62 thoughts on “A Decade of Otome: 10 Year Anniversary of かわいいじゃなきゃダメなの！”

1. Wow reading your story is so interesting and puts a smile on my face lol. Amazing you not only went to Japan but you also lived and worked there. That’s really cool! I’ve been to Japan many times but only as a tourist lol.

   Honestly my interest in otome games is kinda waning too. Doesn’t help that there isn’t that much out there anymore either, so you’re kinda left with “take it or leave it” stuff which just isn’t that good anymore. That’s why lately I am playing a lot of non otome games lol, I find them way more enjoyable these days. No idea if otome genre will make a comeback since “mobage for women” with no romance are kinda taking over but we’ll see I guess!

   Thanks for being a long time reader!!😊😊

2. Wow, it’s EXTREMELY belated, but happy 10 year anniversary! I think I started reading your blog in 2013 I believe? Around the time I first started studying Japanese (Because I wanted to play utapri so damn badly and get into Otoya’s pants. lmao). I always really enjoyed your blunt honesty and humor in your reviews. It was always hilarious. It was really nice to find a space where someone could really love Otome games as much as you do, but still be real about the BS that went on in them. You also inspired me with your Japanese ability too, because it pushed me to keep improving my Japanese – because at the time I also REALLY wanted to get to a point where I could comfortable play Otome games with no issue.

   Glad to say that over the years, I eventually did move to Japan, lived with a bunch of Japanese people in a share house, worked at a souvenir shop in Sapporo, entered a speech contests, and got to a point where I could play otome’s with ease (most of them at least)! I remember the amount of achievement I felt after finally getting to play utapri and completing Otoya’s route. Now I’m off playing stuff like Persona 5, Gyakuten Saiban, and any game that I can play in Japanese.
   When I think about it, it’s crazy how otome games impacted my life in such a big way. Which is why it’s a little bittersweet that in the past 3 years I’ve also started to slowly lose interest in the genre. It just doesn’t quite spark that same whimsy it once did.

   Reading your post really reminded me of that joy otome’s used to bring me. This has actually kinda inspired me to pick up a otome game one more time before everything just goes to moba and I completely lose interest. lol (Or at the very least this makes me want to try playing tokimeki memorial again)

   Congrats again for reaching 10 years! That is no easy feat! Thanks again for all the work you put into this blog. It doesn’t go unnoticed. ^ ^

3. Yea I mean I guess every plotline has been done to death and the sales are dropping. Also let’s be real people would rather play a quick game anytime on their phone instead of dedicate a lot of time to reading a long book (or having to deal with game systems/choices/parameters etc.)
   I’m not too upset though, just shifting what my interest in games is anyway lol

4. I know this is a couple of months old now, but I just had to say, please do make a post about it! Reading how someone was able to “halfassedly” (xD) learn Japanese might actually motivate me to try more. lol

   In regards to the otome well drying up. Honestly, I think the whole VN industry as a whole is drying up or shifting directions. You’ve probably already heard, but minori unfortunately has become a recent victim, with one stated reason for them closing up shop being they felt they wouldn’t be able to continue to make the type of VN they like in a way they’d want. It’s unfortunate.

5. thank you! honestly I’ve had so many blogs/sites in the past too (I had sites dedicated to sailor moon and south park back in the day LOL) but this is definitely one of my longest ^_^

6. A very belated happy 10th blog anniversary. It’s rare to see someone continue for this long (well..if you discount me, who never stick to one blog).

7. thank you! and wow yea time flies haha, so weird that you technically “grew up with my blog” cause for me the last 10 years has felt no different than before xDD

   and yea lots of otome games are console and now I heard news of Otomate planning to port a lot of old ones to Switch. PC stuff is hard to come by in Japan because most people in Japan don’t have PCs anymore. They have smart phones/tablets or very basic portable laptops that probably can’t play CD rom level games.

8. It’s late but happy 10th year anniversary!
   Looking back, I was in middle school when I first discovered your blog and now I’m almost finishing my uni lol

   I always love your reviews and also my fav which are the april fools articles! I always cracked up upon seeing your own commentary and thank you for always makes me happy when reading your posts!

