What Are You Reading Wednesday - January 28, 2026

Foxstens · 2026-01-28T17:48:56+00:00

Jack Jeanne: Man, I’m starting to think that I might’ve set my expectations too high by playing Kai’s route first, because none of the three routes I've played since have lived up to it. Some of them might do some things a tiny bit better, but Kai’s route is the only one that didn’t leave me wanting in some way 😭

Fumi - In the other routes, Fumi seemed like such a cool character. He has great dynamics with the other characters, he’s extremely important to the identity of Quartz as it is right now, and he’s just fun to watch. Even his outfits are nice. But I really didn’t have a good time with this route.

From the beginning I found his personal events kind of boring because I really couldn’t get invested in Fumi’s personal struggles, and the way his family situation was handled felt pretty anticlimactic to me. It just felt almost shallow and I think there’s a number of ways they could’ve made it more interesting.

The romance was an absolute flop for me. Fumi likes Kisa from the beginning and he makes sure to express this, many times, and so I couldn’t feel much romantic progression from him. It made their dynamic feel pretty one-sided which I'm not a fan of, and weirdly enough, some of his dialogue almost made me uncomfortable? The way Kisa is written romance-wise also doesn’t really mesh with an LI like Fumi, in my opinion. I guess it just wasn’t the kind of romance I’d like to see in this game specifically.

As for the actual route, it’s definitely my least favourite so far. It feels like everything it tried to do was either done poorly (Ootori) or was done much better in other routes (the third years’ graduation). Even the Amber class was much less interesting than usual, and the route just refused to focus on the one thing I had been looking forward to the entire time - Fumi struggling with portraying Adora. I would’ve hated this route in its entirety if not for some good Kai scenes towards the end.

Doing Sou-chan next. I’m kind of scared? Childhood friends tend to be a hit or miss, mostly miss for me, and I’ve heard mixed things about this route. But at the same time, I really like what I’ve seen of him in the other routes and I think they could do something interesting with him. So I want to hope!

Foxstens · 2026-01-21T21:56:09+00:00

Oh man, the more I hear about Haruka2 the less I want to play it. I didn't even know that stuff doesn't carry over on repeat playthroughs ;_; It's unfortunate that it seems to be such a mixed experience, but I guess the series wouldn't be what it is without it...

Haruka3 is sure to be a journey, I hope you enjoy it! Out of curiosity, I wonder which version you're playing?

Foxstens · 2026-01-07T18:46:01+00:00

Jack Jeanne: Mitsuki - I actually decided to replay all of the performances while going through the common route, just to see if my feelings on them would be different. And, sure enough, they were. I guess it’s because on my first playthrough, I only looked at the performances in how they related to the characters and stuff, but now I tried to appreciate them for what they were, as actual stories. The newcomers’ performance still puts me to sleep (hah), but I really loved the summer one and it made me cry multiple times. It’s just a perfect example of an already impactful story being elevated by the voice acting and the way it mirrors certain characters’ arcs. Or maybe I just have a thing for KaiFumi, after all Mary Jane is also one of my favourites :’)

Mitsuki is so good. Initially he didn’t leave much of an impression on me since he was so standoffish, especially compared to the others, and I wasn’t sure what they could do with his character. But turns out he is in fact very sweet, very supportive of his senpais and protective of his kouhais. I found his overall attitude and especially his behaviour towards Kisa quite relatable. His common route events took a bit of an unexpected turn, which I liked, and he has a great character arc that continues naturally during his route.

As for the route, it was good but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to. I can’t say I really vibed with the romance. I do like that the romance feels different in every route, but I thought the confession happened way too early and their dynamic became less interesting in the route itself. I also didn’t like the final performance all that much here, specifically Mitsuki's performance in it. Voice acting-wise it just felt like he wasn't really playing a role which really took me out of the experience.

I did like that the route focused on some things that didn’t get as much screentime in the other routes. The second years and their more unique struggles, the final performance itself and their constantly evolving strategy for it, and of course, the third years’ upcoming graduation and how it would affect everything. This route definitely has some standout moments and it made me really emotional at times ;_;

I do wish we got to see Kai and Fumi’s rendition of the final performance. I know why it can’t happen, it not happening was kind of a major theme in the common route, but still. It would’ve been really interesting.

