The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya

( ੭ ˘ ³˘)੭‎ this one's not for sale

I played Kikuya on mobile a loooooong time ago, and I remember well loving the art, concept (since I've always been super into the history behind the yoshiwara courtesans) and the characters BUT....yes, the writing wasn't anything special, perhaps for mobage otome standards it wasn't particulary bad, but the game looks and sounds just so good...it honestly could have been something pretty good with more work put into the writting, more choices and maybe longer

The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya is a very good visual novel game with a beautiful story. The graphics are nice and the soundtrack is Chill and relaxing... I recommend it. 💗💗💗

LONG REVIEW, as little spoilers ahead as possible but there's still a risk for them, so watch out! Though by god I don't know why you'd want to play this game yourself, it's not worth the time, money or effort. Play time is not indicative of actual gameplay, I leave my games running in the background.

So because I lost my original finished review halfway, I'm editing this again in shorter, smaller bulletpoints.

The pros:
- The art is nice? It works and does its job well
- It's more explicit than other games in this genre, so if you're looking for that you're at the right (wrong) place

The problems:
- Price tag too high for the amount of content, even on sale and in a bundle with the second game (The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya, which I also bought and will review as well, out of spite)
- Inconsistencies in characterization spanning over the multiple routes
- Inconsistencies in writing quality over the routes + sub stories, because some stories were clearly added later and thus don't fit in with the original intent/story/etc.
- Inconsistencies in world building spanning over all routes
- The main appeal being the sex scenes, which are either lackluster or (borderline AND straight-up) Sexual Assault, written with erotic and shocking intent. The lines are blurry and it's just genuinely not interesting to read. Literally anything else would be better if you want genuine good smut.
- The translation being different for different stories/routes, which only further enhances the inconsistencies that exist because of how some stories were written later and added onto it. The different translation offers a completely different context/nuance to the worldbuilding that simply does not match up, which irks me a lot.
- The sub stories and main stories have such a great canyon in quality, that you sometimes wonder whether it's the same game (both in CG art and writing)
- There are no bad endings, just two differing happy endings, which in this particular game does no favours besides being tedious to complete
- For something that I expected to follow at least somewhat historical vibes, it completely fails to the point even someone as uninformed as me can notice it's not genuine or attempting to be. Another selling point thrown in the bin
- There is clear favouritism of this one character that I absolutely hate, and while this is petty, he is also the one with the most content overall, which I feel defeats the purpose. Why didn't they market this guy as their head LI instead? It's just baffling
- And so so much more. I can't go into detail because I feel I'll lose my mind. I already lost it by trying to write a coherent review for like... 2 or so hours now. Wish me luck with the next game...

This game is very slow, and roughly translated. I got it when it was on sale but seeing the full price, I personally don't believe that its worth the price. Its just too expensive for what it is. This is the only otome game that I have played and finished not liking any of the LI's which is sad because I think the art is really pretty and there's a lot of side stories. Its just the writing is so dry.

This game makes me sad because there's a lot here but its just not worth the price or the time.

This game is great if you have not played otome games before, but if you played Cafe enchante or Hakuoki one will know that at a price of 29.99 is not worth it. If the game is on sale I would say it is worth playing, but due to its price I can just not recommend this game. The plot is absolutely stale and there is the same 3 instrumental tunes that will drive you nuts. The bachelors are nice to look at, but the translations are a bit clunky so the dialogue is a bit odd at times.

Playing through this game feels like pulling teeth. The story is shallow, characters lack personality, and the overall quality is mediocre.

If you dont like r*pe then this isnt the game or you. some of the guys dont but at least 2 or 3 do and thats really messed up and it made me really creeped out, wish it has trigger warnings

Do yourself a favor and don't buy this. The story is written so poorly. Absolute cringefest and predictable storyline. Played two routes and wanted to shoot myself every second of it. The remaining hours played were idle times as I hated this game so much that I closed my laptop and didn't touch my laptop for 30 hours.

