Over RequiemZ - Review

 Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Kogado/Otomate.

Platform: switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/over_requiemz/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v47013

Release date: 17-4-2025

 

I wasn't sure if I was going to get this game and it was literally a last minute decision

but I am glad I did because I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I ever would and it

had a pretty good story more so than a bunch of recent otomate games I played recently.

Also I could probably have finished this sooner rather than later however lately I don't

like it when I burst through games in a week but it lasted almost two weeks for me

so I slowed down my pace just a little bit, the game also is better with breaks

in between due to how intense the writing can be.

 

Pro's

- Interesting setting and complex characters.

- Mostly good pacing, atleast I thought fact side was.

- Gorgeous artwork, pretty consistent art.

- Beautiful music, I found it better than most of otomate's stuff.

- Replay value is high due to scenario split.

- You can completely ignore the dark side and get to enjoy the story with proper romance.

 

Grey area

- There's only one best ending, the other three are either bad ends, a tragic end or subjective good.

 

Con's

- Dorothy's route should've been locked.

- Most choices are meaningless except a handful that decided a branch or end.

 - Dark side can feel a bit drawn out, atleast one felt forced.

- The ending theme did not fit all the endings.

 

 

Over RequiemZ is loosely based on the wizard of oz.

The heroine Yuhiru gets isekai'd to a strange land and meets a bunch of guys

who are all convicted criminals alongside herself for reasons she doesn't get. The world

isn't quite like her own but she still recognizes elements here and there from it.

Due to her black hair and eyes, she is discriminated for it but she's not

the only one as one of the LI has suffered from it as well.

Yuhiru finds solace with a bunch of guys who like herself end up being charged for

crimes they didn't commit. The question remained of whether she can trust them or not. 

This honestly feels like a breath of fresh air. Yuhiru sets out on a journey with them

which really felt like a journey btw, the characters also had good chemistry

but this was mostly the first 5 chapters before it focused more on the LI.

I loved the character interactions, there was a good dose of humor at times as well.

 Even if they were criminals it didn't feel like they were bad atleast not at first

but you could tell there was another side to them so it was exciting to see how it'll play out.

I really loved how the writing could be rather intense, it was hard to get bored

and if I did zone out then the dialogue would snap me back into it.

 

Art looks gorgeous both sprite,CG and backgrounds are very well done.

Music Some BGM's were absolutely stellar I rarely praise this much but they deserve it!

It also set the tone of the scenes well and I like the OP a lot as well.

 

System; its a standard VN however  there's a route split for each character Fact and Dark

Depending on your choices you can tip the scales to either of those and get different endings

but other than that most of the choices were meaningless, it may change a dialogue line or two.

All the endings of which there were four per route were right at the end.

Yea the split sides basically are like this, yes.

Length; A single route would be 15 chapters in total, every guy had a sort of

common route/prelude which lasted for 5 chapters and then it splits into fact or dark

of which both are 5 chapters long.  Nothing seemed to drag on, I thought individually

chapters were short, it still delivered the scenario in a well-paced manner.

My first route was about 7-8 hours in length but depending on your reading

speed it may differ.  Its important to note that both sides are different in tone

from the other so you won't get the same experience twice.

 

I wasn't sure what was up with the choice system maybe that's to decide what ending you get

or if you can make it to the fact or dark. I used a guide so... i'm not sure if selecting a less

than good choice would result in a game over ending and I didn't have the energy to experiment.

Often there would be red choices, I thought that selecting the wrong one would give me

 a bad end but the guide listed none. This game also only has four endings per route.

They were at the end so the bad ones felt more like you reap what you sowed.

Still I think some bad ends may've worked in a type of game like this since

most choices are actually pretty meaningless and add nothing of value except

the ones that decide the route split or the endings at the end of it.

 

 

I liked the general feel of the game but I had so many questions...

like why was the heroine summoned? isn't this judicial system too harsh?!

