Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Taisho x Alice

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Video games  8 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Feb 132023
 

Welcome back to Celebrating All Things Romantic 2023. Today we’ll be discussing Taisho x Alice, an otome visual novel available on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

It is split into 4 episodes, each with its own love interests, but that doesn’t mean you can play the episodes in any order you want.

No, the Taisho x Alice episode order is there for a reason. While you might get away with skipping episode 1, playing through the episodes in order is important to the overarching story.

The story begins when you find yourself in darkness. While trying to find your way out, you meet a young man named Alice who calls you Arisu. The two of you find a strange mirror, and you fall through into the Looking-Glass World where your prince awaits.

If you haven’t already guessed, it has a fairytale theme. The love interests, though all men, are named after classic fairytale heroines like Cinderella, Snow White, etc., and this plays into their stories as well. That’s about all the detail I can go into about the plot, because this is the sort of story that’s difficult to discuss without spoilers.

Episode 1 was pretty lighthearted, with a lot of humor and wacky dialogue (and while some people criticize the jokey and meme-y dialogue that shows up at times, apparently that’s true of the Japanese script as well, so the translation kept the same tone). Episode 2 got much more serious and significantly darker, and then Episode 3 and the Epilogue left me marveling over the story.

Click for Taisho x Alice spoilers
I was pleasantly surprised that everyone got a happy ending, too, although I still feel sad for the Wizard.

It’s an unusual one where I find myself not feeling too strongly about several of the love interests (Red Riding Hood and the Wizard are my favorites, although I enjoyed every route), but the story as a whole is enough to overcome that and make it a favorite.

I also absolutely love the opening theme song, to the point where I let the intro play every time I started up the game.

I haven’t played the fandisc yet, but that’s something I’ll want to check out someday.

Taisho x Alice is the sort of story you want to experience for yourself, as long as you won’t be put off by the sometimes-quite-dark subject matter. Even if you aren’t a big fan of otome games, I’d still recommend this one for the story itself.

In fact, since I enjoyed Taisho x Alice so much, I’ve added its episodes to the list of prizes you can win in this year’s contest! Meanwhile, Idea Factory has announced an otome live stream for tomorrow, so here’s hoping we have some exciting news to discuss soon!

Celebrating All Things Romantic: Code Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~

 Celebrating All Things Romantic, Reviews, Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Feb 062023
 

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.)

Lover Pretend: Sometimes Funny, Sometimes Just Fine

 Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jan 062023
 

Let’s talk about Lover Pretend, the final game I beat in 2022.

Lover Pretend is an otome visual novel about a screenwriting student named Chiyuki who is searching for the identity of her father and has narrowed it down to a handful of possibilities. When she gets an opportunity to work as an assistant screenwriter alongside people related to the men on her list, she sees it as a great opportunity for both her career and her quest.

During the common route, I had my eyebrows raised about a story premise where most of the love interests have the potential to be the protagonist’s half-brother. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), that aspect is quickly dismissed and forgotten in most of the routes. Despite it being set up as the protagonist’s main goal, most routes don’t deal with it at all.

Instead, each route has a different focus and conflict depending on the love interest. The only thing they have in common relates to the game’s title, “Lover Pretend,” as Chiyuki ends up pretending to be in a relationship with them.

The reason for the fake relationship is different in each route (and despite what the store page says, it’s not because she’s cast as the love interest in the movie, so I don’t know why it says that), and some of them are a bit of a stretch. But whatever, the premise of the game is about getting into a fake relationship, so let’s just roll with it for the sake of comedy and romance.

This fake romance leads you to learn more about the love interest and his personal conflict, with choices along the way determining what sort of ending you get.

One unique feature is the “Pretend Time” mechanic, where you need to answer several questions in a row to lie your way out of a predicament. It’s entertaining, although it really isn’t as focused on lying as the name suggests. While it often is, it’s also used for any situation where you need to make a series of choices – like trying to guess a character’s motivations.

So, now that I’ve explained what Lover Pretend is, how did I feel about it overall? It’s… fine.

It’s a romantic comedy, and there are times when it’s pretty funny, but not as funny as something like Cupid Parasite, for example. The love interests are also just fine. I liked three of them, loved another until his best ending ruined both the character and the romance (seriously), and would have liked the fifth if it was a full-length route like the others.

Click for Lover Pretend spoilers
I wouldn’t have minded Kazuma’s “I’ve actually been jealous of you and secretly hoping you’d fail so you’d have to depend on me” nonsense as a plot point, but making it the final trigger for the love confession and now they’re a happy couple?? What the heck was that???

Lover Pretend isn’t the game to play if you’re looking for a deep plot or exceptional humor, but it’s an enjoyable enough time with mostly enjoyable characters. If the premise interests you, it’s worth taking a look, but if you’re on the fence, there are many others I’d recommend before it.

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