THREE YEARS!! WOOHOO!!!!

 Today, my friends, is the third birthday of this blog! This year is super special because three just so happens to be my lucky number. But three years, wow! I've never held a blog for that long. 

This place started out as a random place to hold my ramblings. Then it changed into a place where I rambled about otome games. My original otome posts were rubbish, because I forgot to mention what game I was talking about and I just started going on about spoilers without warning. But eventually I started writing proper review posts.

My personal favourite posts to write were probably the Diabolik Lovers anime posts. I have no idea why, they were just fun to type. It was also fun reviewing Period Cube and Kissed by the Baddest Bidder. So far, I don't think any of the games I've played were truly bad. Even if some got a bit boring at times or the routes were a bit odd, each one has a special place in my heart. I actually mean it. 

I have tried to stop blogging multiple times, not because I hate it, but because sometimes when you play a game all you can think about is how you're going to review it instead of the actual plot. And I also went through the same phase I did when I was obsessed with reading light novels, I tried to finish each one as quickly as possible. It wasn't because I didn't enjoy some games, it's because I wanted to consume it all and get the whole story fast because they were so good. But now I am trying to play them at my own pace, even if it means that sometimes I only read a few lines a day.

I don't even remember very much about creating this blog three years ago. I think I did it on my netbook in my bedroom one evening? But I know that I didn't set out to make some kind of successful blogging powerhouse. This place had no direction, no theme, just me writing about random stuff. 

In the future, I want to make my writing a bit less... verbose? I think that's what I'd describe my writing as. I've always had difficulty making my sentences concise for some odd reason. I also always try to use big, fancy words. In reality I speak a lot differently, I just accidentally drop grammar and forget to use plurals all the time. 

If you're wondering how successful this blog has been, it hasn't seen much fame at all. This place is more of a passion project than a money-making machine. I did try and get Google AdSense but it's been a few months and they still haven't reviewed my site! I also installed a "Buy me a coffee" button because why not?

My most popular posts (which have over a thousand views) have been on Ikemen Vampire. I suppose because it's a mobile game it's gonna have more views than the more obscure Vita game posts. It makes me want to write more about it so I can get some of that sweet website traffic, but I've already played all the routes that looked interesting. But views aren't everything, I stopped caring about those years ago.

 I don't expect to write many more reviews this year, because (I already mentioned this on my other website) I feel that I'm just burnt out with visual novel type games right now. It's not that I don't like otome anymore, I just made the silly mistake of playing too many in a short time. Now, it's even hard for me to get through Piofiore, which is a great game that I've been hyping up for ages. (It didn't help that I bought another game at the same time that I got way too obsessed with...) After I've done that (I'm currently taking a break even though I'm in the middle of Yang's route), I'm going to take a break for a long time. After that, I'll maybe play something like Nightshade next year. I know I've barely scratched the surface of otome, but it's starting to become a bit predictable now. For example, I can usually tell what the romance is going to be like, or when a CG is going to occur. I love romance stories to bits, but I've been through it so much in these games that I'm starting to only really care about the plots. So yes, I'm taking a break and play other stuff instead.

So far, 2020 has been a rather... interesting year. Surprisingly I played less otoge than in 2019. The best game for me this year is hard to pick, maybe I'll leave it to my obligatory New Year's post to decide.

Thank you to everybody who's visited this place in the past three years. I know I say this all the time, but I hope someone, somewhere found some kind of value out of this place. 

:)

Diabolik Lovers: MORE, BLOOD - A Review (Part Two)

Finally, after I don't know how many months, I finished this game. Of course, I did take a few week break, but it still took me forever. And these are my final thoughts on the Mukami routes. They weren't really that different from the rest of the game. 

Yes, there are going to be spoilers below.

Kissed by the Baddest Bidder - Mad Hatter Route Review

 I honestly adore Kissed by the Baddest Bidder. Even though I've played loads of expensive, fully voiced, plot heavy otoge, I keep coming back to this series. Before yesterday, I had played Baba, Eisuke and Soryu's routes, as well as Soryu's epilogue. Each one was great in my opinion, although it's been a while so I can't remember the plots all too well. 

So last night, I was replaying old games. Then I began to really want to replay Soryu's route. So I opened Love365, like you do, and I found out that one of the routes was currently available for free. It was a route I wanted to play for a while, so I was like why not? And that's how Soryu got pushed aside for the Mad Hatter. 

