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Loveroot Zero Kiss Kiss☆Labyrinth// All Routes and Thoughts

Content warnings for: violence, suicide, attempted murder (?), relationships with minors, lots of swearing on my behalf If you feel affected by these topics and/or fictitious stories, do not read this post nor play the game. Loveroot Zero Kiss Kiss☆Labyrinth is an otome game released in 2010 for the Playstation 2 system. It is a romance game spinoff of the manga of the same name. Originally, I…

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I saw a report on mobile games which were popular with women from Sensor Tower and the findings were pretty interesting.

Summary of findings, my comments in italics:

Games which women make up 50% or more of the player base are considered popular with/preferred by women

From January 2023 to Aug 2023:

Apps preferred by women in America earned 55 billion USD on in app purchases, making up 46% of the total revenue of the American app market. 

Apps preferred by women in Japan have earned 15 billion USD on in app purchases, making up 17% of the total revenue of the Japanese app market

By my calculation:

US total = ~119.6 billion USD

JP total = ~88 billion USD

Globally, 112 billion USD was spent on apps preferred by women, a 29% share of total revenue

By game category, puzzle games are the most popular with American, Japanese and Korean women

Game categories by highest in app purchase revenue:

In the US: Puzzle (48%) > Solitaire (24%) > Simulation (17%) > Board games (6%) > all other (5%)

In Japan: Puzzle (39%) > Arcade games (such as rhythm/music games, 26%) > RPG (12%) > Shooting (8%) > Simulation (7%) > all other (8%)

In Korea: Puzzle (31%) > RPG (29%) > Simulation (26%) > Arcade (such as rhythm/music games, 9%) > all other (5%)

Puzzle games generally lean toward more casual play, so it makes sense to be popular. Preference for game types are closer between Japan and Korea than Japan or Korea with the US since they share the most common game categories with high revenue.

By game theme, all three countries didn’t share a common top favourite

Game themes by highest in app purchase revenue:

In the US: Money/treasure (22%) > Candy/dessert (13%) > Clothing (12%) > Bubble/colour/tile (11%) > all other (42%)

In Japan: Otome (19%) > Clothing (12%) > Idol (11%) > all other

In Korea: Clothing (16%) > Candy/dessert (11%) = Sandbox (11%) = Space (11%) > all other (51%)

Not sure how “otome” is a theme, but there only seems to be any major interest in it in Japan (of the three countries listed), same with idols. Surprised it didn't even make a blip on the Korean side either. Popular themes in the US seem to be more related to other types of casual games; money/treasure = slots, coin games etc., candy brings to mind “Candy Crush”, bubble/colour/tile = probably other types of match three, puzzle games that are constantly advertised. 

Presumably “clothing” themed would include dress up games.

Highest revenue by single app (check site for rest):

In US: 1) Candy Crush 2) Roblox 3) Royal Match

In Japan: 1) Project Sekai Colorful Stage feat. Hatsune Miku 2) Ensemble Stars!! Music 3) Knives Out

Highest revenue by rhythm game worldwide:

Project Sekai Colorful Stage feat. Hatsune Miku

Ensemble Stars!! Music

QQ Dance

Twisted Wonderland

Idol M@ster Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage

Bandori! Girls Band Party

IDOLiSH7

Idol M@ster Million Live! Theatre Days

Beatstar

Sakurazaka46.Hanatazaka46 UNI’S ON AIR

Project Sekai being more popular than Ensemble Stars!! Music probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, since it is a more general audience targeted property that is also popular with women. Ensemble Stars!! Music is more specifically targeted at women, which reduces the likelihood of interest from a male audience…Is what I would have assumed.

However, a previous report estimated that the female to male playerbase for both Project Sekai and Ensemble Stars!! Music is 60:40 which doesn’t explain the difference in revenue. But then it includes an age breakdown of the players, 70% of both player bases are over 24 years old. Looking closer, of that group over 24 years old, 50% of Project Sekai players are over 35, whereas under 40% of Ensemble Stars!! Music players are over 35. Presumably, the larger group of older players contributes to the slight edge in revenue Project Sekai has in comparison to Ensemble Stars!! Music.

[sakasamarainbow]

Wah, I pressed something while trying to make a post and now my Tumblr looks really weird and I don't know what I did 😱 is this how old people feel when they see new tech?

