泡沫のユークロニア

Completion date: May 3, 2024

ALL REVIEWS ON THIS SITE CONTAIN SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Correction: Initially I made 3 separate posts for this game, hence the “three parts”. I have since compiled them into one long post. Individual quick links at the end of intro section.

Overall rating: 7/10

This game will be localized by Aksys in 2025 with an FD announced to arrive this year as well. This game is published under Broccoli but it’s the same crew that made Piofiore under Otomate.

Pros:

1. Beautiful CGs by the one and only RiRi with lots of follow-up illustrations as promotion material
2. Elaborate world building. A marriage of Steam Prison and Olympia Soiree?
3. Matsuoka Yoshitsugu. 3.5: This is also my first time playing a game voiced by Kobayashi Chiaki. He more than exceeded expectations and killed it as seiyuu for the poster boy.
4. Entertaining character interactions and fleshed out character development
5. Banger OP
6. FD is announced (which was quite obvious given the vague endings of this game).

Cons:

1. Very slow pace with long routes often diluting the amount of romance in routes. There are many special terms due to the elaborate world building and can be very unfriendly to people who want to enjoy some lighthearted fast romance, even in their native language.
2. Certain LIs fall into their trope stereotypes and became one-dimensional. As such, what wowed me was the game’s world building and CG instead of the actual romance, which is not a good look for an otome game.
3. Slightly annoying and naive MC; and this is coming from someone who loved Byakuya from Olympia Soiree.
4. Tsuwabuki is not a LI (FD please I’m begging you)

Recommended play order: Tobari > Awayuki > Tsuyukusa > Yori > Yashiro > Truth

Character ranking: Yori > Yashiro > Tsuyukusa > Awayuki > Tobari

BACKGROUND

Itehari is a city in the sky under the rule of the God Taijyu. It is known as a utopia because there is no crime or conflict. The inhabitants are divided into noblemen and commoners, with the nobles being classified into numbers and north/west/east/south; the smaller the number the higher the rank.

Hinagiku is the young leader of “East Five” area as her family died in a fire when she was eight years old. She lives with her servant/butler/bodyguard Awayuki who is quite protective of her. They have a secret between them that Hinagiku wants to see the outside world, but was warned by Awayuki to not tell anyone as it can be interpreted as a statement to rebel against Taijyu.

As usual, Hinagiku was enjoying the view of the city from a high place, when an unknown person attacked and attempted to kill her. She was saved by a mysterious man later revealed to be Yashiro. Yashiro lost consciousness from the battle so Hinagiku took him home much to Awayuki’s dismay. However, it appears that Yashiro lost all of his memory except his name upon waking up…

Awayuki does not allow Hinagiku to keep a random man at home so she takes Yashiro to her childhood friend Tsuyukusa‘s home and store, where Yashiro can stay and work there and try to find his identity. Tsuyukusa clearly has feelings for Hinagiku even in the common route.

The common route is split depending on the individual route we want to enter. Once the other four people’s happy endings are unlocked, the option to enter Yashiro route becomes available.

Tobari/Tsuyukusa:

The crew is chatting and doing whatever in the streets until they saw one of the empty buildings catch fire, which has been a repeated occurrence lately. Hinagiku catches a glimpse of someone watching the fire happen from afar before disappearing into the crowd. It appears this person may have also saved a child from being engulfed in the flames. The fires are the doings of Shiranui which is an anti-Taijyu rebellion group.

From the clues at the scene, the group went to the red-light district to investigate and met Tobari, who acted very distant but from the CG we can all tell he was the guy Hinagiku saw earlier. The next day, Hinagiku quietly runs out on her own and runs into Yori with whom she has a brief but unpleasant encounter.

Awayuki/Yori:

This route deals with Kurozuru which is basically the police department of Itehari. Hinagiku meets Yori in a street locked by Kurozuru who holds a sword to her neck and plays with his prey for a bit before letting her go home. It is implied that Awayuki and Yori know each other but Awayuki downplays it. Another day when Hinagiku and co. were walking outside they saw someone catch fire themselves and burned to death.

