Kings of Paradise is a mature romance title from Voltage Inc. Originally released through their mobile story app, Love 365 in 2018 it was later ported to the Nintendo Switch in 2021. When her husband’s cheating puts an end to her marriage of four years the MC finds herself penniless, homeless, and unemployed. But, a twist of fate puts her in the company of a group of socialites who offer her an opportunity to turn her life around. Surrounded by the glitz and glamor of their world, she might find the strength to pick herself up and learn to love again.
Suzumu Mado is the first pursuable character in Voltage Inc.’s Love Choice game, Tokyo Love Hustle. He’s a money hungry fake Medium at Mado Psychics and your new boss. Suzumu is a very different character from the usual alpha male LIs Voltage typically releases at launch–in a good way.
Story
In a seedy corner of Shinjuku dwells a group of phony psychic mediums. Using their winning smiles, they attract suckers and make bank. One day, fate leads you to join this disreputable band.
“Wondering if I’m not so bad after all?”
When there is no template in life or love anything can happen…
“Love is freaking stupid.”
Your new job is at Mado Psychics, and your boss is a total jerk. Unless… he’s not all that bad?
“You can stop second guessing yourself. I am all bad.”
Tokyo Love Hustle is the latest Love Choice title in Voltage Inc.’s Love 365 App. Originally released in Japan in September 2021 as S Kyuu Renai, the game made its English language debut early November 2021. This story centers around the heroine becoming entangled in the lives of a band of phony psychics. In this fast-paced comedy, these guys seem utterly clueless as to how romance is supposed to work, but through a series of curious events, the bonds of friendship and love grow.
Exclusively Yours is the latest Otome Romance title to make its way to the Love 365 app. In the game you play as a young woman who is mistaken for her twin sister—a glamorous Executive Assistant at an elite advertising agency. Now she has to fake it till she makes it in the cutthroat business world… an exciting romance awaits!
I kind of fell off the Voltage bandwagon, a little while ago, but this newest release gave me nostalgic flashbacks to one of their older titles, Office Secrets. So I figure what’s the harm in playing through the prologue… and I dunno, I kinda like it. Exclusively Yours: An Office Affair was originally released in 2011 in Japan, so it seems Voltage is giving some of their older titles a fresh coat of paint in the Love 365 app and I’m here for it! So, I sat down and played the prologue for Exclusively Yours and as always, I have some thoughts…
Hey Hey Blerdy Tribe, it’s time once again for another Games Like post—the blog series where you guys vote on the otome game and I go out and find five games that are similar to them. Last time I wrote a list of 5 Games Like Taisho x Alice, so definitely check that post out if you have the chance, there are a LOT of great games to discover! For today’s post, I ran a poll over on Twitter and 75 of you guys voted for Cafe Enchante (no surprises there)!
It's been awhile, but please pick a game~
— Naja B. | Can't spell Blerdy without BL (@BlerdyOtome) November 8, 2020
For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Cafe Enchanté is a fantasy romance otome game developed by Idea Factory under their subsidiary, Otomate and published by Aksys Games. The game was originally released in Japan on October 10, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch. The English language localization was released on November 5, 2020.
Take a peek behind the doors of the mysterious Café Enchanté, a coffeehouse that serves a rather strange clientele. Magically hidden from the everyday hustle and bustle of Tokyo, the shop is a meeting place for an assortment of beings from multiple, mystical worlds. When Kotone inherits the café from her grandfather, she has no idea of the adventures in store, or the potential romance that awaits. Meet the king of demons who can brew a perfect cup, an otome-playing fallen angel, a lonely headless knight, and many more. When government agents monitoring non-human activities show up at your door, your new café is about to become much more colorful!
So while we’re waiting for the next big otome game to be released here in the West, here are five game titles that are sure to help fill the void! As always, I tried to go with games that have a similar vibe to Cafe Enchante so don’t expect games that are play by play clones. Now, with that out of the way, let’s check out five games like Cafe Enchante!
Hey Hey Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs it’s time once again for another Games Like post—the blog series where you guys vote on the otome game and I go out and find five games that are similar to them. Last time I wrote a list of 5 Games Like Code Realize and this time around I ran a poll over on Twitter and 23 of you guys voted for Taisho x Alice!
I need help picking a game for a blog post this week~
— Naja B. | Taiga's Babe (@BlerdyOtome) May 4, 2020
Taisho x Alice is a game that has been localized in English not once, but twice. The first time was the infamously bad localization done by E2 Gaming, that not only had a laughably subpar translation, but absolutely terrible English voice acting. Thankfully, Primula decided to take matters into their own hands, with their parent company pencil handling the localization this time around. The OtomeArmada’s own Verdelish worked on the translation for Episode 1 and she definitely brings her own unique flair to the English version.
