Not Quite Otome

[alias_sqbr]

I know I'm not the only one who keeps wanting to talk about/rec games here but they're not quite otome, even though they feel otome-ish in their appeal.

So this is the post for discussing our favourite not-quite-otome! There's no objective definition, any game (or almost-game) counts if it feels otome-ish to you. I imagine we'll all draw the lines differently, but that's fun to compare in and of itself.

I'll put my own examples in a comment, and would love to hear about yours!

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

Oh, I keep hearing The House of Fata Morgana is good! But it looks heavy and I get the impression it has some non-binary adjacent stuff which isn't handled terribly but still might hit buttons for me. So I'd be very curious to hear what you think, if you play it!

I've encountered a lot of tiny indie VNs which attempt to subvert otome/dating sim tropes. Mostly they're just boring or frustrating, they avoid or subvert the problematic tropes but don't replace those tropes with anything very entertaining and the subversion isn't interesting enough to make up for it. Cyanide Tea have made two examples I found especially obnoxious:

*Ristorante Amore *https://cyanidetea.itch.io/risamo starts out as a shallow, tropey otome...and then suddenly goes HA AS IF and makes one of the male characters the new main character, explicitly describing the original female protagonist as boring and her story as shallow wish fulfilment. Except the male character's romances aren't that much better, especially when the game is being so smug about being Better Than Otome.

Taarradhin https://cyanidetea.itch.io/taarradhin Protagonist is a dark skinned woman in a vaguely North African society whose love interests are two lighter brown slaves, who are drawn in typical Sexy Slave outfits etc. Except SURPRISE slavery is BAD and the dark skinned African bisexual woman must be punished for her selfish, slutty, slave owning ways. HOORAY.

Meanwhile afaict Nachitgal https://cyanidetea.itch.io/nachtigal is a subversion of games like Diabolik Lovers, with the moral that MURDEROUS VAMPIRES WOULD MAKE BAD BOYFRIENDS ACTUALLY, since as we all know that's something no woman into vampire romances will have heard before. But I didn't play enough to be able to judge this game as much as the others.

Their most recent otome seems to be a more sincere attempt to just...make a good otome game without the tropes they dislike, but I haven't managed to bring myself to play it.