CAFE ENCHANTE
Café Enchanté is a charming coffee shop that was willed to Kotone after her grandfather died. She decided to quit her office job and take over running it, as she was tired of the rat race (and working 100 hours a week). When she arrives to check out the building -- having not been there since she was a small child -- she finds a mysterious door in the back with a sign flipped to "closed". Out of curiosity, she decided to flip it to "open", and 4 strange men suddenly came pouring out the door. This door allowed whoever traveled through it to go to different worlds that also contained a similar door. The 4 guys are joined by a 5th, who works for a secret government agency that keeps an eye on otherworldly characters such as themselves. Now Kotone is in charge of a café AND keeping an eye on these guys whenever they decide to wander into the café.
You look at this plot and go, aw, cute, a nice little slice-of-life, coffee shop AU-type game. No...no. This game is infamous in the otome community as a divisive game due to the complete 180 in tone it makes, quite egregiously, in every route. The common route is very slice-of-life, with only the slightest hint towards the end of what's to come. A lot of people don't like this game because of the tonal shift, others love it for the same reason. My warning to you, prospective player, is that it has what has to be the LEAST satisfying or "happy" ending in any true route in any game. Misyr Rex is the locked/final/true route, and the good ending is genuinely the biggest load of bullshit on the planet. If you can handle knowing that what the devs believe to be the best and canon ending is nearly universally panned as God-awful, then proceed.
Despite Misyr's best ending being terrible, I LOVED this game. Cafe Enchante was the very first full-length otome game I've played. Previously, I've only dabbled in mobile games that suffer from microtransactions blocking you from the good endings, and/or containing daily tickets preventing you from reading much more than 5 to 10 minutes of story a day. It was refreshing to just drop a solid $50 and have the entire game available from the get-go, good endings and all. The story goes that I was perusing the Gamestop website when this game popped up as a recommended title. Gamestop -- and frankly most retailers -- don't label these games as otomes; normally, they simply label them as visual novels. I thought the premise was funny (I saw a headless knight and knew I needed the game), but I wasn't attracted simply because it was allegedly a coffee shop game. The tonal shift was exciting and I binged the game because of it. I was in LOVE with the cute title and premise being flipped on its head in each route. I'm normally quite slow to play a game, but I finished Cafe Enchante in a week. I can thank this game for getting me into otome games officially, and also for breaking my wallet.
Unfortunately for us women-lovers, there's genuinely only one (adult) woman who has a character sprite. She appears in Canus' route primarily but is also featured in the common route and at the very end of Misyr's. Her name is Titania, the lovely fairy queen. Vennia is her assistant, who appears quite feminine, but in all technicality, the fairies don't have a gender. Let's go our non-binary royalty!!! Other than her, there's not much going on in the woman world. Titania is a lovely character, and her storyline in Canus' route was top notch in my not-so-humble opinion. Canus also happened to be my favorite LI, so it was a major win for me.
I highly, and I mean HIGHLY, recommend Otome Kitten's route order. While she states in her review that she thinks the first three are interchangeable, I thought her recommended order was fantastic. I think they're ordered by the intensity of the plot, but I do agree that overall if you like one of those three significantly more, then you can start with him. You must leave Il's route for the 4th route; however, because the spoilers will throw you off. Also, his route is the most intense other than Misyr's. Of course, Misyr is our poster boy and thus the locked and final route of this game.
Misyr Rex
Misyr is the almighty Demon King and seems to possess limitless magical abilities. He's the only member of this ragtag group that will refuse to spend the night; he insists he has demon king business to attend to and leaves it at that. He's a bit mysterious compared to the other guys, but for good reason as you'll discover in his route. Misyr is very friendly with all the guys and sort of vaguely will sometimes act as their leader -- he's a king after all. He's good-natured but seems to have taken a more keen interest in Kotone from the beginning compared to the other LI's.
