Sunday, April 15, 2012

Hakuouki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom PSP Review


Warning: Spoilers ahead, don't say I didn't tell you so...

I was super happy when I learned that Aksys made something out of the otome survey, which was bringing over Hakuoki.  I love Kazuki Yone's art and the whole idea of Shinsengumi romance bought me.  So I will review the game and then delve a bit into the 3 routes I have played.

Gameplay: There isn't much controller-heavy gameplay going on aside from pushing buttons to get around the UI.  To avoid killing the X button, pressing "Start" will make the dialogue progress however fast the player wants.  There is also the standard "Skip" feature for read dialogue or all dialogue.  The UI is simple to navigate and there isn't much to talk about.  The game relies more on choosing critical points of the story more than choosing dialogue choices to boost affection.  There's only about a maximum of 6-8 romance points which are gathered from the little batches of dialogue opportunities the player gets.  Despite being labeled as an otome game, it caters to the female audience's cravings for romance and bishounen men without too much romantic fluff.  The three routes I've played gives me the impression that all routes begin their romantic turning points in the second half of the game after Chapter 3.  Translation is expected to be flawed in some places, notably spelling errors such as "donno" with "dunno" and "fine" with "find" (in the context of pursuing someone).  Last minor problem is the dialogue choices.  It's a good thing Hakuoki has a quick-load feature, otherwise it would be frustrating.  Some of the dialogue choices are deceptive such as simple "Yes" and "No" which can drastically change the effect.  Many times I thought one answer was right, but it ended up pissing off the guy.  Didn't like how the endings for each guy hangs in the balance of giving blood or not (except for Sano).

Story: Chizuru (default name) Yukimura arrived in Kyoto to search for her missing doctor of a father.  When night fell, she was attacked by a group of bloodthirsty men craving for blood.  Luckily for her, Saito Hajime and Okita Souji came to the rescue.  Too bad the problem is that the Shinsengumi views her as liability to revealing the secret behind the bloodthirsty soldies.  Bound and trapped at their headquarters, Chizuru tries to tell the men that she's not a "guy" as once mistaken, but a girl and almost all the guys are in awe.  Eventually, she was free to wander anywhere so she can search for her father, the only reason why she could be free in the first place.





The game does a pretty good job of sticking with the historical events of Japan in the 19th century.  The only leeway this game goes flying off of is using demons and furies, practically vampires, to spice up this historical game.

Music:  Just... "eh" is the best of how to describe the music.  The looping music sets the tone of the scenes, but seems to be too short to the point of looping 5x or more when reading on automatic.  The soundtrack is bearable so it's not a total snooze fest.

Characters:  Given that this is a visual novel with the purpose to pick a guy to stick with, there is a need to address character impressions.  Here are the obtainable guys:

Hijikata Toshizo
Okita Souji


















Saito Hajime
Heisuke Toudou


















Sanosuke Harada
Chikage Kazama


















Each character has a distinct personality which all of them mesh well.  There is the stern, straight-laced Hijikata, sadistic Okita, cool and reserved Saito, happy-go-lucky Heisuke, playboy Sano, and "oresama" Kazama.  I have yet to play Kazama's route, but sad to know that it's short since almost all of the game is about the Shinsengumi.  I don't know why I don't go for Hijikata... maybe he's too "manly" or something... XD.  Never really wanted Sano since he's a total playboy.  Okita and Saito were my best picks, Heisuke's second because he looks awesome with his western outfit.  Ok, anyways...  each character I've played with, Saito, Okita, and Heisuke, have some depth to a certain extent.  I don't see any angst which is a good thing (well maybe Heisuke about giving up and all...).  

Okita has his homosexual feelings admiration for Kondou, the chief of Shinsengumi and man who took little Okita in.  But sadly enough... that's all he has and the whole "I'm a weapon and not good for you" with tuberculosis to add to that.  The gradual change from the playful, sadistic man to a softie won me over as the heroine chips away at his walls.

Saito's conflict isn't story-breaking, but still some type of internal conflict all revolving around his leftie habit and bushido.  He also experiences a dynamic change in his personality as well.

Heisuke's problem was just... well... all about life and death when he becomes a fury.

