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Otome Community Thread: A New Era of Beefcakes
- Thread starter Shizuka
- Start date
It probably was cause of me :p
The good news is that I FINALLY good an email on my alt email... sent early this morning and was tucked in "promotions" which never pings an icon for the update... Hope there's no issue with using my alt email on the address, but my main (apparently buggy) email for my Paypal payment.
The good news is that I FINALLY good an email on my alt email... sent early this morning and was tucked in "promotions" which never pings an icon for the update... Hope there's no issue with using my alt email on the address, but my main (apparently buggy) email for my Paypal payment.
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Finally started Pyschedelica of the Black Butterfly last night. Only did the prologue so far but I'm into the premise, and ended up seeing some of y'all's thoughts by chance earlier in the thread again last night, so I know what to expect on certain fronts quality-wise, which I appreciate.
Personally I'm just a little bothered by the engine. I don't know if I need to turn down the text speed for once or what, but it feels like it's easy to accidentally cut off lines while tapping to fill out the current line's text. Similarly, I hate that checking the backlog stops the current line's VO and doesn't resume it once you leave the backlog. I guess compared to other games, there is the "rewind by one line" function I can use to get around this and should use more, but it's frustrating. It also feels like something's a bit off with the text boxes' look but maybe I just need to mess with opacity. And, well, the sprites look nice but it's a bit weird to go back to no lip flaps after so much Chaos;Child, but I should have expected that much.
The only truly annoying things is that I've already have seen a number of issues in the writing, which isn't a great sign. Really basic stuff like unclosed parentheses, not having a period to end a sentence, the sentence before that one actually not pluralizing something correctly, and (most concerningly) a character saying "my message" when it was another character's. Not looking forward to the chance that actually important reveals later on could be messed up due to errors like that.
Still, I'm into it and looking forward to playing more of it over the next few weeks. VN-wise, doubt I'll have time for more than it (and Heaven Will Be Mine, which... maybe vaguely counts as otome? I don't know) before 428's out, but I'd like to finish it by then at least; I can get to Ashen Hawk and 7'scarlet later in the year.
Personally I'm just a little bothered by the engine. I don't know if I need to turn down the text speed for once or what, but it feels like it's easy to accidentally cut off lines while tapping to fill out the current line's text. Similarly, I hate that checking the backlog stops the current line's VO and doesn't resume it once you leave the backlog. I guess compared to other games, there is the "rewind by one line" function I can use to get around this and should use more, but it's frustrating. It also feels like something's a bit off with the text boxes' look but maybe I just need to mess with opacity. And, well, the sprites look nice but it's a bit weird to go back to no lip flaps after so much Chaos;Child, but I should have expected that much.
The only truly annoying things is that I've already have seen a number of issues in the writing, which isn't a great sign. Really basic stuff like unclosed parentheses, not having a period to end a sentence, the sentence before that one actually not pluralizing something correctly, and (most concerningly) a character saying "my message" when it was another character's. Not looking forward to the chance that actually important reveals later on could be messed up due to errors like that.
Still, I'm into it and looking forward to playing more of it over the next few weeks. VN-wise, doubt I'll have time for more than it (and Heaven Will Be Mine, which... maybe vaguely counts as otome? I don't know) before 428's out, but I'd like to finish it by then at least; I can get to Ashen Hawk and 7'scarlet later in the year.
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I hope we start getting them physically on Switch.
The Switch has been insane with the explosion of such diverse genres. Would anyone have expected THIS many otome (quality aside) to come out in the past year, several years ago? I also never would've thought that Vita would turn out to be such an otome-heavy machine, either.
The Switch has been insane with the explosion of such diverse genres. Would anyone have expected THIS many otome (quality aside) to come out in the past year, several years ago? I also never would've thought that Vita would turn out to be such an otome-heavy machine, either.
The titles available in English are mostly mobile parts with average to poor translations. Several of the D3 titles are up on Steam and the communities for the games show off a lot of the issues with the respective titles.
So my review of Collar x Malice is up:
https://kresnik258gaming.wordpress.com/2018/08/11/vita-collar-x-malice-review/
I was really 'ehhh' on the game for the first couple of routes but it really came together by the end.