Misyr gets poster boy syndrome and is forced to wrap up everyone else's plot lines. HOWEVER, the key difference is that his route is two chapters longer than the other LI's routes. These two chapters are necessary to pull the story together and take you on a wild ride. You finally get to meet the main villain who has been haunting the other routes, unbeknownst to the rest of the cast. This is probably one of the more interesting villains I've come across in an otome, although his motivations are...different. I don't know that I could've done a better job myself, but his backstory more than makes up for the parts of his character I wasn't a super fan of.
Misyr is plot plot plot plot, but the romance that is there is lovely. You finally come to understand a lot of things that Misyr had done and the reasons he does and says certain things to Kotone; it has a bit of the fated lovers trope going on. I think most people would like a little more romance than what was here, but I was so gripped by the story I couldn't have cared less. Once again, his best ending/true ending is so unsatisfying that it's made people sell the game. Maybe that's intriguing to you? His route is still worth it, in the end.
Canus Espada
Ahh, my sweet bean Canus Espada. Canus is a headless knight, the Fairy of Death -- referred to as a Dullahan in this game. He's a genuinely nice person who loves gardening. Since his job is to bring death to the fairies of Medio, he takes great care in bringing life to plants. Since he has no head, he uses magic to create a knight's helmet which he wears when he leaves the cafe into the human world. Why a knight's helmet? No clue, but it's very funny. He's beloved by the neighborhood because he helps everyone out.
Canus' route suffers from one thing that drives me crazy, and that's the miscommunication trope. I dealt with it because he was my favorite, but it was very annoying to sit through. Other than that, his storyline and Medio's lore are amazing. Cafe Enchante takes a lot of folklore from different cultures to create the setting for this game. We see Titania and Vennia frequently which was wonderful, and learning about the relationship the three of them have was a treat. As I said, the routes flip the slice-of-life setting on its head, and you'll discover Canus experiences a lot of self-loathing due to his job as the Fairy of Death. That's only a B-plot to a very fantastical and wild A-plot.
Canus is very sweet and kind; the romance in his route is a lot of fluff. It's probably the least romantic of all the routes, but the romance that is there is very cute. I think part of the romance was discarded due to him not having a head...don't expect a kissing CG here. Good plot and cutesy fluff for the small romance that's there.
Ignis Carbunculus
Ignis is a firewolf, a humanoid beast from the world called Bestia. He doesn't go full furry in his firewolf form, although some of the other characters you meet from Bestia are a bit closer to reaching furry level. He's a hotheaded jerk, but a jerk with a heart of gold. He has an insane appetite, and Kotone can hardly keep him fed sometimes. He's the resident tsundere in this group, but it's worth getting close to him.
His route was, frankly, insane towards the end. He starts a bit slow, but once it starts snowballing, boy does it SNOWBALL. It's hard to even describe more of the plot without giving huge spoilers, but you learn that Bestia is a dog-eat-dog world, and for good reason. Ignis tries to protect many of the other residents of this harsh place, but he can only do so much. The villain is fun as well; although, like Misyr's villain, he has some questionable motives.
Ignis' route is very spicy compared to the other guys. They all have their moments, but Ignis' CGs in particular stand out. His route is plot-heavy, but if you're a fan of the love conquers all trope then you're going to eat his route up. The plot is solid, the romance is solid, good route all around.
Kaoru Rindo
Rindo is an agent for GPM (Government Paranormal Measures) and is in charge of keeping an eye on the cafe to monitor all the freaks and weirdos (lovingly) that come in and out of it. He's the only human LI, and while the rest of the cast (aside from Ignis) are TECHNICALLY older than him, he's the oldest in appearance and makes jokes about being a grandpa. Rindo is mature, but good-natured, and has a sense of humor about the whole situation. He's a bit standoffish with the guys at first but eventually becomes good friends with them.
I wasn't looking forward to Rindo's route originally as I'm not a huge fan of age-gap romance. I guess that's hypocritical since the rest of them are several hundred years old, but I'm applying Twilight rules to this. A hundred-year-old vampire that's 17 in appearance just skeeves me out less than if Bella were dating her teacher, for example. Anyway, I will say that they don't do the annoying trope where the older guy infantilizes the younger woman. That was nice and made it more palatable. Rindo's storyline gets quite intense towards the end; we're talking about human-world-altering events. It was fun to have the drama happening in our world rather than in one of the other guy's worlds, so I enjoyed this. The plot was very interesting.