The main cast doesn't warm up to the heroine so quickly, which is nice since it's a wartime period and about 5 years passed so no prince charming character here.  Since each chapter fast forwards a year or two, it may not feel like enough time has passed for romantic development.  Each character has his own enemy and story progression.  Playing through Okita, Heisuke, and Saito's route gave me the opportunity to see 3 sides of the overall conflict raging in Japan.

Overall:  If you are into reading text and going for hot guys, then Hakuoki is perfect for you.  Not too much fluff, but has scenes to adore.  Not being familiar with Japanese history is fine since the events will make the player feel tempted to keep reading.  I got pretty addicted to the routes and see what would happen.  A few chuckles here and there from Chapters 1 to 4.  Even though people seem to express difficulty in getting most of the good endings (except for Okita- he has a tricky one), it's not difficult to get all the good endings but maybe general CGs here and there.  Picking up the localized version of Hakuoki would mean expressing interest in more otome games to be localized or visual novels in general.

Route Summaries (Spoilers)

Okita's Route



I originally tried to get Saito, but then I got steered into Okita's path without knowing.  Okita's voice actor definitely won me over as the playful guy with a murderous sense of humor.  In reality, I'd probably stay away from him unless I saw his soft side.  Okita felt fake at some point with his "I'd kill him" or "I'll kill you if you get in my way", pretty much making him non-bachelor material until his illness kicks in.  No, it's not really spoilers that he has tuberculosis since his real-life counterpart supposedly did, but that's really up for debate whether tuberculosis actually existed at all in him.  

"So... Do you like it?" (AHAHAHA)
He really loves to get his sword into someone (no not like that if you're familiar with Shakespeare).  Tuberculosis softened him up a bit to the point where the heroine makes an effort to take care of him.  Taking care of him means staying at home all the time, making the player miss out on huge chunks of the main story.  One day, Okita and Chizuru rescued a person by the name of Kaoru who strangely looks like Chizuru.  Not much is paid attention until Kaoru was confronted with being involved of messing with a notice board.  During an assault on Shinsengumi headquarters, Kaoru interrupted Okita and Chizuru's conversation by presenting Okita the opportunity to drink the Water of Life, the liquid that turns people into furies.  Thinking he'll be cured of tuberculosis, Okita drinks the Water of Life and goes on a bloodthirsty rampage.  And plot twist #1 swings around that Kaoru tricked Okita into becoming a fury to cause Chizuru pain and suffering  and not of concern.  Kaoru was the identical twin of Chizuru who got the short end of the stick as he couldn't produce babies to extend the lineage of the family that adopted him.  As a result from abuse, Kaoru burned with hatred at Chizuru and would stop at nothing to make her suffer (and be a true sadistic person than Okita).

WOO!! YEAH!! Sexy as heck  O //// O

Okita stayed tough until he was sent to be treated by Doctor Matsumoto.  This chapter is the part where there's some more one-on-one affection melting his heart.  When the second half of the game goes around, he turns handsome by 10x with a haircut and western clothes.  Walking through the woods, Okita finally makes his "confession" that he can't live without her and this happens:

FINALLY, He's gotten soft 
This was where I began messing up my chances of a good ending.  I thought to get the good ending was to give him blood every single time, which was right to a certain extent.  Except for the freakin' part where Kaoru turns Chizuru into a fury as well and BAM, both of them are gonna die sooner.  Plot twist #2 comes around as it is revealed that Kaoru and Chizuru's dad are going to raise an army of furies to take over Japan.  Followed by plot twist #3 where it turns out that giving demon blood doesn't change a damn thing since it's just like human blood.  Okita becomes guilty until Chizuru starts having spasms of wanting blood.  

