alias_sqbr | Entries tagged with voltage

So I bought this otome game on the Switch because I'd enjoyed the couple of routes I'd played for free on Love365 (which aren't included in this version) and liked the characters. Mostly it's the fluffy tropey romance I was expecting but to my complete surprise there's ACTUAL QUEER CHARACTERS?? And two of the love interests are ambiguously shippy???

Unfortunately I have VERY mixed feelings about how this is all handled, but don't remember any queerness whatsoever in any other Love365 game, so overall I'm not sure how I feel.

Anyway. The premise is that the heroine is a journalist whose mother has just gotten married to a guy with a son her age...who turns out to be a workmate! And also her housemate! And NOBODY MUST KNOW!!

I've played three main routes and some side stories. I'll probably play the others at some point when the premise feels fresh again.

Akiyoshi: Your strict but decent boss, like a slightly bossy older brother. This was very cute.
Kaede: An awkward, stand-offish kuudere with Secret Pain. This was also pretty cute. Also he was weirdly shippy with Chiaki, who'd seemed creepy so I'd not been intending to romance him, but I got curious...
Chiaki: Charming sadistic manipulator who secretly hates women. CONSENT ISSUES AHOY. He was interesting but also awful. He gets nice by the end but ehhh. They actively avoid addressing his feelings about Kaoru.

The remaining dudes are a nice guy and a sharp tongued tsundere.

The side stories have to be played one after the other, the couple I've done were ok but didn't add much to my experience. It's stuff like the plot from the guy's POV and various sequels.

The port to Switch was competently done, it works fine on a big screen being played all at once with a console controller.

Ok so that's my review. Now for my reactions.

Content note: Consent issues, mixed treatment of gay/bi characters
( Read more... )

(This is currently free)

So the dudes from Kissed By The Baddest Bidder are assholes even for Love65, and Soryu is a cold, morally ambiguous Hong Kong gangster who threatens to kill the MC multiple times. But by the end I actually found this pretty cute, in an asshole-LI kinda way. And hey, he's less of an asshole than Eisuke!

Also this may be literally the first Japanese otome route I've played about someone who isn't ethnically Japanese and/or European! Naturally, it's a very realistic and tasteful depiction of the life of a Hong Kong gangster, just like Eisuke's route was with the Italian mob characters. HOORAY FOR DIVERSITY.

Plus, as with Eisuke, it's kinda fun just as ridiculous melodrama.

...or maybe I'm just a sucker for kuuderes.
( Read more... )

I enjoyed both of these well enough, and they're kinda similar. Our Two Bedroom Story: Kagetora is free for the next few days.

The MC and LI are coworker writers who are thrown together personally and professionally. The guy is driven and talented but a bit of a cold jerk, and Very Clear about not being into her or even liking her that much. But they work together well and he encourages and respects her professionally, and she realises that he's actually a decent guy who likes her a lot more than he's willing to admit, he just has Romantic Trauma. And then they live happily ever after etc.
( Read more... )

This is free on the Love365 app until the 26th. It's one of their better written romances with a relatively un-awful LI, but I only unambiguously rec it to people into teacher/student romance. I personally found it a mixture of shippy and squicky since that's not really my jam.

What I found interesting was that it felt intensely localised for a US audience in a way none of the other Love3265 games I've played have been. It's still unambiguously set in Japan, but with a Feisty protagonist and sometimes jarring US cultural references (I just don't believe a modern Japanese teen would make a Disney's Pocahontas joke).
( Read more... )

Another Love 365 dating sim path. This is very silly dubcon trash, but I was feeling stupid today and it was free and I ate it up like popcorn.

MC is living a normal life as a librarian until a bunch of mythological creatures arrive saying they'll gain MAGICAL POWERS if she HAS THEIR BABIES.

The free LI is the wolf spirit Kyoga, who is the sort of "mature slacker" type of love interest that shows up in a few Voltage games: shoulder length wavy hair, little beard, laid-back personality, a little skeezy. Except this game's default level of skeezy is super high, and he also does wolfy stuff like sniffing her neck a lot.

I glossed over half the creepy stuff in my summary but: CONSENT ISSUES AHOY.

That said, it was sorta hot in a dubconny way, and to the extent I was able to roll with the ridiculous dubconland logic it was...actually sort of cute?
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/802592.html

In 1912, an earnest Japanese girl from the country slowly gets to know a mysterious horror writer, and learns about what hides beneath the masks people wear.

This was mostly pretty good, it was exploring Japanese literary tropes and historical prejudices in ways I'm sure went over my head a lot, but I got the gist enough to enjoy it, especially the way it had fun with some gothic and fairytale tropes I did recognise. It reminded me a little of Northanger Abbey, though playing everything a lot more straight, and with a rather heavy handed PREJUDICE IS BAD message.

It's free with ads on Love365 for the next few days.

