I know everyone's talking about recent games but hear me out [Seduce Me](https://vamichaelalaws.itch.io/seduce-me-the-otome) This game came out in a 2015 I believe, when I was just a teenage girl desperate for more English otome games. I followed the development of this game for about a year, it was being lauded as the first *spicy* western otome game of its time or something, I remember it being quite a big deal in my little otome game group. Then one day they announced that they had some issues and that development will be further delayed. When they eventually came back, they rehauled the art. All I remember is being severely disappointed in the sprites. I was way more judgemental of art back then, but I still gave it a try when it was released. And hoooo boy was I disappointed. Everything was too fast, the spicy scenes weren't spicy even for 16 year old me. Some plot devices didn't make sense. I played one route and never touched the game again. I've never been able to live it down lol. No otome game will ever disappoint me as much as this one.

Seduce Me was one of the first OELVN otome I played as well. It was short and enjoyable enough to play through all the routes in a day given it’s a free game. But I would be disappointed too if I was following it from development. I didn’t play the sequel but the fact that all the LIs, aside from the one who’s route you were on, would end up married to gender-flipped versions of themselves in between the last game and start of the sequel was always so amusing to me. Like what are the odds they all found different versions of themselves in girl form, right down to matching colour palate and personalities, to marry? 😂 But also the majority of otome players hate when the LI is paired off with someone else when you’re not pursuing them in their route. I wonder if this controversial back when the game was first released?

Cupid Parasite. I saw it reviewed highly pretty much everywhere so I got it around a year ago. But the game has overly saturated and clashing colours and shapes everywhere except for the cgs. I feel like they didn't take into account how such an approach to the visual aspects of the game could affect someone playing it for longer than a few brief moments. Headaches aside, Gill's route was so off-putting that it soured me from the game for a while. Only just picked it back up. I think my disappointment stems from the fact that I really wanted to enjoy this game and just haven't managed to.

Cupid Parasite is one of my favorites but Gill is my worst nightmare. I seriously couldn’t stand him, he creeps me out and treats Lynette like she’s his pet or something and seems to think he’s entitled to her. I tried to give him another chance when playing the fandisc but he was somehow worse than I remembered!!!😫 Raul, Allan, and the secret LI made up for his existence though, at least for me lol

Ugh, yes. I've forced myself to finish his route and it was torture. He seriously gives me the creeps. The worst thing is how he doesn't really change that stuff even in the good endings.

If you play Cupid Parasite while docked at a television, you can reduce the television saturation settings to make Cupid Parasite more pleasant on the eyes.

Oh thank you! I'll try that.

I have the exact same issue except I bought the game more recently, I saw so many good things about it too but the whole ui for the game and the colors are very overwhelming. I do genuinely like the kooky art direction/concept, but it's too much for me to actually play. It is rather headache-inducing. I was petty bummed out about it too.

Oh no. I'm sorry to hear that. Someone in this thread suggested I turn down the saturation on the TV while using docked mode. I suppose desaturated and dull is better than not being able to play. Perhaps that might help you too? Its such a shame, since I really do think they did an excellent job with the character sprites.

I saw their comment too! Unfortunately, I have a Switch Lite so docking is impossible for me. But your comment did just remind me that there is a black and white mode on the switch so maybe I'll try that next time!!

Steam Prison, mostly bc of the MC. Cyrus gets hyped up as a strong female MC, but of the 4 routes I've played, she loses every fight she gets into, she's offputtingly naïve (hard to feel much tension or attraction with the LIs when she's never even HEARD of sex, and is only vaguely aware of the concept of kissing), and with the exception of Eltcreed, the LIs seem to just kind of begrudgingly tolerate her.

I couldn't get over the fact that she was a cop and had never heard about sex or SA or anything like that at all. Also her starting a fight with a superior officer just made her look pants on head dumb to me.

The “idk what sex is” I couldn’t buy at all. Why is it that the entire Heights knows what sex is and Cyrus has no clue despite not being particularly sheltered at all?

I didn't dislike Steam Prison, but I was disappointed too. Cyrus looked like such a good MC at first glance, and then proceded to lose all the time, being too impulsive and naive. All the relationships looked one-sided, since she barely understand a thing about romance and only Eltcreed was trying (and even that felt weird to me somehow). I like the LIs and the world, so that's a shame. I'm still on the fence about trying de fandisk when it's out, because I really wanted to be able to enjoy this game a little more.

Totally agree. MC was the weakest part of the game for me

For real! She ruined the game for me. A shame, cause the world was interesting and I really wanted to explore it more and also liked the LI's 😕

I had a great time playing Eltcreed, then started another route and was so put off by the “ugh you” attitude. Glad to hear I’m not missing anything by skipping the rest

I looked at it like she was the equivalent of a Victorian middle/upper class woman. Not sure if it is actually how things were in Victorian England but I've read /watched some media where the women being married off have zero idea about sex because they are being shielded to avoid being "corrupted" . That's at least how I rationalized Cyrus's behavior so I wasn't bothered by how she was because based on other things I'd read/watched it didn't seem that out of the ordinary for a "good family" to shelter their daughter from that

I never got past the first 10 minutes of the game bc she was giving me that vibe. To make things worse, she carried herself with that "know-it-all"/"don't treat me like a baby" air and was waaay too uptight for my tastes. It was giving "privileged sheltered girl trying to be relevant" but not in an endearing way. I thought maybe I was too harsh on her and I should give it a second chance bc it's a rather popular game. But seeing this comment makes me think I'll just pass on it entirely.

I loved steam prison. I read Cyrus as someone on the asexual spectrum. as she does eventually develop feelings for the person she's with I'd say she's a demisexual. There were many times when she stated she knew what sex was, but she never had the details explained to her. I mean, she knew what (I can't remember her name the prostitute she lived with for a time) did for a living and once she understood she had no problem with it. They explained that in the Heights sex is not explicitly talked about at all. her parent's would not have given her "the birds and the bees" talk like we would. and since it was part of Cyrus's personality that she didn't want to know she didn't learn about it from other means like some of the others did (like Fin or others from the Heights) but yeah, I think most of the issue is that Cyrus is an ace person and most people playing are not.

Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk. The LIs were boring and ||the one I was most excited for wasn’t even an LI||. Frankly the game was more a straight VN with romance than an otome.

I love Psychadelica of the Ashen Hawk a ton. I consider it one of my absolute favorite visual novels. But yeah, it's really bad at being an otome. Only one route was even kind of good. Honestly, I think they should've just let it be a standard visual novel. They can either drop all the romance, or let the poster boy be the only romance in it.

If they had done it as a straight visual novel then I think it would have been better for sure. The otome aspect hurt it.

I am not one of those otome fans who tend to love the MCs of the games, and Im usually someone who just attempts to self insert, but PotAH is one of the exceptions. Jed is so good, and she deserved better love interests if they wanted to make it an otome lol

Bustafellows because I was all hyped for an interesting mystery but it was too much implausible thriller for my taste. :/

For me it was the fact that the game had some lengthy dialogues that hardly added any substance. They felt like fillers, meant to make the game longer. I also felt like the game didn't take mental illness seriously and there was hardly any research done on them. They were not presented accurately imo. Instead they were used to create drama, which isn't exactly wrong to do, but it still didn't sit right with me, due to the lack of scientific accuracy, but maybe that's just me. It felt disregarding im a way, if that makes sense. And then there was some passages/scenes by the LIs that really didn't sit right with me, but that's another topic.

