alias_sqbr | Entries tagged with reactions

Masterlist

So turns out the Lucien route is less about romance and more about finishing the plot, and despite the hints of a Secret Route it turns out there actually isn't much after that, just a couple of epilogues to tie up loose ends and give each LI a more overtly shippy ending.

Which is all ok in theory and I didn't dislike the ending plot, or what Lucien romance we got, but it was just... fine. A bit underwritten, with some annoying moments of Gratuitous Heterosexuality (though not too much from Lucien himself).

It didn't significantly undermine my earlier enjoyment, and was an adequate enough finale that I had some Happy Ending Feels and wasn't left horribly dissatisfied with the overall Arc. But I'm glad I waited a little while to play it all after the Zenn route.

Content notes: suicide, abuse, genocide
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Masterlist

THIS IS SO GOOD OMG. JUST. SUCH A GOOD ANGSTY TIMELOOP FANTASY ROMANCE AHHHH

The romance itself is incredibly understated even compared to the others and I do not care I loooove himmm best boooooy.

It's very briefly just the tiniest bit queer. And I'm pretty sure Zenn is meant to be read as black?? But mostly it's all about the DELICIOUS ANGST as they like... bond and support each other despite being stuck in some deeply fucked up and traumatising fantasy timeloop bullshit :D

I have been avoiding adding images since the switch makes that troublesome and I didn't want to spoil myself, but I liked one CG so much I took a photo of the TV. And if you're curious what everyone looks like here's the official character page though I haven't clicked any of those links to avoid spoilers.

Content Notes, spoilers

just suicide and major character death I think! Practically darkness free ahahahaha

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Masterlist

Contains major spoilers for the Tyril route.

So this had all the things that bugged me about the Tyril route but more so: He's her older commanding officer she looks up to, except this time they don't have the cute bickering tsundere thing to offset that, and he's been KINDA LIKE HER DAD since she was TEN. There's sudden angsty plot twists which aren't always convincingly consistent with previous characterisation. Some plot points just get Dropped. And there are some VERY dark and serious topics used tackily as fodder for angst.

But I still overall had a good time. Despite his VERY UNETHICAL approach to fraternisation with a subordinate, Crius is very charming and supportive and endearingly smitten. And for every bit of angsty melodrama that annoyed me there was one which worked on me exactly as intended. And I still am absolutely on the edge of my seat to find out what happens next!

Content Notes, spoilers

child abuse, terminal illness, suicide, major character death, rape

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Masterlist

Phew! That was wild! Some things I didn't like (lotta dark topics in those content warnings which get brought up for drama then dropped for New Twists) and the romance ended up being more bittersweet and understated than I was hoping for, but still overall a good time and I am for sure continuing on.

Content Notes, spoilers

Genocide, sexual harassment, suicide, incest, self-harm, child harm, slavery, violence from a love interest, major character death, emotional abuse, trauma, child abuse, violence

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Masterlist

Two chapters in out of ??, so far it's a fun romance and a fun if sometimes darkish fantasy plot which goes at an enjoyable clip with lots of twists and turns.

And yes the chapters are labelled "withered flower", not your typical romance route name and I'm still curious what it's referring to!

Some of the warnings for this section spoil the plot so I'll put it all under a cut. I found the content a little disturbing but not actively distressing.

Content Notes, spoilers

Cannibalism, child harm, major character death, violence from love interest in a non-romantic context

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Masterlist

Just finished the common route and it's been GREAT fun!

Content notes: Child abuse, slavery, violence, suicide, emotional abuse, narrative fatphobia (though this section was mostly just violent, hooray)
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Even if Tempest is a switch exclusive otome game.
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Masterlist

Even if Tempest is a switch exclusive otome game. The moment I saw that page and got a couple of positive reviews, I decided to take the risky move of not looking into it further, to better experience an unspoiled wild ride. And so far, while not always interested in unnecessary things like subtlety or consistent timelines etc, it is DELIGHTFUL and EVERYTHING COULD HAVE DREAMED. And I ONLY JUST GOT TO THE OPENING CREDITS.

It's currently 50% off but seems to go on sale regularly.

Summary:
Though born the daughter of a marquess, Anastasia suffers physical and spiritual violence at the hands of her stepmother day in and day out.

