VNDB: https://vndb.org/v47740
Release date: 21-3-2024.
This is an adaptation of a villainess lightnovel, Akuyaku for short or in english as:
The Villiainess Is Adored by the Crown Prince of the Neighboring Kingdom.
I never read it but it seemed like fun so I gave it a shot. I am well aware this is by the developer
who released charming empire and gakuen club, so I was still a little skeptic going into it.
I wasn't too sure what to expect but it suits the quality of their other releases.
I haven't really seen too many villainess works other than hamefura or taming the final boss.
Sorry if this sounds harsh but Akuyaku Reijou unfortunately wasn't able to do much new
other than just having cute romance... with not much substance to it.
I did think it is perfect to play if you don't have much else you'd rather be doing...
Pro's
- Voiced heroine.
- Sweet SWEET romance.
- Great art.
Con's
- Long text dumps/monologue's.
- Primitive system, this grandma's fingers hurt from holding button to skip.
- Music can be grating on loop.
System is just standard stuff but when I saw the UI... I was like is this a PC game?
it sure had that kinda layout, idk what to expect of systems in VN nowadays
but Akuyaku Reijou was so backwards compared to other visual novels.
Akuyaku Reijou is pretty much a straight-forward visual novel
that adapts part of the lightnovel and it doesn't have any routes so there's like
only one love interest. This is also one of the rare cases where it may be better
to go into it without knowing anything about it so the twists will still be interesting.
So if you never heard about Akuyaku Reijou then yes you can start here!
I didn't understand why there were even choices, other than to get CG's maybe?
but there weren't that many and so I started to wonder what the purpose of this game was
because they may as well have turned it into a kinetic novel like witch on the holy night.
It was a chore to collect the other CG's in the three different volumes especially
with how you have to hold the skip button... to even get through it but atleast
it made it seem like your choices affected things so that's not bad.
The art is really gorgeous and I have no complaints of it.
The music wasn't really anything special there weren't a lot of tracks
and to hear it on loop for too long is grating so yea meh.
Now that we have the bad out of the way, the heroine was voiced which was a plus!
only downside is that her thoughts aren't voiced, if it was I think it would be funnier but alas.
I liked the art and was intrigued by the setting/story but there wasn't much of a plot that was
memorable, this focused way too much on romance. Its nice there weren't any bad endings
and you can enjoy romance with the leading man Aquasteed. The heroine did have multiple
outfits which was another nice thing, I actually like it when the sprite suits the scene.
Anyway since Aquasteed was really nice I almost didn't want anyone else anyway buuut
while I get it he saved her from certain doom as a villainess things did seem a bit too good to be true.
Of course I was disappointed that there was only one love interest but by volume 2
I did realize that it just wouldn't have worked, they would have to change the scenario a lot.
Aquasteed aside... Keith interested me the most, Akari can have Heartnight tbh...
and just want to be swept off your feet without much plot/substance
which is probably the only thing the game was good at.
Some of the names are also kinda weird like what is a Heartnight Lapislazuli Lactomut?!
that sure is a mouthful of word vomit that seeing it in full makes me cringe to the point
Aquasteed Marinforest sounds normal in comparison. That aside the game
honestly feels like eating something very sweet and then feeling sick afterwards
like its not bad but you may not want too much of it? it also reminds me of the fact
that a visual novel can have gorgeous art and even a voiced heroine but if the rest
doesn't measure up then it is such a waste. Character interactions were barebones
and not that fun, it honestly makes me want to play something with more substance
cuz Akuyaku Reijou just didn't do much for me, I can't rate it higher than a 5/10.
I probably sound ungrateful but eh can't like everything and after sitting through
a bunch of otome's I liked i'm bound to find something that doesn't match up.
If there's anything memorable about this game it was cute romance, voice acting
and the insanely beautiful art, everything else was pretty meh to me.
I am more inclined to think that this game is some kind of marketing trick
because there's so many otome games on switch and then there's Akuyaku...
which could get you interested in the novels that are readily available in japanese.
Anyway keep on trucking operahouse! this may be the last time I buy a game from you guys...
More rambles after the jump, there are spoilers as well as a few of my fav cg's
so if you want to play don't read further.
Aquasteed Marinforest.
CV:Umehara Yuuichiro.
i'm sorry but there's really not much to write home about. I liked Aquasteed and that's about it.
His name isn't as cringe as mr lactomut but still hilarious because it makes me think of a seahorse.😂
Mister seahorse also shares the same seiyuu as Claude from taming the final boss...
but honestly I found Claude to be far more interesting as well as that series in general.
There's not much romance development since everything moved so fast and he never
seemd to disliked Tiararose anyways who just tries her best to avoid her doom.
**I should add that... Seahorse was quite 1-dimensional, there's not much to him.
That's it, that is the plot... Akari who is the heroine of the game has a massive crush on Aquasteed
and actually wants to romance him but Tiara was in the way so there was a drama... turns out
Akari was also a human that played the game just like Tiara.
Wait...! I have seen this somewhere before. Anyway things manage to resolve itself
since Akari decides to peace out and be like I like Heartnight anyways ciao!
Which leads to vol.2 where Tiararose goes to Aquasteed's country as his bride to be...
she's not completely out of the water as he still had a former engagement with Ashira which made
Tiara worry too much. She also meets a fairy king called Keith... who made Aquasteed jealous.
they're even so delicious... so they will bake something with it.
Keith pops in and out like he owns the place... and Aquasteed is like grrr! everytime.
