Customer Ratings & Reviews

I generally haven't played many otome games as it's just not a genre I've never had much interest in. This visual novel helped open up my mind, that there were more to the games than just a female character with a harem. This has great artwork, a superb mystery story, and while the romance stuff is there, it isn't shoehorned in and plays fantastically with the story. It's so well done it's changed my mind on the genre as a whole and I won't be judging a book by it's cover again anytime soon. I definitely recommend this.

If you’re into the Otome genre, pick this up. I bought it as a Christmas gift for my sister. She loves it.

Collar and Malice is an otome (maiden game) visual novel where you play as a female police officer trying to solve the various cases surrounding the mysterious group Adonis with the help of a separate group of men. There are 5 routes/5 guys with one being a true route. The game is pretty dark and can touch upon some dark subjects but there are plenty of light-hearted routes and moments. CxM makes you feel like a detective because you look for clues and answer questions about the cases. It almost feels like they took some inspiration from the Ace Attorney games. This game has enough action and plot to entertain guys as well. One of biggest complaints in otomes is that the main character is horrible. The main character in CxM is good and is an active cast member. She can be inconsistent between routes which may affect how you like each guy. In some routes, she is spunky and sassy while in others she is passive. The art is beautiful and matches the theme especially when the story turns dark. There are a good amount of CGs for all the routes (about 25 for each route). I enjoyed the music as well though some may think the mainly upbeat music clashes with the dark art. The choices are not obvious and don't seem just thrown in, however I do not think a walkthrough is needed for this game especially if you use the quick save feature. Plot is the focus here so some may be left wanting more romance. There is a large extended cast as well. Overall this is a great game and easily my favorite otome this year. Unfortunately, BestBuy did not carry this title any time close to launch so I had to get it elsewhere. I am a GCU member so this was disappointing.