‼️Attention All Otome Game Players‼️

The Key Illustration of Cupid Parasite Official Visual Fanbook, ILY My Darling

The official new key illustration by Cupid Parasite artist, Yuuya, for the official Fanbook, ILY My Darling

With more and more Ao3 authors restricting their works to the archive (due to AI scraping), they're going to be losing guest interaction. And probably generally feeling down because. You know. AI is stealing their hard work.

So! Now is a great time to stop by your favorite authors/stories and drop them some comments! They really appreciate it!

oh absolutely! and it's a topic I'd love to talk about for a sec lol~

i love that uncomfortable art exists, and i think it serves an important purpose in helping us confront important topics through fiction -- and I like what this modder is doing because I think that Persona (a series that revolves heavily around identity and the idea of a true self) is a great avenue to explore topics of gender. Modding is a type of transformative work, just like fanfiction is -- and like in fanfiction, there are a million different ways you can alter the source material depending on the sort of story you want to tell. It can be fluffy and self-indulgent, it can be an au that genderswaps a character and does nothing else, or it can be a version of the story that explores more realistic or uncomfortable topics if you want.

However, that's not necessarily the experience everyone is seeking when they look for a female protag mod -- not everyone wants the story to change, and not everyone is comfortable with misgendering in a game they're playing for fun. And with the model swap, I totally see how it would feel weird to have a dialogue about how a clearly feminine character looks super masculine or gets called he/him all the time.

It would be cool if there was another mod that meshed better with the fem model so that both could exist and serve separate purposes.

it's ultimately up to the modder what they're going to create, and they're under no obligation to make something that will appeal to everyone, especially since they're doing this for free. So when it comes down to whether to center player comfort or realism, it's honestly just a matter of taste. It depends on what kind of story you're trying to tell, y'know?

the different persona series femc mods are so funny when you line them all up next to each other

persona 4 femc mod: it works for the full game, but for some reason, everyone's kind of a dick in this mod

persona 5 femc mod: the mod maker just drops an update twice a year and disappears but the update is fucking great

persona 3 femc mod: everyone's going insane with weekly updates. did you know that they edited the text for the different languages in the game. they changed the pencil case andpen. they added an otome game to the arcade. they--

persona 5 beta femc mod: they're trying to be the new persona 3 femc mod but it's super early in development. also girl your hair is a tomato

lmao the tomato hair comment is so real 😭 i do think she's really cute though lol, and i love the concept art she's based on~

I've seen bits and pieces of all of these, but only played with the reload one, and even then just a little bit. I may try out the one for 4 when i eventually play that one though!!

i wonder

Omg i had no idea they were even considering making a second one, that's cool!! I'd love to see another similar story from the same writers. I loved how the character stories all connected too, it's a really well-formed narrative! And yeah, it's not super close to ZE in a lot of ways, but I think the main point of comparison for me was the way it uses the fact that it's a video game to creatively tell its narrative. Like, using the save & sound on/off buttons in the menu to get past certain parts and realizing at the end that you could do that because you, the player, are a ghost interfering with the story who has otherworldly powers?? Amazing!! So that part reminded me a lot of both the dual screens in 999 and the flowchart's story relevance in VLR.

hi i was checking your backloggd and you have excellent taste!!! 👀❤️ we have so many games in common, i followed you for otome only but you even played paranormasight, i didn't know there was anyone around me who played it!! fghkfhgk

Omg yes I loved Paranormasight!!!

I played it back in February and I could hardly put it down! The story was so interesting and I love love love when games get creative with how they mix the gameplay and narrative elements. It reminded me a lot of Zero Escape actually, so that could be part of why I like it so much lol. It's cool to see someone else who played it! :)

As much as I love otome, I've actually been a mystery game fan for a lot longer lol so I play a lot in that genre and I love to talk about those games too!

children of ill omens and superstition

oooh hm~

This. probably isn't the vibe you're going for, but this kinda reminded me of Twelfth Night? Where Viola & her twin brother Sebastian both survive a shipwreck, but neither knows the other is alive. And because Viola is disguised as a man, everyone on the island where they end up keeps mistaking them for each other in various comedic situations. Not to bring up Shakespeare randomly lol...

Not saying that's what you should go for unless you like the idea, but there could be like, a hidden in plain sight element maybe? Like maybe he escaped and is still investigating and he and Rosie keep just barely missing each other or something? And depending on how/if you want to involve Silva, he could be helping the brother?

OR the finding him imprisoned somewhere and trying to get him out would work too I think. That feels very Hamefura. I can easily picture a cute post-rescue scene where he notices Katarina & Rosie's relationship and teases his sister about it.

If you wanted to leave it more open-ended, it could be a "he escaped, but we still couldn't find him" ending where she still has to go looking for him, but now she has a girlfriend with her. A sort-of "adventure ending" or something.

I'm sure whatever you pick will be great! (I 100% sympathize on the actually having to write it aspect though 😭😭😭)

Am I the only one who thought Rozy was a girl based on the trailer? People were like "oh Rozy has a secret identity" and I was like yeah I bet he's secretly a girl called Rosie and is pretending to be a boy because sexism. Then I find out that no, Rozy is not a girl, and not only that but there are no Yuri routes at all.

Speaking of Jack Jeanne! Here are some rkgk

my faves!!