The Empress, Her Sword, and Peach Blossoms: Review of [160923] Sen no Hatou, Tsukisoume no Kouki

Foreword: Happy New Year everyone! I actually started this game quite recently and have a lot of good things to say about it, and I also refrained from publishing TWO reviews that have already been written, purely because they’re more negative and I want to start every year with a positive one and I don’t want to seem like a pessimistic asshole wait I’m already one

I want to start off by saying this game was fun. No seriously. It was really fun in its purest definition. So fun in fact that when I wasn’t playing it, I was itching to get back on to play it! It was THAT good

Despite this, it does have some flaws that other friends warned me ahead of time, so I’ll be explaining all of this below. Let’s get started!

Title: 千の刃濤、桃花染の皇姫 (Sen no Hatou, Tsukisome no Kouki) [Thousand Blades and the Royal Princess of Tsukisome]
Producers: August
Release Date: September 23, 2016
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v15708
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=901861
Game Type: Dramatic Action Visual Novel with Mixed Themes

Summary: The Imperial Nation was quite happy with their Empress (Suotei) who was fair and just. It was really only after the invasion of the United Nations and the mingling of their culture with the Imperial Nation’s when things started to get out of hand, and with the death of Suotei, their current empress, a traitor to the nation takes over with a puppet empress Hisuitei (my Tera Character’s name; bonus points if you know where I got it from) and drives out the Suotei’s daughter who was the last of her bloodline.

Soujin is a man with amnesia who participates in the committee of Samurais who dedicate their lives to the loyalty towards their empress. He spots a terrorist who tries to assassinate the empress and chases after the terrorist only to find that this “terrorist” somehow overturns his loyalty to serving her instead.

Soon she claims she is the last bloodline of the Empress, and the Hisuitei is actually a fake. This “real Empress” who calls herself Akari then receive Soujin’s help in rebelling against the traitor who ruined the country, as well as prevent future calamities to come.

Thousand Romance, Ten Thousand Flowers: Review of [160729]Senren Banka

Foreword: When it comes to Yuzusoft games, a lot of people claim them to be a “safe choice”, meaning that the game itself is never going to be absolute shit. I agree with this statement for the most part (having played the more recent Yuzusoft titles), but I also think it should come with an additional comment that like other mainstream galge companies, there’s not much adventuring going on with this company at least regarding the story.

In addition to this, I’m seeing that there’s a set pattern nowadays that even for “romance” oriented games such as Senren Banka, the romance transitioning is often completely missing or otherwise shitty. This is really disappointing since quite often, the conflict presented in a heroine route is resolved by the protagonist and the respective heroine who has already formed a “romantic bond”, but said bond was never “formed” in the eyes of the reader; it was just thrown out there.

Well, aside from this, Senren Banka is not a bad game, but as with many Yuzusoft titles, it’s not a “great” game. There are multiple reasons for this, and I hope readers can follow along with me as I make the attempts to explain why.

P.S. omg Irotori is quite amazing with story elements, but it’s sooooooo boring… Someone kill me Q_Q

Title: 千恋＊万花 (Senren Banka; Thousand Romance, Ten thousand flowers)
Producers: Yuzusoft
Release Date: July 29th, 2016
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v19073
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=895010
Game Type: Fantasy Romance Novel with a rural setting

Summary: Masaomi is heading to Houri, a small town unlike the city he lived in and even with the nickname “Inutsuki” (likely meaning “haunted by dogs”), which prevents taxi drivers to even enter. This town is filled with various mysteries, such as the presence of spirits or monsters which ironically seem to attract foreigners. In addition, at the heart of it all, a sword-pulling event is open to the public.

While Masaomi was brought here more from a blackmail while his parents were enjoying a trip, he greets his strict grandfather and his cousins, as well as his childhood friends. For fun, they make Masaomi pull the legendary sword–the Murasamemaru, from the stone it was stabbed into.

Masaomi obliges, and without too much thought, he pulls on the sword lightly to have it completely snap in two! Chaos immediately ensues as the sword didn’t even budge when others pulled on it. It’s not long until a spirit named Murasame pops out and explains that Masaomi has been chosen by the Murasamemaru to defend Houri from the Tatarigami’s curse which has been going on for 500 years.

GGWP

My Purpose in this Twisted Fate! Review of [160428] Sengoku Koihime X

Foreword: Generally, I really like BaseSon’s games. Some people argue that the massive number of characters are often overwhelming and causes each character to become more shallow, but it doesn’t really bother me that much since the design for said characters are often performed very well and in a very intricate manner. In return, this causes the game itself to be fairly long, so that works well with how I like BaseSon’s games. I also like to see what CVs played which characters, and see if I can “test” myself in identifying some of them. (Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this xD)

In addition to this, in the two series of Koihime titles I’ve played from BaseSon, first being Koihime Musou and now Sengoku Koihime, there is a stunning accuracy in some of the scenario to the point it’s actually quite scary. While I wasn’t too informed with the story of Oda Nobunaga, quick reference look-ups suggest that BaseSon did their research when creating this game, and this is going to be a plus for them as well.

Title: 戦国†恋姫～乙女絢爛☆戦国絵巻～ (Sengoku Koihime ~Otome Kenran Sengoku Emaki~)
Producers: BaseSon
Release Date: April 28, 2016 (X-version; all-ages version was released in 2013)
VNDB Link: https://vndb.org/v13188
Getchu Link: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=865277
Game Type: War-themed novel based on real life events

Summary: Kensuke is the nephew of the famous Kazuto. After his own parents died, this uncle who has over 50 wives took him in as his own and started to train him for something, for which Kensuke didn’t know why. Regardless, when cleaning out the storage area one day, Kensuke finds a mysterious sword and becomes teleported back in time to the Sengoku era. Meeting characters like Kuon, Kensuke starts to wonder what his purpose was for being brought to this strange land, and with the help of his comrades find meaning in his life and role.

It’s obviously to have his harem, of course :D