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 one of them is 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 mostly all 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. 

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

 

 

 

 

Matsurika no Kei Tenmei kashokuden - review

Feytastic.🗿

 Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/mk/fd/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v52279

Release date: 23-04-2026

 

I was a bit surprised when the FD was announced so soon after the release of the OG

but it seems they took their time and from the looks of it there was no artist change.

Otomate decided to right their wrongs and do Fey justice with this game or so it appears.

Most of the after stories are very light-hearted and not nearly as dark as the OG was

there might be happiness even in bad endings, which may not be for everyone. 

 

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

- After stories for all LI's are neither too short nor overly long.

- Light in tone and less dark than the original game.

- Art( and music) is consistent to that of the original game.

- Fey may be 20% part of this FD but he got his happiness.

 

Grey area

- Afterstories are locked behind shorter present/past chapters.

- Story for afters feels weaker but Gyokusui & Fey gaiden compensate for this. 

 

Con's

- Menus/UI is literally the worst thing about this FD but I'll take the L here. 

 

Matsurika FD is packed with content featuring the usual after stories

and stories from the LI's POV as well as a peek at their childhoods.

It took me maybe 6-7 hours to view all of a single LI's content now multiply that

to 6 LI's and you got 40 hours of content, including the two new routes

for Fey and Gyokusui it took me around 60 hours to finish the game. 

That is more than an acceptable length for a FD. 

 

The art was as gorgeous as always, it seemed the original artist did work on it

and most CG's looked the best they could be.

Music; I don't think there were a lot of new tracks but both OP and ED were nice to listen to.

Except that one desert theme, idk why but after this FD I have beef with it. 

 

---

System

 Its the usual VN stuff but I thought the layout of the menus were a bit confusing.

Some stuff along the timeline also seemed to be locked but basically

its a bunch of shorter stories set when the LI was a kid as well as

some scenes during the original game, kinda like a directors cut.

I always went from right to left and went back to something if it was locked. 

The longer stories tended to be the best and good afters.

As for bad afters; it depends on the character how long they are

and I thought Zebenera was longer than say Karma's.

I was a bit mixed about locking the after stories behind the shorter scenes 

however after seeing Karma's best after it does make sense for it to work this way. 

 ---

 

I generally had a good time although much like KgK FD which it reminded me

slightly of,  it varied whether a shorter scenario was interesting.

I mostly looked forward to the after stories but due to the timeline they wanted us to look at

other aspects first; revisiting some parts of the LI's story and give further depth.

Thankfully nothing really overstayed its welcome and it was pretty on point.

If you prefer to dive right into the after stories its difficult to recommend this FD

since it doesn't seem to allow you, some chapters were locked which I unlocked

by doing whatever else was available. Generally going from right to left(past to future).

There's a lot of emphasis on the LI's past and his POV of the events of the OG's route.

Gyokusui's route is akin to any route in the OG, its a bit softer than Ruwo, with more grace.

 ---

The best ends for most LI's in the OG sans Fey already had satisfying conclusions.

So when I look at Ruwo's after you can really see how they both have grown after

everything that happened. I am not particularly big on Ruwo btw but I can see that much. 

Same goes for Karma but doing all of his content made me appreciate him more again.

 

Shout out to this king who pulls his weight when its not even his route.

Matsurika FD is everything I expect a FD to be. Its not a sequel in disguise. 

However it may have one problem, like making everything too happy and remove

weight some of the original bad ends had carried, for some it good others I was mixed. 

It pretty much gave some routes its finishing touches, even for things I thought wasn't necessary.

Its a FD that focuses on happiness without it derailing into subchara drama. 

Afters were all about LI and heroine themselves, i'm actually kinda glad there weren't

that many new side characters and if they were its for the new route.😄

Some additions to the story were good so I wouldn't say it had no depth at all. 

Gyokusui's route is on par with how routes were like in the OG so if you want a plot, go here! 

I jokingly said to myself: Is this FD where the fanservice ended up?😅 since some recent

otome seem to do the bare minimum for romantic scenes and are quite plot focused. 

I found myself satisfied with afters for LI's that I didn't even like that much

as well as cheering on LI's when it wasn't even their after. Cough Enrai Cough.

Fey's gaiden is okay as a true end and has a satisfying conclusion, it hit notes

but it also missed a few due a lot of things that felt too familiar.

 I think its worth it if you want more Matsurika in your life but if you prefer

darker plot lines it might be disappointing since the FD was rather sweet.

There are moments that could be a lil heavier but not much.

Its a great FD if you want to see more happiness rather than sad stuff.

 ---

 

TL;DR 

I recommend this FD to those who want mostly light afters or see different perspectives

rather than the couple being thrown in yet another mess, small blessings.

