@Jenny_Jones That is true, haha. Implying that was not my intention - sorry! I feel like in general, while still avoiding spoilers, a review should include more than the basic premise of the game (eg what the game dev's website would tell you), my point was more this review had a lot of that (which is good! otherwise new players would be quite lost I'd think) while not mentioning anything that would set it apart from the original game formula (eg new/improved mechanics, thoughts on the quality, cost/quantity ratio of new content, and such). Hakuouki as a franchise also makes a point of doing new OP/EDs for each release, so some fans judge that too haha.
That said I'd also like to amend my initial judgement to include one new route (I've now cleared all the new routes sans one) that blew me out of the water. Clearly we are seeing a similar issue to Bad Apple Wars, for better or worse |D With I think, 12? routes now, half of them new in addition to old routes being reconfigured slightly, the writing team has gotten bigger (or hopefully not, a bit lazy), leading to some rather inconsistent route quality.
This review feels less like a review of "Hakuouki: Edo Blossoms" as it does a general description of the otome game genre (a subsection of the larger visual novel genre). The only actual game review here is mostly a quick wikipedia skim could tell you about the series' premise in general.
I'd like to say that while this review is accurate, Edo Blossoms thus far (2 routes in - both not in the original) has taken a steep nosedive in writing quality. Hakouki franchise has always given us consistently good quality writing, but of the two entirely new content routes I've played so far, one was a flaming dumpster fire from start to just before finish and the other ended so abruptly it felt as though they'd chopped an entire chapter and skipped to a confusing epilogue that answered nothing. Which is very un-Hakuouki in style. Kyoto Winds was consistent with past entries in the series, which is why I'm doubly disappointed with Edo Blossoms so far. It's probably got a similar issue to Bad Apple Wars (2017 otome game, also for Vita), which was different writers for each route with notable variance in quality.
That said, I'm not giving up on it yet. It's worth buying over any of the cheaper originals just for the huge QoL updates to the Record of Service mechanic (basically lets you jump to the beginning of any cleared chapter - beginning in Kyoto Winds, you could adjust the romance + corruption level of that route's character) and the original routes could only be improved -hopefully, at least- with the integration of scenes formerly exclusive to the PS3-only fandisc.
@Jaz007 Visual novels are definitely one of the gaming genres with a huge gender split. Eroge/moege/straight male-oriented VNs tend to be very very written (and drawn) with a straight male audience in mind, likely because they don't expect that girls will want to play it. Likewise, female-oriented VNs tend to be romance/drama-heavy and chock full of hot guys because that's what the devs think girls want. As someone with experience on both sides the only thing I can say confidently is, well, gender roles, man. Straight male-oriented VNs tend to sacrifice characterization + plot/writing quality/execution for sexual teasers and wish fulfillment. Straight female-oriented VNs tend to sacrifice the same stuff for the sake of sappy romantic good endings. Screw good writing/character development, we have wish fulfillment that doesn't make sense in context!
This, I think, is what VNs as a whole suffer from - being targeted too heavily at either straight guys or straight girls. (And yeah, yaoi and yuri games are definitely targeted at the usually-straight opposite sex of the game's cast.) The only time you get consistent hits from multiple devs are when it's a VN where romance isn't the point, like Lux-Pain and the Zero Escape trilogy.
Actually, I'm now fired up on this topic, but comments section isn't the right place to do so at length, I don't think. Feel free to hmu on discord??
Comments 2
Re: Review: Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (PS Vita)
@Jenny_Jones
That is true, haha. Implying that was not my intention - sorry! I feel like in general, while still avoiding spoilers, a review should include more than the basic premise of the game (eg what the game dev's website would tell you), my point was more this review had a lot of that (which is good! otherwise new players would be quite lost I'd think) while not mentioning anything that would set it apart from the original game formula (eg new/improved mechanics, thoughts on the quality, cost/quantity ratio of new content, and such). Hakuouki as a franchise also makes a point of doing new OP/EDs for each release, so some fans judge that too haha.
That said I'd also like to amend my initial judgement to include one new route (I've now cleared all the new routes sans one) that blew me out of the water. Clearly we are seeing a similar issue to Bad Apple Wars, for better or worse |D With I think, 12? routes now, half of them new in addition to old routes being reconfigured slightly, the writing team has gotten bigger (or hopefully not, a bit lazy), leading to some rather inconsistent route quality.
Re: Review: Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (PS Vita)
This review feels less like a review of "Hakuouki: Edo Blossoms" as it does a general description of the otome game genre (a subsection of the larger visual novel genre). The only actual game review here is mostly a quick wikipedia skim could tell you about the series' premise in general.
I'd like to say that while this review is accurate, Edo Blossoms thus far (2 routes in - both not in the original) has taken a steep nosedive in writing quality. Hakouki franchise has always given us consistently good quality writing, but of the two entirely new content routes I've played so far, one was a flaming dumpster fire from start to just before finish and the other ended so abruptly it felt as though they'd chopped an entire chapter and skipped to a confusing epilogue that answered nothing. Which is very un-Hakuouki in style. Kyoto Winds was consistent with past entries in the series, which is why I'm doubly disappointed with Edo Blossoms so far. It's probably got a similar issue to Bad Apple Wars (2017 otome game, also for Vita), which was different writers for each route with notable variance in quality.
That said, I'm not giving up on it yet. It's worth buying over any of the cheaper originals just for the huge QoL updates to the Record of Service mechanic (basically lets you jump to the beginning of any cleared chapter - beginning in Kyoto Winds, you could adjust the romance + corruption level of that route's character) and the original routes could only be improved -hopefully, at least- with the integration of scenes formerly exclusive to the PS3-only fandisc.
@Jaz007 Visual novels are definitely one of the gaming genres with a huge gender split. Eroge/moege/straight male-oriented VNs tend to be very very written (and drawn) with a straight male audience in mind, likely because they don't expect that girls will want to play it. Likewise, female-oriented VNs tend to be romance/drama-heavy and chock full of hot guys because that's what the devs think girls want. As someone with experience on both sides the only thing I can say confidently is, well, gender roles, man. Straight male-oriented VNs tend to sacrifice characterization + plot/writing quality/execution for sexual teasers and wish fulfillment. Straight female-oriented VNs tend to sacrifice the same stuff for the sake of sappy romantic good endings. Screw good writing/character development, we have wish fulfillment that doesn't make sense in context!
This, I think, is what VNs as a whole suffer from - being targeted too heavily at either straight guys or straight girls. (And yeah, yaoi and yuri games are definitely targeted at the usually-straight opposite sex of the game's cast.) The only time you get consistent hits from multiple devs are when it's a VN where romance isn't the point, like Lux-Pain and the Zero Escape trilogy.
Actually, I'm now fired up on this topic, but comments section isn't the right place to do so at length, I don't think. Feel free to hmu on discord??