   Actually, I’m one of those people who play idol mobage (but only i7 and utapri survived in my phone lol) and otoge on PC only _(:3 」∠)_
   The only limitation for me playing console game is because in my fam we’re prohibited having console games until we’re an adult lol. That’s why reading your blog is my runaway(?) from my craving of console otoge (´･ω･`)
   But now since several otoge has been localized and popped up in steam I’ve been indulging myself but only managed to clear few titles. Sometimes I wonder how can you be so fast clearing those games so kudos for you! ⸜( ॑꒳ ॑ )⸝

   I hope I can see more of your content in the future, good luck and once more,
   Happy 10th year anniversary! ⸜(*ˊᗜˋ*)⸝⋆*

   P.S. sorry for the rants just skip the middle part 😅

9. thanks for lurking this long 😛 I’ll still play games since I have a switch now but the lack of releases isn’t helping I guess. Seems like Otomate’s the only one really left in the ring.

   I’m honestly already mentally done with Hakuoki after Reimeiroku and none of the new characters honestly appealed to me enough to play it again. It’s good you’re enjoying it though! I’ve honestly found myself playing less otome games and more “rpgs/general games” lately lol.

10. Congratulations on your 10 year anniversary! I’ve been a lurker for most of those years and I really hope you will continue to play some otoge to Review! Let’s just hope there will be some decent console games ahead in 2019… I’m currently playing Hakuouki Kyoto winds and Edo blossoms (the two part remake)and I really like the new content! You actually get to know the guys better before the shit hits the fan, and more kiss cgs and stuff 🙂 I would recommend it to you but I guess you’re pretty tired of all the hakuouki stuff since they’ve really milked that cow dry… I made sure to only play the original and the remake as not to ruin it for me. So if you really want a break from kusoges you could pick it up? 😛

11. ayeee! -throws flower petals around in celebration-

12. Thank you 😆😆

13. wow! congrats on 10 years! that’s crazyyy! and may there be many more years to comeee!

14. Glad the blog was some sort of inspiration!
    I’m not a huge fan of KOEI games and yea the historical/ very wafuu thing kinda put me off. Mostly cause they use really complicated old timey kanji/fonts and it gets hard to read for me, also I guess I’m just not really into that time period unless there’s a gimmick (like with Shinobi Koi Utsutsu.) Good to hear they have a nice heroine though!

15. I played Pangya Mobile until it got so buggy it just refused to let me login….so I gave up and uninstalled it. It was kinda imbalanced compared to the PC version anyway so I don’t really miss ita nymore.

    Thanks for being a long time lurker ^_^

16. Hinano, happy 10 years!
    Also a long-time lurker- I think I first stumbled upon your babble blog from a Pangya post you made in 2016 called “RIP Pangya (again)”. I really enjoy your writing style and the humour you put into each post, it’s very cheeky and exciting! Keep up the great content!!

    PS: have you played Pangya Mobile? I tried playing it for a bit but the fun of playing on a desktop computer outweighed playing on a mobile/emulator that’s slow :

17. (I just checked your FAQ and read number 7 on your list. Sorry if I’m bothering!)

18. I’m super late to this party, but happy 10th anniversary! Been a long-time lurker, and your reviews have definitely encouraged me to pick up more than a few titles over the years! In fact, I can probably say your reviews were one of the biggest reasons I got interested in Otome games in the first place!
    I vaguely remember reading somewhere you’re not too into “historical” Otome games and their excessive glossary dumps, but have you ever heard of/tried Geten no Hana? It was originally a PSP game but it (and its sequel) got re-released for Vita 2 years ago. It’s an Otome game from Ruby Party and Koei(!) featuring a (mostly) competent kunoichi protagonist. She and Cardia from Code Realize are up there on my (admittedly small) list of favorite Otome Game Heroines. I played it years ago when it was on the PSP and it was what got me to start playing Otome Games in Japanese.
    Anyway, sorry for the wall of text! I’ve always wanted to know if you tried this game (or at the very least, heard of it) and if you did, what you thought of it. Thanks for your reviews over the years, and I hope to keep reading until you decide to stop!

