Welcome to my review of our latest isekai otome localisation, The Villainess is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom (aka ‘Akuyaku’)! If it’s not a mouthful, then it’s not an isekai franchise. 😂 This review will be shorter than usual since the game only has one “route” (more on that later)—so let’s dive in!
To skip to the summary section, click here.
Contents
Basic information
✿ Dev/pub: OperaHouse
✿ Platform: Nintendo Switch
✿ Language: Japanese, English
✿ Audio: Japanese
✿ Director: Yuki Naito
✿ Producer: Ryuji Kaneko
✿ Scenario: Yuzuki Nakaomi & Digital Shokunin
✿ Character design: Rag
✿ Genre: Isekai, Fantasy, Romance, Comedy, Drama
✿ Rating: IART (3+) / ESRB E (Everyone) / PEGI 3
✿ Japanese: 悪役令嬢は隣国の王太子に溺愛される
Visit the official website here (JP).
Synopsis and setting
From OperaHouse official X/Twitter:
“
“Am I…inside my favorite otome game!?”
The main character had reincarnated to the world of “The Ring of Lapis Lazuli”, her favorite otome game―but as the villainess, Tiararose.
The story progresses accordingly to the original otome game, and her engagement with Prince Hartknights, the crown prince from Lapis Lazuli, breaks off.
However, a sweet and surprising plot twist occurs when Aquasteed, the crown prince of the neighboring country Marinforest, suddenly appears to propose a marriage to her.
General trigger warning (click to reveal)
Mild language, self-harm.
Main characters
Tiararose Lapis Clamentile
✤ Voice actor: Fuchigami Mai
✤ The game’s protagonist.
✤ The villainess of “Ring of Lapis Lazuli.” Her family holds considerable authority next to the Lapis Lazuli royal family.
Aquasteed Marinforest
✤ Voice actor: Umehara Yuuichirou
✤ Same voice actor as Benkei (Birushana), Paschalia (Radiant Tale), Kouhei (Sympathy Kiss), Jasper (Majestic Majolical), Ginnojou (Ayakashi Romance Reborn), and more!
✤ The Crown Prince of the neighboring country, Marinforest, who has come to study in the Lapis Lazuli Kingdom.
TIARA x AQUA IMPRESSIONS
Tiara and Aqua are the canon couple in this game, so I want to share my impressions about them early on. Tiara is a very sweet protagonist, and she sure knows how to bake magical cookies! She is also super shoujo-coded—strong but not in a physically sense; she knows what she wants, is incredibly kind, and loves helping others. I really enjoyed her character. She’s also very weak to Aqua’s compliments, which gets her blushing all the time. You don’t understand when I tell you how much these two drive me crazy (in a good way).
I was surprised by Aqua’s jealousy and possessiveness—he is down bad for Tiara. I love how insanely devoted he is, and how he always showers her with so much love. Also, I can’t resist an ikemen character voiced by an ikemen voice actor with his ultra ikemen voice that is Ume-chan—try not to swoon challenge, IMPOSSIBLE.
Tiara and Aqua are super lovey-dovey and clingy; they are the textbook definition of a ‘bakappuru.’ 😂 They’re both incredibly fond of each other, and watching them flirt always makes me feels like I’m interrupting something. The way these two are always down bad for each other, whether alone or around others—seriously, get a room! Aqua especially—some of the things he says to Tiara make me feral. I recall him saying she tastes sweet—BRO?! The way the writers manage to convey how down bad they are in the most PG manner is truly impressive. Be prepared to blush and cringe (affectionately) over these two.
Side characters
Hartknights Lapislazuli Lactomut
✤ Voice actor: Satou Takuya
✤ Crown Prince of Lapis Lazuli. He is Tiararose’s fiancé, but…?
Keith
✤ Voice actor: Suwabe Jun’ichi
✤ King of the forest fairies who takes on the appearance of a handsome man and flirts with Tiararose. Also my favourite side character. 💚
Crail
✤ Voice actor: Midorikawa Hikaru
✤ One of the three fairy rulers in the Marinforest. The Ruler of the Sky.
Elliot
✤ Voice actor: Karino Shou
✤ An outstanding aide of Aquasteed.
Akari
✤ Voice actor: Hanamori Yumiri
✤ The heroine (player) of the otome game “Ring of Lapis Lazuli.”
