Categoria: otoge reviews Page 1 of 14

Lover Pretend was released in 2021 in Japan, but despite my excitement it took me months to actually start it, ignoring the rest of my backlog; now I’m finally done, so here we are with my opinions about it!

If you haven’t read my first impression post, let’s talk a bit about the plot first: the heroine, Chiyuki, is a 20 years old college student who wants to become a script writer, as her late mother; she was raised up without knowing her father’s name, who apparently was a famous person and couldn’t risk a scandal. Her mother never revealed his identity, but there’s still hope to find the truth: probably, he was someone involved in the production of a drama scripted by Chiyuki’s mother in those months before her birth, called “Pretend to Love”. But who was he? The director? An actor? The producer?

Fate gave Chiyuki a huge chance: she can work as assistant for a movie, where children of famous actors and drama producers are gathered together; what if someone is her half-brother?!

Along the way, our girl finds herself in situations where she has to lie, pretending to be someone’s girlfriend or hiding the truth; as her mother’s script, she has to pretend to love.

I found this system really cute, even if I usually hate timed choices and I wish I had a few more seconds to think; as you can imagine, since japanese is not my first language, it takes me more time to actually read and choose an answer. But I get it, Chiyuki needs to answer quickly, if she wants to be believed.

I chose Kazuma’s route first, since he’s the heroine’s outgoing childhood friend and he seemed the safest choice; despite his young age, he works as a make up stylist and hair dresser for famous people, so he ends up involved in the drama where Chiyuki works as an assistant.

A series of misunderstandings, lies and people who can’t mind their own business, leads everyone to believe that Kazuma and Chiyuki are a couple, but they can’t deny it or they’ll be exposed as liars.

So they need to act as lovers around everyone.

As you could expect, even if they are both unexperienced and awkward with relationships, they soon realize that they actually secretly loved each other since forever.

But when they were finally making some progress, random drama started! I don’t think it was necessary at all, they were so cute, I could have spent hours just watching Kazuma blush.

Also, the writer randomly decided to ruin him completely, at the very last scene, making him confess something awful. I don’t get why, it makes no sense at all! I felt sad and angry.

At that point, I started to be scared that every character would suffer of the same treatment.

The guy who mostly got my interest at first was the famous actor, Riku: he seemed serious, hardworking and with a nice personality, which is too good to be true. Is he a prince charming as everyone thinks? Just getting a bit closer to him, reveals the obvious truth: he’s an actor because his father forced him to choose this career, but he as no passion at all. Actually, he wants to give it up so badly, he’s ready to pretend, betray and probably hurt someone else.

Even if some situations annoyed me a bit, overall there were a lot of great scenes that made my heart flutter, so I enjoyed his route a lot. The ending was really good.

I wasn’t interested in Harumi, while playing the common route: crazy girls who claimed to be his official fanclub were surrounding him, stalking him and basically telling him what to do, which was a huge red flag in my eyes, it’s not a situation I’d like to be involved in.

But surprisingly, I ended up enjoying his route a lot: he’s shy and lonely, he needs friends who share his same passion for anime and I gladly accepted this role, it fits me! I know how it feels, having to hide my hobbies to avoid being judged by people around me, who belittle that kind of interest as childish. I felt his struggle to show his true self and I admired him, even if it took him a lot of time and effort. Harumi was so cute when he blushed and I loved the confession scene too.

Yukito is a popular model, who is really famous for his carefree attitude and scandals with random women: he’s always flirty, he knows his charms and he acts as he could get every girl he wants.

While talking to him in the common route, I had this feeling that he was actually smarter than he appeared; I’m glad I was right, since that fake personality had no match at all with Chiyuki’s serious attitude, they would have been an awkward couple.

I think he had the best character development of the game, at the end he seemed a completely different person, more mature and true to himself, instead of acting like everyone was expecting him to be; the reason why he’s not related to Chiyuki was kinda funny, the writers came up with some crazy stuff just to make us amused!

Eiichiro was playable as I imagined, he’s kind of the secret route of the game, but sadly, also the stortest. He’s a young scriptwriter and Chiyuki’s teacher, a reliable person with a soothing personality; he’s basically the teacher we all hoped (and fell) for, in school: good looking, nice and encouraging. This route reveals the truth about Chiyuki’s father, so it must be played last and I won’t reveal much about it.