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I REALLY REALLY REALLY REGRET NOT BUYING AND PLAYING THE PAID VERSION. I might do it in the near future if I'm still thinking about the game and waste some time force skipping the routes...

Thoughts about the mini spinoff/continuation game for Gurion in Prince Panic a doujin otome game by LEDA.

Official site with guide

Download

Not recommended to play on its own though, assumes knowledge of his route in the original game, obviously.

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Thoughts on Prince Panic from LEDA, now that I've finally full comp'd it :') took me so long to get that final ending, it almost overwrote all good feelings I had about the game lmfao. It was much longer than I expected... Now excuse me as I go play the extra spinoffs hehehehe

Official site

Download

Hmm for the length of the game, I could've written a proper post but alas, it's a doujin game so I didn't want to spoil too much.

[sakasamarainbow]

Finished another mini-game from Water colors -games-! An earlier work (2010) than the previous one I played, and its sort of obvious from the experience and conservatism of both story and style. Nevertheless, it was decent.

Title: First Valentine Day

DL: http://watercolors.sakura.ne.jp/games/

under memo > mini games

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Just finished a short doujin game M A N how was something coded, drawn and written by one person be so cute...

淡淡-あわあわ- (Awa awa) by Water colors -games-, released for Valentine's in 2013 (lol) JP only, they refuse translation requests

DL: http://watercolors.sakura.ne.jp/games/

under memo > mini games

[sakasamarainbow]

Hakuouki Bakumatsu Musouroku // the fire that keeps on burning

In my research about Touken Ranbu Musou (Touken Ranbu Warriors) for my previous post, I vaguely recalled that Hakuouki also had a rendition and went in search of it. The results were unexpected, in a lot of ways. Otomate has been in the public consciousness recently far more times, for reasons less savory than a company would like. Mismanaging stock levels at pop up stores, trending on Twitter…

[sakasamarainbow]

Finished this whack mobile otome game today so I did a little chaotic thoughts post without spoilers.

The game's English title is Abnormal State.

The premise is that the heroine is isekai'd into an otome game that is bugged and she'll die if she doesn't reach a romance ending with one of the designated characters. Also she's both filthy rich, pretty and smart (supposedly) so everyone wants a piece of her.

My biggest warning is the translations, both English and Japanese are pretty bad, the latter being slightly better. So I played in Japanese but yeah...

[sakasamarainbow]

Analysis//Otome game sales in 2022

Better late than never…? For newcomers, the otome game market in Japan is a sporadic topic I’ve been writing about and analysing once in a blue moon. It is my hope that as I do more, I’ll get better at it but who knows. My past posts: Up until 2017 with seedy data From 2017 to 2020 with better data Analysis//Otome game sales in 2021 plus some side notes If you want to know what an otome game…

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As usual I cannot shut up so my CuriousCat answer to the below question is here. Might be interesting to others? Who knows.

Q:

That new lunesoupe pv got me wondering more about josei h(?). I know about teen’s love (tl) manga and that is targeted towards woman but I can’t really find more further details of the genre (in english). Is it erotica or p*rn? Like when is it or is it not tl?; when its just implied or explicit? Is it exclusively heterosexual relationship separate from bl and gl? Is the main character always female?

Please teach me with all your knowledge about the genre 🙇‍♀️

(CW: brief mentions of sexual content)

A:

Hello 👋 you’ve come to the right place, I’ll tell you all about female targeted media to the point you’ll get sick of it 😂 jksjks

I presume you’ve read the English wiki page which gives a general overview of the content.

As you can see there, TL manga is generally considered for mature audiences given it constantly centers on sexual themes. In the wiki article it brings up another category of manga called “ladies comics” which generally uses darker dramatic themes which is where it differs from “teen’s love” or TL manga. As Booklive, a digital book store, puts it “Teen’s love stories are ones where the main character is a woman, with a love story told in an art style that is similar to shoujo manga. As you can enjoy it from both the romance to the sexual depictions, it is a genre popular with adult women.” (source) Shoujo manga art style in this context means “cute” art style. The Japanese wiki page further clarifies that it mainly features heterosexual romance, though from personal experience they can also rarely include homosexual content as sub pairings. So from that it can be inferred that the main content is likely to be heterosexual. (source) For reference, the difference between shoujo manga and TL manga is the depiction of sex, where the former generally fades to black while the latter shows the entire process to some extent.

