Tag: otome game

Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk Otome Review

By pokeninja90 on December 1, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

I just finished my first playthrough of Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk and I’d like to get my initial thoughts about the game down before I get any deeper into the story, because my God was this game intense. I played Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly awhile ago and I didn’t really like it all that much, so I went into Ashen Hawk expecting it to be much the same as its predecessor… thankfully I was wrong! Ashen Hawk is a marked improvement over Black Butterfly in almost every way and one has to wonder what the hell happened between the production of the first game and this one to cause such a huge difference in quality… Technically Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk isn’t a sequel to Black Butterfly, though it is set in the same world as the first game, but with a completely different story and characters.

Now I say that, but there were QUITE A FEW Easter Eggs and callbacks to PBB in Ashen Hawk, that you’ll only truly get if you’ve played through the first game, but it’s not a requirement to enjoy the game. That said, EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED!! I know I literally just said you don’t have to play Black Butterfly before playing Ashen Hawk, but boy does playing the first game pay off in a big way in this one!! It’s no secret that I didn’t particularly care for Black Butterfly, but damnit if Ashen Hawk didn’t make slugging through the mess of the first game worth it. But, what I love most is that the connection between the two games isn’t overly in your face, the reveals work well within the context of their respective stories while also expanding on the preexisting lore of both games.

Game Details

Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Romance
Available for PS Vita | Steam
Full Voiced
Gameplay Lengh: 30-35 hours
Cost: $29.99
4 male romance options
Similar Games: 7’scarlet, Re: Birthday Song, Ayakashi Gohan, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly

Since folks are really hung up on spoiler warnings, this post will contain some minor spoilers for the game, so if you haven’t played either Ashen Hawk or Black Butterfly, maybe hold off on reading this review.

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Swipe Right: Otome Guys I’d Totally Date in Real Life

By pokeninja90 on November 6, 2019 • ( 10 Comments )

Otome games are all about exploring your fantasies, doing things you can’t do in your everyday life. Whether that’s getting sucked into a virtual reality game or fighting alongside the legendary Shinsengumi, in otome games you can be or do whatever you want. The biggest draw of otome games are the love interests, each game gives you your very own harem of hot guys to romance. But, let’s be real, half of us would never date some of our favorite otome guys in real life. In fact, some of the most popular otome guys are downright assholes.

If not for the fantasy aspect of otome romances we wouldn’t give most otome guys the time of day. Hell, I’m guilty of liking questionable characters, some of my favorite otome guys are either tsundere or kuudere and I find those kinds of guys insufferable in real life. And don’t get me started on oresama characters, ain’t nobody got time to stroke the ego of an arrogant man child.

So that got me thinking about the otome love interests I would date in real life and the results were pretty surprising. None of my favorite otome characters actually made the list, but thems the rub I suppose…

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Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly Otome Review – All Aboard the Feels Train

By pokeninja90 on August 9, 2019 • ( 9 Comments )

I am super late to the party with this one since Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly was the first game released as part of Aksys Games’s “Summer of Mystery” otome game releases, alongside 7’scarlet and Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk. Of the three games Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly was the one that got the most hate and I’m not gonna lie, it’s not my favorite otome game in the world. In fact, like many others have said, the romance aspects of the game is one of the biggest shortcomings of the story and I honestly could have done without it. But, is Black Butterfly really the dumpster fire everyone seems to think it is?

No, not really… Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly has many, many flaws, some of which really bog the story down, however, there was some good in there too. I want to stress that this game isn’t for everyone and if you are looking for a standard by the book otome game, this is definitely not the game for you. But, if you’re looking for a short game with an interesting premise Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly will keep you entertained.

