visual novel Archives - Page 5 of 108

It’s official: the otome game Over RequiemZ (or should I be writing that as Over Requiemz after all?) will be out on August 20!

Up until now, we only had a Summer 2026 release window, so it’s good to have an actual date.

I’ve been excited for Over RequiemZ ever since its localization was announced, and I even named it one of my most-anticipated games of 2026.

It’s a dark fantasy otome game loosely based on the Wizard of Oz about a heroine who is sentenced to death and ordered to investigate mysterious ruins alongside four other convicted murderers on death row. It looks so promising, and I’m really curious about how the routes split to have a whole “dark” path.

2026 turned out to be a pretty stacked year for otome games. I, of course, am keeping up with my backlog, so I’ll be all ready to play it when it comes out (blatant lies).

Are you looking forward to Over RequiemZ?

For quite a while now, the major otome companies have only been releasing their games on the Switch, but today Idea Factory announced that Cupid Parasite will be coming to the PC later this year!

Personally, I prefer to play visual novels on a handheld system when I can, so I’d probably stick with Switch releases anyway.

However, it’s still exciting news! Now I can recommend Cupid Parasite to even more people.

And believe me, I will.

I loved Cupid Parasite and found it to be one of the funniest visual novels I’ve played, with loveable characters and a ridiculous sense of humor.

I also quite enjoyed playing the (sometimes unhinged) fandisc earlier this year. No word on the fandisc coming to PC yet, but hopefully it will eventually.

Right now it’s not clear if this is just the first of many otome games Idea Factory will bring to PC, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a test case to see if the market is there.

Will you be playing Cupid Parasite when it comes to PC?

It was all the way back in 2017 that we first discussed Doki Doki Literature Club, a visual novel that looks like a cute romance on the surface but is actually horror.

I was surprised to look back and see how… sparse… my review is. I really didn’t want to spoil anything.

(After all this time, it’s become so well-known that most people have probably encountered the biggest spoilers in passing even if they haven’t played, but I still won’t spoil any specific details.)

Doki Doki Literature Club also got expanded release in 2021 as Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, which I reviewed for MonsterVine, and then just this past December, it got a mobile port that made the main game available for free with the Plus content purchasable as DLC.

…Except now, four months later, Google decided it isn’t fine after all and removed it from the Google Play Store.

According to the official statement from the developer, it was deemed to violate Google Play’s content guidelines for its “depiction of sensitive themes.”

If you know the game’s content, it’s pretty easy to guess what that might be.

It’s a shame, especially since other storefronts have been putting forth stricter content guidelines for various topics as well, from Steam to itch.io to the Nintendo eShop (although DDLC has only run into trouble with Google). It feels like a common trend nowadays, and not a good one.

Anyway, it remains to be seen if they’ll be able to get Doki Doki Literature Club reinstated on the Play Store or not. (I assume they had already warned about its content like on its other store pages, so I can’t see how it would return if the content itself is the issue, though.) How do you feel about this situation?

Over RequiemZ Will Be Out on August 20!

Cupid Parasite is Coming to PC!

Doki Doki Literature Club Removed from Google Play Store