Quasi-liveblog of Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds
Jun. 28th, 2018 04:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI've been playing through the japanese dating sim Hakuoki after getting it in the recent steam sale and subjecting anyone who'll listen to my rollercoaster ride of reactions so thought I should start writing them down somewhere I don't have to worry about boring anyone.
It's 88% off until July 6 for anyone who's into a well made but very long historical samurai drama with supernatural elements, iddy plot twists, a wholesome crossdressing heroine who Just Wants To Help and all the pretty Japanese swordsmen wanting to protect her you could wish for.
I am not sure I'll actually finish it by July 6 which...gives you some idea of how damn long this thing is. So far the only warnings I'd give asides from Typical Dating Sim Gender Issues is some ableism and violence, and what I think may be some homophobic coding of a villain. Also the ratio of "Historical details about the political situation in late 1860s Kyoto" to "romance" ratio was...not what I was expecting.
The art and Japanese voice acting is top notch, both aesthetically and in a cute-boys-to-date way, though I do have to avoid thinking about how many of the "traditional Japanese ponytail plus anime style fluffy fringe" hairstyles would look like mullets in practice. The translation is pretty good too.
A note of warning: they were sneaky and divided the original Playstation game (Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom) into two PC games (Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds and Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms) but it's all one story, just buy the bundle. A positive change is that the PC version(s) has more love interests, even if their insertion into the plot is a little inelegant. Also apparently the heroine is less passive which...makes me glad I never played the Playstation version.
I've been largely unspoiled and mostly enjoying things as they come along, so if you're going to play it just do so. But if you'd rather live vicariously, read on :D
**Spoilers**
So, going in I just knew it was a dating sim set in historical Japan where the love interests were all swordsmen, and that people overall like it.
My one hope was that the heroine would also get to use a sword.
I am currently, at time of writing, around 15 hours in and maybe 80% of the way through the first game. Bearing in mind there are TWELVE love interests and a whole other game to get through...
So!
There is a very pretty opening trailer that is like...20 pretty men and two pretty girls. "Hey, actual female characters!" I thought. And, well. WE'LL SEE HOW THAT GOES.
"Press start button"
I sigh and press enter.
While they obviously put some effort into making pretty English graphics for the Playstation version they went to ZERO effort to change the images for the PC release, as I am reminded by the big "PRESS A" at the end of every line of dialogue.
I kept the original name, Chizuru, because what do I know about 19th century Japan? (At time of writing: MUCH MORE THAN I DID)
January 1864: Chizuru goes to Kyoto from her home in Edo (Tokyo) to find her missing doctor father. She is crossdressing to avoid trouble in the Big Bad City full of dangerous ronin. And she is CARRYING HER FAMILY SWORD, that she has been well trained in. I am pleased.
There's lots of historical detail that goes over my head but every now and then a little thing comes up saying "press down button for more info" and miraculously, the down button actually works. There's a little encyclopedia with one line descriptions of characters and historical details.
I attempt to figure out how to save my game, just to make sure I can, and try like 15 random keys, discovering "auto", two different kinds of "skip", and "cancel", before eventually finding "i"="menu". Upside I can just set the dialogue to run automatically and sit back. "Oh good," I thought. "This is shaping up to be a little slow, my fingers could get sore otherwise". HA.
Chizuru is attacked by ruffians and runs away. The ruffians are attacked by MYSTERIOUS BLUE COATED BLOODCRAZED DEMON SWORDSMEN, IN A SHOWER OF BLOOD AND VIOLENCE. I am even more pleased. SUPERNATURAL SHENANIGANS.
Chizuru freaks out and is 100% a fainting useless Girl Character. I sigh.
Two human looking swordsmen show up, one who jokes about how much he loves murder and wants to kill Chizuru, the other who slightly frowns and says he takes no joy in killing and shows mild concern for Chizuru's wellbeing.
His name is Saito and I LOVE HIM. I'm not sure why but he just grabbed me and stayed BEST BOY even once I'd met everyone else.
They're also wearing rather tacky blue coats with a zig zag white pattern on the sleeves which I thought was poor costume design.
Chizuru: OH NO the infamous SHINSENGUMI, terrifying blue coated ronin who stalk the streets of Kyoto!
Shinsengumi: Did you see anything just then? (Should we kill her? Maybe we should ask the vice-commander...)
Chizuru, splashed with blood from the demon swordsmen whose corpses lie at her feet: Me? hahaha, nope. Nothing at all. Don't mind me officers I'll be on my way....
Suddenly a wild vice-commander/default love interest appears. He puts his sword to her throat but she can See The Pain In His Eyes. WHAT ABOUT THE PAIN IN SAITOS EYES HE ALSO FELT BAD ABOUT MAYBE KILLING CHIZURU DOES NOBODY CARE ABOUT SAITO'S PAIN.
There is then a long scene where she meets the captains of the Shinsengumi, an endless parade of implausibly attractive young men with a range of Love Interest Personalities.
Original love interests:
Harada: charming, friendly, a bit of a flirt. Only love interest to have actually shown any interest in Chizuru even though I have like no points with him.
Heisuke: good natured, energetic youth but a bit dumb. I would be into him, as the only LI around Chizuru's age, but I don't like his design. His expression is always a bit angry-evil looking even though that's never his mood.
