Calling all hopeless romantics: this week is yours! Ever since I was a teen, I’ve chased the comfort of beautiful fictional men in otome games. Beginning with the age-old Shall We Date series, then indulging in all sorts of Voltage fantasties. My first ‘serious’ otome was Amnesia, before diving deep into Mystic Messenger at it’s apex and now playing Love and Deepspace daily.
Needless to say, I’ve played romance visual novels for a long time. To preface, not every game in this festival is strictly otome. In some of them, you have the option of choosing different gender pronouns and customizing your MC. Please respect the developers and the games they create. While many on this list are female-oriented, I’ve also included titles that lean toward being more inclusive. At the end of the day, you can choose to engage in the media that feels right for you.♡
With all that said, I’m happy to announce that I will be streaming for the Otome Games Celebration Steam festival hosted by Crystal Game Work! The streams will run over 3 days, with 2 streams per day to cover as many games as possible! Each game is allocated roughly 1 hour, which is by no means enough for some of them, but we’ll cover as much as we can ♡ If any of these games catch your eye, be sure to check their content warnings first.
This is a living post and will be updated as the festival progresses!
To date, ALL DAYS articles are live!
Schedule (GMT+8):
Mon (4/5), Wed (6/5), Thu (7/5)
5-7pm, 8-10pm
Full games list:
1. Fate’s Masquerade
2. A Date with Death
3. Your Crown is Mine
4. Sweet Valentine Chocolatier
5. Saintess of the Golden Bow
6. Pre-Odyssey: Love at First Quack
7. Of The Lilies
8. Poetry In Purgatory
9. Chrysanthemum: On the Way to Sweet Dreams
10. TELLURICENE: A Monster Romance Visual Novel
11. Snowkissed Romance
12. Trapped with Jester
13. Scarlet Hunt
Day 1
Day 1 VOD:
1. Fate’s Masquerade by Small Serenity Studio
Fate’s Masquerade is a difficult and intriguing manhwa-inspired otome game that features two handsome male leads—Maximilian and Lucian Windrake. You play the role of a governess employed in their kingdom and have to be very careful with your choices to even continue the game. The decisions can be quite unforgiving, so save frequently and do your best to win their favour! Although I was inclined toward Maximilian, I couldn’t bring myself to disrespect his engagement. But next time, I’m fully disrespecting it! >:(
(Also, the Steam description promises spicy scenes, so… play on to find out!)
2. A Date with Death by Two and a Half Studios
In A Date with Death you play an impossibly lucky MC who discovers a mysterious chatroom app downloaded onto her laptop. The app incessantly dings for your attention until you concede…
The culprit is the ‘Grim Reaper’ who is very cute and fun to tease. He’s devilishly handsome and knows it too. Featuring the voice of Jonah Scott as the English VA, you’re sure to be charmed by this love interest. My favourite part about this game was playing as MC. She is super fun to embody, and I found myself missing ‘Grimmy’ whenever we had to tear ourselves away from the laptop. I can definitely see why this was the hot otome of 2023/2024! The base game is free to play, but the devs offer DLCs to add on to your experience if you’re interested!
A Date with Death 2: REMNANTS is currently in development and you can support the Kickstarter here!
3. Your Crown is Mine by lyyycaena
Your Crown Is Mine is a challenging choice-reliant visual novel and includes day planning and stat management. In this game, you are the ‘villainess’ running for election and balancing your relationships and stats to win. You have many love interests to choose from: your ex-fiancé, your ex-fiancé’s new lover, politicians from distant lands, and more. There are many different ways to spend your day, so when you have the energy, choose wisely!
This game is quite unpredictable so you’ll be in for some surprises around each corner. A guide is provided for players who want to play more efficiently. When I tried approaching it organically, I felt that we barely scratched the surface. XD (We did steal a kiss with Rosalie though)
If you like having lots of options at a time for who to pursue and how MC spends her day, then Your Crown Is Mine is for you. I’m sure even after multiple runs, you’ll find things you might have missed.
4. Sweet Valentine Chocolatier by VeryFatCatz
Do you like it fluffy or do you like it spicy? Regardless, Sweet Valentine Chocolatier has something for you! With 4 love interests to choose from, you will be spoiled for choice because they all want you from the get-go! No chasing required. Though I say ‘spicy’, this isn’t the kind of game that needs an age rating. The dialogue is safe enough to experience on stream, with just a few cuss words here and there.
