#i rant about otome games and visual novels and stuff like that

[fictionfixations]

twisted wonderland (and talking about visual novels)

TWISTED WONDERLAND SPOILERS.

and brief mystic messenger mention

okay. so. im getting into twisted wonderland

and. can i just ask. why does the story actually seem cool? also DESIGNS??? WOAHHH.

Maybe I'm biased, I've had the story a bit spoiled to me cause. Okay so I got into Twisted Wonderland because I was reading Katekyou Hitman Reborn! fics, and there's this series filled with Skull being characters from Twisted Wonderland (and other stuff ofc). And I decided, why not, and it seemed so cool (I adore bamf skull), and also. Honestly. My favorite is Riddle Rosehearts. (Also the 'OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!' ability. 1. Ayo CoLLAR ME PLS HAha- 2. I don't know if it gets more extreme but in the fics its been used to kill a bunch of people at once because, y'know, off with your head. The ability seems very cool.)

honestly i have no complaints about the story?? and maybe thats on me because the most experience i have with japanese visual novels is they're all romance games. and i really appreciate it not being that. HELL YEAH. give me my fantasy adventure with disney villains everyday!

i cannot tell you how much i LOVED Ever After High. And then there was Descendants (i think it got so popular that Ever After High got discontinued, which NOOOO)

Anyway I got so obsessed with Descendants. And then I went to a store and there was Descendants stuff and I bought a lot. I don't know why but I even bought like a Mal wig?? I don't even know why, I don't cosplay.

I'm not sure whose related to who and where exactly it fits in the universe (like, for example, if Riddle's related to the queen of hearts or something, no idea), but there's basically these dorms for seven of these like.. villains. Introduction to who they are in the prologue imo is kinda portraying it in a way that you want to be inspired by them? Like, oh, Scar just wanted equality between the Hyenas and the Lions (I think? I haven't watched that movie in so long), and while technically that's kind of true.. I think other stuff happened but I honestly can't remember.

Or like... The. evil queen? I think that's from Snow White's story. Uhh, that she wanted to be the fairest in all the land and was willing to do whatever it takes, which that was something to be admired about. Honestly don't hang on my word if you don't know about the game's story and reading this anyway because I don't remember a lot from the movies.

(ALSO for once not a story where we're assumed to be like, a girl? again, my only experience is those romance games sadly, but oh my god. I've been trying to get back into Mystic Messenger cause I never had the patience for it before, but the

me: I'm not a girl [dialogue option]

707 I think: ..Then why are you here??? Did you miss the 'something something. It was like [for females] or [female-oriented]'

it was 'youdidntreadsweetfantasyforladies?'

apparently its cause korea wasn't supportive of lgbtq stuff so even the more gay-er routes (COUGH COUGH jAEHEE MY BELOVED) were risky, sad.

but i don't know man. (can we talk about how guys are pushed to like those really overly muscular and buff men.? Wouldn't that technically make them possibly more gay? like idk. question:

if a boy were to play with, say, a barbie doll, would that be more gay then

playing with muscular half-naked men??? i really wonder why it's not flipped the other way around to promote f/m instead of f/f or m/m admiration lol)

anyway i got so off topic. and then i got distracted and i dont remember what i was talking about

segway to my next topic:

also. also. can we just. talk about the overblot designs? okay so im spoiling myself and going on the wiki but im not that patient

LOOK AT HOW GORGEOUS. ALSO HEELS. and i cant tell if its heeled boots but STILL. that little dress part that hangs around the body, the thing behind the head i dont know the name of but ive seen it before, the marking on the face reminding me of like one of those widow veils, the flowers around the waist is a nice touch

and the mark on his neck is 👀

like just SQUEEE, its very pretty, i would LOVE to play him but I'm pretty sure that's not possible

and cause overblotting is like a dangerous thing

(ive read that its like a rare thing in a fic but kept happening often since we arrived [one overblot for every 'book' or dorm] but idk if its canon cause i havent gotten to the explanation in the game and i dont think the wiki mentions it)

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

. . . 𝐰𝐞'𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧, 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐰𝐞?

