I’ve played video games since I was around 4 years old, back when they were just starting to become mainstream. Donkey Kong, the original Super Mario Bros., the first Final Fantasy – I played them and loved them (ye gads I’m old!).

I always gravitated to the ones with more story than action – Final Fantasy and King’s Quest (anyone remember that?), though there were some exceptions (I was pretty awesome at Mortal Kombat II). What did I like about them? Well, I love fantasy in general, and RPG’s were usually set in a fantasy world. But more than that, I love stories. I love seeing characters interact with each other and overcome the odds to save the world (or save the princess).
I loved this game.
I took a break from gaming in university, but eventually, once I had a job and some free time, I was tempted into buying a PS2. What game did I buy first? Final Fantasy X. Not only did the graphics look pretty, but I remembered the sense of adventure from the original, and the fascinating characters from Final Fantasy VII (which was, coincidentally, the last game I played before my break).

And boy, FFX did not disappoint. Not only did it have an epic storyline and interesting characters (Yuna wasn’t my favourite, but Lulu? kickass!), but they TALKED. With real voices! At the time, this wasn’t common at all, and it was amazing how much difference it made. It hugely increased the feeling of being immersed in the story, and though some of Tidus’ soliloquies seem overdone now, the first time I played through it they really got to me. Voice acting can convey so much more emotion and tone than plain text – as anyone who’s gotten into a fight on the internet over something intended as a joke can attest to.
Pretty!

A couple years later, I bought a Japanese PS2, mostly for RPGs. While I was browsing the import game website, I saw a game that had, instead of the usual army dude or swordsman, a group of cute anime guys just…standing around. One had a microphone. When I finally figured out it wasn’t a BL game, I ordered it, though I had some doubts. Of course I was familiar with shoujo manga (in a previous incarnation I was even more obsessed with shoujo manga than I am now with otome games), and had heard about ‘dating sims’, but really, it seemed so cheesy, and kind of…pathetic. I mean, trying to date guys in a game? But whatever, I thought I’d try it.
The game that changed my life…
When I first started up the game, I was unimpressed. It was just a simple background and dialogue window, and the characters didn’t even move. But soon enough, I was sucked into the story, and by the time the first minigame came (yes, I was lucky enough to get a first game that had a really fun minigame mechanic! And it was even integral to the story!), I was enthralled. The adventure aspect of the game also hooked me – I loved being able to choose how my character interacted with the others, and going down different paths depending on what I did and said. And I actually loved the romance aspect – so many times in shoujo manga I had wished for the heroine to pick the nice guy instead of the jerk (and occasionally vice versa), and now I could make the choice for her! Heaven! Of course, since I’m kind of a completist, I’d usually try to go through all the routes, but even then, it was a choice, and if I didn’t like how one route ended, there was always another I could think of as the ‘real’ ending.

But other than the fun story and the choice thing, the one aspect that made the difference between me just thinking, “this is okay”, versus falling in love with the genre like I did, was the voice acting. Few people would argue that Japanese voice actors are excellent, and if it wasn’t for the voices, the otome games we play would seem really watered down. Fans often complain about the Neoromance games not being full-voice (including me, I want more!). Often voice is significantly cut for portable versions (especially on the DS), and fans have definitely complained – when Otometeki Koi Kakumei was adapted to the PC after having voices cut for the DS version, the publisher made a point to announce that voice would not only be restored, but increased. In fact, in my unprofessional opinion, that’s one reason why the PSP is getting a good number of otome game adaptations rather than the DS – it has more memory for voice files, as well as better sound.

I took a look at the first-ever otome games to figure out when voice acting was added as a feature. I mean, Final Fantasy X was released in 2001 and was the first FF title with voices. I figured otome games couldn’t have been much farther ahead. Well, turns out I was wrong. The first otome game, Angelique (1994), didn’t have voice acting, but its first adaptation, Angelique Special2, did – just a year after the original’s release.
Otome games, kickin’ it old-school