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Suuran Digit review

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On Dicembre 4, 2022

In otoge reviews

When Suuran Digit was released, in 2016, I remember myself reading reviews which considered it mediocre and boring; back in those days, there were a lot of new otome games releases every month, so I could be picky and save my money for something better.

Sadly, the situation changed a lot lately, there are months when there’s nothing new to wait for; that’s why I decided to invest some money on this old PSVita game, everyone deserves a chance to shine, after all.

The heroine, Hiroka, is an high school student, who just enrolled in a famous Academy and discovers on the first day to have some kind of ancient seal, which shows with the kanji of number “zero” randomly appearing on her left hand.

The sons and daughters of the most powerful families of Japan, descendants of “numbers”, are gathered there for a reason: the most influent clan, Ichizono, wants them to revive the “Suuran sensou”, a battle which happended like 300 years ago to decide who was going to be the leader.

Hiroka has no interest in fighting, but she ends up involved immediately with a rude guy (I’ll call him number 5 just to make it easier, he’s not datable) who keeps bulling others just to have fun.

This heroine is kinda cool, since she didn’t hesitate a second, to stand up for the weakest ones. Good job, girl! At this point, she realizes she can’t just sit back and watch, she needs to fight as expected from a member of number families.

Actually, the clan “zero” shouldn’t even exist anymore, but her parents died and there’s no relative she could ask to understand the secrets of her ancestors. Her only way is surviving the best she can.

Hiroka can decide if she wants to join the student council (where the popular guys are) or the math club (where you can meet the guys lower in ranking, ignored or bullied by the most powerful ones).

The math club is: Takaki, who is always serious and quiet (number 6), Mitsu, energetic and positive (number 2) and Yuuhi, who keeps getting beaten up and he’s scared of everyone else, but loves ghosts and creepy stuff (number 4).

I decided to start with Takaki, since he seemed the safest start: you can barely see him in the common route, he never talks, so the main guy is not him for sure; I was sure his route didn’t contain major spoilers which could ruin my experience.

The problem is that his route ended suddenly, when finally Hiroka was getting closer to him and I started having some kind of interest in their relationship; but it was cut off without a final confession, as if a whole last chapter was missing! I was literally staring at my Psvita in disbelief, wondering what happened… did they run out of budget? Out of ideas? Out of time?! I don’t really know. But I still kinda enjoyed the setting and I had huge hopes for the main guys.

Mitsu has the opposite personality, he’s outgoing and talktative.

He wants desperately to beat Osuke (number 1), he keeps trying even if it’s basically impossible; but I loved his attitude, he doesn’t give up and I wish I were persistent like him in real life. Even if he’s fun to be with, his route somehow felt the most boring to me and I admit I even force skipped some parts. But here is revealed the truth about Hiroka’s parents, so I highly suggest to avoid playing him too soon.

Yuuhi didn’t interest me much, since he’s a weak guy, always bullied literally by everyone else and I’m not a person who is attracted to timid boys, who need help just to basically survive at school.

I started this route expecting to get bored, but I was SO WRONG.

My advice is to play him last, if you want to wrap up this journey with the greatest shock.

Well, I admit I like this kind of unexpected development, when a game can still surprise me to this level: after 8 years and more than 100 otome, it’s not easy to trick me, hiding a character’s true face; when it happens, I guess it’s enough for me to say that the game was worth playing.

The student council is made of the popular guys, who basically run the school (and whose families run the world): Keitaro (number 7), Meguru (number 9) and Osuke (number 1).

Keitaro is younger than Hiroka, but he’s always reliable and mature; when the situation gets dangerous, he’s calm and reassuring, probably because he’s blessed with good luck, which also influences people around him. I could feel a weird vibe from him and I wasn’t wrong, even if I wasn’t expecting things to take such a dark turn; I won’t spoil, so you can have the pleasure to meet his true side.

Osuke was obviously the main guy of the game: he’s perfect, smart and basically invincible in sports and fights; all the girls fangirl over him and guys respect (probably also fear) him.

His route was the most romantic, since he fell in love with Hiroka immediately, at first sight: actually, he literally stalked her everywhere to get closer and find out why he was so interested in her, which is a question every player probably wondered about.

