BUSTAFELLOWS
Probably the highest quality otome game that’s been localised into English so far. I have yet to play a game with this many immersive elements, I’m shocked that this isn’t the standard. There’s animated CGs, dynamic voice work, characters with multiple outfit changes and poses. Their eyes even move to the speaking character if they happen to be on the same screen. This game has THE smoothest intro to main menu transition I have ever seen in my damn life.
So let’s look at our lovable cast:
- Limbo is the confident and suave type who always seems like he’s in control. He’s funny, and supportive, but he’s actually a lot more childish than one would think. He’s a really good poster boy.
– Real player with 118.2 hrs in game
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In short, I like reading Bustafellows. Although it has many places where it underwhelms me.
The stories in this game are kind of all over the place. It seems there are too many topics the game wants to tackle on, but fails to do so in depth.
A lot of the settings are far-fetched and unrealistic, like Crow being a super genius all-powerful hacker. The existence of magical plastic surgeries. Our 5 fixers, who are supposed to do things hidden, expose all of themselves to the enemy, or even worse, to the internet. Villains who conveniently put everything that would prove them guilty in a nice
! USB drive for us to read.
! Nanobots entering one’s body, powered by “body energy” which the only plausible meaning is glucose in the blood (right?), but they stopped working after the person goes in to cardiac arrest, but in no sense would going into cardiac arrest take away all the glucose in the blood. I know I shouldn’t expect realism in this kind of games, but not doing so would require me to lower expectations.
– Real player with 51.4 hrs in game
Game of Love
Overview
In this story we follow the life of Alice, an unremarkable student other than for her position as a valuable member of the school volleyball team. For the last couple of years, Alice has had a crush on her long-time friend Mark, and she suspects he feels the same, but he never makes the move to ask her out; leaving her unsure of his feelings and intentions.
Most of the girls in the school are infatuated with Raphael, the handsome and mysteriously alluring idol and member of the boys' volleyball team; including Alice’s best friend Emily. As the story progresses, Alice is approached and asked out by Raphael, marking her as a target for jealous looks, back-biting and even threats of violence against her.
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
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Game of Love
Developer: Golden Castle Studio
Publisher: Golden Castle Studio
Pros:
1. The store page says its realistic and well, it pretty much is. It has happened in reality and has potential to happen again. To summarize the plot, Alice is the protagonist and is a normal girl aside from being a part of the volleyball team. The popular guy Raphael starts to talking to Alice and things eventually go on a series of events from walking Alice home to a more affectionate actions such as kissing. When this starts happening, Alice receives a barrage of threats that get worse over time and she’ll have to start getting to the bottom of things if she wants to make it stop.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Last Days of Spring 2
Played Character Route Order: Keisuke ◈ Takeo ◈ Yuri
First of all, there are no addictive mini games this time! But hold on; you are mistaken if you think that this alone makes Last Days of Spring 2 any different from all the other titles this developer has published so far.
Do you remember the embarrassing role-playing games at school where two or more people had to demonstrate their acting talent in front of the whole class and everyone, including the participants themselves, were embarrassed to death? And maybe you also know these women that come back from a short vacation, pretending that they are now multicultural and extraordinary smart? The author must have thought about these highly mortifying scenarios while coming up with the story for Last days of Spring 2, otherwise, I can’t explain how someone older than ten is actually able to write a script like this. Or maybe you could also call it Count as many foreign recipes, places and things as you can-simulator. The author of this Dating Sim has no talent in writing, nor the ability to authentically describe the simplest situations and dialogues.
– Real player with 18.6 hrs in game
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So much better than the first one! The engine is still a little clunky, but there are at least settings now. The skip keyboard shortcut didn’t work the way it was supposed to 95% of the time. I was able to get it to work sometimes by hitting the “Ctrl” button a fraction of a second after clicking with the mouse, but even this didn’t always work. The writing was still excellent, but it’s almost like it was a good writer who is very uncomfortable with direct romance scenes. Any time it came to romance the writing became choppy and awkward. There were some unskippable transitions that were entirely too long. The ending was unskippable and was too long. I had to close the game and reopen it every time I finished a playthrough to avoid the ending credits. Still, it was so much better put together than the first game. If you find it on sale it’s worth a playthrough. Honestly you could probably play it without playing the first. There’s enough context in it to understand everything you need to know from the first game.
