Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Code: Realize – Guardian of Rebirth

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Feb 172021
 

I’ve wanted to play Code: Realize – Guardian of Rebirth for a long time, but my Vita copy didn’t cooperate. Fortunately, I picked up the Switch release and finally played it this year.

Code: Realize is an otome about a girl named Cardia, whose body is filled with a deadly poison that melts anything that comes into direct contact with her skin.

Believing herself to be a monster, she lives in isolation and doesn’t care what happens to her, until the gentleman thief Arsene Lupin steals her away. With his help, she begins a quest to learn the truth about herself and her mysterious father, whose inventions led London into a new age of technology.

It has a steampunk setting, and many of the major characters come from literature, which is one of the main things that drew me in.

In addition to Arsene Lupin, you cross paths with Victor Frankenstein, Abraham Van Helsing, and many others.

(And since Lupin is a major character, his nemesis Herlock Sholmes appears in a supporting role. Here’s hoping that other game Shomes is supposed to appear in will be officially announced soon.)

Code: Realize gets high praise, and it deserves it. After a lengthy common route, the story branches onto a specific character’s route for several more chapters. The characters are all great, including Cardia, who learns various skills from her allies and takes an active role in pursuing the truth, while coming to accept the truth about herself over the course of the story.

The overall mystery is interesting and each character has a compelling route. While I started the game with the simple goal of pursuing Victor, it wasn’t long before I knew exactly which characters I would go for next. Even the route where I felt the romance was the weakest made up for it with one of the most interesting stories in the game.

In fact, I would recommend Code: Realize even if you normally aren’t interested in otome games. Each character route obviously involves romance between Cardia and one of the possible love interests, but there’s so much more to them than romance alone.

So whether you’re looking for an excellent otome or a compelling steampunk story (or just want to see this game’s take on the many literary characters that drive its plot), I highly recommend you give Code: Realize – Guardian of Rebirth a try.

Two sequels have been made, so I’ll definitely play them eventually. In the meantime, share your thoughts on Code: Realize in the comments!

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Highway Blossoms

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 152021
 

Highway Blossoms came to me by way of a visual novel bundle, and all I knew about it was that it was a yuri road trip romance.

No one told me it was about a treasure hunt!

As you might expect from someone whose Animal Crossing island is modeled after Oak Island, I love a good treasure hunt story.

So when I got far enough into Highway Blossoms to realize the search for buried gold was actually a central part of this visual novel, I was immediately invested.

Amber is traveling to a music festival when she comes across Marina, a somewhat oblivious young woman who has left home on her own for the first time and needs a little help. When they end up traveling together, Amber gets caught up in Marina’s search for the buried treasure revealed in an old miner’s journal.

The story is a lot of fun, with a lot of funny moments (and of course the excitement of the treasure hunt). Amber and Marina’s relationship is the good old grumpy-loner-meets-sunshine-character dynamic, so if you enjoy that, you’ll probably love watching their relationship develop over the course of the story.

It has some fairly emotional moments, but overall it’s really a feel-good visual novel. I wasn’t sold on the voice acting at first, but it grew on me over time.

There are also a number of extras included, such as getting to read Marina’s thoughts on certain parts or play through a joke-filled abridged version of the story.

I enjoyed Highway Blossoms, and if it sounds interesting to you, you should give it a chance. There’s also a DLC side story that I don’t have, so I’ll consider whether or not to play that in the future since it sounds like the focus is a bit different.

What do you think of Highway Blossoms? Have you ever started a game you were ambivalent about, only to realize you’d have tried it much sooner if you knew what it was about? (The Yakuza series is another good example of that happening to me.) Share your thoughts in the comments!

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Muv-Luv photonmelodies

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 122021
 

Although I played Muv-Luv photonmelodies last year and even reviewed it over at VN Game Den, I waited until now to discuss it as part of our romance celebration.

It’s the second of the two short story collections translated as part of the Muv-Luv localization Kickstarter, and this one includes three stories.

Before I go any further, Muv-Luv photonmelodies is fairly dependent on you being familiar with the Muv-Luv story already, so if you’re a newcomer to the series, I suggest you stop reading this review due to the implied spoilers. (Instead, go take a look at the current contest rules to see how you could win a copy of the first Muv-Luv just by leaving comments on any blog post here!)

All right, now let’s get back to the photonmelodies review.

Unlike Muv-Luv photonflowers, which we discussed in 2019, even the stories set in the Alternative universe are on the lighter end of things (with “Adoration” being almost completely comedy while “Resurrection” has a serious start and climax with a lot of goofiness in between).

Then there is “Altered Fable: A Shimmering Shard of Spacetime,” which is set after the ending of Alternative in the new timeline.

Imagine Muv-Luv Extra, but with everything being even crazier. There’s a fair share of people who dislike Muv-Luv Extra due to it being a romantic comedy, but I found it to be pretty entertaining when I played it (and if you’re reading a “Celebrating All Things Romantic” blog post, I’m guessing you aren’t here for doom and gloom today) and enjoyed this twist on it as well.

It’s filled with silly situations, callbacks to Unlimited and Alternative, a spy story that adds a touch of seriousness to a mostly lighthearted story, and yes, romance routes.

I really enjoyed Muv-Luv photonmelodies, and while the darker parts of the series might be the most famous and beloved, it felt good to see all of these characters back in happy times for an extended story. It’s all good, silly fun, the sort of story that just makes you happy as you read it.

So if you’re wondering if Muv-Luv photonmelodies is worth playing, I’d say that depends on what you’re looking for. If the answer is lighthearted comedy and romance similar to what was in Muv-Luv Extra, then the answer is yes!

Have you played Muv-Luv photonmelodies? Share your thoughts on this lighter short story collection in the comments!

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