Tengoku Struggle Strayside - Review

Tengoku Tumbleweed Side Struggle

 Genre: VN.
Developer/publisher: otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.aksysgames.com/tengoku/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v33150

Release date: 04-04-2024

 

I played this game inbetween others but this was one of those games

that I wish I could like more and only got good for me in the last two routes.

Due to it being what it was I wasn't in the mood to get through this but I also didn't

want to let this sit in my backlog for half a year so after Matsurika FD I continued.

Despite being aware about contents; I found it rather tame.

I mean without context they sound awful but within the narrative? oh. 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself. 

 

Pro's

- Strong-willed and self-concious heroine.

- All LI's are likable in their own ways.

- Great art and catchy music.

 

Grey area

- Quite long; route length is 10-12 hours on average.

- Story doesn't seem to take itself serious, weak resolutions in early route.

  

Con's

- The game can feel a bit draggy at times and has pacing issues.

- Bad CG pacing, there are droughts and moments with a lot at once. 

 

 

Art was great,When I looked at the cover for the first time I almost

didn't recognize who the artist was, tho it definitely is Satoi's style.

Music was generally good and I had no issues with it.

The OP was good but I didn't feel like watching it everything. ED was fine. 

 ---

 

[System ramblings] 

Standard visual novel stuff, nothing that stood out.

The common route was much like Olympia Soiree a long one-time introduction

without choices and it becomes entirely skippable on 2nd play.

Its also easy to see what's a good or bad choice as this is shown when you select a choice

so you can play this without a guide, there's only two endings per route; Happy&bad.

However the bad endings were IMO more like good ends.

The common route did hook me, the setting and introductions were interesting.

I liked how the heroine had a female friend with a sprite too.

There's a scene at the end of ch1 that kinda woah but what I found hilarious

is how tame the rest of the common route of seven chapters was. The early routes

such as Yona or Kiku were quite tame as well. I was actually disappointed at this, within

the narrative a lot of things did make sense but if I listed it separately it could sound awful.

Actually the game is rather tame in general... LMAO till the gloves are off in Goemon route.

Pacing was a tad slow for me but for a SoL character driven game its not bad perse.

 Though things can get heated the game was for the most part pretty laidback which lead

to some shifts in tone, if you can't handle this TengoStray is likely not for you. 

I'll add to this that TengoStray is a fairly long, especially the first time through.

Individually the routes had 12 chapters and it took around 10-12 hours to complete one.

---

 

[Heroine ramblings] 

She has a whip but...

Rin was alright but can be a bit much at times, even if she didn't remember her

past life she had a personality! I did wonder how she turned into a misandrist

but the story wrote itself in such a way I kinda got why she had enough of them.😅

The narrative esp in early routes seemed more set on mellowing her out...

As she lived with everyone she got over that stuff pretty fast too and she tried

to approach them differently which also kind of clashed with the initial setup

but its okay people can change their mind so that's not bad per se. 

I wasn't really sure what they tried to sell me during the first few routes and 

if need be Rin can really hold her ground, its just she acts like a tiger but is in fact 

just a cat and acts like any girl could. Rin's proactive but she was also a tsundere

so getting her to be honest was a struggle in itself. Sometimes she's just hostile😓

but also not incapable of self-reflecting on things as she is self-concious.

Rin is comparable to Olympia, not perfect by any means and it was obvious

she bit off more than she could chew, even so she regained her balance. Rin also

reminded me of Rinka from BAW; if they fleshed her out and wove her into the plot. 

Rin shined the most in the locked routes as that's where she was given the most depth

and the early routes only touched upon it on a surface level. Considering her story

it also makes sense why that is the case. Maybe I had the wrong expectations

but I expected a bit more from her even in early routes.

I didn't always vibe with Rin Enma, yet I was in-sync with her in how

her perspective changed both on herself and the guys.

My sign also isn't very compatible with Rin who is a scorpio and at times

I did not understand her but she wasn't a bad heroine at all. Just not for me.

---

The LI are criminals but there was barely need to punish them. 