I think Vol.2 just had the best character development for both Tiara and Aqua
since vol.1 just didn't do much on that front, anxiousness and jelousy is a tough cookie.
Keith ended up kidnapping Tiara after he found she was anxious after an interaction
with Ashira and Aqua. This forces Aquasteed into taking action...
part of me thinks he did it on purpose because he knew something was up between the two
which made Tiara an anxious mess since she thought Aqua might be swayed by Ashira.
TBH Aqua was very devoted to Tiara already so I saw no way he'd ditch her
but yea its not great to see the man you love be kind to another lady.
Meanwhile Tiara is trapped in the forest and the fairies are sending her in circles.
Aquasteed finds them soon enough and he's furious at Keith... which leads to Aqua
really showing his devotion to Tiara which was honestly kinda scary. Like he'd kill a man.
Aqua also apologizes for earlier since this all happened because she got anxious.
I guess misunderstandings happen but it wasn't really his fault either... nor Tiara.
Also Tiara forced them both Keith&Aqua to apologize for butting heads afterwards
but it backfired and she got bullied to sit on the throne like the queen she is.😂
Ashira doesn't really understand love or harbors romantic feelings for Aquasteed
its more like she admires him and just likes him. Akari helped clear things up
and turns out Ashira was the heroine of the sequel game. Anyway! Tiararose and Aquasteed
end up getting married but the words Akari said did not quite leave Ashira's mind
and thinks she may love Aquasteed afterall. Akari is frustrated as well but since
Tiararose is her friend now she won't let it get ruined by anyone. Keith stepped in as well
can't say the wedding completely felt right but... all's well that ends well?
Ashira still wished them the best despite everything. If I had to be honest I felt kinda
bad for her and even like a thief because unlike Akari... Ashira had no one else.
 |
| Probably the only thing I liked about vol3 was the beginning... |
and questioned why they even added one more storyline since Vol2's ending is quite fitting
for most otome games but I guess there's still more to the story of akuyaku reijou!
Sadly it was just more of the same and it tied up some loose ends but idk it kinda
just felt like they just kept going for the sake of it. Vol3 honestly was kind of boring
and aimless after the cute beginning it just turns into another misunderstanding, meh.
This game sure has an interesting world but not much for its plot... the romance
with seahorse really was the only saving grace or reason to play it really.
This game sure has an interesting world but not much for its plot... the romance
with seahorse really was the only saving grace or reason to play it really.
There were also some side stories with a self-insert MC where you get to share
a moment with various characters like Heartnight,Keith,Elliot and Aquasteed
and while they were nice I honestly was like... uhm okay thanks I guess.
~
Final Thoughts?!
like some parts of volume 1 and volume 2 as a whole but other than that not much else.
Like I already said in the non-spoiler section its very much like eating something very sweet
only to have to stop because its too much... and too much of anything isn't good.
Aquasteed sure was charming as were some other characters but its just a shame
they didn't try to do anything with the setting like with the hamefura otome game. Atleast you
had choices there? here its just an videogame version of the lightnovel which fell kinda flat.
I get that this could potential make someone a fan... but idk it was pretty barebones.
Honestly if you have never heard of Akuyaku Reijou before then it might be worth it for a spin
because at the very least its not overly long and doesn't overstay its welcome
like you can stop after vol 2 and vol3 is there if you still want to see more.
-
I did like the art and the heroine being voiced, as well as having multiple outfits.
I did like the art and the heroine being voiced, as well as having multiple outfits.
The romance wasn't very interesting and almost too good to be true, sure it was cute
but it didn't satisfy me that much. It IMO also was kind of juvenile.
The story was pretty basic, there's a little intrigue but the romance while nice the development
was barely there and Aqua pretty much liked Tiara right off the bat. Not very exciting
but NGL the bitch fight between Akari and Tiara was pretty fun to watch
as well as Tiara worrying too much over Aishira. It also tends to follow a pattern
most lightnovels do of introduce new girl/guy so it actually got kinda boring/predictable.
Its also not as funny as Hamefura or Taming the final boss... I guess it may be a sign
that the villainess genre is kind of stale or Akuyaku Reijou just didn't do much new.
My favorite volume was probably 2, maybe it was Keith or the writing was just better.
-
I gotta say that the game's system/UI is unacceptable nowadays like holding the button to skip
which also skips unread text. Come on Operahouse! its 2024 not the early 2010s!
that shouldn't be on by default or the B button not actually exiting menus
forcing me having to select it manually, it was all just so clunky. There's also no way
to replay voiced lines in the backlog which was the straw that broke the camel's back
cuz imagine wanting to hear a line again or wanting to backlog jump to replay a scene.
Sorry for complaining a lot but I don't think Akuyaku Reijou was worth much
maybe my standards are just a bit too high so it could be a me problem?
This game was barely worth the 50$ I got it for and think the price of 10-25$ is about right
for what you really get in terms of volume, as each was roughly between 3-4 hoursso that's give or take 9-10ish hours in total for the whole game. Its better on a sale tbh.
**I actually looked at charming empire/gakuen club just now and the menu/ui is very identical
and they released those games in 2017! I am sorry but what...?
Anyway I will only recommend it if you're looking for an otome-styled romance novel
and like Umehara Yuuichiro plus are not familiar with the source material at all.
As much as i'd like to play another otome game like atm cafe enchante comes to mind
I think it is better to take a wee little break from the genre before I start anything else.
No comments:
Post a Comment