| As Dusk Falls | Game Pass |
| Assassin's Creed | Steam |
| The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales | Game Pass |
| Cat Quest II | Steam |
| Eiyuden Chronicles: Rising | Steam |
| Hakuoki - Memories of the Shinsengumi | 3DS |
| Heroes of Ruin | 3DS |
| Jusant | Game Pass |
| Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series | PC |
| New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe | Switch |
| Return to Grace | Game Pass |
| Soccer Story | Game Pass |
| Terraformers: First Steps on Mars | Steam |
| Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong | Steam |
I love when straight men play Hakuoki <3
Seriously though, I don’t know if it was your first otome game or not; either way, it’s a damn good choice. It’s what I’ve thought of as the otome game to mention if I ever wanted to get a guy interested ever since I played it myself. Assuming you prefer playing VNs on 3DS, it’s a shame there aren’t more of them… not a single other English otome game in sight.
Yes, it was my first otome VN. While the 3DS is my all-time favorite handheld system, I’ve mostly played VNs on Steam.
The good thing about Hakuoki is that the protagonist doesn’t chase after the guys (I would have felt uncomfortable) but rather waits for them to make a move. The romance can easily be overlooked without spoiling the story.
the protagonist doesn’t chase after the guys (I would have felt uncomfortable)
Well… I don’t know where that idea came from… the most common stereotype about otome games (from people who don’t really play them) I’ve heard is, “all the guys assert dominance over the main character, therefore it’s not realistic”, which is just plain wrong.
The romance can easily be overlooked without spoiling the story.
…so much so that the Steam version apparently includes the option to turn it off (I’ve been trying to confirm this with people who played it, but I’m still not clear enough on it). It’d be my go-to suggestion for guys to play exactly because of its historical setting (no route being too identical to any other is also a huge plus), but at the end of the day, to me it’s still got to be an otome game.
Strong disagree on Swansong, and this is coming from someone who likes V:tM, but that could mainly be because I think it ended up in this weird spot where being an RPG hybrid just resulted in routes being locked from you based on character build choices rather than adding to the game.
And it’s perfectly fine to disagree. I saw the grayed-out choice as opportunities to replay the game in a different way. Once I realized there was no way of doing everything, I just rolled with what the game had to offer. Besides, I was reading Dark Prince, the first V:tM novel published, at the same time which may have had a beneficial effect on my Swansong experience.
Really love the overall look of this. Compact, simple, straight to the point. Really inspired to do something similar in the future.
Oh no, a shame Return to Grace was disappointing. I still want to check it out, but I think I should temper my expectations a bit.
You’re right to try it for yourself. Maybe I’m just not the right crowd for this game. I love walking sims as long as the atmosphere pulls me in and this one didn’t.