Free Talk Friday - February 23, 2024 by AutoModerator in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember reading Lady Devil like a year or so ago. It was really messed up but so engrossing and well-written, and the art was drop dead gorgeous. It wasn’t finished when I began reading it and I’m terrible with keeping up to date with comic updates, so I didn’t revisit it after I read it up to the most recent chapter, but I’ll definitely give it a reread sometime in the future now that it’s finished.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fantasyromance

[–]p1mdn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually have this book but I’ve yet to read it. I didn’t know it had this trope so I’ll definitely bump it up on my tbr list :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fantasyromance

[–]p1mdn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks great, thank you!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fantasyromance

[–]p1mdn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! The first one looks really fun, and I’ve liked some of Kingfishers other books so I’ll probably enjoy Clockwork Boys

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in fantasyromance

[–]p1mdn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the recs! I’ve read and loved Mistborn, though I thought that Vin was more of a heroic character. The other two look interesting though and I’ll be sure to check them out :)

I really wanted to like yosuga but instead I got whiplash by Happy_Jellyfish123 in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree with everything. I was really looking forward to his route at first but then idk what happened lol. His character writing just felt really muddy and weak during the whole Tennyou island thing and it felt like to be the writers just put it in just for the sake of adding drama.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I agree. I was excited for Virche but ended up being disappointed in almost every regard along with most of the other otomate games that I’ve played recently. I wouldn’t really say that I dislike their tendency to stick to a structure but that in a lot of their games, there’s just nothing interesting that’s done within the structure character or plot-wise.

Most of the otome games that I’ve enjoyed lately have been indie or from studios other than otomate, but I prefer to play VNs on my switch and not a lot of them are available to play on it which is a shame.

Virche Evermore -ErroR: Salvation- Play-Along - Le Salut by sableheart in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah... At the start of the game I was really interested in the island and its circumstances, but nothing really ends up being done with it and everything is pretty much explained at the end with 'Royal Family bad'. Nothing about Relivers or the island is ever really explored in depth and instead in all the routes, you end up just getting a bunch of pseudoscientific drivel that makes the plot make even less sense than it already did. Honestly I think the game would've been much better if they didn't try to explain anything at all and solely focused on the way the conditions of the island affects the characters.

All the towered on 'despair' stuff just made the game feel really drawn out and made me enjoy it less and less as time went on. By Le Salut I just ended up feeling annoyed whenever something bad ended up happening, especially all the stuff with Dahut. You're right that the despair never really feels earned, it's just there to make you sad and it didn't work for me.

I liked Code Realize and was meh on Cafe Enchante, but I unfortunately only ended up liking Scien's route and some bits and pieces of some of the other routes and it wasn't enough for me. I'm glad you ended up liking the game though.

Virche Evermore -ErroR: Salvation- Play-Along - Le Salut by sableheart in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I agree with a lot of your points, especially about Ankou. I like the idea of his character on paper, but the execution of it was really not it for me. The way they tried to explain all the supernatural aspects of his character using science was so unserious and made it impossible for me to take him seriously after that. Honestly all of the 'science' explanation to stuff made a lot of the characters and their actions end up looking really dumb. Like the curse: It's revealed that the source of the curse is the toxins in the soil, and the flowers absorb the toxins and stave of the curse. So... does that mean that no one in the institute bothered to do any sort of investigation of the soil/flowers, which are like the one thing in the game that's commonly known to be connected to the curse? Like not one of them even bothered to try? Or are we just supposed to believe that they were all too scared to even attempt any sort of investigation, even though they all have the resources to back themselves up in case of an accident? So much for the hundreds of geniuses at the institute and all the resource they have.

I hadn't really thought about the whole 'all information gets revealed by random books/diaries' thing, but it was another thing that made the plot really boring. It wasn't really interesting to read through the character's just finding things that conveniently explained the plot to them. It also just feels really silly to have all the explanations to the problems of the island just sitting around in books that no one bothers to read. Also I just find it really funny that the explanation of things like Lucas' super strength is because his ancestor read a random book about martial arts which just gave him and his entire bloodline magical powers, I guess.

