Otome Games Celebration Review: Your Crown is Mine by Lyyycaena
During the Otome Games Celebration we played six games. On the second day of the celebration we played Your Crown is Mine by Lyyycaena
Once again if you don't know the Otome Games Celebration is a 3rd party Steam Festival that ran in May of 2026. From my understanding it runs yearly and is hosted by Crystal Game Works.
The Dev:
Lyyycaena is a Solo Developer based in the UK making visual novels part time. As a solo dev that means all the art, writing, coding, and all the other stuff that goes into making a visual novel are done by them.
Every time I encounter a solo dev I'm always so impressed, I can't even imagine how time intensive making a game would be, let alone the time it would take to even learn the skills required to make your game a reality should the person by chance not already have them.
I respect the dedication 😌💜
From what I can see it seems in addition to this game they have one other currently available that looks to be a psychological horror involving mermaids. This game of theirs looks to still be in its demo phase but it does look interesting.
The Game:
As for the game itself, it takes place in a fictional 19th century European kingdom named Iriyn that is in simple terms, not doing so well. Turns out our kingdom is in a national debt and neighbors two other kingdoms named Atissia and Lystaria that we don't have the best relations with.
The game starts with our character Lucena deciding to run in the election for the crown and finds herself facing a strong opponent who happens to be our Ex.
This world's story is inspired by the Otome Villainess Isekai genre that you can find in Manhwas and it recently had a full game release as of May 4th!
Personally this genre in which the game was inspired by is one of my favorite types of Manhwa to read! Therefore naturally when this game crossed my path I knew I absolutely HAD to play it!
This particular game combines the aspects you would find in one of those Manhwas and adds a Stat Raising Simulation feature where throughout your gameplay you must keep your stats above a certain number or else you face a game over. The game consists of 3 Acts with the first of them being the election.
In the first Act throughout the days before the election you must gain reputation points with the people, make alliances that could either boost your reputation or make them worse, and naturally of course raise your stats in a way you think would be most advantageous by doing daily activities and improving your relationship with characters.
The game is fun but challenging in the sense that you must maintain a balancing act between so many kinds of different stats. As the game progresses more stats will be added such as International Relations and National Budget. You will have to make choices that lead you to betray someone you know or start a war.
As you can see in this game choices actually do matter. Every choice can have a consequence. It's difficult to keep everyone happy so sometimes you will be forced to choose between the kingdom and your relationships and other times in order to maintain peace you might have to make a choice you don't necessarily agree with.
You can play the game with the intentions of the common peoples best interests in mind. Or you could take it on in a more serious manner and use your critical thinking skills to forge the best path forward for the kingdom as a whole. I haven't tried it but I'm sure tyranny is also possible if you balance it out well enough.
I who tend to be of a slightly more serious nature have been going at it from an angle in which I use my current information to try to predict how my choice would affect the kingdom and if (insert character) might turn against me because of those actions.
Although I don't support the idea of weighing your friendships based on how useful they can be, in this game it unfortunately becomes somewhat necessary.
Each of the characters we will find ourselves coming into contact with have influence in one way or another so making one of them your enemy could easily cost you more than just your friendship.
It's a weird feeling making some of these choices where I know my stats will drop to a dangerous level but where the other option is something I just don't agree with.
If being in a position of power holds responsibilities and choices anywhere similar to this then I'm perfectly fine where I am, someone else can have that job lol.
I think I have discovered that this girl (me) is apparently too trusting and easily hurt to survive in this kind of environment. So far I've fallen for people lies multiple times and almost cried when the character I am aiming to romance sided with my enemy.
After playing this I think I understand why after a year in office you see a lot of presidents hair turn white.
The main difference here is that it's a game so unless you want to you don't HAVE to take it that seriously or with that level of responsibility.
Me running an actual kingdom, making well intentioned choices that end in disaster:
While playing the game it actually is quite interesting to see social issues from the perspective of a ruler who has to balance and prioritize.
Example: Our budget is low. Do we shake hands with the company the people despise in order to build up the money needed to solve that one issue and in doing so lose favor ability and friendship, or do we listen to the people and keep the friendship and favor ability but make no progress to solving issues or in making allies in the event of war.
Like in real life things may not always be as black and white as they appear nor have as simple a solution as you would like to think.
There's been a few times where I thought "Can't I just choose both", or "Gah why can't I add a placation to this response!" The lack of such options no matter the game can be frustrating but once I thought about it further I realized that here their absence is there in order for the player to make those decisive choices that a ruler must make, which would make sense.
....That or maybe the dev just thought that would make confrontations too easy to prevent.
Characters:
So before I introduce the characters let me first briefly explain to anyone unfamiliar with the Otome Isekai story genre that there are a list of character types and societal positions you will often see in those types of stories.
If you are already familiar with this genre feel free to skip this part.
