冬園サクリフィス
Completion date:
After replaying Piofiore base game, what do I have to lose in playing another game with religious vibes and an MC who grew up in the church? What can go wrong? Apparently, everything.
Disclaimer: I’ve only played the “happy” and “sad” endings to complete CG acquisition. I didn’t play the bad ends as they didn’t give CG & was going into this game with minimal expectations given what I have heard. However, for once, I played without spoilers. Hooray!
Recommended order: Elias > Oscar > Dylan > Regis > Hiver > Extra Story
I would not recommend this game to anyone. This game is one of the worst I’ve played in my life to the point I don’t even want to resell this game and just want to toss it in the trash and burn it with fire. For specifics see Final Thoughts. The only merits of this game are its art, music, and Tachibana Shinnosuke. Everything else is just outright awful. If you are curious as to why I say this or just want to see me suffer then here’s the rest of the review.
Common Route
The common route is short and does not contain major spoilers that aren’t advertised in trailers or promotional content. Laetitia lives in a kingdom that has been in eternal winter for 13 years, since she was 5 years old, making her 18 in present time. In this world, there are three main gods – sky, earth, and underworld. Sky and earth gods gave birth to several lesser gods that also bless the world.
When Laetitia was 5, the goddess of spring appeared intending to bless her with some powers. However, something went awry during this resulting in Laetitia unable to contain her powers and hurting everyone who was present. She was then separated from her parents and lived under the guardianship of the church to learn how to wield her powers.
Main characters are as follows:
Oscar – her knight for the past 10 years, who watched Laetitia grow up, and treats her as his little sister.
Elias – nicknamed “the child of god” for his golden eyes and one of the youngest bishops in the country. Though before the game, he and Laetitia are acquaintances at best.
Dylan – the prime minister of the country, right-hand man to the emperor.
Regis – the young emperor of the kingdom who is known for loving his people.
The game starts with Laetitia waking up from a recurrent nightmare from a woman demanding her to “return” something. (I’m sorry this is giving me Tokeijikake no Apocalypse PTSD, even the MC names are similar)
Laetitia prays to the goddess of spring again, beseeching her to descend and grant the people who have been suffering from this never-ending winter. To everyone’s surprise, she appears and tells Laetitia and everyone present that the god of winter is angry with humankind, hence, wouldn’t leave earth and intent on making humans suffer. She proposes a solution: if Laetitia offers to be the winter god’s bride, giving up her corporeal body (dying in the mortal world), then the winter god will leave so spring can arrive once again.
When I first heard the spring goddess’ voice I was like damn she’s got the big booby voice. Reference:
Laetitia is scared, but is ready to sacrifice herself for the greater good. However, Regis stops the spring goddess last minute, saying that she needs time to prepare to be a fitting bride to a god, but really trying to buy Laetitia time as he has his reservations about this. The goddess acquiesces and gives Laetitia one month to prepare.
**Spoilers ahead**
Elias (CV: Liura)
Click to skip the casting controversy and my 2c on this, straight to the plot
Liura is an utaite who also sang the OP which sounded IMO, pretty good:
However, for the first time in my life playing otome games for 17 years I had to mute a character’s voice after the prologue lmao. I’m using another user’s screen recordings to showcase why (clicking will take you to Bilibili links):
The difference between professionally-trained seiyuu who voice characters for a living and those without is very stark. The difference in clarity in pronunciation, change in tone to reflect expression (wth was that in the second recording lol), control in breaths… I can sense the difference even as a foreigner. It was way too painful to continue so I just ended my suffering prematurely.
I think it probably would have benefited everyone if we just got this guy to sing the OP and not voice a character and face the backlash which probably didn’t help his popularity.
In fact, when I was googling walkthroughs for the game, typing in the game actually suggests “controversy” as the first search result.
The tea summarized on Reddit in English. For archiving purposes I included a screenshot without the poster’s ID as not sure if they want to be included.
Clicking into some links in the JP sphere on the drama of this casting choice, such as this, reveals:
- Some think that Otomate is trying to boost sales by having an utaite voice a character, so that his fans will buy the game
- In general, people are pissed because this clearly compromised the quality of the game
- Some interprets this as a disrespectful move towards the existing otome game fanbase as Otomate is clearly trying to appeal to a new audience (the utaite fans)
In the original X post Liura posted himself announcing his role in the game, these are some most-liked comments:
First one basically says he’s not good enough yet to act both as a singer and voice actor, that his name shouldn’t have appeared in the cast list alongside the other seiyuu. The second one says that his fans will buy the game for him and not care about the other characters; this is very disrespectful to the other seiyuu who professionally trained to do this job.
