Monday, September 19, 2016

Oumagatoki ~Kakuriyo no Enishi~ - Review

 逢魔が刻 ~かくりよの縁~
Game: Oumagatoki ~Kakuriyo no Snoozefest~.
Genre: Otome game Visual Novel. 
Developer/Publisher: Extend.
Platform: PS Vita.
Release date: 2016-08-25.

Otome game from a new developer, I was skeptic but tried it out anyway.

For playorder I used one an amazonJP reviewer recommended
and I recommend you to do the same, as Tokiwa's route is spoilerific and
doing him first would ruin the enjoyment in the long run.

Playorder:
Souta > Yoimiya > Hayate > Tsukishiro > Tokiwa > True end

Oh and I love the OP movie, Hosoyan singing is beautiful, I can't bring me to skip it ever.


Pro's
 - Interesting setting and characters.
- Insanely pretty art.
- Charming BGM.

Con's
- Heroine.
- pacing.
- Can get boring at times/TL;DR etc.
- Not every route is worth sitting through.

The first play is by far the longest due to common route also there are many choices.
Give or take 10 hours? 2nd+ play its cut down to about 6-7.
It's great they took their time introducing everyone and the setting
 but sadly the way they executed it made it so boring and only dragged it out
which reminds me of older games for example those of Quinrose.
I don't have a problem with long games in fact i'd take them over the short ones
but I can't help but critize the execution in this game because some parts were just boring to sit through especially the common stuff, it contributed nothing to the characters at all
all it was was some ghostbusting beavers or wtf those things were, oh well it could've been worse.

The heroine is very average though and I had trouble understanding her at times.
Sadly the guys don't say her default name, disappointing after all the other
otome games I've recently played which had this feature.
 Since it was so long they atleast knew each other longer I guess but pacing is another matter
and well if the romance was any good honestly depended on the route.
The system? you can't save when a choice is present so have to do it before or after.
Also the controls are different, used to ''camp menus''? this doesn't have it.
Press square and hold left dpad to save, right dpad to load and down dpad to skip.
Lotus system is okay I guess don't have problem with it also nice of them to use the vita touch screen for it.
Anyway I am thankful for the skip to the next choice feature especially so
because it such a really long game so it definitely needed that and another good point it doesn't skip
passed unread text! I wish more games had this feature and rejet sure could learn from extend for this alone.
One minus point is the screen dimming during auto mode, ah otomate how you've spoiled me!

Overall despite some of the boring parts of the story and pacing issues atleast two of the romanceable
characters were worth pursuing for me, those being Hayate and Tokiwa, the rest just weren't worth it.
All of them were combat capable but for the most part the writing didn't execute it well...
Good thing is no matter the character the confession scenes were oh so sweet.
In the end this game kind of reminds me of Quinrose games
 that suffered from stretched out scenes, TL;DR and way too many romanceable guys, lol.
Did I like this game? sure but its not without flaws, I'm just glad atleast two routes were worth doing.
Sadly I couldn't even begin to care about Souta and Yoimiya, it felt like they
just gave us them as options when they had no idea how to properly fit them into the story.
Atleast Tsukishiro made sense but then again his voice plus dull route just put me to sleep. -_-
Hayate was an adorable cinnamon roll and Tokiwa? he's just a tsundere dork, these
two along with the pretty art made Oumagatoki worth a purchase to me but
I am going to think twice before purchasing an Extend game again this was just average at best.
5.5/10

More ramblings and possible spoilers after the jump.

The heroine Mio has a flashback in which she almost drowns and a mysterious black haired boy saves her.
Mio helps a student with some work after school and on her way home
 she gets spirited away to the realm of the dead, she gets into trouble with
some ghastly youkai yearning for fresh shoujo meat but don't worry Tokiwa saves her.
After that she meets various people and gets invited to a school called Chinju
where among other things they hunt down youkai.
Tsukishiro also helps Mio awaken her powers to see the truth of things...
Too bad half of the routes are pointles fodder and only one route was worth it story wise.

