灰鷹のサイケデリカ – thoughts

(Spoilers…? Not explicitly but don’t read if you’re currently playing the game)

Having played (and enjoyed) Kokuchou no Psychedelica, Haitaka was on my radar but not a priority since my plate is loaded (I finished like 1 game from September when I bought 4, this game not included). I ended up playing this sooner than expected since I read some Amazon reviews complaining about linear plot, lack of romance/糖度, and even a post talking about the game having loads of landmine elements in the context of the console otome game market. I mean normally those things are supposed to deter one away, but story-heavy and linear are actually very appealing elements to me when it comes to a novel game so my interest was piqued.

Ｅｘｔｒａ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗｓ

Mostly ADVs and Compile Heart RPGs.

Table of Contents

Kuon no Kizuna
Fureraba
Amagami
Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters
Robin Lloyd
Hatoful Boyfriend
Reine des Fleurs
Kokuchou no Psychedelica
Complie Heart games
Not games

熱血異能部活譚 Trigger Kiss – thoughts

…Which shall now be referred simply as Trigger Kiss due to how cumbersome the full title is to type out in any language. This is an otome game for the PS Vita that tries it’s hardest to be a cross between a sports and a battle shounen manga at the same time. The year is 2085, and a portion of the human population have developed superpowers. Team battles between superpower users are an established high school sport, with most high schools having a super power club that trains to fight against other schools in tournaments. The protagonist, Futaba, is the daughter of a famous superpower user, but decided to have nothing to do with powers after an incident five years ago. Nevertheless, word travels fast and upon her transfer to Akizuki High School, she gets tricked into joining their superpower club. The reason? Their first regional matchup is tomorrow and they don’t have enough members to form a team.

Code:Realize ~Sousei no Himegimi~

It’s not often that you get an otome game with a gripping story and setting that has some thought put into it, so I was pleasantly surprised when Code:Realize turned out to be good the whole way through. Especially considering that it’s from Idea Factory, whose otome games failed to grab me before. It’s like they actually put effort into it, and managed to avoid a lot of developments common to the genre that I never liked.

Games I didn’t write about last year

I’ve been slowly dying off due to university, evident by the decreased frequency of updates by the second half of the year. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t play any games. In fact, I probably played more, but was too lazy to write about them.

Warning: Huge wall of text.

Princess Arthur – Thoughts

Before anyone asks about what happened to my mother taking over the blog: she found a new job so unfortunately, you’re stuck with me. Also the リア充 life worked out so well I’ve left my room only for exams and McDonald’s for the past month. This otome VN is up for grabs on JP PS+, so I went ahead and played it.

Princess Arthur sets off with an ambitious setting, combining the legend of King Arthur and staple western fantasy elements to create an otome game with the premise “What if King Arthur was a girl?”

Amnesia V Edition

I think I’m slowly warming up to otome games…

The heroine lost her memories due to a spirit named Orion landing in her head, and conveniently for the narrative, also wiped out whatever previous personality she has! Together with Orion (who only she can see), she must interact with those around her to regain her memories, while also being careful to not get found out about her condition lest she get sent to the hospital and left there to rot without remembering anything.

Review: NORN9 -Norn + Nonette-

I don’t usually play otome games, but when I do, I end up picking lackluster ones. I’d like to believe this was a case of expecting way too much from some concept art and premise, but it’s been a while since I’ve tasted such bitter disappointment. The word sci-fi generally instills in readers (okay, maybe just me) a certain expectation in the plot where the grandiosity of the plot is directly proportional to the number of major characters. Add in psychic powers, and I ended up imagining some chuuni fights. Either way, Norn9 seemed like it would have a detailed setting, good plot, great character dynamics and possibly a burning grand finale.

Lesson learnt? Unless something is from a beloved writer or a reliable company that consistently produces stuff I like, read reviews before laying down the cash. Especially when it comes to a genre I’m not experienced with. Oh who am I kidding, I realized that long ago and will never learn my lessons.

Hakuoki Walkthrough – Index

Since I posted each route separately, I might as well make an index post that links to the walkthrough of each route. I just followed the walkthrough on otome.girly.jp and translated the choices to the localized version.

There are a total of 6 routes. You can play them in any order, but I’d suggest Hijikata’s route for last because it is the longest and sticks with the Shinsengumi ’til the end. It’s pretty much the “true” route.

Hajime Saito route
Souji Okita route
Sanosuke Harada route
Heisuke Toudou route
Chikage Kazama + Normal route
Toshizo Hijikata route

Hakuoki Walkthrough – Chikage Kazama

Since this is a pretty long game and has 6 routes, I’ll be posting the walkthrough route-by-route. I pretty much just translated from a Japanese guide so it should be right.

Kazama’s route is entered by picking your choices evenly so you don’t get close to anyone in the Shinsengumi, and the normal end (AKA end up with no one end) branches from his route at the end. You do get CG for the normal end, so if you’re a completionist then go for it.