#why they gotta have such a major plot line involving the boys individually telling their wives they love them?

[bambeebirdie]

I gotta say I watched Bill and Ted Face the Music for the first time and why can’t they just be a polycule? The entire plot line of the boys needing to individually tell their wives they love them probably wouldn’t have had to be a plot line if they’re all just dating.

[calamity-bean]

Barkskins (2020)

Lately I’ve been posting some gifs and such from a new show based (loosely, my impression is) on the Annie Proulx novel of the same name. I haven’t read the novel and knew very little about the show before I started, but I thought I’d post a bit about my impressions thus far, as of episode 1.04.

So! Barkskins is a period drama set in the late 17th century in what is now Quebec, centered around a remote little French settlement called Wobik. There are multiple plot threads at work, but the initial hook driving the narrative is the suspicious massacre of another nearby settlement. This mystery wraps around the lives of the varied people competing to survive and thrive in this corner of New France.

Short and spoiler-free opinion: I'm enjoying it so far! The tone is fairly dark and gritty, always with an edge of danger and even some hints of a sort of religious/folk horror element at work (we’ll see if that comes to anything meaningful, I suppose). The cast has a lot of talent, and based on what I’ve read, there does appear to have been a serious effort to value and involve indigenous voices throughout the creative process. Moreover, it’s a historical setting that interests me, and I like some of the characters a lot. I suspect that one of the biggest dangers this show runs, giving its fairly wide scope and limited number of episodes, is that it may fail to deliver on / fully develop everything it’s hinting at or touching upon... but we’ll see.

Longer description and opinions, potentially with vague/general spoilers, under the cut.

(there is a lot of focus on trees in this show. you may not have expected that from the name.)

Anyone who follows me would be forgiven for thinking that there are only two characters in this show, because I’ve only been posting the same two over and over. Shockingly, there are, in fact, more. Prominent ones so far include:

A traumatized young girl (Lola Reid) who is apparently one of the only survivors of the aforementioned massacre, yet no one recognizes her as being one of the people at that settlement.

Rene Sel and Charles Duquet (Christian Cooke and James Bloor), indentured servants newly arrived from France.

Claude Trepagnay (David Thewlis), an eccentric but ambitious French settler, and Mari (Kaniehtiio Horn), the underappreciated Wendat woman who lives with him.

Hamish Goames and Yvon Kirkpatrick (Aneurin Barnard and Zahn McClarnon) of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who are investigating the disappearance of a colleague. Goames is British, Yvon Anishinaabe.

Melissande and Delphine (Tallulah Haddon and Lily Sullivan), filles du roi brought from France to become wives of settlers.

Mathilde Geffard (Marcia Gay Harden), a no-nonsense and very observant French innkeeper, along with other townspeople of Wobik.

As you can see, most of the lead characters are white Europeans. Given the history of this era and the premise of the show, colonialism (and the conflicts/violence thereof) is naturally a major and inescapable part of the narrative. I was unsure, going in, how the show was going to handle the portrayal of Native characters and cultures. It’s not a topic I can offer personal insight into, as I’m white and not very educated in the irl history/cultures of this setting anyway, but it is a topic I care about. So I looked online to see what better informed people had to say.

This article by The 1491s’ Migizi Pensoneau discusses his involvement with the show (including his initial skepticism) and highlights the indigenous voices who contributed to Barkskins — including writers, actors, historians, and community leaders and advisors, both in the writing room and on location. In Pensoneau’s words:

“Barkskins” is still historical fiction told for television, involving multiple stakeholders and stories, and made within the studio world. In other words, it’s not perfect. But the Native spaces and Native people depicted were handled with just as much care, time, and investment as every other aspect of the show. Instead of a Hollywood producer shorting Native representation based on profitability, we placed as much control as possible into the hands of the communities depicted. The integrity with which we approached this task tells a better story, and I’m excited for everyone to see indigenous characters and communities portrayed on television in a new way.

