Angelique (アンジェリーク, Anjerīku) is Japanese otome game series, and a media franchise based on this game series. There are various OVAs, Drama CDs, Music CDs and Anime series, developed along with the base game, or broadcast on TV channels, etc. The series has continued since 1994 until today. The latest version of the series is Angelique Luminarise released in 2021.[1]
Angelique | |
![]() The Angelique series logo. |
Angelique | |
![]() Angelique Limoges (left) and Rosalia de Catargena (right), the Image on Super Famicom Cartridge surface of Angelique 1994. | |
アンジェリーク (Anjeri-ku) | |
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Genre | Otome, strategy, simulation |
Game | |
Angelique | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI, NEC Home Electronics |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Platform | Super Famicom, |
Released |
|
Game | |
Angelique Voice Fantasy | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI, NEC Home Electronics |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Platform | Super Famicom, |
Released |
|
Game | |
Angelique Special | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Platform | NEC PC-FX, PC, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation |
Released |
|
Game | |
Angelique Special 2 | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Platform | NEC PC-FX, PC, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation |
Game | |
Angelique Duet | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Platform | Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo DS |
Released |
|
Game | |
Angelique Trois | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Game | |
Angelique Etoile | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Game | |
Angelique: Tenkuu no Requiem | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, mini games |
Platform | Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, NEC PC-FX |
Game | |
Sweet Ange | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, simulation |
Platform | Game Boy Color |
Game | |
Fushigi no Kuni no Angelique | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, board game, dating sim |
Game | |
Angelique: Maren no Roku Kishi | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | Idea Factory |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Platform | PlayStation Portable |
Game | |
Angelique Retour | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Platform | PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita |
Released |
|
Game | |
Angelique Luminarise | |
Developer | Ruby Party |
Publisher | KOEI |
Genre | Otome, dating sim, visual novel |
Platform | Nintendo Switch |
Released |
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The first game was released in 1994 on Super Famicom. This is the first otome game (dating sim for women) known in the world.[2] Angelique series is also the first otome game series of the Neo Romance series by Ruby Party.[3] At this point, the game series are only in Japanese.
The basic lore of the series is built around a Queen who fairly and wisely rules a Universe. By balancing elemental forces with the help of nine Guardians, she keeps the various planets in her domain stable and her people content. However, the powers of the Queen and the Guardians fade over time, and successors must be appointed. In the first game Angelique, the protagonist is a 17-year-old girl named Angelique Limoges who has been chosen by the current Queen and her aide Dia as one of two candidates from the Royal Smallney Girls' Academy to become the next Queen. She is transported to the Flying City to begin her final examination.
Each of the candidates is given a land to populate. Whoever finishes populating their land first wins and becomes the next Queen. It is done with the help of nine Guardians who use their powers to make the people of the candidate's land happy, or to devastate their rival's lands. Along the way, the candidates become friends with the Guardians and can fall in love. If they choose love, they forfeit their chance to become Queen, but will live happily ever after.
The story expands in later titles, but most entries in the series feature girls named Angelique or its short form name (Enju or Ange) as the protagonist, with ever larger casts of characters. The roster of potential love interests swells to 19 characters in later titles (in Angelique Trois and Angelique Etoile).
Through the Angelique series games, the story begins with some crisis of the Universe, or some troubles in the Universe. To resolve a crisis or troubles, one girl is selected who will become a savior of these crisis or troubels.
Player (you) takes a role of this girl. In the first game Angelique, a player becomes a candidate for a new queen who will be a savior of the universal crisis. Player is asked to complete her mission or task in the course of game playing. If the player complete her mission in the scheduled period, before her rival candidate will complete the mission, player will win and become a new queen.
But while trying to complete the given mission or task, player necessarily needs some helps from the nine guardians, who know and control the spiritual powers of the universe. Player needs to win their favour. Because if they don't favor you, they won't help you. To win favor from the guardians, player (you) should properly work in your mission. Thus, the guardians may favor you.
And when you win favor of the guardians and the male characters, you will be able to better perform your task, and at the same time, you are capable to establish romantic relations with some male characters. At this point, there are two options for you. Working best in your mission with the helps of guardians, you can defeat your rival, and become a new queen. The other option is to fall in love with one of your favourite male characters. If your love is fulfilled, your rival will become a new queen. But you may win the love.
These are two typical endings in this game.
In the other games of this series, there is no rival, and you should perform your mission alone. While trying to complete your mission or task, the same situations take place. To perform your task, you need helps of guardians and male characters, and you should win favor of them. In this case, there are typically two endings like the first game:
There are many candidates of love romance. Typically, nine guardians are all possible target of your love. There are at least ten endings. But there are other endings as well, where both the mission and the romance may be broken. The number of endings is over 10 to 30.