I mean, Hiroka is cute, she’s not stupid (even if she’s lazy) and also indipendent, but I guess it should take something more for the perfect school president to fall so hard, considering he could choose among every other girl attending the school.

Anyway, despite his power (being number 1 means everyone should obey his orders) he’s nice and mature, a perfect gentleman. I admit his confession was good, simple and straightforward as I like it. Well, he never doubted his feelings were recriprocated, so there was no need to be shy I guess.

It was my favorite route.

Then I completed my journey with Meguru: he’s aggressive, a bully who has no respect and he’s feared by everyone; well, of course, except Osuke.

I couldn’t really get into him, even if sadistic guys usually get my interest; but I didn’t accept how he diminished everyone in the math club and all the normal students, thinking they are basically trash compared to him. I have no idea why Hiroka stayed by his side and I played without much interest, waiting for this stuff just to be over.

So, did I enjoy Suuran Digit?

Way more than I expected! I can’t say it’s great, I understand why many people found it mediocre, but for me it was still fairly good: while a few routes feel predictable and repetitive, others have huge shock moments which made them memorable and worth playing; honestly, some scenes made me reminisce about old Rejet games, which was completetly unexpected and gave me a positive surprise. The plot is not that deep, each route adds some bits to the truth, but it’s better not to follow a random playorder, to avoid being spoiled: Yuuhi and Osuke are better played last.

I liked the BGM and the art was good, I can’t complain at all; the writing was decent too, some scenes felt more like fillers instead of adding something to the story, but overall the pacing in each route was nice.

I’m glad I was able to pick up this game at a kinda low price, I suggest you to give it a try if you find a good deal!

A life update!

By

On Luglio 3, 2022

In let's talk!, my life

Hello everyone! It’s been a few months since my last post, how are you? Are you enjoying summer?

In my April’s update I promised to be back around July, when my life would hopefully become a bit easier and I could resume playing otome games and sharing my reviews and TOP10; here I am, writing this post, even if the news I’m delivering today is far from good, sadly.

First of all, a quick update about my job, since this situation is one of the reasons why I needed a break from blogging and social media.

On March, my boss hired a new person, who was supposed to give me (and my poor co-workers) some decent freedom (the luxury of some free days and holidays, for example), but after a couple months this person realized how crazy this workplace is and resigned, quitting immediately.

Disappointed but not surprised, we’re still working too much for our health, hoping and waiting for a new co-worker who hopefully will stay with us longer; but I think we lost our hopes already, with their bad attitude my boss and my supervisor would scare everyone. Or make them ragequit, I’ve been tempted to do the same.

You’d probably understand why I’m rarely in the mood to write or play: when I finally get to relax a bit, I prefer to watch funny shows on youtube or listen to music, which helps me a lot; I can’t really focus on otome games, which I also play mostly in Japanese, since my brain refuses to concentrate on kanji.

I spent the last 2 months completely away from otome stuff, even twitter: I feel sorry since I’m not interacting with my friends as I used to, but I don’t want to bother other people with my problems and complains, I prefer to just stay silent.

I’m just recently going back a bit, playing slowly Bara ni kakusareshi verite, just to see if it’s good as many friends told me in the past; so far it’s great, but I can’t really promise there will be a review someday. Let’s see how my life goes.

This post is turning out way sadder than I imagined, I’m sorry! But I really wanted to update my long time readers, who were waiting for me to come back blogging, about my current situation.

Even if the premise is bad, I still think I want to keep this place alive, so I’m not here to say goodbye; actually, I have some half-written reviews and opinions about games I’ve played in the past which I plan to complete and share soon.

I know there are a lot of streamers now, blogs are outdated and no one will probably care, but if there’s still one person who is willing to read my opinions, then I’ll happily fulfill their wish.

Suuran Digit is the first review I’ll share, since I played it in April and I have a lot to say.

Even if you don’t see me around on twitter, if you’re interested come here from time to time, you may find some unexpected update.

Until the next time, stay healthy!

Happy Easter!!

By

On Aprile 16, 2022

In let's talk!, my life, Personal stuff, Senza categoria

Hello everyone! How are you?

It’s been more than a month since I announced my long hiatus and about 2 months since my last review, but here I am, still trying to keep my blog alive.

Sadly, I’m not here to say that I’ve decided to come back, but I wanted at least to wish you all an happy Easter, and update you a bit about my decisions.

