alias_sqbr

Masterlist

I misunderstood the spoiler I saw about this route but it was still roughly what I expected, which is to say QUITE SQUICKY.

To the extent that I reached a certain point and went HMM NOPE I AM DONE.

It's almost all exposition, explaining a lot of extra mystery stuff, but there is also a romance and it is...yeah. QUITE SOMETHING. I kinda shipped it! But also nnng, squick city.

The answers it gives to the remaining mysteries weren't super satisfying. Overall I think the True Route makes a better place to stop, or before that with Yuzuki if you like your endings 100% happy and don't mind some loose ends.

I'll put the content notes under the cut because it's a big spoiler.
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Masterlist

I went very quickly from "How are they going to make this asshole loveable" to "Oh no this is exactly the kind of asshole I like". He never stops being a bit of a jerk, but he's the right mix of passionate, angsty, wryly self-deprecating, and awkwardly sweet to appeal to me, and they make a cute couple.

Also, exciting mystery stuff happens! Only some of which is bafflingly silly!
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Masterlist

So obviously I had to go after the shy nerdy guy who likes cats at the first opportunity. You can only do his route after completing Hino and Isora, and here we are! It was pretty cute. He gets more self confident over the route but it doesn't do the Becoming A Real Man thing, he remains sweet and a bit awkward. It was enjoyably ungendered compared to the previous two needing to be The Man all the time.

Content note: None for the route itself. But I learned a spoiler about a later route which is a common trigger, and will come up in my thoughts going forward. I'll put it under it's own cut, with as few spoilers as possible.
( Spoilery content note discussion )
( My reactions to the Toa route )

Masterlist

7'scarlet(*) is a mystery m/f romance game written by Tomio Kanazawa, the producer of the Twin-Peaks-esque Deadly Premonition, for Otomate, makers of Hakuoki, Psychdelica of the Black Butterfly etc. The protagonist is investigating the disappearance of her brother in a small country town. It reminds me a little of Higurashi, with the whole Small Japanese Country Town With Dark Secrets And Lots of Cicadas thing. But fluffier/less violent, with cute boys to kiss instead of cute girls with knives.

(*)Note: I just watched the Steam trailer and it's a bit spoilery

The game has some typical Otomate hallmarks but is also it's own thing, with lots of mystery tropes. So far I'm moderately enjoying it despite some silly plot elements. The PC port has some bugs and tends to crash a bit, so far it's not too bad as long as I save frequently.

I want to get my thoughts on the mystery in order before I move onto the next tier of love interests. Right now I've just played the good endings for the two love interests you can access at the start:

Hino Kagutsuchi: Childhood bff. Cute friends to lovers.
Isora Amari: A cheerfully flirty younger guy. Relatively fluffy yandere/obsessive.

Both guys are TOTALLY DEVOTED from the start, and super protective, I'm wondering if there'll be more variation with the others.

No real content notes for this post asides from some general discussion of consent issues in otome. The routes have some violence, and according to a spoiler I saw one of the later routes has a common trigger, which I will go into in my next post. There's vaguely described animal harm on the Isora route.
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