Completion date: July 20, 2025

Along with Gensou Manege, I started this game in early 2025, January to be exact. This is a long review. Quicklinks:

Mozu/Scarecrow/Limbo/Shu/Helvetica/Final Thoughts

I only played the happy endings for this game. As the game advertised, the play order does not matter because you’re experiencing each character’s individual story and turmoil, and they don’t spoil other people’s routes.

There are good summaries of Full Circle/non romance routes so I will not go into detail here given the length of this review. More in final thoughts, but I would strongly recommend this game to any otome gamer.

My play order:

Mozu > Scarecrow > Limbo > Shu > Helvetica

PROS:

• Action-packed common route
• Intricate character building, including non-LIs
• Voice acting is top notch with a strong cast
• Interesting premise and plot
• Music

CONS:

• Long common route
• Certain routes are not romance focused (Mozu for example)
• (Why no Adam route gg)

*** Spoilers ahead ***

SETTING

There are many detailed play-by-play recaps such as this on the Internet, so I will focus less on detail and more on the bare minimum for us to coherently get to the individual routes.

The story takes place in the fictional modern east-coast American city New Sieg. The first few minutes are intriguing yet puzzling as a lawyer named Limbo is on the phone with someone who introduces themselves as Teuta and begs Limbo to trust them. It hooks the reader’s interest immediately. The main character of the game is actually Teuta, who is typically a 21-year-old freelance journalist always looking for her scoop and breakthrough in the world of journalism. Teuta set her eyes on Limbo, a famous lawyer who is perhaps a bit too good at what he does with a notorious reputation. Limbo gives her his card but declined an interview.

Minutes later in the central core (a prominent intersection) Teuta finds Limbo shot dead. She panics, then activates her time travel ability, which allows her to go back a few hours maximum in time, but with no choice of whose body she will randomly take over. In the beginning of the story, she became an apprehended pickpocket and asked for Limbo to be her defence lawyer in order to contact him. Limbo stays put instead of venturing out to the intersection so he didn’t get shot. He and Shu (a “business partner” of Limbo’s who is later revealed to be “the killer of killers”, a hitman who targets other hitmen) meet up with Teuta, who is now in her body, at a coffee shop. Teuta gives intimate details and names that a dying Limbo told her, proving her statement.

Now that Teuta kind of knows their secrets, Limbo explains what they do on the side. The group of five men call themselves “fixers” or vigilantes who carry out their version of justice on people who are above the law. We have already met Limbo and Shu. The rest three are plastic surgeon Helvetica, forensic pathologist Mozu, and genius hacker/hikokomori Scarecrow (that Teuta does not meet until she moves in with the guys).

Teuta has two childhood friends that she meets up with for drinks regularly and promise each other that they will “keep no secrets”. The female friend named Luka is a detective at the police department, who dresses like a tomboy and has romantic feelings for Teuta. Teuta also has a male friend Adam (ISHIKAWA KAITO) who is the son of a Russian billionaire but decides to stay in New Sieg to become a popular news anchor instead. In the beginning Teuta also reflects that she had a brother was a police officer and died years ago with the officials concluding his death to be from “natural causes”; but she is not convinced of this. This put a stop to her dream of being a policewoman but instead to pursue journalism, to get to the bottom of the truth. We also meet Carmen who owns the bar Paraiso Garage – that Teuta and her best friends hang out on Friday nights. Carmen is voiced by Kakki and has a flamboyant colour palette. The writers likely wanted to portray her as a transgender woman. Many reviewers and myself included appreciate how the game normalizes this and nobody questions her gender. Alex is a young teenager who was adopted by and works for Carmen.

The fixers carry out their newest heist against a prominent but corrupt banker who sent the hitman to kill Limbo in the first place. Each member’s talent was showcased as well as how they collaborated with each other. The heist concludes with the villain’s crimes exposed and Limbo taking off in a helicopter and spreading (fake) money that was supposedly the cash prize for “killing Limbo”; very mafia crime movie style.

After this event, Teuta’s rundown apartment breaks down so she has nowhere to live. The fixers extend an invite for her to house share with them at their luxurious mansion.

I will skip chapter 2/Eddie’s event as it’s really to serve as more screen time for the LIs to exhibit their personalities.

