If anyone wants more recommendations:
Ishara: Bane of The Seas - This one’s free. It has a well fleshed out protagonist (she’s not a doormat, she’s fierce) and most of the cast was likeable. There’s also optional battle games. I recommend this one.
Calling Cipher - Free, stat-raiser which is still in development. You get to influence the protagonist’s personality and the boys look nice.
Rei - Free, short otome game. Made by the author of Aloners.
Playing The Blind Griffin now. It’s amazingly well put together and the endings are incredibly sweet, the good ones anyway.
HOW COULD YOU MAKE ME FAIL THE EXAM AND FORGET ALEXEI, GAME, HOW COULD YOU FUCKING DO THIS TO ME
AND IIIIIIIIIII WILL ALWAYS LOOOOOVE YOOOOOOUUU
Thank you for recommending it. 
@Sneaks Oh my god when that game goes dark it goes REALLY damn dark. I mean, the bad ending for Emilio? Jesus christ
@Owlet JUST started playing Ishara, she’s such a badass and I’m in love.
I’ve got to say, before this whole thread I had never seen so many strong female MCs in otome games before, this is great 
Since I am a cis-gendered girl (am I phrasing that correctly?), I usually prefer playing as a female in games and otomes are the only genre I’ve found with mostly female protagonists. But oftentimes they have kind of…weak personalities. There’s nothing wrong with anyone who is like that, but I’m personally not so it can be difficult to identify if the MC is a caricature of a submissive female.
The person who is trying to kill you is always the same, but the reasons why change depending on your background, your relationship with that person, goals you state, popularity, etc. The person trying to kill you is Giselle. Also Jarrod helps her out, but it’s mostly her doing. You can see her having suspicious meeting with servants beforehand, then if you have enough interpersonal insight and cunning, right after the event if you explore the castle and go to the cliffs you can hear her and Jarrod talking about it there. If you see all of the clues and talk to Jasper, he’ll give you further evidence
Also fun fact about Jasper he’s actually one of the secret love interests!
I 100% agree with this. I think it’s mainly to do with the faulty “if she doesn’t do much, then anyone can pretend to be her” mindset that heaps of game developers have. I know QuinRose (this Japanese otome developer) has a number of more assertive and proactive protagonists, but the majority of main characters in the industry are quiet, unbelievably naive and doormat-ish.
Plus, it feels good when the MC can stand up for herself (in combat or not). I’m still itching to find more games with clever or cunning protagonists who don’t need others, or their own fists, to seriously kick-ass.
As far as I’m aware, yes, you’re phrasing that correctly.
Yeah I accidentally got his romance scene thing. 
You have no idea how much I love you, I have been trying to figure it out but in the end I decided to just enjoy the game and not worry about who is out to murder me.
Does the matchmaker know who tried to kill you? Is that why she does not approve of Jarrod? Agh, All these questions.
Another game! Cute and short with a twist, DON’T READ ANY SPOILERS BEFORE YOU FINISH THE FIRST PLAYTHROUGH. I’m at college for some summer research right now and all this game made me want to do was go back to my hometown and see someone I miss very much.
[Where Ages Go][1]
If you play it let me know what you thought! I think it’s adorable
[1]: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=31416
The matchmaker doesn’t approve of Jarrod because he doesn’t pass her inspection, but she can’t send him home and risk an all out war because he’s a crown prince!
You can end up in an unnapproved matchmaker romance with him though. As you might have seen, if you are romancing him but do not choose him he’ll get VERY pissed. However, if you have really high manipulation and encourage better behavior from him since your first meeting you can actually salvage your relationship and convince him to be friends
@alliebee
Admittedly, I never played Lisle’s ‘path’ until the newest update, I didn’t find him especially interesting. Boy was I wrong. 
Didn’t see that coming at all.
I’ve played Where Ages Go recently, that plot twist made me cry laughing. It is REALLY cute.
I didn’t ever figure out ever get to figure out your potential killer in 7kpp. But knowing now… yeah, it was pretty obvious, especially during the horse riding scene.
