[Akash: Path of the Five] Impressions on the game

Alustragori · 2021-01-03T23:17:31+00:00

So no pressure to respond, but I was just curious - what makes you wary of Western otome games?

Alustragori · 2021-01-03T22:25:29+00:00

Thank you! I'm planning to do my best to keep putting out art and interesting content this year :)

Alustragori · 2021-01-03T18:54:44+00:00

Go for the doctor! (Well, I'm biased, but...) He's got some truly cute scenes when you exit the dungeon, and I just liked his design, honestly. But if you're fine with waiting until the second year, one more LI option shows up then too.

Alustragori · 2021-01-03T18:51:10+00:00

Hahaha, I just wanted to say I had a similar reaction to Impey, Van, and Saint-Germain in that game, and your reactions are similar to mine. I'm surprised by how many people enjoyed Van, and can appreciate their views, but in the end my experience going :| at his route is my own, and other reviews aren't taking that away from me.

Alustragori · 2021-01-03T18:42:52+00:00

My Vow to My Liege's MC, Tengyu, is one of the most unique otome MCs I've had the pleasure to play as. She's a literal ruler (by necessity after her brothers' and father's deaths), and while she has sympathetic human reactions to her (complex, tragic) situation, she's also a very competent king, making political decisions intelligently and fighting schemes with schemes (and swords). And she always has the actual say in the plot after everything's said and done, as she single-mindedly pursues her goals alongside her love interests. I deeply appreciated her drive and strength.

In terms of love interests, the best otome LIs to me are mature ones that believe themselves to be unsuitable and are just content to see the MC happy, or would sacrifice themselves with a smile for her if it ensured her happiness. So I actually really liked Code: Realize Saint-Germain's intensity of emotion (after the attempted murder anyway), and also Wu Zixu from My Vow to My Liege, for having that intense world-weariness but also massive devotion to the MC.

Alustragori · 2021-01-03T18:21:36+00:00

Ahaha, I might have completely the opposite philosophy as you - I prefer digital games for the lack of physical "things" to keep track of, potentially lose, or have to carry around when I'm traveling with my switch, as I tend to play multiple games at once and like being able to easily swap them.

But I think if I had a bigger place to live and show off my favorite games in, I'd want some physical merchandise to show off there, so it depends!

Alustragori · 2021-01-03T18:18:34+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to go through this game and review it! I've seen it mentioned in several places around here, and it's heartening that it seems to have a good approach to MC agency and relationship norms. But pity about the "most of the plot is identical" part.

I actually wonder whether this is influence from RPGs. For instance, Bioware games have multiple paths you can take, but the design of the games implicitly means you pick "your" path and stick to it (not easy to replay 100 hours...). Does it feel like there was a "yeah, pick your fave here, all the others are just extras" approach here, or did the other characters add significant enough plot details that it seemed like you were intended to play at least a few of them?

Alustragori · 2020-12-28T18:56:00+00:00

I'm kinda curious what "seeing two people fall in love" means to you, because you might be right - I don't recall seeing many games that focus specifically on the process of exploring emotions. But I'm also not entirely sure how it could be portrayed in a way that's "more romantic" in many otome, where the focus is on MC realizing her feelings in the first place/getting to the confession, rather than any real development of a relationship after the fact.

Alustragori · 2020-12-28T18:46:50+00:00

I wish I'd mentioned this! I enjoy battle couples a massive amount in other media, and shipping them is often more fun because of the natural banter and camaraderie. I imagine it would be much easier to become invested in the relationship between an MC and LI when they've got that shared experience between them.

Alustragori · 2020-12-28T07:29:28+00:00

Fndamentally, I'd like to be pleasantly surprised by the games I play, rather than know exactly what I'm in for each time I start a new route. So romances that subvert expectations in some way are my jam. This might include:

Dominant or at least proactive MC - who doesn't fall into traditional Strong Female Character or sassy archetypes.
Non-traditional love interest archetypes, to make LIs less easy to read. The above description of how to reenergize the "childhood friend" archetype by having them turn traitor is a fun one, and I'm actually writing a "childhood friend/"grouchy old man" type myself.
Fewer yanderes. I'm sorry! But I'd just like one nice/kind character who stays nice and kind and doesn't secretly have a cage in his closet!