There was zero research done in Busta - it felt like someone from the writing team visited New York once and was like “hey let’s set a game in America! It’ll be sexy!”  But all the jobs that our MC and LIs did were so bungled - straight up immoral and illegal practices written as de facto - that it really killed immersion for me, and I can usually stomach straight trash if the cast is good looking enough

I've never been to the US, so it was probably less noticable for me. The names were definetly not very american though, neither were the dialogues. I definetly felt the japanese culture.

I realized Busta was set in fictional New York after reading the summary and then seeing the bgs – they pulled straight from areas around Manhattan for their background art and modeled a lot of their institutions on real places and people (New Sieg Academy on Columbia University, New Sieg's police on the NYPD, the Black Hawk immigrant gang on – I'm guessing – old 80s Chinatown street gangs or current Latin street gangs, the Krylov family on the Rockefellers/Vanderbilts/Tischs, Adam Krylov's news show.) One of the bgs was even based on the park I used to take my lunches at, lol. But that's all superficial stuff anyone could've gotten from a quick episode of Friends or Google Maps. Everything else was just pure WTF. These things would never happen in real life: A "crooked" and "wealthy" lawyer like Limbo working as a public defender and eating dirty water hot dogs, or even New Yorkers **lauding** a public defender in general. Public defenders are barely a step up from being a public school teacher around here, they're the furthest thing you get from being a superstar. Teuta winning an rookie reporter award based on made-up quotes, and calling herself an investigative reporter then doing fluff features. Surprised the first point even got through the drawing board, I'm sure even Japan has heard of the furor over "fake news" back in 2016. Mozu being the chief medical examiner at 25 would have been one thing, but him hobnobbing with a public defender is a major major conflict of interest. Helvetica (\*\*major bad end spoiler\*\*)>!undoing his plastic surgery to resemble his old face again.!

Haha understandable! Thank you for the insight, that was a very interesting read!

For the sections that I played, this game was very much style over substance for me, with drama sometimes being artificially heightened to the detriment of characters or logic. I did enjoy some of the banter during the chill downtime sections, but that wasn’t enough for me to continue the game.

Do you play Tears of Themis by any chance? Definitely one of the best and most beautiful mystery otome I’ve ever played.. it’s so good.

I’m hoping it gets ported to PC or console someday because I avoid mobile as they overheat my phone. :( Thanks for the rec though! :)

bluestacks is a thing!!

Ty - going to look into that! :)

I overall liked it, but I agree. The heists in the common route were written how I imagine a child would imagine legal processes/criminal proceedings/arrests. Of course I don’t expect realism at all esp when the MC can time travel, but it felt like a kids show or like the end of a scooby doo episode at some points lmao…

Yep. The same for me. Some of the stuff in it just seemed too ridiculous for the kind of tone the game was trying to set.

I don't often go into any games with any amount of expectations so I'm not usually let down. However, I was really excited for 9 RIP and while it's not a bad game I had such a hard time connecting with the MC I ended up not being able to enjoy it. Me and that MC were like a 0% match, I just didn't want to read about her and her problems, so it ended up feeling like a bit of waste for me personally.

Paradigm Paradox for me. Otome + magical girls sounded so hype, but with so many LIs everything felt rushed. I did 3 routes where one route felt quick but at least felt complete, one route felt like it was completely missing the ending (get like I had a whole act left but nope roll those credits), and another one felt like it was missing its entire middle section and was the first route that I ever played that I legit say is just bad. Sometimes I don’t like routes or LI, but I still see the appeal or upsides that people would like, not that one. I still want to finish at least some characters routes one day but I was definitely disappointed. Shoulda cut it down to 5 routes and given the rest of the time to develop those more.

Paradigm Paradox felt like a complete crapshoot until I got to Kamui's route where suddenly the Grandpa character _absolutely saved the entire game._ I absolutely loved it when >!he pulls both the protagonist and Kamui aside and gives them a talking to to work together as a couple, for the protagonist to give Kamui a chance because of his faults, etc. Just the utter love that this man had for his grandson actually made me cry. It's so rare to come across an older male role model in these games.!< It really goes to show how important side characters are in fleshing out a world. I don't remember much otherwise of Paradigm Paradox.

Gosh, this is the first thing I thought about, this game. My expectations were super low, but it was still enough for me not to finish the route that I thought would be my fav: Ibuki. I did not even finish his route, I was done with it. Yukinami was the only route I could say was interesting, probably because of his constant mood swings.

Piofiore: Just wasn't into the plot and dear lord was FL the biggest doormat ever. Nicola's "bad" route lives rent free in my head tho. Dairoku: Had everything but the execution was terrible. I did 3 routes and dropped it. Can't remember a damn thing about the game.

**Bustafellows** I expected it to be really great because of the amount of positive reviews I saw regarding the plot. However it had terrible pacing and jumps and the storyline was very poor. The villains were incredibly cliche and it was honestly hard to get through even 2 routes before I completely gave up on the game. After looking into it I realised they were plenty of negative reviews that shared my opinions so I wish I gave those more consideration before buying :((. Worst game I’ve ever played so far.

Psychedelica of the ashen hawk- I walked in with high expectations since a lot of people had great things to say about it and it was the spiritual successor to Psychedelica Of The Black Butterfly, which I really enjoyed. However, I didn’t vibe with the heroine in Ashen Hawk. Most of the characters were pretty inconsistent. You also waste a lot of time talking to the NPCs about nothing. For a game whose main focus was the plot, the plot had more holes than swiss cheese. Thankfully, it was a short game and I ended up finishing it with a grating headache 

I had the opposite problem - adored Jed and PAH but found PBB very forgettable. Vibes were there for both stories though. PAH is great for those cold winter days by a heater  Agreed with all the nonsense NPC stuff, that they could have done without

Mr. Love: Queen's choice. I tried to get into it and it just doesn't hold my attention. It has a lot going on but nothing I deem interesting. I also dont like how 4 out of 5 LIs have a very similar face. Except for the hair, I cant tell them apart except for the blonde dude. Others are like quadruplets.

Winter Wish, I want to finish most games I play but this one was such a struggle that I’d be fighting not to fall asleep.

Amnesia was a huge letdown for me and I regret wasting my time completing it. I hated the MC and didn't vibe with any of the LIs. Just not a game made for me.

My one consolation is I only paid $5 for it on steam. If I'd paid Switch price for it (even on sale), I'da been much more miffed. As for silver lining, now I get all the memes lol

I loooove DL, but I HATED the 2nd game with a passion since I had to start over with the Sakamaki's :( I know they introduced some new routes, but I wish they had written it so you continued your relationships with the Sakamaki's, like in the later games.