The game follows Beniyuri, a young girl who wakes up in a mysterious mansion with no memory or who she is or how she got there. But, she isn’t alone, gruesome monsters roam the halls attacking anyone they come into contact with… After a run in with said monsters, she is saved by a group of guys who are also in the same predicament as she is, and together they attempt to find a way out of the mansion. Behind the scenes the enigmatic master of the mansion promises to free them from the mansion and return their memories if they collect the missing pieces of a strange kaleidoscope. With no other leads, the group sets out to locate the lost pieces of the kaleidoscope, uncovering the secrets of the mansion and its elusive owner along the way…

Game Details

Genre: Detective, Mystery, Romance
Available for PS Vita | Steam
Gameplay Lengh: 1-2 hours first play through/ 15-20 hours Total
Cost: $34.99
5 male romance options
- Suggested Play Order: Best/Main Ending→ Real World Ending → Kagiha → Hikage → Yamato → Monshiro → Karasuba → Summer Camp Ending
Similar Games: 7’scarlet, Re: Birthday Song, Bad Apple Wars

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

By pokeninja90 on July 19, 2019 • ( 1 Comment )

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!

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 (2020)
Gameplay Lengh: 5-7 hours first play through/ 30-50 hours Total
Cost: $34.99
5 male romance options
- Suggested Play Order: Mineo → Takeru → Kei → Shiraishi → Yanagi
Similar Games: 7’scarlet, Steam Prison

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Mystery, Suspense and Zombies?!- 7’Scarlet: Character & Route Thoughts (Part 2)

By pokeninja90 on March 18, 2019 • ( 1 Comment )

Originally this was a part of the main review, but the more I kept writing the more my thoughts on the characters kind of took on a life of their own. So, I’m trying something new and separating out my thoughts on the characters and their routes from the main review. I don’t know if I’ll do this again, but, I had some pretty strong feelings about some of the characters/routes and it just didn’t gel well with the rest of the review.

If you want a general review of 7’scarlet check out my previous post, Mystery, Suspense and Zombies?! – 7’Scarlet Review (Part 1). If you’ve already given that a gander and you just want to know how I felt about the love interests and routes, you’re in the right place. A word of caution though, there are spoilers here, so if you haven’t finished the game perhaps you might want to hold off on reading this post until you do.

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Mystery, Suspense and Zombies?!- 7’Scarlet Otome Game Review (Part 1)

By pokeninja90 on March 14, 2019 • ( 7 Comments )

7’scarlet is a mystery otome game and one of the most recent localizations to make its way Stateside. The game follows Ichiko Hanamaki, a college student whose brother disappeared a year prior to the start of the game while visiting the town of Okunezato. While investigating the town, Ichiko and her childhood friend Hino stumble upon a strange website detailing several mysteries surrounding the town and decide to participate in an online meetup hosted by a few of the site’s members. Once in Okunezato, Ichiko and Hino meet the rest of the Okunezato Supernatural Club and begin investigating the strange goings on in the town. But, when a series of mysterious deaths began to take place, the town’s dark past is slowly revealed.

When I picked up 7’scarlet, I wasn’t expecting to stick with it as long as I did, let alone finish the damn thing. I fully intended on just playing one route and tucking the game safely back into my backlog. Sadly, the route I was most interested in playing is the second to last route in the game (I’m not including the True End or the Secret Route). Pro tip: A sure fire way to get me to play all the way through a game is to stick the megane routes at the end of the game. So, I powered through all the routes until I could finally romance the bespectacled hottie of my dreams and by that point I figured why not just go balls out and finish the game. Now that I have that coveted PSN 7’scarlet Completion trophy, I’m ready to give my thoughts on the game.

Game Details

Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Romance, GxB
Available for PS Vita and Steam
6 pursuable love interests (5 main, 1 secret)
25 unique endings
Gameplay Length: ≈30 hours
Cost: $39.99
Similar Games: Code Realize, Psychadelica series

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Have You Eaten Today? – Ayakashi Gohan – Otome Game Review

By pokeninja90 on January 18, 2019 • ( 13 Comments )

Ayakashi Gohan (あやかしごはん) is a 2014 supernatural fantasy otome game from Honeybee, with an updated Vita port of the game, Ayakashi Gohan ~Oomori~ being released a year later. While the game doesn’t have an official English language release, fan translation team Hanataba Translations released an English patch for the PC version of the game back in 2017.

