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Variable Barricade. I don't talk much about otome on here as much as i would like to, at least bar my year end GOTY lists where I actually let myself have a chance to gush about them. I play most major new releases on release day and I buy everything that gets a physical copy. Sure I don't play every otome released since I usually avoid the digital only voltage fair (which is justified now given the companies use of generative AI), some mobile games and OELVN indie fair, but if there's a major otome released physically, I'm always there. it's just such a hard genre for me to write about, it means a lot to me and it's something that's very vulnerable in how you have to approach it. There's a level of emotional vulnerability that just isn't there with an action game or even an RPG, you really have to bare your heart to the world in the open, talk about desires and aspirations in the most meaningful way that's just so hard. it's not easy to let yourself be vulnerable on the net these days: in that sense talking about love is hard even in fiction. variable barricade is one I chose explicitly to be my first because it's one of the games I'm the most intimately familiar with. there's a few otome I replay repeatedly but very few as much as I do variable barricade. Sure it's not a perfect game, a few routes aren't as high quality as the rest and it might go a little too long during the common route, plus some things like rabi might be a little undercooked: But none of that really matters to me. It's just so well written, so funny, so romantic and just so nice to be around that it's one that I come back to all the time. this was the replay where I decided I'd finally write about it and everything it does so well, the reasons why it keeps me coming back for more even after my fourth or fifth replay. I think the main thing for me that brings me back, beyond how much I love taiga, is just its energy. The game has a really nice atmosphere, it's the ultimate cozy game to me. I don't mean this in the sense of what cozy game means to the industry now: think like harvest moon or unpacking or Stardew valley, a game with farming mechanics or some cute busy work that you can get done while listening to nice music, something that takes your mind off of the world for a few hours in an environment where nothing can really go all that wrong (games like this are great though and i also think we absolutely need more of these). it's not really like those. The game can be dark and tense and depressing and full of conflict which is something that a lot of cozy games lack. the game has a darkness at the core of it's story and it doesn't shy away from that. The game opens up with the premise more or less being about arranged marriage and the game never shies away from that, this is shown in some of the games bad ends which show just how much this can *hurt. but even with this it excels in making me feel cozy because I always know that even in the games darkest moments when things like that are in focus i can still have those boys show me hope, I can come to it when i'm feeling down and I can come away from it an hour or so later feeling refreshed and full of hope. Very few games nail a sense of friendship and camaraderie quite like this one does. Very few really make the boys feel like best friends like this, that even when they're rivals vying for your affection. They love and care for each other and would do anything for the group and for you, the vacation home hibari stays with the boys in really feels like home to me. it's up there with the likes of persona 4 in how well it nails its cast as friends and how i can always feel at home there. to some my use of cozy might ring a few red flags and i think that's a shame, the term i feel like gets a bad reputation these days and i don't think that's at all fair. some dislike for them is valid but sometimes it does feel like a lot of it comes from a weird sense of bad faith critism for games not meant for the people trashing them or just good old fashioned misogyny. These games can hold value though, a game doesn't need to challenge my views on art to be worth my time. it should be okay to just come to a game to hang out with some characters i like and watch them all care for each other and i think cozy as a descriptor for games is something we need to destigmatise. The music here is also just top tier. The games composer, listed as "mari" with her only working on a few games up until now like this, arc of alchemist, mother goose no himetsu no yakata and the radiant tale duology (also two fantastic otome games). She absolutely kills it here. While she didn't do the games title theme (which was done by Kenji Kaneko of Neptunia, Death end, Sweet fuse, Hakuoki and dozens of other idea factory titles) or the vocal themes (by SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH) she did the rest of the ost. Standout tracks here for me are "little by little" which would be my favourite track, it always gets me a little emotional. "Be lady perfect" which is Hibari's theme and is one