Kyoto Xanadu The Blooming Phantom - Review

The irregular at xanadu highschool.

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Falcom.
Platform: PS5,Switch,PC.
Official Site: https://www.falcom.co.jp/kyoxana/

Release date: 16-07-2026

 

Kyoto Xanadu is set in the same world as Tokyo Xanadu

but I found it rather entry level and its able to stand on its own.

The story is very self-contained, nothing this game covers requires prior knowledge. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself.

 

Pro's

- Proactive and Witty protagonist.

- Great cast of characters.

- Interesting mix of 2D/3D gameplay.

 

Grey Area 

- Day to Day stuff can get a bit stale.

- Halfdubbed.

- The game ending feels like a teaser and it kinda just ends. 

 

Con's

 - Requests were bland&boring.

- Bond events have no final episode.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 Rei the protagonist gets transferred into a new school after a heist of sorts.
Storywise it sure has some interesting hooks like, its decent for what it tried.

I was more interested in what Rei was even doing in the beginning  which wasn't

cleared up till much later. Rei can be a bit of a smartass but more often than not

ends up being treated like some clown by his new schoolmates.

Not that he lets that get to him but he was very much a teenager. 

I wish the localization a very good luck and I can't help but I worry Rei will be nerved

in english. The crap Rei says sometimes makes me go my dude, you for real. 

 Linon isn't really much of a focus early on but there's a time and place for her.

Not sure if I should be happy or sad I called some stuff but even if you

don't the story will click midway chapter 4 all the pieces fit.

--- 

Story progress felt rather slow and a lot of it felt like build up while getting

to know new faces and gaining... better notoriety or worsen it. You know how Rei is... 

The first chapter was slow and mostly a tutorial, the xanadu sections were

bite-sized so it took a while to get going, this is fair but tbh it never really got crazy.

--- 

There are many side characters and it will vary who catches your eye, most didn't really

 stand out to me except Leah. The VP guy who seemed supportive and nice... compared to the

president himself who was very get on my level ''hmph!'' I'd rather hang with Ren at the arcade.😔

I was kinda interested in Shu too... but I don't think we should worry about him

yea he's that guy you shouldn't worry about.
There's also this Crow look-a-like Kyouya but... he just comes and goes.
Much like Crow in CS1 I suppose.💀 He's chill but he can go hard.

None of the story really wowed me till chapter 3 where things move into a more

interesting direction but other than that I just had no idea where any of it would go.

 

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Gameplay; The mix of 2d and 3d was well done and I generally liked

the sidescrolling dungeon parts of the game. It was a smooth experience.😌

Bosses were in 3d but they were about as good as in the Ys games.

I didn't really understand why there was a need to switch? but okay I guess.

I'll admit that it was hard to lock onto the smaller enemies which was annoying. 

 The school stuff was okay, its just that the day to day stuff got stale quickly.

Like just going through the motions.

It was kinda annoying how the phantom flask could break since this would

more often than not force you out of the dungeon for that day but okay

rome wasn't build in a day! what was worse than that was trying to remember

which teleporter goes to which. This got especially bad in the 3rd layer.💀

Everything else was relatively smooth, i'll admit the gates and statues got repetitive. 

 ---

 I liked the VN-style story-telling! and it wasn't bad at all.

its smart because the characters don't move a lot anyway

while conveying the story and emotions of the characters.

I can understand this game's presentation can feel kinda cheap due to this. 

It can seem like a downgrade to Tokyo Xanadu which was like Coldsteel 3/4. 

    Its pretty clear to me that they were on a budget but none of this was done poorly.

Its also clear to me all the budget went into the sky remakes and this game is just what it is. 

Graphics were fine and the music was pretty great, I have no complaints in those areas.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

  The game was fairly straight-forward. While it follows a calendar system

like trails or persona there weren't really any deadlines nor are there

any sidequests instead there's 3 specific people that can give requests.

You get a trophy for doing it 10 times each... which is an achievment alright.💀 

These requests are really simple; find this missing person, kill enemies or find those items.

I got tired of them by the 3rd time I had got those requests. They had no flavor and were bland.

There's not much to do when not exploring Xanadu so any progression comes natural.

There was more than enough time to explore xanadu or chat with friends. 

You simply go to school do some card game for points to unlock stuff on the skill tree

and hang out with friends maybe but those events felt barebones. 

I sometimes found myself locked from progressing Xanadu like for example in chapter 3

you get to explore the 3rd layer and while you can enter the 4th its impossible

to get anywhere due to missing something that made further progress impossible.

There's some parts in earlier layers that can't be accessed till later too like a part of

layer 1that can only be accessed via a yellow teleporter. 

--- 

I played on easy, which was second out of four difficulties sorry I don't remember the

difficulty names. Maybe I should've played on normal but for some reason I picked the 2nd.