The most interesting and difficult points of this game series are that there are many combinations of how to win favor from the guardians and how to complete the task. Sometimes the former and the latter are contradictory, yet you need the both to achieve good endings.
The major characters appeared in the otome games: Angelique 1994,[4] 1995 (Special),[5] Angelique Special 2 1995,[6][7] Angelique Trois 2000,[8][9] Angelique Etoile 2003,[10][11][12] and Angelique Luminarise (Anmina) 2021.[13]
Legend:
Name | Version | Position | Role | Universe | Age | Voiced by |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Angelique Limoges (アンジェリーク・リモージュ) | Angelique | Protagonist | Candidate for 256th queen | Original | 17 | (no voice) |
Special 2 | - | 256th Queen of the universe | Yuri Shiratori | |||
3rd Trois | - | |||||
4th Etoile+ | - | 256th Queen of the Shinchō | Shinchō | |||
Rosalia de Catargena (ロザリア・デ・カタルヘナ) | Angelique | Rival | Candidate for 256th queen | Original | 17 | Kotono Mitsuishi |
Special 2 | - | Aide of the queen Limoges | ||||
3rd Trois | - | |||||
4th Etoile+ | - | Shinchō | ||||
Julious (ジュリアス) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the light | Original | 25 | Shō Hayami |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile+ | Shinchō | |||||
Clavis (クラヴィス) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the darkness | Original | 25 | Kaneto Shiozawa |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile+ | Shinchō | |||||
Luva (ルヴァ) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the earth | Original | 26 | Toshihiko Seki |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile+ | Shinchō | |||||
Oscar (オスカー) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the fire | Original | 22 | Kenyū Horiuchi |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile+ | Shinchō | |||||
Lumiale (リュミエール) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the water | Original | 21 | Nobuo Tobita |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile | Shinchō | |||||
Olivie (オリヴィエ) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the dream | Original | 22 | Takehito Koyasu |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile+ | Shinchō | |||||
Randy (ランディ) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the wind | Original | 18 | Nobutoshi Canna |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile+ | Shinchō | |||||
Zephel (ゼフェル) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the steel | Original | 17 | Mitsuo Iwata |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile+ | Shinchō | |||||
Marcel (マルセル) | Angelique | Target | Guardian of the green | Original | 14 | Hiro Yūki |
Special 2 | ||||||
3rd Trois | ||||||
4th Etoile+ | Shinchō | |||||
Angelique (アンジェリーク) | Angelique | - | 255th Queen of the universe | Original | 21 | Masako Katsuki |
Dia (ディア) | Angelique | - | Aide of the queen Angelique | Original | 21 | Atsuko Tanaka |
Name | Version | Position | Role | Universe | Age | Voiced by |
Angelique Collet (アンジェリーク・コレット) | Special 2 | Protagonist | Candidate for new universe queen | Original | 17 | (no voice) |
3rd Trois | Protagonist | 1st Queen of new universe | (no voice) | |||
4th Etoile+ | - | 1st Queen of the Seijū | Seijū | Yoko Asada | ||
Rachel Hart (レイチェル・ハート) | Special 2 | Rival | Candidate for new universe queen | Original | 16 | Miki Nagasawa |
3rd Trois | - | Aide of the queen Collet | ||||
4th Etoile+ | - | Seijū | ||||
Alphonsia [14] (アルフォンシア) | Special 2 | - | The will of new universe | New universe | - | - |
3rd Trois | (Mysterious Elda) | |||||
Etoile [15] | (Male form spirit) | Seijū | 16 | Mitsuru Miyamoto[16] | ||
Elda (エルダ) | 3rd Trois | - | The missed one (Sealed spirit) [17] | New universe | - | - |
Leonard (レオナード) | 4th Etoile+ | Target | Guardian of the light | Seijū | 27 | Rikiya Koyama |
Francis (フランシス) | 4th Etoile+ | Target | Guardian of the darkness | Seijū | 23 | Tomokazu Sugita |
Victor (ヴィクトール) | Special 2 | Target | Tutor of the spirit | Original | 31 | Fumihiko Tachiki |
3rd Trois | 34 | |||||
4th Etoile+ | Guardian of the earth | Seijū | 34 | |||
Charlie Won (チャーリー) | Special 2 | Target | Collaborator | Original | 23 | Mitsuaki Madono |
3rd Trois | 26 | |||||
4th Etoile+ | Guardian of the fire | Seijū | 26 | |||
Timka (ティムカ) | Special 2 | Target | Tutor of the dignity | Original | 13 | Atsushi Kisaichi |
3rd Trois | 16 | |||||
