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 five more games under its Ikemen series, namely Ikemen Sengoku, Ikemen Revolution (discontinued), Ikemen Vampire, Ikemen Prince and Ikemen Villain. The latter was launched in early April 2024. It was around this time that I was starved for love stories since Love and Deep Space 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). 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

Round 2: May 2024