トラブル・マギア ～訳アリ少女は未来を勝ち取るために異国の魔法学校へ留学します～

Completion date: February 5, 2025

From Wand of Fortune we dive into Otome Hogwarts but in 2024. Like many, I initially bought this game without high expectations given all the hype last year around new J-otome releases are Uchronia, Matsurika, or Mistonia. I am a longtime fan of the artist Suzunosuke, who is famous for drawing gorgeous Vocaloid PVs (e.g. Synchronicity series), and wanted to support her debut otome game. I came for the art, but stayed for everything else.

PROS

• Well-written plot with a very satisfying truth routes: there is a reason why the routes are locked the way they are
• Suzunosuke with gorgeous character art & many costumes!
• Loveable MC

CONS

• CGs could have had more detail especially in the background

Recommend play order: Alexei > Lars > Ricardo > Isaiah > Sion

***FULL SPOILERS AHEAD***

Shortcuts:

Alexei

Lars

Ricardo

Isaiah

Sion

Final thoughts

PROLOGUE

Legends have it that the god of beasts fell in love with the goddess of water. However, insecure from his hideous looks, he turned into various animals to be closer to his goddess. Until one day when he was killed by the goddess’ follower, who decided on her behalf that the hideous beast god is no match for the goddess. The goddess cries and says she knew his true form all along, and did not mind and loved him anyway. From her despair, a curse was created and turned her into a bird; the curse that from now on, the goddess will never be loved by anyone again. She will reincarnate into human girls over and over, afflicted by this curse, eventually transforming into a hideous beast, and die.

You play as Lucia, a girl raised by her maternal aunt and uncle (as her birth parents died) from an aristocratic family in the eastern kingdom of Sanan. However, she is afflicted with a curse that her body overflows with magic, and that she transforms into random animals at random times outside of her control. Finances become very tight as her aunt and uncle spend all their savings in attempt to find a cure. A mysterious traveller named Eir teaches Lucia magic, and to some degree control her “mana overflow” issue, but told her in order to fix the curse, her best bet is to travel to the western kingdom of Eldiel and attend the most prestigious magic school – Revel academy. With their unaffordable tuition rates, fortunately Lucia is smart and hardworking enough to secure an exchange student position that comes with a full ride, and the first one from Sanan, in fact. Her goal is to become a magic knight, as she read in the books that this pays extremely well, and the fact she’s good at magic and swordsmanship. She keeps her curse a secret as this could get her expelled.

One by one, she meets the crew of five LI who all serve on the school council as well as a teacher who had no business being that hot and not romance-able. [I’ve decided to place each LIs’ common route encounters in their own sections, instead of trying to dump them in this already long prologue synopsis, given the pace of the game and amount of events.] Due to a transformation incident, she ends up in the heart of the academy’s forbidden forest and encounters a strange vision. Because of this violation (and the fact that Sion’s dying for help with the never-ending tasks expected of the council), Lucia is put on a “probation” and being watched by the council.

Possibly due to travelling to a new geographic location, Lucia’s magic powers become unstable again. She has to relearn how to control it. She also befriends Anise, an easygoing chatty girl who shows Lucia around the school. She also meets Grace, who is a spoiled brat and also Sion’s sister. Because Lucia stands up for Grace when she was being gossiped on by other girls, Grace does an 180 and warms up to Lucia.

The student council crew bond through a series of school-held magical competitions and a ball. Lucia also transforms into various animals and have some moments with the unsuspecting LIs. At the end of her probation period, she was invited and inducted formally into the student council. Summer rolls around, with Grace inviting everyone to her family’s lakeside cottage, where the cat is out of the bag (no pun intended) and her curse becomes a known secret within the council.

After the first 6 chapters, Lucia will enter the individual route of the character who holds the highest affection. Izanii is locked unless you clear happy ends of Alexei/Lars/Ricardo, with Shion locked as the final route. There is no truth route. Each character has three endings: best end, merry bad end, bad end (no CG). After best end clears, the after story also unlocks which includes one CG.

ALEXEI ELDIEL (CV: Uemura Yuuto)

I think of Alexei as the Little Prince of this universe. It helps that he is literally the younger prince among the two potential successors to the throne. He is the first LI we meet in the entire game, having met her on the ship to Eldiel, where he helped a seasick Lucia. After Lucia arrives, she quickly discovers that he is in fact, the second prince of the kingdom, as well as Prince Charming at her school, with many female fans, some more possessive and unhinged than others.

Alexei’s biggest personality trait is being yasashii. He is always the moderating voice especially between his childhood friend Ricardo (Ri-kun) and Lucia. He is also quite playful and teases people around him a bit. He treats everyone with kindness and is probably the most down-to-earth prince in otome history, as literally everyone and anyone will banter with him and call him nicknames, such as Grace regarding him as a “happy-go-lucky” person who does not act like a prince. In the prologue, he has a dedicated event with Lucia by teaching her how to dance and sharing a dance with her at the school ball.

Alexei acts all “charanporan” and keeps emphasizing his flaws because he wants his older half brother Gerard to be king. Descendants of the Eldiel bloodline have the immunity to magic, yet for some reason Gerard doesn’t have this. Hence, from a young age, the two boys are the subject of debate among aristocrats, with the court being divided into two parties each supporting one prince. Lucia accidentally interjected between the two, by falling on Alexei’s head as a squirrel, and dissolved what would have been an awkward conversation – Alexei KISSES the squirrel not knowing it was Lucia oml. While Alexei broadcasts to the world, look at me, and how unfit to be a prince I am, Lucia finds out that he is actually a hard worker, as well as the extreme lengths he goes to hide his true self – such as intentionally failing quizzes at school, skipping class, and pretending to flirt with different female classmates. This makes Lucia feel uncertain about what he is truly like under his mask, as he’s not shown it to anyone, and probably has been pretending for so long that even he doesn’t know what his heart desires anymore.

Despite growing up in a royal family with a loving mother and family (at least on the surface), Alexei notes that his mother never once asked him what he wanted to do in his life. From a young age, he was interested in studying the history of this world as well as ancient languages and magic, as he tells Lucia in the common route while the two were adventuring in the caves. His dream was to be an archaeologist and travel the world, which unfortunately directly goes against his duties and expectations to serve as a prince and to this country before himself. Lucia was the first person to care about “Alexei” instead of “second prince” as she points out, that what’s best for this country is not best for Alexei. Alexei is used to putting on his cheerful and gentle facade, reading the room to make everyone else happy, to put smiles on others’ faces… ironically he has become the ultimate people pleaser as a PRINCE.