[ 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐌𝐄 ] —

ꕤ 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨

hi hi hi!! welcome to my blog!!! <33

my alias is ari (also known as the ceo of mice <3), i’m 20 and currently majoring in literature!! failing at it, but majoring nonetheless!!! i’m a proud villainfucker and vocal lover of men who are Mother…. also knights. always and forever knights . i spam the dash a lot + rant in tags !!! a bunch!!!!!! if i read one of ur fics i will most likely be clogging your notifs so sorry in advance 🙇

my main fandom (and the only one i currently write for) is jjk!! my favs are satoru, suguru, shoko and kenjaku <33 but i also adore nobara & toji... megumi & mai… takaba & uraume.... etcetc <3 i ship anything gay and doomed (alternatively twisted), especially stsg, sukugo and sashisu (+ goken, kenkaba, kenyuki, sugushoko) :3

ꕤ 𝐟𝐚𝐯 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚

jjk has sadly taken over my life, but i have plenty of other anime/manga/games/etc that i’m into!!!! including (but not limited to):

chainsaw man, the fate/ series, milgram, blue lock, oshi no ko, honkai star rail, trigun stampede, project sekai, blue period, genshin, wind breaker, dungeon meshi, how do we relationship?, persona 3, disco elysium, etc!!

… and some of my favs from those works include:

makima, aki, denji, reo, oliver, kaiser, sae, kirei, merlin, saber, robin, kazui, shidou, kotoko, ai, aqua/gorou, sampo, kafka, boothill, sunday, kaeya, diluc, zhongli, hu tao, nai, vash, the tenmas, the shinonomes, togame, laios, saeko, etc!!

in general, i’m a lover of visual novels, otome games, shounen/shoujo manga, and gacha games!! i’d love to chat with any other fans!!!!!! tell me about your favorites <333

and last but not least!!! i adore literature & reading in general….. so here are some of my favorite books and plays :3c

war of the foxes (2015), beartown (2016), eureka street (1996), waiting for godot (1952), galahad: enough of his life to explain his reputation (1926), kafka on the shore (2002), the stranger (1942), a doll’s house (1879), etc!!

ꕤ 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐬��𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠

i’m a selfshipper!! i’m still new to it and really just having fun, but i do have a (long) list of all my selfships along with some moodboards here for anyone who’s curious :3

my main selfships are with kenjaku, suguru, satoru & makima!! you’re always more than welcome to ask about any of them, or gush about your own 🫂 this is a safe space for any and all selfshippers, especially those of you who selfship with villains/otherwise morally corrupt characters (we are holding hands <3)

+ all my selfship posts are tagged as #selfshippy stuff ✩ !!

ꕤ 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 ᘛ⁐ᕐᐷ💐

with that all being said!! i hope you enjoy your stay on this silly little blog 🥹🥹 i look forward to getting to know you!!!!! remember to eat a meal and drink lots of water, if you haven’t already today!!!!

[otome-crow]

So I just finished 7’Scarlet. It took me awhile to get into - I loved Hino’s route (the first one I picked) but it felt like really slow going somehow, and it took me a few weeks to finish.

But I have to say, I’m not sure I’ve ever had this strong of a reaction to a visual novel. Ever.

I HATED the ending. But I hated the ending because I LOVED THE STORY AND THE CHARACTERS SO FUCKING MUCH. The story does NOT go where you expect it will. Once you finish all the available boys and you open the “True Ending” it just blew my mind. I started yelling to my husband about it. I’m ranting here, which I never do.

And what makes me hate it more is that it’s written PERFECTLY.

Look, I’m an ELA teacher. I study stories for a living. When something is badly written, or it leaves little holes for me, I can either ignore the bullshit or widen up those holes with fanfic or headcanons to fix up whatever it is that made me mad. But the thing that made me so mad (I don’t want to spoil anything) was written SO PERFECTLY that I can’t complain about it. It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. You look back into what happened previously and you see all the signs that it was there. The TITLE SCREEN IS A CLUE. This wasn’t some angsty nonsense thrown in at the last minute in a route just for the feels; this was the goal from the start.

AND I’M SO MAD.

I had DREAMS about it last night, and I never dream (or at least I don’t remember my dreams!). I want to ignore it, to pretend that I never went past the last guy’s story, but I . . .can’t. The story is what the story is. I spent half my night trying to think of ways to undo what was done. What could I write? What could I headcanon? How could I save my best boi from his fate? And I came up with nothing. Canon boxed me into a corner and I’m so mad (why? Why him?) but I’m also really glad (so well written!).

One reason I started this blog is I wanted to talk about the other otomes/VNs I’m playing. So here I am, ranting into the void to my, like, 4 follows lol.

