Hey Hey Blerdy Tribe! I’m bringing you another Games Like list—the blog series where you guys vote on an otome game and I go out and find five games that are similar to the title you guys picked. Last time I wrote a list of 5 Games Like 7’scarlet, so definitely check that post out if you’re looking for some great mystery romance games to get into! For today’s post, I ran a poll over on Twitter and 157 of you lovely readers voted for the historical fantasy otome game, Nightshade (Hyakka Hyakurou)!
Help a sis out and pick a game please~
— Naja B. | Playing Buried Stars (@BlerdyOtome) May 17, 2021
A little while ago I went on a recovery mission into my backlog and I “rescued” a few titles from the depths. One of those titles was Nightshade. When this game was originally released I didn’t have the money to purchase it, so a friend of mine from an otome group I’m in gifted it to me on Steam. Even then, I didn’t immediately play the game, and I have to wonder that if I had played it back then when the entire otome games community was hyped as hell for this game, maybe, just maybe my opinion might have been different. But, I didn’t and I’m gonna be upfront with you guys, I did not enjoy this game and the only reason I even finished the game was out of a moral obligation to the friend who bought it for me the game.
I went in expecting Nightshade to be this epic historical fantasy on par with the much beloved otome darling Hakuoki, but what I got was a bland and largely forgettable gaming experience. Everything was just so meh, it just didn’t WOW me the way I thought it would. The premise was okay, the characters were okay, and the story itself was just… you guessed it, okay. It just didn’t stand out at all. Everything was just so predictable and unoriginal, HELL if you’re looking for a better game with shinobi, I highly recommend the mobile game Destiny Ninja it has its moments, but at least it’s FUN. Nightshade just played it too safe.
I’ve seen a few bloggers do this for the new anime seasons, and I figured why not do the same things for the games I’m playing. Nothing fancy, just a rundown of all the games I’ve been working on this past month. During September and October I picked up quite a few games, some I finished and some that will take a bit of time to get through, but there are three that I’ve been actively playing consistently.
I’ll probably do full reviews on them when I finish them, but that could take anywhere between a week or three months so I wanted to get my first impressions and thoughts out there in the meantime (since there’s a high chance I might never finish them).
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly was such a letdown, that I didn’t have high expectations for Ashen Hawk. I couldn’t have been more wrong, the two games are like night and day! Ashen Hawk is a much better game in every way, the characters are all likable and the premise is much more polished and the art is gorgeous! Though, the flow chart is back, but it seems to be better executed… While it’s not a direct sequel to Black Butterfly, the two games are set within the same world with different characters, there are some callbacks to BB that were fun little reminders that the first game wasn’t just a vivid fever dream.
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.
Back in November, D3 Publisher announced that they would be releasing their historical otome game, Nightshade, well itis now available for purchase on Steam for just $27.99 (20% off until April 18th)!! Regular retail $34.99! The game is only available in English for the Steam client, so you will need to create an account to play it!
*Disclaimer: While the writing is mine, the images used in this post are not, they belong to D3 Publisher and Red Entertainment!*