Yes I did play it! I nearly died when I saw the third week was out. I’m 100% with you. The full release will be amaze-balls. I’m sort of embarrassed b/c I do not have your detective skills. I thought Lisle was asexual and only suspected Gisette/Jarrod were involved–no actual evidence. I never thought it was Jasper though! Hope that counts for something.
My favorites are Lyon and Ana. I dunno, she’s just super delightful. And then, to be honest, I really like Hamin. Did not like any of the talks with the people if you don’t choose them X( I felt bad.
Boring MCs are boring to read.
I have two recs, but not free. I’m sorry x( I had Calling Cipher but it’s been mentioned oh well.
Black Closet is the first and unlike the other, I haven’t bought it. I did, however, play the demo and was apalled and upset when that “end of demo” notification reminded me it was a demo. There’s a mystery about a traitor who was completely unknown to me first playthrough, but then started making sense when I looked at who was being ridiculously shitty at their job.
You get cases and tbh, although you play as school president, I felt like a king or maybe police chief (?) would be more accurate. The characters you can romance/friend are also your student council members/minions and you send them to do things like spy on people or stalk them. There’s this one case I ignore if I have a more difficult case going where a science prodigy needs to be taken care of before a big speech but tbh she’s fine on her own.The trickiest one for me is the cheating one, which I couldn’t solve b/c ugh these bitches don’t fess up.
To be honest, since it’s $19.95 I’ll probably wait till it goes on sale. If you have the money, it’s probably worth it, but I’ve never paid that much for a game (except DAI and I don’t count that b/c Bioware has a hold over me). Although, you can get a $5 discount for posting about it on a blog/social media/forum (like this one.) There’s info about it here Black Closet Demo Discount I may try to use that, but I still want a sale cause I’m cheap. This is a high quality game buuuut yeah.
Then there’s the Sword of Asumi whose logo had me think this would be historical but screenshots clearly show modern school place. Either way, this isn’t typical Slice of Life. Asumi is a badass assassin who goes undercover at a not-highschool. It’s actually a post-grad samurai university for the best so everyone’s an adult. You get to choose whether she kills/disables ppl and of course if she romances anyone and if so, who. Thankfully, this isn’t a VN where she’ll like die if she doesn’t flirt w/ someone enough. But if you are gonna flirt w/ someone my fave’s Hikari. He’s so Cinderella. He’s the quiet, moody archetype but not in a ‘everyone wants me, but only you understand me’ and I like how shy he is. To me, it makes Asumi feel a little like princess charming. More reasons for that would be spoilers. Would recommend highly!! (on sale, if you’re cheap like me; I got it for 3-something altho retail’s $9.99.)
Also, does anyone have access to a working link to Starlight Drifter’s demo. It’s a WIP made by the same people as Sword of Asumi and you can customize your character’s appearance!! Sadly, not free. Probably more expensive actually.
Another WIP that’s demo is free but it will not be is Destiny Fails Us at $15. It’s school life and I’m ambivalent about the art style, but it’s really good. Probably not at the top of my “will buy list” (that’s probably Seven Kingdoms and Starlight Drifter maybe) but there are a lot of features and the way the character’s interact
Jarrod doesn’t scare me xp Jeez, could you imagine his full romance route? Creeeeppyy. That being said, I probably will play through it lol.
@seabean He still kind of bores me tbh. One good thing about his path tho was Penelope. Kind of. I like her but she’s not my favorite.
I know, right? I was playing the Sheltered Princess, and all I could think whenever she was talking with Jarrod was “oh my God, he’s totally going to murder her, and I want to ride this train wreck all the way to the end.” But then Hamin showed up and swept her off her feet, which sort of put the kibosh on that plan 
Also, major thanks to whoever put the recommendation here. I’d never heard of the game before, but I ended up spending all day yesterday playing. Of course, I was supposed to be studying for the bar, but I regret nothing!
Since this is a general Otome game topic, and not one about a specific game I’d say be careful about spoiling games for others.
Gender and not gendered. Otherwise it sounds about right. 
If you want to start a new topic about a game, and feel there’d be enough room for discussion then please feel free to. Since visual novels are a form of interactive fiction, it’s likely also go in the Other Interactive Fiction topic.
Haha you’re welcome. That’s me!
