Utsusemi no Meguri - Review

Game: [Utsusemi no Meguri]
Genre: Otome Visual Novel.
Developer/publisher: Matatabi.
Platform: PS Vita.
Official Site: http://matatabi.tv/utsusemi/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v20326
Release date: 2017-07-27
-

Edo period, on a remote islands their exists two gates Higammon and Kogammon that lead to
 the land of the dead, they're guarded by humans and oni respectively.
One day a phenomenon is observed and the heroine Amane a human priestess
gets send to the oni-clan's village along with her human servant Yasuomi.
The secrets of the island will be revealed as the miko interacts with the oni-clan
and renews the bonds between humans and oni.

Oh boy who thought these guys would stick around for one more project?

This time their game centers on conflict between human and oni...

fate and forbidden--- ah you guessed it romance.

The whole synopsis sounds like we've seen it before but for some reason

I was intrigued at how'd they handle it and they seem to take their world setting
serious enough to carefully explain it so it can't be that bad right?

This otome game is very japanese with dark themes and by no means its not an easy read.
After being sent to the village of the oni the heroine Shizumiya Amane becomes
the target of youma who are like the living dead but what are they truly?
Moving on Amane is one of those good girl types taking the words of her grandma
to heart and tries hard to perform her duties as a miko, TL;DR she does as she's told
but doesn't value her own life and basically wouldn't mind jumping in front of someone.
Amane is an okay heroine and she's cute  but I don't feel attached to her at all
besides in some Kyouran/tragic route she got on my nerves.
As for length it took me maybe 10 hours till I reached my first end this includes
common route which was atleast 3-4 hours I think each route is 6 hours at least.
Said common route takes its time to introduce everyone in neutral manner and get the plot going
but the story while interesting was hard to follow maybe due to concepts I found it hard
to understand wtf was happening to the side characters or my japanese just sucked.

OP, well I like it but its a bit on the long side.

Pro's
- Interesting world view, pacing OK.
- Beautiful art.
- Decent length not too long or short.
- Character have Yin / Yan split route, one side is more happy the other is dark.

Con's
- Same-ish plot in all routes but a little different depend on guy yet only makes sense in the true route.
 - Minigame could be done without like you can even skip it at the press
of the button and still get the trophies related to it. -_-
- Gamebreaking crashes  among other bugs they're being worked on now but seriously...

~Art~
If you love ancient japanese aesthetics you'll love the backgrounds, seriously they're amazing.
As for CG's Puru did a great job its surprisingly consistent too but eh some angles are a bit...
strange but nothing to complain about! I made a selection of a few of my favorite scenery
How can I not share this? they're BREATHTAKINGly beautiful.

~System~

 You know the usual reading and choice selecting love catch etc.

The minigame this time is more simple its a purification ritual or whatever

and involves pressing buttons this may or may not save your life, or so they said.
Honestly this minigame could've done without... all it does is break the mold of only reading.
Atleast its just simply press this button in time rinse repeat untill its complete
and no rng bullcrap so it gets a pass even tho its sorta just there at the end of the day
 atleast add an automatic succeed/fail after one play so that's nice.

There are four endings, not all of them are happy and some are just painful.

I think that 4eds thing is similair to say Ken ga Kimi... because the one end you'll get
depends on choice and minigame success/failure there's a small change in route
scenario as well so yeah if you ask me its pretty similair.

~

Compared to rear pheles, Utsusemi no Meguri is a lot better, Matatabi seems to have
learned from mistakes and hired better devs, no more screentear in the movies

and the lips move and eyes blink, it even has its own save screen
plus the art no longer looks blurry on the ps vita screen, it is crisp now.
 I also love the general setting and atmosphere early on in this game
it had a great start to introduce everyone imo and it made me interesting
even tho the plot partly sounds generic. >_>
The pacing was good too like there's no long monologues\TL;DR that makes me bored
its just that some parts of the story are a little confusing to me.
-
However Matatabi's games still come with plenty of bugs like sprites may disappear
so only the eyes and hair show that's spooky right? but reloading fixes it...
granted that didn't happen to me but i've seen screenshots that it can happen.
You know I can turn a blind eye to that but the next...
There's a FATAL bug where the game crashes when you try and save I am just sigh. -_-