The Mad Hatter is the bloke who holds the auction that the MC gets sold at. I believe he was originally nothing more than a side character, until the Voltage people were like "get this man a route!" So he became a love interest, but only in the Party version of the app. I think that was a version of the game with chapter tickets and avatar dressing up. But when Love 365 rolled around, you were able to purchase the whole thing. But you can't get this route on the Nintendo Switch port of the game.

When I found out the Mad Hatter had a route, I was a bit surprised. But then after reading the synopsis, it looked quite interesting. So when it was out for free, I seized my chance like the freeloader I am, and read through it all. The adverts weren't even that annoying, it was just like when you watch TV and a break comes on.

And this is my review of the route. Of course, there are going to be spoilers, so brace yourself if you haven't played it yet. I'm going to do a basic summary of the plot, but I'll probably miss a lot of details, sorry about that.

Diabolik Lovers: MORE, BLOOD - A Review (Part One)

I'm back for another round of everyone's favourite abusive vampire simulator. Yes, I'm playing the original PSP version, only because I'm cheap. (Have you seen how expensive it is to import the Vita version?) Going back to this old handheld after playing my Switch Lite isn't actually that bad. It feels worse using the PSP after the Vita because they're more similar. 

This time I'm going to split this review into two. The first post will be about my main thoughts on the game and the Sakamaki routes, my next one's just going to be what I think of the Mukami routes as well as my final opinion. It may seem strange to split it up, but if I don't this blog will be without content for much longer. I don't want it to seem dead around here.

I wish I had the limited edition version of the game, because this cover would look so nice on my otome shelf...

As always, there'll be loads of spoilers down below. Also, there are no screenshots because I still don't have a way to transfer them off of my PSP. Be prepared for a massive wall of text.

Black Butler II: A Review

Wait a minute... isn't this an otome blog? Why am I reviewing an anime here? It's been a long time since I've written a proper review post, and since I'm not playing anything at the moment, I thought I'd cover something I've been watching instead: the second series of Black Butler (or Kuroshitsuji, whatever you want to call it).

I know this was released years ago and is old news now, but that's alright. It's always been like that, I discover something long after everyone else has found it and talked about it to death. Actually, I purchased and read the first volume of the manga quite a long time ago. Then I watched a few episodes of the anime and completely forgot about it until a few weeks ago. That was when I decided to watch the first season of the anime entirely. 

Those first twenty five episodes I saw on Netflix I enjoyed quite a bit. I preferred the series when it was less comedic and focussed on the actual plot, but in the end I didn't mind the fan service stuff. Afterwards I wanted to read more of the manga, but because it's a bit hard to go out shopping for books at the moment, I settled on the second part of the anime. It took me three days to watch all twelve episodes of it. Yes, I know there are six OVAs as well, but I forgot to see those. Oh yeah, I also watched it subbed if that's important. I like how the English dub tries to make them sound British and use regional slang, but I'm one of those people who insists on only watching stuff in its original language.

So, what do I think of this second season? Keep reading to find out!

(Beware of spoilers, obviously.)

I Now Own a Nintendo Switch.

I now own a Nintendo Switch. To be more specific, I own a Switch Lite. A turquoise one, if you're wondering. It came in the post today. Most of the places near me had ran out of them, except for Amazon.

Turquoise was the original colour that I wanted, but then the pink one came out and I decided I wanted that instead. However, the pink one seems to be completely sold out everywhere I look. 

The only game I own so far is Animal Crossing. Yes, I will be playing otome on it in the future. It's funny because I still have my PSP Diabolik Lovers game to come in the post, however it's taking forever and I'm starting to suspect that I've been scammed...

Animal Crossing is quite fun. I never actually played the DS and Wii versions despite owning both consoles and the game being something that appeals to me. It's such a cute game and I'm enjoying it so far.

In the future, I'm obviously going to get some more games. Nintendo games seem super expensive compared to other games, though. The first otome I want to get is Piofiore, then maybe Collar X Malice Unlimited. There's also Cafe Enchante which sounds interesting, but it's not high on my priority list. I want to buy other games that aren't otome, too.

The console itself is quite nice. I keep pressing the wrong buttons as I'm used to my Vita and Xbox One's control scheme. It all feels good in my hands. When the Switch Lite was first announced, I thought it was going to be bigger, but I actually like this size. Everything was so easy to set up, like 90% of the time was just spent creating a Mii.

One thing that I really find cool about the Switch is that is has a scanner thing for those Amiibo figures. I know it's just a thing to get you to spend more money, but I like gimmicky things like that.

