The Charming Empire

I’ve been interested in The Charming Empire since the first moment I saw the beautiful opening and the amazing CGs; I won’t lie, the art was the most important factor which led me to try it.

Since it was a mobage port, my expectations plot-wise were very low from the start, so I wasn’t too disappointed with plot holes or weird scene-changes.

The prologue was really short and basic: the heroine just finds herself taken away from her quiet house to the royal palace in the capital, in the spare of a few minutes.

The moment she entered the palace, her first impression of the place, her first meeting with her brother weren’t shown; she’s in the car, and suddenly in front of her brother, the king Soshi, with no in-betweens.

I didn’t even know who he was, I just understood their relationship when they were talking.

It was really awkward, I thought I had just skipped a scene or missed an important dialogue, but I guess that’s how mobage usually work.

After this short prologue, I’ve been asked to choose a route.

I went for Tanba first. He was really nice at the start, just being flirty and gentle with the heroine; I enjoyed their teasing, they looked like a cute couple.

The writing made some scenes awkward (she’s been told to never go outside the palace, but she does, and no one noticed; then, they gave her permission to go out, despite her being a 16 years old princess in the Taisho era) but I decided to stop paying attention to the logic and just enjoy their interactions.

The festival scenes were probably stereotypical, but I still enjoyed them; maybe it’s because I really liked Tanba at first? His cheerfulness and sweetness caught my heart.

His serious side made me suffer a lot tho, he was really mean… if I were the heroine, I would have probably stopped trusting him for good.

I still can’t believe her decision, but I won’t comment it because it’s too spoilerish; still, I think the writing was really weird and some of the options didn’t even make sense.

Kei’s route was way better.

At first it wasn’t easy, I always have problems dealing with this kind of characters; I was worried every time I had to pick a choice, I was sure I would end up failing miserably.

If the first chapters were difficult, since he was very cold and unapproachable, he gradually started to change a bit his attitude, becoming more friendly.

Their relationship suddenly changed and I could feel he was falling for the heroine.

Kei blushing was too cute, he looked like a puppy! I loved how he tried to hide his feeling, but they were obvious: he bought her presents, he was jealous… even Soshi understood that something was becoming weird.

Kei’s life was really sad, I felt bad for him every time he talked about his home country and how everything didn’t even exist anymore; his childhood as a prisoner must have been hard, even if he had his own room and could read books.

Anyway, this route was a great improvement and I can’t complain; the ending was a bit weird tho, Soshi’s personality seems confusing and I can’t really understand what’s going on in his mind… but I love Kei, so I don’t mind.

Sera reminded me of Hakuouki’s Saito, since he’s the typical stoic, strong but reliable character.

I felt sad for the poor heroine being treated so coldly, but as a bodyguard he was a perfect choice, she could feel safe and protected.

I like this kind of character, he kinda acts like a butler and I feel treated like a real princess… I know, I’m weak. Getting closer to him and discovering the truth, was a shock I didn’t expect at all! But this made him even more interesting.

Sera’s route had a huge spoiler about Kagemitsu, but I was still looking forward to his route, because he seemed really sweet. And I wasn’t wrong!

He’s the typical protective and nice childhood friend, who would be perfect husbando material, but gets friendzoned immediately for no reason.

His sweet voice and gentle smile made my heart flutter, he was so caring and nice all the time… I can’t blame the heroine for falling in love with this angel.

When he complimented her, I thought “this is how an otome game should be like!”, which sounds really weird, coming from me.

The ending of the route was weird, since Soshi started to act way too nicely, it felt out of place; anyway, the route was pleasant to play and Kagemitsu was my best boy without doubt. Childhood friends can’t never do wrong.

In the end, I finally played Soshi’s route, the one who was supposed to reveal the truth; time to solve the mystery: is grumpy oniichan nice or evil?

At first he was rude as always, trying to keep the distance from our poor heroine.

Some cute moments happened, but they were so rare and short, I can’t really say there was some kind of development in their relationship. I was so disappointed…. I endured a lot of boring moments and plotholes in other routes, just because I hoped to play something great in the last one.

Sadly, most of it was so boring, I was falling asleep.

And you know how much I love the oniichan trope, I’m easy to please; yet it was a huge let down.

The heroine spent most of the route alone in her bedroom, thinking. Or with other people, talking about her brother.

And when finally there was some kind of dialogue with Soshi, he was cold or offensive…. how am I supposed to like him? He changed at the very end, but it was so random, it just felt awkward.

My only emotion about this was happiness because I’M FREE FROM THIS TORTURE.

Would I recommend Charming Empire? Well… no.

The art is really cute (it’s probably the best part of the game) and the boys are nice, but it’s really obvious that it’s just a mobage port.

The worst problem is the consistency: sometimes it doesn’t look like a whole game, it seems just like different games with the same setting.

A few examples: Tanba is a master in that bar in some routes, but there’s a random man in others; Kei is the heroine’s tutor in some routes, while there’s a woman in others.

If the writing was decent, maybe I would have enjoyed it more, since the characters are interesting and there are also cute scenes which make it pleasant to play.

That’s why I even felt sorry for them, they are victims of the bad writing even if they had some potential. Soshi was obviously the most disappointing: his route was supposed to unveil some shocking truth, but was boring most of the time.

So don’t be fooled by the pretty art like me, save your money and play something better!