Since the opportunities to get otome games are almost zero in my country, I mainly live off downloading freeware or rely on friends getting them for me. Due to piracy rules and such I won't be sharing any links in my blog other than the ones that are freeware, but feel free to message me if you have any questions, and I'll try my best to answer. No promises about troubleshooting though :P
Now, let's start~~
Oh, before that. As many people would ask about this, I ONLY play visual novels on PC, I can provide no help or guidance on PS2,PSP,nintendo DS,iphone or android games. I can give guidance on to play PS2,PSP and NDS games on PC though. :D See the very last topic, "emulation".
Where to buy:
Japanese/English games:
As I said before, I am kinda incompetent when it comes to getting games by myself, but this wonderful blog Yumi's Game Factory has some good directions :)
Only English games:
This site has a beautiful list of almost all English otome games that have come out so far. They even cover a good number of iphone/android games, so feel free to check them out.Here in my blog I'll only cover the ones in PC platform, and provide links to freewares. Among the companies that make English otome games, the ones I like most are:
Sakevisual
Ren’py
Roseverte
Hanako Games
Winter Wolves
English freeware downloads:
1) Re:Alistair++ , Ripples , [text]:A summer story and My Magical Cosplay Cafe are freeware from sakevisual. I loved Re:Alistair++ most because of 's gorgeous art and super awesome story in such a small span. Sakevisual does good work in general, but Re:Alistair++ is too good!
2) duplicity~An eternal Lie~ is a freeware from roseverte, it's a kinda "test" version, I don't want to call it a demo since there is enough content and the routes can be played up to the endings. Though story gives a "unfinished" feel, it was a lot of fun!
3) Frozen Essence by VenusEclipse (who is made of awesome for doing such a great job by herself). At first glance it might not seem much, but trust me it has the most complex and thoughtful plot I've ever encountered in an otome game. Most otome games are either fluff heaven or rape story with stereotypical plot, this game was like a breath of fresh air ^^ People often are put off by the art at first, but for a single person project it is more than adequate.
4) (P)lanets -the life of normalcy has ended! from Teacup productions is a really cute game, it was a really refreshing and cute read, and teacup definitely worked hard on her own! Like Venuseclipse, she is an awesome person who tried her best by herself for us fellow otome lovers ^o^ The story is a sweet high school plot with a little sci-fi mixed (is telepathy sci-fi? I dunno), and the humor is really good.
5) RistoRante Amore is a free game by Cyanide Tea. It was worked on as part of NaNoRenO, I am still playing this so no comments atm. EDIT: Okay this cannot really be called an otome game (can't tell you why, spoilersssss), but still it's a lot of fun!
6) Boku No Shokora, literally "My chocolate" is a free doujin game that has been translated. It was a very short yet fun read (I was literally falling off my chair at some points, haha)
7)The Knife of The Traitor is a small freeware otome game with rather quirky and awesome humor made for NaNoRenO 2012. I had a lot of fun playing this one! If you can't access the forum, try the download links in my review post.
Other otome blogger recommendations
This part of the post will keep growing as I find more people to stalk :P :P
Rivi's adventures in otome gaming: Wow~ This amazing person has a really big collection of otome VNs, of all types and qualities, both free and commercial mixed together. Really impressive collection, unlike me who only lists the games she likes. XD If you're willing to spend some money on otome gaming, this site would be extremely helpful since she even lists the prices of all the commercial VNs. She even lists the otome games for PS2,PSP,nintendo DS,iphone or android. No download links though :/
Hinano's Game Babbles: She is my idol ♥o♥ I stalk her blog everyday (hope she's not reading this :D ) for her amazingly detailed reviews with awesome CG sneak peeks. The only sad thing is majority of her games are Japanese, she doesn't seem to play English games unless they are freeware. Besides her blog being absolutely awesome in general, her recommendations post is the main reason I linked her here as she gives awesome advice on what to play according to your needs. Whether you like games with badass heroines (as opposed to doormats like Tsukiko >.<), mystical creature bishounens like (vampires/demons), fairy tales, yandere, dark themes----she knows all!!! Definitely worth a peek, specially if you're into japanese games as well as English.
