Otome Games

Special: Why I quit buying otome PC games.

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pc

Happy May everyone! I’m settling into my new place while plowing through the Norn9 FD! 😀 Anyway I don’t really do too much of these things anymore but I was just thinking about all these PC games collecting dust on my bookshelf that I have nothing to do with. I came up with all these ideas in my head that I figured would be beyond 140 characters in my twitter account so I’m writing a post. Warning, this is a rant ;D

So we all know most otome games are on Vita/PSP (well I’m laughing and eyeing anyone left on the PSP at this point but I digress.) However there are still makers releasing PC games here and there but I just turn the other cheek whenever I see the system be listed as “PC”. This is my personal list of reasons why I will never buy otome PC games again:

yenbag

1. They are extremely expensive.

Let’s face it, otome PC games are expensive.  Prince Pia Carrot was 8800 yen and that doesn’t include all the money on top I paid for it to get the stupid Animate Set. Console otome always has their limited/regular editions which otomate’s case go for 7800/5800 yen respectively (if you buy from places like CD Japan they won’t charge you Japanese tax.) Ultimately, if you want first press you have to pay up and if you want to save money you have to wait months later and hope that Amazon Japan drops the price. Even if you argue that games like Taisho Alice are cheaper, you have to remember you’re only getting a few characters per segmented piece so in fact it’s actually more expensive. More on segments below. Sometimes the games have “cheaper” editions but oftentimes it feels like you’re actually losing content if you don’t get the ultimate one (like the Stellaworth set problem with Re;Birthday Song).

tenso

 2. They are annoying to obtain.

The only store that I’m aware of that sells PC game for a discount price without having to use proxies/forwarding services is probably AmiAmi. I’ve had bad experiences with AmiAmi (like claiming something is in stock, then being out of stock, then forcing me to wait 3 weeks in hopes they’d get it back IN stock (╯；ಠ益ಠ；)╯︵ ┻━┻) so I prefer to never shop there anymore. ComiComi also allows you to preorder PC games buy they typically make you pay Japanese tax and you’re a gaijin so you’re last on their shipping priority list as far as they’re concerned. I’ve had decent experiences with them except the last one where they waited almost a week before shipping my item so I stopped buying there. Any other place I’ve ordered PC games from (Amazon japan, Animate, Stellaworth) all required me to use a forwarding service which as much as I love Baggage Forward it still tacks on extra costs for shipping to BF (except for Amazon), and then BF’s forwarding fees. Obviously when you use a forwarding service you’re not exempt from Japanese tax so yay even more fees! By the way yes I’m aware of things like YesAsia or any other stores that may or may not sell PC games without the need to proxy, but a lot of them jack up the price so high that it’s not even worth considering.

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3. They are usually terrible because most of them come from 1 hit wonder makers.

Ok this is mostly coming from personal experience but MOST PC GAMES I’VE PLAYED WERE REALLY BAD. Seriously I think the last good PC otome game I played was Danzai no Maria CE a year and a half ago ಠ_ಠ. The reason being is that a lot of new makers take the safe route and release a PC game. Not only that but because it’s their first release they don’t know what to focus on, so they throw in EVERY POSSIBLE ELEMENT into it figuring at least ONE part of their game will please the player even if the other parts do not. For example with Pia Carrot I thought I was buying a game about a cute family restaurant but it turned out into intrigue over oil & wealth, amnesia, family problems like what the F? And don’t even get me started on companies who choose to go the R-18 route and throw in every possible rape/abuse element into their game. 🙄

The other problem is because they are a new maker their budgets are probably well low. They have to take the risk of getting good seiyuus and artists to attract buyers  so they end up blowing money into that and then hiring some high school girl off the street to write the story. This kind of game ends up being basically like Hitofuta Kitan where you’re like damn everything is nice except the story is just utter shit like they…never managed to finish it and ran out of budget! Sometimes, the company’s first game is a hit though, like Mio’s Asaki Yumemishi, but then anything thereafter ends up like crap for some mysterious reason like Clover Library. I made a post a while back about “where are they now” otome game companies. A lot of those companies were 1 hit wonder PC makers who were never to be seen or heard from again.

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4. They are frequently segmented now.

