The Nintendo Swap has tons video games for nearly anybody and that features Otome video games. Otome, which accurately means maiden, has come to embody all kinds of courting sims, life sims, and visible novels, largely geared in the direction of ladies (though many galge video games for males are an identical save for the gender of the protagonist and their potential love pursuits.) There are lots of of those kind of video games accessible on the Swap, starting from incredible to barely playable, and overlaying a variety of subjects and preferences.
We have compiled this checklist of our favorites, however you continue to would possibly want a brand new reminiscence card on your Swap to suit all of them!
Code: Understand ~Guardian of Rebirth~
Set in an alternate nineteenth century London, this steampunk visible novel incorporates a solid of characters all based mostly on literary, and historic characters, together with Van Helsing, Frankenstein, and Saint Germain. Nonetheless, the actual star of the present is protagonist Cardia, who would not fall into the flat, damsel in misery stereotype that so many otome protagonists do. Cardis is hard as nails and quick-witted, and she or he holds her personal alongside the huge names who’re vying for her love and a spotlight.
As you tackle the position of Cardia, you are introduced with a thriller. For starters, Cardia has amnesia and may’t keep in mind a lot of something earlier than two years prior, however way more urgent, she has poison flowing by means of her veins, leaving her poisonous to the touch. As she meets every of the assorted love pursuits, will she be capable to discover the supply of her amnesia and poison contact?
Code: Understand is a stunningly stunning recreation due largely to the intricately detailed illustrations by Japanese artist Miko. The music was additionally incredible and units the temper completely. Not like another courting sims, this recreation is a prolonged visible novel. Count on to spend at the very least 50 hours to finish all of the endings, however do not be shocked should you lose all monitor of time as a result of this can be a actually participating story.
Café Enchanté
From the identical creator of Code: Understand, Café Enchanté is a light-hearted fantasy story with a solid of pleasant creatures. You play as Kotone Awaki, a hard-working younger lady who inherited a café from her grandfather. Nonetheless, she quickly finds that the Café Enchanté is not any unusual café.
Serving as a gathering spot for all method of otherworldly creatures, Kotone meets with demons, angels, beasts, and even a headless knight, all whereas her café is beneath the watch of the Authorities Paranormal Measures company. With stunning and brilliant illustrations by Yuuya and incredible music by Tomomi Nakamura and Love solfege, this recreation is a delight to play by means of — which is nice as a result of it takes at the very least 60 hours to finish.
Piofiore: Fated Reminiscences
Set in a fictional city in Italy in the course of the Nineteen Twenties, Piofiore places you within the footwear of Liliana Adornato, an orphaned woman raised by a church within the middle of city. Liliana quickly finds that her dwelling can be within the middle of three main crime households vying for management of the city. Caught in the midst of the turf wars, she quickly encounters leaders from every of those mafia households, complicating her life additional.
The art work for Piofiore, by Japanese illustrator RiRi, is positively attractive and the music is equally stunning. Piofiore: Fated Reminiscences can be plot-heavy, giving gamers much more to get pleasure from than some fast romance with a reasonably face. Nonetheless, it additionally consists of violence, drug abuse, and even human trafficking, so should you’re delicate to those subjects, it’s possible you’ll wish to decide up a special recreation.
Doki Doki Literature Membership Plus!
One of many only a few video games on this checklist to characteristic a male protagonist, the wildly common psychological horror Doki Doki Literature Membership Plus! presents a really completely different tackle the courting style. Do not be fooled by the cutesy art work and enjoyable music. Doki Doki is a psychological horror recreation with themes of despair, suicide, murder, and extra. This prolonged model of the Nintendo Swap recreation options the unique recreation in addition to the next:
- Six new Aspect Tales
- Over 100 unlockable photographs together with model new recreation artwork
- 13 new songs by Nikki Kaelar
- Music by particular company Jason Hayes and Azuria Sky
- A built-in music participant
- Full HD (1080p)
Collar X Malice
Collar X Malice places you within the footwear of Shinjuku detective Ichika Hoshino, who finds herself kidnapped and blackmailed by a legal group identified solely as Adonis. Having been fitted with a collar that would kill her at any second, Ichika works alongside members of an unbiased detective company to uncover the reality and expose Adonis.
Though very darkish, Collar X Malice is a phenomenally written story with incredible art work by Hanamura Mai. The music, together with Japanese various rock band Plastic Tree’s opening, is loads of enjoyable and really becoming for the story. The solid consists of some big-name voice actors and every offers a stellar efficiency. The one factor to be cautious of is the darkish themes; Collar X Malice consists of loads of violence and bloodshed, so will not be the perfect recreation for these delicate to those themes.
