Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love- Review

Game: Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love-
Genre: Adventure, Visual Novel, Otome
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer | Publisher: Otomate | Aksys Games
Age Rating: US Teen | EU 12+
Price: US $49.99 | UK £44.99 | EU € 49,99
Release Date: March 26th, 2026

Review code used with many thanks to Reef Entertainment.

Might Makes Right

In the kingdom of Kayu, every citizen enjoys martial arts. The strong are revered, and there are a lot of people who hone their fighting skills every day. The Royal Palace sits at the heart of four districts, and every year, the Tournament of Valor is held there. The tournament is held to see who the strongest person in the country is.

Shunlin, our female main character in Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love-, lives in Kayu and is in training to become a Daoist priestess, just like her grandfather. A Daoshi is a job appointed by the king. They conduct rituals and burials to prevent corpses from becoming a jiangshi (an undead person). Shunlin attends the tournament this year, but mayhem breaks out when a horde of jiangshi attacks the spectators. Shunlin and her allies have to fight for their country, and along the way, they uncover all kinds of national secrets.

Fighting For Love

There are five routes to play in Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love-. Longli’s route is locked and will be unlocked after finishing the playable three routes. There is also a secret route that is unlocked after finishing Longli’s route, but the route is a diversion from Longli’s route, just like Henri’s was in Piofiore. The recommended soft route is: Yuhang or Shaowu -> Haoran -> Longli -> Secret Li.

Yuhang

He is an old childhood friend of Shunlin and Haoran. When they were younger, Yuhang moved to another district, and he never saw Shunlin again. Until the tournament, when they bumped into each other again. It’s fairly obvious from the beginning that he had a crush on Shunlin and still does. He gets easily embarrassed and tries to hide his feelings by making harsh comments.

Although I normally don’t love the childhood friends trope, I thought Yuhang’s crush and the way their relationship blossomed were well done. Yuhang was so adorable in his point of view, and I quickly started rooting for him. The plot of the route itself was a little predictable; I cared more for the relationship than the actual story.

Shaowu

He is the lone wolf of the LI’s, yet somehow he always shows up when there is trouble. Shaowu is a tall and very muscled presence who helped Shunlin out of a difficult situation. He is pretty mysterious, curt and is a great fighter. But when Shunlin gets to know him, we see a softer, kind side to him.

Honestly, I devoured this route in Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love-. When Shaowu, a handsome, big and strong man, tells me to come with him because he needs me, well… I will come with you then. Shunlin made it clear that she was attracted to Shaowu right away, and her internal dialogue about him made me laugh. The romance was sweet and very passionate. And to top it off, the story of the route was good as well and kept me glued to my Switch.

Haoran

Hoaran is the big brother figure to Shunlin. They have known each other since they were kids and have stayed together all that time. Hoaran is kind and gentle and is calm in any situation. He helps out at a restaurant where he boards a room for free. But we often find him at Shunlin’s house. He is trained in Martial arts by his master, Yiming. Hoaran has been training since he was little, but after an incident a few years prior, he only uses defensive tactics.

After Shaowu’s passionate romantic route, this route of Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love- had a slower pace. I have never been a big fan of the brother-sister-turned-love trope. So I was already expecting to like this route a little less. But it is still a good route in its own right, plot-wise and romance-wise.

Longli

He works at the palace, relatively close to the king and his son. Longli is very respected by the people around him. He is very well-mannered and very beautiful. Everyone always talks about how graceful and beautiful he is. Longli looks like he just sends guards to fight, and not all that muscled, but he can actually fight pretty well. Shunlin describes his fighting style as flowing water. Longli also fights for what is right and will use his influence to aid those he deems rightful.

I actually really liked Longli’s route and found that I had a hard time putting Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love- down. We only get to see the full extent of Longi’s influence and power in his own route, and before that have seen very little of him. Longli and Shunlin’s romance was adorable, and I smiled to myself through the whole route.

Visuals and Sound

The OP of Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love-, “Taisetsu na Anata e”, is such a bop, and they know it. They even made it the song that plays constantly in the main menu. It makes me giddy, and I am doing a little dance to it every time it starts playing.

The BGM also has quite a variety of songs. Sometimes I turn the background music off, because there are only three songs to listen to. But not this time. As someone who loves a good score, I especially enjoyed “Heart broken”, “I Love You!”, “With You” and “Otome Daoshi”.

The visuals are where Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love- truly shines. From the moment I first started the game, I was enamoured by the work that they put into Otome Daoshi. It has a lot of bright colours, different patterns on clothing and other items, and there is a lot of attention to detail. The game clearly takes place in China, they make that very clear by using Chinese characters, Chinese names and drawings of typical Chinese things like pandas, Norigae and lanterns.

A new addition to Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love- is the use of manga visuals. The game will then switch over to the story in the manga version. I can only imagine how much work creating this game visually must have been. I really want to mention the illustrator this time, Ayu Nekoi. Otome Daoshi got me excited about Otome again on visuals alone. A job very well done!

Overall Thoughts

Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love- overall has some really great selling points. The amazing visuals, great-looking characters and the music. I think one word that would describe this game is cute. The one thing I felt like was not up to par was the dialogue. It wasn’t badly written by any means, but I felt like it was written for a younger audience. The dialogue was very simple, and the plots were very predictable. If the goal for this game is to cater to a younger audience, then it’s understandable. It was unclear to me who the intended audience was, because the topics can be very adult, but the dialogue and storytelling come across a bit childish.

The Pros

The colourful and fun visuals throughout the game.
Stunning CGs.
The romance in all the routes was very good, and I was rooting for every Li.
Addition of the manga scenes.
Shiyu’s classroom, where they explain certain words with a manga-style infographic.
There is no bad ending. There is only a True love ending or a Romantic ending.

The Cons

Dialogue is a little childish, and the plot is predictable.
The mouths of the characters don’t move with the dialogue.
No flowchart or any indication of how many chapters the game had.
No love catch.

Conclusion for Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love-

I enjoyed playing Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love-. It has a lot of potential, but it could be so much better with a bit more grown-up dialogue. But I am sure any Otome game lover will still like Otoma Daoshi and find at least one Li they love. So in my book, I would definitely recommend Otome Daoshi -Fighting for love-.

Final verdict: I like it.