The early parts of trying to survive outside of the city reminded me of the dark dragon and

the happy hungry bunch from yona of the dawn. The first half of the game felt rather calm

but there were moments of suspense like do you tell a LI the truth of where you came from?

Anyway for the most part the game was very enjoyable, I wanted to get to know the LI

and perhaps more about the world... which was my main motivation to keep playing.

The characters were honestly pretty great, I wanted to know more

about them all, in good and bad ways. Its been a long time

an otome game got that kind of reaction from me.

They all had some sort of underlying trauma and it could seem like the heroine

is a therapist but I thought she was just trying to be a good friend

and a good friend listens to someone elses troubles and doesn't judge.

The fact route tended to resolve issues while the dark route let them fester.

In most other otome games I am like eh a yandere but this game did

not present them the usual way, more like they could become one.

Most of my questions were answered by the time of the final fact route.

 

The fact side pretty much felt like a normal otome game to me...

It focused more on the character development,backstory and current problem

as well as delivering some proper romance as Yuhiru grows closer to the LI.

The dark side reminded me of stuff rejet would come up with

and that would probably be for folks who like yanderes or something.

The main plot in dark took a different turn which... opened up other problems.

So even if you don't like rejet type stuff I could still recommend this game.

I personally thought it was a hit or miss as I could stand Claude's dark route

but Molly's... was a very oh no wtf is this shit?! momento.

I kind of wanted to skip them especially since I came to love Noil a bit too much

still I wanted to see all of his character so I bit the bullet againu. 

 

Yuhiru was pretty okay? I did think she could have been fleshed out more

like she wants to go back home but... ends up finding a handsome man instead.😂

There's only one route where she is actually given a lot more backstory

so if you don't do it she can seem a little less interesting.

That aside I liked her interactions with the love interest and she was very positive and brave

 so I don't think there was much to dislike. She goes through some shit alright

but the worst of it was mostly reserved for the dark side. Which is optional.

If Ceres crawled it was so Yuhiru could fly.

 

Over RequiemZ reminded me a little of 9rip but with more horror/suspense. I wouldn't say

it was on tsukihime/virche level but it had a good dose of violence and blood.

I think without the fact side this game would've been unsatisfying for me

and it may have even steered me away had I tried to do the darkside first.

Other than that it was character focused but most routes would never go into

the same problem twice maybe this was a double edged sword.

Unfortunately, while I was lucky enough to play the most spoilerific route last

otomate may've been better off locking it but it seems they forget

and I am blaming the guy in charge of management.😩

Locking Dorothy's route should've been a thing.

In most routes there were more bad outcomes than good ones, like one best end

a sad end and then two endings that I thought were generally leaning to the bad side

but they could be good in a subjective way.  In the case of Noil I think he had three

good outcomes and one bad but two of them  were really subjective and it would be up

to the player to determine that.  Each guy had 4 endings so two for each side, I think

there's a lot of appeal to this otome game though and I was invested quickly in whatever

was happening. The dark side of the route is probably what most are going to come here for

but I'd probably recommend to do the fact side first just for a better understanding

of the LI more so if you care about plot+romance.

 

-- 

TL;DR: Over RequeimZ was more well-rounded, it was just the right length

which was a relief since I think Fuyuzono really rushed itself.  Its just that one route

should've been locked. There was just enough time for both romance, plot/character

development but it can be really intense and can not seem very otome.

Looking at it overall the actual story/character's were really good and given a lot of depth

that I can forgive it. Whatever scenes there were with the LI were very enjoyable but don't come

here expecting only fluff. When I look at Noil's route it spends more time building trust...

however trust is the foundation for everything and without that there can be no love. 

That is why I had no issues with romance. The fact side did feel to me like any other otome game

 Its just that some characters had stuff going on in their dark route that legit made me go nope

so it certainly is not for everyone. There was a moderate amount of violence

and blood, I don't think it was as extreme as Virche. I also see comparisons

and I just don't see it?  Virche made me depressed, Over RequiemZ had me hooked and

despite the dark side being less than good I was excited to go to the next character fact route.

