It’s actually amazing that this blog is still going after all this time (and the massive death of the otome game industry) but the reason is of course because I’m simply just…not playing otome games anymore. Let’s jump into the past year of otome game trends and plays on here!
Honeybee died & Revived – Apparently honeybee had split off Asgard and got picked up by Arithmetic instead so it made it seem like they were completely dead at first. Though honestly seeing how they only release drama CDs and random stage plays and limited time gachas and not any actual games they’re as good as dead to me. ( ´_ゝ`)
Taisho Alice Revival – The English release of Taisho Alice was initially picked up by the horrors of E2 Gaming and left to die in the cold. Fortunately one of our famous otome game translator Verde teamed up with Primula to bring you all episode 1 translated and available on steam. Since episode 1 has best boy Akazukin I highly recommend everyone get it. ☺
I Quit Shining Live – This isn’t anything to write home about honestly but I had enough of the 0 otome romance in utapri which is what Broccoli appears to be pushing the last few years (looking at you utapri movie.) Utapri was the only mobile game I still had on my phone so I figured that’s it, I’m done with these stupid mobile games….that is until King of Fighter for Girls launched and has an actual heroine and some (watered down) romance so I’ve been into that lately. 😂
The Year of IT’SA ME MARIO – While I’m not going to include all the Mario games I played this year I played quite a few of them. Rabbids Kingdom, SMB Deluxe, Mario Galaxy as well as Smash Brothers. I got the Switch because of otome games but in the end I’m playing more non-otome games on it than anything else 😂.
FFXIV 5.0 Expansion ate all my time – Ok well one of the huge reason I barely played any games this year is because in July I got occupied with the new FFXIV expansion on 3 characters. 😂😂 So even if there were otome game releases (most of which were just ports of old crap) I could honestly care less as I had other things to occupy my time with. The summer I had a plaguing health issue which is still not 100% resolved so that honestly didn’t really motivate me either. Oh I also went to Japan for FFXIV fanfest which was kinda disappointing, as I was stuck waiting in the rain in long lines and had to sit on the floor most of the time because as usual, Japan has 0 comprehension of the amount of people they let into any given place at any time.
🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸-🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸
Overall not much of an exciting year as far otome games are involved. The lack of releases and constant disappointments didn’t help things either. Even things like B’s Log now are 90% mobage crap that are too shallow and just don’t interest me (At least KOF has some sort of heroine involved story lol.) And now for the yearly Otome game Awards – extremely abridged edition as I only completed 6 otome games.
😱 Worst Fandisk: Shiro to Kuro no Alice 😱
🙄 The Carl Jung Award for Best Therapist Heroine: Centrillon Palika 🙄
🙄Most Unnecessary Sequel: Kenka Bancho Otome 2nd Rumble 🙄
🙄 Disappointing Rose of Versailles Parody: Berubara Gakuen 🙄
😍Most Delicious One Shot: I love you Colonel Sanders😍
😍 Best Heroine & Best Game of the Year: Variable Barricade 😍
Everything about this game was amazing. In retrospect having Umehara voicing Ichiya might have made me like him more than Toriumi, but I think Toriumi Ichiya was pretty funny and pathetic in his own way it gave a different type of character archetype lol. As I expected Nayuta was my fav boy even though he said some pretty weird af do-M crap throughout most of the game (but he had his reasons xDDD). This was pretty much the only game that I played this year that was memorable and had lots of great lines. VB was also my last Vita game as I have packed it away, along with my PS TV. Rip Vita, you lasted a solid 5 years.😨
Skipping the usual stats this year because google has masked a lot of them so a lot of them are this weird AMP project thing, twitter, facebook or a search engine that plants trees when you use it (??). Anyway I honestly don’t really know what to say for 2020. I got 2 games to play/finish in 2019 and 2 more I’d like to pick up in 2020 but everything is kinda up in the air right now. Ports of games I’ve played no longer entice me (and honestly just feel like a waste of money to me) and there’s just barely any releases coming out period. Segmented games are a huge turn off for me (as we all know they eventually get bundled into 1 game anyway) and Otomate we don’t need yet another port/sequel/remake of Hakuoki. Otomate did announce a few games at OtoPa but I’m pretty sure 1 of them (Lover Pretend) has been cancelled quietly behind the scenes.