Wise words.
There is a normal ending at the end of the common route that
triggers if you don't activate enough flags with the guy of your choice, other than that
there are also if stories for each character that unlocks after you finish their routes.
The obvious true harem ending scenario unlocks after every route but I bet you already knew that.

Ishizue Souta.
CV: Ishikawa Kaito.
 
 Mio's classmate at Shinju campus and a friendly guy.
I can see why they recommend this route first because they barely touched upon some story aspect.
His route was a snooze fest, his personality didn't help because Souta was such a flirt and easy to read
but then again his route could also be seen as relaxing since it had many sweet moments.
This route in a nutshell...
As you can see Souta is a good kid, willing to protect the heroine no matter what
 and early on it quickly became obvious that Souta was into Mio. >_>
His confession as seen below was really sweet though, it really showed how much he loved Mio.
Souta: I don't like you because you are cute, I like you because you are you.
Everything else was meh though.
Believe it or not Souta's route was anything but interesting, i'm sorry Souta
I know you're a good guy but the story in your route made me fall a sleep.
Of course its rude to say nothing happened at all but it just happened in the least interesting way.
The ending was nice I guess but eh I can't see Souta as anyone but a good friend.
Also out of all the guys I often forget his name...
Romance ★☆☆☆☆
Plot ★☆☆☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★☆☆☆☆

 ~
Yoimiya.
CV: Takahashi Naozumi.
 