I will also skip chapter 3/Irina’s event/Lopez brother plot as it is not relevant until Full Circle. If you’re interested feel free to check out other summaries as linked above. Similarly, the vaccine incident will also not be covered as it’s not exactly relevant for this review. Don’t get me wrong they are very relevant for the game to let us learn about the boys, but any review will pale in comparison to playing the game and experiencing first hand yourself, so I will not bother trying to emulate that experience.

The pertinent events from these chapters are:

• Teuta uses her time travel ability to save Luka, who was shot for knowing too much and exposing shady business/corruption within the police (it would never be a complete American drama without corrupt police, am I right). Luka confesses her love for Teuta before she died. Teuta time travels to a surgical resident doctor’s body and calls Luka to save her in the new timeline, but the resident is on probation because Teuta delayed a patient’s surgery to call Luka leaving them wheelchair-bound. This makes Teuta reflect on the gravity of her actions, that this is not some game that she can play at her whim.
• During the vaccine event [I’m honestly quite irked they called it the vaccine. You cannot give a vaccine to someone AFTER they contract the disease. That’s just an antidote/cure/medication.], Teuta meets a professor by the first name of Sauli, who turns out to be Helvetica’s adoptive father. He gives Teuta a psychological quiz. This quiz will largely determine whose personal route we will enter.

At the end of chapter 4 you will have two hints tipping you off which route you are in: which name the house cat responds to and the bikini that Teuta wears at the pool party.

Finally, I want to fact-check the two doctors’ ages. Given the story taking place in the USA, it is quite literally impossible for Helvetica/Mozu to be practicing (and in such prominent positions such as department head in Mozo’s case) at the age of 25/26 unless they also skipped multiple years like Scarecrow. In the USA/Canadian medical education system, you have to do 3-4 years of bachelors into 3-4 years of medical school, into 5 years of residency (for plastic surgery vs. pathology). Assuming they go to university at age 17 and accelerate a year each in undergrad/med school, the earliest they complete training and start practicing as independent consultants will be 28. Just needed to get that off my chest.

MOZU (CV: Fukuyama Jun)

I started with Mozu as I let the quiz decide for me, and they have spoken. On the one hand, I was super excited that I get to listen to FukuJun’s sexy voice… of course they cast him in a monotone character who does not seem to have much emotion in his daily life, or in his words, “I’m not good at talking to living people”. Instead, he talks to the dead as a forensic pathologist and together with Helvetica, the two doctors serve as the brains of the group. He is calm, clean, tidy, and dubbed the “mom” of the group. In the prologue, Mozu inquires about Teuta’s brother, as he also has a sister, Yuzu, who is missing as well.

The two’s story revolve around finding Yuzu. They first get into a murder case at an academy that was framed as a suicide. Talking to the students, they imply that more than one life had been taken at this institution. The school, fearing its reputation, along with one of their teachers Troy, do not want Teuta and friends to dig more into this. Meanwhile, Teuta witnesses a bit of emotion coming from Mozu, who held a lifeless puppy who died outside the autopsy lab in the rain. The two spend a quiet moment together with Mozu thanking her.

Eventually, they befriend one of the students Ivy, who was a friend of Yuzu. She lets in that Yuzu got a bit too close to this teacher Troy, and the two had an argument. After that, Yuzu disappeared, which left Ivy feeling guilty. She invites the two to go to their local prom to find out more information. Meanwhile, Mozu confides in Teuta about why he became a coroner.

A random kabedon scene happens where Mozu suddenly pins Teuta on a locker. He then explains that sexual arousal also increases mood, aka he wanted to cheer up. Mozu really is a robot sometimes… and like a normal human being Teuta says this is just silly and he just needs to talk to or hug someone. To which he replied wow what an idea I haven’t thought of that, and that “if I were to hug someone, I’d rather hug Teuta because it feels nice”, to which Teuta teases “look who’s talking like Helvetica!”

What transpires at the party is really weird to write out, and basically reveals the antagonist of Mozu’s story to be Troy, who for lack of better terms is just a crazy sicko serial killer. I really did not understand a motive and know that sometimes you don’t need one, but … just felt forced. He also did various things to frame Ivy as the killer, but why…? Is he just that big of a drama queen? Anyways, he then reveals there is one more girl who is still alive that he couldn’t bring the will to kill (he was just rambling on at this point). Mozu loses it and points a gun to his head. Of course it was Yuzu. However, when he arrived, he was just a few moments to days late. Yuzu had died in some dark basement.