It has intense and suspenseful moments but it also makes room for more calmer ones.

Dark side tended to... have more extreme ends as opposed to the fact side

which just had a tragic and good end.  I thought at times the split sides also complimented

eachother, this was most obvious to me in Noil's maybe because I enjoyed the route.

Noil Bestia was one of my favorite LI along with Kaize&Claude.

I can recommend this otome, more so if you miss rejet-like games and want a story full of suspense.

If I have to be really honest, if you're just here for the story&romance just do the fact side.

I feel the dark side is there for people that like darker stuff, once again its contents is not for everyone.

9/10

Should this get localized? absolutely! there's definitely an audience for this

but even if it doesn't the language difficulty is fairly low.

Lastly, I don't recommend binging or rushing through this game.

Take your time, the scenario is carefully written and going too fast

will likely not make you be able to take it in or enjoy its finer aspects.

 ---

 

There are no route restrictions so you can choose whoever you're interested in.

For my first play I ended up choosing Claude... as I played the routes

it all was so character driven, if I had to recommend anything then you can do

Claude,Molly,Noil and Kaize in any order but Dorothy is best saved for last.

I almost by a hair chose him first and was glad I didn't.

This game is best played without spoilers and its very hard to write about the

characters without spoiling  so if you don't want that then stop reading here.

Its mostly just me doing commentary and a poor digest of whatever happened

while sharing some of my favorite CG's, not all of them of course.

Honey Vibes - Review

Honey, there's landmines on da beach.

Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/honey_vibes/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v49600

Release date: 3-10-2024.

 

I wasn't originally going to get this but after the last game I played

something like this seemed appropiate, the premise sounded fun tbh.

Moeyo otome doushi fell off the radar after I learned its really short

so I just decided this would be the last otome of the year instead.

 

Pro's

- Fluffy and Spicy; romance oriented otome game.

- Character focused rather than plot focused.

- Length; doesn't overstay its welcome.

- Gorgeous art & music fits the vibe.

 

Con's

- Plot isn't really its strong point, its hidden away in a corner called the finale.

- Some of the less than good ends can be a killjoy.

 .

Artstyle is pretty unique, at first reminded me of bad apple wars/dairoku but its

not the same artist, I guess its because the eyes and it having a similar look.

While most CG's were gorgeous there were a bunch with weird angles

or with the heroines face not shown or it cutoff near the edge but everyone

had a decent amount so I didn't mind if it that much. I will say that there was

one thing that I find unnacceptable and Theo was a victim of it. One of his ending CG's was not

positioned right which is a criminal offense, I could see another background behind the CG.

Another gripe is that they weren't evenly spread out through the routes and in some cases

there were a lot of them right after the other like at the end of Elijah's route.

Music is nice and felt really relaxing and gave it chill vibes

but I wasn't sure what was with the ar tonelico/NIER bgm's as this

made it seem more ambitious than it was.

Plot:

The protagonist Nagisa seems to be a pretty normal girl going about her day

till she rescues an animal CV:Toriumi Kousuke (Hello Simeon from Kai no kiseki!)

Something appears to be up and Nagisa starts tripping and next she finds herself

in a room full of antique with an unusual chessboard; usually the pawns are only

for two people but this board is for three? weird. The furball introduces himself as Colt

and the room they're in is some sort of space between worlds so he offers her a chance

since Nagisa seems to be a kind person that he wants to place his faith in.

Colt has basically chosen her to help save beings like himself

and hopes that she can offer them happiness till the last moment.

Next she wakes up she is in another world called Libalium and Colt isn't a

furball anymore and a human with wings as ears (Like Meteion I suppose...?) 

Colt is more or less like a priest or kind of like a god.

Meanwhile Nagisa just thinks she is having a dream, lol.

Colt tries to explain she is in another world, and she's not dreaming

and eventually meets a bunch of guys who live in that world.

At first Nagisa doesn't have any idea what is going on really and the games begin.

