Finally followed through on something I've been meaning to do for ages today: I ordered a bunch of otome games with the intention of… well, something. At the very least playing all of them and, time permitting, writing something about them somewhere.
I've played a few otome games in the past — Sweet Fuse was my introduction to the genre, as I've explained elsewhere — but I've always been meaning to check out some of the "modern classics" that have come west. With the excitement over the upcoming release of BUSTAFELLOWS (the devs get genuinely upset if you don't write it in all capitals) I thought it was high time I put my money where my mouth is, support these games that we need to see more of over here, and now I'm looking forward to some quality narrative action.
Specifically, to begin with, I've picked up Collar x Malice, Code: Realize and Piofiore, all of which I've heard good things about. I also have London Detective Mysteria on my shelf from a while back, and it's entirely possible I have some others hoarded from a while back, too.
Aside from the BUSTAFELLOWS hype, the other thing which convinced me that now might be a good time to do this is that I'm coming towards the end of Root Film, and it's been really enjoyable to have a mystery story to enjoy before bed. I talked a while back about visual novels as bedtime reading and for one reason or another I fell a bit off that — but I'm going to make it a thing again.
Root Film is more adventure game than visual novel, but it's still a narrative-centric experience, and the way it's presented makes it a very good "bedtime game". Plus I think Andie has been enjoying what she's seen of it too, which is always a bonus.
Root Film is great, incidentally, if you hadn't picked up on that already. It's very much worth your time, as is its predecessor Root Letter. Both of them seem destined for relative obscurity, but everyone I know who has played them loved them — including me. So if you're after a solid mystery or two to solve, add 'em to your collection when you have a chance. Do it for Magari.
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