Put together by Sammi❀ ‪@otomeaddicted.bsky.social‬

VNDB | Posting this here since this is a relatively new blog for reviews of non-localized titles, so I wanted to help promote it^^

cross-posted from: https://goblin.band/notes/afap7d6unrl1qjtt

The MangaGamer Fall Sale has begun!

Link here

There's a broad selection on VNs on sale, including otome and BL titles 👀

@visualnovels@ani.social

#visualnovel #gaming

Steam Prison, OZMAFIA!!, Fxxx Me Royally! and Fashioning little Miss Lonesome are on sale right now~

If you understand Japanese, you can search for a game and it will return the game's official website. I think it covers both commercial and indie releases, but I know for sure it covers indie.

1. Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom
2. Amnesia: Memories
3. Code: Realize
4. Diabolik Lovers
5. Uta no Prince-sama

Synopsis: Welcome to the Spirit Realm’s most scandalous hot spring inn, where every wall hides heartbreak and every whisper speaks of betrayal.

You are Akine, a sharp-tongued former Okami (innkeeper) reborn as a bold Ookami (wolf yokai/spirit) with a dangerous talent for flirting–especially with the masked white tiger who saved you.

Enter Shimon, the stoic beauty who is utterly clueless when it comes to emotions. But perhaps, his silence is hiding something.

Your mission? Restore the inn, exorcise wayward spirits, and peel away the layers Shimon hides behind. But beware; his trust is fragile, and every choice you make could heal old wounds–or tear them open wider.

Are you ready to ring the bell and check in?

VNDB | Prototype Demo on Itchi.io

You can follow the team via their bridged bsky account: @mushroomallow.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy

Fall in love with visual novels! These romance-themed stories about love, horror, comedy, and more will never leave your heart.

Posted over at !visualnovels@ani.social, but since it focuses on romance and does include otome games I thought I ought to post it here too.

As per usual for Steam festivals, some games are on sale.

Another nice post from otome.com.

(the announcement was on twitter so i'm not posting it)

An article on the recent drama by a small website, https://otome.com/! I think I have promoted the site here before.

This after the delisting of such games.

Explanatory post, not a shaming post for those who like red flag LIs. Found this useful for anyone who wants to understand—I certainly read a lot of similar explanations from fans of red flags in otome during my time on Reddit. Also useful for engineering an LI for your own game 👀

Recommendations are at the bottom of the page.

Do any of these reasons resonate with you personally?

Essentially, Steam (check rule 15) and itch.io are getting rid of/delisting content that payment processors don't want to process. (It's mostly adult content.)

This website has more information on what will happen if you own a game that gets delisted, and how to get it back if at all. I would personally recommend downloading it and backing it up somewhere, especially for itch.io which is not listed on the website.

A video with link sources for its information in the description validates this. If you just want to click a link here instead of going to the video, here's one for Steam and one for itch.io.

If you would like to protest this, https://yellat.money/ works for anyone and Americans can take action at https://aclu.com/mastercard.

Please remember rule 5 and tag NSFW content as such. Discussion of NSFW's existence is fine, getting into details should be tagged.

You can also read about it here on otomekitten's site.

It's a stat-raising dating sim inspired by classic otome games like Tokimeki Memorial! There's also a kickstarter campaign running atm so I checked it out. Normally this should be totally my thing, but I was honestly kind of underwhelmed :/

Summary:

Pros:

• nailed the 90s anime/otome game aesthetic
• Music is good as well
• Everything is pretty

Cons:

• The love interests' sprites all share the same base
• There are no hover sound effects in many parts of the UI :< doesn't feel tactile
• The sprites are blurry when they are zoomed in and the demo overall lacks a little bit of polish

Has anyone else played it?

VNDB | Kickstarter

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30311133

I've recently played through the demo of Save the Villainess, one of multiple villainess themed titles suggested to me by @Elevator7009@ani.social.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it - not because I dislike it but rather because it's very different from what I expected. It's much closer to Umineko (in terms of the atmosphere as well as meta and magical elements) than a straightforward VN. Structure wise however it has more interactivity and actual choices then that series.

I'm a bit mixed on the writing - on one hand it tries to be kind of serious, on the other it plays around with already mentioned meta elements, through the use of a narrator actively participating in the story, and presents the MC as a bit of an aloof weirdo. That last point isn't bad in itself but doesn't really mesh with what's going on and how the game tries to present its creepy vibe. At times the writing makes me confused on what emotions devs want me to feel.

That's how I felt early on anyway.

After finishing the demo I feel like all the characters are aloof weirdos to some extent and the whole things started to feel more like an American McGee's "Alice in Wonderland" interpretation than a mystery romance novel. Despite my initial impressions this story doesn't take itself (too?) seriously and with this approach the whole thing becomes way funnier to read.

Speaking of presentation, it's also all over the place. The art style is very nice and all the illustrations are great from the technical standpoint. There's also a decent amount of dynamism in how the scenes are presented - like panning the camera over various elements of the background or moving characters to represent some actions.
At the same time, the game goes a bit too hard with animating certain character elements (to the point they look weirder/more robotic than if they were static) as well as when employing various effects during some scene transitions or meta focused segments. I hope they tone these down a bit in the final release.

Also, this might be a petty complaint but the semi-regular title drops can get a little obnoxious - the fact they are always accompanied by a full logo reveal doesn't help either. Please let this be a demo or prologue only thing and not a recurring stinger happening throughout the whole story.

Most of what I wrote here might sound like I don't enjoy the game but that couldn't be further from the truth. I do like what I played so far and I hope it improves even more in the full release. This demo seems to be about a year old or so - I'm sure things will be more polished once the full version comes out.

I've you're in mood for a villainess themed story and don't mind a cast being filled with weirdos this title might be worth a look. I'll be definitely keeping an eye on the full release and search for other similar titles in the meantime.

It's pretty out there for an otome since you're literally being held prisoner by a stalker.

All the characters use Live2D sprites and the cinematography and UI design is absolutely fantastic. There are some things I didn't even know you could do in Live2D.

Just wish the english translation was a little better^^;

(definitely only try this if you don't mind stuff like body horror, needles and very heavy use of glitchy graphical effects, among other things. the body horror can be censored in the settings, though!)

AFAIK the demo is time limited for the otome games celebration, so if you wanna try it be quick

There are over 100 otome games by over 80 developers! It will run from May 19 - May 26.

VNDB | Steam