Genre: VN.
Developer/publisher: Otomate
Platform: PSP,switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/toki/switch/
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/toki/switch/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v9885
Release date: 19-6-2025
I don't even know why I got this game but I wanted something meaty to sink my time into
and this ended up the right type of game for it. Was it worth it? it depends.
Toki no Kizuna also hasn't received any ports since it came out on PSP, it was localized
as demon's bond on mobile but solmare has long pulled the plug on that. Anyway this game
shares the same setting as Hakuouki but it is mostly stand alone outside of a few references.
Pro's
- Overall plot is pretty decent but not outstanding.
- The heroine kicked butt and spoke her mind.
- Gorgeous CG and sprites.
- Most BGM's suit the setting.
- What romance there is present is pretty adorable to see.
Grey Area
- High amount of bad endings. Can't decide if good or bad so here it goes.
Con's
- Doing all routes can be repetitive and make it feel same-ish.
- Feels more like a non-romance VN for the majority of its runtime.
- Despite trying to create intrigue it made certain stuff easy to put 2+2 together.
- No heroine sprite in the corner, this game may've benefit from that.
This switch port also includes the FD which I am glad it did as the base game
really needed it and without it i'd have no motivation to finish all routes.
As it is just a port of both games there is nothing added other than touching up
the art, I liked that the font was big which is great when it has losts of kanji.
Story: this is set in old japan around the time of the end of the sengoku period.
The subtitle should be pretty obvious about that, they've given it a slight fantasy spin.
Yukina an oni and head of her clan is tasked with finding a cure for the yasehime who was put
into a deep slumber. Yasehime also wanted her clan to not deal with humans as she
wished to sever ties between oni and humans or create some kind of non-interference.
Oni's were once referred to as gods but the clans have since lived reclusively away from
humans, some shady people are apparently against this and are generally a nuisance.
Yukina was one of the more capable heroines, while headstrong she could be sort of bitchy too.
Key point is Yukina doesn't see herself as a woman cuz they tend to be looked
down upon in this era. I think its also kind of sad but she does what she has to do.
Despite that she could still show signs of weakness or indecisiveness but that made her human.
Seeing her repress herself wasn't fun, a big part of Yukina's character is accepting herself for
who she is and that is not trying to pretend to be a man. Some routes do this better than others.
What was amusing was that she would frequently would go i'm a chieftain before i'm a woman
or get real feisty if the guys would treat her as a woman which she did not want.
At times she would also interject when they were butting heads so she wasn't just
standing there, she really does try to act independently for better or worse.
I wish she had a sprite in the bottom left corner or something or her sprite would appear
next to the guys instead, with her playing such a key role it feels like missed opportunity.
The art was by Miko which was pretty good, the sprites looked damn good
and the guys looked attractive. There's not much to complain about honestly
except maybe some of Senkimaru's CG's looking a bit off.
Music well it was okay, not the best OST i've heard but it served its purpose?
I liked how energetic the battle theme was which wasn't bad
but there one track could be rather sleep inducing..
The game had a stellar seiyuu cast and I recognized a lot of names
as well as oh my god Okamoto you're everywhere?!
Toki no Kizuna is a pretty long game, it took me around 1- 2 hours to clear
the first chapter, its a very slow and detailed historical fantasy otome game.
Though the length may vary depending on your profiency of japanese language
and sadly Toki no Kizuna is definitely not for beginners. I was fairly slow.
Its plot oriented and there is not much time for romance
but the heroine Yukina does grow closer to the LI over time.
I liked that there's a decent amount of suspense like who are the villains?
what is their goal? their were a lot of characters, they all had a role to play but at times
I was more interested in the shady hooded guy CV:Tachibana Shinnosuke than our heroes
but that changed over the course of the game and I am not looking forward to his route in the FD.💀
There's a bunch of Jiji's/granpas and they always livened up the scene. I found it funny
how all the oni's would be beautiful people but the humans would be normal looking...
The character interactions were pretty good but comedy wasn't the focus of this game
and for the most part it was pretty dry with only a funny scene here or there
with some romance crumbs too. Due to this Toki no Kizuna can feel like its not
an otome game at all and more like a non-romance VN.
The story was also fairly slow and at times it was testing my patience especially on
subsequent routes since there was a clear pattern of things that would happen.
Some later chapters did feel shorter so that was a blessing rather than a curse as
the game had eight chapters in total. I think a route was 8-10 hours in terms of length.
Depending on choices a lot of scenes in the common route would change because it would focus
on the LI related to those choices before settling into the character route which starts from ch5.
And that is why even on subsequent plays it can still be a bit long.
It was still interesting to see what character was involved with but overall it was kinda boring
to pursue multiple characters since some things still felt the same just with slightly different flavor.
Its also kind of easy to guess certain characters identities due to who voices them
its unfortunate because this kind of kills whatever mystery the story had.
The masked villains felt like they were team rocket, I couldn't take them serious by route 2.
At times it could make it seem like they didn't really take their own story and setting seriously
and if you look at the official site you can already see their appearance but the game
was generally slow at unveiling it which makes no sense to me.
Oh well I played my sengoku musous and basaras so I already know who won the war... whatever.
TL;DR 
I thought Chitose's route was pretty good but its just too repetitive, there's very little
that would set each route apart from eachother, I know the setting is limited so it can't be that
different but after two routes it all just felt the same in the end. They also focused too much
on the setting or war stuff and not enough on the otome part. I remember playing stuff like utawarerumono which also had war stuff but it wasn't as dry or boring as this. Even Birushana
had more fun to it. I rememeber making tomohorny jokes but here all I did was complain what
a psycho Yachiyo is.💀 Anything that was fun in this game was far and between. I'd probably
not recommend this game unless you like story heavy otome games that're slowburn or
are a giant Hakuoki nerd who wants to experience every content related to it.
There's not much sweetness but what's there is adorable, there's also a big emphasis on bonds.
Seeing Yukina develop a bond with the LI and accepting herself is what was saved it.
6/10
If you love historic fantasies as well then it might still be worth looking into but yea just
keep in mind the first game is not very otome-like and go in with low expecations.
My play order was: Kazuya > Chitose > Kazutake > Shin > Senkimaru.
Senkimaru's route is locked till you complete one route but his route has the real plot of the game
so its best to do him last. I recommend Kazuya's route first because there's
less reveals and it following Sekigahara in the traditional sense
Side note: This already came over once on mobile as demon's bond but Solmare
as I already mentioned pulled the plug. I don't see a lot of people talk about it or
acknowledge it within the Hakuoki series so I think its popularity is up in the air.
It remains to be seen if it will ever get localized again but I think
it deserves better than being a mobile port.
As per usual character babbles after the jump as well as some of my fav CG's.