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game
Love Spell: Written In The Stars - a magical romantic-comedy otome
*Note: I received this game as a gift from my sister.
tl;dr: This isn’t the worst game I’ve ever played. I would have given it a neutral rating if I could. But if you’re purely asking whether I would recommend it to someone or not, then this game has too many problems for me to honestly say I would.
Cons:
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Writing: During the prologue, you barely spend any time with the love interests, so it’s hard to decide who you want to go for first if you didn’t read the profiles beforehand. Additionally, sometimes the writing was inconsistent or just didn’t make any sense to me. (Ex.
! Why is MC still auditioning for roles in student productions if it’s been “several years”? Why does MC lament “forgetting” the spell was ending in Florian’s route when Philia just told her ten minutes ago? She even told Philia she’d worry about the spell later, so we know she was paying attention! Why are Sergio and Marcello’s groups referred to as
! the mafia late in the route when earlier they tell MC
! they’re more like mercenaries/hitmen?) The writing in this game is also VERY trope-y and predictable. For some people, that’s alright, but it was just something I personally didn’t like. Sometimes the writing had some bad implications (like being single is the worst thing that could happen) and Enix’s route as a whole made me feel terrible because
! he doesn’t break up with Isla until WAY late. (Plus, MC doesn’t know the breakup even happened until after things got serious! And since Isla comes by later, it was apparently a one-sided breakup…). One of the characters is obviously meant to be the “true” route, which I personally dislike.
– Real player with 30.7 hrs in game
Love Spell is a beautiful, heartwarming, and funny game that I recommend 100%!
Each LI was enjoyable to romance, and even the ones I felt I wouldn’t like so much ended up making me love them! The two I was unsure about actually made it to my top two! And well, I’ll go ahead and name them, It was Marcello and Florian. I’m not one that typically enjoys the flirtier types because, most of the time, it ends up being that character’s whole personality. Since they ended up being my top two, I’m pretty sure It’s obvious that that that wasn’t the case for them, but I’m saying it just in case! I’ll go further into why I liked them later on when I start individually discussing the routes (I’ll also have my criticisms there too because I do have some.) Another thing I liked was how each route felt so different. Sometimes, it felt like I was playing a whole different game after starting a new route. (In a good way!)
– Real player with 28.6 hrs in game
Never Forget Me
Never Forget Me is the sequel to Always Remember Me, following the everyday life of Amy, her husband and the struggles they face.
Pros:
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The stories vary and are really interesting. They feel relateable and are well written overall.
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The background and the CGs are really beautiful.
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Even though I wasn’t fond of the music at first, it got stuck in my head as I played the game :)
Cons:
- As English is not my mother tongue, I’m the last one to criticise grammar or spelling mistakes. But the more I played, the more they started to bother me
– Real player with 20.1 hrs in game
I enjoyed this game, and since ‘Always Remember Me’ was one of the first Winter Wolves' games I ever played, it was great to catch up with the characters. I am delighted by the general premise, that the story doesn’t stop at the ‘happy ending’, that married life can be tough and as much of an adventure as dating.
The art style is very familiar for fans of Winter Wolves' games, though they have re-used quite a bit of artwork (mostly background) from other games, which means Amy may be living in the house the characters ‘Roommates’ inhabited, and the same town as ‘Nicole’ went to university. However this is a minor detail and can largely be ignored in favour of story and characters.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
Edge of Elsewhere
Concord, Caledonia. The Landmark City, cleft by the Veil that separates Man from Faery, Here from Elsewhere.
Join Saskia Hawthorn as she enrols at the Royal Academy of Automagic, learns to gather and craft over 300 unique magical items, woos and befriends a large cast of colourful characters and accidentally summons a cute genie prince(??) in this alchemical otome dating simulation game.