Nightshade
Nightshade is not simply one of many first and greatest otome video games on the Nintendo Swap, however among the finest otome video games on the market. Set in Japan shortly after the Sengoku interval, the story follows Enju, the daughter of the top of a outstanding clan of ninjas. As Enju begins her very first mission to earn her spot as a shinobi, a darkish conspiracy threatens her likelihood at proving herself and even her very life.
This recreation has the whole lot otome ought to: attractive art work, very good voice performing, unimaginable music, and an A+ storyline. The place Nightshade actually stands out, nonetheless, is the protagonist. All too usually, otome heroines are very flat compared to their numerous love pursuits. Enju, then again, is a badass. She is set to earn her place in her clan, as a substitute of simply anticipating it as a result of her father is the top. A few of her potential suitors actually carry this out, particularly Gekkamaru.
Plenty of expertise went into making Nightshade, from Teita’s illustrations to a solid of stellar voice actors to MIKOTO’s music. If you happen to decide up only one Swap otome recreation, this one ought to be it!
Dream Daddy: A Dad Courting Simulator
Dream Daddy places you within the position of a single father who’s beginning the most recent chapter of his life following the demise of his accomplice. At its core, Dream Daddy balances each being a father and discovering romance very nicely. The writing is stellar, starting from humorous moments to extra severe notes, and the art work is fairly nice too, with numerous choices for physique varieties and pores and skin tones.
Whereas the protagonist and his love pursuits are all clearly queer, one other manner Dream Daddy stands out is that it would not depend on stereotypes, not like many different queer courting sims. Every of the fathers is a well-developed, totally realized individual. In consequence, the storylines are extra advanced and have a variety of endings.
Kitty Love -Solution to search for love-
With a plot just like A Whisker Away, Kitty Love places you within the footwear of a florist named Honoka who, upon a fateful encounter with an odd-eyed black cat, is cursed to show right into a cat each night time. The one factor that may break the curse is… you guessed it, real love’s kiss.
Kitty Love is a fluffy story — each actually and figuratively. The story is pretty easy with out an excessive amount of depth; nonetheless, the characters are nicely developed regardless of the storyline. The art work is gorgeous and the voice performing is superb, as can be anticipated with the solid of common names. The one actual criticism is the interpretation. There are fairly a number of translation errors that would have been averted with correct localization.
LongStory
LongStory places you within the position of a scholar on the weirdly lovable Weasel Heights Center College. Not like most video games on this checklist, you get to construct your protagonist, together with LGBTQ+ choices. The protagonist and love pursuits are throughout 14, so romance is of the holding arms and first kiss selection, however that leaves much more room for exploring id and studying extra concerning the solid.
So far as courting sims go, LongStory has a reasonably distinctive gameplay facet in that it means that you can rewind time to redo your final selection, and the versatile choices for gender and sexual orientation are a rarity amongst otome video games. There’s loads of enchantment right here for these of us who went by means of faculty closeted, or worse, missing the vocabulary to establish ourselves, however there’s additionally potential for teenagers to navigate by means of their very own emotions and identities as nicely.
All in all, LongStory is a extremely candy story with cute art work and loads of house for extra tales to inform, if the writer chooses to launch extra.
Love Letter from Thief X
In Love Letter from Thief X, you play a museum curator who’s focused by an notorious group of thieves often called the Black Foxes. The Black Foxes are on the lookout for priceless art work your grandfather painted a few years prior, however the FBI can be on the lookout for them.
Whereas the art work for Love Letter is not fairly as excellent as among the different entries on this checklist, the character growth for every of the love pursuits is nice. I can not say the identical for the protagonist, who’s a little bit of a Mary Sue, however her banter with the assorted guys is sort of humorous.
Our Two Bed room Story
Our Two Bed room Story places you within the position of a younger lady who simply acquired her dream job but additionally wants to maneuver out. She strikes into a house owned by her stepfather, however he would not point out that there is another person dwelling there too and he simply so occurs to work on the identical staff. Now, she has to determine preserve the key that she resides with a coworker.
One other Mary Sue protagonist with no face, the primary character actually would not promote this recreation, though I’ll say she is devoted and hardworking. Then again, the art work is nice and the story behind a lot of the love pursuits is compelling sufficient to maintain you coming again for extra.