~The Rapists of Yoshiwara~
This game has too much excused and rationalized (borders on rape/is rape) in it for me to recommend to anyone. Only Iroha ad Kagura were free of any issues and the rest of the romantic options were socially inept or violent. What's absurd is they are supposedly professionals in figuring out what a woman wants. In reality, they just do with the main character what they feel like, regardless of it making any sense to social mores or their supposed training in feminine wiles.

It's so sad now that the game is over( I enjoyed playing it a lot! Everything is so beautiful in it: juicy colours, breathtakingly handsome characters, that unique Japanese atmosphere. In romantic visual novels when you have to choose the character you're going to fall for, I usually pick one I find the most gorgeous and finish the other storylines without much interest, just to complete the game to the full. But this time everything was different. I enjoyed every story, liked every character. I'm still so excited about it!!!
Besides, I was so overwhelmed by the fact that there are no bad endings, whatever you do, whatever choice you make you'll be happy in the end, and sometimes I liked simple happy ending even more than super happy ending!
Finally some shortcomings which spoiled my pleasure a bit. First, I couldn't make this game full screen without losing in quality, so to enjoy the beauty of the characters I had to play with little screen( And the most annoying thing was mistakes in English version, a loooooot of mistakes and misprints( It really irritated!
Nevertheless it was such an enjoyable experience! Thanks a lot to everyone who created this wonderful game!!!

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The premise is good, but the execution is flawed in so many ways that I can't recommend this unless you really, really care about (badly written / translated) sex scenes.

I read a lot of VNs and Otomes and compared to what else is out there, the Men of Yoshiwara just doesn't deliver. The poor quality of the writing and translation isn't even the worst problem; I read an awful fan translation of Higurashi and was still hooked. No, this otome has other issues.

-The heroine's background and personality are paper thin. Yes, this is sometimes the case in other otome as well, but it seriously wasn't THIS bad anywhere else that I've seen. She's a cardboard cutout defined by almost nothing except her desire to have spending money so she can see those men.
-The overall plot is very shallow and unexciting, with lukewarm solutions to lukewarm problems that are usually resolved within a very short timeframe and without real effort.
-The sex scenes are really, really bad. Like... laughing out loud bad. The 'ferocious wedge' is a frequently quoted gem.

Anyone expecting depth, believable character development and tension: stay away.
Anyone who just wants to indulge in a fantasy of sexy men and doesn't care about anything else - go ahead, I guess.

I want more visual novels in general, especially otomes, to come to the west for me to read and enjoy. That said, I hope that the ones come over are ones I can actually truly enjoy and love. I have mixed feelings about The Men of Yoshiwara: Kikuya. I originally bought it in 2015 going, "lol, otome game that needs my support, but...male prostitutes, lol."

I enjoyed the Japanese architecture, the attire, and the character designs - a lot of the men truly are that flashy; or are deliberately attempting to look so to catch the eye of potential customers. That much is fine.

The setting, however - the world building - was absolutely horrendous. I grew up hating the convenient excuse of female-only races that had to lure men (and upon luring them, the men could enjoy themselves); so why would I suddenly appreciate the reverse? Or something similar. The idea that MEN ARE RARELY BORN ON THE ISLAND, SO WE DECIDED TO CREATE WHOREHOUSES OF IMPORTED MEN is just a stupid, convenient excuse that annoys the heck out of me. I certainly wouldn't appreciate the reverse concept either.

However, simply having a house of male courtesans / prostitutes to appeal to a clientele not so commonly targeted...that's fine, in theory, if they'd just gone that route. And I do appreciate the realism that most of the men, under all the flair and presentation and glamor, do not actually want to live their lives there. They were sold, traded, or otherwise dragged into a situation that they have to adapt to and deal with.

The female character is "true" to the culture of the world the game has built and does not think of how unwilling they might be until it comes up in each route itself, but then, she also never intended to deliberately seek the attention of male courtesans, either. She's caught up in that world accidentally and is shown to have a sympathetic perspective from the start when encountering a couple that has to escape the island since one of them is, in fact, a male courtesan that has not yet paid his debt to the house that took him in.