AWAYUKI (CV: Saitou Souma)

Rating: 6.5/10 Stereotypical protector/servant to the point it was one-dimensional with 90% the route basically being him running away from his feelings for Hinagiku, but the romance delivered so the rating ends up being okay.

Awayuki is a commoner who showed significant promise as a soldier during his studies. He initially served Taijyu but one day was ordered to save Hinagiku. Hinagiku always thought her family was killed in a fire but it is revealed that this was a coverup for a hit job ordered by her family’s enemies in court. Awayuki did not have anyone he cared for in this world until he saw Hinagiku and their similar hair/eye colour, and decided at that time to stay by herself and protect her, as for the first time he felt truly needed in this world. They also made a promise to each other that when Hinagiku grows up, he will take her to see the “outside world”.

Needless to say, he played the overprotective servant and acted quite overbearing at times. He mentions many times that he is Hinagiku’s property, that it is his duty to protect and support her. Despite this, Awayuki also states that Hinagiku is still an immature child that cannot achieve anything without him. He completed all his tasks in gloves, even when combing Hinagiku’s hair. His explanation is that Hinagiku is a noblewoman and as a commoner, he does not have the right to touch even a strand of her hair (foreshadowing here). They shared some cute moments such as Awayuki wiping the rain off Hinagiku’s hair, him unable to confess his feelings but was seen kissing the necklace that she gifted him, taking care of her when she had a fever. However, the major flaw was that Awayuki spent basically the entire route rejecting Hinagiku and his feelings until very close to the end.

It is already hinted that there is history between him and Yori, but he downplays it until you enter his personal route, where it was revealed Awayuki defended a fellow commoner student from being bullied by Yori, and beat him as a result. Yori aggressively pursues Hinagiku and proposed a political marriage between them. Even though Awayuki beat Yori in school, as a commoner servant he basically had to relive his bullied experiences again by being forced to obey Yori and watch him have his way with Hinagiku. Yori later admits that he is doing all of this to torment Awayuki, to take someone he wanted and have him watch (wow that’s twisted but I love it).

The main plot device in this route is the self-immolation mystery. The crimes are being committed by Ugetsu who is a Taijyu fanatic. He was influenced to commit the crimes by Yori and even supplied with the metal that catches fire at low temperature, but ultimately there was not enough proof. Multiple chapters were dedicated to this but I really don’t care to recap it here. In the Happy Ending the two finally become lovers and overcome the difference between master/servant with lots of room for FD content and a spicy end scene which really made up for my frustration of seeing Awayuki running away for the entire route:

Bad Ending: Many people die including Taijyuu and Hinagiku, who reported Ugetsu and Yori. The latter killed Hinagiku because she ruined his life and career. Awayuki killed Yori but it’s too late. He then takes her corpse and left Itehari to the world that Hinagiku always wanted to go see.

TOBARI (CV: Okamoto Nobuhiko)

Rating: 4/10 This crew really loves Okamoto… Similar to Yang, it landed on tails for me. Too many other plot points which made the romance almost nonexistent. The writers bit more than they could chew and should have sticked to one major conflict, have it resolved, and focus on building chemistry between MC/LI.

Following the common route, Hinagiku corners and confronts Tobari, who is revealed as the leader of the red-light district. He tells her off but not before teasing her a little. The kid he helped also identified Tobari as his savior, but got told by his father that as a noble person, being saved by someone from the red-light district is a shameful act. Wow… Hinagiku continues to stalk Tobari, making a a friend Suzune, who works as a young geisha, in the process. At one point Hinagiku gets quite jealous of Suzune who appeared very close with Tobari… they’re siblings. Okay, moving on because buckle up we have a lot of lore to go through.