Bad Ending:

So I thought "Hey, maybe something will happen if I make Chizuru drink his blood".  Aaannnd... commence double blood-sucking, which I thought was kinda... romantic?  Anyways, So the two of them make a promise together that once they get past Kaoru and the evil dad, they will live happily together forever.
Goddamnit, why couldn't you be this nice earlier   D:
So the antagonists in Okita's route are Kaoru and Chizuru's dad.  Okita and Chizuru's dad, Kodo, fight one-on-one while Kaoru takes the chance to kill Chizuru.  After cutting down Kodo, Okita rushes to her aid but then someone was going to die.  It wasn't Chizuru... It WAS the sack of lies Kaoru... and it was Okita.  Aaaaannnddd... this is the part where I should post the CG where Okita lays on Chizuru's lap bleeding to death.  Kept talking about how he was sorry for not keeping his promise of loving her and being with her forever, after having a change of heart from the once murderous, sarcastic person he was.  Then he lost all the shine in his eyes and laid dead in her lap.  This is the part where I pretty much go "FUCK, SHIT, GODDAMNIT, NO, NO, NO, WHYYYYYYYYY?????" because I realized I just got the bad ending with a death CG to boot.  I don't know if Hijikata and Sano have one, but yeah a death CG of Okita just breaks my heart.  And then someone on Gamefaqs thought that Chizuru killed herself because she asked," We're gonna be together forever... right?" and I was like "Oh god, no" and hoping that she just sat there heartbroken.

Good Ending:

This is the part where I went WTF on how the endings were determined.  There's 4x Okita can get blood and all the way up to the part where Chizuru turns into a fury is acceptable.  Giving blood one more time gives the double blood-sucking scene but results in Okita's death magically somehow.  I don't know, it's like Okita's death shouldn't have been influenced how many times he drank blood.  So in the good ending, Kodo sacrifices himself to save Chizuru and it surprised me because he was an asshole for the rest of the game in other routes.  Okita and Chizuru drink the waters from Chizuru's hometown to dilute the life-draining effects of the Water of Life and lived happily ever after.


They both know Okita will die eventually, heck even sooner than Chizuru which makes it even more sad.  Then Okita says similar sappy things like his death that his heart would always be hers even after death.  My heart swells up by the second reading this.... ;__;  Because the sun makes them sleepy, Okita fell asleep first and it was said that his grip loosened.  Chizuru said "Sweet Dreams" and talked as if he's dead forever.  This is the part where it's debatable as to whether or not he died on the spot.  It would be a total tearjerker if it was the case, but not to fear- the fandisk says he's alive afterwards (YAY : D).
  
Saito's Route


Finally, I get to play the guy I've been aiming for.  He turned out to be very stoic for awhile, until the 2nd half of the game.  More or less on a friendship level, Saito keeps everything as business.  At first he keeps rambling on each time he's cornered to protect Chizuru, he keeps saying it's orders.  In the first half of the game, he is a man of reason which makes arguing against him in dialogue choices a no-no when it comes to getting his affection.  Next to Okita, Saito kills just as much since he takes up dirty jobs without question.

Nothing seems to break through until Saito joins Itou's gang and was branded a traitor.  Thinking he might not come back in Okita's route, I thought to myself 'Nooooo... dang it, it's like Princess Debut all over again with Lucio...'.  Luckily, he was just a spy (YEAH) and still did undercover work.  At one point, Chizuru asks why does Saito ever join the Shinsengumi if it seemed like he's the type of guy to fulfill whatever ambitions he had.  Saito's problem laid with the changing period of western influence bleeding into Japanese tradition of the samurai and says that a real warrior always has a weapon at his side.  Then he goes into his bothersome past about how he was pretty much super strong, but was badmouthed because he was left-handed until he came across the Shinsengumi.  The Shinsengumi was the only place that accepted him after he was exiled from killing a high-rank official who challenged him a duel to the death.

After a while, I just interpreted Saito's actions of saving Chizuru from Amagiri's kidnapping one night as an act not of command.  It also came to the point that when Kazama tries to kidnap Chizuru for the umpteenth time, Saito fought Kazama and was dying of multiple wounds.  Kazama gave him the Water of Life for a chance to fight again.  Saito drank it without hesitation and has been suffering from fury symptoms since.