 ---

 

I liked Nagisa, her reactions to some things were quite natural but I wish she had

a sprite in the corner, its weird since when you go to the backlog she has a sprite there.

She could seem a bit unsure in the beginning but there were times she really shined.

 

With there being a game going on and all I think this game was shameless

about the fact that this was a reverse harem, boys don't fight over me but

then it is literally about that since Nagisa fell into the role of queen

and most guys are divided into different camps red,black and white. 

Nagisa basically made it so the guys have to convince her to choose them

and well gonna say some of the guys had varying levels of how they went about it.

Honey Vibes was for the most part a fun isekai, there's a sense of seriousness but it also

doesn't take itself too serious and just rolls with what it tried to do without shame.

It wasn't too long or that anything dragged, the game's length is fine. Common route introduces

things and there's enough time to get a feel of everyone's personality before going into a route.

Sadly the bad ends were such a killjoy idk what but had I gotten them by accident

the mood would be ruined and I don't think I would even want to see the best end.

This game shared some writers with 9rip and it definitely had a little bit of suspense

so I can see why this game suddenly went off the rails but still I don't remember

9rip being as bad as this?! the bad ends in honey vibes legit killed the mood.

While I won't complain about there being different outcomes some felt out of place or a bit

extreme and not what I initially came here for or fit with the setting. I will admit I didn't

do a lot of research on Honey Vibes but expected it to be dark was the last thing on my mind.

How interesting the plot in the route was varied a lot since Honey Vibes focused more

on romance and the character's personal issue than whatever plot there was which felt

like an after thought to me in routes such as Alvin. Finn's route complimented Alvin's

in a way its like the otherside of the same coin, both routes also had great romance.

 In some routes the bad ends are also worse  like Eno for example. Milo's route still good

not just in terms of romance but since I understood more in the grandscheme of things

and unlike other routes, Milo's bad ends atleast made me understand why its the way it is.

Theo's route was also decent, his personal conflict together with the overall plot was just

beautifully written, unfortunately he has some of the worst bad ends in this game.

Elijah was the only route that I thought was well rounded and actually focused on the

story/lore but even then it was still just character focused like all the rest which means

 even if it seems more involved it isn't. They saved it all for the finale route.

So while in most routes the overall plot was never amazing, it was still pretty decent

since if you do all routes it connects well enough.  If you come here for the

romance & your favourite voice actor is in here you'd likely be satisfied.

Story can peak in some routes and just dips in others, the characters carried this game hard.

As for the game as a whole, its fluff and spicy! I don't play a lot of otomes where things

get THIS steamy but honey vibes was on another level that most others felt tame.

Sadly most desire ends were awful, it just felt like another bad end where the one tied to rationality

is the only good outcome which all things considered is kinda lame.The LI's were all pretty good

but for some I immediately went like oh no! looking at you Milo but he as well

as Alvin were among my fav's so look how that turned out. The only one

I didn't like was Eno really. With 6 LI's there might be a favorite for anyone.

This game could be interesting to play blind but honestly i'm glad I used a guide

since there are just way too many landmine bad ends you could trigger.

Bad ends did at times contain minor plot revelations so I'd say its still worth

checking them out just don't be surprised if you get burned while doing so.

The actual story is left for the finale route which wraps everything up in a grand way

perhaps there is room for a sequel or FD? idk but it may need one since

after the finale most best ends just has me going is that it really?

8/10

I can't hate this game because its literally the best and worst of otomate in one package.

Its likely it will be picked up for english release and will be disappointed if it won't

since there's definitely an audience for this, no I know there is.

TL;DR Honey Vibes is quite enjoyable but if you're just here for an romance novel

i'd stay away from the bad ends if I were you unless you like to live dangerously.

This game is not all sunshine and rainbows and can get surprisingly dark in bad ends.

If this sparks your interest then by all means I will recommend this otome game.......