Mozu seems to holds it all together and decides to do Yuzu’s autopsy, to speak to her for the last time. He acts calm and tells Teuta that statistically it would take him 3 days to get over this. Teuta, being the more sensitive out of the duo, tells him it is okay to cry and lended him a shoulder to cry on.

Mozo’s route attracted a lot of complaints because after the dust had settled on Yuzu’s death and Troy’s sentence, he drops a bombshell to Teuta that he may have disposed of a body illegally (like Troy did) that could have belonged to her brother. He then distances himself from Teuta and everyone else in the house, because how the hell do you expect Teuta to react to that lmao. Eventually, Teuta finds him at work and asks him to go home and make up again. She first says Ana (the cat) misses him. Then she sheepishly adds that she misses him too. The two finally have their confession to each other at the end of the route. This game really excels at writing confessions. Mozu’s confession, paired with FukuJun’s voice acting, really made this route so worth it for me. I couldn’t help but smile ear to ear!

The after party was them going to some party. I gotta include Mozu’s handsome suit pic here. Even Teuta commented he looked like a prince which probably got him blushing a bit lol!

SCARECROW (CV: Shirai Yuusuke)

The comedian, hacker, and the baby of the group (even though he did not want this to happen, as he’d rather be seen as the cool guy). Perhaps a bit unfair that he is always the butt of jokes, considering he is literally the backbone/”boss” of the group, with his hacking skillset being integral to all of their operations. All of us probably had a laugh when Scarecrow did his hide eyes – then peek through thing haha. He is so easily flustered and such a shy goofy cinnamon roll. He has had a massive crush since meeting Teuta as she is cute and exactly his type.

The theme of absent family members again prevails in this route. Scarecrow grew up with his father who taught him everything about computers and hacking. However, he supposedly died six years ago. Scarecrow was a genius, going to university at age 13 then dropping out at age 14, fiddled around with his hacking skills, and lived a happy life alone until he met his new family being this group.

Scarecrow and Teuta embark on a journey to uncover the money laundering business of a shady underground organization Constantine. In order to access their data logs, the group infiltrates New Seig Academia where they encounter a white-haired person who breaks out into a fight with them and in the process, pushes Scarecrow into an aquarium tank. This triggers him to go berserk and dissociate into a completely different and violent person, yet regains no recollection of this.

Anyways, it’s Christmas so the group celebrates with Scarecrow like a family. The pair share a very adorable piano scene ending with him pecking Teuta on the cheek. Teuta is flustered; our boy is of course more flustered than she is to confess his feelings or crush.

The group talks and finds out more about Scarecrow’s back story, and his history with Constantine. Back then he was a teenager who was excited about changing the world behind his monitor. This made him feel like the underground crime boss that he flamboyantly introduced himself as in the common route. He initially just did some money laundering, hacking, stealing data, trolling and whatnot. However, one day he caused a power outage in Chicago area for 15 minutes, thinking it was harmless, but later found out this killed people.

Having blood on his hands made him panic and rethink his decisions. He wants out, but Constantine blackmailed him into staying, and also employed methods of torture. A lot of it involved waterboarding. Like many reviews have pointed out, then why does he have a pool and so much water in his mansion then… anyway… Despite this, Scarecrow was determined to leave. Constantine then sent him a video of his father’s death and told him he’s next if he didn’t behave. A desperate scarecrow was helped by a fellow hacker “Kyle” and faked his death and lived under his current alias since.

Scarecrow locates Kyle and wants to meet him in person to thank him. To his misbelief, Kyle turned out to be his father, who was alive all along. The same white haired guy they saw at the Academy showed up again and blew up the place, which was an underwater hideout. Teuta awakens her athletic abilities and save Scarecrow out of the deep waters, mouth to mouthing him several times in the process to give him breath. After getting back to their home base, Scarecrow wakes up in his alternative personality and almost choked Teuta in a fit of rage, that he does not recall again. The group comes to the rescue. Scarecrow begins to panic and break down, wondering what he’d done. Teuta is now scared of Scarecrow (because who wouldn’t be), yet she continues to want to check on him and is worried for him, with the whole group telling her to just lay it off and give it a break. Helvetica postulates that Scarecrow suffers from dissociative personality disorder as a result of his PTSD, and that was really the only explanation we got.

