Jyuuzaengi

I’ve been recommended Jyuzaengi for years, but it took me so long to play it for various reasons: awful kanji and long wars that may be boring were the main ones, as usual when it comes to historical games.

Anyway, here I am!

My first impression was “familiar”: it reminded me of Toki no Kizuna, which is not bad.

It took me a while to understand the combat system, but not because it’s difficult… I’m just hopeless when it comes to actually playing, I’m not a rpg fan. (I enjoy watching people who play them, but I’m too bad to actually do it by myself).

The plot grew on me really fast, I couldn’t stop playing: even if the kanji are a bit difficult, and there are so many characters who kept coming out of nowhere, it was never confusing.

I’ve played RyuuBi’s route first, because I was curious.

He looks like a child, how can he be 15 years old? And he’s obviously hiding some kind of special power, since everyone cares too much about him.

Discovering the truth was quite shocking, but I was attracted by his real personality… I wish he awakened earlier, so I could spend more time with him.

When he finally showed his true appearance, I was really excited: I’ve waited for the whole route to see him grown up and I wasn’t disappointed.

The final battle was cool and I loved the ending. This route felt more like a great journey, than a romantic story and it makes me think that maybe I should have played it last, to have a greatest impact.

Chouhi’s route was really funny at first, because he was too desperate to confess his love. Like, really, really desperate.

His jealousy was always obvious, Kan U was the only one who didn’t notice… and I really wonder how she could be so stubborn, that poor guy had written on his face “I really like you!!, please notice me!!”.

I was sad for him, when he started feeling guilty and useless. I wanted to see him shine and I’m so glad when it happened! He became really cool in the end, he was a man and not just a little brother figure to her.

Their relationship was very deep and I loved them as lovers too.

Chou Un was a basically prince charming: gorgeous, strong, sweet, respectful… I fell in love immediately and his route didn’t disappoint me at all!

He always protected Kan U on the battlefield, but he also admired her for being that strong and independent. He stayed by her side when things became problematic and kept supporting her regardless of her status.

He’s truly an amazing person, I wished his route never ended and I can’t wait to meet him again in the sequel!

Kakouton was very difficult to approach: he hated maozoku and kept acting aggressive towards the poor Kan U for a long time.

He didn’t trust her at all and tried to persuade Sousou multiple times of getting rid of her.

At first, I disliked his attitude; it made me suffer, because our poor heroine wasn’t happy to fight, it wasn’t her free will… and fighting with someone who despises you as a comrade, is even worst.

But after painful events, he started to change; I guess it’s normal, this route has a lot of painful moments, I even pitied him at some point.

His confession and the final parts of his route made me fangirl like crazy, I wished I could spend more time with him far from wars…. I needed more of his blushing face!

Then, I played the character who seemed the most interesting: SouSou.

At first I was a bit disappointed, because nothing relevant happened for about 7 chapters; I know, this game is not meant to be romantic, since wars are the most important part, but still…..

After 4 long routes, I started to get tired of the same fighting scenes and the same villains, it started getting really predictable. I think I would have appreciated this game a lot more, if the routes were shorter.

When Sousou finally started to show his true personality, I fell in love immediately.

He was creepy and too forceful, that’s sure, but he was also so desperate to be loved, I couldn’t blame him for being a yandere.

What he did was wrong, but I still hoped that Kan U would stay with him and make him happy.

Those revelations about his parents were shocking, I was truly impressed!

In the end I played ChouRyo, who was a bit disappointing.

Since I love blond guys and he seemed really cool, I was looking forward to play his route; sadly, his attitude was boring most of the time, and he didn’t even had a proper personality besides “I do what Ryofu sama orders me”.

Obviously there was a reason, he was hiding some kind of secret…. still, it’s not enough to make him interesting to me, sorry (even if his CG were beautiful, maybe the best of the game).

I don’t blame him completely: the length of the game started to kill my interest after 3 routes probably, maybe I would have appreciated more if he was my first route.

Would I recommend Jyuuzaengi? Yes, absolutely.

The plot is great, Kan U is an amazing heroine, Teita’s art is beautiful.

My only complain is the length of the routes: the first run was amazing, the second too, but then I slowly started to get bored; after seeing the same villains defeated over and over, I felt the urge to forceskip those war parts which honestly looked very similar.

But I can’t blame the writers, they were great, it’s just my personal taste.

I’m definitely playing Jyuuzaengi 2 soon!