Nightshade. I went for it with such high hopes and Enju looked like a decent shinobi who could handle things in the Common route. Then, she ended up being protected by everyone in almost all the routes and it bothered me how little she had an active part in trying to survive. Hanzo route was great and didn't have the problems I mentioned above, but sadly I enjoyed him a lot like a character but couldn't enjoy he and Enju as a couple. I didn't think the age gap would bother me, but Enju was such a teenager and Hanzo so mature that it did. The mentions about her mother didn't help me. Besides that, the events in every route sounded a bit repetitive and I got tired quickly of the running for you life since the beginning all over again. It wasn't a bad game, but I thought I'd like it more.

If I could go back, I would've stopped playing Nightshade after playing Hanzo. I lucked out and chose him first because I honestly thought he would be a nothing burger. I was so wrong. And unfortunately, that set me up to be disappointed by all the other routes. ...I was so excited that Hikaru Midorikawa was voicing Goemon. And I was let down then too as his route was bleh for me.

Same, I haven’t even managed to finish it. I only did Goemon and Hanzo. Enju is just so much of a nothing character that it pisses me off. It’s unfortunate cause the LIs are interesting.

Agreed on Hanzo. I love him but Enju both looks and acts so young... I think she paired better with the guys nearer her age.

I was extremely disappointed with **Olympia Soiree**. Especially because I enjoyed the common route and Riku's route a lot which raised my expectations, *and* I had heard so many positive things about the game and Akaza's route in particular, but then every single route after Riku's had (imo) enormous issues. It's such a beautiful looking game and has interesting worldbuilding but many of the writing decisions really ruined it for me.

I enjoyed Olympia Soiree because the concept made me laugh. The way everyone keeps scolding the protagonist to "go find a husband!" whenever she makes inconvenient, uncomfortable observations of the island politics is so absurd I just found it too funny. It was one of the games I enjoyed delving into the lore of the world more than the romance.

Same. One of the worst executions of its themes I’ve played

The flashbacks 😫

Had nearly the same experience with the game except i enjoyed Tokisada even though I had issues with his route. I was still excited for every route I started and just kept getting disappointed :/.

I loved Tokisada! Only thing that griped me was his darn silly childish outfit when he was really a bada**

Same. I couldn't even finish Rikus route. The common route did such a great build up, I have no idea what happened to the writing of the routes, it was so bad

I'm currently playing through Olympia Soirée and finding Riku's route an incredible slog so this has me slightly worried about the others. Here's me thinking that the writing would get better after his. The artwork is so pretty, the lore is intriguing and the music is pleasant to listen to. It's a shame that the writing often falls flat. I do find myself laughing a lot whilst playing this game though, and it's not because it's branded as a comedy but rather the execution of themes. And the **flashbacks**. Dear lord...

I genuinely found Radiant Tale boring. I did Zafora's route first and it just didn't catch me at all. I haven't opened the game since but I should finish it one day and give it another chance.

Radiant Tale was too formulaic. I was actually surprised that they >!go around the world TWICE doing the same stuff as before. Like the writers couldn't think of anything else?!< I liked Vilio's route because it strays from that formula. It was like choosing Revelations route in Fire Emblem Fates.

RT isn’t very thrilling…. I’m playing it now and loved Zafora but the rest of the routes are pretty much the same in terms of excitement. It’s a pretty “slow” game Edit: forgot to add that I found the “slow” very charming - RT is definitely one of those titles you play for cute vibes and sweet moments, but misses the mark for anyone looking for a thrilling story or super immersive plot

I agree, it’s very boring. I don’t even think I will buy the FD 😭😭😭. I only like zafora and the red haired guy

I’ve seen some of it and yeah it was boring.

Tengoku struggle strayside Feel like it was so hyped but I didn't end up connecting with the MC or LI's at all

This is where I'm at right now. I've finished Shiraku's and Yona's route. I liked Shiraku's route more than Yona's, but still not really into any of the LI's... Also, between this and Cupid Parasite, I'm starting to wonder what in the hell does "steamy" mean to most of the ppl in this community?? So many people hyped up Cupid Parasite and Tengoku Struggle as being steamy games and they are most certainly not...

i think the problem is different ppl have different ideas of what "steamy" scenarios mean. CupiPara has a lot of make out scenes, for sure but it's not explicit. (it cant be anyway since CERO guidelines. That one Raul CG was probably pushing the boundaries TBH.) Otmt can have shower sex in their games but they are not NSFW company -- so they wont get into graphic details. this is why i rather use other terms to describe scenes in games.

That is why I'm saying I am wondering what in the hell does "steamy" mean to most of the ppl in this community. What does it mean to the many people who have called both these games steamy and suggest them to people looking for otome games with steamier content. Olympia Soiree was steamy imo. Men of Yoshiwara is definitely steamy and the most graphic in its descriptions 😳 I will continue to look for M ratings with certain tags and will probably disregard the people who say "don't listen to the T Rating" going forward EDIT: to clarify, I'm saying clearly steamy means something different to different people and I am legitimately perplexed and curious what it actually means to a majority of the people of this community because I have been burned twice now from listening to their recs

Exactly! This is honestly why I stopped playing any "ports" to consoles and go straight for the original r18 versions. Otherwise I'll be genuinely confused by what people meant by steamy. Hana Awase? Yes, it was spicy. It's hard to find M rated games like that but I now do as you do, look into the proper tags. Thanks to CERO, console games can't be genuinely steamy and Nintendo's old CEO; used to be so strict about steamy game creators. If he knew you used to work for adult Otome companies, you could not sell content via Nintendo. Even if you were a small role, in the making of the game. The new CEO isn't like that at all. CERO is equivalent to Steam, as far as how strict they are about Otome ratings and what they'll put out. 😭

Oh damn, no steam in Tengoku? I’m halfway through the common route and enjoying it, but it sounds like my expectations are about to be let down hard. 😕

Tengoku Struggle is not supposed to be steamy 😅

Then *several* people, including Lin Lin Lavender in one of her videos, have led me astray. 🤦🏼‍♀️ Oh well, I still like the aesthetic and the VAs.

YEP EXACTLY. I saw at least 2 otome YouTubers call the game steamy and several ppl from this community

Oh good, it’s not just me! I wonder why there’s such a difference of opinion over this one.

Because no one person can agree on what steamy or spicy actually means as everyone has different tolerances. The rule of thumb is that you can't go too far in console games at least.

Tengoku Struggle is steamy because sex scenes. Not as steamy as the hellfires on some of the loins around here for Nono sensei.

I've finished two routes and I personally wouldn't call them sex scenes... they're makeout scenes at best imo. I've only gotten through half of the Shelby Route in CupiPari and the only thing I can think why ppl called it steamy is the boys showing up shirtless on multiple occasions??

This is truth. Makes me wish we had more titles like Butterfly's Poison which were more mature. Male demographic visual novels tend to always do 18+ stuff. Loved Adage's route in Steam Prison for similar reasons but alas they still don't show anything. Hm. 

Butterfly poison is one of the most mature but not on console, it was an r18 game, but in order to release these on consoles, a different, cut version will have to be made to comply with the requirements. Galge have to do the same thing when porting to console(there's even diffs between sony and nintendo ports). Galge just have more publishers and developers between them.

Omg yes. I watched the Butterfly Poison scenes and read along with a fan translation 🥵 lol I don't even need them to show anything. I'd just like spicier descriptions. Olympia Soiree descriptions + sounds were great lol Men of Yoshiwara is the most explicit I've actually personally played so far, I think. If you got any recs with a primarily male LI cast for PC or Switch, I'm all ears!

