It hasn’t been long since my last post, but this only crossed my mind a couple of weeks ago that I actually wrote new year wrap-up posts every year. Been very busy, which is the reason why the game reviews have been slow. At the same time, it’s way past the period to reflect on 2019, but as it’s a tradition I’d like to do it as per usual.
A lack of posts & gaming
I don’t think I have to explain myself all the time, but I really wanted to write about it as a log on this blog. 2019 was a huge up and down for me, and I’ll admit, my motivation for anything completely sank during the first half of the year, due to getting a crappy job. Not going to go into details on that, but I would say the job that I got after graduating with a diploma wasn’t great. You could say it was terrible, even. Due to having to deal with that & Uni applications, my mood wasn’t great & it definitely caused my motivation to play anything to sink. I’m still taking my time to recover from my emotional sink, and of course, entering Uni soon. I’ve been taking my time to enjoy the things I love better, like going to the Utapri movie multiple times just for the fun of it.
The number of games I technically played over the course of the year was definitely very little, as I’ve counted from my past posts, but I’m taking my time to come back and enjoy my games & many other hobbies. I’ve been getting into playing other games too outside of Otomes, and have been dabbling into FFXIV so that will definitely be fun. As per usual, I’ll take my time with the blog. These yearly updates posts help me log my life in general and I really do enjoy writing them. Most of my reviews now, unless I want to write a full summary, will be condensed and have shorter plot details as I enjoy writing those after experimenting. Hoping to play more games for this year, and enjoy myself a little better.
Mobages – some dead, some thriving
My mobage gaming has been relatively healthy, I would say. As much I as mentioned I hated Shining Live & was borderline considering quitting, I’m still playing. I’m pretty weak to the idol boys, but taking breaks whenever I feel the grind is too much. In fact, I crazily went and ranked for the first tier for one Ranmaru even this year! While I would say the grind was hell, it was honestly fulfilling. But I’m definitely unsure if I will ever do this again because it was bad for my fingers. 😅😅Being able to grind mobage and feel happy about it is my main priority to keep my mental health in check.
As mentioned in my anniversary post, I fell into GBF hell. That’s also another grindfest which I do take breaks from whenever I can. I’ve also fallen into the deep hole of liking some pretty hot characters in this game, which honestly, if you follow my twitter you can basically figure out who I talk about a lot. My GBF progress is more prominent on my twitter so I won’t be logging it here, but just a little tidbit to add on to Mobages. Didn’t really start much new mobages either even if they’re ones targeted at females, since I really don’t have time to invest and read them.
Of course, some died too, like Senbura. While I admit I really stopped following the game after a certain period of time, I have a massive amount of feelings towards the game ending, both sadness and anger. Otomate cancelled the commerical version of the game they announced without any specific reason why, which made me pretty angry as that was what I was looking forward too in the series. My assumptions are that they decided the mobage wasn’t doing well enough to warrant a commercial game, but I can only guess. The mobage wasn’t great either as it was extremely dry – constantly doing reruns of old events and when new events came up, some card stories which used to be voiced (like the 2* chibi ones) stopped being voiced. They also started doing more paid gachas just to get people to kakin, eg. the 2nd Anniversary cards were locked exclusively to paid gems only. I would say they really just dug a grave for themselves with that sort of methods to get people to pay. A bunch of other mobage died too, the market is oversaturated with mobage right now and it’s hard to say how long a game can survive.
Cosplay & Conventions
Surprisingly, I did complete the goal of cosplaying less because shockingly, I did 2 cosplays lesser than last year! Didn’t buy much new stuff as well, but I’m continuing to look at reducing as the hobby is getting really expensive for me. That said, I’m happy with most of my cosplays & makeup skills this year. Looking to cosplay a few new plans next year, and probably some re-coses as well. Conventions wise, there wasn’t really much for me. Skipped Gamestart (due to laziness) & AFA was honestly erh, bad. Really don’t have much impressions for AFA other than cosing there with a good friend. The Doujin events were nice but were real money suckers cuz I’m weak to nice art in general. Looking forward to attending more events as myself instead of cosing too this year.
The state of Otome games: The genre is dying?
I’ve pretty sure there’s been quite a few tweets, articles about the genre in general being a dying market. My thoughts on it? It’s really dying. Even Otomate, who is basically the main creator of the genre, has been on a drought of creating new games & instead porting old ones. Which is great, but the console move is also driving fans away. I mainly have an issue of getting a switch myself, but I’ve deiced to share the Switch with my sister as she bought one for herself. The console is very pricey, and I’m sure people are having trouble getting one especially if the target audience is still of young adult age range. Mobages are free too, so it’s hard to get someone to pay for it when you can get decently good story content for free. This doesn’t mean free mobages have that good of a story either, it’s pretty selective and depending how the company handles their gacha, it could go south really fast.
I personally still love playing commercial games & dont ever want everything to drop to mobile because the mobile market’s too saturated, and you never know something will suddenly just close. At least a physical game can be played again and again. I guess the only way to help the situation is to import the games, which I’ll try to do so with my limited budget continuing this year. It’s important to support the english releases as well, but I believe it”s best for now to try and keep the industry on the jp side afloat.
Final Thoughts
My top Otome of 2019 wasn’t anything much – nothing stood out that well so I’ve still been obsessed with CxM in general.
I really have to admit that I’ve been caught up with many other hobbies, mainly gaming on my phone and PS4, and working to the point I haven’t been able to maintain this blog regularly. Posts will still continue though, whenever I finish a new otome game. That said, I’m considering writing some new posts like gaming logs, with my progress on other games/mobile games. I’ve been into GBF, and getting into FFXIV lately so it might be some interesting tidbits. That said, whether I do it is a completely different story so we shall see how this goes as it’s just an idea for now. Will be back with another review soon, so stay tuned to that!
未来へ向こう 
I like to play otoges.
I’m in the mood for action games right now. I’m playing DMC 4 on PC.
But otoges are still nice to play 🙂