Although not all localized PC otomes have full voice acting, most major titles -- as the ones seen below -- do. Exceptions in this list include Hatoful Boyfriend
=> Frequently recommended for beginners
Summary: You awaken to find your memories gone. To learn the truth behind your amnesia, you’ll choose from five romantic paths, each its own world. With 20+ endings, can you write the lasting love story you deserve, or will your love and life come to an end?
Length: ~10-30 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Other Platforms: PS Vita, Mobile (Android/iOS), though it’s commonly recommended for PC players due to its frequent sales on Steam.
=> Frequently recommended for beginners
Summary: Thanks to an age of constant war, the Iga and Kouga had independently achieved an expansion of their respective forces.
Both shinobi forces, owing to that long history of warring, shared an antagonistic relationship of mutual hatred towards one another. However, during the ninth year of the Tenshou era, the Iga forces fell into ruin due to the Tenshou Iga War started by Oda Nobunaga. The few Iga members that had survived were taken in by the Kouga forces.
Seventeen years later, the Sengoku period had ended and lasting peace came to the world.
Dreaming of performing shinobi duties, Ueno Enju (the protagonist), daughter of the Kouga forces' leader, Ueno Kandou, had been training everyday.
After finally being selected to go on her first mission, a major incident occurs. It not only derails Enju's fate, but the fate of the village as well…
Length: ~30-50 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Additional Notes: It’s heavily recommended to play according to a certain route order to minimize spoilers / not get barraged by the most emotional routes straight off the bat. Popular route order recommendations are
(1) Goemon > Hanzo > Kuroyuki > Chojiro > Gekkamaru for least-to-most-spoilers + maximum angst, or
(2) Hanzo > Chojiro > Goemon > Kuroyuki > Gekkamaru for balancing light and heavy routes.
Other Platforms: Switch
=> Frequently recommended for beginners
Summary: There are two kinds of people: the rulers and the ruled.
The Heights are a gorgeous utopia. The Depths, a filthy industrial wasteland. Our heroine, raised in the Heights, has nothing but contempt for those below. Now an observation mission requires her to descend into that world, and the gears of fate have begun to turn.
Length: ~10-30 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Additional Notes: Additional scenes are added to routes on replays, meaning that you will not get to see a route in its entirety unless you play more than once.
This game also has a DLC expansion with an additional route and bonus stories for the original characters.
Other Platforms: Switch
=> Frequently recommended for beginners
Summary: The Bakumatsu period, a gap between the past splendour of the Shogunate era and the modern glamor of the Meiji period, is one of the most violent and intriguing places to start a romance.
Chizuru Yukimura has set off for Kyoto to find her missing father, but accidentally gets herself wrapped up in the intrigues of the Shinsengumi, a group of warriors who defends the fading powers of the shogunate.
The men in Shinsengumi are not merely fighting Emperor Meiji's forces and the strange demons, they are also hiding a terrible secret. They are hiding something among them.
Length: ~60-100 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Other Platforms: PS Vita for this version (which has 12 routes). For the original version with only 6 routes, it’s available on mobile, PSP, PS3, and Nintendo 3DS.
Is there a recommended route order? - No. Hijikata’s is the longest and covers the most events that overlap with other routes, so he could be considered more “spoiler-y”; but it doesn’t make a big difference overall since the main focus of the plot largely varies between the routes.
Summary: Once upon a time, a girl, her pet dog, and three companions made a journey to meet a great wizard who could grant their wishes. But what if the girl hadn’t believed that “there’s no place like home”? Explore a fairytale world through a dozen routes and 20+ endings!
Length: ~30-50 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Additional Notes: Additional scenes are added to routes on replays, meaning that you will not get to see a route in its entirety unless you play more than once.
Summary: As she fell deeper and deeper into the darkness, she could hear the sound of rainfall.
Also, she heard an animalistic cry.
When she woke up, the young girl found herself in a Western-style mansion.
