Hello and greetings to all MCs who are striving and thriving this year! It’s amazing how swiftly we’re approaching the end of 2023!Can you believe how quickly the days have passed? This year has undeniably been a boon to the otome community, with a lot of game releases and exciting announcements popping out of the blue like mushrooms. I am still in disbelief that we’ve come this far, but anyway, I’ve expressed this so many times in my newsletters already, so no use to repeat myself here!😅(laughs) Be that as it may, I have an important question for everyone though! How are our wallets faring?🤣💸

As tradition, it’s that time of the year, when I’ll be babbling on about my year-end review on all things, otome-related, along with some uninteresting personal musings and reflections for 2023. This time around, the post will be split into two parts, as trying to squeeze everything into one might make it a bit too lengthy. Prepare your snacks and teas; this first part is going to be entertaining (or at least, I hope it will be, lol).🤣

This year, I played 20 games in total: 14 I’ve completed, 10 I’ve reviewed, 3 I’ve stalled, and 3 I’ve dropped. Out of the 20 games I’ve played, 16 were otome games, lol – I mean, this was expected. 😂

• BeniBana (Dropped) – this was a weird incident. Although it was not one of the games I was looking forward to playing this year, I did feel kind of hyped about it when it was announced. Admittedly, I have enjoyed Touya and Suren’s routes and even made walkthroughs for them. Then the other two routes happened: I was playing Ruzi’s route with a stink eye, but hey, some of his CGs were pretty, so I thought to myself, “Well, I think I can muscle through this”, and so I did. It was in Naran’s route that made me want to dunk my Switch in the toilet. I can’t really elaborate on why I was so disgusted with this route without spoiling anything, but yeah…no sir, not for me! (it’s not a trigger or anything but more like a pet peeve). I’ll probably give the game another go next year but I’m not holding my breath for it.

• Toraware no Palm (Stalled)– I have been playing this game since 2022 and have always stalled because I had too many other games to play and was too tired to flex my no-brainer kanji skills (cackles).😂However, this year, I have finally finished Haruto’s route, (well, his first ending anyway) and I liked it! Hopefully, I can continue with the rest of the game next year.

• Hana Awase – Finished Mizuchi and Himeutsugi’s volume!💪 My review will have to wait til’ I finish the other two volumes, and I think I’m too distracted atm to get through Karakurenai’s story, so that’ll have to wait until next year. Gomen ごめんなさい!! 🙇‍♀️

• Mineko’s Night Market (Dropped) – this was a total letdown. I had been excited about this game since it was announced in 2015! I believe the pandemic hit the development pretty hard, causing progress to stall for a while. But, oh man, when the Switch port came out this year, it was sooooo buggy that it was unplayable. I tried my best to be patient with it. However, after experiencing 15+ crashes in 30 minutes of gameplay, dealing with more than 20 lags that required restarts, and severe audio glitches, it was an absolute nightmare; even with the patch that was supposed to fix these bugs. I believe they have patched the game again recently, but I don’t think I have the strength to give it another shot anytime soon.😢

• The Ssum Harry’s Route (Dropped) – Despite my love for Harry and this game, I will unfortunately be dropping it and will not be continuing my review diary for Harry’s route. I have finished Harry’s 100 Days, and …it was not a good experience. It was partly my fault because I was time-traveling, wasting all that money and for what? The 100th day ended in the worst way imaginable, it discouraged me from touching the game ever again. I believe his final ending has been updated in the app as of recent, but I don’t feel like going back to it anymore.

Back by popular demand! With the number of releases we had this year, it would be a waste not to do my best and worst awards, aka Itabag Awards, aka whatever you want to call it—Otomege Edition Awards. 😂🏆 This year, I’ll be limiting entries once again to the new localized titles and console/mobile exclusives I’ve played. *Cracks knuckles* Let’s begin!

🛑 Disclaimer: This is all in jest and for fun, please do not take this seriously.

