“He will always love me”: Authentic romance and reciprocal love in otome games

This study investigates how players construct and articulate emotionally meaningful relationships in otome games. Drawing from 293 open-ended responses from Chinese players, a thematic analysis identified six recurring themes: authentic romance , companionship , shared experience , integration into daily life , game features , and personal growth . The most dominant theme, authentic romance , reveals that players often describe otome boyfriends as emotionally responsive partners who provide validation, support, and affection. Functional descriptions of gameplay mechanics were notably disconnected from other themes (primarily emotional engagement themes). A follow-up analysis of the most popular otome games in the same showed little variance in themes, suggesting that players of different titles described consistent romantic and emotional experiences. Our findings provide further evidence that at least some of the appeal of otome video games is that they provide players with meaningful and persistently available interpersonal relationships.