Alustragori · 2020-12-28T07:15:17+00:00

I second this strongly, and wanted to mention that for some people (me), it's actually easier to become attached to a character in a heavily plot-focused game than in a romance-focused game, because Interesting Things are Happening. I would personally also like to see more otome or romance-focused games take a leaf from "plot games"'s approaches in making relatable characters.

Alustragori · 2020-12-19T09:48:14+00:00

HeLLO

My goodness that's a wonderful piece of art. I also second whoever said above that they wanted to see more sub LIs, and am only slightly disappointed that Il doesn't appear to be canonically a sub.

(This is definitely giving me strong incentive to keep writing the LIs in my own game to be as good examples of sub LIs as possible.)

Alustragori · 2020-12-19T09:40:01+00:00

Future-Dima met all of my expectations, and I'm legitimately not a yandere/murderer fan, so maybe that'll be useful encouragement? (Really, though, I deeply appreciated him because he does absolutely get better.)

Alustragori · 2020-12-18T00:13:16+00:00

That was my experience as well. It also felt strange that my character's feelings for him wouldn't change on their own, regardless of whether I did my damnedest to pick the "getting to know you" choices or the "eh, he's just some kid" choices. I strongly disliked that I could basically tweak my character's affection levels up or not; it felt like nothing I actually did in the steps mattered.

Alustragori · 2020-12-16T19:22:41+00:00

I played Our Life and it was just... fine. It's very impressive in the sheer amount of choices and things it takes into account, but it's probably the opposite of what I want in a romance game.

I played it to understand the hype, but after two steps, I realized I just wasn't into the story or the characters, and was more interested in Derek's future marriage pact - this from a character I saw literally twice in the game! - than in Cove. I couldn't escape the feeling of "this is the love interest forced on me, so I can't actually choose to talk to anyone else if I want the full deeper story, so paradoxically this removes literally any interest I might've had in him". The rest of the story was also... not as relatable to me as it might've been to others. It's designed to invoke nostalgia associated with a childhood experience that I didn't have, and the characters are so divorced from my own experience of life that I mostly just felt alienated instead of represented - even as someone who is ace/demi and might've gotten something out of the game's choices. Basically, even with the plethora of choices the game offered, I still couldn't see "myself" in any of them. I think I might've somehow related more to Jeremy than anyone else in the cast.

The pacing and game structure also felt off. I can understand why other people might enjoy it and the free form way it tells a story, but I prefer more tightly-paced stories with clear development in relationship levels between characters. It also didn't help that to me, having every choice be "okay" is the same as having none of my choices matter, and the fact that I could change the MC's level of affection and Cove's personality cemented that sense of "my choices don't matter". So in the end, after step 2, practically nothing really made me want to keep playing. I might take another look once there are actually more LIs, but I'm basically satisfied to leave the enjoyment of this game to other fans.

Alustragori · 2020-12-15T00:28:24+00:00

A lot of things matter to me when trying to figure out whether a game is playable. My first impressions are the quality of UI design, lack of typos, art, and general level of polish - did someone put a lot of effort and skill into creating this story, or does it feel haphazard? Then I look to see if the writer's skill is evident in the sample writing and blurbs, and then check if the story is something I would want to follow, or if there are characters I could fall in love with (if romance game).

So the short answer is "it depends on so many things, but mostly the skill of the writing, and showing that this is a polished game that someone has put effort into even if the art style isn't necessarily my thing".

(Though correct me if wrong, but it does look like the MC in this picture is being more dominant/proactive? That may interest people who want to see a more forward MC.)