Kazama: A secret ;)
Okita: The guy who thought it was funny to joke about murdering Chizuru when she was traumatised.
Saito: MY BOYFRIEND. Quiet and emotionally restrained but polite and driven by duty.
Hijikata: The vice-commander. Makes a big show of being a hardass who'll kill anyone, seems to be a fluffy bunny underneath.
New a love interests for this game (previously secondary characters):
Shinpachi: good natured big lug.
Yamazaki: he hadn't shown up yet but he's a ninja with a mullet and a Naruto headband and not much noticeable personality
Sannan: Quiet, morally ambiguous nerd with glasses.
I'm mostly using their family names here, since that's how they're usually referred to. Except for Heisuke who demands she use his given name like 5 minutes after meeting her.
The game made the unfortunate choice of showing names western style as given-name family-name even when I could HEAR them being said as the reverse. It also doesn't show honorifics which is annoying especially since the heroine is crossdressing and (to the extent I can tell) it's interesting hearing people switch from nothing or "chan" to "kun" depending on context. Overall the translation is fluid and competent but leans towards modern American English conventions even when it comes out as a bit anachronistic. I spent a while wondering if they were really swearing as much as the dialogue implied but then clearly heard a "baka" ("stupid") translated as "asshole", so :)
You also meet the chief, Kondou, a slightly older cuddly teddy bear of a man. "Huh, I don't usually go for older authority figures but maybe...", I thought. But I checked the love interests and he wasn't there. Instead there were five more love interests I still hadn't met yet. "I guess they'll show up soon" I thought. HAHAHA.
The Shinsengumi obviously don't want details of the SUPERNATURAL SHENANIGANS getting out and argue about whether to kill Chizuru despite her dogged but implausible claim not to have seen anything. She eventually decides to explain her situation which results in some "YOU'RE A GIRL??" "Wait not everyone knew that?" etc and since they are also looking for her father for Mysterious Reasons they decide to let her stay with them and help with the search. But if she tries to run THEY'LL KILL HER.
Sweet! I thought. They'll all search for her dad and uncover Supernatural Secrets, and she'll bond with everyone and figure out who she likes best!
HA.
Months passed in game. Winter became spring. Hours of dialogue slipped past me on Auto mode.
And ALL SHE DID WAS SIT IN HER ROOM ANGSTING ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO DO ANYTHING.
I had barely any choices to make. There was ONE example of Chizuru proving she could defend herself with a sword (to Saito, even) but then she NEVER USED IT AGAIN. It turns out she has a PHOBIA OF SWORDS.
A PHOBIA. OF SWORDS.
Upside, this phobia is a result of worrying people will notice her mysterious ability to heal fast from injury. Downside this brief revelation was about the only "supernatural" plot point since the start. I began to wonder if those DEMON SWORDSMEN were a metaphor for regular dudes who'd gotten too into killing.
Everyone goes on about what a dead weight she is, and she feels bad, so starts doing menial chores. The game is not doing much for me as wish fulfillment thus far.
I got bored and looked up the Shinsengumi and discovered they were a real organisation, and the captains were all based on real people...who largely died around 1867, eg only 3 years after the current time in the game. "That's a bit depressing,"I thought, "I hope they change stuff." Also those tacky blue uniforms were canon.
And then I had a sudden memory of this first game I'd bought, "Kyoto Winds" just being the first half of the story, so I checked out the other one. And discovered
(a) Yep, Edo Blossoms is the second half with all the actual romance.
(b) From the screenshots Edo Blossoms had vampires.
WHY WOULD A DATING SIM BE SO COY ABOUT HAVING VAMPIRES.
I patiently waited for the vampires to show up and was rewarded with more historical detail about the growing tensions between the shogunate and imperialist forces. On the upside, the bad guys were anti-foreigner imperialist nationalists.
Chizuru got to be very slightly helpful during a battle (not by fighting, though). I finally met Yamazaki, who seemed nice enough in a ninja-y kind of way but showed up very briefly.
All the Shinsengumi start to care about Chizuru and are endearingly friendly and protective. They keep referring to her as "kid" but she is aging from 16ish to later teens. Absolutely nothing remotely gay is ever done with the fact she's crossdressing, and people guess it a lot, so it's not the Fun Bi Transmasculine Feelings I get with some crossdressing stories.
The creepy voiced kinda slimy looking nerd Sannan was injured and fell straight into Angsty Angry Disabled Warrior tropes, lashing out at everyone and feeling useless. "But he's a love interest, his arc can't be TOO bad" I thought, not realising that he was not initially designed as a love interest.
But it did occur to me that Kondou not being a love interest despite being loveable and cute implied he might DIE TRAGICALLY. This hasn't happened yet but I worry :( Especially since he's been taken in by the Obviously Evil (and maybe kinda gay coded?) Imperialist Itou who joined the Shinsengumi with his weirdly hot for a non-love-interest brother.
Upside: A NEW LOVE INTEREST SHOWED UP: the kind, princely, and very cutely drawn Iba. He's and old friend of Hijikata and caused some cute tsundere blushing. "He's nice" I thought, "and I guess since he's a love interest he'll be showing up more from now on".
