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No kidding. Cybird is considered the best of the F2P otome mobage companies (Ikemen Sengoku is particularly popular for whatever reason), but honestly, their practices are basically the same as Solmare's--the text just reads better. I used to play a few of those games. Spent some money on them, too. Midnight Cinderella and Destined to Love from Cybird and The Niflheim from NTT Solmare were my main ones, though there were a few others I played. Eventually I realized that I was opening the apps every five hours on the dot to do princess lessons or whatever...and for what? Drips of stories that weren't very good in the first place. I wasn't having fun, it had just become a routine. Plus, as the apps get older, events become harder and harder to complete, basically encouraging people who didn't spend or who only spend a little to temporarily become whales so they can get the same ranking they're used to having. I'm not a fan. I haven't given up F2P entirely. I enjoyed several Mystic Messenger routes (hence why my flairs in both r/otomegames and r/visualnovels are Jaehee...) and I have a soft spot for Voltage USA's Lovestruck stories even though I don't like the "paid choices" mechanic (the way they do it is the least bad I've seen, though--but I miss when they were pay-per-route...). In general, though, F2P is basically a race to the bottom when it comes to providing the least amount of content for the most amount of money. ETA: This thread from r/otomegames might be an interesting read: "To those who spent money on otome games: do you have buyer's remorse or are you happy with your purchases?" ETA2: I wrote a really long comment about otome mobage monetization on the r/otomegames post about this...post.