Categoria: otoge reviews Page 2 of 14

Since my psvita backlog is apparently neverending, here we are talking about an old otome game which almost everyone ignored, Walpurgis no uta.

The overall concept is not original: it’s about sexy vampires sucking blood and childhood promises, basically; anyway, I was still able to enjoy it, so let’s talk briefly about the main guys.

The heroine, Shio, is a second-year high school student, who lives with her older brother; as typical in otome games, anime, manga and whatever involves young guys, their mother works a lot and she’s never really at home.

Dating oniichan is something I always wish for, so I obviously started with his route.

Suou is a doctor who calls his little sister “princess”; since childhood, his health was very weak, so he couldn’t fulfill his wish to protect Shio as he wanted.

Like every typical oniichan in otome games, suddenly his personality changes and he goes from sweet and caring to full yandere mode, locking her inside the house and forcing his feelings despite the sense of guilt. Well, it’s not a surprise anymore.

After oniichan, I went for the wolves-brothers.

Ryuumaru pretends he doesn’t care about the heroine, while always blurting out his sarcastic remarks, but he’s actually very sweet; he feels sick after using his healing powers, that’s why he thinks he’s weaker compared to his older brother.

I loved his route, he acts cold, but he’s very sensitive: he’s scared to be left out and he has a brother complex, which is really sad; I guess having a stronger twin is not easy.

Playing Toramaru immediately wasn’t probably a great idea.

He’s cool, confident, destined to be the new leader; but after knowing the truth about Ryuumaru, it was hard to choose the older brother, I felt a bit guilty.

I highly suggest you to go for Tora first and Ryuu next, it’s way more enjoyable.

The main character of the game is a vampire, who uses the name Shiga Takashi at school.

He met the heroine when she was a kid and decided that she had to be his wife, even if she forgot everything about their first meeting; he has no knowledge of human feelings, he’s scary and rude from time to time. But sucking blood is always attractive for otome game heroines and Shio is not different: she was supposed to run away and ask for help to the wolves, but in this route she randomly decided that becoming a vampire was cooler; I can’t even blame her completely.

Anyway, I grew to like him because I’m weak to pale boys who can play piano.

So, would I recommend Walpurgis no Uta?

First of all, it was visually better than I expected: there are a lot of CGs, some of them are even animated (like tears flowing on Shio’s cheeks, that was nice).

The plot is nothing special, but still entertaining, so I never got bored; the twins’ routes had too much copy pasta probably, but they are nice guys so I can’t complain much.

I think the best playorder is oniichan -Tora – Ryuu , leaving poster boys last: when you know the truth, you’ll probably end up pitying him and it becomes difficult to consider him the villain, in other routes.

The BGM is surprisingly good, I appreciated it a lot, it reminded me of Rejet good old times.

I don’t know why everyone ignored this game, probably because it’s not from Otomate, but I can’t say it’s bad: it’s just mediocre, if you find a good deal it can still be enjoyable.

I wouldn’t recommend it of course, but I don’t consider this a kusoge at all.

I’ve been recommended by many friends to try The House in Fata Morgana, even if it’s not an otome game: it’s a dark visual novel, creepy and twisted. How could I refuse playing it?

My expectations were really high and they were completely fulfilled!

The player wakes up in an unknown house, completely unaware of his identity and the reasons she/he’s there; a black hair girl, who introduces herself as The Maid, guides him/her around the house, leading the player through dark corridors, always holding his/her hand.

The Maid apparently knows all the secrets of that place and she’s trying to make her “master” remember about the past: but what is reality, and what is just a dream?

To help the player regain their memory, she opens many different doors, each one of them showing tragic events of the past, happened at the house, which is apparently cursed.

I can’t tell you what happens behind each door, not even my opinion about it, since the shock is one of the main points of the tragedy, if you decide to go through this game.

I can only tell you, that watching is painful for different reasons: for the psychological and physical pain some of the characters go through, for the angst and for the rage you’ll feel.

But I think it’s really worth experiencing, it’s been a long time since I felt so involved in a game, I couldn’t bring myself to stop playing and I restlessly went through a different door each day, waiting for my heart to be crushed.

What pierced my heart the most, was the truth about The Maid, which is the fifth door: good luck if you’re brave enough to reach that point.