I've used before in at least one article. A really sweet xmas theme with "at X'mas night". "the beginning of love" which is ichiya's theme and it fits him perfectly. shion's theme "le petit repos" similarly fits him well and is a serious standout for me, it's so sad. Nayuta's theme "it's all good" is the opposite but it fits him great, though sadly taiga's theme and kasuga's themes didn't land for me as well as these all did. "image or real"has a surreal energy was always really calming, same with some of the other general mood themes like "peace usual", "maybe sweety", "reasoning", the two renditions of "sixteen" , "blackbox" and "relaxation time" which might be the best of them. it's a real standout track for me and it's made its way into a lot of my nighttime playlists. There's also "prokect pokotsu", "panic x2" and "breakthrough" which fit all the comedic scenes perfect, the last one there especially is an OST highlight. you get three really solid vocal tracks too with "sixteen" for the opening which is a pretty killer track, "santou-sei no koi" for the games endings which is a really sweet romantic track and then you have "you have my answer" for the true ending credits which is also good, my favourite of these would be santou-sei though, it's just so slow and nice, it fits my taste in music to a tee. The game uses a flowchart'y system for its progression called the barricade board. This is dressed up with a lot of flair but it's really just a cool looking flowchart like in a lot of other VN's have but segmented in a different way. The big point of comparison for me would be something like virtues last reward or psychadelica of the black butterfly but this one segments itself into a bunch of smaller boards instead of a big long flowchart. I think it actually works well for the vignette slice of life style of storytelling the game goes for and it avoids the confusing ending strings a game like VLR would have, it's a very linier experience to the point most of the bad ends only come about at the end of the entire route rather than being sprinkled throughout. the big square things are important events with the LI, the diamonds are smaller friend focused or LI POV events and the game is also nice enough to tell you which ones will have CG's, which is super nice. you'll get 3 boards per LI and before you pick a route you'll have to beat at least one board for each boy. this isn't ideal since it does make the common route feel *super* long and a little slower than it should. the other thing with the barricade board that makes it interesting is the way endings works, you'll get a few per character but the way you get your good and bad ends is via winning and losing the barricade battles, which is basically just a fancy relationship point check with weather the LI's sword or hibari's shield is better, but with cuter chibi models. it does also come at a big cost though, in that it limits when and where you can get bad endings which as a bad end enjoyer, does hurt the experience a little, though this isn't the kind of otome that would have a lot of spicy bad ends anyway. It also isn't as fully realized as it should be since winning a battle doesn't change a route significantly and only sometimes leads to a bad end which can make it feel a little pointless. there's also rabi as another one of the games systems, this isn't much of anything in terms of interaction though. it's more an excuse for some fun "tales of" style skits with the boys on their own. So how this works is that there is a screen you set rabi, who is a rabbit plushie robot with a camera built in loose in an area and it'll come back after some time with a new skit, usually after you do a scene or two in the board. while it's not as much of a big deal as it seems on the outset there is a good few dozen skits and they're all really funny and charming. I loved getting to see more interactions with just the boys and it adds so much to the atmosphere and the sense of loving friendship the guys share and you do get to see some fun new sides to the boys that you don't really have a chance to see in the main campaign. I only wish there were more of them since you tend to run out by the time you finish your first route, which is a shame. The game has four (well five, kinda) main boys and they're all really solid. it's a super well balanced spread so you're kind of bound to find *something* here to suit what you want which i think is pretty ideal. First there's the best boy taiga, you can tell he's my favourite because he's in my site banner and on the front page twice, what can i say I'm committed. He's a rough bancho type guy with a heart of gold. Think like a more peaceful, probable siscon, version of Kazuma Kiryu with pink hair and a bullying streak. he's the manliest character, like manly enough that he probably reeks (positive connotations), in the game and the closest it has to a perv and i like that a lot. it's just a very appealing kind of character at least when they're attractive enough and i think taiga nails the energy well. it's a real fine line to ride and if you make him too masc or ugly