(For the record, I’m talking about the “True Ending” not the “Secret Character” ending, because IMO that was really meh. It was the only disappointing part of the entire story.)

(EDIT: Another reason I started this blog was to kind of review stuff. If anyone gives a crap, I might start actually reviewing the games I play.)

[lizz-revs]

Lost in Secular Love

This is more of an otome game than a visual novel. It is quite short. There are only three routes available and there are only two ends for each route.

Story

The heroine has to go to a temple to get married to a monk because her father made a mistake to support the wrong candidate for the throne. Now her family maybe calls themselves aristocrats, but they are poor, and since a monk has a lot of money, the mother chooses to marry off her eldest daughter to one. The heroine is not religious in any way though, but a glutton. However, miraculously she stills passes the test at the temple and is engaged to the monk Zhikong.  Now is the time for the player to decide, whether this relationship will last, or, if she falls in love with someone else: either Zhikong’s brother Huihai or her childhood friend Ziqing.

Characters

The Heroine

I kind of like the heroine but at the same time I don’t. What I really liked, was that she has some distinguishable personality traits like her love for food or her will to survive because she is poor. In addition, I liked her inner conflict that she is torn between following the aristocratic traditions and earning money for her family.

However, I have two major problems with her personality: Firstly, how she fell in love with her fiancé doesn’t make sense to me at all. The story goes from he kissed her and now she is obsessed with him. They just completely changed her personality, so that she is an over-caring, obsessive girlish teenager, who acts like she fell in love with a celebrity.

Her development is really abrupt in every story. She goes from “I want to eat white rice!” to “I want to be there for you and do religious things!”. It’s confusing because she was very materialistic at first, but suddenly becomes very poetical and mature (in the good endings). I feels like the person was switched out, but not like she has matured mentally.

In the bad endings, I feel like she was switched out as well. In my opinion, doesn’t suit her personality, because she is shown to be very headstrong, that she lets herself be completely destroyed. I don’t believe that even strong affections change people this much. It was like she had completely given up on life.

Nevertheless, to be honest, even with her flaws, her personality is still a change from the typical lady in distress "please hold and save me" girly-girl, which is typical for otome. Still it is very underdeveloped because her personality changes feel rather forced and rushed.

Zhikong

He is the heroine’s fiancée. He starts off being quite monotone and makes many religious quotes (, which I didn’t get…), but has a weird fetish for … strange things? (I don’t even know, how to describe the stuff he hoards, just play the game and see for yourself). What intrigued me the most about him, was his devilish, so to say yandere, side later in the game.

And, like I said, I didn’t get most of his religious quotes, so the interactions with the heroine weren’t that interesting for me and I became bored with his personality quite quickly as well. I even couldn’t understand, what choice mattered for the bad end and why. He was mostly acting the same in both ends to be honest, so I felt in the bad end the heroine was just somehow mentally unstable and it was her problem that everything escalated and not his.

Anyway, this route had a lot of potential, but it left so many things just unexplained. Zhikong’s yandere side for example: The game never explained, why he is acting like this, and what events led to it. His personality is rather confusing, not very realistic and the story had a lot of unnecessary drama.

Huihai

This is the brother of the fiancé, so it’s more like a forbidden romance.

My favorite route of the game, although I liked the bad ending slightly more than the good ending, since it was written more realistic in my opinion.

Huihai is more of a housewife than manly. He has an obsession for buying things at a cheap price, but has also a childish and flirty way of talking to the ladies. In fact, he has quite a fan base, so to say, and gets many gifts, which end up in the warehouse because he clearly doesn’t get the meaning of love yet. Yet means that, after the heroine appears and you choose his route, he does fall in love – with that girl.

This is a clearly unhappy event for both of them, since the heroine should be married off to his brother. So, they start off being just friends, but that isn’t a wise choice because at some point both of them realize that they want more.

I think this story was actually really good. It is clearly realistic, since it’s normal for two people to fall in love, if they share the same interests and the main character suits Huihai very much. There was character development – not only the heroine changed her way of thinking, but Huihai became more manly – both grew up. And last, but not least, there wasn’t unnecessary drama because the situation they were in was dramatic enough itself, and understandable so.

However, I think in the good ending towards the end things were too rushed. Before some event, it was going towards the bad ending, but suddenly everything changed and they could have a good ending. Therefore, I liked the bad ending more. Otherwise, of course I’d want the characters to be happy.

