Otome Number 6: GlassHeart’s ‘Signed X’

I was so excited when I checked LemmaSoft out and found that GlassHeart had made another VN! After my rave review on ‘Summer Found Me’, you must guess just how eager I was to play another game by GlassHeart.

First off, the premise of the story (girl finds some guy leaving a note declaring his admiration to her), is not an entirely unique one. But then, what’s unique these days? I love how GlassHeart turned a story that had the makings of a cliche-ridden plot into a comedic and at the same time heart-warming one.

As for the art–from Summer Found Me, I thought that the art was pretty good, and this lived up to my expectations. The MC’s sprite was a cute girl, and the boys were cute, too (especially Warren).

Onto the characters, as a teaser!

1. Marty

The clueless MC

-The energetic MC. She adds the ‘funny’ ingredient to the mix–what with her insistence on doing things manga heroines usually do…

2. Warren

I just love his hair. ❤

-Marty’s best friend who apparently enjoys helping her in her schemes…especially when she messes up.

3. Matt

This is NOT Naruto. I have to remember that… xD

-The boy who left the wondrous note on Marty’s desk. He kinda reminds me of Naruto (in looks).

Signed X poster

Isn’t that menu design just perfect?

Another thing that made me fall in love with this was the comedy. I loved the way this made me giggle ((: (My sister in the room next to mine thought I was going crazy what with all my giggling…)

I really can’t put up much as it’s a short game, and posting more about this will reveal spoilers. So what are you waiting for? Go and download ‘Signed X’ for some rom-com action! ❤ (Link below!)

http://summerfoundme.wordpress.com/signed-x/

 

Otome Number 5: Morishita’s ‘A Troll’s Fairy Tale’

Well, the tagline was kinda cheesy, but what can I say? I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic.

What caught my attention was the title… a TROLL? Morishita stated in her thread that the troll wasn’t of the internet kind, and I thought that was kind of funny. So I decided to check this game out, hoping there was more humor in the game.

I wasn’t disappointed. Not only was there oodles of humor, great art, and, yes, romance, ‘A Troll’s Fairy Tale’ had an engaging plot. The MC, Acacia, was so natural and defied all things Mary Sue, that I loved her from the very first. Her hair reminded me of mine, too xD.

Onto the characters! (Okay, my ranking system doesn’t come into play here… just introducing the main characters in order of their appearances.)

a. Acacia 

Acacia (side), her mother, and her sister. Beautiful art, huh?

-Acacia is the MC, not one of the pursuable guys, but I liked her so much I decided to give a review of her. What I loved about Acacia was that her problems were all too real–it wasn’t a ‘Confessions of a Drama Queen’ thing she had going. I could almost feel her emotions as I played the game. Like I said, great writing there. Acacia is the kick-ass heroine I’ve always loved reading about or playing as.

b. Damine 

It didn’t hurt that he was such a hottie, either…

-Damine is the guy I decided to go for first, since Morishita advised in her thread to do so, as she said that the player would understand more about Acacia’s backstory if Damine’s path was taken before the other guy’s.

Hmm. Damine was the typical gorgeous player who had it all, the guy with girls on his arm every time Acacia saw him, etc. He’s of the unicorn race, and is the Golden Prince (of the Kingdom, I guess). I’d usually be disgusted/bored by this kind of person, but Damine sorta won me over (that rat). He wasn’t nice (kinda like Travis from RE: Alistair), but something told you he could be nice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

c. Edavine    -However hot Damine was, Edavine was hotter. When Morishita mentioned Edavine’s being a fairy, I was like “Meh. I’ve had enough of fairy pansies.” But then Edavine appeared in all his tanned glory. I was swept away by his charisma… it was nothing compared to Damine’s. Maybe because he was honest and not the flirty type like Damine was. He flirted, yeah, but he was more obvious about it than Damine was. Edavine had his own problems, but he didn’t make them sound like the world was falling on him when he told Acacia about them. Another point for him <3.

Check out that skin. And that hair. And his eyes… ❤

All-in-all, the game earned two thumbs up from me. Sure, there were some mistakes in it, but they weren’t enough to distract me from the game itself. I loved the story, the art, the characters.

Gorgeous background, huh? Really sets the mood for fairies and magic and romance.

Ready to play? Just click the link below!

http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=20160

 

Otome Number 4: Date a Cake!

