To Fuwa-Males Out There: Do You Play Otome?

[Dreamysyu]

1 hour ago, Stormwolf said:

Is akatsuki no yona reverse harem though? Its mostly hak and yona if im not mistaken. Bit offtopic

It is, kind of? At least, if you define reverse harem as the female protagonist being surrounded by a lot of handsome guys (who may or may not be interested in her).

~~~~

On-topic: I did play a few otome games, and my impressions of them are roughly following (in chronological order in which I played them):

- Confines of the crown. It... just isn't my thing. I don't know. Nothing grabbed my attention, really.

- Cinderella Phenomenon. This one is pretty cool! Overall it's just a well done EVN. Nothing really amazing, but has very interesting characters, and it's a pretty good experience overall.

- The Second Reproduction. I have very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it has some very good ideas and generally moves in the right direction, but overall I feel like the writing is just too rushed, as if they wanted to put a bit too much in a short VN. Plus I absolutely hate the final route and what happened to the protagonist there.

So, my impression with otome so far is pretty mixed, and even the one I liked didn't really strike me as something amazing. So, I'm not really sure if it means that otome in general just aren't my thing or if I just got unlucky with my selection. On the other hand, I bought Hakuoki recently and am going to check it out at some point, so that will decide.

~~~~

At the same time, I absolutely love several "reincarnated into otome game" light novels. Even though this trope is just as overused in female-oriented isekai light novels as the traditional "reincarnated into a random RPG setting" in male-oriented ones, I did manage to find a few gems.

[MaggieROBOT]

Fuwa female, sorry for intruding 

But if you're unwilling to buy Vita games just to test out, I have to suggest Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly. It have voices, more plot than romance, mystery and it's available on steam!

[Ranzo]

17 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:

Fuwa female, sorry for intruding 

But if you're unwilling to buy Vita games just to test out, I have to suggest Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly. It have voices, more plot than romance, mystery and it's available on steam!

HEY! Get out of here!! Wimmin ain't allowed here during club meetings!!!

We're talking about dating dudes here!

 

On the subject at hand, I haven't played any Otomes yet because I got turned off by how much of a lame dame the protag in Yo Jin Bo was and I'm not used to playing vns on a vita(even though I have one) I do want to start eventually though

Edited November 29, 2018 by Ranzo

[LemiusK]

8 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

On the subject at hand, I haven't played any Otomes yet because I got turned off by how much of a lame dame the protag in Yo Jin Bo was

Yeah, that seems to be the trend around otome games, I'm noticing. Obviously not all of them, but a trend indeed.

Incidentally, Aoishiro is a Yuri game, featuring a headstrong female protag, and I'm kinda enjoying it so far (though its many translation problems and infodumping do bug me significantly). If only more otome games have a female protag like that. I'm sure there are headstrong women out there who would play otome games too, you know! I'm sure a lot of girls wanted to dress up as Saber in Halloween.

Edited November 29, 2018 by LemiusK

[Dreamysyu]

10 minutes ago, LemiusK said:

Yeah, that seems to be the trend around otome games, I'm noticing. Obviously not all of them, but a trend indeed.

I don't know, in the ones I played the protagonists weren't that bad. Partially because out of three otomes I played only one was actually Japanese.

The exception is the final route in TSR... Yeah, I hate this route.

[MaggieROBOT]

18 minutes ago, LemiusK said:

Yeah, that seems to be the trend around otome games, I'm noticing. Obviously not all of them, but a trend indeed.

Tbh otomes are pretty much the gender swapped all ages version of the games for a male audience. There as much useless MC in otome than in moege. Except there are far far more moeges out there, so there's more known in the west titles that subvert that.

Edited November 29, 2018 by MaggieROBOT

[Stormwolf]

5 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:

Tbh otomes are pretty much the gender swapped all ages version of the games for a male audience. There as much useless MC in otome than in moege. Except there are far far more moeges out there, so there's more known in the west titles that subvert that.

Isnt it the female protagonist who is useless in otome while all the men are strong and capable in their own ways?

[mitchhamilton]

also, the main heroine in fashioning little miss lonesome is probably one of the most pathetic main characters ive ever read about. she just gets dragged along by the only male figures in her life to do something she doesnt want to do. like, usually at some point you get that the character is just being stubborn until they realize theyre having fun but with her, took a long ass time. 

 

i will say though, had some fucking funny endings in it.

 

and maybe the only reason i read it is because she can have a 3some.  

[LemiusK]

2 minutes ago, Dreamysyu said:

I don't know, in the ones I played the protagonists weren't that bad. Partially because out of three otomes I played only one was actually Japanese.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Japanese otome games. At risk of touching a sensitive subject, it's really not uncommon for Japanese stories to portray archaic and old-fashioned versions of gender roles ("Men must be strong and protect women!" "Women must be dutiful to their husband!"), which was what I meant when I said Japanese otome games seem to carry this trend of weak-willed protagonists.