For playorder there weren't any restrictions so I just picked one in the moment:

Alvin > Eno > Milo >Theo > Elijah > Finn > Finale.

You can do whatever camp you want in any order due to no restrictions

the best I can recommend here is to just stick to one camp before moving to the next.

 

More rambles after the jump, just the usual some of my fav cg's etc

if you want to play don't read further.

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

Radiant Tale ~Fanfare~ - Review

 Genre: Visual Novel.
Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/radiant_tale/fanfare/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v42433
Release date: 31-08-2023.

 

Okay so Otomate decided Radiant Tale needed a FD and since I sort of liked the game

and they added a Liyan route I decided to get it! also it seems like Raditale FD releases

really close to Virche's FD, not even a week apart! 😱😱😱 I didn't realize this

till I was in the middle of Vilio's after and was like no rush right?! 😅

Good thing is this game wasn't that long... phew.

 

Pro's

- Enjoyable FD to compliment the original game!

- Gorgeous art and fitting music.

 

Con's

- After stories have choices but they don't actually matter.

 

 

As this is a fandisc it will have after stories for the main guys and 2 new routes for Liyan and Jinnia

which take place after the common route normal ending of the original Radiant Tale.

After and IF stories are roughly 3-4 hours in length, which honestly was enough as it never

did drag on long enough to overstay its welcome and most of them remained short&sweet.

I did set a good pace for myself and got through an after in a day so I spend

a good week on this which is pretty good value if you ask me but it all depends

how much time you have to want to set aside to sit back and read a little.

 

System is pretty standard as per usual, however I didn't understand why there were choices

in the after stories, said choices seemed to be there for the sake of it. Like congratulation Ion

or telling Ion that he was cool. I'm like... why bother at this point? there's no need for choices

if the outcome doesn't change or there is no dictionary or different scene to collect.

There being choices made much more sense in the new routes...

since there are normal ends but those give no CG.

Art is as gorgeous as ever and Usaba Kagerou and Miko have returned to grace us with more of

their insanely pretty art! Music is fitting enough and I did not have any complaints.

Honestly with most of the after stories I was pretty satisfied and I even ended up

liking certain characters more than I did in the original game which was really nice.

The after stories also further went into matters so yes if you loved the world view and lore

you'll be in for a treat for sure. So I can definitely recommend Radiant Tale to fans of the original

who can't get enough of it! The new routes may depend on tastes of who you were more

interested in. Its good they got routes because I sure was thirsting after one of them back then.

 

However I do think the afters could be either a hit or a miss... in my opinion it felt that

some of them didn't really had a good enough plot, I liked Ion,Zafora and Radie's...

but I had some issues with Paschalia and Vilio's afters and didn't enjoy them as much.

Both IF stories with Jinnia and Liyan were very enjoyable to me so there's that!

Anyway that is just my two cents and I still recommend Raditale FD if you really liked the original

since this is an amazing FD to compliment a good otome game!

9/10

For play order I mostly followed the same order I did in the original with the new routes last!

since this is a fd the order doesn't even matter I just decided this for myself

you could only do your fav's and skip any you don't like too...

Ion > Paschalia > Zafora > Radie > Vilio > Jinnia > Liyan.

 

The non-spoiler babbles end here and from here on i'll be writing about the afters etc!

and sharing my favourite cg's. So be warned there will be spoilers after the jump.

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

9 R.I.P - Review

 Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/9rip/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v38068
Release date: 2023-06-29.

 

Otomate's latest visual novel! I didn't get started on it right away because

I was busy with FF16 but I still wanted to give this game a shot since it seemed interesting

and they brought back some golden-era seiyuu's I hadn't heard in a while. Oh boy! they

got me nostalgic for Kakki, KENN, Nobuhiko and Shinnosuke Tachibana alright!

I am not too familiar with Azakami or Shun'ichi though but it is always good

to see otomate try to use less popular seiyuus. Other than that I went in very blind

I didn't even know it was gonna be an occult mystery with suspense!

 

Game/story is presented as an occult mystery about people being spirited away...