Instead I’ve been focusing on final fantasy series from Square Enix and all sorts of Mario series from Nintendo. So while the otome game reviews on this blog may die, I thank those of you who stick around for all my non-otome stuff. After all, that’s how this blog started and the way otome games are headed, will probably continue for a while. 🤗
Edit: Thank you for the fanart!! ^_^
かわいいじゃなきゃダメなの！ 
thanks for being around all these years!! 🙂 and thank you for the kind comments. Haven’t really had a chance to stream much after Vita, and ps4/switch are very limited in streaming and even recording. I could stream my steam FF games but often times I can’t even look at the chat to talk to anyone cause the game takes over my entire screen lol so I just took a break. I did have fun streaming otome games tho it was always great to have someone to rage with xD
Hello Hinano I’ve followed your blog since the start and want to thank you for so much laughter and excellent reviews. I would join your livesteams now and then, nice boating time was the best. I do enjoy reading your reviews even if they’re not otome. Hope everything gets better, health-wise and gaming-wise.
lol well, the switch is still in business?! hahaha, they hav to start making for the switch…but some otome mobile games are pretty good as well, hmmm
who even knows lmao mobage have really killed the console!
congrats on 11 years! hoo whee is that a long time!! may there be many more years lol! but also, when is the otome games revival and revolution?!
thank you for being a long time reader! 🙂
Regarding utapri…uh well it’s been a while. honestly I wasn’t a huge fan of the music games. they had very little romance and you had to strain your right hand because of the poor way the system is setup.
in my opinion the original utapri game + the 2 fandisks that followed (amazing aria/sweet serenade) were the only ones worth playing. so probably repeat love + the FDs (which i think all were ported to vita btw) is the only ones i’d recommend. after debut they butchered the guys, made haruka an invisible man or focused too much on the senpais in the following games…so in my eyes I honestly didn’t really like any of the other utapri games :/.
Hi! Congratulations! I’ve been a fan of your blog for years Its helped me choose otome games to buy and try out in the past! I think my favorite game is glass heart princess and brothers conflict 🙂 I recently got into buying otome games on psp because you can find them pretty cheap now ! I had a question about utapri, I have never played one in my life and I am waiting on repeat love and music 3 for vita. Are the other music psp ones wirth playing? And I heard debut sucks.. which others would be worth considering? Thanks!!!
thanks for being a long time follower! 🙂
and don’t even get me started the bullshit i’ve had to deal with regards to these “poor misunderstood (abusive) assfucks” lmao
yea the heroine in mobage is just like an invisible blow up doll it’s no fun at all.
health issue is doing okay it’s manageable for now 🙂
Thank you so much for so many years of otome gaming (and other stuff too!).
I’ve followed your blog for the past 8-ish years I think?
I love your commentary on the games and characters, most people don’t put much thought into what assholes the characters are sometimes 😆 because they are “misunderstood” 😂.
I hope there will be some better releases in the future for console, I can’t stand mobages 😩 they’re all about the guys and the heroine isn’t even a real character most of the time.
I hope you won’t give up completely on otome games but I understand if the blog takes another turn.
And the health issue you mentioned, how is it going with that?
Yeah I did! Got it for Clock Zero (I’m predictable haha), but I saw games on sale early this week so I bought a few and am happy playing those so far. 😀 yeah let’s hope there will still be new otome game releases ;;;
Oh you just got a switch! well not many otome games for it atm so you’re not missing out too much lol.
Since I don’t play too many otomes anymore it’s not so bad having to trudge through it every once in a while lol.