I actually expected Rin to whip them more if they acted up but... this wasn't necessary! (haha)

imma be real the only one who really needs whipping is Sharaku. The times the whip was

cracked were few. The narrative pushed it yet was against doing it at the same time.

I don't know if the localization toned her down among other things but let me tell you

again Rin was at her most badass in Jack and Goemon's routes.

If you wanted to actually whip LI's then I recommend KLAP kind love and punish instead.

---

 

The seiyuu cast are mostly familiar I personally don't hear Goemon's VA a lot

but this game made me like him!  I also did love some of the seiyuu for

the side cast like Koyasu Takehito as Daddy or Nojima Kenji for Takamura.

It was a good cast with classics but none of my fav's were in it.

--- 

 

The localization was good but this game was toned down, there's less vulgarity than what

the japanese were complaining about and there's not much that soured the experience except

some of Sharaku's phrasing near the end of his route but that's just him.

I always hear people complain about this otome but it was tamer than I thought.

 ---

 

[Overall ramblings]

Despite grievances I think I am more satisfied with this than Cafe Enchante!

Tengoku Struggle is what happens when you mix aspects of bad apple wars,

varribarri and Olisoi. The setting is interesting but it can be kind of deceiving

as it ended up being much more slice of life focused than I initially expected.

The lore wasn't deep or anything but it was creative, the things I found myself

disappointed at was mostly the execution of the overall story

which felt like it was doing whatever at times.

This was a much slower paced game rather than an action packed one which lead to

pacing and tension issues. Olympia wasn't always able to meet her goals but she had

a more simple job. Rin does try but it may vary on the route and who her partner was. 

Both the enemy and the heroes had goals but ends up being rather casual about it. 

Sometimes you can't really do anything about a situation and this game was full of it.

I think I may be fine with slice of life when there's not some grand plot

going on but TengoStray certainly was an experience. 

You see this game has its routes tackle things on a case by case basis and it tends

to ignore anything not related to that character or put it very into the background.

I can forgive some things but its understandable why I feel the way I do since

there's a lot of beating around the bush. I'm fine with some truths only shown in

locked routes but... I had trouble enjoying the early routes because they were all over the place. 

In terms of romance routes ended in satisfying manner but I wasn't fully convinced

when it came to tying up all the plot threads. I found Sharaku to be a lil better

than Yona/Kiku but not by much. I thought its just because they're the early game

routes, those can be lacking and not tackle it all... then I moved on to JacK

who spiced up a lot of monotony that the starter routes had going on while being

hilarious at the same time. I thought there would be no route i'd like but I was wrong!

Goemon had a really good route as well but... the others started feeling like what if's.

--- 

 

TL;DR 

 At the very least the character interactions were always golden, due that I mostly had

a good time but it was a tad slow for me, the real struggle was the SoL along the way!

The romance is build on trust and its most enjoyed as a slowburn, early routes for me

like Kiku or Yona's was a real s t r u g g l e because while I liked them they never became fav's.

There was not much was going on and the real narrative is buried in the locked routes.

The main plot was kinda weak in early routes and very character+romance driven. 

At times there is plenty of enjoyment, yet the plot was 404 not found. 

 Goemon's the only one which handled it well but when I looked back I got

a massive headache thinking about certain side chara's.😓

Its sad I didn't enjoy the first 3 routes and at that point I was like is there a route

in this game I really enjoy? the answer was yes.  After three routes I struck gold with Jack.😄

So I basically suffered during the first half.😩Okay I guess I'll take the L's.

The best parts about TengoStray for me were the character interactions even when there

was nothing important going on. I didn't even dislike the LI's themselves. I just thought

some of the narrative within their routes particular the early ones could be better. 

8/10 

I would recommend TengoStray if you want an otome game about bad boys and life&death themes

with homey SoL/found family vibes. I wasn't disappointed with this game like with Enchante.

I'd probably not recommend TengoStray to those that don't like SoL, slowburn romance

or can't handle some mild forms of sexism since its just all that. 

 

My Play order:

Yona > Kikunosuke > Sharaku > Jack > Goemon.

Yona and Kikunosuke are the beginner routes and can be interchanged.

Sharaku the intermediate one which is best done before Jack.