For someone who is gentle and “not pushy”, he was surprisingly flirty and aggressive with Lucia, which left her blushing and dokidoki. It doesn’t help that Uemura uses the same voice as he did for Tokisada/Olympia Soiree and both boys have that innocent yet devious “dame? 🥺” pouting; only Alexei knows more what he’s doing compared to Tokisada. He even suggests that Lucia and him “touch each other” more because his magic immune body can cure Lucia’s curse (which in this route, is explained to be from ancient magic). He would say the most confession-y things then be like “just joking! gotcha!” People around them start to notice how close the two are, and rumours start to brew. Surprisingly I wasn’t even annoyed at this constant “haha sike” perhaps because the writing made him so likeable + Uemura Youth’s voice acting? The route was filled with this “above friends, but below lovers” tension that kept me at the edge of the seat. Alexei also gets cockblocked TWICE on two different occasions when he leaned in to kiss Lucia lol. Poor guy.

During one of her study dates with Alexei in the royal library, Lucia also makes an acquaintance with Lord Cailey, who is Alexei’s maternal uncle (his mother’s little brother) and he makes some borderline creepy infatuated comments about his own sister. He appears nice but as the rumours of the two dating became more prevalent, he had an one-on-one with Lucia and told her in the most diplomatic way that she needs to f- off away from Alexei, as he wants Alexei to becoming king, and the future king cannot be marrying some low-class person from another country.

However, the plot thickens with Lucia starting to narrowly escape several plotted attacks against her at school: a flowerpot that nearly fell on her head, someone pushing her down the stairs, and attempting to set off a magic explosion to turn Lucia into stone. The camera pans to Alexei seen saying to himself that he needed Lucia to help him (play this game) a bit longer, until he “reaches his goal”… Eventually, Alexei realizes that these attacks were all orchestrated by people who want him to follow the path they laid out for him, to be king, marry a high-class lady “fitting” for his status, and stay away from Lucia, and that they will not stop until they are apart.

Alexei goes to Lucia and basically tells her that he was using her all along because he needed someone low-class to be seen with, so that his dear brother Gerard can be seen as more reliable and king-material. He also said the two are just platonic friends & that she caught feelings and it’s ridiculous that she would even fathom being with a prince like him. This is exactly why you don’t stay friends with your exes… Anyway, Lucia is left confused and heartbroken, and she tries her best to navigate this new relationship between the two, telling herself to respect Alexei’s request, yet still want to be close to him.

Alexei doesn’t exactly have it easy on his end either. He tries to act cold towards Lucia, but still got jealous when she was all close with Isaiah & how they both go way back. Isaiah just thought the two had lovers’ bicker, and was giving him a warning of “don’t bully my little sis” but in the end still entrusts her to him. Isaiah also assumes that with his popularity and status as prince, he has a lot of experience with women and was worried he would play with Lucia’s feelings (we will learn in the end that Alexei in fact, does not have experience with women).

The turning point was when Lucia was attacked on stage when delivering a speech. Out of instinct, Alexei jumped out and shielded her because he is immune to magic. Despite this, Lucia was still wounded and lost consciousness for two days in the infirmary. When she woke up she found out to her horror that her transformation has progressed with her growing horns and animal ears. Alexei has been visiting her three times a day. Lucia runs outside in the snow because she doesn’t want Alexei to see this hideous side of her. He chases her outside and finally properly confess & the two kiss and make up.

The two meet the Elder Moulin who tells them the story behind how the royal family of Eldiel came to have their magic immunity which involves a specific ritual & blessings from the now nearly extinct fairies. Moulin also tells the two that a “union” between the two would take away the curse along with Alexei’s magic immunity, which is two birds with one stone in this situation. The two actually committed to doing the deed but then Lucia chickened out last minute so instead they slept holding hands hahaha.

Anyway, they continue investigating the fairy’s blessing with the goal of helping Gerard recover his magic immunity so he will no longer have barriers to become king. However, Lucia became kidnapped. The mastermind behind this and all the attacks turned out to be Uncle Cailey who goes on an unhinged rant about his unhealthy obsession with his sister and how having her own son become king is the best outcome because that ensures the highest status a woman can have in this country, which is what his dear sister deserves… Cailey also turns out to be a coward who is afraid of direct combat but is good at summoning magic, so he has a devil who can shapeshift into anyone (hence why “Alexei” was seen at some attacks and kidnapped Lucia) do his bidding. He was also the reason why Gerard didn’t have magic immunity; he thought doing this alone would make Alexei the undisputed king, but was annoyed that his plans got disrupted because how dare Alexei have a mind and ambition of his own & how dare Lucia be with who she loves.

Best End: The two defeat Cailey (Lucia holds him at sword point and makes him figuratively pee his pants). They successfully decipher Moulin’s hints – Gerard recovers his magic immunity and the current king steps down to let his older son take over. Two days before Lucia’s exchange period is over and she is set to return to Sanan, Alexei announces their marriage [I mean it worked out but would have been better if he proposed instead of just unilaterally deciding this].

After story: The two are already married. Alexei is an archaeologist travelling the world with Lucia, and shows her a beautiful starry sky.

Merry Bad End: Cailey is backed into a corner and out of desperation attempts a coup and fails. However, he frames Alexei with his shapeshifter in the process and he is unrightfully convicted for attempted murder of Gerard. He is sentenced to banishment. He is relieved of the expectations of being king and travels the world with Lucia.. but as a criminal who can never return to his country & this clearly affects his psyche. He will not trust that Lucia will not leave him, gets jealous at her for even talking normally to other men, and will never consummate the “union” with her because he believes Lucia will then leave her. To maintain her curse from progressing, Lucia will be bound to him for the rest of his life as she still requires bodily contact with him constantly.

Bad End: Cailey puts Lucia in a cage Toma style and straight up drugs her up and uses her to make Alexei do his bidding and be his good little puppet.

LARS KLOTZ (CV: Abe Atsushi)

Looks like at the end of common route, depending on the LI Lucia will pick up a different part of the myth behind the water and beast gods. Her story this time talks about how the beast god would play the flute, and the goddess singing to his tune, and together they fall in love.

