Nightshade: Early Common Route

Masterlist

So I bought the ninja otome Nightshade on special and then downloaded it so I could play immediately next time I was in the mood for an otome...and then my internet went down! Thanks for the game, Past Me!

I just finished Goemon's good end and it was GREAT.

The basic setup is that the heroine is the 16 year old princess of a ninja clan in around 1600, and there's a lot of Ninja Angst and Sengoku Political Shenanigans with the same figures I met in Samurai Love Ballad Party and Hakuoki: Demon's Bond, though the shared characters are written very differently.

The overall tone reminds me a lot of the Shadow paths in SLBP. It feels like there's a sort of "clan as abusive family you need to work through your trauma about" metaphor, and all the LIs have a somewhat pseudo-incesty (possibly estranged) family member vibe, though the closest blood relative is a cousin (who is also her teacher so that'll be fun)

The overall plot is apparently the same for each route, and I've heard it gets repetitive and some of the others are ANGSTY. So we'll see how I feel about the game overall. But I'm very positive right now!

Content note: I worry about there being consent issues but nothing very bad actually happens (yet) Spoilers for the first few chapters of the game.
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Nightshade Masterlist post

Review: a Japanese otome m/f dating sim about a sad ninja princess questioning whether her life has meaning. It's great! I haven't played all the routes but the ones I did were really well done. They're all ninja she has complicated quasi-incestuous relationships with and tend to involve a certain amount of Angst And Drama About Being A Murderer For Hire, and either you're into that or you're not. But the relationships are all also very sweet and romantic with plenty of light moments, and the stories fit together nicely.

Content note: suicide, emotional abuse.
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Nightshade: Goemon

Masterlist

This was great!

I'm not usually into the slightly-dubconny flirty older dude type, but he was really sweet and tortured underneath, and they were just so good for each other that I enjoyed it despite his Issues With Sexual Boundaries. I definitely liked him more than the Goemon in SLBP, they didn't bring up as many Deep Philsophical Questions About Society but also didn't drop the ones they did bring up like a lead balloon, so.

Content note: mild but persistent dubcon from the LI.

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