Favourite Otome with LGBTQ+ Characters

[alias_sqbr]

I love otome, but since it's primarily about m/f relationships it can be a bit heteronormative sometimes. But not always!

To celebrate Hustle Cat as game of the month, let's talk about our favourite otome games with significant LGBTQ+ characters. That's games with variable gender protagonists and female or non binary love interests, but also m/f romances where one or both characters are trans/bi/asexual etc, or where there's cool LGBTQ+ side characters.

I tend to personally only classify games as otome if they're aimed at women and let you play as a woman romancing at least one guy. But if it feels like otome to you then rec it!

My personal recs are under the cut, with links to longer reviews/guides where I have one.

Hustle Cat: Funny and romantic, with a fun fantasy plot about employees at a cat cafe who are cursed to turn into cats. A variable gender protagonist (he, she, or they pronouns) and male and female love interests.

Magical Diary: Horse Hall: Like you're Harry Potter but a girl! Two female love interests who are both pretty cute, one of whom is an aromantic asexual.

XOXO Droplets: Romance the WORST BOYS IN SCHOOL. Very funny and they're endearing in their awfulness. All the romances are m/f, but one guy is asexual and a few are bi, and the female best friend is a lesbian.

Backstage Pass: An enjoyable dating/life sim about a makeup artist in her first year of college. Mostly m/f, with one female LI, an aromantic asexual guy, and a bi guy. Also a friendship path with a gay guy.

Samurai Love Ballad Party: A game about dating (historical) samurai and (fictional) ninja from the Sengoku Era (16th century Japan) that actually acknowledges the bisexuality! All the current primary love interests are men, but some are explicitly bisexual, and there's a bigender character who has had a few side-stories and is going to get a full route some time. Unfortunately it's a gacha-based freemium phone game with very annoying mechanics, but you can see all the main content for free if you're patient. The writing is pretty good, and does interesting things with so many of the love interests being enemies.

Lovestruck: A phone-based game from Voltage USA with a wide variety of romances, several with female or non-binary love interests. I haven't loved any of the games I've tried, but do like the variety and commitment to diversity. I enjoyed Altea's route from from Love and Legends, which is about a regular American girl ending up in a fantasy kingdom and dating a cute lesbian mage.

Comments

[waterscroll]

Kaede's route is out! I finished reading it the other day.

[scytale]

OH. How was it?

[alias_sqbr]

:O :O :O

DAMMIT. I REALLY GOTTA GET MY EMULATOR WORKING AGAIN.

[incognito_ivory]

This is a late comment, but huge, huge second for the Lovestruck app. I played that thing nonstop for months on end last year (and the premium stuff might have eaten into my wallet a little bit, oops, but it was just sooo gooood ;_;). That shit is addicting and the stories are super fun and the women are super hot. The depth of content even if you don't pay for the premium options is also A+ as no routes are paywalled, only certain action choices/some raunchy scenes are.

[alias_sqbr]

Yes I really appreciated that all you need is patience, after some games which paywall half the plot.

Sadly my emulator broke so I can't play any phone games right now, but for when I can: are there any f/f (or f/nb) routes you personally rec?

[incognito_ivory]

Yep! Mackenzie and Vanessa from Heavenfall are both excellent routes (Vanessa especially), Juliette from Villainous Nights, Zoe and Vivienne from Queen of Thieves, Xenia from Reigning Passions, Emeril from Sweet Enchantments, and Medusa from Astoria are all women that either I liked or the community on reddit likes!

Right now there aren't other options for nonbinary people outside of JD and Cyprin, but I've played Cyprin's route and I enjoyed them quite a lot.

[alias_sqbr]

Thanks!