With this prelude, we move from the Little Prince onto the Disney Princess of this game. Lars is the kuudere of the group, in the common route at least. He dislikes human interaction but loves animals, and in return, loved by the animals. All he does at the student council meetings is sleep. When Isaiah peeked into his dream with the dream-viewer device, his blissful dream is him with a bunch of cats on a field, with no humans… He is the biology prodigy of the school, publishing papers and what not, with the dream of becoming a biologist and animal protection activist – this part Lucia heard when she was turned into a mouse and given to Lars as a gift by his magical fairy cat – Ostara, who calls him her “darling”. As a mouse, Lucia got to see the gentle and caring side that Lars would never show to his peers. He is also prone to getting sick. In the earlier group event he had to stay behind his peers to rest because he physically could not keep up with the likes of Ricardo.

He opens up to Lucia rather quickly – around end of common route/chapter 7, when Lucia chooses him to tutor her biology and demonstrates genuine interest in animals and respects Lars’ dreams and ambitions. Lars introduces to the concept of “resonance” which is a nearly extinct phenomenon where an animal and human are connected by heart and soul, and can understand each others’ words. He is not only quiet but observative, as seen in the clam race betting story & able to find sheep Lucia. He also found Lucia’s habit of talking to her stuffed teddy bear imaginary friend quite cute. However, the conversations seems to always go sour whenever the topic of family is brought up, hinting at familial trauma.

The first half of the route includes two major events. First, Lars got sick from some influenza at school so Lucia goes to nurse him. He initially was resistant to this, wanting to tough it out himself, because this is not the way he’s brought up. When Lucia said but won’t your family be worried about you? He said they would just tell me to endure it, and not to lose face of the family… In his world, if people are not “useful” or bring “merit” to another there is no point of forging a relationship with them (but this goes all out the window with animals). He talks a bit about his flute, which is a familial heirloom because the heir of the Klotz family uses the flute to control animals and golems to basically be slaves at their gemstone mine. Even though he now plays the flute beautifully, he cannot master the flute magic to control animals, because inherently he feels this is wrong, and as such his family is disappointed in him. Lucia who fortunately grew up in a functional and loving family, was having none of this, so she made him yummy porridge [the road to a man’s heart is through his stomach truly] and mended his sleeve that was getting chewed by his fangirl sheep. Slowly, Lars started to smile and like seeing Lucia’s smile brighten up his day.

The second event is that the shy, timid biology teacher at school was acting very weird and pushy wanting Lars to “lend” him Ostara for a few days for ?observation. Ostara is Lars’ only family (per him) so he got very wary and asked Lucia to take care of her when he was too sick to get out of bed. Lucia turned into a rabbit and got to talk to Ostara, who told her how she and Lars met. Just as Ostara was going to tell Lucia how his family broke his heart, Lucia returned human and cannot understand what the cat was saying. Eventually, Ostara was still somehow whisked away by smugglers with the entire student council looking for her. Lucia and Lars confront the biology teacher who breaks down and said he is acting according to “someone’s” orders, and he cannot say their name at any cost because he said an oath and would be turned into a frog forever if he betrays his master. Lucia turns into a cat in time, overhears other cats’ conversations, and led the crew to the smuggler hideout where they confront the bad guys. I didn’t like this scene because Lars didn’t use earth magic for Ostara but got triggered when the smugglers were going to do lewd things to Lucia? At that point of the game Ostara should be infinitely more important than Lucia in his heart, so this didn’t make sense and was forced. Ostara becomes saved and she can talk to the whole student council!! She and Lars then bind by some magical contract aka “resonance”, with Ostara viewing this as some kind of wedding between the two and views Lucia as her rival as Lars can only have one important woman in his life, LOL (Lucia: ???)

With resonance, Lars’ magic powers increase exponentially to the point his family cares about him again. Lars is clearly torn. He has been nothing but mentally and physically abused his whole life by his parents, who favour his little brother Arty and treat him like a servant (Grace mentions while Klotz family is royalty, they act as if they only have one son Arty). However, at this stage he still had a glimmer of hope that with him being useful to his family, his family would share some of the love for Arty towards him. Unfortunately, that was not the case and his family is forcing him to marry Mayalise – aka Hatsune Miku looking ass – to forge a union between the family names. I still couldn’t care less about her in this route but she serves as a plot device in many senses. She was at least useful, in forcing Lucia’s hand to confess to Lars.

Because Lars has the human social skills of a mop he pulls Lucia in and kisses her, which shocks her and causes her to cry and run away. Lars then calls Lucia a liar because she is “crying in disgust” when kissing him… social skills aside Lars is obviously extremely insecure and has self-destruction tendencies. With his upbringing, he doesn’t believe anyone will truly love him, so he will push them away over and over, and then convince himself he is not worthy.

Lars is then pulled out from school randomly and just stopped showing up. The same time Lucia hears about a chain of mysterious deaths of wizards. She goes to his house and had the unpleasure of meeting his mom, who interrogates Lucia’a grades, family status, wealth, before concluding she is someone who is not worth Klotz family or Lars’ time and threw her out. Before leaving, she runs into Mayalise who was comically dumb enough to blurt out in the Klotz house as Lars’ fiancee that she has a disease causing her to lose the ability to cast magic (which is an outdated way to measure royalty of bloodline), and that she’s marrying Lars because this way she can get to closer to Alexei-sama because she realizes she will never have a real chance with him. Aaaand Mayalise gets banished too. The maids took sympathy to Lucia, commenting she is the “first and only person to truly care about Mr. Lars”, then secretly led her to his door.

Inside, she sees Lars in a deep slumber with a frustrated Ostara. Ostara reveals her ability is to control people’s dreams. She was the route of Lars’ escape from the real world where he was unloved and abused. To fight against his arranged marriage and being broken from the constant betrayal from his parents in general, Lars has sealed himself in a deep sleep that Ostara cannot wake him from, and at this rate he will die. She asks Lucia to enter the dream to bring him back to reality. [Lucia will in turn lose her ability to use magic but her curse will also be absorbed by Ostara’s dream. She obviously gets her magic back in the best ending, just going to say that here because the length is getting long.]. She enters Lars dream and witnesses in horror of the treatment he faced, and finally a Lars who willingly embraced a fake vision of a happy family of four where he was also praised by his parents, had a seat at the table, and loved… She shattered this vision and brought him back. Lars, Lucia, and Ostara then quietly leave the Klotz household back to school.

Lars was ready to never see his family again but his little brother Arty writes to him pleading with him to visit home as their dad, Dominic, is on his deathbed, inflicted with a mysterious illness. Sion, who saw Dominic with his royal physician father, mentions Dominic is poisoned with a rare plant. The cure to the poison is an extremely rare type of clam, that Lucia/Lars saw one of in the principal’s office. The principal is also up to some shady business and seems to be the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Ostara to make a love potion. Lars initially said he really doesn’t give a damn about if his father lives or not, but his conscience and feeling bad for his little bro compels him to go back, just to be humiliated by his parents again. The family flute was also just a practice flute that his parents forgot Lars even had in his possession – yet he’s been practicing hard all these years. This caused him to smash the flute and cut ties with his family for good.