The game features MC customisation options to personalise your experience, and a few fun little minigames to take breaks from the reading! Sweet Valentine Chocolatier is the kind of cozy, low-stakes visual novel that’s perfect for a relaxing time. Within the hour, we romanced Michael: the prideful, handsome, and annoyingly competent Casanova. None of the options you choose are ‘bad‘, and each pick assures you of your choice. It is a game respectful of your decisions, which I love!
I adored Michael’s route, and would definitely revisit this game to romance the others sometime! It is also free to play, so don’t wait—add Sweet Valentine Chocolatier to your library now.
Day 2
Day 2 VOD:
5. Saintess of the Golden Bow by Transparent Games
Celine is a relatable MC in her early 20s, discovering the woes of being in the workforce. She is quite a pragmatic character! The options provided to her so far seem natural, and haven’t put me in a spot so it is comfortable to get though.
Suddenly surrounded by characters of the childhood friend, enigmatic prince, and forbidden love trope, you navigate your life as a newly appointed web comic protagonist of Saint of the Golden Bow, striving to break the cycle of a tragic fate. This game is packed with 40 CGs, with 2 per main love interest being revealed in just the prologue! I enjoyed the story, though I truly disliked how father treats Celeste. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that his character improves, or we that can see less of him once we hit the main routes. We’ll see!
I haven’t decided on the love interest I want to pursue… A romance with each of them would lead to such different story paths! I find Elijah to be rather mysterious, while Noah is straightforward, and Levi is pure. Oh, being an isekai-ed web novel protagonist is hard!
6. Pre-Odyssey: Love at First Quack by Neoclassic Games/Anta
If you are a Greek mythology nerd or a fan of ducks, you are going to love Pre-Odyssey: Love at First Quack—a comedic and cute retelling of the romance between Penelope and Odysseus. I love the dynamic between the two, their interactions feel natural and reminds me of falling in love for the first time. Quack!
Penelope has the quirk of being able to communicate with ducks, which comes in handy when she’s in a pinch. The game is full of duck puns, fun trivia, and CGs to unlock. (We also get to see Odysseus shirtless! *insert anime wow sound effect here* You know how those ancient Greek games were~) There’s a lot offered in this short game, so please give it a try! Quack!
(shh little duckies, I’m trying to write a review here! Yes yes, I’ll include how adorable you all are.)
7. Of The Lilies by Startris Studio
If you like Until Then, you will enjoy Of The Lilies: a pixel point-and-click visual novel of a similar style. In Of The Lilies, you play the future Chieftain to your tribe, which gets invaded shortly before the handover. There are some fetch quests and minigames to progress the story, so it would do you well to put on your adventurer’s cap and interact with everything!
After you are captured, you encounter a person in need of your aid. In this short demo, you meet 2 out of 5 prospective love interests, though your interactions with them are brief. Of The Lilies is the kind of adventure that has many layers and much to uncover. There’s a lot more to come, so if you enjoyed it, please support their Kickstarter here!
8. Poetry In Purgatory by Tymedust Games
There’s so much I would like to praise about Poetry In Purgatory, from the beautiful art and music to the fun and engaging dialogue. The worldbuilding keeps you wanting to know more. Each encounter left me anticipating their backstory and how they ended up in purgatory in the first place. (Which I’m guessing the game will make us put our backs into to earn them.) It’s a really charming game that I found myself having a hard time stopping. The demo is available to try if you’d like to explore the options yourself.
At the end of our first day in the afterlife, our protagonist, Isobel, contemplates her life and how it ended. The prologue builds a solid foundation for meaningful stories to be built upon. I can’t wait to revisit it!
Day 3
Day 3 VOD:
9. Chrysanthemum: On the Way to Sweet Dreams by onecellteam
Chrysanthemum: On the Way to Sweet Dreams has quite a long demo. You play as Ji, a high school senior smitten with her sensei. The context of the story doesn’t reveal itself until a little later on, where we discover that the place they’re on is called Libertas Island, a place built exclusively for anomalous individuals with superpowers. The island is mysterious, and you are given many choices along the way that will carve your path in the game.
Chrysanthemum offers 6+1 routes, with the demo introducing all romanceable characters. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to meet them all, but already I’m rooting for ZoJi! Zoya and Ji just seem like a sweet and compatible pair.
10. TELLURICENE: A Monster Romance Visual Novel by DEADline Studios
Telluricene is probably the most unique romance game that I got to play during this celebration. In our short hour with the game, there was little romance and more case studies and reports to be done. If you like The SCP Foundation writing project, you will love the work to be done here. All the while, we’re being guided by our rather chipper hippocampus-implanted chip, V.E.R.A.