Content note: Xenophobia. Also the game's prologue has consent issues, though this route only implies them vaguely in a flashback, and the love interest himself is fine.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/798768.html

The protagonist ends up forced to secretly share a house with a workmate. Tsumugu is coldly professional at work, but a penny-pinching slob at home. I really didn't like him at first but it was free and he grew on me. He's a tsundere jerk, but MC is a little tsundere herself, by Love365 standards, and their bickering was kinda cute.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/794542.html

I don't think I'll play any of them, but I can see some of you maybe being interested in Hijikata and Takasugi Shinsaku(*) from the Shinsengumi game "Era of Samurai". You have to watch ads, though.

The other two are cops: Ishigami from Her Love In The Force and Kirisawa from Metro PD.

I am just...not in the mood for dating modern day cops, and I get the feeling playing anything about the Shinsengumi will have me going "That's OOC!" because I'm too attached to the Hakuoki characterisations. Also, there's no vampires, so where's the fun in that.

(*)he worked against the Shogunate/Shinsengumi, and was mentioned in Hakuoki as Shiranui's previous boss.

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/791531.html

MC finds herself the housekeeper for a cold billionaire...who turns out to be her gentle high-school sweetheart, now made bitter by life.

I didn't think I'd really enjoy this, but it was free so I gave it a shot. And sure enough I ended up skipping to the end, though I did like some aspects. He was too much of an asshole for me to genuinely ship it, but not entertainingly awful enough to be fun.

No real sexual consent issues in the parts I read, despite the premise, but I talk about the topic of consent in otome.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/790093.html

A maid at a fancy casino finds herself sold in a black-market auction to her mega-rich, cold-hearted boss!!

This is free this month, and didn't seem like my sort of thing at ALL but I got caught up in the prologue and ended up playing the whole route. It didn't really work for me as a romance, but I'm not into this sort of thing, and it was fun as ridiculous melodrama. I can see it being enjoyable for people into stockholm syndromey M/f with asshole LIs who are sorta squishy deep deep down but even at the end are still all "I own you, do as I say".

It was way less rapey than I expected though, no worse than your average otome. If anything I can see people with a "man literally owns woman" kink being a little disappointed. I mean there's still consent issues and a few sexy dubcon kisses but considering the premise it's pretty tame.

(Making a separate post cos it got long)
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/789448.html

My Forged Wedding: Akito, Star Crossed Myth: Dui epilogue and Krioff, Kings of Paradise: prologue

Various things I played for free, and one I got on special. I didn't get super into any of them, but did kinda enjoy My Forged Wedding: Akito.

Content note: mentions of consent issues and pseudo-incest
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/789086.html

It looks like Love365 will be the game of the month at

otome_games, so as a good mod I decided to try out all the free games for February. Alas, I didn't like any of them (except Dui, who I'd already played), but they generally weren't objectively bad, just not my jam, so hopefully this will still help people find something they like.

Here's my general Voltage/Love365 post. Links below lead to my reactions posts, where I've written one.

Note that there's some variation in when these games are free for, and what "free" means.

Irresistible Mistakes: Shunichiro: The protagonist wakes up realising she had a drunken one night stand she can't remember with one of her coworkers. Shunichiro is her cheerfully hedonistic boss, it glossed over the consent issues too much for me but he had a certain skeezy charm. This seems to be permanently free.

Irresistible Mistakes: Yukihasa: a brilliant but emotionless doctor who thinks love is a delusion and just wants to be friends with benefits. I had complicated feelings on him as a character, but the route seemed to be going in a "fix the neuro-atypical person with loving sex" direction which, no. Free for February.

Butler Until Midnight: Yuma: The protagonist finds out she's the daughter of a prestigious man and is bullied into letting a butler train her to be a refined lady. They were so manipulative and mean in the prologue it felt more like a butler themed horror game, but it's probably fun if you like domineering butlers? I've heard there's a lot of fat shaming, though. Yuma is apparently extra mean to start with but becomes nicer. Free for February.

Star-crossed: Dui This is a cute romance with the god of the star-sign Gemini, who has two sides to his personality. Free with ads until February 11.

Destind: Araya: the protagonist matches via a dating app with a younger friend from highschool who's been pining over her. He's rapey and manipulative and I'm not sure the game even saw it as a flaw D: It's "Love Choice" which means the good choices, leading to the super happy end, cost money. Normally you'd also have to wait or pay to read the episodes, and that part seems to be permanently free, but unlocking the super happy ending still costs like $30 and even people who liked the route gave it a low score for the poor value for money.

A little more spoilery detail about the routes with no posts of their own under the cut. I made it like 3 episodes in to all of them before giving up. I describe Destind: Araya at the end, and mark where it's going to start.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/781200.html

So the moment I clicked out of Tsukasa's route I was taken to the free game page, and realised another recced route has just become free! ...well, free with ads. But that's close enough to check it out. It's "free" until January 11th.

Star Crossed Myth is about romancing star-sign-themed gods. Dui is Gemini, and has a 'split personality'. The route is about him reconciling these two sides. One the one hand, it's about the least ableist depiction I've seen of an otome love interest with a Dark Mentally Ill Side, but on the other hand that's really not saying much.