Jack needs the player to do the three initial routes and Goemon is locked behind him. 

 

Recommended order:

Kikunosuke / Yona > Sharaku > Jack > Goemon. 

 

Character rambles and some of my fav cgs after the jump.

Probably don't read further if you want to experience it yourself since its just

senile grandma rambles beyond this point with potential spoilers. 

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Unlogical - Review

There's harm in harmony?!

 Genre: VN.

Developer/publisher: Licobits.

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

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v51912

Release date: 22-01-2026

 

Alright I decided to just support Licobits by buying their next game

because the premise is interesting and to figure out Miyabi's grand plan

but I hoped there were no doves involved!

Didn't even start any new games last few weeks and just catched up with some mangas.

The kdrama I started ended up being a bust, this short game break may've

helped since as release closed in I got excited? 

 

Disclaimer: This is purely my own opinion and it could be different from yours

this is not meant to be some kind of all-truth, just an opinion that came from playing this.

If you don't like what you're reading then close the tab, move on and just idk play it yourself. 

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

 Pro's

- Decent enough plot, not stellar but its crafted well.

- Most LI's are likable and the heroine was great esp in Miyabi's route.

- Gorgeous art and the music fit the mood.

- The romance is really cute but it can feel secondary.

 

Grey area

- Some convenient writing.

 

Con's

- Many a bad end, I'm fine with some but I think there were too much.

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

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

Unlogical is licobits second game which is made by the staff from amnesia and collar x malice.

Art is gorgeous and its likely Hanamura Mai's best work, the music was great as well

as it fit the tone and mood of the scenes very well.

System wise its mostly standard VN stuff, it felt like they wanted to do more

with it but ultimately couldn't. Timed choices were rare as was the terminal gimmick.

Each route had one best end and an absurd end, as well as a bunch of bad endings.

The default font was better than in Uta-Chro FD, it was easy on my grandma eyes.

 

[Story]

Continueing were the demo ended; Kanna ends up working together

with Miyabi as an operator along side the various angel AI's in the VR game.

They hosts all sorts of games which can eliminate players based on their choices.

The line between reality and game is really thin. As the VR game is still in beta bugs are rampant.

Miyabi made up all sort of strange rules which can make people paranoid

he's also capable of changing these rules on the fly which makes him unpredictable.

There are some parts of the story that are a bit convenient and there's some pacing issues.

Though its important to remember the participants of the game sans heroine

are there of their own free will. Felt like she was roped into it on accident.

As for the heroine... hmm I thought she held her own pretty well!

she was able to look Miyabi straight into the eyes and tell him it.

However I do think she was sticking her nose where it didn't belong

but I liked her rebelliousness. Honestly Miyabi had all the right to change the rules

which made it even more interesting. Either way I thought she was great

but also about as insufferable as Miyabi heh maybe they're just meant to be!

sorry I am a Kanna&Miyabi shipper.

Love me a heroine and a LI who call eachother baka's. 😂

If there's a love interest that is similar to Miyabi... then it would be Alvaro Garay.

Never thought i'd be reminded of Wand of Fortune in the year of our lord 2k26.

YES I'm making this comparison because let's be real no one but the heroine can handle him! 

---

 

The common route was 4 chapters long which leads to a character route that's 5 chapters.

In terms of romance... they definitely became closer over the course of the story. 

Whatever the route I always thought the romance was cute.

The game's CeroC and there's nothing too wild but i'm surprised

it wasn't just straight up CeroD especially with its themes.

Its overall slowpaced, I found that it took awhile to get going

and the story doesn't reach its full potential till the character route.

I found myself to be most invested in Miyabi and Ran or Kai. 

I was curious about Yuri or Soichi I just didn't reach the same level of interest as the others. 

Soichi's route was a bit more interesting than Yuri who I thought had the weakest

but even then their route had an okay story just for them.

--- 

My first play took me 15ish hours, repeat plays will be half that time.

Route should be around 6-8 hours. It will depend on your reading speed so faster

readers will finish quicker.  Doing all routes in the game took me 50 hours.