An unknown, terrible monster rushes to attack the confused girl.
As the young girl ran away from the monster, she thought:
"Where is this place?"
"Who am I, anyway?"
Having lost pretty much all of her memories, she eventually met and joined up with some men in the same circumstances as her.
They all held weapons that were strange handguns.
From there on out, with their lives at stake, they must participate in the "Black Butterfly Hunt", and collect "Kaleidoscope Shards" possessed by those monsters.
Inside the Western-style mansion in which despair and betrayal swirls, will they be able to find hope in their futures?
Length: ~10-30 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Other Platforms: PS Vita
Summary: Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk is a suspense-filled tale of a young woman who was born with an eye that gleams with a scarlet light. In order to avoid being cast out, she masquerades as a young boy and lives in a derelict tower on the outskirts of town. One day a mysterious treasure is stolen from the city church. Our heroine learns that not only do magic stones exist and are hidden within the city, but also the secret of her origins.
Length: ~10-30 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Other Platforms: PS Vita
Additional Notes: This game is a sequel to Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly and contains many references to it, but can be played as a standalone title.
Like Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly, this game also contains “short episodes” in the form of “town sequences”. The player chooses a spot on the map to travel to and talk to townspeople NPCs. There is no shooting minigame in this game like its predecessor, however.
Summary: Hee-Jung is a 21-year-old girl who pushes herself to be perfect at everything; yet she realizes that she does not know what she really desires.
Although she lives a hectic life, she feels like she is on the road to nowhere. However, one day she encounters mysterious animals and decides to take them in.
She doesn't yet realize that this will radically change her life…
Length: ~10-30 hours (Average) / ~30-50 hours (Completionist)
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Additional Notes: If you have never played/don’t know your way around stat-raising games, it is highly recommended to look up tips and tricks before playing. Tailored walkthroughs generally do not exist because each playthrough is different.
Summary: "Eri" (the name is replaceable) is a high school student and everything about her seems ordinary except she has a special hobby.
Eri is into collecting ball-jointed dolls made from the doll company, Crobidoll. Although she treats her dolls like her real family, she cannot talk about them to even her "normal" best friends.
With her parents living overseas, she was left all alone after her grandpa's death. She started to rely on her dolls to escape from her loneliness. Then, one day, she had a dream about feathers coming out of her diary and when she woke up, she heard strange sounds coming from her kitchen…
Length: ~30-50 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused (Character-focused throughout 3/5 routes; plot-focused throughout 2/5 routes + True Ending)
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Summary: Welcome to St. PigeoNation’s Institute, the most splendid and greatest academy of the pigeon, by the pigeon and for the pigeon.
At first, you felt anxious entering a classroom filled with pigeons’ eyes peering up at you, but as you enter your second year of high school, you’re getting used to your school life and enjoying the peaceful days… right?
Soon, you start to feel emotions you’ve never experienced before… Emotions that could even be called… love? The unexpected softness of a pigeon’s rhinophyma…
This is a heartwarming love story.
Length: ~2-10 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Additional Notes: As a parody of otome games, Hatoful Boyfriend isn’t strictly an otome in the traditional sense. While the main bulk of the gameplay is spent on short routes that are more satirical comedy than actual romance, the true reason for its renown lies in its unlockable secret ending. This game does not feature voice acting.
Other Platforms: Switch, PS4, PS Vita, though it’s often recommended on PC for its frequent Steam sales.
Summary: In the last years of the dynasty, during the Spring and Autumn Period (approximately between 771 - 476BC), the Liege of a certain nation struggles of hegemony, and wars seemed endless.The Kingdom of Ng defeated their old enemy, the Kingdom of Yue. In the course of the war, the King of Ng, HéLǘ, sustained fatal injuries as he passed the throne to the new king "FuChai", a girl.
