Cafe Enchante - Review

Oh the misery.....

 Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate/Aksys.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: N/A.

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v24240

Release date: 5-11-2020.

 

Since I wasn't in the mood to start a completely new game, I decided to continue

on something from my backlog and that was Cafe Enchante. I started this earlier this year

but due to this games long common route I took a break after Canus's route.

Going back to this did make me feel productive as well as appreciating what I already have.

I wasn't constantly playing it, I frequently put it down after a chapter ended. 

 

Disclaimer: As this blog is just a place for me to write about games I play, if you

don't like what you're reading just close the browser/tab and move on. Its okay if not

everyone likes a game or certain aspects of a game. Yep it was time for a disclaimer again

maybe its better to add this permanently as a reminder its okay to not like

what everyone else likes both for myself and others.  

Pro's

- Interesting premise and setting.

- Great cast of characters.

- Gorgeous art and really good OST. 

 

Grey area

- Plot over romance type of otome. 

 

Con's

- No skip to the next choice option, making it hell to sit through the common route on subsequent plays. 

- Game ends up being far heavier than it initially appears.

- Sloppy translation.

 

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I loved the OP movie but I think it mostly suited the common route + first 2 chapters of a route

as there were moments where letting this play would not match the mood of the story.

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It was pretty long, the prologue and common route do a good job at setting the stage

but it was kind of repetitive. NGL this game false-advertisted itself about a cute story

about a cafe, which it can seem like it is but it goes far deeper than that.

If I had to give this game an award it would be most misleading.😂 

Cafe Enchante is a good example of don't judge a book by its cover, I wasn't

attracted to this game for heavy themes, it just seemed fun?  but alas a cute story

with some light drama it was not. However it knew when to have fun and when not

but I can't help but be a little disappointed by how short the individual route

was compared to the common route and how unsatisfying the ending was at times.

Like it just felt like something was missing or it left to be desired. 

 

Everytime you complete a route you also unlock a sort of extended prologue....

on its own I didn't really get what they were about, it hinted at something

which doesn't seem to be related to the original four routes. I figured Misyr

would go into it since he is locked but every time I saw a piece I was just confused. 

Art was great and I can't complain, the music was also one of the better ones.

In some games its just kinda there but Cafe Enchante had some really good OST. 

I do wanna add that while the BGM is good, you often go from the upbeat

title screen music to... the middle of a route and the mood whiplash is real. 💀

So when I was in the latter half of a route I would not put my headphones on till I loaded the save. 

 

The system was just standard stuff, nothing write home about.

Everyone has 1 best end and 1/2 bad ends.

I used a guide but this seems hell to play without one as there's no correct choice indicator

and its difficult to even guess what route you would land on so GG's to guide makers.

The UI was also pretty nice and stylish but not as eye-popping as Cupi-Para. 

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Story?!

If Virche had a light-hearted tone, lost some of its extreme nature

but knows when to step on the gas pedal of angst. There it is! Cafe Enchante.

I'm late to the party as it is a rather old game already but to me this is like a cute version of Virche.

 Anyway the heroine Kotone inherits from her grandpa with its visitors being

from other worlds which sounds like it could be a simple but fun story yet it isn't

while there were some cute scenes this was not a romance focused game

but more of a plot-driven one. At most the romance part is woven into it. 

 Due to that it never really felt like an otome game and even when it was time for confessions

it wasn't that satisfying and in the end I found the LI's better non-romantically.💀

The common route also ended in such a way that I was actually fine with dropping out there

but still I wanted to check out Canus route so I continued! and eventually the others.

Also I gotta admit that they did craft a wonderful setting.

Canus route was one of my favourites, Ignis&Kaoru were OK in comparison.

Il had a good routes as it had some nice surprises, I'd say Misyr did as well

but I think it tried too hard and suffered truth route syndrome.

 ---

The length was such a double edged sword and just simply playing this game

1 hour before bed meant I was going at an absolute snail pace. So I had to plan longer sessions

to literally get anywhere early on. Its one of those games that loves to set the stage and

spend time with its characters, which is good but there were times I got bored

so this game is definitely not for people with short attention spans.

I started this game on january 10, the common route was SO LONG that I took

a break midway and didn't finish that and Canus route till like a month later.

This truly was my backburner game of 2025! because I didn't come back till september.

Of course in VN common routes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes! but Cafe's Enchante

was just too long for my tastes. At one point during the common route I thought I had already

entered a character route but then I looked at the guide and it said main chapter 4 out of 8.💀

Canus route was about as long as a route in fuyuzono sacrifice which is 5ish hours at best

other routes were slightly longer but after 3 of them I started to noticed a pattern.

Canus route was arguably the shortest, Ignis&Kaoru was slightly longer and Il's route was

significantly longer than any of the former with Mysir doubling down on that.

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As for the heroine; Kotone was alright, I can't be too hard on her due to her past

and I generally liked her. She was proactive and spoke her mind.

