Planet Stronghold

($24.99 - Free Demo - From Winter Wolves)

Play as a new recruit assigned to the most well-known human outpost in the galaxy: Planet Stronghold. In this game you can play as either Lisa or Joshua Nelson. Will you fight the aliens? Will you befriend them? Will you romance a comrade? It's all up to you in this sci-fi RPG style game.

Okay, while this isn't a straight-up otome game, there are enough romances (as subplots) that I am adding it here anyway.

I liked the basis for the game - stereotypical as it is. You play as a newly arrived Nelson (either Lisa or Joshua - choosing between a male and a female having no bearing on the game except who you can romance) and soon find yourself leading a team of cadets in an effort to either help the king or help overthrow the king. For me, the choice of whose side to join was one of the best things about this game. Though the artwork wasn't shabby either.

The RPG system was a lot of fun and you could customize the characters quite a bit, actually. While I didn't like the battle system as much as Loren's (from the same creator) it wasn't distracting. I will admit, I loved the artwork for this game. It has kind of a mid-nineties feel to it.

For me, the weak point in this game is usually what is the most important for me: the writing. Now, considering the fact that this game was close to a one man production and the writer is not a native English speaker, it wasn't bad. Even not taking all that into consideration, it wasn't bad writing - just rather uninspired.

The romances were rather brief and I never felt a real emotional connection to most of the people - and the writing failed to connect with me.

Now, I must say that, even though I totally recommend this game to anyone that is intrigued (or at least the demo) I will say that you shouldn't expect a lot out of the writing. (I also must quantify that I would recommend pretty much everything by Winter Wolves.)

Official Website

Rei

(Free)

'My name is Aya. For fifteen years, I lived a totally normal life. Then I met…him. And, within one week, everything was different.' So this unique little game begins. This is the story of a girl and a ghost. Your choices could change lives forever.

This game was quite unexpected for me. There's a handful of endings, though there's only one guy you can actually romance. Basically, what you're trying to do is figure out how he died and why he's a ghost.

To do this, you actually get to see the past - certain events that shaped Rei's life and death. It's really time travel, think more astral projection. The mystery aspect was quite interesting and kept me entertained and fully immersed throughout my first play through.

Unfortunately for me however, the best ending to the game was rather elusive and I only got it after much trial and error. However, the game was really fun and quite cute - surprisingly enough considering it's about a ghost.

I came to like the characters enough that I really wanted them to get their happy endings, too. There was one romantic ending and the others all had interesting aspects to them - even if they weren't the happiest. However, each ending dealt with ideas about what might happen if you actively tried to change the past. Very cool, I thought.

On lemmasoft forums

Love Blossom Extended

(Free)

Miyu is happily living a normal life with her normal best friends - both guys - when her mother asks her a question. "Who do you like more?" Such a simple question to ask, but it is one that turns Miyu's life upside down as she just might start looking at one of her friends as 'more than friends'.

The plot line, such as it was, was basically nonexistent. If it didn't have romance, it wouldn't even have a story. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just mentioning it so I can say that this was a very hard game to write a synopsis for. The plot just wasn't really there and that left us with a short, cute, fluffy game.

And this game was all three of those.

While the game appears to be just a choice between two guys (the aforementioned friends) there is also an unlockable character that was a wonderful addition. Each of the guys were unique from each other but pretty much stereotypes. Just check out the games main page at the official website if you don't believe me. The creator left us with a three word description of the two main guys. Each one is pretty typical for these types of stories. (Bet you couldn't have guessed Shinichi was my favorite. Yes, that was sarcastic.)

Anyway, this game wasn't trying to be groundbreaking but what it was worked really well. No, it's not the type of game that you'll be thinking about long after you finish - but for cute fluff, I've played games that were less entertaining.

Oh, final note, I also really liked the fact that - except for the unlockable character - you can pretty much get the right answers without a walkthrough.

I would like to note that this is from ABABO - which is the same group that brought us School Festival. (Actually, this was their first project, and it's easy to see how much they've improved.)

Official Website

Signed X

(Free)

When Marty arrives at school early, she finds Matt, a boy way out of her league, leaving flowers on her desk. Having read too many shojo romance manga's, Marty is resolute: she will have her romantic scene. No matter what. Enlisted only half-unwillingly in her madcap scheme for an event worthy of a manga page is her best friend Warren. Will Marty succeed? Will she find love?

This game, from the creator of Summer Found Me, was so funny. You've got this girl who is determined to have her 'meet cute' moment. (If you don't know what I mean, search for 'meet cute trope' on a search engine.) She does things that no one in their right mind would think was appropriate or safe.

And her best friend Warren? Yeah, he helps her - but he's not particularly helpful. He makes it clear that he thinks she's crazy for all these scenarios she cooks up and goes through with. It's obvious that the only reason he sticks around (even if he does have a bit of a crush on her) is because he likes to make fun of her when her romantic attempt fails. As it invariably does. Yup, best friends for you.