Whether you would consider it erotica or porn, I personally think it’d lean toward erotica. If porn was to be perceived as purely to induce a physiological reaction, then having a romantic plot would be to create an emotional response rather than a physical one. However, I don’t see any issue in the audience perceiving it either way as we all find different things stimulating.

What makes something considered TL or not depends on the aforementioned content, whether the story is a romantic one or not and particularly whether the sex depicted is of the romantic variety as it is widely accepted that in TL “sex is synonymous with romantic feelings”. (source)

In that same interview with the TL manga editors, they say that the sex scenes are ultimately “similar to adult comics” but don’t outright admit it is explicit. As a matter of fact, this has also been a point of contention in the eyes of the Japanese, as TL manga is considered “all ages” without the requirement for age verification. It can be argued that TL manga is not explicit since it does not show genitalia, as all big name publisher comics tend to show it in euphemistic ways, hiding it in posing, toning, “white out censoring”. However, existence of sexual depictions alone in whatever form can be considered “for adults only” which is why many concerned adults™ have tried to push the government into policing TL comics. In fact, it is precisely this influence that caused the industry to self-censor content and move the character ages of TL manga to above 18 despite many early works being centered around high school age characters. (source)

The current consensus is that the contents are mature in that it should be for older readers, but it is not quite intense enough to be considered R18, so it is up to readers and parents to decide if they are ready to read it. Interestingly enough, TL manga adapted anime have both an “all ages version” which heavily censors the sex scenes and an “R18 version” which shows it as per the manga.

The only thing of note about the age rating is that the above “all ages” rating only applies to professional (ie. from named publishers) TL works. A majority of amateur/indie (doujinshi) TL works are actually considered R18. Broadly speaking this is due to the depictions of sexual acts being more graphic and story contents being more extreme, particularly those published and made famous on DLsite like those PVs adapted by LuneSoupe. Professional works likely keep it more toned down to increase audience palatability and thus profitability, whereas amateur works do not necessarily need to make those considerations. These stories also sometimes bend the formula for what makes professional TL works considered “TL” (the romance for instance) so there is a possibility that some of those amateur works could do without the TL label completely.

I hope that answered your questions, if not, feel free to elaborate!

[sakasamarainbow]

A Japanese fandom media brand, Oshimoa did a survey of women's spending on fandom of up to 34 years old.

Keep in mind at current exchange rate 1 USD = ~140 yen

The survey found that the average spend a month for under 18 (high school age) was 8k yen, 18-24 (non-HS age) was 21k and 25-34 was 23k yen.

More than half under 18s spent less than 5k yen a month, while only ~10% of the other two age groups spent the same amount. And on the high end spending more than 30k yen a month, 3% of <18s, 18% of 18-24 and 21% of 25-34.

These results are pretty much what you'd expect; older = more disposable income = can spend more.

They surveyed almost 500 people, with the largest group being under 18s at 201 and smallest group being 25-34 year olds at 106 people. However the average spend of 25-34s was 2.7x higher than the <18s. Taking the age group distribution of fans into account, the number of <18s in fandom outnumber 25-34s by 2x more, but their spend is almost 3x less. So overall 25-34s still spend more than <18 year olds in fandom despite being fewer in number.

They also surveyed the women's spending on goods and services in fandom outside of official sources such as on lodging and travel expenses etc. and the patterns was the same as total spending, with the <18 year olds average spend being lowest and 25-34 year olds being highest. However compared to the total spend, all age groups showed a similar proportion being spent at about 30%. The higher spending of older age groups was attributed to possibly attending more real life events like concerts and stage plays.

Source: Oshimoa, results can be seen at https://nijimen.net/topics/406079

[sakasamarainbow]

I feel like such a boomer right now, squinting at all these new functions on tumblr like "this wasn't here the last time I used this thing". I don't understand it and I am afraid. 🥲

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For the life of me, I cannot control myself. My reply on CuriousCat got too long so I thought I’d just post it here...

Q: watched otome youtubers define otome games. basically argued that otome is the broader term (not joseimuke):

>the first game (angelique) was established for girls.

>not strictly defined as romance and cited japanese websites, japanese review sites, retro gaming sites, retail sites (did not specify/name any) listing non romance ‘for girl’ games as otome games (showed fab style as an example) as proof. another reason being that it is inspired by shoujo manga(“and not all shoujo manga has romance”).

>after the success of hakuouki, otomate’s constant release of these “straight visual novel types” became dominant in the market. Thus the female mc and male love interest became the definition.

