I just got an iPhone for my free phone upgrade so of course I immediately ventured to find the world of otome games, with Voltage being the outstanding candidate for new content in the genre. That being said, there is a hot tsundere guy I can romance, TALLY HO!
Prior to this review I really couldn’t review most of my purchases because unfortunately, only very few games comes to America. As this is an anime blog, I can’t really make posts about english made games, mostly because they are not in the same genre. On that note, many of them are great games and I will take this time to pimp that you should all check out the hanakogames.com website, because they make a ton of quality games and I personally love almost everything they’ve put out. COUGH
On topic, I pretty much bought Keith as my second route in my otome craze. I’d still be playing new games but the itunes store hates me and doesn’t want me to be happy also I have no money, sobs. But upon starting this game I was basically like,
Too nice
Too interested in me
Too boring
Too stoic. . .
Wait, hold on there. . .! What’s that in the distance. . .could it be. . .tsundere prince-san?!
I have a system in otome games. If there are a bunch of guys I find interesting and I think would make the MC happy, I buy everything/play every route and essentially eat it up. But with be my Princess I was genuinely bored with most of these people, because I was going -Damn you’re a prince you aren’t into me DON’T EVEN LIE, a lot of times their interest felt feigned or forced and I wanted genuine interest. The entire prologue concept is that one of the Princes is entirely too nice and takes you to a ball as an apology for your dress getting ruined while shielding him from mud.
A normal Prince with honor might. . .you know. . .buy me a new dress. . .or pay for dry cleaning. . .but nope! This one wants to take me to an illustrious ball even though I am some normal girl who likely doesn’t have the monetary capacity to own a nice enough dress or the proper etiquette not to humiliate myself. So right then and there I was like LOL NOPE NOT INTERESTED! I need something to make me interested in a guy. I’m already in a long term commited relationship so what the crap do I need with sappy shmoo foo true wub crap? No, I NEED SOME GRIT!
And that’s why I chose to sedu- romance Keith, the Prince of Liberty.
Right off the bat Keith is an asshole to you, calling you a commoner. I have this thing where once a guy insults some aspect of me, without knowing me, and judges me solely based on that aspect- I MUST ROMANCE THEM AND SHAME THEM TERRIBLY ONCE THEY REALIZE THEY LOVE THE CHICK THEY WERE AN ASS TO! It’s satisfying. I still love Ren Ichinose’s route solely because he was like OH WOW I JUDGED YOU I SHOULDN’T DO THAT!!! woah I’m an ass.
Same goes for Keith. Right off the bat I was like, I WILL BREAK YOU WITH LOVE AND HOTNESS BECAUSE I AM ASSUMING THE MC MIGHT BE SLIGHTLY ATTRACTIVE. And so I bought his route and the story starts out with him. . .being an asshole and making you into a maid because he suspects you broke a vase.
Oh Keith, stay classy ya DICK.
But the great part of otome games versus love novels is they always manage to narrowly avoid the cliche and when they do do it, it’s not so embarrassing. It’s like, oh well that was weird but cool I guess. . .
No, in this game it’s a GAME dammit. YOU SEE THEIR EXPRESSIONS. YOUR HEART BREAKS AS YOU READ THE CLICHE BUT SOMEHOW FUCKING ADORABLE TROPES. DAMN YOU PRETTY BISHOUNEN BOYS. It’s especially so in this route, so so much.
You start off as the maid- and quickly win over everyone just because you hate Keith’s manservant, Luke, and want to kick ass at your ‘job’ in order to show him. I like already that you’re not like ‘WELL I GUESS I MUST’. You’re more like ‘I hate you dude’. I think Keith reminds me a ton of Doumyoji Tsukasa from Hana Yori Dango. Offensive, rude, and at the end of the day all he wants is a woman who will beat him if she thinks he is stupid. True story.
I suspect Keith’s affection for you might be a little more. . .how do I put it? I played another route by Voltage in “My Forged Wedding” and it took longer before anyone realized their feelings or acted on their emotions. By about chapter 7 Keith is winning you over and he’s obviously into you. The funny thing is how arrogant and rude towards ‘commoners’ he still remains, but he is like WTF BACK OFF OF MY SEXY LADY as soon as you get into him. I think the best part of these novels compared to terrible bodice rippers is 1. there isnt much bodice ripping 2. the MC is usually not an annoying twat. And bodice rippers always leave me with the taste of shame and horror. . .while otome games just make me go. . .aww damn, shut up and take my money!!
Anyway, you have a love rival in this game that clearly reminds me of Tsukasa’s love rival in Hana Yori Dango. He reallllllyyyyyyyyyy is not interested (even less than Tsukasa) and the love rival reaaaallly doesn’t want to believe it. Luckily there is never any awkward misunderstandings in Keith’s route, Laura is just an asshole who Keith is indifferent to.
Of course since you’re a commoner there is an ~issue~ because Princes can’t marry commoners. This whole time I was thinking KATE MIDDLETON but I guess in a world where monarchies are still rampant, you do expect a Prince to be more choosy. And another thing this game manages to do without making it awkward and terrible- I hate ‘princes’ in new media because they’re never adapted as chivalrous as I’d like for a Prince. In this, you do see the Prince thing for every Prince character. Princey prance princey poo prince. The writing is good and even the cheesy cliches are fun and managed to invoke emotions from me.
After the whole commoner thing seems to not be enough, a financial crisis occurs in Liberty and Keith is an asshole to everyone about it. His main character growth is learning to be a better ruler, so yet another thing this Otome game succeeds at is making me believe he grew up and understood his position.
Then there are some things I saw coming.
One, you get on a plane in this route.
I KNEW INSTANTLY WE WOULD BE STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND AND BOND THERE.
And yeah. . .there was bonding all right. . . heh ehe e. . .
And later you decide you can’t bring his country down by loving him and decide to leave. AND IT IS. . .ALSO HOT. AND NICE. AND PRECIOUS AND NOT SOME CLICHE GARBAGE AND HEY HE DOESNT COME RUNNING UP TO YOU IN AN AIRPORT [which is illegal]
LIKE SOME OTHER OTOME GAME ROUTES I PLAYED
MY FORGED WEDDING . . .COUGH
Keith is a jerk in the beginning, but he is utterly flawless once you humble him with his own stupidity. FLAWLESS. Cheek pulling, sweet kisses, jealous but not creepy, huggles and butterflies FLAWLESS. I wish I could buy the special content I keep seeing around because when it comes to Keith well,
Keith is just too freakin’ adorable. And unlike the Forged wedding route they WON’T. LET ME SLEEP WITH HIM YET. My god MC, DO I HAVE TO THROW A TV AT YOU? IF YOU’RE ME YOU’RE SO READY. And the sequel. . . the sequel was also a tease! Not to mention it had storylines with KIDS and BEING TOGETHER ALONE AT NIGHT ON A DESERTED ISLAND YET AGAIN
WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME GAME, I WANT TO GIVE YOU ALL MY MONEY JUST LET ME DO IT
I have to say this one comes highly recommended from me. If you like tsundere guys who are well. . .THE VERY DEFINITION OF TSUNDERE (ITS NOT LIKE I LIKE YOU STUPID COMMONER. . . .) THEN BUY THIS PATH
BUY IT
8/10, solid
Oki
OMG this entire review was hilarious.