Mind you this only happened once... in common route so dunno if it was just a bad spot.
Matatabi definitely had budget for this... but could've worked a little on debugging
but maybe they ran out of time and had to release it as is, patch it later.
-
That aside I sorta like this otomege, the characters are all intriguing which may make you
want to do their routes because common route wise it won't get far.
I think the only one who was generic as is was Yasuomi... but Hiiragi definitely did not
 turn out the way I thought so yeah there's that! in fact he's my favorite character.
The story and relationship develops side by side... at times it may be stiff
but it'll get there, I found Hayate to be a slowburn but rewarding in the end.
This isn't a fun visual novel everyone seems to have a little darkness, some more than others.
Utsusemi has all the things that could make it decent but keep in mind its not for everyone
nor an easy visual novel language wise so with that in mind before you buy this...
As someone who do not like yandere... I am just happy Matatabi has most of that crap
reserved for kyouran/tragic ends much like rear pheles and their merry bad ends.
In most I prefer happiest and the only kyouran end I could stomach was Yasuomi's.

In short this game was rather average to me, it has a nice setting and cast
but if there was a revelation about a character I was usually ''oh'' about it.
In most routes it just doesn't try anything new... except the last route
where it hit me right in the feels and thus I only feel really attached to Hiiragi.
''Other than that nothing specifically wowed me nor made me say
 it just plain sucks, in the end its just fine.''

So I recommend this otome game to people who are:
A, Not tired of human x oni bullshit and old timey settings.
B, People who like a dark side to characters and yin/yang route split
as in one is more happy/natural yet the other is dark/sorta bad end-ish.
C, Do not have a backlog/read too many other otomege like this.
D, Like heart-wrenching true endings.

Playorder:
Hayate > Kai > Yasuomi  > Yuzuru > Hiiragi.
There's no official recommendations so just go with someone that strikes your interest, for me
that turned out to be Hayate.😌 The order I went with flowed surprisingly well!
unlike the last game I played... so I can recommend it to other people as well.
Due to events in Hayate I wanted to do Kai and in Kai's Yasuomi got my interest
which lead me to Yuzuru! Yuzuru's filled in my suspicions about him and gaps in Yasuomi's route.
Hiiragi is locked till you do everyone else... so no choice with him.
I did Happiest/kindan ends... then Kyouran/tragic love ends, this is to save whatever
likeability the characters may have Kyouran/Tragic is just shit gone horrible wrong.
Unless you don't mind that but... i'll leave it up to you to decide the order of endings.

That concludes my non-spoiler thoughts, rambles/possible spoilers after the jump.

Black Wolves Saga Weib und Schwarz - Review

Game: [Black Wolves Saga Bloody Nightmare and Last Hope.]

Genre: Otome Game Visual Novel.

Developer/Publisher: Otomate.

Platform: PC. PSP, PS Vita.

Official Site: http://www.otomate.jp/bws/wus/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v8095

Release date: 2017-1-26

Vita port of BWS contains both games, they're relatively the same in terms of content.
This will be a general review and i'll try to cover both games
so don't expect synopsis or summaries since you should be able to read that elsewhere
I'll try to write more for others but eh I wasn't very motivated for some.
For the sake of all that is unholy I decided to start with BN because it was the first
to be released back then, may as well keep it consistent shall we? and well all I can say is that
I am glad I got this out of my backlog since I got it out of sheer curiosity.
TBH for BN all I remember is nazi cats and an angry wolf fighting each other
over a woman called Elvira they once liked but met an unfortunate end and the hatred
went on for a couple of years, how unlucky for Fiona to be the split image? \(⌒‿⌒)/
Sadly Fiona was engaged to Mejojo since she was little, he's way older than her too! what a pedo.
The main focus of BN is the cats... while LH focus on the wolves
 so it obvious the others sorta get the shaft in the game they're not the focus of.

Unlike the previous game I played this game was better in its overall presentation?
BN had a powerful opening, LH was slower and more otome-ish either way
this game is like a rollercoaster it starts off great then slows down and before you know
 shit went down because come on you knew it was gonna happen it just a matter of when.
Without spoiling that basically how the rest went down too... 😅
People weren't kidding when they said this game had an overall decent plot but uh
I had a hard time categorizing BN as an otome game untill I got to Julian, lol.

Pro's
- Interesting world and story.
- Most characters are interesting but some...
- Art.
- Bgm.