Best Heroine Of 2023

It’s a tie…once again! We are truly blessed with numerous stand-out protags in 2023. They were all best girls, honestly. But if I had to narrow down the ones that easily encapsulated me with their uniqueness, quirks, and charms. I’d have to say, two exceptional daughters have stood out in this department. Catarina Claes (My Next Life as a Villainess) was such a hilarious heroine. She may be dense and as oblivious as a seabed of rocks, but her quirkiness and unheroine–like attitude were the exact reasons why everyone’s gaga over her, including me! Kisa Tachibana (Jack Jeanne) was just, ugh, my goodness! She’s the best! Jack Jeanne was her story; she makes or breaks that game! Everything about her coming-of-age narrative was so raw and authentic that I was moved to tears just from watching her grow each and every play!

Worst Heroine of 2023

Hiyori Sena (Charade Maniacs) as much as I love all of my heroines, Hiyori really fell short compared to the other girls this year. Sometimes I would just chalk it up to her being the most basic b**** high schooler, but sometimes I’ just can’t help but be like… ‘Really, girl?

Best Tsundere of 2023

Last year, Tyril (Even If Tempest Dawning Connections) nabbed Best Route award in 2022 for his story in EiT, and this year he’s back, stealing the spotlight as the Best Tsundere for his route in Dawning Connections! There’s certainly an appeal to tsunderes with a whip no? But to be a tsun with a whip who’s also a beast in bed?! 👁️👄👁️ Hue hue hue! I– need my asthma pump!

Worst Tsundere of 2023

Tomose Banjo. (Charade Maniacs) Huh? Wait, is he even a tsundere? LOL HE’S NOT! I was just really looking for a way to give him a “worst” award. lmao😂 He was awful. Periodt.
Anyway, this award doesn’t count. This nomination is disqualified!

Best Kuudere of 2023

Ion (Radiant Tale) and Mizuchi (Hana Awase) Oh no! Another tie! The reason behind this is that I really can’t decide which one of them is better than the other! This has been a difficult pick too, as there were a lot of kuudere LIs this year that really stood out. But these two were just phenomenal. Their backstories, the depth of their suffering, and just how sweet and genuine they are, all around to the heroine were the basis of this decision.

Worst Kuudere of 2023
NONE

Best Genki Of 2023

Suzu Orimaki (Jack Jeanne)– Suzu-kun was an upstanding genki character in Jack Jeanne and should be the standard for genki characters in all otomes.😝 Ha! Love, love, love his character growth in his route and his genuine care for Kisa. I also adored how he didn’t care whether Kisa was a man or a woman. Love should, in itself, transcend gender, and I’m glad that more and more localized otome games today are starting to include this theme.

Worst Genki Of 2023

Akase (Charade Maniacs) – I would like to apologize for the Akase enjoyers for this!😭 Story time: While writing my Virche review and inputting the voice works for Soma Saito in the VA section, ngl, I nearly overlooked this character. 😭 It bothered me because I sensed that I was missing something, and in the back of my mind, I thought, “Didn’t he (Soma Saito) voice two other LIs besides Yves this year?” 😭 Hence, the rationale for this award. By no means Akase nor his route was bad, he was just really forgettable.😪

Bias-Wrecker Of 2023

A bias-wrecker is simply the character who’s not even your oshi/best boi, but you end up brain-rotting over them instead! This year, it was Tomonari (Winter’s Wish) for me. I was very much dead-set on Yoichi in Winter’s Wish (who’s still my oshi in the game), but for some reason, Tomonari never escapes me, every time I think about some of my favorite tropes, his route always comes to mind. I guess I’m just generally weak for the devoted and overprotective type.😅

Best Cinamon Roll Of 2023

Mathis (Virche Evermore) – I don’t normally like the cinnamon roll baby boys, but Mathis holds a special place in my 🤍. After finishing Virche, I had to quickly clear out a shelf space so I could make a tiny shrine for my baby boo – he deserves it!

