Daydreamer97

Some OELVNs feature male and female love interests. However, most, if not all of them only have female protagonists. Those games are pretty much otome games with a yuri route. Airis, a Nanoreno otome game is an example and also features a non-binary love interest. It's quite short, however. The upcoming game Seven Kingdoms The Princess Problem also has a female protagonist and several male and female love interests. It has a pretty long demo if you want to check it out.

Often when people talk about OELVNS, they fail to mention the otome games. I don't know if this is because the majority of VN readers are males who don't follow the OELVN otome scene, but either way, it's quite a shame. Many talk about how OELVNS follow Japanese tropes and try to be too Japanese. With otome games, I can sometimes see this due to the anime-inspired art, but there are really a lot of notable differences. For example, OELVN otome MCs tend to be more distinct. They certainly have distinct personalities and a lot of character- something I prefer since I don't self-insert. The MC of the recently released free otoge Cinderella Phenomenon for example, Lucette, is a cold-hearted, mean-spirited person. She is someone who is certainly very flawed but is also interesting as a person and a character. Throughout the story, it is evident that it is her story and a lot about her background is revealed. The characters do adhere to certain tropes but I didn't find that to be detrimental to the overall experience. Cinderella Phenomenon has a decent length and story, making it ideal for anyone who wants to try an indie otome game in English. It is also relatively high-quality compared to most indies. Another free indie otome is Lads in Distress. It has a finished NaNoRenO version with 170000+ words and three routes. It will have a more full-fleshed out version with longer routes and an additional 3 routes. The premise is centered on genderbent fairytale princesses with problems which the MC, Princess Charming, must work on. It has pretty decent art and story but it's really the characters who shine in this game. I loved how Princess Charming interacts with her love interests and her antics are amusing and fun to read. It is pretty lighthearted, although I suspect it won't be so when the full game comes out. Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons is a commercial otome game available on Steam. It follows the pay-per-route format one sees in mobile otome games. Normally, I wouldn't touch it until it's complete and everything is available at once, but I caved in the end. My decision did not disappoint me as the writing, art, CGs, and music are of a higher quality than those mobile otoges I used to purchase. It's even more astounding when those mobages are produced by well-established companies while MD:SOA is produced by an indie team. I would recommend this to those who play mobages and are just getting into PC otome. Mystic destinies has a decent-length for its price, a well-written story, a good cast of characters, and excellent art. The music is also great. The money also goes towards developing the game as the routes are released after it's developed. The writing itself is quite good in contrast to many indies. A cursory glance at the Lemmasoft forums will reveal a lot of otome games in development which is why I believe that it's a shame that it's so often overlooked. Two otome games in development I want to highlight are Changeling and The Pirate Mermaid. Changeling, developed by Steamberry studios is an otome game focused on the supernatural. It has a cast of characters based on folklore and mythology. From what I can see from the demo, the lore is also well-thought of. It has recently been funded through kickstarter and the dev regularly updates through tumblr. The artstyle is also very western and might turn off some people. I don't mind the art, however, as I am more drawn to the story. It follows Nora who due to some strange events in her childhood ends up being estranged with her twin brother. She moves back to a small town and meets the love interests who are all connected to the supernatural world in one way or another. The writing in this game, as with MD:SOA is rather well-done. What I'm really excited about however, is The Pirate Mermaid. I played the demo a long time ago and then forgot about it. However, I started checking out their blog again recently and they have a Steam Greenlight campaign going on. The MC is a pirate captain whose crew abandons her and turns into a mermaid in search of mermaid treasure. I love her character design personally, it's rare to see an otome MC who looks like me. I don't self-insert but to me (and I believe, some otoge fans out there), the representation means a lot. That aside, I'm impressed with the production values so far. It seems that it will feature a Ren'Py 3d camera and something incredibly rare: English and Japanese VAs. I will probably play the game with Japanese voice acting as I like it more based on what I've heard so far. The art is also done well and it has a story I'm interested in. In conclusion, a big part of the OELVN scene are otome games and I think they deserve to be more represented when it comes to EVN discussions. The indie otome scene has been continuously growing these past few years and I'm excited to see the direction they're going. It seems that as time goes on, the writing does get better as the developers gain experience. The art may be subjective but I enjoy seeing both western-style art and anime-style art. I don't think EVN devs should be criticized for drawing what they can and want to draw. In the end, as the community grows, more EVN developers will get serious and release quality VNs. I'm excited as I've been watching it for two years now and I can see more groups starting to be serious and working on commercial titles that shows serious effort.

