If you wrap up your time in Amnesia: Memories and you end up wanting to dive further into the lives of your favorite bachelors, that’s where Later x Crowd comes in. Rather than each route branching off from common scenario, your protagonist dives into five very different worlds, thanks to the circumstances she falls into with a strange spirit boy named Orion.

These types, plus a couple others, mark the five incredibly distinct story routes you can go down in the first game. The full focus here is on the romantic developments and the various pretty-boy archetypes you’re given the option to swoon over – from the loveable nice guy to the smarmy playboy or the standoffish cool guy. Now, if you’re not inclined toward otome games already, Amnesia: Memories might not be the game to sway you. Recent otome visual novels mix the romantic melodrama with gripping mystery narratives or densely developed worlds full of layered lore – but Amnesia is a classic foundational entry in the genre that focuses wholeheartedly on the romance, and this combination of Switch re-releases gives otome fans an opportunity to experience such a defining entry in the genre. The Amnesia visual novels are instead some of the earlier mainstream entries in the otome subgenre – a style of romance-focused visual novel where the focus isn’t on a horny high school boy chasing improbable anime women, but on a female protagonist swooning over her cast of strong-jawed and mysterious virtual men. Before you get carried away with excitement, no, these are not anime boy spinoffs of the iconic first-person horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Otome x amnesia