Rindo's route is very romantic. I think it might have the best balance of plot vs. romance, but I'm not sure what the consensus on that is. I think anyone who enjoys age-gap romances will be really happy with his route, but even if you don't, his route is worth playing through simply to get his storyline. Rindo is a gentleman, so I can at least tell you age-gap haters that there's not the typical weirdness that you find in Japanese age-gap content. Also, if you're an angst lover...he doesn't have the most angst, but his angst is more life-altering than the rest.
Il Fado de Rie
Il is an otome-loving angel. Everything he knows about love and much of what he knows about humans comes from things he's learned from playing otome games. His designated room at the café is full of otome merch he's purchased, and he goes to pop-up otome events whenever they come around. His obsession is played for laughs -- and is 100% poking fun at real fans. People joke that Il is the designated autistic friend because he has hyper fixations, and struggles with interacting with others due to being an angel. He has to utilize things he's learned in otoges to carry a conversation. He's also very lazy and has to be cajoled into helping out.
Il's route has to be saved for 4th, partly from spoilers, but also because it's...insane. He's from the Heavenly World of Caelem, and if you think heaven is all fun and games with the angels, lemme tell you: not the case. The things you learn about Caelem and how it functions are incredible. Il has the best plot and the COOLEST villain. Quite possibly my favorite villain from an otome. Maybe ever? I don't want to spoil it but look forward to an incredible show if you pick this title up. Il's storyline quickly descends from cute to crazy over the 4 chapters, and I don't think anyone is truly prepped for the big reveal at the end.
The romance in this route is similar to Canus' in that it's quite cute and fluffy (at the beginning). Il only knows about love through fiction and more specifically otome games, so it takes him a minute to realize that he doesn't just like spending time with Kotone because they're friends. It's kinda adorable. The beginning of his route is fluff and romance, and then it quickly goes all plot and a smidge of romance. I thought it was fine because the story was gripping. I'd say his route probably had more romantic moments than most of the others, although he doesn't realize it's romantic at first.
Kotone Awaki
Kotone comes off at first as one of those MCs that you're supposed to self-insert upon, but she quickly puts that trope to bed. Sure, she's maybe not as feisty or action-oriented as other otome MC's, but she's capable of holding her own, has intense emotions that she doesn't hide, and is very much the one who moves the plot forward in this game. She's the most important character in each route; without her, these guys wouldn't get the closure their route provides.
Kotone is my #3 favorite MC. I like that she does have some of the traits of the stereotypical otome MC (good at/likes cooking, is a bit more demure in general, overall basic appearance to make it easy to self-insert) she also doesn't allow those traits to outshine her personality. She can be spunky when she wants! Kotone doesn't make stupid decisions that constantly require her needing save; in fact, she's the one doing the saving every time! I love her as an MC and I think she's one of the reasons I truly decided to continue playing otome games. I play them for the storyline, but I wanted to see more protagonists like Kotone, after years of mobile games that only have self-insert MC's. While some MC's have lived up to Kotone's setting a high standard, others fall flat. Such is life.
Cafe Enchante -- for all its faults in Misyr's ending -- is a top otome for me. It truly set a very high standard for the storyline/MC's/LI's in games for me that very, very few games have been able to scratch that itch since. Don't let the cute cover and café setting fool you; this game is high angst, high adrenaline, and extremely plot-heavy. Compared to other plot-heavy games, it does balance the romance quite a bit better. Despite this being my starter otome, I don't know that I'd recommend it to the average person as a first. Some of the older games offer a less intense experience to start with, but if you love angsty plots then this is a great starter otome for people who can handle heavier topics. If you don't like angst, I really wouldn't recommend this game as even the fluff quickly turns into drama that can be quite intense. All in all, as long as you don't mind some crazy drama, I HIGHLY recommend this game. It's one of my all-time favorites.