When I announced I was quitting, I received a huge amount of sweet messages, which made me realize that those 5 years of efforts were still worth it after all: some of you even wrote that they started studying Japanese after discovering my blog, which honestly made me feel emotional and grateful. I was teary eyed and I wondered if quitting was a huge mistake.

But I knew I needed a break, to relax and to think carefully, mostly about my life but also about my blog and the direction I wanted it to take; I think I have an answer now, so I’m taking this chance, while I have some free time, to share my feelings with you.

First and most importantly: I won’t quit. When I wrote my goodbye post I had this intention and I really meant it, but I also knew how dear is this place to me and how much I love sharing my opinions with you, which made basically impossible to let it go completely.

Even if I tried to forget about it, my mind kept reminding me from time to time that I still have a lot to share and maybe some of you would be happy to read it.

But at the same time, I realized I’m not ready to fully come back yet: my situation at work is still a mess, even if the moving is basically over, which means at least I can relax when I’m home now.

I don’t want to announce that everything is back to normal, if there’s a chance I’ll need another hiatus like 2 months later because I’m too tired to keep up; to avoid this (or at least try, no one knows for sure where the future is leading us) I came up with some kind of goals I want to reach before coming back, just to be sure that the environment and the situation will allow me to be a decent blogger.

Most of these goals are personal (having decent work hours is one of them and maybe the most important), while a few others are related to social media and otome games; I’m slowly trying to reach them and I’ll tell you when I feel ready.

In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying Easter with people you love, relaxing and having fun, maybe also playing otome games if you want.

See you in my next update, even if I honestly have no idea when it will be; but I’m pretty sure this won’t be my last post!

Goodbye, my dear readers! I’m quitting (or going on a long hiatus, who knows)

By

On Marzo 3, 2022

In let's talk!, Personal stuff, Senza categoria

This is the moment I knew had to come, but it still hurts. I feel sad and empty, but also a bit relieved. It’s weird, like the end of a relationship which just doesn’t work anymore.

As you read from the title: I’m quitting. Or going on hiatus. I don’t really know.

There are many reasons behind my decision and I want to be completely honest, as I’ve always been for more than 5 years of blogging and sharing my feelings.

First of all: my free time is very limited lately, I’m working a lot, plus the moving and other personal situations made me busy and worried everyday for a month, but it’s not over yet; when I come home, I want to spend time with my husband and my dog, if possible with my family, I have no will or energy to play games.

I won’t lie: I could still somehow find some time to update, but I don’t feel motivated anymore.

Blogs are outdated now, I think they are probably dying, since people prefer to watch streams nowadays; lately, when I sit in front of my computer, trying to plan a schedule for reviews or other content, I end up asking myself often: “do I really want to put efforts in a post that nobody is going to read? When I could spend some time with people who actually care about me, instead?”.

I’ve never written here to make money or to feel popular in the community, I just wanted to share my opinions in a place which could make me proud of myself, built up with passion and love for otome games. This blog helped me to gain confidence, it was like a diary for my sad days, it grew up with me; that’s why it’s almost impossible to let it go.

But at the same time, there were months in the past when it felt like a chore, so I considered to just quit and close it all; I’ve taken short breaks, of a few weeks, then I came back.

Maybe it’s the same now, maybe I’ll come back in summer, excited, ready for new posts… but I don’t really think so; I feel it in my heart, this could probably be my last post forever.

I’m a moody person, everything can happen: maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up in writing mood and I’ll delete this post, pretending it never existed. Maybe I’ll change my mind for random reasons.

I don’t want to disappear completely from the otome community: I’ll keep using twitter, since there are still friends I want to keep in touch with, even if most of them almost disappeared; many people left, or so it seems to me.

I rarely follow back, since I want to keep my TL clean to read my friends’ tweets instead of random strangers (even if I always answer Dms from anyone, I’m not a bad person, I swear), but it feels empty lately, I’m not enjoying myself as the old days.

Maybe I’m too old, or I’ve been into this fandom for too long, but I can’t keep up with the energy of streamers and enthusiastic people, I’m way beyond that phase.

Everything changes, it’s normal.

People care about something or someone at some point, while a few months later they shift their attention somewhere else, and it’s fine.