We played 4 out of the 10 days offered in the demo. (I opened it after stream to finish it up). During our time in the research lab, we interacted with the vivus glomerorum and watched it become a more humanoid form. There are various forms it can take in the game, but we got the gentlest, green-looking one. Our vivus glomerorum was mellow and participative, showing no sign of aggression towards us. But it’s possible that the other forms will approach you differently. We met the janitor too, who is also a potential love interest. He’s a gruff sort of guy, so if you like that kind of character, you might be interested in romancing him when the game is out.
This one is definitely an interesting romance game to try out if you want an experience unlike a typical otome and don’t mind a little tingle of ominousity.
11. Snowkissed Romance by Lovely, Inc.
Ever wanted to live out a 90s shojo winter vacation? Snowkissed Romance is for you! Set in 1994 Japan, you’ve been whisked off to Yukihari with your best friend on the last winter break before college, only to be rudely shocked that some surprise guests would be sharing your accommodation!
Featuring three key love interests—Ren, Yoh, and Kichirou—each boy embodies a popular character trope in anime.
The demo allows you to live out the first 3 days of your 3-week vacation in the shared cabin, with nostalgic references to 90s video games, cheesy magazine quizzes, and cute old-school devices! You also unlock adorable voice messages from the love interests and get to explore some date options with them. The voice actors include:
David Matranga as Ren Usui (EN VA of Shoto Todoroki in My Hero Academia and Takumi Usui in Maid-Sama)
Kaiji Tang as Yoh Moriyama (EN VA of Gojo Satoru in Jujutsu Kaisen and Jinshi in The Apothecary Diaries)
Aaron Dismuke as Kichirou Ichii (EN VA of Senku in Dr. Stone and Miyuki Shirogane in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War) and
Jessie-James Grelle as Shinichirou Matsubara (EN VA of Ritsuka Uenoyama in Given and Yuri Katsuki in Yuri!! on Ice)
What I like about this game is that the characters don’t exist in isolation. In Snowkissed Romance, every character is well aware of each other. You can choose to do activities alone, with your BFF Suki, as a date with 1 of the boys, or even go with 2 of them or everyone as a group! It feels more rooted in real life, where you’d have to find time to steal away with the love interest you’re pursuing. Just because you like them, doesn’t mean they’re always available too!
In the full release, there will be a classic stat-building and day-planning system, where what you choose to do that day will influence your stats. This in turn determines your scene outcomes and endings you earn. There will also be gifting and sleepover scenes too! With so many possibilities, it’s hard to imagine not replaying this game.
You’ll definitely want to add Snowkissed Romance to your wishlist to play it once it’s out. I read that there’ll be lots of endings to discover! Including harem routes, if you so desire.
For more information, you can visit Lovely, Inc.’s own post on the game!
12. Trapped with Jester by Neoclassic Games/Anta
If you don’t have a lot of time to spare, Trapped with Jester is a short otome you can try! You wake up in a mysterious moving caravan with a sinister-looking character in front of you. You engage in different interactions with him and find out more about what he is and what his intentions are. There are 6 different endings which can all be achieved within 30 minutes. It is fully voiced in English and has translations to other languages available. Enjoy your time with Jester~
13. Scarlet Hunt by Soft Poison Studio
Worldbuilding worldbuilding worldbuilding. Scarlet Hunt immerses you in a dark fantasy world ruled by vampires. You play as the young slave girl, Robin, who is part of a mining colony of the human kingdom. Each year, selected humans are forced to participate in a gruesome hunt. This year, that fate may befall you.
The demo begins a few days before the selection. You get a glimpse into the lives of Robin and her companions, Ari and Nala, accompanying them through turbulent hopes and hardship. Just as you think you’ve acclimated to the cruelty in their world, things take a turn for the worse.
What’s in store for our fiery protagonist? I’m really excited to find out! The Scarlet Hunt Kickstarter will be published soon, so turn on your notifications for it if you’d like to support it when it’s live!
With that, we conclude our streams for the Otome Games Celebration Festival! Thank you so much for joining the fun and tuning in. I hope this festival has introduced you to some interesting worlds to immerse yourselves in, and perhaps some characters have stolen your heart along the way! Until next time, may your saves be safe and your endings, sweet.♡
Tomorrow, I’ll be visiting Doujin Market 2026! I can’t wait to share more with you. For more game festivals we’ve taken part in, check out our Game Festivals category! (So far, we’ve been a part of the Choose Wisely Festival, Southeast Asian Game Onward, Hungry Ghost Games Festival and this!)