Best Route Of 2023

Another TIE — LMAO! I need to stop this! 😂😂😂
These are the only two (console) routes that I have brainrotted this year. Kai Mutsumi (Jack Jeanne), the Disney kuudere princess, had me bawling for hours; good lord, was that route a doozy! His dialogue at the end during the final performance with Kisa had me internally screaming – my love veins were about to burst! (cackling)😂. Rozy (My Next Life as a Villainess) completely took me by surprise in Hamefura. But damn, his route was so good that I legit took my time with it (despite my deadlines lol) because I didn’t want it to end.😭  Runner Up: Paschalia (Radiant Tale)

Worst Route Of 2023

Best Boy of 2023

As I’ve said in my review for Virche, Yves, to me, sets the standard as the ideal love interest in otome games. It’s funny, cause he wasn’t even a fav. of mine in the game, but he was truly the epitome of “best boi“! Even Hugo agrees wholeheartedly!

Best Side Character Syndrome Of 2023

No, its not because of my bias for Takashi Kondo characters! Nope!🤪 (I think I said this before with last year’s awards on Tsugunobu -lmao!) 😂😂😂 But, in all honesty, Jinnia (Radiant Tale) embodies what I would want to see in LIs: an easy going, happy-go-lucky skincare freak, wine connoisseur. They’re just someone I can easily hang out with in real life!

Best DILF Of 2023

Lord Yoshimune Tokugawa (Winter’s Wish) hands down takes the thrown for 2023’s best DILF. That brusque commanding voice, that confident and poised demeanor and how he fearlessly lead the people to safety during blightfall attacks. OH NAUUR! 😩 💦 Yoshimune-sama, yamete kudesai!! *chokes on bread*

Worst DILF Of 2023

Balto (Radiant Tale) – I mean, I pretty much went 👁️👄👁️ the first time his sprite showed up. But yeah, I’m sorry the dude’s trash. He gets no redemption and I don’t think he needs one either. I may still collect him….

Best OST Of 2023

Jack Jeanne, hands down! The OST for this game alone deserves its high praise. Not only do its melodies and lyrics capture the story’s magic, but the way the characters sang every song with so much raw emotion imparted in every tune was a reason for me not to skip any of my favorite tracks in each play. Akira Kosemura’s collaboration with Sui Ishida is a masterpiece on its own. Sometimes, when I’m stressed and exhausted from work, I just come back to the game’s OST to recall the fond memories I had playing this game. Kisa’s theme is my healing place. 🥰

👜Itabags Made this Year👜

I made a Harumi (Lover Pretend) itabag around April, along with a video for it. July, I made Jack Jeanne Mustumi Kai’s Itabag, and September, I crafted Radiant Tale Jinnia’s itabag. I had plans to make a Kisa Tachibana (Jack Jeanne) ita pouch, but I became extremely busy with work this year and had neither the time nor the energy to be proactively creative. I hope next year I’ll be blessed with more free time for itabagging!

_{Not the most flattering photos (lol I have zero aesthetic sense in me) but here you go!}

Favorite Ships 🚢

• Tifalia and Paschalia (Radiant Tale) – the fact their names both end in ‘lia’ just means they are meant for each other loljk. While Vilio was my fav route in Radiant Tale, story-wise, I thought it was Paschalia’s that pulled so many romantic tropes that I was totally into. The angst, tension, and intensity in how both characters fought for their love during the last chapters were pretty up there! I was eating pretty good with this route! No crumbs nor time was wasted!

• Kisa and Sou-chan (Jack Jeanne)– As much as I love Kai and his route, I realize I have enjoyed Kisa’s dynamic with Sou the most. Their relationship was a learning curve for both characters, and it was honestly moving to see them struggle, make mistakes, and grow from it within the story. The codependency that initially embraced their relationship and how beautifully it resolved at the end was *chef kiss*. Sou’s route was one of those stories that you actually think about in idle time and realize how much substance it had, more than you thought it did.