Steeve Gros-Louis, director of the Huron-Wendat Sandokwa dance troupe, has also spoken positively about his experience of the show’s approach to his culture. Overall, I would definitely say that the story thus far has been told primarily through the lens of colonists. But there are characters from multiple indigenous cultures of the region, two of whom are leads, and general reactions to the portrayal of these characters/cultures seem positive.

(this shot was SO sepia before i adjusted it, like i did a lot and yet it is still very sepia, fair warning that this show’s indoor scenes often suffer from a chronic case of Everything In History Was Sepia.)

Most of the lead characters are also male, though there are about five prominent women so far. (...Honestly, I’ve watched period dramas with fewer.) Among these, I think an interesting phenomenon the show’s chosen to explore is the filles du roi — young women who’ve traveled from France at the king’s expense specifically to provide wives for the overwhelmingly male population of early settlers. These young women differ in personalities and motives but all seem to be very much alone in the world, and it seems clear that they have chosen this path in hope of better opportunities but are also anxious about how their lives in this “new world” will turn out. The show is closely following the journeys of two of them in particular (ambitious Melissande and shy Delphine, both of whom have secrets), and while it is a bit tiring that women in historical fiction are so often defined by their relation to a man, I appreciate that this storyline is about the wives themselves.

Personally, my two favorite characters so far are the Company men: Goames and Yvon. Goames is very much the sort of character I’m often drawn to, in terms of his manner and apparent worldview: “the implacable sort, rigid in his thoughts and actions,” serious and decent and imo with hints of a storyline challenging his loyalty to his institution, which has in the past been the sort of storyline I very much enjoy. (I uh, would be lying if I said I wasn’t also simply... drawn to Mr. Barnard in general.) Yvon stands out for his dry snark and eloquence and for the bigotry he runs into as a Native man operating within white spheres, which casts a pall over his generally unflappable demeanor, and I have a lot of curiosity about his background. Their partnership is a highlight of the show, imo, and I’m quite interested in where their storyline will go re: their individual character arcs as well as the overall narrative. I’m also particularly fond of Mari and Delphine.

(my BOYS! this is not an actual still from the show but look at Aneurin. look at his silly pose.)

As far as the content goes, I don’t think it’s been too egregious so far, but be advised:

Primary warning is for violence. It’s not overly gory, but there is fighting, blood, bodies, etc. One act of violence I will warn for specifically: in the first episode, a group of Iroquois men are killed (offscreen), and their bodies are displayed hanged and impaled. This is clearly presented as an atrocity, and the bodies are mostly shown from a distance so that they’re small and indistinct, but there are a couple close-up shots.

Also, as I’ve mentioned, characters such as Yvon and Mari do face racist treatment/remarks from white characters.

There has been a nongraphic instance of attempted sexual assault, which was successfully rebuffed.

So... yeah! At time of writing, half the season has aired — it airs Monday evenings on Nat Geo and goes up on Hulu Tuesday afternoon, and they seem to be airing two episodes a week, which is frankly annoying, I’d rather get either a proper savor or a proper binge. The reviews I’m seeing online are mostly positive (I’ve seen at least one trot out the dreaded “It’s the next GoT!” line, which I think is inaccurate re: its tone/focus and also, like, why are people still trying to say that as though it’s a good thing), and there seems to be a small little fandom getting started here on Tumblr. (Not that I’ve really met many of y’all yet. If you’re reading this, hi!) And while Proulx’s novel covers some 300 years — it’s one of those generational sagas, I gather, following characters and their distant descendants — thus far I’ve seen no indication that the show is going to be set up that way. I recall reading something that said they’d basically taken a small part of the novel and massively expanded the characters, etc., so for now, at least, I’m going to assume the show is staying within this one slice of history.

Anyway, though. I’ll admit I’ve not been devoting 100% of my attention to any given ep, as I gotta work on other things while I watch, but so far, it’s intriguing, it’s got a number of actors and characters I like in it, and I appreciate learning that it had input from a variety of indigenous contributors. Overall, I intend to continue seeing where it goes!