Under the Otomate X post the comments are:
1: Basically saying probably wouldn’t have been as bad if he wasn’t casting a main character i.e. LI. Should have casted as a supporting character at most.
2: Not a fan of the utaite band he is in and implied the band doesn’t have a good rep, so really didn’t want to see this showing up in an otome game LI cast
3: “lol the backlash is here now”
My take: Yeaaaa this was a bad decision all around and certainly ruined the game for me as an otome game fan, Otomate apologizer, and someone who is completely unfamiliar with the utaite sphere. He didn’t have what it took. However, Otomate needed to experiment; they failed. Hopefully, they have learned their lesson and won’t do it again at least in the near future.
Teatime is over; onto the plot. In game, Elias is assigned as Laetitia’s tutor and enjoys some teatime with her as well. They spend some time together in and outside the classroom, including teatime, cooking, and sneaking at night into the library with classified books to learn more about the winter god, almost getting caught by Charles (the high priest, think of him as the pope).
The two read about a tale that the earth goddess’ power is sealed within the golden eyes of the chosen “child of god”. However, the eyes are regarded as the “door” and the “key” (oh god Piofiore flashbacks; this is when I know I played too much otoge) is something called “the god’s seed” which at this point they have no idea what that looks like. Summoning the two together will unleash the earth goddess’ power.
The two feign ignorance and try to pry information out of Charles, Elias’ adoptive father. However, Charles sees through their childish plot immediately and says he knows they snuck into the library that night and overheard him cursing the gods and wishing for their death instead. Basically, Charles had a wife (as it’s allowed for clergy to be married in this universe) who was forced to be a human sacrifice 18 years ago, supposedly to ease a famine. However, even after her death, the famine did not reside. From then, Charles became distrustful and resentful towards all gods and vowed revenge.
What is about to happen in the route makes no sense to me. At this point, two premises remain:
- Laetitia barely knew Elias prior to the beginning of the game. They’ve only worked with each other for two weeks.
- Despite Charles’ hatred for the gods, on the surface he raised Elias at the church and instilled in him orthodox values. In other words, Elias should be firmly supportive of gods’ causes.
With this in mind, what actually happens is as follows:
Before learning of Charles’ past, Elias starts thinking about ways to get Laetitia out of this arranged marriage. His reasoning is that the winter god has never taken brides, and is the most distant to emotions like love. He felt the spring goddess was being suspicious. His hunch ended up being right in the end; however, it was out of character for him to doubt her in the first place.
Somehow after one tea session, one baking session, and one reading session, Elias decides he has fallen in love with Laetitia and wants to protect her, prioritizing her beyond his duties as a priest.
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE WTF I AM CONFUSION aren’t you two just doing platonic things how did you two become Romeo & Juliet
Charles wants to use Elias’ potential power to destroy the winter god when he is summoned for the wedding. However, the winter god isn’t even the one responsible for Charles’ wife’s death but he’s like I hate all gods I will take my chance at screwing over any god. Elias and Laetitia refuse because incurring the winter god’s wrath will likely bring more suffering to the country, so Charles in a fit of rage locks the two in jail. Ayo what does Laetitia have to do with any of this…
In classic anime antagonist fashion Charles also reveals that he killed Elias’ birth parents in order to assume his guardianship because of his golden eyes. This isn’t as relevant in this route, as in the good ending Elias forgives Charles anyway, but is crucial in Oscar’s route.
Happy End:
Laetitia is taken to the wedding ceremony. Oscar releases Elias from jail and gives him a farewell letter from Laetitia. At the ceremony, the spring goddess appears and urges Laetitia to speak her vows. Laetitia, thinking of Elias, is unable to vocalize.
Elias makes it in time to speak up before everyone forever holds their peace. Charles shows his hand and demands Elias to take revenge against the gods (okay but at this point he still doesn’t have the “key” so how is he going to tap into Elias’ power???). Oscar neutralizes Charles saying he will not allow anyone to disturb Elias’ grand moment.
Strangely, the winter god does not make an appearance despite being the groom. The spring goddess gets angry and wants to force Laetitia to complete the ritual – clearly something was amiss and this is not a wedding. She slashes at Elias (probably with her manicured nails lmao) breaking the envelope that carried Laetitia’s letter and revealing the flower she attached with the paper – this was the key.
With the key and the door summoned, the earth goddess temporarily takes over Elias’ body and orders the spring goddess to return to heaven. She apologizes to everyone for the trouble spring has caused, including Charles, who is like lol ok I will stop being a hater. The earth goddess then disappears.