Ziqing

The shortest and the worst route of the game. It had so much potential. Childhood friends met each other after so many years, developing romantic feelings for each other, but the girl has to marry Zhikong and so on…

Well, what happened was an unlovable, almost egomaniac person, who said so many rude things that I started to wonder about why the heroine even keeps talking to him. If I was her, I’d had punched him at least a million times. And he made her cry so often with his unbelievable bad behavior – there are just things you don’t say to a person. I don’t really care, how hard you’ve had it in your life, dude, but just why do you have to make her life miserable too?

So, it’s no wonder that, when he confessed, I wasn’t the slightest happy, but utterly confused, why the heroine didn’t just say outright no, but that she had to “think about it”.

What made it even worse is that his personality just completely switched after the confession, like he started to be really caring and not being rude, but only teasing.

For me it was like a try to make a character tsundere, but not fully understanding the meaning behind tsundere, so they just made him awful instead. But, how can you love an awful character? So, after the confession they just switched his personality, so he is more lovable, without any further reason.

My opinion

Well, enough ranting about the characters. As you can see, my main problem with this novel was not the writing style, the music or the art, but the character design and the routes.

Honestly, I don’t think all of the routes besides Huihai’s are really worth playing, but I’d think Zhikong’s route is at least somehow enjoyable. Anyway, Huihai’s route is actually so good that for me it’s totally worth to buy this game for it.

It had the right amount of drama and action in it and since it wasn’t that long, it didn’t get boring or tedious to play. In addition, I really liked the chemistry between the main character and Huihai.

In conclusion, this novel is a pretty refreshing story with a rather unusual and kind of funny main character. The story idea is quite nice as well, but the actual storytelling and character development is still unpolished. With some routes like Zhikong’s the character development is rather questionable. Somehow, the characters just switch personalities. However, there is also Huihai’s route, which makes up for all the lacks the other two stories have.

If you want to read something for a few hours, which isn’t your typical romance visual novel game, but you don’t necessary want a game that is absolute astonishing and I’d call one of the best I’ve ever read, then I would say you should give this novel a try.

I’d give Huihai a 9/10 and the rest of the game about 6/10.

[justine-the-guillotine]

I was asking because I saw your list of VNs awhile back and they were pretty great. I’m glad you listed Cinderella Phenomenon because I would have never even known about it otherwise and I have to admit it has my favourite MC. A number of MCs I find to be really passive (MLQC MC) and it annoys me. But like you said Cinderella’s MC is a bitch and doesn’t take crap from anybody. She’s great! I also enjoyed seeing her grow into a better person without losing her gumption throughout the story. 1/2

OMG I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKED CINDERELLA PHENOMENON yesssss 💖💖💖💖

I actually want to redo my whole recommendations post that I made because since then I actually really played through a lot of the games I owned instead of just going through the prologue or partial route (or just letting them sit which is even worse but your girl only has so much time in the day.....)

So I actually have not played Nightshade but I do want to one day. It's expensive for PC as well unfortunately. I do know it is highly recommended within the otome community, and a lot of people I know really love it. But they also tell me it's sad, so am I really ready to cry over a game like that (the answer is yes because I cry all the time over games).

So talking about the Fate series with me is.... Wow I'm gonna try to not write an actual novel because I legitimately can go on and on and I know, I know I'm annoying about it I just can't help it I'm really passionate and have a lot of feelings about Fate 😩

(The following is why I don't have friends in the Fate fandom, I come off like a VN elitist 😅😅😅)

The short answer is yes, I have seen the Fate series and I think the Unlimited Blade Works anime was done really really well.

Let me briefly break down the Fate series for a minute in case you or anyone reading doesn't know, plus it helps me explain my opinion.

All these thousands of Fate franchise spinoff all are based on a universe that was created by one visual novel, which just happens to be my favorite game of all time, Fate/Stay Night. In this VN there are are three routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel.

The first F/SN anime that was inspired by this VN did not do a good job portraying this VN and it like tried to mix pieces of all three routes together while simultaneously stripping away all the deep parts of the story. In short, a disaster.

The Unlimited Blade Works anime series (the episodic one that Netflix has), however, is a damn near perfect portrayal of the UBW route in the game. I absolutely love it and what they did with it. And while I dislike the fact they split Heaven's Feel into three fucking movies, these movies are also doing a great job of portraying their intended story!