There's parts of this game I like. There really are. I especially liked the CGs; the art was tasteful when it was sexual (heck, I actually really liked some of those scenes overall) and I really like how soft everyone's hair looked. I also love that the female character wasn't generally faceless - she was extremely cute, and the most attractive character in the entire game to me. My tastes revealed, I guess? Whoops.

That said, certain routes feel like a chore to complete, and I end up feeling like this world setting would have been better as a bigger budget game instead of a port from a mobile game. For what it is, it isn't that bad - most mobile otomes in my experience are extremely worthless to play - but this one didn't feel like that. It just felt like it really missed the mark on potential, for me.

A setting like this with a lot more world buildup and less direct focus on romance routes (while still maintaining the romance later on) would have been extremely intriguing, but that's not what was created. This game, and its setting, might have been able to convince or trick me into enjoying the worldbuilding a lot more if there was a much longer prologue, with a lot of character interaction and circumstance to force the female protagonist into these characters' lives. Something that took much longer to read, with more intricately detailed routes once the paths really branched.

Instead, I have to say that this isn't an otome I'd recommend unless you're wanting something that is a step up from most mobile otome games, but isn't as good as Nameless, Sweet Fuse, or Hakuoki.

Recommended... maybe.

The plots certainly have various twists and turns. Perhaps they're cliché, but at least they're all different. Some of them are slow building and some of them are not. All in all, there's quite a lot going on and I can assure they're not repetitive. One route was a bit boring in my opinion, but there's 7 different routes to play through (two for one character) and most of them have twists, so I won't really put it against the whole game.

The art is really nice, especially in the CGs. Some of them do look odd, and the sprites have strange poses, but they're every bit expressive, at least. Backgrounds are a little fuzzy, like the other mobile games from this publisher. Not enough to bother me, at least.

I must admit, I actually liked enough ALL of the romanceable characters and that is really rare for me. The only one I absolutely couldn't stand was Azusa - and he is not romanceable, a fact that I'm glad for. But one thing I must note; the characters can be quite forceful and don't listen to the word "NO" that often. I can't say what you can handle, so consider yourself warned. I personally felt like I could forgive it, if only because it's a game and most of the time, the characters are romanceable.

One complaint I have is that the affection meter won't rise immediately if you made the right choice. Especially since this game is heavily about percents…

There are a lot of typos, some hilarious and some cringe worthy. Sometimes there's a wrong name mentioned, sometimes they're just shown as hiragana/kanji. If I noticed it, it really bugged me.

I bought this game while it's on sale, so I don't regret it. There's 6 routes with 13 chapters, 1 route with 8 chapters and a lot of extra stories. A lot of content for sure, but not worth over 28 (dollars or euros, whatever), especially with fairly poor quality. If you really want it, you'd better wait for a sale.

Looking at the steam port, there are features lacking that I would like to see added: voices, the 7th love interest, the animated sprites.

The mobile version is pay per route/story which costs FAR more than the asking price on steam for the full game.

Price breakdown of the mobile version:

• Main Story - $3.99 x 7 (Iroha's sequel is not purchasable until you buy his first main story) = $27.93
  
• Sequel Story (not purchasable until you buy the main story) - $0.99-1.99 (I'm assuming based on length)
  
• Date Story (not purchasable until you buy the main story) - $0.99-1.99 (I'm assuming based on length)
  
[*]Sub stories $0.99 each x 16 = $15.84

Let me be honest, I wanted to enjoy this game. I really did. I wanted it to be good, because as a fan of dating sim and otome games, I am painfully aware of the fact there is not a lot of varity in those kinds of games available outside of Japan. It's mostly indies or ported games so the attitude towards these games is mostly, "Take what you can get and be grateful."

This game though, I'm not impressed with. I played for two straight hours and I just feel dirty because of it. To be fair though, the music and art design are very impressive. It looks and sounds very well done and I'd give it top marks on that alone if it weren't for my beef with it.

The writing and the characters are awful. I mean, completely awful. The lowdown is this. There's a redlight district on an island you're tasked with making a delivery to and on the way you help a couple trying to escape because men on this island are effectively slaves. Uh... okay, and I'm going to try to be romanced by one? Way to make me feel creeped out right off the bat. Anyway, you help them escape so he can get married and in return you come into some money and fancy clothing. You're actually there to make a delivery and so when you go to the place in question, you immediately meet (most of) your romance options.

