I love Aksys Games, probably my favorite Otome Game localization company. In just the past few weeks Aksys has announced the following upcoming releases. Check Out their videos below. Which games are you most looking forward to?
Jack Jeanne – Announcement Trailer
Kisa is about to give up her dream of being an actor when she is given the chance to go to the prestigious All Boys Drama School with 2 conditions. Will Kisa be able to compete against her classmates and win the lead role in the final performance?
I think for myself, I’m most excited about playing the next chapters of Amnesia. I played the original one years ago, and always wondered why we never got the rest of the games in the Amnesia series localized into English. I’m actually not sure if Aksys is involved in this translation project or not. If they are they aren’t doing much to promote it. I saw the trailer as an ad, and sniffed it out. Perhaps Idea Factory is going to take a stab at directly releasing games in English.
I would like for them to release English versions for the rest of Norn 9 someday… But no word about plans to continue that series at this time… A girl can dream, right?
It’s been 3 years and we still don’t have the sequels nor the remake of the Switch version. Come on Idea Factory!
I’m also extremely interested in Jack Jeanne – I played the Japanese version a bit in a demo – It might appeal to a slightly different audience than most otome games. Should be interesting to see how it is received.
I’m excited for the new Piofore entry too as I’ve played the first game already.
All of the games look great though, from Paradigm Shift to Lover Pretend to games yet to even be given an official English title.
I am so thankful Aksys Games is taking risks by bringing Otome Games to English-speaking gamer girls. Not many other companies give these games a chance outside of Japan.
Of course, many other studios are bringing us Otome games these days. Including a lot of Western fans who have created their own indie titles inspired by great Japanese otome games. Guess we got tired of waiting for the big guys to give us girls what we really want.
There’s still far too many Otome (or even just Visual Novel) titles that never see an English release – or a HUGE amount of them that need to be brought back to life – in a digital format – from now dead publisher Hirameki International – including the greatest visual novel of all time, Ever17… But also Animamundi Dark Alchemist was a really unique and wonderful visual novel as well. Oddly, the only one preserved digitally is YoJinBo – the only (?) Otome title that Hirameki released.
Since we’re chatting about Otome and Visual Novels, I also just learned that Key is releasing a new visual novel in 2022 on the Nintendo Switch. They are probably the most beloved visual novel developers, famous for projects such as Clannad, Air, and Kanon – to name a few. And Little Busters – I didn’t like that one for some reason but most people love it. Their new title is called Loopers. I don’t know if it will get a physical release in North America, but the Japanese version has English subtitles. https://www.play-asia.com/loopers-english/13/70f8f3?ref=blog
Tell me, what Otome games are you excited for in 2022?