Zettai Meikyuu Himitsu no Oyayubi-hime - Review

Minor spoiler warning just incase~~

絶対迷宮 秘密のおやゆび姫

Game: [Zettai Meikyuu Himitsu no Oyayubi-hime]

Genre: Otome game Visual Novel.

Developer/Publisher: Karin entertainment.

Platform:  PS Vita.

Official Site: http://oyayubi.labyrinth-of.com/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v15248

Release date: 2015-07-30

Oyayubi hime is my first Karin game and its apparently well received in japan, however
i've also read that the overall story was a mess, well now that doesn't bode well does it?
Anyway I am glad I got this game out of the way...

TL;DR
6/10
I liked this game as it was still decent but it had some issues...

Pro's
- Interesting setting and story for being a fairytail adaption.
 - Most of the characters are likeable.
 - Art and BGM.
 Lune,Svia and Esheru's routes are great and original.
- Not one but two yuri routes.
- Lune had the best route, his route balanced the plot and romance so well.
(Tsubame/Kuro kishi comes pretty close but eh...)
- Unique seiyuu cast.

Con's
- Doesn't feel like an otome game, IMHO only Lune and Tsubame/Kuro kishi routes did it right.
Like the otome bits came in too late, there was like almost zero development in the common route.
- The romance and plot in most of the routes is poorly balanced.
- The story has issues, mostly cuz of Freya.
- Long common route.
 - Only Lune,Svia and Esheru's routes are original, the rest of the route overlap with each other.
- Lupian's route was too short... I felt nothing yo! nothing but sadness he got the short end of the stick.
- Miracle Flower Power Magical Girl Freya saves the day in too many routes*.
*(Sirius,Lars, Lupian,Albireo, Tsubame/Kuro kishi and Nude king routes).*
 - Why does Truce not have a route?
- This otomege might only stand out if you haven't played that many yet.

Best and worst otome games I played during 2015

Uh oh its that time of the year... and well I've played alot Otome this year, I didn't review all of them.

So lets go over the ones I played in order before ranking them!

1, Ken ga Kimi for V.

 2, Sangoku Rensenki.

3, Crimson Empire New edition.

4, Clock Zero extime.

5, Possession Magenta.

6, Zettai Kaikyuu Gakuen ~Eden with Roses and Phantasm~

7, Harukanaru toki no naka de 6.

8, Soukai Buccaneers.

9,Amnesia.

10, Shinobi, koi utsutsu.

11, I DOLL U.

12, Mahoutsukai to goshujin-sama.

13, Prince of Stride.

14, Beast master and prince/Moujuutsukai to ouji-sama.

15, Harukanaru toki no naka de 6.

16, Reine des fleurs.

17, Rear pheles red of another.

18, Ayakashi gohan Oomori.

19, Jyuza engi 1.

20, Jyuza engi 2.

Games bought but haven't played yet at the time of this post which i've finished by now.
(yay for backlog! so this'll be at next year's end list,)

Yunohana Spring. (decent game, its cute and fluffy but its not all that interesting)

Zettai Meikyuu himitsu no Oyayubi hime.(Finished, its decent but it has some issues)

Norn9 Var Commons.(I've finished this by now, great otomege despite translation issues)

So which of the 20 games I played would actually make it to my omg best i've played this year?

and the Oh my gawd I don't want to play this again everrrrrrrr.

Angelique Retour - Review

アンジェーリーク ルトゥール

Game: [Angelique Retour]

Genre: Otome game Visual Novel.

Developer/Publisher: Koei tecmo, Neo romance, Ruby party.

Platform: PSP, PS Vita.

Official Site: http://www.gamecity.ne.jp/ange_retour/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v2166

Release date: 2015-12-17

Here we go another koei game its a remake of one of the very first otome games!
Or more like Angelique helped to develop the genre a lot.

I find this game to be somewhat enjoyable, despite some of the RNG...

I guess it keeps things interesting? maybe i'm just not into simulation games.
Too bad I have no motivation to do more than one route...atleast at the time of finishing this post.
Because the system is just that boring and annoying to me not to mention there's no real conflict 'cept
the guys internal struggle thus nothing really happens outside of you competing to be the queen...
more on that soon.

I gotta be honest though, while I was sitting through the first few hour I thought that
Reine des Fleurs took alot of things from this game but not everything and they make it french. (lol)

I'm not bothered by it because things like this happen all the time in japan and even in the west, all those similair light novel or anime and even game? Yep it happens all-the-time, but enough about RDF being similair to Angelique cuz I don't give a single fuck, i'm just pointing it out and thats that.

Also for some reason I find that Koei's titles are less popular than otomate in the west?
Maybe its because they have zero presence in the west unlike otomate outside
of the old harukanaru tv anime and manga who ironically are now long out of print.
Koei should really step up their game now, the market is there and Aksys has shown that!
I do not care if Koei otome titles will be steam only because sadly the vita is a lost cause in the west.

PLOT
''A plain-ish girl named Angelique which we'll shorten to Ange is a chosen
candidate alongside Rosalia to become the queen of the cosmos.
The two girls compete for this role and the guys support them in their journey.''

UNFORTUNATELY that is all there is to it except love there is no real outside source to oppose them
the two candidates (except each other)which is actually really disappointing

it doesn't help that while the guys are appealing they aren't really interesting

until you get into their events and get to know them a bit more.
Other than that not even Rosalia was a nuisance, I expected bitchy rivalry behavior
but there was none of that (lol) which honestly made for a pretty boring game.
Why would you even want to become the queen of the cosmos anyway?
Ange isn't even capable of questioning this except when deciding to go with a guy or not...
IMO the plot of Koisuru tenshi angelique was more interesting because atleast
the protag had some history and the guys are all sad and emo over Ange becoming the queen
and the bias for Zephel there made me get this game and to be honest it wasn't worth it
except for him finally finding happiness with his first crush.😅

 Pro's
- No Date, No Life.
- All of the guys are sweethearts.
- The system is easy to understand.
- Interesting setting and worldview but...
- Art and BGM.
- Heroine was cute buut very basic.
- The heroine's rival Rosalia was likeable and not bitchy.
- Zephel was moe, best boy. (bias)

Con's
- The story is almost non-existant.
- Characters have cardboard personality outside of their events which takes a while to reach.
- Events and individual ending are on the short side.
(^This could be great if your attention span is short^)
- Its hard not to reach the goal of the story.
- Not a straight-forward visual novel.
- RNG.


Like i've said this otomege's overall plot is simple, do as your supposed to as the candidate and chill with guys from time to time and win their hearts in the process, there is no pressure
though it might be great to get ahead of Rosalia which is actually easy.
It doesn't even matter if you shoot down any guy who requests to hang out with the heroine
they'd be disappoint and will probably cry in a corner for the rest of the ingame day. :D
I still think its too easy to reach the main objective though, most of the time Rosalia isn't even
 trying I mean at one point there was a 1000 point gap, I'm like pls.
Anyway it is ok if you don't have any expectations and are new to it, don't let the RNG bit
get to you it can still be lots of fun (I think).