This year is impossible for me to write a proper “Otome games Awards”, since most of the games I’ve played were not released in 2017: I’ve spent most of the year cleaning my backlog and I still haven’t gotten rid of it completely!
Anyway, since this year was still filled with good (and bad) stuff, I’ve decided to share my gaming experience.
In no particular order, these are the otoge which accompanied me through 2017:
1- DANCE WITH DEVILS: “Never watch the anime before playing”
I admit it, the game itself wasn’t as bad as I expected: it took me so long to start playing it, just because the anime disappointed me and spoiled everything, so my interest was really low.
I made a mistake, I’m never watching an anime before playing the game, in the future!
(I’m looking at you, Ikemen Sengoku).
2- PERIOD CUBE: “Cute or annoying?”
Shiki is the character who makes the greatest impact in this game, no doubts.
But the true question is: “is Poyopoyo’s voice cute or annoying?”
Some of my friends even muted him after a while!
When Toriumi was acting his lines at Otomate party, I admit it was embarrassingly cute to see; I even replayed that scene multiple times! maybe I’m just biased, since he’s still my favorite ossan.
3- BINARY STAR: “Dark and bright”
This game has a huge contrast between the colorful art and the sad theme, and this makes a great impact while you progress in the playthrough; a good underrated game!
4- 7’SCARLET: “It scared the fuck out ot me”
If it was released in 2017, it would be hands down my game of the year.
But it wasn’t, so I’ll just say it MY otome game of the year!
It’s an horror/thriller, which kept me hooked from the start: I couldn’t stop playing, I wanted to know as soon as possible the truth.
The final revelations were shocking, I couldn’t predict those terrible secrets at all and I absolutely loved every part of it! Simply amazing.
5- TRIGGER KISS: “Meh”
I’ll be honest, I was expecting something better from the GHP team.
I can’t say it was bad, the heroine was amazing and some scenes were really funny, but those neverending battle scenes bored me to death, I was tempted to forceskip trough them.
6- HAITAKA NO PSYCHEDELICA: “Who cares about the villagers?”
Overall I enjoyed it a lot, the plot was great and the characters were interesting.
But why should I talk with random people about trivial matters? I get it, you all hate witches. Can we move on, please? It was really annoying, I hope Otomate will get rid of this system immediately.
7- OUMAGATOKI: “Why do I hate myself so much?”
I knew it was bad, there are literally zero good reviews about it.
Still, I wanted to try by myself to see if I could enjoy it anyway and save something…. I couldn’t, it’s just a waste of time.
8- YUUKYUU NO TIERBLADE LOST CHRONICLE: “Who’s that seiyuu?”
The most memorable scene, for me, was Row’s first appearance.
I was truly impressed and I needed to look up for the seiyuu, to see who he was (his voice sounded familiar, but I wasn’t sure. I don’t have a good seiyuu radar).
So yeah, I’m late but I vote for Matsuoka as seiyuu of the year!
9- SHIRO TO KURO NO ALICE: “I need more butlers in my life”
It’s not a secret, I’m weak to butlers.
Snow shined the most in this game for me, even if Rain had a more important role overall.
Even if the most popular character was probably Jack, the usagi brothers are the ones who left the greatest impression on me.
10- BLACK WOLVES SAGA LAST HOPE: “It was supposed to be less shocking. It wasn’t.”
11- TOKI NO KIZUNA: “Everyone deserves a second chance”
I first tried to play this game years ago, then I dropped it for various reasons (difficult kanji, boring wars…).
I’ve decided to give it one more chance and I didn’t regret it at all! It’s not a game for me, but I admit the characters were adorable, I’ll play the FD just for them.
12- UTAPRI ALL STAR: “Hire better writers please”
Half of the game exceeded my expectations: Quartet Night’s routes were interesting and funny as you could expect from Utapri.
Starish’s rainbow route was so terrible, I had to drop it to save my mental health. NO REGRETS.
13/14- DYNAMIC CHORD KYOHSO/APPLE POLISHER: “I’m glad it’s over”
I have nothing more to say about this series, I already wrote my opinion and it’s still the same… I can’t even find something funny or interesting to write about it!