These guys are creeps, like almost every single one of them. Playing this I got grabbed, felt up, talked down to and forced to drink alcohol AGAINST MY WILL MIND YOU! I was compared to a piece of meat, and the owner, the OWNER himself told me I needed to be pretty and more receptive in order to "earn a man's seed". Seriously, what in the world?

Now, I'm not going to pretend I'm some expert on courtesans or this time period. While I've studied a little I'm sure there are plenty of people who know way more than me, but I know there is a difference between hooker and courtesans. You go to the nice places to be entertained, romanced and bedded. You go see a hooker to sleep with and be on your way in twenty minutes and probably treated poorly because they couldn't care less about entertaining you.

That's how I felt here. I felt like I'd stepped into a place where no one knew the first thing about how to treat a lady. More than that, of course the female character has to be this shy little waif who will just take this appalling treatment. The, "Uh... ah... I... um..." responces to everything happening to here was so cliche, along with the, "Even though I'm shy and uncomfortable with this, he's too alluring for me to fight against it." Why did this have to be done? Why can't I just play a girl who WANTS to go to this place instead of being forced to stay by the owner? Why can't I pick a guy and make it rain for him? Why does this essentially have to be a story about a girl romanced against her will by a guy who is, again, a slave? Why when I do get a choice on how to act, (By the way I basically told the owner I didn't want to hear his vulgar bs about seed recieving. Seriously, what?) only to get laughed at and dismissed? Guys? Uh... I'm a customer here, both in and out of this game world. Is a little respect for the customer that much to ask for?

So in the end you play a girl who despite saying multiple times she doesn't want to be there and wants to leave, is forced to stay and pick one of the men there that insulted and grabbed at her without even knowing so much as her name, and she is too weak willed not to do anything but go along with it. Pick someone wrong and you get yelled at by the other workers there and made fun of, pick someone else and basically the exact same thing happens, and it all goes down hill from there. It all has this forced feeling to it, and honestly that's not what I want. I didn't get forced to buy this game. I bought it, sat down and played it because I wanted to.

Yet here's the intro. "Your heart, body and womanhood are all on the line. You will never be able to escape. Not from the seductive wiles of the courtesans. No, let's be more accurate: From the pure love of the courtesans." No... no I think the first statement was correct. It's wiles and it's not even seductive wiles at that. This whole thing of there being no men on the island feels cheap, as if this is the only reason the men can get away with acting like such jerks. "Oh... well, women can't get the D anywhere else so they put up with these guys." "What about the men on the mainland who can get married and be happy with you and give you children and a family life? Clearly the rich women could afford it at least." "SHUSH! PLAY THE GAME, SCUM! DON'T YOU DARE BRING LOGIC IN HERE!" Except, yeah. Let's bring in logic because the second I stop to think all these things, the game isn't fun. It's lame, and more than that, it's insultive.

"You will never be able to escape." Yeah, game. I can escape. I can get away from your jerk men and I can get away from your bs writing. It's called turning the game off and playing something else. Didn't think of that one, did you?

I know I'm in the minority here. I bought this game because it had such great reviews, but if you're one of the fans like me who actually wants the story to be somewhat decent, don't bother. This game will insult you, treat you awful and keep pounding home that garbage of you can't get away. Doesn't bother you, play it. It does bother you? Walk away and save your money.

TL;DR - DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DON'T BUY THIS GAME UNLESS IT'S ON PROMO AND YOU CAN'T PLAY THE VITA VERSION.

Luckily, I bought this game when it was on promo. The art seemed pretty, the story looked interesting and it looked like it would be a good game in general. The first thing I noticed when I opened the game, was how BAD the menus looked, and it being a port from the mobile version and all, it was understandable.

So the story goes like this. The protagonist (you) live on an island that FOR SOME REASON don't have enough men, and because of that, all the "ikemens" have to be courtesans (And I don't still quite understand why???). So the protagonist ends up helping a young couple run away and in exchange they gave her a lot of money (Because this makes totally sense, Am I right? :>) and what she do next?! SHE'S GOING TO GET THE D! So yeah, she goes to Kikuya and met a bunch of hot guys that you can choose to date!

