@shenanigumi / shenanigumi.tumblr.com
hey, one of my lovely friends, @msrolodexofhate, is inadvertently making up for my lack of content by streaming Hakuōki: Kyoto Winds! if you’re interested in watching someone play the new games blind (meaning no spoilers in the chat please), head on over!!
Speaking of Sakamoto's Chizuru, I notice how this one is more willing to draw her sword and charge at Kaoru and Kodo? I haven't finished all routes yet so I can't say if she's the only one who's shown similar tendencies but that scene where she *spoilers* charges Kaoru before Shiranui shoots him took me by surprise.
Yeah, maybe Sakamoto’s tendency to take fate into his own hands rubbed off on her somehow? But then, Chizuru in general seems to be a little more action-oriented overall, so who knows. I did definitely enjoy that part, though~
Why is souchi still higher than yamachi in your overall ratings? Cause you seem to really love yamachi more when you were playing edo blossoms :p
Hard to explain. The two are basically tied, but SouChi just barely squeaks ahead in the overall ratings because to me, Souma feels more like Chizuru’s… “type”? Like, it makes a lot of narrative sense for her to get that close to him since they’re both pages and spend time working together as equals, whereas Yamazaki is more in the shadows from the beginning and must fulfill a set of duties that don’t always coincide with hers. So that has less to do with the material canon gives us, and more the potential I see.
In your opinion, particularly for the Main Three routes, did the improvements come from integrating existing material to the main story (SoTS and Reimeiroku) or the new scenes (were there a lot cause I still haven’t played them yet)?
I’m assuming by Main Three you mean Hijikata, Okita, and Saito? HijiChi and SaiChi benefited mostly from integrating existing material since there was already a lot of good material to work with, while OkiChi was mostly advanced and improved with new scenes since their original dynamic wasn’t as fleshed out. (The amount of new material fluctuates per route, and Okita’s had a fair amount.) So… less either/or, more both/and.
Hmm I guess what I’m saying is that are Saichi and Okichi, as individual pairings, now more equal in terms of dynamic with each other... I remember you saying that you prefer equality between a couple and in terms of Okichi, Okita is super dominant and Chizuru takes a very submissive role with him... I hope that clears up my q? Hahah
Ohhhhh, then yeah. OkiChi was definitely made more equal and mutual through KW/EB, since he opens up and actually makes it clear that he cares, even if Chizuru’s a tad too dense to pick it up at first. SaiChi has always been a bit better about that, but they made their relationship even clearer in that one too, although she does still second-guess it near the end. So I guess the answer to your question is… yes?
Do you think, by Shinkai, Saichi and Okichi are more in equal footing with each other? I mean like Saito and Chizuru are equals in terms of dynamic, same question with Okichi? I hope I came across right :p
As far as I’m concerned, they’ve always been roughly equivalent. Previously, they had similar holes in their dynamics, whereas now, they’re both equally fleshed out. (I hope I understood the question…)
I was surprised by how much I actually liked Sakamoto’s route? And Sakamoto as a character as well, I didn’t expect him and his route to be that interesting since his KW route didn’t really convince me but... he’s a surprisingly fascinating character after all
Yo same!! Though… me, I’ve always liked Sakamoto as a character, it’s just SakaChi that was a bit rocky. Which made me apprehensive about his route, since, y’know, the ship is kind of an important part of that. But yeah, it ended up going surprisingly smoothly after KW!
What about the overall ratings? Sorry for bombarding you with these i’ll hopefully keep quiet after!!!
Oh, please don’t worry about it!!! I love talking about things!!! (Besides, things like lists and analyses are a welcome distraction from all the insane amount of creative writing that I forgot comes with spring drafts-cleaning.)
Again, subject to small changes, but this feels about right~
Do you have a more specific listing of your fave chizu ships??? This is so interesting! Hope you donnt mind me adding to that ask!!
Oh, of course I don’t mind!! I’ll assume you’re specifically talking about the KW/EB continuity, so I’ll do that one. It’s a little different than my overall ratings, but here you are…
Subject to some change as the routes “settle”, so to speak, but this is roughly the right order~
Now that you’ve finished EB, can I ask for the typical rating thing? Like the one you did for KW before: fave Chizuru ship (can you take into account KW here), route, personal husband, fave Chizuru? If you don’t mind, thank you!
Oh sure!!
Thanks for asking!!
Here’s the comprehensive review you may or may not have wanted, as something of a sequel to this now-obsolete summary! Keep in mind that while I did post mini-reviews of each route as I finished them, my exact ratings may have changed from what I initially said, now that most of ’em have had time to settle in my head. And as usual, I’m biased as hell, so you’ll probably want to take everything with a grain of salt. But without further ado…
oh… yeah huh that does kinda suck. killing Kazama only to turn to ash. ouch
huh I’m pretty sure if you pick the low romance options consistently throughout the route, at some point Chizuru has a flashback to a CG that never triggered
wow that was lame. we didn’t even get to see/feel Amagiri kill Chizuru. she just straight up gives up before that point, resigns herself to her impending doom, and it fades to black. really??
Belated first impressions: Pretty solid. They left at least one relatively large swath of translations the same, or very similar, as the original, which felt good. This one’s still a little longer than the others, but only a little. That said, for all its overall goodness, it felt like something was still, I don’t know, missing… [edit] although at least they made it clearer, in the end, that Hijikata really did survive, and the epilogue wasn’t just a fever dream. 4/5.