Do I even need to go into Double Score or Shinobazu 7? So many segmented games because companies figure well if we can’t make a hit with 1 game, let’s release a bunch of segments and hope we can make more money this way! Once Taisho Alice was announced I NOPE’d the hell out hearing that it’s a segmented series. It’s like if you wanna have pizza for dinner you can only buy 1 slice per night but you don’t wanna keep eating pizza every night. You just want to buy the whole damn pie for tonight and then have chicken wings tomorrow night! So yea I want my entire game all at once, because other than wanting the whole game I also don’t like spending EXTRA on the segments. When you combined the segments for Shinobazu 7 I believe it ended up being $200 or so for “1 game with 7 routes” :roll:. Some people like buying individual segments with all the separate goodies but with “Full game alternatives” on the market, no thanks. The only exception to this is games like Dot Kareshi because they’re so cheap and fairly entertaining, that I actually found it to be the only segmented game series worth the value it went for. To make it worse, some companies force you to buy EVERY segment in order to get a “special final character/route” so even if you want to save money by buying your characters.. m9(^Д^)ﾌﾟｷﾞｬｰ.

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5. YOU CAN’T SELL THEM TO BOOK OFF.

Ok this one is extremely personal but seriously, I cannot sell these damn things to book off. If I buy a shitty PSP or Vita game, no problem, my local Bookoff will take it with open arms! Now try selling a PC game to them? NOPE. About 2 years ago they took my Ozmafia but not too long ago I tried to sell Prince Pia/Clover Library to them only to find out they no longer accept PC games. Great, now I can’t sell it at bookoff, and on ebay nobody wants this garbage (mostly cause it’s in Japanese and most buyers don’t wanna buy games they can’t understand.) So now I’m stuck with this stupid thing collecting dust & wasting space on my bookshelf cause I have no way to get rid of it. So now I’m like well if I buy this PC game and it sucks, I can’t get rid of it and have yet another dust collector to waste space! Wonder if any random import video game stores will take it >_>. I gotta do some research on this, surely somebody wants limited editions of these things right!? Oh and used book stores in Japan won’t take it either unless you’ve got a Japanese ID lolgoawaygaijins.

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6. Most of them get ported to console anyway.

Now this isn’t necessarily true for all PC games but all the GOOD SELLING PC GAMES USUALLY GET PORTED. Example with things like QR’s Alice series, QR Continent series, Starry Sky, Sangoku Rensenki, Ayakashi Gohan, Ken ga Kimi etc. All the best selling PC games will always get ported to the latest console (this time being Vita) with extra contents so now you get to PAY LESS FOR MORE. What a concept!? The only company I know that’s gone from console → PC with extra contents is Karin and they are the only exception. Fortunately I’ve never disliked any Karin’s games so I feel safe buying their PC “directors cut” editions.

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7. The games are frequently buggy and require patches immediately upon release.

One thing with consoles is while they get firmware updates, it’s not as frequent. Therefore when companies release console games it’s not as often that they have bugs. I believe the norn9 FD has some bugs but I’m not far enough to experience them and Otomate released a patch recently. This and Seishun Hajimemashita are the only recent console bugs that actually come to mind. (And I guess Brothers Conflict Passion Pink had its share of problems as well.)  Meanwhile pretty much every single PC game I have played required me to download a “patch” to fix a ton of bugs like skipping problems, save file problems, CG problems etc. I think the most infamous buggy PC game was Clover Alice but I never got to experience the horror because I got into the series after it was ported to console and played the whole thing on my PSP :lol:. I don’t know why companies release buggy games, I don’t know if it’s because of constant Windows Updates but I feel like bugs are a frequent plague of PC otome games releases.

 

That pretty much covers it for me and to why I will no longer blow my money on these expensive paper weights. The only exception to this entire post is Tetrascope because they are cheap, they are digital so I never have to deal with shipping/forwarding, they always have great quality, and I never have to worry about being ported to console because they’re a doujin maker. ( ･ิω･ิ）

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44 thoughts on “Special: Why I quit buying otome PC games.”

  1. I wouldn’t spend money on either of those games if I were you.
    You should instead use the money to get yourself that PS VIta 😛

  2. Hi Hinano ^^ Long time not stalking your blog, and reading this make me want to buy your PC game lol

    I don’t have VITA, so it’s just my PC accompanying me playing many otome games…. while PSP is my sister’s so I don’t usually take it with me forever…. I need to bribe her to borrow her PSP lol It’s kinda sad that you don’t want support PC game anymore, but…….. Maybe you right, PC game so damn expensive so if I keep buying PC game I will never manage to buy a VITA hahaha what should I do now…. Should I stop buying PC game huh….

    (but I do really want your prince pia or re:birthday song because it was released in same time with another game so I should choose one, not enough money to buy two or more games in 1 month)

  4. Book off used to let you sell games with a passport (at least when I sold my used games when I was in Japan). Maybe it was because people used to give broken games and because they don’t live in Japan, Book off used to lose money?