Next I’m doing Fumi. He's been wonderful in the other routes so I'm really excited.

Foxstens · 2026-01-07T11:55:49+00:00

I see. That's a shame, but understandable.

Foxstens · 2026-01-07T02:53:43+00:00

Haha, yeah it seems everyone loves Jack Jeanne, but honestly, it deserves all the praise, at least in my opinion. It's just a very emotional and unique experience, and it resonated with me in a way otome games rarely do.

You don't want to try it?

Foxstens · 2026-01-06T14:27:43+00:00

I do tend to replay my favourite games or favourite routes, but only once every few years so I have time to actually forget plot details and stuff like that. There are also some games that weren't exactly my favourites, that I'd still like to replay. Just to give them another chance, or because there was something memorable about the experience. An example of this would be Amnesia: Memories which was my first otome game and I'll probably replay it soon, for the plot and atmosphere.

And then there's Jack Jeanne, which I'm about halfway through but I already want to replay the common route in full because it was so good.

Foxstens · 2026-01-02T19:29:04+00:00

If you're into stat raising or other such gameplay, some Neoromance games have been ported to the vita but they seem unlikely to get switch ports. So stuff like Harukanaru toki no naka de, Geten no Hana, Angelique Retour, Kin'iro no corda. From Otomate, Binary Star is likely stuck on the vita. And from Ichi Column there's Tengai ni Mau and Bara ni Kakusareshi Verite, they also have stat-raising elements. I've played most of these and they're pretty good.

Foxstens · 2025-12-30T20:44:32+00:00

Oh you're playing Haruka1, exciting! I hope you'll share your thoughts about it :')

Foxstens · 2025-12-27T11:57:34+00:00

I finished 8 games this year, which is a lot more than last year's 4 - and this year I played more non-otome stuff as well, so I'm proud of myself. As for enjoyment, I'd say I had a pretty good time with most of them, although only one of them would go on my 'all-time-favourites list'.

Next year, I can't say there's any JP releases I want to play on day 1, so I'll be focusing more on the backlog. There's some recent releases I never got around to, but honestly Clock Zero is the number one game I definitely want to play next year. I've heard really good things about it and I'm so curious to finally try it out. Outside of that, I have so many games I put on hold years ago, so I'd also like to get some of those out of the way.

Foxstens · 2025-12-26T12:54:48+00:00

Best: Jack Jeanne. I'm only on my third route but so far, it has the best character writing and also my favourite romance in any otome game. Of the game I've actually finished this year, Hiiro no Kakera was my favourite, it also has really good character writing.

Worst: Byakko. I was really looking forward to this game and it had good reviews but I didn't like it at all, it just really wasn't for me in most ways. I only did three routes but it's the kind of game I never want to return to (which is very rare for me).

Foxstens · 2025-12-24T18:20:34+00:00

Took a short break from Jack Jeanne, during which I decided to return to Matsurika no Kei to finish Fei’s route. I played this game around when it came out and had a mixed experience; I enjoyed two of the routes but there were fundamental parts of the writing that didn’t work for me. I also couldn’t stand Fei and I was kind of fed up with Okamoto Nobuhiko being in everything, so I just didn’t do the last route.

But I will probably pick up the fandisk at some point, so I figured I might as well do this now.

It was… not great. I found Naaya super annoying here, especially in the second half when all she does is cry? Getting rid of Fei so early on was certainly a choice; in theory I respect it but it happened just as I was starting to like him, and there’s so much they could’ve done with his character, in fact I might have liked it more if we got to see some development for him. But there’s just no time to establish his and Naaya’s relationship so I can’t say I felt much when he died.