19. yea we are, but we’ve mostly been on our alts on Ixion cause Japanese players do way more player events which is a lot more fun for someone like me who never raids…which is pretty much all Gilgamesh has become. Such a crappy server, only raiders and RMT sellers lmao. If I wasn’t stapled to my house I’d probably leave lol. Couldn’t even get a decent map party going , people are so god damn stupid – yet on Japan these work so seamlessly. I’m being biased af but yea I’ve made more friends and had more fun on my ixion alt than on my Gilga main which now feels like an alt.

    Btw I also play shining live but I’m still on the Japanese version , I assume you’re playing the English one XD

20. Aha, yeah… I kind of ragequit after the last housing fiasco, and Noah joined me. >_> Though it was really a long time coming, since we’re both just so busy now that it’s not really worth it to keep up the sub for maybe a few hours of gameplay each month. :v These days, I’m just wearing out my thumbs with Shining Live, saving humanity in Fate Grand Order, and trying to finally learn Japanese (just in time for the otome industry to potentially fizzle out…). XD

    Are you guys still on Gilgamesh?

21. thank you! ^_^

    thanks for being a long time reader, and yea it’s sad the games for women get such a crap treatment in both overseas and now in Japan. I think learning Japanese is the way to go because from what I saw all the otome switch localizations have been downright terrible.

22. Yee I pretty much uninstalled all my remaining mobage except shining live because I can just login and get free shit and barely have to put in any effort during “events” (bless auto mode lol). Lost interest in pretty much everything else and at least I play shining live for free lol. the stories are so boring it’s more a “tokiya collector simulator” now.

    and yea scenario getting backseat treatment is extra bad now because it’s really only Otomate left…so you don’t have any competition or change of scenery when it comes to the otome gaming choices :/. Koroshiya is too much of a kusoge for me to spend money on. Maybe if I find it for $1 in the bargain bin when I go to Japan 😂

    I heard from a few friends with similar interests who did not enjoy Psychedellica so actually that’s kinda why I’ve been avoiding it. I’m sure if I wrote a scathing review people would get really mad so I’m just staying away knowing it’s probably not my type of game to begin with.

23. A lot of fellow bloggers have been waning in interest and dying out honestly you are not alone. Sometimes I feel like I’m dying out on otome gaming but at least I got other games to keep me entertained!

24. happy 10 years hinano! i just wanna say i hope you continue to blog about games! i have been reading your posts once in a while throughout the years, and it made me so happy to see someone play otome games, especially when most of them don’t make it to the western market! your blog inspires me to learn japanese and even start my own game blog (though it probably won’t be otome-focused)! i’m really excited that you’re delving into the Switch and more RPG games now! whatever you decide to blog about in future posts, i’m sure it would be a joy to read~ please continue to enjoy yourself!

25. “it’s a lot easier to make money from gamble gacha mobages than to put out a full quality console game” I HEAR YA GIRL. Everytime I see a new otome release on my phone, I get excited, only to discover it’s a gamble gacha model where I have to participate in a million $$$ events instead of just, ya know, paying for the damn thing and enjoying it a my own pace. I understand developers follow where the money goes, but they should really give the *option* at least, because they’re losing potential customers here (but I guess my ass buying the game for a solid price doesn’t compete against another sucker who’ll pay 1$ for every friggin minute.) Back to your post before I get lost in a rant, this really resonated with me too: “Before there was so many games but everything just feels like a port of an old game I’ve already played or when I finally go and buy what is a “new” game I get disappointed because the scenario CONSTANTLY gets the backseat treatment. If they just put effort into giving the heroine a personality and a backstory that actually matters….but they just kinda seem to throw popular tropes against the wall and hope something sticks.” THIS!!!! Why do they keep doing that? I know it doesn’t only apply to otome, Hollywood is having the same problem, but you’d think someone would understand that what is most important about a visual NOVEL is actually the plot??? X_X And yeah, although I admit I would have really liked to read your Koroshiya to Strawberry review, I feel you also about games that start to feel like chores. For me, that’s Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk, people are raving about it being great and I’m like ???? are we playing the same game because it’s reaaaaally a drag @_@ Anyway, as long as they make games where romance is the main focus, I guess I’ll be on the otome train no matter how it ends up being called, but as always thank you for posting your thoughts, you are always so enjoyable to read<3

26. Congrats for surviving another year as a blog! 10 years is really impressive, I have been slowly dying out of pure laziness. Anyways glad to see you enjoyed Automata, that was definitely my highlight of last year!

