Developer/publisher: Otomate
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/kimiyuki/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v29906
Release date: 2021-07-29.
Finally time for another otome game after I ended up skipping paradigm paradox
cuz jpn reviews really weren't doing that one any favors, going in all I knew about Kimiyuki
was that it was going to be a tearjerker/nakige in an old timey setting. Seiyuu cast is a mix
of the popular ones and some newer talent among one i've never heard before
which was nice, other than that this game was pretty long and took half a month to complete! though
I did push through the last two routes and well during the final one I hardly could put it down.😅
The op movie is pretty decent, and I often just let it play.
Pro's
- Surprisingly comedic, lot's of cute scenes with the guy(s).
- Unique and self contained, routes however to understand the plot you must do all the routes.
- Art, gorgeous and good variety of CG's.
- Music fit the theme/mood of the game.
- Most if not all the main guys were likable.
Con's
- Pacing, due to making time for fun and cute romance and flesh out
sub characters ties with the plot it all can drag on.
- Not all routes are as interesting, the character might really save it depending on taste.
- Half the time I did wonder... what does this game try to be???
General plot:
Our heroine Suzuno is an orphan who can see some weird thread of emotion that more often
than not leads to doom she was chased away by villagers and being called a monster by them...
despite that she's surprisingly carefree and optimistic.
That thread she sees is an ill omen and the villagers want nothing to do with it...
one day she meets a man named Tomonari whom ends up inviting her to come to edo with him
its then she meets the oniwaban which is like a band of samurai's under command of the shogun.
Why not? why not go with them when your fellow villagers call you a demon-possesed youkai?!
Oh and apparently she is also a descendant of the haku-seki clan.
Tomonari and Kunitaka are so nice to Suzuno as they introduce her to the other
oniwaban and edo, faith in humanity has been restored... somewhat.
The rest of the plot of this game involves Suzuno use her powers and help the oniwaban
there is far too much to quickly digest but Kiko's are basically seen as tools to kill demons
and have no emotion which is why Suzu-chan can't see anything from them
the funny part is that the kiko's are surprisingly... free-spirited.😅
 |
| Literally most of the oniwaban as they try to do their job. |
The art in this game is gorgeous the backgrounds are decent enough.
Most important characters had a sprite and there were a lot of sub chara's so that was nice.
The music is fitting and there's an interesting cast of characters which was enough
to get excited to find out what the story in this game was about
which without spoilers was just okay really this is a story driven game
that actually manages to deliver the romantic moments throughout as well but boy is it long!
had I not planned some evenings for this I would have taken longer to complete it.
There were plenty of CG's and they happen when you would like to see them
which is really good especially after the last otome game I played.
 |
| Probably one of my favourite common route group cg's. |
I think I was glad I did Kinji's sad end last because I needed a moment after it.
There aren't that many bad ends, 1 per character Tomonari is a slight exception to this....
Other than that the system in general was just basic choices and nothing complicated.
The heroine Suzuno was alright, she has her circumstances but she wasn't annoying or anything
considering her optimism, I thought it was easy to relate to her situation in the beginning.
Suzuno will point out if something worries her due to her ability to see threads of doom
and act on her own but that last bit might not be a good thing most of the time...
cuz she can't really fight back on her own i'll add to it that she is quite pure and some things
might fly over her head which in turn can lead to some hilarious situations.
Suzuno is also not a fighter, though she did have her moments
and she stood out the most in Yoichi and Genjurou routes.
Common route was okay in terms of introducing everything and world view, they introduced
some more characters after the talk with the shogun and I did struggle to remember
all their names but atleast they had some unique personalities but so I was able to
identify them more easily as emo guy(Kyoushiro), mr nice guy(Mitsushige)
and megane brat(Yabuta).😅 This game is slow paced but all of the routes were unique
even if common route was shared the stories varied heavily though.
Its theme was advertised as to be sad but it has rather snappy dialogue & there were plenty
of funny and cute scenes unfortunately due to this the overall pacing doesn't feel too good.
Most of the main guys were really nice except one of them but he had his reasons really, you'd
have to decide for yourself. Honestly I didn't want anything bad to happen to them
so considering the theme this was working as intended.
