I usually do a blind playthrough first, trying to get the route I'm most interested in, but I keep playing even if I end upbin another LI's route. If there is a recommended order with a route that reveals too much and I end up on that one, I restart playing.
I tend to prioritize the game I'm playing at the moment. I don't have much free time to play so there is no way I can keep up with new releases, and that sums up with my HUGE backlog so I rarely play new games as soon as they are released.
I'm very happy to discover KoiLog, I haven't played a lot of otomes (mostly mobile ones for the past few years, started playing more famous ones recently). I was ysing VNDB, but I'm glad there is a otome focused tracker now :D
I usually go blind in my first playthrough, but after I like to collect the good ending first, and then the bad ones. That's mostly because I suppose the good ending is the "true ending" and i treat the bad ones as kind of extra endings
Art is pretty inportant to me, but I might still play if the story is good, even if I dislike the art.
Sometimes western otoges art don't appeal to me, but they have such good and refreshing plots that I end up playing anyway
I don't usually research about the VAs in a game, but it's a nice surprise to hear a favorite's voice when playing (like Yuki Kaji or Junichi Suwabe for example)
I hope that someday Shall We Date games get ported to Switch. I was devastated when they ended service recently, since they were a few of the first otome I've played. Especially Guard me Sherlock! and some other I wanted to play but didn't get the chance. And Voltage games too, like the Ikemen...
I'll never recover from the shutdown of Shall We Date? titles, specially Wizardess Heart and Guard me Sherlock!
I loved those games and I can only hope they'll be revived someday :cry: (as an extra, I wish I had played Liar! Uncover the Truth from Voltage while it was active)