Nightshade/百花百狼

What I like about the game: -character design What I didn't like: -[spoiler]incest - one romanceable character is the mc's cousin -non-blood-related incest - two of the romanceable characters are the mc's adopted brothers (who grew up together and saw each other as siblings btw) -pedophilia - mc is 16 while ALL OF THEM are adults (except for one guy which is 16 too)[/spoiler] review: The plot is good. What I'm having trouble of is the reasons stated in the "what i dont like" part of my review. Whenever the MC is with a male lead, I either constantly think that "She's not a minor", "she's not related to him", "she doesn't see them as brothers" just to get through the story. For me, those tropes in this otome game normalizes the ones I stated earlier. I believe what I feed my mind is what I am going to think. It made the final blow to me when I unlocked CHOJIRO'S route unintentionally (like WHAT???? EW). That was like the time where I was "OH HELL NAH"

First of all, I somehow got thrown onto Hiroyuki’s route out of nowhere — it honestly felt like one of those forced-love-route plot twists 😭 I was originally aiming for Hanzo from the start, and after finishing the happy ending, I can confidently say I’d still choose Hanzo all over again. He’s such a massive kuudere/closeted softie, completely the opposite of Hiroyuki. [SPOILERS ALERT!!] But he’s genuinely such an amazing character. His role feels almost paternal at times, while also being a mentor and companion to the heroine. On the surface, he seems cold and ruthless, as if emotions are unnecessary baggage to him. He’s called the strongest ninja for a reason: he strictly follows every ninja principle, prioritizes missions above all else, and his overwhelming strength combined with emotional detachment makes him unmatched in his field. And then he meets the heroine — the daughter of someone important from his past. At first, he only takes her in because of his lord’s orders to protect her. He constantly complains that she’s troublesome, speaks bluntly without caring about hurting a young girl’s feelings… but the way he calls her “musume” 😭 he really starts acting like …

I'm going to be honest here. The story isn't bad. Every storylines is interesting and overall unique to each character. There's occasional overlap, but that's typical and expected in any otome, especially because the underlying base of the story has to be the same to work. I played this kind of blind. I bought it during a sale when it was, I think, half off? With minimal read through on what the story was about via a reddit forum recommending otome's on steam. I used to love historical otome's when I was younger so I thought this would work well for me. Now that I've finished all the routes/achievement's I have to say that it unfortunately doesn't. The age difference between three out of the five love interests are plain old uncomfortable. Chojiro (23) is seven years older, Goemon (26) is 10 years older, and Hanzo (33) is 17 years older than her! THE MC IS 16 YEARS OLD! Not to mention that Chojiro isn't only just 7 years older, he's also her cousin! That watched her grow up! That feels plain old wrong. I was mainly uncomfortable while reading through Chojiro and Hanzo's route because both of them fit the found family trope so much better than anything romantic. Goemon was an fun…

YES

super well written game, you have to try it!!

The bad ending was so sad that I almost quit, but all the endings were good.// Kuroyuki was the first route I played, and I highly recommend =(^w^)= Fun fact: If you name the MC 'Enju' , her name will be voiced whenever other characters call her. :) "Tbh, some lines of dialogue were weird, but I didn't mind. They were just a little annoying at times."