Con's
- Long common route, skip fest on 2nd+ play.
- Read skip was 2slow...
- The otome game bit may leave to be desired, felt more like straight-forward vn at times
and romance wasn't the focus I guess the twistedness was.
- If you don't like abuse stay away from Bloody Nightmare.
- Auger.

The OP is great, but oh boy that bias...

Well the bgm was stellar, A++voice acting and distinct art style, the narrative
at BN was quite brutal and shocking, most characters all seemed to be pretty twisted
but I can't help but be interested in them, sasuga rejet.
There's not much hope of romance with some of them? but I could already tell
this was not the main focus of the game, the intriguing story and dark fantasy theme was.
Heroine is ok considering her upbringing little did she know her peaceful life would turn
 into hell after all of that, can't help but feel bad for her not being able to do much.
 That said I liked how Fiona was in Mejojo's bad end at LH she was able to end him
since he was schizo and she didn't want to pretend to be someone she is not.
whoops did I just spoil something.. oh I guess I did glad it wasn't full context.
Moving on the story seems to ride on past events and there were a lot of flashbacks
which made for a very long common route, BN took me like 3/4 days to get through
also don't get me started on the switching of POV at times it felt like a regular VN but it seemed
LH had more unique content for each chara except the twins borrowing from each other.

I guess Zara was my fav next to Julian but he felt out of place.

No annoying system to rage about this time unlike the last otomege I played
its just the same old VN stuff, BWS may seem long the first time and yes it is long
 but sadly the BWS games are mostly common route so on 2nd+ play it'll just fly by
with a few pit stops here and there, just pay attention during your first play...
the political intrigue and zodivia bits were pretty interesting and so was
Mejojo,Auger's, Rath's and Arles past but I thought it was paced badly at times.
I think the common was way too long, you know I can stand common routes like in KgK
with a decent route after it but BWS was literally 90% common 10% individual...
and it wasn't that romance oriented and at times I had a hard time questioning
why Fiona fell for certain characters coughMejojo&Augercough.
Most of the torture scenes in BN were on automode and couldn't help but laugh...
at how crazy they were, yeah its shocking but it didn't faze me much.

TL;DR Fans of dark fantasy & twisted characters do not want to miss out on this
even if the otome part of the game may leave to be desired, some routes or end
may just be too much and I had a hard time to categorize this as full otome but
I think its still worth it if one wants something different from the usual stuff.
Whatever floats yer boat I suppose... 
I'm actually glad I finished it so fast because I couldn't care about half of the dudes because some
were completely unlikeable and when they did become bearable hint Guillan it was too late for me to care.
7/10

Hana Oboro ~Sengoku Den Ranki~ - Review

 

花朧 ～戦国伝乱奇～ Game: [Hana Oboro ~Sengoku Denranki~]

Genre: Otome Game Visual Novel.

Developer/Publisher: Otomate.
genre: Historic Fantasy.

Platform: PS Vita.

Official Site: http://www.otomate.jp/hanaoboro/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v19288

Release date: 2017-1-19

Otomate first otome game released in 2017, I ended up buying it
 because it has a rich cast of characters and the story intrigued me. 

Sorta expected stuff like boring war scenes also fighting + onii-sama huehuehue which is
all well and good, I love history but i'm not a religious nerd so I do not mind a bit of fantasy
 in these type of games and as expected I wasn't disappointed in that, some parts were
fateful yes but there's a lot of originality which is I guess what most people complained about.
You may even think why pick this up? well... I was interested in it and that's usually enough.

The common route in hana oboro is maybe about 4~5 hours, I did not keep track
and with the character route you may end up at 8-10  hours at most including all ends and stuff.
I do not recommend doing routes in one sitting though, its not that long 
 but it all depends how motivated you are and some draggy scenes with war may even demotivate you.

The system is the same standard VN stuff except that it has a sort of bumrush timed flag system
in which you have to press L or R when it blinks, the blinking part is actual the hint so you can
pretty much do this without a guide, it needs to be in the right order or else you will go for a bad end.
You also get the choice to skip this minigame but what is the point if you need
to do all of them in a single run to get the bonus cg's, otomate y u do this..