I usually talk about otome games in my blog, not just any kind of visual novel, but love plays a huge part in this game too, so I guess I’m not completely off topic.

The main genre are probably horror and mystery, even if “despair” is probably the best words to describe The House in Fata Morgana.

If you’re a person like me who enjoys dark stories and twisted characters, I highly recommend to try out this amazing game: I’m not exaggerating, I consider this a true masterpiece.

But you really need to be mentally prepared, there’s a lot of pain waiting for you.

There are also many sensitive topics, like abuse and violence, so if you’re particularly sensitive to these, it’s probably better if you stay out of this hell.

But if you think you can take it, I guarantee it’s absolutely worth it.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Amnesia series, since it’s been one of my first otome games ever and just hearing the BGM makes me feel really nostalgic.

The only game I was still missing is Amnesia World, so when I found it on ebay at a good price, I didn’t even think about it for 2 seconds: it had to be mine.

Here we go!

As the title suggests, this game allows you to meet our boys in different “worlds”, which means it’s an alternative universe where they all live happily.

On the first run, your only possible choice is the “Normal World”.

Our heroine wakes up with her usual memory loss, but this time instead of Orion there’s a spirit called Nova, who will lead her through struggles.

She works at the usual place, Meido no Hitsuji, with all the guys we all know pretty well.

Apparently, before losing her memory, she proposed a theme for a special event, which was approved by Waka san (who speaks kansai ben and he’s always in a good mood here!).

You’ll basically spend the whole route trying to figure out what is going to happen, collecting various hints; when the set day comes, you realize that your male friends are all dressed up as princes! Customers are going crazy, girls are fainting…. what a great idea!

I had a lot of fun while going through this World, but replaying from the start every time to get a different ending felt a bit annoying after a couple runs.

The second choice you get, is the “School World”.

As the name itself explains, the heroine and all the main guys are students: Kent is the school president, as we could easily expect from a serious guy; Ukyo is both a teacher and a student, depending on the personality.

We get to organize typical school events, while playing funny mini games from time to time.

I enjoyed it a lot, but somehow it also felt unnecessarily long, I was wondering when it was going to reach some kind of ending after a while; but maybe it’s just me, school settings bore me easily.

My interest suddenly skyrocketed when Luka appeared: blond hair, green eyes, confident attitude…. he’s my type, I’m sold. He’s weird, but straightforward with his feelings, I can’t refuse him.

I wish I could spend more time with him, but sadly, we barely talked and he confessed immediately.

The 3^rd world, was “Music”.

My role was to choose which guy could perform at the music hall: I could spend some time with them as they were getting ready for their performance, which was eventually dedicated to me.

The mini game was terribly hard, even on easy mode I had a lot of troubles getting a decent score and I gave up getting the platinum trophy. But still, I had fun!

The 4^th world, was “Criminal”, but don’t expect serious stuff: Meido Hitsuji is a detective agency, so we get to see chibi!guys trying to solve mysteries; there’s not angst or drama here, some scenes end up being pretty comical in the end.

After you’re done with the other worlds, the last one which unclocks is called “Second World”.

Here, heroine chan and Nova go on a date, but then it’s told all the truth about him, Orion and this game in general. The last scenes were touching, they felt like a true goodbye to this series!

So, would I recommend this game?

Well…. let’s face it, it’s not necessary at all.

If you’re a huge Amnesia fan, and you want to spend time with those characters as long as you can, I can’t say this game is bad and you should avoid it; in fact, I had fun.

But there’s not a real plot, nothing is memorable and restarting each route just to change a few choices to reach a different ending, ended up being kinda annoying after a while.

I guess the most effort was put in “School World”, which wasn’t bad at all, but I’m not interested in that kind of setting in general, so I couldn’t fully enjoy it.

My favorite was probably “Music Word”, but it was also the shortest.

I kinda want to replay the main game on Switch, maybe I’ll consider buying the port one day and finally write a decent review. Time will tell.

I’ve waited for so long, since I need to be in the right mood before I start an historical otome game; but I finally decided to play Jyuuzaengi 2!

I’ve played the first game years ago and I was really happy there was a sequel; but can you imagine my surprise, when I realized there were also 2 new characters?

But before I fangirl about them, let’s talk about the plot a bit.

Our heroine, KanU is a maozoku, which is basically a demon with fluffy wolf ears.