HE HAS NEVER SHOWN UP AGAIN.
At time of writing I am nearing the end of the "meet the love interests" section of these games, and I only met Sakamoto recently, again for a single scene. He seemed nice, I guess? And I think I might have met Souma? He's not unlocked but I think that might be because I refused to let some random dude Chizuru has just met act as tour guide when she was hanging out in a dangerous area trying to spot her dad. I have had no choice to hang out with the others. Knowing now that they were inserted after the rest of the game was made makes a lot of sense but also makes me doubt how satisfying their routes will be.
Anyway, I was 7-8 hours into the game at this point and checked a walkthrough to see if was on track for BEST BOY SAITO and discovered I was at the start of chapter 2/4 of the first game. With a whole separate game covering the actual romance. At that rate, ignoring skipped repeated scenes there would a total of OVER FIVE HUNDRED HOURS OF GAMEPLAY.
In practice the later chapters haven't been as long and there will be a lot of skipped repeated dialogue, but still. This game is a frigging marathon.
I checked the "warrior record" and saw I was "closed" for every dude except Saito and Sannan, who were "budding". I was all "What is 'closed', the route? Have I annoyed the other guys??" but then realised this was a literal description of the cherry blossoms on the tree behind each dude. Was it going to progress to...open, and then falling?
It turned out that while I had been finding Saito's reserved nature charming Chizuru thought he was cold and unemotional and was SHOCKED to discover he was actually a sweetie who had feelings and cared about her well being. But discover it she did, and they FINALLY had an actual shippy moment, where he was an adorable nerd about swords.
I looked up a screenshot of him to show a friend patiently putting up with me talking about how he was BEST BOY only to find out he is (a) canonically short :D (b) Going to become a vampire :D :D
The game was vaguely pushing me towards Hijikata, and his tsundere "it's not that I care about your well being I am just going to constantly keep you safe for GOOD PRACTICAL REASONS" shtick is cute but not cuter than Saito. At one point he's mentioned to have flirted with some girl and Chizuru feels sad.
You'd think "disabled nerd" would appeal to me but I had a Bad Feeling About Sannan.
Meanwhile the final original love interest, Kazama, showed up for the first time as the villain in a summary of a scene I hadn't seen.
But around this point I realised the true love interest is Japanese history. Stockholm syndrome kicked in. I started reading up on the Shogunate and imperial politics. I realise this is all much more familiar, and fun, for the Japanese players the game was written for. It's occurred to me that this is hitting similar "discover the supernatural secrets of and then date 19th century historical badasses" buttons as Wynona Earp. But at least Wynona gets to investigate and/or murder historical bad guys herself, I think one reason I find the political details dull here is that Chizuru has no direct connection to any of it.
I also wondered about the fairness of the depiction of the Imperialist bad guys as xenophobic and dogmatically clinging to the emperor but also using cannons and guns instead of Cool Old Fashioned Swords and somehow less respectful to the emperor than the anti-imperialist heroes. Especially the way it was implied whole regions were like that. But I decided not to worry about it.
And then, at last...A VAMPIRE. Sort of.
It turned out there was an ~exotic western medicine the Shogunate had ordered the Shinsengumi to experiment with that made people immortal but also mad with bloodlust, so they didn't use it any more. This is what Chizuru's father had been working with them on, before he vanished. But Sannan had been doing experiments since then and decided it was worth trying again to heal his arm.
Wait, I thought. Is Chizuru the result of some weird medical experiments on immortality?? :D
I got a bittersweet scene with Sanan where he kept in the shadows (sunlight hurt him now) and was weird. Chizuru's inner narration assumed I'd seen a previous optional scene where he briefly and painfully transformed into a white haired red eyed creature. SORRY SANNAN BUT I CHOSE TO HANG WITH SAITO AND LOOK AT THE STARS.
Sannan is creepy about it being ok to experiment on people, and there is a lot of lying to people not in the know. It strikes me that you could make the Shinsengumi leaders the Bad Guys With A Conspiracy without much change of plot.
And then...ANOTHER FEMALE CHARACTER SHOWED UP, the hot and mysterious Kaoru. She had to be rescued from some so-called-Patriot thugs.
Chizuru: She is so pretty and elegant, unlike plain little me :(
Okita: She looks...exactly like you???
Kaoru: Hmm yeah that's interesting isn't it? ANYWAY GOTTA GO.
During another Important Political Fight, Kazama and some other bad guys showed up and said they were DEMONS and Chizuru should come with them because she is a DEMON PRINCESS :D :D :D They mention demon women being super rare and sought after.
Unfortunately once the demons got scared off everyone else went "that was weird???" then never mentioned it again.
Upside: ANOTHER FEMALE CHARACTER. Met under...almost identical circumstances to the last one, being menaced by some nationalist thugs. Upside there was some enjoyable "real patriots don't go around being bullies" etc, also Chizuru ACTUALLY STOOD UP TO THEM AND PROTECTED HER. The cutie with the ponytail is Chizuru. Note how the girl, Sen, is clearly checking her out.
*sighs for the f/f path that could have been* Anyway, Sen makes some cryptic remarks and then leaves.