[winters-orbit]

My Thoughts on Endgame: A Very Spoiler-Heavy Review

Yeah we’re talking about pretty much all of it, so buckle up.

Alright y’all, here we go. I saw endgame yesterday, and I think I’ve finally compiled all of my thoughts. So a couple things before I start.

1.      There will be VERY heavy spoilers, like, so many. I have tagged this post with every tag I can figure out about spoilers, and I’m starting this post with stating it. If you have not seen the movie and don’t want spoilers, please do not read this post. I feel I have warned you sufficiently, so don’t get mad at me.

2.      This is going to be a really LONG and in depth post. I apologize, but I need to talk about this.

3.      If I refer to the people making the movie, I am talking about both the Russo’s and Markus & McFeely. I feel that all four of them were involved enough to lump them altogether.

4.      This is likely not going to be a super positive post, so know that.

5.      I may have a few controversial opinions. I’m not here to attack anyone’s opinions personally. These are just mine. I’m totally willing to have a civil discussion about stuff.

Now that we know where we all are. I’m gonna start off with what I thought were the positives.

·        Steve wielding Mjolnir. HOLY SHIT. I think that is literally my new favorite shot in the MCU. Steve standing there with the Hammer and his shield honestly took my comic loving ass’s breath away.

·        A bit of an extension of that last point, but the wide shot of Steve standing there alone, facing all of Thanos and his army? Hot damn? That was such a beautiful shot.

·        Most of the movie before the five years later was what I’m going to sum up as ‘pretty good’, i.e. I don’t have too many complaints.

·        “That is America’s Ass” (do I need to explain this one?)

·        Natasha basically holding everything together for 5 years, just trying to hold herself together when Steve walks in? Wow, break my heart why don’t you.

·        AVENGERS….assemble.

·        Falcon saying on your left

·        Strange looking at Tony before the end and slowly holding up one finger.

·        Scott’s breakdown and frantically looking for Cassie’s name on the memorial (Like, shout out to Paul Rudd’s acting there, cause damn I felt that)

·        Captain Marvel (and here’s where we get controversial kids) was in the movie very minimally

Look, I’m sure there’s some other good stuff that I’m just not remembering. But that’s the stuff that really stuck out to me.

OHHHHHHKAY, deep breath because here we go. I want to start off talking about tone. For me, it was all over the place. Phase 3 as a whole in the MCU has been really tonally off for me. I know this is not a common opinion, because everyone I saw this movie with had the humor really land for them. Still, for me I felt the humor was really off. It always feels jarring to me when they juxtapose death with a joke.

Now that we’ve gotten tone out of the way. Let me go through by characters. Because this movie really suffered as far as characterization and plot. So let’s talk characters first.

Tony:

Gotta really preface this one. I have never really liked Tony as a character. So take everything I say with that in mind. This is going to sound biased.

So- three big things for me as far as Tony.

1.      It REALLY bothers me that Tony would just fuck off for five years. (Look this one is really biased, I can acknowledge that) After being the one to always be about winning no matter what, Pepper even says something along the lines of would you be able to live with yourself? So the idea of him just leaving and not helping even remotely rubs me the wrong way. And apparently all it took was seeing a picture of Peter to change his mind? Idk not sold.

a.      This didn’t really fit anywhere else but I wanted to touch on it because it bothered me. But WHAT THE FRESH FUCK do you mean by reverse the Mobius strip. WHAT. The WHOLE point of a Mobius strip is that there is only ONE side. (Like I know this doesn’t matter literally at all but hot damn does it fire me up for no reason)

2.      Tony & Howard. Let’s discuss. I’m honestly really confused what they (see preface #3) were going for with this interaction. The way I always read the relationship was that Howard was very neglectful and emotionally manipulative. The MCU has never given me the impression that the two had a good relationship. So, what was this interaction supposed to be? Was it supposed to be closure? Idk I have a hard time figuring this scene. If you have thoughts on this one let me know.