The Males of Yoshiwara
The Males of Yoshiwara is cut up into two titles: Kikuya and Ohgiya. Each tales happen on an island the place there aren’t any child boys born and so males have to be introduced in from the mainland. On the middle of the island stands Yoshiwara, the place these males act as courtesans, taking the “reverse harem” just a little too actually.
In Kikuya, you’re a smuggler who helps a courtesan and his lover escape the island, whereas Ohgiya places you within the position of a rich product owner’s daughter. In each, you find yourself searching for love with one of many many courtesans of Yoshiwara.
Regardless of not being voiced, The Males of Yoshiwara collection options some astoundingly stunning art work by Japanese illustrator Hs. These video games are definitely worth the worth for the art work alone. Storywise, they’re fairly compelling with a little bit of one thing for everybody.
Enchanted within the Moonlight
Enchanted within the Moonlight is one other otome divided into two components: Miyabi, Kyoga & Samon, and Kiryu, Chikage & Yukinojo. These cowl every of the completely different love pursuits, however there may be little in the best way of overlap. Initially, the sport had a seventh love curiosity, however he did not make it to the Swap ports.
In each video games, you tackle the position of a younger lady with “particular blood” able to boosting the ability of Ayakashi, supernatural creatures who dwell within the shadows. A gaggle of Ayakashi strategy the protagonist after a collection of near-fatal accidents and clarify to her that the accidents had been the work of evil Ayakashi who need her blood. Every of those males is prepared to guard her, however provided that she is going to bear his little one.
Though the premise is cliché and just a little uncomfortable should you assume too laborious about it, the art work is gorgeous. As talked about, the tales actually do not overlap, which suggests you possibly can play in any order you need with out the chance of spoilers, and regardless of the awkward premise, the love pursuits are fairly compelling.
Star-Crossed Delusion – The Division of Needs
One other recreation that has been divided up for the Swap, Star-Crossed Delusion has two components: The Division of Needs and The Division of Punishments. Every recreation options six potential love pursuits (all gods by the best way) one for every of the Zodiac constellations. Every god has been branded with a sin and seeks you out to absolve them of their sin.
Though the Star-Crossed Delusion video games aren’t voiced, the writing is stellar and every of the completely different love pursuits are compelling and constant. The primary character can be written rather well, giving a good bit of pushback to those gods invading her life. The art work can be actually beautiful, save for a number of of the usual impossibly awkward poses that you simply discover in a lot of the style.
The Division of Needs is the primary half, whereas Punishments is the second half, however should you’re on the lookout for a selected Zodiac, you may discover Leo, Most cancers, Aquarius, Taurus, Capricorn, and Sagittarius in Needs, whereas Punishments options Libra, Scorpio, Aries, Virgo, Gemini, and Pisces.
Fantasy Tavern Sextet
Initially a single recreation, Fantasy Tavern Sextet was divided up into three video games for the Swap, every that includes two of the six love pursuits. On this recreation, you play as a cook dinner for a maid cafe who finds himself pulled into one other world. This different world hosts all kinds of fantasy creatures and the primary character has no option to return dwelling.
Luckily, he’s saved (actually and figuratively) by a bar proprietor who offers him a job at her bar. There he meets various younger ladies, all vying for his consideration.
So far as courting sims go, particularly ones geared in the direction of males, this collection is not dangerous. The protagonist is considerate and understanding to the assorted ladies searching for his love, and the relationships develop slowly, giving time to actually perceive the world and every character. The largest criticism I’ve with this collection, nonetheless, is that the alternatives do not truly matter. It is a cute story, however when your selections give the identical outcomes regardless, it is much less pleasurable.
Gakuen Membership
Followers of Ouran Excessive College Host Membership, that is the otome for you. Gakuen Membership places you within the footwear of Akane Koizumi, an unusual highschool scholar who stumbles upon an enormous secret: her faculty has an unlawful late-night host membership! To make sure Akane retains the host membership secret, she is pressured to work there. Nonetheless, the extra nights she spends with the hosts, the extra they discover their manner into her coronary heart.
That includes illustrations by Japanese artist Mero, music by Mao Uzuki, and a gifted pool of common voice actors, Gakuen Membership is an exceptionally fairly recreation. Sadly, that fairly wrapping would not lengthen to the storyline. Whereas the tales and characters aren’t dangerous, they do depend on loads of tropes and stereotypes. The protagonist is pretty flat, definitely not Haruhi. Nonetheless, if the formulation works for you, there’s some beautiful music and art work available right here.