Scarecrow gets a call from Constantine who asks him if he wants to see his father again. He desperately agrees to the condition to hand over the data/access keys he stole as well as access to Anima, the sentient AI program he developed. The group notices that Scarecrow has been MIA for a while – this is unusual given he is such a hikikomori and never wants to step out of his house. However, Scarecrow refuses to disclose any details (due to threats of Constantine to immediately kill his father if they find out he tells anyone else or police) and coldly told them to leave him alone. The meeting turns out to be a trap as Constantine is tired of those two hackers betraying the company. Constantine tells them that while it’s a pity that they will lose two genius hackers, “the best way to keep a secret is that dead people do not give away any secrets”. The two were shoved into an empty train headed for a dead end in an abandoned subway route intended to kill them during the crash.

Scarecrow tries to contact the group with his phone but they’re in such a remote place there is no signal. In the meantime, his father figures out the route they are on, that they have around 30 minutes before they die, and that there is a 4-second window when the train will have some faint reception for Scarecrow to send a short message.

Teuta continues to call Scarecrow without any response. She suddenly receives a message from him saying “I am with dad” followed by some gibberish. It is a code of some sort, with the group trying decipher it. Teuta recalls that Scarecrow has his own special code that he uses for memos, but only he can understand it. So she cleverly decides to travel back in time before Scarecrow is on the train to tell him this code for him to figure out what he was trying to say to the group, and himself back in time.

Teuta travels back in time. Scarecrow figures out that the code is telling him to program Anima to shut off the electricity in the area that the train would be travelling in. This ends up saving Scarecrow and his father, who emerge from that area, and surprised to find the group waiting for him.
Teuta and Scarecrow confess to each other, only for Teuta to add “everyone likes you too!!” which was really funny but what an L for Scarecrow. I do think Teuta most certainly had feelings for Scarecrow at this point, and she is covering it up sheepishly just like how Scarecrow has been. They are two similar childish people who support and care for each other in their clumsy way.

In the happy ending, Scarecrow leaks the information on Full Circle and Constantine is investigated and collapsed by police. He then asks Teuta out on a date, and clumsily confesses instead of hiding behind the guise of “friendship”.

In Side B, the two share their first kiss on New Year’s Eve as well as have a silly road trip where Scarecrow has a passenger for the first time and get their car stuck in mud lol.

Thoughts: overall this was an eventful and adorable route. The two are beans in the same pod. Their interactions were so cute to read. There is a good mix of lighthearted comedy and heavier themes such as Scarecrow’s past. I wonder if his dissociative personality is just assumed to go away with him reuniting with Kyle and healing from his trauma? We’ll have to find out in Season 2…

LIMBO (CV: KENN)

Ah poster boy here we come. Limbo is confident, charming, comes from a rich family, plays classical piano (bonus points from me as a ex semi professional piano player), and is a well-established lawyer known to defend the worst criminals (and make them get away with it). He constantly plays devil’s advocate and is afraid of no one, except his older sister Valerie who basically owns him lmao. He initially sees Teuta as a cute little sister, with many times the game referencing him patting her on the head and fluffing up her hair.

Limbo and Teuta were just chilling one day when they ran into one of Limbo’s old acquaintances who introduced himself as Navid. Navid is a super cheerful guy who perhaps needs a lesson on personal boundaries, but he asks Teuta to join him and Limbo for dinner to make things less awkward, as they had some bad blood between them. However, it was Friday night when Teuta always meets with Luka & Adam, so she only joins for the first bit then excuses herself. Later, a “drunk” Limbo comes home and snuggles in Teuta’s lap. I use quotation marks because Limbo has recollection of this event in the end when the two confess. If he were that drunk he would not remember lol. Like Scarecrow said, ずるい indeed.

Limbo and Teuta go see an opera together as friends. However, the seating was assigned in a way that Limbo and Navid sat next to each other with Teuta some distance in front of them. Navid suddenly tells Limbo that he planted a bomb under Teuta’s seat, and that he looked forward to seeing Teuta turn into a pink mist of disintegrated flesh. At this point we know the two clearly has bad blood beyond a simple quarrel, and that Navid is out for blood and revenge. Limbo desperately pleads with Navid, who laughs and reveals at the end of the show that this was all a ruse; how would he have the power to bypass security and do that in the first place? Later on, Limbo doesn’t explain the whole story to Teuta, but starts looking out for her safety, and confided that he was the reason why Navid no longer holds a lawyer’s licence, that Navid crossed a line and was involved in human trafficking.