Did I enjoy Lover Pretend?

Yes, a lot! It’s rare for me to like every single character, even if the writers sometimes came up with bad ideas which almost ruined my enjoyement; anyway, all the routes were entertaining, the drama wasn’t excessive and overall the cute/funny scenes stayed in my memory the most.

The “Pretend Time” was an interesting feature, but I absolutely needed to follow a walkthrough, I’m not good at lying and I can’t come up with good answers even in my own language, let alone in japanese! But it was fun, I enjoyed it.

The plot wasn’t properly developed, the truth was just revealed at the very end, while in other routes Chiyuki was like “whatever, he’s not my brother, who cares about my father’s identity at this point”, which is not what I expected; but it didn’t bother me much, I needed a cute game these days and Lover Pretend was the perfect choice.

What makes this game good enough for me, is that I never got bored and I even found myself smiling sometimes, when there was a romantic scene with a beautiful CG: I loved the art and the bright colours, everything was on point.

But obviously, if you’re looking for a deep plot, with a great writing and a strong heroine, you’re going to be disappointed; if you just want to spend some time with handsome guys, who are a bit problematic (nothing bad, just ordinary life struggles), I’m sure you’ll enjoy Lover Pretend as I did.

Koroshiya to Strawberry has a bad reputation, I guess it’s widely known as kusoge; but I can’t resist good deals and I was curious to find out if it’s that terrible or not… so here we are!

Our heroine, Ichigo, is a poor girl who was trapped and tested upon in some awful laboratory, which caused her such a huge trauma, she can’t even speak anymore.

She ended up being saved by a mysterious guy and brought to Cafe Tsukikage inside a case, but she doesn’t even remember how she got there.

That cafè is run by ikemen, but beyond its appearence, it’s a dangerous place where people from the underworld come for their business; even the staff working there is made of killers, who accepted the job of protecting her.

The owner is Tsukimi, a sweet guy who is always very polite to Ichigo: he bought her fancy clothes, he always pays attention to her feelings and health, he acts like some kind of guardian or butler.

I went for his route first, it seemed the most natural choice somehow.

Their relationship was cute, Tsukimi even warned Ichigo that he was starting developing feelings for her; he was like: “this is your last chance to run away, before it’s too late” which made her panic! She’s very shy and unexperienced with romance.

This route didn’t give us an explanation of Ichigo’s past, the reason why she’s there and who dragged her to that laboratory; but Noin’s route is locked, so it’s obvious that the anwers lay there.

I went for Amon next.

I expected him to be flirty, but he was actually a sweet, cute friend most of the time; when he realized his feelings and confessed, I got second hand embarrassement watching him blush.

I could have enjoyed his route way more, if I didn’t spend most of it seeing him talk with Izuna about random stuff like food, at some point I felt like I was a subchara of a BL game.

Why is Izuna in almost every scene, in Amon’s route? it felt like some kind of common route.

Anyway, I really loved the ending and the final revelation.

Hasegawa made me curious, since he appears to be a serious, reserved bodyguard of a mafia leader; beyond his cold blue eyes, he actually reveals himself to be a gentleman who can cook and sew.

His route seemed simple plot-wise, until the final mission starts and that’s where he shows his true self; I wasn’t ecpecting this, it was an interesting plot twist.

Kurama was sadly the disappointment of the game for me.

He’s some kind of creepy doctor, who enjoys spending time alone creating a doll house and miniatures; he asks Ichigo permission to take tests on her, to find out if she has some special ability which caused her to be kidnapped and secluded in that laboratory.

While playing the good ending, I kept complaining that everything was too easily solved, this route did not explain more about the main plot as I expected to; but then, in the bad ending, a sub-character just casually dropped a bomb which explains a huge mystery of Ichigo’s past.

I was shocked such an important information was revealed so easily, come on, writers!!

I went for Izuna next: he feels like the main love interest of the game, since he’s the most present, no matter which route I played. Sadly, after talking to him endlessly about food and coffee since the start of the game, at this point these conversations became boring and I just wanted to complete this route fast to unlock Noin and understand the hidden truth about Ichigo’s past.

