I never played the otome game 7’scarlet on the Vita or PC, so when Aksys announced that the Switch version would be coming west, I decided to keep it in mind.
As luck would have it, it released in the middle of May and it’s another mystery, so I decided to play 7’scarlet as part of our mystery game celebration.
7’scarlet is an otome game about a young woman named Ichiko whose brother disappeared after visiting a small town. When her best friend gets an opportunity to go there to meet with a club of supernatural enthusiasts, she goes with him to investigate her brother’s disappearance.
After they arrive, mysterious deaths begin cropping up, which soon leads to the concern that there might be a murderer on the loose. Add in supernatural elements that get more prominent as you play, and it sets up quite an intriguing mystery.
The first thing that stood out to me when I started playing 7’scarlet is how good it looks. While most of its presentation is typical for a visual novel, it has a handful of animated sections near the start that took me by surprise.
Now, the game follows the typical structure where you make choices in the common route to determine whose route you end up on, but it’s a bit more restricted than usual. This is a mystery, and it wants you to experience plot events in a particular order. Only two routes are accessible from the start. Once you complete one of those, you unlock the next route, and so on, so that you slowly learn more pieces of the puzzle.
In terms of romance, it’s… fine. Many of the routes are cute, even if development of the relationships feel a bit rushed and the writers were a bit too attached to the “they actually met years ago as children” trope. A few also have the problem where you have to make favorable choices toward the love interest to get his good ending regardless of common sense.
When it comes to the mystery, each route gives you certain pieces of information so you don’t have all the answers until the end. Some of the early routes feel frustrating from how little you actually learn, as a result. My favorite route in terms of handling the mystery was Sosuke’s, where it culminated in a confrontation that had the characters (and player) corner the culprit by actually thinking through which character’s actions were contradictory.
By the time I finished the true route, I felt pretty satisfied with the answers I’d gotten. The true route was sadder than I like in a romance game, but just about everything had been wrapped up. All that remained was one last secret route to answer the remaining questions…
…and partway through, I found myself thinking the story made more sense to me before I read it.
Maybe that’s an exaggeration. Maybe. The secret route is shorter than the others, mostly focused on exposition, and completely insane. I finished it asking myself what in the world I’d just played.
On the other hand, I loved the extended version of Yuzuki’s normal ending that unlocks after the true route. That’s the sort of tragedy I’m here for if it has to be a tragic end.
7’scarlet is a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed several of the love interests, but the romantic development felt rushed. The mystery was interesting, but the plot eventually went off the rails. Overall, I’m happy I played 7’scarlet… but it’s one of those games I can only recommend with the caveat that it has noticeable flaws.