I was browsing through the lemmasoft forum when I saw this title. From the title, I knew that the game was going to be a funny one. I hope someone else besides me got the same impression that I did… haha.

This was a very short game, with only a few choices and no backgrounds at all. HOWEVER, the ‘no backgrounds’ thing kind of added to the game’s charm… I tended to focus more on the story and the characters (of which only 2 were illustrated, the MC and, uh, the cake).

The art was cute and sweet (and by art, yes, I do mean the MC and the cake), light and fluffy. Nothing astounding, but I liked it all the same.

Isn’t the art cute? I keep imagining that the MC is a cupcake.

The story was cute and whimsical, and I liked it very much. This game may be off-putting to those who don’t like to read much–and this game certainly has only the bare essentials of a VN (a dialogue box, the text, and the characters). The text may be heavy at times, since the dialogue box consumes a large part of the game window, but that was the only thing that I’d say would put off players.

There’s humor, romance, and friendship. What else could I ask for in a short VN? I hope some of you would check this cute game out. Click the link below to play the game!

P.S. This is an online game, guys, so there’s no save function. However, it IS short, so if you want to start over, I don’t think it’ll be a big deal.

http://loserhaven.com/otome/otoge.php“

 

Wanna cupcake?

Warren from Signed X, a game I’m reviewing soon. What a hottie xD Signed X is a game from the maker of Summer Found Me.

Selavi

Just felt like drawing today. Now I want a cupcake. *sigh*

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Otome Number 3: Sonnet009’s ‘Rei’

This is the first otome I’ve played this summer vacation, and I was pleasantly surprised at the freshness of the game even after following a well-worn path of supernatural romance.

Sonnet009’s writing was a delicate morsel, something that even when taken in great amounts doesn’t spoil your appetite (huh, when did I get so poetic and critic-y?). In the lemmasoft forum where she posted the completed game, she stated that almost all of the material she used for the game was free stuff. That didn’t stop me from being impressed at the game (which she completed in only three days, btw), though. It was touching, sweet, a delight to play.

You might ask why RE: Alistair, whose plots I relegated to the ‘cliche’ folder, isn’t better than this, story-wise. High school, romance, supernatural? Sounds veeery cliche to me. But when Sonnet009 put her writing skills to work, the story became a great new one, the scuffs reworked into a touching tale.

What a hottie.

Ready to play? I know you are. Click the link below!

http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=20255

 

Otome Number 2: sakevisual’s RE: Alistair

RE: Alistair is the first non-Flash otome I’ve ever played… and one I’ve liked most of all the games I’ve played. The art was adorbs AND amazing. Let me explain how exactly the art blew me away… (NOT in technical terms though, I know next to nothing about art lol).

First of all, RE: Alistair is about a girl, Merui, who’s addicted to this MMORPG. And, get this– sakevisual, the game producers, actually had scenes where you’re IN the MMORPG, with Merui and other game characters appearing as chibi peeps. I know it’s just coding and stuff, but still, it was pretty cool. Even the game’s chat box functioned as the dialogue box.

The coding was pretty amazing, too. Not only did they do what I mentioned above, but the game also had a day planner in it. You get to decide where you spend your time every day. Not so amazing for others, but I really liked that about the game. There’s a mall in the game, and you could buy outfits, games, books… the only nit I had to pick with this one was that you couldn’t actually SEE Merui wearing the clothes.

Onto the love interests… (Again, I’m ranking them in the order they appealed to me the most.)

a. Shiro

-I DID say that I couldn’t resist a bad boy (cough, Devlin, cough), but Shiro was just too sweet that I couldn’t resist HIM either. He’s the most normal-looking of the three (for me, that is), with brown hair, brown eyes (you might call them amber, I’m fine with that), and brown clothes. I make him sound drab here, but he really IS cute. Cute enough to let me place a heart in here <3.

b. Travis

-Ah, the stand-offish computer geek who still manages to look hot even while sporting glasses and sitting in front of a computer. In real life, of course, few girls would be attracted to a guy like that, even with the beautiful clothes Travis has on in the game (he has on a blue uniform–suit–uh, I don’t know what to call his outfit). But that’s just cranky me taking a jab at Travis. He really is insufferable in the first part of the game. Just saying.

c. Derek

-I almost don’t feel like commenting about this guy at all. He didn’t strike me as interesting in any way. Not even the pink streak in his hair could move me. The only reason I played his path was to get all the CGs to unlock the extra scene. What I HATED about playing his path was that I had to NOT ATTEND ANY MEETINGS WITH SHIRO. What the heck–Shiro’s my favorite dude, and Derek’s preventing me from spending quality time with him? Also, my school-senses were tingling… I’d surely flunk the report if I didn’t attend any of my meetings with Shiro. Stuff like that shouldn’t bother me since it’s just a game… but it still bothered me nonetheless >_<.