There are at times moments especially very early on I was like eh? i'm glad

she got better once she actually accepted and understood what was happening.

I found her to be surprisingly adult/level headed and down to earth with

a little bit of baggage, she can't handle tense situations at all it seems.

Sure Misyr's greeting was awkward but Kotone's initial reaction was kinda unjustified

not sure if it was the localization but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.

Thankfully moments like that were only a handful so it wasn't a big deal

a lot of the times I could omit a line and read it as if it wasn't there. 

Overall I thought she was a pretty normal girl and i'm willing to forgive

the nonsense mid Ignis route due to bad translations. 

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Localization rambles

This was the most random and apparently the original was but... lack of QA is apparent.

As you already know yea the localization was awful but most of the awful was

at peaks and the rest generally read pretty well, I think had they actually handled this

game with more care there wouldn't be any problems. Now we have stuff like

the infamous box pusher, it read as terrible as when I found out years ago.💀

At times the dialogue in Canus route started to read like haiku's... and there were

odd line-breaks where there shouldn't be any. I've heard after this game's release

aksys has been getting better and I sure can get past the odd typo here or there

but still the damage these sort of things do remain ever a stain especially

when they don't get patched out which is the case here. Like people paid for this.

I often make a lot of typo's when I write stuff but I always fix them when I see them.

Perhaps putting out patches for games is expensive but I'd prefer it they

release the game a month later QA'd instead of releasing them like this.

I actually really liked how they translated Utakakata no Uchronia as Illusion of Itehara

which is very fitting for what the game is about, like Aksys can do it if they try! 

Sad we may need a port of this game for it to get patched up like norn9...

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TL;DR 

Do I recommend Cafe Enchante? sure if you can get passed the sloppy translation.😅 

Cafe Enchante is for those who don't mind seemingly light-hearted settings that can turn out

to be deeper than it appears to be and want to be surprised by potentially mindblowing twists.

However I suggest beginners of the genre or those who seek shorter or casual experiences

to steer away unless you love angst&bittersweetness. I saw some people say this is

a cozy game but that only really applies to the majority of the common route and 1/2

chapters of a character route. I can however praise it for its plot twists but idk why

I just find myself not satisfied with Cafe Enchante as an otome game.  

i

Looking back at some routes this actually fits perfectly.

TBH I am glad I got to experience it... and its by no means bad, I am a little unsatisfied.

It has good content value, the common route is repetitive in nature and one could get bored during it.

The setting and characters is what pretty much saved this game for me and it was

still an enjoyable otome game to come back to!  its just at times I don't think it was too sure

of what it wanted to be? did Cafe Enchante wanted to be a cute SoL story about a cafe

with some drama? or an isekai action packed adventure?! because it seems it wanted to be both...

Romance was kinda lacking and not main focus but atleast there was, something.

Atleast it didn't make me wait for the best outcomes till after the final route.

Plot twist; the tape did not hold...

In terms of characters I generally liked everyone and didn't particularly dislike anyone

so at the end of the day you could say the characters carried this game really hard. 

I really liked Canus even if it ain't his route and I don't even care he has no head!

I saw people complain about the headless part but I'm loving him.💕

I thought Kaoru could seem like one of the more logical choices, but eh

when I really think about it this ended up being one of those otome games where

the romance left me so wanting and while I am happy with the best outcomes

I actually like mostly all of the guys more non-romantically outside of their route. 💙

Definitely a recommendation for those seeking to dip their toes into the misery porn genre.

7/10 

''Man... I don't think there's ever been an otome game where I said... I liked all the guys

outside of their routes and I don't need anything more than the common route.💀''

 

I wonder though... will the day come more smutty or fluffy otome games will get localized?

I know honey vibes was not perfect but it seems the ones with lotsa angst always make it over...

Is it that difficult to bring over something like Shinobi Koi Utsutsu or Tlicolity Eyes?

its mostly the plot focused ones from otomate but never the fanservice ones.

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There's apparently a locked route which require all others so

my play order ended up being what most people seemed to recommend:

Canus > Ignis > Rindo > Il fado> Misyr.

Route babbles and my fav CGs after the jump, its generally light in spoilers

and mostly just commentary if you want  no spoilers then stop reading here. 

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AI: Somnium Files - Review

  Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Spike Chunsoft.

Platform: PS4,switch, PC.
Official Site: https://www.spike-chunsoft.com/ai/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v26532

Release date: 17-9-2019

 

Honestly I wasn't sure what I was going to play next

so I picked another game I bought on a PSN sale.

I thought it might be a good pick for something different from the usual VN's

and because AI is all the rage these days. Didn't quite feel like playing Yakuza 7 yet.

Since its a mystery type of VN I decided I was going to not use a guide till I

really got stuck or something. Nothing appeared to be missable as you could go back

later for certain things but man this game got surprisingly dark despite having a lot of fluff.

