First Impression: OM! Till Death Do Us Part
Okay. First things first, imma address two things straight off.
"They never said it was a game, they said it was a lifestyle app!"
Nope. They called it a game repeatedly. It's listed on Kickstarter as a game - not as an app which is also an available category. It's referred to as a game on their socials, on their website, on the promo, and on the crowdfunding pages.
"This game isn't made by NTT Solmare, it's made by indie developers."
Nope. This game is made by NTT Solmare and flaggs Inc, the latter being a software company that has also been used by Dank Hearts for the game "すとぷりWith!!" and Akatsuki for the game "HoneyWorks Premium Live".
Yes NTT Solmare shut down their older otome games. But they also own one of the biggest digital manga platforms in the world, Comic C’moA , that generated some ¥81.2 billion ($533 million) in revenue last year. And the parent company NTT has an estimated revenue of $90 billion in the same period.
So. The new Obey Me was and continues to be advertised as a game, and it is still owned by one of the world's richest companies.
And yes, they did still use a crowdfunding campaign for this game, as I've spoken about before. It's why I didnt contribute, despite loving the original game so much, and having been a VIP player of that original game.
They do not need your money. They never did.
And the original game remains the most profitable for them to this day - it's monthly revenue is still double what Nightbringer managed, and that's with no new content in years.
Let people criticise media produced by rich companies I beg. Especially companies they've given money to. Especially for media funded by fans for them!!
The soundtrack is banging.
The UI is clean, but needs improved.
It's slightly spicier in both text and art.
There's no incentive to spend money, so you get to save your cash.
Audio has always been OMs strong point, and the tunes here continue that vibe. The sound production is good. The UI too looks very nice, but it is lacking in some key areas (lack of back button on many screens meaning home is the only exit; repetition of locations eg starfall in akuzon; lack of explain text on what items are and how to earn them, etc).
Within the stories there are some spicier innuendos, more fades to black, more smooches. It is still very very SFW.
The boys get nipnops on their card art. Hooray for anatomy! Although there is plenty of criticism on some of this art seeming mismatched by head and body. Still, inconsistent card art is nothing new for the average OM fan.
There is no point in pulling for cards or gacha items. It will literally only get you a few more pages of unvoiced dialogue and an illfitting outfit. Can't pull your guy? That's okay, you haven't actually lost out on anything. Gacha pulls are no longer disappointing because none of them are exciting.
How they plan to earn money though, that's beyond me.
I'm a Mammon fan, so obv I played through his whole main story. And if I judge it as a main story... it's not great. It's a very shallow depiction of who early game Mammon pretended to be, who is brainless and insecure, who is insulted by everyone, and who MC is given no choice other than to be mean to him. It's a recognisable trope, but it's not one most Mammon fans have ever enjoyed.
Plot wise, very little happens. Character wise, very little is learned. There are some smooches and blushing, but very little is voiced.
But. If I judge it as akin to a devilgram... it's not that bad. Sure, it's not up there with the best devilgrams of the past but it's fine. A silly little story, some smooches, him getting to be the protector, his bros actually being somewhat nice to him in the end, and him finding his confidence in front of them... that's enjoyable.
It's not what I'd expect from a "main story", it's not at all impressive, but it's fine.
Very little of the dialogue is voiced.
None of the home screen is voiced.
The sprites are worse than previous games.
The outfits are worse than previous games.
Gachas for socks are not appealing.
Asking 30 quid for premium is gobsmacking.
Card stories are short and mostly gated.
There is no replayability.
Incomprehensible to brand new players.
Tutorial is not immersive (OG game's is!)
The random clothes are... random.
There aren't any actual lifestyle app staples.
I cannot overstate enough that this is the biggest criticism:
🚨 IT IS NOT FULLY VOICED. 🚨
Hell, it isn't even partially voiced. The original game had more voicelines on the homescreen than this, and more voicelines in the story and cards.
But in a game where much of the story and art and game mechanics have been stripped, people expected - with good reason - for what little dialogue there is to be FULLY VOICED.
I can absolutely 100% guarantee you that the reaction to this game would not be nearly so negative if everyone had their faves purring in their ears at command. It's such an obvious feature that everyone expected.
We get the ASMR releases. We get the song releases. We get the radio releases. We loved the anime episodes. We know that Solmare knows that the VA performances are a HUGE selling point of any Obey Me release.
We get almost no voiced dialogue or lines whatsoever.
Y'all asked fans to pay for this. Jfc.
Aside from the lack of voicelines, we have to talk about the sprites. I don't want to, but we have to.
As a Mammon fan, I kinda get off easily here as he does have pretty much the average body of the lot. It's just that everyone else now also has his body. Beel has been deflated. And then with the tiny wrists, and the bendy elbows, plus the various outfits that don't fit on screen, and the low quality resolution, they all look like not cute muppets.
If the look we're going for is early 2010s mobile game aesthetic then congrats, but the original Obey Me looks way better than this.
The outfits. Again, Mammon got off lightly here. Some don't fit on the screen. Most don't actually sit on the body. The random clothes have zero relation to them being demons in the Devildom, or their various personalities. Actually, some of their demon forms don't either.
And for non-crowdfund pledgers, the demon form is all you get unless you get multiple cards in the gacha to unlock the... very basic pjs, or a recoloured version thereof.
This is the base game. And the third in a series. No casual outfit. No old outfit freebies (because of course, the original outfits were all tailored for different body types!!). Just outfits that all block other characters in frame if they even fit.
Why do I want random tshirts and socks from a gacha? Why would this give me dopamine? Why would I be enticed to spend money on that?
Like really, I'd call it a scam but they ain't making money on this.
I don't want to go on because I mean, we all know.
And yes, sure, they'll release more features maybe, and more outfits maybe, and they'll definitely be f2p friendly, and it's definitely understandable for a rich company to crowdfund and then deliver a substandard product on launch and we should all applaud /s
But do y'all not remember the first game? How good it was on launch? The story, the cards, the game mechanics, the jobs, the lore, the desire to keep playing and learning and collecting?
OM fandom are literally shaking the fence begging to spend money on their boys and this app is like, "... nah."
On a final note, lets address the "lifestyle app" features. There's a calendar.
So anyway, that's the game.
Remarkably, I'm not hugely disappointed, but it's a shame I knew not to get my hopes up.
I love these characters dearly. If the original game was to continue, I'd probably start my VIP back up again for it. For actual plot and story.
If this game had put in more effort, and genuinely had great story with some cool app perks, I would have been bloody delighted.
I want OM to succeed. I want irl merch of my mans. I see other games achieving more with far less.
I'll keep playing it. I mean checking it, there isn't really anything to play.
Of all the reactions I've seen, mine is far from the most negative. I kinda enjoyed the "main story" as long as I think of it as an okayish devilgram. There's some neat little bits of lore, albeit unexplored. I think Levi got some amazing lines through all the routes. But it isn't voiced. And there's no reason to pull for cards. I'm here for story and characters, y'know, not low resolution socks and pins.
Maybe I'll open up the original Obey Me to hear my favourite Mammon lines again and read the old devilgrams. That sounds like fun, actually. Imma do that.
(PS, I don't play LaDS. Zero clue how that game goes. I'd just like a good OM game to support.)
ETA WAIT I FORGOT Diavolo has no legs, lmao. C'mon now. You give him all that dialogue text and no legs? The disrespect. Mephisto got horny though, good for him.
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