Bustafellows

I’m very late to the party, but I’m finally done with my first Switch Lite otome game! Yay!
I’ve chosen Bustafellows, since I was afraid I could read spoilers if I waited too long before completing it… I’m glad I made it safely until the end!
I think most fellow otome gamers enjoyed it a lot, so my expectations were really high and I was expecting a great action/criminal game, which could totally be my style.
At first, I admit it, I was disappointed: it took me a while to understand what was going on and when I discovered the truth, it felt… stupid? I don’t know how to call it, but I always dislike that kind of random “supernatural powers” just thrown in a serious context for no reason.
Also, the unnecessary amount of side characters, various crimes happening one after the other and the length of the common route, made me bored after a few hours, hoping to finally enter a route and develop some kind of feelings or at least interest for the main characters.
The only reason I was able to stay awake was Helvetica, I fell in love at first sight and I wanted to spend more time with him and understand what was going on in his mind; he was obviously deeper and smarter than he seemed. But I kept my guilty pleasure for later.
As usual, since I keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible, let’s just talk briefly about the routes.
I chose to start with Limbo.
After the long common route, spending more time with a character and finally building a deeper relationship, made my playing experience nicer and more investing.
The plot was great and the villain interesting, one of the bad endings was shocking enough to get completely my attention… which is not easy, since in my life I’ve been through a lot of bloody stuff.
I’m not completely satisfied with the good ending, I wanted to see more cute couple moments, but it literally ended at the best part. At least there was a nice after story, I can’t complain at all about that.
I played Shu next and I was really curious, since he barely talks and he acts like a mature person.
I loved everything about this route: the plot, the villain, the ending… Shu’s attitude was sexy, I feel attracted to that kind of serious and mysterious character, the “don’t get close to me, it’s dangerous” type. Yes, I can’t live peacefully in otome games. I enjoyed it so much, I felt like it ended in a few minutes. I wanted to spend more time with him, I miss him already!
Mozu’s route didn’t get my interest, somehow I realized who the culprit was at first sight, so I wasn’t very excited to play through it; also, Mozu is basically a kuudere, which is not my type.
But I admit there was an epic moment I’ll never forget, when he literally said that he has no interest in watching porn and he kabedonned Teuta just to randomly rise his sexual desire.
I was just staring at the whole scene and conversation like “dafuk am I seeing and reading and hearing and WHAT THE HELL dude”. That was some unexpected fun and the highlight of a route that would just be boring otherwise.
Helvetica is the character who got my interest at first, his confident attitude is really attractive.
I expected his route to be sexy, since it literally started with him naked taking pictures to show off his body, but it ended up being deep and sad; his past was awful and basically makes him a criminal, but I guess it’s something we could say about Shu too.
Also, he changed his face with plastic surgery, which can’t be remotely attractive at all.
So yeah, it was disappointing, but still an interesting route to play; I can’t love him as I expected, but I still appreciate the fanservice.
Scarecrow had a great route, I’m really glad since I had huge expectations since I first met him!
He’s so embarrassing when he stutters and blushes for no reason, but the most funny past was his sprite with his hands to cover his eyes… I had so much fun every time he tried to peek secretly!
His route was so interesting, and so was his “double personality”, I found myself very intrigued and I couldn’t stop playing, I wanted to know the truth. I wish it was longer, I really need to know more about his past; and tease him more, I loved his reactions!
After these 5 routes, the “Full Circle” part unlocked, so I guess we could consider it the true ending of the game. Or maybe the true ending is the very last part, which unveils the truth about Teuta’s brother.
I won’t comment much on these because it’s a spoiler, but I just want to say that, even if the writers were obviously aiming for a shocking effect, somehow I wasn’t that surprised.
I can’t say I predicted it all, but since the side characters were so many, I expected them to hide something; so when I knew about it, I was like “ok, that’s why they have so much screen time”.

So, do I recommend Bustafellows?
If you like action/crime games, yes!
The common route felt unnecessarily long, probably because there were too many side characters and criminals introduced one after the other, so I couldn’t focus at all about the main boys and getting to know them. When I entered my first route, I basically had no feelings for Limbo, he felt more like one of my coworkers than a possible love interest.
But after the first run, when I could enter the individual routes immediately (bless the “skip to the next choice” option, I love it), I finally started enjoying myself way more, even if they were really, really short. I honestly wish the common route was a bit shorter, to give us more time to spend in individual routes. Shu and Scarecrow are my favorite, their past was interesting and I love them both, even if they are the complete opposite.
After playing for a few routes Teuta’s “ability” stopped bothering me, even if it felt just like a deus ex machina to avoid the main characters’ death. Why bother with actions scenes, when you could just save them all with supernaturals powers?!
Even if I enjoyed Bustafellows overall, I admit I was expecting more.
I don’t really know what’s the problem, but something feels off; I think the writing could have been better, to give the ending a more shocking effect. Even if it wasn’t predictable, still I was expecting something similar, all those characters had no reason to be there if they weren’t hiding something.
But maybe I’ve just played too many dark games, it’s difficult to please and surprise me.