Let’s just hope there’s still otome games left by 2021 to even release 😭
Haha thanks as always Usagi! 🙂
I just got taiko no tatsujin so I am once again distracted but since i actually like enchante I’m determined to finish it before the year ends lol 😭
MSQ for patch 5.1 isn’t too long I think so if you take 1-2 hours out of your day you should be able to finish it. I hope Crystal DC is treating you well owo
Happy 11th anniversary! I totally feel you and it’s okay to blog about other games tbh. I just got a Switch so I’m curious to know about other fun games too. 😀 but thanks always for the otome game reviews, I’m impressed by how you trudge through them – even 6 is a huge number imo since there’s less and less releases by different makers, moreover when some are just a port and not new.
Congratulations on 11 years Hinano!!! I’ve been stalking you for about half of this amount of time I’m pretty sure LOL 8D
And honestly I get it. FFXIV has been eating up all my time, and I just got a bunch of other games so otome games has once again been pushed quietly into the background. I’ve gotten into more hobbies recently too so… rip lol. Of course, the amount of games releasing each year has really dwindled in comparison to before but ehhh lol
I’m dying tho I still haven’t done the msq for patch 5.1 LOL I keep meaning to but then I got Code Vein and Pokemon Sword and I’m trying to play Rise of the Tomb Raider and… yeah. You get it. LOL but I’ll get to it eventually!! Gotta finish decorating my house, after all. 😛
Anyways congratulations on 11 years!!! I hope to see more posts from you in the future, even if they aren’t otome related because your other game reviews also interest me a lot! ^_^
Thanks Leafy!
FFXIV constantly has updates so the story continuation will be released every 3 months. I believe Patch 5.2 story should be coming out sometime late January/early February! We will also be getting the new Eden raid story continuation as well. There’s always something new being added (including new glamor and housing items yee) which is why it’s always hard to find time for other games XD
Congratulations for sticking it out for so long, Hinano! I can’t imagine blogging for that long. It’s so great to see Verde at the top doing what she does best and I already got her Taisho x Alice release because we have to support the Queen. I feel you on the market though. Everything seems to be a port or a crappy FD now. As someone who never got to play most of these games, the ports aren’t too bad but seeing how many of them go to Vita, then PS4, then the Switch…like it’s cool we have options now but maybe release a different title?
Just reached Shadowbringers and my time has just disappeared xD I don’t know what I’m supposed to do after this exp and the Nier raids. Was SB the finale or will there be a continuation? Other than XIV, I’ve been dabbling in the other FF games and it’s been an experience.
thank you! I don’t think I’m as fast as I used to be because I keep getting side tracked (I used to finish 4 otome games a month how wild is that? lol)
And yea the problem for me with mobage is the whole guys having fun with each other while the heroine silently watches. I want her to be part of it so the mobile utapri and the other mobages just really bore me.
and yea I’m sure I’ll always find other games to blog about even if non otome xD
nah as the appeal of otome games for me is art and voices it’s really hard for me to get into indie games. I have played a fair share of them (in my doujin games category) but it’s not something I plan to move to anytime soon as I would rather than just play a voiced RPG.
Congratulations on 11 years!! I’m really thankful that you have been writing this long even if the otome games have slowed down significantly. I think you finish them kind of fast to be honest, I started Hakuoki in English around 2 months and I’m only halfway done with all the characters 🥴.
I agree with you on Utapri, its an otome game but hardly has any romance. Although I don’t entirely hate the genre though because Idolish7 is the same premise (story more about the guy friendship than the romance between heroine and one of the guys) and I quite like it more than Utapri? Lol I don’t know. Also, I’m very disappointed with the Kenka Bancho remake. I watched the anime and it sucks that they couldn’t make a sequel where you develop your relationship with your guy :(.
Anyway, I hope you continue blogging regardless of the otome games that are released!
I wanted to ask, have you tought of moving into indie games?
i saw some solid releases this year, if you haven’t played those.
For starters, while they don’t have as much CG’s i really enjoyed when the night comes, it’s a visual novel.
Or perhaps tailor tales?
i am also waiting for The Royal Alchemist to come out.
I find that in indie games, while the story is not as fleshed out as some of the best otome games out there, they are still more enjoyable than others otomes.
If you get nothing otome-y to talk about you can always check those! ^^