Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Sympathy Kiss, My Next Life as a Villainess Otome, and Tsukihime Localizations Announced!

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , ,
Jul 032023
 

We were hoping for exciting news from Anime Expo, and a few announcements certainly stand out to me as a visual novel fan.

While there was no live stream of Idea Factory’s panel, fortunately Twitter was working again so I could wait for tweets about the news, since they’d teased at least one otome announcement.

They turned out to have not one, but two otome localizations to announce. The first one announced was Sympathy Kiss, an office romance about a woman who starts working for a mobile app developer. Sympathy Kiss has gotten some criticism from fans because the protagonist has an eyeless design presumably intended to make self-insertion easier. She also has no written dialogue, only dialogue indicated through the narration.

Despite this, fans who have played it in Japanese says she does have her own personality instead of being a complete self-insert. It sounds interesting enough that I’ll probably try it.

Sympathy Kiss will be out in early 2024.

Idea Factory’s other announced otome title will be out even earlier, with a winter release window, and that is My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! – Pirates of the Disturbance.

This extremely long title is because it is based on the anime My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, which I know little about except that it’s a reincarnation isekai “otome” anime that has little to do with actual otome tropes, so it’s ironic that an actual otome was developed based on it.

I’ve seen people say the game is a good comedy, so I’ll be keeping an eye on it (and looking up whether or not I should have greater knowledge of the anime before playing it).

As I mentioned, it’s set for winter 2023, so the second half of this year is even more stacked than it was before. Idea Factory has Limited Edition pages up for both titles, so it seems both Sympathy Kiss and My Next Life As a Villainess will receive Limited Editions.

Meanwhile, let’s swing our attention away from Idea Factory and toward Type-Moon, as it was announced that Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon will be released in the west for PS4 and Switch in 2024.

The original Tsukihime came out in 2000, and this is the first half of a two-part remake. (That’s right, Final Fantasy VII isn’t the only game getting a multi-part remake.) Apparently it was rewritten for the remake, with new characters and additional content that brings it to 45+ hours despite being only the first half.

After Witch on the Holy Night received an official translation (which I quite enjoyed) last year, I wondered if more Type-Moon visual novels would follow… and it seems the answer is yes! Who knows, one of these days we could be discussing an official Fate/Stay Night localization.

There might be more exciting news yet to come, but as a visual novel fan, these three announcements already have my attention. Are you interested in any of the three?

Celebrating All Things Romantic: eden*

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Feb 242023
 

Today I’d like to talk about eden*.

With the subtitle “They were only two, on the planet” and a description of “the planet’s final love story,” it shouldn’t surprise you that this visual novel has a bit of a melancholy tone at times.

Set in a world where an approaching red star heralds the end of all life on Earth, eden* follows a soldier sent to guard the genetically modified superhuman girl called Sion, who has spent the past 100 years working on a plan to evacuate all of humanity and save them from the world’s destruction.

The importance of this plan means Sion has never gotten to see the outside world, and that is her sole wish.

Despite the bleak premise of the story, eden* actually has a bit of humor, especially early on. It also has some action in the early parts of the story, but its core is a slow-burn romance with slice-of-life scenes to build up the growing relationship between the characters.

It is a kinetic novel, without any choices. All you have to do is follow the story.

There is something bittersweet about its story, a story that can’t escape the shadow of the end, yet pushes a message of love and hope. The excellent art and music help build everything up.

Now, there’s also a version you can get with 18+ content, or 18+ DLC to add that content to the Steam game, but I didn’t play it. According to the reviews, it adds some blood/violence and nudity to certain parts of the main story, but the sex scenes are separate side stories rather than being integrated into the main visual novel. So you can decide if that sounds like something you want to pick up or not.

eden* is certainly not one to read if you’re looking for a lighthearted, feelgood story, but if you want a soft, melancholy romance told at the end of the world, then I definitely recommend it.

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Nekopara Vol. 4

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Feb 032023
 

The Nekopara series continues to surprise me.

After reading through Nekopara Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3 in past years (not to mention the otome spin-off Catboys Paradise), this year I moved on to Nekopara Vol. 4 anticipating another story of Kashou starting a relationship with more catgirls.

So it’s quite a surprise that I’m mainly counting this as a “Celebrating All Things Romantic” review by virtue of the series itself fitting in the theme.

The past entries featured Kashou getting to know the catgirls who help him manage the patisserie La Soleil, helping them through their problems and conflicts at the same time. In the fourth volume, however, it’s the protagonist himself who takes the center stage.

An encounter with his father, who disapproves of his work in the patisserie and tells him his cooking is still lacking, leads Kashou to question himself and what it is that he’s missing. This entry largely focuses on his conflict with his father and his personal journey to overcome his doubts. It’s quite heartfelt, and its messages are surprisingly wholesome.

It’s still filled with catgirl antics and funny moments, but the focus was much more on Kashou’s character development.

Of course, this is Nekopara, so the lack of romance is mitigated if you get the 18+ version (or the 18+ patch). While this entry might not include any new relationships, the main character still has six catgirls to spend time with. What’s more, I learned that the 18+ content of Nekopara Vol. 4 actually contains alternate scenes as well, where if you say you’re in the company of other people, you’ll be presented with a different intimate/romantic scene instead of a sex scene.

I also learned that the console versions of the Nekopara games are not the same as the all-ages Steam version after all, but replace the sex scenes with different scenes.

That’s more complicated than I expected from Nekopara, but then again, it’s a series full of surprises. In short, Nekopara Vol. 4 does not focus on romance as much as the others, but will still have its share of romantic scenes and/or related activities depending on the version you play. Meanwhile, the core story is a surprisingly wholesome tale about fulfilling your dreams and seeing what drives you.

Volume 4 is currently the last game in the Nekopara series, although a new game called Nekopara After La Vraie Famille was announced in 2021. And don’t forget, you could win a Steam collection of the Nekopara series by participating in this year’s contest!

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