When the 2nd part of the story came around, I got to awe at his handsome self in his western outfit > //// <   First heartstring-pulling moment (for those who like stoic guys turn flustered easily) was when Chizuru pointed out that Saito had two misplaced buttons, effectively making him blush out of embarrassment that he didn't know how to dress himself.  This was when I thought to myself 'Ooohhhh yeah, now is the time for your walls to come down' and eagerly read through the story.  Saito fell into stubborn beliefs again about how a real warrior is someone who can fight and keep his soul, the weapon, by his side... until Chizuru convinces him that a real warrior doesn't have to carry a weapon.  Her definition was more defensive, citing Inoue, an important subordinate, as the ideal image of the real warrior who protects people with or without a weapon.  A spasm of bloodlust appears and it's Chizuru to the rescue by offering him blood.  He doesn't want her to see him sucking blood, so he asked to suck blood from her right ear (o...k?).  After each time of bloodsucking, he gets a bit embarrassed having to suck blood from the person he is protecting.  A funny moment was when the third time came around, Chizuru noticed that Saito was sucking on her ear even though the cut closed up.  She said," Um... is that not enough blood for you?  Should I make another cut?" and then he backs off saying," Sorry..." with minor embarassment.

Oh Saito, you're so gentle...
Saito eventually throws away his sense of duty following orders without question, to the point of splitting from Hijikata when it came to leaving the Aizu doman, the place that gave the Shinsengumi its start.  Determined to stay, Chizuru sees the priceless looks on Hijikata and Saito before Saito quickly frowns.  Saito does everything in his power to make her change her mind and catch up to Hijikata instead of dying in Aizu.  After much persistence, Saito caves in and kisses her.  I don't remember his confession, if he had any, but he did say that he always appreciated Chizuru by his side and helping him.  Kazama is the antagonist in Saito's route rather than Kodo in Okita's route.  During a one-on-one showdown, it looked like Saito was gonna get killed but then Heisuke, Shinpachi, and Harada come to the rescue.  After ganging up on Kazama, Saito kills him in one swing and then everything ends.  Amagiri tells Chizuru that the waters in her town can dilute the Water of Life's effect on diminishing Saito's life.



Bad Ending:

If for whatever reason, the player chooses to make Saito endure the pain the entire time, he's gonna go mad.   His bloodlust was so bad that when he was gonna kill Amagiri, Chizuru jumps in between and he kills her instead of Amagiri.  Maybe it was better that there was no bad ending CG for that one...

Good Ending:

The epilogue shows that Saito and Chizuru live in the countryside and one day it was snowing.  Chizuru sees Saito from afar and tries to call him, but he doesn't respond.  Frustrated, she goes out and scolded him for not dressing properly.  Saito just says," I'm home.  I didn't respond, hoping you would come for me" and Chizuru just huffs at his childish act.  Snow falls and they look up to the sky, living happily together... well, if you forget that Saito will probably die before Chizuru because of all the life force he used in the game until drinking the antidote (No.... I want them to grow old together... ;__;).



Heisuke's Route


His route was well... not as girly-giggle worthy compared to the first two, but I wanted to see him with his hair cut.  Heisuke's the guy who probably can't keep his mouth shut which makes him prone to critique.  Despite his loose mouth, he's as close as down-to-earth to Chizuru next to Harada.  I guess it's probably the fact that Heisuke and Chizuru are the same age.  When I first saw his picture, I didn't like the way he looked because his rapunzel locks and "bushy rodent" hair made for a very terrible combination, lol.  Surprisingly enough, Heisuke showed his romantic affection earlier during Chapter 3 rather than after.


Nothing special seems to be going on with him until he gets injured by Amagiri in the battle of Ikeda Inn and then does his best to protect Chizuru.  His life turns around when he is fatally wounded by Amagiri's punches  and was given the Water of Life simply because he didn't want to die.  Turning into a fury was the major conflict in Heisuke's life because he tries to stay sane in the noisy cloud of bloodthirsty screams.  Struggling to maintain his humanity, Heisuke refused to drink blood until Chizuru offered.  Chizuru's dad is the main antagonist in this route and reveals the life-draining effects of a fury.  This adds even more weight to Heisuke's thoughts of living when he could just die.  Proceed to angsting and Chizuru has enough of his shit.