Icilla Pearllant
✤ Voice actor: Yamada Marina
✤ The Duchess’s daughter, beloved by the sea fairies in Marinforest. She is the heroine of the sequel to “Ring of Lapis Lazuli.”
Pearl
✤ Voice actor: Furihata Ai
✤ One of the three fairy rulers in the Marinforest. The Ruler of the Sea.
Philine Sunfist
✤ Voice actor: Takahashi Minami
✤ The daughter of Baron of Sunfist.
Game features & experience
Notable features
✤ Voice acting
The game is fully voiced and features a fantastic lineup of seiyuus. Tiararose is also voiced, with the option to toggle her voice on or off. However, you can’t change her name, as Tiararose is set as the default, and the characters will call her by that name.
✤ Volumes, route and bonus stories
The game consists of three volumes. Technically, there’s only one route, and Aquasteed is the love interest. Completing volume 1 unlocks Hartknights’ bonus story, volume 2 unlocks Keith’s, and volume 3 unlocks Elliot’s. After clearing all volumes, Aquasteed’s bonus story becomes available.
I was lowkey confused they gave us an Elliot bonus story instead of Crail, considering Crail was the dominant side character in volume 3. A missed opportunity, if you ask me.
As for the bonus stories, I found it quite strange because the POV switches into the protagonist becoming ‘you,’ but in reality, ‘you’ are actually viewing the story through the eyes of other female side characters. I was really disappointed because it’s not an alternate universe where I get to see Tiara be happy with someone other than Aqua.
Also, the fact that the awesome side characters have no route and yet the game is promoted as an otome is really frustrating for me.
✤ Game functions, choices and love catch
The game functions provided are very basic. The skip feature is painfully slow, and is the same speed as setting auto mode on the highest speed. There’s also no skip jump option. This can be really annoying, so it’s best to follow a walkthrough or save frequently.
That said, the way they set up the choices are very simple—top is pink, middle is blue, and bottom is yellow. To unlock an alternate storyline and an extra CG, just choose all pink (top) options and change the last two choices in the volume to either blue or yellow. There is a love catch function showing these colours after you select a choice, which can be turned on and off.
I have a walkthrough for this game—you can find it here.
Art and graphics
First and foremost, I want to extend my gratitude to the developers for giving Tiara a full sprite—she’s absolutely gorgeous, and she fully deserves it (all otome protagonists do, let’s be real)! Her various costumes were super adorable too; I love her apron look the most. It was also great to see not just Aqua, but even some of the side characters having costume or appearance changes. The effort put into the character design and making everything super cute was evident to me!
While the poses weren’t too varied, they were sufficient. There are no eyes and mouth animations, which feels a bit old school for a game releasing in 2024, but eh, not the end of the world for me.
The CGs, oh god. They are absolutely stunning!!!!!!!!!!!! This is my first exposure to the artist’s work, Rag, but their work is breathtaking. The colours and lighting have a gorgeous fairytale vibe that perfectly suits the game. 10/10 I could stare at them forever.
Music
The game only had a handful of BGMs, but they fit the game well with their medieval fantasy tune. While nothing stood out to me personally, they got the job done. Unlike in many other visual novels though, you can’t collect the tracks and listen to them separately.
Length
My biggest issue with this game is its length—there’s so little content for what I consider an exorbitant price. Each volume took me about 3 to 4 hours to clear, and that’s me reading in Japanese which I am relatively slow at, and listening to about 90% of the voice acting. I understand that OperaHouse is a small developer compared to, say, Otomate. But with the game priced the same as other voiced otome titles that offer 40-60 hours of content, I can’t help but feel robbed. If you can wait, personally I’d recommend waiting for a sale, but hey, it’s your money—and your judgement to make!
That said, the length was sufficient to showcase the development of Tiara’s and Aqua’s relationship, as well as their interactions with the side characters, which were pivotal to the plot of each volume. However, I still think not having multiple routes was a missed opportunity and really unfortunate. I desperately need to romance Keith. Desperately.
Localisation
I played the Japanese version of this game, but I took the time to properly re-read volume 3 in English because I had completely forgotten what happened and was curious about the translation quality. So, this reflects my experience with that.
To be honest, I don’t understand the outrage surrounding the translation of this game. In my opinion, the translation quality isn’t that bad. Yes, there were some grammar errors and occasional typos, but I’ve never encountered an otome game without them. Honestly, I think the text was actually decently translated. If you thought the translation for The Crimson Flower that Divides was bad, well this is much, much better. I haven’t played CharaMani in English, but from the screenshots I’ve seen, that looked far worse. They also named the translator in the credits, so I encourage everyone to be respectful.