It took me like 2 weeks to write this post, I didn’t know if I should actually talk about it or just slowly and silently disappear without anyone noticing; but I feel like I need to be honest with all the kind people who supported me through the years, who always had a sweet word of appreciation for me. Thank you and sorry. If I’ll ever come back to blogging, I hope you’ll still be here.

If you want to be friends with me, even if I somehow became a boring old lady, send me Dms on twitter and I’ll gladly reply.

Well, I don’t think there’s more to say, even if it breaks my heart.

I want to call this “hiatus”, even if I’m not actually sure I’ll resume posting one day, but admitting I’m closing this blog hursts too much; who knows, what life has in store for us?

Until that moment, be healthy and happy!

Lover Pretend review

By

On Febbraio 18, 2022

In otoge reviews

Lover Pretend was released in 2021 in Japan, but despite my excitement it took me months to actually start it, ignoring the rest of my backlog; now I’m finally done, so here we are with my opinions about it!

If you haven’t read my first impression post, let’s talk a bit about the plot first: the heroine, Chiyuki, is a 20 years old college student who wants to become a script writer, as her late mother; she was raised up without knowing her father’s name, who apparently was a famous person and couldn’t risk a scandal. Her mother never revealed his identity, but there’s still hope to find the truth: probably, he was someone involved in the production of a drama scripted by Chiyuki’s mother in those months before her birth, called “Pretend to Love”. But who was he? The director? An actor? The producer?

Fate gave Chiyuki a huge chance: she can work as assistant for a movie, where children of famous actors and drama producers are gathered together; what if someone is her half-brother?!

Along the way, our girl finds herself in situations where she has to lie, pretending to be someone’s girlfriend or hiding the truth; as her mother’s script, she has to pretend to love.

I found this system really cute, even if I usually hate timed choices and I wish I had a few more seconds to think; as you can imagine, since japanese is not my first language, it takes me more time to actually read and choose an answer. But I get it, Chiyuki needs to answer quickly, if she wants to be believed.

I chose Kazuma’s route first, since he’s the heroine’s outgoing childhood friend and he seemed the safest choice; despite his young age, he works as a make up stylist and hair dresser for famous people, so he ends up involved in the drama where Chiyuki works as an assistant.

A series of misunderstandings, lies and people who can’t mind their own business, leads everyone to believe that Kazuma and Chiyuki are a couple, but they can’t deny it or they’ll be exposed as liars.

So they need to act as lovers around everyone.

As you could expect, even if they are both unexperienced and awkward with relationships, they soon realize that they actually secretly loved each other since forever.

But when they were finally making some progress, random drama started! I don’t think it was necessary at all, they were so cute, I could have spent hours just watching Kazuma blush.

Also, the writer randomly decided to ruin him completely, at the very last scene, making him confess something awful. I don’t get why, it makes no sense at all! I felt sad and angry.

At that point, I started to be scared that every character would suffer of the same treatment.

The guy who mostly got my interest at first was the famous actor, Riku: he seemed serious, hardworking and with a nice personality, which is too good to be true. Is he a prince charming as everyone thinks? Just getting a bit closer to him, reveals the obvious truth: he’s an actor because his father forced him to choose this career, but he as no passion at all. Actually, he wants to give it up so badly, he’s ready to pretend, betray and probably hurt someone else.

Even if some situations annoyed me a bit, overall there were a lot of great scenes that made my heart flutter, so I enjoyed his route a lot. The ending was really good.

I wasn’t interested in Harumi, while playing the common route: crazy girls who claimed to be his official fanclub were surrounding him, stalking him and basically telling him what to do, which was a huge red flag in my eyes, it’s not a situation I’d like to be involved in.

But surprisingly, I ended up enjoying his route a lot: he’s shy and lonely, he needs friends who share his same passion for anime and I gladly accepted this role, it fits me! I know how it feels, having to hide my hobbies to avoid being judged by people around me, who belittle that kind of interest as childish. I felt his struggle to show his true self and I admired him, even if it took him a lot of time and effort. Harumi was so cute when he blushed and I loved the confession scene too.

Yukito is a popular model, who is really famous for his carefree attitude and scandals with random women: he’s always flirty, he knows his charms and he acts as he could get every girl he wants.