The heroine Misa ends up hearing some scary stories/rumors and then she had a strange encounter

in the school hallway, she was also worried over her education when an accident happens...

Due to that Misa finds out crossed over to the spirit realm, most of the love interests

are spirits and such. I don't want to say too much so i'll stop her since its really better

if you don't know too much and can find it out on your own.

 

Pro's

- Story/character driven, good amount of suspense.

- Art, cg's are very well done.

- Music fits the mood and theme of the game.

- Short but it doesn't feel longer than it needs to be.

- Great heroine, she takes initiative.

 

Con's

 - 1 route has no epilogue cg's.💀

- High amount of bad ends.

The game can have a little bit of suspense too... but at times it can also be relaxing.

There was enough time to get to know the characters during the common route parts but who

you meet there depends on an early game choice, this was good since it kept each playthrough fresh.

Also it is best going into this game blind as knowing too much could ruin the suspense.

 

First thing I notice is that there are 8(9 if you count the final) routes, well this can

go both ways but I hoped this wouldn't be too long of a VN and it wasn't

the pacing was okay, it moved at a good pace and there was hardly a dull moment!

so I was happy it respects your time, maybe the love process was a little fast

and most characters are nice and easy to like. Of course there are exceptions

and certain characters could not be your cup of tea atleast that was me with Minami.

On the other hand my favorite was Koyou followed by Koharu, Sena and Yukimaro.

Due to characters being paired up and share a common route it makes the most sense

to do the other characters route/end right after. Also even if they shared a common route

they did infact have a individual route and it didn't feel like one character took up more time.

I was relieved at this since I was worried of there being too much shared plot.

 

The heroine Misa was great and good at taking some initiatives, I didn't find her annoying

and considering what she goes through... she handled it pretty well.

 

This game does have bad endings so if you want to avoid those or not in the mood

a guide is recommended. I do think the bad ends were still worth doing even if

they had no CG, as sometimes they gave little details or for better or worse

showed another side of a character. 

 

System was your standard stuff but in one route they had you input your characters

name and you could do it manually which threw the entire jpn dictionary at you. xD

Thankfully you could autofill Misa's name which begs the question... why even bother?

The bad end gotten if you fill it in wrong can be gotten through another choice too...

this was a really dumb design choice that makes 0 sense.

 

Art, looked really nice and before I played I was more positive about it

than I initially was about tsuitsui, so IDK if that says something other than its good.

The CG's were all well done, even if the amount was low its 7/8 there are variations

so i'm on the side of i'd rather most be of quality than half of them be looking off.

9rip also has 8 routes and one finale which is more than the usual 6 or 7 so I think

that says a lot and there's nothing wrong with it. Cg's are nice but it shouldn't be

the whole reason to buy a game, then you're better of buying an artbook!

Music was fine, I had no complaints and it fit the mood. ED themes change

depending which pair of love interests you go after which was nice. 

I think I can recommend 9rip if you don't want a visual novel that is on the long side

but still want something with an engaging plot, don't mind it being an occult mystery

that could test your nerves a little (its nothing too scary) and one or more characters interest you.

This was a very good life/death character drama type of otome game

the only real down side I can think of is the number of routes since by the time

I reached the final route I was kind of burned, thankfully it wasn't as long

as a certain character from Tsuitsui but it was still a nice finish even if it was short.

9/10

I can't ironically give this any less than a 9 because of a bunch of facts

and how refreshing each set of routes was, it balanced everything out nicely.

My play order:

Koyou > Sena  >  Kureha > Hibiki> Koharu > Yukimaro > Minami > Seiya >???.

 

Recommended play order:

It was hard to come up with a recommended order I think this works nicely:

[Kureha > Hibiki]  > [Koyou > Sena] > [Minami > Seiya] > [Koharu > Yukimaro] >???.