The joy she had found at suffering's end is also ultimately robbed from her by someone she trusts.

As she burns at the stake, Anastasia obtains the grotesque ""Fatal Rewind"" ability.

"This time, I will transform into the ideal version of myself."

With this oath branded in her heart, Anastasia begins her life anew.
But this resolve will only lead to further misfortune.

The curtain rises on the Carnival, and this witch trial shall herald the end.

Content notes: Child abuse, slavery, violence, suicide, emotional abuse, narrative fatphobia
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Masterlist

This is the gen route you get if you don't romance anyone.

I had SO much trouble motivating myself to play this, since there's no romance and I wasn't sure there'd be enough else to get me through the repeated bits that I am SO sick of by now.

But once I got past the boring bits I did quite enjoy it, and there's some cute (and often shippy) unique moments with various side characters. Unfortunately they can be very fiddly to get and Kisa's female BFF Ao eluded me, boo.

And now I am done playing this game! Though I am still happily playing around in the fandom, and there is talk of a new spin off comic, and maybe a sequel...
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Masterlist

This was a really lovely, if sometimes implausible, story of two sad, lonely, self sacrificing people learning to be happy and let themselves reach for what they want.

While the route leans heavily into Kai as the big chivalrous Jack and Kisa as the tiny beautiful Jeanne, to my surprise Kai is the closest to overtly bi of the love interests: he finds out Kisa's gender late in the game and it makes zero difference to his behaviour or feelings.

While Kai has a bunch of Angst to work through, the route also digs much deeper (which is to say... at all) into Kisa's emotional issues than the others.

There's a bunch of Big Romantic Moments which will either land for you or feel silly/unrealistic/unwise. They worked for me most of the time.

Content Note: mention of suicidal thoughts
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Masterlist

This was so good. I loved it!

The route is very much Not About gender, with a few minor changes they could both be any gender. It's about Mitsuki and Kisa learning to trust and rely on each other and form a creative partnership, and work with everyone else in Quartz to overcome the obstacles in their way. The romance is often pretty understated but they are absolutely lovely together and I had a lot of feels.

By being a story about two crossdressers that's not about gender, it ends up feeling really queer. Mitsuki pings pretty strongly as trans to me but could definitely be read as a cis guy who's just fine with cross-dressing and is shy about nudity. But he canonically does not care what gender Kisa is, or how she presents (except for practical consequences like the possibility of her being expelled if her gender gets out) and falls in love with her when he thinks she's a boy.

Content note: Child abuse and neglect, possible dysphoria or other body image issues
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Jack Jeanne Masterlist

Finally got around to finishing Sou's route.

It grew on me a bit, and I liked some parts, but is still my least fave so far.

I was actually ok with the gender stuff in the end, it was a kinda bland and heavy handed but basically ok "You don't have to fit this one narrow box of masculinity to be a real, loveable, competent man" moral. But the romance felt a bit like him... being too creepy/possessive for her, and it making her sad, and he learns to be more Acceptably Devoted. I preferred the Weirdo 4 Wierdo vibes the route had more of earlier, this felt more like Nice Girl/Slightly Weird Guy which, eh.

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Jack Jeanne Masterlist

So it turns out the reason I couldn't find these before was that I... had the title of the game wrong. It's "Jack Jeanne", not "JackJeanne", oops. I have thus now found a bunch of videos of the songs, with translations! Which belatedly added a bunch to my understanding, and I thought it made sense to write up my thoughts as one post, since it's the same songs in basically the same context for every route.

I unavoidably spoil the plots and casting of the plays, but I'll put route-spoiling thoughts under an internal cut.
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Masterlist

I had SUCH mixed feelings about this route. Some parts worked really well, other parts were Interestingly Flawed, and others were just... REALLY DUMB AND IRRITATING.

I went in thinking he was cheerfully bi and androgynous but bad at sexual boundaries, and quickly realised he is a whole OTHER kind of mess.

Overall the central problem with this route is that classic romance trope where the male love interest has a specific trauma response which is designed to be a believable angsty impediment to the relationship, but can also believably be fixed by the Power of Love. The trauma itself was believable and handled reasonably well in a "trauma healed by the power of love and friendship" sorta way, but his trauma response was a mixture of effective and VERY SILLY AND ALSO SEXIST that kept throwing me out of the story.