To fulfil the secret and long-standing wish of their ancestors of breaking their sacred vow with the Dragon God, she is forced to live a lie. Faced with countless bloody battles to seal the Dragon God, there suddenly appears a reprieve…
Amid the chaos, who will loyally sacrifice their life and who will plot a scheme of betrayal——
Will they choose the man over the country? Love over hate? Who will they finally end up with?
Length: ?
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Summary: The summer holidays.
A town caged by nature, Okunezato.
One year ago in this town, her older brother suddenly disappeared without a trace.
Shaped like a fragment of the moon, a nostalgic atmosphere permeates the town. It is known for having many legends and folklores. As a result of the continued population decline, the amount of modern-looking buildings have increased in the main street. The town is starting to gain attention due to its status as a "mystery hot spot" amongst the youngsters in the underground scene.
One day, during summer vacation, the protagonist and university student Hanamaki Ichiko is invited by Kagutsuchi Hino- her childhood friend in the same university year level as her- to go to Okunezato in order to look for her disappeared older brother together. Hino had found the "Forbidden Okunezato Club", a website in which its visitors discuss the mysteries and legends of Okunezato. Taking advantage of the offline meeting between the visitors that will take place during the summer holidays, he suggests to look into her brother's disappearance during this time. With Hino having pushed her back, Ichiko wills herself to go to Okunezato.
The young men from the Forbidden Okunezato Club website had gathered at the Fuurin Hotel- the live-in chef Amari Isora, the cat lover otaku Kushinada Toa, the med student Tatehira Sousuke and the owner of Fuurin Hotel Murakumo Yuzuki. Others such as the genius middle schooler who assists with managing the hotel, Hirasaka Yuki, the landscape photographer Tsukuyomi Kagura, the unsociable novelist Karasuma Chikage and the video game-loving female employee of Fuurin Susano Yua also become involved as they all get caught up in mysterious incidents.
The "other face" of Okunezato comes to light as rumours regarding the "Legend of the Dead" are treated as though they were fact. Everytime they follow the footsteps of her disappeared brother, mysterious events spark. The true existence of the forbidden grounds, and the legendary flower that only blooms in Okunezato...
The truth behind these incidents lead to a surprising and totally unexpected ending.
Length: ~10-30 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Other Platforms: PS Vita
Summary: It's the end of the 19th century in England...
Illuminating the nighttime streets of London covered in thick fog are gas lamps and the moonlight from between clouds.
Ladies and gentleman, be careful on the streets at night.
Things like scoundrels and mysteries hiding in the streets might be aiming at you.
Cases too large for the highly prided English police force Scotland Yard are overflowing the streets.
If you happen to get caught up in an incident...please prepare yourself to accompany it.
A great detective with skillful intellect.
A bold and fearless phantom thief.
Now then, if Big Ben's ringing echoes across the streets of London, the curtain will open on love and adventure!
Length: ~30-50 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Other Platforms: PS Vita
Summary: Once upon a time, in a topsy-turvy world...
In the beginning, you find yourself lost within a world of utter darkness. Your memories are gone; even your name is a mystery.
But just when the bitter loneliness threatens to break your spirit, you meet Alice—a blond-haired, blue-eyed young man who promptly christens you "Arisu."
Like you, Alice cannot remember anything beyond his own name. Ignoring his protests, you drag him along with you through the darkness... until you happen upon a massive mirror made of crystal.
You stumble through the glass and into the Looking-Glass World, an antiquated fairytale dreamscape that feels oddly familiar...
There, amid a colorful cast of gender-swapped fairytale characters, you take on the role of the heroine and join them in their twisted tales.
How will the story end? It's up to you!
Length: ~50 hours
Story: Character/Romance Focused | Plot/Story Focused
Gameplay: Stat-raiser | Choice-based
Atmosphere: Light | Heavy
Additional Notes: This game is separated into 4 episodes, with the 4th being the epilogue and final route. The first episode is mainly focused on character interactions and romance, while subsequent episodes focus more on an overarching plot and is known for twists.
Other Platforms: Switch