Advertised Otome

For the past year or so, I’ve been seeing many advertisements for otome on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Most of the time, I would ignore these ads since there’s countless of them on these platforms. However, at one point I saw that Instagram had this advertisement for one of my favorite games called “The Arcana”. After I saw the ad, I was absolutely annoyed with how the ad doesn’t do much justice to the game at all. It actually makes it seem like this major thirst game instead of the beautiful, intriguing creation by Nyx Hydra. After that, this does make me think and check out other games that I’ve seen have ads on them. PLEASE NOTE: This is all my own opinion. If you have an opposing one, please let me know. I always like reading/listening to other people’s opinions on things.

Obey Me! One Master to Control them All!

I have previously written the review on this specific game. I found out about this because of a specific ad I saw on Instagram—back when it was still starting off. The ad definitely caught my attention—particularly because it also showed some things that are in-game. In the ad that I saw, it labeled the otome as one where you text the characters while going on these adventures with the characters themselves. While you don’t exactly text the characters in the main story which is what I thought would happen like it did in Mystic Messenger, you do text each of them and it is really entertaining. The ad that I saw and remember more or less does go with the game. I’m not exactly sure if they have updated the ad for the game now that it’s gained a lot of popularity lately, but I really hope they didn’t decide to go with the thirst-game route as a means to gain more players.

Ikemen Vampire

This game has certainly been popping up as an ad for a really long time on my Instagram and YouTube. I decided to download it back in July or August because I finally let the curiosity get to me. The game isn’t at all like the ad that I saw. In the ad, you see that you can text the characters as you would in either Mystic Messenger or in Obey Me. What really happens in the game is that you have to simply read the main story, do many types of missions (fashion missions, unlocking chapters once you get a certain amount of points, etc), and reading the event/stories. Other than that, nothing really interactive happens in the game. The story itself is interesting and has moments where you can hear actual voice acting, however, it is not at all like it was advertised.

Why do creators advertise their games like this?

Lately, many apps with romance stories such as Dreame, Episode, and Secrets have been putting ads for the past year or so on the platforms that I have previously mentioned. Not only that, but lately, many people are becoming a part of the otome/ dating sims community. Creating these ads certainly gain attention in one way or another which also gets them to download and play their game. While I do acknowledge that they were able to get attention in any way, shape or form with how they advertise their games, I don’t like the fact that they have to resort to making the otome look like a game where it’s 100% thirst and no story whatsoever. This not only misleads a person who might want to “quench their thirst” into playing this game, it also takes away the essence of the beautiful creation their games really are. Not only that, but it also kind of makes other people—who aren’t interested in playing otome—think that people in the dating sim community only play the games to “quench their thirst” or because they’re “desperate for romance” (this came from a friend of mine who more or less laughed at the idea that I play The Arcana since they also saw the ad on Instagram). The last statements may be true to a certain degree, but for me, otomes are beautiful because you get to experience a game as one of the characters and go on these amazing adventures whilst learning the backstory of each character. I am glad that more people are finding out about these games (as they really do deserve all of the attention they are gaining), I just wish that the ads showed the essence of the game more rather than making them seem more egregious than they are.

With that being said, I really do hope you enjoyed reading this. I recommend these games a lot because they have really good plots and you can tell that the creators put their heart and soul into each of them. Once again, all of this is my opinion. If you disagree, please let me know. I always love to see different points of view on a particular subject. That’s it for today. Until next time, keep your paws and bowls of ramen up, everyone! Nya! 🐾