Eventually the principal and Lars/Lucia/Ostara clash because she still needs Ostara, specifically her blood. They have a battle where wacky things happen such as Getty Images of a 3D brick wall being introduced to the game when Lars used his earth shield magic and Ostara turning into a huge mahou neko and started defying the laws of magic and carrying the crew to victory.

The ending titles are beautifully thought out and refer to the “sleeping butterfly” that Lars was explaining to Lucia towards the end. This type of butterfly has a low rate of making it out of its cocoon, with many people actually preferring the cocoon because it makes for a beautiful home decoration.

Best ending: 羽化と解けない魔法 (Magic that cannot be broken by emergence – the word 羽化 specifically refers to butterflies coming out of cocoon) By resonating with Ostara Lucia regains her magic. The principal is apprehended. The two confess their love and plan to reunite one day to work as biologist and knight, as they promised as friends early on in the route.

Merry bad ending: 殻の中の幸せ (happiness within the cocoon). Ostara couldn’t defeat the principal and with her last breath, she seals Lucia and Lars in a fake reality dream forever. I saw this coming from a mile away so quite cliche to me.

Bad ending: 長い長い冬眠 (Long, long hibernation). Lucia got turned into a frog from the principal’s curse. No one can find a cure. Lars eventually died one winter known as the eccentric biologist who lived with his cat and frog. [It is unclear whether he died of old age, sickness, or suicide.]

THOUGHTS

More happens in this route than Alexei’s. Overall I like Lars more as a character than Alexei but the route was messy and Alexei’s route was better written. My gripes with Lars route:

1. Why would he only use magic when Lucia was in danger but not Ostara
2. Writer’s attempt to build a relationship between Lars/Arty was pointless. Even if Arty never directly abused Lars, he was a direct beneficiary of his elder brother’s suffering. Because of Arty, Lars will have to run into his parents over and over again (like he did and got humiliated in game) and be exposed to more hurt. Arty as the next successor of the family gemstone business means he will take on the task of forcing golems and animals to be slaves and do unpaid work which clashes directly with Lars’ values and love for animals. In no world would this relationship ever have or should work.
3. I am unsure what the point was to let Lars’ mother go on a tirade about her sister whom she sarcastically described as an “overachiever”. This caused some confusion to the point at least one other major English reviewer thought Lars was a foster child or someone in Lucia’s shoes, because the mother later on says “Thank goodness I had Arty! He is much better than any child my sister can have.” This can be interpreted as: A. Lars’ mom and her sister competes their kids and Lars couldn’t compete with his cousin but Arty could with his talent. B. Lars’ aunt is dead and his “mom” is actually his aunt, because she hated her sister she also resented Lars and would jump at any opportunity to put him down and abuse him. Just messy writing and didn’t serve any real point at all.

RICARDO SANTE (CV: Oosaka Ryouta)

Oh Rico. What am I going to do with you.

As the stereotypical fire user, Ricardo Sante is the hot-blooded muscle of the group. He has considerable screen time in the common route, including multiple one-on-one events with Lucia (cries in Lars). They start off on shaky ground with Lucia accidentally dousing him in water thinking he started a fire when he was just practicing. He is all about winning, becoming the youngest royal knight leader and bringing money/fame. He also happens to be allergic to cats and women, as women/love will only slow his quest towards glory. He is very self-centred and often reprimanded by his peers for not being a team player and having main character syndrome, but the advice falls on deaf ears as he continues to tell people around him to not get in his way and just follow his lead. There is a sports fest at school where people compete in pairs. He voluntold Lucia to be his companion, because she is actually good at magic and Rico likes a good support who won’t drag him down. The two win it all thanks to Lucia being a considerate teammate.

However, he is not all talk and no skill/work, as he proves to be hardworking, and surprisingly good at “non-burly” subjects like etiquette (he actually tutored Lucia this) and painting (Alexei route). Entering his route will lead to Lucia reading a tale of how the god of beasts would protect his goddess from monsters with his sword so that she could live in safety and harmony.

… and immediately we are sent cackling because Ricardo’s idea of helping Lucia was going door to door in the street asking shop owners whether they have a cure to “my friend who is cursed and turns into an animal from time to time”. Dude are you trying to get her deported?! Because this is how you get her deported lmao!! Ricardo unfortunately still acts like he is the main character and pissed off all his teammates during a mock battle because he refused to support others, and when they pointed it out he told all of them to git gud, lmao. Teacher Daddy Lambert makes more appearance this route which is always a feast for the eyes. Lambert gives Ricardo a stern warning that if he cannot learn to support his team, and only care about his “glory”, he will never be accepted as a royal knight; he still doesn’t care though.

Ricardo is the son of the ex-leader of the royal knight order. Ex because… his dad is drunk now because eight years ago he lost his wife and hasn’t been the same since. I thought there was more to it but no, he just turned into a helpless alcoholic for eight years and didn’t bother parenting Ricardo so he had to parent himself. Ricardo visits his dad’s favourite weapon shop monthly to have a go at pulling out a sword that is basically the Excalibur of their universe. The owner wanted to give Lucia a try for fun as well. While the two were fighting for the chance to pull the sword, their hands touch, the two blush but also hear the sword talk.

[There is also another minor plot with a rival of Ricardo’s who always beats him at every single duelling competition but is not as important here so will not cover.]

The two continue to bicker about anything and everything, which was honestly very entertaining to see and put the comedy in romcom. This includes Ricardo kidnapping a cat Lucia to talk to his horse to figure out why she was sad. Just as I thought Lars and his Disney Princess arc was over Ricardo’s horse was like he never says he loves me anymore wahhh sabishii; so there’s that lmao. Lucia then transforms in the most unfortunate time and Rico ends up grabbing her booby parts, earning him an angry “why are you so LEWD” remark. Ricardo’s cat allergy flares after (don’t ask me why anaphylaxis manifests as fainting in this world) and he gets to wake up in Lucia’s lap too, hehe.

The two also investigate ghost sightings on campus. Lucia was all “I’m a big girl not like the other ones I ain’t afraid of no ghost” then some shadow came by and she was like KYAAAA and hugged Ricardo’s arm tightly. When the situation is resolved, our late blooming boy finally realized her boobs were touching his arm this whole time. He didn’t want to say the word booby so he called them “weird thing” which obviously set off Lucia and the two bicker again. His blushing art, so gorgeous.

