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The Charming Empire Review: SPOILER ZONE!

THIS IS A SPOILER INFESTED POST. IF YOU HATE SPOILERS DO NOT READ!

See my Spoiler Free Review here: https://otomemeup.tumblr.com/post/160038778713/the-charming-empire-otome-review-spoiler-free

Okay! So I’m going to go in the order that I have gone so far. My typical route picking routine is to start with the routes I am least interested in… If I do that, then I can actually finish an otome.. If I don’t, I lose interest after playing the routes I want.

 I decided to start with Soshi Amazaki.

He is the older “brother” of the MC. Turns out he isn’t her brother.. Shocker. Anyways, his route is a little twisted in that we have a brother being abusive, rude, and bossy. He doesn’t explain anything and refuses to listen to MC. He announces that she is to be engaged and married off to some foreign country. He drops this news to the MC at a ball in front of tons of people. He doesn’t explain anything to her after that. The MC attempts to kill him twice even though she “loves” him. Then at the last chapter, she goes in to attempt to kill him for the second time only for him to tell her that everything was a trick and he is doing all of these terrible things to protect her and restart this country without his rule. Supposedly, he is the “rebel” leader, rebelling against his own authority and the current government system. He is determined to kill himself along with burning down and destroying the castle. MC convinces him to escape with her and then he stays the “rebel” leader and is still running the country anyway? At the end route, she still calls him brother. He gets on to her telling her not to call him brother. They kiss and that’s the end. There was no real love until the last chapter. Only a few moments of Soshi being nice through the 14-16 chapters. The CG’s were nice though. Overall, not my favorite route… It had so much potential… I get what they were aiming for with this route… But Soshi’s character just made me upset half the time.

Route Rating: 3/10

 So then, tired of the mysterious bossy-britches, I decided to go for a sweetie pie.

Kagemitsu Togawa- The Childhood Friend

He is a total and complete sweetie pie in the beginning. He’s always there standing up for the princess, taking her out around the palace, and even convincing Soshi to let her go out into town with him. He is usually calm and collected, until something happens in which may place MC in danger. Throughout the route, he is MC’s teacher. He teaches her everything she needs to know to become a proper woman and dances with her. At the ball, (which has been in every route I have played so far) he saves her from men who are hitting on her then dances with her. His Lord Douchiness appears and breaks up their sweet moment to announce that MC is to be engaged. This comes as a shock to Kagemitsu, who immediately speaks up… However, doesn’t do anything more. He even starts planning her wedding without so much as blinking an eye! No ANGST! AGH!! I got so mad!! But I stick with it, a few more sweet moments entail… All pretty much like “Hey, before you leave to get married off to some guy you don’t know, a place you don’t know, and we both know literally nothing about, let’s make some sweet memories”. He takes her out one last time to go to the café they went to earlier in the route and MC overhears that he is planning a rebellion against Soshi. She hears something along the lines of Kagemitsu telling the café owner, “Once MC gets married and leaves, we will start our revolution.” THANKS KAGEMITSU! Glad to know you are willing to send her off to god-knows-where with god-knows-who… So I’m like doubting that he ever loved her by this point. Anyways, last chapter comes into play for the happy route and he admits that he is the leader of a rebellion. But his fellow “rebels” start attacking the day before (Ignoring his orders) but he’s like “even if they are ignoring my orders, we have a rule not to kill anybody so it’s all cool. They just lost their patience.” So I’m like (-_-).. Bro… and so is MC. Anyways, Soshi appears and tells Kagemitsu to protect MC and that everything he has done has been to protect her. In the last chapter, they all have a change of heart and want to leave together to keep their little trio going. Sadly, Soshi tells them all of this knowing he planted an explosion near the room. He refuses to move, ultimately killing himself in front of them....... (-_-).........  So he gets crushed by rocks in front of his sister, who already witnessed her mother’s passing and her father is dead as well… So yeah. Kagemitsu then takes her away and they escape. After that, Soshi’s body hasn’t been found by anyone. Kagemitsu says he is not going to look for him, cause if he is alive then he will be put on trial. That seems like a good enough answer for MC, because he then proposes to her and she agrees. Overall, one of the better routes I have played so far… But it still wasn’t that good.

Route Rating: 5/10

So at this point I’m like… Screw it.. I’ll just play these routes in reversed order. So I moved on to...