While talking to him in the common route, I had this feeling that he was actually smarter than he appeared; I’m glad I was right, since that fake personality had no match at all with Chiyuki’s serious attitude, they would have been an awkward couple.

I think he had the best character development of the game, at the end he seemed a completely different person, more mature and true to himself, instead of acting like everyone was expecting him to be; the reason why he’s not related to Chiyuki was kinda funny, the writers came up with some crazy stuff just to make us amused!

Eiichiro was playable as I imagined, he’s kind of the secret route of the game, but sadly, also the stortest. He’s a young scriptwriter and Chiyuki’s teacher, a reliable person with a soothing personality; he’s basically the teacher we all hoped (and fell) for, in school: good looking, nice and encouraging. This route reveals the truth about Chiyuki’s father, so it must be played last and I won’t reveal much about it.

Did I enjoy Lover Pretend?

Yes, a lot! It’s rare for me to like every single character, even if the writers sometimes came up with bad ideas which almost ruined my enjoyement; anyway, all the routes were entertaining, the drama wasn’t excessive and overall the cute/funny scenes stayed in my memory the most.

The “Pretend Time” was an interesting feature, but I absolutely needed to follow a walkthrough, I’m not good at lying and I can’t come up with good answers even in my own language, let alone in japanese! But it was fun, I enjoyed it.

The plot wasn’t properly developed, the truth was just revealed at the very end, while in other routes Chiyuki was like “whatever, he’s not my brother, who cares about my father’s identity at this point”, which is not what I expected; but it didn’t bother me much, I needed a cute game these days and Lover Pretend was the perfect choice.

What makes this game good enough for me, is that I never got bored and I even found myself smiling sometimes, when there was a romantic scene with a beautiful CG: I loved the art and the bright colours, everything was on point.

But obviously, if you’re looking for a deep plot, with a great writing and a strong heroine, you’re going to be disappointed; if you just want to spend some time with handsome guys, who are a bit problematic (nothing bad, just ordinary life struggles), I’m sure you’ll enjoy Lover Pretend as I did.

Moving to a new home, with my otome games collection!

By

On Febbraio 12, 2022

In Personal stuff, Senza categoria

Hello everyone!

Here I am, after a couple months, with another personal post about my life and otome games.

If you are not new here, you probably know that I was planning to move to a new house; after months of struggle and stress, I finally made it! I hope I’ll be able to live here for a long time, I’m tired of changing city, home and job.

While I was packing all my stuff, I had the chance to stop for a moment and take a look at my otome collection, reminiscing the old times; I wanted to share these feelings with someone, so if you’re interested, welcome to this random journey in my memories!

It took me 8 long years of dedication and passion, to create this collection: for someone it will be huge, while for others not that much; for other people I’ll just be a crazy person who throws her money away in useless stuff, but if you’re here, I hope you won’t judge me too hard.

The first psvita otome I bought, was Diabolik Lovers Dark Fate: I still lived with my parents back then, I had no money to buy a psvita, so that game remained unplayed for a couple months, gently placed on my keyboards. When I first turned on the console, I was so amazed of the high quality resolution, compared to the PSP!

A few months later, I was living with my boyfriend, in another city, as soon as I started a new job there; back in those days, I was really sure I found my path in life. I was so wrong!

One of my first memory there, was me playing Code Realize in my bedroom; then me crying with Kokuchou no Psychedelica and getting scared with 7’scarlet.

I wanted to share my opinions and feelings, so I opened this blog, trying to reach people with my same passion for otome; secretly, I hoped it could become my job, one day. Code Realize was my first review: I was so shy and worried, that people would laugh at my bad english or judge me, I kept checking if there were bad or nice comments.

After that, I gathered my courage and started writing about all the games I’ve played until that day.

I remember that I kept writing everyday, as soon as I went home from work, to update at least 3 or 4 times a week; I didn’t have much free time, but I wanted to create a nice blog so badly, I invested every moment I had in this project.

A few months later I was able to travel to Japan and I was so surprised to see many second hand otome games, sold at such a low price! It was paradise, I probably came home with something like 10 games, paid like 1500 yen each. Those were great times.

The price was low because of the bad ratings, but I ended up enjoying some of them, like Rear Pheles and Vamwolf Cross.