With the exception of Fate/Zero, anything else having to do with the Fate franchise that was released is a bastardization of the original VN. (They created Zero to be a prequel to the original VN and it does a good job! It's great as a stand alone anime as well). Things like Fate/Extra, Fate/Grand Order, etc etc etc were all things created simply to milk all the money they could out of a VN that was truly ahead of its time.

That rant out of the way LMFAO, these series are actually all pretty good in my opinion I just get salty over how they took a perfect VN and spawned all this extra stuff from it but like they are all good in their own right, I'm just a purist.

So I love love love chatting Fate but I don't ever find anyone who shares or even respects my opinion on the franchise so if you disagree that's totally fine please enjoy whatever you like 💖💖💖 thanks for coming back to chat, anon!

[votometrash]

Love Choice Review

Okay so I had no idea Masquerade Kiss would be Love Choice, but this title has managed to tempt me into reading it anyway. I can’t say I’m happy about it but there are a lot of things I have to say, since the whole Love Choice (LC) system has been controversial, or just incredibly detested/undesired, ever since its conception. And it does suck since I’ve been wanting Voltage to release more mature titles (and the whole female spy thing was just a plus, I guess). Voltage did a really good job of hyping up this release and I love/hate them for it lmao. But yeah here are my two cents on the LC feature. Sorry for the longass rant in advance. If you only care about my opinion regarding Masquerade Kiss and Kazuomi Shido’s route then you can check out my review later on my blog (if and when I get to it). But I still mention the title here and there in this review since it is the first LC main story that was released.

For most people who have been with Voltage for a long time, LC is probably one of the worst things on the planet, right after the Love 365 app debacle which caused many to lose their stories if they weren’t aware of the transfer dates or not able to transfer their data (technically they’re losing the right/license to access those stories, cause they don’t own them) and all the other customer service horror stories you can think of. Generally, for people who think that converting coins into hearts and not being able to read the story however they want are terrible ideas, they will outright avoid LC titles/stories. Since LC is F2P, it isn’t much different from the other otome/visual novels that have premium options where people have the option to spend money.

But let’s just think about it for a moment.

The appeal of LC is that you can read the stories completely free of charge. Yes, there is a countdown timer which prevents you from reading the next episode immediately and you would have to spend hearts to bypass that. But let’s keep in mind that Voltage Entertainment USA (aka the subsidiary which creates apps catered towards Western audiences) is also doing something similar with the ticket system. Plus they don’t even give you the option to buy routes anymore, which is why we should be thankful that Voltage Inc hasn’t done that with their Japanese apps yet. I just want to make the best of what we are given (and hopefully try to get a little enjoyment out of it), even if LC is terribly implemented.

So just hear me out for a second. A very long second.

If you’re not one of those people who need every single CG and ending AND don’t mind the wait, this post is mainly for you.

PLEASE JUST READ THE DAMN STORY. LIKE READ MASQUERADE KISS RIGHT NOW WHILE THERE IS NO WAIT TIME (until 2/17). It costs you nothing and you will still get a pretty complete experience.  Don’t be stupid and believe that you’re missing out if you don’t get the CG’s. Go look the CG’s up online or something if you have to because I’m sure someone has posted them regardless of whether it’s allowed or not. It has a decent plot that doesn’t make me want to ram my head into a wall from secondhand embarrassment. Sure there are aspects of it that weren’t written well (will be explained in my review later) but it’s still a good story and I don’t regret reading it. It would be a shame to miss out just because you’re too busy hating on the system. If you don’t want to spend your free hearts (or don’t have enough) on CG’s that cost you 20-30 hearts and options that require hearts, just use it towards reading the next couple episodes (for when they go back to subjecting you to wait times). At least you still won’t be using as many hearts. Yeah the CG’s and love choices are hella expensive and they shouldn’t be. It might even feel like you’re being punished for not choosing those choices because in the end you won’t be getting the happy ending. But they’re not NECESSARY. However, if you still want the CG’s/happy endings, just reread it again later when you get enough hearts. I don’t know, that’s not a priority for me so I can wait on unlocking those CG’s. 