Sannan goes all Creepy Vampire at Chizuru but doesn't quite eat her. Tragically he is the wrong kind of creepy vampire to hit my id ;_;
Just when I think the female character train has left the station, there are reports of "someone who looks like Chizuru" working with the bad guys. She bumps into and confronts Possible Evil Twin Kaoru who is cryptic in a "yes I'm with the Imperialists but I'm not dumb enough to admit it in front of your angry sword buddy" way.
I thought "Wait, if she's Chizuru's twin, and with the bad guys, then they already HAVE a demon girl, why is it such a big deal for them to get Chizuru too?"
There was also some gratuitous shirtlessness, including Saito looking cute and short and grumpy.
It was a bit vague but I think Chizuru decided to start sword training so she could be less useless in a fight??
And then...the Creepy Imperialist Itou finds out about the vampires and leverages this to split off his own Imperialist group. Two of the captains choose to go with him: Heisuke (who has complex social obligations to him) and...Saito. We are told we will never Speak To Them Again.
"Well that's obviously not true," I thought. "They're presumably going undercover, and there'll be some cute forbidden love thing."
Heisuke says he's always been an imperialist actually. I have a moment of "NO HOW COULD YOU" before remembering that the Emperor and Shogun both sounded like repressive elitist douchebags.
The Saito walkthrough says to pick the angrier dialogue option and Heisuke runs off, upset. Guess Saito is into that? Saito is all stoic and says following Itou suits his ambition and who needs friends anyway, huh?
Chizuru: But to betray the Shogun and support the Imperalists??
Saito: A good shogun would do a better job of protecting us from those damn foreigners!
Me: SAITO NO
Saito, standing in front of a cherry blossom tree, looking wistful: You see, I just hate change so much.
Me: SAITO I LOVED YOU HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME
Chizuru: Goodbye Saito, I will remember you always ;_;
Me: AS IMPERIALIST SCUM
So I'm there feeling bitter about my PREVIOUS BEST BOY when suddenly Chizuru is woken in the middle of the night to see a Mysterious Visitor.
me: Is it her dad?
Me: Is it Saito come to say it was all a lie and beg for forgiveness??
But no, it was....Sen, the girl who is not the evil twin!
With ANOTHER FEMALE CHARACTER??
It's Kimigiku, the hot girl Hijikata flirted with offscreen! She's actually a bodyguard ninja who was pumping him for information!! And Sen is actually ANOTHER DEMON PRINCESS. COME TO TAKE CHIZURU AWAY. BECAUSE THESE HUMAN MEN CAN'T PROTECT HER LIKE SEN CAN.
:D :D :D
Goddamn I wish this game had f/f.
Anyway, sadly there's no "YES TAKE ME AWAY YOU HOT WONDERFUL DEMON PRINCESS" option, just the option to say whether you are interested in any of the Shinsengumi. I thought about saying no and presumably signing up for a thrill ride of Demon Shenanigans but decided it would almost certainly be Demon Prince Kazama's route and ugh. Also I am on the Saito train now may as well ride it to the end.
I was describing all this to a friend and went "Oh and I forgot to even mention the hot evil twin"
Friend: hot evil twin?? :D :D
Me: haha, I'll find you a pic
Me: *googles Kaoru Hakuoki*
Me: *Finds pics of Kaoru with demon/vampire white hair and red eyes, is not surprised*
Me: *Also finds pics of Kaoru shirtless and flat chested and is VERY SURPRISED INDEED*
Me to friend: I THINK THE HOT EVIL TWIN IS A HOT EVIL CROSSDRESSING TWIN BROTHER
Friend: OMG that is going to be SUCH A CLUSTERFUCK
Me: I KNOW
This image implies they present both ways? I do NOT trust the game to handle this well but I am also SUPER INTO IT.
(I also found pics from the highschool AU anime which looks like the best sort of tacky fanfic-but-official)
And at this point I decided to stop and document my journey :)
When I last saved the demons had just started attacking the headquarters to kidnap Chizuru to become a Demon Bride for Demon Prince Kazama. It's like mid-1866 and the collapse of the Shogunate (and thus the Shinsengumi) in 1868 looms ever closer.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT??? ONLY TIME WILL TELL. A VERY LARGE AMOUNT OF TIME.
Next post: Saito Part 2
Links to other reaction posts
It's 88% off until July 6 for anyone who's into a well made but very long historical samurai drama with supernatural elements, iddy plot twists, a wholesome crossdressing heroine who Just Wants To Help and all the pretty Japanese swordsmen wanting to protect her you could wish for.
I am not sure I'll actually finish it by July 6 which...gives you some idea of how damn long this thing is. So far the only warnings I'd give asides from Typical Dating Sim Gender Issues is some ableism and violence, and what I think may be some homophobic coding of a villain. Also the ratio of "Historical details about the political situation in late 1860s Kyoto" to "romance" ratio was...not what I was expecting.
The art and Japanese voice acting is top notch, both aesthetically and in a cute-boys-to-date way, though I do have to avoid thinking about how many of the "traditional Japanese ponytail plus anime style fluffy fringe" hairstyles would look like mullets in practice. The translation is pretty good too.