 

I'd generally describe Miyabi as toxic but in the anti-social sense and at first

I was like I wouldn't date him but near the end of the route hell yes!

Maybe I am weird but I like Miyabi more than Yori or Yang.

Somehow I always enjoy the interactions he has with Kanna.

Though in his eyes our dear heroine is a hopeless fool. I guess I am too...

for hoping he atleast has a good reason for being who he is and deserves to be happy.

(Tho I suspected Miyabi to be a fan of stuff like Danganronpa or gen urobutcher. 💀)

 

Half of my first play was blind, since when I started there was no guide yet.

I ended up stepping on one landmine in the common route, so if you just

want to enjoy the story I will recommend a guide because its a real minefield.

Unless... you enjoy playing minesweeper I guess. Playing blind you'll just hit

a bad end sooner or later. I collected all bad ends but I regret doing some of Kai's.

There's 37 in total and not all of them are bad, some of them are well written

but there's some NOPE in there.  Thankfully you only need to do the best

and absurd ends to complete the gallery. The only exception

to this is Miyabi cuz he has two bad ends with a CG. 

I do not dislike Unlogical having a bunch of bad ends, perhaps its because I expected it

so I am not let down or bewildered there being so many like with honey vibes.😅 

 

The game has lots of popular seiyuu, even side characters.

The poster boy is voiced by a fairly new seiyuu with very little roles in otome games

I like it when they use new seiyuus and Ootsuka Takeo's performance for Miyabi was stellar.

I also liked Ran's voice actor a lot in this game, Toshiyuki Toyonaga.

Mostly everyone else did a good job as well like they always do, the above two stood out to me. 

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

 

Overall Unlogical was definitely an interesting otome game, however

I found it to be a bit rough around the edges. The story was pretty decent

and the romance was cute! though its not really till the routes that I could see

the romance start to blossom. I found that they love to foreshadow things

but don't go to deep into it and often is a bit convenient with wrapping it up. 

The times I was annoyed by this was at the end of Soichi's route as well as Ran.

However I was always learning knew things so I don't think it was that bad?

I figured there was a time and place for the real truth behind it so I forgave some of it.

I am a bit sad that I wasn't able to enjoy Ran's route as much as I'd liked?

japan seems to love him but a part of me died in a certain scene IYKYK.

On the other hand I absolutely loved Miyabi's route and can't shut up about him.😄 

It may vary whether a route is good since they're character focused, there

were times I had no idea what was going on, some of the games

characters were forced to play could be absurd to say the least.

Routes were unique and never quite the same because they all explore it differently.

Unlogical is a fairly dark game, but it knew when to be light so it didn't overtake

in either of these aspects which may be why I was able to like it as much as I did. 

 ---

I'd still recommend it to those who enjoyed other games from the same writer 

such as Collar x Malice with a setting like period cube because that is the only

other otome game that comes to my mind really. If you don't like those

or dislike elimination games i'd probably not recommend un:logical to you. 

I loved the characters and the interactions between them all

and the story wasn't bad, it took advantage of its setting.

I don't have many complaints, the heroine was mostly good though I wish she had

a sprite in the corner but she did show up sometimes in other characters POV. 

I do think most of the LI's feel like vanilla icecream and then there's Miyabi

who's vanilla dipped in dark chocolate. As he is a bit different from the usual.

9/10

Playing this blind... might be hell but there are always guides for the lost and confused.

Honestly while playing this otome I realized what fun is a game if there's no stakes or 

its struggle removed. Like okay if you just want the story use a guide.

If you miss older visual novels where choices matter and you have

to pay attention then Unlogical is honestly pretty great.

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

TL;DR

All in all pretty good, decent story with some cute romance woven into it and the game

didn't feel like it was too short, it was quite voluminous, Most of the bad ends I saw

were well written and some others were just failure ends. Idk what's there to hate really.

Life's not meant to be straight asphalt afterall. Its okay if there are bumps in the road. 

Unlogical may not be for everyone but I did think the dev team

did their very best in crafting this game up. If it got a FD

I would definitely buy it for Miyabi or a route for Mitsuki or Kohaku.

I think this is my favorite Licobits game so far! 

