Tag: Collar x Malice

5 Reasons You Should Play Collar x Malice

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Collar x Malice is the newest otome game localization to make its way to the Nintendo Switch—the console that is quickly making itself the hub for otome fans after the death of the Playstation Vita. Anyone who played the game back when it was released here in the west will tell you that Collar x Malice is one of the best otome games to make it’s way stateside—with it’s engaging story and stellar cast of characters—this is one of the games that I most recommend to folks looking to make the jump to otome games.

Collar x Malice is a detective mystery otome game that was published in Japan by Idea Factory under their Otomate brand of games in 2016. The following year in 2017, Aksys Games released an English language localization of the game for the PS Vita. Collar x Malice follows a rookie police officer who is unwittingly drawn into a series of gruesome crimes when she is kidnapped and collared by the terrorist organization, Adonis. It’s a race against the clock and failure isn’t an option. With her life on the line and the fate of the city hanging in the balance, Ichika must team up with a group five strangers—some of which are former police officers—in order to uncover the truth behind the X-Day Incidents and Adonis.

So, if you are still on the fence about whether or not to snag a copy of this game now that it’s available on the Swith, here are 5 reasons you should totally be playing Collar x Malice!

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OWLS “Lovers” Blog Tour – A Natural Otome Romance: Enomoto and Ichika in ‘Collar x Malice’

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Hey Hey Owlets!! It’s been awhile since I participated in an OWLS Blog Tour and chances are you were directed here by Carla over at Pop Culture Literary and her amazing post about how fan culture influences how we view relationships. If you haven’t already given her post a read, I highly recommend giving it a once over!

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For those of you that are here by chance, I’m the next in a long line of bloggers, vloggers, and content creators participating in the September 2019 OWLS Blog Tour! As many of you guys know I’m a member of the blogging group OWLS (Otaku Warriors for Liberty and Self-Respect). We’re a group of bloggers and vloggers that hope to spread a message of acceptance and understanding through thoughtful community activism! We use our love of pop-culture and other media to discuss a wide range of topics. Each month we host themed Blog Tours where we discuss topics we feel are important to the greater fandom community. 

Last month during our Believe Blog Tour we celebrated the great works from acclaimed animation studio Kyoto Animation as a way to show our love for the studio in the wake of the heartbreaking tragedy back in July. This month, we’re continuing to spread the love with our Lover Blog Tour.

When it comes to romantic relationships, what do we look for in a partner? What core values do we seek when it comes to building a healthy and loving relationship? For this topic, we will be discussing some of our favorite couples in pop culture and what they have taught us about love and relationships, the good and the bad.

– September 2019 Lover Blog Tour Prompt

Love is a topic we’ve talked about quite a few time during our past OWLS Blog Tours, but I still had a hard time choosing a topic for this month’s tour. OWLS members before me put their own spin on the topic, and since most of my posts are related to games, I figured it would only be fitting if I talked about otome games. I mean, the main goal of otome games is to successfully romance one of several male love interests, each with their own “unique” personalities. Otome games, like most visual novels give gamers a chance to craft their own fantasy romance experience, for better or for worse. Though some criticize otome games for their unrealistic depictions of love and romantic relationships, I think there is a lot we can learn from otome games about love. So for this month’s tour I wanted to talk about one of my favorite otome couples and why they work.

Continue reading “OWLS “Lovers” Blog Tour – A Natural Otome Romance: Enomoto and Ichika in ‘Collar x Malice’” →

5 Games Like Collar x Malice

Published on by Blerdy3 Comments

I know it’s been a while since the last 5 Games Like… post, but I wanted to get through Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly and Collar x Malice just in case one of them won the poll. And wouldn’t you know it, Collar x Malice swept the Twitter poll! Thanks to everyone that participated and for those of you that missed out, check out my twitter for the next poll.

 

The last time I wrote a list of 5 Otome Games Like Steam Prison and this week I’m bringing you guys a list of 5 otome games like Collar x Malice. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Collar x Malice is a detective mystery otome game that was published in Japan by Idea Factory under their Otomate brand of games in 2016. The following year in 2017, Aksys Games released an English language localization of the game for the PS Vita. Collar x Malice follows a rookie police officer who is unwittingly drawn into a series of gruesome crimes when she is kidnapped and collared by the terrorist organization, Adonis. It’s a race against the clock and failure isn’t an option, with her life on the line and the fate of the city hanging in the balance, Ichika must team up with a group five strangers, some of which are former police officers, in order to uncover the truth behind the X-Day Incidents and Adonis.