27. i play pc games but not really otome ones since a lot of those are overpriced and segmented lol

28. 🙂
    Haha it just may get ported since it was internationally released. I’d rec steering clear of the localization tbh. It’s not awful but you can really tell the translator/editor didn’t do their job because the tense isn’t consistent throughout. It’s pretty aggravating haha. I hope I get to the review soon too rofl it’s been so long since I finished the game but I’m like “I’ll do it tomorrow!” and then it never happens xD

29. Hinano aaa please don’t retire you are the only blog I’m still following for otome game reviews lolol do you consider PC otome gaming now that console is slowly dying ??

30. But there is also more of Julian there :p Welp, so how about the Apple Polisher the heroine of the game is really great (last proposition since I don’t want to be pushy ha ha).

31. ah right, well in the case of BWS I utterly hate Mojo Jojo and his catboi brother so it’s a game I don’t ever intend to play (I played last hope which at least focused on the wolves lol)

32. Black Wolves Saga Bloody Nightmare is a PC and Vita game (there was a Vita port that made 2 games in 1), so no PSP here ;]

33. Yea it’s cool even if our opinions are different 😀 Sometimes I’m like “hey listen if every game I hate you love you can now know that anything I hate will be GOTY for you” to some people lmao. So it works out both ways lol

    Not sure if I’d go back to older titles, especially PSP screen is so painful to look at now x.x Happy holidays to you as well!

34. Thank you Leaf! yea I might look into it maybe, or maybe hold out to see if otomate ports it to switch with new stuff added on. And I hope you get to finish Nier 🙂

35. lol yea I know it’s hard to believe it’s been that long but when I think back to my PS2 game days and running home during lunch to broadcast…ahh the memories lol

    and yea rpgs are more appealing to me now I’m struggling to get back into the 2 otome games sitting on my shelf at the moment lol

36. Congratulations on Your 10 Year Anniversary 😀 !
    I don’t always have the same opinion about games as You but I still find them funny and enjoyable, so thanks for Your hard work and priceless sense of humour!
    I’m happy to see that this blog is still gonna running despite the crisis in the otome franchise. Let’s have a better year for otome in 2019! But if that’s not gonna happen how about returning to the older titles? I would happily read Your review about BWS Bloody Nightmare for example. But of course it’s up to You. It’s a little soon but… Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 😀
    (P.S. Sorry for language mistakes. I’m not native ^^’)

37. I’m 2 days late commenting but congratulations on 10 whole years!!!! It’s kind of insane it’s been this long since you’ve started blogging!! I still remember stumbling on your blog when I first got into otome games hahaha. It’s crazy how time flies and how much the community has changed since back in the day. I’ve low key given up hope on otome game companies producing great games in the future but I still have a tiny, little bit of hope that maybe we’ll get a few great games next year!
    In the mean time I’ll be playing my usual RPGs and shit tho so I guess I won’t be leaving the video game scene at the very least for a while haha.
    Also that desktop of all the FF games is literally me lmao I’m still trying to get through all the FF13 games as well ^q^ thanks steam sales www
    It feels a little bittersweet that 2018 is soon coming to an end, but I hope 2019 will be a great year for you (and for otoge ww) \o/

38. Happy 10 Year Anniversary!! That’s a crazy accomplishment 🙂 Yeah, it’s a bummer that most games are being ported to mobile but I guess I can safely say at least another gaming company f’d up more than the otoge industry recently. RIP everyone who bought Fallout 6 lol.

    So glad you enjoyed Nier Automata!!! I’ll have to go and read your review sometime after I finish mine lol. I’ve been swamped with so much hw and tests that all of my reviews are like “lol you’ll never finish me!”

    And agreed so much on scenarios that never go anywhere. Hopefully next year brings something good, but considering not many new otoge are even coming out….:P I’ve been really enjoying Haitaka no Psychedelica so far so if you ever get bored it’s worth looking into.