4th Etoile+ | Guardian of the water | Seijū | 16 | |||
Mel (メル) | Special 2 | Target | Collaborator | Original | 15 | Yumi Tōma |
3rd Trois | 18 | |||||
4th Etoile+ | Guardian of the dream | Seijū | 18 | |||
Heuye (ユーイ) | 4th Etoile+ | Target | Guardian of the wind | Seijū | 17 | Daisuke Namikawa |
Ernst (エルンスト) | Special 2 | Target | Collaborator | Original | 27 | Toshiyuki Morikawa |
3rd Trois | 30 | |||||
4th Etoile+ | Guardian of the steel | Seijū | 30 | |||
Sei-lan (セイラン) | Special 2 | Target | Tutor of the sensibility | Original | 19 | Tetsuya Iwanaga |
3rd Trois | 22 | |||||
4th Etoile+ | Guardian of the green | Seijū | 22 | |||
Arios (アリオス) | 3rd Trois | Target | Mysterious man | Original | 28 | Ken Narita |
4th Etoile+ | Shadow of the queen (Collet) | Unknown | ||||
Name | Version | Position | Role | Universe | Age | Voiced by |
Ange (Enju) Sakaki (エンジュ・サカキ) | 4th Etoile | Protagonist | Legendary Etoile | Both universes | 17 | (no voice) |
Etoile_anim | Yōko Honna | |||||
Constantan (タンタン) | 4th Etoile+ | - | Spirit of the monolith | Both universes | ? | - |
Conrad (コンラッド) | 4th Etoile | - | Captain of space-ship | Seijū | 46 | - |
Sacrea no seirei (サクリアの精霊) | Etoile_anim | - | Spirit of the sacrea | Seijū | ? | Akimitsu Takase / Eri Ōno |
Moira (モイラ) | Etoile_anim | - | Cosmic mind of Ange | Seijū | ? | Yōko Honna |
Name | Version | Position | Role | Universe | Age | Voiced by |
Ange (アンジュ) | Anmina | Protagonist | Candidate for new queen | Reikyō [18] | 25 | (no voice) |
Reina (レイナ) | Anmina | Rival | Candidate for new queen | Reikyō | 25 | Ryōko Shiraishi |
Yue (ユエ) | Anmina | Target | Guaridian of the light | Reikyō | 25 | Shimba Tsuchiya |
Noah (ノア) | Anmina | Target | Guardian of the darkness | Reikyō | 22 | Hiroki Nanami |
Lorenzo (ロレンツォ) | Anmina | Target | Guaridian of the earth | Reikyō | 30 | Ryōta Takeuchi |
Shuri (シュリ) | Anmina | Target | Guardian of the fire | Reikyō | 27 | Takuya Satō |
Kanata (カナタ) | Anmina | Target | Guardian of the water | Reikyō | 18 | Takeo Ōtsuka |
Felix (フェリクス) | Anmina | Target | Guardian of the dream | Reikyō | 25 | Yūto Uemura |
Vergil (ヴァージル) | Anmina | Target | Guardian of the wind | Reikyō | 27 | Yū Miyazaki |
Xeno (ゼノ) | Anmina | Target | Guardian of the steel | Reikyō | 19 | Nobunaga Shimazaki |
Milan (ミラン) | Anmina | Target | Guardian of the green | Reikyō | 26 | Shōhei Komatsu |
Cyrus (サイラス) | Anmina | - | Butler | Reikyō - | 28 | Yūki Ono |
Taira (タイラー) | Anmina | - | Chief of Royal Institute | Reikyō | 25 | Fumiya Imai |
At this point (May 2022), the game series have been released only in Japanese except for Chinese PC version of the first game in 1994. KOEI does not deny to release the games in other language(s) than Japanese. But for the realization of release(s), the existence of enough demand shall be shown.
There are 4 OVA series:
Angelique Limoges and Rosalia de Catargena have been chosen as candidates in a Queen Examination - a test to see who is better qualified to be the next Queen of the universe. For this special examination, both girls are given their own continent on a planet. The girls must raise the continents into thriving civilizations and environments. Nine Guardians (who control various spiritual elements, such as fire, wind, and water) have been chosen to help the girls raise their continents during the Queen Examination.
There was a Koi Suru Tenshi Angelique series (25 episodes) from 2006 to 2007.
Keiko Erikawa established the woman-based game developing team in the middle of 1980s. This resulted in the birth of team Ruby Party and the first otome game Angelique in 1994.[32][33][34]
The Angelique series greatly promoted and produced the development of otome games and their franchise markets.[32][33]
The Angelique games sold than 850,000 copies in 2020.[35] Koei-Tecmo has reported that sales of the 2021 game, Angelique Luminarise, in the 30,000s in Japan and Asia in the first quarter of 2021 (April to June).[36] According to Teitengame.com, the sales ranking of Angelique Luminarise is 132nd, and its total sales in 2021 were 14,506.[37]
Neo Romance series is the otome game series developed by the women-based group Ruby Party in KOEI.[3]
Angelique and Neo Angelique | |||||||||
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Angelique |
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Neo Angelique |
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