If you want more balance or challenge I recommend the 3rd or 4th difficulties.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Overall.

I'd say it is a fine game! but I wasn't that hyped to get through it.

It took me 35 hours to finish Kyoto Xanadu.

 I liked the sidescrolling dungeon parts more than the school stuff.

    and the characters were far more interesting than the overall plot.💀

The day to day stuff felt very standard and I found it sad that its half dubbed but its

falcom so its pretty much a standard for them; to hear a full voiced line and then crickets.

(Or for the MC to be silent and the other guy to speak instead. Oh well you get used to it!)

That aside there were plenty of CG's, including a groupshot I found the selection

of CG images to be more varied than Utaware P&P rediscovered.

The characters were mostly great. The cast overall was varied from characters

with darker skintones to being not as skinny or having a handicap.

Not all chara's were as story relevant but they made the town feel alive

like if you were free after school you could hang with them.😌

It didn't feel like I absolutely had to hang out with them so my focus was on

the party members as well as that shy glasses guy, Kyoya and Ren. There were times

where I had to pick some rando to use FP on since no one else was available.

By the time of ch4 I started to question the whole bond system since most

already naturally form during the story. So it felt like its just busywork.😓

There also aren't any final events, imagine you maxing out the final rank and it just ends

yea that was a little disappointing there wasn't even anything else. 

I found it to be overall a slowpaced game. It picks itself up starting from chapter 3

but even then it was still the irregular at xanadu highschool till midway ch4

and it returns to being like that once more in chapter 5. 

I did want to get to know the characters better so I kept playing.

Nothing was too deep it felt like I was scratching the surface of something.

This game was basically a trails game in disguise. 😅💀

I also kept wondering if there was going to be a Rion or Goro but no one else joined

outside of the initial crew. I'd love to have Leah,Kyoya or Shu join. As well as Ren...

however unless there is some sort of Ex+ version, that isn't happening in this game.

The sad part about Kyoto Xanadu is that it left me with an is that really it feeling?

Sure its able to tell the story of Rei and Otoha which was good but hmm...

I think this is what happens when you bake a cake but the other half isn't ready

so they cut it off.  You get a cake alright, its just not the whole thing.

8/10

If I was harsh i'd probably rate it a little lower but the characters were great

which leads to me giving it an 8/10 instead of a 6.5 or 7/10. 

===

 

TL;DR I recommend it mostly for the sidescrolling style gameplay and the characters

but the narrative is a bit of a slowburn. I didn't find the story to be outstanding or

atleast not right away. It peaked for me in chapter 4 and thought some of it was well done

but the fact remains that Kyoto Xanadu ends when it feels like it only just began.

 

More rambles after the jump, I've decided to keep charactter rambles there

because my rambles include spoilers, not all but there's some.

So if you don't want any then just stop reading here. 

Kimi Ni Madoi Kimi Ni Oboreru - Review

His and her circumstances.

 Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site:https://www.otomate.jp/kiminimadoi/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v60966

Release date: 30-07-2026

  

This otome game has omegaverse elements, I know not much of this

and ended up treating it like any other otome game. Which it actually is.

I like the aesthetics and one of my new favorite seiyuu's were in this.

As well as Joe being an assistant director/supervisor.

I'm not sure about the actual director as they seem new but... they may be okay. 

Another note is that some of the writers for 9.R.I.P and Honey Vibes worked on this game. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pro's

- Great cast of characters & group dynamic.

Gorgeous art and music worthy buying the OST for.

- Neither too short or too long.

- Proper use of flashbacks. 

 

Grey Area

- Light in tone but has heavy undertones.

- Mature, sensitive contents.

- Doing all routes could seem repetitive but is still relatively unique to that character.

- Omegaverse elements are beginner friendly, this could be disappointing if you expect more.

 

Con's

- If you dislike the childhood friend or brother trope this otome could be your new hell.

(Wait is this really a con?!)

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Heroine.

Well Sayo is an Omega, when this was announced I saw disappointment that

she wasn't an Alpha... not sure why but not everyone needs to be a Sophia from CC.

That aside I loved Sayo's design! She's so adorable, she seems nice too. I'd be her friend.

Sayo's relationship with her non-blood related brother and friends

was fun to watch as well. I'd say she was balanced.

While optimistic Sayo can be a bit clumsy which more

often than not lead to hilarious situations. She's very human.

In certain routes she can be surprising in how she deals with a situation.

I thought she would be meek but she put thought to things. 

There's some shit she just won't take... and she tended to compensate which ranged

from being reasonable to absolutely savage and slapping someone's koala ass.

If you like it when the heroine actually pursues LI's she's pretty good!

at times I found her extremely selfish. Which is kinda nice in a way

since she knows what she wants, this is very clear in Ritsu's route. 

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Art is gorgeous as always but when hasn't an otomate VN been?

other than them having helpers sometimes when an artist isn't available 

lately the art in their games has been pretty good and this game is no exception.

