It’s been 6 years since I first played Gekka Ryouran Romance, but my knowledge of the Japanese language was really low back then, so I couldn’t fully enjoy it as it deserves.

I’ve never written a review and I forgot most of it, even if I clearly remember it as a Rejet masterpiece, so I really REALLY needed to replay it.

Before talking about individual characters and their routes, I need to praise the amazing BMG that makes everything creepy and suspicious: even if the setting is a normal school, without superpowers or zombies involved, there’s a constant sense of fear, because you immediately realize there’s no one you can rely to, even teachers look scary as hell.

All you have to do is be confident in yourself, or at least trust oniichan, which actually turns out to be a bad ideas as well. But that’s for later.

The theme is “forbidden romance”, which becomes obvious just by looking at the guys: a flirty teacher (way older than the heroine), two brothers (yeah, you can have both), a younger boy (I guess dating a shota is somehow considered forbidden, even if it’s a common trope), oniichan (who is a yandere, as expected) and…. a girl! Yes, a yuri route in an otome game!

We have a vary cast that fits the theme, so I guess it’s time to enter hell.

The beginning somehow reminds me of Ouran Host Club, since the heroine has a debt to pay to the host club of the school, even if she was tricked by them; but at least she doesn’t need to disguise as a male to gain some money, she just needs to defeat them while they are basically holding her brother as an hostage, forcing him to work for them.

It should be easy, right? I mean, they look dangerous and they are obviously taking advantage of her, there’s no way she can fall in love with those douchebags and betray her brother, right?!

Well……. anything can happen.

I started with Aoi’s route, because he somehow looked like the main character and his personality stands out, even compared to the others: everyone has a big ego in this game, but Aoi is even more self confident.

He was arrogant, annoying, insulting and even scary sometimes, the poor heroine lived in constant fear he was going to secretly drug her and abuse her after each date; awful.

I couldn’t feel any kind of empathy towards him, his awful life can’t justify his attitude.

You know I’m that kind of person who usually loves creepy characters, but I’ve never felt any attraction towards him, just disgust.

Then I switched to Seri,who looks like an angel, but he’s actually a true devil.

His personality is manipulative, he uses his logic to make the heroine fall into his trap and descend to hell with him. I disliked his actions most of the time, but when I reached his prohibited ending I admit I appreciated the escalation of terror and creepiness; the writer is a genius.

I was scared as hell for what was happening and the awesome music contributed a lot to the general feeling of panic and fear. Seri was incredibly scary and evil, but I strangely loved his reaction. Yeah, I know, something is wrong with me too.

Fuji sensei was waiting for me next, but I admit his route was probably the nicest to play, in terms of abuse and random violence. Of course, he was to blame for playing with an innocent student, but at least he was decent enough to stop before it was too late, or at least he did his best to warn her; if she fell in despair, it was completely her decision.

Even if the Pure endings were mostly suited for their relationship, I admit the Prohibited endings, when oniichan went full yandere mode, were a masterpiece of creepiness. He was scary as hell!

Then I played Atsumori, Aoi’s brother.

He’s basically a do-s who thinks he can get everything he wants with the power of money, even people’s feelings. Being raised in that twisted family, of course he has a crazy mother too; a twin ending was also obligatory in a game based on prohibited relationship.

He’s not as awful as his brother anyway, I couldn’t hate him in the end.

I didn’t know until this point if I was going to try Daria’s route, since I’m not interested in yuri and I skipped it when I first played the game 6 years ago; but since we are at it, why not?

I did my best to feel invested, but all the time I could see her only as a friend, since her approach is mostly sweet; there are no sexy scenes where she tried to seduce her: there was a kiss, but somehow I didn’t care that much. Poor girl, she probably tried her best, but I couldn’t feel enough “prohibited” vibes from her. I needed more to fall into temptation.

At the end, Wabisuke oniichan was waiting for me.

His route was way sweeter than I remembered, despite the shocking yandere ending (that kind of stuff happened in other routes anyway), what left a greatest impression on me was his desperate love for his sister, more than his obsession. Even if he gets really scary when Nazuna spends time with another guy, I can’t really blame him since most of them are trash: if your sister would date someone like Aoi, wouldn’t it normal to stop her? Well, not with such violence, but you get what I mean.

Or maybe I’m just too used to yandere.

So, how was Gekka Ryouran Romance, after 6 years?

Way darker than I remembered, for sure. I knew they were crazy and creepy, even the teachers, but I forgot how over the top they could be… I miss old Rejet SO MUCH now, really.

I think there would be some room for a fandisk, even if the main problems are solved; for example, why not giving all the teachers a route? they’re obviously as sick as the main characters, maybe even more. I’m sure they are hiding something terrible, I need to know what’s going on!

Suou gives so many Mejojo vibes, it’s not even funny; he deserves his own chance to shine.

Come on, just port this amazing game to Switch and give us some more!

I can still hope and complain, but sadly, it probably won’t happen.