by giving him something like facial hair or baldness then it just makes for a rancid character and taiga thank god just isn't that. The VA too nails it, he has a killer performance and delivers every line perfectly. i could listen to this guy read out a phone book and be happy doing it. He's got a lot of depth to him and his design is probably my favourite in the game, plus he's so funny in all of his interactions with both the other boys and with hibari. he's total top tier best of the best and one of my favourite LI's in any otome. If you want someone less rough there's shion. He's an ikemen househusband who's like a mildly sadistic Disney princess, but one that will still care for you and totally spoil you with things more expensive than some peoples monthly paychecks, which for me is a pretty ideal fantasy. I'd let this man give me the ojousama lifestyle in a heartbeat. he's a former model and probably the prettiest of the bunch from an aesthetic level, he's easily the most androgynous and his CG's sometimes have a shoujo sparkle filter over them to really let you know that the game know's he's really just that pretty (though i do think taiga is more attractive character). he's sarcastic, snarky, lazy and a really good straight man foil to the other boys. He has most of the games most scathing lines and he's hilarious any time he interacts with nayuta or mitsumori, the latter especially he goes *harsh* on and it's what got a lot of the games biggest laughs from me. he's also really beauty and fashion concious too which i think is at least interesting for a male character and it's nice to see him being passionate about those things when he talks to hibari, he loves his perfume and terrariums and it's really cute to see him talk about them. i like his relationship with hibari too, they're very similar in a lot of ways and even beyond my own want to self insert and have him spoil me with nice, expensive things, it's nice to see him give hibari the comfort and stability in her life she clearly needs, the two even have some neat paralells that the story draws from which i liked a lot. If you want someone more submissive there's nayuta "the walking debt generator" which is one hell of a title. He's probably my other favourite character even if he's not someone I'd usually date, he's a total puppy and the cast more or less treat him like the household dog. He's dumb and strong and almost certainly a huge masochist that very directly wants to and asks hibari to step on him (this pays off with probably the games funniest scene). In general he has all the funniest scenes and any time he gets himself into a situation is guaranteed to be hilarious, he's one of the best comedic relief characters in basically any game. he's also the kindest of the boys and a real ray of sunshine so much that any scene with him is a total treat and he really won me over. It helps his route could easily be argued to be the games best, plus "work mode" nayuta when he becomes a cool stoic bodyguard is, just a sight to behold and managed to even make me blush a few times, honestly i almost wish he was in it more often because when he does this it gives the game some of its most romantic scenes. the last of the main boys is mitsumori, a playboy with a ton of depth and some serious issues. He's a hard one to write about because of how different he is in his route compared to the rest of the game, he's a natural cook for the boys, a very cute , usually hopeless, flirt. He's the mature dad of the group, the designated driver and the biggest punching bag there, but in his own route that all changes and spoilers from here on out. in his route he's a total wreck, a crying mess of insecurity and trauma which is a really big contrast to how he is in his other routes, but it kind of works. You get a playboy near the start with cute pickup lines and romance and then later on you get a mopey mess for hibari to take care of, he's got real depth and it's impressively done, though i do prefer the failed flirt, i just love those kinds of playboy characters. It's Kasuga, the snarky, private, extremely overprotective in the best way and more than a little yandere butler. He's just a background character for most routes but he does get his own as the final route, and let me tell you my fellow brocons, you will eat GOOD here. Kasuga is probably my favourite husbando outside of taiga. I mean how can i not fall for a yandere brocon, plus him being one hell of a butler helps too. you love to see a man in a suit. he's handsome as hell, has great taste in fashion, is super manipulative and willing to do anything up to and including possibly kidnapping you, ready and willing to gaslight and possibly even murder for you. i mean, what else do i need to say, i would kill and die for this man. Kasuga is the best older brother i never had and i come back to the game all the time just for him, his date scenes are just so cute and i wish we got more of them. As a character with how much he coddles and looks after hibari, he's just so comforting and i love spending time with him. Hibari herself is also worth