Harutoki 5 Fandisk

Even though Harutoki 5 tied last year in an unofficial poll for the worst otome game of the year, I liked it enough to get the fandisk, and I’m playing it now. However, the problems with the first game have only partially been fixed.

One of the main problems was fixed, or at least it seems like it – I’m not going to explain fully because it’s a spoiler, but in the main game when you save the world, almost always a few particular people are sacrificed, there’s no way around it. And this problem is totally glossed over in the epilogues, which makes the heroine seem pretty jerky (unless you have magic disbelief-suspension abilities like me, or just assume that the writers screwed up and forgive the heroine). In the fandisk, it seems like the main plot is about how to prevent this, which actually makes me like the original game better as well.

But some of the other problems remain, not least of which is Neoromance’s continual refusal to provide full-voice, or even voiced scenes when it’s important. I can’t believe all the character-specific scenes aren’t voiced, it’s just ridiculous at this point. It makes me not want to buy their games. If they’d just provide more voices, I would be so much more willing to buy the overpriced special editions; instead I always buy the regular editions.

And my other problem with this Harutoki in particular is that in the CG’s, the heroine often looks emotionless, or non-human. Part of it is Mizuno Tooko’s artstyle – the huge eyes without pupils that she always gives heroines tend to look blank, but I swear she did better in #3 and #4.

Anyways, I’m just finishing up (hopefully) Ryouma’s route, then I’m going to stop in order to start either Brothers Conflict or Jyuzaengi, both of which I recently got. High school contemporary or Three Kingdoms catboys, hmmm…

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3 Responses to “Harutoki 5 Fandisk”

1. Julia says:

   June 1, 2012 at 11:44 am

   Jyuuzaengi is prety good so far (only done one route…for a yandere -_-), though it’s quite serious and I hear there are multiple yanderes. The one bad end I got was terrible, though. I mean, it was executed very well, or at least as well as I think it could have been, but man. (Thankfully, even with a random Big Damn Heroes Moment, the good end was so enjoyable to me it made up for the bad end.) The heroine is kind of like Nozomi, in that she has some odd stupid-shoujo moments but is also a BAMF, and in the route I played, she had more spine than most heroines I’ve seen/read about. Maybe not Quinrose level (I wouldn’t know), but so much better than I expected for one of the yandere routes.
2. lijakaca says:

   June 1, 2012 at 11:40 pm

   Multiple yanderes…why Otomate why??? Oh well. Maybe it won’t be so bad. And if the heroine is good that makes other problems much easier to handle.
3. Julia says:

   June 2, 2012 at 1:10 pm

   Yeah… On the other hand, since ancient warfare=serious business, having serious stories and a yandere here or there seems less out-of-place than, say, a modern school. I could just not have enough experience in the genre, but the yandere bit seemed like it was handled well, especially in the good end. Obviously I have to finish everyone else’s route, but I can say the route I played worked.

   The heroine being strong is a bit of a mixed blessing (though I think it helps the storytelling for both ends, meself). On the one hand, she has a spine and isn’t just like “okay then lock me up if you love me so much durrrr,” but on the other hand, the bad ending seemed so much worse (and also effective in its use of horror) because the sense of failure (even for the player) was so strong. Dunno if that makes sense, but I’m trying to avoid spoiling too much.

   Overall, though, I’d say the game is quite good, despite the yanderes. I’d really like to hear your opinions on it sometime, as you have a LOT more experience with otome games and romantic stuff as well as a good eye for the issues in the genre. (And obviously I’ll be able to speak better of the overall aspects when I actually finish the game.) I think the “fantastic racism” was actually handled okay (maybe too far on the optimistic side of the scale, but it made me feel good), though the handling of gender is a very interesting mixed bag.