3.      Alright, Tony doing the final snap. We gotta talk. I know this was more of an MCU thing. Like I get that Tony started the MCU so it fits that he would be the one to end this arc. But I am just personally really mad that I don’t think Nebula got the closure she deserved as a character. I guess you could argue that killing her ‘alternate timeline’ (oh don’t worry, we’ll get to that) self is ‘closure’ but she didn’t even get to try and fight Thanos. After everything he did to her, and after killing Gamora, I felt she deserved something. Basically, Tony performing the snap made no sense in context of character arc (like everything in this damn movie), and it should’ve been someone else.

a.      I’m not sure how I feel about Tony dying. Not sure it worked for his arc but I’m sort of happy that this will be a moving on for the MCU.

Steve:

I wish I could articulate through text the incredibly deep and long sigh that I just gave. Steve they did you dirty.

You know what we’re talking about, but let me say it anyway with a couple Fuck’s just to let me vent. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE ENDING. HOW THE FUCK DID THAT HAPPEN. HOW THE FUCK DID THEY THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA. WHY THE FUCK DID THEY RUIN HIM LIKE THAT.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that I’ve gotten that out of the way. Let’s talk about this a little more calmly. I’m so disappointed. I feel like everyone else has done this in more detail and since I’ve already be working on this for like an hour, I’m going to try and summarize this.

Steve’s entire arc was about moving on from whatever bad things have happened in the past and still being a good person.  It’s about learning how finding new people and having new experiences can help you grow from whatever has happened to you in the past. It is so incredibly frustrating to watch them throw that away. Peggy and Steve never dated, at least as far as what the MCU showed us. Peggy died, she had a good fulfilling life. She moved on. She tells Steve later that she has no regrets about her life, only that he didn’t get to live his.

Beyond that what about Bucky, Sam, Natasha, even Fury and Tony, and the rest of the Avengers. So he just threw all of those relationships away?

Side tangent. Bucky should’ve been the new Cap. Don’t get me wrong, Sam Wilson is incredible and I think he’ll be great. But damn they did Bucky just as dirty. I think it makes more sense to have Bucky be the new Cap. Bucky is also a super soldier. He has a form of serum and could actually do what Steve did. Sam is not a super soldier (as far as the MCU) and he, while still an incredible fighter, just isn’t as powerful as Steve was.

Anyway, I’m bitter, I’m mad, and I’m so incredibly disappointed that this is the message they went for as Steve’s farewell to the MCU.

Thor

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy. What did they (I’m including Hemsworth this time too) do to you Thor. I feel like I must preface that I did not like Ragnorok. However I did think that the character arc they had for Thor was good.

Two major things:

1.      We gotta talk about the weight. This is another thing where I just don’t get where they were going with it. They have completely destroyed whatever character the MCU was trying to build. Why has the fucking GOD OF THUNDER been reduced to a constant punchline? Wow.

a.      Also yeah, we also gotta touch on Fornite. Fucking yikes Marvel. That is not going to age well. This is just super cringe worthy and another one of those tone issues I was talking about.  

2.      He left Asgard?????? The Fuck? After everything that’s happened he’s just going to dick around with the guardians?

a.      Don’t get me wrong Val is going to kick ass

b.      Also let me tell you, I am not looking forward to Thor being in guardians 3. I literally cannot stand the interactions between Peter Quill and Thor and I am dreading the next guardians now.

Other people have definitely gone into further depth when it comes to Thor so I feel like it’s been covered.

Bruce

I don’t like it, I don’t have a solution, but I don’t like it.

Natasha

Damn I feel like a broken record, but Nat they did you dirty. She did not deserve to die. Like I said in the positives section, she literally held the Avengers together for FIVE years when it was very clear that Tony and Bruce had fucked off and Steve was busy helping individuals. I think she was pretty damn redeemed. Like shit the whole series is her trusting people and finding a family in the Avengers.