That’s exactly how I feel! Too bad the characters are all so cool. It’s easy to get distracted from the disaster of that relationship. Anywho I thought that the Princess couldn’t romance Jarrod. Which is sad cause that’s what I wanted to do. Maybe this is bad, but the other roles feel too independent/self-possessed (?) to put up w/ him. Or well, they could but I don’t want them too.
It’s fun finding all the secrets in 7KPP, but it can be tough. You aren’t supposed to be able to find them all in one run through and still pass the matchmaker test because it encourages more replays to find them! In week 3 alone there’s at least 6 hidden scenes. Have you figured out the 3 secret romances yet?
I can’t wait to figure out what all the shady stuff with Jasper is. You can run into quite a few of his secret cryptic meetings when exploring.
The plot twist in Where Ages Go was fantastic, and I actually loved the whole concept of “where ages go” and that kind of love 
my only problem is that now I really miss my dog. I’m going to be a college senior so you think I’d be used to not having my dog with me anymore. At first the ending made me laugh, but then I teared up. Super tempted to drive all the way home just to see her. Ugh I’m such a crybaby
@pyla8 Yeah, Jarrod is definitely NOT my favorite RO, he’s so abusive and I’m not a fan of that at all, but a good portion of the beta testers were really into it! If I remember correctly, even the author was surprised so many people loved his story because she also thinks he’s abusive (not to mention creepy), and would never go for someone like that.
But I’m still definitely going to play his route! 
I personally think it’s more fun if you have a high manipulation stat/high persuasion (a combo of several other stats) so you can stand up for yourself. I’m REALLY interested to see how the story handles the fact that he and Giselle essentially tried to murder you. That’s sure to put a bit of a damper on any budding relationship
I loved reading people’s shocked reaction to Lisle’s sexuality because it seemed so obvious to me, but it could have just been because of the ridiculous amount of playthroughs I did for bug hunting. In fact, I think I noticed the romance bar thing while checking for bugs and after seeing his romance bar had no points in it, at all it was pretty easy to put together.
Also, I love Ana! Even though she’s not my top romance choice I love her friendly character. I know she’ll have the MC’s back no matter what. Her date at the end of week 3 is cute too when she takes the MC to the cliffs in order to help her become braver and better able to take care of herself. Basically, Ana is fantastic. Lyon is an adorable nerd and I love having my MC tease him.
The scene where everyone comes up and talks to you if you don’t choose them breaks my heart 
They’re all so kind and understanding! Except Jarrod so screw that guy (and sometimes Giselle and one of the secret ROs don’t take it so well either, but they’re easier to placate)
In order to be able to repair your relationship with Jarrod if you do not chose him you have to try to encourage good behavior on his part at every opportunity like I mentioned above, and also have your total persuasion be greater than or equal to 450
@KelaSaar it was pyla8 who put the link for game on this forum! I love this game so much and when I saw the third week had come out to the public I had to make sure the person who introduced me to the game got to play it
Also, the sheltered princess route I think is actually incapable of being with Jarrod because the author said they’re just too incompatible. Plus Hamin is much more charming anyways, so good choice 
Okay after the billionth long post I’ve made about 7KPP on this topic, I think I’m going to go ahead and make the new thread.
I don’t want to completely dominate the otome game thread with all the 7KPP stuff, but I also still want to talk about it with you guys And anyone else who’s played it!
@FairyGodfeather Thanks for the correction and suggestion! I’ll make sure to put it under “Other Interactive Fiction” topic
There is a free one out simply called Seduce Me the Otome. Given its title, there is otome, but if one also likes lesbian relationships, they are in it (which is why I picked it up, but others can enjoy its other aspects )
You can get it free on Steam for free here:
I admit, I liked it, and probably spent more time than I should have on it.
Hahahaha I just got that on steam the other day. I haven’t had much to do this week so I’ve been playing a lot of games.
I also spent a huge amount of time playing through every possible ending
Good innit? Seems like a lot of paths to pursue! do you know if the demons are an option?
Obviously quality can be subjective, but since it is free that makes it easier to recommend people give it a try.
And without giving too much away, yes, romancing demons is certainly an option
Yesssss, replay time, uh, when I wake up again!
And now I’m muddling through 7 Kingdoms, too many challenge faileds though D: