I'm the anon who recommended the Alice in Wonderland themed otome games.
I haven't played The Fate of Wonderland myself, although I've been meaning to. I just don't like its character designs, which I'm particularly picky about. The game in general never looked promising to me for some reason. But I still decided to include it for you just in case.
Now your words got me interested to check out A Villain's Twisted Heart. Do you have any other recommendations for Genius Inc. otome games?
Ikémen Revolution is my personal favorite. It takes a completely different approach with the Wonderland theme in a world where a war is brewing between the Black and Red Armies. At the beginning it made me think that it was totally irrelevant to the plot and it was just another method of appealing to the Japanese audience with their favorite fairy tale. However, as I delved deeper into the story with every route, I realized it has a great world-building, intertwined fates of the characters and an overarching plot. While it's less popular in the modern Ikémen Series because the game feels lighthearted on the surface, it has a solid storyline that's darker than it looks, in my opinion. Unfortunately it got discontinued without ever releasing the route of the most crucial character to uncover the entire lore. Ikémen Villain was announced right after, which indicates Ikémen Revolution was sacrificed to make way for another title with fairy tale theme. As a result, I decided not to play IkéVil. Not gonna lie though, the villain, fairy tale and especially Wonderland concepts do tempt me to check it out. But I feel so bitter because IkéRev didn't get a proper closure when I was so invested in it and eagerly waited to put together the whole picture of their history.
Taisho × Alice has 3 main installments, each one contains 2 character routes. All the 6 love interests are actually the genderbend versions of the heroines from various fairy tales. It's suggest to play the routes in order (as in Episode 1, 2 and then 3) because it's the best way to enjoy the plot. Surprisingly, the routes are all alternate universes where the characters' roles also change. The story gets progressively darker with each Episode. Then in the Epilogue you get to play genderbend Alice's route, which I heard connects all the previous routes together. There's also Taisho × Alice All In One to avoid the hassle of buying them one by one. I've only played 1 route from Episode 1 and 2 each, because I'm not into the other 2 love interests, plus I couldn't wait for the dark elements since Episode 1 is too light-hearted. Episode 3 is next in my list. As much as I'm eager to find out all the mysteries of the game, genderbend Alice is a huge brat so his route is gonna be a pain in the ass for me. XD
Sorry for writing an essay here. I got too excited to find another fan of Alice in Wonderland based otome games.
First of all, sorry to hear that, regarding Ikemen Revolution. That truly is a shame. Having stated that, when/if I get around to looking into the franchise, I'll probably still look at both titles, because I'm curious about both. I'll just have to keep that info in mind when I get to IR (if I ever do).
Second of all...huh. Not sure if I've heard of a game of this type that does something like that, regarding Taisho X Alice. FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm actually not the absolute biggest fan of Otome games. I've never actually played any, and the ones I've looked into have been because the subject matter of the story/characters interested me. With the "Alice" games I've taken a peek at, I looked into them not because I was looking for hotties or otomes, but because I'm a huge fan of "Alice" and I wanted to see how those characters were treated. The fact I could then form crushes on some of the characters was just an added treat, so to speak. :P I say this because I have no idea if the gimmick for Taisho X Alice is especially unique or not, but either way, it sounds different to me, and that's usually interesting. :)
Third of all...so, Genius Inc. is kind of the bargain bin of otome games, from what I've looked at from their library. They make their games fast and cheap, and they're available for free. To make up for that latter fact, making certain choices involves ad breaks and/or currency spending to get through. So, as far as games THEMSELVES go, I wouldn't recommend them. In terms of the characters and stories...to say they are hit or miss is an understatement. Most of the Genius Inc. games I've looked into I tend to lose interest in, because they get so focused on the side of "these characters are hot and you will fall in love with them, dang it!" that they forget to actually tell a well-structured story, or they make choices that I feel don't quite match the characters as I imagine them.
WITH THAT SAID...there are three I would recommend potentially looking into. First, there's the one I mentioned here, "A Villain's Twisted Heart," which is by far my favorite I've seen. The characters in the game are all reimaginings of antagonists from classic fairy-tales/fantasy: Captain Hook (he needs no introduction), Grimm (The Big Bad Wolf), and Hisame (a genderbent version of The Snow Queen). It's the best written, in my opinion, and even though it isn't perfect - again, made fast and cheap - it's the one that I feel tells the best overall story. I would legitimately like to see that game transformed into a manga or an anime, if such a thing were ever possible.
Next, there's "Lullaby of Demonia," which seems to be one of their most popular titles. That one's story is admittedly flawed, but I think the premise of it is very unique, and I genuinely like all of the major characters. I honestly think it COULD have been on par with "A Villain's Twisted Heart" with a little tweaking.
And third, there's a more recent title, "Sherlock: A Rose Among Thorns." This is a Sherlock Holmes themed game, where your dating options, as it were, are Holmes himself, Dr. Watson, Professor Moriarty, and an original character named Sebastian Blackwood (whose name is a combination of "Sebastian Moran" from the books and "Henry Blackwood" from one of the Guy Ritchie movies). This is a game...I WANT to like more than I actually do. Because there are definitely things I find admirable or just fun in it. But there's also a lot of stuff that annoys me about it, both as a Sherlock Holmes fan and just from the perspective of storytelling. So I'd say consider it as an option and perhaps consider giving it a try to see if it works for you.
There are lots of other Genius games (including one inspired by "Beauty and the Beast," one inspired by "Phantom of the Opera," one inspired by Universal Monsters, and more generic romance games about restaurants, monsters, demons, and mafia masterminds than you can shake a stick at), so...see about finding their website and looking to see if anything looks interesting to you. Just be aware anything you look at won't be Shakespeare...or...whatever the otome-game-equivalent to that would be. 'XD
Favorite Wolffy boy, and what you like about them. (like Jack Howl, Grimm, and others)
So, you're specifically talking about wolf demis, then? In which case...actually, the two you named would be my two favorites. I would say Jack from "Twisted Wonderland" is the one I like most in terms of just being a character, while Grimm from "A Villain's Twisted Heart" is the one I like most just in terms of being a crush. I also want to give a shout-out to Keaton from "Fire Emblem," on both fronts.
As for what I like about them...look up their names tagged in my Archives, you'll find pleeeenty of reasons. Right now, not sure I can give a good, succinct answer there. XD
So, this is a little different from most posts I make. XD Basically, I just wanted to take a little time to talk to you guys about a couple of games I found out about recently. They have some good characters - as well as very kinkable ones - and they are very “niche” pieces, not especially widely known. So I thought bringing some attention to them would be a good idea.
Both games are by a gaming company called “Genius Inc.” They make otome-style visual novels, which are all…TECHNICALLY free to play. Yeah, spoiler alert, I can’t - in good conscience - recommend either of the games I want to talk about AS games. I’ll get to why that is, and tell you where you can find walkthroughs to view, later on in this post, however. First, I want to focus on the positives, and especially on the characters. There are two games I want to discuss, and I think it’s best I do them one at a time. So, I’m going to start with this one: “A Villain’s Twisted Heart.”
WHAT’S THE STORY?
I am 90% convinced that, since this game came out in 2021, and has a title like “A Villain’s Twisted Heart,” this had to be inspired by the success of my beloved “Twisted Wonderland.” When you first hear the premise, it does bear a few passing resemblances to the game, but it’s different enough that I think it can stand on its own. The story focuses on the POV Protagonist - referred to as “The Reader” - who has the power to make material anything they read aloud. Basically, if they were to read, say, something from Arthurian Legend, they could potentially summon Excalibur; within the story of the game itself, they read from Cinderella and summon the Mice, and from a science book and summon a portal into outer space, just to give you two examples. However, in typical fashion, the Reader doesn’t know how to fully control their powers, and sees it more as a curse than a blessing.
Things take a bad turn when they encounter a mysterious antagonist, known only as “The Unraveler.” The Unraveler is a Reader gone rogue, who uses his powers to travel to different worlds via different stories and books, and then basically mess everything up there. The problem is, the more one messes with other worlds this way, the greater the risk of the world itself being completely destroyed by the Unraveler’s meddling. He’s now planning to do the same to the Reader’s own world.
To try and combat this threat, the Reader attempts to summon three of their favorite heroes in fiction…but, seemingly because of their lack of experience, they instead summon the villains of the stories in question. These villains are Captain Hook (from Peter Pan), Grimm (the Big Bad Wolf of Fairy-Tales), and Hisame (a genderbent version of the Snow Queen). The Reader thus is forced to team up with these dastardly, selfish, murderous scoundrels in order to defeat the much worse evil the Unraveler presents. In the first season of the game, all the action takes place within the Reader’s own world, with many fish-out-of-water elements for the Villains who are the focus. In the second season, the Reader and the Villains travel between the three worlds of the bad guys’ respective stories, pursuing the Unraveler to try and stop his mad plan to basically become a God. Since this is an otome type game, you make choices along the way to strengthen your relationships with the three Villains, and at the end of the story, you choose to form a romantic relationship with one of the three; they remain in your world (the Reader’s world), while the other two return to their own respective universes…with the promise that they will either visit you or you will visit them sometime down the line.
PROTAGONISTS & ANTAGONISTS
The main thing that both this and the other game I plan to talk about do so well is create strong characters. While the Reader is a mostly pretty blank protagonist - which is par the course for this type of game, to be fair - I do appreciate the person who wrote this visual novel did, in fact, give them a little bit of a personality, and a story arc beyond just falling in love. The Reader starts off as an easily flustered, generally reserved person at the start, and by the end of the game they’ve become just as much of a bad@$$, to be blunt, as the three Villains who they befriend (and, in at least one case, more than befriend). They also have a sense of humor and, despite being shy at the beginning, they aren’t completely spineless, usually ready with a quick comeback or logical argument. On that note, the character IS defined as female, but there’s no reason one can’t imagine them as male in personal writing, or just keep the gender neutral.
The Unraveler, our main antagonist (pictured above), is a pretty deplorable villain. And I mean that in a good way: he’s a decent bad guy. He starts off as a straightforward villain without much depth, but as the story goes on, he becomes more interesting. We never find out his true name; apparently, he adopts a new alias each time he visits a new world, and all his misadventures have unnaturally expanded his lifespan, so he’s far older than he seems; just like the Villains we’re facing, themselves. In the Reader’s world, he adopts the identity of a college professor (Moriarty, anyone?), but it’s pretty clear even this identity is something he’s made up. Whoever he is, his backstory is that he was a person who was neglected and shunned by society for most of his life; when he found out about his powers as a Reader, he used them to make himself into the hero of many stories. He craved the attention and praise being the hero got him, but he wasn’t willing to do the actual work to become a true hero; instead, he would organize things to make the heroes of those worlds look bad, and thus present himself as the only one who could stop their evil deeds. It’s this obsessive need to be given attention and adulation that leads to him seeking to become “The Hero of All Worlds,” which would apparently give him powers tantamount to a God.
Which brings us to the real stars of this story, the three Villains. What I appreciate about this game is that these three Villains ARE villains, at the start. They aren’t just misunderstood heroes, or even anti-heroes: they, themselves, acknowledge that whatever and whoever they used to be, they became the bad guys of their own stories. A common thread runs through all three of their stories: it’s revealed that each of these Villains used to be the hero of their own respective world. They were protective presences who guarded their people and tried to help them in times of need. That all changed when the Unraveler came to their world: he framed each of them for crimes they did not commit, and when they tried to stand up against him, they failed, lost, and thus their reputations were completely ruined. The suffering they went through led to all three making the same basic decision. To quote a song: “You’re looking for a monster? Well, it’s your lucky day! I’ll be what you want!”