[MaggieROBOT]

15 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:

Isnt it the female protagonist who is useless in otome while all the men are strong and capable in their own ways?

This is quite a generalization. From the ones I played, when they're useless, its mostly like a generic male MC from a moege: extremely dense and that dont do absolutely anything to push the relationship forward unprompted. But that's more of a plague in games when the main focus is the romance. If the plot is more about anything else, say investigation or fighting (of course, there are games that appear to be about something else when in fact they're not, romance is still the main deal), she can be as strong as the boys, even if not physically, mentally.

My personal opinion, but I think older games have more of this problem than newer ones. But then again, old ones are very much these irritating dating sins based.

Edited November 29, 2018 by MaggieROBOT

[Stormwolf]

1 minute ago, MaggieROBOT said:

This is quite a generalization. From the ones I played, when they're useless, its mostly like a generic male MC from a moege: extremely dense and that dont do absolutely anything to push the relationship forward unprompted. But that's more of a plague in games when the main focus is the romance. If the plot is more about anything else, say investigation or fighting (of course, there are games that appear to be about something else when in fact they're not), she can be as strong as the boys, even if not physically, mentally.

My personal opinion, but I think older games have more of this problem than newer ones. But then again, old ones are very much dating sins based.

Sure it is, but it's quite a grounded generalization. It's the exact same with male oriented vn's afterall. But now that you mention it, it's funny how romance based vn's anime or what have you are among the worst genres for romance. 

[TexasDice]

I always wanted to, but I never get around to it.

[MaggieROBOT]

17 minutes ago, Stormwolf said:

Sure it is, but it's quite a grounded generalization. It's the exact same with male oriented vn's afterall. But now that you mention it, it's funny how romance based vn's anime or what have you are among the worst genres for romance. 

Moral of the story: all Visual Novels sucks and we are all stupid for keep reading them 

Edited November 29, 2018 by MaggieROBOT

[alpacaman]

I read Hatoful Boyfriend which probably doesn't really count and Long Live The Queen which, according to vndb, isn't even a VN, but it's pretty close since it is told like a VN and you change the direction of the story through your choices, even if your success is based on your stats. The romance is minimal though since you just pick one of the young dukes as a fiancee for strategic purposes (but there is a yuri route).

[Stormwolf]

4 minutes ago, MaggieROBOT said:

Moral of the story: all Visual Novels sucks and we are all stupid for keep reading them 

I wouldn't go quite as far as that  But a lot of vn's sure could be better

[MeguminBlast]

Yeah I read Otome, but I don't like the ones with extreme pushover MCs (like Diabolik Lovers) or asshole lover routes.

 

My favorite ones I've read so far are Sweet Fuse and Anniversary no Kuni no Alice.

Edited November 29, 2018 by MeguminBlast

[Guest]

1 hour ago, MeguminBlast said:

(...)but I don't like the ones with extreme pushover MCs (like Diabolik Lovers)

We don't talk about this game . It doesn't exist.

[Dergonu]

I have tried a couple and honestly did not like them. It does not seem like my thing, tbh.

[Mr Poltroon]

I play some. I take them as no more than a change in perspective.

[ShinRaikdou]

 

That said, I can't play something with bunch of pretty ugly bishonens or just bad art in particular.

Edited November 30, 2018 by ShinRaikdou

[Canicheslayer]

I am a curious man (sometimes I paid the price ) and female protagonists are not a problem for me (I venerate Estelle, heroine of Trails in the Sky 1 & 2 ). And so i read half a dozen of Otomes. One was really great (Mystic Messenger), three were very good (Amnesia: Memories, Enigma: & Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome), one wasn't perfect but has very cool elements (Collar x Malice), one has a lot of potential but was a bit too boring (Code:Realize) and one was...a major disillusion (Norn9: Var Commons) 

Edit : I forgot The excellent Will: A wonderful World (just like Enigma: It’s a a borderline Otome) 

Edited November 30, 2018 by Canicheslayer

[Nandemonai]

I played, like, one route from the PSP release of HakuOki.  It was... underwhelming.  (Not least of which because I failed to get on a route and ended up on the fallback generic route, which is supposed to be kind of underwhelming.)  Mainly I bought it because it was the first time anything like that had ever been released and I was willing to give it a shot, and to try and give a little support to the otome fans (who were a much-underserved segment before then).

I've picked up a few others - FLML, Ozmafia, and some of the Vita ones - and Fxxk Me Royally looks great.  But I haven't actually played any of them.  My backlog is the stuff of legends.