Samantha Lienhard

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Wrapped With a Kiss

Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games 4 Responses » Tagged with: otome, visual novel

Feb 172023

We’ve got another indie visual novel to talk about today, this time a Christmas-themed otome called Wrapped With a Kiss.

You play Noel, a young woman who loses her job and finds herself with no choice but to move out of the city and into the small town where her sister lives.

There, she begins to settle into a new life with her sister, her niece, and the charming local carpenter as everyone prepares for Christmas.

The premise is about as classic as they get, but it’s a heartfelt story that explores these characters in a way that feels sincere and meaningful. The holiday setting adds additional charm and makes it a warm, cozy romance.

(Christmas is even more central to this story than it was in Wintertide Miracles, so I almost wish I’d read it in December instead.)

It takes only a couple of hours to finish, but despite its story length, it doesn’t feel rushed. Instead, the progression felt natural and believable. It has partial voice acting, although I found it distracting enough to have only occasional lines voiced that I turned off the voices.

Wrapped With a Kiss is a short, sweet Christmas story about family, romance, and finding what’s important in life. It might not be groundbreaking, but it’s the sort of feelgood visual novel that will leave you feeling happier afterwards.

Celebrating All Things Romantic: I’m a love interest in my childhood friend’s reverse harem!!!

Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games 8 Responses » Tagged with: BL, visual novel

Feb 152023

Today I’d like to talk about a short visual novel called *deep breath* I’m a love interest in my childhood friend’s reverse harem!!!

Now, despite how the store page describes it, this is not an otome in any way, shape, or form.

When the description says it’s “a not-so-generic otome game” and “a spin on your average otome game,” what it really means is that it’s written with the idea that you are playing from the perspective of a love interest in an otome game while your friend is the main character.

You are Geum, a teenage boy whose best friend Emily is supposed to be an otome game protagonist, with two other guys she could become interested in. However, you don’t think they really love her, so you decide to either win Emily’s heart first or make the two guys fall for you instead.

In other words, you play a male protagonist with one female and two male love interests.

I’d go a step further and say I’m a love interest in my childhood friend’s reverse harem!!! is stronger without its meta elements. Jokes about Emily’s nickname being MC or Geum noticing she seems to be looking at invisible choices in the air are good for a smile, but this visual novel is at its best when it focusing on the routes themselves.

The routes are split, so early on you decide if you want to try to win over Emily or the guys. Choices that favor any of the three characters still show up regardless of which path you pick, so I’m not sure why it’s split at the beginning. Once you do Emily’s route and at least one guy’s route on the same save file, you’ll also unlock a polyamory route (although it’s more like a harem).

No matter which route you’re on, you get a variety of cute scenes as you pursue your love interest of choice. While simple, the stories are sweet and heartfelt, and it has quite a bit of variability in the outcomes.

That’s part of why I feel it would be stronger if it didn’t try to play into the idea that Emily is an otome game protagonist. The actual routes here are sweet and humorous enough on their own without breaking the fourth wall, and the premise works fine on its own.

I’m a love interest in my childhood friend’s reverse harem!!! is very short and will probably only take you a couple of hours to beat, but it’s a sweet visual novel with more heartfelt romance than I expected.

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Taisho x Alice

Celebrating All Things Romantic, Video games 8 Responses » Tagged with: otome, taisho x alice, visual novel

Feb 132023

Welcome back to Celebrating All Things Romantic 2023. Today we’ll be discussing Taisho x Alice, an otome visual novel available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

It is split into 4 episodes, each with its own love interests, but that doesn’t mean you can play the episodes in any order you want.

No, the Taisho x Alice episode order is there for a reason. While you might get away with skipping episode 1, playing through the episodes in order is important to the overarching story.

The story begins when you find yourself in darkness. While trying to find your way out, you meet a young man named Alice who calls you Arisu. The two of you find a strange mirror, and you fall through into the Looking-Glass World where your prince awaits.

If you haven’t already guessed, it has a fairytale theme. The love interests, though all men, are named after classic fairytale heroines like Cinderella, Snow White, etc., and this plays into their stories as well. That’s about all the detail I can go into about the plot, because this is the sort of story that’s difficult to discuss without spoilers.

Episode 1 was pretty lighthearted, with a lot of humor and wacky dialogue (and while some people criticize the jokey and meme-y dialogue that shows up at times, apparently that’s true of the Japanese script as well, so the translation kept the same tone). Episode 2 got much more serious and significantly darker, and then Episode 3 and the Epilogue left me marveling over the story.

Click for Taisho x Alice spoilers

I was pleasantly surprised that everyone got a happy ending, too, although I still feel sad for the Wizard.

It’s an unusual one where I find myself not feeling too strongly about several of the love interests (Red Riding Hood and the Wizard are my favorites, although I enjoyed every route), but the story as a whole is enough to overcome that and make it a favorite.

I also absolutely love the opening theme song, to the point where I let the intro play every time I started up the game.

I haven’t played the fandisc yet, but that’s something I’ll want to check out someday.

Taisho x Alice is the sort of story you want to experience for yourself, as long as you won’t be put off by the sometimes-quite-dark subject matter. Even if you aren’t a big fan of otome games, I’d still recommend this one for the story itself.

In fact, since I enjoyed Taisho x Alice so much, I’ve added its episodes to the list of prizes you can win in this year’s contest! Meanwhile, Idea Factory has announced an otome live stream for tomorrow, so here’s hoping we have some exciting news to discuss soon!

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