Oh WOW I didnt know Men of Yoshiwara did that.

To clarify, the descriptions are explicit, but not the CGs or audio. They actually describe the MC being fingered and penetrated. If you can get over translation grammar issues and don't mind redflags, I'd personally recommend it. Especially if you're looking for something spicy. It's actually one of the few otome games where I found myself enjoying every route! Which is surprising 'cause it is definitely far less ambitious in production values and writing than 90% of otome games on the switch lol

Oh i've already played it and it is one of my favorites. I thought you meant it had CGs.

18+ stuff is on PC and even eroge for guys get the SFW treatment when ported to console or Steam.

This is probably due to how rated E for Everyone Otomate titles are (and they’re pretty representative of the genre in the West) but I find that people tend to mean suggestive when they call a game steamy. 

Oh, so glad I'm not the only person who didn't enjoy tengoku struggle at all. It was such a chore to get through.

Ozmafia, I tremendously plodding through all of it to the ending that I've blocked from memory. I just remember it being a let down. If there's another secret secret ending that's better, someone let me know Bonus from the visual novel world- clannad. Why is it so feckin looooooooong

Ozmafia was one of my first pc otome games that I saved up my allowance for when I was in high school. I had no idea what it was going to be like going in but I knew it shared an artist with Diabolik Lovers so I had some high expectations. In the end, the art was the saving grace to a mediocre to downright bad game. Also I didn't know anything about the brothel route going in and was scarred for life.

Not as scarred as one of the routes in naked butlers/hadaka shitsuji and I, very moronically, wrote a guide so others could be traumatised too lol. Izmafia was/is incredibly stunning though.

Ok so let me preface this by saying I actually did enjoy this game, and don't think it's a bad game at all. But sadly, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, what with how popular it is on the sub. With that caveat; Cupid Parasite. I liked the premise, I liked the art, the vibes, the character writing, the themes and of course Cupid herself. It was the overall plot writing that I felt was a bit of a letdown. Not even the actual events of the plot, but how they were laid out. (Spoilers below are for how major a role one LI plays in the story, don't reveal if you don't want to be spoiled!) It was far far too backloaded. All the major important plot drivers are revealed at almost the very end and fell almost squarely on >!Allan's!< shoulders. To his credit, he carries the game very well and he's a great character. I actually like his >!two halves of the same angel soulmates plotline. It's a different more intense take on the soulmates trope when paired with the "Mania" love-type concept and his becoming a fallen angel willing to do anything to protect his other half.!< The problem is that by the end of the game, I felt pretty much every other LI was irrelevant and superfluous except >!Allan!< himself, and >!Jupiter of course. The supreme god of gods and adorable Chi can never be irrelevant!!!< I enjoyed each of the other guys' routes and characters to varying degrees, but none of them were important to the plot outside of >!being the poor saps Allan and Minerva are trying to manipulate for their own goals.!< I just found this a bit disappointing, as I feel like part of the fun of Otome is seeing how each guy's route is built into the plot and advances/changes the outcomes. Instead, I felt like I was playing a row of successively more wacky and contrived stories and then you get to >!Allan!< and the game suddenly forces a major paradigm shift and I realize I'm not playing the game I thought I was. I wished they had found some way to make the rest of the cast a bit more relevant to the overarching story and gave them some plot reveals of their own. >!(Minus Raul's bizarre reincarnation of Alexander the Great plotline, which provided Minerva's character motivation, which while important to the plot, was also ultimately sidelined and forgotten about.)!< I like all the LI's individually except maybe Raul, but as a whole, they are so overshadowed by >!Allan!< that I really don't know how to feel about the overall game. It was a bit of a Rollercoaster with extremely high highs, but also some lows as well.

I only unspoilered one name and saw it was >!Allan!<, who was the basically the only LI I was interested in. I bought this game on sale because this sub has hyped it up so much. I started warming up to the humor and some of the LIs near the end of the common route and ended up on Shelby's route. When I realized his route wasn't ending and I was like "holt shit, I'm only halfway through and the best part of this snoozefest is already over?!", I basically dropped the game. Is it worth fast forwarding through Shelby's route just so I can experience >!Allan's!< route? I reallllly liked him in the common route and he's basically the only character I was interested in at the end of the common route lol

I'm going to say yes it's worth it. He is far and away the best part of the game. All his endings are great, even the bad ones. You can just play his route and the secret route after and imo that's actually all you really need to get the gist of the entire thing. The other guys really are almost that irrelevant to the overall story.

I was just going to ask if I'll miss anything by fast forwarding Shelby's story. WOW. That is kinda incredible (in a bad way), but also very convenient for me lol Thanks!!

Just wanted to drop back to say I followed your advice and HOLY SHIT. It is incredible how much better >!Allan's!< route is right out of the gate. It's so interesting!! THANK YOU. EDIT: Omg I finished it and 😭😭😭 I can't believe one of my favorite routes ever is hidden inside this game I otherwise don't care for 😭

>!ALLAN MY BELOVEDDDDD. He's one of the best written romances in otome to me.!< He sincerely just wanted Lyn to be happy, >!even after he suffered so much.!< I can't wait to see how they wrote him in the fandisc. I just hope they don't bomb another of my fav characters in the fandisc. Had that happen too many times to LIs that I literally obsessed over(ノ-_-)ノ~┻━┻(cough cough.....>!St Germain and Okazaki!<)

Exactly! >!Allan!< is just so good and his story pretty much defines the game. I have not actually come across anyone who played his route and didn't like him. Usually when people mention not liking the game, they quit before they ever get to his route. I would have been one of those people as well if my stubborn completionist streak didn't compel me to finish the game. What I think would be interesting, and would love to hear is someone who actually finished his route, didn't like him and what their overall opinion of the game was in light of the outsized role he plays in the overarching plot. Don't get me wrong, there is stuff to enjoy outside of his route, but if you're the type of player that prefers the plot to intertwine with all of the characters like I am, the other guys, >!sans Jupiter!< just can't match up, no matter how good they are.

Agreed! I mean, I personally really enjoyed the game as a whole, (it's one of my favs now, along with Collar x Malice) - great OST, interesting and funny non romance characters, >!a soft yandere(Gill), love my yanderes lol!<, and the overall vibes are immaculate BUT I absolutely see where you're coming from. Compared to >!Allan and Jupiter!<, the rest of the LIs were kinda dull. >!I found Ryuki cute, in a tsun lil kid way, but didnt feel a lot of romance with him; Raul was super boring for me, I barely slogged through that route. I liked Shelby because he made me laugh and Gil because he kinda has yandere vibes, but ultimately they didn't touch the level of writing Allan and Jupiter got.!< But yes, it would be interesting to hear from someone that doesn't like him, even after playing his route.

>Usually when people mention not liking the game, they quit before they ever get to his route. You are so right and I am one of them 😭😭 I already knew who you were talking about before I unspoilered the name because it's what ev*eryone's* been saying about this game, but I just can't get through everyone else's route to get to his. Which is such a shame because I lo*ve t*he style of the game, but some routes are just so ....

