W-Where am I!?

(Please don't mind this paragraph below)

Obey me is a dating simulation app developed for android and iOS. The main character is transported to Devildom by a summoning ritual to attend Devildom Academy as a exchange student for one year. The main character will be greeted by seven gorgeous men that are avatars of the deadly sins. Will you be tempted by these charming devils and survive Devildom? The app keeps real time connected to your phone, you can interact, and give gifts to the devil brothers to win over their affection. They will text you every day, sometimes call you through the app. The story is broken up though cut scenes and dance battles. Depending on choices you can raise the affection of the devil of your choosing to unlock new content. Battles are done by way of cards, which is similar to Gacha game. Each card has their own stats and stat trees. The developers are very invested in the game, and highly active on social media.

Tired of the traditional otome game geared toward more limited audiences? Then "Obey Me!" may be the dating sim for you! (Illustration by Alicia Paauwe, Oakland University)

Demons, humans and angels, oh my!

The popular mobile game Obey Me! — One Master to Rule Them All (or Obey Me!, for short) is the latest dating simulation game from NTT Solmare Corporation’s Shall We Date? series. The game follows your journey as an exchange student at RAD, a school for demons. You meet the seven demon brothers, whose backgrounds and hijinks are responsible for driving the main storyline, special events, in-game tasks and almost getting you killed (or wooed).

But what makes this dating sim different from other otome games and, more importantly, why should you care (and play this game)?

Certainly, the 4+ million downloads as of May 26, 4.9 out of 5 rating on the iOS app store and rave reviews from over a hundred thousand people should tell you something about the game’s popularity.

But what matters most is how Obey Me! invests heavily not only in the quality of the graphics, storylines and user interface, but also in the player’s experience. It’s rare for an otome game to have such a large fanbase, even more so for one to have an upcoming summer anime, gender-neutral player pronouns and a vast quantity of free content available.

Shall we break it down?

An otome game, or otome gēmu in Japanese (which literally translates into “maiden game”), is a type of visual storytelling game that is usually targeted toward women. Not all otome games center around romance, but the majority of them involve developing a relationship between the female player character and one of several traditionally male characters. This genre of game originated and is most established in Japan.

Common elements in otome games are voice acting, CG stills and a small epilogue at the end of the game that features either a “good ending” or “bad ending,” depending on your game progress. Otome games usually have easy, intuitive controls and use multimedia like text, pictures, videos, music and simple animation.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***