X-Note, I played the demo on y8 before and I remember I was so frustrated when the demo ended and I saved up to buy the full game. I was in 5th grade XD
I honestly can't recall what was my first otome game that I played from the late 2000s.
However, I do know that Harvest Moon Boy & Girl for PSP was the reason that made me look for more dating sims online and eventually stumbled into finding about otome genre.
Hakuouki for 3DS was my first physical copy of an otome games.
The first otome game I played was Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo!! (on the NDS platform).
I played this game because it's very small in size and downloads quickly.
I used a simulator to play this games on my computer.
It's a nice memory though I almost forgot it was my first otome game~ XD
My first game was Amnesia. A friend introduced me to a game I had never heard of before, and I was hooked. I've lost touch with my friend, but I'm forever grateful to her for introducing me to such a wonderful world.
My first otome game that I rmb was Starry Sky series on the PC since it had an English patch, and then I played other games on my DSL, psp, and eventually vita when it was picked up globally by aksys a long time ago.
The first one I ever tried was Hana Awase Mizuchi-hen on PC.
The romance was great, but more than anything, I was completely hooked on the hanafuda battles.
Heart no Kuni no Alice! lol technically, it was the manga but I found out it was originally an otome game (that I couldn't play because there wasn't an ENG translation back then).
The first game that I played but didn't finish was Hakuoki on the 3DS rip
It was so long that I don't remember for sure, but I think my first non-japanese VN was either RE: Alistair or Spirited Heart? And my first japanese otome was Starry Sky in winter - with good old combo of AGTH and ATLAS. This was not very good experience since mtl was pretty bad back then T_T
My first game was Tokimeki Memorial on DS (the english patch version) I wish there was a switch english patch version ~ that game will always have a place in my heart
I got into otome games because of Pacthesis' dating sims! But the very first otome game I ever played was Yo-Jin-Bo.... I think. I remember googling dating sims for girls or something among those lines and found about Yo-Jin-Bo and the world of otome games after!
I think it was ninja love under the shall we date series lol. I was just a kid with too much internet honestly and it kinda went downhill from there...like omg there's more!?
My introduction to visual novels came from the hybrid novel the ai somnium files. If we take the otome genre, then my first game was starry sky in autumn. It's funny to read that many people got to know otome from the Starry series.
RE: Alistair was the very first (I can't really remember what it was about now...). But I got into otome fandom when i played OZMAFIA!! and Mystic Messenger, which was was a friend recommendation.