How do you think the Japanese otome game would fare in Southeast Asia?

At the recent Anime Festival Asia in Singapore we were able to playtest the English version of the Hakuoki app. Hakuoki is a visual novel franchise made popular in Japan, and it mixes traditional Japanese history with some romantic fiction. Visual romance novels are collectively known as otome games, which literally translates to “girl games,” As you’d imagine, these are usually tailored to a female audience, and are typically played like one would an interactive storybook, with the user tapping on the screen to make choices and to advance in the game.

There are a lot of otome games, such as the ones you can find here and here that have been localized for an English-speaking audience, but this is the first time the Hakuoki mobile game has been made available in English in Southeast Asia. Its digital distributor Gloczus says Hakuoki is the “highest peak of [the] Japanese otome game.”

How the game works.

Hakuoki has seen decent success in Japan, where it was developed by Idea Factory. Approximately 1,000,000 console units of the game were moved (Playstations 3 and Portable and Nintendo DS series combined) in its native country, and the Android and iOS app versions have a combined total of 100,000 downloads. The Hakuoki mobile game was first made available in Japan this past March, but the series itself was made known to the Japanese public via a video game in 2008.

Sho Yoshimoto, speaking on behalf of Gloczus, says that the tone of Hakuoki is a little more serious compared to other visual novels. It is set in the Edo period of Japanese history and features samurai and shinsengumi (a special police force), whereas other otome games feature situations like a maid (you, the player) getting sold on stage to the highest male bidder.

Some of the male characters in Hakuoki.

Yoshimoto says that the game’s tone is one of the reasons the franchise appeals to a wider audience than the otome game genre normally targets.

In Japan, Hakuoki has expanded from video games into anime, novels, musicals, movies, voice actor events, and collaborations in industries like karaoke lounges, izakaya (pubs), credit cards, and more. In total, it has reached out to more than a million players in Japan and is a pioneer of the otome games market, reportedly worth 14.6 billion yen (US$1.22 million), according to a press release sent out for Hakuoki. Due to the franchise’s popularity, North America and Europe have already gotten a taste of the Playstation Portable, Nintendo 3DS, and Playstation 3 editions of the game; however Asia will receive only iOS and Android apps first.

“Depending on fans’ reactions, we may expand to other platforms,” Yoshimoto tells us.

The otome game in Southeast Asia