Unlike most otome games that focus more on romance, Collar x Malice offers a more story driven narrative that’s more in line with a suspense thriller or an investigative adventure game. This is my favorite otome localization so far, and you can bet I’ll be getting Collar x Malice: Unlimited when it comes out next year. But, in the meantime if you’re like me and you’re looking for games similar to Collar x Malice, here are five game titles that are sure to hit the spot! I tried to go with games that have the same feel as Collar x Malice and not so much a play by play clone of the game. So, they’re not exactly the same, but, they definitely capture the spirit of the game.

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Collar x Malice Otome Review: How Do You Define Justice?

Published on by Blerdy3 Comments

These last few years have been pretty good to otome games fans, with tons of new English language releases of Japanese otome titles and two upcoming otome anime adaptations. One of the games that has been getting the most attention lately is Idea Factory’s mystery/detective visual novel, Collar x Malice. Within the span of a month fans were treated to an upcoming anime announcement and at Anime Expo 2019, Aksys Games announced that they would be releasing both Collar x Malice and it’s new fandisk, Collar x Malice: Unlimited for the Nintendo Switch in 2020. So, after dragging my feet for two years, I finally carved out some time for the game and I am kicking myself for waiting so long to jump on the Collar x Malice hype train. This is by far my favorite localization release to date!

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Collar x Malice was published in Japan by Idea Factory under their Otomate brand of games in 2016 and release exclusively for the PS Vita handheld. In 2017 Aksys Games released an English language edition of the game. 2017 was a huge year for western otome games fans, with a ton of great titles making their way stateside, but of all of them Collar x Malice stood out the most for me. The game follows a rookie police officer, Ichika Hoshino living in Shinjuku.

The city is currently under a mass quarantine after the terrorist organization, Adonis commits a series of violent crimes known collectively as the X-Day Incidents. One night while on patrol, Ichika is kidnapped and fitted with a collar set to dispense a lethal dose of poison into her neck. A voice from the collar instructs her to investigate the X-Day Incidents and uncover the “truth” behind Adonis and their plans for Shinjuku. With her life and the fate of the city on the line, Ichika must rely on the help of five strangers, each with their own reasons for wanting to solve the X-Day cases. Together, they might be able to remove Ichika’s collar and liberate Shinjuku from Adonis’s grip.

Game Details

  • Genre: Detective | Mystery | Romance
  • Available for PS Vita | Nintendo Switch
  • Gameplay Lengh: 5-7 hours first play through/ 30-50 hours total
  • Cost: $39.99
  • 5 male romance options
    • Suggested Play Order: Mineo → Takeru → Kei → Shiraishi → Yanagi
  • Similar Games: 7’scarlet | Steam Prison | Bustafellows
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OWLS June “Vulnerable” Blog Tour – Inspiring Hope and Strength in Others: Making a Case for the Vulnerability of Otome Heroines 

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Hey Hey Owlets!! As many of you guys know I’m a member of the blogging group OWLS (Otaku Warriors for Liberty and Self-Respect). We’re a group of bloggers and vloggers that hope to spread a message of acceptance and understanding through thoughtful community activism! We use our love of pop-culture and other media to discuss a wide range of topics. 

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Last month during our Happiness Blog Tour we looked at the things in our lives that bring us joy, from our hobbies to families and friend, and everything in between. This month we’re redefining our weaknesses in the  June Vulnerable Blog Tour!

In the month of June, we will be discussing what it means to be vulnerable. To some individuals, being vulnerable could be seen as a sign of weakness, but in fact, vulnerability is actually a sign of strength. In this month’s posts, we will explore what it means to be vulnerable and how certain characters in pop culture glamorize vulnerability. When do we show our vulnerability? How do we express vulnerability? Why should we show vulnerability? These are questions that we will be discussing in our posts featuring characters that show vulnerability and/or sensitivity and what we can learn from them or even our own personal stories. 