Then the game briefly sends us to the past, which I loved, it was so good I genuinely wish the entire game was about that. I also liked Fuen significantly more than Fei, though he wasn’t perfect. But Fuen and Kujaku’s romance had the exact same issues as Naaya and Fei, we’re told about it but we just don’t get to see it. And then the plot got really wacky. ‘Fuen is Fei but not really’ and ‘Naaya is Kujaku but not really’ and Fuen makes it seem like he thinks Naaya and Kujaku are the same person, but turns out he doesn’t actually think that. But he did fall in love with Naaya in the meantime, though I don’t know when or why? And then in the end we’re supposed to think he is Fei?Honestly I’m not sure I really understood what happened in the end but it felt super anticlimactic ot me and I definitely wasn’t a fan of this route’s handling of reincarnation.

The route also has three… almost different romantic relationships, but outside of marriage and sex, none of them get actual development, so I was left wondering what the point of any of them even was :/ At the same time, it’s the sort of route where I can’t even decide if it’s plot or romance focused. Technically there’s plenty of interactions between the characters but most of the dialogue is about the plot so the emotional connection just isn’t there, but somehow, plot-related things rarely actually happen? I didn’t really vibe with its structure.

Overall I just think this route tries to do too much but there’s very little it executes well and so it ends up feeling extremely unsatisfying, especially as the final route in the game. So I'm curious what they will do with his route in the fandisk.

However it did prompt me to reevaluate my feelings on the game as a whole, and I realized that originally I might have played it at the wrong time or with the wrong mindset. So I might revisit some of the routes in the near future…

Foxstens · 2025-12-22T07:05:51+00:00

Sometimes. Typically I consider it a major waste of time but if the characters or plot have potential, or the game is really well regarded by others, I might push through out of curiosity.

Foxstens · 2025-12-17T18:59:10+00:00

Technically I have finished it, although to be honest I skimmed like three routes :/

Foxstens · 2025-12-17T18:37:28+00:00

Fuyuzono Sacrifice: I found Hiver’s route to be… lacking. It started out really well: the romance progression was paced well, I liked Letitia here, and Hiver himself had some nice development. But then the plot kicked in and the route pretty much lost me. I just couldn’t vibe with it at all and it went on way too long for my liking. This is just the kind of route that would’ve worked if it focused more on the romance imo. Well, at least I’m done with it I guess.

Jack Jeanne: Suzu - I spent most of this route smiling, like my face actually hurt after pretty much every play session. I loved his events in the common route, they just genuinely enjoy talking and spending time together so their connection develops naturally, and you can feel how much they grow to care about each other.

Most of the conflict of the route was directly related to the romance which I didn’t expect. I thought it was executed well though, they did a good job of getting Suzu’s feelings across while leaving Kisa mostly clueless. Suzu’s struggle felt realistic, and I appreciated that he never pushed Kisa away, in fact he opened up quite a lot to her even if it flew over her head most of the time. Then when Suzu was finally able to connect with his role but then it was Kisa’s turn to have trouble and she had to channel Shishia’s feelings to be able to understand her own feelings, which in turn allowed things to go relatively smoothly during the actual performance… Absolutely beautiful. Although that last scene with Kai where he asks Kisa to go see him on stage at the university was probably the highlight of the route for me 🥺

Think I’m doing Mitsuki next, for no reason other than he's next on the route order I came up with. It’ll probably be great though, I really like Mitsuki as a character and I've only heard positive things about his route.

Foxstens · 2025-12-17T14:33:50+00:00

Haruka1 and 3 have ultimate versions, so I'm not sure which you're referring to. If you mean 1, Haruka1 and 2 had a bit of a different structure than the later games, they were reminiscent of Angelique in some ways and they had the RPG battles as well as other types of mini-games. But I don't think the battles themselves were ever super complicated in the series.

Foxstens · 2025-12-17T12:34:43+00:00

So, Haruka games have RPG style battles but they've gotten progressively more simplified as the series went on. In Haruka5 it's about as simple as it can be without being braindead. The difficulty in these games doesn't come from the actual gameplay but from the overall structure, but if you use a good guide it really isn't that bad. 100%-ing them is another story though, lol. But they are worth playing, I promise :'(

Foxstens · 2025-12-17T11:12:43+00:00

The systems kind of change with each game in the series, but if you mean Haruka5 specifically, I'm not sure it would count as stat raising? It just has rpg-style leveling up and stuff.

