I was in the mood for historical games, so starting 2020 with Hana Oboro seemed the wisest idea to me… and I don’t regret it at all!

The heroine, Ichi, is the little sister of the well known Oda Nobunaga, and she was raised in her castle like a innocent princess, who never goes outside in the dangerous world.

You would think she’s the typical useless heroine, but she actually gets to fight enemies actively, which is really cool; I liked her personality: she always did her best to be useful to her family, even if it meant being separated by her brother and fulfill difficult duties. Overall, she was nice.

As soon as I met Nobunaga, I realized there was something creepy and scary about him: he had the sweet smile typical of the worst yandere with a sister complex; he was obviously crazy… exactly my type. But his route was locked, so I started my playthrough with Nagamasa.

He’s a sweet guy, with a few typical tsundere moments (“I’m not blushing!!” trope was abused, literally), but also strong and reliable when the war starts.

Sadly for him, his personality is too plain compared to Nobunaga, whose strong attitude was completely overwhelming and captured my attention (and my heart); I was way more interested in his actions, than Ichi’s relationship with Nagamasa.

I feel sorry because he’s really kind, I can’t say his route was boring, but I forgot about him immediately, as soon as he wasn’t on screen.

Well, I guess it was a perfect route to start, to better focus on the story as a whole.

Katsuie was on another level, I couldn’t take my eyes off him, everything he said was entertaining and funny! Playboy types are not everyone’s cup of tea, but at least this boy has a defined personality, you can’t ignore him easily.

Sadly, before I could actually spend some time with him, it took almost half of the route; and I even got married to Nagamasa at first! But it was worth waiting, Katsuie’s CGs are really hot, at some point it felt like a Cero D game! Thanks for the fanservice, I deserved it for my patience.

Nobunaga was really weird in this route, he seemed a completely different person: not only he allowed her to get married, he even accepted immediately her relationship with Katsuie, “as long as she’s happy”. Who is this person?! He seemed a normal brother here.

I was looking forward to playing Shingen next, because he seemed a shy and gentle person, which is very different from my personal idea of him. His soft attitude and timid smile were totally unexpected, but I admit it was a nice change (from Ikemen Sengoku’s portrait of the real person, for example). Even if this is not my type, usually, I enjoyed his route very much, probably because of the originality and sweetness. I was ready for tragedy when his sickness started to show, but everything got magically solved at the ending, as expected from an Otomate game.

I won’t complain anyway, he didn’t deserve more pain.

I left Hanbei last, because he looked like a typical kuudere and you probably know that this trope is not my style at all.

I admit I was really bored at first, Ichi tried everything to please him, but he just had no feelings of gratitude; I felt sad for her, who did her best to learn cooking and even saved his life during a battle. Anyway, when he started opening up a bit, his sweet smile felt like a great reward.

There were a lot of unexpected situations, both cute and funny.

Katsuie trying to drag him to his whores despite Hanbei’s shyness, while saying the all men are perverts, or there wouldn’t be kids born, made me laugh so hard I was nearly crying.

Nobunaga’s route is obviously the one I was looking forward to the most, because yandere oniichans are always my type, I can’t deny it; also, even if I despise his violent and arrogant attitude, I always can’t help being attracted to this kind of character. You know my sins, I can’t hide anymore.

Even if he was fascinating, I was expecting something more from his route and his endings: where is my yandere ending, where he destroys everything to live alone with Ichi? Where is my tragedy ending, where he kills himself after she dies and gives all his powers to Hideyoshi? I need more drama, a character with such a great personality needs something more memorable!

Anyway, I really enjoyed Hana Oboro, it was way better than I expected.

I loved all the characters, but Nobunaga’s craziness has a special place in my heart. He could even enter my Top10 husbando, if the writers fully developed his potential.

But the writing was not perfect in general, it felt weird at some point: I realized that in different routes some characters change personality, or at least they act weirdly compared to their usual actions.

I won’t spoil, I’ll give you just a few examples: sub-characters who confess their love to the heroine, which was never hinted somewhere else (their relationship was usually showed as pure affection); characters who change their attitude completely in similar situations, like Nobunaga (who was introduced since the beginning as a siscon), who opposed to Ichi’s marriage in Nagamasa’s route, but had no problem at all to see her married with Katsuie.

The game system is easy, but there’s a point you need to keep in mind: while you play, you sometimes have to “fight” your enemy by making speed choices that will allow you to win, or lead you to death: I highly recommend you to follow a walkthrough, or you’ll probably end up dying soon, if you can’t read fast enough. I can’t read a sentence in literally one second, so… anyway, being able to fight (and eventually die) is interesting. I really liked this part, it felt like I was actively doing something to win.

If you love historical games, which also have some fantasy elements, I highly suggest you to play Hana Oboro: you won’t be disappointed!