Today we’re taking a look at another otome, this one being A New Don.

The main character is Fia, a young woman growing up on a hog farm whose dreams of going to the city come true in an unexpected way when she inherits the leadership of a mafia family.

It’s a short visual novel with several choices that let you get to know either Andino, the old Don’s right-hand man who has some secrets to hide, or Giacomo, the old Don’s grandson who hates Fia for taking what he thinks should have been his.

Several choices can also lead to death, so it’s a good idea to save often.

A New Don does a good job with its setting and story, and with making its major characters sympathetic. There are some fairly emotional moments. I did feel like the romantic chemistry could have been built up a bit more; it feels less like burgeoning romance so much as shooting people together until you realize you want to kiss.

(Then again, maybe that fits the setting.)

One of the things that drew my attention to this visual novel was that it’s by Heiden, the same developer who made Dr. Frank’s Build a Boyfriend, which I really enjoyed. A New Don isn’t nearly as funny and lighthearted as that one, although it does have some moments of humor (especially since you have a giant hog as a pet).

Overall, A New Don is an enjoyable otome that you should play if you’re looking for a short crime story flavored with some romance.

We’ve got just over a week left in the Valentine’s Video Games Festival, so don’t forget to check out the contest rules and prizes and join in!

Our romance game for today is an otome visual novel called That Which Binds Us, which caught my attention because of its unusual premise.

The main character is Evalise, a young woman whose boyfriend keeps getting arrested. When she goes to get him a bail bond, she meets Idris, who offers to make her boyfriend completely forget her instead.

I thought this was a pretty intriguing premise, having a protagonist already in a relationship who then causes the other person to forget her. It made me think of those what-if-we-never-met scenarios that sometimes show up in sitcoms.

So I had a few ideas about where the story might go, none of which were accurate. The core of the story is about the growing relationship between Evalise and Idris after she accepts his offer. Once you reach the end, you unlock the option to refuse Idris’s offer on a second playthrough, but he does it anyway and the story plays out differently from there based on your choices.

That surprised me a bit, that there are multiple branching paths and different endings, but not different romance routes.

It’s a bit strange, because in some ways, the second playthrough branches are significantly different, but at the same time I felt a little disappointed that it was still dealing with the same basic ideas. That might be on me for hoping for different routes. I also hoped the magical side of things would take more of the focus than it did.

Nevertheless, the romance between Evalise and Idris works well enough, and there are some interesting twists in the story along the way.

So if you’re looking for a nice romance story with a light magical twist at its premise, you might consider That Which Binds Us.