Izuna had cute scenes at some point, like teaching Ichigo how to play chess, but their relationship didn’t feel properly developed to me; which is sad, I like blond guys.

Anyway, back to the main route of the game, the locked one: Noin.

He looks young, but he’s really smart and everyone respects him; he mostly acts like a brat ore-sama, but somehow I wasn’t annoyed by his personality.

I was expecting huge revelations, but Ichigo’s past was explained poorly, the ending itself was cute but nothing special. I can’t say more to avoid spoilers, sorry.

So, is Koroshiya to Strawberry a kusoge?

Yes and no.

If you are expecting a deep plot, involving killers, blood and mystery, you’ll be disappointed for sure: Koroshiya to Strawberry feels mostly like a cafè themed game, since the only action scenes happen at the very end of each route, after endless talks about food and coffee.

If you don’t have high expectations, I can’t say this game was awful; it was ok, enjoyable most of the time, with cute scenes and even surprising revelations.

Same for the art: if you expect Kazuki Yone’s amazing style in every CG, this is not the game you should play; most of the backgrounds were empty, some Cgs are just useless, while others look good. Overall, this game is mediocre in every aspect.

There was a lot of potential, but it went wasted, what a pity!

When Dairoku Ayakashimori was announced in the lineup of 2021 otome games localisations, I realized immediately that playing it soon, before twitter becomes full of spoilers, was the best idea.

So, here we are!

The heroine, Akitsu Shino, is a human who has the ability of seeing ayakashi since her childhood; for this reason, she’s chosen to be part of a secret agency which works to keep the peace between ayakashi in their city, Sakuratani.

My first impression of the characters wasn’t that good: Tokitsugu was the only guy who seemed interesting, since I couldn’t understand if he was nice or secretly evil; all the others seeemed boring, none of them made me curious at first sight and I even wished I could date some of the side characters instead.

The common route was short, but it managed to make me sleepy anyway: nothing happened and I had the feeling that there was no plot at all, just random everyday scenes one after the other.

I was almost tempted to put the game on hold, but I know there’s the risk of never getting back, so I forced myself to go on and give this a chance.

I obviously started with Tokitsugu, to give me some motivation.

When I entered his route, I expected him to be the main character, with a huge secret: you know, those characters with closed eyes, who usually open them when there’s something shocking going on? Sadly, not even this plot met my expectations.

I admit it was getting a bit interesting, since his younger brother is a nice guy and I enjoyed talking to him; but when I was waiting for a terrible family secret or even something deeper to be revealed, it was a huge disappointment. This feeling of non existent plot stayed the same.

I usually play every ending of a game, even if the Switch doesn’t have the trophy system; but I had no motivation at all this time, since even the best endings were boring.

I hoped Hira would surprise me, since he’s a mysterious guy who barely talks and hates people, apparently; sometimes this type of weird guys are actually tsundere, or at least they end up being interesting. Well, it wasn’t the case for me.

I admit it, I spent most of his route wondering why I couldn’t date Takao instead: he looks good, he’s nice… I’d gladly spend some time alone with him, I’m sure he would be a great boyfriend.

Sadly, Hira was a typical kuudere who lacks emotions, so I mostly got bored: who wants to chase an annoying, lazy boyfriend, even in games? I want those ikemen to be interested in me, come on!

After this route I had to take a long break, I stopped playing for about 6 months before I finally found some motivation to give Dairoku Ayakashimori another chance; and I’m glad I did.

Shu’s route was my favorite, he’s such a cute tsundere, seeing him blush so easily gave me life.

He’s so innocent, he’s not used to get along with girls and his feelings were so obvious, even if it took a while to admit he liked the heroine. He’s a good guy.

Shiratsuki is a nine taled fox, he’s funny and I enjoyed his route, but I couldn’t consider him a potential boyfriend because of his way of talking: I felt like I was dating an old man, I don’t find this attractive at all! It’s a pity, I think he had a great potential, but it was wasted.

I guess this problem applies to every character in this game, some are just worse than others.

Akuroo was the greatest surprise of the game for me.

My first impression was bad, I thought he was just a playboy who seduces girls and he’s actually a dangerous liar; it turned out that I was completely wrong, he’s really sweet and caring!

