Cupid Parasite is one of the stronger visual novels launched this decade. In Matt’s review for DDNet, he writes, “Comedy’s always hard to get right, especially when there’s an underlying subversive quality to it, but Cupid Parasite never falters… This is one of Otomate’s finest.” That was two years ago, and now it’s finally time for a sequel to the…
Cupid Parasite is one of the stronger visual novels launched this decade. In Matt’s review for DDNet, he writes, “Comedy’s always hard to get right, especially when there’s an underlying subversive quality to it, but Cupid Parasite never falters… This is one of Otomate’s finest.” That was two years ago,…
Read MoreI’ll just get this warning out of the way up-front: There’s an explicit depiction of an apparent suicide in the first ten minutes of Virche Evermore -ErroR: Salvation-. It’s by no means the only content warning found in this incredibly dark visual novel. I overview some of the (many) other…
Read MoreI struggle to think of a more consistent developer than Otomate. The Idea Factory otome specialist developer produces games at such a rate that I’m convinced the only reason we don’t get all of them in the West is that the localisers simply can’t work that fast… and that’s a…
Read MoreVery, very rarely does a game get made about the Tokugawa Shogunate. There are thousands of games about the Sengoku wars that came immediately before, and there are plenty made about the end of the Shogunate as well. The 250 years in the middle, however, are largely blank (at least,…
Read MoreWow did Lover Pretend have the potential to go places. Thankfully it doesn’t, ultimately, but there were more than a few moments on this game’s journey where I felt particularly uncomfortable about some of the flags that it was throwing up despite it being a narrative that is, by developer…
Read MoreParadigm Paradox has a smart idea behind it: This is a magical girl story where most of the girls are, in fact, boys! The boys (and love interests) in this otome story magically turn into women when they are out there saving the world, before shifting back to male form…
Read MoreAmnesia: Memories was first released over a decade ago, and it’s fair to say that the visual novel genre – and particularly the otome sub-genre – has moved at a rapid pace from that time. That’s not a criticism of Amnesia, by any means, but the experience of reading through…
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