In the aftermath, spring returns to the kingdom after 13 years. Charles confesses his crimes and is awaiting judgment in jail. Elias and Laetitia say their wedding vows in a flower field, staying by each others’ side in sickness and health.
Sad End: A black shadow (Oscar) kills Charles. Elias and Laetitia go on one last day before the wedding day, unable to find the “key”. On their way back, a snowstorm hits and they take temporary shelter in an abandoned house. They embrace each other for warmth one last night. Elias asks Laetitia to elope with him. Remembering the hopeful words she heard from the people who eagerly await spring’s recurrence, Laetitia says she must fulfill her duty. When Elias wakes up in the morning, Laetitia is no longer by his side. He rushes outside and sees the snow has melted. Spring has begun. He cries, knowing that Laetitia has gone to the other side.
Thoughts:
What an.. interesting experience. Overall, it is ruined for me because I literally played it on mute & that there was no romantic development. How did the two go from doing friend things to being like I will die for you/I will betray my religion for you?? Huh?? I’ve seen better fanfiction than this. Had we gotten 2-3 more chapters to showcase more events and add in some more intense dokidoki moments, this would be more believable.
The overall plot so far made sense and is intriguing enough for me to want to find out what happens next. The spring goddess clearly is up to no good. Where is the winter god? Why does Oscar have a grudge against Charles to the point he even murders him in the sad ending? However, the details are not hashed out such as how exactly Charles intended on using a powerless Elias without the “key” to kill any god. It is technically game-breaking. 2/10
Oscar (CV: Terashima Junta)
Come to think of it, the only other otome LI I’ve heard Terashima voice was Rudel from TokiApo. He plays a similar role to Rudel. Oscar is Laetitia’s knight and “big brother” figure for the past ten years. He is the only one out of the crew who has pre-existing feelings for her, but has not realized it himself.
As Laetitia is processing her betrothal to the winter god, Oscar tells her that no matter where she goes, what her decision is, he will always remain her ally and unconditionally support her. He adds this is because he is her “big brother” so it’s natural he protects her.
Regarding Oscar’s past, he has his reasons for becoming a knight. When Elias was taken away from his family by Charles, his family house was set on fire. The family had not one, but two sons. The younger one was Elias who was still a baby and no recollection of the events. The older brother was Oscar who remembered all of this and vowed revenge against Charles one day. However, this plan has been put on hold after seeing how much Elias respects Charles as his adoptive father; he does not want to ruin his little brother’s new family.
He quickly demonstrated spectacular talent in swordsmanship and became the youngest person to qualify as a knight in the country. He was then assigned to be Laetitia’s guard. Separated from her parents as a child, Laetitia spent her days in the temple feeling sad and crying every day. Due to a combination of superior’s orders and genuinely feeling bad for this little girl, Oscar tried his best to cheer her up. He tells her that he is her family away from home. To him, she is also his newfound family.
Oscar already had his parents and younger brother taken away from him. Hence, when he heard what the spring goddess said, he thought to himself that he doesn’t want more family to be stripped away from him. Because Laetitia says she wants to go outside, Oscar sneaks out with her, and the two have a date. However, even though Oscar teases her that they are having a “date”, he continues to sheepishly backpedal and calls her his little sister. Before the two return to the temple, he asks Laetitia if she wants to run away with him together. This catches Laetitia off guard so he tells Laetitia forget what he said.
Since it is assumed Laetitia will leave this world in one month, she is granted the chance to see her parents after many years. They have a happy family dinner where Laetitia tells them about how kindly Oscar has treated her.
Because of the length of this game, even for a character that had high affinity for the MC, the romance is quite forced. I am not even skipping any events in this review. Literally at the beginning of chapter 2, Laetitia and Oscar spend time together in the garden. Laetitia tells Oscar that after she is gone, for selfish reasons she doesn’t want him to find the next “Laetitia” and call other girls “cute”, “pretty”, or ask them out on “dates”. Mind you those two are still “brother and sister” at this point in the route. Oscar’s response is that he only does this because it’s Laetitia, and that he would never say this to other girls. Laetitia then starts crying and thinks to herself that she is scared about her fate; she doesn’t want to be a god’s bride; she wants to “stay by Oscar’s side forever”. Oscar then brings up the idea of elopement again saying he was serious the first time when he asked her. Laetitia turns down the idea because she doesn’t want to pursue her own happiness at the entire kingdom’s expense. [Anyways, I had no idea why Laetitia just became so possessive here and what that tantrum was about. There was no buildup to this at all. If anything she needs some SSRIs…]
To find a way to get Laetitia out of her predicament, Oscar confronts Charles. Here, it is revealed that Charles was the previous emperor of this country and the uncle of Regis. [I just find it silly that we don’t know he was the previous emperor until this route, as this is a detail impossible to hide and should be common knowledge among people.] Oscar knows about how Charles lost his wife from the same reason and that he likely did his own research. Oscar shows his hand, revealing his identity, and demands Charles to point him towards a path where Laetitia no longer needs to marry the winter god. Charles references a “golden apple” that has the power of a god which may allow them to fight against the spring goddess. However, the golden apple is heavily guarded by mercenaries of the church.