A note of warning: they were sneaky and divided the original Playstation game (Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom) into two PC games (Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds and Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms) but it's all one story, just buy the bundle. A positive change is that the PC version(s) has more love interests, even if their insertion into the plot is a little inelegant. Also apparently the heroine is less passive which...makes me glad I never played the Playstation version.
I've been largely unspoiled and mostly enjoying things as they come along, so if you're going to play it just do so. But if you'd rather live vicariously, read on :D
**Spoilers**
So, going in I just knew it was a dating sim set in historical Japan where the love interests were all swordsmen, and that people overall like it.
My one hope was that the heroine would also get to use a sword.
I am currently, at time of writing, around 15 hours in and maybe 80% of the way through the first game. Bearing in mind there are TWELVE love interests and a whole other game to get through...
So!
There is a very pretty opening trailer that is like...20 pretty men and two pretty girls. "Hey, actual female characters!" I thought. And, well. WE'LL SEE HOW THAT GOES.
"Press start button"
I sigh and press enter.
While they obviously put some effort into making pretty English graphics for the Playstation version they went to ZERO effort to change the images for the PC release, as I am reminded by the big "PRESS A" at the end of every line of dialogue.
I kept the original name, Chizuru, because what do I know about 19th century Japan? (At time of writing: MUCH MORE THAN I DID)
January 1864: Chizuru goes to Kyoto from her home in Edo (Tokyo) to find her missing doctor father. She is crossdressing to avoid trouble in the Big Bad City full of dangerous ronin. And she is CARRYING HER FAMILY SWORD, that she has been well trained in. I am pleased.
There's lots of historical detail that goes over my head but every now and then a little thing comes up saying "press down button for more info" and miraculously, the down button actually works. There's a little encyclopedia with one line descriptions of characters and historical details.
I attempt to figure out how to save my game, just to make sure I can, and try like 15 random keys, discovering "auto", two different kinds of "skip", and "cancel", before eventually finding "i"="menu". Upside I can just set the dialogue to run automatically and sit back. "Oh good," I thought. "This is shaping up to be a little slow, my fingers could get sore otherwise". HA.
Chizuru is attacked by ruffians and runs away. The ruffians are attacked by MYSTERIOUS BLUE COATED BLOODCRAZED DEMON SWORDSMEN, IN A SHOWER OF BLOOD AND VIOLENCE. I am even more pleased. SUPERNATURAL SHENANIGANS.
Chizuru freaks out and is 100% a fainting useless Girl Character. I sigh.
Two human looking swordsmen show up, one who jokes about how much he loves murder and wants to kill Chizuru, the other who slightly frowns and says he takes no joy in killing and shows mild concern for Chizuru's wellbeing.
His name is Saito and I LOVE HIM. I'm not sure why but he just grabbed me and stayed BEST BOY even once I'd met everyone else.
They're also wearing rather tacky blue coats with a zig zag white pattern on the sleeves which I thought was poor costume design.
Chizuru: OH NO the infamous SHINSENGUMI, terrifying blue coated ronin who stalk the streets of Kyoto!
Shinsengumi: Did you see anything just then? (Should we kill her? Maybe we should ask the vice-commander...)
Chizuru, splashed with blood from the demon swordsmen whose corpses lie at her feet: Me? hahaha, nope. Nothing at all. Don't mind me officers I'll be on my way....
Suddenly a wild vice-commander/default love interest appears. He puts his sword to her throat but she can See The Pain In His Eyes. WHAT ABOUT THE PAIN IN SAITOS EYES HE ALSO FELT BAD ABOUT MAYBE KILLING CHIZURU DOES NOBODY CARE ABOUT SAITO'S PAIN.
There is then a long scene where she meets the captains of the Shinsengumi, an endless parade of implausibly attractive young men with a range of Love Interest Personalities.
Original love interests:
Harada: charming, friendly, a bit of a flirt. Only love interest to have actually shown any interest in Chizuru even though I have like no points with him.
Heisuke: good natured, energetic youth but a bit dumb. I would be into him, as the only LI around Chizuru's age, but I don't like his design. His expression is always a bit angry-evil looking even though that's never his mood.
Kazama: A secret ;)
Okita: The guy who thought it was funny to joke about murdering Chizuru when she was traumatised.
Saito: MY BOYFRIEND. Quiet and emotionally restrained but polite and driven by duty.
Hijikata: The vice-commander. Makes a big show of being a hardass who'll kill anyone, seems to be a fluffy bunny underneath.
New a love interests for this game (previously secondary characters):
Shinpachi: good natured big lug.
Yamazaki: he hadn't shown up yet but he's a ninja with a mullet and a Naruto headband and not much noticeable personality
Sannan: Quiet, morally ambiguous nerd with glasses.
I'm mostly using their family names here, since that's how they're usually referred to. Except for Heisuke who demands she use his given name like 5 minutes after meeting her.
The game made the unfortunate choice of showing names western style as given-name family-name even when I could HEAR them being said as the reverse. It also doesn't show honorifics which is annoying especially since the heroine is crossdressing and (to the extent I can tell) it's interesting hearing people switch from nothing or "chan" to "kun" depending on context. Overall the translation is fluid and competent but leans towards modern American English conventions even when it comes out as a bit anachronistic. I spent a while wondering if they were really swearing as much as the dialogue implied but then clearly heard a "baka" ("stupid") translated as "asshole", so :)
You also meet the chief, Kondou, a slightly older cuddly teddy bear of a man. "Huh, I don't usually go for older authority figures but maybe...", I thought. But I checked the love interests and he wasn't there. Instead there were five more love interests I still hadn't met yet. "I guess they'll show up soon" I thought. HAHAHA.