– June 2019 Vulnerable Blog Tour Prompt

I thought long and hard about what I’d write about for this month’s tour. Since this is an otome games blog, I figured I’d go with something related to that rather than the usual anime and manga topics I usually pick. Otome heroines get a pretty bad rap since they are typically seen as self insert characters with little to no agency within the context of their respective games. But, there has been a shift in recent years towards more self sufficient heroine characters, especially in English otome games where protagonists tend to have a more well defined personalities and motivations. Though, generally speaking heroines are still arguably the weakest characters despite having the most important role in otome games. So, I wanted to look at the roles otome heroines play in otome game narratives through the lens of the heroine, Ichika Hoshino in the otome game Collar x Malice.  

Continue reading “OWLS June “Vulnerable” Blog Tour – Inspiring Hope and Strength in Others: Making a Case for the Vulnerability of Otome Heroines “ →

Otome Games I Wish Had an Anime Adaptation

Published on by Blerdy13 Comments

On the heels of the Collar X Malice Unlimited fandisk announcement, Idea Factory and Otomate revealed through their twitter account that Collar X Malice is also getting an anime adaptation in the near future. This is not the first otome game to get an anime adaptation, with Hakuoki, Amnesia Memories, OZMAFIA, and Code Realize to name a few all getting the anime treatment.

For those of you not familiar with Collar X Malice, it’s a mystery, suspense, thriller otome game originally developed by Idea Factory under their Otomate brand in 2016 for PS Vita. The game was later localized by Aksys Games in 2017 for an English language release. The game follows Ichika Hoshino a young police officer in Shinjuku, Tokyo after she becomes the unwitting victim of a mysterious terrorist organization that have been terrorizing the city with several large scale attacks. Ichika is captured by the organization and fitted with a collar set to dispense poison into her neck unless she uncovers the truth behind the attacks. With her life on the line and the fate of the city hanging in the balance, Ichika is approached by five mysterious strangers who offer to help her get to the bottom of the crimes and hopefully save the people of Shinjuku and herself in the process.

The premise alone has everything you need for a great story; action, suspense, mystery, romance… I can’t wait to see what the anime has in store for us (and I sincerely hope they do the story justice). But, that got me thinking, what other otome games would I like to see get an anime adaptation? I mean, really, everyone assumes that otome games are just a lot of romance and that’s it. But, the truth is, otome games have some of the best stories that cover a wide range of subjects and genres that would make for amazing anime series. So, I wracked my brain a bit and came up with a list of otome games I think really deserve to have an anime adaptation.

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[International Women’s Day 2018] My Top 5 Otome Heroines!!

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Hey Hey Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs, it’s International Women’s Day! The one day out of the year when we celebrate the achievements of women throughout history… and if you ask me we should be celebrating women every day of the year and not just on March 8th, because we women are out here slaying the game everyday… all day, but, I digress. I could not let this day pass without doing something to celebrate here on Nice Job Breaking It, Hero (busy schedule be damned)!

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So, to celebrate, I’m bringing you guys a list of my top five otome game heroines! Yeah, don’t let the lack of reviews fool you, I am still pretty deep in the Otome Games fandom, and I’ve noticed that otome heroines get a lot of flack from the community as a whole. In fact, we’re often quick to make excuses for a “terrible” love interest, who treats the MC like crap, but when we get an MC with “no backbone” we immediately write her off as an affront to feminist ideals and a step backwards for all woman kind… I, myself am guilty of bashing heroines every now and again… but, seriously otome heroines get a tough break, so in order to rectify that I’m spotlighting five phenomenal otome heroines that hold it down in their respective games. It’s hard work dealing with your own personal harem, and these ladies go above and beyond the call of duty.

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[News] Upcoming Games from MangaGamer and Aksys

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Okay, first I want to apologize for being late with this post! I am currently out of town for the holiday weekend and there is no wifi where I’m at… so I am literally reliving my childhood. It also seems like every time there is a big announcement in the otome community,  I’m away on vacation or something…

Mind you all, I’m still on vacation…I am literally writing this from my Galaxy S7. So forgive me for a few errors/weirdness, as it is hard to post from this thing and I avoid it when I can!

Continue reading “[News] Upcoming Games from MangaGamer and Aksys” →