When Heisuke gets his new clothes and cuts his hair, Chizuru has the usual shocking realization of just how handsome he is and makes Heisuke think he's hideous XD.  But the damn guy keeps angsting when the Shinsengumi is falling apart and he is stuck thinking about his reason in life.  After bitch-slapping him, Heisuke realizes his purpose in life is to protect Chizuru and stay by her side so he doesn't give up on life.  What I thought was Kodo being the main antagonist was incorrect because Sanan, the mad scientist who was once a nice guy in the Shinsengumi, is the real bad guy who's bent on taking over Japan with furies.  Earlier, he tried to turn Princess Sen, a prestigious demon, into his fury princess by kissing her to make her swallow fury blood (uh... hygienic much?).  She starts to go crazy and was gonna kill Chizuru until BAM, she stabs her own bodyguard.  This is another moment where I think 'Oh god, not another person who throws in the way to get sacrificed', but it turns out her bodyguard lived.  Brainwashing didn't work and Heisuke fights Sanan to the death, winning in the end.  The entire time in Heisuke's route, Kazama has been co-operating with him.  It was a total 180 for me since Kazama's a total ASSHOLE in other paths, threatening to kidnap Chizuru.

Good Ending:

Heisuke and Chizuru learned of the waters that would dilute the Water of Life's effects and live in the countryside.  Chizuru wakes up to see Heisuke and it's a total OOOOHHHHH... HEISUKE, WHY SO SEXY?  Then cue corny "I'll always love you and be by your side" lines.


Kazama's Route


Seeing as how he's not such a bad guy on Heisuke's route, I figured I'd give him a shot as the "secret" character.  As in the route you'd take if you don't hang onto someone or you just go to Record of Service and start getting abducted.

The funny thing is... instead of kidnapping Chizuru, Chizuru asks to go with Kazama to Edo.  Something which makes Princess Sen's jaw drop and make his eyes go wide.  The entire time they're together, there's practically 0 romantic points in the game, making it super short.  The time they spent together was summarizing the Shinsengumi's decline and doom.  EVERYONE seems to have died, and Chizuru finally gets into western clothes herself even though she still can't fight.  She holds the flag in despair and her journey ends.   Kodo happens to be the antagonist of the story, but Kazama just wants to kill him for making fake demons. There's only 3 dialogue choices and if the player messes up, it's the normal ending of seeing the Shinsengumi's backs in a depressing scene.  If the player doesn't mess up, then the treat is one kissing scene.

Kazama says that the kiss proves they are not strangers and that he used the excuse of attacking the Shinsengumi to see her.  So I was like," Aaahhh, he's so suave and yet his route is pretty much non-existent".  The guy is pretty much the jerky elementary school kid who picks on the girl he likes just because it's the only way of expressing his affection.

Harada's Route


Harada... well... I wasn't really too into him for some weird reason.  Aside from his negative opinions about having furies and Kondo's airhead attitude, he only has Kyo Shiranui as his enemy.  Even then, Kyo wasn't too much of a bad guy either (Heck, it seems like Kodo and Sanan were the true villans).  Sanosuke has a thing about not involving women in warfare matters whether it's the battlefield or political discussion.  He's the crutch that aids Chizuru into forgetting that it doesn't matter whether she's a demon or not.  Chizuru especially annoyed me in this route where she constantly thinks she's a burden because of what Kyo said.  Instead of just trying to stay with the Shinsengumi and making herself useful, her mind gets easily played with into thinking she'll be hated someday for being a demon.  That's when Harada gives her a kiss to shut her up and then has his own little issues of avoiding her while trying to figure out what to say to her about being a demon.  Did I mention that they had what was implied as sex?

Kodo is the main bad guy in this route as well and Harada easily killed him with the help of Kyo.

Good Ending:

Harada and Chizuru live overseas and have a baby together as husband and wife.  I was at bit sad knowing that Harada was the only guy with no fury problems, but he didn't really have much of a significant personal conflict.  I mean everyone will probably die before him because they are all furies.  So Harada was the only non-fury who got to have sex, get married, and have a kid together all in the game.  I was somewhat sad because the game's already rated M so why couldn't there be implied sex scenes :(  Oh well, it was still a good game.