39. It doesn’t have voices on the mobile one I think (?) so maybe the voices really helped me enjoy it more than if I had played it without them lol

    Maybe AKsys or whoever will consider Switch? It seems like a lot of stuff is coming to Steam these days as well so who knows? there’s still a lot of old psp games I never touched but when I Look back at the system/art quality I don’t even want to bother anymore lol

    and hell yea nier. 2Bx9S is my OTP (￣ー￣)✨

40. ahh hey long time no see! Did you guys just plain quit FFXIV? 😦 I haven’t seen you online in a while and the FC leader changed so I figured you guys moved on to other things.

41. Happy 10th anniversary 😀
    yay I’m happy to see someone else played Ephemeral and actually liked it! I enjoyed it as well but was hesitant to recommend it to friends cuz it’s a mobile port :c
    I got into otomes when aksys localizations started late 2016, it’s sad to know that that’s when the market started dying D:
    now that vita cartage production stopped here I’m finally convinced that the English market is dying as well, so I decided to work more on my kanji skills and pick up Japanese otoge :3
    it might be quiet times for veteran otome gamers but as a new comer my backlog is exploding xD .. your blog helps alot when I try to find older otoges! I’m mostly digging for vita games but it seems the psp had some pretty good ones too so I might check
    some 🤔 I had a psp since 2009 but never got into otoges cuz they weren’t any localized and I was busy learning English instead of Japanese
    I’m happy you enjoyed nier too!! I was in for the gameplay/angst but now that I think about it it did have some otome bits haha xD

42. Hey Suzu~ It’s Ala (from FFXIV). Just dropping by to wish you a happy anniversary. ❤ Ten years is an amazing achievement, and while it seems to be a bittersweet time, I’m sure many (myself included) will hang on with you until the very end.

    Hope everything else has been well with you and the hubby. You’re always welcome in Discord if you ever have a moment. :3

43. thank you!

44. Happy Anniversary 😀

45. haha wow thanks for being a long time reader ^_^

    I see Otomate trying to adapt but doing that V-Tuber thing doesn’t seem like a direction I’d want them to go into
    And blogs yea….it takes time and effort to write a blog and I’ve even cut down on a lot of my tl;dr rambles in my posts these days. Most people would rather just live tweet their playthroughs lol.

    We’ll see what happens I guess, I’m just kinda pessimistic cause things have been going downhill as far as console otome is concerned for a while now.

46. Happy 10th anniversary! I started reading your blog in my early teens and now I’m in my twenties lol…I’ve always enjoyed reading your blog for the large variety of otoge you play and the detail you put into your reviews; your reviews give me a good idea of whether or not I might like a game and tend to affect my choice of whether I’ll buy a game or not. It’s partly my selfish wish but I personally think the otome industry is merely changing rather than about to meet its end, and needs to adapt to the times now. As someone who was addicted to mobage a couple years back, I find myself getting more into otoge as I grow older…fully voiced games are attractive and tbh one otome game is cheaper than the amount of $$$ normally needed to roll a gacha until you get that SSR/5* or rank in an event. As for blogs being a dying breed, the thought really saddens me and I’m honestly hoping they somehow make a comeback in the future. You never know. They can be hard to find but sometimes I’ll stumble upon a gem of a blog that makes me realize how great blogs are all over again. Sorry for going off on a tangent there! I love all the illustrations of Lee you included throughout this post btw, they made the entry even more fun to read!!

47. Hahahaha 😂😂 Thank you!

    There was a few sales for black friday but maybe if Nintendo releases a new switch model next year the old ones might really plummet in the cost. We’ll see how the new switch games are, I’ve been to distracted to even begin lol

48. haha thanks, it gives me a reason to finish the game so I can slap some goofy award on it at the end of the year 😂😂

49. Ahh thanks for the heads up. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to pronounce that name XD But I guess meaning wise it does make sense with the whole story ^_^

50. Thanks Elli!
    A lot of westerners only now getting into otome games probably think business is booming due to so many more localizations but yea the oasis is definitely drying up in Japan. I don’t want to post about how I studied Japanese cause it’s so half assed and bad it’s probably not very recommended lmao

51. I’ve been dragging a lot of games lately simply because they are just not captivating me like they used to. Not sure if it’s me getting tired of it or makers just don’t bother putting much effort into the story/scenario anymore these days 😦

    And thanks! I love Pikaaaa

52. Thanks for reading for that long! 🙂 Yea I definitely feel like there’s more games I want to play on switch than I did on the PS4 but I still enjoyed the few non-otome PS4 games I played (and uh the code realize FD 2 I guess lol).

