Musketeer: Le Sang des Chevaliers

I started playing Musketeer out of curiosity and quarantine boredom, expecting just a boring, old game; but I was wrong, really wrong!

I thought it could somehow feel awkward, since I play as D’Artagnan and I attend an academy with the other famous musketeer,s but it surprisingly worked, it didn’t feel stupid.

I guess the best part comes from the characters’ personalities and interactions, which were mostly funny and interesting.

Let’s talk about them and their routes.

Athos is the main guy, always looking perfect and cool. I expected him to be a kuudere, but he was actually really sweet and easily embarrassed; his feelings were obvious really soon. I was kinda scared to approach him at first, but he’s such a prince charming, I fell really hard for his gentle manners (and his gorgeous face, who am I kidding?).

I played Aramis next because I couldn’t wait anymore, his attitude got me interested immediately.

Even if part of me was doubting he was really a man, maybe he was just pulling a Lady Oscar on me and I didn’t know until the very last moment. But it wasn’t the case.

Anyway, Aramis loves himself a lot. Really, a lot.

He’s popular with the girls (because of his amazing hair I guess, I feel envious) and he keeps bragging about his beautiful face all the time; he even talks to himself about his perfection, it’s so funny I couldn’t stop smiling whenever he talked.

Sadly, this route turned out to be really angsty, sometimes I even despised his attitude; I forgave him in the end, but I couldn’t love him as I expected.

Porthos is so awkward with women, yet he got the funniest scene of the game, when he walked in D’Artagnan’s room while she was bathing and he saw her naked body. It was comedy gold, I swear!

He was screaming, stuttering and stumbling while running away like crazy! A similar scene happened later, when D’Artagnan helped him repairing the shower and he went like “did you do it on purpose? Was it your revenge? Did you see my….. my….” I WAS CRYING OF LAUGHTER. But apparently this heroine doesn’t care at all, which made everything even more surreal. Anyway, he was always jealous and tried to confess a few times, but he was rejected for no reason, poor boy. I’d honestly accept immediately a guy who blushes like that, I’m weak to pure guys!

Rochefort’s route left me with mixed feelings, I can’t even tell if I enjoyed it or not.

Even if he’s one of the villains of the story, his bad attitude was kinda attractive and I was interested in getting to know him better, hoping to see him show a gentle side. Well, it didn’t happen.

There were a few cute scene, or even kinda sexy, but he couldn’t show his feelings properly, so I felt more confused than happy about it. Also, that sad ending was completely random: I appreciate when the writers try to make variations, so the endings of the characters don’t look exactly the same, but this decision honestly didn’t make much sense.

If you think this route was weird, can you imagine my shock when I realized I could date Richelieu? Yes, that grandpa, who looks like 60 years old!

Of course the writers came up with a weird story to make him look younger, but we still got a few CGs which honestly look way creepier than romantic, I was facepalming the entire time.

I’m sorry, I know someone is into the ossan trope, but…. dating a man who looks way older than my father, even if the heroine is way younger than me, takes the awkwardness to another level, I can’t keep up. But I guess this route was mostly useful to understand the whole story from the main villain’s point of view, to empathize with his actions and feel guilty if we killed him in other routes; yeah, a great idea.

But there’s even better! Have you ever dreamed of dating the person who killed your father, just for personal revenge? Treville’s route is perfect for you! Since we all secretly desire to date a demon who has loved another woman for 300 years, don’t we? I guess that’s what the writers think.

I can’t say he isn’t fascinating, he’s good looking and all, but everything he said to the heroine was a blatant lie and I was obviously raging all the time, since he was faking to like her while he was waiting for the perfect moment to kill everyone around him. What’s the point of this route?!

At the end, when I expected the game to be over, Constantin’s route unlocked and it felt like a breath of fresh air, a reward for the last 3 routes.

I liked him since I met him in Musketeers’ routes, he’s sweet and deeply in love with D’Artagnan, even if he never dared to confess; I guess he knows he can’t compete with the popular ones.

But his route is not like any other: it starts right after Treville’s ending, so he gets the chance to go back in time and protect his girl from that sad epilogue.

Since he knows everything, he can save D’Artagnan’s father and change her whole life for the better.

That was unexpected and I loved it, since this situation gave Constantin a chance to truly shine, showing that his smartness can win against all odds. I expected him to be a cute subcharacter, destined to a one sided love, but he turned out to be the main boy in the end. That’s what I call a real plot twist!

So, do I recommend Musketeer?

Well, why not?

Of course, it’s an old game, it takes a while to adapt to the PSP screen again, but it was entertaining enough to give it a try, if you ever get the chance.

The backgrounds looked beautiful and I loved the art too, so I can’t complain at all about the aesthetics. The plot seems kinda weird and it probably is, but I think the Musketeers’ personalities were original and interesting enough to make up for most of the weak point of the plot.

There’s one point which really bothers me, I couldn’t accept it until the end: on Christmas, before the final battle, all the characters get to spend a romantic night alone with D’Artagnan.

I get it, it’s an otome game, people want to see couples spending time together. But how could they forget what was happening outside in the meanwhile?! All the students were in jail, Richelieu was looking for them to kill them all, they prepared a plan to kill the final boss……… come on, it’s not the mood for sexy stuff!!! I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but those scenes, in every route, always felt weird and forced.

I enjoyed a lot playing the Musketeers and Constantine, I can accept Rochefort’s route too, since dating the bad guy is always kinda cool, but flirting with Richelieu was awkward and unnecessary: I get it, the writers wanted to show his point of view of the story, but it could have been done differently, while playing Rochefort for example.

Treville’s route was forced too, but at least it was a nice start line for Constantin’s epicness.

Anyway, I think this game deserves a chance, it’s still enjoyable if you have some free time to kill!