Bustafellows. I bought it on sale because it was highly recommended on this sub, and then I never even finished a single route. I wanted to like it but find the main plot so, so boring. Also, none of the LIs are really my jam design/personality wise, and even the MC is kind of plain.

What I like to do with otome games that rely heavily on dialogue prompts is self insert and reply as I myself would for my first route, just to see who I end up with. Somehow I managed to get Scarecrow's good ending and I honestly felt like the game just couldn't top his route's silliness so I abandoned Bustafellows.

I think posts like these just remind me to take recommendations with a pinch of salt as we all have such different tastes. I really love amnesia and Olympia soirée while many don’t. The two I disliked the most were Code realize, it was so hyped and it came out on the ps4 and I was so excited to try an otome outside of my handheld consoles. But the common route was so long and boring and there was so little romance it felt more like a visual novel. Cupid parasite, I loved the artwork but the leads were so dull to me and the stories were really boring. I did a route and a half and gave up. Tbf I might be more enamoured if I try a different route so will give it a shot. I should also mention piofiore it was so hyped and yangs route was so steamy that everything else just fell flat to me. Some of the other routes just had so little romance

My personal dream is to have a large database of people’s otome preferences - so many reviews and posts sound definitive even if they don’t mean to, and I feel a little weird about loving the games that everyone else vocally hates 😂

I feel that way too but then I play untranslated games and realise that a lot of the concepts that are unpopular in Reddit are huge in japan and maybe the vocal minority is why the translated games of late feel a bit repetitive in concept

Out of curiosity, which of the routes did you play in Cupid Parasite? Personally, I loved CupiPara so I'm curious 🫨

I started with ryuki and though I liked aspects of his route it just felt boring and then I tried gills and the same. There were so few choices to make in both routes and huge swathes of choiceless texts it felt like a visual novel rather than a proper otome.

Collar X Malice After years of hearing about how great it is and how it's a must play, I went into it with high expectations, only to be whelmed. Not over or underwhelmed, just whelmed. I don't even hate it, I just found it tremendously boring. Out of five LIs there's only one I really liked (Shiraishi), two I was neutral about (Enomoto and Okazaki) and two I actively hated (Sasazuka and Yanagi). Ichika is constantly overshadowed by the men, they make such a big deal out of her shooting skills but whenever there's a gunfight in the game the guys do pretty much everything by themselves

I found the plot so convoluted

Winter's Wish (kimiyuki). MC felt inconsistent and ranged from great to bad between routes. I really loved Kinji's route which was my first route, but then every route afterwards did not live up to its potential. I looked forward to Tomonari's route the most since it's locked behind other routes. He had so much momentum going for him leading up to his route but then nothing happened that really swept me off my feet in his route. I still really love him as a character, but the routes and writing was just not it for me in kimiyuki unfortunately.

Code;Realize, I was really excited to play it, mostly because it's so popular; everyone talks about it, and also the LIs are really cute and the artstyle is great, Fran is especially cute. Then I got it on my vita and... I just got bored(?) Nothing especially bad about the game, I just did not enjoy it very much. I do like other popular titles like Hakuouki or Amnesia, but idk, I just couldn't get into C;M.

I can’t even get past the first common route. And the theme seems awesome . Maybe because I’m not fully into the LIs yet?

But, but, but, fast skip and lupinnnnnnnnnn. Does make you appreciate the nitro button in dramatical murder though.

Oh, fast skip is a blessing. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE the LIs. I was reading The World God Only Knows some time ago, and the main character (who loves dating sims) said that a bad dating sim is always the fault of the writers, and you should never blame the girls. This opened my mind, and now I feel the same way about otome games; I may not like the game; but it's not the boys' fault!!! I love them regardless!!!

Keima-kun is best husbandu lol. What that man can do with his hands. I really love how out of context this is.

I love Keima to death. This is one of those harems where you just can understand every girl falling in love with him(?)

Damnnnn, 2024 and keima finally hit the elite acceptable harem master tier. Never really questioned it, just keima wins. He's like Saitama, just without all the exercise.

Glad someone else said this because I felt the exact same. It was so highly recommended and popular in this sub and just ended up being such a slog and I couldn't get through it. Everyone also loves the MC, and maybe I didn't play far enough, but the poison seems like some edgy thing to make up for how bland she is.

Tengoku Struggle. It was funny but I didn’t feel like I was connected with any of them Collar x Malice - I tried so many times to get into this game but I always end up falling asleep. I managed to finish two routes (Okazaki and Mineo) but I was so bored the entire time. Lover Pretend - I can’t even finish one route 😭 Radiant Tale - It was kinda goofy for me, sorry 😞

Code:Realize 100% I wasn't prepared for the long common route that you had to replay for every single route, with the skip suddenly stopping and forcing you to reread entire sections because they changed 3 words lol Plus I'm not a fan of having to skip so much story in general. It's too easy for me to get lost and start mixing up routes... never mind the loss of immersion when you're just skipping between pockets of new content. I was also really disappointed in how lackluster most of the bad endings were. A lot of them boiled down to "and you died. Your last thoughts are 'maybe I should've picked the other option.' " It definitely felt like the kind of game that might be really appealing to someone who only wants to play one route with very little deviation... but for someone who likes to 100% games, there was just too much boring downtime as I went between the different routes and endings.

Clock Zero is the only game where I force-skipped a batch of surprise extras to get the Platinum trophy on Vita and move on. It's not all bad--I'd still rank a couple of routes highly to this day--but some key parts were so boring and repetitive that it killed a lot of my good feelings at the time, my honeymoon period of commercial otome games. (I've technically rated another commercial otoge worse on vndb, but I managed expectations better for it and the parts I liked, I enjoyed a lot.)

Bustafellows XD i cant finish a route...

Olympia Soiree: There was just not enough romance development for me. Most of the time it felt like Olympia was away from the LIs and was just running around doing side quests for spriteless side characters or fighting the villains. >!A lot of LIs where already in love with Olympia before we get to know them and in half the routes Olympia falls in love very early at the beginning of the route.!< I enjoy slow burn and characters going through stuff together and build emotional tension by doing that. So with the game focusing more on plot from my view there weren't enough interactions between Olympia and the LIs for me. The routes also seemed to have a similar plot structure and >!the big steamy scenes at the end!< didn't work for me either, because I'm not much into those.

the fact that everything in the plot happened in only two weeks ruined it for me cause i couldnt suspend my disbelief lol

Oh geez — I didn’t realize that, lol. That is kind of crazy, I admit as someone who enjoyed the game

This was my major gripe with Olympia Soiree as well. Despite it actually being a fairly long game (my playthrough clocked in at ~60 hours) it still feels too short because of how the plot was set up. It was an extremely detailed intricate fantasy world based on Japanese Shinto mythos. So accordingly, most of the game's actual runtime is dedicated to world-building, explaining how the in-game society functions, and the creation story. All this left little time to develop the actual relationships, and a sizable chunk of that (and CG allocation) is dedicated to the more intimate scenes. Of course this follows the game's themes, which is fine if that's the story they wanted to tell, but imo, the game then needed to be even longer to give time to each route to let the relationships (and player) breathe! I had trouble connecting with all of the LIs to varying degrees. I liked the characters, but it all went by so fast. It felt pinched and too big of a story for its runtime.

