Haitaka no psychedelica

Before I’ve started playing, I’ve decided to write a review about Haitaka, because I knew from the start it was going to be a game I would have loved; but then, I realized it’s too easy to spoil someone, and I don’t want to ruin anyone else experience.

I’m just going to write here my overall opinion, because sharing it on twitter is basically impossible.

First of all, I loved the medieval setting: it’s unusual for an otome game, but it was well handled and also quite realistic; the BGM also worked pretty well to create the atmosphere.

The characters were all interesting, everyone of them had something to hide and it was addicting to find out what leaded to the current situations, where the game starts.

Some reveals were shocking, as expected from the Psychedelica series, which always has an amazing plot and writing: characters who seem perfect, sometimes are not, while characters who look like villain, have actually a kind heart; or at least, they had it at some points of their lives.

I enjoyed this game a lot, but……….. well, it’s not flawless. Kokuchou was on another level for me, I couldn’t find even a little complain about it, while Haitaka had weak points too.

I didn’t appreciate that much all the useless talking I had to make for the whole common route: I understand that it helps to know better all the sub characters and also the situation of the village, but some of those small talks just felt like a waste of time.

Things like “what’s your favorite food” or endless talking about how everyone hates witches (I understand it’s important, but it gets really repetitive after the 3^rd/4^th time you hear it), get annoying quite easily, after a few hours.

I wasn’t satisfied with the endings too, I felt like there was some potential which was suddenly cut: just when the situations is getting worse, the characters find an easy solution to solve the problem and the game ends. Lavan was the most offended by this, I think he could have been way better and I was expecting something more from the vibes I got from him while playing the common route. Only Levi had a decent conclusion, at least it made sense.

Maybe this issue could have been solved by making this game a bit longer, but for weird reasons the writer seems to prefer to keep this series quite short; Kokuchou felt even shorter to me, but maybe because I loved it so much, that I just played it faster than I should.

Anyway, complaints aside, I highly recommend this game to everyone: the Psychedelica series is now one of my favorite, and even if it’s heartbreaking, I’m sure most of the players can enjoy it!

Be ready to cry, get shocked, upset, sad… but also, to experience an amazing story, which will make you drown in feelings much more than a typical otome game.