Opening song is by ROOKiEZ is PUNK'D which is awesome I can not skip it not once, also
one of the members(U) voices one of the sub characters, Sanada Masayuki and for what its worth
he does a ok job but you can tell the guy is no seiyuu and otomate should have hired someone else.
Good thing is outside of say Shingen's route he barely get any lines...!

 Pro's
- Interesting story.
- Likeable cast of characters.
- Art, its beautiful also everyone had the same amount of CG's.
- Every route is unique/character focused.
- Decent in length.

Con's
- Inconsistent Heroine.
- Story feels unfinished, hint at a bigger picture.
- 長い and at times a drag, sometimes it felt like its been ages since the last choice.
-  There was maybe one music track that  iffed me also some SFX really eh... esp doki sound.
- No lip sync/moving mouths.

For play order, I started with Nagamasa-sama since it was recommended on the official blog
and let's just say it feels like most natural choice but honestly it was most boring.
Nagamasa > Shingen > Hanbei > Nobunaga > Katsuie.
Note,Nobunaga route won't unlock till after Hanbei whom is locked till 2nd+ play
Just use the same playorder I used... and you'll be fine if not I recommend Shingen for whenever
you want to relax and Katsuie for last...  because his route is overall balanced and dat twist!
which was a fun way to end the game even tho its very self-contained.

また 少し 強く なれる｡｡｡

If I had to sum up how the routes were without spoilers it'd be like this:
Nagamasa - as dry as a desert but he can be surprisingly sweet.
Shingen - a refreshing oasis resort that heals your soul.
Hanbei - a cold summer breeze in a surprisingly あつい summer which turned into a typhoon.
Nobunaga - Spoils you in the beginning, still have to sit through a dry lecture
but  hey atleast you're rewarded with something cute in the end.
Katsuie - The rollercoaster ride you never knew you wanted but got anyway.

In short, a lot of time and money was put in to this game, even side characters got their own CG's
and everyone had an even amount of CG's too, some parts may leave a lot to be desired, sadly
to me the two poster boys routes (Nagamasa and Nobunaga) were the least satisfying of all.
I thought the heroine was alright she's no doormat and will stand up and fight
 against her brother but she does have her own personal insecurities considering
the time period some things may be laughable but whatever its fantasy, its not a kusoge.
Even if this game started out ok it was quite long compared to recent otomege I played, the text
is never ending and I feel spoiled by Koei's otomege in which scenes are short and to the point
but its not that long really, the length is about average.
 I say I prefer longer games but this really stretches itself and Nagamasa route was especially
difficult, as expected it wasn't all rainbows and sunshine which considering
the genre is good but could you make it a tad shorter? or more fluff kthnx.
Add fuel to the fire that Nagamasa and Nobunaga suffer from the just when it got good it already the end.
At times it was hard to see where the plot was going in the first few hours since it was so peaceful.
I'm all for a well thought out plot but at times I was just sitting there ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°) ok get on with it
like yeah thanks for going into hideyoshi and nene's love life which got nothing to do with plot. >_>

Sadly some parts feel unfinished to me... also what was the point of introducing that shota Hon
in Yukimura's ato gatari? did I miss something, now I am curious and after thinking about other things. I thought this is only the first part in a greater story also the ending of Alan's ato gatari...
Sigh... its just total sequel bait its not even funny! if there will actually be a sequel who knows
they may have as well have been baiting us, or give us some sort of confirmation he's OK.
However they did an excellent job in creating a unique otomege based on the sengoku period.
 I recommend it to those who like the genre of old timey fantasy games and do not mind
fantasy elements intruding the historical part however if you prefer shorter games
and dislike historic fantasy this may not be for you, its not that long though.
TBH I like it more than Juuzaengi because certain characters cannot be saved
but if you liked Juuza I think you'd still enjoy this since both aren't serious historic adaptations.
Also if you thought Onii-sama would be a crazy yandere I am sorry to disappoint because he was relatively tame.
Again I recommend it if you have the patience for ye olde style games...
7/10
Loses points for dull poster boy routes, but the other 3 were enjoyable. 

この願い届けなら｡｡｡？

Okay usual spoilers after the jump, this game was long and for some routes such as Nagamasa
 I couldn't be bothered to write much... so thats more of a general opinion.
Just so you know Hanbei and Katsuie's part had the most spoilers I try to summarize but
the game is much more detailed so it'll look like crap cuz I still left a shit ton out.