4Shiki: Most humorous otome gaming blog on the internet ：D I don't know whether people who are too delicate have any problems with the rather colorful language they use, but I always crack up at how the adjectives used express the exact thoughts of my heart LOL Seriously, this blog is AWESOME ♥ ♥ ♥ Sadly most of game reviewed here are on PSP/PS2 and since I have neither I have to content myself by just reading T___T
How to play NON-ENGLISH GAMES (without English patches):
I mainly play the VNs that either have been translated by company themselves or have an English patch, but since most of the BEST otome games tend to be in japanese and are rarely translated, so I had to learn the tricks to use translator programs to translate in game text. Mainly you need ATLAS, AGTH/ITH, and Translator Aggragator.
Sasugasugoi's tutorials
Also if you want to know more, Mistress Alita from BLboards has beautifully collected a lot of necessary info here , I found her instructions useful, but since the forum format looks scary, I read FHC's guide first. I mainly followed
FHC's AGTH and ATLAS Guide
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Japanese Gaming
And trust me these 2 alone will keep your hands full. Basically, FHC's guide is about how to set up AGTH and ATLAS. BTW, in FHC's multi part guide, I didn't care to look up about TAHelper and TAHplugin, just learning to use AGTH, Atlas and Translator Aggragator is enough at first. But you might need TAHelper in case of games which have name repetitions and some other problems, more on that later.
The Complete Idiot's Guide contains the instructions of FHC's guide in slightly lesser detail, as well as a lot more basic ideas that you should be aware of (I already knew so I didn't care, but a new player should). Just forget this one, you should know enough already :/
ADVICE:
Since I mainly play Otome games, I need to warn any fellow Otome game lover about this: ALWAYS HAVE A GUIDE AT HAND! 90% of otome games (a lot of VNs in general) have such impossible-to-guess choices that you can never predict! Google is your friend! I mainly use peche, La primavera and Half Adder, but sometimes looking around for other guides is wise. Often google can be your friend, try finding out the japanese name of your game from VNDB (Visual Novel Database) and google it with "攻略".
Since I only have a PC, for games on other platforms I need to use an emulator T__T These are the ones I use.
Now, let's start~~
Oh, before that. As many people would ask about this, I ONLY play visual novels on PC, I can provide no help or guidance on PS2,PSP,nintendo DS,iphone or android games. I can give guidance on to play PS2,PSP and NDS games on PC though. :D See the very last topic, "emulation".
Where to buy:
Japanese/English games:
As I said before, I am kinda incompetent when it comes to getting games by myself, but this wonderful blog Yumi's Game Factory has some good directions :)
EDIT: The WONDERFUL cadavaberry from tumblr has provided EXTREMELY detailed instructions HERE, check it out.
Only English games:
This site has a beautiful list of almost all English otome games that have come out so far. They even cover a good number of iphone/android games, so feel free to check them out.Here in my blog I'll only cover the ones in PC platform, and provide links to freewares. Among the companies that make English otome games, the ones I like most are:
Sakevisual
Ren’py
Roseverte
Hanako Games
Winter Wolves
English freeware downloads:
Just to let you know, there are MANY more English games with romance themes, specially at Lemmasoft forums, but I only mention here the ones which
a) are FREE
b) I feel are pretty good
c) I have played myself
There are many more English games which are mentioned at Rivi's blog below.
a) are FREE
b) I feel are pretty good
c) I have played myself
There are many more English games which are mentioned at Rivi's blog below.
1) Re:Alistair++ , Ripples , [text]:A summer story and My Magical Cosplay Cafe are freeware from sakevisual. I loved Re:Alistair++ most because of 's gorgeous art and super awesome story in such a small span. Sakevisual does good work in general, but Re:Alistair++ is too good!
2) duplicity~An eternal Lie~ is a freeware from roseverte, it's a kinda "test" version, I don't want to call it a demo since there is enough content and the routes can be played up to the endings. Though story gives a "unfinished" feel, it was a lot of fun!