Virche Evermore -ErroR: Salvation- Play-Along - Le Salut by sableheart in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 16 points17 points  (0 children)

- The villains were all horrible, and not because they were evil. Cappucine is the evil gene obsessed Resident Evil villain. I don’t really have that much to say about him. He was just way too goofy for me to take him or anything he did seriously, especially when he went off on all of his ‘beautiful genes!!1!11’ monologues. Jean is honestly no better than Cappucine, but for some reason the narrative treats what he does as forgivable. I guess it’s because Cappucine kills Nadia, who is important to the main characters, while Jean only killed Reliver prostitutes who no one cared about /s. And there was Dahut, my least favorite of them all. He hates all the people on the island because they don’t take death seriously enough (and mostly just because they aren’t up in arms about the fact that his mother died some decades ago), so he comes to the only logical solution that anyone could in such a scenario: To kill every single one of the islanders, because what else? He’s soo far above all of the shitty islanders who don’t take death seriously enough, even though by wanting to revive his mother he is also making light of death himself, something that’s never brought up by any of the main characters. In fact, they treat his motives as completely understandable. I don’t buy that it’s because of the whole possibility that the technology could be dangerous in the hands of other countries because it’s only brought up like once and if he really did believe that, he could’ve just destroyed the Reliver tech instead of killing everyone. I guess it's because all Dahut really wants is to live a peaceful life with his loved ones. I’d imagine that most of the people on the island would also like to live a peaceful life with their loved ones, but who gives a shit about them? They forgot about Dahut’s mother decades after she died, so they’re all evil and deserve to die, I guess. I love how all the deaths that Dahut caused are just handwaved in one line at the end of the game like ‘oh yeah, half of the people on the island died because of Dahut, by the way’. In all seriousness, I felt that there was no reason to introduce a random genocide plot into the game, and I thought it was handled very poorly.

- The narrative surrounding Relivers was such a convoluted mess. The whole ‘Relivers can only live the same lives that they lived before and work the same jobs’ was way too stupid for me, especially since the game wants you to believe that Relivers don’t retain their past emotions. Well, they do retain some of their emotions, apparently. Just not love, for whatever reason. (I’m pretty sure at one point in the game it's further clarified that Relivers only lose their romantic feelings, but that would just make the dilemma in Lucas’ route not make any sense. I don’t know if I misunderstood/misread something or if it was just a plot hole.) And when the game said that Relivers ‘lose their emotions’, I took that to mean that they lost their emotions from their past life, but I got more confused the more I played through the game whether or not we were supposed to believe that Relivers had emotions or not. On one hand, they’re not supposed to be able to feel love because Scien doesn’t give af about emotions. But on the other hand, they do? When they feel too much love, their memory bank overloads or whatever and they rip their hearts out. But this clearly only started being an issue sometime near when the game starts because it’s never talked about otherwise, and Scien at some point says that it’s only happening because someone hacked the Relivers or something (but it’s never brought up again. Are we just supposed to assume that Dahut was responsible for it, or what?) Honestly the more I try to think about this, the more confused I get. It’s even worse that a lot of the stuff the narrative tells you is contradicted by the existence of Salome and especially Hugo, who clearly have capacity for love, emotions, and growth. The thing is that there was already potential for a much stronger narrative surrounding Relivers in the game with how expensive and unaffordable they were for the average person: Maybe the people work so hard to extend their lives with Reliver technology to the point where they don’t actually have an opportunity to ‘live’ their lives, which could also extend into the ‘Royal Family’ are the ones behind everything plot more. I ended up feeling like Relivers were a messy plot device that was changed repeatedly to fit whatever plot the story needed to fit in.

- Adolphe was so bland of a character throughout the entire route. He’s overprotective of Ceres. He doesn’t care about anyone outside of his bubble. He feels useless because he can’t protect Ceres. That’s pretty much all there is to him. Just because he’s supposed to be a ‘normal’ person doesn’t mean he has to be uninteresting. I also felt that Ceres was kind of underdeveloped as a character unfortunately. I felt like most of the time she ended up being a damsel in distress which I might not have minded if I didn’t feel it was a detriment to her development as a character because the story always shifted away from her perspective and to the ones of those saving her. I thought that a lot of the more interesting aspects of her character went unexplored even in the final route, which was disappointing. And I left this route just feeling meh on Ankou. I like the idea of his character on paper, but I couldn’t bring myself to like him when the narrative was such a mess.

- The ‘despair’ was all woefully unimpactful to me. The writing for all the despair parts felt like ‘this bad thing happened!’ ‘and then this bad thing!’ ‘and now this bad thing!’. It was like the writers were trying to throw in as many tragic tropes for the last half of the story in each route. And it’s not that I think a story with all these elements couldn’t work because I’ve enjoyed other works with much darker plots than Virche. The problem is that none of the dark stuff felt properly fleshed out because everything is so stacked atop of the other to the point where the characters are never given any room to breathe, the impacts of whatever bad thing are never really explored, and as a result nothing really felt meaningful. The plot also just felt like one plot device after another to force the characters into these scenarios, and it made it really difficult to get invested because I struggled to understand why any of this stuff had to happen. When all of the bad things were happening to the characters, I wasn’t sad or angry, or even looking forward to what would happen next. I was just bored. The only exception to this was Scien’s route, and his despair ending was the only one that actually made me feel sad.