  5. no problem I’ll try answer best I can ^^

    -CG is computer graphics
    -I don’t really have a favorite honestly. I pretty much jump from one game to another. I like some games for a while but none that I can say is my favorite of all time.
    -My blog means “i don’t want it if it’s not cute”
    -first anime I fansubbed was Kodomo no Omocha!
    -I like to use Jim Breen’s dictionary for looking up stuff
    -What gives me trouble I guess is when it gets into war/science/Japanese history. I’m not too knowledged in that field so I often have to look up stuff in those types of games (which is often why I avoid them lol)

    thanks for reading!

  6. First this is the weeb from twitter, thanks for being so kind with me 😀
    secondly if i’m asking to much just tell me to back off, i know get a little over eager sometimes.

    SO hear goes,
    -Whats CG stand for? character graphics?
    -What’s your fav game of all time? i notice most games don’t meet up to your expectations, so i wonder if one ever went above and beyond for you.
    -i’m getting good at reading kana thanks to a site called memrise, but i’m still rusty with translations (googles no help) what does your blog title means?(かわいいじゃなきゃダメなの)
    -what was one of the first animes you started fansubbing, and what would be one you’ld recomend to some one who’s still learning? especially to read kanji (i really shouldn’t have started with DL didn’t realize the font would make it so much harder to read)
    -did you even use and jap to english or jap dictionaries that you would recomend
    -How many years did it take you to be comfortable reading jap? is their anything that still gives you trouble?

    Uh that’s it for now i always like reading your reveiws, all the little faces and table flips crack me up.

    Keep up the good work!

  10. Hello hinano san thank you for this post I was almost going to buy Ayakashi Gohan pc game xD I didn’t know since I’m newbie to the otome games world who took all my money the moment i enter to it @_@

  12. Lol wow I thought Photo Journey was cheap because of all the segments jfc lol

    And wow I guess I’m glad I skipped Walpurgis haha. Since Daisy Daisy ported sangoku rensenki a million times I figured if ZKG is any good they’d eventually port it and thats when I’d actually bother to get and play it

  13. There have still been some PC games within the year that I liked but overall I definitely agree with you that on the whole, most games that come out for PC are disappointing. I really hate how almost every PC game is now segmented. Honeybee’s Photograph Journey is split into SEVEN GAMES. And each one is pretty much the price of a PSP game >___>

    That said I’ve pre-ordered Zettai Kaikyuu Gakuen and I’m pretty excited about it! Despite Walpurgis no Uta leaving a bad taste in my mouth, I still think Daisy2 have it in them to deliver on this one xD

  14. I see! Thank you for replying. I am not a very big fan of the senpai. I never liked them much with Haruka. I miss my starish boys. I heard also some of the same thing from certain people as well which is a shame. I will keep considering but I might wait as well to see if I can get it used or so. I will leave your post here a lone now. Sorry for hijacking it with a different subject and thank you again!

  15. If I ever play that, it won’t be for a long time. I’ve not really been interested in UtaPri for a while (just casually watch the anime for the lols and that’s about it) and since I prefer to play otome games on the Vita now, I pretty much passed it aside. I might play it in the future if I find it on a heavy discount or if Broccoli ports it to Vita but since I heard it was a pretty shallow game because they’re running out of ideas, it may be that I never play it at all lol.

    So if you’re a fan of the senpais, then just go for it, don’t wait around for me to review it cause it may not actually happen, sorry!

  16. THanks for the recommendation. I’m currently very busy with the vita games I got in the mail and then in June is the FF14 expansion so I assure you I definitely have something to keep myself busy with for those crappy PC games 😛

  17. Hello! I know this is not the place to ask but I did not see another place. I was wondering if you were going to be playing and reviewing Utapri Allstar After Secret like you did Allstar? I have seen many mixed reviews on it. Some love it, some hate it and it makes me wonder if I should spend money on it. I was curious what your opinion was on it because your opinions have always been so straight forward and good to read.