Talking about the routes now, not all of them were bad, I really liked Kagura's route and he made me feel like it was worth getting this game because he was precious and I love him ♥ and Tokiwa's route was good too (of course, this is my opinion).

But all the others routes had some kinda of bullshit that make the game feel so draggy and boring to me sometimes, especially Iroha (and he has that second season that was even worse...). You choose the route and the protagonist just feel in love with the guy almost immediately, there's no development at all and because of that I didn't find the romantic scenes that good, because ALL OF SUDDEN they were all "chummy chummy" with each other, and if it wasn't bad enough, sometimes the guys would get so push that they would almost rape her.

And then there's the translation and grammar errors. I could let it slide, but for a $29.99 USD game, this is kinda unnaceptable. Sometimes the names would be in Japanese, lot of grammar errors and some translations that didn't make sense! If you wanna see a example: here

Not only that, the game isn't even voiced and the there's like, only three~four musics to create ambience and they would switch so suddenly, that I felt like I was listening to Happy and then it justs cuts off and start playing Careless Whisper.

The only redeeming points of this game are: The art (even though some CGs would look really bad, imo)and a lot of content (you get 13 chapter for each guy (except Iroha Second Season) two endings, an epilogue to each ending and some extras stuff like Valentine's Day).

So yeah, if you REALLY want this game and there's is no way you can get a Vita port, wait for a promo, because the price isn't worth it.

I really enjoyed this game. Even though the premise is the same, all character have routes that feel different and show the situation from a slighly different angle. Everyone has very different, as i call it, Drama Plot, and sometimes it can be really, really surprising. A couple of routes totally went the way i didn't expect and that was really cool. My favourite is Iroha, i think, but i honestly liked them all a lot.
But man. The art. It's so stunning and wonderful, a huge part of my gameplay was staring at cgs or sprites in pure awe. As a fellow artist, i felt that artworks in this game were totally my art goals. I'd recommend the game for that alone, and yet it has a very well done story with it. Amazing!
Music isn't really outstanding, although there's one track (which i fondly call Takao's Theme, since it plays for the first time when he shows up) that i love wholeheartedly. What's good it's that common music doesn't get annoying even after playing all the routes.
I liked how gentle and not very vulgar nsfw scenes were. As for someone who doesn't really enjoy nsfw things, it was a huge relief, since i was afraid i'd just have to skip some scenes while sighing annoyed.
What might be not everyone's cup of tea is that the game is ultimately sweet, happy, and cute. It tries really hard to show some drama and action, but the sugar and love overwhelm everything. It is not essentialy a bad thing, and is perfectly enjoyable, just be aware that it's that kind of game where love always wins and is the most important. After money.
As for downsides, it's kinda sad not everything from the vita port of the game was brought to steam. I also felt sad that there's no equal amount of side stories per character. It kinda feels like something is lacking, but i have no idea whether original japanese game has more stories. If it does, i hope they will be implemented eventually.
As the game is now, i don't think i can recommend it for the full price. But when it's discounted, go for it. I spent some quality time playing this game.

Oh yeah, and heroine's mother is the best character in the game. Just sayin'.

I've only played through 1 route so far, but I've gotten a vibe for the game enough to write a review.

tl;dr- the game is a PC port of the "free" mobile version and a PS Vita version that has awkward translations and bad typesetting, but a nice story and great artwork.

Pros

• Six romancable guys
  
• Each guy comes with a regular and true ending (One guy even comes with two routes)
  
• Nice artwork
  
• Hours worth of reading
  
• Steam achievments and trading cards
  
• Comes in English, Japanese and Chinese
  

• The music is short and it just loops itself, which gets annoying
  
• The price is way too high for the stuff you get (get it on sale)
  
• You can really tell it's a port of the mobile version, because of how the route system works (You can pick the guy you go after right from the start and it won't matter because each guy has their own story. Your choices only affect that character's ending, as the higher likability %, the better chances you hav at getting the true ending)
  
• The typesetting of the English translation was so badly done, I had to switch to Japanese halfway through because the words kept getting cut off and it made it hard to read
  
• The translations are just so awkward for some parts
  
[*] If you're the type to notice, this game isn't in 1080p, but I can't tell the difference

Its not bad for what it is. I purchased it on sale and was happy to do so but after learning that there is a fully voiced and more dynamic PS Vita version, I am really glad I didn't pay full price. This is essentially a direct port from the mobile platform and while I would truly LOVE more of the mobile otomes to come to Steam, I would really prefer they were the voiced or PS versions for the higher prices.