3) Frozen Essence by VenusEclipse (who is made of awesome for doing such a great job by herself). At first glance it might not seem much, but trust me it has the most complex and thoughtful plot I've ever encountered in an otome game. Most otome games are either fluff heaven or rape story with stereotypical plot, this game was like a breath of fresh air ^^ People often are put off by the art at first, but for a single person project it is more than adequate.
4) (P)lanets -the life of normalcy has ended! from Teacup productions is a really cute game, it was a really refreshing and cute read, and teacup definitely worked hard on her own! Like Venuseclipse, she is an awesome person who tried her best by herself for us fellow otome lovers ^o^ The story is a sweet high school plot with a little sci-fi mixed (is telepathy sci-fi? I dunno), and the humor is really good.
5) RistoRante Amore is a free game by Cyanide Tea. It was worked on as part of NaNoRenO, I am still playing this so no comments atm. EDIT: Okay this cannot really be called an otome game (can't tell you why, spoilersssss), but still it's a lot of fun!
6) Boku No Shokora, literally "My chocolate" is a free doujin game that has been translated. It was a very short yet fun read (I was literally falling off my chair at some points, haha)
7)The Knife of The Traitor is a small freeware otome game with rather quirky and awesome humor made for NaNoRenO 2012. I had a lot of fun playing this one! If you can't access the forum, try the download links in my review post.
8)Witch Spell: I forgot to mention this one, it's yet another short and cute game from lemmasoft forums (which I have only started stalking recently). It was very silly and funny, I was halfway torn between smacking the heroine for being so stupid and praising her for being able to make me laugh so much.XDXD I really liked the way she used emos while expressing her thoughts lol.
9) Heartful Chance: Another new game by the same maker as Witch spell, I'm still playing this so no comment, but I'm hoping it will be as funny as their last game :D
10) Prince maker: Prince Maker Braveness is a Chinese game by Alfagame. It is a raising simulation + visual novel adventure game (SVG+AVG game very much similar to the Princess Maker series but it incorporates more in depth storyline into it. This game is free for download, and a completely translated version can be downloaded from here here.Just download the game from the links right below the last picture, along with the patch needed for your Operating system.
Other otome blogger recommendations
This part of the post will keep growing as I find more people to stalk :P :P
Rivi's adventures in otome gaming: Wow~ This amazing person has a really big collection of otome VNs, of all types and qualities, both free and commercial mixed together. Really impressive collection, unlike me who only lists the games she likes. XD If you're willing to spend some money on otome gaming, this site would be extremely helpful since she even lists the prices of all the commercial VNs. She even lists the otome games for PS2,PSP,nintendo DS,iphone or android. No download links though :/
Hinano's Game Babbles: She is my idol ♥o♥ I stalk her blog everyday (hope she's not reading this :D ) for her amazingly detailed reviews with awesome CG sneak peeks. The only sad thing is majority of her games are Japanese, she doesn't seem to play English games unless they are freeware. Besides her blog being absolutely awesome in general, her recommendations post is the main reason I linked her here as she gives awesome advice on what to play according to your needs. Whether you like games with badass heroines (as opposed to doormats like Tsukiko >.<), mystical creature bishounens like (vampires/demons), fairy tales, yandere, dark themes----she knows all!!! Definitely worth a peek, specially if you're into japanese games as well as English.
4Shiki: Most humorous otome gaming blog on the internet ：D I don't know whether people who are too delicate have any problems with the rather colorful language they use, but I always crack up at how the adjectives used express the exact thoughts of my heart LOL Seriously, this blog is AWESOME ♥ ♥ ♥ Sadly most of game reviewed here are on PSP/PS2 and since I have neither I have to content myself by just reading T___T
How to play NON-ENGLISH GAMES (without English patches):
I mainly play the VNs that either have been translated by company themselves or have an English patch, but since most of the BEST otome games tend to be in japanese and are rarely translated, so I had to learn the tricks to use translator programs to translate in game text. Mainly you need ATLAS, AGTH/ITH, and Translator Aggragator.