mentioning. She's funny, full of character, has many of the games best lines and is a standout character in her own right. despite her being a little controversial i love her approach as much as i love very traditional Otome MC's. it's nice to have someone who really goes all out with herself and engages well with the cast in a more active position, she's a total tsundere. sometimes even bordering on being a jerk when she often insults the LI's, but it works so well with the cast especially when the LI's start messing with her back like how taiga and shion do. it makes for some fantastic dynamics with how much the guys are total weirdos and her being there to be the designated normal person. her design is great too, some killer fashion here and i love her weird almost-hime cut. it's also not like she doesn't grow, route dependant she changes a lot, maybe depending more on the boys, showing her sweet side, taking care of them or even just focusing on herself, she has real growth and her arc is as good as any of the boys. The side cast are also generally solid, i love kazu and really wish he was a dedicated LI. Hibari's friends are great and i love the little side chapters of them all just hanging out and talking. i always love an otome game where the female cast can just hang out and get along well together as friends without rivalries or anything springing up and i like how their styles clash against hibari (a gyaru that's as casual with relationships as you can get and a goth lolita shipper in an arranged marriage) which i think contrasts well with extremes of situations hibari could find herself being in and both represent the contrasting extremes of the kinds of lives she could lead. i think that's neat and both are just a lot of fun to be around, i love how arimura is constantly fed up with the whole situation (and both of her designs are great) and tsumugi being gods strongest fujoshi made me feel very understood. the first route i did this time was taiga. taiga is the best, absolutely, but he isn't the best route to start with. Taiga's route is not intended that way and i will warn you right now, as much as you may like him, pick nayuta or shion first. the issue with doing him first is that it's the games first big bombshell twist route and it's one of those things that i think will hurt the game at least a little if you go for him first, not quite as much as ichiya but still, avoid this as your first if you can. now for the route itself, yeah it's probably the games overall best, it has the best mix of comedy and drama and just on the whole ends up being the most well rounded. It helps that taiga himself is the games best boy but it's also just the games romance at its strongest. hibari and taiga make for such a cute couple and i think it's heartbreaking moments just hit the hardest. taiga has depth, he has so much going on and he's just so endlessly fun to be around. he's hibari's perfect foil and his constant teasing is really sweet, seeing him come to realize his emotions is so romantic and seeing him run away from them is so heartbreaking, it's probably the main route where both parties grow as people in equal amounts and the main route where it shows hibari's flaws in equal number to taiga's. it's the one that got me the most invested right off the bat and it made all those scenes to heartbreaking and thrilling and it made that final rush at Christmas to see the ending so much more tense and satisfying. it helps that it nails the landing too arguably moreso than any other route. The twist i talked about is also just really cool, seeing him go from suitor to observer is an interesting twist on the route you expect to get and i like how it changes the dynamic in the house in a way that i think really works and makes the whole thing feel fresh and distinct from all of the other routes as you start to kind of take on that observer role with him and you start to see new sides of the other guys, plus not being a suitor fits him better than it does nayuta, who kind of half reuses this twist in his route. there's some standout scenes in his route like the really cute orphanage scenes or all the scenes of him trying to make hibari fit in a normal environment, like that arcade scene especially is really sweet. everything with him and hibari's grandfather is great too, the two of them have a super cute relationship and it's the route that i think handles the grandfather the best, it really paints him in a new light that makes him a ton more likable. Even with all this said the route isn't perfect, i think the game drags the conflict with taiga running away a liiiitle bit too long, but even that is pretty minor since the development he gets for this is really well handled and i think it makes the ending all the more sweet, so it all works out. his bad ends are also pretty solid! his main one is really funny, one of the funnier endings in total and the "job" they send him on had me laughing or like 5 mins, it's pretty perfect and it's still a really romantic ending in its own way, but the other bad end where he does just kind of run away left me a little