---

 

 My play order: Yuri > Kai > Soichi > Ran > Miyabi>Addendum.

There are route restrictions but only for Miyabi its possible to pursue him

from your second playthrough! I personally saved his route for last.

 

Recommended order:

Yuri > Soichi > Kai > Ran > Miyabi> Addendum.

Apparently this was the official recommended order??? so I didn't even stray that much

and this order goes from least spoilers to most. Kai cleared up a lot I was curious about

but Yuri was rather self-contained and glossed over things explained elsewhere.

Soichi has some leads but that's about it. I still think maybe switch Kai and Soichi but that up to you.

 

Character rambles after the jump, tho its just commentary, I tried to keep

it light on spoilers but I still wrote about the characters, I avoid most plot.

I will also only share mostly two of my favorite CG's per route.

If you want no spoilers at all just stop reading here, its just

senile grandma rambles beyond this point anyways. 

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

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.

 

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

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.

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

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. 

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

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.

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

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. 

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

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.

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

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. 

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

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.  So 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.

Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail - review

Couldn't take a screenshot of the title screen so uh have the keyart!

Genre: RPG.

Developer/publisher: Square Enix.
Platform: PS4/5, PC, xbone.
Official Site: N/A.

Release date: 27-6-2024.

 

I have been playing FFXIV for quite some time but never wrote a review on it.

This post is mostly about the new expansion dawntrail and it isn't much about the previous.

There aren't any major plot spoilers in this post but anything could count as

a spoiler to some so whatever I guess this is just a blog post and I am writing my own

personal thoughts as a review of a game I played, if you don't like it then close the tab/browser.

Pro's

- Decent enough plot.

- Great character development for Krile and Erenville.

- The first four zones are beautiful.

Con's

- Levels are simply given to you and I personally don't feel like I earned the lvl 100.

- Recycles too much old tunes and enemy models as well, its like i've seen/heard this before.

- I get Wuk Lamat is a main character but she steals too much of the spotlight...

 

 The expansions features a slight graphic update with better textures and models

gotta admit I was a little nervous, my WoL turned out okay but there may have

been those the update wasn't too kind of. The developers were kind enough to

give players a free fantasia to edit the character again. Which is a good thing.

Not really great at taking screenshots but thought this was a nice spot in the game.

 

More rambles after the jump but if you want the short of it, I think Dawntrail is decent

however don't expect too much out of the story and just enjoy it for what it is not for what it is not.

 

Piofiore no Banshou ~Episodio 1926~ review

 Genre: Otome/VN.
Developer/publisher: Otomate.
Platform: Switch.
Official Site: https://www.otomate.jp/piofiore/1926/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v25914

Release date: 12/11/20.

 

Sequel to the original game, though this one seems more honest about also being a -sequel-

unfortunately its lighthearted and is still as suspenseful as the first game.

At first I did think that this would be a FD but as time went on and info was revealed

it looked more and more like a sequel. FD's hardly introduce that many new characters.

 

Pro's

- Unique, character focused routes.

- Suspense and Unpredictability.

- Art and bgm are as good as its ever been.

Con's

- Cg's while memorable are far and between.

- Landmine bad ends.

- Most of the new sub characters are garbage.

- Some routes don't solve anything, inconsistent antagonists.

 

Meanwhile system is also back atleast this time auto mode will stop

and its harder to miss the meanwhile scenes which iirc wasn't a thing on vita.

They try to have these flashback aria's to help us remember scenes from the first game

with the guy's POV which is nice but this works the same as meanwhile so sometimes

i'd get annoyed because i'd just gotten into the scene and it would want me to

review the past or see a scene elsewhere, I honestly prefer just the meanwhiles.

Oh apparently the switch port of the first game actually had some new cg's? nice.

 

Episode Burlone, stories that takes place after the characters route in the first game

though its not a simple after story... the enjoyment you get here might vary.

For play order here, I'm going to recommend Donte for later as he has

the most spoilers and Gilbert is the most original and imo fun route out of all

but other than that you can do Gil's route whenever you want.