Clint

Aight so let’s get it out there. Clint is one of my favorite characters of ALL time. Yeah I’m biased. I will never deny that. I have been bitching since 2012 that the MCU has destroyed Clint. This movie is no exception. I’m kinda just talking about the whole soul stone scene here. As soon as I saw that it was Clint and Nat going to Voromir, I knew Nat was dying. I literally gasped in the theatre and covered my mouth as I quietly chanted no no no no no. My friend sitting next to me didn’t get it but I wasn’t about to tell him. Both of them deserved so much better and yes I’m hardcore Clintasha and have been since 2012. So them fighting over who was going to sacrifice themself absolutely destroyed me.

So thanks Marvel, I hate it.

That’s the O6. I don’t have major thoughts on every secondary character, but I do on one.

Scott

Hot damn, this is really personally to me. But why is Scott always portrayed as an idiot, the butt of a joke. The man literally has a MASTERS IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING. As someone who is about to get an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering this really pisses me off. Just because he doesn’t understand quantum mechanics he’s treated like a joke. AGHHAHGHAGHAGH

Alright folks let’s do it. Let’s talk plot.

I’m of the opinion that time travel is never good for a series. It opens to many doors and makes to many confusing problems.

I cannot stand how they’ve defined the rules of time travel in this. They actually just made it a get out of jail free card and then they broke them anyway? I’m honestly just tired and confused at this point.

What happened to Loki when he disappeared with the space stone? How did Thanos come to a future where he was already dead when the Doctor Strange movie implied you can’t travel past your death?

Why were we denied seeing everyone snap back into existence? You really denied us all those reunions. So much of the movie was slow and quiet, why couldn’t that have been too.

How the fuck did none of them die when Thanos blew up Avengers headquarters?

What are the implications of all the timelines they created (oh wait the movie decided that all established movie time travel rules are dumb because we want to write without concern)? A 2012 where Steve knows about Bucky but Hydra thinks he’s on their side? What did Hank Pym do when he found out a bunch of his particles were taken? Was Howard different as a father because of a talk he had with that same son? How the fuck are Peter and all his friends still the same age?

Marvel you simply cannot do shit like this. You can’t throw out established rules simply because your story wouldn’t work without changing them. NEWS FLASH that means your story is shitty. Get better at writing or don’t use time travel. You can’t ignore stuff like butterfly effect. Or simply disregard changing your own past. You can’t just say ‘alternate timeline’ and solve it. Are you opening up the MCU to the multiverse? Or is this just a contrivance for your plot to work.

In conclusion TL:DR there was a good movie in here somewhere. But the plot was so riddle with holes and mistakes. They threw out character in favor of fan service. All of the years of work that was put in to build these characters is now out the window. I hope you’re happy Marvel.

Agree with me? Cool. Don’t Agree? Cool. I’m glad some people actually like the movie. Is this everything I wanted to say? No, I’m probably forgetting something. But here’s a lot of how I felt.

[carinareviews]

Steam/PC: The Charming Empire Review

He’s a cutie <3

Final Grade: D+/C- TL;DR: Not great. OST was very mediocre. A little above average visuals. Storytelling was terrible. Voice Acting (VA) was the only saving grace for this game. UI is terrible/no improvement from the mobile version. Characters were great but development was non-existent in many of the routes. Couldn’t stomach the game to play through everyone’s Good ending…I just did Happy Endings which were still just mediocre ends.

Route Order I followed: Yoshimine, Togawa, Tanba, Sera, Soshi.

Route Order I recommend: Yoshimine, Tanba, Sera, Togawa, Soshi Though it honestly doesn’t matter since none of the storylines are that closely related anyways….I’d say Soshi for the beginning or end since his has the most “answers” in it. His route is pretty painful to save for last though….

Here are the route reviews: Ratings for the routes in this game will be actually higher than expected. I'm not saying these are "good" routes but the overall game is pretty kusoge (shit-game) so I'm rating them based on the low standards the overall game has set already. That being said, if you're use to fully fleshed out otome games, which I'm spoiled with...since I tend to play console based ones and not mobile based games, this game is pretty garbage. However, if you just want some light fluffy writing with tolerable visuals and a simple UI, this game is perfect. I originally played this game cause Tsuda Kenjiro VAs onii-chan... but holy shit after the first route I wasn't sure if I could make it through all the routes.