I just finished Nightshade and I'll have to say this is one of the best otomes available on Steam. The art, the music, and the voice acting is great. The story is decent and it really depends on the person whether or not they'll like it. The heroine, Enju (default name is voiced) makes for a great heroine. She can be a really badass shinobi in certain routes. The guys are also pretty great and I liked the cast overall. All in all, I really recommend it if you like otome. Otherwise, it serves as a great introduction to otome games.

This reminds me of Fata Morgana. If I recall correctly, it handled perspective shifts in a similar way.

I love reading and I love romance. I don't usually read galges (the only exception I made was for G Senjou no Maou, which was excellent) but I do love otome. Sure the writing could be better, but I don't care as long as it's decent and the premise was interesting. I don't self-insert, I view myself as someone who guides the heroine or protagonist to a happy ending. That's the appeal of vns for me- the fact that my choices sffect what happens to the characters. Something I love but isn't romance focused is The House in Fata Morgana. Another excellent work. It's probably the only one I've rated 10 so far. The writing is incredible, the visuals are nice to look at, and the music is one of the best I've heard. Also highly recommended. Mostly, vns to me aren't much of games. It's an entirely different medium. If I wanted to experience a story while playing, I'd be playing Mass Effect or Dragon Age. With VNs, I just experience the story with my choices affecting what happens next. Like an interactive novel that's presented like a movie.

Best: The House in Fata Morgana. This is what sold me on non-otome VNs after Higurashi. It's absolutely beautiful, the art was fantastic, the story made me cry and made for one of the best experiences I have with regards to literature. It's one of the most fantastic works I've read and I've read a lot. The music was outstanding and the whole thing was just an incredible ride from start to finish. Worst: None so far.

Reading Higurashi Chapter 3. I've been taking a pretty long break with Higurashi but I'm glad I still remember everything. Chapter 3 has a surprising amount of feels in the slice-of-life part before shit hits the fan. After that, I might proceed with Chapter 4. I'm thinking of getting Tokyo Babel since it's 50% off so that might be my next one. Or something lighter like maybe The Royal Trap or This World Unknown.

Va-11 Hall-A - Seems pretty interesting but I haven't bought it yet because of other stuff on my wishlist. Tokyo Babel- Been interested in this for a while now. I might buy it soon while it's on sale. Root Double- I might buy this one after Tokyo Babel. Maybe sometime next year. Steins;gate- Pretty highly-rated. Amazing visuals and interesting story. Been meaning to buy it for some time but I lack funds. Along the Edge - A pretty unique looking vn that has both French and English translations. I don't speak French, but I'd love to learn it. Plus, it's otome-ish but big on the story.

Thanks for your replies! Dandelion looks fun, although it seems to have stats raising and Kindred Spirits on the Roof seems like a good title even though I usually don't play yuri. That might be a good introduction to the genre. I like politics and intrigue so The Royal Trap seems right up my alley. I've actually read G-Senjou no Maou (it was pretty good), while Grisaia remains on my backlog since I bought it on sale and I'm not yet sure when I should read it because of it's length. As for Princess Evangile, it looks cute but it doesn't seem to be quite right for me. It seems to be set in a Catholic all-girls school which is kinda funny since I go to a Catholic co-ed school and am a Catholic myself. I'm on the fence about Muv-Luv. I'm not too interested in galge and while the mecha thing makes it tempting to get, I'm not yet sure if I should. As for Nekopara and KaraKara, probably not. I'm not really a big fan of moege and I usually only tend to play games with heroine routes if they have an interesting story and plot other than the romance. Thanks for the suggestions!

That game is on top of my wishlist actually. I heard it was good and pretty comedic so I was so excited when it was announced. I've been following Mangagamer's updates but sadly, it seems like it would be a while before it's released.

Hi! I've recently been reading a lot of darker story-based titles like The House in Fata Morgana, Higurashi, and Umineko so I'm thinking of going back to my "roots", so to speak. By that, I mean otome, since I started reading vns because of otome games I've noticed a lot of cute, fluffy moege titles being popular and getting localized so I'm asking if anyone can recommend otome equivalents, preferably in English and for PC. I don't mind whether or not it's localized or indie evns. Or, any light-hearted title in general. As long as it's on Steam or for free, since the only way I can really buy VNs is through Steam. Some titles I've read and enjoyed are Amnesia: Memories and Ozmafia. Thank you in advance!

I don't usually hang around forums much before getting into otome games and visual novels. I pretty much browsed Lemmasoft starting around 2 years ago before joining reddit (if you can call that a forum). I still browse Lemmasoft and Reddit besides Fuwanovel.

I'm really excited because it means I'll finally be able to read this. I keep on hearing about how great it is so I'm pretty hyped.