If we examine the best ending dialogue options that Teuta is required to make, a lot of them are negatives where she chooses to not intervene. “Do not ask Navid to go into his law school days with Limbo” “Listen to Valerie (when she was arguing with Limbo)” “Don’t stop the argument between Limbo and Helvetica” “Say nothing” “Just hold his hand”. This is interesting but in a way shows us that in order to win Limbo’s heart, Teuta needs to trust his instincts and let him do his thing, versus in Scarecrow’s route she will need to be more proactive.

Anyways, back to the story. Teuta gets a call from the hospital that a child she is friends with is dying without much time left. He eventually dies a painful death. Teuta breaks down and tells Limbo that she tried to go back in time many times, but could not save this child. Limbo listens and lets Teuta rest on his shoulder.

The next day, Limbo suddenly gets arrested for the murder of a Jenna, who was the same researcher that they threatened for the virus vaccine in the common route. This was clearly a framed job with Limbo’s DNA planted all over the place, and Navid as one of the witnesses. Limbo decides to defend himself and not hire another lawyer. Valerie is furious but in the end acquiesces. Limbo defends himself fiercely pointing out many inconsistencies in the prosecutor’s evidence as well as the obvious conflict of interest with Navid as a witness.

After the hearing, the group minus Limbo relaxed at home. A panicking Carmen calls them telling them to turn on the news. A car exploded at Limbo’s workplace. Fortunately, Limbo was not harmed. However, when the group asked him about who would want to harm him, he did not offer much detail and preferred the group stay out of it. This angers the rest, especially Helvetica, who almost gets into a physical fight with him. Limbo continues to be secretive, but admits that he lets someone die as the reason why Navid is so rabidly wanting revenge. Teuta finds Limbo at the bridge in the city but she doesn’t really know what to say. Limbo hugs her and the two talk in his car at midnight.

Navid and Limbo went to law school together. They worked on a case involving victims of human trafficking and were close, until Limbo found out Navid bought one of the women who were trafficked, leading to the report, and the latter losing his license. The woman ended up getting deported but her child died while she was locked up behind bars. Limbo felt significant guilt over this, so when he was contacted by the woman to meet her at a motel before she leaves the country, he immediately agreed thinking he can make amends and make himself feel better. Instead, he found her bloody corpse in the bathtub as a result of suicide by slitting her wrist, with a note “now you will never forget me”, displacing the guilt of another death as well as Navid’s rage onto Limbo. Teuta finds this extremely unfair and starts crying for Limbo out of frustration and anger.

Limbo comes clean with the group, who basically threaten Navid at the New Siege port and tell him to leave this city. Navid asks for one final meeting where he offers Limbo a drink. Teuta has the option to swap the glasses in front of everyone if she doesn’t trust Navid. The correct option is to not swap, as it will not matter, as seen shortly. Navid poisoned Limbo with a nanobot that he has the switch to to stop Limbo’s heart at any minute. With this information, he coerces and locks Teuta in the same hotel room that Calinda, the trafficked woman that he loved and died by suicide, died. There was no other way to save Calinda other than buying her and marrying her so she and her child can legally stay in the country, but Limbo ruined it all by ratting Navid out. Navid wants Limbo to suffer the same pain he went through, and told Teuta to take her own life, or he will activate the switch at 17:00 today.

Teuta goes back in time moreso with the intent to being in someone else’s body and contacting the group. She then returns to her body. Limbo calls her, aware that Navid is keeping tabs on her communications, to tell her that everything is OK and he found an antidote. This whole nanobot drama is so sci-fi-ey but I just rolled with it. Scarecrow concludes that because it is a machine not a living entity, it is using Limbo’s heart as its power source. If there was a way to make Limbo’s heart stop temporarily so the machine “dies” by having no power or connection to the switch, then it is effectively nullified. Mozu and Helvetica use a micro dose of the pufferfish neurotoxin to temporarily stop his heart (have you two good sirs heard of the good old adenosine 18mg?…). Shu finds and rescues Teuta in the motel room. When Navid activates the switch, nothing happens. A desperate Navid then activates another switch, killing himself by arresting his heart. Hence, which drink Limbo drank does not matter because Navid spiked them both. He never planned to live.

