Back at Anime Expo, Idea Factory announced two new otome localizations: My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! – Pirates of the Disturbance and Sympathy Kiss.

Ironically, I commented in that post on how My Next Life As a Villainess’s winter 2023 release window (which turned out to be November 28) added yet another game I was interested in to the second half of this year. Little did I know early 2024 would soon be even more packed…

Yesterday, Idea Factory announced that Sympathy Kiss will be out on February 27, 2024 and also revealed the Limited Edition.

It’s a pretty fantastic Limited Edition, too. Not only does it come with a collector’s box, trading card, soundtrack, drama CD, and a hardcover art book, which are fairly standard Limited Edition contents for IFI, but it also has a notebook, a tumbler, paper tabs, sticky notes, and a memo pad.

That’s a lot of stuff! I guess they’re going all in on the office worker theme!

(The Villainess Limited Edition feels almost barebones in comparison.)

Idea Factory raised the bar for Limited Editions in my eyes a while ago, and this latest one has kept that going.

While I have mixed feelings on Sympathy Kiss having an eyeless protagonist design, I’ll probably go for this. I’m interested enough in the game for such a nice Limited Edition to grab my attention. However, this makes my early 2024 gaming predicament even more dire than it was already!

For whatever reason, every developer releasing a game I’m excited for seems to have decided the roughly month-long span between the end of January and the end of February is when their game should come out. Just take a look:

• January 25 – Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy (which I wasn’t going to replay until I heard people speculating that what if the unlockable art for beating all three games teases a new entry)
• January 26 – Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
• February 1 – Granblue Fantasy: Relink
• February 2 – Persona 3 Reload
• February 15 – Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II
• February 27 – Sympathy Kiss
• February 29 – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

This will be one of those times where a game that would otherwise have been an immediate buy, like Granblue Fantasy: Relink, will have to be pushed aside in favor of the games I’ve prioritized ahead of it. Even if I had all the free time I could want, there’s no way I’d manage to play all of those in such a short span of time.

(And there’s still weeks in February that could be filled up with more games! At this point, I wouldn’t even be surprised, just sadly laugh while staring at my backlog.)

With the addition of Sympathy Kiss, my game priorities for February 2024 have yet another contender. Are you planning to pick it up?

Last night, Voltage announced 3 new otome games for the Nintendo Switch.

Voltage is a company that primarily makes mobile games, but they ventured into console otome games last year with Even if Tempest, and then its fandisc this year.

I haven’t gotten around to playing Even if Tempest yet, but it’s on my list to try eventually. Every time it goes on sale, I feel tempted…

Anyway, Even if Tempest must have done well for them, because they announced three more console otome games all at once. Not only that, but English releases have already been confirmed for them.

The first was announced as Project Code Neon Mafia, set for a 2024 release. It’s bright and colorful, and from the way the trailer introduces its characters, it’s probably the one that’s furthest along in development.

The second is Project Code Kaleido Tower. Also planned for a 2024 release, this one is the vaguest to me from its trailer. My initial impression of it was that it will only have one love interest, the “poisoned youth” referenced in the trailer, but that could just be because it’s an early trailer. Whatever the case may be, the trailer is certainly haunting.

Finally, the one that interests me the most is the third one, Project Code Vampire Hunter. It won’t be out until 2025, but the premise of playing a vampire hunter had me intrigued. It looks beautiful and gothic, and although only a single male character is shown fully, two more characters have bodies briefly appear, so I suspect those will be other love interests.

It’s exciting to see all of these new otome games announced. When I first started playing otome games, it felt like new releases were few and far between. Now it’s better than ever, and my backlog can’t keep up! I can’t even feel disappointed in the 2025 release window for the one I’m most interested in, because I have plenty of games to occupy me in the meantime. (And who knows what Aksys might have in store, since so far they only have a single 2024 otome game localization revealed.)

I’ll probably try to play Even if Tempest before these come out, but either way, I’m excited to learn more about them. Are you looking forward to the three newly-announced otome games from Voltage?