As a way of repenting for his sins and respecting Oscar’s resolve, Charles tells Oscar to stab him in order to divert the guards of the apple towards the temple. [This is such illogical writing. Charles is the pope of this country and the EX-EMPEROR. How can some guards under the church decline the request of the head of the church? I don’t get it?] Anyways, Oscar stabs him. This buys him enough time to obtain the golden apple and travel back to Laetitia, where he gets captured and thrown in jail. However, with his physical capabilities, he escapes jail easily and hides in Laetitia’s room. [I find it crazy that Laetitia just casually hides a whole ass man and wanted criminal in her small room & Dylan and the rest just can’t find him despite searching the temple up and down lmao.]
While Oscar remains a fugitive, he tells Laetitia the truth behind his identity. Laetitia then tiptoes and kisses him by surprise saying I love you, and he was surprised but says I love you too =_= and that was their confession, so anticlimactic. So now they are lovers and with the golden apple, Oscar is definitely not going to give Laetitia up to the spring goddess.
Happy End: Charles is severely wounded, but eventually lives. Elias learns about the truth and makes up with Oscar. When browsing the books in the library, Laetitia learns about how the seasons are supposed to take turns every three months and postulates that maybe the issue does not lie within the winter god being “angry” but rather something wrong on the spring goddess’ end, where she lacks power to stop winter and bring spring into the human world.
Before the wedding date, she and Oscar take a bite out of the golden apple together. When the spring goddess attempts to take Laetitia away, Oscar confronts her and overpowers her thanks to the golden apple. The spring goddess confesses that she is not the original spring goddess “Fredia” but rather her successor. However, for some reason, she did not inherit all of Fredia’s powers and thus, is too weak to bring spring to this world, causing winter to go on for 13 years now.
In this storyline, Laetitia proposes a deal to the current spring goddess that she will share her powers as well as ask the people across the country to pray for spring – because it is also revealed that humans praying also has a bit of power, and is enough when combined together [so were the people not praying hard enough in the past 13 years or what?]. Anyways, spring comes back, but in one small area in the country at a time.
As a result, Laetitia and Oscar need to travel all year round to different places so they can usher spring in. Oscar asks Laetitia “when this journey ends, let’s become real family”, which is romantic and whatnot – but how exactly is their journey going to end?
Sad End: Charles dies from his injuries. The golden apple turns blood red. Oscar and Laetitia agree to elope. Right before they escape the capital, Regis and Dylan stop them [so much for “respecting Laetitia’s wishes”, Regis] and threaten to kill them. Oscar defeats Dylan who fights on Regis’ behalf. However, Oscar is also wounded in the process. A few days later, Dylan finds the two frozen to death in the suburban forest as they didn’t make it out.
Thoughts:
I just… didn’t get the appeal of this route at all? The writing is so rushed. There was no dokidoki event that got Laetitia/Oscar to question their sentiments towards each other. It’s literally the two go shopping together, Oscar does some half-assed flirting, then Laetitia starts crying to Oscar and demanding him to not love other girls???? Also the plot holes in the middle how Charles needed to be stabbed in order for Oscar to obtain the golden apple. Unnecessary. The bad ending also didn’t make much sense as it’s not a very Regis thing to stop the two. Overall, this story was much better in the writer’s head but the execution was very poor.
Dylan (CV: Suzuki Ryouta)
I mean… Dylan’s route didn’t develop in the direction I expected. Given how cold and matter-of-factly he was towards Laetitia in the beginning, telling her to not get any funny ideas and just sacrifice herself for the sake of the country, I expected him to be a tsundere. I was half right. I did not imagine the actual story to go the way it did. And it went in a much worse direction than my imagination.