The main mystery of this route is the phenomenon where people suddenly turn beast-like and will even commit cannibalism. Hinagiku and co. runs into such a case while stalking Tobari as always in the red-light district and got apprehended. She notes that the victim was talking to Shioji, who was quickly revealed to be the second-in-command of Shiranui under Tobari, shortly before all this happened.

As the crew is about to be all killed so Shiranui can remain a secret, Yashiro strikes a deal with Tobari and everyone is released with the condition they will keep quiet about the organization. Tobari then shares his vision of Shiranui, where he wants to peacefully change Itehari. The current law states that criminals get sent to an area like Senka (think of it as the Yomi – Olympia Soiree – of Itehari). Children of criminals can also never leave Senka unless they work in the red-light district. Shiranui sets fires in empty houses because:

• They want to brew discontent among the people, that the Taijyu is not omnipotent and cannot protect everyone
• They don’t want to hurt any people in the process, so choose empty houses

A lot more happened in Tobari route compared to Awayuki’s. To be as succinct as possible, the sudden loss of humanity in certain people is a side effect of a street drug named Sumizome. This is being distributed by Shioji under the manipulation of the current prime minister Sakaki – who in the end said a bunch of things that didn’t make much sense about how Hinagiku and crew could have changed history if they appeared 300 years earlier. Shioji also set large fires without regard for human life because he was desperate for radical change and disagreed with Tobari’s lukewarm approach. Sakaki was then quickly killed by General Karatachi who remained a good guy in this route.

To throw another wrench into the mix, there is this disease called hariyamai (“glass disease”) that is exclusive to people of the Senka as in order to keep Itehari from the air, the steam machines will produce poisonous gas which poisons the lungs of the people of Senka. This is an irreversible disease that patients will eventually die a painful suffocating death from. Tobari also has this disease and has been getting experimented on by Dr. Shouhaku – who invented Sumizome by the way – but this route has way too many plot points going on that I need to be picky about who to mention before people click out of this page.

Anyways the Happy Ending is quite bittersweet. Taijyu’s identity is revealed to be Hiiragi with an uncanny resemblance to Tsuyukusa. Hiiragi changes to the law and granted Tobari the change he yearned for: criminals can return to Itehari after serving their sentences. Hiiragi is also revealed to be a big kid at heart and often sneaks out to play cards with Hinagiku’s crew lol. However, while doctors found a way to delay Tobari’s decline/death from glass disease, they have yet to find a cure. The two lovers are together, for now.

Oh look at me, I didn’t even have time to go through how the two became lovers BECAUSE THERE WAS NO ROOM LEFT FOR ROMANCE. At one point, Hinagiku confessed to Tobari that she liked how yasashii he is, and how she shares his vision and wants to be with him. Tobari initially turned her down basically saying she is a good girl and too good and noble for him. However, as he spent time with Hinagiku he realized she is not like the other nobles with prejudice against commoners. He confessed to Hinagiku while he was on the deathbed that if he were a nobleman he would have proposed to her a long time ago, which honestly gave me whiplash but I guess he had nothing to lose thinking he was about to die. Yeah I’m sorry but the chemistry/romance was a big mess in this route, which felt much more like a suspense/adventure game than an otome game. Some people don’t mind it but I think the writers need to get their priorities straight. If I wanted to play a detective game I could just go play an actual one and skip the romance all together…

Bad End: Suzune dies in a fire that Shioji set (which sucked because Suzune crushed on him all this time), Tobari’s hariyamai flares, and Hiragiku dies trying to protect him. He finally confesses to her but she cannot hear it anymore.

TSUYUKUSA (CV: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu)

Rating: 8/10 Childhood friend with an extra touch. Tsuyukusa is a cute, nerdy, Hinagiku-con voiced by Matsuoka, what is there not to love.