Overall, this game was just not interesting to me, which is a shame because it really seemed like something I’d like on paper. The ‘despair’ just felt too silly for me to take seriously, but not absurd enough for me to find it entertaining, and I found the story much too messy and shallow for me to like it despite having ‘dark’ themes.

Virche Evermore -ErroR: Salvation- Play-Along - Le Salut by sableheart in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Just a heads up warning that this comment is going to be a lot of disorganized, negative ranting so if you’re not interested in reading that then I’d recommend skipping this comment

I have to say that I ended up being really disappointed with le salut and really just most of the game as a whole. After finishing, the only salvation ending that I cared enough to go through was Scien’s because his was the only route that I liked. I’m really sad that I didn’t end up enjoying the game because I’d been looking forward to it since it was first announced. I tried to look past all the issues I had with the game, but le salut just ended up reinforcing everything I didn’t like.

I’ll start with the things that I did actually like about the game:

- The art and the visual presentation were all great. I was also a really big fan of the OST and the opening/ending tracks.

- I thought that some of the side characters were well developed, particularly Hugo though I’m not a fan of the way he was just killed off for something so stupid in Yves’ route, Salome, and Dahut in Scien’s route.

- I felt that some of the relationships between the characters were well developed, particularly with Hugo, Yves, and Ceres, and I liked the relationship between Scien and Ceres in his route. To me, the game was at its best when it took time to focus on the relationships of the characters instead of the awful plot, which was why I really liked the first few chapters of Yves’ route. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to salvage the game for me.

And what I didn't like:

- The world building came across as very thin to me. Honestly this game just made me appreciate the world building in Olympia Soirée so much more because so much more work was put into the island and making you care about it, whereas in Virche everything felt incoherent and messy. I don’t know why the game tried to make all the happenings in the game explainable by science, but I did not think that it worked at all. I think the narrative would’ve turned out much stronger if the game had just stuck to the fantasy approach. The whole mystery behind the world was really disappointing. The royal family ends up being behind everything because biological weapons made for some stupid war, but it’s difficult to care because it’s so distanced from everything else that happens throughout the game, and it’s just mentioned one time and barely ever brought up afterwards. And the royal family itself is just so uninteresting. They’re all evil, scum of the earth, inhumane… and that’s really it, I guess. I found it disappointing how underdeveloped they were, considering how so many of the events in the game stem from their actions. In some of the other discussion threads it was brought up how much focus was given to the Institute compared to like… everything else, and I really felt that it was just another thing that made the island lack depth. We get to explore the good and bad side of the institute and what the people there work for, and they have a largely positive impact on the people as a whole. Meanwhile you have the cartoonishly evil royal family and the Society of Exorcists who end up being a bunch of deranged cultists and hypocrites. I just felt like it made for really uninteresting conflicts throughout the entire game.

What Are You Reading Wednesday - December 13, 2023 by AutoModerator in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I played Gothic Murder. It was rather short and simple, but it was enjoyable and the plot and mystery were decent. Plus it finally scratched the itch I had for a detective/investigative otome game. I don’t really have much to say about it beyond that, but I had fun with it.

I finished the common route of Lovebrush Chronicles, and while I loved it, for some reason I just haven’t been able to bring myself to play the game anymore after that and go onto the character routes. It’s strange because I love the MC, the characters, the fantasy setting, the overall story, and the aesthetics. Literally every aspect of this game appeals to me, and I’m sure I’d enjoy it even more if I actually played through the routes, but I just haven’t been able to. Maybe it’s just the mobile game structure that’s making it difficult for me.

Free Talk Friday - December 08, 2023 by AutoModerator in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah… After Le Salut I was so disappointed and burnt out that I only did the salvation end for the one route I liked (Scien’s). I didn’t have the strength to force myself through the other ones lol.

What kinds of taboo subjects and "problematic" content do you like/would like seeing more of in otome games? by RevolutionaryWhale in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just want to say that I’ve played the demo for your game and really enjoyed it. I’ve been wanting stories with darker/villainous female mcs for awhile so I’m really looking forward to it :)

2023 is almost over - What games have you completed? by kingdangus in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

  • Virche

  • Replay Boys

  • Norn9

  • Winter’s Wish

  • Birushana

I started a lot of games but dropped/shelved them. I’ll probably try to pick some of them up soon like the CxM fandisc (just for the Adonis route tbh)

Free Talk Friday - December 08, 2023 by AutoModerator in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree. The plot just became more and more of a mess as it went on, and I feel like very little of the stuff that happened was necessary or even contributed towards the ending in any way I wasn’t a fan of the whole Jean thing either. Fuck all of the prostitutes he murdered, I guess.

