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What Otome/BL game are you currently playing right now?

yaoidemon said:
Nw, I don't have any IRL friend whom I can talk to about this, so I'm always happy to find internet fans to chat with <3

Ideally I'd like to 100% complete this VN but I'm not very confident I can manage to, with work and other stuff keeping me busy and also my attention span not being in the best shape to follow super long stories. So I gladly accept any advice on which routes I should prioritize.
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Same here so <3

And yeah, I can't blame anyone for finding BaraKi as quite the hurdle when it comes to 100% since there's even the variations of mostly the same scene that differ due to timing and such (+the later ports adding their own new content to replace the cut route). And the pure/nonpure branches being different enough so every character technically has two 'routes'

I'm mostly speaking from memory since it's been a while since I read the whole thing, but aside from bias screaming anything Mitsunobu if I were to make a full list on the subject - for Houkawa the strongest attachment would actually be to Tsukimura so through the indirect connection Kaname gets to be the main 'lore' scenario for the guy (which is also reflected in the bonus works)+Mitsunobu as the avid reader/fanboy of Houkawa's books if you want something silly. Norizane...honestly shines best with anyone that isn't Kaname (with Mitsu being the take I enjoyed most, though iirc Houkawa was also pretty good). By Mitsunobu someone put it best by calling him the 'funny man of the cast' so none of his pairing scenarios are ever truly boring if you like his quirk (just Kaname&Norizane are the most 'core' ones for learning the more serious parts?)
Kaname? Kaname's 'best' story is unfortunately limited to the later ports since that's where Tsukimura has a whole new scenario so after that it''s mainly ymmv territory (+ from what I've reread the actual nonpure scenarios do have some interesting bits if you can stomach that type of content).
 
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Fornstrand said:
I've been sleeping on Norizane for now so this is great to know, I appreciate this little bit of insight too! Don't be afraid to reply to people, it's what forums are about.
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I'll keep the advice in mind then.

With Norizane it's almost ironic how much his character suffers from the narrative trap of ''he's been crushing on Kaname since before the game so surely putting the two together is his best scenario'' yet...no. You're actually meant to guide him away by pairing him with someone else instead of indulging that sentiment so he can be 'haunted' by his attachment and learn to move on (or as in one of the pairings - start a whole neverending romcom) to really experience his character and the only real clue on how the player should maybekindasorta try putting him with Mitsunobu specifically is when the later mentions their one conversation before receiving the ~photo~ (since some things about it are kinda really weird if you stop and think about it). It's very easy to sleep on him because of that too (or Mayumi since his plot with Kaname creates a really sour first impression due to the trap moment)

Really though. I'm glad to hear what I say is helpful since as is apparent, BaraKi's among my favorite games so I'm genuinely happy to see more people picking up this niche title
 
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I finally started Yoshiwara Higanbana. I've only finished one route so far, and one of the bad endings in it was so crazy, I don't know if I want to keep playing. 🥲 I know it's my fault, like I knew the game would have heavy themes. I thought I would be good, since Club Suicide is one of my favorites. But I wasn't prepared for this one at all lol.
 
Koori said:
Kaname's 'best' story is unfortunately limited to the later ports since that's where Tsukimura has a whole new scenario so after that it''s mainly ymmv territory (+ from what I've reread the actual nonpure scenarios do have some interesting bits if you can stomach that type of content).
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So would you say it's worth playing the port as well? I'm afraid completing the original game might still take a while, but if you think it's different enough, then I might really consider doing so later down the line. But I also have one more worry, that is that they had to rewrite huge chunks of the game so as to lower the age rating. Non-pure routes are part of the appeal for me, do you maybe remember how significant the changes are? (Just comparing openings makes it seem like the original game and later ports and vastly different, not that it's inherently a bad thing.)
 
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Koori said:
I'll keep the advice in mind then.

With Norizane it's almost ironic how much his character suffers from the narrative trap of ''he's been crushing on Kaname since before the game so surely putting the two together is his best scenario'' yet...no. You're actually meant to guide him away by pairing him with someone else instead of indulging that sentiment so he can be 'haunted' by his attachment and learn to move on (or as in one of the pairings - start a whole neverending romcom) to really experience his character and the only real clue on how the player should maybekindasorta try putting him with Mitsunobu specifically is when the later mentions their one conversation before receiving the ~photo~ (since some things about it are kinda really weird if you stop and think about it). It's very easy to sleep on him because of that too (or Mayumi since his plot with Kaname creates a really sour first impression due to the trap moment)

Really though. I'm glad to hear what I say is helpful since as is apparent, BaraKi's among my favorite games so I'm genuinely happy to see more people picking up this niche title
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I guess the main reason I didn't go for Norizane yet is that I kind of find him a little... boring? It's just not my favorite type of character, to say the least. I hope the pairing you suggested will change my view of him a little. It sounds fun based on how different the two are alone, and now that you say there's more depth to this, I'm really quite intrigued.
 