• Suzuno and Yoichi (Winter’s Wish Spirits of Edo) – This relationship was very simple and perhaps a tad too cliché even. But it worked so well because of the timing. Suzuno and Yoichi’s romance was seamlessly woven into the narrative, occurring at the right moment and in the right context, and it felt neither forced nor added as mere plot filler. Like, no buildings needed to explode with the heroine collapsing and the love interest catching her, or anything of that sort, lol.😂 It was simply the “fake lover” trope that played up so well with Yoichi’s charm. Also, Suzuno and Yoichi just seem to have a natural chemistry; I can’t help but ship these two so hard!

OGOTY (Otome Game of The Year)

JACK JEANNE

Jack Jeanne is the only otome game, I have rated 10/10 this year. It’s been quite some time since I’ve rated a game such a high score, tbh. What’s funny is that while I already knew I’d enjoy this game,I didn’t foresee it to exceed my expectations by a wide margin. It’s such a nice feeling to be caught off guard like that, y’know! And it’s so satisfying to end your gameplay with a teary-eyed “Holy cow! That was good!” moment. All the grueling midnights spent on making those elaborate walkthroughs are so worth it for this game! (cackling) 😂😂😂

This is probably a corny, cringey fun fact, but I was actually tearing up while writing my JJ review. Recalling my favorite moments from the game in each route and every play became such an emotional feat! lol, I don’t know why!😅 The popular phrase that goes, “I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me,” is exactly how I feel about Jack Jeanne. I laughed, I cried, and everything about it. The characters, stories, music, became a part of me! I wish I understood the magic behind this, but this is how I truly and wholeheartedly feel about this game. And it’s not every day that a piece of media leaves this kind of lasting impression on you.

Out of the sixteen otome games I’ve played this year, my top three are as follows:

1. Jack Jeanne (10/10)
2. Radiant Tale (8.5/10)
3. Love and Deepspace (8.5/10)

Love and Deepspace was such an oddity because the game hasn’t even been released yet. 😂 But holy guacamole! I just want to express how freakin‘ good the romance is in this game. And no, I’m not talking about its fanservice (though that was good too, lol). I think I’m just stupidly burned out with surface-level romance in mainstream media these days. (I blame Netflix and the vast majority of Gen Alpha series that are trying to normalize skinship and sex as the paragon of “good” romance.) So when I come across the genuine ones that go beyond the superficial, conventional grand gestures of love (by western standards), I feel so refreshed!

What makes a romance tick?

For me, a good romance story stands out when it allows me to emotionally connect with the situations conveyed through the subtlest, tiniest details woven into the characters by the author. I always talk about this in my reviews, but to me, nuance is just as important as plot twists. 

For example, in romcoms, I want to see the heroine fiddling around with her phone, going back and forth to see if her LI replied to her spontaneous, out-of-the-blue text. I want to witness the mix of excitement and anxiety as she muses and stresses out whether she made the right call by sending that text message. lol🤣

💗I love the slow buildups, the subtleties that go behind the scenes, like the small daily actions of the LIs, often done without the heroine’s knowledge, meant to make her feel comfortable, safe and often done with her best interest in mind.

Not an otome game, but one example I want to cite is from the Kdrama, CLOTY; when Captain Ri Jeong-hyeok went to North Korea’s town market and bought some smuggled South Korean skincare and conditioner for Yoon Seri.😂 Having overheard Seri whining on her own about not being able to do self-care, and whatnot, Captain Ri, in a spontaneous and caring gesture, acquires these items for her; all without Seri explicitly requesting it. 😂 The beauty of the scene lies in the fact that he did it on a whim, driven by genuine concern for Seri’s well-being, even if he wasn’t consciously aware of it himself.🥺😭

It’s the little things that make you feel warm, fuzzy, and sometimes even antsy and on edge, that make romance in just about any form of media a happy pill!

