#tokyosatsujinki

[suzuran777]

Review: Tokyo Satsujinki (Holicworks)

I finally finished the other new BLVN I bought recently, Tokyo Satsujinki! This game was released last month, by Holicworks who are known for previous games like Taisho Mebiusline, Tokyo Onmyouji and Tokyo 24 ku (yes they're aware of all of their similar sounding "Tokyo" titles lol). I guess this game might be a bit difficult to review because it’s extremely story-heavy and I would still like to keep this review spoiler-free, but I’ll try my best! Right now it's also only available in Japanese, but as Tokyo Onmyouji was translated, maybe this one will be picked up too one day.

The main character, Kurotori Yuzuru, is a civil servant who works for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. He belongs to a countermeasure group who fights against a negative force, often referred to as "Aramatsuri". In this world, both Aramatsuri and Amaterasu are powers that reside within humans. Amaterasu brings positivity and happiness, while Aramatsuri is deemed evil and leads to misfortune.

Only those with special powers are able to see Aramatsuri, therefore these are also the only people who are part of the Aramatsuri Countermeasure Division, which Kurotori and some of the other main characters belong to. A common way of confirming that one possesses special abilities, is by asking them about the appearance of Yoyogi Park Clock Tower. Only those with special powers are able to see the big pink flower on top of it, which suddenly appeared one day and doesn't look like it's from this world. Especially the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku is heavily affected by the negative impact of Aramatsuri, so this is a location where a large part of the story in this game takes place.

The recommended route order is Tendo > Tsubaki > Isshiki > Inami, but don’t be surprised when you suddenly have to enter Inami’s route to make progress in Isshiki’s route. This games makes use of a flowchart which shows you where the endings are, and which ones you still need to get, but it doesn’t really tell you what choices to make. Especially near the end it’s a lot of trial and error, but it’s not too difficult and I kinda had fun figuring it out myself! On the other hand, I also saw some comments that it’s a bit annoying when you want to finish a route quickly, which I understand... so be prepared that the last two routes are long. I think you can also start with Tsubaki's route because plot-wise it won't change a lot, but I'm pretty sure the other two routes are locked.

A big part of the story in this game focuses on Kurotori, the protagonist. Kurotori’s powers are a bit special compared to the other characters because not only is he able to manipulate Aramatsuri and change it into any shape he wants (he often uses it to create a sword), he can also use the power of goddess Ame-no-Uzume. She's the goddess of dawn, meditation and the arts, and in Shinto religion, her story intertwines deeply with that of Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess who also plays an important role in this story. It is also not a coincidence that the positive powers in this game are called "Amaterasu" because some of the characters can use the powers of Amaterasu Omikami.

The first route I played is Tendo's route, Kurotori's coworker who also works for the Aramatsuri Countermeasure Division. He is one of the people who can use the power of Amaterasu, and his family specializes in using Japanese swords, so that’s his preferred weapon of choice. The Aramatsuri Countermeasure Division is a secret even many governmental organizations and the police don’t know about, therefore they can't carry weapons or fight Aramatsuri in locations where other people can see them. Their manager, a woman called Mikiko, is also an important character in this game (she's the one sitting in the chair in the image below!). Tendo's route mostly focuses on his brother's disappearance, who also used to be part of the same division. Before he went missing, his brother attacked and killed his coworkers during a mission, and now other employees seem rather suspicious of Tendo too, wondering if he will turn against them too. Tendo however, also doesn't know why any of this happened.

The next route I played is Tsubaki’s route, who's an aspiring actor who tries his best to find new jobs. Even though he tries his best to live a normal life, his family has a long history of unfortunate incidents, and many family members either died or went missing. If that wasn't bad enough, Tsubaki also gets regular visits from the god Sarutahiko Ookami, who wants to use Tsubaki to sever Kurotori’s ties with Ame-no-Uzume, Sarutahiko’s wife. Tsubaki doesn’t really want to do this, but there's not much he can do against the will of a god. In the common route of the game, Tsubaki tries to attack Kurotori while wearing Sarutahiko's mask, concealing his identity, but Kurotori kind of suspects that it was him. As he learns more about Tsubaki, part of him wants to deny this though, because he believes Tsubaki might also be a victim of all of this. I enjoyed the casual interactions between the characters in this route too because it shows that Kurotori doesn't really use smartphones or computers (other than for work-related reasons), so Tsubaki has to teach him how to use apps like Line...!

