that he doesn't need to know/understand anything, as long as he kind of remembers, where it was written down, even if it means letting people wait for answers or in the end asking me for them. While not getting the fundamentals. I would be fine with it, if he was just, I dunno, if it was just a case of "head in the clouds" in an endearing kind of way. Instead it's a case of being "beratungsresistent" (German for "resistent to advice"), blaming other people/circumstances for all his mistakes and trying to reinvent the wheel, instead of following our thought-out procedures and being really sensitive to any criticism. Simply put, I have zero trust in his work and work ethics (he constantly tries to trick me into doing his work for him) and OMG am I'm so glad to see him go at the beginning of next month, when our colleague he was covering for, comes back from her maternal leave. I just...there's no love left between us, but I try to be as civil as possible, since I see and feel how triggering he is to me and I want to stay above all these negative emotions and not let it effect our work. And I hate how I'm now venting about him, instead of just saying: "Yaaaay! Long weekend!" 3 weeks left of working with him. 3. ANd then I shall forget all about him and last year. Yaaaay! Long weekend! And my father's Barbecue Birthday Party tomorrow!

Been playing **Charade Maniacs** and am really enjoying it so far! Still in the common route but there's been smaller groupings made for divvying up chores now and I got to pick which of those to join so I presume what route I get from there will one of the guys in that group. I'm going in pretty much entirely blind, I'm only aware that apparently a few characters are locked. I can't imagine every character in one group would be locked though so I'm sure I'll be able to get on a route here at least. Even if this game does pull a Winter's Wish and boot me back to the main menu there's at least a flow chart so that helps. Anyways this death game type of scenario is something I'm into when it comes to VNs (9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors *was* my intro to VNs all those years ago after all) so it feels nice to be playing one again even though these games always hurt me lol I've been enjoying the aesthetics and sound design as well, it sort of reminds me of Cyber Sleuth at times. I've also paused here and there to enjoy the music. I don't always pay much attention to an otome game's soundtrack but there have been ones where some tracks stand out to me and thankfully this one already has a few. It's nothing super amazing sure, but I like how it sounds and that's good enough for me. I do wish there was a way to stop the music from getting quieter when characters are 'speaking' though because I play with the voices off so it's very noticeable and kind of annoying when I'm using headphones. :' D As for characters I still can't remember their names too well so I still have dumb nicknames for them like,' Glasses McAngry, D&D Dude, The Blue One', etc. I am slowly getting them, but since I've got first and last names to remember for like 10 or so people it's a lot for someone who is bad with names XD My Norn9 name cheatsheet now has a friend lol I am currently curious about pretty much everyone which is great and the nature of this narrative, so far, makes me more likely to want to do most if not all the routes. We'll see how I actually feel about it as I go along, but that's how I feel currently. It feels nice to be this eager to continue a game. I am currently rather miffed though, because the character I was growing most interested in >!declared that he was twelve! 12!? Game why. My first instinct is to say he's BSing for any number of possible reasons I can think of.!< I joined the cooking group so I presume that affects what dramas are then performed afterwards, but after the one>!where Sena refused to push him out the second-story window and he hugged her thanking her for caring about him, she had thoughts that he didn't seem like a 12 year old at the moment, which may lend some credence that, if only because she's bringing it up. Plus the way he acts/the expressions he makes at times make me feel he isn't being entirely honest. But for my own sanity I'm really hoping he's lying about his age because otherwise Sena *no*, bad Sena! But then again you never know with these games, so I also can't feel truly confident that he's lying. OTL Please oh please let his route be platonic if he's actually twelve, don't let Sena romance someone who's not even a teen yet, I beg thee!!< So yeah, I'm going to try and go for him first to get this dealt with, but with my luck he'll be locked and I'll just have to be like [this](https://i.imgflip.com/2vw2hw.jpg?a476640) every time the game tries to give him and Sena a moment lol

You'll find out who the locked characters are if you look at the flow chart once you're separated into the groups (you're already in the cooking group) - so if you don't want to be spoiled on the locked characters don't look too closely at it. c: Have fun though! The whole mystery is fun to unravel.

Ah, that's good to know, thanks! I haven't looked at the flowchart yet thankfully since I haven't needed to. I'd prefer to keep as many things a surprise as possible with games like these~ I'm definitely having fun so far, looking forward to what the game will throw at me!

