After discussing the otome visual novel Code: Realize two years ago and its fandisc Future Blessings last year, now we’ll be talking about the second fandisc, Wintertide Miracles.

(As a reminder, a fandisc can be seen as an extended epilogue game, or a sequel that builds on your happy ending.)

Like its predecessor, Wintertide Miracles contains several different types of stories.

One entertaining inclusion are the “triangle dates,” scenes that feature the main protagonist Cardia with two of the other characters. While not explicitly dates like the name would suggest, most of them feature the love interests vying for her interest with some comedic antics along the way.

The triangle dates aren’t just restricted to love interests, though, and those additional scenarios might be the funniest of all.

(Nemo is a treasure, and he’s at his best in Wintertide Miracles.)

Now let’s talk about the character routes, the game’s core content. These are set at Christmas, making this otome a great choice to read around the holidays. Instead of following each character’s ending from the original game, however, all the Christmas stories follow the ending of Finis’s route from Future Blessings. Essentially, it treats that as an extended common route so that the romances can develop from there.

They’re quite cute and sweet, with an emphasis on romance and holiday cheer instead of high stakes, a lovely way to revisit these characters.

But if you need a break from the winter setting, each character also has a bonus short story set at the beach that unlocks when you complete that character’s route.

Since Future Blessings included a new route for Herlock Sholmes, as well as the platonic Finis route, both of those characters get their own follow-up stories as well, with higher stakes and more dramatic plotlines than those found in the Christmas stories. There is also another side story set during the original game’s common route, in which Cardia befriends a songstress named Cantarella and becomes entangled in a new plot. Despite its slow start, I ended up enjoying this story quite a bit.

Finally, once you finish playing everything else (except the beach stories, which are optional), you unlock special epilogues for each of the main love interests. These do follow their individual Future Blessings routes and are fairly low-stakes stories showing the characters happy and in love.

I greatly enjoyed Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~. Going into it, I worried it might feel stretched for content, being the second fandisc. However, I enjoyed it just as much as Future Blessings. Maybe it’s heavier on the fluff than on serious conflict, but there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re a Code: Realize fan, you definitely should check out Wintertide Miracles – especially around the holidays.

(Personally, I wouldn’t mind a third Code: Realize fandisc. Maybe with Nemo and Hansel routes? I can dream.)

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!