Just finished the second episode. It was shorter than I expected. I'll take a break from reading it for now.

I'm reading Umineko ep. 2. It's fairly slow-paced so I might read Toma's route in Amnesia along with it so I can get it over with. Umineko is very good though, it's my first time reading it and I understand why it's so hyped. I love the music and character interactions. The plot was well-done and the mystery was really interesting. Which is why I regret spoiling myself. I might take breaks between episodes because it's so long and the first episode took me 23 hours to finish. I have a bad habit of buying VNs before I'm done with one so I got Gahkthun this week. And there's so many sitting on my backlog after the sale. I'm interested in Sona Nyl so I might read Gahkthun after Umineko as an introduction to the Steampunk series.

I might pick up Gahkthun this week so Sona-Nyl got me interested (the Alice in Wonderland in New York sold it). There's no otome game announced but I'm happy with a story title featuring a female protagonist. Plus, if it will be released next year, I'll be 18 then so I can read it without guilt. Hapymaher's description interested me but since I haven't read an 18+ VN before (Gahkthun might be the first), I'm not sure if I'll read it. I don't know if I'll read SonoHana since I'm not so into yuri vns. I might buy Sorcery Jokers when it's out. So there's 2 titles I might buy plus Bocchi Musume and The House in Fata Morgana fandisc out of Mangagamer's 2016 announcements. I'm pretty satisfied.

I'm Catholic. I don't really enjoy going to Church much (I go to Catholic college and being forced to go to mass is a bit of a hassle considering my workload) but I do believe in God and pray.

Voices are a nice bonus but I read pretty fast so I don't always wait for the voice to finish. I started by reading unvoiced vns so it doesn't really bother me if a vn has voices or not. I actually bought G-Senjou no Maou unvoiced because it's cheaper.

Actually started with free to play otome games in late 2014 and moved on to Voltage games (the ones with a pay-per-route system) in 2015. I also discovered PC otome games, mostly original English releases. Early this year, I got Steam and used steam wallet to purchase Amnesia and a couple of indie otomes. Later on, while looking for more localized otomes, I stumbled into visual novels that aren't focused on romance. I started reading the first two chapters of Higurashi a month ago and then moved on to The House in Fata Morgana. Currently, I just bought Umineko Ch. 1-4 on Steam and will start soon. After discovering visual novels on Steam, I built up a wishlist and my backlog.

Having read the first two chapters of Higurashi on Steam and hearing that Umineko's better, I'm pretty excited for this. I don't think I'll wait for a patch, maybe when I'm done so I can reread and compare the experience. I don't mind the pachinko sprites at all since I'm just interested in the story and the music. Still, I have to admit the PS3 sprites look better and voice acting sounds good so I'll get the patch after I read the Mangagamer version.

I'd say it depends on the quality of the voice acting. If it's good and conveys the emotions well, why not? At least it won't be too jarring to hear Japanese while reading English. But if a choice between dubbed and original is offered, I'd say I prefer Japanese voice acting. I just like it more for some reason, in the same way I hate Filipino dubbed media- It just doesn't sound right when it's dubbed.

I have no idea if there are anyone translating vns in Filipino. As far as I know, people who read vns are likely to be pretty fluent in English so I don't think anyone's doing that here. Besides, like Tagalog dubbed stuff, people would just think it's weird to read a VN in Filipino. It's weird enough to read bestsellers in Filipino actually.

I'm hoping for a good otome game, hopefully Ozmafia sold well enough for Mangagamer to localize another title. But, a good story based vn like The House in Fata Morgana would be great too. I've played Tokyo Babel's demo and it was pretty good, definitely a step above the stuff I usually play. I'd like to see something like that as well. However, Sekai Project seems to bag a lot of big name titles but I don't know how they choose which ones they localize since they seem kind of unpredictable(?).

After hearing about how good Higurashi is, I bought the Chapters 1 and 2 bundle on Steam last week and started playing. I finally finished Chapter 1 yesterday and I'm on Chapter 2 now. Now, I understand the hype. It's really good. Even the lighthearted comedy stuff at the beginning didn't bother me much, I still liked reading it. Chapter 1 really creeped me out and scared me. I reached a point in the vn when I was reading at maybe 4:30 in the morning, closed it and waiting until dawn before playing again because I got so scared. Still, I've enjoyed Higurashi more than any otome game I've played even if it's horror and I generally don't touch horror stuff. The Steam Sale starts tomorrow so I'm probably buying The House in Fata Morgana and possibly G-Senjou no Maou or maybe World End Economica.

Thanks! I'll check it out.