cold, it just hurt. The one i did after this was nayuta and he was a real shock in the best way. i expected to go in super not liking him or his route but to my shock, it might just be the best of the bunch. It's funny, romantic and he has some amazing development, it's a total package deal. his route is the games comedy as it's peak, nayuta is just a naturally funny character and his route gives him a ton to work with comedically, like the first meeting between him and hibari just might be the games best moment and there's tons like it, like his interactions with the park obasan's, the mascot suit fight or any of the scenes involving him being, as the game calls him, a walking debt generator. that's not to say he isn't also one of the more romantic characters, because he super is, any scene where he's in work mode is some of the games best and i love all the cute references his route has to the movie "the bodyguard", i was already very much sold on nayuta before this but once i saw him getting serious and doing his best to really protect hibari, my heart was his in an instant, he's just so caring and protective and it's peak gap moe. the side cast in his route is great too! I loved his uncle and i think their relationship can be really sweet, especially when it comes to the tokusatsu hero stuff, learning that nayuta wants to be like the heroes in those shows is just so sweet (i like to think his favourite is fourze, it would just fit him). Nayuta is adorable in all of those scenes and him recreating the pose in his after story is one of the games best moments. Now his bad ends are mixed. for a start i love his normal end a lot and it might actually be one of the games best endings. i think in some ways it might even work better with nayuta learning to be a little more mature and i think the ending itself is a little funnier than his normal one with his interactions with kasuga, though i can see why it's not considered the true ending. The other ending just hurts though. Seeing nayuta leave and hibari's life in shambles really stung. for as much as i do like the idea of arimura and tsumugi roomating with her, i think if it was just that without the arranged marriage i could have liked this ending a lot since it's nice to have an ending focused on friendship. This sadly just isn't that and instead it's nothing but pain, but i guess that's it doing its job well, this is a bad ending after all. after that was shion, and even though shion himself is a total top tier for me, his route is kind of lacking and probably the games lowest point for me. I don't think it's bad though. It has tons of great scenes and a few really interesting ideas, but it's too bogged down with the games worst character who has way too many chances to cause drama that is just a little difficult to care about. The other big issue is that it's focus on the kind of modeling it's about just wares thin very fast and isn't interesting enough to base an entire route around. rui is the main side character here and he is the games lowest point. Now sure he's meant to be annoying but the focus on him get's super old super fast, but to his credit both the writer and VA killed it with making him as annoying as he is.it's just that so much with him feels super contrived and it feels like he never really gets punished for how much of an awful person he is for the entirety of the route. If anything the game rewards him for it when he really doesn't deserve it, even though he does get a slight redemption arc (that still feels more self serving than anything else and it feels like the cast are far too quick to forgive him, kid or not). his design is cool though, at least. Even with the routes issues there are some highlights! the stuff with the perfume is adorable! super romantic! there's also the thing i said before i think he is a good fit for hibari, his route just doesn't showcase that as well is it could. the terrarium stuff is great too and it's so nice to see hibari pick up a hobby, same with her and him reading magazines and talking about fashion together. the ending too i think is solid. i like that he does try and improve even though he clearly doesn't want to and i like the rush up to the xmas day. it's ultimately the weakest finale, but the after scenes are great which makes up for a lot. he gets super possessive and a little sadistic this late in the route and this improved his character tenfold for me, it's a good look for him and i think it's super romantic. His bad ends are more or less as good as his true end. i think his normal end is great! the normal ends in here are more or less all high quality and his is no exception. It is still a perfectly happy ending, just with a higher focus on his work and i think that works. it shows a lot of development on his end and in that way i think it almost suits better than the true end, plus that on air love letter scene was adorable. it was a real route highlight for me. the bad end is the exact opposite, all pain and no catharsis. Seeing hibari just running away from the boys was heartbreaking. now the last one you'll be doing ichiya since