Put aside the physiological query about how a mermaid can drown and put on your detective hat.

The story then goes on to follow her search for information about her father while she cultivates relationships with the men of this secretive and deadly group of warriors. All of them are based off of a kind of reverse harem theme, where the female protagonist - Chizuru Yukimura - is taken into the secret society of the Shinsengumi. Along with the localization of the game itself, its spin-off anime and movies have also seen a North American release. Hakuouki represents the biggest marketing push for an Otome game in the United States. With that being said, letвЂ™s take a look at ten of the best that the genre has to offer. Initially these titles were a rarity outside of Japan, but the advancement of independent publishing through platforms like Steam, and mobile app stores, has allowed for a substantial increase in the amount of Otome games available online. Since gaming was a male dominated activity at that time, the designers assumed female gamers wouldnвЂ™t have much experience or knowledge of advanced control schemes or difficult gameplay, so a visual novel seemed like the perfect fit. The 1994 Koei title, Angelique is a pioneer in this field, being one of the first games to be designed by women, for women. Popular consensus thinks of otome games as mostly a visual novel kind of experience. Translated from its native Japanese, ' otome games' means ' maiden games.' I know what youвЂ™re thinking, вЂњWell why is that so special? All games are вЂњmade inвЂќ some country! (insert laughter here) In a gaming world of first person shooters, MMORPGs, MOBAs, and everything in-between, there sits the genre of Otome.

Fonts like monotype corsiva