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Hiroki Reviews! Tengoku Struggle Strayside [Common route]

Some minor disclaimers before continuing.

There WILL be spoilers

Most of these are of Hiroki's personal opinion and preference, if you think differently, it is OK.

All CGs rightfully belongs to the production company and are not of Hiroki's property.

You can jump to 'Read more' for the summarised review.

｀、ヽ｀ヽ｀、ヽ(ノ＞＜)ノ｀、ヽ｀☂ヽ｀、ヽ

Game Title: Tengoku Struggle Strayside Game port: Nintendo Switch Language: English Gameplay status: 2/5 routes completed [Sharaku & Kiku] Started on: June 2024 Game Plot/Premises: Rin Enma, adopted daughter of the king of the underworld, has been tasked with tracking down and recapturing a group of escaped sinners. Accompanying her on her journey are four sinners hand-picked by her father. Will Rin succeed in her mission… and will she discover love?

♫•¨•.¸¸♪ Common Route ♪¸¸.•¨•♫

The opening shows Goemon at his execution ground, and then the scene with the MC appears with a narration about her loving some guy. With how they literally put Goemon before this scene… It felt as though Goemon is the said person and while it could be a very obvious plot line, I didn't want to jump the gun. It is certainly nice that there were some slight animated scene as an opening to the game!

After the OP video (which was sung by one of my fav utaite-), the game shows Rin with a friend called Oshichi. The nickname did catch me off guard since they didn't really explain it right off the bat…(if I am remembering correctly) This scene with Oshichi kind of sets the pace where the focus and setting of the game is about Hell, punishments and even 'rewards' for those in Hell for redemption etc. The premises about a 'model prisoner' is allowed to work outside of Hell is interesting. Even more interesting that there are humans in that specific section just chilling with all these 'model prisoners'. The part where Goemon suddenly pops up near Rin at the sanzu river… His personality certainly feels more hmmm how do I put it… He obviously knows who she is, more than an average Hell prisoner… he acts really nice, and then poofs off after helping her. I honestly didn't know what to make of that scene until I remembered the whole "crossing sanzu river" legend.

So basically, almost everyone in Hell kinda has a 'soft spot'(?) for Rin and also looks up to her as not just King Enma's daughter, but also because she is like a model student of sorts. Then there is a Hell Cat…kek, I mean Tamao (whom they shorten to call as just Tama throughout the series). Certainly cute, but definitely has a blind devotion to Rin// There was a tiny segment of Sensei Tama's Lecture where Tama teaches the terms used for Hell etc and I really wanted more of it but… sighhhhh I really wondered if there was a need to talk about the realms since there wasn't much exposure for the other 3. (Human, Heavenly, Starving, Asura, Hell, Beast realm) I was more interested in the different types of hell!

The first scene with King Enma made me jump because of how LOUD he is. It doesn't help with his way of speaking… ESPECIALLY WITH THE "MY SWEETIE" LEMME ROTTTT I don't completely dislike his voice, it is just… the premises and.. I was playing this game at past midnight// Sir was literally booming in my speakers while everyone else was soft- Anyways. The scene with the 4 dudes entering made me chuckle a little since it felt like a fight entry scene. The thing that stood out the most was… Goemon… no, not him but his clothes. I really wondered why was he the only one wearing that// (I STILL DO) The nicknames King Enma gave each of them made only half sense to me at the start. (Taro = Goemon, Aka = Yona, Shiro = Sharaku, Pochi = Kikunosuke) They all seemed way too obedient and Goemon was clearly acting like it was his first time EVER meeting Rin. It was heck freaky with all the guys answering so unitedly…

Nono-sensei (whose full name is Ono no Takamura) gives off the super sus vibes but not in a bad way which is later shown that he is exactly like that. I love his Angyu and Ungyu though! Remember how I said the 4 dudes was being weird? Yea, it's because it is a facade. They have also been to the human realm a few times, even as a prisoner. Which explained why they were more adapted to the things in the house etc. At this point, Rin gives off a "super sheltered ojousama" vibe, with a good moral compass(?). There are some important facts that keeps getting brought up with is Rin being a transient (a soul with no memories when they were alive, usually disappears quickly) and 'desire' (a type of..power?). These 2 feature becomes quite important in different ways in each route. As I am currently still on my 3rd route, I have to say that it is interesting how each route uses that 2 details differently from each other.

