Before Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom was released in English this past Valentine’s Day, otome games remained largely off the radar of the vast majority of western gamers. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Hakuoki hasn’t caused a huge surge of interest in otome games. Still, it’s been nice to see some people who wouldn’t normally pick up an otome game review Hakuoki or purchase it on a whim.
But reading about my friends’ and others’ first steps into the world of female-oriented visual novels and dating sims has reminded me how difficult the world of otome games can be for newcomers. I don’t by any means claim to be an authority, but there is one very important piece of advice that most fans of the genre often neglect to mention to inexperienced players that I’d like to make very clear:
In order to get a “good” end in an otome game, one must always select options with the character who’s ending they wish to obtain in mind.
This may seem so obvious that it’s not even necessary to state, but I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t realize that was how I needed to play when I picked up my very first otome game. Ah, Christopher of Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 2nd Season, we just weren’t meant to be…
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| My first failed prospect |
When presented with a game like a visual novel that allows one to choose from multiple options in order to advance the story through various “paths,” you’d first think to choose answers would be based on what you would do in real life, no? Or, at the very least, a player might fashion a new persona for the sake of playing the game and choose options based on what kind of character they were role-playing as.
How would this strategy fit into an otome game, then? Under normal logic you would think that based on the various options you choose, a male prospect would be selected by the game for you. Otome games, however, are not so advanced, and in an effort to create some kind of difficulty, have a very strict, structured way that they must be played in order to obtain the best endings.
Otome games are based around the idea that the player is going into the experience with a favorite character already in mind, first and foremost. Whether visual novel-style or featuring more sim-based elements, otome games leave little to no room for changing one’s mind, meaning that from the second the “start” button is pressed, all energy must be focused on obtaining one, and only one, “datable” character. This is because set parameters must be met and/or extremely specific options selected in order to advance to the “right”path. Make one wrong decision and it’s a “normal” end, or worse, game over.
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| It’s going to take a lot of trial and error to see scenes like these |
With so many paths and endings to obtain and sometimes seemingly arbitrary decisions that must be made in order to reach them, many players of otome games read walkthroughs before or during play. Though this may seem like it takes all the fun out of getting the right ending through trial and error, saving and reloading a game file every time you make a bad decision (and you often won’t know what was a bad decision until the end of the game) can get extremely frustrating. No one plays otome games for the difficulty, anyway, so the easiest and fastest way to see the whole story unfold is often the most preferable. Luckily, many titles such as Hakuoki offer visual cues to indicate when correct answers have been chosen, and relationship meters that can be viewed at any time to see how well you’re doing with the game’s various characters.
So, next time you want to jump in to Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom or other such otome game, take a moment to consider which male prospect you would like to pursue before loading up the game. Character-specific endings are always so much more fulfilling than the generic ones, and you may even find yourself drawn to a character you wouldn’t have found appealing otherwise!
But, I’ve gotta admit: it’s a little depressing when you first realize what your mother always told you about just being yourself won’t get you any guys. Hah!
That what I hate the most about otome games. I have to be the woman the man wants me to be. That being said it was super frustrating in Yo-jin-bo when you have to do the OPPOSITE of what you would do to get certain characters. (You have to go off with not-you-chosen and talk).
Ha ha. Well luckily I can say these games are working on “Video game logic” in which men can survive getting his by rockets, can come back to life as much as they want and never need health kits to get better from wounds anymore. So in that instance, I can forgive Otome style games since they operate on implausible logic at times. Still, these games would be quite a fun challenge for the backloggery. Get the prized *Complete* rating by getting all endings!
Hey Maverynthia! Thanks for your comment!
Yeah, it’s a bit silly that you have to do a very specific set of actions in order to get any of the guys, but I suppose that’s one of the limitations of the genre.
Yo-jin-bo sounds really confusing! You have to talk to characters that AREN’T the one you want??
Motherplayer – Haha, of course there are PLENTY of weird things that we just accept because we’re playing a video game. And yes, getting all the endings is a feat in and of itself! Though it often involves playing characters you’re not really interested in, which is why I never try to do it. Some of the characters are just SO unlikable… But you definitely should give Hakuoki a go, if you get a chance!
It’s kind of odd, isn’t it? The dating sims I’ve played that had a male lead let you be a bit more flexible with your decisions. You could make mistakes and still get the girl at the end of it all. Things were salvageable!
Now I’m just curious why it’s so different in otome games! Are they suggesting that it’s harder for women to approach somebody? That’s… concerning >_>
Alois – Huh, that’s interesting! I haven’t really played any male-oriented dating sims, so I didn’t feel that I should compare the two in this post. But many have told me that they games they’ve played have similar strict guidelines… I guess it really comes down to the individual games. May I ask which ones you’ve played? I might like to check them out!
I don’t think they’re trying to suggest anything by it… My feeling is that it takes a lot more time and money to make a more flexible game, and otome games are extremely low-budget productions that almost always run on the same engine. Games aimed at a male audience generally garner more sales, so perhaps the companies have a little more leeway to make them more flexible?
Ah, I should have read this before my first playthrough of Hakuoki 🙂
Also, as much as I can appreciate the rather rigid structure of this genre’s games, I’m not sure why things have to be so vague sometimes. That’s been my problem with Hakuoki thus far. Although sometimes my choices are easy to discern (choosing Option A will move me closer to Guy A while choosing Option B will move me closer to Buy B), sometimes I have no idea which option will move me closer to a particular guy, if that makes any sense.
I’m currently playing through Hakuoki a second time, BTW. I’m not going for the guy I want, just for a guy the game seems to be throwing at me rather easily. Hopefully this time I’ll get a good ending 😛
Bryan – Oh, if only I’d written it sooner! I honestly didn’t even think to tell people about “how to play” otome games, as once you realize the kind of mindset you need going in, it almost become second nature.
The only thing I can suggest in terms of Hakuoki is to be sure to save often – quick saving before a decision and then seeing who “blossoms” afterwards and then reloading the last quick save if it wasn’t who you wanted worked best for me. It’s a bit counterintuitive and takes away from the experience, but saving/reloading is a very common thing in otome games, and you need to be prepared to do it a ton if you’re aiming for a good ending.
But I know what you mean – sometimes the choices seem so arbitrary! Like you’re given the choice to stay at home or go out, and you have no idea that choosing “stay at home” would give you a scene with the character you want.
The character the game’s throwing at you wouldn’t happen to be Saito, would it? 😉
Oh, you don’t need to feel bad about not writing this sooner, Anne! Actually, I’m kind of glad I didn’t find out about this until after I played through the game for the first time, since this way I got to play it my own way and didn’t have to worry about all of the saving/reloading stuff.
I have to say that the whole saving/reloading mechanism kind of turns me off of the genre, which is too bad. I guess I’d like the games to be a bit more organic or natural, but it probably would be hard to program them in that way. Oh, well.
As for which character Hakuoki is throwing at me currently: Souji Okita, I *wish* it were Saito, as that’s the one that I “want.” For the moment, though, I’m going for Souji…
what game is the guy from green long hurr from D:
That’s Ukyo from Amnesia. They’re actually making an anime series out of that one, which starts early this year, I think!
You must have a lovable personality! Whenever I pick options based on what I want to do, I get bad endings ;_;
I’m always myself and I get the great ending no matter what O_O