Luckily all the routes are pretty short....thank god. I didn't bother with the Normal ends cause the lackluster CGs with the shitty auto mode really made me want to kill myself while playing. Without further ado.. Here are the individual route reviews. Each written after completing the Good end.

Yoshimine 6/10

Angry Tsundere Shota >_> Uhhh def not my type. So I chose this to be my first route cause I saw the character pictures and this looked like no.1 not my type I tend to play the routes I don't think I'll like first then end with the best. He's an okay tsun-shota type. He def has some cute moments but it was really hard to get into his character since the kusoge didnt really give him good character development His idle sprite also looks really awkward too so that didn't help. Overall his VA really made up for the shitty character writing he had and semi brought his character to life. Oh yeah... the plot "twist" at the end...was so obvious.... holy shit.

Wtf is this idle..... something looks off....

Togawa 7/10

Okay... from what I see so far... this game is mainly a setup for the Soshi route at the end... I'm kinda okay with this. This route was sweet due to the bachelor being such a sweet cinnamon roll. Luckily his sprite wasn't as awkward to look at. His CGs were pretty weak as well. I think there was like 1 good CG. Augghh this kusoge with the shitty character development. I'm glad this character had some "history" with the MC though that made the lack of character development better. There were some interesting translation differences IDK were meant to be in there like switching black tea to just Earl Grey tea.

Tanba 8/10

So I really like Tanba Toki's design and the fact that his VA is also Prompto from FFXV's VA is even better.The VA suits him really well and his character development is on point. There was some questionable OST choices for certain scenes... there was "happy" music when you were helping the rebels... like whhaatt? THEN THE MAIN THING THAT MADE ME UPSET. NO CG FOR THE CONFESSION PART HOLY SHIT IM SO PISSED. THIS GAME IS KUSOGE WTH D: Then after the confession scene theres an awkward Kiss CG which look sssoooo weirrdd >_>

Overall though, this is my favorite route so far. He had the best writing so far. I think the fact that the MC doesn't get to be with him all the time really helps. There was def. slight character development written in for both the MC and Tanba. The trend of setting up for Soshi is still very prominent in this route...anddd still no connection to any other characters expect for Soshi. I really hope Soshi's route is good to make up for all the rest of these mediocre to shitty routes. (Spoiler…it didn’t) Sera's route next.

Sera 7/10

Alright, I'd be lying if I was going to say that I didn't enjoy this route. ITS STILL A TERRIBLE FUCKING ROUTE. Writing is very mediocre and storyline/development is downright garbage. BUT I fucking love Sera's character trope. Stoic quiet big guy who's actually a fucking cinnamon roll inside. He also holds the knight card as in he must protecc. Seriously, if he had glasses he would be perfect for me. HOWEVER, the VAing in the beginning was a little forced. I think Takuya (the VA) was trying to force himself to have a deeper voice at times and it didn't sound good. Then there was the sprite of Sera... wtf is this hand shit going on his idle sprite?!??

Besides that shitty idle hand...I love his character design. A LOT of the scenes (including the ending) were not satisfying at all....they could've done so much more with his scenes. The sewing scene pissed me off the most....WTF IS THAT "he said thanks" end scene. The best part of this route is that Kagamitsu Togawa actually exists in this and Yoshimine Kei is hinted at...finaaaalllly other characters being shown. I'm also glad of Soshi's end in this route compared to others. Lots of good but lots of bad in this route.... Soshi for last bois.