So the main mission in this game is to recapture/surveillance on some 'escapees' from Hell. (The actual person behind this is an idiot btw. Dude so cute but dumb.) After getting the explanations and some details from Nono-sensei, the 4 guys start showing their real attitude towards Rin. As much as Rin doesn't trust men, these men don't trust women either. Hence, there is a huge conflict from the start. However, it is quite interesting to note that Rin's 'hatred' is mostly due to crappy male prisoners who kept wooing her in Hell and what she has seen in Hell, but that means she herself has not experience what it is like being around men. As a transient, she doesn't even remember such feelings etc. Which is why I personally felt that she would likely drop her guard really quickly with the group. She just had some biased views without having her own experiences.

The not so mystery of the sandwich placed at her door was initially something I thought would be the trigger to choosing a route. Like maybe, I pick a dude who I think gave me that sandwich as a route LOL IT TURNED OUT TO NOT BE TRUE SINCE THE COMMON ROUTE WOULD BE TOO SHORT IF SO// What's surprising despite Rin and the men saying they don't like men/women… is that they are still very civil… Goemon with Coffee… Kiku with onigiri… Sharaku cleaning… Yona…….. Yona with……………what does he do? Anyways, they also each briefly reveal bits and pieces of their past life, except Goemon. It is clear that eventhough it SEEMED like he was also sharing something about himself, there are mostly things that others had already known/open and public information since he was famous. There are also times where he is clearly helping out Rin with voicing out things in a way that the other guys would understand etc. Man legit made me so confused on whether he is a good guy or not… but his face is…

Moving on, finding out that Kamuro, the being with the highest position in the Heaven realm was the reason why/how some prisoners were able to escape Hell…….. Dude deserves a punch tbh, the main charas are being way too civil about this. I mean, they did kinda verbally abuse Kamuro at every chance LOL We then get a bit more information about the situation etc and stumbled upon a male kiddo (Fujimori Shin) who was about to be mugged and the gang saves him lol. I guess this the scene where Rin seeing them in a slightly better light. I MEAN, JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE IN HELL DOESNT NECESSARILY MEAN THEY ARE BAD, RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT- ……

I'll be honest, I'm getting a little lazy to continue with talking about the common route ヾ(´〇`)ﾉ

Oh! Gotta talk about the AMAZING ONSEN (yes, that means some naked torso for sure-) The fabulous onsen that can heal any injury if it is within 24hrs! I want one too… (￣▽￣) To showcase the wonders of this miraculous onsen, they have their first battle against uhhh Asaemon who is quite literally the guard for Shinobikuni. Ofc, the team lost! This was all in play for them to use the Hell onsen in their house backyard to heal~ Although their injuries were healed, their bruised ego and pride did not… so Kiku and Yona kinda decided to slack off lol Then they got scolded badly by Sharaku since they put sand in the living room. I actually like the scene of them doing grocery shopping and having a barbeque at the rooftop. They may not fully trust each other yet, but it definitely seem like they are taking the first step! THE CG IS GORGEOUS IN THIS SCENE. The following part where they all start to actually buy things to decorate their own rooms is pretty cute. Despite saying they wouldn't listen to Rin, they started getting stuff when she told them they could.