Koichiro Sera - The Bodyguard 

At first he was like, “I’m not talking with you. I’m your bodyguard not your friend. Behave like a princess, don’t be friendly with the people under you.” Then like by chapter 3(?) Don’t quote me on that, he is all of a sudden nice. Like he has this change of heart, even though I don’t know why…. MC didn’t do anything different… Anyways then he is all like “Okay, I can be your friend since I’m your bodyguard, but you can’t be friends with any of the other staff.” Soshi is more relaxed in this route and allows her to go out with Sera into town two times. Cute moments shine in the outings. Turns out Soshi loves to read and that’s something that they are able to talk about. Their bond grows. They train together for like a day before Soshi forbids it due to her falling asleep during lecture. They dance together before the ball. In this route, MC knows why she is brought to the castle and has accepted the fact that she is to be engaged to a foreign prince…. By the time the ball comes, she is all dressed up and takes Sera’s breath away (She doesn’t get a compliment, but it is implied that he thinks she is gorgeous). He gets jealous, but when other men are hitting on her HARD CORE and ignoring her feelings, he just stands there and watches. Then Soshi comes out and announces she is to be engaged in 10 days and for some reason this shocks MC enough to make her faint? She wakes up crying in her room and cries herself back to sleep. Sera is in there with her the whole time and he doesn’t do anything!!!! AGH! No head strokes, no “I wish I could take you away”.. NOTHING! I got so upset. So as the wedding is getting closer, Sera tells MC that she is the rightful blood heir to the throne and that he is working with a rebel group to overthrow Soshi.. He wants her to be empress. He knew this from the beginning, before he even met her... Leaving me to be like... Why didn’t you say this sooner?! He gives her hardly anytime to make up her mind. Finally, a chapter before the end, she agrees and he saves her from the exploding building and then goes and saves Soshi. Soshi goes and lives in the countryside (In this route he was a puppet for the other leaders under him). After that, MC becomes empress and tells everyone Soshi died. Sera goes to leave the castle saying he is not needed, even though the people responsible for killing her father are still in the castle??? That’s when Kagemitsu comes in and is like “Dude, you can’t leave MC like this. She just became Empress… Plus the people responsible for her father’s death and the ruination of the kingdom are still here in the castle.. So if you leave they will try to kill her…” And the Sera is like “That’s true, but my feelings for you...” and MC is like “But Sera I am in love with you!” and then Sera gets all like “Stop! I’m a lowly servant who conveniently comes from an established Samurai family. I can’t love you, but I do… So I’m going to love you anyways!” They get together and he kisses her at a shrine. The end…… SIGH!

Route Rating: 4/10

 Hopefully, Kei and Toki’s routes will be glorious jewels from heaven to make up for the other routes, but we will see!

 Toki Tanba- The Bad A$$ Sweetheart

I LOVED HIS ROUTE! His character was sooo much more likable. He was charming, charismatic, loving.. He showed many more emotions and complexity than the other routes I have played so far. He is the owner of a Western Style Café in the village, he is also the leader of the rebels. He is a skilled shooter (Pistol and Gun) and is trusted and loved by many. In this route, MC finds a secret passageway in which she escapes to get a breather from her over-protective brother. She meets Toki in town, and they both hit it off from the start. Super cute moments unfold when she starts to help him at his cafe as a waitress. Many of the customers tease them, calling her Toki’s wife. Toki doesn’t mind this, even wishing that it was true. MC is so much more compassionate in this route. She helps in anyway possible. Most of the route takes place in the Cafe with cute moments and a few dates. He manages to sneak into the ball and dances with her. When her engagement is announced, Toki comes with his band of rebels and kidnaps her. At first, he claims it is to get her brother to give up the throne, but it’s obviously mainly because he loves her. They end up running the revolution together and escaping from the explosions. They try to save her brother, but everything collapses. In the end, no one could find him. It is implied that he managed to escape in time. They fall in love and kiss and live happily together. It was so Doki Doki!!!! Toki is such a sweetie pie! He stands beside MC through so many things and is really just an awesome character. He gets jealous easily (In the cutest way) and he always comes in to save the day when MC is in trouble. His story has more love in it too. It’s obvious that he loves her towards the middle of the story which makes it so much sweeter.  Thanks to this route, I no longer regret my purchase. His CG’s are beautiful and look awesome! His voice actor is great! I am so glad that I didn’t give up on this game before reading his route.

Route Rating: 8/10

  I have one last route to finish! Please don’t disappoint me Kei!

Kei Yoshimine- The Tutor/Foreign Prince

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, I can safely say that I actually really enjoyed these past two routes. They were super cute and the MC was enjoyable! Kei is such a cutie!! He is assigned the role of tutoring the Princess, but he is actually the Prince of a former kingdom that Soshi was talked into destroying many years ago. At the beginning, their conversations and interactions are all work. He doesn’t want her to get close to him, because everything that he ever considers a treasure gets taken away. He dislikes MC since she is the sister to the man who has him “prisoner”.  However, after a little while, MC is able to slowly get him to open up. He always loves to talk about his homeland and seems so happy when talking about it. It’s clear that he falls in love with her pretty quickly after she asks about his homeland. Kei is also protective in that, he keeps a maid from poisoning her with tea by stepping in and making his own tea for her to drink. He loves showering her with gifts. In the CG above, he actually went into town and got countless gifts that filled his arms to the point that he couldn’t even open the door. It was super cute!!!! Their dates and moments are super cute and made me fan-girl on multiple occasions. They are just the cutest couple! We eventually learn that he was actually engaged to MC before MC’s Father passed away and Soshi took over. This turn of events causes both of them to love each other even more than before. In the end, Kei and Soshi end up fighting. Kei wins and Soshi tells them that  he was planning on sending them off to marry each other anyways and keep that engagement. His kingdom is starting to be rebuilt and Kei goes back to become king, along with his future wife. It was super super cute!

Route Rating: 7/10