Karifean's Blog of Visual Novels

Finally started reading this one. Had to import a copy from the UK and borrow a 3DS as I don't have my own, but I'll gladly make that effort. I first heard of it thanks to Pumpkin's Favorite Games countdown, but since have also heard it being recommended by other people so I was rather eager to check it out.

Since I'm not reading it on my PC for a change, I can't take screenshots as easily. Sorry bout that.

So what's Hakuouki all about? It's about a girl called Chizuru (name can be changed) who goes to Kyoto to find her missing father. Because Kyoto is a dangerous place for a lone girl, she dresses up as and pretends to be a boy. It's not long before she is attacked by muggers. Thankfully, she is saved... as the muggers are brutally murdered by swordsmen clad in blue garments. They are members of the Shinsengumi, a clan of skilled fighters secretly patrolling the town.

Well it seems Chizuru saw more than she should have, as the Shinsengumi immediatly consider killing her (or rather, 'him') on the spot. But after a short conference of their leaders the Shinsengumi decide on letting her live. Turns out they too are looking for Chizuru's father, and hopefully Chizuru can help find and identify him. At this point they already know about Chizuru's true gender, by the way.

So much for the basic setting, but what's the game about? Well, Hakuouki is an otome game, meaning it's about a girl and there's all kinds of different story routes each corresponding to one male character, whom she will usually end up in a romantic relationship with over the course of said route. That doesn't mean it's a dating sim, as the romance isn't necessarily the focal point of the story routes at all.

If that sounds boring, well it sure doesn't to me, given that many of my favorite visual novels are galge (= gender-inverse of an otome game) and they often have very good and emotionally involving storylines. See every Key visual novel ever.

It doesn't seem like there's a "true route" as in Key games, but that's fine. As long as the character routes are well-paced and I'm not missing out on anything by going through them in a random order without a walkthrough there's no problem.

I'm only up to Chapter 2 at the moment so I still have a ways to go, but so far none of the main characters have struck me as annoying or uninteresting which is already a great sign. On the other hand none stand out in particular either, so I'll just go at random for now. There's already been quite a few battles and a somewhat complex possibly political story is being built up, so I'm just curious where they go with it.