When I came back from my 2nd trip, suddenly my life changed: I was feeling depressed and stressed from work, but I wasn’t strong enough to admit I couldn’t bear it anymore and just give up; but when I had a huge fight with my boss, I realized my mental health was more important than money. I took a long break after that.

I traveled around for a whole month, enjoying peace and silence in a small town at the mountain; I needed to stay away from the city and reset my mind.

I listened to music, I enjoyed long walks and I started feeling myself again. I even took a break from otome and blogging, which somehow were making my burnout even worse.

When I was ready to come back, I realized that I wanted to live next to my family again, instead of meeting them just once in a while; so I moved back to my birthplace, hoping for a fresh start.

Finding a new home was very difficult, so we adapted to live in a place that I’ve honestly disliked since the first moment; but I didn’t want to settle down, I still didn’t know if moving there was the best choice, so I went for something temporary just to find out if that city was really the place for me. I started a new job, ready to test myself in a different workplace, a retail job I’ve never tried before. Then, me and my boyfriend decided to get married.

I felt like I was finally finding the right path in life, after months of struggle; but when all I could think about was my wedding dress and my honeymoon trip, the unexpected happened: Covid19 came crushing the world and ruined all our plans.

Italy was the first country in Europe to be completely crushed by covid, when people still didn’t understand what was going on. Those 3 months locked inside our home were crazy, I’ll never forget the feelings of fear and sadness, when people I knew died so easily.

To distract myself I played, read and wrote a lot.

While the whole world was in lockdown playing Animal Crossing, my quarantine games were Charade Maniacs and Bustafellows; all I did was gaming, reading and pretending everything was fine around me, while it wasn’t. Otome games and blogging came to my rescue.

When I started working again, adjusting to the new world wasn’t easy, I was literally scared of customers and I was nearly panicking. But I survived, so I was able to find a new normality with my mask on, all day long.

Watching my otome games collection helps me remember all these years, made of happiness, pain, fear, hopes; people I met, friends I’ve lost, places I’ve been…each of them holds a memory.

For some people, it probably happens with music: I can’t deny it happens to me too, there are bands and songs that make me think about the old days, when I was a teen; but it gets even deeper with games for me, probably because it took me hours to complete each one, so every otome covers like a month of my life.

We’ve been through a long journey.

And now, here I am, in my new home, bringing all my games with me once again, ready to see what’s going to happen next.

I hope I won’t need to move again, but I’m pretty sure my little collection will keep growing with time, following me wherever life will lead me, in good and bad times.

Sorry for this random post, but sometimes my blog is like a diary for me and I wanted to make sure that these feelings won’t be forgotten.

My favorite characters voiced by Suzumura

By

On Febbraio 6, 2022

In top10

Ken’ichi Suzumura is the first seiyuu who made me fall in love, back in the old days when I didn’t know otome games existed: he was the first “voice” which got my interest, enough to make me search more about him and his roles.

To celebrate his talent, these are my favorite characters he voiced!

Tomose, Charade Maniacs

A mature and serious childhood friend, who has been in love with you since forever.

Shizuru, Nil Admirari no tenbin

He’s a famous writer, who loves to play around with girls.

Tsubasa, Starry Sky

He represents the sign of Aquarius; he likes to make weird experiments and inventions, which mostly end up exploding!

Chou’un, Jyuuzaengi

A prince charming: loyal, respectful and romantic, you’ll feel protected and loved.

Masato, Uta no prince sama

Masato is probably Suzumura’s most famous character, I don’t think there’s anyone here who hasn’t heard about Utapri; he’s a stoic and responsible guy, who becomes really cute when he shows his tsundere side!

Tsubaki, Brothers Conflict

Last but not least, Tsubaki! If I’m still playing otome games after years, it’s his fault: I fell in love so hard when I watched the anime, that all I could think about was him; I had his pics everywhere and I started learning kanji just to understand the game. Even if he’s not my favorite character anymore, I have a strong attachment to this naughty brother and I’ll forever be grateful that he made me fall into otome games hell!

What do you think about Suzumura and his characters? Is there another character you love?

Lover Pretend first impression

By

On Gennaio 19, 2022

In otoge reviews, otome game first impression

 

I don’t know why it took me so long, since I was pretty excited to play Lover Pretend, when it was released; but its moment finally has come, I won’t wait any longer since I’m afraid to see spoilers everywhere when it gets localised. Let’s get into it!