Also the narrative leaned a little too hard onto what an INCREDIBLE genius Neji is, and Kisa was a little too passive for my tastes. But they do have some great romantic scenes.

The rollercoaster of "this feels aggressively queer"/"this feels aggressively cishet" was pretty intense on this route. I kinda feel like Neji was intentionally written as implicitly attracted to men, and accidentally written with trans vibes, but god knows.

Content note: suicide, Unfortunate Gender Shit, mild dubcon, mental health problems handled in a well meaning but flawed way

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Masterlist

FUMI, BEAUTIFUL BISEXUAL ANDROGYNE OF MY HEART.

I loved this route. They dance around him being canonically bi but he sure doesn't mind coming across that way and the bi vibes are off the charts. And it's otherwise just a cute "older more accomplished guy is delighted to mentor and flirt with brilliant younger woman who he wants to see fulfil her potential" romance. Where that potential includes being really good at playing both women and men!

To me Fumi feels like someone who enjoys crossdressing more for creative than gender related reasons, in that grey area between non-dysphoric non-binary and cis guy who is just really comfortable with his masculinity.

A lot of otome with self confident, flirty older guys go the dubcon "girl is too overwhelmed to be an active participant" path, but while he's definitely the one driving things he's really sweet about trying not to take advantage and instead go at her pace (romantically. He pushes much harder as a dancing mentor haha) And she helps him grow and become happier, too. They're really good for each other!

There's more heteronormativity than I would like, especially equating Kisa's femininity with her attraction to men. Also, having already played a few endings now, some of the repeated elements get BORING. But I still overall had a really good time.

Content note: messy family dynamics
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Masterlist

So, the reason that I stopped writing JackJeanne posts wasn't that I stopped playing the game, but that I played it TOO MUCH and didn't feel like stopping to edit. And the reason I am editing now... is that the Neji path is really annoying me haha.

But this post is about the Suzu path, which was cute as hell. A very standard shoujo crossdressing romance, with an about standard amount of Unfortunate Cisheteronormativity, but sweet and romantic and funny. And there's some m/m subtext amongst the background characters that felt pretty deliberate. Also I kinda headcanon Suzu as a non-binary lesbian but that does require some reading against the text haha.

Content note: Unfortunate Cisheteronormativity
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Masterlist

Onto the Sou route proper. Which I did not finish, and I am not sure I'll ever come back to it.

Sadly the game not only didn't convince me that Kisa has romantic feelings for Sou, the route very quickly turned into one of my absolute least favourite romance tropes: unhappy established relationship where the dude is possessive and controlling and makes the girl feel miserable, and then... presumably learns better? I did not get that far but I certainly hope so!

The writing's not actually all that gendered, asides from the connotations of the trope, and as Obsessive Yandere Otome Love Interests go he's incredibly mild. If she'd been into it I'd have enjoyed it fine. But alas, she was not.

I have moved onto Suzu and am having a great time so far, Kisa already seems more into him romantically/sexually than she ever did with Sou (she definitely loves Sou but it felt ambiguously platonic to me) But we'll see how I feel when I get onto that route proper.
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Masterlist (including character names and house info, since there's a lot to keep track of)

Finished the rest of the common route! The plot that had me tense about potential Gender Implications ended very satisfyingly, now the game just has to change gears from being mostly gen and convince me on the Sou romance.

Content note: Gender...stuff? Not transphobia exactly but it's a Lot.
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Masterlist

Soshiro/Sou is the protagonist's childhood friend. He's shy, androgynous looking, and neurotic, and wants to be Stronger. He's also the only love interest who goes into the game knowing she's a girl.

There's a lot of interesting places a romance like that could go, but also a lot of very unfortunate ones. Luckily so far the game has mostly gone for 'interesting' but I have had some tense moments.

Spoilers for Sou's route, though I still haven't finished it yet.
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Masterlist

I know some of you have likely been wondering what happened with this show. I mostly enjoyed it to the end but for some reason my brain very suddenly did NOT want to do reaction posts any more, probably due to Complicated Gender Feelings.

So here's the reactions I wrote before my brain ground to a halt, and then a brief summary of what happened next.

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