Ayakashi Gohan follows a young girl, Rin Akane, as she adjusts to life in Momoji Village, a place where ayakashi and humans live peacefully with one another. Over the course of the game, Rin interacts with the various human and ayakashi residents of the town helping to bridge the gap between both races. It’s a lighthearted game about eating good food and romancing hot ayakashi… or so I thought…

Game Details

Available for Windows, Mac, Linux
6 pursuable characters (male)
18 unique endings
Gameplay Length: 30+ hours

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[Bite-Sized Review] Kitty Love – Way to look for love

By pokeninja90 on November 13, 2018 • ( Leave a comment )

Kitty Love-Way to Look for Love is the latest otome game from DIGIMERCE, and among the first wave of otome games released for the Nintendo Switch. The game follows Honoka, a young shop clerk who is magically transformed into a cat. In order to break her curse, Honoka must lock lips with one of five eligible bachelors. There’s her sweetheart of a boss, Takuma Suguri; her childhood friend, Kohei Natsume; the stoic patrol cop, Shogo Fujimoto; the friendly neighborhood host, Kyosuke Kawahara; and finally the mysterious flower arrangement artist, Narumi Saijo. The love interests, were pretty by the book, checking off all of the usual otome tropes and cliches, but, they are still enjoyable enough. There isn’t a set play order, however, I highly recommend playing Narumi Saijo’s route last, lest you want game ruining spoilers, granted the “big reveal” was kind of obvious from the beginning.

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I Slept With the Bartender?!: Irresistible Mistakes- Go Okubo Main Story

By pokeninja90 on June 12, 2017 • ( 7 Comments )

I misjudged Go in my first review of Irresistible Mistakes, I was fooled by yet another Voltage Inc. character bio, you’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now, but nope… Voltage has Go Okubo billed as a “sweetheart con artist”, which couldn’t have been further from the truth and it’s because of this misleading bio that I almost passed up on one of the best routes in the game.

I went into this route expecting it to fail, but after playing that first chapter I was singing a completely different tune! Go blew Toshiaki’s route out of the water and I am not ashamed to admit that this is my new favorite (we’ll see how I feel after I play Toma’s route 😉 )! If you want a general overview of Irresistible Mistakes, click HERE, it’s covers the basic premise of the game and will include links to the other character reviews I will write for the game.

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own any of the images used in this review, ALL images, screenshots, and characters belong to Voltage Inc. Please if you are interested in the game, download the game for free in the App Store or from Google Play and purchase the stories when they are available in your area.

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[First Thoughts] Period Cube ~Shackles of Amadaeus~

By pokeninja90 on May 15, 2017 • ( 3 Comments )

Period Cube ~Shackles of Amadaeus~ is a fantasy/RPG Japanese otome game developed by Otomate, based on the Drama CD series of the same name. The game was released in Japan in 2016 for the PS Vita, prior to it’s English language release by Aksys Games on April 28th. I’d heard some mixed reviews about this game from folks who played the Japanese version, but I like to give games the benefit of the doubt, especially when it comes to major localizations and releases (Norn9 does not count)… Period Cube is a commercial release, full retail: $39.99 USD on Amazon (affiliate link), which isn’t all that bad for what the game has to offer, especially when importing the Japanese version is double, if not triple that amount.

I seriously thought I’d be done with Period Cube by now, I honestly hoped that I would be, but life has been getting in the way of my gaming. I’m still working my way through the game ( a full review is still a ways off), but I’ve already cleared four routes and I have more than a few thoughts about the game… namely, WTF is with this MC?!! Plus, it’s good to get my ranting out of the way now… There may be some spoilers, but since I’m still playing through the game, there shouldn’t be any major plot reveals…

*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, I receive a small commission from Amazon every time you all purchase something using those links. Also all images belong to Aksys Games and Idea Factory!*

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