Soshi 6/10

I'm. so. sad. I was super hyped for this last route cause there Soshi was the only route that was hinted at in ALL the other routes. This route was a whole lot of disappointment though :( In fact... Togawa was kinda the only saving grace of this route. Arrgggh I tried so hard to like this route I really did but the story telling was soooo bad. I mean after playing the other routes you kinda are just waiting for the "twist" that was shown before...so the precursor to it is literally like WHY?! WHY YOU GOTTA BE LIKE THAT SOSHI KUN?!Also there was some fucking weird ass development or something messed up in the translation.... WHERE THE FUCK DID THE TEA PART COME FROM!? DID I MISS SOMETHING!?!?!AS IN (Spoiler alert)

WHY THE FUCK DID SHE TRY TO KILL HIM?! I'm sorry this is the only major spoiler I had to mention cause I was so confused when it happened. Then the writing got even weirder when the "Happy end" scene played where she literally started to call him "Onii-chan" and she's been calling him Soshi the whole time.... even Soji at some point IDK why....top of that...why the fuck was Soshi allowed to do what he was allowed to do at the end like no you were still the ruler howwww?....This route was just full of weird plot holes and shit that just didn't make sense. Since the route was very shitty to begin with the CGs were equally lackluster. Boring scenes got boring CGs except for the last CG but by then I was just so sad and done with the game. Tsuda Kenjiro's VAing talents were wasted on this kusoge and kuso-chara.

The Pros:

Artstyle/Character Designs- I really enjoyed a lot of the Character Designs. In fact it was the VAing and Character designs that made me eventually pick up this game. The art is vibrant is really nice to look at. Sadly some of the CGs weren’t the best of quality and some sprites could be improved. However, overall the art is very pleasant and well suited for the time period it is set in.

OST- OST was decent too. For a mobile game that ported to PC. I was decently surprised that even after trudging through so many routes the OST didn’t get annoying or repetitive. Granted there were some questionable timing on when to play certain tracks but the songs themselves were still pretty good.

VAing- So many good voice actors involved in this game. Tsuda Kenjiro is literally my favorite VA and they had the voice of Prompto too? Man good shit. The VAing did not disappoint. They def. made the game 100x better. If this game didn’t have VAing I would’ve been so sad and I don’t think I could’ve played through it all.

The Cons:

UI/UI Functionality- My BIGGEST GRIPE about this game. I get it shitty story/development, budget art, etc. BUT WHEN YOU CANT EVEN GET YOUR UI TO FUNCTION/LOOK GOOD?! COME ON! The UI is directly a port from the mobile game so it looks clunky and jenky. Not only that Auto doesn’t work as auto normally does in otoges. It acts more of a skip button which was SO FRUSTRATING. I sometimes multitask when I play otome games like check my phone/send messages to people, so I love having it on auto especially with VAing. Additionally I don’t know if it was only a bug on my game but my settings would NEVER save when I would start a new route… holy that pissed me off.

Development of Characters- Do I even have to touch on this? There was little to no development of the bachelors at all… Most of their characters were just thrown together and you were to just nod your head at some of their “developments” as in they would say “I’m partially a cat” and your character would go “Oh cool”. End of story sequence. I wanted to just punch the screen sometimes…

Tasteless CGS- Artstyle==cool. CGs==terrible. The CGs were at really weird timing and sometimes I wished there was a certain CG at a certain time but there wasn’t. I don’t know if its because there wasn’t enough memory to put in CGs for the mobile release or what not, but regardless the game did not have CGs at good times. Leading the CGs to be at awkward moments, except for the “core” CGS aka the “meeting” CGs and the “ending” CGs.

Main Character- She’s weak willed and not a fun character to follow. She just takes things as is, except maybe in Tanba’s route. I hated “being” her… I wanted to make choices at times when the games doesn’t give you a choice.

Bottom Line:

This game is just pretty garbage. I just want to move on my life and pretend that Tsuda Kenjiro wasn’t VAing in this game. If you’re thinking of buying this game..buy it on sale…like 50% or more sale or some shit. The routes are short and not fun to play through. There are def. better choices of otome games out there for PC. Of course not a lot of them are voiced by cool Japanese voice actors but this one is pretty shitty you might as well pass. I would highly recommend Nightshade on Steam or if you’re looking for something more comedy-esque and risqué… Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome. For good artstyle I’ve heard good things about OZ-Mafia too. Or just save your money up for a PSTV for those sweet sweet PSVITA games. ;)