The ghost is revealed to be Lambert who is a knight undercover here to investigate the principal, who is suspected to be the mastermind behind making the monsters go berserk and causing bloodshed 8 years ago. (Lucia also meets that mysterious boy that keeps saying weird stuff. Looks like the beast god’s spirit is borrowing other people’s bodies, because he feels his real body is ugly or something. Anyways, don’t care in this route.)

This route is definitely the best written out of the three unlocked routes and often regarded as the favourite because each romance scene is so memorable & I will record each one here.

See exhibit – Ricardo Sante inhaling that COPIUM that he is still allergic to women, but because he doesn’t see Lucia as a woman he can justify and continue to spend time with her (and gets his ass beat by Lucia before he could finish)

See exhibit – Ricardo buys a faulty sword that is actually a prank mechanism that makes the user speak the truth for 60s and they will then not have any recollection of it afterwards, so we got a sneak peek of his confession and 本音

The evil principal shows her hand early and admits she is doing it for love, but again won’t say who. She also showed resent towards Lucia, as it appears the person she loves is obsessed with “Lucia’s soul” and as such her love becomes unrequited. Just as she almost wins the 1v2 vs the duo, Lambert comes to their rescue and asks them to support him in taking her down. However, Ricardo’s main character syndrome kicks in again and he almost feeds Ellegira a free kill. Ellegira escapes. Lambert is extremely unhappy with his insubordination. Seeing Lucia almost get hurt because of his actions, something moved within Ricardo and he apologized for his actions and begged Lambert to give him special training. Lambert agrees but with the condition that he and Lucia train together, so he can learn the meaning behind teamwork.

The two continue to spend time and train together. More backstory is revealed about why Ricardo is obsessed with a medium-level fire spell that is high-investment low-reward: his parents were both really good at using this unique spell, so he wants to perfect it. A lot of Ricardo’s actions were stuck in his childhood stage, such as his stubborn belief of “if I work harder than others and beat their high-level spells with a medium-level one, that makes me cool and kakkoii”, or even self-centredness in general shows because his dad was too preoccupied with grief to parent him, Ricardo has been emotionally stunted in a past phase. It wasn’t until meeting Lucia and nearly losing her in battle did he start his overdue growing up process. Lucia shares details of how Ricardo is doing with his dad (as he won’t talk to him), who is convinced to come see him participate in future jousting competitions, and eventually the two cry it out and make up, and papa Sante tries to pick up his life again and quit drinking. In the meantime, Alexei is an 11/10 wingman and nearly tricked the two to kiss by glueing their hands together, as well as made Rico jealous and storm out of the cafeteria by asking Lucia to feed him ice cream.

The climax of the route is the two enter Excalibur (I know that’s not the name but forgot the sword’s name and don’t bother checking)’s trial as after their training and “mind as one” the spirit in the sword has taken an interest to both of them. They have only one chance their whole lives and 72 hours to take a shining orb from the dragon. The dragon appears invincible and the two fail miserably the first two days. The third night, Lucia’s curse progressed and she grew out horns again… Ricardo, who was ready to be stuck here for eternity to pass the quest, tells Lucia that he is willing to give up his once in a lifetime chance for Excalibur and would rather return to the real world with her, so she can find a cure. They confess their feelings for each other and kith this is the cutest bed CG so far aww I-

With the power of love (and Lucia being able to understand animal language with her mutation and overheard two chibi dragons spilling the beans on how to beat the dragon boss while drinking, lmao) they obtain Excalibur which then split into a pair of swords because the two obtained them together and the dragon residing in the sword was only impressed because of their love and desire to protect each other.

With the newfound power of Excalibur (which also conveniently wipes the curse), Ricardo and Lucia defeat Ellegira, Rico beats his rival just in time before Lucia boards the ship back to Sanan. He proposes to Lucia who beams and accepts:

But not long before the two bicker again OVER WHO LOVES EACH OTHER MORE IN THE RELATIONSHIP IM CRYING

Lucia: No I love you more…!

After story: Lucia surprises Ricardo by landing in his country after graduation and becoming a knight alongside him, thanks to some lying by omission from the best wingman this game. Rico starting to looking like his ojisan here and def got a glow up 10/10

Merry Bad End: the two are stuck in the sword’s trial forever, but live as lovers.

Bad End: Thanks to an unlucky accident caused by Ricardo, Lucia is stuck in cat form for the rest of her life. The good news? Ricardo discovers his newfound love for cats, joins the church of cats, and the ending is titled “in Ricardo’s lap” truly a comedy route.

THOUGHTS

Hands down the best written route out of the three unlocked routes – as I write the review for each route as I finish while the memory is fresh, I am not sure yet whether this will remain the best written route of the game (given my two most interested characters are Isaiah and Sion as well). The writer successfully made me fall in love with a trope that I’m usually pretty meh about, so bravo! A lot of ground was covered, but the delivery was crisp and different plot lines are treated with different weight, so we don’t have to sit through the drag that was Lars route towards the end (I still love Lars though but my goodness his route was a mess). I was grinning ear to ear from start to finish even the bad ends.

ISAIAH KLEIN (CV: Maeno Tomoaki)

While Alexei is the first LI that appeared in the game and “technically” the first to meet Lucia, no LI has a preexisting strong bond with Lucia like poster boy Iza-nii does. Isaiah Klein is the son of the famous Klein sales company – basically, he is loaded. They deal with magical devices and their repairs. Isaiah is also extremely handy and enjoys tinkering with mechanisms and whatnot. He and Lucia met when they were children, when the Kleins were doing business in Sanan; Lucia helped them get out of a tricky product malfunction situation with her overabundance of mana. The two share a loving sister-brother like relationship, with Isaiah being the reliable, bright, well-liked, and protective older brother figure (to be fair I did not find him overbearing) to Lucia. The Klein family knows Lucia and like her very much: honourable mention to Iza-nee aka Isaiah’s sister Irina who bullies Isaiah around but spoils Lucia to the sun and back.

The fairy tale that Lucia chose before starting Isaiah’s route is bloodier than what we expected of a typical cliche childhood friend/”old brother” trope. One day the water goddess was sick, so the god of beasts went to find the flower that would cure all ailments. He went through a lot of suffering and effort. He finally found the flower and made it into a beautiful hairclip and gifted it to the goddess. The goddess’ follower was not impressed because the beast of god was ugly, and that his hand was covered in dirt and blood. However, the goddess replies, those are the warmest hands I have ever felt, and that she loved him no matter what.