After the first two routes of Hinagiku chasing her men down and cornering them into a confession, I am happy to announce that we finally have a guy who has had feelings for her since minute 0 of the game. In Tsuyukusa’s eyes, Hinagiku can do no wrong. He gets blatantly jealous (but respects her wishes and will not coerce her/forbid her from seeing others, which is contrast to Awayuki) when she talks to others, even his twin brother Hiiragi a.k.a. Taijyu – he gets so overjoyed when Hinagiku tells them apart and gives her a big hug. He is Hinagiku’s #1 fan and also acts like a spoiled little child around her, refusing to get up at the side of the road wanting Hinagiku to hold his hand; or later requesting to rest in her lap (Hinagiku complaining about him sleeping too long to the point her legs were numb was hilarious) and thanks to that we fans get a cute CG. They also share a kabedon moment. All in all, lots of romance being narrated by one of my favourite voices of all time. So thank you writer, thank you RiRi, thank you Matsuoka, I ate good this route.

The plot is as always heavy but easier to summarize and less all over the place. Basically Hiiragi and Tsuyukusa are born as twins, with Hiiragi being chosen as the next Taijyu/God of Itehari. Given some dumb superstition about twins being a bad omen, Tsuyukusa was separated from Hiiragi and instructed to live as a commoner.

There was political conflict about which twin to be the next Taijyu, with Hinagiku’s parents being team Hiiragi, and as a result her family got killed in a fire by supporters of Tsuyukusa. It was actually Tsuyukusa not Hiiragi who ordered Awayuki to save Hinagiku’s family and facilitated the meeting. Hence, Awayuki knew who Tsuyukusa was all this time and used honorifics when addressing him.

Shioji and Sakaki again appear as radicals in this game. Only Shioji went even further than Tobari route and basically almost succeeded in revolution with his motivation being to give his illegitimate child sired with a noblewoman a honourable status. He was overthrown by the twin brothers coming together and some unexpected help from Yori. Sakaki basically jumped to his death after making yet another confusing statement about how boomers like him are not needed when the young generation can rule the country adequately.

In the end, Hinagiku passed by the area where she met with Tsuyukusa as very little children, before her family died, before Hiiragi became Taijyu, and how she and Tsuyukusa “met”. Her memories were suppressed by the trauma of her family’s death but now it all comes back to her. The twins lived in a “forbidden area” to others but Hinagiku snuck out one day while her father was not looking (she was originally brought here to be the future bride of Hiiragi, actually – Hiiragi route FD?). She met Tsuyukusa who remembered that girl and harboured special feelings for her since that day.

And then we have happily ever after.

Bad End: Hiiragi got killed by the same Ginwan (some place on the ground) assassin who tried to kill Hinagiku in the common route. Tsuyukusa buried his love for Hinagiku in his heart, and took on the role of Taijyu to keep the people content, never to see his love again.

YORI (CV: Eguchi Takuya)

Rating: 10/10. I love this man so much

Yori is basically a cat in the form of a otome game love interest.

He goes and does things on his own, has a bad personality – as Hinagiku puts it, pushes away kindness, but deep down yearns for his human to continue doting on him and will from time to time, reluctantly breadcrumb his human a little bit of affection.

The route starts with Yori and Hinagiku reaching an agreement to feign a marriage engagement. Yori states he is not interested in being the successor, but marrying someone too high status like “West Two” such as his would make people suspect that he wants to contest the position of successor with Tsuwabuki who is older than him. They break everyone’s heart in the process, especially Awayuki’s. Tsuwabuki does not intend to marry as he has “commoner blood” from his mother’s side, which is taboo and the kids get sent to Senka or something, so this is kept a secret in the West Two family.

Tsuwabuki: I’ve said this before… I don’t plan on marrying. [Take it back right now young man. I’ll see you in the FD]

Tsuwabuki clearly has some unrequited feelings for Hinagiku as demonstrated in multiple scenes, but at this point no backstory between the two is revealed other than Tsuwabuki observed Hinagiku from afar when she treated her own people with kindness instead of arrogance… that’s it?