  A Teacher at Shinju campus, oh sensei PLS teach me everything!
Since this game is like 60% common and 40% individual it sure went by faster now.
So instead of Mio going after the other boys she pursues her lust for knowledge and goes to stalk her new teacher.
 ( Also FFS Mio control your kokoro! >///< )
So after Yoimiya fought some youkai he got injured, Mio is worried
so she goes to check up on him, now gets to see dat sexy back full of scars.
Anyway Yoimiya is the typical teacher who cares about his students so nothing new there.
Hmm in my opinion Yoimiya's route was more interesting than Souta's because it
actually went into Yoimiya's past which dealt with his sister and he's a bit emo about it all.
Yeah sorry excuse me for lack of better words.
Later on they had to fight some youkai who causes some explosions
and it was so sweet how Yoimiya protected Mio from them. T~T
Wait he's not doing this because she remindsh im of his sister or is he???
 Also the scene when Yoimiya came to visit Mio at night because he just had to see her was cute.
I d'awwwed at this scene... it was so touching.
The ending was fine it had a surprising turn of events compared to the last route!
Though I have to say this route confused me more than anyone elses
and I am not sure if that was good or bad, oh well whatever can you do?
Even tho i'm not a student-teacher person I'd say his route was decent but like Souta's route
I just couldn't get into it and if I had to be really honest Yoimiya isn't the type of guy I'd wanna romance.
As for his seiyuu he did a surprisingly good job, I don't hear him often and I wouldn't mind 
if he got more roles but next time I hope he doesn't almost sound like koji yusa cuz he sure did to me.
(I am referring to characters like Chouryuu)
So yeah overall another meh route... sigh is there any hope left?
 Romance ★☆☆☆☆
Plot ★★☆☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★☆☆☆
~
 Hayate.
CV: Hosoya Yoshimasa.
 Hayate is a precious cinnamon roll too good and pure for this world.
He's gentle, reserved and he pretty much stole my heart early on when he
 vowed to protect the heroine since she is defenseless most of the time.
He has trouble communicating with others so Mio helps him out a lot.
This leads to hilarious situation since one day when Mio wakes up he even sleeps right next to her.
 Mio and Hayate had such great chemistry..  maybe they're just meant to be.
Also a bit later there was a hilarious scene where Hayate couldn't stand Tokiwa casually
touching Mio and ordered him to let go, Tokiwa being all like wtf  man I didn't do anything wrong.
Thankfully Mio stopped them before things escalated. XD
  Mio also starts to realize how Hayate resembles the student she helped before she got spirited away
well I won't spoil it but let's say it didn't turn out the way I expected it to but still a great twist.
So beautiful...
Hayate is just so precious, he acts child like because he doesn't know a lot of things so
Souta has to explain a lot of things to him leading to even more hilarious situation and all that is
what makes him even more adorable to me and his confession as seen below was just beautiful.
 This route had many amazing scenes but I feel like I shouldn't mention them all.
 When Mio got hurt near the end of the route Hayate was so worried that he was willing to do
whatever to protect her in the future no matter what which was so sweet of him. T_T
Hayate has the most enjoyable route by far, I am completely smitten.
My Precious...
Also the writing was completely biased to Hayate especially the last bit of the best end.
Now I honestly feel bad for choosing anyone but Hayate..
However for the sake of the truth I must press on. /feelsbadman
 Romance ★★★★★
Plot ★★★☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★★★☆
~
  Tsukishiro.
Suwabe Junichi.
  Another white haired suwabe character! he just can't help himself! its natural at this point, lol.
 Tsukishiro is a sexy beast, he sorta reminds me of Tomoe from Kamisama Hajimemashita
 and can be as sly as a fox can be! Also whatever this guy is smoking must be really good.
At the end of Hayate route it was pretty obvious he wanted the heroine for himself, lol.
That's exactly what this route was trying to do.
 Memorable moments were when he used his magic and showed Mio the beautiful sights of the
cherry blossom trees and also when the two of them went into town, it was nice to see Tsukishiro
 enjoy himself but ofcourse Tokiwa had to run into him with his sour face, no way he wasn't jealous.
There was of course more but eh I don't have the energy since this route drained me of just that
because it was pretty boring overall like most route in this game.
 Tsukishiro is busy enough owning the shrine and dealing with the responsibilities that come with it
and in a way he may be creepy but not to worry for the most part he was just testing the heroine.
As per usual the confession scene was spot on, Tsukishiro is no exception.
The route in general was okay I guess, it went by slower to me but it wasn't necessarily longer.
Anyway even though I wanted to enjoy this route more I just couldn't.
Suwabe sure can sound sexy and stuff but half of the time the voice he used here + bgm
 just put me into ''want to sleep mode'' so it should be obvious I didn't really enjoy this route.
Sadly as much as I love bishies with animal ears and tail, Tsukishiro just wasn't quite my type
because he's just a lewd Tomoe who wants is to hump the heroine or devour her since she has special powers. -_-
 Romance ★★☆☆☆
Plot ★★☆☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★☆☆☆
  ~
 Tokiwa.
CV: Saitou Soma.
 A moody detective, calling you a baka every odd sentence, yeah he's definitely a tsundere.
Why am I so weak for characters like Tokiwa... the route hadn't even started yet
 and I was already head over heals for him, it was no mistake to save him for last.
 Because of his pissy attitude its obvious our heroine gets the wrong idea
but its not before long Tokiwa goes all like its not like i'm mad or anything!
 Before you know it Tokiwa let's his guard down and Mio comes into his house while he's asleep!
Ahahaha... this route has been nothing but a goldmine and it hasn't even officially started.
 So one day Mio runs into Tokiwa at the cafe and he's like Y are U here?!
and so Mio finds out what the usual thing he orders is, Tokiwa is quite the sweets lover! hmhm.
 Oh and that one scene where Tokiwa had a talk with Mio in her room and someone came to check
on Mio, the two of them hided under the sheets because oh noes if someone ever found out, lmao.
 You may have already guessed it but Tokiwa is the boy who ''saved'' Mio.
Anyway shit happened and he ended up in the other world, he hides that he's actually a human.
We already knew from Hayate's route that Mio once visited this world before thats
because she almost died but Tokiwa... simple put made a deal with the devil to save her.
 His confession was really sweet, he had trouble saying it at first which made it extra sweet.
I gotta say that liked how everyone came together to fight ''the last boss'', sasuga main character.
Though if I had to be honest I prefer Tokiwa's good end over his best ending because
his best ending just left me yearning for more scenes with this tsundere dork, lmao.
 Tokiwa's route was the most interesting out of all the routes in this game and it also spoils a lot
of details so I have literally no regrets of doing him last, this route also had the most bad ends, lol.
Like Hayate's route it also had so many great scenes and it even manages to top it in terms of story.
Tokiwa is clearly the main character, Hayate comes real close though!
Sigh if only every guy had such a well rounded route as Hayate and Tokiwa... its such a shame really.
 Romance ★★★★☆
Plot ★★★☆☆
 Enjoyment overall ★★★★☆
~