You could switch some pairs up due to preference but things to note is that

Koharu/Yukimaro is a bit of a healing route and had more fluff compared to others... it can

either be done after Kureha/Hibiki or after Minami/Seiya. Finally Kojou/Sena may be best

done before Minami/Seiya... it just works better in terms of story elements

same goes for making sure Koharu is done after Hibiki. Of course you could

change something due to preference, like even my own play order works out.

There's not much choice but to do ??? last as his only unlocks after doing all

anyway I hope this information was helpful in deciding a route order.

Character rambles and my fav cg's after the jump! the spoiler free zone ends here.

I should add that 9RIP is one of those visual novels that is best going in blind

as route summaries/thoughts etc could reveal too much.

So if you want to go in blind stop reading here cuz there will be spoilers!

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radiant Tale - Review

 Genre:VN.

Developer/publisher: Otomate.

Platform: Switch.

Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/radiant_tale/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v30920

Release date: 2022-05-26.

 

Okay the WoF team also known for the recent variable barricade

have come up with a new otome game... about a circus troupe.

Now don't get me wrong but it finally seems they have embraced their inner clown!

if you have played WoF, Reine or other games they worked on they've been known

to be creative with their systems luckily they've toned down their BS.

The artwork is exceptionally pretty and some prerelease info confirmed

it won't be a virche and will be light-hearted! so its mostly a good time.

I won't be posting too many CG's in this part, everything that is shown is common route only.

If you're gonna get this game... enjoy it for what it is, not for what it is not.

Pro's

- Interesting story and worldbuilding.

- Unique self-contained routes.

- Art, its beautiful.

- Music is lovely and fits the tone of scenes, though one track did annoy me.

 

Con's

- The common route is quite long.

- Sometimes problems come up that are resolved almost instantly.

- It feels like the general plot/world was from a rejected RPG game.

- There should've been a Lian route/end.

- Ye olde idea factory sound effects are back! missed em from old otomate titles

or compile heart games? hahah recycle factory is at it again to haunt us! /s

 

Story; I went in relatively blind and aside of knowing about the circus theme

I had a hard time figuring out wtf was going on till it was explained, Tifalia joined

some circus troupe and got to meet her mates. There's some monsters around that feed on

negative emotions as well as a down-trodden prince who is stuck in the body of a child

whom also seems to have shut off his emotions so the troupe gets ordered to put on a show for him.

TL;DR: The troupe works to try & make people happy as well  as help out prince Colivus

overcome his emo phase while mostly unaware of a bunch of political intrigue going on.

Unfortunately they find out they can't actually perform that well YET so they still have a ways to go

LMAO I can't help but be reminded of Kimiyuki cuz these guys don't seem to have any idea

of what they're doing so its up to Tifalia to help them out. Their shows end up being

retellings of folklore, they travel across the country like an actual circus troupe to perform in

the various cities(and bloom pretty flowers). Each of the guys have their own strengths so we see

a bit of everything really. Anyway that's all i'll write here about the story

I think I have already said way too much.

 The general vibe of the game reminded me of WoF... and it was pretty light-hearted

nothing too dark or dreary. The heroine Tifalia is cute but she doesn't have a sprite

or voice acting unlike most of the WoF teams heroines which is a let down

cuz I think it would've made her stand out more in the story since she is pretty important to it.

Also while this game has a circus theme, it kind of leaned towards theatrical troupe as well

but it is still a circus cuz they were trying to play out a story with tricks and magic.

Maybe my idea of a circus is just a bit old fashioned...? this is a fantasy setting after all!

The UI(user interface) its okay but not my thing, the text is very small and like I said the heroine

did not have a sprite, I honestly really wish she had one outside of POV from the guy.

The music was good it matched the general vibes of the game, it stood out more

than some other otome games so maybe that says something.

The system is just the usual choices and some map selection stuff, nothing special!

Art is by Kagero and Miko... pretty gorgeous! I think most of it is by Kagero but I know

for certain that Miko worked on Ion and some of the subchara like Rian.