 

Pro's

- Great cast of characters.

- Pretty good mystery, you won't find it out till almost the end.

- Decent graphics, the character models were pretty good.

 

Grey Area 

- Route system was interesting but early on it can feel disconnected.

- Jokes are fine and dandy but it did hurt the scenario at times.

 

Con's

- Somnium's were annoying to progress through.

- Point and click segments for the sake of having them.

- There was no need to replay mini scenes of certain major events.

 

As for the story its a mystery VN so I won't be writing about the story.

You're sort of thrown into it and as you play you will get to know

the protagonist and the people in his life while trying solve a murder

which leads to other things but it was definitely a whacky ride.

Sometimes the game likes to joke around like during some investigation or dream part

which ultimately killed any tension the game had at that point.

I guess they wanted to keep it light-hearted despite touching upon deeper subjects.

It is what it is. 

Some of it made me smile/laugh and other times I was just oh...

 

By the time I finished the second day/chapter I was pretty much completely hooked

and wanted to see where it was going so this wasn't at all a bad mystery VN.

NGL the reason I kept playing was because I wanted Mizuki to get better

which lead to me wanting to find out about whatever the hell was going on. 

 

There are point and click segments and you can examine objects in the room

which sometimes lead to fun dialogue, during blue and red route I tried to select everything

but eventually stopped because it added nothing. Only very few moment I thought

they used it right which is such a shame for a mystery oriented game. 

Okay this was useful info, heheheh.

There's apparently an achievement for finding everything in Boss's room at a specific

point and I am like wew lad... never doing that without a guide.💀💀💀

New mononoke chigiri lore just dropped!

 The game is basically full of random moment if you try to select everything

but thankfully most of that is optional and sometimes it gives an achievement. 

Like Kaname tried to sniffle a shoebox at some point or staring at a stereo set

and being reminded of boobies. I did xray'd the mermaid during story

but not enough to trigger some random achievement.💀 Thankfully through

the flowchart you can easily replay any segment in the story so I got that postgame. 

 

There were a few moments were you had to interrogate a character and most of them

were fairly easy except that politics guy, idk its the way the evidence

against him was presented? very easy to make a mistake

and you get an achievement if you do it correctly.

Probably just a me problem... but that one was the hardest for me.

 

For my first route I decided to stay blind but you basically have to do all of them

to really get what's going on. I ended up on blue route first..........

not sure if that was ideal but eyy... lmao. Honestly I found the story to be whack here

and I wasn't sure wtf I was even playing anymore.💀  Red route had IMO the better narrative

as it actually felt like we were going places especially on other branches during it, so while

the first route I did seemed like hot garbo the rest was pretty good.

The only time I disliked the route system was when I did green route, thankfully I did it last

or almost last but I don't understand why that stuff wasn't locked entirely till you do

red and yellow routes since by the time it does lock it reveals way too much.

After green route locked I had to jump to pink route and then back to green... then pink again.

I suppose they wanted to create a more serious route but also a true end route

but they couldn't do it both at the same time. This just lead to it being a hassle. 

  

Aiba in a box out of context.

The somnium sequences is where the game is more trial and error as opposed to just

point and click stuff. At times it is really obvious but you can select wrong choices

which often just lead to funny moments and ultimately wasting your time.

Those somnium sequences have a six minute limit, granted there are checkpoints but they

felt the need to make the retries limited so more often not you have to restart completely. 

You can fast forward but if you can't figure it out it can still be frustrating. Also these

sequences can serve as route splits and on my second play I almost ended up on green route 

when I wanted to go to red route. Thankfully at this point I was loosely following a guide.

Loosely because I still wanted to figure stuff out on my own. 

 

I want to try to explain the somnium gameplay because hoo boy it had some mechanics?!

I can deal with having to retry during a somnium but time moves quite fast.

Every action costs time, some more than others and through random TIMIE's can help

reduce that but you can get screwed over because you can get negative TIMIE's.

I believe I didn't even understand this crap till I was at the end of my second route.

This just didn't feel right to me, some dream parts were of course easy

but some others were like LOL good luck! so if you constantly failed

trying to figure it out a more difficult dream this just gets too frustrating.

This action takes a lot of time but with that TIMIE it will only take 10 seconds.

 But yea to get those TIMIE's you have to look for them and do actions preferably

those who do not take much time, some of them are fixed and others random.

Let's not talk about negative TIMIE's though... let us not. (Traumatized.)💀 

 

I will say that the one thing I hated about this game was that they sometimes

would replay mini scenes everytime the subject came up so you see someone getting

stabbed over and over which wasn't funny. It was especially bad in the 3rd dream

(if we count prologue). Thank god for fastforward in dream sequences though

but it was just annoying if this happened in VN segments.

Even in the pink epilogue they felt the need to replay a movie of someone dying

and I was like please can we not do this? we already know this. 