The heroine, Chiyuki, is a 20 years old college student who wants to become a script writer, as her late mother; she was raised up without knowing her father’s name, who apparently was a famous person and couldn’t risk a scandal. Her mother never revealed his identity, but there are still some clues to reach the truth: probably, he was someone who worked on a drama scripted by Chiyuki’s mother in those months before her birth, called “Pretend to Love”. Was he the director? An actor?

Fate gave her a huge chance: she can work as assistant for a movie, where children of famous actors are gathered together; what if someone is her half-brother?!

This game looks really colorful and funny, even if the premise is serious; but the common route was enjoyable and without any kind of drama, so I’m curious to see if it will get deeper in individual routes, with some kind of random tragedy to drive the plot.

I’ll go for Kazuma’s route first: he’s the heroine’s childhood friend, outgoing and caring, so it seemed the safest choice; or maybe he’s hiding something, beyond his carefree appearance? We’ll see.

The guy who mostly got my interest so far is actually the famous actor, Riku: he seems serious, hardworking and with a nice personality, but I guess he has family issues, so I can already imagine some drama will happen.

Well, each dateable guy has some kind of problem with his father and could be Chiyuki’s step brother, which means there are probably landmines to avoid.

I’m not much interested in Harumi, his attitude annoys me a bit: he’s too often surrounded by girls who claim to be his official fanclub or something like that, but they are basically stalking him and telling him what to do with his life (hating potential girlfriends and such). I wonder why he can’t just tell them to shut up, why is he so weak? Maybe I’ll change my mind while playing his route, but so far I’m not intrigued.

Yukito is the typical flirty guy who thinks he can get every woman he wants, but I have this feeling that he’s actually smarter than he appears; I think I’ll like him more, when we’ll get closer and he will show his true personality.

I didn’t want to spoil myself so I’m not sure Eichiiro will be playable, but I guess so.

He’s a young scriptwriter and Chiyuki’s teacher, a reliable person who seems soothing and mature.

If he’s the secret route, he’s probably hiding something important.

Well, that’s my first impression of Lover Pretend, after playing about 4 hours; some people told me this game bored them at some point, but so far I can say it’s really enjoyable, there’s nothing for me to complain: the art looks good, the guys are likable, the heroine is ok, the plot is thin but it still works, I’m curious to find out who’s her father.

I hope I’ll keep this opinion until the very end!

Tokei Jikake no Apocalypse

By

On Gennaio 13, 2022

In otoge reviews

I was very excited, when Tokei Jikake no Apocalypse was teased, at first: “a story that starts from a bad ending”, sounds like the type of game I could really enjoy; but as new (mostly derpy) CGs were showed, I started to worry that I was expecting too much.

What if the game’s plot is as cheap and disappointing as the art?

“Don’t judge the book by its cover”, they say; true, but this is an otome game, the visual aspect can’t be just ignored or dismissed.

I wrote my first impression and my opinion about Quat‘s route a few months ago, so if you’re interested in a short resume of the plot and my feelings as I started this journey, you can take a look there.

But here, let’s begin where I stopped months ago: Rudel, the creepy eyes guy.

He became a famous meme in the otome fandom, I guess you know who I’m talking about.

Despite some awkward CGs, I admit I was expecting way worse: he’s so kind, honest and shy, that I ended up falling for him anyway. Just don’t stare at me too much, please!

His brother is an interesting side character, I was always curious to know if he was hiding something behind his gentle attitude; I never trust side characters, most of them exist just to stab the main guy in the back.

My next route was a forced choice: Liam.

I wasn’t interested in him at all honestly, but the remaining other characters were locked, so he was the only way; surprisingly, I ended up enjoying his route way more than I expected.

He’s a pianist, who loves flirting with girls, but avoids serious relationships; he was always a gentlemen with Latchia, even when she was very pushy and desperate to get closer to him.

Finally, I could play Zir next.

I had my eyes on him since the common route, he was too weird, it was obvious he was hiding something important; and I wasn’t wrong! Spending time with him and getting to know the truth about the “box”, somehow made me feel sad. Overall, this route was bittersweet.

I got to play Unka last, the main guy of the game, whose route was locked until this point.

He’s Latchia’s childhood friend, a tsundere who has been in love with her since forever.