Six months after the events of the first game, maozoku are living peacefully in a village, until Sousou decides to leave for another war.

In his absence, humans from a close village decide to take their chance to kill maozoku and take revenge. The heroine and survivors run away.

On their way to the south, they are stopped by a young boy, whose father offers protection to their clan; maozokus accept and live in their village.

No more plot stuff from here, you know I don’t like to spoil and I’m bad at resuming, so let’s start looking at individual routes!

I started with the new characters, I was curious as soon as I met them, so why waiting?

Shokatsuryou is a strategist, who can’t fight but is skilled at choosing the best moves to win battles; he’s serious, always rational and apparently even heartless.

That’s why when he started smiling and even being jealous of KanU, I felt my heart melting!

His route is mostly filled with wars, to show how smart he is, so his cute moments felt like a reward. But his personality matches with KanU, they are a cute couple.

Shuuyu’s personality is completely different.

He’s a maozoku, but he has always lived among humans, hiding his identity; that’s why when he met KanU, his hormones went out of control and he asked her immediately to get married!

There were a lot of funny and sexy scenes, that’s why I almost felt betrayed when the sad truth hit me in the end; but I won’t spoil, I want you to suffer like I did. The bittersweet ending pierced my heart!

I went for ChouRyou next, because I’ve wanted to make him my servant since the beginning.

How could I refuse his kind offer? Of course he can follow me around whenever he wants!

He still suffers from the “what is this feeling?” trope of the main game, but his sweetness makes up for all, I just want to hug him and let him know how much his life is worth.

SouSou’s route was exactly as I expected, and even more! You probably know how much I love yandere, but when they are out of control it feels even better! Yes, I know, I’m not ok.

Anyway, his forcefullness in marrying KanU was creepy, poor girl; but when he realized he crossed the line, and she was ready to die just to avoid having sex with him, finally SouSou started acting like a decent human being. He even risked his life to save her, I felt like he genuinely cared, it wasn’t just obsession. Let’s pretend the crazy visions of his dead father didn’t happen. It was amazing tho.

Ryuubi is probably the canon of the game, since he’s the head of maozoku.

I’m glad in this sequel I could spend all the time with his grown up appearence, even if he’s a crazy yandere with an unhealty desire for blood and wars. But it’s cool, I can’t complain.

He was always straightforward with his feelings, he admitted from the start his resolution to marry KanU, which is something I always appreciate in a character.

Kakouton is probably my least favorite character of this series: he hates maozoku and most of all KanU, which basically makes him racist and misogynist.

It takes a lot for him to accept his feelings, he becomes a good person in the end, he’s just a tsundere, but I personally feel offended by his rudeness.

ChouUn’s route made me emotional, there were a lot of sad scenes, I felt like crying; among the pain of the war, Chou’un proved himself to be the protective and reliable prince charming we all loved since the main game.

He comforted Kan’u and took care of her while she was desperate, helping her to recover mentally and physically, when the situation was really too emotionally wrecking for her.

He will always have a special place in my heart.

Chouhi is always so cute and desperate to show his feelings, it’s impossible not to love him.

He’s so pure, his kiss scene was almost embarrassing to watch; he’s one of the main reasons I need a fandisk so much, I want to see him blushing and acting as a boyfriend, instead of a puppy!

So, did I enjoy Jyuuzaengi 2?

A lot, but I admit that after a few routes I got tired of all the wars stuff.

I get it, this is a sequel and not a fandisk, but I wish I could see cute couple scenes, instead of the same war scenes repeated again and again, struggling just to survive and to reach an happy ending.

I love these boys, they deserve some happiness! And I feel like I deserve a reward too.

Sadly, this series ended a long time ago, it’s impossible to hope for a fandisk now. What a pity!

Anyway, if you’ve never tried Jyuuzaengi, I highly suggest you to give a chance at least to the main game; play this sequel only if you feel you still aren’t satisfied, but don’t come here expecting more romance.

I’ve played the first segment of Jakou no Lyla (European Night) two years ago, on pc; if you haven’t read my review, I can sum it up with: plotless fanservice, thanks but no.

I enjoy fanservice from time to time, but I’m more a person who prefers deep plots, to get invested in the setting and truly fell for the characters; or at least, that was my opinion months ago, before the world crumbled down on us.