>argued that japanese companies themselves does not strictly follow the definition citing hakuouki as an example as it is listed as joseimuke action adventure in retail sites.

>argued that being able to switch the gender of the mc is still otome (or at least does not make it bl) because of the shoujo manga inspiration (emphasizes on “shoujo feel and style” “just because you can switch the gender of the protagonist does not make it not shoujo”)

they also talked about female love interest, amare, and bl undertones in otome games (specified brocon). funniest thing they said is “western audience became just as important as japanese audience” ,in the segment about localization to the west, because i don’t think that’s true at all lol. thoughts?

A:

There are so so many things that made me ???? that I feel the need to respond to each one individually…

>basically argued that otome is the broader term (not joseimuke)

I know these are your words not theirs but if that’s truly the argument, holy hell.

Even just looking at the JP wiki entry for "otome games" it says in the first line: "乙女ゲームとは、女性向け恋愛ゲームのうち、主人公が女性のゲームの総称である"

That is, "otome games are a type of female targeted romance game where the player character is female". “Joseimuke” = “female targeted”, “otome” belongs to “female targeted romance games” Therefore, “otome” belongs to “joseimuke”, not the other way around.

>not strictly defined as romance 

That line I just pasted literally says “恋愛ゲーム” = “romance game”.

>cited japanese websites, japanese review sites, retro gaming sites, retail sites (did not specify/name any) listing non romance ‘for girl’ games as otome games (showed fab style as an example) as proof. 

And here I bring in their mention of Angelique. 

>the first game (angelique) was established for girls.

The president of Koei (responsible for Neoromance games, Angelique “the first otome game”) said that when they were first thinking of developing the first Angelique game, they considered what women may like that would bring them together and concluded that it would be “romance”. (https://www.4gamer.net/games/520/G052080/20210719001/)

Marketing material, such as retail sites and paid reviews are the worst places to look for clear information because they’re biased in that they’re trying to sell the product. If you go looking for an otome game, they’re going to try and peddle you as many tangentially related items as possible. 

The Nintendo Switch Otome Club is a prime example of this, where their own advertising contradicts themselves. https://twitter.com/yukicchuu/status/1596444280830439426 Not to mention, Japanese otome gamers have also called them out on their bullshit putting non-romance games on their list. Now they even have a “romance” and “friendship” label.

>another reason being that it is inspired by shoujo manga(“and not all shoujo manga has romance”).

Otome games are, in fact, not inspired by shoujo manga. I have found absolutely no evidence of such searching even academic papers, so I can safely say this was completely made up. I’ve since found out that there is basis for otome games being “inspired” by shoujo manga mostly aesthetically and in some respects, the heroines relationship with her love interests. Which means this statement is still wrong, because to put it more correctly would be that “otome games are inspired by the visuals and romance in shoujo manga” so even if there are shoujo manga without romance, that was not the basis for otome games.

We know that Angelique is lauded as the “first otome game”, and that in the interview linked above, it is explicitly stated that they wanted to target women with games since they were a forgotten market. And to reiterate, the romance was added in to attract that market.

>after the success of hakuouki, otomate’s constant release of these “straight visual novel types” became dominant in the market.

While I partially agree with the idea that Hakuouki probably made the “straight visual novel” (as in a visual novel without other mini games or play styles mixed in) popular for otome games later on, it wasn’t an immediate effect. Even during the time Hakuouki PS2/PSP/DS was popular, it wasn’t as if Otomate only released straight visual novel games. Hakuouki (PS2) wasn’t even the most popular otome game of the year of its release, Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 2nd was, which is a stat-raising game, so its even harder to agree in absolute terms.

Like all things, this industry is still about business. The jump to less interactive and more straight visual novel type games are more likely the result of a stagnating industry. Generally speaking, up until the PSP, there were more otome games with different types of game play (stat-raisers, RPG, some sort of mini game). After the move to PS Vita, the game sales drastically dropped and we are continuing to see drops to this day compared to those days. (https://uguucageoflove.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/analysis-otome-game-sales-number-crunching/) Straight visual novels have proven that they can be top sellers, while developing a new game style for each new titles means increased costs, so it would make more sense to reuse the same game play to lower costs and increase profit. At the same time, otome games with interactivity in the form of mini games/stat raising etc. can confuse and annoy players too, so why risk that when a straight visual novel is a safe option?