Dylan & Regis routes involve Laetitia leaving the temple and living in the palace. After Laetitia arrives, Dylan again tells her to “just stay put” and follow their orders. Here we need to choose the option of Laetitia “talking back” to him saying she will not stay put, and instead she will “use this opportunity to learn as many things as possible”… So she’s following orders because everyone wants her to take those “bridal lessons” anyways. However, this is supposed to wow Dylan who says Laetitia is not a “doll-like” dumb woman as he expected to and start taking her seriously because she has demonstrated she is not like the other girls?… (I swear I am not extrapolating, I am translating the story screenshot by screenshot. It feels so ridiculous even typing this shit out)
Dylan also calls Regis “idiot”, “stupid king” when the two are alone. This is supposed to show they have a great relationship and provide comedic relief. However, I found this so cringe especially after learning Dylan’s backstory because Regis is after all the emperor of the kingdom. Show some respect…
Basically, Dylan used to be part of a rebellious organization and an assassin who was assigned to kill Regis. He made it to Regis’ chambers and actually had the latter at knifepoint. However, because he was captivated by Regis’ charisma and personal charm, he decided at last minute to abandon his mission and loyally serve Regis… who just took his killer in as his prime minister… yeah just keep your killer close 24/7, you really will expedite your trip to heaven… I’m not even going to get started on how ridiculous this whole backstory is. I’ve got no tears left to cry about how much time I wasted on this game. Both characters are dumb, and the dumbest of them all is the writer.
If you think this backstory is dumb, this is not even the most ridiculous development of the story yet. There is some annoying uncle in the palace who keeps telling Dylan to get married and want to matchmake for him. Instead of telling him off as the second most powerful person in the kingdom, he grabs Laetitia by the waist “out of convenience” and tells uncle that “my heart already belongs to this fair lady”. Even after the uncle leaves, he asks Laetitia to keep up the pretence in front of others “as my lover” for her remaining month in the human world. Laetitia feels her heart race going dokidoki because “omg he confessed to me”… ??????????????????????? Why don’t you guys tell the uncle off, and clarify Laetitia’s role as the god’s bride to the world like normal people? This is so OOC for someone who is supposedly cold, calculated, and result-oriented. I worry for this country if it’s being run by clowns like him. I also feel the writer is not the same species as us. I cannot understand how their brain works.
The two then take this “lover” front seriously [how do Regis/Charles allow this], with Dylan writing a whole fanfiction about how they’ve “met” and “fell in love” so they can tell the same lies to others and not be seen through. Laetitia starts wanting to learn more Dylan about his past [I swear to god if I see one more あなたのことをもっと知りたい … The writer abuses this line every single route as a copout of writing an actual story. This is not a substitution for writing actual romance and transitions.] because she wants to be a better “lover”… Then Dylan has a whole monologue in front of Laetitia saying “wow, I thought I’d dislike you a lot more. However, after 10 days, I can say that I at least ‘like’ you… is this what they call… love at first sight?!” This is from the prime minister of the country and an ex-assassin. Why is he acting so inexperienced?? 🤡🤡🤡
The above CG is from Dylan getting jealous and upset when Laetitia walks towards Oscar and grabs her by the arm. Oscar learns that Dylan no longer supports Laetitia being the sacrificial bride and starts teasing “wow love does change people.” So Dylan is all about the people and the country until it’s some girl that he’s met for 10 days then he is all like screw this country???
The next scene is Laetitia making tea for Dylan and sees him getting buried by all the paperwork he has to do. She then says he can take a break and get someone else to escort her around instead… I thought you two were playing as “lovers”… Dylan says of course not, “I will not allow anyone to take time spent with you away from me” and gets Laetitia doki-doki. If the writer sticks to this and writes Dylan in as a full-blown lover boy maybe I’d have some respect. However, as Laetitia blushes, Dylan bursts out LAUGHING saying he was only joking and can’t believe Laetitia took him seriously. ??????? You already decided screw this country, I will keep Laetitia for myself, then you’re acting like a cool guy who doesn’t care? 🤡🤡🤡
What Dylan found with Elias’ help is that the earth goddess had set an ancient rule in the past. When a mortal does not want to marry a god, they can offer a “sacred object” instead to quench the god’s anger. Charles just tells them that there is a “goddess’ box” in the church that fits this description. The box looks like some ordinary box. However, Laetitia used her spring powers on it and seemingly was able to store her magical power in it.
Happy End: The spring goddess arrives. She gets angry when Laetitia refuses to step forth. However, she is not able to overcome the power stored in the box. Instead, she realizes that she can use the power in the box to restore spring to this world. Hence, she makes a deal with Laetitia: Every year, Laetitia needs to store some power in the box for the spring goddess to use, so she can end winter and call forth spring.
They kith and marry one year later, get me out…
Sad End: Laetitia offers the box. However, for some reason all the power she stored slipped away. Thinking they offered her an ordinary, empty box, the spring goddess becomes enraged and takes Laetitia’s soul by force. However, her body is still preserved in this world and doesn’t decay. She is revered as the “holy maiden” for bringing spring back. Dylan visits Laetitia’s body every day, talking to her, kissing her, and awaiting for her return.