Isaiah and Lucia’s interactions in the common route can be summarized in two events. One, Lucia turns into a puppy and was given a shower (against her will) by a topless Isaiah, who also reveals a scar on his chest. Isaiah was also revealed to be a huge drama/stageplay nerd who can get really emotional and invested in the plot. (Early on in his own route, he is also an avid fan of poetry, though his skill of writing poems are… interesting…) Two, Lucia ran into Isaiah one day in the streets. However, he was wearing an all-black outfit and his hand was covered in blood. He acted very different and asked Lucia to pretend she didn’t see him and never bring it up again… and she just drops the topic?? Ok.

Isaiah, with his double life hinted in the common route, continues to ask Lucia questions occasionally like “what if I am not who you think I am, would you still view me as your older brother”. Lucia caught feelings for Isaiah very early on, as early as in the common route where she said to herself that it would be very nice if she was Isaiah’s girlfriend, and that she cared about Isaiah’s thoughts on dating. Isaiah appears to be the slower one between the two, which is refreshing as usually the childhood friend trope is always the MC friend zoning the dude until they kabedon them or something, hence I dreaded this route slightly but the character design & Maeno poster boy are simply too tempting of a combo, lol. However, we will soon see that Isaiah’s “sis-zoning” is not because he’s a dumdum but for deeper reasons. He is suppressing his feelings for Lucia. He let a little bit of that show when someone wrote a love letter to Lucia and he was very unhappy about that. He remains determined to find a magical device that will liberate Lucia from her curse, including possibly making a device that “liberates people from all curses and contracts” from a legendary blueprint, but the two don’t know where to find a potent power source that is “beyond human capability”. Finally, Iza-nee adds some spiciness to their not-moving love lives by giving Lucia a “mature” dress and telling the two go on a date, where they hold hands because Isaiah can’t stand all the random guys trying to make moves on his “little sister”.

Anise too plays a major role in this route, to my delight. My fav girl friend needs more screen time. She initially has girl talk with Lucia, who is too embarrassed to say she has a crush on Isaiah and instead says she likes Mr. Lambert because he’s so “grown up” and “mature” only to have Lambert appear behind Anise all of a sudden and be like “I heard you guys are talking about me” LMAO (but for real, I’d tap Lambert any day of the week.) Anise then is shown to take a long sick break from school, with the surface reason of “taking care of the orphanage owner” (where she is from). However, the screen pans to someone telling Anise that “Isaiah killed Kuruto” with this Kuruto implied to be someone very important to Anise. Along with Anise’s disappearance, many students start getting spirited away with their last contact being someone who from description, sounds awfully like Lucia’s missing friend. Eventually, one day Anise reappears like nothing’s happened only to try to kidnap Lucia to “him”.

A drugged Lucia was no match for Anise, but was saved by Isaiah. Anise then calls Isaiah “one of our own” – revealing both of them to be professionally trained assassins. Isaiah then does an info dump where the Klein company is actually a front of the royal family of spying, intrigue… and assassination. Because the Kleins are known for wind magic and spying, from a young age he was trained and made to assassinate people thought to be threats to the crown by his father. Isaiah then says he’s never viewed Lucia more than a little sister and that they should probably keep their distance, but what he really meant to say is that someone living in the shadows like him is not good enough for a girl like her. Lucia confesses Isaiah that she is prepared to his ride or die even if he has this other side, and that he will always be the same Isaiah she knew since childhood. Isaiah tries to scare her off by saying, well we only marry people within the organization, how can you prove you will be loyal to me, unless you marry me right now. Lucia then agrees without hesitating and Isaiah’s like wait not like this.

Anise and Isaiah clear up their misunderstandings. We receive more info dump. The orphanage is another front for some illegal organization, where the orphans there are all trained to be elite solders/assassins and are bound to their owner by a magical contract that inflicts excruciating pain if they don’t carry out their orders. Anise was only told to bring students with large amounts of mana to the organization – exact plan unknown – but to bring Lucia directly to one of the higher ups. Kuruto and Anise are both from the same orphanage with Kuruto being like Anise’s little brother. Isaiah and his dad busted the organization on some night on the king’s orders. His dad ordered Isaiah to kill Kuruto who was still a child, but the crown said no survivors. While Isaiah was hesitating, Kuruto charged at him and stabbed him with a magical device. Kuruto then died in front of his eyes because the device is basically a kamikaze device that burns the user’s life energy into magic that kills their opponent. Isaiah nearly dies, but survives ultimately with the top medical team in the country thanks to Kleins’ wealth, and hence his scar. Isaiah still has the device as a souvenir, and comments that this is not a mundane device made by any man, it’s almost like the work of a deity.

The action stops briefly because the two gotta go date!! during winter festival (where the snow is manmade in this country unlike Sanan) smh. Lucia confesses to Isaiah again, that she sees him not as a big brother but as a man … and gets ruthlessly sis-zoned, again. I was starting to lose my patience, which is always paper thin when it comes to the childhood friend trope, but at least we had the plot & sexy Maeno voices going for us. It is very worth it to stick to the end.

Using a magical compass, Anise, Isaiah, and Lucia go searching for Anise’s contract (which is literally a piece of enchanted paper) to liberate her from carrying out her organizations’ deeds. The compass leads them to the school, and the office of one of the teachers Vein Bruloque (I was going to translate his name to Bain or Vayne but the official translation on vndb is Vein.. whatever), who was the one giving Anise orders and telling her that Isaiah killed Kuruto. Vein was also the teacher who took an interest to Lucia’s birthmark in early common route. Vein wasn’t home, but there was a manmade fairy guarding the safe with Anise’s contract. The ensuing scene was absolutely hilarious as the fairy did not want to fight, but instead bargained with the group that if they share their most embarrassing memory (as he feasts on emotions) he will open the safe for them. As Anise and Lucia’s examples were weak, Isaiah started reciting some of his poems and… you will just have to experience this in real time yourself. LOL. What I appreciate about this game is that it doesn’t fear mixing it up with some comedy in the most unexpected times, for example here, and the magical cat scenes in Lars’ route.

Anyways, the group makes it out just before Vein returning to his residence, with Anise’s contract and a hairclip that has the same pattern as her birthmark. Anise is now free from the organization. However, the route has dragged on for too long that Lucia is starting to transform. Isaiah asks Lucia to stay at the Klein residence given her change in appearance and Vein being at the school. He confesses but not really, and the two end the night on a promise of him always being by her side & protecting her, but in what role?

