Most coop-boardgames tend to be a bit complicated. Pandemic is actually pretty easy, and you’ll probably win after a few games. I personally like:

Anybody who has ever been to a Pachinko parlour knows the are loud as fuck, so now I imagine the weird metal-clanging-soundtrack of Silent Hill playing at ear-splitting volume while people put coins in their slot machines. Horror at a whole new level.

In the otome game Sweet Fuse, you-as-the-heroine can save you uncle Keiji Inafune from a crazy pig mascot, who threatens to blow up a video-game themed amusement park. He also helps you with your love life.

I’m not convinced of the pillow-talk concept, but bishonen lovingly whispering to me that they will do my taxes with me... yeah, I can see how that might motivate me.

If you want to avoid spoilers, start with Fate/stay night, then Fate/Zero, and then Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works. Fate/stay night is more of a generic shounen story, though. Fate/Zero gets much darker, and I liked it much more.

I admit I learned to rules to Andor by playing it with friends who alread knew the rules. I’d say it’s perfectly valid to first read the rules and then play. I think it’s well worth it, because it’s a really well balanced coop game - either you win by a slim margin or you loose by a slim margin (it might be harder if…

I love cooperative board games. I highly recommend Space Alert for communication and teamwork skills. You play as the crew of a space ship, which has to deal with enemy forces and general space-trouble.

Should be Love Exposure, a four hour long movie about catholic guilt, true love, and the search for identity. Be forewarned, it’s more arthouse than comedy.

Sweet Fuse is great. Every otome game... no wait, every game needs a “flip out and call people out on their BS” button.

Ooooh, good to know both Code:Realize and Norn9 are coming to the west, thanks!

That’s true. I admit I let my love for romance stories and otome games drive me to start my own interactive fiction during last NaNo (not a visual novel, because I can’t draw, and for Twine, not Ren’Py). The writing alone is a fuckton of work if you want a game of decent length, not to mention that it can get really…

I’m currently playing through Sweet School Life - it’s not particularly great (mini games, ugh), but my Japanese is rather bad, and it’s super helpful to know all the characters and their quirks beforehand.

I was suprised just how huge otome games are in Japan. I certainly didn’t expect every small game store to have at least one shelf of them, giant advertisments, or, of course, otome road in Ikebukuro (okay, that’s for female-aimed romance stuff in general, but still...). I was glad I picked a few titles I wanted to…

Can you date the deadly-weapons-turned-into-hot-guys in the browser game? Asking for a... oh, who am I kidding, asking for myself.

Sure they do. There is also much relentless mocking, especially if it is an organization as large and prestigious as the Fudan University.

I’d say it takes some time for most companies to catch up to the internet, otherwise I can’t explain why so few directly market their stuff to foreign countries. Streaming and digital downloads should be perfect for that, but most media is still licensed before it is released abroad (compare something like Netflix US…

Amnesia does have one route in particular that plays out more like a psycho thriller than a love story. I still don’t get how anybody could consider that romantic, but apparently it was very well liked by the Japanese audience.

As far as I can tell - I’m not Japanese - BL is only attractive to a certain niche, and otome-type media (including straight shoujo/josei comics and shows) seems to be more popular judging by output.

Yes, they are still aimed at girls and women. I’d say it’s mixture of very traditional gender roles (girls are supposed to be pure and not have sexual desires, so they have to be pushed into becoming sexually active), and some kind of fetish. Fantasies of that kind aren’t uncommon in both women and men.

Most otome games are rather tame in terms of fanservice. You often get a slightly pin-up-type shot of the male partner once a route is finished, and that’s about it. It’s more about relationships and romance.