Sprites,Backgrounds and CG's all looked great.

Music was really good, I actually sat there for a minute just listening

to the title screen music. Its Cafe Enchante level. It generally fit the mood well.

This game also had more pleasant sound effects and I didn't have to mute them

because they were jarring or annoying. Kinda sad to compare to CC.

Seiyuu cast aren't goldies; I only recognize maybe three of them.

They all did their best and they sounded great especially my fav seiyuu!💖

System wise its nothing special, just normal VN stuff. 

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

This game has a relatively short common route or atleast I thought so.

You select someone right away and then go through a common route.

This also locks you onto whichever LI you choose since it changes who Sayo was closest to

during her highschool years before it goes into their individual route.

This is good since player choice matters.

The only LI's with a restriction were Ritsu and Akira but unlock after one playthrough. 

Other than that common route is a pretty standard introduction that eases you into it.

I kinda tuned out of it by route 5 but the first time through was fun in its own right.

Routes themselves were all unique with problems relevant to the LI so there was no overlap.

 ---

It didn't take me more than 4-5 hours to clear the common route. 

Routes are around 6-7 hours and my first play took about 10-11 hours.

I ended up clocking out at around 45-50 hours. It will of course depend

on your reading speed but so take this as an average, i'm not slow nor fast. 

There were few choices but nothing overstood its welcome. I do enjoy listening to the BGM

which probably slightly inflated my play time but it shouldn't be longer than 50 hours. 

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Overall KimiMadoi was a breezy otome game, fitting for its summer theme.

This is generally a SoL, there's not much plot and its mostly focused

on romance and character drama. So its more of a chara-ge.

The omegaverse theme was very entry level so even those unfamiliar can understand it.

This could be disappointing if you expected more but let's be real here they

simply made an otome with the omegaverse elements. Nothing wrong with that.

---

My worry was the potential of the heroine going into heat or someone she was talking to. 

Sayo has no control over this, its like a natural phenomenon that just... happens.

They made it clear its better it happens with someone when the feelings are mutual

and Sayo didn't interact much with strangers so my worries were unfound! 

I was a little afraid of bad ends, thankfully there weren't many and just two endings per route.

The story generally explored its themes in a safe way.😄

Mate or die sounded way more intense than Olympia Soiree's go find a husband

but for the most part the atmosphere with LI's was generally nice and cozy.😌

Having two years left to live is not fun but having a circle of friends

that care about you makes it a whole lot better.😌

--- 

I enjoyed the modern setting, I didn't think the plot was too intense

its mostly character and romance driven with drama. 

The narrative shouldn't be underestimated as it has some heavy undertones. 

I often took breaks and I recommend the same if its too much.

Like I could say I'm gonna bust through Nagi's route tonight! but then stuff happened.💀

Haha... no I couldn't finish it then cuz it was heavy and I finished the route the next day. 

Sayo also only has two years left to live and her only chance to survive is to mate

she has her own doubts and the heat thing is actually a negative thing.

They developed a medicine to treat its symptoms but it has limited effectiveness.

Despite the stakes what surprised me was that it was very light and airy in

most SoL scenes which took a load from the high-stakes premise or drama.

I don't think it was that deep but... some aspects here or there touched me. 

Things weren't always fun i'd say it was a balanced otome, the chara intereactions were gold.😂

Sayo befriended most LI's during her highschool days. Yea all of them are her friends

so romancing them should be easier right? haha no! they all got their circumstances. 

They do spend time detailing the past so it didn't feel weird that they were friendly.

I liked everything was fleshed out, had they not done this it would be even shorter.

I actually like this since it gives further depth to their relationships.

I also love how we get the see the POV of the LI. I liked seeing what they thing and feel.

Some LI's were simply more difficult due to their backgrounds or not for me. 

I also loved the scenes Sayo had with her brother even if it were just

normal daily interactions, it showed their bond as family well. 

Though I did think there was an obvious bias for the brother...

making it all the more painful he is a beta among a bunch of alpha's.

Generally all LI's are likable in some way but I can see it being disappointing

they were already friends but tbh if you're in Sayo's position there's no place for toxic LI's.

I suppose they could've added one... but i'm glad they didn't. Ritsu would kill them.💖

They all had their reasons for being which was the interesting part.

The character interactions were a highlight for me and I liked getting

to know everyone despite some repetitive aspects. 

9/10

I generally did have a good time but really don't come in here for the plot

it just felt like its kinda there to back up the romance much like Honey Vibes.

Thematically its good too and so was 9rip. So it does make sense why I enjoyed it. 

TL;DR: There's a lot of love and care put into it from the art to the music.

Its not very plot focused but if one of your fav seiyuu's is in this it might

be worth it for a spin.  I'd recommend it to anyone that doesn't mind

an otome game with great group dynamics and starter pack omegaverse.

