Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Nightshade: A Ninja Romance After My Heart

 Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
May 102021
 

While I was reviewing romance visual novels during this year’s romance month, one highly recommended to me was Nightshade, an otome available on Steam and the Nintendo Switch.

So when it went on sale, I got it!

(I played it on the Switch because I like reading visual novels handheld.)

Nightshade is set during the Sengoku Period and follows Enju, a young ninja-in-training who is set out on her first mission. It should be a simple enough assignment… but then everything goes terribly wrong and Enju finds herself in great danger.

Of course, she’s not on her own – depending on the choices you’ve made up until that point, one of the men in the story will help her out as they start to fall in love.

The setting and plot premise had me hooked from the start, although I ultimately found the story to be a little disappointing. It’s one of those stories where past events and answers to the mystery change depending on whose route you’re on, which isn’t my favorite thing. I prefer to have a cohesive set of events, where your choices only change what happens next.

However, the romance routes themselves more than made up for it!

There are five different romance options in the game, each with a good ending and a bad ending. Whenever you make a choice, it indicates right away if you earned affection points with a particular love interest, so you don’t have to question if you’re on the right path or not.

I loved four out of the five routes in Nightshade. I really liked the characters themselves, their individual stories were exciting and filled with twists and turns even if they didn’t form a cohesive whole, and the romances were good. Including the, ahem, darker one.

The only route I didn’t like had two major points against it: he’s her first cousin, and they’re barely together in the route. I did enjoy his route at first (while ignoring the whole “blood relative” part) until I played the others and realized how bland it felt in comparison due to his lack of involvement.

Unlike some of the visual novels I’ve covered, I wouldn’t recommend this one if you’re only interested in the plot and don’t care about the romance, because the romances are what make Nightshade great! A love for ninja stories might be enough to catch your interest too, though.

It’s the sort of visual novel that makes me hope for a fandisc just to see more of the characters and their time with Enju… but for now, it seems I’ll be left waiting.

London Detective Mysteria: Great Otome, Where is the Sequel?

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Mar 312021
 

During my big visual novel buying spree a few years back, another otome I picked up was London Detective Mysteria.

London Detective Mysteria follows a young noblewoman named Emily who gets the queen’s blessing to attend an academy for young would-be detectives. There, she meets characters who are largely descendants of famous fictional detectives (and other related characters), like Sherlock Holmes’s son and Miss Marple’s granddaughter.

At first I thought this was just a way to avoid using the actual characters, but that’s not the case at all. Most notably, the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Herlock (yes, they actually named him Herlock Holmes) is an important part of his story and motivations.

That gives the story a neat “second generation” sort of feel that I didn’t expect when I started.

The common route deals with Emily and her classmates encountering various mysteries, and the game even provides a special journal feature to let you save any line of dialogue to check it later while trying to figure out a case. There’s only a handful of times when that’s actually useful, but it was a nice thought.

Based on your choices, you end up on one of several character routes.

I liked all of the love interests, and each route had a fairly interesting story that ties into the overarching story about a sinister organization and Emily’s personal investigation into her parents’ deaths. Once you see every ending, including the bad endings and non-romance routes, you unlock the “grand ending” that follows up on that.

Unfortunately, the grand ending route feels underwhelming compared to the individual character routes. It’s clearly intended to build up to a sequel – in fact, the grand ending epilogue actually ends with an outright teaser for the next game.

There has been no word about the London Detective Mysteria sequel, but I hope it’s still being made. This was a fun otome and an entertaining mystery story, and I’d really love to see it continue.

So if you like visual novels, romance, and mysteries, London Detective Mysteria is worth checking out… as long as you’re okay with it ending on a cliffhanger that might never be resolved.

The Last Act Launch and a Feedback Survey!

 My Games, Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Mar 172021
 

Today I’m excited to announce that the supernatural otome visual novel I wrote the script for, The Last Act, is now available on Steam!

The Last Act follows Sarah, an aspiring actress who thinks her dreams have come true when she lands the lead role in a play… only for dangerous and possibly supernatural incidents to threaten the show’s success.

It features a mystery story, multiple endings, and three possible love interests, so if this is the sort of game that interests you, be sure to check it out!

Meanwhile, there have been a bunch of smaller pieces of game news that have gotten my attention lately – No More Heroes I and II getting a print run through Limited Run Games, El Shaddai set for a mid-April release, Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis confirmed to have gacha (boo), and Devotion finally being sold again!

Square Enix also announced a game showcase for tomorrow, although it doesn’t look like there are a lot of games lined up that will particularly interest me. But you never know!

And now, let’s talk about this site! I blog about a variety of topics, and I’m sure you have your favorites. There are probably some things you’d like to see more of and maybe some thoughts you have on our contests and other activities. Well, now’s your chance to tell me!

I’ve opened up an official Feedback Form about this site and its content, so please take a look! It’s pretty short and should only take you a few minutes to complete.

Of course, you’re free to leave your thoughts in the comments here instead, if you prefer.

Thanks!

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