I don't wish to discourage the publishers but the voice acting makes these like 1000x better.

I read fast, it took me 3 hours to complete Takao’s route and all the additional content for him. I was a little bummed at first about the lack of voice acting, but it does allow me to go faster when I’m just reading : )

I am looking forward to playing the other routes. I’ve played a number of Voltage titles on my phone and tablet, and I hope to see more app games ported to Steam. I really prefer PC gaming when possible (with achievements, yay!)

Pros
Beautiful art work
Intimate scenes – this otome goes beyond kissing :O
A unique plot (it’s a little ridiculous, but that’s okay :)

Cons
Awkward translations
Typos
Cost – While full price is apparently cheaper than buying all the routes on mobile, I wouldn’t recommend paying $29.99 for this (if you have that much to spend go get Amnesia Memories or Nameless - better quality and more content for the price). I feel the price would be fairer at $9.99 ($14.99 tops), especially given the poor quality of the translations. Try to wait for a sale to buy this.

TL;DR: If you can ignore terrible typos and homophones and the storyline/setting appeals to you, I recommend it. If you have concerns about the content, please scroll down to the "Content" section of my review.

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Overall Impression: If you've read mobile otome games before, I'd say it's "about what you'd expect", though I enjoyed this one better than any of the other mobile otome games I've played before. (Granted - I haven't played any mobile otome game past about a dozen chapters. I get too annoyed with the way the story is doled out and would rather pay for all of it at once.) I find their editing rather appallingly bad and I wish they'd put more effort into correcting at least that much, but I don't regret the money I spent (I purchased the game when it was 40% off, or about 15 dollars USD).

Content: Please keep in mind if you didn't already get the impression from the age confirmation that there is "H"/adult writing. The CGs themselves are PG-13-ish level at the most racy, but the writing can be quite... direct. Some of it is nicely steamy, some of it verges a little on the vulgar side (most likely due to the editing/translation). If you prefer "sweet" romance, this is really not right for you, even though the heroine is herself quite "sweet".

As another warning - if forced seduction/assault is something that upsets you, this is also a title you'll want to avoid. It happens in multiple routes, though I will "spoiler" that the worst I can remember it getting is groping and partial nudity. To put it in context, I think a lot of it is the man in question misunderstanding the situation and some of it is pure desperation. Please consider your own comfort levels.

Translation: Overall, the translation was decent. I understood most of what was being said and I think I picked up most of the subtext. (Certainly, I understood the subtext far better than the heroine...) There were a few areas where I wasn't certain what was going on, but that is probably because of...

Editing: The editing on this is appalling. Extremely shoddy work. It's very embarrassing. Typos everywhere, terrible formatting of the text, mixed up homophones, and text errors like a hyphen being a square or character names turning into squares. They even mix up names from time to time! I have a lot of experience reading and communicating with people who know English as a second language, so I was able to understand, but for other people, it might be more difficult to get past.

Art: Mixed bag. Some of it is very lovely. Some of it is clearly rushed. Overall, I did like it, but there aren't a ton of CGs or poses/sprites for each gentleman, so if art is the main reason you're getting the game, you'll probably be disappointed.

Character Design: Good. Each character is pretty distinctive and their character sprites clearly show their personalities using costuming and body language.

Story: Please understand that this game was originally a mobile game. Mobile otome games typically have very linear plots, generally broken down into tiny chapters, and generally do not have bad endings. They also typically give you a short, rushed, contrived way to meet all of the available bachelors and throw you headlong into picking out one without really knowing much about them.

