Recs for Stand Alone, DRM-Free Otome Games

[alias_sqbr]

I've been feeling frustrated at how many dating sims these days are treated like ephemeral Experiences that may vanish suddenly, taking any purchases with them. So to turn that frustration into something positive, here's a bunch of otome games I've enjoyed that you can buy outright, which afaict have no DRM or other control by the company or store.


A number of these are queer since that's my jam(*), but they all have m/f options. They're mostly old or indie so may simply refuse to work, but at least no-one can take them away on purpose!

These are all for PC, most but not all run on the Mac too. I'm not sure how many are available for mobile platforms, probably not many.

Free:

• Halloween Otome Fun shenanigans at a fancy costume party. Has a cute sequel, too.
  
• Re: Alistair
  
• The Knife of the Traitor Dead monster princess tries to find her own murderer.
  
• XOXO Droplets Funny romances with the douchiest weirdos at school (has a paid version I also recommend!)
  

Paid:

• Backstage Pass Makeup artist works with various performers. Feels true to life and is lots of fun.
  
• Hustle Cat A cafe whose staff turn into cats!
  
• Magical Diary: Horse Hall Like Harry Potter but with better romance.
  
• Cinders An interesting deconstruction of Cinderella.
  
• Amnesia: Memories The protagonist tries to figure out why she's lost her memory without anyone noticing. I liked it but it's very tropey, with two yanderes.
  
• Hatoful Boyfriend You're the only human girl at pigeon school! Silly fun with a dark twist.
  

Mixed recs:

• Ozmafia Fairytale characters as mafiosa! The Robin romance was so rapey I stopped playing but some of the others were great. I couldn't get the Mangagamer version to work so they gave me a steam key.
  
• Magical Otoge Ciel A princess runs away from home. I got bored but it's free and cute and other people like it.
  
• Date Warp Trapped in a house solving a mystery!
  
• The Confines Of The Crown Bodyguard to a prince caught up in fantasy politics! Fun but flawed and a bit transphobic.
  
• Rose of Winter Bodyguard to various monster men. Cute but underwritten.
  
• Dragon Age: Origins An old school fantasy RPG with some great characters and story telling
  
• Stardew Valley Fun farming sim. The romances aren't very deep but they're cute.
  

And in general, itchio and Good Old Games have a bunch if you poke the tags.

Any you'd rec that I've missed?

(*)If that is also your jam, I rec Hustle Cat, Magical Diary, Dragon Age, and also Butterfly Soup and We Know the Devil.

Comments

[scytale]

Thank you for the rec list! And yay for DRM-free, even.

I still need to play Hustle Cat. I saw part of a playthrough (job interview!) and it cracked me up.

I'm definitely also frustrated by games and other media content as experiences. :/ Especially when the apps go away -- it seems like at the very least, giving people who have paid for it a dump of the data would be nice, but I don't think that's really at the top of any company's mind.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes, Hustle Cat is super fun!

Not only is it not the top of their mind, I imagine it's something they'd avoid. The less access you have to old games the more you want to pay for new ones :/ Love365 lets you download something when you buy a story, but I'm not sure what it is, and couldn't find anything poking around my (admittedly emulated) phone.