As per usual I’m late with this, haha.
First of all: Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season & is looking forward to 2017.
As I have played a simply pitiful amount of games this year, I can’t do a full Otome Game Awards thing (hopefully will rectify this for next year) so I’m just doing a little Otome Awards encompassing a lot of more random categories than many others; so shall we get started?
Otome Games
Best Character Route
Honourable Mentions: Tsukasa (Psychic Emotion6), Akazukin (TaishoxAlice)
Winner: Natsumezaka Shiki (Dance With Devils)
While I may not have finished the full game (blame Urie for that), I can wholeheartedly admit that Shiki’s individual route was my favourite of the year – it’s been over 6 months since I played it and I can still remember most of it. His “devil” route is one hell of a ride – incredibly dark in both endings but is strangely fascinating to read. His “human” route can go either dark or light depending on the ending and both are also great. There’s a lot of pain and suffering but his happy ending is so adorable and worth it in the end. I thought Shiki was hilarious in the anime version but seeing his character develop and learn of his back story in the game made me fall in love with him.
Best App
Honourable Mention: Mystic Messenger
Winner: Yumeiro Cast
I started playing this game in like may/june and its the only mobile game that I’ve ever played for like more than six months so well done Sega for making this great game! The characters are great, the heroine has a face & the music is soooooo good. I’d highly recommend playing this game if you like fun rhythm games with cute characters~
My account – feel free to add as a friend~
Best Opening
Honourable Mentions: Dynamic Chord feat. Reve Parfait V Edition, Nil Admirari no Tenbin Teito Genwaku Kitan
Winner: Yuukyuu no Tierblade
The first time I saw this OP, I immediately had to re-watch it; it’s just so beautiful. Definitely one of my favourite game OPs of all time.
Best Ending
Winner: Bl(u)ck Basis – Pentacle (Dance with Devils)
(sorry I can’t find any videos with the song)
This song is very…rejet…in a good way though! It’s pretty catchy & all of their voices work together surprisingly well. I liked the song enough to import the CD (which also contains the game’s soundtrack btw) so that should say it all.
Best BGM
Honourable Mention: Psychic Emotion 6
Winner: Moshi, Kono Sekai ni Kami-sama ga Iru to suru Naraba.
Just listen to that song, it’s so beautiful. I own this game’s soundtrack and I really like the traditional Japanese influences in many of the tracks and there’s quite a few BGM tracks with vocals too, which is also nice. I particularly like: If God Is, 七つ風 & あの日の心象.
Best Limited Edition
Honourable Mention: Moujuu-tachi to Ohime-sama
Winner: Suuran Digit
Okay, real talk here: Otomate have perfected the design of their limited edition boxes because they’re a nice size and also easy to open (very important). I always struggle to fit everything back into a more traditional top-opening box but Otomate’s side-opening boxes are much more convenient. I really liked the attention to detail on the inside of the box and the bonus booklet is probably the best out of the ones I’ve bought this year (WoF R, Nil Admirari, CollarxMalice, Moujuu-tachi to Ohime-sama, Tierblade, Psychic Emotion6 & Suuran digit). I’ve got an unboxing post if you want to see more.
Best Shop Set
Winner: Nil Admirari no Tenbin Teito Genwaku Kitan – Animate Limited Set
Okay, I’m too lazy to take pictures of all of my own set so here’s the generic sample taken from the homepage. Who can resist a Satoi tapestry & the bromide is super nice. My favourite is the book though since I removed the insert and use it for storing many of my badges since I’m never sure quite what to do with them.
Oh~ It’s a book….
…Or just a fancy badge holder (lol)
Drama CD
Most Interesting Drama CD
Winner: Koi Suru Sariel ~Shinigami no Date~
This CD gets you interested right from the get go and manages to maintain an air of intrigue throughout the story & that twist at the end really hit me out of nowhere. Highly, highly recommended. And the language used isn’t particularly difficult. Feel free to check out my review here.
Best “Fluffy” Drama CD
Winner: Yotogi HoLiC vol3 Izayoi
I was trying to stay away from picking Happy+Sugar CDs since my feelings on those have been made quite apparent in other posts. Izayoi is a massive tsundere voiced by Kaji Yuki – what more could you ask for? There’s lots of sweet scenarios and fluffy romance – but be warned that many of the other CDs in the series are not as fluffy as this one. You can check out my review here.