  18. Hello Hinano! I don’t know if you have heard of it, but anyways, I want to recommend you an indie otome PC game called ‘Aloners’ by sonnet009. I just finished this game and absolutely loved it! I thought that you would liked it too, here’s the link to the website where you could download it for free: http://www.sonnet009.com/aloners.html . Anyway, I’m pretty sure you need a break after all that…. PC stuff. Hope you’ll enjoy it! Can’t wait for the Norn9 ;))))

  19. Yea i wanted to try cause i heard Mizuchi got good reviews but himeutsugi’s was just bad
    And it’s WoGa = same company as little cheese (i think they changed their name)

  21. I know what u mean
    Like Hana Awase -Himeutsugi hen-
    I was screaming “What is this shi-” when reading
    Though the mini game was fun
    Thx Woga
    Himeutsugi is the worse character i’ve ever played
    Except the part where I actually like Tachi and the mini game, the rest was not even worth my time
    Thx for making this
    Now i know what to avoid b4 getting

  22. Haha makes sense. That balance of the FF and otome life.

    It would be nice if they ported it in packs if not just the one game…some companies gotta get off their butts and start making Vita releases in general too. I hesitate buying some games when I notice the console is PSP.

  23. Haha I always wanted to play Yojinbo. I really like that company’s sense of humor but it’s so old I couldn’t find it anywhere. Yea KgK PC was expensive, as most PC games but since the Vita version has more stuff and is cheaper that’s probably a better alternative!

    And rofl Photograph Journey. That game is so obscure I didn’t even think about it O_O

  24. and let’s be honest,having to sit in front of the computer to play games feels like more work than being able to play them wherever on a Vita or PSP.

    Oh thank you for reminding me. This is actually something I forgot to add as a point lol. It applies to me a lot because when I was playing FF14 the moment I’d get home I’d be on FF14 – not on my PC otome game. Meanwhile while I’m away from my home PC there’s nothing stopping me from focusing on my VIta/PSP otome game! XD

    Yea I’m pretty much over the staggered releases. I figure if it’s good enough they’ll port it into 1 game or a “pack” like Quin Rose is doing now with all their FDs lol

  25. Haha well to be fair back in the day when we didn’t have as many otome games and starry sky was one of the few with the segments I guess it didn’t seem as bad? Also I guess because I really liked most of the starry sky games I didn’t mind as much and it was at least 3 characters….vs Shinobazu’s 1 or Double Score’s 2 lol

    And yea same here with the shipping, I have to use a stupid fwding service anyway so I’ll wait for some mad Amazon Japan sale lol

  26. I have played just one PC otome game, which was Yo-Jin-Bo lol. I want to play Ken Ga Kimi but the game was expensive and I don’t want to download it ._.

    Segmented game, don’t forget Photograph Journey! XD

  27. You have a lot of valid points. I’m more hesitant to buy PC games too nowadays. Most of the PC games I bought I ended up regretting because it was ported later to portable devices…and let’s be honest,having to sit in front of the computer to play games feels like more work than being able to play them wherever on a Vita or PSP.

    There are some pretty bad quality ones out there too. It’s a shame that you really can’t sell them off if they suck. I’m not a fan of these staggered releases either. I’ve only been accepting of the one series for that, but the rest is just like…I get completely turned off when I see that they’re going to make it into like…3 or 4 games unnecessarily.

  28. Pretty much agree with your points. Though I think we know who’s the culprit for starting the split releases trend…and then porting their games everywhere /moneybee

    And yeah it’s generally a lot harder to get PC games shipped here. :/ Since I wanted Taisho Alice I decided to wait it out to get it cheap, second-hand. w

  29. not really? I still see recycled/repeated plot lines in vita games and it’s not really bothering me. I still enjoy my high school/idol/whatever crap if it has my favorite actors and nice artwork. It’s just a simple matter of I don’t want to spend more money on something bad and then not be able to salvage any of that money because I can’t resell it!

  30. heyy long time no see 😛

    Yea I mean I’d love to hear your input to see if it’s worth it. I’ve just had sooo many bad pc game experiences lately and with nowhere to put the crap ones (other than blatantly throwing them in the trash) I’m extremely hesitant to really bother stepping my foot into anymore PC waters :/ Maybe I can cross my fingers hoping those makers will consider porting it to vita into a full game instead!

  32. Awww, you’re missing out on Taisho Alice! Sure, I can’t say anything about the entire series yet, but the first volume was REALLY WELL WRITTEN and had me in stitches throughout! The serious bits are very nice, too, and it helps that the heroine is very cool. It’s a story of a heroine on a white horse saving the prince in distress, after all.

    Once the entire series is out and I’ve played them to the last, I’ll drop by and tell you if it’s worth the investment? I really, really love the first one and ended up ordering the entire series anyway, so. >_>

    (If it’s going to get a Vita port, you’ll probably know about it by that time, too.)

    I still enjoy playing on the PC for various reasons, but dang that OLED screen makes the PC’s biggest draw a lot less of a draw.

  33. Yup, I use my Vita way more than my PSP, but its library isn’t fully developed yet, especially in the RPG section. The one thing I hate about the Vita is the inability to record/stream actual gameplay, which was easy to do on the PSP.