Or those tired of long plot-heavy otome games and want something

where the romance is the plot. Subsequent plays can feel repetitive but

if you want to understand every LI, its still worth doing all routes.

I liked how relaxing the SoL bits were it gave balance despite the stakes. 

I enjoyed the little moments and character interactions unique to each route

but yea... if you're not up for heavy undertones or dislike

childhood friends/brother trope, KimiMadoi may not be for you.

 

As for localization chances, I think the chance is low but not impossible.

I wish I knew which games will get picked up, sometimes they pick up well

received titles or something you probably forgot about. Nobody knows. 

The japanese level i'd say is beginner-intermediate level, its a relatively simple

work focused on SoL and romance with maybe some scientific terms.

It should be accessible to learners of the language that already have the basics down.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 My play order was:

Kyoya > Kanata > Hinagi > Ritsu > Akira.

The initial three routes have no restrictions and can be interchanged as you like!

Ritsu and Akira can be played after one route is completed.

My own playorder kinda worked out since by the time I finished Hinagi

I was absolutely sold on Ritsu as a brother and wanted to do his route.

 

Recommended order:

Kanata > Kyouya > Hinagi > Ritsu > Akira.

 

Kanata; this route is rather normal, I think this is the best starter point.

Kyouya; It can be interchanged with Kanata, best before Hinagi.

Hinagi; Fairly balanced route but its better for midgame due to very heavy contents.

 Ritsu; Best for when you're the most invested into his character.

Akira; Aki... its fun to do him last almost as if you forgot, fairly cozy route.

I personally had no hard feelings after Aki's route, I did feel like they wanted to do more? 

 Character rambles after the jump, usual spoiler warning as well as some

of my fav CG's. So if you don't want any then don't read further.

Its mostly senile grandma rambles/commentary, not sure who's gonna

be interested in a wall o text of me talking about the routes.

I've pretty much said all there's to say so you're not missing much. 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Crazy Chain ~Chains of Elpis~ - Review

This is a hopeful story.

 Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/crazy_chain/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v54934

Release date: 09-07-2026

 

At first I was kind of apprehensive of even trying this otome because of the writer

but my opinion changed when I started to research this game prerelease.

 When looking at the cg's I actually got TengoStray vibes rather than Virche.

There were atleast two LI's that appealed to me; Cronoll and Lise, which is enough.

There's like maybe 2 upcoming otome that intrigued me so I wanted to

support otomate where it counts and where my interest alligned. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself.

 

The story is heavily inspired from Jeanne D'arc, I am not too familiar with it

other than some basic facts. Even if you don't the game explains it quite neatly, this is

of course fiction so they're gonna make up stuff regardless while using historical details.

I'm also pretty sure it was inspired by a certain MMO but I have no proof.

---

 

 Pro's

- Great cast of characters & heroine.

- Decently crafted story. Balances despair with hope.

- Gorgeous art and BGM was excellent.

 

Grey Area

- Fairly long; Most routes took me around 9-10 hours.

- Some convenient writing, may leave you thinking about so and so outside of their route.

  

Con's

- The slashing sound effect when selecting things was awful to the point I muted SE's. 

 

 ---

Art generally looked really good and the heroine had a sprite! which is a plus.

I'd say CG's generally were consistent but atleast one of them had a weird angle. 

Background art looked great but you can tell some were by different people. 

The CG direction was good and there were only two I didn't like. 

Music; I have no complaints most tracks suited the mood or were in general pleasant to listen to.

Unfortunately it has some of the worst sound effects.   The SE's were bad enough for me

to mute them. Like the slashing noise when you select things... its completely out of place.

There was one other and believe it or not its from IF!'s era when they still released

RPG's and they really seem to be fond of it because I heard it in a lot of otomate

games as well as Fairy Fencer F. You probably know the one it kinda goes Ooooeeeooo. 

 

System is just standard visual novel stuff nothing stood out, comfortable to say the least.

While there are locked routes, no routes had ending restrictions. 

Length; 9ish hours for the common route and I clocked out my 1st play at 19ish hours.

Every route was like 9-10 hours give or take. This does depend on your reading speed.

My total time was about 75-80 hours. 

The language difficulty is intermediate-advanced, I wouldn't recommend crazy chain to people

looking to try their japanese except if they got a solid grasp on the language. 

---

 

Heroine

I liked Sophia's design even tho she seems more like a girl from an RPG game.😅

Everything about her just clicked and said yes with me.👌

If I was a cosplayer I would definitely want to cosplay her! or Libitina.

She's proactive and made it appear that she has the agency to do whatever it is she wants rather

than rolling with what her duty is. FuruMako's cast comment sounded like she was very in charge

and she was very much like that. She did what she wanted and took very little shit.

I think it would have been amazing if she was voiced but she was not. 