he's the posterboy and the one with the most relevancy to the plot. his route issss, good, it's a step up from shion's in a lot of ways but i do find that it just can't quite match up to how good nayuta and taiga's storylines are. It's mainly because its the route that feels by far the slowest and also the most dour of the games routes. it's the least funny by a margin and it gets the most serious too, which does fit it since it is kind of a finale, but it does make it a slightly harder read than the other routes and it lacks a lot of the variety of the others, which managed to balance the two tones much better than this one did. ichiya himself is great though. He's super romantic, i find his bad flirting in the earlier parts of the route really funny and endearing and he gets some of the games best lines (including my favourite nayuta line in the game near the end of the route), plus he has a ton of depth to him and grows a lot over the course of the route. He's by far the games deepest character and i think the way they handled his growth was handled excellently. he managed to get a few tears out of me here and there seeing how he grew, though all of this isn't to say his route isn't still funny, it can be seeing him bumble around and there's some really great moments here, plus the other boys are as funny as ever, it's just much more of a side thing than being a focus. now for the biggest spoilers. I love Kazuya. when he's nice he's just so pleasant and this alone makes me wish he was a route but the twist with him, his redesign and just how unrelentingly shitty he is make me *need* a fandisc with a real route for him. i like his dynamic with hibari and i think he'd make for a really cool tonal difference from the rest of the cast, it'd absolutely kill, though i guess it might not fit the tone the game is going for. Though for a brief bit of criticism towards him, i do think the twist is a little obvious, maybe not from the moment you meet him but when you get to ichiya's route and he mentions a brother it becomes super obvious, it being a twist also means he doesn't get nearly as much screentime as i'd like either which is a shame since he deserves more time to shine. his relationship with ichiya is really interesting and they play off of each other really well in the more dramatic scenes. the games ending is a little controversial for some. when ichiya gives it a last minute gambit before hibari gets married off to Kazuya and tells her that he can't live without her, kidnapping her and taking her to a cliffside to confess that his love for her is so deep he would literally rather die than not be with her. this is either super romantic or if you're like a lot of the English speaking fandom, super problematic and gross, for me? i *love* this scene! I think it's really sweet and i think it's a pretty perfect finale for both characters. i think their growth comes together really well, it's thrilling and funny and just really sweet, i die for this kind of cheesy romance and even though yeah it is a little extreme (though i mean this is otome were talking about, everything in this game is fairly tame in comparison to most of the genre), i just think it's sweet of him. it's one of the best moments he has for me and i will defend this ending forever. i think it's really romantic and it managed to move me to tears, though the ending line about how ichiya and the boys had all became best friends had made me go from teary eyed to full blown bawling. I was a total mess my first time and every subsequent time. it just always gets me when i think of the bond they all share (how hyped up the guys get when they first try and go up against kazu is also gold and i love nayuta's crazy taxi-esque driving during the final sequence). it just makes me so emotional even writing this, it's so perfect. this game is perfect. For bad ends i think they're pretty solid, the normal ending while tragic is still super romantic and has what might be my favourite CG of the whole route. it for sure has one of hibari's best outfits and one of the better looks for ichiya, though it is a little heartbreaking seeing him be as upset as he is about having to just be a lover, instead of a husband. it does sting, but as a piece of tragic romance it really kills it. it's such a good ending and as a kazuya fan i do love seeing an ending where you get to get with him in some form. the other bad end is where you end up in a depressing relationship with Kazuya. This is probably secretly my favourite ending of the route and as a bad end preferer it's a total top tier best in game deal and i adore it. I love the cg and seeing how despairing hibari was and how smug kazu looked was a total "god i wish that was me" moment, it's easily one of my favourite moments in the game. total flawless ending. i love tragedy and despair in my bad ends and this was total uwu fuel and the closest the game has to a real abusive relationship, which does admittedly fit me better for the kinds of toxic relationships i gravitate towards in these games. there is also kasuga. i love the twist with him being hibari's