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Shout out to this specific genre of ships:

Mysterious girl with beautiful golden eyes and star motifs, and guy who is stoic (but is actually a gentle sweetheart with trauma, and is associated with the military in some way) and has a teal colour palette.

I will always eat this dynamic up.

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Three individuals.

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херня,но надо выкладывать

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A space to coexist

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please tell the story of what happened with BMP back then 😳 I’m shook

I shall! Gather around, today I‘ll tell you the story of the first big battle us overseas Otoge fans had to win.

[For those who don’t know what this is about or want to see more screenshots here’s the short version on my Twitter]

A little bit of background info before we start. Back in 2011 Voltage released „Pirates in Love“ which was pretty much the first English Otome game we ever got (before that was a release of Yo–Jin–Bo, which unfortunately flopped however). For a long while it was also the ONLY Otoge we had, with routes being released up to months apart. Funnily enough the first PIL release we got had also been edited, however since the internet and Otome games in general wasn‘t as much of a thing yet most people were unaware. Plus they actually made the characters whose appearance they changed appealing and it matched the overall style.

So BMP actually wasn‘t the first time they changed things to “appeal” the overseas market - but simply the most noticeable.

Slowly (very slowly lol) more Otome games would be released in english. Especially back in the day Voltage was one of our main content providers. After PIL which was released as a standalone app Voltage decided to try out a new medium here - GREE. Basically it‘s worked similar to how Cybird games are now. It didn‘t host Voltage games only however, but a bunch of different games from different companies. Voltage would only release 2 of their games on there before they got shut down: Be My Princess and Celebrity Darling (in that respective order.)

Small rant I actually liked GREE BMP more than the other version because MC had a job as a designer so this whole „you have to design/wear outfits to progress“ actually fit really well. Like I love BMP, it’s one of my comfort games. But GREE version was simply more interesting than “Oh I ran into these Princes on the street and now one of them has to randomly take me in” imo. Rant over lol.

BMP was actually up on GREE for a while, I managed to finish 3 routes while it was available (I‘m actually not completely sure if that‘s all they released before they decided to move on from GREE or if I was slow) but either way, shortly after Celebrity Darling got an English release Voltage decided to stop putting their games on GREE altogether. That’s when this whole mess went down.

People were obviously upset about losing all of their progress and content on GREE. Especially because it seemed like BMP was rather popular. Which is why Voltage decided to release the standalone app for it.

...

Just not in the way we wanted:

I’m still unsure exactly what compelled them to ever think this would go over well. Maybe the fact that they had edited some of PIL and no one ever really said anything about that played into it. Maybe they thought because Twilight was a big thing back then that girls would surely be into sparkly pale faced individuals with creepy smiles. We will probably never know just what went into the making of... THAT.

(No he doesn’t.)

But either way and as you can imagine people were  m a d. It hit even harder because these were character we were familiar with. One moment we were dating charming 2D Princes - and the next we would be faced with these weird photoshopped/drawn pale dudes that just looked unsettling with their dead fish eyes. Plus despite the fact that all of these characters would be part of the same game they didn’t look like it. The princes (and art) had varying grades of horror - some of it didn’t look that bad but some was nightmare fuel.

(Not only Wilfred’s face, all of their faces were expressionless. Or creepy.)

So before the game was even released they got major backlash. Considering how incredibly niche Otoge were over here back then this incident actually got a lot of attention. Here’s an article that was published by Kotaku back in the day. However Voltage still went for it and despite everything released two routes (Wilfred & Keith) with their own... rendition. We can assume it didn’t sell well, plus even if our fandom was rather small back then we were incredibly vocal about our displeasure.

I mean we basically had nothing to lose. Releases were far and inbetween anyways - and if this would be the future of overseas Otome Games then we’d rather not have any at all. Luckily the nightmare ended eventually and Voltage released the standalone app of BMP as we know it. (They were actually planning to release an “international” version of LLFTX as well, but it never went beyond the planning stage.)

In retrospect this is a pretty funny incident now. It might have even helped Otoge get more attention because again, a lot of people became suddenly aware of this niche market. I guess we were fortunate that Voltage decided to pull this stunt AFTER they released the BMP GREE version. I’m not sure what would have happened if their own rendition would have been the second overseas release after PIL. Maybe Otoge would have simply been written off as weird and the market would have died before it even got a chance to grow. Or maybe people wouldn’t have found the art as “weird” since there wasn’t much to compare it to and there would have been an era of “Twilight aesthetic” Otoge made by Voltage for the overseas fandom lol.

Either way it did end well and those of us who went through this experience can laugh about it now. I actually used to have more posts of Twilight BMP on my blog but deleted most of them since Voltage had a time when they were going after tumblr blogs and I was scared they’d be displeased by those reminders of their early days by me haha.

As you can seen, right from the start things have never been easy for us. But we have always been resilient and we’ve got a great sense of humor that has gotten us through a lot. I hope you enjoyed this piece of Otome Game history!

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Process of my P painting. I love the progress pictures more than the finished product haha.

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Sprite rework. The first reveal is Roya. Changing character art is difficult, but I want to update the art since my style changed.

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Happy 10th Anniversary, Cheritz!

Hello, this is Cheritz!

Did you know that as of today - February of 2022 - it has been precisely 10 years since Cheritz began its history of game-making?

The past 10 years we have spent with you were full of heartwarming experiences and excitements! Every single day, we imagined you enjoying our games and deliberated upon our performances. And we would like to give you our deepest gratitude for staying with us so far to read this message.

We are aware that we have kept you waiting ever since Mystic Messenger was released.

As we have reached our 10th anniversary this year, we will at last bring you a new game once the spring is in full bloom! We appreciate your patience for such a long period. We have been doing our best to create a new game for female gamers, and after much perseverance our newest release is almost all set.

We know there’s a seed of excitement waiting in your heart. Please keep it with you until spring, and we will be seeing you again.

We would like to thank you for all the love you have sent us for the past 10 years.

-Cheritz-

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I Take Your Hand: A Horror Otome

Release date (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) English: December 26th, 2021

“All Camille wants is for the mysterious transfer student Osgoode to notice her. Then Osgoode notices her and she ends up in his basement in chains. A horror otome about first love in the midst of gore and trauma.”

This is a free game by Amiralo! You can download it here.

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chu

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Obey Me! - Asmodeus and Simeon UR+ Animations

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long time no komaeda

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Voltage Inc. Announces “even if TEMPEST” for 2022 on Nintendo Switch

Voltage’s first Nintendo Switch exclusive otome game will be fully voiced, according to early details

Read More on OtomeObsessed.com »

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general

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missed you......