Thoughts:
The worst-written route in this entire game. This feels like an elementary school student writing their first fan fic. Character settings don’t matter. They switch between mature, calculating, to acting like teenagers. There is no transition or plausible explanation to why they caught feelings for each other. The premise of “pretending as lovers” is also ridiculous. The writer can’t make up their mind on whether Dylan wants to be a playboy or actually someone who is fully in love. What an utter waste of time.
Regis (CV: Umehara Yuuichirou)
Honestly, the real clown is me for not abandoning ship after three horrible routes & even LOOKING FORWARD to Umehara’s monotonic voice acting due to the PTSD that was Elias route. Anyways, let’s get this over with. Overall, this route ended up being less of a disaster and second best of the game, first being Hiver.
In the legends, the (first) spring goddess Fredia fell in love with Regis’ ancestor, who was a deity himself, but was moved by the will to survive by humans and decided to stay behind to be their first emperor. Regis is said to look exactly like his ancestor minus the golden eyes. Fredia loved humans too and helped out but ultimately decided she was unable to stay in the human realm and returned to the skies.
At the time, the world was plagued by all kinds of natural disasters. Regis’ ancestor used a golden sword and slashed all his troubles away. This sword is now sealed in stone with nobody able to pull it out. Regis takes Laetitia there thinking maybe with her powers, the result will be different. Alas, the sword remains in place.
Meanwhile, there are some slice-of-life scenes between the two where Regis shows Laetitia around the palace. I know the author is trying to depict an emperor who views himself as one of the people and not someone who is above them. Maybe it’s for this reason they wrote a few scenes where Regis teased Laetitia such as saying he would get jealous if Laetitia got closer to Dylan instead. When he was reading history with Laetitia, upon reading the gods’ marriage with humans, he asked if Laetitia had experience in romance and her views towards it… That’s just not an appropriate question at all at this stage, especially towards a woman who was raised by the church, but okay… Then, there was a later scene where he entered Laetitia’s chambers literally in the middle of the night to relay a piece of news that wasn’t important at all and could have waited. To me, an emperor of the country shouldn’t act like some nanpa dude in the middle of the street and would have better manners and be more gentlemanly… Similarly to Dylan’s route, Regis also didn’t disclose Laetitia’s identity to his followers, and instead introduced her as “an far-removed aristocratic relative” leading to Laetitia being perceived as his fiancee and attracting a lot of hate from women in the court… all for what purpose?
For those who have read a few of my reviews, you probably know that one of my core philosophies is that there is often no perfect solution. It is naive to always look for a solution where nobody is sacrificed. Helping one faction out means the suffering of another faction, or helping at their expense. Hence, I found it difficult to accept that from the beginning, Regis claims to not support Laetitia’s sacrifice because “she is also one of my subjects” but doesn’t seem to appreciate that at this time, if Laetitia doesn’t sacrifice herself, he is effectively sacrificing the whole country’s fate for one woman that he doesn’t even know. How is this decision-making fit for an emperor? I also use claim because we all see what happened in Oscar’s bad route. Turns out his “generosity” wasn’t genuine at all.
Anyways, at least we get more romance in this route. Bottom line is Regis is looking for a way to stop Laetitia from being sacrificed. However, an attack commenced in the church when Regis took Laetitia back for a visit. Laetitia falls in a deep slumber and hears Hiver’s voice calling out to her (though later we learn Hiver is not the antagonist). Charles concludes that Laetitia has been cursed, which is something that is only cast by a god.
With his love for Laetitia and his country, Regis pulls out his ancestor’s sword. Meanwhile, Laetitia fights the voice in her nightmare, not willing to be “Hiver”‘s wife and declaring she will return to the human world to be with Regis.
The sword breaks the curse. Laetitia wakes up. The two share their first kiss.
However, the voice from Laetitia’s nightmare does not give up. It also keeps chanting “unforgivable” (許せない) which gave me OlySoi Catharsis flashbacks (even though this game came first lol) anyway. Laetitia and Regis have the same dream and realize they are the reincarnations of Fredia & the ancestor respectively. They also learn of the current spring goddess’ real name – Jeunesse.
The two confront Jeunesse who again confesses about her motivation behind taking back Laetitia’s powers. She struck some kind of deal with the god of the underworld, Elegal (one of the three original gods that created the universe).
Happy End: Elegal curses the snow in the human world to be blood red. This forces Regis and Laetitia to go to the underworld to fight him.