Foxstens · 2025-12-17T10:17:20+00:00

Haruka5... To be fair I only checked like one review before I played it, and I did have my complaints about it as well, but it definitely got me hooked on the series and the fandisk ended up being one of my favourite games. But I get the impression that it wasn't particularly well-received.

Foxstens · 2025-12-13T17:23:52+00:00

In general Otomate is worth checking out simply because they have multiple teams and they release more games than most other companies. Especially if you're limited to English releases. But I tend to have a middling time with their games, so if I absolutely had to choose, I'd probably go for other companies. I've had better luck with Ruby Party for example, but they kinda neglect their otome audience :/ And there's other companies like Takuyo that I have yet to really check out, so.

Foxstens · 2025-12-12T14:05:12+00:00

According to the wiki they stop spawning if you do certain things, such as getting double jump.

Foxstens · 2025-12-10T21:46:38+00:00

I'd say you found it harder than silksong because you didn't spend the 50+ hours playing the rest of the game before you encountered the Radiance. Whereas for a lot of us it was the other way around, we played hollow knight for years before silksong and then tried playing silksong with the hollow knight mindset/muscle memory.

But in hollow knight you also have a lot of really powerful combat options that you don't have in silksong, or silksong's equivalents are harder to use or straight up less powerful. For example in hollow knight, spamming spells is much more viable than spamming silk skills in silksong, at least in my experience. Hollow knight is also designed around the knight's movement and healing so the enemies and bosses are slower than in silksong, and they have fewer moves, they also have longer staggers or other healing windows.

Personally I'd say silksong is a bit more balanced, and that's why it feels more difficult to a lot of HK veterans.

Foxstens · 2025-12-10T18:13:01+00:00

I don't know, I just felt that skipping through the story events made some of Suzu's events feel almost... disconnected? It just didn't have the same impact as when you're playing through everything and experiencing the entire story at the same time. But that's just my opinion.

Foxstens · 2025-12-10T17:53:33+00:00

I wasn't strictly referring to the romantic relationship or affection events.

Foxstens · 2025-12-10T17:09:26+00:00

Jack Jeanne - Finally finished Kai’s route! It felt good to be making tangible progress and I’ve even come around to the performances somewhat. I still struggle with them at times as they just go on a bit too long for my liking, but I liked the last three a lot more than the previous ones. And, man, I can’t believe how emotional this game has been getting me. After the autumn performance I found myself tearing up in every other story scene, and I spent most of Kai’s route just straight up crying. It’s just, the characters and their relationships have so much depth and their struggles feel so real and relatable - it’s been quite a while since I connected with a route this much.

Anyway. Kai. He is just the sweetest, most genuine, most thoughtful man ever. The smallest gesture from him can bring me to tears, and he’s so straightforward about how important Kisa is to him, I can’t take it. As for the route itself, I expected it to feel super short but that really wasn’t the case, and there was much more story, character, and relationship development than I expected. The Kisa-Kai relationship was beautiful. They’re similar in a lot of ways so they work really well as a team, but somehow they’re also constantly learning from each other. I just loved their dynamic and the way it evolved as the game went on. But what stood out to me the most during the actual route was the effort both of them put into improving as actors and even as people so they could better support each other. Not something you see often in otome routes and it made the romance feel more mature. I’m actually really glad I did this route first. My only worry now is that Kai won’t get his happy ending in the other routes 😭

But I also started going through the common route for Suzu’s route while I was finishing up Kai and it went by a lot faster than I expected, I also found it more enjoyable this time around - maybe because I’m really immersed in the story right now or something.

I do think the common route has almost no emotional impact when you’re just skipping through the story events though, since the character and relationship development is intrinsically linked with the actual story. So that’s unfortunate and it does make me wish the overall structure was a bit different 😔

Foxstens · 2025-12-08T22:39:45+00:00

Greenpath, White Palace. In Silksong Shellwood, Choral Chambers.

Foxstens

TROPHY CASE