As for the story, I have to give it a thumbs down. Needless to say, I had figured out who Alistair, the guy who made a bet with Merui, really was, before the time limit was over, so there really was no thrill. Second, all of the boys’ backstories were really, uh, cliched. Not that I didn’t enjoy playing this, though. The story just didn’t grab me the way the artwork did. (Take a look at these screenshots!)

From left to right: Fiona, Merui, Alistair

So, wanna play this game? Just click the link below, and you’re ready to go! (:

http://www.sakevisual.com/realistair/

 

Summer Found Me Art

Don’t you just LOVE the art? :3

One of my favorite CGs. \O.O/

 

 

Otome Number 1: GlassHeart’s ‘Summer Found Me’

This is one of the first otome games I have ever played (the first being RE:Alistair), but I’m posting this first because of a lot of reasons.

There are three bachelors– Seth, Devlin, and Alden. Here they are, in order of how much I liked them:

a. Devlin – Who can resist the good-looking bad boy? Not me, that’s for sure. Actually, I have a hard time choosing between him and Seth, but his dark hair eventually won me over. Yes, I’m shallow like that, haha.

I can’t write much about the boys here, since that would be considered spoiling an amazing game, but I have to say that I liked Devlin the most because of his story. (I was kidding about the hair… I think.) I didn’t like him primarily because of his bad boy-ness, but because I genuinely felt for him. GlassHeart was an amazing writer for having made me say this.

Told you he was hot (;

b. Seth – Usually the best friend gets my vote in these games, but Devlin was just too damn hot for me to pass up playing his path first, so Seth was my second path. He was amazingly cute with that red hair, green eyes, glasses, AND he’s an otaku. Why aren’t there guys like him in real life?

I liked his path because he was amazingly likeable and was NOT dull, as I sometimes expect of the best guy friend stereotype. If I was made to choose between bringing either him or Devlin to life, I’d definitely choose Seth. I like guys who make me feel comfortable, hee hee.

Shoujo-vision, indeed.

c. Alden

Okay. I never really liked Alden much–I did his path only to complete the game. I don’t know why I didn’t like him. Maybe it was because the MC kept saying how much she liked him (yeah, I’m contrary that way). He was cute, though, but his path really didn’t interest me /: He was really sweet and all, but I didn’t get the comfortable-to-be-with vibe I got around Seth, or the I-can’t-help-but-be-attracted-to-him feel Devlin positively exuded.

Well, I like his shirt.

All-in-all… The game was very, very cool. I liked the MC–she certainly wasn’t a Mary Sue! She had a voice all throughout the game (I mean, she DID speak, but I liked her thoughts and non-spoken narration). The choices were meaningful to the story, not just slapped-on choices just inserted haphazardly into the game. I liked the art, the characters (except maybe Alden, hmm…), and, most of all, the engaging story. Two thumbs up to GlassHeart, who is both the artist and the writer for this game, AND she coded the game, too.

If my feet had thumbs, I’d totes raise them, too. While I’m looking for my toe-thumbs, why don’t you go over to GlassHeart’s blog and play the game? Click the link below!

http://summerfoundme.wordpress.com/summer-found-me/

 

First Post Crap

Title says it all, lol. So, I made a blog to record my journeys into the world of otome gaming. I'm not exactly new to the whole otome gaming thing, but I decided I'd do this so other people may be encouraged to show support for the really good game makers out there.

I won't be posting reviews for a game that sucked. Why? Because I don't want to see people embarrassed. I'm not the type to hit below the belt just because this IS the internet and nobody knows who I really am in real life. However, if someone asked for my review/critique on their game (take not, only the game producer can ask me to review/critique their game), I would do it. I wouldn't insult the game, though. I'd just be totally honest.

So, there it is! I hope people will be able to enjoy whatever stuff I may post on here. Maybe you can check out the games I reviewed, too.

P.S. I don't have the means to buy commercial stuff, so only freeware for now /: Here's to the hope that I can have a credit card soon, though! (Fat chance, really, as I'm only 17 T_T )