But it is kinda obvious now that if you thought this would be a tragic historic fantasy
then I have to disappoint! Kimiyuki was actually more comedic than I ever expected it to be. Considering they brought in iwai yuki a japanese comedian it all makes sense now.
The overall production values are also quite high, but it did have a bit of a slow start
all things considered I think it was necessary to understand the setting.
TBH I want to like this game more but it got a few problems and that is it doesn't
really know what it wants to be sometimes! the pacing issues are so there, I don't mind
that there are cute or funny scenes in fact I welcomed them but more often than not but
the story pacing is awful, it would drag on a lot atleast romance didn't disappoint me...
they often focus so much on side characters that i'm like what was it we were doing again?
Like the first route I did, Kunitaka was a bit boring in terms of plot but other than that
I still manage to enjoy it, I know I enjoyed Kinji and Yoichi's route the most overall
and even Genjurou had a better written plot and villain(annoying as he was)
but yea the writing quality is all over the place we have lots of route that don't have much to do
with the real plot and you won't make sense of anything till the locked routes.
A common problem in otome game land... atleast I did think they balanced
the romance with whatever plot together was going on so you got some cute moments
and more serious stuff while learning more but like I already said the writing quality varied heavily.
I did wonder a little about the Kiko's being emotionless
and are tools to wipe out youkai/yoika but they're so free spirited???
but its more like they're not fully capable of being human like its obvious they can be a bit
insensitive at times some more than others, needless to say these guys aren't perfect
and they don't need to be.
So despite this being advertised as a tearjerker... you're mostly in for a good time! mostly... yes.
so this is actually more of a romantic comedy really that in a way is actually a bit tender.
If you end up getting this just enjoy the ride,but its probably better to not have too much
expectations because like I mentioned above not all routes were as interesting cuz it did get slow
but that might be because it tried to focus on side characters as well! so bottom line is
this game tried to do too much things at once! which lead to a long game in general.
For what its worth it was a decent wafuu otome game the only problem is the language really
its not beginner friendly but seems like Aksys is bringing this over... some day.
Sigh aksys I do hope they won't make a mess of it because this is the only way
people can enjoy the games if they don't know jpn... I AM WORRIED and wanna express this
cuz this game does have a lot of terms and old timey so this might be more than they can chew.
So if you're in the mood for an wafuu otome game with a decent enough plot, don't mind
a slow start/slowburn, a little bit of mystery and fun/cute scenes this might be for you!
but yea if this otome game number 150 you might not be able to enjoy it as much compared
to someone who only has played a few... I think this is only fair cuz I played a bunch
and was able to enjoy this for the most part so your mileage might vary.
Even so the last route in this game made everything fit so I think it was pretty solid?
enough for me to give it an 8,5/10 like there were 6 routes and I enjoyed at least 3/4 of them
so I think the final score is only fair, considering production values and everything else.
(8.5/10 if bias, 6/10 for non bias)
IDK if there was a recommended order but there were routes that was locked behind
some others which was Tomonari who unlocks Otarou so you have to do Kunitaka,
Yoichi OR Genjurou and Kinji first! but it is funny they will let you into the route of Otarou
for a hot minute but will default to some abrupt end.😔 Don't be me...
My play order: Kunitaka > Kinji > Yoichi > Genjurou > Tomonari > Otarou.
The routes in bold have no restriction so feel free to mix that up but yea if you care about
story there's not much you can do about the last two routes. Yoichi is the only one that is an
odd ball, it was also very otome BUT his route does hint at something that will be explained later
so I don't think you should save him for last cuz an important plot detail gets spoiled about him
at the end of Otarou's so if I had to recommend anything it would be
exactly the same order as mine except maybe switch Yoichi and Genjurou around.
Character babbles after the jump, however be advised that there will be spoilers beyond this point though to respect the wishes of the developers I will not be sharing too many CG
and only my favorites. So if you wish to remain spoiler-free then the review ends here! This is
due to the mystery aspect of this game, so if you really REALLY are going to play it in the
future I do say to not read past this point. Its better to not know too much with this game.
