I will look into my favorite seiyuu's work and choose his CD with my preferences. Both matters for me because my specific taste of voice and story makes it more enjoyable.
Yes!! the teenager me love shota (basically the cute looking guys) and yandere very much. but i prefer characters more mature, kind, or quiet now. sometimes i still love yandere too.
I love writing my thoughts while playing or after. This help me to remember plot of the games after months because i easily forget everything. My notes are full of spoilers, or i can say it is like thoughts and plot summaries.
I am also self-taught Japanese from japanese media. Not from otome games because it's too hard to read kanjis, so i gave up on otome game at first. then mostly i learnt from anime and idols. Then i started to watch TV shows and youtube because they usually put japanese subtitle too. that really...
Now I always clear 100% of a game before start next title.
I used to play 2-3 games together but that makes me forget or lazy to continue that game. especially if i start with my favorite characters, i will uninterested to play others
it's about 20-30days for me to clear a japanese otome game. I played almost everyday for 1-2hours with total clear time 50-70h. I think im pretty slow because i heard every lines and usually use auto mode :(