Yori is the definition of 意地悪い which can be translated to ill-natured, but also with a bit of a tease. He and Hinagiku’s cafe date had me laughing in tears. He would ask Hinagiku whether she likes the food. When Hinagiku answers out of politeness that it’s good, he would then say he hated it. He then offers to share this food that he ordered to which Hinagiku accepts. He then retracts his offer saying he does not have the habit of sharing his things with others, and that he expected Hinagiku to decline as that’s what a lady does LMAO. I would be so frustrated if I were her but this is all too funny from a bystander perspective. Finally, when Hinagiku’s favourite food gets served, he then makes her feed him and eats her treat:

The pair continues to surprise each other with Hinagiku often retorting back to Yori, being blunt and telling him that he has a bad personality. At the same time, many bad events happen in Itehari where people get killed either by slashing or being bitten (overdose from Sumizome).

Yori starts to reveal some of his cynicism and intelligence in some conversations he has with Hinagiku regarding the state of affairs. Hinagiku, like most people born and raised in Itehari, has utmost trust in Taijyu-sama and how he will protect his followers from harm… to which Yori replies he doesn’t think Taijyu is as powerful as people make him to be; that if Taijyu was truly omnipotent what use do people have for Kurozuru or the police. This type of natural distrust and tendency to take matters into his own hands, regardless of the method, is foreshadowed from this part of the story.

Anyways, Hinagiku continues to be such a kindhearted worrywart that she writes to her police boyfriend asking for updates on the investigations behind these killings. Yori simply sends her a box of caramel candy as a response:

The investigation continues and we are thrown many clues, some meaningful and some red herrings. Most notably is the rumour that the sword slasher at least, was always witnessed to don Kurozuru uniform.

At the same time, being the jerk he is, Yori continues to play with Hinagiku, showers her in lovely gifts, shows her off to everyone and gets jealous even if Hinagiku was talking to Saku, and takes her first kiss. He appears to treat Hinagiku as a interesting toy that he can throw away anytime when he loses interest, or is he only telling himself that..?

Despite all of the above and the unpredictability, Hinagiku stayed and became more and more attached to this love game that she and Yori played. She could no longer tell if there is something real, or this is all his past time, but all she knows is she does not want this to end. Oh yeah by the way, he lied about being bullied at school by commoners to gain Hinagiku’s sympathy, because we know what happened in Awayuki’s route.

Eventually, Tsuwabuki was witnessed entering a nobleman’s household. After some loud shouting, he was found in a trance beside the nobleman’s slashed corpse – but his uniform appearing awfully clean despite the bloody scene. The sword also came from the West Two household – something the head of the family like Tsuwabuki had easiest access to.

Tsuwabuki went to jail and the slashing attacks have stopped. All available evidence pointed to this kindhearted, charismatic, and charming elder son of West Two living a double life as a sadistic killer. However, this seemed too easy to be true. Awayuki finds out that all victims were traitors to Itehari and co-conspired with Ginwan for personal gain. Hinagiku also starts uncovering evidence and having doubts whether Tsuwabuki was framed.

However, it is Lantern Festival and Hinagiku asks Yori out on a date. They exchanged thoughtful gifts. Hinagiku spent a lot of effort making a handkerchief with Yori’s family insignia as she read this is what fiancees do for their future husbands in the books. Oh my sweet darling, you are in love. Yori couldn’t believe this was made by Hinagiku, waved it around but “didn’t appear too happy”. He then gifted Hinagiku an expensive and elegant necklace that is “befitting of her class”.

Unfortunately, during the date, Hinagiku continues to ask about Tsuwabuki and voices her concerns that he may have been framed, setting off Yori’s inferiority complex and fear that he will never be as lovable as Tsuwabuki or even Awayuki in Hinagiku’s mind.