Iris College of Wizardry -Vinculum Hearts
In Iris College of Wizardry, you play the position of Aria, a half-wizard who has simply been accepted right into a prestigious magic faculty. She joins the varsity’s scholar council the place she is paired off with one other scholar for exams. Every route pairs off Aria with a special love curiosity, following pretty comparable plotlines, in the end resulting in Aria discovering success in each love and teachers.
Illustrated by Fujinami Mari and that includes an outstanding voice solid, Iris College of Wizardry has loads of expertise behind it and it exhibits. The art work is positively ethereal and nicely definitely worth the buy worth alone. The characters are additionally loads of enjoyable, with Aria standing out as a succesful heroine who refuses to let the bigotry she faces from her classmates hinder her.
Whereas some would evaluate Iris College of Wizardry to Harry Potter, the writing is certainly significantly better and the overarching themes are deeper.
Akash: Path of the 5
Akash: Path of the 5 places you within the footwear of an Elemental (assume benders from Avatar the Final Air Bender) named Aurora, the one lady in her class. Actually, Aurora is the primary feminine Elemental in lots of, a few years, so evidently, she has caught the eyes of many younger males. As she comes near commencement, Aurora might want to decide on a single ingredient, and would not you understand it, her class features a younger man from every of the 5 parts.
One among only a few English-made otome video games, Akash: Path of the 5 has art work way more just like what you’d discover in traditional fantasy video games, like Dungeon and Dragons or Magic the Gathering. The music composed by audio duo Fats Bard, nonetheless, is rather more just like otome video games, having been in comparison with the whimsical melodies of Studio Ghibli.
Storyline-wise, this recreation is loads of enjoyable and steers away from loads of the unhealthy messages different otome can characteristic. Aurora units wholesome boundaries, expresses her wants in mature and accountable methods, and in any other case presents a heroine worthy of admiration.
Find out how to take off your Masks
A romantic visible novel, Find out how to take off your Masks places you within the footwear of a younger baker named Lilia, who mysteriously finds herself turning right into a cat individual. As she tries to grasp what is going on to her (and make it cease!) Lilia additionally uncovers secrets and techniques about her childhood buddy, Ronan. Will they be capable to confront their secrets and techniques and present one another who they are surely?
At its core, Find out how to take off your Masks is concerning the completely different faces we put on in several circumstances and the way the actual self is one thing beneath all of that. In fact, it is all wrapped up in a cute, cat-girl love story. All of that is backed with beautiful music and lovable illustrations, to not point out the superb voice performing.
The one actual criticism I had about Find out how to take off your Masks was the size. Whereas most otome video games characteristic a number of love pursuits, this recreation solely has one. It is nonetheless a extremely candy story, however in comparison with the 50+ hour video games on this checklist, it’s fairly quick.
Later Daters Premium
Whereas most courting sims characteristic a younger, stereotypically stunning solid, Later Daters tosses out that premise and as a substitute focuses on a solid of octogenarians. Your character, who you get to customise, finds themselves in a retirement dwelling, however whereas you anticipated to seek out a better, extra peaceable place, you as a substitute discover all method of hijinks and even love.
Later Daters is technically a courting sim, nevertheless it additionally tackles loads of actually heavy topics, like ageing and demise, in a really sensible manner. It portrays every aged character as a completely realized, three-dimensional individual that’s a lot greater than their age.
This recreation is definitely not for everybody, however the tales and characters in Later Daters are supposed to problem how the participant views the aged and it is fairly profitable in that regard. Later Daters additionally options brilliant, colourful artwork, a variety of physique varieties and pores and skin tones, and is LGBTQ+ pleasant. Presently, solely the primary three episodes can be found on the Swap, however there are 4 extra accessible on PC that will make their option to the Swap sooner or later.
Your favourite otome video games on Nintendo Swap
There are actually lots of of otome video games on the market, however these ones are the perfect of the perfect for Swap. If you happen to’re undecided the place to start out, I like to recommend Code: Understand Guardians of Rebirth. The story is ready in Victorian England and has you meet a number of characters from literary historical past as your potential love pursuits.
One other superb choice is Café Enchanté, particularly should you like fantasy characters. You may meet demons, angels, and extra as you get to know the patrons of this distinctive store.
Lastly, should you’re on the lookout for one thing a bit extra heart-pounding and completely different from the remainder, you might want to play Doki Doki Literature Membership Plus! It begins off like all otome recreation, however then takes a creepy psychological twist that can preserve you .Â