As the story goes on, each of the three not only begins to form attachments - both to each other, and to the Reader - but they do start to shape up. By the end of Season 1, they’ve effectively gone from Villains to Anti-Heroes: they’re not exactly GOOD people, but they’re on their way to the path of redemption. And by the end of Season 2, I’d say all three are what would be termed Flawed Heroes. They’re now more or less heroic figures, the way they once were…but after spending so much time as Villains who would kill or even eat you without a second thought, they obviously still have some broken gears in the clockworks, so to speak. On that note, let’s now take a look at the three separately…
MEET THE VILLAINS
Captain Hook is the first of the trio we’ll talk about. Hook seems to be the sort of self-appointed leader of the villains, as he’s the one who comes up with most of the plans throughout the story and tends to act as an ironic voice of reason. I do love the way Hook is portrayed in this version: while he’s younger than most versions of the character, he’s still basically the Captain Hook we all know and love. He’s a sneaky, dastardly swashbuckler with a theatrical, charismatic, slightly foppish sort of personality. The game plays a lot with the duality of Hook, between him as the dandified gentleman and him as…well…a pirate. He’s a drinker, a womanizer, and has the sort of cocksure swagger many typical pirates have, but he’s also capable of being quite eloquent and even somewhat of a ham. They also play with the brutality of Hook: he’s a manipulative sadist who loves to play with people’s minds, keeping his cards close to his chest and finding stealthy, subtle ways to solve most problems. You can never fully trust him, and he seems to be the one of the three who gets the most pleasure out of the thought of not only killing but outright torturing those who cross him. As the game goes on, Hook softens up considerably, his sadistic elements toning down bit by bit, as he starts to realize he still has a chance to reclaim at least most of the things he lost when Peter Pan (one of the Unraveler’s many identities) cut off his hand and fed it to the Crocodile.
Grimm, the Big Bad Wolf, actually reminds me a bit of Jack Howl from Twisted Wonderland…except that, at the start, he’s much meaner. Where Hook is a mental threat, who prefers to outwit his enemies, toy with their minds, and use guile and sneakiness to get what he wants, Grimm is a purely physical threat. While he isn’t a total dunderhead, he is, nevertheless, a person who relies largely on brute force and intimidation to get what he wants. At the start of the game, he behaves more like an animal than a human being, and is easily the most physically imposing and strong of the trio. He’s also, being the Big Bad Wolf, RAVENOUSLY hungry. He’s a bottomless pit, really; threatening to eat people on more than one occasion, and constantly chowing down throughout the game, without a shred of manners. As the game goes on, we quickly realize that under his big and bad exterior, Grimm has a soft side; he’s basically a violent tsundere, afraid to admit his true feelings and form close attachments because of past experiences, and trying to seem meaner than he (already) is. As the game goes on, Grimm opens up more and more, and shows a sort of puppyish side to his personality: he’s extremely curious about human life, and the way things work in the Reader’s own world, and goes from trying to push them away to becoming the single most protective of them out of the whole bunch. By the end, while he’s still got his rough edges and doesn’t always like to show his soft sides, those soft sides are clearly taking greater precedence.
Finally, there is Hisame, the Snow King. In order to talk about him, I have to give a bit away about his backstory: Hisame’s origin states that he was stabbed by Kai (the Unraveler’s identity in his world) with a dagger formed from a cursed icicle. In Lord-of-the-Rings fashion, a piece of the icicle knife broke off inside of him, and is working its way slowly into the Snow King’s heart, freezing him from the inside out. As time goes on, not only does this cause Hisame to become more and more emotionally cold and distant, but it also means he runs the risk of dying if his heart freezes completely. The only way to break the curse is, of course, through True Love’s Kiss…but if you’re worried that means you HAVE to pick him, don’t worry: in the same vein as “Frozen” or “Maleficent,” it’s explained that True Love doesn’t have to be ROMANTIC love, it just has to be real. Regardless, for most of the game, Hisame is as cold as his slowly freezing heart: he’s haughty, dictatorial, commanding, passive-aggressive, and thoroughly icy. He’s an emotional threat, constantly seeking to make others feel inferior to himself; a dominating and imposing presence. He’s not a sadist the way both Grimm and especially Hook can be, it’s more that he doesn’t care if you suffer or not…which, arguably, can be seen as even more frightening. Part of the reason he acts so cruel and heartless, it’s revealed, is because he’s afraid of what will happen if he gets too close to someone: he’s scared he’ll hurt them, or that their compassion will be wasted on him in some way. Eventually, he does learn to accept his own emotions and finds a way to both literally and figuratively thaw out his frozen heart.
