This post has been a work in progress for over a year, but I could never quite work out how write it out, until the other day when I went to play a game in my backlog and I actually groaned… can you believe that?!
Lately, I’ve been so caught up with all the schedules and reviews, that I’ve kind of lost sight of why I started this blog in the first place: because I love otome games and I want to share that love with the world. Ha ha, it sounds silly when I write it out like that, but it’s been a long time since I really, truly enjoyed playing a game. It’s gotten to be such a chore really, buying games, playing them, writing the reviews, editing… somewhere along the way, playing otome games became a routine… *shudders* it became work and that’s something I never wanted to happen! Sure there have been games that I genuinely liked playing, in fact I played a game the other day that brought back a little of that old spark, but the magic that I had when I first started playing otome games has been gone for a little while now. So, it’s high time I reminded myself why I fell in love with otome games in the first place, before I wind up resenting them altogether.
Let me warn you guys now, this post is more for me than it is for you guys, I really needed to remember what it was that drew me to otoges. So this won’t be one of those pretty posts that I fuss over endlessly until the wording is just right and expect a lot of “…” so if you’re still with me, I want to write about how I got into otome games…
I started playing otome games about three years ago, give or take, lol my memory is kind of fuzzy about the detail, but I do remember it was right before I started Grad School. Ya, see I took a year off after I finished undergrad for “experience” but all I wound up doing was working during the day as a barista at a coffee shop and at night I was a host at hipster-y restaurant/bar… it’s not nearly exciting as it sounds, but my student loans payments went in on time, so I wasn’t complaining. When I think back on that time, everything was kind of hazy, I was at an impasse of sorts, I didn’t really know what to do with my life. I didn’t know if I wanted to continue my studies by applying to a Masters program, or if I wanted to find a low level job somewhere and work my way up the ranks pushing papers around… I was just kind of stuck.
It was around that time that I was given an iPad mini as a gift, I’d never had the cash to get one for myself so I was super excited to finally have one of my own. Of course I wasted no time downloading a ton of games from the App Store, including one of Voltage Inc.’s dating sims, A Knight’s Devotion.
Even though I do my damnedest to hide it, I am and will forever be a hopeless romantic… I love rom-coms and cheesy shojo manga, it’s the one chink in my armor *looks at the bookcase full of shojo manga* the mushier the better. So, it’s a wonder I never downloaded one of their apps before… My BF swears it was probably one of the girls I met at Katsucon…But, who really knows lol… I like to think it was fate or something like that, because from the minute I started up the app, I couldn’t put it down! It was like the heavens had opened up, lol I even think there were angels singing somewhere in the background… But, the short free prologue wasn’t enough to soothe my rapidly beating heart, I wanted more! No, I NEEDED more! So, I did something I never thought I’d ever do… I purchased one of the routes!
As a student, I was (and to an extent still am) usually kind of broke. *ahem* What I mean to say is that I know the value of a dollar, I don’t do impulse buys, especially on stuff like games or clothes, if I don’t get it as a gift, I tend to go without… But, in that one moment, I was weak, for the first time in my life I made a selfish, purchase… it was the beginning of the end for me and my poor wallet. Because from that day on, I stopped playing Candy Crush during my breaks, instead I was falling in love with a handsome knight named Lute *swoon*
Lute was absolutely perfect, a gentleman through and through… *sigh* He was my first otome guy and even now I still have fond memories of our time together… Wow, I’m getting a little misty eyed just thinking about it! For me playing otome games was a way to help cope with all of the stress in my life… If a customer yelled at me during a shift or my BF and I had an argument, I could always de-stress with a few hours on my iPad, I could just lose myself in the stories and of course the perfectly drawn features of whatever 2D pixel hottie I desired. The only thing that comes close to that in my life is probably Pokemon… but I’ll save that for another time ha ha ha…
*waves away the feelings of nostalgia* I bought and played all of Lute’s available stories and the stories of his fellow knights too, but it still wasn’t enough I wanted more… So I did what any sensible person would do and I downloaded as many Voltage apps as I could, soon my poor iPad mini was full of nothing but mobile otoges… I even had to delete some of my non-otome apps to make space for them all! Hell, my iPad mini is still full of mobile otoges (I lost the first one and had to buy a new one with more space)… I guess that’s why I’ve stuck with Voltage so long, despite some of their “questionable” choices over the years, they were the first otome games I ever played and even though I’ve moved on to other companies and games, I still really enjoy playing their games…
So whenever I get stuck or feel discouraged, I grab my iPad mini and load up one of the various Voltage games I have on there and I sink into the world of the game. Of all the games I’ve played and all the reviews I have written I’m fondest of the Voltage Inc ones. Actually, this is a secret, so don’t tell anyone, but I put way more effort into my Voltage reviews than I do into the other ones, because with every new app I download, I remember a bit of that magic I felt when I first played A Knight’s Devotion all those years ago.
There’s more to my otome games journey… a whole lot more, but for now I’ll just put a pin in the story here. I actually feel a lot better now that I’ve written this up, so while my energy is up, I’ll go try and finish up some playthroughs… *looks at backlog* or on second thought maybe I’ll just play another Voltage Inc. app…
I really want to hear from you all, whether you play otome games or not. What was your first experience with a game or an anime or a manga? How did it make you feel? Do you have fond memories of that time? And of course for all my otoge players out there, who was your first otoge man? Your first game? Let me know what you think in the comments section. If you like what you see, like this post or follow Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! As always THANK YOU FOR READING!!