#I might copy paste this to a steam review lol

[hasellia]

Papers Please is meant to be played on a Wacom Cintiq.

Like no joke, crank up that air con, check how much money you have in your bank acount, tell your family you love them over the phone, buy yourself a $1000+ art tablet and live in the immersion. Experiance the neck strain as you manually flick through every document on your cluttered desk with your arms and hands as time runs out. It's a treat!

[carinareviews]

PC/Steam Review: Nightshade

Overall: B+/A- Amazing tale of shinobi. I'm a sucker for men in kimonos so when I saw such high ratings on Steam I had to get it. OST is very well suited for the game and most CGs are passable in terms of quality. The VAs are amazing and bring each character to life. The localization is pretty decent, I think a couple parts could've been changed to be more consistent. My only gripe is the general story is pretty similar in all the routes even when each route branches out. I also wished there were a bit more CGs but thats just a personal preference. The character designs are so pretty though ;-;. Highly recommend this game for anyone into not all fluff and cute moment otome games but one with a dark touch on the story. However, the storyline can get pretty boring after 5 characters, but if you can get past that this otoge is great! One of my favorite otoges is Brothers Conflict and that had so much similar routes...I played almost all the routes too. Therefore the copy paste routes didn't bug me too much, except for the parts that were similar in other routes but since you were on a different character it didn't count as the same thing, now that was frustrating.

Regardless, really loved the game and like most people, Hanzo was bae.

Route reviews below!

Reviews might contain mild spoilers. Not going to add photos cause I don’t want to spoil it much. Enjoy the read.

Route I followed: Goemon > Chojiro > Kuroyuki >  Gekkamaru > Hanzo

Suggested route order: A: Goemon > Chojiro > Gekkamaru > Kuroyuki > Hanzo A is for best "story" progression. I think this order helps generally unfold the most story. However since the stories are slightly different in certain routes the main story can get a bit convoluted. Therefore I highly suggest B. to know which storyline is which. Hanzo should be played last imo, the ending is the best feel-good ending while feeling satisfies in multiple aspects.

B: Play one "timeline" then play the other "timeline". 1st timeline - Goemon  >> Kuroyuki 2nd timeline - Chojiro >> Gekkamaru 3rd timeline - Hanzo Choose a timeline and stick with it can help show what happened on each side. Thats the best way I can put it without spoiling much. Hanzo's route is a bit mix of both timelines due to the "game" taking a twist later. I originally had it in the 2nd timeline between Chojiro and Gekkamaru but decided that it deserved a different timeline entirely.

C: Fluff based Goemon > Gekkamaru > Kuroyuki > Chojiro > Hanzo** From most fluff to least fluff. If main story doesn't bug you and you just want more of your sweet sweet man. Follow this route suggestion. Go from right to left if you want least fluff to most. **Hanzo's route has fluff but since he doesn't particularly have feelings for you at all in the beginning I think it's the most fitting to play him last, as he has the most dramatic change in feelings. All the other characters are attracted to you/connect to you in some way prior to your "journey" but Hanzo isn't which makes his CGs during the journey the least romantic...don't mean it won't make your heart go dokidoki at the end.. in fact his route has the best fluff at the enddddddd <3 omfg

Personal Ratings of each route. I wrote these comments right after I played a route both good and bad ending. 

Goemon 8/10 CGs looked a bit weird sometimes (forced neck).... I love my playboy types in otome games so it's hard for me to not love this route... aaahhh this was so fluffy and the voice was so perf omg I'm dying. Little sad the story was a bit weak on this route. The one betrayal part was really good but since most of the story was just running away without "knowing"what you were running from made it very lackluster. I just loved his character so much though -1 for weird CGs -1 for weak story and rarely and development for other characters... but it makes sense since you're just running away with Goemon. But still left some obvious holes in the plot buttt thats the point of these games. Gotta play all the routes to get all the info. Man even the bad ending was so damn cute ffuuuuuuu <3 Onii-channnn next.

Chojiro 6/10 Depressing and uhhh sporadic. Not my type of route. Part of the route isnt even with Chojiro which was kinda meh. Goemon was the only saving grace of those parts. Chojiro's VA is one of my favorite VAs (Saito in Hakuoki <3) and it fit his character really well but the route didn't feel like it flowed well. I loved the serious storytelling but the romance aspect felt very forced. I'm usually all for pseudo-incest (Brothers Conflict is one of my favorite otome games), so I was super excited to play the Onii-chan route, but this felt...too depressing and it did not feel like he truly loved Enju. Overall it was a pretty underwhelming route since Chojiros character didn't really click with me... which is a shame since I love his VA and his character design. Felt like this route could've been better. Welp...speaking of depressing I'm going to the so called most depressing routes for the next two... yay.

Kuroyuki 5/10 OH GOD OH GOD YANDERE ROUTE >_> YANDERE SHOTA THIS IS SO UNCOMFORTABLE... People say this is one of the most depressing routes but I think this is the scariest route... I'm never into shota or yandere routes in otomes games (Touma from Amnesia scared the shit out of me) so this route was very uncomfortable for me. The only really redeeming factor is the other people in your clan....All I can say is Kyara knows whats up. Honestly I would've preferred just cute shota kuroyuki... the yandere part...no thanks. His shota cuteness is pretty bearable which is weird for me cause I don't like the shota types. The general story of this route is actually really good, but I feel this route should be played later to not "spoil" certain things in other routes. CGs were not that nice imo I would've preferred more intimate ones, but it's a pretty story driven route so I understand. Bad ending was tragic but kinda cute too I semi preferred it over the normal ending XD Next is kuroyuki's oniichan...which I'm actually looking forwards to play cause he's a knight-type.

Gekkamaru 7.5/10 WOAW This route is really depressing... but it was similar to Chojiros so it wasn't really that depressing since you kinda knew what was happening. That and since this is my second to last route, having seen this game play out so many times I was half expecting dark story. The ending though of the "main story" was so beautiful ENJU IS A BEAST YOU GO GIRL What doesn't kill you makes your stronger at its best in this route <3 Honestly it was a sad route but I liked this one the best story-wise/MC development-wise the most (so far)! I love the ending chemistry between these two too~ Goemon was my favorite romance-wise since he was my favorite type (so far) but I think these two make the most sense (lol since he is poster boy it makes even more sense XD) Anyways, I found him to be a little overbearing at first, momma gekka, but the route played out so well it made sense. Didn't score as high for the depressing story... but if you played Chojiros before this... it doesn't really phase you. lolol SAVING BEST FOR LAST NEXT KENJIRO TSUDA IS MY #1 FAVORITE VA <33333 AND I heard so much good things about this route so I'm super excited to play this.

Hanzo 9/10 Okay so first I was a bit skeptical how this route is best route... only at the beginning though. This route it isn't little Miss useless shinobi MC anymore. Hanzo is "cold" but he helps the MC grow as well as growing himself. I can see why this route is so loved by others. The two characters really bond together...honestly I wish Chojiro's route went somewhere around the lines of this since their character types are very similar... in terms of their morals of the shinobi way. "You will get stronger. I promise you that." -Hanzo This line is seriously defines their relationship so well and it's very empowering for the MC which makes the relationship an A++ relationship. Wet hair Hanzo though.... mmmmmm boiii. The CGs were a bit weak and awkward at times.... there's one in particular where Hanzo doesn't even look like Hanzo but... thats just me being nitpicky. Even the final CG looked terrible which was the serious downer...-1 for shitty CGS on such a great character.