@ Fnord
Otome games are games aimed at young girls and on which romance with incredibly hot guys is an important element of both the plot and the gameplay. They take a lot of their tropes and elements from works with the Shoujo descriptor, as both share the same target market.
While some are entirely focused on the romance that doesn't need to be so, and it can be argued those whose plot is nothing but "You just got transfered to a new school, go score some hotties!" or "You just got a new job, go score some hotties!" are the less appreciated of the bunch. Most otome games try to have the romance elements happen inside another story. Those stories are usually in the urban fantasy and modern fantasy genres, though that's not a hard and fast rule and as long as the genre allows for emotional and personal involvement with total hotties it is fair play. There is even a series of
spy genre spoofs about a secret fashion agency with the mission of turning total losers into hot guys while fighting against an evil secret organization with the mission of turning hot guys into total losers.
While most otome games are visual novels (i.e: Choose your own romance adventure!
) any game targeted at preteen, teen, and young adult girls that has romance as an important element of both the story and the gameplay can be considered an otome game along it's main descriptor. So there are strategy otome games, adventure otome games, role playing otome games, etc. I.E: Crimson Empire includes pretty hardcore JRPG combat, Little Anchor and Sangoku Rensenki have tactical combat, Queen of Darkness has both tactical combat and some city building (and a torture minigame!), etc.
Until recently they weren't popular in the west. Now a couple "for little girls" ones have been released into english, several groups of fans are working on translation patches for a couple of old ones, and some western indie studios are developing their own, though those still don't come even slightly close to the quality and production values of those released in the land of sushi loving tentacles.
Finally, while many are focused solely on the romance there are many who also include sexual elements going all the way from softcore to hardcore fetishes no girl would talk about in polite society. This is kind of controlled by what kind of young girl is the target market, though: Those aimed at the preteen market never have sexual elements; those aimed at the teen market rarely have sexual elements, and those who do very rarely go beyond softcore; those aimed at young adults can go all the way into "… le fuck is dat?!" territory and then beyond, but not always do. That's the theory, at least. In practice there are several "aimed at teen girls" ones that get pretty hardcore with the weird fetishes.
And yes, your japanese is fair enough. Otome games are usually translated as maiden games, as it follows from them being romantic games for young girls. Though it is kind of a misnomer when we get to games for young adults and the like, some of which can go quite quickly deep into fetish territory.
Some of those western indie games I mentioned would be, uhm,
Magical Diary,
Cafe 0,
X-Note, etc. They have a long way to go before being on the same level japanese otome games are, but at least they are trying. Faito!
If you can into moonrunes you should give, like,
Bloody Call,
Clepsydra,
The exorcism of Maria,
Princess Nightmare, and
Zettai Meikyu Grimm a try. Those are all easy to get and have pretty high production values, and are some of my favorites.
The ones that have been translated by fans so far are
Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 1st Love Plus and
Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Season. There are other being worked, I believe, including Queen of Darkness' side story, the second reproduction. Considering the kind of game Queen of Darkness was the name alone is really, really scary.
And then you have
Princess Debut for the nintendo DS, which was not only translated but officially published in the west. It's actually pretty fun, and totally cute.
I believe there may be others for the DS but I can't remember right now which were published in the west and which weren't.
Anyway, that was my, uhm, completely off topic post introducing otome games, the original
rated M for MANLY genre.
And I thank you for recommending the White Chamber to me, even if I had already played it. You are pretty much right on me enjoying it. It's a shame they never finished their next one, "for the game" or something like that it was called.
Note: Those links are all part of the
introduction to otome games, they aren't free games! Most of them, at least.