Other
Favourite Character
Honourable Mentions: The entire cast of TaishoxAlice
2nd Place: Matsuno Todomatsu (Osomatsu-san)
I’m not even ashamed to admit that I was fully swept up in Matsu-fever early in 2016. Osomatsu-san is one of the better comedy anime I’ve seen and I just love how all of the brothers are so horrible that they actually become hilariously likeable? Anyway, enough about them, Todomatsu is the youngest of the Matsuno brothers and is appears to be the most normal and fully functioning (which he definitely knows) and his devilish side is hilarious (those faces he makes omg). He’s so cute as well that I just can’t resist!
1st Place: Sakuragi Hinata (Yumeiro Cast)
Hinata is the super koakuma member of Yumeiro Company whom likes to call the heroine “Onee-san”. It was love at first sight and he’s been my favourite in the game from the start although I have terrible luck with his UR cards (it took me 47 gatcha pulls to get his winter date UR). His “route” in the game sees his character take an…ummm… unexpected(?) turn but I still adore him too much.
*currently saving for his birthday gatcha in March*
Seeing this adorable face every day reminds me that there’s still good in this world~
Biggest Disappointment
Winner: Otomate Records
*sighhhhhhhh*
The only negative award this year belongs to the drama CD company with a lot of potential that just seems to release really underwhelming CDs… 2015’s Psychic Emotion6 & Majestical Cr[l]own were *okay* but I’ve found all of the releases I’ve bought from them this year to be really weak and underdeveloped both plot and character wise. I’m going to give them one last chance – in the form of the upcoming “Runlimit” series but that’s it.
Top Upcoming Games for 2017
5th Place: Osomatsu-san The Game Hachamecha Shuushoku Advice -Dead or Work-
Right, to be honest, Otomate are taking far too long to release this game and will probably miss out on most of the fans that got swept up in the storm that was the anime series (unless, of course, they plan to make another series of the show and Otomate are waiting to release the game when it airs). This game appears to be completely filled with mini-games and lacks traditional otome elements (which is a shame) but tbh I’m just planning to pick this game up for the deluxe Todomatsu set – because you can never have too many keychains!
4th Place: Shiro to Kuro no Alice
So this is apparently a collaboration between Kodago & Otomate so it’ll be interesting to see how the game turns out. I’m not overly keen on multiple protagonists so my expectations are low but I love fairy tales & this game has so many of my favourite voice actors – Hanae Natsuki (Kanon), Kimura Ryohei (Minette) & Shimono Hiro (Nello) that it’s basically an instant-buy (well tbh any otome game with Hanae Natsuki as a main character is an instant buy).
3rd Place: Crank-In
I feel as though this game always gets forgotten by people, lol. Anyway, I LOVE LOVE LOVE stories which actually show characters growing up and maturing which is what this game really entails. The fact that they want to show a love “like you’d see in a movie” makes me both happy (because I love romance movies) but also slightly nervous (they could easily focus too much on drama and ruin the whole story). The art also looks to be the best out of Puchireve’s current works. I shall excitedly wait for this one~
2nd Place: Side Kicks!
I think a lot of people might be put off this game because eXtend’s first game wasn’t received very well but I haven’t played it so I have no opinions about the company yet. What I’d like to say is that I’m buying this game because I think the story has potential and that the setting seems interesting. While these may be partially true (I really like police dramas) the real reason I’m buying this game is Riko. It was love at first sight & I just cannot get over how adorable he is (Plus he’s voiced by Aoi Shouta!). The only question I’m asking myself is what on earth I’m going to do with my second copy of the game since I’m most certainly buying both the Animate & Imagine sets.
This poster is too good omgomgomg
1st Place: TaishoxAlice Heads&Tails
Given how much I adored the first title, it’s pretty much a given that I’ll be buying this. I normally don’t play PC games any more but I’ll make a single exception. I have two words for you: OOKAMI ROUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*cough* Yes, the after stories and the bonus school AU should be super fun to play as well and I can’t wait to meet everyone again. I’m just patiently waiting for the samples of the shop bonuses to be released.
So that’s about us for now, what is everyone else looking forward to in 2017?
Thanks for reading & All the best for 2017 ^_^
Zettai Renai! 