It was also FuruMako's cast comment that made me buy the game BTW. 

---

Crazy Chain had a pretty long common route, it mostly introduces the setting and chara's.

During it I couldn't help but think that the story of this otome game could be suited for an RPG...

the characters frequently fight and have to fend off monsters while traveling from place to place.

Of course it slowed down at times and there were peaceful moments

but I felt the focus was more on the journey itself.

Early on it didn't seem like this would be as extreme as Virche but the narrative

definitely had potential for it to get a bit dicey and it did. Things I wasn't sure about

was the technology level like its visually both medieval fantasy and steampunk.

There are guns and obvious signs of development & used for convenience

but hey its been a few generations! advancements were made.

Anyways all of the LI's were generally likable, some may just not be for me but everyone

seemed to have good and bad points and most grew on me anyways.

I felt like they went out of their way to get us attached.😅

 

I generally had a good time with Crazy Cha!n. I loved the vibes and the RPG themes.

The game could be dark as its a dark fantasy, it depended on the route how dark.

It did tackle heavy subjects with atleast two routes; one of them being Vardis really pushing it.

There's also one side character but I shouldn't say too much about them

the 7th bonus story goes into it but its more like a biography. 

Most other routes can feel tame but its best to not underestimate the narrative.

There's angst, although for the LI's they know how to give the scenario room to breath.

I found there to be more sweeter scenes which gave balance.

Personally I was like I'm tired boss when I reached the end of Cronoll's route.

Breaks are your friend! even if its just a short one, take any time you need. 

At the very least it didn't leave me wanting and the twist and turns were exciting.

Overall without spoilers I thought it was more balanced than Virche but its

by the same dev team and the narrative definitely showed that.

With few exceptions I did think the LI's were tame but they felt human and I like that. 

9.3/10

 

TLDR; I think it was pretty good but it may overstay its welcome.

Even if it can get bad it wasn't so bad that I felt like a shriveled up grandma. 

It fits in nicely alongside Enchante, Virche and Over RequiemZ. Forming the four

horsemen of the apocalypse. I'd recommend it to those looking for a dark story

focused otome game with sweet romance and liked any of the aforementioned games.

I won't recommend to those looking for shorter, lighter otome or dislike heavy themes. 

 

As for whether it gets translated, I think this has a solid chance

of being picked up! and I hope it does but its likely not for a while

---

  

My play order:

Cronoll > Vardis > Rex > Flatnis > Lise > God.

This was the order I did, I expected Lise or God to be locked so I automatically

moved them back. The only routes available at the start were Cronoll, Vardis and Rex.

 

Recommended order:

Vardis / Rex / Cronoll > Flatnis > Lise > God.

The initial three routes can be interchanged and be played as you like its very much pick your poison.

Vardis; A good starter route to settle you into the game. Starts out light but has

hints of looming darkness and craziness. Recommended for Virche fans.

Rex; Best choice for people who'd  rather go for a knight rather than a shady priest

there's things to unpack here but I thought it was a fairly balanced. 

Cronoll; A great route if you want a challenge chasing a LI. I thought it was a little

heavy/emotional but it also wasn't ''Vardis'' so doing it first should be okay.

Flatnis; Locked needs all of the initial routes to be cleared.

Lise; Unlocked by clearing Flatnis route. 

God; Unlocked by clearing Lise so there's no choice but to do him last. 

Man... being a Lise enjoyer this was painful.

 

Character rambles after the jump, since the game is quite long and plot heavy

I've decided to not digest the plot and its literally just some rambles/thoughts about the

character/route and some (not all) of my fav CG's. Though if you want no spoilers at all

I suggest to stop reading here like always.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Utawarerumono Past and Present Rediscovered - Review

Well... atleast Shunya got her closure.

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Aquaplus
Platform: PS5,Switch,PC.
Official Site: https://aquaplus.jp/uta/shiro/

Release date: 28-05-2026

 

Okay I won't lie but I kinda forgot about this game but I decided

to play it since I love the utaware series! not like I had anything else

I wanted to play so this game seemed kinda nice either way. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself. 

 

Pro's

- Wraps up Oshtor and Shunya's journey.

- Enjoyable turn based combat system.

 

Grey Area

- First half feels rather bland compared to the last 80% of the game.

- The OP doesn't play upon starting the game. 

Con's

- Game in general lacks polish; such as models/movement speed.

- Sidequests were uninspiring and mostly filler. 

 

 

This game is a sequel to Monochrome Mobius which takes place

after the first utawarerumono game and before mask of deception.

I always thought Mono-mobius didn't really wrap up all there was to tell

especially regarding Shunya which this game actually gets to do!

 The beginning of the game does start with a brief recap and slowly

gets things going but it did feel a bit off since everyone was at lvl99.

combat certainly was no issue during the first two hours or so but I did

wonder when/if there would be a stat squish and there was.