With Navid dead, the chapter comes to an end. The two properly confess. Poster boy privileges come through as he gets THREE CGs in the after story lol! He spoils Teuta so much it’s very comforting and makes me feel… emotionally secure?

Thoughts: Limbo was such a likeable character and the stereotypical American boy in Asian culture’s eyes? Dashing, confident, rich… He had a strong mind of his own and is responsible and wants to protect those around him, but most importantly the girl he loves. He and Teuta started out platonic, but as they bonded over each other’s trauma and shared each other’s burdens, they slowly became one entity, and both were quick to realize it and take it to the next level. I have no doubt he will make Teuta a very happy girl and continue to treasure her. KENN’s voice acting was so on point that I relistened to many of his voice lines.

SHU (CV: Hosoya Yoshimasa)

Shu is the dad of the group, where the group bickers and banters and he just sits in the sidelines lighting up a cigarette and sighs. His hair covers his left eye and looks cool in game but honestly would have looked weird IRL. For a while I thought something happened to that eye e.g. he is blind or something, but no lol.

He is a killer/bounty hunter by trade and lives in the shadows and fake identities unlike the rest of the members. He and Teuta also initially share a brother/sister dynamic like Limbo. Where Limbo is the cool & doting big brother, Shu is the more introverted one who likes to tease Teuta just to get a rise out of her. His palette is pretty much monochrome, including the bikini he picked for Teuta. He also has a sexy deep voice thanks to Yoshimasa’s cast.

Shu definitely has some degree of attraction to Teuta to begin with as they did not start out strictly platonic. Teuta sees a disheveled, blood-covered and speechless Shu returning from one of his missions. She asks the group, who all nonchalantly tell her that this is just what he’s like after completing a hit, give it some time let the man shower and he’ll be alright. So Teuta watches TV with a tub of ice cream until Shu comes out and just casually takes and eats out of her spoon lol. He also decides to quit smoking because “you keep nagging me about it”. Teuta expresses her concern for Shu, who replies that he will die at some point – everyone does. This greatly upsets Teuta much to Shu’s confusion. Shu starts to fondly recall and share memories of his family, which consisted of his “teacher” and adoptive mother figure who taught all his skills along with a brother who was his teacher’s son by blood. He takes out a used blue notebook and starts crossing out names – those were on his teacher’s hit list. His teacher is dead, so he is carrying out her legacy. However, the last page of the notebook, along with the only photo of Shu, his brother, and his teacher, were stolen; though he does not elaborate. The two finally watch an old movie Calamity Jane, which features a strong heroine thought to be dead, but comes out alive.

The group decide to go to an amusement park together. Shu teaches Teuta how to shoot, telling her he always hums a line in the song The Yellow Rose of Texas as a way to time pulling the trigger – hence the title of Side A. They then take a ride on the Ferris wheel together with him teasing her some more, and once again the two bring up the topic of mortality and Shu’s nonchalance about it. Teuta replies that Shu is like family to her, so it’s only natural that she doesn’t want family to die, knowing the nature of his work.

The night does not finish peacefully as Teuta had a gun held to her back, with Shu reuniting with Yang, his “brother”, after he supposedly killed their teacher and stole the last page and photo. He proposes a deal for Shu to take out “Closer”, a famous hitman in the field who took a job to take out a newly elected government official during his inauguration speech. Yang tells Shu that Closer is on the hit list, and that when Shu completes the job, he will get that page and the photo back, while Yang escapes abroad with a new identity.

The crew prepare for the job with Shu setting up his shooting range in a hotel room across from the event. However, he scopes out Yang being also at the event, and reads his lips to say “it’s too late now”. What happens next is police breaking into the door FBI open up style, with Shu yelling that Yang set up him in the phone before disconnecting. Shu is arrested with his face plastered over the news. The congressman is killed.

The group help Shu escape captivity while faking his death. Teuta had to use her ability twice and this almost makes her pass out. She then runs into Yang who is aware that Shu is still on the loose, yet he says he did not kill Tyra, their teacher, and that he is also after Closer, though he “has his reasons” for not working together with Shu. He then discloses the politician was involved in many shady dealings including hiring hitmen to take out his competitors, so was on Tyra’s list too.

