SweetieGames

As someone who is really into otome, I’ve been keeping my eye on upcoming and recent releases. Earlier this month, the highly anticipated Red Bell’s Lament released on the Switch, from the creators of the popular Even If Tempest. I had to mute a lot of the terms related to it as I was planning on playing it myself, but what shocked me was discourse quickly emerging from fans saying that there was generative AI usage in the game. The backgrounds looked off.

I had never heard of AI being used in otome games. The genre is specifically known for its beautiful artwork in its characters, CGs and backgrounds. Pretty artwork is a necessity for otome games to work and engage the player. Who is going to be engaged in a visual novel with bad looking characters or artwork?

It hasn’t been explicitly stated that Red Bell’s Lament uses AI generated backgrounds, but the evidence is weighing heavily towards its usage. Off centre placards, weird looking statues and repeating elements in the image all point towards an AI tool being used in some capacity, and it’s a real disappointment. Even If Tempest, Voltage’s previous console title, had no AI usage at all. So why start now? Voltage has been making otome for years; they’ve never needed it before!

It’s not only otome that AI is sneaking its way into. Catly caused a stir at the most recent Game Awards back in 2024, as it had a very clear AI-art look about it. They have denied the use of AI tech, but I’m not entirely convinced. There’s an entire corner of the internet that is creating games entirely using AI, and AI software dedicated to conceptualising, coding, and generating artwork for a game. As a creative person myself, it truly breaks my heart. How can you feel any sense of accomplishment from typing a couple of prompts into an AI?

It shouldn’t be controversial to say that you should have humans creating art. Video games are truly an art form, from the best of the best to the mediocre to the downright terrible. They have love poured into them by writers, coders, testers, artists, designers, musicians, the list goes on and on. When I finished Baldur’s Gate 3 a while ago, a game that is only about £15 more than Red Bell’s Lament, the credits went on for about half an hour. Every single one of those people contributed to make that game a reality. Replacing even something as simple as a background PNG with AI generated content just makes a game feel lazy, unloved and takes money away from the talented artists who make the games we love a reality. The fact that it looks crap doesn’t matter, because the execs have gotten a bigger pay check by not paying a real artist. Is that truly what we want?

I’ve taken Red Bell’s Lament off of my wish list. My search for a new otome after I finish 9 R.I.P. continues; I’d rather my money go to developers that are keeping human artists in work.