 

 

In terms of characters; I liked the protagonist Kaname and Aiba wasn't that bad either

her name is actually a pun since she's literally an eyeball. Though at times it felt like Aiba

was more or less the brains of the duo not that Date was incompetent he can be a bit of a dork

 and he is constantly roasted for his antics sometimes deserved other times not.

Kaname really does have his heart in the right place and he's not a bad person

but I did think the narrative actively tried to present him as such which I disliked. 

Honestly I was perfectly in sync with Date when he said those words.

Mizuki... I sympathized with her however she was a bit of a brat but kids

are allowed to be a bit bratty and she goes through a lot so I forgave most of it

especially by the time of yellow route cuz holy shit she went through hell.

God bless Kaname for being the adult in the room and taking her in.

Mizuki doesn't seem to care and their relationship seemed really stiff

like whatever atleast she had a bed to sleep in? Ok I guess.............

but that is mostly because she is a tsunderella and for some reason Kaname is too?!

yea two tsundere's in one house is going to be a party wew lad. 

I will say that at first I didn't get why he adopted her but it all makes sense

I would too take this kid into protective custody because holy hell.

 Iris the vtuber did grew on me and wasn't too bad but her route was

and at the end of it I couldn't really say I liked her much either.

I think this game had an anti-vtuber narrative because holy shit she's loco.💀

However despite her route being seemingly random... it was still important. Pink route

was much better in completing her story and after it I honestly wish her nothing but the best. 

I neither liked or disliked Ota, i'm just really indifferent on him

to the point I don't even have many screenshots of him except where an NPC

is yelling like gordon ramsey and 1 other. I did like some developments

in red route. The family stuff made me sappy but that's about it.

Aww yea! finally a likeminded girl!

Boss; I liked her but due some story developments I was never really

sure about her. I would've liked to see more stuff with her but the story

went to other places beyond my imagination.

There were other characters like Pewter who is apparently gay or Moma

but I don't really have much of an opinion on them, like they played their part

in the narrative but that's about it really and I don't wanna go into spoilers too much.

I do gotta get this off my chest but while some it could be deserved this game was

way too focused on making Kaname look bad when he didn't even do anything.💀💀💀

Oh he talks to himself because of his AI eyeball and makes a fool of himself.

Some moments were deserved because ''gotta make a quick whiff'' was embarrassing.

Though somehow even lines like this were relevant in some way.

 That Moma guy was worse though since he even... incriminated Kaname during

some dialogue which turned me into a Kaname apologist because he did nothing wrong. 

I find myself thinking other characters are always making Kaname look worse

when he is actually a half-decent guy.  Side note; I found out Kaname is voiced

by the same guy (in JP) who voiced the priest in Trouble Magia so that was a revelation. 

Needless to say Kaname was generally a good guy with his heart in the right place!

Gotta respect him for that tbh.

 

 

TL;DR 

The main villain in this game is exactly that.

Anyway overall this was a satisfying mystery VN with great characters but there were

some caveats such as the point and click segments being just there for the sake of it.

Also while some jokes are fine I feel that there were too many dumb jokes

so it was hard to take it seriously. At first it felt more like a comedy game with a mystery. 

Despite some somniums being annoying I still enjoyed progressing through the routes so

it wasn't too bad. I believe my play order made the story actually better because blue route

 set the bar so low red route and beyond was smooth sailing for the rest of the narrative.

Also there's a theme of found family which was really beautiful, I loved yellow route.

Green route is where everything slowly started to fall into its place

and I really do think the mystery was well crafted, everything was revealed

at the right time, it was beautiful. However I didn't really enjoy psychin in the refrain

because it sucked if you made mistakes, you had to start over since there was very little time

but even then I noticed a pattern and there was definitely a way but this made me hate

the TIMie system and it showed that if you don't use it in a specific way you'll never clear.

7.5/10 

I think i'd rate the story a 9/10 but the gameplay was just kinda eh so I have to subtract some points.

Also I cannot believe that if you play with JPN VA and eng text then the ending song will be in english.

Now the song itself wasn't bad but I can't believe they never fixed that... also there was a bug

where if you saved in Psychin in the Refrain it would give an error and fail. Thankfully

I could still load an old save and overwrite the failed save but it gave me nearly a panic attack.

TBH you cannot release a game in that state! maybe its not a big deal as long

as you don't save in somniums and keep a saves before it but its not a good look

to have a bug like that in the game, this game is 5-6 years old but the lack of QA is apparent.

 

I do want to talk about the routes so there will be light spoilers after the jump

because it is impossible to talk about them without spoiling something.

 

Mononoke Chigiri - Review

Apparently japan hates this game but I liked it...

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.

Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/mononoke/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v52266

Release date: 31-7-2025

 

Honestly I wasn't sure if I should get this but it did catch my attention

and I liked the setting so why the hell not? its also been a while that the otome game

lineup  in japan has been so stacked sadly this game didn't do too well in japan whether

that was because its sandwiched between other titles or the high prices. Mononoke Chigiri

was no heavy hitter with a lot of hype such as over requiemz, its kinda just there. 

 

I had mostly a good time with Mononoke Chigiri so it wasn't that bad buuuut I honestly

just don't care what japan thinks. This was just one of those games I enjoyed more than they

did. Reason my enjoyment is high might be because I was tired after the drama in UtaChro FD

so this game was just comfort food to me. Comfort food isn't necessarily good 

but it can be great and make you feel better. 

 

 Pro's

- Decent but simple story that's not overly complicated with lots of funny situation.

- Great heroine and romance with most LI was satisfying.

- Gorgeous art from sprites and backgrounds to CG's.

- BGM fits the setting and some have really nice relaxing vibe. 

 

Con's

-  Pretty long; the length can be a bit of a double edged sword.

- Some sub characters or enemies have no sprite, it would have more impact if they did.

- Not one but two attractive unromanceable side characters.

 

 I liked the OP, it had the right kind of tone for a game with this setting, really good jam.

The lyrics of the OP already kinda spoil what kind of story its gonna be.

The ED was okay, I didn't skip it this time unlike UtaChro FD

and the animations for it were absolute adorable and feel good. 

 

Art was gorgeous, it was done by Melo, I didn't even recognize it at first

but it really is them. The backgrounds were nice to look at too.

Music was alright it suited the scenes well, it certainly wasn't the worst i've heard.

I loved some of the BGM like one of those was so relaxing it made me melt. 

I'm more wondering where the hell did otomate pull some of these composers from

cuz they seem really randomly picked but it mostly worked out so it wasn't a bad idea.

The UI was clean and it was easy to read the text as well. 

 

Heroine/Plot.

The heroine Fujita Yuma is an onmyoji  and she took her role seriously even if she's just

new to it she is trying. Yuma had her own sprite in the corner, I really miss this in some games.

To compare her to other heroines she's not particularly strong but she is brave and proactive. 

Yuma generally tried her best but she does at times lack self-awareness and can be a ditz. 

Edit 2: thinking about it Yuma was quite capable, does what she wants and not overthink

but she makes mistakes which leads to hilarious situations, I guess this is why

japan dislikes her, an otome heroine braincells should be mostly dormant. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As an overthinker... I appreciate her! I suppose she can come across as irresponsible

or thoughtless for opening a door without knocking but hey this added to the comedy!

The story was pretty simple and she had the goal of sealing the bakeneko whom's seal

was weakening and she befriended a bunch of youkai to help her do just that.

Its not a plot-focused otome game but rather one that focuses on the journey

which is slightly different depending whom you go for, the solution to the problem

was never the same and routes were more or less character focused.

This game didn't suffer from copypasta but I can see it being kind of repetitive.

Needless to say I've found 4 out of 5 routes worth doing.  

 

This was not a serious otome game at all since it was a rom-com. 

There were times the story was hilarious, the heroine was sometimes wearing her clown

pants unintendedly in the beginning however the game did know when to be more serious.

There was a common route which sets the stage and introduces the setting and story

but it was quite long, I could see people drop the game because of it

so this might not be for people who prefer shorter or more serious vn's. 

I did love the overall vibe and I wanted to learn more about everything. So it wasn't off

to a bad start. I did think it was bit slow at times and took its sweet time

but it ended up being surprisingly well written in a way that suit the setting A LOT.

I also liked how the perspective would switch to the LI or Hayate&Satoru.

If you really like japanese folklore and youkai, this game is an easy recommendation.

Time for this local grandma to go back to bed!

 

The system was mostly standard VN stuff and each love interest had only two endings

a good end and a bad ending which can be heartbreaking, i'm glad they made

the endings count so its quality over quantity, the good end was pretty satisfying.

 However there was a minigame but you only have to press a few buttons in order.

This kind of interactive game play wasn't that complicated. At first I thought

it was too fast but its an easy to memorize pattern and by route 2 I had it down.

Also you don't have to do it perfectly, completing the minigame

is fine with 5/7 so you don't have to get all seven button presses correct. 

You can retry via the backlog and save before it, imo it wasn't a bad minigame.   

I actually expected this minigame to be used more but it wasn't used as much at all

which was a relief for people that don't like this sort of stuff.

 

Playtime might depend on your reading speed, took me 50 hours for all routes.

I think my speed is normal or slightly slower because I sometimes pause. If you're

a fast reader then this game could feel a bit shorter then I make it out to be.

This game took me a two weeks to get through, I feel more satisfied with

Mononoke Chigiri than I did with Fuyuzono Sacrifice as well.

I didn't full focus on this game and took breaks, I think I could have finished it

sooner but there were times I wasn't ready to jump into the next route.