Around ch.6? is when the plot thickens! Root Joudo mobile app, an application that will allow you to be pardoned from going to hell! AS LONG AS YOU PAY A FORTUNE! Damn, this is scamming on a whole other level… I was going to say it sounded so stupidly crazy until I realised that the premises of this game is that those living in Asakusa knows of Hell's existence and also 'model prisoners'. I have to say that the thing that caught me off guard was that Azamin is Kiku's sister… cause I thought they just happened to look similar… We also get the naked torso scene………………….. NO BUT WHY DOES SHARAKU HAVE SUCH TONED ABS TOO??? Anyways, Rin slowly gains a bit of her memory from her past? It's quite vague, but it's something. Nono-sensei and King Enma also begins to reveal what Rin's 'desire' is, where it is located and how she can utilise it for combat against the escapees. …yea, her's is on the tongue. I was sincerely wondering where she gotta lick to use it- Moving on, the gym room in the house was hilarious to me. IT FELT SO MODERN XD The onsen scene of Rin with the other guys were…..ummmmmm IDC how to say it, but it was…ok……….? Not too bad since they all conversed and teased each other. It's the part with Hari - a spirit in Rin's phone - who keeps track of their 'blood bond' aka trust between each guy and Rin. Pretty interesting set up since it really only shows the trust bond, not really the 'affection' rate. It's not very linear, but a good gauge of how close Rin is to the love interest.

✺◟( • ω • )◞✺ LONG STORY SHORT! I love the pacing! It didn't feel that long despite having 7 chapters. There's quite enough data/info to move on with a route, and each characters have their distinct traits which makes them distinguishable. Even the side characters such as Azamin, Shinobikuni, Asaemon, Fujimori, etc. Plot and setting of the game is quite interesting as it is a full mixture of fantasy, lore, modern, etc.

Regarding the characters… Rin: Maybe due to her being a transient, she definitely seem super clueless with some basic stuff lol. Her obsession of saying she hates men definitely stemmed from only what she has heard and seen in Hell, with 0 self experience to back it. However, despite this, I like that she does admit when she is in the wrong and wants to be better.

Goemon: …THE ONLY THING I CAN TALK ABOUT IS HIS CLOTHES? LIKE BRUH? YOU ARENT COLD? YOU DON'T HAVE CLOTHES? WHY? Like… his super casual shirt at home looks good, but he mostly wears that…garb with little cloth… Besides talking about his clothes, as I've mentioned, Goemon subtly helps Rin when she is unable to properly convey something to the other three. He is also quite elusive when talking about himself. He knows he is famous and he goes along with it, but without revealing anything too personal. He does occasionally let slip some stuff later on// I'm just pissed the game had that very last scene of him saying he loves Rin. GDI STOP TOYING WITH ME.

Yona: uh…. hmmmm Ok, I initially did kinda characterised him as muscle brained Mineo (CxM). Yona's personality felt really close to Kiku's at the beginning since they are both quite vocally straightforward. However, he just has a lot of pride. I'm genuinely interested in knowing who exactly he was when he was still alive, since I am not well versed with his story basis.

Sharaku: I DISLIKE HIMMMM- was my first thought since I generally do not like 'sexually foul mouth' characters. Although he seem as though he speaks straightforwardly, his words always sound like sarcasm or laced with some hidden meaning. Basically, he feels like someone I gotta peel all the layers to understand even if the bulb inside is essentially similar/close to the outer layer.

Kikunosuke: My first thought was "why does this VA somehow always voice charas of this type…" Anyways, Kiku and Yona are quite similar, but I thought Kiku would be the 'quieter' version. However, he isn't LOL Maybe it is because he died really young? That's why he still has that child innocence, especially when it comes to things he likes. Adorable but aint my type-

Pacing of the common route was great, it kept me intrigued and invested that I went on to play a route right after.

✿Hiroki's rating: 8.5/10✿

Thank you for reading! ☆’.･.･:★’.･.･:☆’.･.･:★’.･.･:☆’.･.･:★’.･.･:☆

#otome game #otoge #ps vita #visual novel #otome #tengoku struggle

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