>Thus the female mc and male love interest became the definition.

I have absolutely no clue how this conclusion was drawn from that.

>argued that japanese companies themselves does not strictly follow the definition citing hakuouki as an example as it is listed as joseimuke action adventure in retail sites.

There’s a problem here, Japanese companies, as in the developer? Otomate lists PS2 Hakuouki and every subsequent port as “女性向け恋愛ADV”, which is “female targeted romance ADV*”. They still acknowledge the romance…? If “Japanese companies” here refers to the “retail” store site, then it leads me back to what I said about marketing material.

*ADV is a shorthand for “Adventure game” but this is another case of loan words having different meanings in the original language. In Japanese, ADV means “text-based game”, aka “novel game” (can be sound novel, visual novel etc.).

>argued that being able to switch the gender of the mc is still otome (or at least does not make it bl) because of the shoujo manga inspiration (emphasizes on “shoujo feel and style” “just because you can switch the gender of the protagonist does not make it not shoujo”)

First line of JP wiki, again, disproves this. “Player character is female”.

Additionally, third line: “男性向けの美少女ゲーム（ギャルゲー）と対照的な概念である。”, “Is considered the reverse of male targeted bishoujo games (galge)”. Reverse of MxF is FxM.

Again, what makes something otome is not “shoujo feel and style”, or in popular terms “vibe”, it is the “female targeted FxM romance”. How does one even define a “vibe”?

The “shoujo” in “shoujo manga” is designating the target audience, not the content. There has been a lot of discussion amongst manga communities about this subject so it’d be best to refer to those. For example, even this article from 2007 says that lines between the demographics are blurry at best: https://www.excite.co.jp/news/article/00091179941157/

If the player character romancing male love interests is male, that is literally the definition of BL. https://www.animatetimes.com/news/details.php?id=1579508160 Seriously, what?

>“western audience became just as important as japanese audience”

If the statement was corrected to “overseas audience” it would be closer to the truth, but even then, no.

The games are always, first and foremost, made for the domestic audience. If companies were all about globalisation, I’d be inclined to think that the first step would be simultaneous releases in the domestic and international market. Which, by the way, Koei does do with their new releases, for Chinese audiences.

The Chinese market is more likely to be important compared to the Western one, which can be seen in the effort localisation companies put into their releases. They actually translate website content, short stories, marketing material and release big limited editions, a far cry from what otome gamers on the English-speaking side experience. The Chinese gaming market is the largest in the world in terms of both revenue and players (https://allcorrectgames.com/insights/china/) compared to the West which is fragmented into US/Europe/UK etc. which is then marred with distribution and legality issues by region.

Not sure about what else was brought up so I can’t comment but, seeing just how much I’ve ranted here, I’m sure you can get the jist of how I feel.

[sakasamarainbow]

Glass no Mori// All Routes and Thoughts

[sakasamarainbow]

Hanayoi Romanesque ~Ai to Kanashimi-Sore wa Anata no Tame no Aria// All Routes and Thoughts

Hanayoi Romanesque ~Ai to Kanashimi-Sore wa Anata no Tame no Aria// All Routes and Thoughts The story is a roller coaster ride ngl.

Content warnings for: child abuse, violence, attempted sexual assault, suicide/ideation, death, relationships with minors If you feel affected by these topics and/or fictitious stories, do not read this post nor play the game.   Ever wondered what a 40 episode inheritance drama series with a dash of ancient curses would be like as an otome game? Look no further because I got you fam. Hanayoi…

[sakasamarainbow]

hellooo do you still have the game files for your parody of tokimeki/Kurobasu by any chance?? i randomly found the games when i was cleaning my hard drive, but they wouldnt load when i tried to boot them up lol its probably a shot in the dark but i wanted to play them again lololol :D the mega file links are dead btw

Hello! I completely forgot these games were a thing and I made it!!!! Wow!!! Time flies! Also sorry I didn't notice this sooner.

I double checked and the Kuroko game link is still up so you can just head straight over there and download that:

I've re-uploaded Murasakibara's one to Mediafire since it seems like it's more reliable so you can get that one there:

Unfortunately for Kise's game, in retrospect I shouldn't have used certain assets that I did in the original and I've no access to the original program to remove the assets, so I'll just let that one rest in everyone's memories...

Ironic that my White Day present (Murasakibara) is cropping up again around White Day 8 years later.... But I hope you all still enjoy my games!