 

In terms of characters I didn't think I would like Akihito as much as I did

but I absolutely adored him by the end of his route! so that was a pleasant surprise.

I did Chiaki second but... I don't really like him. I got weird vibes and thought he was creepy

but I can't deny he was very much like a fox so it all checked out. He was just too much for me.💀

I generally liked Gaku but he was a bit stiff at times, you can see he means well

especially at the start of the route or where he expressed some of his thoughts.

I think his route accomplished more with the setting and story overall.

Sakichi's route was downright hilarious and a true rom-com, I enjoyed it the most

and may have left the strongest impression on me cuz some stuff you don't see everyday.

I enjoyed Sousuke's route as well and I think it was one of the best routes in the game

next to Sakichi and Akihito, Due being locked its a good route to end the game with. 

 

I do have some complaints but not a lot. Some side characters have portraits, there's

nothing for really minor characters or enemies which made the game lack in impact

especially with their being some fight scenes so you had to use your imagination.

Its hilarious how Hayate and Satoru's were really handsome like

if Mononoke Chigiri got a FD they should definitely have routes. 

The bakaneko I didn't find very threatening except... near the end of a route

and overall the game can get a bit repetitive but the individual characters

were all great and the way the problem was solved each route was unique.

So I can't complain too much. I almost ran out of steam at the final route

but it managed to get its grip on me and I still progressed at a steady pace. 

 

TL;DR 

This game made me love the whole otome genre all over again.

Its had a decent enough basic plot but I thought it was more focused on SoL, interaction

with the LI which lead to all sorts of fun situations, sealing the bakeneko

was merely goal but I think the journey with the LI mattered more here.

There wasn't any extreme content which could be disappointing for some but games

like this can be nice in their own way, there's enough shit happening in the world. 

It was quite long as well especially the first time through, had it been shorter

there would not nearly be enough time so I think the overall length is just right. 

At its core it may be quite a simple story... but it was still enjoyable

like sometimes you just want something that's not too complicated

while chasing 2d men and Mononoke Chigiri really delivered with this. 

I also really love animals and I liked how there were some cute scenes with the guys in

their youkai form, they kept it light and fun it reminded me of beastmaster & prince. 

 Overall pretty decent otome game that shined on building a connection with the LI! 

it takes its time with everything and it took its own setting serious to an extend, it had

a potentially bittersweet setup that became really obvious near the end of some route

but this wasn't a tear jerker, I think you're more likely to cry tears of joy

from laughing over something stupid that just transpired. It was just a cute and funny

otome game but its plot was not its strong point, instead the chara's and interactions shined.

8.2/10 

I recommend it if you like more simple light-hearted otome games focused on japanese folklore.

Its worth a look if you want a more comedic centered otome game. 

However if you prefer shorter otome games, darker/serious stuff or

don't like comedies i'd probably not recommend it.

Edit: If you're not sure about it just wait for a sale. Its not too bad but

if you go in expecting too much it could be disappointing, seeing how it is received

makes me think I am an anomaly that enjoyed this more than others.

 

I'm not sure how much chance this game will be brought over, tho I think there's better picks.

Honestly anything has a chance but they should just pick whatever they think is best.

 ---

 

 

My Play order: Akihito > Chiaki > Gaku > Sakichi > Sousuke.

There was a lock on Sousuke's route so I did him last. None of the initial route

had any big spoilers except maybe Gaku they all hint a little at things

and my own play order flowed surprisingly well. There's apparently an official

order but I don't think it matters too much Akihito and Chiaki share a plot line

so doing one hints at the other. Same for Gaku and Sakichi. I think Sakichi

should be done before Sousuke though but that's my opinion. 

 

Character rambles after the jump so if you don't want spoilers just stop reading here.

I share a few of my fav CG's as well but not all of them.

 

Utakata no Uchronia Trail - Review

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Licobits.

Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://licobits-game.com/uchronia/fd/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v53877

Release date: 24-7-2025

 

You know back when I finished the original game I kinda wondered

if a FD or sequel was already planned since it felt like it was only half a story

and would you look at that? a FD was announced and released like a year later.

 

Pro's

- Afters were neither too short nor too long.

- Most afters wrapped up the story that the OG started well enough...

- Art was consistent overall.

 

Con's

- Overall plot in some routes is rather repetitive.

- Story can feel heavy, there's sugar content but not a lot.

- Some afters feel draggy and waste the majority of their runtime.

 

The OP was as good as the first game was, honestly I really like the singer as well.

The OP of both games Dawn & Deep Blue are so good, even the full versions. 

 

 

As it is a FD it has after stories for all the LI's routes from the original game.

There's both a normal and a best end... so choices seem to matter here. 

There are new routes as well for Hiiragi and Tsuwabuki

as well as another story which was set after the truth end last game.

You can get a mini ending with every LI from the previous game there as well

sadly this doesn't include the new LI from the FD. 