They defeat Elegal and bring spring to the world again & get married. Hooray.
Sad End: To stop the cursed snow, Regis sacrifices himself by stabbing himself in the chest with his ancestor’s sword and offers himself to appease the gods. He brings back spring but is forever separated from Laetitia. I’m also not sure why his eyes are yellow in this CG because I’m pretty sure Laetitia is meant to talk to him not his ancestor? Or has he transcended to a deity after martyring himself?
Thoughts:
While the story kind of held up, it is a mix-and-match taking elements of reincarnation, Excalibur, Snow White, Hades & Persephone, and Olympia Soiree with that 魂の半身 lmao… There isn’t anything original about the writing. I’m not saying I want the author to come up with anything original because we’ve already seen the first three routes. 😬 So I’ll take this route as a win and move onto Hiver route. This game does deal with the reincarnation element better than Matsurika though, and stuck to the setting that Laetitia is not Fredia, and her own identity.
Hiver (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke)
A lot of people complained about Hiver’s route saying it was bland. However, while it was mid it’s the best out of the five & Tachibana’s voice acting in this game was just 💯 💯 💯
Hiver, or “Yves” (his human form) just randomly appears in the middle of the church grounds at night after Jeunesse told Laetitia to be his bride. Laetitia runs into him and comments he is an “extremely beautiful person”.
Yves is oblivious to the laws and customs of this country and admits that he is from “somewhere far away”. The biggest plot hole this entire route is that everyone – Oscar (who is supposed to be Laetitia’s GUARD), Elias, Regis, Dylan, everyone else at the church – just accepts that a random human popped up often at restricted areas and hung out with Laetitia, because Laetitia says he is her “friend”… Oscar put up a bit of resistance but Laetitia just pouted her way and said pretty please so he didn’t chase the issue anymore… surprised Laetitia didn’t get murdered thus far with how lax her security is.
The two spend time together reading about legends. We already know the whole bride business is a scam, so Hiver is surprised to learn that he suddenly has a wife. He appeared in the human world to look for Jeunesse because she has not been doing her job (only took 13 years for them to notice). I mean, sure, then why appear as a human, instead of just arriving as a god and declaring this so the entire church can help you (shrug).
Being given life as a snowflake, Hiver is Elegal’s only child created when he was feeling lonely. As such, he is oblivious to human emotion. He learns what a “friend” is from Laetitia who says they are people who have each other’s backs. What I hate about the writing is before Hiver’s identity is revealed, he asks Laetitia if he is her “best friend” and what the other guys around her are. We have to pick the option that “we are only acquaintances, not friends” and say Yves is her best friend. Oscar is probably on suicide watch right now, not to mention how OOC and men-pleasing Laetitia is written to be in order to even entertain this option. She’s met the guy for like ten days. Another thing I didn’t like about the writing is that Hiver chose to hide his identity from Laetitia because he is shy knowing she thought she was his bride. However, he is a god who doesn’t know what human emotions are. So why is he all so sensitive and shy now? Again, bad writing.
Eventually, Laetitia catches onto the fact that Yves isn’t human. He has golden eyes, seems to be able to ignore all locks in the church, and can heal any wound in an instant… Laetitia doesn’t take the news well and runs out of the garden refusing to talk to him. She is scared shitless from the fraud spring goddess with no power but can throw a tantrum on the real winter god, make it make sense.
Anyways, Laetitia regrets this and goes back to apologize to Hiver because otherwise the plot can’t continue. Hiver, having seen what happened between Elegal’s rejection from Fredia & how Elegal later descended into insanity, tells Laetitia that he is afraid of the emotion “love” because he believes no matter how beautiful it is, it will break and conclude in the end, so it’s perhaps better to not begin at all. However, Laetitia is still like waa~ but I want to know more about you~~ because the writer doesn’t know how to write romance otherwise.
Love End:
Thus, Hiver takes her to his winter realm to show her more about himself. He gifts Laetitia some token of friendship. However, he suddenly cries in pain & starts turning translucent. He doesn’t tell Laetitia why and insists he is okay. Laetitia hears Jeunesse’s call asking Laetitia to go with her if she wants to save Hiver.
Jeunesse takes Laetitia to the underworld and presents her before Elegal, saying look I fulfilled my end of the deal, so give me my powers back. Elegal, being the absolute jerk he is just knocks Jeunesse out and becomes all creepy with Laetitia, calling her Fredia. The charm takes Hiver here, who defends Laetitia against Elegal.