After this I started playing Isshiki’s route, a mysterious bartender who’s also an Onmyouji and can use the power of Onmyoudo. This technique allows him to cast spells using the powers of astronomy, and methods range from Yin/Yang, the Five Elements, shikigami (cursed spirits) an a whole bunch of other things (if you played Tokyo Onmyouji you probably know too!). He can also use the power of an Inugami who he calls “Kota”, the curse of a dog spirit. If you're familiar with Inugami.... you immediately know this route will be dark, because Inugami are beings that can only be created by humans, involving a brutal ritual, eventually killing the dog. As you can see in the opening movie it's not Isshiki's fault, but man this backstory made me sad.

I think this is the route I liked the most though because in most of the other routes Isshiki is kind of like the villain and his visions don’t align with the other main characters, so I really wanted to see his side of the story. After finishing his route it was almost hard to continue with Inami's route because both of them are always fighting and I kind of agreed with Isshiki's reasoning more, but I did want to see the final endings. A name that gets mentioned a lot in this route is Amatsu-Mikaboshi, a star god who would not submit to the will of the other Amatsukami (the kami of Heaven), and I think it's good to remember this name when you play the next route too.

So the final route focuses on Inami, who is another coworker of Kurotori. He can also use the power of Amaterasu, and is originally from Okinawa. Even though he's their coworker, the others don't actually know a lot about him. He's quite skilled and spent a lot of time learning about many different magic techniques. In his route, you finally learn a lot more about who Inami is, but there's also a lot of backstory related to Kurotori, which doesn't show up in other routes. Even though I do prefer Isshiki's route, it’s not like this route makes the other routes feel irrelevant or less important, which sometimes tends to happen when games have a "true" route. I'm not sure if it's the design or his behavior, but Inami did remind me a little bit of Misaki from Taisho Mebiusline lol! Though that could make sense because it's the same writer and company of course. This route has two really good ending songs by the way, which I keep listening to...!

Final impressions I think those who enjoyed other Holicworks games like Tokyo Onmyouji and Taisho Mebiusline will definitely enjoy this game too! I missed playing their games, so I was definitely happy to play this one. I think it might be a bit difficult to get into for those who don't want to read a super long story with only a few 18+ and romance scenes. It definitely took me about 50 hours to play all of the different endings. This includes trying to figure out what to do next though (I think some people already started making a guide, if you want to avoid that though, so check Twitter/X first). If something in the early routes feels left unexplained, there's a big chance it will show up in another ending. Sometimes I was surprised how even little details I never thought much about were somehow story-relevant.

Like most of their previous games, a large part of this story also references various terms related to Shintoism, and names of many of the gods/kami are directly mentioned in the story and play a huge role in it, so I think it would be a good idea to keep track of those to understand some of the references. However if you don't get all of the references, I think it's still not impossible to understand the story and the endings, I just think it's fun to look everything up! Talking about endings… This game has a lot of them, so be prepared to keep loading your save files.

As usual the music in this game is really good, I especially liked the songs by Lily & Morrigan. I liked the art too, especially the action scenes were cool and some of the CGs are animated. I'm a big fan of Kurotori's design too, I love the lower lashes, black nails and high heels!! If I had to complain about something, I guess the 18+ scenes sometimes felt a bit awkward, but that could just be a me-problem because I am very picky LOL (and each route only has like 2 of them).

I really want to see a continuation of some of these routes tbh! I think there's definitely potential for a fandisc. I got Isshiki's pre-order bonuses, which includes a short drama CD that takes place after his main ending, so I'm going to assume all the other characters also have this. I guess I'll end this with a fun fact, Isshiki’s bar in the game (Arca) actually exists in real life too, and I’ve already seen a lot of fans go there to enjoy the drinks. So if you're ever in Shinjuku, you might be able to visit! It's near Sanchome station.