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Saskia Hawthorn
Our young ingenue, Saskia is excited and more than a little terrified to be starting her magical education at last. |
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Rudraksh
A good-natured genie who was literally born yesterday, Rudraksh is an innocent soul with a lot to learn about the perils of Elsewhere. The literal prince of Saskia’s dreams. |
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Lorcan Faulkner
A talented mage with a smart mouth and a slight disregard for the rules. His lilting voice and lopsided smile may drive other girls to distraction, but Saskia’s above such things… for the most part. |
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Jonny Liang
A genius alchemist and sometime student teacher, Jonny Liang is older than he looks. Salesman, alchemist, librarian - Jonny seems to have fingers in more pies than should be possible for a single student… |
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Roman Neuer
A taciturn trainee knight who lets his skills do the talking. A marble statue come to life. Pleasingly muscular. Employed by a cat. |
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Ravenscourt
The elusive King of Crows, Ravenscourt doesn’t even go here. |
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Over 200k words
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5 dateable boys and a large cast of side-characters
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Crafting system with over 300 items to gather and synthesise
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Keep up with happenings in Concord through text messages, forums and social media pages
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Fulfil over 100 requests, each with their own quirky messages
Heroine for Hire
A nice pleasant read with great writing. :)
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
(Note: I am unable to get the “Pyrokinetic Lovers” achievement… I tried three times… I swear I got the “Perfect Ending” - It told me so. : Every other achievement I obtained - worked just fine. :D)
I kept looking at this game, as something about it was drawing me in. Then I had to read it! I was… Super glad I did. This game is… Hilarious… Has really great artwork… The scenes are beautiful and romances… GOOD. No one was annoying! Everything was just right!
And! There are pretty good choices, which let you pick if you are “nice”, “brave”… Like that. There is nothing confusing about those choices… They all make sense! Love it! I love that bunny chicken bird! (“Bunnywren”), Well, I am not really in love with it, but you know. It’s adorable.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
The Radiants
When an ordinary college student witnesses the death of a young woman, she is thrust into a world she never knew existed – a world alongside her own filled with magic, danger, and a cast of unbelievable characters. Forced to take the place of the woman she tried to save, she must prove herself by passing the trials of the Radiant Council or risk losing her memories forever..
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3 Love Interests (and maybe some secret ones!)
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Customizable Personality
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Simple Stat Raising
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Lots of Colorful Side Characters
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Exploration Mode
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Multiple Endings
Heart & Soul
The first rule of Ancient Greece is to not tick off any of the gods or goddesses, though that’s already been broken. Heralded for her supernatural beauty, the attention Psyche garners worldwide causes Aphrodite to become jealous and curse her to a terrible fate: a marriage to the most monstrous being alive.
Much to Psyche’s surprise, her husband seems human, even gentle. What once seemed an inconceivably terrible fate now seems like a dream come true, though trouble isn’t far and Aphrodite hasn’t forgiven or forgotten.
The Last Act
The Last Act is the third game created and published on Steam by Snowhaven Studios. It’s a short story ( 2 hours) about a young woman named Sarah, as she pursues her dream of becoming an actress for theatre plays. Sarah has wanted to be a thespian since she was a young girl and saw her first play.
Plot: The story starts out with Sarah receiving her first audition. She believed she would be trying out for a support role, a good starting position for her career, but is surprised when the script she’s given is actually for the leading lady. Naturally, she’s overjoyed when she’s offered the role. Upon hearing the inspiration behind the story she will be acting out, things take a surprising turn. This happens in the form of a ghostly stranger and a warning of danger. Sarah must decide if the potential risks are worth the reward. You may take an active role in the investigation or simply allow the professional to do his job. Sarah can (sometimes unwittingly) gather clues and decide whether it’s important enough to pass on or not. Even the smallest, insignificant bit of information can make or break the case. But is it a wise thing to do?
– Real player with 7.8 hrs in game
Overview
Attending an audition for a supporting part in a play which would give our heroine Sarah her stage debut; she is shocked to be asked to read for the lead role, and even more so to be offered it after doing so. She thinks this is everything she has ever dreamed of, but will quickly discover that this particular play has more to reveal than its script; being based upon a ghost story from 300 years earlier – and the ghost in question still being present within the theatre where the play is being rehearsed.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game