Hakuoki - Demon of the Fleeting Blossom

[Cyril]

Since there are quite a few people here who seem to enjoy VNs, I thought it was time for a thread.
For those unaware, Hakuoki is an otome game, or basically a dating sim targeted towards females.  The VN isn't really a "hard" otome, more loose, and has a wider audience than some other VNs in the genre.

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/02/09/hakuoki-demon-of-the-fleeting-blossom-playtest-inaccurate-but-incredible-shinsengumi/

It's coming out in a few days.  The Limited Edition comes with a ~70 page artbook and sountrack.

[(Tunnels)]

I'm totes getting it. As a big fan of VNs, I eat up any chance a non-erotic game gets licensed.

[Dincrest]

Look forward to my review of the game in the next couple of days or so. 

[cj_iwakura]

Definitely not just for the ladies, there's a great historical/samurai story underlying the plot, so don't feel reluctant if you're not into the whole winning over guys thing.

[Cyril]

So, Dincrest, who'd you go for?

[Dincrest]

And here ya go:  The long and short of it is that I liked Hakuoki.  I liked it a LOT more than I expected to.  http://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/Hakuoki_Demon_of_the_Fleeting_Blossom/index.html

Cyril- The first time I played, I just made decisions willy-nilly and defaulted to the Hijikata path and Game Over'd.  I went back to some earlier spots but game over'd again.  Next I tried the Heisuke path and Game Over'd.  The one time I got a good ending was the Okita path.  Hijikata's was probably my favorite, story-wise.  I haven't tried the Harada or Saitoh paths yet. 

[Cyril]

Not going to try for Chikage?

Man, the minute I beat the game, I'm going for him.  The best love interest is always the one that's NG+ only.

[cj_iwakura]

I'm going for Saitou.

[Dincrest]

Not going to try for Chikage?

Man, the minute I beat the game, I'm going for him.  The best love interest is always the one that's NG+ only.

I could gladly spend tons of time getting 100% in Hakuoki, but there are a ton of other games to review that I need to spend time on. 

[Aurian]

So how do the game overs work? Is it like Radiant Historia where you restart earlier on and continue playing? Or do I need to make many many saves? Or even replay the whole game multiple times?

[Dincrest]

If you go to the "Record of Service" tab on the title screen, you can start at chapters you've left off on.  However, when you get a game over it's best to restart from the beginning and turn on the "Fast Forward" feature so you can speed through stuff, because sometimes starting from a later chapter doesn't think you made the "right" decisions in an earlier one. 

So yeah, like most visual novels, it's more-or-less multiple playthrough.  However, it's possible mid-game to rewind to earlier parts and even redo decisions- kinda like how we kept multiple bookmarks and dog-ears when we read Choose Your Own Adventure books. 

[cj_iwakura]

One negative I have(though it could be a positive, depending) is that it's extremely obtuse to figure out what leads to a certain character's path. There's almost no indicator of what choices will lead to.

[Dincrest]

Unless you turn on the animation where a right choice makes cherry blossoms sparkle on a dude's torso. 

And, personally, I liked that decisions had a lot of red herrings.  I've played too many visual novels where the paths were boringly predictable so the reward playing "hard to get" with me was fun.  I liked the chase.

[Cyril]

If anyone is playing this, have this:
http://otome.girly.jp/hakuouki/menu.html

Put it through google translate if you need to find true endings.

I got a decent Saito ending my first time without any help.  He's pretty easy to get affection with, you simply be calm and rational and don't always jump on the opportunity immediately.  I'm thinking of going Harada next, because he's a sweet guy.  I hear he has the best ending of the bunch, too.

[cj_iwakura]

Nearing the end of the Saitou path, and it's really starting to seem like this won't end well. And I think I have a good ending route, too.