This does not mean that my Vita is going to be retired. I still love that thing, I actually played it yesterday. And there's still that PSP game coming that I'm going to play. I'm not really sure if I like the Vita better than the Switch Lite. They're both quite good.  The Vita has more built in features like a camera and browser and all that, but the Switch doesn't. It doesn't need none of that, because that's what smartphones are for, but I like messing around with stuff like that. I do hope that they update it to support wallpapers, because right now my home screen is just black with one game on it. I sort of wished that it had cutesy music and fun programs to mess around with like the Wii and my DSi had, but perhaps people nowadays don't care about that stuff anymore.

So yes, I now own a Switch. I would give you all my Friend Code (it is called that, isn't it?), but I don't plan to play online so it'll just be useless. Expect some Switch otome reviews in the future!















I'm really scared that my Switch will start getting joycon drift.... Let's hope it doesn't happen....

Ikemen Sengoku - Mitsuhide's Route Review

Today I will be reviewing a mobile game route. It's been a while since I've written about the Ikemen series, actually. Funnily enough, my posts about them seem to have the highest number of views. Mobile game stuff in general seems to be more popular, most likely because more people play them.

Mitsuhide's route came out about a month ago, and I've been playing since about a week after it released. I was actually a little bit excited for this one! It's the fourth IkeSen route I've played so far. The other ones I completed were Kenshin, Ieyasu and Sasuke. (I just never bothered to write about them on this blog...)

There are spoilers below, be warned!

(I didn't know what picture to put here so just enjoy this screenshot from the character selection page!)

Norn9: Var Commons - A Review

It seems like forever since I've written on this blog. That's due to the fact that I took my time playing Norn9, I think I managed to drag it out for over a month! No, I did not get bored of the game, it's just that I was busy with other things too, very important things like completing this one anime before my Crunchyroll trial ended. Laziness was also a reason.

But today, my Norn9 review is finally here. Be prepared for a very long ramble, like usual.

Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk - A Review

Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk just so happens to be the sequel to my all time favourite otome game, Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly. That first game was very different and probably less romance filled than most other otoge, but it still managed to grab me. I didn't review it properly on this blog (I basically just made a bunch of random posts about as I played), but I really wish I could've.

I had heard a few things about the sequel that put me off a bit, so that's why it's taken me almost a year to actually pick it up. The reason why it took me three weeks to finish this actually quite short game I'll tell you about further down below.

Since the Psychedelica games don't have traditional otome routes, I decided to just make one massive review post on Ashen Hawk instead of multiple smaller ones. There is a lot for me to talk about, so please be warned: this post is going to be very long and I'll probably ramble on a bit too much. Also, there are going to be plenty of spoilers for both games in the series, so read at your own risk!

Kissed by the Baddest Bidder - Eisuke's Route Review

Voltage recently let us all read Eisuke's route for free, so I took advantage of it like the cheapskate I am and decided to read it in one day. I've been wanting to play this one for almost four years now, even though there are probably much better games I could spend my time with. Kissed by the Baddest Bidder has always had a special place in my heart, since it was one of the first otome games I ever discovered. Even though it all reminds me of some trashy romance novel, I still manage to have a lot of fun playing it.

So, was Eisuke's route worth years of waiting? Read on to find out!

A 7'Scarlet Thought Dump

I don't really know what to say, but down below is a massive dump of my feelings of 7'Scarlet since I completed it. I had so much to say that I decided to reopen this blog just so I could drain my thoughts out somewhere. 

Expect massive spoilers down below and no screenshots since I don't have my Vita on me. Most of this was typed very quickly, so there are probably going to be lots of errors. 

THE GRAND REOPENING OF MISTY'S BLOG

When I was in the middle of playing 7'Scarlet, I felt that I was obsessed with blogging about every little detail of the plot, and I found that it was harming my experience of the game. This caused me to want to kill the blog for good. 

I now regret making that choice. It was a very bad idea. I don't want to stop blogging. I need somewhere to let out my otome obsession. That is why I have reopened this blog again. \

The only thing I'm going to do differently this time is review each game after I've played it, and not bother with doing some kind of detailed summary. 

I know I should stick to the decisions I make, but I really want to continue blogging again. 

(The main reason behind this reopening was that I had so many things to say after finishing 7'Scarlet that I couldn't let out anywhere)

The End of Misty's Blog

I am going to stop updating this blog from now on. This may seem like a very surprising announcement, because if you've been stalking this place a lot you'll notice that I've been posting very, very frequently. That's part of the reason why I'm stopping, as much as I don't want to.

Blogging is something that I very much enjoy, but like a lot of the things I like, I take them way too seriously. I've become sort of obsessed with it, you could probably say. "But what's wrong with that?" you ask. Well, the problem is, it's ruining the otome experience for me.