From Episode 1 up to the second to last episode, you’re getting the same. exact. content. Let me repeat that. YOU GET THE SAME EXACT CONTENT. The only thing is that you won’t get all of the CG’s or the super happy ending, which are what people are really paying for. Is it really worth it??? Voltage apps don’t have bad endings. They’re either the romantic/passionate alternate endings or it’s happy(or normal)/super happy endings. No endings where it’s game over, you’re dead or oops you screwed up this entire thing. You’re essentially getting the same ending, just a slightly different view of the events. Just more vanilla, if you don’t get the “better” ending. Slightly fewer lines of text, less description. Big whoop. That and well, you don’t get the CG. Too bad. No personal bragging rights for me to put on my metaphorical trophy pedestal. For me, reading the visual novel is the main goal. The art and CG’s are just a plus, a very much appreciate plus. I would care more about the plot because if you are reading a terribly written story, what’s the point in having good art anyways? You look at it for a bit and just move on to something else that isn’t a waste of time.  

And like....come on. If you hate the LC feature, that’s all the more the reason why you should try it. It won’t even hurt you to read the story if you’re adamant on not spending money/converting coins. Even if it’s terribly written, you didn’t pay for it like you would have with a P2P story. No monetary loss there, just lost time and feelings of disappointment. And if you hate waiting or think LC is a waste of time, just think of reading an episode whenever you have time. You don’t have to commit to it. You could speed read an episode in a minute or two and then go on doing whatever else you want to do with your day. It shouldn’t take up that much of your time. And if you forget to, it’s fine. Not something you’ll be too invested in.

They’re not charging you for anything, so suck it up. I’m sure you have other things you can do in the meantime while you wait for the next episode. Your life doesn’t revolve around otome games (unless you’re adopting an unhealthy lifestyle in which case you have more things to be concerned about). Don’t be a whiny bitch about it. And that’s why the hearts system exists... for the impatient people. They WANT you to spend money on their products, since that’s the whole point of running a business. Yes you’re paying for a one-time access when you’re using hearts to read episodes. Yes you have to start over if you want to reread a specific episode. Ultimately it’s up to YOU to choose whether you want to spend money or not for LC stories, but you don’t HAVE to.

Again, I’m emphasizing the word ‘time’ because if you really don’t have time, then seriously just do whatever you’re supposed to be doing jesus christ. Don’t feel like I’m calling you out for not wanting to read LC stories because you don’t have time to wait around for it. I’m not telling you to prioritize LC over Voltage’s other stuff. Just give it a chance if you can afford to do so, because money isn’t the issue here if you can read the story for free. I know people look towards Voltage apps as a way to relax and so that I understand that reading a LC novel would not be a choice if you have limited time. Because why go for LC if you have perfectly good apps that you’ve already paid for and can read whenever you want? I understand. I really do.

In regards to people complaining about Masquerade Kiss being a LC novel, I have a couple things I want to say. Voltage has the right to choose whichever title they want to be LC. Besides, what criteria do you expect them to use in choosing which titles should be LC? It’s not as if they’ll be like “oh let’s choose an okay title to be Love Choice”, just to make customers glad that they don’t have to waste money. That’s not practical. And ideally they wouldn’t want to be writing shitty stories anyway. They need to make money off them or else it’s a waste of all the money and time they invested into producing the title. For the most part, all the newer titles have been decent, if not good. There will be people who love them and people who hate them. So how would you decide the best choice to be LC among all the good titles? And it wouldn’t make sense to make a title both LC and P2P because that would be when people will REALLY start to hate LC, especially when you have to fork out a ridiculous amount of hearts for the CG’s.  Then there will be even more customer complaints yay. Also, if they made it P2P how many coins would they even charge for the whole route, considering how many hearts they have to spend for the CG’s? The CG’s are “free” only if you have enough hearts for those in-game choices that you want to choose, but if you’re paying for them that would mean it’s like $2-$3 per CG. 

Since they announced this feature, it’s here to stay unless they decide to get rid of it (which I doubt). YOU DON’T GET A SAY IN IT. Their company, their products, their choices. They will make whatever choices in which they benefit the most from. Sometimes those choices will align with what customers want. Sometimes they won’t. You don’t like it then you leave. That’s what most people would do anyway. Even if you do leave, there will always be more people getting sucked into the Voltage trap anyways. If you don’t, then you will continue to rot in the sin bin that is Voltage and there goes your money. Sadly, that’s how the world works. 

So yeah if you’re still reading, thanks for reading my very long winded, unpopular (probably) opinion. You’re a trooper. I have respect for you. I’m just here to get this off my chest. Please don’t hate me. 