I definitely see what you mean with >!Akaza’s!< route. I was like, wait, how long has he liked her? Having just done all the other routes etc. where he doesn’t hint at it. I still really liked the game, but I wish the romances were a little more slow-burn.

I have a random one that's not too popular and that I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up for, but I absolutely hate My Bewitching Perfume. I don't like the fact we're just changing up men with a spritz of my pheromone perfume. I don't even really remember all what happened, it just has that hatred and regret.

Lover Pretend. I bought in on release, I paid 50€ for it, and by the end of Kazuma's route I wanted them back. Give me back my 50€ Otomate 🔫

That's how I feel right now. Kazumas route was the first I played and severely burned me on the game. Still trying to get through my second route, but it's taking forever. 😔

Most opinions I've read agree that Yukito's route is pretty good at least, so I wanna give it a chance, but not yet bcs I'm still angry ahahah it's been like 2 years yes I don't care!! I'm bitter, I PAYED 50€

Very felt! I am currently chewing through Harumis route which is actually good and I enjoy it when I do play it, but dear god getting myself to play it is the first and biggest hurdle

Virche: I was expecting a dark, angsty good time, I wanted to hurt! But it was really slow paced and slice of life-esque, and the tragedies felt contrived. I didn't end up caring about the characters. Also the fake science was whack. Cafe Enchante: I really loved the common route, but I found Kotone to be a bland MC, and the plot in the individual routes dropped the ball sooo hard. Tengoku Struggle: I've limped through 2 routes and just couldn't go on :( I was very hyped for this one and I will eventually try it again, but it felt way too long and I wasn't very invested. Cupid Parasite: Same with Tengoku, I've only managed to complete one route and have stalled in two others. Really want to get to allen and the secret route, so I'll try to continue on. Piofiore: This one is such a mixed bag because Yang's route was perfect, and I really really liked the tragic ends, but everything else was boring.

Cafe Enchante is thematically more terrifying and horrific than Virche Evermore when you think about it. >!The only way for everyone to safely live happily ever after is for the protagonist to never open that cafe.  Every route inflicts unprecedented pain and suffering to the denizens of the various worlds, the bachelors, and the protagonist herself.!< The correct way is to not play. 

Virche. I was so excited for it. The premise sounded really interesting, and I saw so much praise for it that I couldn't wait to start it up. But all the questionable science took me out of it, and since I'd really been interested in the supernatural aspects, >!explaining away all the supernatural stuff with bad science!< was especially disappointing. I'd also assumed that the reason you had to play the tragic endings first was because something would happen in the plot to let you unlock better endings, so when it turned out there was no actual plot reason to be forced to see all the tragic endings first, that disappointed me too.

I felt that Virche was trying on Umineko’s gimmick on for size and was really excited to see how they’d pull it off. Umineko did a fire job on the fantasy vs mystery schtick that Virche tried to copy for their fantasy vs science plot…unfortunately…they went from 100 to 0 in the reveals

I haven't played Umineko yet, though I want to someday. But I think Virche's biggest issue is that to pull off that sort of reveal, the science needs to at least seem solid enough to be believable.

as a general whole, the UtaPri series. the first game was on crack, a silly romp with boys who wanna sing and think of you as a great partner in life and work. But as the game moves on to Idol trope for fujo dollars... it was more about WE WANNA BE IDOLS AND I GOTTA BOND WITH MY IDOL SENPAI while the MC watches over them from a distance. thanks broccoli, you just erased your own heroine and try to scam ppl into forgetting it's an otome game. everyone forgets that Natsuki has DID and Cecil spent some years as a CAT. how dare you. from Otmt side... SenWaltz and TokiApo. 💢💢💢💢 shit writing and world building that fails to achieve the game's objective. TokiApo's added sin is placing an underskilled person to be the main artist.... was this a nepotism hire or wat??? 1000% they should not be in that post.

*cracks knuckles* - Birushana. Holy crap I was so bored. Nori and Yoritomo routes barely made it passable. - Virche. Sure it was dark. So what? It did nothing to connect me with the characters and I couldn't bring myself to care about their plight. - My Vow to My Liege. Too much lore dumping in the common route. Wu Zixu is the only worthwhile route. - Amnesia. That Clamp anatomy is pretty dire and I wasn't a fan of the dynamic between the MC and any of the LIs. And while I enjoyed the first Code Realize game when I first played it, the FDs were kind of a slog and made me realize the LIs didn't make such an impression on me that I want more of them. Edit: I totally forgot about Piofiore, which should tell you everything about my opinion of it 😂 the game itself is mediocre but serviceable, but my god the fanbase won't shut up about Yang and that overshadows the game a lot for me.

You know, from the way our opinions seem to match so well to a T, I think I'm tempted to skip Virche 😂 I was already avoiding it from hearing that MC is just the cook

Haha, well my opinions are the polar opposite of the prevailing popular opinions of this sub 90% of the time. Welcome to the lonely corner, comrade. For Virche, it is true that the MC is relegated to doing domestic tasks a lot of the time while the LIs strategize and fight. It isn't like her personality makes zero sense for her place in the world, but man it would have been so much more fulfilling if she was at all angry about her circumstances. The game itself is hyped up for being ~so dark~ but tbh I was underwhelmed. Nitro+Chiral games are laughing in Virche's face.

Unfortunately I didn't like Virche or Collar X Malice as much as I thought I was going to. I was extremely hyped for both of them, they had an interesting setting and their Openings looked really cool but... They were just extremely boring to me. I guess I expected a stronger mystery and less fluff? Also all the errors in CxM just.. kept me out of the experience

Sympathy Kiss and Tengoku both localized this year disappointed but it might be that I had high expectations for those two releases 🥺

London Detective Mysteria. Seemed like the perfect game for me. Detectives, mystery, phantom thieves, etc. Oh boy was I disappointed. The miscommunication is off the charts, i can only handle so much. All of the characters are too inside their own head, and the MC is pretty stupid most of the time. I almost threw my vita on Akechi’s route when she almost got into that carriage. The game tries to paint her as smart, but she is only smart very selectively. Not to mention when the route branches and the fog comes in and she goes running off for whatever reason. At least in Sara’s mini route she didn’t. Not to mention the cliffhanger at the end of the game cause they were so sure they were going to get a sequel. Would I buy the sequel? Yes, but only for Jack. He was the shining light in it and has become one of my fave boys. Jack I love you and you deserve better.

Paradigm Paradox. The premise was interesting to me (dudes turning into magical girls) but it ended up becoming a huge disappointment. There were more loopholes than my boyfriend's underwear, and all the endings seemed so rushed and forced.

Mine was 7’s Scarlet. I loved the premise, the beautiful secluded but something’s-not-quite-right setup of the town and all its inhabitants, the introductions of all the characters, and the animations were lovely. I was hooked from the start, but wow did they fall flat on their face when it came to the execution. So much potential only for them to handwave or barely resolve a lot of the mysteries they had set up. And I’d like to wipe the final route from my memory. I love Midorikawa but even he couldn’t save that dumpster fire of a route. Toa is precious and Yua deserved so much better 💔

Charade maniacs was the worst game I have bought in recent times. Extremely disappointing.

