Oh my, we just started, and we already have a wild card in here. Voltage, Inc. is one of the big names in visual novel otome apps, and Liar! Uncover the Truth is one of their latest releases with a unique concept. Ten men show up on your doorstep, but nine of them are lying pieces of poo. You investigate and call out those dirty liars and hopefully, find the sole honest man in existence. That being said, since otome games are always a matter of choice, you do in fact, get to choose your route (i.e. your honest man), and there are ten of them!

Ephemeral dreams, Eternal love is a yaoi visual novel game based in the Edo Period in Japan and set in a male brothel. Sounds steamy? It is, in fact, quite steamy, but MC isn’t looking for one-night stand. Can you find true love in this world of ephemeral dreams? The games boasts being a realistic yaoi game, giving fujoshi that historical setting they crave. There are three playable routes with three very different personalities. Each route has two endings. This is considered bite-size in the world of otome apps, but it’s a pretty large portion for BL-based apps.

Yes, in this otome app, dating sims are literally for the birds! Based on Hato Moa’s PC game by the same name, Hatoful Boyfriend is now also available for your mobile device. You play a human student that is accepted into a prestigious avian high school, St. PigeoNation’s Institute. Will you also find love amongst these pigeon elites? While this game may seem like a big joke, Hatoful Boyfriend actually delivers thoughtful stories, intertwining narratives, and unexpected twists. The pigeon world is much more colorful than you could ever imagine! If you can get yourself to the long answers arc, you’ll definitely be in for a story you couldn’t imagine from this app’s premise.

Getting back to otome app heavyweights, OKKO has developed numerous popular visual novel dating sims from its first hit, Sweet Scandal. With the tag line, “A dangerous Cinderella story,” Office Lover 2 is one of their more racy titles, involving a professional tryst with one of three suit-wearing men. While the stories are solid enough for you to want to see the good end, which is free for those with patience, OKKO’s main strength is in its events. Through events, players try to win a variety of items, including tickets to continue the story faster and limited outfits for their main character or their main man. PvP and player cooperation tends to be strongest in OKKO games, and it really does keep the app addiction going, with event-exclusive stories. Even if your main story route is one fella, you can play the events with other routes, and sometimes with routes that haven’t been release yet!

Love Heaven is a card-collecting battle game made especially for female players. The twist is that all of the cute cards you can collect are famous historical figures, including military leaders such as Napoleon Bonaparte, artists such as Vincent van Gogh, composers such as Schubert, and authors such as Nakahara Chuuya. Each card has a cute chibi avatar and a gorgeous non-deformed version. While it is mostly a card battle game, there are also scenarios for each of the cards, and the cards gain affection for the player, giving Love Heaven its otome appeal. The battle system is a fairly straightforward puzzle game, and leveling up your cards is easy. The hard part is, of course, scouting for the cards you want, because it’s all random! For fans of Bungou Stray Dogs, there are also special Bungou Stray Dog versions of cards to collect!

If we’re talking otome apps, we have to talk about Samurai Love Ballad: PARTY. Just look at all these beautiful Japanese historical figures. Set in the Sengoku Era, you take your brother’s place and serve as a food tester in the castle of a certain clan, while pretending to male. Well, someone finds out you’re not male. SLBP’s selling point is that you get to have samurai romances with these famous leaders from the Sengoku Era. Yes, fall in love with Oda Nobunaga or Akechi Misuhide! Currently, there are four playable routes, but there are eight more in development! A classic choose-and-watch visual novel with a dress-up element and a likeable MC, SLBP is a classic of the visual novel otome genre.

Hakuoki is a long-running visual novel otome game that also has a mobile release, in English! Pay-to-play, Hakuoki’s mobile offering includes a lot of the elements of its console counterparts, beautiful stories set in the Edo Era in Japan with great voice acting from Japanese seiyuus, such as Miki Shinichiro. Much like SLBP, you’re surrounded by beautiful and strong men from which you can choose your favorite. Fans of this series on other platforms or fans of the anime adaptations won’t be disappointed with the mobile version, including a mobile-exclusive chapter and touch-friendly interface. The premium version of the game unlocks all the chapters for a one-time fee; otherwise, you have to pay for each one chapter.

Ensemble stars is an idol-raising game often considered the male version of Love Live! School Idol Project! Much like Love Live!, you will try to collect your favorite idol boys and get them ready for performances. There is also the infamous lotto-style scouting that is necessary to get the cards you want. Unlike Love Live!, however, it is not a rhythm game. You train your idols through lessons and then battle with rival boy groups, which are done semi-automatically based on stats. PvP will be hopefully added in the future to this cute and fun game. Furthermore, your lovely idol wannabes also have various outfits to choose from and gain affection for the player. Ensemble Stars is enjoying so much popularity, an anime adaptation is set to be released in 2017.

The popular card-collecting web game Touken Ranbu has a portable version! Even better, your game data from the PC web version can be ported to your mobile device. The cards in this case are famous swords, who happen to look like handsome young men. Considered the male version of Kantai Collection, anthropomorphized weapons never looked and sounded so good. Touken Ranbu unique battle-based gameplay takes quite a bit of grinding, and there are over 100 swords to collect. Even if you’re not down to grind in the Japanese language, this game has led to the currently airing Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru anime, produced by Doga Kobo, and a second soon-to-be-aired anime in 2017, produced by Ufotable.

Mystic Messenger sells itself short with a tagline like, “Downloading a messenger app will lead to chatting with hot guys!?” The MC finds themselves invited into a mysterious chat room, full of handsome men and women who are trying to throw a charity party. From there, the MC is taken into an emotional story, full of spies, bombs, cults, cats, and love. Unlike most otome games, Mystic Messenger’s gameplay is done through humorous and interesting text-based chatting, with only a few visual novel elements. The chat rooms open at regular intervals throughout the day, so it is a strange augmented reality intertwined with how you already use your phone, with group chats that look like a normal LINE or WhatsApp group chat. Additionally, the five main routes will call or text message you throughout the course of the day. All the while, you’re just trying to gain enough of the correct hearts to get the good or bad ending that you want.

Much like a few other titles in this list, Mystic Messenger sparked a fandom, but for being an app with no connections to other popular games or anime, Mystic Messenger’s foray into the spotlight is unprecedented for this newbie in the otome app world. Cheritz, which produced the otome PC game Nameless, has made a strong entry to the mobile platform with inspired writing and talented Korean voice acting in Mystic Messenger.