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Fornstrand said:
I guess the main reason I didn't go for Norizane yet is that I kind of find him a little... boring? It's just not my favorite type of character, to say the least. I hope the pairing you suggested will change my view of him a little. It sounds fun based on how different the two are alone, and now that you say there's more depth to this, I'm really quite intrigued.
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I feel you.

Norizane wasn't exactly my favorite either - his silent stoicness aside he's the character archetype that by default crushes/pines for the mc which has a tendency to bore me due to how often in games that means a lack of friction/growth during the story besides the mc changing to return those feelings for one reason or another. Then I did the the non-Kaname pairings and he improved (be is as a rolemodel/protector by Mayumi, the hearbreak club with Houkawa and I've already said more than enough re:Mitsunobu.) so while there's no guarantee for growing to like him, part of BaraKi's appeal is the experimentation on finding the dynamic between the various characters that brings out what you feel is the 'best' in them.
I do hope that I don't end up overselling things though, since I am ultimately speaking based on bias that's read beyond the original game after all.

And to answer the other posts question - the ports of BaraKi are esentially locked into never giving you that one 'choice' so instead things default to if you picked the more pure/lighthearted storyline and as usual for sfw versions there's fade out/time skips so the really explicit stuff may only be implied through next and the replacement cgs. Wouldn't go as far as calling it a complete rewrite though (I mean, my main introduction to this title was through one of them + the only true victom of that that I'm aware of is ''Ore no Shita de Akage'' where it's up to debate if the changes actually made it better or worse), as the ps2 tagline kinda puts it best by calling itself the ''the pure love version''. Because that's what they are, ports of only the 'innocent route' from the pc ver that they put in new content so it's not just a half of the original that tried to make up for it with the added voiceacting (which to Tsukimura meant a new route since originally his visually 'happy' ending was in the twisted storyline). Good for a first introduction of the cast/premise since you get to hear the characters speak all the time and there's bits you genuinely wouldn't see otherwise in the new content, but bad if you wanted to hear the twisted route voiced since that section of the script instead got deleted (which is why I've been focusing on those parts first with my current replay).
 
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Koori said:
I feel you.

Norizane wasn't exactly my favorite either - his silent stoicness aside he's the character archetype that by default crushes/pines for the mc which has a tendency to bore me due to how often in games that means a lack of friction/growth during the story besides the mc changing to return those feelings for one reason or another. Then I did the the non-Kaname pairings and he improved (be is as a rolemodel/protector by Mayumi, the hearbreak club with Houkawa and I've already said more than enough re:Mitsunobu.) so while there's no guarantee for growing to like him, part of BaraKi's appeal is the experimentation on finding the dynamic between the various characters that brings out what you feel is the 'best' in them.
I do hope that I don't end up overselling things though, since I am ultimately speaking based on bias that's read beyond the original game after all.

And to answer the other posts question - the ports of BaraKi are esentially locked into never giving you that one 'choice' so instead things default to if you picked the more pure/lighthearted storyline and as usual for sfw versions there's fade out/time skips so the really explicit stuff may only be implied through next and the replacement cgs. Wouldn't go as far as calling it a complete rewrite though (I mean, my main introduction to this title was through one of them + the only true victom of that that I'm aware of is ''Ore no Shita de Akage'' where it's up to debate if the changes actually made it better or worse), as the ps2 tagline kinda puts it best by calling itself the ''the pure love version''. Because that's what they are, ports of only the 'innocent route' from the pc ver that they put in new content so it's not just a half of the original that tried to make up for it with the added voiceacting (which to Tsukimura meant a new route since originally his visually 'happy' ending was in the twisted storyline). Good for a first introduction of the cast/premise since you get to hear the characters speak all the time and there's bits you genuinely wouldn't see otherwise in the new content, but bad if you wanted to hear the twisted route voiced since that section of the script instead got deleted (which is why I've been focusing on those parts first with my current replay).
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Thank you for the very detailed reply. Don't worry about setting up overly high expectations or anything, I'm going to have fun either way.

About the story and content changes in BaraKi: so they just decided to ax the other kind of route altogether? It might be for the best since I don't know how you can rewrite what is in many ways an H-scene marathon, at that point the only option is to write something entirely new (which is more effort than any port could afford, I imagine). But even if half of the game is missing, I might try the port anyway just to see what they cooked up for Tsukimura... Also, full voice acting? That's a good enough selling point for me. I'd rather have less content than half-baked censorship.