    I’m so glad I avoided Broccoli’s garbage, they cut corners on everything and literally try to lure people with fake yone shit lol

53. Thanks Yume! I’m not even sure if Cendrilon Palika is mediocre but I’d so much rather just play with Pikachu right now. I think Piofiore steamrolled my otome game motivation lmao.

    There used to be way more otome games back in those years you mention, not so much now though. I feel like the move to Vita killed off a lot of companies.

54. It’s okay I’ve learned often SOMEONE has to take one for the team but at leas even I have standards enough not to buy Broccoli’s kusoge 😂

    I wonder when the idol mobage hype will die. I think utapri is the only one I keep up with and even so I pretty much ignore it until there’s Tokiya event lol. (which is good meaning I don’t have to constantly keep up with it)

55. I lost my shit at that Brett Kavanaugh thing OMFG. I adore your reviews, and here’s to another ten years! Thank you very much for all you do. I’ve yet to buy a Switch (cause it’s damn pricy), so I’ll be playing vicariously through your, since all of the otome games seem to be moving there, hehe.

    Happy 10th Anniversary!

56. Happy 10 anniversary! I love your brand of humor and snarkiness like with the award titles here. XD

57. Happy 10th Anniversary Hinano,
    because I found your Blog Last week it is just a short time I know you… But I read a lot of your otome reviews and really enjoyed reading them!
    So here is a present „Heiligenstadt“ means a holy City or a City with a holy person.

58. Happy 10 aniversary Hinano!
    Wow I only found out about this nog recently 6 months maybe and sadly your right otome has become more niche than before which honestly sadness me because I only just go into it and since I don’t know any Japanese there are MANY games I haven’t even played yet. Thankfully your blog is so detailed Instead of playing the games I can enjoy reading reviews about them instead. If you do ever decide to quit I will be sad but will support you in whatever else you choose to do !!!
    Ps. Why don’t you make a post about how you self studied Japanese (since ther are so many people who don’t know Japanese but would benefit fro learning )

59. Happy 10 year anniversary!! I only found your blog a year or so ago, but I’ve love reading your reviews (both otome and non-otome)! I’ve been a bit nervous about otome game releases suddenly drying up so I spend so much time on each game, almost rationing it, until I know another lot of localisation news has been announced. Also I love your Pokemon Switch!! It’s super cute~

60. Been a lurker for 5 years already, and I want to thank you for all the effort that you’ve put into this blog. I always get a kick out of reading your thoughts haha. Glad that you still have MMO’s to keep your gaming dreams alive =)

    I do want to feel optimistic about the move to the Switch, but I honestly don’t know since we haven’t even had our first real wave of Switch otoge releases yet. It doesn’t hurt that the Switch is buoyed by good ol’ titles like Pokemon, Smash, and Zelda lol so less buyer’s remorse if u do end up getting it for otoge at first b/c Nintendo doesn’t let down with their titles.

    You are so right about new games having awful scenarios. One of my only 3 Vita purchases this year was Broccoli’s latest title. It looked like it had a lot of things going on for it on the surface BUT BOY WAS THE SCENARIO LAZY AF (in addition to it being xtremely laggy for a VN), I just felt so cheated I could only laugh. Also, thanks for the heads up about CM, I can use that money towards rent.

    Happy 10th Anniversary!

61. Happy 10th anniversary Hinano! I totally get where you’re coming from (I myself am deep into cnovels and haven’t touched otoge since August/September…). Cos why make yourself play a mediocre or kusoge when you have more fun indulging in something else? And your situation must be more dire since you’ve played so much more than me.

    Like you said, I really do hope that we will get another otoge on the same level as C:R and CxM. I realised that my peak was in 2011 ~ 2013 and those titles were one of those which sparked back my interest in otoge.

62. Happy 10th anniversary! I don’t think I was around for the full ten years but I do enjoy reading your reviews over the years. Esp when u review games that I won’t play/buy lol /punched
    Tbh I didn’t buy that many games this year.. Coz all the new hype is with the idol mobages now – _-) Here’s to hoping otoge on the switch will keep this genre alive. I hope 2019 will be a great year for us console otome players 🙏

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