He then basically guilt trips Hinagiku into having sex with him, and rubbed it in Awayuki’s face the next morning by asking him to relay the message “sorry I had work and cannot stay with you until the morning”. F for Awayuki this route, honestly.

Yori replaced Tsuwabuki as his family’s successor and made a new trade deal with Yashiro’s homeland Ginwan: the memory-loss was all a fluke and he is a Ginwan spy. While Ginwan stands to gain financially by acting as the official proxy between Itehari and other countries, it must purchase certain exports from Itehari, one of them being Sumizome. In the meantime, Hinagiku finally realizes the lies Yori told her about being bullied at school by commoners and Tsuwabuki. She confronts him who nonchalantly states that Awayuki and Tsuwabuki annoy him, so he chose her as his wife because both of them will suffer. Hinagiku wanted to slap him out of anger but he catches her hand and warns her to know her place, then stating it’s all a joke, no harm no foul.

Yashiro does not want Sumizome to be imported in his country and cause addiction. To force Yori’s hand, he holds Hinagiku at sword point. However, Yori replies: “Why do you think you can use this girl to force me into doing your bidding? We are faking the engagement”. Yashiro says very well then I will kill Hinagiku here and now. Yori finally lets out a heavy sigh and acts all annoyed saying well I wouldn’t want you doing this in my bedroom out of all places, she might haunt me at night, it’s also not good for Kurozuru’s rep if we cannot protect a noblewoman etc. etc. and agreed to Yashiro’s demand of taking him to the “flower garden” where the Sumizome ingredients are harvested. Anything but acknowledging the importance of Hinagiku to him.

Yori was the killer of the traitors after all. This bothered Yashiro because now nobody from Itehari wants to betray their city anymore or work with Ginwan. They strike a deal where Yashiro pretends to continue working for Ginwan but doesn’t actually do anything of substance or harm anyone from Itehari, but he gets to set the flower garden on fire and stop the drug import into Ginwan as well.

Hinagiku of course cannot accept this and demanded to know why Yori wouldn’t choose a more humane method, to which he replied he doesn’t care about anything but efficiency, as Kurozuru will not do anything without hard evidence, and by the time evidence is gathered these traitors would have escaped.

When Hinagiku pleaded with him to think of the greater good and the common people, he replied sarcastically that if she really cared, she would want Itehari to be destroyed, as the large amount of steam produced pollutes the air of Senka, causing hariyamai, and ails the people on the mainland. Of course she wouldn’t want that.

This is Yori’s sense of justice. His world is himself, people of Itehari, and perhaps Hinagiku. He knows that there is no happily ever after solution for everyone and that helping one means hurting another. He is willing to be the sacrificial lamb who takes all the blame. Even though he yearns for love, deep down he is so insecure that he does not believe he will ever truly get it. So he tries to execute something that is “good” in his eyes, and give Hinagiku all the reasons she need to leave him, who is now a criminal because Karatachi (FukuJun btw) was following the crew and apprehended him. It’s just being alone again. Nothing’s changed.

Yori acted surprised but I cannot help but think this was all planned and both of them knew Yori was going to be arrested in the first place. He is now playing the final act of his script.

In the Happy Ending, Hinagiku visits Yori in jail to his surprise. He sarcastically tells her that now is the the best time to annul the engagement.

He then took out the carefully folded document, accidentally dropping the handkerchief that Hinagiku gifted him at the Lantern Festival. He was carrying it with him every single day.

Hinagiku tearfully replied that she will not annul the engagement and shredded the paper into pieces. She will wait for Yori and marry him when he is released.

Both of them know deep down, whether they hate each other or not, whether they can leave each other or not.

And thus concludes the Happy End where Yori gets released thanks to his class privilege and put on house arrest… in Hinagiku’s house, where they ichaicha every day (in Awayuki’s vicinity) but continue to deny their feelings for each other. And we viewers are left without the satisfaction of a proper confession. In the FD I guess, the wait will be worth it.