If you never played an utaware game before this game is a terrible place to start

 so you're better off either playing monochrome first or start from prelude of the fallen.

(I'm not one to gatekeep or anything so I like to give atleast two starter points.)

Speaking from my own experience it may be better to play Shunya's duology last. 

---

 

Combat is the same as MM tho what I really like is that after defeating

a special mob in an area you gain the ability to 1shot anything there.

 So long you attack them first, enemies also see you as a threat at that point.

 This was actually really satisfying, Halu true MVP.

This is great because it removes a lot of monotony from having to fight all enemies 

you come across to level up again, Since 1hitting them gives exp and loot.

It gets even better on the overworld since you can just bump and KO enemies on your mount!

The stat squish already felt kinda harsh but the grind being eased was a relieve

since it wasn't hard to level up at all.   Difficulty does ramp up around level 30

 and fights can get difficult the higher you get. If you use your BP wisely

and don't forget to invest some into defense or HP it'll be fine.

The whole battle system relies on buffing yourself and debuffing your enemies or else

get wrecked LMAO. Shunya's the character who got ko'd the most but what else is new?

Munechika exists to patch people up and provide some buffs or extra DPS if possible.

Oshtor's the most balanced unit and Mika's purpose is to hit things. 

We also don't have to unlock HP/MP recovery at savepoints anymore. 

However I will admit that by the end of the game the area lord loop was a tad repetitive. 

----

 

 Side quests were kinda just there though... they were nothing unusual.

I felt like I had to do them since when I got thrust into a battle after meeting

Soyankekur I got my ass beat!😅💀 well there wasn't any dungeons before it

but when I reloaded I noticed new quests that had appeared. After I did

those I was able to handle the fight much better. So levels do matter!

The best side quest would have to be the one that unlocks Halu's final mode...

it also had me going why is this listed as a side quest?!

it was voiced & the story was strangely good.

The rest of the sidequests felt like unnecessary busywork which is such a shame!

I didn't even do a bunch in the lvl 70 range at the end of the game cuz I was burnt out of them. 

---

 

Graphics; well the environments look fine and I am not one to complain but I did

notice the models can look like they miss a coat of paint however certain scenes

still looked good depending on the lightning in them so it wasn't too bad really. 

The animations can be kinda stiff too but there were moments, especially comedic or

fighting were it was really well done so... I honestly don't see a reason to complain much.

Suppose after three years you expect more but aquaplus has never been one

to have graphics that were amazing. Except maybe the zan games although those

were by tamsoft and the graphics were on par to the neptune action games.

I find the graphics are decent but the environments were far better than the modeling

which reminded me of tears to tiara kakan no dachi. Okay enough rambling about this. 

Music; was generally good and soothing to the ears, like I know from the series

it fit the mood and tone of the scenes well enough. Both OP and ED were great

however during my play for some reason the OP didn't play when booting up the game. 

 ----

 

I rather liked this town, even if its nothing unusual it reminds me of some edo era scene.

 The running speed also bothered me a little because if you tilt the left stick

to the max too fast you'll just zoom across the map at max speed. WeeU!

You can in fact walk and run slower but you really need to tilt carefully.

The areas are big so I didn't mind it being a turbo run that much

but the lack of polish was rather obvious here.

 ---

It took me around 50 hours to complete the game which includes most side quests

except a few endgame ones because I kinda burnt out on them and I just smacked

enemies in the final dungeon for some extra EXP. I don't think you need to be

higher than level 80 to beat the game. However I did almost forget we could

level the blacksmith but due to that I had enough materials and was able to get

some of the best weapons/armor upgrades with ease. No boss in this game really

forced me to dig into the weapon upgrade system, the weapons and armor you

can buy or find was more than enough to make it through. I thought it was overall

breezier than Monochrome Mobius which was a little tougher in my memory anyways.

Halu was around rank 70 which matches the level range I cleared with; 77-80. 

---
 

 Overall its nice they did follow up on Oshtor and Shunya's adventure!

because I remember being a little disappointed Shunya's case was unresolved

and a lot of the stuff on arva-shulan was not fully explored which this game does.

It had a strong start it did slow down and while it was nice to

have the crew back together I did get a feeling of is this really it?!

There were plenty of interesting bits it all just felt very low key and looking back

the first half of the game just felt rather bland to me and not much stood out.

I thought the majority of the game would take place in Arva-Shulan but... it didn't.

So I was kind of let down in the first half when we had to go activate a bunch of towers.

I personally was more interested in the villains and SUS twins but most of that was

reserved for the last 35% of the game and rather fast too. The villain group didn't have

that much build up that when it was time of their re-appearance I forgot about them.😅 

Most things weren't explained very well till right at the end. It wasn't all bad though

I still think exploring the regions around Yamato is a real treat, I didn't even mind

going through the areas that much, even if the story was uninspiring at this point.