- AGTH is Anime Games Text Hooker, which will extract the text from the game as you play
- ITH is Interactive Text Hooker which does the same thing as AGTH, but is newer and works better with new games (still it's best to have both programs, not all games work with everything)
- ATLAS is an excellent OFFLINE translator which instantly translates the text extracted by AGTH
- Translator Aggragator is an awesome program that runs Atlas alongside a couple of online translator interfaces, so you can get multiple translations in case of confusing lines (that happens a lot).
If you're TOTALLY new to playing visual novels, I suggest you read this guide at craneanime blog first, if you get stuck anywhere you can even ask for help there. I didn't know about this page when I first started and followed the guides below, but this is pretty good with a LOOOT of explanations about everything.
EDIT: Actually you should also visit this site before you read further, compared to the guides I followed the tutorials at that site is easier to follow and the blogger helps out a lot!!
Also if you want to know more, Mistress Alita from BLboards has beautifully collected a lot of necessary info here , I found her instructions useful, but since the forum format looks scary, I read FHC's guide first. I mainly followed
FHC's AGTH and ATLAS Guide
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Japanese Gaming
And trust me these 2 alone will keep your hands full. Basically, FHC's guide is about how to set up AGTH and ATLAS. BTW, in FHC's multi part guide, I didn't care to look up about TAHelper and TAHplugin, just learning to use AGTH, Atlas and Translator Aggragator is enough at first. But you might need TAHelper in case of games which have name repetitions and some other problems, more on that later.
Note: Once you read about the pesky /h parameters, don't forget to visit here to check if your otome game needs any from here, or this page at Mistress Alita's for detailed explanations (the database has more game codes, but they aren't detailed).
Note2: A lot of games need alpharom patches which are normally mentioned at the Mistress Alita link site, but if even her advice doesn't work try using a different version of the patch available here
ADVICE:
Since I mainly play Otome games, I need to warn any fellow Otome game lover about this: ALWAYS HAVE A GUIDE AT HAND! 90% of otome games (a lot of VNs in general) have such impossible-to-guess choices that you can never predict! Google is your friend! I mainly use peche, La primavera and Half Adder, but sometimes looking around for other guides is wise. Often google can be your friend, try finding out the japanese name of your game from VNDB (Visual Novel Database) and google it with "攻略".
Emulation:
Since I only have a PC, for games on other platforms I need to use an emulator T__T These are the ones I use.
Playstation 2 (PS2): PCSX2 is the only PS2 emulator that currently does everything you want and gives playable results on a reasonable number (but not all) of games. Get it here :http://pcsx2.net
Playstation Portable (PSP): JPCSP is the way to go while emulating PSP games even though it's setup might scare newbies XD See my post here for a in depth video tutorial on how to set it up.
Nintendo DS (NDS): Hmm, I am torn between DeSmuMe and NO$GBA, as DeSmuMe is much more advanced and user-friendly than NO$GBA, which is faster but has less options. I suggest desmume if your PC/laptop is good enough.
thanks!wondering why there is no comment about it,guide site helped me a lot with finishing that lovers collection ._.
ReplyDeleteHi, as there are so many great japanese otome games out there, I decided to give this a try. However, I've heard the translation can be REALLY engrishy and have bad google translate. Since I don't even know a word of Japanese, I'm afraid I won't be able to even understand what's going on in the game. So would this be worth it for me?
ReplyDeleteI've also heard that people have updated their atlas dictionaries (i think that's what they're called) with tons of words that often appear in otome games. Is there any way for someone to share their updated dictionary with me, is that even possible? Cause that would be a great help too I think.
Thank you so much :)
this guide was great! :D and now i can play coz i have the walkthroughs but i still cant understand some...like this one here http://otome.girly.jp/akazukin/menu.html what's up with all these columns and the numbers at the bottom? could you explain please? :)
ReplyDeleteit is The Aman, The Baraka, The Castanics, The Elins, The High Elves, The Humans, and The animal-like Popori. When players want to improve game leveling at short time, Tera Gold
ReplyDeleteSwtor credits,Gamereasy
ReplyDelete