[foxstens]

gotta rant about an obscure topic

sometimes i see people say things like ‘this game is a good visual novel but not a good otome game’ and it drives me up the FUCKING WALL

they usually use this to mean that the game didn’t have ‘enough’ romance or it didn’t have really ‘happy’ endings, but then i’m just left wondering what the fuck a ‘good’ otome game means

an otome game is a game with a female protagonist who pursues male love interests. that’s it. there’s no mention of how much romance there should be or how tragic the story can be or anything else

if you’re the type of person who likes fluffy romance-focused otome games then yes, something like virche or the psychedelica games would be bad. FOR YOU. but not for me and many other players who prefer dark games or ones light on romance (why would you even play these games in that case tho lol)

but why word it like this. it makes it sound like objectively speaking, cupid parasite and yunohana spring are much better games than the two i mentioned above. w h y. it’s just such an odd choice of words. i’ve also never heard someone say the opposite, like ‘this is a good otome game but a bad visual novel’. or say that something is a good visual novel but a bad galge because it has little romance l m f a o.

and this entire thing brings with itself another question. what the fuck does enough romance even mean. i can’t count all the times i’ve played a game and thought it had decent romance or a good balance of romance and plot and then went online just to see people say it barely has any romance. like what.

like there’s what ‘enough romance’ is to each player, and there’s also what each player considers to be ‘romance’. as far as i’ve seen on the subreddit, a lot of people consider romance to just be kissing, hugs, handholding, confessions, you know stuff like that

which is perfectly valid but very different from my own point of view, like to me romance is often simple conversations and just spending time together, getting to know each other. so it’s a very subjective thing that depends on the player.

but yea, i just hate how they make it sound like having less romance or happy endings makes a game less of an otome game, when that’s not... the case... makes me wonder what these people would think if they were to play the games that actually spawned the genre............ eh

[anathema-game]

Twist of Fate: Anathema is a visual novel by Meishali and Merriweather, and is currently under development. Each week, we talk a bit about our experiences as newbie gamedevs, as well as the game’s general feel and features.

Today, we’re going to talk about how Twist of Fate: Anathema came to be, and how creators have to be careful with what they create. With great power comes great responsibility.

If you haven’t read what the game is about yet, you can check it out here!

Just Meishali:

Hi everyone! It’s just me today. Merriweather is fine, just a little busy!

I don’t think we’ve talked about how TOF:A came to be, or even about how Merriweather and I met. We’ve been friends for almost three years now, and met through a common acquaintance via Final Fantasy XIV Online. We pretty much realized we had similar interests and adored aesthetics, despite being very different people. I knew she wrote, and she knew I wrote as well, since we both came to do online roleplay together.

As we got to know each other in 2015, we came to discuss about visual novels, more specifically otome games dedicated mostly to heterosexual female audiences. We were complaining about main characters being utter doormats, and that some of the guys were straight up unlikeable.

(Discord Excerpt of Merriweather and I talking through discord, 2016 — Andrea was originally labelled “Hakim,” “Dante”, then “Lorenzo”. Oswyn was always Oswyn, luckily for him.)

As we trash talked and trash talked, we still came to the conclusion that the both of us STILL played those games, and wasted hours and days trying to get the best endings...  Because ultimately, they’re hilariously fun. You role play and decide stuff and talk to people!... Well, it’s fun when you get past all the extremely toxic tropes the genre spews at the players’ face. 

The idea of Anathema eventually came from an “if they can do it, so can we, and better” line of thought after our 1000th rant. It was more or less of a parody of these games originally, and we put a strong emphasis on both Andrea and Oswyn being straight up yandere. Kinkshame us if you will, we’re already ascending.

When we mentioned it on and off, discussing details vaguely, it was more of a meme, and not an actual thing, to be fair. We were both busy with our own lives and hobbies at the time, so we did not particularly looked into it. I had my own comic project in mind, as well as commissions, among other things. A game would’ve just been too much.

(Discord Excerpt of Merriweather and I talking through discord, 2016 —Nevermind, their original placeholder names were “Pierogi” (Oswyn - A wink to Merri’s Polish blood) and “Blackass” (Andrea, since the black panther motif had already been mentioned), apparently. They both had axes for whatever reason.)

Eventually, I decided that I wanted to do it. I’m not sure exactly what sparked it, but I am pretty certain that, in my head I thought of TOF:A as a potential stepping stone. Something to prove myself I was capable of doing something and sticking to it; Merriweather admitted wanting to do the same, and so our project became a real thing around August-September 2017. Active work started around that time, too. Planning, scenario, etc.