15- NIGHTSHADE: “I’m not crying. You’re crying”
I really loved it, every single route. I didn’t expect to be so moved, but it was really tragic and psychological. I appreciated the heroine, who fought to protect her life, instead of just giving up to save her village and enrich her heartless father.
It’s a good mix of action, drama, emotions and romance, I’d recommend it to anyone who likes darker otoge with a deep plot.
16- CODE REALIZE SHUKUFUKU NO MIRAI: “Useless routes make me angry”
Even before playing, I knew there was a Gang route with new characters, because I saw everyone complaining about it.
I didn’t understand how frustrating it could be, until I got to play it…. and I was so angry I had to skip most of it, before it would ruin completely my opinion about the whole game.
The amount of effort wasted on this, instead of writing longer routes for the main characters, was absurd and even embarrassing. I hope this never happens again!
17- ALICE ALICE: “Is this even a game?”
Let’s be serious, this is just plain fanservice to gain money from a popular drama cd.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy fanservice, but this is so basic I can’t even call it “game”: it’s all about dummy head mic and the licking noises the seiyuu make!
I hope Rejet will choose a better series to adapt in the future. (Criminale, where are you?!)
18- HAKUOUKI: “Better late than never”
After years of gaming, I finally decided to try this classic. I enjoyed it more than I expected, it made me emotional and I loved every single character, even when the routes were too detailed about war and historical events. I appreciated the anime too, the last episodes broke my heart.
I’m not surprised it was a huge success… but I still think Harada is more appealing than Saito!
It was a busy gaming year for me, even if I mostly spent it cleaning my backlog; overall I’m satisfied, there was enough good stuff to keep me motivated to play the new releases.
7’scarlet was my personal favorite, I’d call it my “Otome game of the year”, but Nightshade was close 2nd.
I enjoyed Haitaka no Psychedelica, even if Kokuchou moved me a bit more; Black wolves saga Last hope didn’t disappoint me too, this series has a special place in my heart.
If I had to choose a kusoge, it would probably be Oumagatoki. Dynamic chord Apple polisher was a huge let down too.
All the other games were decent, I’d put them in the “not bad, but not even that good” category: I wouldn’t recommend them, but they weren’t awful either.
I hope next year will be even better: there are a lot of 2018 releases I’m anticipating and I’ll try to play them almost immediately, instead of digging in my backlog for too long.
Will I be able to write a proper “2018 Otome games Awards’” next year? Hopefully!
Mahlenneth
Omg, so many games and I only played 3 games this year x’DD
I play mobage almost every day, but PC/console games were just 2 otoges and 1 BL
Too late ;-; I already watched DANCE WITH DEVILS anime.
BINARY STAR, 7’SCARLET and TRIGGER KISS are the ones I want to try after you recommended them to me.
I bought TRIGGER KISS but it didn’t arrive yet.
HAITAKA NO PSYCHEDELICA and OUMAGATOKI didn’t get my attention ^^”
YUUKYUU NO TIERBLADE LOST CHRONICLE has a great art. I want to try this game one day ^^
DYNAMIC CHORD seems to be a good game, I like Honeybee, but everyone wrote bad things about it. I’m not so excited about it anymore.
NIGHTSHADE I bought on Steam but I didn’t have time to play it yet ;;
Hakuouki was looooooooooong omg!!! It took me around 8 months to finish it and I almost dropped it. My favs were Hijitaka and Kazama :3
I’m UtaPri trash xD
I tried to play Amazing Aria but I didn’t like the art. It was that old and weird art before they remake UtaPri Repeat.
I hope next year I can have time to play more games ^^
otomeland
I don’t think you would enjoy Dynamic Chord, you probably prefer brighter games… Honeybee black is completely different from the typical Honeybee, if you expect something like Starry Sky or Ayakashi gohan you’ll be shocked, and not in a positive way!
If you like Nightshade, I think you could enjoy the Psychedelica series too: it’s sad, but not too violent or creepy… nothing like BWS or Moshikami.
Utapri games are all terrible for me, I enjoyed a few routes here and there, but they were rare moments among boring idol stuff and plain nonsense; but I’m not interested in idol games, so the problem may be just me! XD
This year I’ve played many games because I didn’t watch many anime, but I’m going to change from next year! at least, I’m aiming for more variety… let’s see how it goes, I have many projects and I don’t know if I can realize them all!