Yang,Orlok and Nicola are mostly self-contained so the order of play doesn't really matter

for them doesn't matter that much either! Just Donte later or midway if you don't want

a certain side character's story spoiled right away.

Alternativa:

Like the name suggest this is an alternative story set after the true end

of the previous game! it featuring 8 short stories which were mostly lighthearted

as Lily interacts with various characters (mostly side) within the year of 1926.

Most of the episodes are refreshing and perhaps a nice palate cleanser after one of the routes

but unfortunately for me I did them all after doing said routes which might be a blessing

in disguise because they all do seem to hint at more and after completing said 8 stories

you unlock a full route where you can get an alternative end with the main guys

as such it doesn't matter when you do either the mini route or Henri because

the story told here is completely separate from the after stories.

In all honesty the whole tone of this scenario was much more enjoyable than the after stories

itself, I do have to add that it had some weird vinyl earporn, otomate please...........😑

Not much else to say but just to do your fav guy in alternativa first because

it is copy pasta scenario and annoying to collect all ends.

 

Story for the after stories was interesting enough hard to figure out what was going on or why this

was happening but got explained as it went on, the length is that of a normal game so about 6-8 hours?

Each route was unique and dealt with various issues not addressed in the prequel

they brought in some new characters as well that're tied to the stories.

 Kind of hard to recommend this game unless you want more of the same, because

you're getting just that while it fleshes out the characters and relationship.

They did a good job with Yang even though I still don't like him all that much he's just ok to me now.

What romance is there is nice but it still retains a serious atmosphere.

The writing was exceptionally good and its still as unpredictable as ever the first game

also had that kind of suspense and if not use a guide you'll better brace yourself.

As there are landmines and one wrong choice could lead to an abrupt bad end just like the first game.

The chapter titles are also still in a different language! I always thought that was neat.

Yang's chinese, Donte in spanish, Orlok be German , Nicola's italia, oh and Henri in french.

The routes varied greatly in terms of enjoyment, I absolutely loved Gilberts

and liked Donte and Yang but Nicola was a disappointment but great as a refresher if you

had forgotten some of the stuff from the first game as for Orlok... sigh

that was just depressing to sit through and didn't really solve much if anything.

Donte's or Gil's route were probably the only well rounded routes in the whole game.😓

I mean that in terms of how it balanced plot/romance which is honestly kind of sad

nice that they all came in different flavors but the only one I truly enjoyed was Gil.

I also did like Henri maybe because it had no Theo! though disappointed

otomate didn't give him an ending but I guess that fad is over now.🙃

 

All things considered... it was a decent sequel, if you liked the original and want to see more 

including things getting fleshed out I could recommend this game and if the after stories

are too much then you can settle for alternativa? because the tone is drastically different.

Piofiore has never been an otome game that's for everyone in fact its themes

are not otome at all! I can praise it for not sugar coating what a mafia does

and I like that but i'm kind of disappointed for a reason I cannot explain without spoiling

but its related to the character Theo whom in Donte's after actually made me really angry and upset.

Its really funny how the main cast in the previous game could all do something

that could make you hate them but here its mostly the sub characters that are disgusting

especially Theo, idk I could make a rage post about him, lmao.

Also after I finished the after stories I got to alternativa which was fun at first

but then it unlocked a route and I was like there is MORE?! at that point I couldn't help

but feel slightly burnt because I was looking forward to Henri, though it was nothing

a small break couldn't cure! the tone of alternativa also helped.😅

Other than that this game was more than worth the price though! as there's plenty of content

its just that for some characters the afters might leave to be desired.

I tried to do the bad ends as I went through including the tragic end first but it was too much

and just went for the happy end which might have saved what was left of this game for me.

I know at the end of the day its just a game... and you can easily avoid the more gruesome ends

by using a guide but not everyone can stomach contents in which people die all the time

and there were too many bad ends were that happened especially in Henri's

I mean what was up with that?! in the whole game I think there's almost 20 of those.😓😓😓

That aside I think the piofiore sequel is decent but yea it ain't for everyone.

 7,4/10

I might not like everything but this was a pretty good sequel...

This is the end of the no spoiler section more ramblings/spoilers after the jump.