  34. I’ve played quite a lot and MOST of the bad ones were the R-18 ones. The all age ones end up being more “mediocre” than bad..in a sense where if they had just put in a little more effort/had more budget it woulda been a decent game XD Meanwhile the R-18’s just made me rage haha rape marathons! xD

    There’s a lot more options with console games too because like I said the PC makers are just like “let’s throw every element in cause this is our only game!”…while the console makers have more freedom to release games of various genre so you can pick and choose the one to suit your tastes. I kinda hope Rejet never ports tiny x machinegun to Vita cause you know they’ll make it fully voiced and add more shit and I’ll just be like SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY xDD

  35. Well nothing wrong with PSP for what it was good for…but with Vita now there’s so many inconveniences on the PSP for me (like not being able to tweet screenshots directly, can’t use my bluetooth headset, taking screenshots requires hacking my PSP and sometimes freezes my games etc.)

  36. I have played just one PC otome game, which was Bloody Nightmare…then after that, I stopped. xD I only had a laptop so it can’t carry any more further games…and now with a PC, I still find it hard to purchase PC games because…too expensive, lmao…I only played Ken ga Kimi when one of my close friends lent their copy to me www

    I stand on you with quitting PC games www because I want the console games more. Especially that some otome games are coming out further on Vita, and sooner enough on PS4. It’s always the console versions, and if ever there’s a PC one (like BWS), it gets ported to console. xD

  37. I NEVER play PC games. If there’s a game that’s released for PC, I will wait for that console port. I just hate dealing with PC, and my machine isn’t suited to gaming anyway. And hey! What’s wrong with the PSP?! I still play it from time to time! >_<

  38. Yeah if you go to the portal page for AyaGohan you’ll see it!! 😀

    Ooh let’s hope so! Can’t wait to see my Tsukito tenshi again XD Maybe I’ll just replay KGnA during summer lol

  39. yea well I think in general a lot of games aren’t compatible with macs XD I’m a PC person so I guess I can’t say much about that lol

    I don’t trust demos/trials anymore. ReBirthday Song demo was good too but then look what happened. It’s like they show you the best parts of the game in the trial then the full game reveals all the “hidden flaws” :/ Some vita games have trials too now (like hanasaku manimani) – but I wish more makers would consider doing demos for their games. Otomate are a bunch of greedy cheapasses I guess!

  40. oh really> has this been confirmed? I only saw news about the PC FD :O

    Broccoli did say they wanted to release the original utapri on vita so maybe there’s hope?

  41. Yeah the FD is gonna be Vita in Summer too! 😀 I can’t wait to get it but I’m abit worried about Honeybee FDs…

    Broccoli’s continuing to release all their recent releases on PSP so I’m not expecting much from them :/ It’d be nice if KamiGami Inf went to Vita though!!

    Reine, idk what’s wrong with them lol. They even have the system and all up already…

  42. I’m not a big fan of PC games too, mostly because they’re not portable and not Mac-friendly. Sometimes if I’m lucky they’ll work on my Macbook. I do have a desktop PC at home but I don’t use it often, and it’s on my sister’s desk too.
    I played the Taisho Alice trial and it was really enjoyable. I’ve seen a few others enjoy it too. If they port it to Vita I’m getting it asap.
    I guess the good thing about PC games is the makers will usually have a trial but still, that’s no way to predict what the rest of the game will be like. It would be nice if they make downloadable versions too like Tetrascope does.

  43. Lol I might consider getting AYakashi Gohan IF they decide to port the FD to Vita too. I don’t wanna like go buy the VIta port of the game then be like welp time to get the PC FD..Honestly I’m looking at honeybee like pls I know you’re gonna port this just do it already 😆

    I’m hoping the reason for Kamigami delay is that they’re considering putting it on Vita instead of PSp. I mean at this point releasing PSP games is just whut. And Reine….yea I don’t know I”m getting a bit worried we won’t see it until 2016 ^^;;

  44. (´Д` ;;;) You missed two great PC games – Ken ga Kimi and Ayakashi Gohan!!! But yes they’re ported to PSV and if I knew I wouldn’t get the PC versions so I’m totally with you on this.

    And I don’t like spending money buying otome eroge ( *｀ω´) because most of them are really bad quality writing except for Operetta games.

    I’m kinda waiting for the KamiGami Infinite but like Reine Des Fleurs it’s never gonna come, so yeah, goodbye PSP and PC games! (=´∀｀)人(´∀｀=)

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