The menu where you select which story you'd like to view.

 

Art was gorgeous and sprites moved a little due live2d, I personally don't really

care about the latter but its a nice touch I guess. Whether a route had

good CG's though varied a lot, I think Tobari drew the short end of the stick.

Yashiro's route had a lot of new backgrounds which were all really good. 

 Most BGM's felt the same as the original nothing stood out to me except the OP.

The ED was just kind of there I actually skipped it after the 2nd time. 

 

TBH I thought the font was rather tiny, likely not optimized for switch lite.....

There's so many kanji too I was literally squeezing my eyes out.💀 Maybe it was like this

in the OG but I didn't have this problem with Toki no Kizuna's port so the whiplash was rough. 

 

I didn't list this as a con because its likely a me problem but I don't like how there is a start screen

then a separate screen for the logo before the actual main menu shows.

I mean why not just show the logo with the start screen? before the main menu???

its weird design that just makes it clunky to sit through everytime you boot up the game.

 

Average conversations in this game be like...

The pacing was OK but this game is really slow in general but I am glad

the afters weren't any longer than they were. It also felt more like a sequel than

a FD due to the contents being heavy. Like this just shows how open ended

the OG's endings were... and for some they were not ideal.

I was pretty much deceased by the time Tobari's after was over, thankfully

Yori revived me somewhat but he drove me mad by the end of his own route.💀

Each after/new route only had 5 chapters and it took maybe 5/6 hours to clear a route

individually. Due to that it was neither too short or too long, by the time I did the final route

I did feel a bit tired of it all. Let's be real this was a long FD so its not surprising.

 

Unfortunately there were bugs at release which slightly hindered my enjoyment of the game.

I am pretty sure the another story was meant to be done last but I couldn't do that

due to Awayuki,Tsuyukusa and Hiiragi's after being full of game crashing bugs.

By the time I did get to the bugged routes there was still no patch, so I decided to do

Awayuki's since his was only in chapter 1 unlike Tsuyukusa which had bugs in 2 chapters.

Experiencing wasn't fun but with the context of Awayuki's scene made me laugh somehow... 

I was sure it will be fixed sooner or later but it wasn't a good look to have these sort of bugs.

Also like clockwork when I am done with the game a patch appeared.......

okay everyone ya'll can enjoy it now without fear of it crashing.👍

 

Hmmmm....

Anyway I didn't really like Tobari's after but I liked the ending yet in Yori's after I liked

the majority of the after except the ending... Yashiro's after was generally good

and I loved Tsuwabuki's new route which was an alternative take on Yori's in the OG.

Awayuki's after was mostly good, it didn't leave me nearly deceased as someone else.😒

Tsuyukusa's after was a bit too slow-paced for me but that may've been due his personality. 

I suppose you win some and you lose some is how I sum up my experience with this FD.

--- 

I wasn't the biggest Uta-Chro fan but this FD did was wrap up  what the original game started, sadly

I just wasn't that invested in the general affairs of things but it was by no means a bad FD.

Uta-Chro likes to focus on the big picture and not just the romance, it really varied whether

or not a route balanced this. I suppose it depends on tastes but to me Tobari&Yori's after felt weak.

Though while I understand characters can't always be together there wasn't a whole lot of

romance scenes and what was there was woven into the plot. Hinagiku's just trying her best

which is good but it at times it would also focus on plot or side characters

who somehow still had their own little role to play in the story. 

The only characters that suffered with afters were the ones that never really went into the truth

so the story had to go out of its way to go into that... which wasn't all that fun. 

There's not a lot of CG's either so that didn't add to the experience either its only

been a year so the artist probably didn't have a lot of time to work on it. 

It wasn't a bad FD, even if it wasn't outstanding it was still good.

When I look back at the original... it just feels unfinished so this FD or sequel is much welcome.

 

TL;DR

Honestly for the most part its a good FD and there were definitely a bunch of route

that I thought were good and its okay if you don't like everything.

I'm walking away from this while liking atleast 3/4 routes, which is more than enough

though if you play FD's mainly for sugar content or more focus on romance this might

disappoint a little because there was still a heavy focus on the plot and slow-life.

It did further expand on the characters and it had moments

that were nice to see so it wasn't all bad if you like the pacing that is.

7/10

After finishing both games I realized UtaChro is actually pretty similar to trails in nature

so I recommend it to people that like slow-life and great worldbuilding

because at the end of the day that's what the UtaChro games are good at.

Also this isn't exactly beginner friendly you need a good grasp of japanese to enjoy it

fully, I saw aksys didn't have many upcoming games but they will likely localize this

and I will be disappointed if it doesn't because the OG really needs this FD. 

 

As for my playorder I started with Tobari but then heard there were bugs

so I adjusted my play order so the ones with the bugs were done later.