I fell in love with him quicky, you know how weak I am to price-like types.

I had a lot of fun with all the subcharas, oni why enjoy reading manga and playing games are unusual to imagine, they are an amazing group of friends!

There’s a True Route which unlocks after you’re done with the main characters, but since I was dragging this game for so long I honestly just wanted to put it back on the shelf forever and start something new.

I decided to read some reviews to find out if it was worth playing or not; everyone seemed to agree that it’s not very interesting, so I just decided to skip it and consider this game done; I guess I did my part for the fandom, I came up with some kind of review and I can get out of here.

So, did I enjoy Dairoku Ayakashimori?

I want to be honest, overall I’m kinda disappointed: I think the writers put all their efforts into creating an ayakashi world with many characters, but without giving those characters a proper story to shine. The routes are short, the plot barely exists and I feel like some subcharacters were more interesting than the main guys.

I don’t know if this was made on purpose because Otomate plans to release some kind of sequel, but it doesn’t seem a smart move.

This saddens me, I think the scenario could have more potential, but it was wasted.

In the end, it’s a decent game, but not memorable at all.

Since I’ve madly loved Piofiore no Banshou, playing Episodio 1926 is something I was looking forward to with excitement and high expectations!

This is a sequel, so each route continues from the main game’s best ending and allows us to meet new characters to further develop the story.

I started with Dante, who is the main guy: his route was mostly about mafia betrayals and vengeance, so it felt a bit weak in the romance aspect; but it isn’t a fandisk, so the fluff is not the focus here. Teo’s story could have been really interesting if better developed, but as it was I could only see him as a butthurt brat who just went crazy for selfish reasons.

Dante is widely loved and I understand why, but he’s not my type: whenever I talk to him I can feel the weight of his responsability and I can’t fully enjoy his company.

That’s why I played my man Yang next.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m hopelessly in love with him, or if his route was objectively better written, but my level of interest and enjoyement literally skyrocketed!

Everything about Yang is amazing to me; I loved even the villain, Yuan.

I was expecting Rui’s betrayal anytime, but he was just a tsundere and now I wish he had a route; in a future fandsisk maybe? The bad ending was just sad, wich is almost disappointing since I wanted some plot twist, reveal or betrayal. Is it weird, if I wanted Liliana to become Rui’s woman? Or Yuan’s woman? Probably. It doesn’t mean I don’t love Yang enough, trust me, I really do.

I just wish I knew the new characters better, I think they are interesting enough to have their own route and ending.

Gilbert and Nicola were probably the characters I liked the least in the first game, but this sequel makes their flirty attitude shine even more, so my opinion changed a lot; Nicola is probably my 2^nd favorite after Yang now, his beautiful eyes make me weak.

Orlok’s route gave me mixed feelings, I really love him, but I was expecting something more at this point; I mostly want to hug him, instead of considering him a boyfriend.

When you’re done with the main characters, you can play Alternativa.

As the name suggests, this is an alternative story, where the mafia clans join forces to find “phantom”, a guy who goes around killing people while leaving creepy messages to Liliana.

Depending on where you choose to stay to be protected, you spend some time with one of the boys and eventually make him fall in love.

Even if the plot itself didn’t get much of my interest and I even felt bored at some point, after the first run it got better and the final CGs were worth it.

Nicola’s route was my favorite since he talked about italian history, he even took part at Caporetto, poor guy; knowing this I gained more respect for him, and also for the writers of the game who took some time to search into italian history to write about those painful moments. Someone at otomate studied their lesson, I appreciate it.

The final route is Henri, which is strictly connected to Alternativa.

Even if I don’t like him that much (he’s not my type, sorry), I can’t deny that it’s the best written, it was really interesting and even made me emotional; I highly suggest to play it last, it’s a great conclusion of the story.

So, did I enjoy Piofiore 1926?

Yes, it’s a good sequel, but the feelings I got while playing this are nowhere near the emotions I felt while playing the main game. This is ok, it was entertaining, but for me Piofiore no Banshou was literally a masterpiece. Anyway, if Otomate decides to keep milking the cow and a fandisk is released, you can be sure I’m going to buy it immediately, those guys deserve it all!