Bad End: Awayuki confessed to Hinagiku, who is also tired of Yori’s BS, and they become an item. However, Yori found out and forced the engagement into a marriage and basically NTR’ed Awayuki… This is so yabai but I’m all for it…

THOUGHTS: This is not a character that appears as a staple in this genre. He is twisted, deeply insecure, insincere, and martyrs himself for his version of justice. Sure, one could simply view him as a Hisoka (HxH) esque character where he is just chaotic evil and chases gratification and does whatever he wants for fun. However, in my eyes Yori carried the burden of others’ expectations and comparisons to those around him constantly weighed on him since birth; I believe he chose to do all these things to sacrifice himself for the greater cause. He believed he didn’t deserve to be loved, but at the same time paradoxically yearned for love more than anyone, and desperately hoped Hinagiku would be that person to prove his insecurities wrong, to fully accept him no matter how wicked he is, to hold him in her arms and whisper that everything will be okay and feed him desserts as well as sweet nothings. While some reviewers are not optimistic this pairing will last, I am hopeful that Hinagiku’s warm kindness will melt the ice away from this kitty’s heart and make his personality just a bit more tolerable!

PSA: Secure attachment style is important folks and this is what happens when you don’t give your kids that!!

YASHIRO (CV: Kobayashi Chiaki)

Rating: 8.5/10 thanks to the amazing voice acting & Karatachi

Everything about this mysterious man with heterochromia was a lie.

Born as a child into likely a similar aristocratic family like Hinagiku’s [implied] who “would neither smile nor cry”, Yashiro was never loved, nor did he need love. His lack of emotions and understanding of them became an asset in becoming a Ginwan spy sent to sow the seeds of unrest in the city situated in the sky. Unable to gather valuable information from the commoners, he studied his prey and locked in his target on Hinagiku. Fabricating an assassination attempt with his colleague Chidori (CV: Horie Shun), Yashiro won the gratitude of the maiden’s heart and under the guise of “finding my memory”, he was able to freely roam the streets of Itehari and Senka. Thanks to Awayuki’s protectiveness towards Hinagiku, he finds lodging with Tsuyukusa, who is a knowledgeable machinist with intimate knowledge to the logistics of what keeps Itehari afloat. He stole a device thinking it was the key to the mechanism – later revealed to be a replica – framing Tsuyukusa in the process.

Hence, it was all a facade that Yashiro put on for Hinagiku. Others first feel sad then cry, Yashiro is someone who has conditioned himself to cry and emulate the emotion. Even the moments where he teased the kind maiden of East Five district, those were but a ploy to be closer to her and get information.

So since when did these seeds of emotion grow to the point he became her protector and shielded her from harm?

Honestly, I was rather annoyed with Hinagiku in this route because she was reckless – the fact she would be pursued by thugs, requiring the protection of the male characters, and then when the thugs are being pursued by the “mutants” she would run back to help and put herself and her friends in harm’s way. Even when she gave her expensive hairpin to the poor girl in Senka Yashiro asked her “what’s the point of doing this? You know you can’t help all of the people in Senka right” to which she replied “maybe this makes me look like I’m faking being kind, but I simply don’t want to be someone who sits and watches”. Yashiro’s mission’s success was also entirely based on the premise of Hinagiku’s unsuspecting kindness. While I don’t agree with what she did, the combination of all these actions demonstrated that she is a sheltered, naive, but good-hearted person who showers those around her in love and kindness. This awakened something in Yashiro, who reevaluated his priorities and decided to think for himself once, and protect what he views as valuable in life: Hinagiku, and Itehari, the land of hypocrisy that treated him with kindness.

The real romance between the two was in the very end and the extra story where Yashiro became jealous of everyone lol. I enjoyed the route overall but frankly I didn’t care that much about Yashiro as an LI, but more so as a plot device to rip off the bandaid and expose the ugly truth of Itehari. The route deserves a 8.5/10 for all the revelations, but as an LI I’d probably give a 5-6/10.