 Tobari > Yori > Yashiro > Tsuwabuki > ANOTHER > Awayuki> Tsuyukusa > Hiiragi.

 

Route babbles after the jump, I will share a few of my fav CG's as well

but no more than 3 per route, if you don't want any spoilers then just stop reading here. 

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

Toki no Kizuna Hanayui Tsuzuri - Review

PSP box art cuz its gongeous I mean gorgeous.

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate

Platform: PSP,switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/toki/switch/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v12141

Release date: 19-6-2025

 

Once upon a time otomate released an otome game called Toki no Kizuna

but then realized it didn't nearly have enough romance which was lost in the sauce

that was the overall story so they released a FD; Hanayui Tsuzuri.

 

--- 

Pro's

- After stories were a much needed epilogue to the original routes.

- Most other side content brought a smile to my face.

- After's are of decent length and didn't really overstay their welcome. 

 

Con's 

- New routes and flower chapter rely on Senkimaru's sad end so you could

feel lost in terms of continuity if you happened to only do the good ends in OG.

- Yachiyo's route is really aimed at a special audience so its not for everyone.

 ---

 

I thought the OP was pretty fire this time around and actually wanted

to listen to it most of the time I booted it up. The original game's OP

was a good jam too but it just didn't hit as good as the FD one. 

 

As for the heroine she mostly has dropped the act of pretending to be a man and she

was much more accepting of herself. Yukina let her feminine side shine through in this FD.

Maybe for some its disappointing but I didn't mind this. The extended epilogue

really did show her at her most badass which was really good IMO. 

 

---  

After stories.

All after stories start with a brief summary of the route but it felt a bit rushed

I suppose it might be good if you need a quick refresher, other than that they were in generally

pretty good as an extended epilogue but that's about it. Doing your fav LI first is recommended. 

There are choices in the after stories but it doesn't affect the outcome.

The only thing it affects is the CG variation so there's not much to worry about

and you can play at your leasure without fear of bad ends which the original had a lot of. 

 

New routes.

As you know there are new routes for Shiyuu and Yachiyo but honestly they're a hit or miss.

I didn't like Yachiyo's because it is really aimed at a specific audience that is not for me.

Shiyuu's route was a lot better and more well rounded, I actually cared about him.

Before I played this FD I wasn't sure when these took place but it made sense

for it to happen after Senkimaru's sad end as she doesn't end up with anyone

and certain characters are alive except someone and Yukina basically is the head honcho.

The new routes didn't have any choices so it was like reading a novel. 

 ---

 

There's a Inbetween chapter that takes place sometime during the original game

with some choices that may give extra CG with the chosen LI.

Honestly I don't really like this sort of content that's supposed to make up for

the lack of fun times in the original. Its hard to get into it so i'd rather prefer a scenario

after endings of the original game and that did exist in this game this just wasn't it.

In terms of length it was maybe about 30 mins to an hour the first time through.

You will pretty much skip half of it when doing another character in this section. 

I only bothered with Kazuya for this and vibed through some of the others

but it was kinda funny how he was constantly so listless, it actually was a problem.😂

 Other than that there's the flower chapter that takes place after Senkimaru's sad ending

 which acts as an extended epilogue but without any romance. After doing both Inbetween

and flower chapter you unlock something called twelve tales which is pretty much the

conclusion of the story as it wrap up the series well enough. I did this last. There's also some

unlockable bonus side stories that you get by finishing every guy's after story/new route.

Plenty of content all around but some of it can be skipped if you had your fill. 

  ---

 

Overall its a solid FD with plenty of content value.

Its okay to play it back to back because most routes needed the extended epilogues

but had the switch port not included this then i'd be disappointed so I am glad it is.

It was nice there's still a scenario that explores one sad end of the original game

but the only thing it was good at was formally closing off the Toki no Kizuna saga. 

The other extra bonus content was nice, it even reminded me of ken ga kimi's FD

but I don't think it was as loaded which was a good thing imo.

If you liked a character in the original its definitely worth to check out their after story

in this FD but its okay to skip the ones for characters you didn't really like.

Personally for me only Kazuya and Senkimaru's afters were worth it as well as Shiyuu's route

others just weren't as engaging or interesting to me. Maybe its cuz I didn't like all LI equally. 

I'll admit I feel like I forced myself through some of these afters and new routes

but I can see this isn't a bad FD, in fact its pretty good addition

since the original left much to be desired.

8/10 

This FD has just the right amount of content that there is not a lack of volume or too much of it.

A lot FD's just tend to stop at afters or new routes. Its rare to get a bunch of

chibi side stories along with an extended epilogue of a less than ideal ending.

This was 20 hours of good stuff which may stretch to 25+ish if you do everything. 

Route babbles after the jump as well as my fav CG's, its not really a digest but commentary.

Also disclaimer i'm sorry if I didn't like every LI we can't all like the same things!

if you don't like what you're reading then just stop and close the browser.