As we moved on, I thought that we might have to go past the parody nature of it all. Visual novels of the otome genre often say that you’re rewarded when you’re “being nice” (trampled on), and when you’re “pleasing your man” (suppressing your personality and expression because someone can not tolerate it), to the point even the story is disregarded entirely. 

You shouldn’t be able to save the kingdom just because you said the prince looked nice during a ball. That’s absurd. What are the enemy nations gonna do? Stop themselves at the borders and be all “wait guys, she was nice to him, we gotta give them the good ending”?

Beyond that, as said earlier, it is often younger women and girls that play games of the otome genre. As all pieces of media, it’s important to ask yourself: “What does it say?” — Even if you think something does not imply anything, it always does. The media we consume affects our subconscious. If we’re given awful material, we can make terrible associations, or even feel invisible, or bad, maybe because a character that resembles us is seen as bad, for instance.

In most otome’s case, what it says is often just very damaging. You can not survive without a man; you have to pick a man; you must do what he likes, you must be what he likes. Otherwise everything will go to shit. The main issue is that it isn’t shown as problematic behavior, but as something "normal" and “natural”, even “cute” at times. But it isn’t.

That’s when we decided we’d respect the codes of the genre while still making our own thing. Merriweather shared her concerns about the audience not liking it, as it was different from the rest of the games they may have played before: I assured her that if we gave something of an outstanding quality, it wouldn’t matter, and that bringing new material to the table was a good thing.

It went from an otome to a visual novel proper. Story is the main focus, and romance will be optional, even if Andrea and Oswyn will always have particular feelings concerning the MC: she does not have to conform to anything to be loved—She is liked by most of the cast for what she is, though her decisions and thoughts regarding life in the castle may affect them.

I myself am not fearless. I feel like the game is this sort of piece of media that is an “in-between”: while it does change most of the grand lines found within visual novels, it’s not enough to shake the foundations of the genre. Not that I think I’m capable of something particularly groundbreaking either way.

Ultimately, I want it to be a good, positive and fun experience, for everyone who plays it, including people who may not usually like visual novels. The power of creation is something I find sublime: you can not know who will pick you piece of media up, nor what they will do with it, and what it’ll inspire them to do, or say, negative and positive. So we’re doing our best to make something bulletproof: something that we like, and does as much good as possible.

Take care.

- Meishali

[if-i-want-to-dance]

I feel like I have a lot of nervous energy today and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. I mean my Sinoalice guild decided to disband today (I had been considering leaving for a bit anyway, I suppose that’s more of a relief anyway?) but I don’t think that’s quite the cause.

I should say that I’ve been having some issues the last few weeks with feeling tired and depressed, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

Honestly, over the last few months, I’ve barely seen any of my friends. I’ve only seen my coworkers and my family. I’m aware I’m far from the only one, but my brother has been going on trips with his friends what feels like pretty much every second weekend and my sister has been meeting with hers on a regular basis and they’re just going on their merry way like there isn’t a pandemic. Then when I point out that they should probably be more careful with their social bubbles, my mom tells me I’m just as bad because I interact with people at my customer service job. Which is totally the same thing. I miss having classes at school and I miss seeing my friends.

Sorry for the rant/ramblings, I’m just mentally tired and feel like I can’t focus. I can’t really talk to my family about how I feel because they’ll just tell me if I ate better/exercised more/lost weight/read my Bible/prayed more it would go away. While those things wouldn’t hurt to do, I definitely don’t think it’ll fix this particular problem. That and I don’t like to let them in on the inner workings of my brain too much because it just feels like my brain is my personal space, and giving them that information would just give them too much access to it? Which, naturally, is why I share my thoughts online where no one knows me personally lol.

And I don’t want to unload to my best friend because, while she wouldn’t mind, I do that a lot already and she has her own stuff to deal with too.

I think I need to make some kind of change/take up a new hobby? Maybe that would help? I could start that story I’ve been working on plotting for almost a year. Or take up art, I’d love to be able to write comics or even a visual novel. Maybe even just start a new otome game, find some new characters to simp for?

I feel better having just typed this up. I’ve started wearing lolita fashion around the house, whether or not my family is home, and I don’t know that it’s making me feel any better, but it’s definitely not making me feel any worse so I’m going to keep doing it lol. Thanks if you made it to the end of this, I feel a bit better letting this off my chest.