The conversations - especially those between Marty and Warren - were laugh worthy. This creator totally gets my sense of humor. I love those snarky lines that are delivered with deadpan precision. Bonus points for not being cruel in any way - as snark becomes so easily.

The game is rather short with not a lot of replaying searching for all the endings going on - as there is only four, per the extras screen. The game is moderately short, but is very cute and entertaining.

Favorite guy? No surprise here. Warren. I will admit though that after playing through his ending, I did think Matt was rather cute also.

Official Website

Date Warp

($20 - Free Demo - From Hanako Games)

Five day ago Janet went missing. She left her dorm for a simple first date and…no one has heard from her since. What happened to her? Your choices will effect the outcome in this mystery/sci-fi otome game.

After finally finishing this game, all I can say is 'whoa'. I say 'finally' because there are a total of ten endings that you must get before the eleventh and final ending - the 'true' ending, if you want to call it that - gets unlocked.

Each ending will build a little on the mystery and give you indications as to what the solution actually is. But I would be very surprised if anyone figured it out before Janet did. Looking back, yeah, it all makes sense, but that's not the direction my mind was going in for a solution.

As for the characters… I really liked the cast as a whole. Janet was a really cool heroine. She's not the strongest, but she's intelligent and emotionally strong - two things that I actually value a lot over physical strength.

The guys were all likable and, even if you didn't have to play through each ending to get the final ending, it would be worthwhile to play through all the paths and get all the endings just for the character development and more information on the people. It is strange but on one of the other guys paths, I got a lot of information about one of my favorite guys - and that just made me like him more.

I will say that, even the guys I didn't think I'd end up liking before playing through their path, I really wound up liking the guys. Pretty much all of them. Nathaniel was my least favorite. He was just too perfect. Honestly, Raphael was really, really close to that 'too perfect' line himself - but he was just too much of a sweetheart for me to not like him.

My favorite guy was Alben followed very, very closely by Linds. And, though I thought I wouldn't like him, Bradley was easily my third favorite.

Official Website

Loren The Amazon Princess

($25 - Free Demo - From Winter Wolves)
This review includes information on the Loren expansion pack:
Castle of N'Mar ($10 - From Winter Wolves)

In this game you can play the part of Princess Loren's faithful slave - either the human male Saren or the elven female Elenor - and help her in her quests.

I really didn't want to write a lot of information about the plotline for this game because I didn't want to give away any spoilers. Let's just say that this story follows the normal paths for fantasy stories. That's not a bad thing though as everything is rather comfortable - at least in the main story plot.

I say main plot because there is also the option of a romance subplot. It's not necessary to complete the game and, I admit, I only romanced six or so of the characters. When you count all the dateable characters and take into consideration that several of the characters can be romanced by either Saren or Elenor, the complete romance-able options are two or three times that amount. I was going to play through them all, but the last couple of romances left me feeling a little…unpleasant. Nothing majorly wrong with them, just not my cup of tea at all.

With the N'Mar expansion pack (which adds four more characters) this is a rather long game. The gameplay is based mostly on the decisions you make as Loren's subordinate and an RPG style fighting system. There is also a skill tree for each character and you can select which skills they learn when they level up.

While I certainly liked the group effect of the game - it was because of this that it put me so much in mind of the fantasy books I read - I naturally had favorite characters. Draco, Dora and Sauzer. Oh, and Trouble. I also loved Elenor's personality when I made her answer with joking responses. (I always did love the humorous characters in any fantasy story.)

Official Website
Expansion Pack

Frozen Essence

(Free - From unbrokenhours)

A young girl has been imprisoned in a crystal for hundreds of years and, when she awakens, she has no memory. She finds herself in a realm that she's told she created, surrounded by three bodyguards and a person known simply as the Oracle. What is her past? What will her future be?

This was a pretty interesting game. Mina (the main character's default name) is almost a blank slate when the game starts and, depending on the path you decide to follow, her personality changes. That was nice, even if I didn't care for some of the personality traits she developed on certain paths.

There's five total guys you can romance. My favorite of them was the unlockable character. I had been hoping that's who it would be after playing through a few other paths. Of the other guys, I think my favorite would probably be Caius. There was another guy I liked a lot - especially on the 'True Path' but on his own path, he and Mina had a very uncomfortable relationship. She was just way to subservient to him. The remaining two guys were both likable - one of them I really liked a lot.

The story was somewhat unique and it takes a play through of each path before you understand the full story. Each path tends to add a little more to the story until everything comes together. There is one path known as the 'True Path' - but even it doesn't answer all the questions. It is a rather bittersweet path and I'm not sure if I recommend playing it first or last. Or halfway through like I did…

This game is quite long. Even on only one play through. There is an obvious point in the game where whose path you're on will be locked in - but that's only about halfway through. If you want to get all the endings, it will take quite awhile. I would also like to note that this is a game that could really use an editor because some of the conversations were too complicated and sometimes letters were mixed up or the wrong word used. Not often, but I don't usually run across this even in free games.

Official Website