Eir visits the two and gives them one week to figure something out or she’s going to take Lucia back to Sanan and wait to die basically. She also provides a lore exposition that confirms the suspicions a lot of us had. Lucia is the reincarnation of the water goddess (Lieta). Contrary to the most popular version of the fairytale, Lieta did not turn into a bird; she jumped into a lake as suicide after learning of her beloved’s death without ever confessed her feelings for him. The hairclip holds immense power and was a personal item of Lieta’s – the perfect piece for the legendary device blueprint mentioned earlier. Isaiah works super hard and manages to rush out a device. However, this hairclip proves to be a red herring as it shatters at first use. They are too far in this to give up on hope. The two think and think and think and finally have a Eureka moment: what do they have to lose if they use Kuruto’s device? Magical device v2 was used (with another red herring that this device may drain up all of Isaiah’s life essence in order to remove Lucia’s curse) with Lucia having a brief encounter with Lieta’s memory fragment, who tells Lucia to live as a human girl and do what she was never able to achieve as a goddess: to be honest with her feelings, to love bravely, and be loved… all the meanwhile Lucia laid unconscious in a crying Isaiah’s arms, who finally breaks down and confesses his true feelings.

The curse is solved with the crew confronting Vein in his laboratory, who reveals part of the main story’s plot. Lucia, who has no memories of her childhood, was the only experimental child soldier project that survived Vein’s experiments. Hence why he called her his “masterpiece” and why she had that “mana overflow” problem. She is not actually related to the Yuans by blood, but was adopted after Vein’s lab in Sanan was busted by the knightly order of Sanan. The monster outbreak 8 years ago was a failed experiment to see if it’s easier to experiment on beasts than humans. Vein’s ultimate motives are not revealed, as it’s not clear why he is obsessed with creating the best human soldier who has a lot of mana, and at this point he is likely to be an reincarnation if not at least related to Lieta’s obsessive follower. Anyways, he gets defeated and we move onto the happily ever after.

Isaiah actually accompanies Lucia to Sanan on her way back after she’s finished her exchange year. He gifts her a matching earpiece that allows her to talk to Isaiah anytime, anywhere before they reunite. The two share a cute joke about “warm Isaiah” which came from “warm heat packs” that little Isaiah made Lucia for her to use in the winters. In the epilogue, Isaiah detached from the family company (with Irina becoming heiress) to start his own company and orphanage, one that actually helps children instead of abusing them lol.

Extra story was extremely cute where a Lucia gets drunk and becomes very forward and the two ichaciha lol.

Bad end: Initially I didn’t think it was too bad. Lucia and Isaiah become lovers and both work as assassins under Klein company, and are still trying to find a way to break Anise from her curse. However, some random child from Anise’s org just double kills them randomly and the route is over I guess.

Merry bad end: More of a joke end where Isaiah gets accidentally turned into a dog who can speak human words, due to an unfortunate transfer of Lucia’s curse. Lucia then repairs the device under doggy Isaiah’s instructions hopefully she can turn him back one day.

THOUGHTS

Overall, for a trope that is heavily stereotypical and disliked by me, this route was enjoyable. Maeno’s voice acting (some of the scenes were so steamy…) and the writer’s well-timed comedy gags made this route unconventional enough to stand out. Isaiah stood out as a two-dimensional character, not only his double occupation but also someone with niche interests such as poetry, stage plays, drama, and machination. Ironically for someone who was ordered to kill children (but couldn’t comply) he is the best with them and probably the most father material out of the crew… Iza-daddy? Maeno used his Lupin voice this route and I loved it. His voice, while not the most versatile, is the most “poster boy” like in my opinion so I fully agree with whichever genius casting him in this role.

SION CALDO (CV: Okitsu Kazuyuki)

Sion is route-locked last for good reason as his is also the truth ending. In the prologue, he is the mysterious ashen haired student council president and heir from a family of royal doctors who is not a man of much words. He is respected and almost feared by everyone, including animals around him. When he gets angry, the room he is in would start shaking as if an earthquake is happening. The only animals who do not fear him are Ostara and Lucia when under her curse. They don’t have that much interaction in the common route. He has a broken watch that he shines every day that is of significant importance to him. He is weak to a specific type of alcoholic apple. Finally, he makes some weird remarks that make us suspect he knew Lucia long before her exchange, but Lucia seems to have forgotten him. He also seems to know Eir.

Upon entering his route, Lucia borrows a mythology book from the library only to find it completely ruined by ink and illegible. We then see several shots of Sion attempting to find a cure for Lucia’s curse and muttering to himself 自分を律しろ which is basically a self-reminder to practice restraint, of emotions? of power? He then states he needs to restrain himself because he is “the wizard that faces death” which sounds like a harbinger of the end of the world of some sort. Sion’s father also agrees with this and comments that Sion is like “him”. He then runs into Eir into the streets who says the same thing and asks him to stay away from Lucia. After Eir disappears into the crowd, he realizes he has met her long, long ago yet Eir denies it.

This route wastes no time in jumping into action and lore-dumping, including introducing a gemstone called “the fragment of hope” which was initially gifted from Eir to Lucia. However, a young Lucia has given this to a young Sion. (Here it comes!! The fateful reunion trope!) However, Lucia wasn’t sure if this boy was Sion because at the time he gave her a different name: Desuto Magus.

The two continue wandering around for a cure and we get a little interlude of a zoo date set up by Grace where Lucia turns into a penguin.

There is a guy Oliver (the same green haired dude who tries to pick up Lucia in the common route at the ball) who comes from a rival doctor family and tries to coerce Lucia into going out on a date with him, in exchange for him returning Sion’s precious pocket watch. Eventually she gets the watch back and reconcile with Sion about their shared childhood memory. Oliver tries to get some lackeys to beat Sion up, but he 1v3s them and almost unleashes a hidden personality of some sort, maniacally laughing at Oliver’s fear and shouting that he wants to destroy everything. Desuto Magus is basically an old language which stands for “the wizard facing death”. The Caldo family usually does not birth children with white hair and purple eyes. When they do, those children have exceptionally high levels of mana, cannot control it, and either die at birth or go insane and die before the age of 18. The only way to delay what appears to be the inevitable is to “practice restraint” of one’s emotions and powers. Hence, Sion constantly denying his feelings for Lucia or anything in this world, as well as believing he is an ugly being that is not wanted in this beautiful world, and certainly not good enough for Lucia.