The Shinsengumi obviously don't want details of the SUPERNATURAL SHENANIGANS getting out and argue about whether to kill Chizuru despite her dogged but implausible claim not to have seen anything. She eventually decides to explain her situation which results in some "YOU'RE A GIRL??" "Wait not everyone knew that?" etc and since they are also looking for her father for Mysterious Reasons they decide to let her stay with them and help with the search. But if she tries to run THEY'LL KILL HER.
Sweet! I thought. They'll all search for her dad and uncover Supernatural Secrets, and she'll bond with everyone and figure out who she likes best!
HA.
Months passed in game. Winter became spring. Hours of dialogue slipped past me on Auto mode.
And ALL SHE DID WAS SIT IN HER ROOM ANGSTING ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO DO ANYTHING.
I had barely any choices to make. There was ONE example of Chizuru proving she could defend herself with a sword (to Saito, even) but then she NEVER USED IT AGAIN. It turns out she has a PHOBIA OF SWORDS.
A PHOBIA. OF SWORDS.
Upside, this phobia is a result of worrying people will notice her mysterious ability to heal fast from injury. Downside this brief revelation was about the only "supernatural" plot point since the start. I began to wonder if those DEMON SWORDSMEN were a metaphor for regular dudes who'd gotten too into killing.
Everyone goes on about what a dead weight she is, and she feels bad, so starts doing menial chores. The game is not doing much for me as wish fulfillment thus far.
I got bored and looked up the Shinsengumi and discovered they were a real organisation, and the captains were all based on real people...who largely died around 1867, eg only 3 years after the current time in the game. "That's a bit depressing,"I thought, "I hope they change stuff." Also those tacky blue uniforms were canon.
And then I had a sudden memory of this first game I'd bought, "Kyoto Winds" just being the first half of the story, so I checked out the other one. And discovered
(a) Yep, Edo Blossoms is the second half with all the actual romance.
(b) From the screenshots Edo Blossoms had vampires.
WHY WOULD A DATING SIM BE SO COY ABOUT HAVING VAMPIRES.
I patiently waited for the vampires to show up and was rewarded with more historical detail about the growing tensions between the shogunate and imperialist forces. On the upside, the bad guys were anti-foreigner imperialist nationalists.
Chizuru got to be very slightly helpful during a battle (not by fighting, though). I finally met Yamazaki, who seemed nice enough in a ninja-y kind of way but showed up very briefly.
All the Shinsengumi start to care about Chizuru and are endearingly friendly and protective. They keep referring to her as "kid" but she is aging from 16ish to later teens. Absolutely nothing remotely gay is ever done with the fact she's crossdressing, and people guess it a lot, so it's not the Fun Bi Transmasculine Feelings I get with some crossdressing stories.
The creepy voiced kinda slimy looking nerd Sannan was injured and fell straight into Angsty Angry Disabled Warrior tropes, lashing out at everyone and feeling useless. "But he's a love interest, his arc can't be TOO bad" I thought, not realising that he was not initially designed as a love interest.
But it did occur to me that Kondou not being a love interest despite being loveable and cute implied he might DIE TRAGICALLY. This hasn't happened yet but I worry :( Especially since he's been taken in by the Obviously Evil (and maybe kinda gay coded?) Imperialist Itou who joined the Shinsengumi with his weirdly hot for a non-love-interest brother.
Upside: A NEW LOVE INTEREST SHOWED UP: the kind, princely, and very cutely drawn Iba. He's and old friend of Hijikata and caused some cute tsundere blushing. "He's nice" I thought, "and I guess since he's a love interest he'll be showing up more from now on".
HE HAS NEVER SHOWN UP AGAIN.
At time of writing I am nearing the end of the "meet the love interests" section of these games, and I only met Sakamoto recently, again for a single scene. He seemed nice, I guess? And I think I might have met Souma? He's not unlocked but I think that might be because I refused to let some random dude Chizuru has just met act as tour guide when she was hanging out in a dangerous area trying to spot her dad. I have had no choice to hang out with the others. Knowing now that they were inserted after the rest of the game was made makes a lot of sense but also makes me doubt how satisfying their routes will be.
Anyway, I was 7-8 hours into the game at this point and checked a walkthrough to see if was on track for BEST BOY SAITO and discovered I was at the start of chapter 2/4 of the first game. With a whole separate game covering the actual romance. At that rate, ignoring skipped repeated scenes there would a total of OVER FIVE HUNDRED HOURS OF GAMEPLAY.
In practice the later chapters haven't been as long and there will be a lot of skipped repeated dialogue, but still. This game is a frigging marathon.
I checked the "warrior record" and saw I was "closed" for every dude except Saito and Sannan, who were "budding". I was all "What is 'closed', the route? Have I annoyed the other guys??" but then realised this was a literal description of the cherry blossoms on the tree behind each dude. Was it going to progress to...open, and then falling?