The two have a battle but Hiver gets his ass kicked against his father. He then starts disappearing in front of Laetitia. Hiver was loyal to Elegal but chose Fredia’s side when Elegal descended into madness. To punish his betrayal, Elegal cursed Hiver that when he also loves someone one day like Elegal did, he will disappear into nothingness and die. Hiver says despite this, he is willing to die because he loves Laetitia.
The sky and earth gods appear because Elegal has been running too wild in this route. They say they cannot reverse a curse cast by a god of their caliber, but they can resurrect and recreate Hiver, and that’s what they did. Hiver comes back anew with Elegal punished and put into god jail I guess.
Laetitia proposes to the gods that she willingly wants to marry Hiver and be his bride. However, she is human. The earth goddess smiles and says that’s not a problem at all. They then made Laetitia the third generation spring goddess & Jeunesse retires.
Spring comes back to the land. Every year, Laetitia takes over the human world season from Hiver. The two are so lovey dovey the summer/autumn gods start complaining that winter/spring are blurred, lol. Global warming is real guys. They live happily ever after, forever and ever.
Normal End: There isn’t a sad end with CG this route. The sad end is just choosing to be Elegal’s bride and the game abruptly ends. In the normal end, Hiver reveals his identity to everyone. He confronts Jeunesse and gets the sky and earth gods to intervene and fix the issue. He then thanks Laetitia for teaching him what friendship is and returns to the skies. He wants Laetitia to live her life to the fullest as a human girl without worries, and to never forget about their time together.
Thoughts: I mean, the only reason I ranked this route #1 was for seiyuu bias. The romance was still god awful but at least there was some drama in terms of the plot. Otomate please stop doing Tachibana so dirty and casting him in shitty ass scenarios like this one and Matsurika. He deserves better. This is so criminal.
Extra Story
This additional story is an extension of the Normal End from Hiver’s route. We see that Jeunesse is a lower goddess who grew up under Fredia’s care.
Fredia initially declined to stay behind in the human world. However, eventually she wanted to know what being human was like and begged her parents – the gods of sky and earth – to reincarnate her as a human woman. Her story with the god of the underworld was also revealed. Basically, Elegal was a lonely sad guy who never talked to women so he fell in love and became a creepy stalker because Fredia showed him basic decency and kindness and gave him a flower lol.
When Fredia was in the middle of being reincarnated, Elegal jumped out and interrupted the ritual. This caused Fredia’s powers to not completely transfer to Jeunesse & some of it remained with her in her human form – Laetitia.
Laetitia has a conversation with Fredia in her dreams. Fredia encourages Laetitia to live her life to the fullest as a human girl, and emphasizes that she is Laetitia, and not Fredia. She also tells Laetitia that she is quite “troubled” by Elegal’s obsession with her and wished he’d get over it.
Laetitia decides to clear up the miscommunication and goes to the underworld to talk to Elegal, who still insists on calling Laetitia “Fredia” and even nearly strangles her to death thinking this will bring Fredia back if he just got rid of the human portion of her… Before dying of suffocation, Laetitia blurts out that she actually talked to Fredia, and that Fredia said she cannot reciprocate her feelings and never viewed him that way.
This quite literally breaks Elegal who just accepts this (lol) instead of killing Laetitia and bringing destruction to the world. He summons his siblings, the gods of sky and earth, and asks to also be reincarnated as a human to experience what Fredia did. He entrusts the underworld to no other than Hiver.
In the end, we see a glimpse of human Elegal “Eru” who falls in love with Laetitia at first sight anyway and immediately proposes to her – just like when the two met as gods. Hiver sighs and says “some people don’t change at all”. All the LIs have a good time together in the garden and compete for Laetitia’s attention. THE END.
Final Thoughts
Basically my thoughts summarized in one picture. WTF DID I READ. I REALLY WASTED TENS OF HOURS OF MY LIFE ON THIS??? This is from the writer that wrote Code:Realize & Collar Malice?? Now I’m getting scared to replay CR & CM..
This game did have a nostalgic early 2010s otome game feel to it. However, I really don’t remember games back then being THIS badly written? Were my standards THAT low back in the day?? The length was also so short (which was good because I would hate to suffer for twice the time) which screamed lazy production and cash grab. You’re telling me this is an 80CAD/60USD game?? I can’t even recommend it as a “starter” otome game because of the various landmines it buried for me. I think I would quit otome games if this was my first one lmao. The casting issue is the least of this game’s problems, and that’s saying a lot…
I’m so sad this game actually got a Chinese localization. Feel lucky English fans for you are protected against this abomination.
This was a spectacular fail of an experimental project by Otomate. 2/10. Do not play unless you are a bigger masochist than Komori Yui.
UN:LOGICAL next.
otome hitorigoto 