Favourite route:
Tokiwa & Hayate >  Tsukishiro > Yoimiya > Souta.
Whoops is my bias showing sorry!
 Souta's definitely last on my list because not only had he they most boring route
 his personality was so one-note that even Yoimiya and Tsukishiro managed to outshine Souta.
Hayate and Tokiwa had the most enjoyable routes, its almost as if the writer focused on
these two first and then decided to make routes for the rest because its an otome game after all
since we obviously need variety in love interests, honestly its kinda sad but when I look
back at this game I couldn't care less about routes that are not Hayate and Tokiwa.

Favourite character:
Hayate > Tokiwa > Tsukishiro > Yoimiya / Souta.
For characters Hayate is definitely my favourite!
 Tokiwa came close but Hayate is just such a precious little cinnamon roll. T~T
Honestly though I can't see Souta as anything but a friend and Yoimiya as nothing more than teacher.
Tsukishiro? eh he's just a lewd beast and a bit of a troll but his character was better than
Yoimiya and Souta thats for sure.

Final Thoughts.
 Hmm where to begin? the art was super pretty, the bgm had its charms and the seiyuu did a good job.
Characters all were interesting in their own way but the way some of their routes was executed
leaves much to be desired, looking at you Souta, Yoimiya and Tsukishiro. (눈_눈)
There were some boring parts and pacing issues throughout but overall
 I guess I can say I liked this game even though it has many issues.
Some routes were just less interesting in general than others but what can you do?
You know what this game was lacking? comedy! ofcourse there were plenty of ''fun'' moments
which were mostly in Hayate and Tokiwa's route but that is just not enough.
The playorder I had worked out perfectly since doing Tokiwa first
would have spoiled everything and made me care even less about characters like Souta.
I also think there were too many love interests for me to care about but its an
otome game and there got to be variety, sadly I don't think the writer tried because
this game sure was biased towards two particular characters! (those being Hayate and Tokiwa)

Anyway if you're a fan of older otome games which are known to be long and love ayakashi settings
and can stand Mary Sues then i'm sure you can appreciate Oumagatoki ~Kakuriyo no Enishi~ but
if you prefer short&sweet that are to the point you may want to avoid this game thats for sure.
For scoring... I am honestly unsure but I think 6/10 is fair enough because I only liked what?
2 out of 5 routes after all and there are many issues as well, though I still think I am too lenient.
Also as much as I liked this game I don't think I will buy extend's next game though
since the setting for Sidekicks is giving me SA7 vibes the heroine is even a precog! >_>
If Oumagatoki got a FD I'd surely look into it for Hayate's sake but ATM I have my doubts
it will get one and even then they better fix the issues because its not an excuse to have 5 routes
and only 2 are story relevant, seriously 3 out of 5 routes felt like pure filler no matter
how I think about it and thats bad, maybe 7 or 10 years ago this would've been okay but times change.
Also after I played this game I realize SA7(Silent Abilty Seven) is also one of those otome games
that would have been more acceptable 7 years ago but now that we actually have
otome games with proactive heroines and well thought out stories/character routes that are all
worth the read Oumagatoki Kakuriyo no Enishi and SA7 feel really old school in comparison. >_>


Characters ★★☆☆☆
(When there's only two characters you can truly care about you know something is wrong.)
Art  ★★★★★(No complaints.)
Scenario/plot. ★★☆☆☆(It had potential but in some cases they wasted it.😴)
Music★★☆☆☆ (Nothing special...)
System  ★★☆☆☆ (Could be easier to use...)
Enjoyment overall ★★★☆☆
TL;DR don't bother unless one of your fav seiyuus is here... or are interested in Tokiwa/Hayate.

No comments:

Post a Comment