Speaking of which, I've only seen some CGs and a little bit of gameplay of the Ore no Shita de Agake PS2 version and oh my, I don't know what to say. They were really brave for trying to lower the age rating, but the way they went about it is just so hilariously absurd, I have no idea who that version is meant to appeal to. My (somewhat blunt) take on this is that someone, at some point, should really have said no.
 
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Fornstrand said:
Thank you for the very detailed reply. Don't worry about setting up overly high expectations or anything, I'm going to have fun either way.

About the story and content changes in BaraKi: so they just decided to ax the other kind of route altogether? It might be for the best since I don't know how you can rewrite what is in many ways an H-scene marathon, at that point the only option is to write something entirely new (which is more effort than any port could afford, I imagine). But even if half of the game is missing, I might try the port anyway just to see what they cooked up for Tsukimura... Also, full voice acting? That's a good enough selling point for me. I'd rather have less content than half-baked censorship.

Speaking of which, I've only seen some CGs and a little bit of gameplay of the Ore no Shita de Agake PS2 version and oh my, I don't know what to say. They were really brave for trying to lower the age rating, but the way they went about it is just so hilariously absurd, I have no idea who that version is meant to appeal to. My (somewhat blunt) take on this is that someone, at some point, should really have said no.
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Okay. Hope you have fun reading then (and don't lose spirit).

Re:the ports - basically yeah. There was probably no way to keep the section without making it into a cut mess or something that lost the original point (seeing as the whole point was Kaname inflicting what he suffered through on others, changing the twisted routes say motive would have recquired changing what Kaname initially went through). So away it went and in came completely new routes (Tsukimura, Seiji who became a whole different person iirc), new small scenes (+variations? ie while I forget the full context there was a sequence where Mayumi would stare at Norizane during an accidental bath encounter in build/muscle envy that you could trigger a continuation for), more content in the extra section etc so they did go the extra mile in making up for the missing content by writing something new for the port.
Would 100% agree on the stance regarding censorship since the thing I care most is always gonna be the narrative conveyed though the sequences anyway


re:OreShita my take would be that they saw how the original already had a comedic undertone due to it's gameplay, so why not go full throttle with it? Which ended up kinda working since among the ps2 titles it's the most easiest to find playthroughs of due to people finding it entertaining. Is it a good case for censoring something though? Nnnno. While the original story is still in there somewhere, replacing money debts with stealing people souls in a c h o i c e where I can understand not having the freedom to keep the bedroom slave thing but how is this supposed tradeoff any better I do still like it as a bakage though since Ichiya was a living template either way. He can just conquer hells now too instead of merely men that catch his fancy
 
I'm currently playing Olympia Soirée. I actually like the protagonist in this one a lot and the story is also pretty interesting, I love it so far. I definitely recommend it.
 
Koori said:
Okay. Hope you have fun reading then (and don't lose spirit).

Re:the ports - basically yeah. There was probably no way to keep the section without making it into a cut mess or something that lost the original point (seeing as the whole point was Kaname inflicting what he suffered through on others, changing the twisted routes say motive would have recquired changing what Kaname initially went through). So away it went and in came completely new routes (Tsukimura, Seiji who became a whole different person iirc), new small scenes (+variations? ie while I forget the full context there was a sequence where Mayumi would stare at Norizane during an accidental bath encounter in build/muscle envy that you could trigger a continuation for), more content in the extra section etc so they did go the extra mile in making up for the missing content by writing something new for the port.
Would 100% agree on the stance regarding censorship since the thing I care most is always gonna be the narrative conveyed though the sequences anyway


re:OreShita my take would be that they saw how the original already had a comedic undertone due to it's gameplay, so why not go full throttle with it? Which ended up kinda working since among the ps2 titles it's the most easiest to find playthroughs of due to people finding it entertaining. Is it a good case for censoring something though? Nnnno. While the original story is still in there somewhere, replacing money debts with stealing people souls in a c h o i c e where I can understand not having the freedom to keep the bedroom slave thing but how is this supposed tradeoff any better I do still like it as a bakage though since Ichiya was a living template either way. He can just conquer hells now too instead of merely men that catch his fancy
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Thanks <3

1) You put me at ease when it comes to the BaraKi port. I'll stray off the topic a little, but I do know plenty of VNs that could really use a censored version (in my opinion), as the hentai feels shoehorned into the game just to make it sell better. Granted, what I have in mind while writing this is not BL, let alone this particular VN, but I think the point still stands. Anyway, more content is more content, sign me up.

