I had mixed feelings about Usosuki Shangri-La since its release, and reading other reviews dropped my motivation to play it for a long time… but here I am, the moment to try it and judge by myself has finally come!

Before I talk about the plot or the characters, I need to express my 2 cents about the art, since otome games are visual novels after all: it looked really weird to me at first, some sprites had very awkward poses and I don’t understand how something like that could have been approved; but at least most of the CGs looked good, way better than I expected, so it was still decent overall.

Now, for the plot and the characters: the heroine finds herself in a different world, where it’s always night since there’s only the moon in the sky instead of the sun. People who live there somehow think she’s a legendary creature called Usotsuki, destined to save them all.

The 3 brothers who find her at first are assigned the role to protect her, since some nobles of the country are butthurt she exists and consider her presence a danger; after a while she eventually decided to live in their house.

I started with Fenrir, since he looked like the main boy and I felt immediate connection, as if I could trust him without worrying too much.

He was loyal and trustworthy as I expected, I guess he had a perfect route to start the game, since there wasn’t a proper explanation of the overall plot which could spoil the game immediately.

The route just ended with “it’s ok if you don’t want to use your powers, Usotsuki! You could bring the sun in our country and save us all, but it’s not that important after all! Just enjoy being here!”, which honestly felt like a useless conclusion of the story; but surprisingly, this masterpiece was actually the Happy ending, which is supposed to be the best!

Fenrir was basically a good boy, one of those you end up liking, but without having to say too much about them; they are good husband material because they’re reliable, but not that interesting to play in games. They are missing attractive factors, in my eyes.

Jorm what exactly what I expected from a Rejet character: he was shady, behind his smile and apparent my-pace attitude, I had immediately a feeling that he could actually be dangerous.

I wish the opening song didn’t spoil me the best scene, but I guess those “bloody” situations were the most appealing to Rejet’s usual public, so they considered them an highlight of the game.

I can’t say it was a lie, but I think they tried to make Usotsuki Shangri-La creepier than it actually was, at least for Rejet standards.

Anyway, Jorm’s childhood was shocking, so I can’t blame him for his attitude.

When I thought a boring route was waiting for me, considering Hel’s usual attitude, the shock of my life started and I realized Usotsuki Shangri La is truly a Rejet game, after all.

I expected a kuudere and I was ready for a quiet route and a lot of efforts to make him blush, but HELL I WAS WRONG.

I won’t give too many spoilers, but there was a creepy doctor who lead to awful situations which would be a perfect fit to an horror movie, not an otome game.

At first I was like “he can’t do that, come on” but the psycho was allowed by Hel to continue that bloody stuff and I was literally asking myself how my life choices led me to sit through this. At least he got what he deserved in the end.

Hati was really cute and I was looking forward to playing his route since I first met him.

He’s very shy and sweet, he acts like he fell in love with Akari at first sight, but I guess he’s just embarrassed by women or new people in general.

His route was the most “otome” of them all, since I felt a lot of emotions coming from him and I needed some kind of ease after being through so much angst; obviously it wasn’t meant to be like that until the end, Rejet couldn’t miss such an easy chance for blood and drama, but overall I enjoyed this route a lot.

Ende’s route unlocked last, so I knew from the start he was hiding something, probably the secret of that world deprived of the sun. To avoid spoilers I won’t talk much about him or the general plot, I’ll just share some thoughts I had in my mind while I was playing.

First of all, those walls of text explaining the backstory were annoying and I didn’t read them all, I just scrolled through the kanji to get the general idea of what was happening; I usually like to read, even novels, but when I play otome games I want to see what’s happening, or at least hear dialogues, not just sit there reading an heavy amount of kanji while a sad music plays in the background. That stuff shouldn’t explain the main plot, it’s absurd!

Also, if his route was the true ending, does it mean he ends up dying in every other route? Everyone else dies too? So those are actually “false” good endings?

I don’t know. And I honestly don’t care that much.

I liked Ende, but I think I could have felt more involved in his tragedy if the writing was better.

Would I recommend Usotsuki Shangri La?

Sadly, I wouldn’t. This makes me really disappointed, because I’m a loyal Rejet fan and I still look forward to playing their games, which become rarer and rarer every year.

But I admit it, this was boring most of the time.

I don’t really know what it was, I can’t find a real problem that ruins it all, maybe it’s just a mix of little things, which would be fine separately, but together make this game annoying to sit through until the end.

For example:

  • the music made me sleepy.

It’s really weird, Rejet usually has great music in every game, from the opening songs to the BGM! But this time, it was a huge fail for me, I couldn’t stand it.

  • the text was too little and the characters were too far away from the screen, as if I was playing from afar.

I know this sounds weird and it’s kinda difficult to explain, but this is exactly the feeling I got.

  • walls of text explaining the plot, in the route which leads to the True (and most important) Ending.

I know it’s not that bad, but if you add a plot that couldn’t get my interest and routes that felt way longer than the actual length, you have a general idea of why it took me so much to complete a game which is actually kinda short.

I don’t even know if I should suggest you to buy it for cheap… but if you do, at least Hati is a precious boy and deserves some love!