When I was in the darkest phase of the pandemy, on April 2020, I realized that plotless games aren’t bad at all, if they can distract me from the harsh reality: for that reason, I decided to buy Jakou no Lyla for Switch, to lift up my mood a bit.

Months have passed, the situation is still bad, so….. I need more ikemen in my life.

I decided to start from episode one, European Night, to replay first Vince and Rolan’s routes.

I’ve written about them already so you know my feelings, let’s just talk about them briefly.

Vince is a cruel prince, with a terrible reputation he probably deserves; he’s cold and arrogant, even violent sometimes. He was forceful with Shirien, he considered her his property, so their relationship didn’t look well balanced most of the time. I didn’t like his attitude and I couldn’t fully trust him even at the end, but I guess this type of ore sama looks attractive to many girls.

Rolan had a lot of issues, it was obvious since I first met him: he goes around talking with a doll in a cage, who looks like his long lost sister and he’s desperately trying to find her.

His childhood was creepy, there’s no wonder he was traumatized.

The more you get to know him, the more you realize there are so many red flags, there’s no need to tell you he’s dangerous. Good luck with him.

Let’s move on to episode 2, Asian Night: this is where my fun started, from this point I finally enjoyed this game a lot.

The main characters are brothers, Rin Korei and Rin Kirei.

I started with Kirei, because he looked very confident and it’s a quality I always appreciate when I play: weak and indecisive guys are not for me, I want them to be straightforward and come at me!

Apparently, he enjoyed being always surrounded by girls, but he didn’t want to fall in love seriously, it was just a game for him; he belonged to every girl, he couldn’t choose one and make the others suffer. What a gentlemen we have here!

Since he basically goes around showing his bare chest everyday, I was expecting to be seduced and tempted to sin literally every conversation we had, but… apparently, it took him no time to blush and act like an innocent boy, around Shirien’s perfection. Don’t ask me why, I don’t get it.

I guess he’s the type who becomes really shy around the girl he likes?

Anyway, he proved Shirien that he wasn’t interested only in her body, but he treasured her as a person too: he protected her when she was weak and in danger, showering her with pure affection.

Even if my expectations were somehow betrayed, I enjoyed spending time with him a lot, so I can’t complain. The plot of his route ended up being way deeper than I expected, I was almost crying at the end… it was a great route, it made me emotional and I didn’t think it was possible with this game. It wasn’t just fanservice, after all.

Korei looks pure and even androginous, it feels like sex doesn’t interest him at all: he lives in a fairytale’s world, he believes Shirien is some kind of princess and doesn’t dare to lay a finger on her.

Guys like this, usually end up being the most perverted ones.

His crazy side was reserved completely for the bad endings, which are really creepy.

In the happy ending, he proved himself to be a lot smarter and grounded than he looks, he can be a cold hearted and logical person, if needed.

The final episode of this game is called Arabian Night.

Lizaru is the sexiest of the whole game: he’s experienced with women, even if he just considers his wife as a tool to gain more power. He can be scary, since he’s smart and strong.

Lying to him is almost impossible: he will read through your eyes, he always knows what you’re thinking. He’s the main character of the game, so completing his route feels like the true ending; I highly suggest you to leave him last, or you’ll spoil yourself very important stuff. The shocking factor plays a really huge role.

Same goes for Jemiru: he’s obviously hiding a lot of secrets, but his past is way darker than you may think; also, his true identity is a shock even for him!

Did I regret playing Jakou no Lyla on Switch?

Absolutely not!

I can’t deny that fanservice and sexy scenes are the main parts of this game in most of the routes, but there was actually some decent plot at some point: the last episode reveals the truth and completes perfectly the series, making it deeper and more interesting.

Kirei’s route was my favorite, he’s the only guy who was able to make me fall really hard, I felt emotional at the ending; Korei is great too, even if his bad ending was creepy.

Lizaru is poster boy, I can’t say he doesn’t deserve some love; same for Jemiru.

Vince and Roland are my least favorites, overall I think that European Night was the worst segment and made this game seem shallow and even plotless.

I used to dislike Shirien, but I grew to appreciate her more and I even loved her at the end. Poor girl, she’s been through a lot!

I recommend you this game if you’re in the mood for sexy stuff, but keep in mind that some situations may be a bit disturbing. It’s not for everyone, but I had fun, so no regrets!