Bakumatsu Renka SHINSENGUMI

Just got this game in a recent Humble Bundle and would really love to share my impressions of the story, the characters, the world building... but I can't. There is a bug where all the sprites take forever to load. Not just when they first arrived, any change in stance or facial expressions will also have you waiting for an age and a half. This game is literally unplayable if you catch that bug. I did. 50 euros is already a ridiculously high price for some old PS2 port, but I can't recommend this game at any price right now. If you do get it at some 90% off sale, make sure to check if you have the bug within the return window. I tried to play on my ASUS Ally X: CPU: AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU: integrated AMD Radeon RAM: 24 GB LPDDR5X-7500, dual-channel, shared with GPU Storage: 1 TB PCIe 4.0 OS: Windows 11 Home 64-bit

I bought this game through a Humble Bundle, and oh boy. It is literally unplayable due to the enormous amount of time it takes to load each character's sprite. I wasn't even able to finish the prologue. I'm sad that this is a notorious bug and it still isn't fixed. Full price for this game is a rip-off.

Uhm... So, don't get me wrong...I LOVE the Shinsengumi, I LOVE Japanese history and bakumatsu specifically, I LOVE the fact that the MC can fight--unlike the the typical female otome protagonists. A lot of reasons to get this game and this game would have a lot of potential, but the major problem is that the game is OLD and there are so many bugs that it's just not worth playing anymore... I was so excited to play this game and I really...REALLY wanted to play this game, but I just got disappointed in the end. It's not worth getting this game unless they fix the bugs, but given how many years have passed without any updates, I doubt it will ever happen.

Leaving a review after buying on humble bundle since I just want to add my voice to some of these negatives i'm seeing, I got into shinsengumi lore and history ultimately through a usually niche and lesser known josei called Kaze Hikaru it feels not only heavily texted with full on exploration of mibu roshi and how they came to be labeled as such to the core of the politics and turmoil within and outside of the shinsengumi, if I were to recommend a better and more faithful game it would be this. I get if someone wants more romance to play hakuouki but on my end it feels so beyond taking away what really humanized the original characters based on historical figures and just bishounens them so bad they took away the core of why I loved them all flaws and all in the manga, in this lesser rated game it has more of the og manga elements and even shinpachi and harada my two faves get to keep their initial obsession for geisha and the red light district which is realistically in character for them. Overall if you don't mind a more realistic slow and slightly less romance this is much more in line with what happened; if you want romance/fiction and sanitized versions of histoircal figures…

Bakumatsu Renka SHINSENGUMI is a visual novel that wears its historical inspiration openly, blending the romantic conventions of the otome genre with the turbulent political climate of late Edo–period Japan. Developed by VRIDGE INC. and published by D3PUBLISHER, it places the player in the role of a young woman who disguises herself and joins the Shinsengumi, the legendary samurai militia tasked with maintaining public order as Japan edges toward massive cultural and political transformation. Rather than treating history as simple set dressing, the game uses the era’s tension—rising Western influence, internal ideological conflict, assassinations, and shifting power dynamics—as an emotional backdrop for every character route. The result is a story that feels larger than any single romance, where loyalty, survival, and duty constantly pull against personal desire. The narrative structure follows the traditional otome format, introducing a shared prologue before branching into multiple character routes, each focusing on a notable Shinsengumi figure. Characters such as Hijikata, Okita, Harada, and Kondō are written not merely as idealized love interests, but as flawed, passionate men…

Haven't gotten very far yet but I'm enjoying the game so far. Contrary to what another review said, the heroine DOES NOT disguise herself to join the Shinsengumi, everyone knows she's a girl and she doesn't hide it. I thought that was very interesting, no one holds it against her and she's the only girl in the group. She is still just a rookie in the group though so she isn't privy to a lot of the inner workings, but she's not stupid and won't just accept things as she's told. She's proactive in seeking out the truth. Still she's more of a bystander than someone who's directly involved in the direction of the Shinsengumi. The player's choices do not influence the outcome only which guy's route you're on and each guy only has one ending. Haven't experiences any particularly slow transitions so I guess the bugs have been fixed. This game's got a crazy large amount of dictionary terms, even with the same term coming up over and over I'm afraid I'm still not that familiar with all the terms as I'm not that big on history despite being a fan of Bakumatsu themed stories. I saw a bunch of reviews comparing it to Hakuoki but I personally find this game more interesting, I only managed to …