It turned out that while I had been finding Saito's reserved nature charming Chizuru thought he was cold and unemotional and was SHOCKED to discover he was actually a sweetie who had feelings and cared about her well being. But discover it she did, and they FINALLY had an actual shippy moment, where he was an adorable nerd about swords.
I looked up a screenshot of him to show a friend patiently putting up with me talking about how he was BEST BOY only to find out he is (a) canonically short :D (b) Going to become a vampire :D :D
The game was vaguely pushing me towards Hijikata, and his tsundere "it's not that I care about your well being I am just going to constantly keep you safe for GOOD PRACTICAL REASONS" shtick is cute but not cuter than Saito. At one point he's mentioned to have flirted with some girl and Chizuru feels sad.
You'd think "disabled nerd" would appeal to me but I had a Bad Feeling About Sannan.
Meanwhile the final original love interest, Kazama, showed up for the first time as the villain in a summary of a scene I hadn't seen.
But around this point I realised the true love interest is Japanese history. Stockholm syndrome kicked in. I started reading up on the Shogunate and imperial politics. I realise this is all much more familiar, and fun, for the Japanese players the game was written for. It's occurred to me that this is hitting similar "discover the supernatural secrets of and then date 19th century historical badasses" buttons as Wynona Earp. But at least Wynona gets to investigate and/or murder historical bad guys herself, I think one reason I find the political details dull here is that Chizuru has no direct connection to any of it.
I also wondered about the fairness of the depiction of the Imperialist bad guys as xenophobic and dogmatically clinging to the emperor but also using cannons and guns instead of Cool Old Fashioned Swords and somehow less respectful to the emperor than the anti-imperialist heroes. Especially the way it was implied whole regions were like that. But I decided not to worry about it.
And then, at last...A VAMPIRE. Sort of.
It turned out there was an ~exotic western medicine the Shogunate had ordered the Shinsengumi to experiment with that made people immortal but also mad with bloodlust, so they didn't use it any more. This is what Chizuru's father had been working with them on, before he vanished. But Sannan had been doing experiments since then and decided it was worth trying again to heal his arm.
Wait, I thought. Is Chizuru the result of some weird medical experiments on immortality?? :D
I got a bittersweet scene with Sanan where he kept in the shadows (sunlight hurt him now) and was weird. Chizuru's inner narration assumed I'd seen a previous optional scene where he briefly and painfully transformed into a white haired red eyed creature. SORRY SANNAN BUT I CHOSE TO HANG WITH SAITO AND LOOK AT THE STARS.
Sannan is creepy about it being ok to experiment on people, and there is a lot of lying to people not in the know. It strikes me that you could make the Shinsengumi leaders the Bad Guys With A Conspiracy without much change of plot.
And then...ANOTHER FEMALE CHARACTER SHOWED UP, the hot and mysterious Kaoru. She had to be rescued from some so-called-Patriot thugs.
Chizuru: She is so pretty and elegant, unlike plain little me :(
Okita: She looks...exactly like you???
Kaoru: Hmm yeah that's interesting isn't it? ANYWAY GOTTA GO.
During another Important Political Fight, Kazama and some other bad guys showed up and said they were DEMONS and Chizuru should come with them because she is a DEMON PRINCESS :D :D :D They mention demon women being super rare and sought after.
Unfortunately once the demons got scared off everyone else went "that was weird???" then never mentioned it again.
Upside: ANOTHER FEMALE CHARACTER. Met under...almost identical circumstances to the last one, being menaced by some nationalist thugs. Upside there was some enjoyable "real patriots don't go around being bullies" etc, also Chizuru ACTUALLY STOOD UP TO THEM AND PROTECTED HER. The cutie with the ponytail is Chizuru. Note how the girl, Sen, is clearly checking her out.
*sighs for the f/f path that could have been* Anyway, Sen makes some cryptic remarks and then leaves.
Sannan goes all Creepy Vampire at Chizuru but doesn't quite eat her. Tragically he is the wrong kind of creepy vampire to hit my id ;_;
Just when I think the female character train has left the station, there are reports of "someone who looks like Chizuru" working with the bad guys. She bumps into and confronts Possible Evil Twin Kaoru who is cryptic in a "yes I'm with the Imperialists but I'm not dumb enough to admit it in front of your angry sword buddy" way.
I thought "Wait, if she's Chizuru's twin, and with the bad guys, then they already HAVE a demon girl, why is it such a big deal for them to get Chizuru too?"
There was also some gratuitous shirtlessness, including Saito looking cute and short and grumpy.
It was a bit vague but I think Chizuru decided to start sword training so she could be less useless in a fight??
And then...the Creepy Imperialist Itou finds out about the vampires and leverages this to split off his own Imperialist group. Two of the captains choose to go with him: Heisuke (who has complex social obligations to him) and...Saito. We are told we will never Speak To Them Again.
"Well that's obviously not true," I thought. "They're presumably going undercover, and there'll be some cute forbidden love thing."
Heisuke says he's always been an imperialist actually. I have a moment of "NO HOW COULD YOU" before remembering that the Emperor and Shogun both sounded like repressive elitist douchebags.