Mostly because the gameplay was excellent and if they nailed anything its that.

TL;DR

At the end of the day I think the story is OK but the first half could be better.

When the story got to the heart of the matter it was pretty good but that was 80% into it.

As for the romance... I couldn't enjoy it as much as with Rias and Slade, Shunya and Oshtor

didn't even get that many moments that they weren't on my shipping radar till someone started

talking about feelings.  I suppose they had no time/budget since there weren't a lot

of light-hearted CG's either. Having played the trilogy I could never fully get into it

since Shunya is never referenced. The way the story played out... it made sense though!

I do like the ending for the both of them, it was a rather bittersweet. 

7/10  

I did get the idea that they rushed to get this game out due to it being a little rough

around the edges but other than that if you want to continue Oshtor/Shunya's adventure

and love the utaware series I see no reason why not to get this at some point.

 If you liked the OG trilogy but disliked MM or old school rpg's then it could be a skip.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Some senile grandma rambles after the jump! I try to avoid major plot spoilers

but if you don't want anything at all then just stop reading here. 

Tengoku Struggle Strayside - Review

Tengoku Tumbleweed Side Struggle

 Genre: VN.
Developer/publisher: otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.aksysgames.com/tengoku/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v33150

Release date: 04-04-2024

 

I played this game inbetween others but this was one of those games

that I wish I could like more and only got good for me in the last two routes.

Due to it being what it was I wasn't in the mood to get through this but I also didn't

want to let this sit in my backlog for half a year so after Matsurika FD I continued.

Despite being aware about contents; I found it rather tame.

I mean without context they sound awful but within the narrative? oh. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself. 

 

Pro's

- Strong-willed and self-concious heroine.

- All LI's are likable in their own ways.

- Great art and catchy music.

 

Grey area

- Quite long; route length is 10-12 hours on average.

- Story doesn't seem to take itself serious, weak resolutions in early route.

  

Con's

- The game can feel a bit draggy at times and has pacing issues.

- Bad CG pacing, there are droughts and moments with a lot at once. 

 

 

Art was great,When I looked at the cover for the first time I almost

didn't recognize who the artist was, tho it definitely is Satoi's style.

Music was generally good and I had no issues with it.

The OP was good but I didn't feel like watching it everything. ED was fine. 

 ---

 

[System ramblings] 

Standard visual novel stuff, nothing that stood out.

The common route was much like Olympia Soiree a long one-time introduction

without choices and it becomes entirely skippable on 2nd play.

Its also easy to see what's a good or bad choice as this is shown when you select a choice

so you can play this without a guide, there's only two endings per route; Happy&bad.

However the bad endings were IMO more like good ends.

The common route did hook me, the setting and introductions were interesting.

I liked how the heroine had a female friend with a sprite too.

There's a scene at the end of ch1 that kinda woah but what I found hilarious

is how tame the rest of the common route of seven chapters was. The early routes

such as Yona or Kiku were quite tame as well. I was actually disappointed at this, within

the narrative a lot of things did make sense but if I listed it separately it could sound awful.

Actually the game is rather tame in general... LMAO till the gloves are off in Goemon route.

Pacing was a tad slow for me but for a SoL character driven game its not bad perse.

 Though things can get heated the game was for the most part pretty laidback which lead

to some shifts in tone, if you can't handle this TengoStray is likely not for you. 

I'll add to this that TengoStray is a fairly long, especially the first time through.

Individually the routes had 12 chapters and it took around 10-12 hours to complete one.

---

 

[Heroine ramblings] 

She has a whip but...

Rin was alright but can be a bit much at times, even if she didn't remember her

past life she had a personality! I did wonder how she turned into a misandrist

but the story wrote itself in such a way I kinda got why she had enough of them.😅

The narrative esp in early routes seemed more set on mellowing her out...

As she lived with everyone she got over that stuff pretty fast too and she tried

to approach them differently which also kind of clashed with the initial setup

but its okay people can change their mind so that's not bad per se. 

I wasn't really sure what they tried to sell me during the first few routes and 

if need be Rin can really hold her ground, its just she acts like a tiger but is in fact 

just a cat and acts like any girl could. Rin's proactive but she was also a tsundere

so getting her to be honest was a struggle in itself. Sometimes she's just hostile😓

but also not incapable of self-reflecting on things as she is self-concious.

Rin is comparable to Olympia, not perfect by any means and it was obvious

she bit off more than she could chew, even so she regained her balance. Rin also

reminded me of Rinka from BAW; if they fleshed her out and wove her into the plot. 

Rin shined the most in the locked routes as that's where she was given the most depth

and the early routes only touched upon it on a surface level. Considering her story

it also makes sense why that is the case. Maybe I had the wrong expectations

but I expected a bit more from her even in early routes.