The game already delivers one hell of a plot centered on the new LI

and Fey's gaiden is worth it if you thought the OG was unforgivable. 

9.3/10

 

Anyway I think it would be a shame if Matsurika no Kei and its FD is never translated

its really not any worse than Olympia Soiree but I understand its themes are rough and its

not a beginner friendly otome game. Its also huge and would need care with its translation.

Neither is it the type of otome for people who are sensitive to contents. So yea if it happens

it happpen but it may be unlikely to cross the seas. 

 

My play order:

Ruwo > Zebenera > Karma > Seirin > Enrai >Fey/Fuuen > Gyokusui > Fey gaiden.

Same order I played the original in with the new stuff last and I think this order is mostly fine.

I kinda regret doing gaiden last but it can be done anytime, it can act

as a refresher and a true end for Fey at the same time. 

 

Spoilers after the jump, mostly just senile ramblings about the routes

and sharing some of my fav CG's. 

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Atelier Resleriana The Red Alchemist and the White Guardian - Review

The most romantic atelier game.

 Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Koei Tecmo/Gust.

Platform: PS5/Switch etc.
Official Site: https://atelier.games/resleriana_rw/us/

Release date: 26-09-2025

 

Okay since there wasn't anything else I wanted to play and it was rotting away

in my backlog I decided to get started on it. I didn't really have many expectations.

This is also like my first atelier game with... spinoff elements. 

 

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. 

 

 Resle: Red Alchemist & White Guardian is another half of what originally was gacha game.

 I never got the play the gacha game cuz they pulledthe plug in eng, however

it is still active in japan, at time of writing this review anyway.

Either way my opinion on this game varied a lot depending on my progression.

I wasn't too impressed early on but it does come into its own and I actually liked

the relationship between the leads by chapter 5 which is what I enjoyed the most. 

 

Pro's

- Great chemistry between leads.

- Combat is really well done. 

- Character events are fun.

- Story can seem weak or convenient but I still found part of it well crafted. 

Grey Area

- Alchemy is rather simple but left/right colour system makes it cumbersome.

 - Difficulty spikes; starts out cozy but is significantly more difficult by chapter 6.

Con's

- Some cameo's like Mu or Judie just feel like they barely meet an appearance quota

also don't expect wanderers to get any major development or anything.

- No CG's featuring wanderers. 

 

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Well I honestly wasn't sure how to approach this game? it had main entry energy

but it also tried to be a spinoff which honestly is a weird mix to me. 

 Needless to say there still are characters unique to this universe and I did

enjoy getting to know characters like Randolf or Camilla.

 Rias is definitely a fun protagonist, Slade seems to have his reasons

for being around and without their paths crossing the story wouldn't exist.

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ART/MUSIC. 

 The graphics were okay and the world like in the screenshot above can look beautiful

however most of the time we spend our time in the dimensional paths.

The areas were also smaller in scale which I liked, honestly maybe its because I am tired

of the open world so gust did well with this game in that sense. 

 The battle theme was good but other than that the music was on a just fine level.

I did love the OP and ED's. 

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

COMBAT 

My only combat screenshot is of a poor ghost about to get nuked.

 Combat is turn-based again like older atelier games, thank god because

I didn't quite like Ryza or Yumia's battle systems. I think it was fairly simple

and it doesn't get too deep till you get all the members which is when

it reaches the full potential of managing the front and backrows.

I really did like the combat this time and it works so much better than whatever

Ryza had going on where you couldn't even use items unless haha. 

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

 SYSTEM ramblings.

There's a skill tree and you can use SP to get stat boosts among other things

the SP mostly seems to come from quests and combat. The pool is shared so

you gotta remember to do it evenly, I did sometimes invest more into one member.

Early on I thought this was some sort of cheat to get statboosts due how casual the early

hours were  but this game does not forget that you have to craft your own gear and items too.

By the end of the game everyone was actually maxed out their original tree. 

You can manage a shop which in turn helps develop the town, this system wasn't bad

since it can get rid of junk materials. I got nervous when I saw the auto-add try

to get rid of rarer stuff so I ended up just doing it manually.

Its mandatory to raise the town level and it will roadblock the story, thankfully

it was not too grindy, you can hit the caps and then you have to invest to unlock

the next levels by turning in special items which are usually recipe morphed ones.

Its actually kinda nice to see how it goes from a ruined village to an actual town.

There was a moment where the town rank can seem like some gacha game mechanic which is 

out of place in a console game but other than that as long as you explore you will have

all the mats and optional recipies so none of it was particularly difficult just a bit of busy work. 

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

A rare CG that isn't Rias x Slade with a character that comes and goes.