For angst, one example that comes to mind is Henri’s route in 1926. My god! The slow burn for that route just hits you with the right notes! Henri and Lili yearn for each other, yet their romance is stifled by their circumstances. The tension between them is palpable, even from just having their simple day-to-day conversations. Lili grapples with her suppressed feelings for Henri, and although he senses it, Henri refrains from making a move due to the trauma of his past—a past that inadvertently entangled Lili in something she shouldn’t be part of. The back-and-forth tension between these two characters was just soooooo gooood, and I vividly remember the impact, especially on Lili’s character. Her apprehension, nervousness, and edginess as she tries to decipher Henri’s complexities – I felt all of it!!😩👌The angst of that route still lives rent free in my head to this day!😂 And when they finally come together—when the time is right for them to finally couple (aka to copulate lol)😂—it feels incredibly earned and gratifying!😭

💗On the flip side, I’m also a sucker for tropes. I live for those unintentional curiosity glances, the drunken piggybacks, umbrella in the rain, the fated couple who knew each other when they were young but have forgotten, heroines getting sick and LIs nursing them back to health or vice versa, marriage contracts, fake lovers slowly realizing each other’s charms while fake dating, enemies-to-lovers stranded on a remote location and having to spend time together, heroines getting slightly scratched and LIs going berserk about it (lol)😂… the back hugs, the wrist grabs, confessions in the rain.  Like, bruh, I want all of those things! Give ’em ‘to me in my otoges, and I will profusely eat them all up! 

Over the years, playing countless visual novels back to back, I don’t think my preferences in general have drastically changed? Well, on second thought, I have to admit I’ve grown a little tired of the last-minute confession scenes or the last-minute tight-knit wrap-ups of plots. If the climax of the story is so close to the end of the route, it means that the player has about 5 minutes to process what happened to the characters after. This isn’t really a deal-breaker for me per se, and in no way does it mean that this approach is bad. I just prefer stories to take their time to wrap everything up before half of the last chapter hits, giving you some sort of breathing room to think and hopefully feel the emotions and impact the author or writer was trying to convey.

I’ve also realized that I don’t really value sex or skinship in my otome games that much. Please don’t take this the wrong way; I’m not prudish or anywhere close to it to want to avoid smut. I love my smut and raunchy games and I play R18 games in my leisure when time permits (I have a whole backlog stash of them that I hope to get through next year). I just simply don’t believe explicit or suggestive content is necessary to make or break a game. I don’t necessarily need smut to find the game more engaging or “romantic”, if that makes sense. No kissing CGs? No problem!😂

BUT, I get it. Romance is subjective, no matter what, and I won’t preach about whether the modest emotional intimacy scenarios are better than those leaning towards more physical. To add to that, one of my closest friends who also plays otome games (read: Ive managed to lure into the rabbit hole) is the opposite of me. They don’t care much about the nuance, but they take priority in acquiring kissing CGs and fanservice, lol. No matter how captivating the story is, if the game lacks kissing CGs, they will immediately dunk it (lmao luv u, maiko-chan!)😂😂😘 And you know what, that’s fine too! Your preference in media is mainly a ‘whatever floats your boat’ situation — consume what makes you happy!💗

Holy cow! I have managed to ramble on and on… Oops!😂😂 I hope ya’ll still awake! (laughs) it’s time to answer some questions!

If you are still reading this, congratulations! You have survived the first part of this post! 😂 I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, and your holidays and holiday breaks have been blissful! The second part of my 2023 roundup will be posted before New Year’s! Thank you for your continued support for Otome Kitten!

The last part of this post will be the Q&A portion, where I’ll be answering some questions from my End of Year survey. If you have submitted a question, stick around for a bit! ha!

As promised in my end-of-the-year survey, I’m committed to answering most of your questions, no matter how random (laughs). 😂As long as it doesn’t involve sharing my bank account or social security number, I will address each and every one of them!😤 For repeated and similar questions, collective answers will be provided.

Oh boy! Most of these questions actually made me wear my thinking cap! And it took me three days to answer all of them!(cackling) My brain is kind of obtuse atm, but I will try my very best to give some proper (hopefully) smart-like answers!😂 LOL