Ikemen Series by Cybird
The Ikemen Series of otome games have been in the market for about 10 years now. The first game I’ve played under this series is Midnight Cinderella but it soon lost my interest because I had to wait impatiently daily just to read 5 parts of a chapter coupled with its endless grinding of princess lessons just to raise enough intimacy or money to buy clothes. Ten years on, Cybird has gone on to develop six more games under its Ikemen series, namely Ikemen Sengoku, Ikemen Revolution (discontinued), Ikemen Vampire, Ikemen Genjiden (only in Japanese), Ikemen Prince and Ikemen Villains. The latter was launched in early April 2024. It was around this time that I was starved for love stories since Love and Deepspace was taking its time to update on its main storyline, so I decided to give the new game a shot.
Gameplay wise, nothing much has changed. Still the same daily wait to read a 5-parter, the same lesson grind using stamina which recharges every 3-4 hours and the same side stories that threatens your main story progress because you have to allocate your stamina across two competing activities. But for some reason, the whole gameplay suddenly feels less tedious. Maybe I’ve grown more patient over the last decade or maybe I’ve been so inundated with otome games that have so many activities, that I’m actually glad for a change in pace. Or maybe it’s because I decided to run all 5 games concurrently so I don’t feel the drag, or perhaps I’ve become so used to otome games that I don’t feel the frustration of needing to collect the premium route for everything thus alleviating the pressure.
Without the pain of the above, I’ve actually enjoyed the last month binging on the Ikemen series and drowning myself in sugary syrupy romance that is both bitter and sweet. If there’s anything I really enjoy about Japanese literature, it is how every character in the story always always have their own backstory and underlying motivations that makes it hard for you to hate anyone really. As we get to know and romance each character, the writer takes you on a journey of discovery into the depths of different personalities and psyches, and it becomes an inward discovery of what really is love.
What’s more, I’m looking forward to finding out how many different ways can the writer romance the player using different characters but within the confines of the same plot universe. Won’t it become stale and repetitive after awhile? I mean there can only be that many ways that the MC (main character) can stumble upon a different universe, be forced into knowing one of the love interests, fall in love despite various obstacles, and then face the bittersweet prospect of separation when the time comes to return back home.
Also the storytelling for Ikemen series appears to be targeted at older women as it does explore deeper and darker themes about vices, politics, war, and immortality. Almost every route also leads to the MC having sex with her love interest, some of which in great detail, so it does point to stories being written for more mature audience.
So with this objective in mind, I shall take on the challenge of romancing all 64 available love interests in these Ikemen series games (except Revolution since it’s no longer available on my Android OS version and Genjiden as I can’t read Japanese yet). This table lists the available love interests in each of the game and my ranking upon completion of each set of 5 routes.
Round 1: April 2024 (The Alphas)
Game Title | Character | Ranking |
Ikemen Villain | William Rex | 3 |
Ikemen Prince | Chevalier Michel | 1 |
Ikemen Vampire | Leonardo da Vinci | 4 |
Ikemen Sengoku | Masamune Date | 2 |
Midnight Cinderella | Giles Christophe | 5 |
It wasn’t hard for me to rank Chevalier as number 1 on this list because the plot, character design and development, and story writing were easily the best. Chev made me look forward to reading the next 5 parts each day and even tempted me to spend money to get his premium endings. Masamune ranks a close second because of his devilish good looks and his character development arc was quite endearing. For William and Leonardo, both explore rather abstract issues which I find it hard to relate so they rank lower. Lastly Giles’ personality is dubious and I wouldn’t be able to trust someone like him.
Round 2: June 2024 (Buried Emotions)
Game Title | Character | Ranking |
Ikemen Villain | Harrison Gray | 3 |
Ikemen Prince | Clavis Lelouch | 2 |
Ikemen Vampire | Comte de Saint Germaine | 5 |
Ikemen Sengoku | Ieyasu Tokugawa | 1 |
Midnight Cinderella | Bryon Wagner | 4 |
I struggle to place Clavis as number one spot even though his story was really well written and entertaining. Clavis is a delight to unravel. However factoring my personal tastes in men, Ieyasu ranks first because of both his character design and how he made my heart flutter. Clavis also made my heart race but because I didn’t like his design, there is only so far it can go. I don’t have much to write about the next 3 places as the stories are rather flat. I do like Saint G’s design but his personality and story was disappointing so I placed him 5th even below Bryon.
Round 3: August 2024 (The Tease)
Game Title | Character | Ranking |
Ikemen Villain | Liam Evans | tbc |
Ikemen Prince | Nokto Klein | tbc |
Ikemen Vampire | Arthur Conan Doyle | tbc |
Ikemen Sengoku | Mitsuhide Akechi | tbc |
Midnight Cinderella | tbc |
I look forward to this round with 3 strong contenders for first place – Nokto, Arthur and Mitsuhide, all known to be great tease but who will surprise me most?