Video Game / Otaku's Adventure

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Otaku’s Adventure is a comedy point-and-click Visual Novel Dating Sim Adventure Game thingy-ma-jig by Spacelight Studio.

The player-named Otaku is an 18-year-old video game and anime nerd who laments his lack of luck with women. The game even kicks off with his depressingly unsuccessful first date that he miraculously managed to find online. Undeterred, Otaku tries to turn his day around by visiting the local convenience store and arcade hall, where he runs into one of three girls:

• Gohard: The Otaku Surrogate Gamer Chick whose Alpha Bitch personality is only broken when Otaku proves his worth by defeating her in an arcade game.
• Waifu: An elegant and soft-spoken girl whose quiet demeanor conceals a Dark and Troubled Past.
• (´･ω･`): A mysterious denizen of an alternate fantasy world. While Otaku initially plans a temporary visit, the attachment the two build over the course of their adventure might change his mind.

The game is known for its surprising depth and gameplay variety, offering breaks from the usual Visual Novel format to offer Punch Out-esque fighting sequences, rail-shooting, and even a fairly fleshed-out fantasy RPG. Much like Spacelight’s previous title Kio's Adventure, it doesn’t take long for the story to go completely off the rails.

The game proper released on May 20, 2019 on Steam. A DLC entitled “The World Just Keeps Turning,” released on October 30, 2022, expands on Waifu’s route.

Otaku’s Adventure provides examples of:

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Right as the fight against the tentacle monster in Gohard’s route seems hopeless, Otaku discovers a hidden feature in the combat suit remote that fires a super laser at it.
• 100% Completion: The game keeps track of every ending cutscene the player can obtain, including dozens of fail states.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: The Cursed Blade from (´･ω･`)’s world was the signature weapon of an old samurai, who accidentally cut through time and space on his first test run of the weapon.
• Back from the Dead: At the end of (´･ω･`)’s route, Otaku brings back a fire extinguisher and a set of resurrection items to the real world, bringing all the denizens of the arcade hall back to life.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: The ending to Gohard's route. After defeating the large tentacle monster, the pair suddenly feels a burst of confidence and wholeheartedly take on the incoming army of aliens. The final shot shows the two in this position, happily battling the last of their foes.
• Bittersweet Ending: Some endings, while not total fail states, are sub-optimal to the canonical endings.
  • It’s possible for the spaceship in Gohard’s route to be damaged, meaning only one of the couple can return to Earth.
  • Otaku can marry (´･ω･`). In doing so, he completely forgets about the real world and his purpose for entering her universe to begin with.
• Bland-Name Product: The Otaku notices a “WLL” video game console in Bobo’s room.
• Data Pad: In the RPG world, Otaku receives a "Hero's PAD," essentially a tablet computer that displays his party's stats and abilities.
• Developer's Foresight: The secret letter at the convenience store is too expensive for the player to ever afford at any point. If you hack the game, give yourself a ton of money, and buy it anyway, it will say “Please do not cheat in this game, thank you.”
• Downer Ending: Waifu’s route before the DLC. The world is destroyed; there’s seemingly no way to repair the damage; and the Otaku helped the apocalypse come about unknowingly.
• Faceless Masses: Crowds are made up of generic white blobby caricatures, most evident during the anime and comic show segment.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Until you buy the printed walkthrough at the store prior, it’s impossible to beat Gohard at the arcade game.
• First Town: Featured in the RPG segment of the game, it's literally called "Noob Village." All the denizens are dead because they were so bad at combat that they all starved to death. The Inn is free to use there for this reason.
• Fission Mailed: Every fail state ending. The credits fly by at breakneck pace, unlike the “real” endings where it scrolls normally.
• Game Within a Game: Two examples. The player’s phone contains an optional shoot-em-up starring a cat with a gun jetpack strapped to its back, and the arcade game played with Gohard is a Pong clone.
• Gameplay Roulette: The game breaks the typical point-and-click format often to present the player with various mini-games.
• Genre Savvy: Discussed and defied. The game pokes fun at escape room games and the boatloads of Fridge Logic a lot of them use. While Otaku tries random things to escape from the alien prison cell but to no avail, Gohard tells him that he plays too many escape room games. At the hospital with Waifu, Otaku considers looking behind a picture frame for a secret switch but then realizes that such a thing would never happen in real life.
• Hairstyle Malfunction: As Otaku interrogates Baldy about stealing the Briefcase Full of Money, all the clues point towards her as the suspect... except that she has a full head of hair despite the thief having a bald head. Then a random wind blows across her head, blowing her wig off.
• Idiot Ball: Can be invoked by the player. Otaku might microwave a battery bank, fall off his own apartment, or straight up shoot Waifu with the gun she gave him. During Gohard's route, when the couple have almost escaped the aliens via spaceship, Otaku accidentally hits the escape pod launch button, kickstarting the final act of the route.
• The Many Deaths of You: Dozens of fail states for the player to run into. Highlights include falling off an apartment building, getting shot to death, and waiting an eternity for your date to come back.
• Meeting Your Reincarnation: Happens to Otaku at the beginning of the DLC chapter, thanks to Time Travel shenanigans. This trope proves to be a significant hindrance, as Otaku is unable to return to his own apartment in fears of confronting his alternate self.
• Mistaken Declaration of Love: If Otaku attempts to confess his love to Waifu at the convenience store, the clerk mistakenly believes that he himself is the one being asked. The resulting game over sequence shows Otaku and the clerk living romantically together, much to the former's chagrin.
• Multiple Endings: Besides the dozens of sudden game overs, there are several bad endings and three true endings, one for each of the girls.
• Narrator: He’s actually given his own character (though a generic form identical to the Faceless Masses) and talks directly to both the player and the Otaku.
• Nerd Hoard: Strangely averted for the protagonist, whose room isn’t too far off from what you’d expect from a late-teen male. Played straight by Bobo, however, whose room is filled with anime figurines.
• Netorare: A couple endings are literally entitled "NTR," triggered when the player allows Gohard to fall in love with another, more attractive man.
• Nosebleed: Actually becomes a gameplay mechanic in Waifu's route. While Otaku is stitching up a wound on Waifu's leg, her exposed thigh and panties give Otaku a nosebleed, and he must complete the operation before he bleeds out himself.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: (´･ω･`) discovers that Otaku is the chosen hero after he pulls out the "Sword in the Shit' from the toilet.
• Portmanteau: Otaku finds a gun attachment that makes his shots louder. Earlier versions of the game referred to it as a "loudencer," but a later patch renamed it to "megaphone."
• Powered Armor: Gohard ends up wearing a melee combat suit, which can only be controlled remotely by Otaku.
• Renovating the Player Headquarters: (´･ω･`) and Otaku can spend money earned in the RPG decorating their "wedding suite" with furniture. Subverted in that buying everything actually results in a bad ending where the pair get married, and Otaku forgets his entire reason for entering her world to begin with.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Quite a literal example. When Otaku has trouble falling asleep at Bobo's apartment, he searches for ways to tire himself out. A few options include drawing over a picture frame, messing with Bobo's resume on his computer, and smashing up all his anime figurines.
• Right Behind Me: After a hostile confrontation with Gohard at the fast food restaurant, Otaku and the cashier make fun of her behind her back... except that she's suddenly right behind them overhearing everything.
• Save Scumming: Saving often is openly encouraged by the game’s narrator. With the many unexpected death screens that kick you back to the main menu, save scumming is the best way to navigate the Trial-and-Error Gameplay.
• Shout-Out: Spacelight references their own Kio's Adventure a few times with collectible items like the Kio’s Adventure soundtrack CD plus an entire booth at the comic and anime show.
• Smelly Feet Gag: One of the guards in Waifu's route has such vile feet that one puzzle involves using its Wilting Odor to decay the landscape around him.
• Trash of the Titans: Bobo’s room in full force. His bathroom and kitchen are especially nasty.
• Unplanned Crossdressing: In the DLC, the Otaku must sneak into an all-girls school and uses a set of female clothing to disguise his way in. Somewhat downplayed given the attempt doesn't even work, and the staff member who catches him lets him in anyway out of annoyance.
• Virgin Power: Parodied. The failure state after losing to Gohard at the arcade has Otaku meeting the God of Solitude, who deifies him for his exceptional ability to stay alone.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: The key to defeating the one-eyed monster. Its lack of depth perception means its attacks will always miss as long as you never move, and it'll eventually give up.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Implied how time works in the real world vs. in (´･ω･`)’s universe. It’s even Played for Drama in the end when (´･ω･`) begs the player not to leave her world even temporarily, as she’d have to wait centuries in her time until the Otaku returns.