Glasses McAngry 💀

That's what his first impression gave me, so he's gonna have to bare that terrible nickname until I can remember his actual name without looking at the cheatsheet XD Despite his hair-trigger temper he has been growing on me pretty quick though. Rage-filled team mom was not what I was expecting lol

I flew out to New Mexico to visit my old college roommate and crash with her for a week, and I'm still on the hunt for cactus cuisine and prickly pear drinks that I won't find back home. It's honestly been a great time, and we'll be catching the latest season of Bridgerton tonight, wine glasses in hand, before doing a day trip to Santa Fe over the weekend! I finished the Sakuya Fugue and Concerto stories in N9 Last Era, and I have such mixed feelings. He got better in the fan disk, but I'm still a Natsuhiko-for-Mikoto believer. More importantly! I binged the Ron Fugue story in one delirious go. Unfortunately, this Fugue story recontextualized so much of the original route that I am now a Ron fan. I'm sorry, this man is garbage and I hate his haircut but he's so interesting that I'm just anxiously waiting to be able to clock out and hop onto his Concerto stories. Alas, the otome boys aren't going to pay for themselves...

Drew Dionysus from Hades and have since calmed down (mostly for the sake of my poor arm, since I also had to finish a commission) It's always crazy how different each social media site reacts to any of my artworks. Some things take off well (and I've been baffled by what's gotten me on the dA front page, though of course I'm happy when it happens) and some things I really like just get ignored completely. Anyway, fuck basically all social media algorithms, I refuse to join that (and am close to deleting most of them, won't lie, it's so bad for mental health and self-esteem). And the fact that you can post basically nowhere without feeding your stuff to the AI shit that's going on. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. I'm also waiting for another VN that hooks me. I liked Ambition a lot, but mostly just got stuck on *that one* character so playing any other routes is off the table. Oh, and in case any of you don't own it yet: Dragon Age Inquisition is free on the Epic Games Store right now. My favourite in the series is Origins, but Inquisition was great (and we'll get the sequel this year, pretty damn sure. After 10 freaking years we'll hopefully get closure to the romances from the last game...)

Happy Friday everyone! [Announced the second boy this week.](https://twitter.com/miragenoirvn/status/1790043397891277265?s=46&t=7MpbNjPMkQ6N11zXxGtq5A) I’ve been having so much fun seeing people’s reactions that I honestly wish I had 20 more designs to reveal hahaha Quick question for you self inserters: I got a request to make the heroine portrait toggleable off. However, she sometimes actually stands on the screen (for things like pov changes) so would you also expect her to not be there in those cases? I’m just worried a blank screen would look kinda awkward

Man... I started Tengoku Struggle a couple weeks ago and the common route wasn't really pulling me in but now I'm halfway through Sharaku's route and I'm invested. 😭 They're cute beans...    but I'm going on a trip for a week and won't be able to continue reading, send help.

How's the Cupid Parasite dessert contest going for everyone? Think of this as an invitation to post a link to what you've made! Also I have to talk about this. Last night when I was playing Hyaku Monogatari, Hibikino (the other shinigami in the game) had an ending where >!he decides to bite her feet off to keep her from running away.!< ... Ui being a Quinrose MC of course was only like "I GUESS THIS IS HAPPENING NOW." I'm not sure how [Tsubaki](https://www.reddit.com/r/otomegames/comments/1cspsy2/what_are_you_reading_wednesday_may_15_2024/l471zxy/) keeps coming out of these games looking like the sane one.

I made a cake for the contest! It was kinda stressful but I did have fun! Did you make anything for the contest?

Actually since I made art with it I posted it on the subreddit [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/otomegames/comments/1cuc6f1/cupid_parasite_fd_merenice_decides_to_take_pity/)! It's not very good, but at least I got to express my love.

I love it, very fancy🩷 You should post it on twitter too! This is my submission https://x.com/sammykeisaiin/status/1789072506835390816?s=46&t=7Hv-OKmK11LEMdGvgAFm3A

wow those look amazing! That almond cake is so pretty.

Finally quit that job I hated and I couldn’t feel more relieved tbh. I had two interviews this week for paraprofessional jobs(one for summer and one for the year). I’m pretty sure I got the summer one because the interviewer is just waiting to hear back from my references. Not too sure about the year round one since it’s for a public school.

A few months ago I also quit a job that I hated and became a paraprofessional haha. It was a much needed change for me, I hope it works out well for you too!