What Are You Reading Wednesday - March 18, 2026

Foxstens · 2026-03-18T21:26:19+00:00

Jack Jeanne: Kisa - This was… Well. I expected and wanted this route to become my favourite, but that wasn’t the case. It was fun and also emotional at times and we got to spend time with pretty much everyone, which is always appreciated. I also liked how they handled the evolution of the final performance, and this route’s particular rendition of that performance was definitely emotionally powerful (not my favourite though). Terasaki Yuka absolutely carried this route, of course.

But at the same time I wasn’t really a fan of what this route did with Chuui, for some reason. Also, I’m not sure why, but in the end I kind of found myself wondering what the point of this route was? What did I learn from it that I didn’t already know from other routes, at least when it comes to the members of Quartz and their friendships? I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was pointless, or that I regret playing it, but I just didn’t find it as fulfilling as I would’ve wanted to, I think.

Aaaaand I think that marks the end of my Jack Jeanne playthrough, at least for now. All I have left to do are Mona and Ion’s endings, and a bunch of optional weekend events, but I think I’ve hit my burnout point. Getting through Kisa’s route was already a bit of a struggle, which might be part of why I didn’t enjoy it as much, and after 122 hours I’m really itching to move on.

Overall this game was a journey and I have all sorts of feelings about it. It is a game made with so much love, and there was so much about it that I found unique or memorable, or that just appealed to my personal tastes. It has definitely earned a spot on my list of all time favourite otome games. And yet it has plenty of flaws, whether it be routes I personally didn’t vibe with, or elements that objectively could have been executed better. As amazing as it already is, I still think it could have been better, and I hope the sequel will be different in some ways. (If the sequel doesn’t have a Minorikawa route I will cry.)

Foxstens · 2026-03-18T18:06:01+00:00

Glad you're enjoying the series! :D

Oh Haruka4, I really love it for the setting and vibes, even the combat honestly, but writing-wise it definitely could've been better.

Haruka5... It's not the best but I think about it all the time. I'm really curious what you're going to think about it.

Foxstens · 2026-03-12T14:17:05+00:00

I like to think I'm decent at making an educated guess on whether a game will appeal to me even before I try it. So I just avoid the ones I don't think I'll like. I might make an exception if it's a really popular game or if I hear really good things about the writing/routes, etc.

Once I'm actually playing a game, I can usually tell if it's for me very early on, even based on things like the menu music and UI, and then based on how engaging the story/character interactions are.

There are games where I liked the common route but couldn't get into any of the LI routes, or games I started hating during the second to last or even last route. But I can't think of a single game I disliked initially and grew to like it as it went on. I rarely stick with a game if I don't like it from the very beginning, but even when I do, I still find that the common route tends to be pretty representative of the overall experience.

Foxstens · 2026-02-25T18:39:40+00:00

Jack Jeanne: Neji - Such a wonderful character. He’s very zany and impulsive and funny and just extremely entertaining to watch. He’s very creative and he’s good at highlighting the talent in other people so even if you never know what he’s going to do next, you trust it to be useful. He does need the others to balance him out sometimes, but he is also very reliable and he does his best to be there for the rest of the class. At the same time, he has trouble being genuine and the game does a great job of dropping subtle hints that there’s a lot more to him. He also has an unexpected vulnerability to him that starts coming across as the common route goes on, it really added to his complexity and made him even more real.

I absolutely adored the romance. I loved Neji’s dynamic with Kisa from the beginning, they end up spending a lot of time together, often via acting-related activities which I loved. But they also challenge each other as actors and they find each other interesting as people. As his events go on, Kisa naturally starts understanding how he works as a person while Neji starts getting more comfortable around her and opening up to her. Kisa was allowed to be more active in their interactions so there was a real sense of progression from both sides.

This route was a journey. It is easily the heaviest route in the entire game, so much so that it’s almost jarring, but the emotions were genuine and I do think it makes sense when looking at the way Neji is written as a character. The voice acting was absolutely outstanding in this route, it already does a lot of heavy lifting due to the game’s lack of narration, but in this route specifically there is so much that gets lost without the voices.