 Early on the alchemy part felt kinda optional, I can count on one hand what I actually made

in eight hours of play and the majority was spend on story,gathering and fighting.

However around chapter 4-5 your really should remake your starting gear

since this is when the game gets more serious and less casual.

By the time of chapter 6 you should absolutely have your things in order

as this is where the difficulty spiked up to the point it wasn't casual anymore.

I didn't have that much trouble with the ch6 fight but if I hadn't made that healing bell

with revive I would have been in trouble. I also was able to trigger burst here for the first time

but I was not able to ult since the enemies died before that could happen. 💀💀💀

 The alchemy system itself was kinda simple? but the recipe system was convoluted

constantly had to press L2 to see the recipe tree was annoying. I'd say its a little more

advanced than say Marie. I didn't really like the random color thing either but I thought

it was easier to understand than some of the other recent atelier games. 

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

 PLOT/SETTING ramblings. 

Storywise it definitely had some interesting hooks but it wasn't deeper than it had to be.

I wasn't sure what this game was trying to be, or atleast I thought this way 5ish hours in.

If anything surprised me at all, is the chemistry between the leads.

 It could seem Slade was bland and generic but he was surprisingly thoughtful!

who wouldn't want a man like him? ISTG.

 I didn't expect it to be romantic but there was more than enough shipping fuel.

There was a found family theme between Rias and Slade and I LOVED THAT. 

Although one moment did remind me she can be a bit of a slave driver.💀 

Rias was an OK protag, a bit of an airhead, Slade complimented her

and he compensates for her. They're like the perfect duo. 

I was not sure why there was even an option to choose between them

but I guess its a callback to Eschatology or Mana khemia.

I'll remind everyone here that Rias has a whip.

With the amount of cameos you could have fooled me on who was really playable or not.

Most of the story could seem straight-forward, I'll give them credit since by chapter 10

I did think they did cook a bit with this one.  There was a bit of convenient writing

going on with a decent attempt at worldbuilding. 

Why other atelier characters got isekai'd into this world as wanderers

wasn't really important, its totally a normal occurance in this world.

Overall storywise, not particularly strong but it served, I wondered what if they didn't rely

on characters from other entries. Since the chara's unique to this game were pretty good.

 I kinda wanted Brad to join up but he was gone before I knew it, a waste.😞

Thanks for letting me meet him I guess?

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

The character interactions were great atleast which was nice

but they never really did anything that surprised me, or would drop

their entire character lore. I never played Mana Khemia 2 btw so Raze was just

a nice capable guy with a cool sword who looks a little like Anaxagoras.😅

At best they might hint at stuff from their own games but nothing deep

almost as if they want you to play their game or expect you to know. 

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

 

Overall Resleriana the red alchemist and the white guardian can be nice

if you want a more traditional atelier game with familiar faces. I don't see why

you'd have to play the Resle gacha game but you can get by just fine without it.

I never played it either, it did make me interested. 

There's some callbacks but the plot of this game is very selfcontained.

It took me around 45ish hours to finish the game, the early hours were rough

for me due to it being very slow paced but 20 hours in I got the hang of it. 

Due to that I wondered if should have skipped this game but the chemistry

between the leads was adorable, I have no regrets!!!

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

TL;DR

There were no group shot CG stills so this is as good as it gets.

 Well  I didn't expect much but it gets a lot of bonus points from me

for the chemistry between the leads, other  than that I found it decent at best. 

 Early on I was not very gung-ho about playing it despite that I am glad I stuck with it

so I got to enjoy all the Rias and Slade moments! The story was OK but it was rather

self-contained to whatever else goes on in this world. Some parts were well written

like the legend tying past to present so they did cook but... that's about it.

The game is mostly light-hearted but it can have some serious undertones.

All that really sticks to my mind were a bunch of sappy moments.💀 

I was too busy shipping Rias and Slade as well as Randolf and Camilla.😂

That was also the fire that fueled my progress through this game.

Gust, if you want to make another otome game then go for it! or get otomate to port Elkrone to switch.

I'd recommend it if you're looking for a mostly laidback RPG or if you want

another atelier game with cameos and don't mind romance between the leads.

I'll add to this that its not afraid to actually have you make better gear so

I wouldn't call it a cozy game cuz if you cozy it up Lara will step on you.💀

Compared to Yumia both games have their weaknesses but I personally

liked Resleriana Red Alchemist more! not just because of the romance

I genuinely liked the combat system more as well and the exploration didn't

overwhelm me either, it was just a nice cozy game that can get a lil difficult

but if you try then I don't think there's anything too difficult in this game.

8.5/10

 -

Some more rambles after the jump, its just character stuff and my final thoughts.

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