It took me years (and a cheap price, like… 1300 yen or something) before I decided to ignore all the terrible reviews and finally start playing Bad Apple Wars.

I admit it, when it was released I wasn’t interested, because there were many tropes that seemed cliché to me: dead guys going to the afterworld, a random school… originality is not the best feature of this game, that’s sure. The art is not my cup of tea too, so I decided to pass on this for a long time.

Anyway, since I’m curious and I can’t resist cheap otoge, I’m done with this too.

Instead of talking about my feelings for boys and their routes, as I always do, I prefer to write my general opinion about this game.

Why? I don’t know what happened, but honestly none of them left me an impression of any kind, good or bad, which allows me to write something decent and not copy pasta: they are nice, their backstories are tragic, I enjoyed them all… but none of them stand out enough.

Maybe because the common route had many similar or even skippable scenes, so I paid attention mostly to the overall plot and to the side characters than individual routes.

I don’t even know what to say about this heroine honestly, she really seems “empty” as she says and I didn’t see a great character development at the end.

I think the main problem here are the choices I can make, which are almost non-existent.

All I can do is choosing places where the heroine goes (so I can enter a route) and touch the boy in different places (so I can see his past). The spots I touch even determine the ending, which is absolutely ridiculous.

This means the player has literally no choices to make, I just sit here and watch what happens with very limited interactions… and this is not the reason why I play otome games and I enjoy unlocking even bad endings. I want to see where my decisions lead, I want to see the heroine take actions that change her future. If touching his head instead of this shoulder can change everything, this shows how lazy the writers are, or how weak the heroine is.

I guess this somehow explains my poor interest for these boys, even if they were nice.

While I was playing Alma’s route, instead of focusing my attention on him, his past or his relationship with Rinka, I mostly cared about side characters (Sanzu and Yoh), their interactions and their complicate feelings for each other. Their bond, being it romantic or just a deep friendship, seemed way deeper and moved me more than Alma’s ending. I only wished they could be reunited someday. I was really curious about Enishi and Naraka too, I wish they had a route cause they looked more original and interesting in real life than the main characters.

I’m sure Naraka had to suffer a lot to be accepted, since he’s a boy who loves fashion and dresses as a girl; I truly wanted to know him better and see him happy.

While playing Alma, who was only a few years older than the heroine in the real world, I wondered how the writers would deal with boys who were born way earlier than her.

Somehow Higa’s ending felt weird to me, it came off as some kind of cheating… but maybe it’s because they are like 30 years apart, they still lived in the same era; Shikishima’s ending didn’t feel awkward, just bittersweet. Overall, I’m satisfied with this decision, it makes the game a bit sad but at least there’s not some kind of magic to keep them together.

White Mask feels like the main character to me, so I’d recommend to play his route last.

Everything about him was interesting, he’s probably the only one who made me curious about his personality (and his real face), his past and also the future waiting for him outside that universe.

Some scenes in Gas Mask sensei’s laboratory were almost shocking, I loved that part.

Would I recommend Bad Apple wars?

Maybe not at full price, but if it’s kinda cheap, yes!

It’s not a masterpiece, but overall I still enjoyed the setting and the theme; the characters were all enjoyable, even if I’ll probably remember more about the whole school instead of individual routes (most of the playable characters felt kinda generic, nothing really memorable stood out while getting to know them deeper).

I’m glad I got rid of an older game in my backlog and it wasn’t bad as I expected, it seems like I didn’t waste my money this time, I was lucky!