💖My Love for Otome Games🐰💖

June 28th 2026

I am dedicating this blog to the creation of my first shrine on neocities: The Otome Game Shrine

Growing up, I didn't have a lot of options when it came to PC gaming or gaming in general. My parents had a strict policy of "educational games only and no consoles in the house!" It was fine if I played games on my computer, like flash games and the like, but no purchasing of games! So I had to be creative with the games I could play. As a child, I read a lot of books, I loved reading a lot but it slowly died down as the internet became my main activity after school. Then, as a teenager, I eventually stumbled upon visual novels that were made on Renpy for free. This was also around the same time a lot of mobile otome games were being translated and published in English on the Apple app store. I recall getting a game called "Heian Love" and "Ninja Love", from the "Shall We Date?" series of mobile otome games. I FELL IN LOVE with these games, especially Ninja Love. I recall asking my dad if I could buy the routes and all the extra content, pretending they were e-books hahaha.
I'd dedicate a shrine review to these games, but they aren't playable anymore so they're totally vague in my mind. I recall the CGs for Ninja Love being super cute, and I was obsessed with the protagonist's design. I believe this started my love not only for this genre, but for otome game protagonists. If their face isn't visible I'm sad, which is the case in these older otomes. If I recall correctly there were two versions of some of the Shall we Date games, an offline version where you purchased routes or the "free" online service, with a doll you have to dress up and dailies to complete. I played those offline versions during my long summer camping trips, they didn't need internet which was super helpful. There was Prince Love as well, which also had amazing art! Wedding Love I think? So many haha. Feel free to browse Otome Otaku Girl's blogposts, which were really helpful with helping me find info on these older gen otome games. Specifically those about the Paid Versions of Shall We Date games :)

I memorized all of these images it's unreal, I still remember all of the CGs from the games, here's a few to illustrate this part of my otome game life haha.

The boys you could romance were so pretty now that I'm looking at the CGs again... I shared my favorites characters! Also most of them have red hair...huh did I have a type? LOL. I recall Kyo from Fruits Basket and his hair was also orange!

Voltage games also had quite a few hard hitters, like "Be My Princess", which was my personal favorite, I kind of miss it still and wish I could replay it. Unfortunately, most of the games I played at the time are outdated, or shutdown. At least I still have fond memories!

Fast-forward a little bit, I'd continue playing mostly otome games on mobile. There would also be a few fan-translation projects but they were few and far between and usually unfinished, it's so much work! Eventually though, bigger Otome titles would finally start being translated into English and being published on Steam. Like Amnesia Memories for example! That was one of the first otomes that I was super excited to play. Around the time, most Otomes on PC were rare translations or indie projects, while the PSVita had the more otomes (the Switch didn't have much at all at the time.) This was when I started playing Otomes that are much longer than I was used to. I'd still longingly sigh sadly looking at all the cool new titles coming out on the Vita like Collar x Malice. Let's slow down a bit though, and let me share a special moment I had with a specific fan-translation of Starry Sky in Spring...

good quality versions of this game's promotional artwork are legit impossible to find 🤣

Starry Sky was a series of Otome Games set inside of the same high-school, but they were uniquely separated into "seasons" like Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The protagonist would remain the same, but would be seen going through the different seasons in school. Each game was set during said season, and you would usually be able to choose from 3 different bachelors. It was also astrology themed, so every guy you could pursue had a specific zodiac sign, totaling in 12 bachelors. I recall finding out about this particular otome game because I was just looking for every possible English translated game I could find, and stumbled upon this project. A lot of them aren't completed, but most of the game was translated, and they offered a totally legit copy of the game on a separate sketchy website. I didn't really have a choice, so I got it and..!

To say I was obsessed is an understatement haha. The stories were cute, grounded and I loved the illustrations. The protagonist of this game in particular started my love for the "jellyfish" haircut. It also helped that she was dirty blonde (like me!) I tend to rly enjoy characters with my hair color, though I know it's vain aha... but can you blame me? She's so cute! Her name is Tsukiko by default (which is like "moon girl/child" or something?)

I remember finding her uniform so appealing, specifically her summer uniform and I particularly loved the off-center/lopsided ribbon. Tsukiko is one of the inspirations behind my Guusagi vtuber!

However, only the first game (~In Spring) would be fan-translated into English. There would be a ~In Summer fan-translation in the works, but if I recall correctly they received a cease and desist made against the project creators from the actual Japanese company behind the games. Therefore I only ever played the first game and was super sad I wasn't able to play the others. There were also rumors of the games being officially licensed in English, but the cost of the license was so high that project was also canceled. I wish I learned how to read Japanese characters to be able to play, but alas. I was particularly excited about the Summer game because I enjoyed the illustrations and synopsis of the plot that someone wrote. That was kind of the end of that story, but I still really look back on this game fondly.

Eventually time would pass and I'd usually be playing a lot of Steam otome games, until one day I found out that the PS Vita would stop producing new units in 2019. This would inspire me to finally buy a Vita, and jailbreak it to play the otome games I really wanted to play

I did end up finding out that the PS Vita would stop producing new units around 2019, and would buy one to jailbreak it near the end of 2019.

Guusagi signing off!🐰💖