Before Shu and Yang can make up, Teuta was kidnapped by Closer (who made an appearance in Scarecrow route too btw). Closer then calls Shu telling him he needs to kill himself or Teuta will die; Closer is known for doing this to his victims then killing their family anyway. Shu makes a deal with Closer that he will die, but to please spare Teuta’s life for a million dollars – that he only needs to say the passcode “Calamity Jane” and Teuta will get him the money. Upon hearing the news that Shu is “dead” and the passcode, Teuta concludes that Shu escaped death yet again. It was Helvetica disguised as Shu who then used Mozu’s props to pretend to blow his brains out with a gun. Shu and Yang take out Closer with a sniper rifle, crossing out every name on the list and reaching the conclusion of the story, and the two properly confessing to each other. It was also revealed that Shu, not Yang, was Tyra’s birth child, and that Yang is actually a woman.

In Side B, Teuta goes through another scare that Shu was going to die, when in fact he was going to get neurosurgery to take out a bullet that had been lodged in his brain for years. The surgery went smoothly. To celebrate New Year’s Eve, Teuta and Yang build a snowman outside of Shu’s ward window and told him to open the curtains.

Thoughts: This is a route with its ups and downs. Despite the thrilling job nature that Shu has, he somehow manages to emanate peace, perhaps because he has always prepared for and accepted the worst. The beginning of the route was abrupt given the two should not start out that close (Shu eating out of Teuta’s spoon, quitting smoking for her etc.), but I do believe in the end Shu chose Teuta because she fills that void of longing for familial love in his heart, and that she also brings him peace and will always be a person for him to go home to. I also like how he was a good communicator and didn’t attempt to be a cool lone wolf like what Limbo pulled in his route. The two don’t have the most romantic/exciting confessions, but their interactions are like that of an already married couple. Shu is also the only one who managed to “meet” Teuta’s parents in the main routes.

HELVETICA (CV: Yoshino Hiroyuki)

I saved Helvetica for last because I was most interested in his character. If you have read my Uchronia review, then you would already know I have no immunity against cat-like LI who act distant (not tsundere), yet have a backstory and are not the traditional kind goody two shoes character. Helvetica is a trending plastic surgeon and the adopted son of Professor Sauli who administers the personality test in the common route that assigns you an LI based on the results. He portrays himself as a perfectionist in both his work and appearance, and does not appear to have any obvious flaws, if you discount his sharp tongue, that he does not even spare Teuta with.

As a combination of the nature of his work/clients and his personality, Helvetica is flirty and popular among women. However, he has a player attitude and while he enjoys the game, he does not actually want to settle down or be associated with anyone. After a party, he playfully tries to kiss Teuta. Teuta protests that he should not kiss anyone he is not committed to, to which he replies, “but maybe I have feelings for you.” Which is clearly flirting as in the other interactions we can tell clearly Helvetica doesn’t like people invading his personal space, Teuta included. Helvetica also lets Teuta in on a glimpse of his past, when he was homeless and was almost dead on a snowy day in a pile of trash, but Professor Sauli saved him and gave him a new life. As such, he views himself as someone who does not blame the circumstances, and climbs up no matter what to get to the situation he wants. Teuta wants to know more about Helvetica’s past, but he says he doesn’t remember much beyond what he told her, and asked Sauli to destroy all records of his old self in order to start anew.

Teuta is assigned to follow Helvetica around to write a promotional piece for his clinic. Helvetica usually dislikes this type of report but the magazine promised to fund some of his patients who otherwise cannot afford plastic surgery. The first half of the route involves a client called Annabelle, who came from the slums, did shady work, but found the courage and this opportunity to change her looks in order to motivate her to pursue a new, lawful life. However, Annabelle was soon found to be dead after presumably a conflict with a drug dealer. Teuta then laments her death, stating that no matter who dies, someone is out there to be angry for their deaths. Helvetica is surprised at Teuta’s level of empathy for Annabelle and people like her in general, as most people likely will conclude they are scum of society.

One day, the magazine brings in another client that they promised treatment on Helvetica’s behalf, much to his annoyance. The patient introduces herself as Magda and shows her hideous left face destroyed by fire. However, Helvetica declines her treatment citing psychological instability and concern of not following through treatment, noting that she has signs of ongoing drug abuse. Magda goes into a fit of rage and asks Helvetica how he could have forgotten about his past, when he was a drug abuser himself. She clearly knew him from the past. She then warns Helvetica that he cannot escape his past, and that we are all products of our past doings, before storming out.

