Plot Twist, a Melbourne-based games studio, has announced that the visual novel Ashes will launch in Early Access this May, with a full launch planned for December. This period of time will be used to finish the story, refine the existing minigames/add new ones, and provide new narrative content. The game blends graphic novel panels with interactive puzzles.…
Not A Cat Studios has announced STARCULT. Night: Twisted Age. The dark fantasy romantic visual novel is set in a world on the brink of disaster, and players must use an Emotion Palette to read others’ true emotions and intentions, influence relationships, and uncover the truth behind a brutal murder.…
Publisher Idea Factory International has announced a preorder date of April 22…
The first otome visual novel that I played – in fact, the…
Today is the first anniversary of the Japanese launch of otome visual novel Utakata no Uchronia. Aksys Games is celebrating by announcing its English title, Illusion of Itehari, and confirming its release on Nintendo Switch in late 2025. It will be available physically and digitally, with physical pre-orders open now…
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What if Harry Potter was an otome love game and not written by a horrible woman who seems obsessed with being a one-person “can you separate art from artists” talking point? Battlefield Waltz is a bit like that. It’s a story about a bunch of teens in a special, magical…
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Otome visual novel Hakuoki SSL ~Sweet School Life~ first launched in Japan for PS Vita in early 2014 and re-released (again, in Japan) for Nintendo Switch in 2023. Today, Eastasiasoft announced it will publish the game for Nintendo Switch with English language support in the West. This standalone game is…
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It was only a few weeks ago that heartfelt game Hanako’s Flower Shop was announced with a release window of April, and today a specific launch date was pinned down for late this month. The game follows the titular character, a young woman at a crossroads in life. She decides…
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It’s nearly springtime in the Northern Hemisphere, and in a month nature will be well on its way from brown and muddy to green and blooming. What a great time to launch a game about flowers! Hanako’s Flower Shop is a shop management visual novel about running a flower shop,…
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Horror is such a difficult genre for artists to work with. People think it’s easy because they have memories of more-comedy-than-scary slashers and B-grade films, bad acting and all. There’s also the perception that it’s not a particularly subtle genre, and therefore must be quite easy to work with. But…
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If you’re being bullied, can the ability to read thoughts solve all your problems? Or will it cause more when you try to get revenge? These questions are explored in Mojika: Truth Rears Its Ugly Head, a dark visual novel that will launch for PC at the end of the…
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I guess, given the success of Azur Lane, Girls und Panzer, KanColle and whatever else, it would be inevitable that at some point someone saw warplanes and thought “yeah, you sexy thing, what if you were an anime girl?” And so we have Kamikaze Lassplanes, a visual novel/SHMUP combination by…
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Him, The Smile & Bloom is a surprisingly “innovative” otome, at least as far as the narrative goes. I use the inverted commas because that word is bandied around far too much (and is far too associated with techbros – and yes I realise the contradiction between my disdain for…
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Video games portraying delicate subjects often open up discourse surrounding their themes. Pierre Corbinais is familiar with games such as these, writing the narrative for games like Haven and Bury Me, My Love; in his review for the latter, Matt describes it as being a game that should be mandatory…
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