Apr 262023
So soon after our previous rush of otome news, we have a new announcement to add: the release date of Charade Maniacs.
Idea Factory has officially announced that Charade Maniacs will be out on June 27.
Now, this isn’t a big surprise. The eShop page has said June 27 for about a month, but it hadn’t been announced until now.
What makes it exciting news despite that is that they’ve also revealed the Charade Maniacs Limited Edition, which will cost $89.99 and include the game (of course), a steelbook case, art book, drama CD, a 44-page short novel, a 10 card bromide set, a collector’s box, and a trading card. Idea Factory’s Limited Editions put other Limited Editions to shame, and this one looks like no exception. Preorders will open on May 2.
We haven’t talked about Charade Maniacs before, mainly due to the way its localization was announced. You might recall an Idea Factory otome live stream that we never actually discussed after its announcement. They announced Charade Maniacs at that live stream, except the stream was over an hour of static with the chat mod pretending they didn’t know why people were frustrated, followed by the Charade Maniacs trailer and then the immediate end of the stream. It might have been a cute marketing stunt if it lasted 10 minutes, but over an hour? After being announced in advance?? To people who had set aside time to watch it, it felt like Idea Factory wasted our time, so I was a bit too annoyed to actually blog about the game.
But I’ve softened since then, since I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they had good intentions. Besides, the plot premise sounds interesting – 10 people are abducted and forced to act out dramas in order to escape, but one of them is a traitor. The mystery elements have me intrigued, so I’m definitely looking forward to this one.
Charade Maniacs will be out on June 27, making the second half of June quite crowded for new games I want to play. Are you looking forward to Charade Maniacs? Are you planning to pick up the Limited Edition?
I don’t play a lot of Otome, but the premise of this one has me intrigued. I’m a fan of these kidnapping game scenarios in stories, especially ones that include a traitor. The limited edition looks especially nice too. A bit disappointing the game is only T though, since it feels like that limits what can be done in the story, but it could prove me wrong.
Yeah, I don’t expect it to get too dark, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be interesting.