Still, I overall enjoyed it! It's very sweet and compassionate in a tropey, simplistic sort of way.

How the "free with clip" thing works is that you watch an ad attached to the specific episode, and then you have the rest of the day to play that episode as many times as you like before it requires an ad to watch again. The ads are pretty short and I didn't find this too painful.

Content notes: brief mention of child abuse, tropey 'split personality' due to trauma including violence from the love interest towards the protagonist, gratuitous Homestuck references
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/780705.html

I found this post, Top Voltage Inc. guys, whose writer seems to have similar tastes to me and recs some promising sounding Love365 routes. I was having a bad day so decided to splurge the $6 to actually pay for one.

I settled on Tsukasa from In Your Arms Tonight: a younger man who thinks the divorced protagonist is married, and so just quietly pines.

It was super duper sweet, a really lovely story of two lonely, emotionally repressed, self sacrificing people who always cover their own needs with a smile helping each other learn to be more expressive and emotionally honest.

This does involve the love interest becoming a bit more Masculine, but it mostly felt like the right journey for him as a person rather than just because Obviously All Men Want To Be Manly.

Content Notes: There's a repeated theme of people not eating enough due to stress and losing weight. There's a brief moment of obligatory dub-con but it's not bad for otome. The overall dynamic is really lovely.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/779980.html

So it turns out Samurai Love Ballad: Party is a remake of a Love365 game called Sakura Amidst Chaos?! Which I can just pay $6 per route to play without all that rigmarole??

Great, right??

Yeah, that's what I thought too... until I tried actually playing it :( It's basically a completely different and much less good game. All it seems to have in common is the base "commoner girl works for and falls in love with Sengoku warlord" premise and some vague character design details.

I mean if you want fluffy cheesy historical RPF it's not the WORST but...I'm going back to Samurai Love Ballad: Party. SIGH.

Content note for the game: there is a brief, thwarted attempt at sexual assault by the protagonist's Evil Cousin.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/779566.html

This is a stand-alone phone based dating sim by Voltage Japan. It's not part of the Love365 app, and has a different setup. It's set in late 16th century Japan and all the love interests are samurai/warlords/ninja etc.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/778921.html

An aspiring screenwriter ends up the secret ghostwriter for a boyband full of utter assholes. The free route is for Nagito, who is the friendliest but also super skeevy, making a lot of "jokes" that are basically sexual harassment.

My non-spoilery review is that it was compelling but pretty cheesy, and I didn't end up entirely shipping the main pairing.

And now, my spoilery reactions, because it was a Journey.

Content note: incest, sexual harassment
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/778591.html

I finished the Shinichi route of After School Affairs and quite liked it. Here's the previous post I wrote about After School Affairs. This route is free for the rest of January.

I tried the prologue of My Sweet Bodyguard, and the American remake To Love and Protect, and didn't click with either of them, though it was fun to compare.

I played the free Nagito route from Scandal in the Spotlight, about being a ghostwriter to a boyband, and it was compelling, but I'm not sure it was good. It's also free for the rest of January.

One thing I'm liking in all the stories I've played so far is the MC having a supportive female best friend. It's a bit of a cliche, but I like how it affects the dynamic.
( No spoilers, just more details )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/778351.html

This is another Voltage romance game on the Love365 phone app.

The premise of After School Affairs is that the protagonist's sports-focussed boys school has merged with an academics-focused girls school, and two of the conditions of the merger are (a) Teachers from her school have to work with the "better" teachers to raise the boy's grades (b) DATING IS FORBIDDEN.

And of course all the potential teaching partners are HOT DUDES.

The uptight, cold maths teacher Shinichi was free for January, and looked like my sort of thing, so I gave him a go.

And it was sort of my sort of thing? But I got bored three chapters in and skipped to the end. I didn't like the "Climactic" ending that much, but the "Amorous" one was cute. EDIT: I went back and played all the scenes, and enjoyed it!

Also it hit a squick of mine, which I'll go into under the cut.

I'll definitely keep the app in mind for when I want a cheesy romance, and might even give this one another go later in January if the mood hits me. But I'm not sure I'll ever pay for a route, unless it jumps out at me way more than any of the ones I've seen.

Below: Spoilers, mention of sexualisation of teenaged characters.
( Read more... )

Crossposts: https://alias-sqbr.livejournal.com/774838.html

So as I mentioned before, I played some of Love365's "Irresistible Mistakes", about a woman who wakes up realising she had a drunken one night stand with one of her coworkers and DOESN'T REMEMBER WHICH.

If that premise appeals to you and you have a high tolerance for consent issues and heteronormativity you may have fun, and Shunichiro, the main guy I discuss, is free right now.

Here's the trailer, which is all about Shunichiro (the actual game is not animated and you don't usually see the main character)

Anyway, here are the somewhat edited reactions I made to my friend over discord.

Content notes: Consent issues. Spoilers for Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker because I made a joke I am too happy with to cut.
( Read more... )