A community for otome/dating sim fans

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!

There's a bunch of otome about out of copyright characters: all the Alice in Wonderland influenced games, Code Realise about various 19th Century European characters like Frankenstein, Ozmafia about fairytale characters etc.

But there's a whole bunch who never get to be sexy bishonen (/bishoujo/whatever the non binary term is)

A while ago I had fun pondering Australian examples on my blog, including The Jolly Swagman, The Man From Snowy River, and The Magic Pudding.

So who are some obscure or unusual out of copyright characters fictional characters you'd enjoy seeing in a dating sim/otome game? Extra points if they're not from the UK or US.

Copyright law is a mess, but anything from around 1920 or earlier is a fair bet.

I don't think we've ever discussed this, and I'm curious!

So: do you have an outright favourite love interest from the games you've played? Are there kinds of love interest you tend to be drawn to? Is it just about the character for you, or does it depend more on the romance arc/how the LI interacts with the specific protagonist etc?

Speaking for myself:

While the nature of the protagonist affects how much I enjoy the story overall, and how well I think the relationships work, I seem to always be drawn to the same types regardless.

I'm always a sucker for dark hair, emotional incoherence, and self hatred. In terms of arc I am a huge fan of the sort of slow burn dumbass mutual pining where by the end they OBVIOUSLY love each other but are both too self doubting to realise and it's RIDICULOUS and AMAZING.

I'm also generally drawn to cold/kuudere characters, tsunderes and science nerds. I generally love any trope more with girls, but am a big fan of younger/subby guys, as long as the protagonist doesn't feel like his mother. (I haven't seen enough non binary love interests to know what I like there!)

I'm terrible at picking specific faves, but some I've really loved:
Saito from Hakuoki: dark haired self hating kuudere
Matthew from Backstage Pass: shy sad pretty boy
Ellen from Magical Diary: girl who applies science nerdery to magic
Victor from Code Realize: Shy self hating scientist

What about you?