Teuta receives a call from Helvetica’s secretary that he has not come to work for two days. While Helvetica often doesn’t return home for a few days, this was unusual so the group search for him. They also visit Sauli who wrote down Helvetica’s old neighbourhood on a piece of paper suggesting the group to check there out if they don’t have any other leads. Helvetica was found to have overdosed on drugs, though later revealed not on his own volition, but by the doings of Magda. Even though he was vomiting his guts out, he wanted to share with the group that he met Magda there and recalled his past when he was “bottom trash”, having been smuggled here in a shipping container (while the child next to him was dead during transportation), doing drugs, robbing people – this was the only way he and his friends could survive. Eventually the group accidentally set a home on fire after getting high. Magda was trapped inside so Helvetica wanted to call 911, but his gang decided against it as this would also alert the police, beat Helvetica up then left him in the dumpster until Sauli found him. Magda suffered her injuries as a result. She served her sentence and had been searching for Helvetica since.

The group decide to confront Magda so she can leave Helvetica alone. Mozu and Teuta got in a car crash orchestrated by Magda, and she kidnaps them both to New Sieg port. She also planted a bomb elsewhere and wounded Helvetica whom she lured. Teuta goes back in time to warn Helvetica to not go there, and told him her and Mozu’s whereabouts. Helvetica confronted Magda, who was clearly mentally unstable, shouting that he was a traitor, that he was her family, and she loved him (vague in what way). She also called him “Nicola”. Helvetica then burns his right face in an attempt to make it even with her. However, she still beats him up because she wants him to suffer more. Helvetica becomes unconscious. A panicked and likely drug-influence Magda accidentally fires the rifle in her own face.

Fortunately both survive with Magda in a deep coma, and Helvetica completely cured eventually with the power of plastic surgery and writing! Sauli visits Helvetica and asks him who he wants to live as, Helvetica Orsted or Nichola Ritz. He also presses Helvetica on what kept him going till where he is today, to which he finally breaks down and says “because I want to live, and live my life in my own way”.

Helvetica stays in hospital for 3 months then returns home. The main route then ends in the two having a loving embrace with Helvetica crying and asking Teuta to call his new name.

I feel more bittersweet about Side B. The scarf CG was gorgeous. However, the two have an argument because Helvetica was acting very close with random women that it was pretty much in cheating category. Everyone took Teuta’s side. While the two confess their feelings and make up in the end, Helvetica didn’t really make any promises or apologize, so the conflict was just swept under the rug and likely will happen again… Idk… While I know this is Helvetica’s persona to be a womanizer, player, and whatnot, but this would have been a good opportunity to show he had settled down for Teuta, and that she is truly different, instead of empty words “you are different from the other girls”. Finally, Adam and Luka share a toast “to our lost love”.

Thoughts: Helvetica is a complex character who does not easily let others into his heart. He is a perfectionist on the outside, can be sharp-tongued, picky, and judgmental. However, he is a ruthless go-getter who remains insecure and forever traumatized by his past, and hated his old self, and overcompensates by deeming it “bottom trash”. I don’t think he would have warmed up to Teuta if he didn’t witness how she handled the Annabelle situation. This is a route where Teuta becomes his salvation. Contrary to Limbo’s route, Teuta needs to select proactive options in order to get the good ending. It was entertaining to see Teuta forcing a kiss on him in the pool at the end, when he is supposed to be the womanizer and take the lead. I want to see what happens in Season 2, as I definitely think there remains to be parts of the relationship to be developed.

FINAL THOUGHTS

What a rollercoaster of a game! As somewhat of an otome veteran, I cannot say I’ve played anything quite like this before. I put it off after so many years because the art wasn’t exactly my type. However, I would play this game in a heartbeat even if it had no illustrations. This speaks to how good the writing and voicing acting were. Every character was given screen time to hash out their personality, and did not feel one-dimensional or comically simple to me. They felt like real people. This felt like a real community, or family. I liked every route and LI.

If you have not played this game yet, you need to play it! It has English translation as well.

My character ranking:

Helvetica > Limbo > Scarecrow > Shu = Mozu

Score: 9/10