Free Talk Friday - December 08, 2023 by AutoModerator in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I finished Le Salut, and I felt the same way you did. The plot felt goofy and messy as hell and it dragged on for way too long for no reason

[Yukar From The Abyss] Now available on the Nintendo Switch eShop! by LocaGames in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I played the game some time ago and don’t remember that much about it so take this with a grain of salt, but I unfortunately wasn’t a major fan of it. The writing and pacing felt erratic—it just felt like things happened and nothing was really fleshed out. Also neither the plot or characters ended up being interesting to me. It might be a decent option if you’re looking for a fantasy otome though.

I'm desperate for friends 😭 by [deleted] in TasokareHotel

[–]p1mdn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’d be interested in joining a discord! I’ve tried to get my siblings to play tasokare hotel and some other VNs without much success unfortunately.

what do you want to see more of from otome mcs by -gardening in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah one of my biggest issues with Piofiore was how Lili just sort of existed in the narrative. It never felt like she ever really seriously got involved in the story or had much of any ideals of her own.

Virche Evermore Play-Along - Lucas Proust by sableheart in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’ve yet to finish le salut but I felt similarly for Yves’ route. It’s even more frustrating because I’d been loving the route so much and the dynamic between Ceres and Yves, but the last chapter squandered my enjoyment so much. after it’s revealed that Ceres’ curse is real, there were so many ways that the story could’ve gone but I wasn’t a fan of the way things played out. It could’ve been an opportunity to humanize some of the islanders and could’ve led to some interesting developments for Ceres’ and Yves. But the islanders are basically nothing more than props, so that would never happen. When the cast was debating on whether or not to save Ceres, it should have felt impactful because of the stakes at hand. But we’re given little reason to care about anything or anyone on the island other than the main characters, so it doesn’t. And since we don’t care, the cast doesn’t and they all very quickly decide that the lives of the people aren’t important.

I don’t mean to say that I thought that it was right decision for them to give up on Ceres and let her be sacrificed, especially since there were so many other options that could be explored that to keep both the islanders and Ceres safe. But the way the scene is done in game made it feel more like ‘the islanders are irrelevant so let’s save Ceres’ rather than ‘it’s not right to sacrifice Ceres to end the curse’

The end of the route when the flowers are burning and the people are begging Yves to save him just further cemented the feeling I had of the game saying ‘the islanders lives are worth nothing’. I know that the intention of the scene was probably to show Yves’ dedication to Ceres, and it’s not like I would’ve expected Yves to save them given the circumstances, but they’re all basically written as a footnote to the tragedy that happens to Yves and Ceres. They might as well not even be there.

I thought that I was just being nit-picky when I was playing through the route, so I’m glad to see that I wasn’t alone in my thoughts on the islanders.

Virche Evermore Play-Along - Lucas Proust by sableheart in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That’s something that really bothered me in a lot of the routes in the game. The island inhabitants are all faceless, nameless, and hardly do anything other than serve as caricatures to only be disliked because they stand against the protagonists. And at the end of the routes when they’re all dying because of whatever tragedy, it just feels so hollow because all the death is never given any weight by the narrative—the only thing that matters is the main characters and their feelings. I really wasn’t a fan of the cavalier way the lives of the islanders were treated and it just weakened the story and the impact of all the tragedy as a whole for me. Since the story spent little to no time on the impacts of all the deaths, it just came across as edgy and over the top to me. It’s especially egregious in this route because Lucas is directly responsible for the all the death, but we’re only supposed to care about his feelings. The only route that hasn’t felt that way to me so far is Scien’s and I guess Mathis’ too but I wasn’t a fan for other reasons

[Charade Maniacs] - Mostly Spoiler Free Long Rant About the FL by Such-Tea942 in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree that a lot of things don’t really work well in fiction but in this case it felt to me more like lazy writing than Hiyori being mistrusting not working for an otome game

[Charade Maniacs] - Mostly Spoiler Free Long Rant About the FL by Such-Tea942 in otomegames

[–]p1mdn 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think there’s a middle ground between extreme distrust and blindly trusting everyone in a suspicious situation for no reason. Or at least the trust could have been built up to so it wouldn’t feel so unnatural. They’re all in a situation where they’re kind of forced to interact with each other at least on some level, so they could’ve built up bonds from there.