The Saito walkthrough says to pick the angrier dialogue option and Heisuke runs off, upset. Guess Saito is into that? Saito is all stoic and says following Itou suits his ambition and who needs friends anyway, huh?
Chizuru: But to betray the Shogun and support the Imperalists??
Saito: A good shogun would do a better job of protecting us from those damn foreigners!
Me: SAITO NO
Saito, standing in front of a cherry blossom tree, looking wistful: You see, I just hate change so much.
Me: SAITO I LOVED YOU HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME
Chizuru: Goodbye Saito, I will remember you always ;_;
Me: AS IMPERIALIST SCUM
So I'm there feeling bitter about my PREVIOUS BEST BOY when suddenly Chizuru is woken in the middle of the night to see a Mysterious Visitor.
me: Is it her dad?
Me: Is it Saito come to say it was all a lie and beg for forgiveness??
But no, it was....Sen, the girl who is not the evil twin!
With ANOTHER FEMALE CHARACTER??
It's Kimigiku, the hot girl Hijikata flirted with offscreen! She's actually a bodyguard ninja who was pumping him for information!! And Sen is actually ANOTHER DEMON PRINCESS. COME TO TAKE CHIZURU AWAY. BECAUSE THESE HUMAN MEN CAN'T PROTECT HER LIKE SEN CAN.
:D :D :D
Goddamn I wish this game had f/f.
Anyway, sadly there's no "YES TAKE ME AWAY YOU HOT WONDERFUL DEMON PRINCESS" option, just the option to say whether you are interested in any of the Shinsengumi. I thought about saying no and presumably signing up for a thrill ride of Demon Shenanigans but decided it would almost certainly be Demon Prince Kazama's route and ugh. Also I am on the Saito train now may as well ride it to the end.
I was describing all this to a friend and went "Oh and I forgot to even mention the hot evil twin"
Friend: hot evil twin?? :D :D
Me: haha, I'll find you a pic
Me: *googles Kaoru Hakuoki*
Me: *Finds pics of Kaoru with demon/vampire white hair and red eyes, is not surprised*
Me: *Also finds pics of Kaoru shirtless and flat chested and is VERY SURPRISED INDEED*
Me to friend: I THINK THE HOT EVIL TWIN IS A HOT EVIL CROSSDRESSING TWIN BROTHER
Friend: OMG that is going to be SUCH A CLUSTERFUCK
Me: I KNOW
This image implies they present both ways? I do NOT trust the game to handle this well but I am also SUPER INTO IT.
(I also found pics from the highschool AU anime which looks like the best sort of tacky fanfic-but-official)
And at this point I decided to stop and document my journey :)
When I last saved the demons had just started attacking the headquarters to kidnap Chizuru to become a Demon Bride for Demon Prince Kazama. It's like mid-1866 and the collapse of the Shogunate (and thus the Shinsengumi) in 1868 looms ever closer.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT??? ONLY TIME WILL TELL. A VERY LARGE AMOUNT OF TIME.
Next post: Saito Part 2
Links to other reaction posts
no subject
Date: 2018-06-28 10:10 am (UTC)Basically everything I know about the Meiji Restoration I learned either playing Hakuouki or reading Kaze Hikaru (a manga that is *also* about a crosscrossing girl living with the Shinsengumi ...).
Saito is also my fav, right from the start. He is so lovely ♥
no subject
Date: 2018-06-29 02:50 am (UTC)What's the other route you played and what did you think of it?
no subject
Date: 2018-06-29 06:30 am (UTC)Harada was pretty likeable as a love interest too I guess ;) But that route stands out more to me for Chizuru's sake.
I did actually buy the Vita version of the game as well, with the intent of going back and doing some other routes ... one day. I'd quite like to try Sannan's myself, although I feel like it might be one where I'd enjoy a bad end more than the good!
no subject
Date: 2018-07-01 12:55 pm (UTC)Yeah I can imagine it being very different to do a path for a guy who isn't as DEEPLY INVESTED in the Shinsengumi as Saito and Hijikata. Especially since Harada leaves it all together.
I am definitely curious about Sanan's path. But we'll see if the game can convince me to actually like him.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-28 10:24 am (UTC)I'd love to see more about this as you play. It sounds like a wild ride.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-29 02:51 am (UTC)And I absolutely intend on keeping you all updated on my wild ride :D
no subject
Date: 2018-06-29 06:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-29 12:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-01 12:51 pm (UTC)Wow yeah it does look similar. I guess I can see how it would be an appealing Japanese Mary Sue scenario.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-05 03:03 am (UTC)around this point I realised the true love interest is Japanese history.
Yup.
The Saito walkthrough says to pick the angrier dialogue option and Heisuke runs off, upset.
I did the Saito route after the Heisuke route and, ouch I *hated* doing that. Although the cherry blossom scene is lovely, with Saito trying to talk with her about what he's going through even though he can't really say anything.
sadly there's no "YES TAKE ME AWAY YOU HOT WONDERFUL DEMON PRINCESS" option
Only in fanfic...
And sigh, Kaoru.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-05 11:52 am (UTC)Sadly not even in fanfic, from what I've been able to find, and my own attempts to write it refused to come together. But it exists in my heart.