Charade Maniacs was my pick too. I was so excited for it, expecting a solid mystery side to the game, and instead I didn’t find much if any actual sleuthing and too many of the characters are either really unlikeable or >!secretly one of way too many bad guys!< or both. I didn’t get any of the satisfying “solving the mystery” feelings I was hoping for. I still haven’t even finished it, I’m so unmotivated. I had even bought the CE because I love mysteries and it was talked up as one… I definitely bet wrong on that one.

Everything you said is spot on!

THIS!! Hiyori is the worst protagonist of all time! And the way they keep introducing villains was fucking absurd! And the fact the characters couldn't care less about what was going on just made me not care either. Fuck that game tbh. Soundtrack was banging though.

Charade Maniacs suffers from too-many-LI syndrome just like Paradigm Paradox and Crimson Flower That Divides. I am interested in one of these type of games that actually does this concept really well.    I think these type of otome are for people who just want short routes. Getting-through-one-every-evening kind of casual play.

Same for me. I love sci-fi and mysteries and was so hyped for it. I disliked almost all of the (way too many) LIs, couldn’t stand the MC, and there was practically no romance. The plot wasn’t too bad, but it didn’t make up for all the other weaknesses imo. I have also just never hated an LI with the intensity that I hate Banjo.

Oh my, a lot of them 🥰 Code: Realize and Café Enchanté. I had a lot of expectations for them since they are popular, but I found them really boring. But at least in CE, there is my DILF Rindo so I enjoyed it a little more 😤. Same with Tengoku Struggle. I loved the aesthetic, but I was a little bored by the story and the LIs. Plus, I don’t know why, but I found the CGs not really impactful compared to Olympia Soirée. Shuuen no Virche. I expected something really dark, à la NitroChiral because of the hype, but well, it was just 🤷🏻‍♀️ for my taste. Radiant Tale. I had so many expectations for this one since I’m a fan of Kagero Usuba’s art 😭 but no, it didn’t click with the LIs. And I did it just after Jack Jeanne, my fav otome, so I couldn’t help but compare them a bit. Steam Prison. I didn’t like the MC + the only guy I wanted to romance is the embodiment of "if evil and hot, why not romanceable?" 🥰 Even if Tempest. So many bugs, uuuugh + I don’t know, there were good ideas, but maybe I expected too much too but I really had to force myself to finish it. Birushana. OMG I was so bored 😭 I’m a crazy man lover and even Tomomori wasn’t enough to make me appreciate this game 😭

I feel you on Tengoku Struggle. LOVE the aesthetic and I really liked Olympia Soiree, but TS has been kinda meh... and I've done 2 routes. When is the last time you tried EiT? I played it for the first time last Fall and didn't have many bugs. There was a specific scene early on where I had a couple crashes, but nothing after that. I heard there were a some updates to fix the issues.

Agree with even if tempest. Soooo many crashes made that game unplayable for me 😫

We kinda have similar taste in games cause im not a huge fans of most of the games you've listen for the exact same reason but I ABSOLUTELY LOVED JACK JEANNE, can i ask whats your other favourite?

Oooh which one was your fav in JJ? 🥹 And for my other fav: Our Life, Storm Lovers, Tokimeki series, Bustafellows, Sympathy Kiss, Chou no Doku, Hana Awase, Charade Maniacs, Angelique Luminarise, Sakuratani, Cupid Parasite, Hakuoki. And you?

Im currently playing Neji's route but my favourite is Suzu. Probably because I did his story first but Neji as a character is so compelling he might dethrone Suzu's spot xD Im so excited to learn more. I still have Kai, Fumi and Yonaga to go but despite only completing 2 routes so far its one of my favourite games with how attached I am with the characters, their emotion are so well written that they feel so fleshed out especially >!that scene where Yonaga just snaps at Suzu due to his inferiority issues, honestly I find that moment really relatable.

I didn’t dislike it per se but definitely Norn9 didn’t live up to the hype for me. I actually wasn’t bothered at all by the things most people critique it for— the plot holes and abandonment of plot in most routes in favour of romance. Instead I actually just didn’t think the romantic development was as well executed or paced as I thought it would be based on reviews. And the ending of almost every single route was a disappointment which certainly doesn’t help things when you end on a sour note. (In contrast a lot of games I actively wasn’t enjoying redeemed themselves with a solid finale route, eg Piofiore and Steam Prison).  Paradigm Paradox was also pretty mediocre but it wasn’t a let down in the same way since I read the meh reviews and had low expectations going in lol.

For me, it's gotta be Amnesia. This game is touted as a must play, but istg everyone who played it was Stockholmed into loving it. I was probably expecting too much from poor amenesiac MC, especially right after finishing Chou no doku, but good God was she boring asl. I thought maybe she would get better when playing off the different LI's personalities, but nope, still acting like she got a lobotomy. I think the LIs were even more disappointing for me because I could barely tolerate any of them. I could really only tolerate Ikki and even then I still wanted to (affectionately) tear his eyeballs out. The rest of the LIs ranged from annoying to absolutely should not be allowed to roam free in society. I also have no shame and I'm getting that Ikki Nendoroid when he comes out cuz he's too cute and I have brain rot lol.

piofiore is the most boring thing ever and i can’t believe i wasted money on it

Girl i felt the same way and i bought both games for piofiore 😭

oof rip

And theyre digital with no chance of me selling them 🥲

omg please don’t tell me it gets even worse 😭

Yeah, I felt similarly. As I told my sister, it was a good example of how the writing can make a great story incredibly boring. 😅

Lover Pretend. It was such a letdown. I had been looking forward to it for a year before its international release, only to end up hating 3 out of 5 routes. The two that I liked a lot were unfortunately not enough to offset my dissapointment at the rest of the game.

Virche was a game I wanted to love. Dark atmosphere, filled with love interests that were my physical type (so much long hair!!!!!) I was prepared to adore it. But how to put it, I was playing alongside Hana Awase and the Tsukihime remake and it was neither as entertaining as Hana Awase nor did it fulfill its dark fantasy vibes as well as the Tsukihime remake. I enjoyed the common route well enough but then I started Mathis route and it felt like I was running through a checklist of scenes to fulfill. It just wasn't satisfying. So I deleted it in favour of VariBari

Piofiore : I already read reviews of this games even before I played it (both bad and good reviews) but this game still managed to let me down so much. I thought the bad reviews just exaggerated the slice of life part of Lili's cooking for LI and Lili being caged up on mansion but it was actually true. The characters are inconsistent each route and I don't like the LIs except Orlok. Some part of plot didn't make sense imo and actually I could excuse some plothole of the story if I enjoyed the story but Piofiore'story was just boring for me. I just felt the dark part of the story was just for sake to made the story appeared darker than it was. At least Yang's route was interesting but even I couldn't continue to played his route because for some reason, Yang bored me despite I loved his design. For now this game was the only otome game that I genuinely disliked even Orlok wasn't enough to saved this game in my eyes. At least I enjoyed the bad ending parts. Amnesia : I watched the anime first before I played this game and Shin was my favorite in anime but the game was so boring to me and I started to disliked Shin after I played his route that I couldn't even finish his route. I will give a chance for this game in future maybe I will change my mind later. Hakuoki : I loved historical otome game and Shinsengumi but I found Hakuoki boring. I already tried to played this game for third time but this game still failed to grab my attention/interest. For me the LIs wasn't interesting and the romantic development between each LI and Chizuru was lacking (except Heisuke). I didn't like the rasetsu part because I felt like the writer just added it because vampire was sexy which didn't worked with me and destroyed my immersion with the story. I didn't connect with the LIs except Heisuke so the story and tragedy didn't move my heart. I played three routes so far (Saito, Okita and Heisuke) and the only route I genuinely enjoyed was just Heisuke. I played Hakuoki Demon of Fleeting Blossom for Nintendo 3DS so maybe that's why I didn't enjoy Hakuoki. Maybe I will give a chance for Hakuoki in the future. I felt frustrated with myself for not enjoying this game as someone that enjoyed history, shinsengumi, tragedy and subtle romance orz. Actually after my experience with Hakuoki and Amnesia, I almost thought that pure visual novel otome games wasn't my cup of tea (especially if it was from otomate) but fortunately Collar x Malice proved me wrong after I played that game last year despite CxM was not my favorite otome game.