The first part of his route was basically a huge flashback seen from his point of view, showing when he met Latchia and first confessed his feelings; but I can’t say more, everything is a huge spoiler.

I’m sorry I can’t write a decent comment about Zir and Unka, but I don’t want to ruin someone else’s fun; if you really want to know more, you have to find out by yourselves!

At this point, the True Route was unlocked, but I admit I was kinda bored and I didn’t want to spend more time on this game, it was time for me to move on and play something I could enjoy more.

So, did I enjoy Tokei Jikake no Apocalypse?

I wouldn’t call it a kusoge, but it feels way below the usual standards of Otomate’s releases.

Starting from the art, which was obviously a huge problem, even the plot wasn’t well developed; going back in time once or even twice every route, sometimes felt repetitive and I was bored, to play similar scenes over and over. The main plot wasn’t enough to keep me interested, it took me months of dragging and putting this game on hold, to finally reach the ending.

I’ll be honest, at some point I kinda forced myself to complete it, because I was butthurt of spending money and leaving this uncompleted forever. Zir was the only character who got my attention.

I wouldn’t recommend it, but maybe if your expectations are low and you find a very cheap copy somewhere, you’ll end up enjoying it way more than me.

I swear it’s not THAT bad, but my hopes for a masterpiece were crushed after months of waiting, so it’s hard for me to hide my disappointment at the final result.

I’m out of this, so I can freely move on to something hopefully better!

Thank you and happy new year!

By

On Dicembre 29, 2021

In let's talk!, my life, Personal stuff, Senza categoria

Hello everyone!

This is my last post of 2021, so I want to take this chance to say goodbye with you to the past year and wish you all a bright future in the months to come.

Maybe you’ve noticed it, in December I did my best to be more active here and to entertain you a bit, since probably most of my readers are enjoying their Christmas holidays.

I still don’t know where the new year will take me, but it’s going to be busy, at least at first: I’m moving to my new house in February, which means the next few weeks are going to mess up my free time a lot. I’ll do my best to not disappear completely, but don’t be too worried if I don’t post for a while; I’ll eventually be back.

As every content creator who is doing this kind of stuff just for hobby, this year I changed my mind a lot of times, even considering seriously to close this blog or start a long hiatus; sometimes taking a break is important, even just for a month, to reflect on priorities.

While I didn’t update, even if I was almost relieved at first, I realized how much I missed sharing my opinions, even if it’s just about silly things or nostalgic thoughts.

I’m sure, if you’re a long time reader, that you’ll notice the mood behind some of my posts: even if I don’t show my face, through my words is obvious if I’m writing something because I really want to talk about it, or if I’m kinda forcing myself to just come up with a post to keep this blog alive.

I know what you’re thinking, now: “if you don’t want to do it, just slow down or quit”. And you’re right.

But sadly, I have that kind of personality, that makes me want to do everyhing at my best, always, or I’ll end up feeling guilty; there’s no way for me to write just random posts once in a while, I’m that kind of person who wants to come up with a schedule and update it regularly, or just close it up and erase it all, as if it never existed.

I don’t want the latter to happen, but I can’t keep up with the first option too, which makes me frustrated. But I’m not here to rant, I just want to be as honest as possible with you.

Even if sometimes I have this love/hate realationship with my blog, I won’t stop updating until I still have something to say, being it reviews or just random memories; and if you’ll still come here, reading my posts and finding them entertaining or at least interesting, thank you and welcome to my little family! I’ll do my best to give you a reason to come here, when you have some free time for me.

Lastly, but most importantly, I’d like to take a chance to thank all the people who encouraged me through the years, with sweet messages that made me think that my efforts, somehow, are still worthy; you know who you are. The comments you wrote on my blog, the private messages you sent me here and on twitter, I wrote them all in a little, yellow notebook, to be sure I won’t forget them; when I’m feeling down and I’m almost sure that no one cares about my opinions, I read those words and find motivation to keep up, for the people who believe I have something to say, which is worth their time. When I find someone bought me a coffee on ko-fi, I swear I’m even confused, since I don’t feel enough.

With my bad english, my weird taste, my random opinions, if you think I’m still an interesting person, thanks from the bottom of my heart.

I wish you all the best, you’re my treasure.

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