Censorship in Otome Games: Exclusive Interview with Espoir du Vide
The otome community is facing turbulent times as censorship and corporate interference threaten indie creators and their stories. To discuss these challenges, as well as the joy of games and characters, we sat down with Espoir du Vide, a passionate YouTube creator known for her engaging playthroughs of visual novels.
We go into more detail about the recent censorships and Master Card/Visa drama here, so make sure you catch up on that beforehand.
Table of Contents
Who is Espoir du Vide
Espoir du Vide: “Sure! I am Espoir du Vide and on my YouTube channel I love to play visual novels that I mostly get from itch.io and Steam and usually with obsessive yandere love interests. When I read I like to voice act the characters, like even the men I try. I try my best. And I generally like to create a fun time for my viewers with meme references and inserts to old movie clips, cause I’m an old lady. And I also like to keep things just funny and lighthearted, cause you know that dealing with yandere can be a really dark topic. I like just making things fun.”
On Creating Content
Espoir du Vide: “So this video isn’t my usual style, but I had a lot of fun ranking the scariest visual novel characters that I’ve encountered. Like one is a lovestruck, brain-eating amoeba. One is a possessive doctor vampire. And then one guy’s like shockingly normal, but he’s the scariest of them all. It was really fun to sit down and brainstorm, “okay, which one of these visual novel characters would I truly have no chance of beating?” I think it’s called that my top 11 scariest visual novel characters. So that was a ton of fun to make. And I really want to make another video similar to that one.”
Why Otome Games?
Espoir du Vide: “Aside from what we just were talking about, how you can take your experiences and feelings and project that into a game and then other people will see that game and go, “hey, I felt that way too”. That kind of experience you can only really get from games.
So honestly, for the longest time, I hated visual novels. Cause back when I was little and the internet wasn’t very big, and anime wasn’t that big. So anytime I saw a visual novel, it would just be aimed at men who wanted to romance a harem of big chested anime girls. And I was like, “I don’t really like visual novels.” And I had no idea that Otome games were even a thing.
At the time, they were either too expensive for me or in Japanese, like not localized in my country at all. And like, when I started my channel, I had no idea what I wanted to do with it. Like I started out with Minecraft because everybody starts with mine.”
On Censorship and Creative Freedom
Espoir du Vide: “If there’s one thing I love about indie visual novels that I’ve played, it’s when I can tell that a character or a story has kind of lived with the developer for a long time. Like these characters are OCs that the developer has had since they were kids or something. And these characters have morphed into something that the developer now puts in a game to introduce to all of us. Like this story existed long before they made the game. They’re introducing us to these characters who have been lovingly crafted from their own experiences.
And the stories they want to tell aren’t always neat or ad friendly. So I love when devs put their hearts into a game. And it’s such a shame that games like this would be labeled dangerous because yeah, the world is pretty cool, but sometimes it sucks. And advertisers don’t want you to know that the world sucks, because they want to sell you something on top of it. It’s just stories like that being censored and even being called dangerous, it really silences people’s voices and silences their forms of expression. So that’s what I’m mostly worried about.”
Looking Ahead
Espoir du Vide: “I’m pretty hopeful. It could be because my name is Hope in French, I think things can turn out well. Collective Shout has brought a lot of attention to themselves and just how easily powerful and corruptible credit card companies can be. And now that everybody knows this, knowing is half the battle. They’ve exposed themselves.
And now people who are angry enough to make a change can start making that change. It’s really brought together writers, artists, developers, content creators, and gamers. So that makes me pretty happy. And it doesn’t matter where in the world you are. People now see the importance of art and stories and games. It’s like human nature. And it’s not something that should be censored.”
Espoir du Vide’s words remind us that behind every otome game is not just code and art, but heart, hope, and lived experience. As the community continues to face challenges from censorship and corporate overreach, her optimism shines through, a reminder that stories matter, and that creative voices will always find a way to be heard. In the end, it is that spark of hope that keeps the otome community thriving, no matter the obstacles ahead.
We’d like to thank Espoir du Vide for joining us, and for anyone reading, please check out her amazing channel.
You may also like this
Twisted Wonderland Tsum Tsum: Everything You Need to Know
The enchanting world of Twisted Wonderland is making a grand appearance as the beloved Tsum Tsum collectables. Whether you’re a enthusiastic Tsum Tsum collector Twisted...
Let’s Misbehave! Glitz, Grit, and Dangerous Romance
Step back into the roaring 1920s, where smoky speakeasies, glittering jazz halls, and dangerous romances collide. In this special feature, we sat down with the...
New Feature: Play in Browser
Exciting news! We’ve just added Ren’Py and Unity support to our website, and now you can enjoy playable web builds of your favorite visual novels...