Lucia goes to church and meets Ashley the priest who goes all creepy and drugs her. It is clear that he is the reincarnation of Ford, Lieta’s obsessive follower. However, his magic was blocked by… Marianne, the teddy bear that Lucia talks to every night? The teddy bear then starts talking in a manly voice, and revealing himself to be the beast god Gio whose spirit mainly resides in Marianne, but sometimes in that kouhai Serge when he needs a messenger to push the events forward – it just costs a lot of energy.

Sion turns 18, so far he is not dead or insane yet; his father gives him a grimoire that supposedly gave him a Eureka moment. Lucia finds Vein’s name on the cover of some mythology books, and gets lured into his lab, because Vein has his own agenda. Gio, who was a bystander in the previous routes, comments he must take action because “he” (Ford) is scheming. Gio also later comments that he was moved by Sion’s “despair” and wants to help him. Gio warns Sion who rushes to Vein’s lab with runes on his skin, signifying pre-transformation to Desuto Magus. Vein reveals his goal being to “bring back Ashley (his childhood friend and brother like figure)’s soul” as Ashley was possessed one day by Ford, and started carrying out his crazy plan to resurrect Lieta. Vein then reveals Ellegira is in love with Ashley but there is a good chance she can be an ally instead of enemy. He then vomits blood due to his contract with Ashley and becomes unconscious.

The two confront Ellegira who confirms her only goal is to have Ashley’s love. While she is not impressed with what Sion/Lucia are doing, she agrees that she’d rather not let Ashley get his hands on Lucia/Lieta because then she would never have a chance. She gives Sion a small pack of powder and asks them to sprinkle it on Ashley’s wounds when he is defeated.

While I am willing to wait for the chemistry between the two to brew, Lucia’s curse would not and she grows her beast horns and ears. Vein also told the crew that Ashley is planning to complete the ritual to bring back Lieta next moon. He teaches them a spell that requires “a master of each element, and all six people working in sync, and have a catalyst event of some sort to ignite their emotions” which can defeat a deity like Ford/Ashley. The crew happen to be the student council. However, they cannot execute the spell. To make matters worse, Lucia got kidnapped through her dreams by Ashley.

Lars/Ostara track Lucia’s dream to Ashley’s church. At the door, Isaiah uses his pickpocket skills to get in. The crew faces some monsters that are defeated by Ricardo. Finally, they have trouble deciphering the instructions to activate the transportation spell but luckily they have archeologist and language specialist Alexei. The crew arrives in a shady cave where Ford/Ashley maniacally laughs and says he has sacrificed countless people and harnessed their souls to create the perfect vessel for Lieta to return and be with him forever. Together they can enslave humankind. As Lieta’s tragedy happened a thousand years ago, Ford has been changing bodies, and he intends to use Sion as his next vessel, as he is “beautiful and powerful”. He easily keeps the six people at bay because he is a god… Gio absorbs one fatal attack and goes silent.

The climax is where the crew realizes that they have to … shout their dreams while casting their respective elemental spell. This is so cliche but so anime-esque where the whole friend group comes together to defeat the big bad guy. Ricardo shouts he wants to protect his father and that his father is always his pride and joy. Isaiah wants to find a way to exist in this world that no longer requires killing but allows him to create and protect (I wonder what would happen if he starts reciting his poems and say he wants to be a poet “Oh…”). Lars wants to walk his own path without being pressured to carry his family name and business. Alexei wants to be an archeologist and free from the burden that is princedom. Lucia wants to be with everyone and fight for a brighter future. Sion… he wants to use all he has to protect Lucia Yuan.

And thus, Ashley is defeated (and turned into a black cat thanks to Ellegira; you can hear him scowling in the epilogue).

Is this our confession and proposal and happily ever after?

Lucia turns into a beast. Not beast ears cosplay-looking Lucia, a hideous animal. She screams and runs away from everyone, with Sion chasing after her. They run into a field of flowers, the same breed of magical flowers that the two children met in. Sion then says “I will turn back time.” Wait, what?

We are then brought into a flashback where Lucia lands fresh off the boat, meets Sion at her dorm (instead of in the alleyway). She struggles to make friends, doesn’t get in trouble at the tree, doesn’t join the student council. However, she became closer and closer to Sion, who she doesn’t remember. In this timeline, Sion is the only one that knows about her curse. He breaks the taboo and takes leaves from the white tree and made a concoction for her to try. Lucia turned into a beast. A desperate Sion turned into Desto Magus and destroyed the world… until Eir, the fairy of the lake where Lieta committed suicide, pleaded with the Gods upon the sky for time to rewind, at the cost of her immortality.

It appears things have failed again in this timeline and Eir does not have anything else to offer to the Gods to turn back time again. So Sion does it, with the grimoire his dad gave him, while uttering a spell to stop his heart so he doesn’t transform into Desto Magus. So Sion is dead… or is he? Lucia cries the goddess’ tears, which polishes the same “fragment of hope” and turns it into a gem, which then became the miracle that brought Sion back to life. I know the way I describe it is anticlimactic, fortunately the game does it a lot better than I do.

The two confess, kiss, and get engaged before Lucia leaves (with the whole group eavesdropping and jumping out to say CONGRATULATIONS). The after story is a cozy after-marriage story where Sion grew his hair longer and the two ichaicha in bed together. In the best ending all characters have a short description of what they ended up doing after graduation, giving this a finale feel.

Bad end: The two got turned into rabbits by Ellegira and ran away and lived as rabbits together. However, both of them quite like this arrangement as no one will be after them again, and Sion comments that “no one will take you away from me” yandere much lol

Merry bad end: Similar to Lars’ MBE/Olympia Soiree Himuka BE Sion uses his powers to create a world where only he and Lucia exists and they will only have each other to look at and depend on until the end of time.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is in my opinion the otome game of 2024 and a hidden gem that really should be picked up by publishers and localized. There is a plot (where the story actually comes together in the end), lots of romcom & gag moments – the authors know what they’re doing is cliche and just embraced and rolled with it. The plot is never a drag. Lucia is overall a likeable and strong MC who is not afraid to stand up for herself. The finale with Sion route really ticked all my boxes when it came to the angsty, fated-lovers, fated reunion trope and there is really no moving on from that route at least in this game.

Character ranking: I enjoyed all of them so this is one of my rare hakooshi games where I don’t whine and complain about any route. Sion tops the chart because of Okitsu voice (that I was replaying over and over in common route) and his trope; followed by Ricardo which is a fan favourite and really wowed me with his route’s writing (and glowup in after story).

Sion > Ricardo > Isaiah > Lars > Alexei

Final rating: 10/10