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D3 Publisher announced its next PC game will be the otome visual novel Despera Drops. It will arrive on Steam on May 27, 2025. We’ll be able to play it in both English and Japanese, and this marks its first appearance on computers. Previously, the title only appeared on the Switch worldwide.

Despera Drops first showed up on the Switch in Japan, where the otome visual novel debuted in 2023, before coming to the console worldwide and PC now in 2025. D3 handled the Japanese Switch release. Aksys took care of the English Nintendo launch, but it is not involved in this version. While Red Entertainment worked on the console release, Wizardsoft Corporation is credited as the developer here.

The story features a college student named Mika Amamine with the ability to discern information and intention about individuals she touches. While she covers her hands at all times, now, accidents sometimes happen. After meeting with a certain individual she once inadvertently touched, learning about his lost memories in the process, he’s murdered. She realizes a “staff” member was responsible. A conspiracy leads to her being arrested and carted away alongside other criminals. However, an attempt to escape alongside them also means a chance to find out what’s going on, clear her name, expose a seedy organization, and find love with one of her new “allies.”

The PC version will be on par with the Switch release. This means the main game and its seven After Stories segments with characters are available. You can also use a keyboard with mouse or controller to play. Steam Cloud saves are ed in the otome visual novel, and you can earn achievements and trading cards as you play the PC game.

Despera Drops will come to the PC via Steam on May 27, 2025, and it is on the Switch worldwide.

The post D3 Publisher’s Next Otome PC Game Is Despera Drops  appeared first on Siliconera.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with an otome game that doesn’t prioritize romance, so long as it also offers enough “justification” for the eventual ending with love interests at the end. However, a consequence of trying to do too much in these sorts of games can mean that… doesn’t exactly happen. A title like Bustafellows proves you can have it all! Unfortunately, while Despera Drops is quite interesting, Aksys’ new Switch otome game isn’t exactly romantic.

Mika is a college student studying abroad in Italy. She seems normal, but has an unusual gift. If she touches someone with her bare hands, she can see what is in their hearts. That means she can catch a glimpse of past memories or current intent. She’s always kept her hands covered as a result, something her deceased mother warned her about before she died. However, she did accidentally touch one man at a cemetery once while in Italy, and that’s led to a whole mess of trouble.

This man claims to have missing memories, and he finds a way to meet Mika again in a restaurant in the hopes she’ll tell him why he keeps feeling like he’s missing someone and compelled to visit a certain graveyard. Before she can respond, he’s murdered before her eyes. Mika’s framed for the murder, handcuffed to six criminals, and they’re all slapped onto a police transport. After an explosion results in them getting lose, we find that they’re also somehow all tied together and perhaps some of the few in the world aware of a shadowy group known as C.R.O.W.N. with inexplicable power and influence. Naturally, this also means Mika is a target and dropped into her own potential harem of new love interests.

Most of the time, Despera Drops is your typical otome visual novel. You read through the adventures of Mika and the rest of the criminals as they try and stay one step ahead of the clandestine organization C.R.O.W.N. as that group does dastardly deeds and attempts to ruin your lives. It works fine, though there might be an occasional minor spelling error when you go through. (I expect those will be fixed in a patch soon, but for example I noticed a “gentelman” instead of a “gentleman.”) However, every once in a while there will be a “timed” segment. When this comes up, Mika will look at her phone to see different surveillance cameras, and you have to issue the right directions at the exact time to carry out plans. It never felt too harrowing, but it did suit the atmosphere.

I’m also a fan of the art direction in Despera Drops, as this otome game doesn’t feature the sort of style like we typically see from companies like Idea Factory and Otomate. Red Entertainment and D3 Publisher brought in Yusuke Kozaki, who designed the characters for Fire Emblem Awakening, to design the cast here and work on the CGs. I mean, I adored that game and it’s my favorite Fire Emblem, so I was incredibly psyched about the choice. But it does actually fit well within the story and for each of the characters, and I appreciated that. I do wish there were a few more CGs in general, so I could appreciate it more.

Editor’s Note: There will be a Despera Drops spoiler in the next paragraph regarding criticisms surrounding two of the romance options in the otome game. 3c5d6a

The one thing I’m not a fan of is how two of the love interests are handled in Despera Drops. In the case of one, instead of actually having a friendship route or one in which our heroine gets to enter a same-sex relationship, it turns out to be one of those situations where the love interest was a man all along. It completely ruined that route for me. I sort of suspected that would happen, but also loved her personality and dynamic with Mika. On the other hand, we have 38-year-old-grown-man Gib speedrunning a relationship with a young woman who looks like she just turned 21. I understand that age-gap relationships can work, but after experiencing the route there wasn’t enough there to make me believe it. So I honestly felt incredibly put off by it, even though he doesn’t come across as overtly creepy until I saw how that route ended.

Though to be fair, what happens in Gib’s route is honestly not uncommon for any of the love interests in Despera Drops due to this being an otome game that doesn’t always prioritize romance. It’s more about the cat-and-mouse games and search for the truth behind the cover-ups, dealing with C.R.O.W.N., and insight into every romance option’s criminal background. Because that’s the main focus, I felt like each route could or should have been an additional hour or two long to provide a better sense of pacing and actual examples of the heroine and love interact falling for each other. In some cases, like Hamiel, I could see it. But so many others are far too rushed or like they are thrown together at the end because they have to be.

I love the idea behind what’s going on in Despera Drops, and the push for answers and vindication meant I really loved seeing explanations in this otome game. Unfortunately, I feel that “thriller” part and some great character designs are the only focus. It doesn’t do a good job of balancing that with the romantic elements you’d expect from the genre. Add in two routes I felt weren’t handled well and, while I do recommend parts of it, I don’t feel it’s a perfect crime. 

Despera Drops is available for the Nintendo Switch worldwide. 

The post Review: Despera Drops Otome Game Focuses on Mystery appeared first on Siliconera.

During the February 2024 All Aksys event, the company revealed details about the Tokyo Xanadu eX+ Switch versions and four otome games. Despera Drops and Tengoku Struggle: Strayside are new original titles, while Radiant Tale: Fanfare and Virche Evermore Epic: Lycoris are fan discs. There’s a Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II Switch, PS5, and PC February 15, 2024 release date confirmed as well.

As a reminder, Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is a Persona-like RPG from Nihon Falcom. Like the other title, people follow high schoolers with special Soul Devise abilities that allow them to protect the real world by heading into the Other World. The eX+ version adds additional content like insight into the character White Shroud. Tokyo Xanadu eX+ showed up on the Switch in Japan in June 2023, and is heading westward in June 2024. Aksys will also sell its four-CD soundtrack.

Tengoku Struggle: Strayside is one of the Aksys Switch otome games we already knew about. For this event, we got a release date. People will hepp the princess of the Underworld hunt down escapees on April 4, 2024. The standard version launch copies come with character cards, while the limited edition will include a soundtrack.

Despera Drops is the other entirely new otome game. It will be on the Switch in 2025. It follows a young college student named Mika Amamine who is held as a suspect in a murder, but then escapes with six criminals. All seven are pursued by the police and people who are after her specifically.

As for the two otome fan discs, they’ll both be out in 2024. Radiant Tale: Fanfare, the follow-up to the supernatural story about a circus gathering a certain sort of energy to save a prince, will be out in Summer 2024. That has five new epilogues for the existing love interests and two new routes with people you couldn’t pursue before. Meanwhile Virche Evermore Epic: Lycoris will appear in Fall 2024 and involves five new side stories that follow the original game.

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