2) Actually, you might be onto something here. There seems to be a pretty big difference when it comes to the target audiences of both the OG OreShita and the port. So basically, the first group is people looking for some steamy scenes with enough plot to make it somewhat make sense (and some humor so that it doesn't turn into a horror game. Let's be honest, Ichiya is walking a very thin line here. Imagine if they didn't play his hobby for laughs...). The other group is those who are just looking to have a bit of silly fun. I'm somewhere in the middle, and while I believe the port is really not for me, it's perfectly true that people could just straight up play it for comedic value. In that case, I can see why they might like it. I'm probably too boring for this or something :'D
 
Fornstrand said:
Thanks <3

1) You put me at ease when it comes to the BaraKi port. I'll stray off the topic a little, but I do know plenty of VNs that could really use a censored version (in my opinion), as the hentai feels shoehorned into the game just to make it sell better. Granted, what I have in mind while writing this is not BL, let alone this particular VN, but I think the point still stands. Anyway, more content is more content, sign me up.

2) Actually, you might be onto something here. There seems to be a pretty big difference when it comes to the target audiences of both the OG OreShita and the port. So basically, the first group is people looking for some steamy scenes with enough plot to make it somewhat make sense (and some humor so that it doesn't turn into a horror game. Let's be honest, Ichiya is walking a very thin line here. Imagine if they didn't play his hobby for laughs...). The other group is those who are just looking to have a bit of silly fun. I'm somewhere in the middle, and while I believe the port is really not for me, it's perfectly true that people could just straight up play it for comedic value. In that case, I can see why they might like it. I'm probably too boring for this or something :'D
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1) I'd completely agree with you there. There are games, not limited to the BL genre (just often ailed because BL games that are originally sfw are rare coughcough is this where I should promote Haccaworks for even daring to cater to that category?) where you can tell the adult scenes are there as this reward/fanservice to the player but it's like that extra dressing you didn't really need to enjoy the rest of the 'meal' that is the full game (and in practice makes it difficult to sometimes convince someone to even pick something up if there's weird kinks involved too) where these type of port announcements shine and you'd hope more would get them when encountering a neat title. Other times it's so woven into the narrative that you can tell a port could only butcher the content so them's the breaks

2) Pretty much. Thus why I referred to it as an ''up to debate'' type where it's genuinely up to which side of that scale you're on for how one views it, since it can both qualify as ''good'' in the sense of having been competent at it's (likely intentional) slapstick trasformation yet ''bad'' if you value the original shadier vibe. I can understand both arguments so it's a convenient example for how gray the subject can really be when you put aside aside the ''but they cut out the poorn orz'' aspect since both versions still keep Ichiya as being super questionable, just in different flavors of junk food.
And in a way madalabo kinda felt like they were looking to inherit the torch on continuing the formula (if...in with failing results, since to me it took till reaching the later half of Patient S recently to even start vibing with their games) And naah. Humor is always gonna be subjective so it's natural for not everyone to enjoy the same joke. In my case it just wasn't OreShita but the butlers
 
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I have been playing bewitching sinners and I loved it! I can't wait for their new game to come out!
 
Monochrome Wizard =)) I really like the way the MC talks and acts right now. Her trauma is so well written. I want her to be happy so badly :))
Heart Cage, kinda bland so I'll try to finish it first ;")
Dot kareshi we're 8bit lovers, it's short and witty. Since I played rpg games from time to time, I really enjoy the story.
 
jred said:
I finally started Yoshiwara Higanbana. I've only finished one route so far, and one of the bad endings in it was so crazy, I don't know if I want to keep playing. 🥲 I know it's my fault, like I knew the game would have heavy themes. I thought I would be good, since Club Suicide is one of my favorites. But I wasn't prepared for this one at all lol.
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Oh my :))) I'm planning to play this game, now I'm kind of scared
 
I'm replaying Blackish House sideZ! Noa still remains one of the best written routes in otome.
 
Currently playing even if Tempest, though it's been on and off. Also just started playing Tokyo Onmyoji!
 
Mistonia's Hope and Sympathy Kiss. I keep switching between the two depending on the mood. Sympathy Kiss is really sweet and easy to digest (I'm almost done with all the routes. I just need to finish Rokuro and Usui) and Mistonia's Hope is definitely not something I can sit and read for hours but so far the story seems promising and exciting but I'm still in the prologue and I have only met Edward so far.
 
Currently playing 9 RIP, currently in a group where we try to finish otomes in a specific time together so that we can go on and finish our backlogs.
 
Harukanaru toki no naka de 3 ultimate: actually I already played for yearssssssssss, but still not yet finished (I have such short lived enthusiasm)

For BL side, Gakuen heaven okawari (psp version): I played the main piece two years ago, recently SUDDENLY want to read the FD disc for one character I like
 
The latest VN i played is Chuki Chuki Eroriman : as a game that is marketed to be more romantic and light, i feel bamboozled haha
 
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