That being said, this is my first time playing an otome game voiced by Kobayashi. His voice is very pure and boyish; I definitely want to hear him voice more roles and will support.

If anything, I was a lot more interested in Karatachi who was someone from the mainland adopted by a nobleman of Itehari, who kept his colours hidden all this time, climbing the ranks till he is general of Kurozuru. In fact, I liked the realism and cynicism of Yori, Karatachi, and even Sakaki. They just felt more real to me.

Karatachi: Noble families allow the spread of hallucinogenic drugs, casually selling them to Ginwan while knowing their effects…
They sentence criminals to “atone for their sins” then shut them in Senka until the end of their lives, not even remembering those people’s existence.
Kurozuru flaunts their power, picking and choosing whose lives are valuable enough for them to protect.
Noblemen treat their people like items, disrespecting, and stepping on them…
This city is filthy and sickening.
Instead of being up in the sky, falling into the ground is much more fitting!

Yashiro: … I know what you feel!
This city is twisted, yet fascinating…
It’s not all bright and pretty… but!
As an outsider, to me Itehari… is not an evil world!
The people here are kind.
When I had nothing to my name, they extended their hand to me, cared for me, fed me, helped me find lodging!

Hinagiku: (It’s like a kaleidoscope…
Depending on the angle you look at the same item, what you see is vastly different.)

TRUTH ROUTE

Shorter than the individual routes; everyone basically came clean with their position very early on. Worth playing. Will do a quick recap here:

1. Narukami is not human and an automaton that has lived for 300 years (the same age as Itehari). His “heart” is the energy source for the steam engine that keeps Itehari afloat. He treated Hinagiku as a protection target because of her sneaking into the forbidden area causing him to mark her as an equivalent to Taijyu. Hinagiku almost drowned as a child. Narukami shared part of his heart with her, which is why since then she’s always healthy and recovers from illnesses quickly.
2. The final boss was unexpected: Saku, who is nearly immortal due to an unexpected side effect of Sumizome overdose – references have also been made to Karatachi actually being really elder but appearing like a young man. He was also after this energy source to maintain his youth.
3. People were strictly forbidden to marry between commoner/noblemen because in order to create this “utopia” the commoners (around 200,000 people to 4,000 of aristocrats) were all given a gene that makes them obedient and extremely violence-averse, to the point if commoners witness violent activities, even if they are not harmed they can die of shock (so they’re all rabbits) – this is also why in Yashiro route when the “mutants” rampaged the streets Kurozuru told everyone to shut their doors and windows to not see.
4. The aristocrats do not have this gene, as the city will always need some defenders in the case of invaders. This is also why only the privileged class can enter Kurozuru. Awayuki was an anomaly.
5. The resolution is Saku falls off Itehari. Hiiragi comes out and makes an idealistic speech that true utopia is not when Itehari is the only “good place” and that their prosperity should not be based on the suffering of others. Hiiragi/Itehari has a meeting with the Emperor on the mainland and strike deals to stop Sumizome (per Sakaki this was a necessary evil to maintain Itehari’s income, Yashiro route) and reduce steam. Medical advancements are made with Tobari’s hariyamai being controlled.

CONCLUSION

Overall, a successful game & worth the time and investment. This was an ambitious game with successful promotion but ultimately, the producers delivered. I had extremely high expectations going in which may have dampened my praise for this game. The endings were intentionally left rather incomplete. I believe the FD was planned before the game was released, just formally announced later. I will be preordering it.

My final score was given at 7/10 because of my personal preference for more romance. By no means is this not a successful/enjoyable game. Otome games nowadays are now a spectrum from adventure game with a splash of romance (Even If Tempest main game) to pure romance (Cupid Parasite) and I’m somewhere central-right in there.