 Seiyuu cast is... fairly unknown to me aside of Umehara but I have heard

the others SOMEWHERE before just not a lot. Also Aaron Wei i'm hearing you!

Radiant Tale seems like a good time if you want to explore a fantasy setting that doesn't get

too dark! there is an underlying plot beneath it all as well as some political intrigue

so even though it seems all nice and easy-going there's some guys pulling strings.

Aside of the main love interest there are also a lot of side characters

and one of them catched my eye but alas Rian is a side chara's with no route.😭

The prologue/common route is pretty long, while it serves as an introduction and is good at

setting it all up including developing the heroine, I did get a little bored

because it did seem to keep going on and on. The prologue is long and then you

have your common route which is were you get characters flags to decide the route but honestly

aside from some banter here and there its kinda like older otome games, you can get a feel of

everyones personality and see what they're like but the plot had varying levels

of being interesting still its not too bad its just a bit long!

 

So while it is a light-hearted game, Radiant Tale takes a while to get going, 

it has a good amount of wordbuilding and sets things up for the individual route.

In terms of romance there isn't that much of it in the common part... thankfully there's some

cute scenes here and there so its not like they forgot but most of it is in the personal route.

Radiant Tale might be cute but it isn't short&sweet. I'm not sure how else

to describe it as... honestly as I got near the end of the common route I started thinking

how while the story is nice it felt like it was scraps from some rejected plot for an rpg....

considering idea factory's history this is not at all surprising! the WoF team was

probably stressed with the daunting task of making another game so they

looked for scraps for some ideas at the headquarters. Nvm this is turning into a shitpost.

That aside I don't think this game is bad or anything but it might be nice if you're in the mood

for something slower paced yet with easy-going vibes as they all work toward a goal. 

In terms of characters, I think its gonna be a hit or miss maybe some might surprise you 

when you're actually on their route some will just have a terrible first impression. 

At first Zafora didn't quite click with me but the further I got into the common route

the more I got interested and actually wanted to do his route! so I saved him for later

sadly I didn't really like him that more over the others, oh well can't like everything.

As for Ion his route didn't do it for me either but I didn't dislike his character... my favorite 

was Paschalia, his route just did everything right for me and after it he was my best boi.

Lately I just tend to really like the cheesy stuff like coughTalesofArisecough.

Radie wasn't bad either but at times it made me wish I was going for Lian instead.

Also because I did Ion first I could not believe people were saying this is such a cute

and happy game which it isn't atleast not all the time. Zafora's route made me appreciate

what happened in Ion's a little more though so there's that! Unfortunately while I do like Vilio

his route suffers from the true end effect, not only do we have to sit through the common route again

it is also a combined version of all the routes thus far and it was twice as long as all the others.

Well... with this Radiant Tale finally turned into the clown fiesta you wanted it to be no?

I think this made the game seem extremely disjointed only to be tried

to put together with glue which actually worked? still it suffers from some commonly

found problems like most routes not even touching upon the real story.

As for play order... for first play I just went for someone that seemed interesting which was Ion...

You have to do all routes to unlock Vilio so my play order ended up being:

Ion > Paschalia > Radie > Zafora > Vilio.

Basically just pick whoever interests you except maybe Ion cuz his route hits a bit different

 Radie has some revelations about Tifalia so somewhere in the middle or before Vilio is good.

TBH it really doesn't matter in what order you play, cuz of how the final route works.

I do think the WoF team knew what they were doing and I can see things

from some of their other games in here. So while there might be some downsides

this was still quite nice, a cute fantasy setting otome game with a bit of volume!

Honestly if you prefer longer otome games that take their time, a proactive heroine

and like worldbuilding with some light political intrigue then I can recommend it cuz there is

some pay off, the cast was lovely too but if you have a short attention span then its better to pass!

7,5/10

Anyway character rambles/cg's after the jump, due to the games length I won't be writing too much

and whatever is there in the bimbo route babbles is just what I thought was note worthy. If you don't want spoilers back out now the routes are best enjoyed when you don't know what happens!

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