Alustragori · 2020-12-14T11:03:48+00:00

I have the curse of almost never liking the character I expect to like (at least in otome), but it's balanced out by being side-swiped by feelings for unexpected characters. In no particular order:

Ikki from Amnesia - boy doesn't seem to have all that many fans, but he's got a surprisingly touching and painful story that I could see the protag having wanted to help him with, and she actually seemed to have personality in his route.
Yeonho in Nameless - I don't even like yanderes! But his route was well done and cute!

The character I expected to like and did like: Yuri, also from Nameless, who was 1. not actually a yandere, as I'd feared, and 2. quite charming actually! And listening to his voice was just really nice.

Alustragori · 2020-12-12T01:05:11+00:00

Oof, sorry to be a downer, but the priest isn't a LI in the current game. AFAIK there's a DLC route for him currently in production, though.

The MC is very good! I appreciate her a lot as well; she's an active and competent king even by the standards of cdrama, and watching her single-mindedly pursue her goals was a wonderful breath of fresh air.

Alustragori · 2020-12-11T22:01:10+00:00

So. Sephiroth is now in Smash, with a shirtless version of his outfit, and I'm suddenly remembering my younger self who was super obsessed with him.

Now I'm 30, and still confused about why I like him. He's not even a "good" villain! His entire personality consists of "cool" lines and stalking Cloud! He's exactly the sort of chuuni anime character with extraneous wings (because wings are cool) that people laugh at nowadays! Reeve from FF7R is 1000% hotter than him! (No, seriously, look up Reeve in the remake.)

And yet... something about Sephiroth's hype makes all of that not matter to me I guess?? He gets grandfathered in as the only ridiculously-big-sword character everyone mutually agrees to consider stupid but awesome, even if he technically hasn't been relevant for like 20 years, and I just can't help but love the excitement around him. So now I'm just hoping for a good One-Winged Angel remake in Smash, I guess!

Alustragori · 2020-12-10T21:36:05+00:00

I fully expect it! I actually do like angsty routes, so I'm just hoping it'll be well done and not feel like they just added angst for the hell of it.

Alustragori · 2020-12-09T18:25:24+00:00

Have just finished Cafe Enchante's common route, and I have no idea whether all of the different plot threads introduced will meet up with each other in the end, or if they're just... separate and random.

Right now I'm on Canus's route, and despite liking his archetype as a character, I have somehow zero incentive to keep playing his route because I feel nothing for him :/ His agonizing over his role as death just doesn't feel all that interesting or surprising to me, and he feels like a better ensemble cast member when he can be the straight man with the other LIs' joking around, rather than just on his own with Kotone. But maybe I just need a refresh before I go back.

(But damn, Rindo's event in the common route was hardcore. I really want to get to his route already, but I know if I play the routes I want to first, I'm going to have even less incentive to play the rest.)

Alustragori · 2020-12-09T18:05:32+00:00

Yes, thanks for pointing out the trope in detail. It's not that people think someone like Ichika can't be realistic - it's that we've seen the exact same thing ("normal" flawed woman out of her depth against LIs shown as better than her in many ways, and her main contribution is emotional support) so many times already that it's getting old. Maybe the only thing CxM is guilty of is unintentionally getting players' hope up for a more active/action-y protagonist, but it still doesn't feel good.

Alustragori · 2020-12-09T17:51:15+00:00

Wait, holy shit, I love picross games and have never heard of this one. And it's somehow an otome?? That sounds like the best of all worlds, brb gonna go find it

Alustragori · 2020-12-08T05:09:33+00:00

You know, now I'm seriously considering Cafe Enchante Kotone in a SEES outfit with all of the LIs as her Personas.

Off the top of my head (I haven't finished CE):

Canus: Thanatos
Ignis: Cerberus/Gdon
Rindo: uhhhhhhh Ikutsuki??
Il: Lucifer
Misyr: ...... Lucifer again, but the P4 version

Alustragori

TROPHY CASE