If I may offer some constructive feedback to translator-san—some of the wording felt a bit stiff, and there were a few frustrating, simple grammar errors, like the title being ‘Neighbor’ instead of ‘Neighboring.’ I noticed similar mistakes when reading volume 3. Also, I found the translation of 王 into ‘King’ too literal—perhaps it would have been alright if all the referred characters were male. But this was also used on Pearl, a female character, so it read a little odd. It would be great if these feedback could be taken into consideration for OperaHouse’s future work!
I’m also tired of the translation discourse I’ve been seeing, but I do want to share a few thoughts. I don’t believe that ‘poor translation’ from one company will lead to others following suit; I’m not sure why we need to adopt such a pessimistic viewpoint. 😞 I encourage everyone to provide constructive feedback to the developers rather than spreading hate or malice if you are unhappy with the translation quality!
Favourites
The game features a canon couple (Aquasteed and Tiararose), but I’d still like to share some of my favourites related to the characters, volumes, and bonus stories. As you can see, I am an avid Keith enthusiast. My favourite Forest fairy deserves a full route, and I will die on this hill. Also, I don’t usually talk about dislikes when it comes to characters, but I am not too fond of Pearl if I’m honest, haha!
Vira’s top 3 characters:
- Keith
- Aquasteed
- Crail
Vira’s volume ranking:
- Volume 2
- Volume 1
- Volume 3
Vira’s favourite bonus story:
- Keith
Summary
✤ Romance heavy, adorable and cosy
The Villainess is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom is an adorable, lighthearted, and fluffy visual novel. The game features a romance-heavy focus with a simple accompanying narrative, with insanely gorgeous CGs. It also features a canon couple, Tiara and Aqua—aka the ultimate ‘bakappuru’ of the century (absolutely adorable)—along with side characters who add extra fun and twists to the story. Speaking of side characters, I cannot tell you enough how much I adore Keith—his visuals and antics make my heart race every time he appears!
Overall, I think this is a great game if you’re looking for a cosy, romantic isekai experience in a medieval fantasy setting with minimal angst. The game also has no bad endings. I found the stories across the three volumes to be enjoyable, though at times they felt a bit predictable and juvenile. My favourite was volume 2—not just because Keith was the main side character, but also because it was the most interesting plot-wise.
✤ Expensive for very little content
Considering that the three volumes are relatively short and Aquasteed is the only romanceable character by default, I find the game’s pricing quite exorbitant. Additionally, there are no extra bonus contents beyond the four very short bonus (‘if’) stories. While I acknowledge that the game is fully voiced and OperaHouse is a small company, similar games in this price range which are also voiced typically offer multiple routes and 40+ hours of content. It’s something to keep in mind if you’re looking for more value for your money!
✤ Is it really an otome game?
I’m on the fence about this one, but I’m not here to dive into the otome vs. joseimuke debate. The fact remains that there are no multiple routes or alternate romancable characters, which is a standard feature in otome games. While one might argue that the bonus stories serve as a replacement, they didn’t quite satisfy me because they were so incredibly short.
✤ Should you buy it?
This was my first exposure to the franchise, and I had fun. I loved the story, characters, and overall vibe. If you’re already familiar with other media from the Akuyaku franchise, such as the light novel or manga, you’ll likely enjoy this game as well. I would have rated this higher if the game mechanics / function hadn’t annoyed me as much and if it included more than one route (I will never shut up about needing Keith’s route). The skip button being excruciatingly slow was especially frustrating, and there was very minimal options for customisation to optimise my gaming experience.
My advice for anyone curious is to try the demo first and see if the translation meets your standards (’cause saying it’s readable or bearable is apparently a hot take, so make your own decision as we are all our own persons).
I’ve mentioned this before, but the game is somewhat expensive for the amount of content provided, so consider whether you have the cash to spare or if value for money is important to you. If the latter, I recommend waiting for a sale.
+
- Cute, romantic and fluffy stories
- Beautiful CGs
- Voiced protagonist
- Protagonist has a sprite with beautiful costumes
- Amazing voice actor line-up
- No bad end (for those who hate them)
–
- Only one romancable character
- Bonus (‘if’) stories very short
- Rather expensive for little content
- VERY slow skip function
- Plot can be predictable and juvenile