In short, I'm not a huge fan of the way it opens. The story tries to have it's cake and eat it too - they want to stress how virginal and pure the heroine is, but also stress that it's perfectly normal for a woman her age to visit the red light district. You're not given a choice to demure - you have to pick out a courtesan on your first meeting. It's really rather a strange thing for me to gripe about since I knew I was buying a game that focused on male courtesans, I just felt a lot of the heroine's pressure and embarrassment and it made me feel uncomfortable because of the heroine's "purity" (which they stress extremely heavily throughout the game).

The routes and their related hero are all nicely melodramatic (there's really not much subtle about any of the stories since anything that starts out being subtle is hammered home hard). I enjoyed all of the heroes, though they were painted so broadly, it did end up feeling a little unsatisfying for me. They were never as I expected, even after meeting them in other routes and I did enjoy that. But most of them fell in love so quickly, most of the tension came from external forces, rather than internal.

The Heroine: Your typical "pure-hearted idiot" + "forever virgin". Neither are particularly tropes I like, and when paired together, it makes me slightly uncomfortable. I understand why the men were drawn to her, considering because of their profession, they rarely met anyone like her, but I wish she and the player weren't treated like idiot children. It's particularly annoying when you're presented with options that either make you tone-deaf or leave you open to being called stupid. For all my complaints, though, the Heroine did have something of a personality and didn't provoke me to want to shake her until her head rattled, so that's an improvement over most mobile otome heroines!

In closing... I know I've ranted quite a bit, but most of it is minor concerns. I'm just expressing my own openly in case anything I've said is a deal breaker for someone else! Most of the offenses were things I either have a high tolerance for (melodrama), took in stride considering the context (the forced seductions), or am willing to ignore just to have another amusing otome game translated into English (the embarrassing editing). I hope the review helped you!

--REVIEW IN PROGRESS--

For the record, I've already played through this game multiple times (smartphone and PS Vita). This version seems to be a direct port of the game from the smartphone app. I'm putting my review as recommended based on my previous experience, however, as I play this version I will update the review accordingly.

First off, I really love this game. I like the characters, and each route feels interesting, as well as the setting this takes place in. Finding out the reasons or motivations for characters to why they're in Kikuya is an interesting mystery, though I admit some scenarios are just frustrating. Certainly not for everybody, as things can get very intimate (there's, um, R18+ stuff described), but it's something that I think is enjoyable to some. It's probably D3Publisher's best otome game, or at least, it's most popular if it's getting a Steam release. That said, this version has a lot of flaws.

Being that this is a direct port, all the routes of all the guys available in the smartphone version so far are here. I played the entirety of the prologue, and for the most part there were few changes in the text, if at all. What I noticed is that they took out character animations, and they improved the GUI for players in the main game. However, it still retains a very "smartphone" feel, and inputs often feel sluggish. Furthermore, the way they ported it gives you no options to change your resolution. You're given a measly "Screen change" to go to fullscreen mode, but if you do that the ENTIRE GAME becomes blurry and pixelated. Save slots are limited, something I hated about the original as well, but route exploration is not that difficult.

The font is strange and there seem to be white artifacts floating around in it. They also didn't clean it up as much as I would have hoped for, so many lines will seem very awkward. If I recall correctly, Hayabusa's routes have much cleaner and better translated dialogue.

They used the opening from the PS Vita version, though, which makes me wonder why they didn't just port that version and included Hayabusa. The PS Vita versions (Otoko Yukaku) is superior to the smartphone version and this version combined. That version has improved art (fixing awkward character portraits), more backgrounds, more music, an extra character (Keiji Ito) and voice acting from famous Japanese seiyuus. Furthermore, it has extra endings and new scenarios and CGs. To top it off, the main routes of the main five guys (Takao, Tokiwa, Kagura, Kagerou, and Iroha) play relatively the same with a few differences. They really should have just ported Otoko Yukaku for Steam, because this version is inferior to the PS Vita one.

I was also just told the event CGs from the Vita version are in this one. I'll have to see them in the routes.

I'm hoping things get cleaned up, though! If it did, I will gladly keep that recommendation for otome players.