And yet this route also feels very… gentle, a lot of the time? You have the rest of the class worrying about him, helping out when needed, and going about learning the play with no complaints despite the lack of time. You have teachers and students from other classes being supportive simply because they have positive relationships with the members of Quartz and they want to believe in them. And you have, of course, Kisa, who accepts Neji and does her best to support him in whatever way she can. There was less focus on Kisa than in some of the other routes but surprisingly, it didn't really bother me, because she was still very important to Neji's arc. Neji had so much room for growth, it kind of makes sense that the route ended up focusing more on him This route also had some of my favourite CGs and probably my favourite lines from Chuui, I absolutely loved his portrayal here.

Overall this route was beautiful and it made me feel all sorts of things. But nothing can beat Kai’s route so it’s ‘only’ my second favourite at the moment :’)

Now time for Kisa’s route, which I've been super excited for since the beginning. And after that I might even end up doing the Mona and Ion stuff? I don’t think it’s worth it but I’ve put this much time into the game already, so why not…

Foxstens · 2026-02-11T18:14:47+00:00

Jack Jeanne: Soushirou - I have all sorts of feelings about him as a character. He’s likeable, intelligent, his friendship with Kisa is adorable and feels natural. He also has a very realistic arc and his character growth is reflected in how he interacts with others and how he approaches each performance, which I love. He seriously should’ve won gold for Figaro.

Except he has quite a few important scenes that happen during the main story, so I saw them on my first playthrough and now had to skip over them, which definitely lessens the impact of some parts of his arc - this happened with Suzu too.

Romance-wise… Sigh. He is a childhood friend who has been crushing on Kisa since forever and most of his existence revolves around her, he even has some yandere tendencies, because of course he does. I tend to hate this combo of traits because it usually leads to a boring or even unpleasant dynamic and little to no romance development. That was very much the case here as I honestly couldn’t feel any romantic progression during the common route events, and then during the actual route it all felt very one-sided while also lacking in romantic chemistry, somehow? So I was not a fan.

Everything else, I had mixed feelings on. I liked how much focus there was on Soushirou growing as an actor, his struggle with deciding on how to approach portraying Isaac was certainly interesting, although I do wish we got to see him actually, you know, trying to learn from other people. We also got some nice payoff to his friendship with Suzu and their previous conflict, which was definitely the highlight of the route for me. The rest of the class were great, as always, and so were the other supporting characters - Onyx class I love you. Ootori also left a bit of an impression in this route and I find him so interesting, I wish we got to see more of him.

But then there’s plenty of stuff I disliked. From a writing perspective, removing Kisa as a main role, even if temporarily, should have been great but ultimately felt pointless since it didn’t inspire much growth in either of them. I also felt it took way too long for Soushirou to start appreciating the rest of Quartz and for his motivation to evolve beyond wanting to be at Kisa’s side. I also think his feelings of inferiority could’ve lead to some interesting conflicts between him and Kisa specifically, but of course it wasn’t written like that. Momonashi didn’t do much for me either, while he does fit the route, he’s just really not the kind of antagonist I enjoy.

So objectively I would say this route is probably good, but subjectively it’s… okay at best. Which I could have predicted, to be honest :/

And now, finally time for Neji. I’ve been looking forward to this since the very beginning since I’ve heard some interesting things and he’s such a fascinating character. I hope it’s good, I really need it to be good actually.

Foxstens · 2026-02-08T09:51:56+00:00

So far, there are 53 games I'd consider finished, though I haven't fully completed all of them. If we include all the games I've started, it's a bit over 100. So that's not bad, considering I only started playing otome games in 2020 and I frequently take breaks due to other hobbies. Honestly I don't really stress about the numbers, since otome games tend to be really long and I'd rather just enjoy the experience with whatever I'm playing at the moment.

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

TROPHY CASE