I didn't always vibe with Rin Enma, yet I was in-sync with her in how

her perspective changed both on herself and the guys.

My sign also isn't very compatible with Rin who is a scorpio and at times

I did not understand her but she wasn't a bad heroine at all. Just not for me.

---

The LI are criminals but there was barely need to punish them. 

I actually expected Rin to whip them more if they acted up but... this wasn't necessary! (haha)

imma be real the only one who really needs whipping is Sharaku. The times the whip was

cracked were few. The narrative pushed it yet was against doing it at the same time.

I don't know if the localization toned her down among other things but let me tell you

again Rin was at her most badass in Jack and Goemon's routes.

If you wanted to actually whip LI's then I recommend KLAP kind love and punish instead.

---

 

The seiyuu cast are mostly familiar I personally don't hear Goemon's VA a lot

but this game made me like him!  I also did love some of the seiyuu for

the side cast like Koyasu Takehito as Daddy or Nojima Kenji for Takamura.

It was a good cast with classics but none of my fav's were in it.

--- 

 

The localization was good but this game was toned down, there's less vulgarity than what

the japanese were complaining about and there's not much that soured the experience except

some of Sharaku's phrasing near the end of his route but that's just him.

I always hear people complain about this otome but it was tamer than I thought.

 ---

 

[Overall ramblings]

Despite grievances I think I am more satisfied with this than Cafe Enchante!

Tengoku Struggle is what happens when you mix aspects of bad apple wars,

varribarri and Olisoi. The setting is interesting but it can be kind of deceiving

as it ended up being much more slice of life focused than I initially expected.

The lore wasn't deep or anything but it was creative, the things I found myself

disappointed at was mostly the execution of the overall story

which felt like it was doing whatever at times.

This was a much slower paced game rather than an action packed one which lead to

pacing and tension issues. Olympia wasn't always able to meet her goals but she had

a more simple job. Rin does try but it may vary on the route and who her partner was. 

Both the enemy and the heroes had goals but ends up being rather casual about it. 

Sometimes you can't really do anything about a situation and this game was full of it.

I think I may be fine with slice of life when there's not some grand plot

going on but TengoStray certainly was an experience. 

You see this game has its routes tackle things on a case by case basis and it tends

to ignore anything not related to that character or put it very into the background.

I can forgive some things but its understandable why I feel the way I do since

there's a lot of beating around the bush. I'm fine with some truths only shown in

locked routes but... I had trouble enjoying the early routes because they were all over the place. 

In terms of romance routes ended in satisfying manner but I wasn't fully convinced

when it came to tying up all the plot threads. I found Sharaku to be a lil better

than Yona/Kiku but not by much. I thought its just because they're the early game

routes, those can be lacking and not tackle it all... then I moved on to JacK

who spiced up a lot of monotony that the starter routes had going on while being

hilarious at the same time. I thought there would be no route i'd like but I was wrong!

Goemon had a really good route as well but... the others started feeling like what if's.

--- 

 

TL;DR 

 At the very least the character interactions were always golden, due that I mostly had

a good time but it was a tad slow for me, the real struggle was the SoL along the way!

The romance is build on trust and its most enjoyed as a slowburn, early routes for me

like Kiku or Yona's was a real s t r u g g l e because while I liked them they never became fav's.

There was not much was going on and the real narrative is buried in the locked routes.

The main plot was kinda weak in early routes and very character+romance driven. 

At times there is plenty of enjoyment, yet the plot was 404 not found. 

 Goemon's the only one which handled it well but when I looked back I got

a massive headache thinking about certain side chara's.😓

Its sad I didn't enjoy the first 3 routes and at that point I was like is there a route

in this game I really enjoy? the answer was yes.  After three routes I struck gold with Jack.😄

So I basically suffered during the first half.😩Okay I guess I'll take the L's.

The best parts about TengoStray for me were the character interactions even when there

was nothing important going on. I didn't even dislike the LI's themselves. I just thought

some of the narrative within their routes particular the early ones could be better. 

8/10 

I would recommend TengoStray if you want an otome game about bad boys and life&death themes

with homey SoL/found family vibes. I wasn't disappointed with this game like with Enchante.

I'd probably not recommend TengoStray to those that don't like SoL, slowburn romance

or can't handle some mild forms of sexism since its just all that. 

 

My Play order:

Yona > Kikunosuke > Sharaku > Jack > Goemon.

Yona and Kikunosuke are the beginner routes and can be interchanged.

Sharaku the intermediate one which is best done before Jack.

Jack needs the player to do the three initial routes and Goemon is locked behind him. 

 

Recommended order:

Kikunosuke / Yona > Sharaku > Jack > Goemon. 

 

Character rambles and some of my fav cgs after the jump.

Probably don't read further if you want to experience it yourself since its just

senile grandma rambles beyond this point with potential spoilers. 

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------