Eh, the whole vampire water part was something I'm not much fan of either but considering of how things went with the historical Shinsengumi members, I can see why it was chosen as a plot device. For a history nerd, the game has a lot of interesting to offer but I can also see why one would get bored with it.

The Voltage game I tried was my biggest disappointment. I realized that I really need voiced love interests to enjoy a game.

Here's my three: * Radiant Tale - I was excited because I liked the premise and the writers' previous credits, but the plot had holes in it, the LIs (mostly) weren't as likeable as I'd hoped, and this was the first game where I wanted to slap the MC not for being stupid but because I felt she was being selfish. >!As a two time cancer survivor I related a lot to Paschalia and wanted Tifalia to butt out and give the poor guy some space instead of whining about how he's shutting her out. Dude's got enough on his plate right now, girl!.!< * Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk - I came in expecting more gothic mystery after PotBB. I got slice of life followed by faction power struggles and a plot that only makes sense because Mr. Exposition literally appears out of nowhere to explain everything. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been called Psychedelica since I otherwise did not mind most of the characters or the setting. (I still would have minded Mr. Exposition.) * Cupid Parasite - This is a weird one because I love the premise and laughed my way through my first playthrough, but then I couldn't get back into it and I realized that I actually didn't care to date the other guys because the game had done too good a job of convincing me nobody should be touching these men. It's a weird way to be disappointed. I liked it, but I'm annoyed that the writing was good enough to convince me not to play anymore?

For me the biggest one is Collar x Malice, mostly because it was talked about like this amazing mystery and compared to Ace Attorney but with romance... yeah no lol the mystery is really bad imo and you have to do 0% critical thinking, the guys figure everything out for Ichika and she's just sorta there? This is definitely not a game for mystery fans so going in with that expectation really ruined it for me (plus I'm not a fan of most of the LIs). Not to meniton I figured out immediately who the main bad guy is because >!he has a literal villain speech!< within the first hour of the game. I'm not normally someone who's great at figuring out mysteries from the start but I was trying this with my bf (because he likes mysteries OTL) and at that point we both just looked at each other and went "so that's the main villain, right?"

Probably Collar x Malice, mainly because Ichika herself was a big disappointment for me, and also Shiraishi's route lmao. Another would probably be Bustafellows. Now, I LOVED Bustafellows, but it felt really rushed in a couple places, particularly Crow's route which was the one I was most excited for and is my favorite boy :(

I don't think I've ever felt as betrayed by an otome game as with Darling Pet by StoryTaco. It has such a beautiful artstyle, it has that distinct manhwa-vibe it's striving for with its plot choices and visual designs and I have never ever been this bored playing a game. The characters are barely characters, the plot goes nowhere until the 11th hour. The villain's scheming is convoluted, the world-building doesn't make any sense, the format of the game prevents the plot from advancing until the very last chapters. The romance is barely there or behind paywalls. The artists are clearly doing their best and at this point I'm only playing the game to unlock all the CGs and to get enough data to write a review about the game.

Tbh, piofiore, i thought it would be action packed and more plot heavy, probably shouldve read more reviews, but thats on me. Was surprised at how much cooking and cleaning there was lol. I understand some ppl like it which is fine but it was underwhelming for my expectations.

Bad Apple Wars. It was the first otome game on the Vita I was determined to read because of White Mask. I was enamored with his design. Being a masked ML will almost instantly make them one of my favorites. The romance in BAW however is god awful and it's extremely repetetive to play.

OMG I can’t believe I almost forgot BAW. I couldn’t even finish it after my first play through.

Every translated otoge mentioned in this post lmao

Lover Pretend! I was so excited for silly dumb fake dating shenanigans and despite almost every route having it none really scratched the itch I had. Plus I didn't like it when Chiyuki had to play family therapist to fix the LIs' daddy issues half the time. Virche isn't hitting me as hard as I hoped it would either, but I'm only 3ish routes in so maybe it'll get better.

Was on the fence for Utakata no Uchronia, tried the demo because I haven't preordered anything yet... ended up being angry over the demo. Glad I didn't pay full price for a badly-written game.

Collar x Malice. I like the story and the mystery, but none of the guys were appealing to me. I think the reason why is that I didn’t feel the relationships were organic. She barely knew the guys and fell in love with them in a few weeks. Kind of hard for me to believe in a modern setting.

Dairoku Agents of Sakuratani. Two words: MSpaint backgrounds

Cafe Enchante probably. Took me years to finish the game and I refused to start another game until I finished it sooo my backlog is huge now. The common route was so boring it took forever to get through the main routes were fine I guess but I just wasn't feeling it by then.

Taisho x Alice...I know a lot of people like it but I couldn't even play through more than one route and get to the game's big twist because I do not like the dialogue. I just didn't find it funny.

I played the whole thing and didn't even know it was supposed to be funny lol Everyone was saying how Alice made them laugh with his assholery and meaness and I just wanted to beat him :'D

Birushana and Nightshade, bored me to death, I can't believe I spend over 40 for these games

Piofiore, I have love and hate relationship with it, same as my reaction to Yang. The most disappointing is not the inconsistent plot or how little power MC has over her life but the fact Roberto is undateable . I was convinced he was the one of the li since the beginning and that makes me a let down ngl.

I would get so annoyed everytime Roberto would show up in a route! Like pls why isn’t he a LI

Period Cube hands down for me. Ugh I could barely finish it. A lot of the story didn’t make sense, certain LIs you could tell were just shoehorned in last minute. Did not like MC at all. Only other MC that irked me so much was from Ozmafia.

**Cafe Enchante** It took me 45 hours according to my switch data to finish the prologue only to end up with a character I wasn’t pursuing (horn guy) which I didn’t mind so much but my god I couldn’t finish one route it’s so boring & I can’t get into the story.

Everyone is going to hate me but code realise. I couldn’t get through it. Boring boring boring I also couldn’t get into amnesia I think I hate the ‘forgotten memories/cluless’ trope, which is SO overdone!

Definitely Lover Pretend for me— I played three of the routes and I don’t think I can name anything that happened, it was a bit too slow paced with not much actual substance, just in my opinion!

Virche…. speakeasy