Also written: otome, dating sim for women
A romance video game aimed at women, in which the heroine is courted by a cast of male characters. Read from the structure, as a 4.
4Filed under 4. The Structure takes a structure, and this entry is holds one.
Otome games (乙女ゲーム, "maiden games") are story-driven games, usually visual novels, in which a female protagonist develops relationships with several potential love interests. The player's choices determine which route the story takes and which ending she reaches.
Angelique, released by Koei in 1994 and developed by a team of women, is generally regarded as the first. The genre grew through the 2000s on consoles and handhelds and later on smartphones.
Otome games are built on character types: the cold prince, the cheerful childhood friend, the mysterious stranger, the teacher. Each route develops one of them, and players' favourites drive merchandise, stage shows and anime adaptations.
Otome games are the source of the villainess genre, whose heroines wake up as the rival character in a game they know. Many games are adapted as manga, and the genre's character types have spread into shojo and josei manga more widely.
Every letter here carries a digit; together they make 40, which folds down to 4. The weight sits in “Otome”, which carries 23 on its own and reduces to 5.
Four is builder & organizer — structure, labour, and the building of lasting systems. The reference files it as a structure. Read that way, what the entry is really recording is the 4's insistence that what lasts must be built patiently.
The vowels alone reduce to 5, the consonants to 8. Change underneath, power on the surface. The gap between them is where the subject is most interesting.
The 4 confuses the frame for the work. Structures outlive their usefulness, and several entries here describe conventions kept long past their reason. What the 4 still asks is that you look for the constraint the subject was working inside. The other entries that reduce to 4 are collected on The Structure.