A little less basically, it's a type of romance choose your own ending game, where you can select any one of a group of mostly attractive anime men and enter the rabbit hole of constantly falling over, fainting, crying, and somehow still getting them to fall for you.
I'm not even joking, I've lost count of how many times my screen's gone black and the narration has read something like 'Overwhelmed by emotion, I fall to the floor and pass out, because what the fuck else do you do in that situation?'
These attractive anime men, however, are well trained to put up with your endless histrionics and actually seem to find them endearing, so you get to smooch them and get groped a bit and never kiss them first or make the first move in any way other than overdramatically declaring your love for them.
It sounds so fucking silly, and I've laughed to myself when these games have appeared on my recommended apps list, but one night I was feeling ridiculously lonely, and damnit I wanted a cuddle, so I searched them out, found a game called Arabian Nights, and I've yet to emerge from that rabbit hole.
Games like Arabian Nights and Cinderella Contract were my introductions to this world, but the 24 hour wait for 5 story tickets and the fifteen minutes or less that granted me with my new friend just wasn't going to cut it any more.
Enter Ninja Love, a story ticket every 4 hours with level ups coming along every few episodes and granting you an extra energy, AND things like rice balls or rations to revive your energy. All for free!
Ninja Love, the eye opener.
Goemon Ishikawa from Ninja Love became my first proper Otome obsession, and I really mean that, I was checking it at work, on nights out, just WAITING for an energy regeneration. But more on him later, he deserves his own post.
Ninja Love in itself was sort of alright, the MC (Main Character - AKA the player's avatar) is a pain in the ass. A massive pain in the ass. A pain in the ass WITHIN a pain in the ass. She's annoying, childish, overemotional to extremes, clumsy, faint-prone and just... UGH.
I wanted to slap her. And pull her hair. She has her moments, sure, but they feel so out of character that I'm just not buying it, and I'm pretty much DONE with the whole 'but you can't see me naked! I'm so SHY!' bit.
I wanted a heroine who could stand up for herself, kick some ass and generally be a functioning grownup.
And along came Scarlet Fate.
WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT THAT BADASS.
You have a sword, you know how to use it, and in the few weeks I've been playing, you faint ONCE. ONCE. And even I, in my harshest of moods, can not fault the reason why.
Since Scarlet Fate is another '1 energy every 4 hours' game, I got restless, and finally gave in to what had begun to feel like the inevitable. The paid versions.
I started with Guilty Alice, I'd seen it advertised within Ninja Love and I love love love me some Alice in Wonderland spinoff. Also, this guy.
Oh, Joker, your cold stare and amazing hair meant you had me at that non committal grunt which I took to mean 'hello'.
What I got for my money was a full story, ending and all, with no time constraints on how much I could read and a better written story, with some brilliant CGs that I could straight up save to my phone's gallery. Hook, line, sinker.
Next came Hero In Love, which is home to quite possibly my most specialist favourite character ever, Billy.
Yes. Yes I do. Please and thank you.
My most recent addiction though, has seen me reading more character stories than I have in any other game, and has actually pretty much got a guarantee of my money for every character they offer. IT'S THAT GOOD.
Kissed by the Baddest Bidder, the reason I can't afford cigarettes this week.
The premise for Baddest Bidder is, like many of the other Otomes, a bit ridiculous, but I'm finding it harder and harder to take issue with this. The MC's a bit of a ditz, but not to the epic levels I've witnessed before now, and the stories are, for the most part, UNF.
So, I've gone from a bit embarassed, a touch ashamed, and intensely addicted, to actually blogging about this.
And I'm seriously considering writing up some reviews when I can work up the energy.
None of these images used here are my own, if you own any of them and object to their use here, please let me know and I'll delete them asap.
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