For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Taisho x Alice is a re-imagining of popular fairytales, but with a twist—each of the love interests are gender swapped versions of famous characters like Cinderella and Snow White! The game was originally released in Japan in 2015 for PC and was split into four episodes, each with two LIs. The first episode features Cinderella and Red Riding Hood’s stories; the second—Kaguya and Gretel; the third episode— Snow White and the Wizard; and the fourth and final episode focuses on Alice.
So far, only the first episode has been released, but there are plans to release the subsequent episodes in the near future. So while we’re waiting for the rest of the Taisho x Alice games to be released here in the West, here are five game titles that are sure to help fill the void! As always, I tried to go with games that have a similar vibe to TaiAli so don’t expect games that are play by play clones. Now, with that out of the way, let’s check out five games like Taisho x Alice!
It’s been a long time since I popped out one of these Games Like posts. Part of me wants to say the delay was brought on by real life obligations, but really I had a hard time thinking of games like Code Realize. I ran the twitter poll back in October, but this post has been sitting in my drafts these past few months because I wanted to pick games that really did Code Realize justice (and fingers crossed that I actually did that).
Hey Hey!! I know it's been awhile, but I need your help picking an otome game for my next post!
— Naja B. | Playing Buried Stars (@BlerdyOtome) October 29, 2019
Last time I wrote a list of 5 Games Like Collar x Malice and this time around I’m bringing you guys a list of 5 games like Code Realize. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Code Realize is a steampunk fantasy, featuring a cast of characters based on famous literary and historical figures. Code Realize was developed by Otomate for the PS Vita in 2014 and later released internationally in 2015. In the wake of the fall of the PS Vita, Code Realize has made the move to the Nintendo Switch. The game follows Cardia—a young woman whose body produces a deadly poison that melts anything she touches—spends her days in an abandoned mansion to protect others from her affliction. Labeled as a monster by the locals, Cardia resigns herself to a life of loneliness until Royal Guards break into the mansion and attempt to capture her. She is saved by infamous gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, who promises to help her find her father, the only person who might be able to remove the poison coursing through her veins.
Code Realize has been universally praised by otome fans for it’s immersive story and well developed characters. It’s definitely a stand out among otome game titles, managing to balance romance and good, solid storytelling. So if you’ve played Code Realize and you’re looking for something similar to dive into, here are five game titles that are sure to hit the spot! I tried to go with games that have the same feel as Code Realize 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.
With all the flashier titles in their catalog, Love Calls You Home is one of their underrated gems. It doesn’t come with all the gimmicks and angst of some of their more popular Otome Romance titles, so it’s pretty easy to overlook this unassuming slice-of-life romance. An overworked young woman finds herself in close quarters with a handsome and supportive guy, and while the circumstances for their cohabitation differ by route, the romance between the MC and her chosen love interest remains largely grounded in reality. The only “gimmick” is that a majority of the guys are secretly famous or have lucrative careers. I kind of got the impression that this was what Voltage was going for with their older title, Serendipity Next Door, which has a similar premise.
Currently, four out of the five love interests are available—Taiyo, Arata, Liam, and Hazuki. Because, I’m biased towards kuudere and tsundere, I picked Arata’s route as my first conquest of the game.
Also, because folks (myself included) are fussy about spoilers. Here’s your one and only spoiler warning. This review will have minor spoilers for Arata’s route and Love Brings You Home.
Hey there Heroes, Travelers, and Wandering NPCs!! It’s Thrifty Thursday and that means another Thrifty Gaming post, the weekly post series where I spotlight three games/visual novels for gamers on a budget. Whatever your financial situation, I’m here to bring you affordable games that won’t break the bank!! All of the games on this list are $10 or less (does not include limited time offers and sale items), so no more weepy wallets!
This week’s post will include links to the games and a brief synopsis, but let me stress that these are not reviews, but recommendations… so your mileage may vary! Now that that’s out of the way lets get on to this week’s list!!
Today marks the 20th Anniversary of Voltage Inc, the Japanese developer behind the popular Otome Romance line of mobile otome games. There have been many ups and downs over the years and some questionable choices by the company, but despite that, Voltage remains one of the leading producers of mobile otome games content.
Voltage was my first introduction into the wonderful world of Japanese otome and over five years later I still find myself going back their games again and again. There is something special about the characters and stories they create, each one with a charm all their own. They’ve since moved all their standalone apps to their Love 365: Find Your Story platform app, and they’re still releasing new titles. They’ve even ported two of their most popular games, Enchanted in the Moonlight and Star Crossed Myth to the Nintendo Switch and this is only the beginning…
So to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Voltage Inc. I wanted to go through their current line up of games and list out my 10 favorite Voltage Inc. Otome Romance titles. There are over 50 titles available in English, and more on the way… so, you can bet this it was hard to narrow it down to just ten. With 20 years of games to shift through, these are my favorite Voltage Inc. games!