Hijikata's Route


I saved him for last because who knows how fast I would be able to speed through his route.  And boy was I wrong... It  was the longest route EVER.  9 chapters, followed by Saito's route and then the other 3 routes, with Kazama's route as the shortest.  Probably because Hijikata lived the longest in his route and everyone is gone D:



Hijikata is pretty much a hard ass who maintained his demonic command until Chapter 9.  His choices were tricky because the player can't pick sappy "supportive" lines if trying to go for I'm-gonna-live-with-my-choices playthrough.  It doesn't work like that and without quicksave, it would be frustrating.  As the battles go one after another, Chizuru spends her time as Hijikata's page and trying to make herself useful.  Whenever escape from potential death came around, Hijikata would do whatever it takes to get rid of Chizuru.  Saito's route covered most of the battles so I'm not gonna retell it up to the point of the invasion of Aizu.  One by one, I read that all the Shinsengumi members who stayed to fight all died :(  Turns out that Saito learned to follow his beliefs before Hijikata's orders on his own so Chizuru wasn't an influence.  Heisuke and Sanan (he's a good guy in this route, wtf) fight off furies unleashed by Kodo, but die using up all of their energy (NOOOOO... Heisuke, why?  You were alive in your route).

The Shinsengumi kept losing and was pushed to the north until a man named Otori, a westernized Japanese man, came to assist Hijikata.  At first, both of them weren't on the same page as one fought head-on and the other  was more like an officer working in the comfort of a headquarter office.  Eventually, Chizuru slowly convinces Hijikata to think more carefully about risking his life and to accept help.  Hijikata started to change to be a more passive person when talking with Otori that it was kinda creepy that he would be that nice.

I like that angle of Hijikata's haircut <3
It came to a point where Hijikata ordered Chizuru to stay behind and not go to Ezo with him.  Overhearing their conversation, Otori was nice enough to assign Chizuru to Hijikata.  When she arrives, she's in her western clothes (much better than her plain outfit) and greeted Hijikata... BUT HE'S STILL A FRIGGIN' HARD ASS.  Hijikata tried to turn her away until Chizuru became stubborn and said she wanted to stay.  Then everything fell into place as Hijikata confesses his affection for Chizuru in Chapter 9 when he realized being without her was painful.  They spend their peaceful days together until the final battle came and then Hijikata resigned himself to die in this battle.  Chizuru tells him he can't do that and he just gives up arguing with her.  They ride to the location for support, but was shot by a soldier.  Thinking they are dead, the shooter leaves and the couple move to a remote spot where there are cherry blossom trees.  The imperial army wasn't the antagonist in the story, but Kazama of all people is the antagonist.  He's still butthurt over Hijikata kicking his ass in the past and wanted a showdown.  Before they fight, Kazama gives Hijikata the name of "Hakuoki", as it makes sense on the limited edition box.  It wasn't really epic as all it took was one hit and Hijikata won.

Good Ending:

Even though the Shinsengumi lost, Hijikata spends the rest of his limited life with Chizuru.  They walk under the cherry blossoms to look and say that they belong with each other.


Story Impressions

I still like Okita and Saito's routes the best since I like seeing guys who are stoic/level-headed/bit playfully evil turn soft.  Okita wasn't that threatening since his illness took pity from me.  But hey, the Okita in Kaze Hikaru doesn't have it because the author said from doing research, she came across that it could have been all fictional about his illness and he could have died from something else.  But... pfft... can anyone imagine Hakuoki's Okita and Saito replaced into the Kaze Hikaru universe?  The truly sadistic Okita in "Gintama" definitely had his tuberculosis passed onto his sister instead, which was super sad since Gintama's Hijikata used to love her.  Heisuke was ok in my opinion, but I find it endearing that he professed his affectionate protection of her earlier than other guys and I only did it for his hair :p  Sano was just "meh" because the fluff wasn't strong enough- ahahaha.  I wished there was more development for Kazama's route so he wouldn't just be the "elementary school kid who shows his fancy to a girl he likes by harassing her".  


2 comments:

  1. It was fun reading this!
    btw, Okita-san is my favorite XD

    ReplyDelete
  2. THANK YOU FOR THE SUMMARY!!! my parents would never buy this game, so its good to read this...
    thanks you, i know that if i have the oportunity for play this game, i can't choose okita's route or i woul surely die

    ReplyDelete