As mentioned earlier these stories often take place in a fictional European society spanning from the 17th Century to the 19th Century. The main character in these Otome Isekai stories are females who more often then not were born into the aristocracy or transmigrated into the body of a daughter belonging to a noble family who is to be married off, betrayed, or executed in the near future.
In the Villainess Otome Isekai genre the main character has either made choices that led to a horrible death and they've been given to opportunity to go back in time or the main character is a person from our world that read a piece of fiction then died and was transmigrated into the body of the story's female antagonist. The original villainess likely had her fate coming due to her actions but in some stories the original villainess was simply misunderstood and wrongly accused.
That is often the base of these stories but of course the author can build upon this however they like. While the stories vary there is always a selection of character types you will find belonging to that world.
While this game doesn't take directly off of the genre's base construction it does hold certain elements you would find in such a story which is why I am taking the time to explain all this.
Character Types:
In many of the Isekai otome villainess type manhwas you have a few different types of character roles.
1. The Heroine who either came from another world or was born into a family of common origins. She could be exactly what her title says she is, or could be playing the role in name only but actually be the true villainess. In the event she is not a secret villainess she is often a very sweet girl who just wants to make someone happy.
2. The Villainess who could actually be the main character but they were reincarnated, went back in time, or are simply being misunderstood. The Villainess could also be exactly who it says she is just with a morally grey lining or on a revenge mission.
3. The Duke of the North who usually lives in a cold climate, governs an area that is not well off and has to deal with frequent attacks from humans or monsters. These guys tend to have a cold exterior, a great body from all the fighting and likely have white or black hair. They are usually either the male lead or the sad third wheel who never gained the love of the female lead.🥲
4. The Prince who is usually the male lead. A generic role but a common one. Outwardly they are the perfect man but inwardly they are an unloved child with trust issues and a messy family situation. When not the male lead you will often find these characters to be complete scumbags.
5. The Magician who is a powerful magic user who is probably the head of a Mages Tower. You can sometimes see them as the male lead or secondary love interest.
6. The Trusted Maid who will stay be the main characters side and be her biggest supporter.
7. The Princess who can hold the position of the story's Main Character, Friend, or Love Rival.
8. The Parents or In Laws who can range from abusive to adoring the main character. In some situations they will begin with the reader seeing them as a horrible person but eventually develop into a parent who has their own set of circumstances.
As of my current knowledge 4 - 8 are irrelevant to this game.
But yes in case you have never read a manhwa of this genre before, these are the types of characters usually seen in those types of stories and in which you will find the characters from this game taken inspiration from.
If you skipped the Otome Isekai Genre explanation part this is where you come back.
In this game we have three of those eight types as our optional love interests. Although to be honest I still don't know what category my boy Helius falls under as Male Lead holds too wide a range of possibilities to get a grasp on his character by just his title.
...Whatever he's my Male Lead❤️and my Hero. No really, do you even know how many times having his affection has saved my ass when my reputation points were in danger of dropping!
Anyway in this game we have the option to pursue both male and female love interests so we got some variety to choose from.
1. Rosalie The Heroine: A sweet girl from common origins that everyone loves. The people call her the Saintess because of how pure her soul is and yet she ends up engaged to our former fiance. Like I mentioned earlier her character type could either mean she is a sweet girl or a wolf in sheep's clothing.
2. Edgar the Duke of the North who has the classic cold exterior and is your political opponent for the throne and former fiance. He comes off as a piece of crap but I will admit there was a moment where I might have seen something else?
3. Aeriselle the Villainess: A beauty who can either be your bestie with morally grey ideas or your enemy whom likely won't hesitate to smile at you like a friend while stabbing you in the back. Girl also has powerful backing.
Wait..🤔Actually the all kind of do.
...Well Fuck! No one's safe.
😨That includes the one I consider safe who now that I think about it could easily be a neighboring kingdoms prince instead of a wealthy business mans son and actually be using me for political control!🫨
Fuuuck!!!😭
😣I-I need a moment my world just fell apart in real time.
....................................................
Okay........*sigh* I think I can continue.
4. Lastly my potential heartbreak Helius The Male Lead. He is the head of a news empire and should you win his favor can be a huge help in turning your image around.
Now why would you need to turn your image around you say?
That would be because you, the main character play as a woman named Lucena who holds the classic "Villainess" title in society. Lucena was originally supposed to marry Duke Edgar, that is until he did the classic
"The engagement is off!"
In front of literally everyone and proceeded to make the Heroine his fiance.
💢😄Love it when that happens. Certainly not the best first impression as a love interest.
Update! If you don't want to see my thoughts on what I've played so far then you can find the game here and discover any spoilery content I reveal next for yourself. If you don't care about that then I gladly invite you to keep reading.
Take the throne and fix the corrupt kingdom... or worsen it! A villainess life sim where you balance stats, manage a country, and romance 4