For those reading who know me for my kinkier fanfics, yes, I do have MANY thoughts related to these three lads as kink crushes, especially Hook and Grimm. Perhaps I’ll go into them more if people ask in some fashion, but for now, suffice it to say all three characters are awesome and definitely have the capacity to make me blush.
WHY YOU SHOULD NOT PLAY THE GAME.
So, I’ve established I like all these characters, and the story itself - while not completely perfect in its execution (the second season is somewhat rushed, in particular) - is actually a decently well-told tale. It blends elements of both slice-of-life romance and a sort of magical/superhero adventure epic together in a very fun and sweet way. I also appreciate that, while you can form relationships with all three, they remember that you can only pick one to be your true love at the end. By which I mean, even though the Reader shares romantic scenes with all three characters, they’re written in such a way that you can sort of “excuse” the fact they ultimately will only pick one lover by the end of the tale.
HOWEVER, there are two things wrong with “A Villain’s Twisted Heart,” and to be honest, they are problems that all the Genius Inc. games I’ve looked at (I’ve taken a peek at a few by now) seem to have. The first is that this game is very cheaply made. And I do mean VERY cheaply made: a lot of the artwork featured in the game is taken from stock, with only a few backgrounds, screens, and the main character sprites being original. The music, similarly, is a blend of some original music and stock music together. All of Genius Inc.’s games seem to be made on the budget of a can of beans, but this one seems oddly and particularly low-budget compared to even some of the others I’ve looked at.
This problem would be excusable if it weren’t for the other issue: all of Genius Inc.’s visual novels have the same basic gameplay system, and it’s a system that is, to be blunt, rigged completely. The games are free to play, and most of the choices you make throughout the story are totally up to you to make. HOWEVER, there are specific choices - referred to as “Premiere Choices” - which are THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS for the character to make. Choosing one way will lead to basically getting a bad ending, and choosing the other will lead to basically getting a good ending, plain and simple. This is already problematic enough, but this is what really tears it: in order to even MAKE the choices that will lead to the good ending(s) of each game…you have to pay money.
Yeah. The games are free to play…but to get the good endings, you have to spend cash.
On the one hand, I guess it makes sense from a business point of view: how else would these shoestring budget titles make a profit? But from the perspective of the player…that’s just messed up.
SO…how to experience these characters and this story for yourself, without giving in to these miserly fiends? Simple: watch a walkthrough on YouTube. There are actually a couple of channels with walkthroughs of this specific game available online, it seems to be one of the most popular titles Genius Inc. has produced. I can see why: out of all the games I’ve looked at so far from this company, this one is probably my favorite, as I feel it has the strongest and best-written story out of all the ones I’ve seen.
So, if you don’t know about this game and want to learn more about these lads, head to the magical YouTube and start looking. It may not be worth playing, but it’s definitely worth checking out.
“But wait!” I hark thou wail. “What of the other game you mentioned? What is it?! Is it on YouTube as well?!”
Patience, my little ducklings, patience…I’ll get to THAT business another time… ;)
So who is the unraveler for the big bad wolf? Red? The huntsman?
I'll tell you he's the Huntsman for Grimm, Peter for Captain Hook, and Kai for Hisame the Snow King. I don't want to say more at present because I don't want to give spoilers to all and sundry when I want people to, you know...actually look up the game's story. XD
Sana kausapin mo ko. Sana pakinggan mo ko. Pls. Sana sa pagkakataong ito wag mo naman akong talikuran. Wag mo ng takasan ang problema na dapat noon pa natin nasolusyonan. Wag mo na ko talikuran ulit para hindi na mabigat ang dala dala natin sa kanya kanya nating destinasyon na pupuntahan.