Every single route I play, I keep thinking about what my post on it's going to be like. I try to get through them quickly so I can write the next post. Everything's about the blog and not having fun. I'm treating it like playing these games is my job or something, not something I'm supposed to enjoy. I still have fun with playing them, but if I didn't keep thinking about blogging all the time, it would be way more enjoyable for me.

I could simply force myself to stop thinking about this blog and trying to remember every single plot detail for my reviews, but it's impossible. This all reminds me of when I used to read books a lot. I'd be obsessed with getting through them as quickly as possible that it no longer became fun. So I stopped.

When deciding to stop this blog, a voice in my head said "If you stop now, the world will never get to know what you think about those games sitting in your backlog!!!" Nobody even reads this blog anyway! I'm not saying it's all about the views, but what's the point in thinking so hard about posting for this place when maybe one or two people read it a week! It's not worth all of the effort in my opinion.

That is why, from now on, this blog is 100% dead. I'm leaving things exactly the way they are, including the backlog and "now playing" section on the sidebar. I'm going to try not to think about this place ever again. The next time I visit it should be in ten years to laugh at how cringeworthy my writing was.

I may make some other online otome-related thing in the future, but it will definitely not be a blog.

This is the end of Misty's Blog. It was fun, but it's got to end. At least I actually made a goodbye post, a lot of blogs are just abandoned with no warning.

If you are a new visitor, please don't close the tab yet! There may be some random old post that might catch your interest. Just because this blog is dead, it doesn't mean that all of its past content is useless!!

Goodbye. I hope you all had fun reading my posts. If you want to find me from now on, visit my Neocities site. 

7'Scarlet - Toa's Route Review

It's now time for my third 7'Scarlet review! Three is my lucky number, which means that this route should probably turn out really good, shouldn't it? Fortunately for me, it did. It's my favourite route so far, at least.

(Beware of spoilers down below!)

7'Scarlet - Hino's Route Review

I don't know what to write here, except that I've now finished Hino's route, I'm writing a review on it, and that there'll be spoilers down below.

Let's start.

7'Scarlet - Common Route/Isora's Route Review

As you have probably guessed from the title, I am currently playing 7'Scarlet. My most recent posts have been just massive game reviews, but for this one I wanted to write about each route individually, like how I used to do. It's because this game has a very interesting plot that I want to discuss as I play, and then make predictions and stuff too.

As you can also tell from the title, I'm going to go through the common route, Isora's route, and my initial thoughts on the game here. It's a good idea to stay away from this post if you don't like spoilers!

The spoilers start below this line.

Code: Realize: Wintertide Miracles - A (very long) Review

I am finally on the second Code: Realize fan-disc, Wintertide Miracles. As of the time of writing this, the game came out in English exactly a year and a day ago, and was the last Otomate game to be localised on the Vita.

Of course, like usual, I absolutely had to write a big rambling review of it. Like always, it'll contain plenty of spoilers, so be warned.

(This cover art is super pretty, isn't it?)

Hatoful Boyfriend - A Very Brief Review

This weekend, I played Hatoful Boyfriend. I found it for a very cheap price on the PlayStation Store, so I thought that I would finally give it a try. It's certainly a rather interesting game, but I didn't really feel like writing a full post on it. Instead, I thought I would just briefly share my thoughts on it, because why not?

Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms - A Review (Part Two)

Finally, after more than a month, I have finished Hakuoki. This post is basically a continuation of the last one, where I just ramble on about the last six routes in the game. There's not really much more to say, so let's just dive in, shall we?

Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms - A Review (Part One)

Good afternoon, blog readers. Welcome to the first part of my Edo Blossoms review.

 Due to the massive length of the game, I have decided to split the review into two parts. Instead of properly summarising each route, I just rambled on about each one, throwing in a few screenshots here and there. This review is only on the first six routes of the game. I haven't played the others, yet.

Let's begin the post, shall we?

(The cover art for this game is so pretty, but Blogger had to put an ugly white border around it.)

Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds - A Review

Literally five minutes before typing this sentence, I completed Kyoto Winds. Well, I technically didn't complete it because I didn't get all the trophies, but I finished all the routes, and got all of the CGs, except the final bonus one which the game won't give me for some reason.

Instead of reviewing every single route individually like I normally do and attempting to summarise each one, I decided to make one massive rambling review of the game instead. There's not really much point in me talking much about the plot, because at this point, every man and his dog has played Hakuoki. Also, I'll probably be making a lot of comparisons to the PSP game, so be warned. Beware of spoilers too.

(I was going to put a photo of my Vita playing the game here but I thought it would be too stupid)