brother and i love him as a character. The issue i do have though is that his route isn't really much of a route in the traditional sense though since it's not really romantic and it's constrained to a single board instead of the usual 3. it's really just a big rush of story and development with some cute ending scenes which i do find pretty disappointing and kasuga isn't even there for most of it. It makes for a really good ending to the story since it wraps up all of the loose ends the game had but it's just a shame we didn't get a cute semi-route with kasuga interacting with the boys more, his interactions with them (especially his adversarial relationship with shion) and his mockery of them is a real highlight for me. sure i don't expect them to go all in on blood incest and make it romantic, much as i might like that, but it would have been nice to have an extra few scenes just having kasuga acting all protective and brotherly, give me at least a yandere bad ending to his route or something like the one he has in several of the games routes. at least his final CG is really good in his after story, i love how it mirrors the CG of him in the past. the kasuga bad end you can get in other parts of the game is pretty great though, i wish he'd kidnap me and drag me off to another country <3. the game came out originally on vita and i actually have finished this version on my second run through. it looks and sounds great and if you play on an OLED it might even look better than the later port, though it's a little outdated in terms of content. really the only big thing about it is you do have the live area which has links to various websites on it that you can access, though you can do that on a laptop too. it's super cheap though and very common to find, but was never localised so you'll need to know Japanese if you want to play it on here. the switch port, which is also the only localised port, also added a good amount to the game with 5 post-game after stories and i think more rabi stories? though I'm not 100% sure on that one. the after stories themselves are about an hour or so long and they're fine, they're half reflection on the routes themselves and half new scenes with some new CG's thrown in. they do have some good stuff to them though like seeing the eventual marriage for each boy and a few solid new CG's, the nayuta and kasuga ones i think are the highlights there. it was so nice to get that last bit of needed kasuga content and it's the after story I've revisited the most by far. i think they focus too much on the flashbacks to the route though but at least the commentary the couple gives on those scenes can be a little funny sometimes. but it's also not like it doesn't fit given how each characters credits ends with them looking over a videotape of the events of the route. it's a good addition but i really wouldn't say it's worth the upgrade to switch if you already own the game on vita and know enough Japanese to play. There isn't much in the way of a fandisc or anything though, sadly, so this game is really all you get bar a few drama CD's here and there. i think that's a shame since there is a ton of potential for a fandisc with more kazu and kasuga content. it is what it is though, maybe in future since we've been seeing a few late fandiscs here and there like the recent olympia soiree one! Now the team behind this called otomate is a company don't really need an introduction for those in the otome space. they're one of the biggest and most important players there and since the release of the game have went on to make hit after hit after hit. I myself am a big fan of their work and I buy more or less every game of theirs on release day these days, sure the writing can be tropey and samey sometimes but it's so exactly to my taste that it's difficult to complain. other titles they've released that you may be familiar with would be the likes of code;realize, hakuoki, collar x malice, period cube and amnesia. the games director and lead writer, Shinobu Iwata, is a very storied writer within otomate. they made games like hakuoki: demon of the fleeting blossom, collar x malice, loverpretend as well as the radiant tale series, some killer work i have to say. also involved in the games writing was Yuzu Asaki who also worked on loverpretend and Maro Sasaki of cafe enchante and winters with: sprits of edo, the former being a personal favourite of mine. so the question is, do i recommend the game. I mean, considering this is one of the longest pages I've written it'd be weird if i didn't, right? it's in my top 10 games and it earned that spot. it's a solid choice for both people just getting into otome games but even if you are readily familiar with the genre, it still has a lot to offer with the writing and tone. Sure it may not blow you away in the same way as a collar x malice might but it's not really made to do that. sometimes hanging out with characters you love in a cozy setting can mean just as much to you as a bombastic story or something so radical it can change your views on art and at least to me, varibari very much does mean that much.