Few (spoilered) thoughts on some later story stuff:
https://kresnik258gaming.wordpress.com/2018/08/11/vita-collar-x-malice-review/
I was really 'ehhh' on the game for the first couple of routes but it really came together by the end.
Few (spoilered) thoughts on some later story stuff:
Shirashi's route really surprised me, but I honestly wasn't a massive fan of it by the end. I guess I'm fairly green with otome stuff but it felt creepy
Didn't work out Saeki until the beginning of Yanagi's route when they started hinting that it was something Ichika knew really well. I was hoping to god it wasn't Mochida
Speaking of, I was disappointed he wasn't romanceable, although it was lovely hearing all the stories about his and his wife's date nights. He was just a really nice character, as were Sakuragawa and Mukai
Shiraishi is my favorite, but his ending was a bit rushed. I get the general idea behind it - they wanted to show that he changed, but the execution veered into nonsensical territory a bit too much.
If you go through Mineo's route first, it's easy to figure out who the culprit is. As soon as Saeki got shot during the concert, the Adonis shenanigans stopped. That was a major red flag :P.
If you go through Mineo's route first, it's easy to figure out who the culprit is. As soon as Saeki got shot during the concert, the Adonis shenanigans stopped. That was a major red flag :P.
Yep, I read that in one of the reviews for the game - but that just never clicked on for me until I saw it afterwards. I liked it though, because it kept me guessing until right up at the end.
Shirashi was just... yeah. As soon as I found out he was working for Adonis and had been involved with everything he was involved with, my sympathy just wasn't there. When Ichika lost her memory and woke up with him I honestly didn't want him to be there, which is rare for a route of an otome - even Okazaki who I didn't like was better than him
Shirashi was just... yeah. As soon as I found out he was working for Adonis and had been involved with everything he was involved with, my sympathy just wasn't there. When Ichika lost her memory and woke up with him I honestly didn't want him to be there, which is rare for a route of an otome - even Okazaki who I didn't like was better than him
To be fair, Shiraishi had been brainwashed since childhood. The whole ending bit was him coming to terms with his emotions - that he wasn't just a puppet anymore. Yet, at the same time he wanted to cling to all those new found feelings. Thus you have him looking after Ichika in all its nonsensical glory.
Still slowly playing Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly here and there.
I find the structure with the short episodes very interesting, but... the content is very hit or miss.
Meanwhile, the plot's getting going and it's definitely interesting but I'm a little frustrated.
I find the structure with the short episodes very interesting, but... the content is very hit or miss.
The cast making curry together? Really great, and also a good reminder to make curry myself this weekend, hah. But this "I'll help you with making your gun, but no homo" and "how dare you say I'm like a woman, that's the worst thing you can say to a man", etc. etc. stuff is just... tiring at best. Karasuba and Yamato constantly fighting drags scenes out as is; I don't need the entire cast becoming dude bros over this stuff too.
Meanwhile, the plot's getting going and it's definitely interesting but I'm a little frustrated.
Come the fuck on Beniyuri, this is the third time you've seen someone turn into a monster and the second time you've seen someone be vocally panicked/in despair during it, you have to know how it looks by now. And Yamato's going on about how he "killed him" when he literally just told you about his brother and you just learned his brother's probably Hikage? Could you maybe have said aaaaanything about that to help calm him down instead of having to go through the "one of the guys has to grab me cause I'm too close to someone VERY CLEARLY TURNING INTO A MONSTER" routine again??
I don't dislike her as the protagonist but I'd enjoy this much more if she could at least be a LITTLE more on top of this stuff, please.
I don't dislike her as the protagonist but I'd enjoy this much more if she could at least be a LITTLE more on top of this stuff, please.
I hated those side stories so much I almost dropped the game. Holy carp I was so mad (probably didn't help that they were some of the first available).
I gave it another chance and thankfully the game did pick up after that but I ended up putting it aside anyway. Another time.
Ok, I'm liking Psychedelica more as I progress, but... the translation, or rather the editing, or rather the lack of editing, is so disappointing. I keep seeing typos (even in character names!), missing words, punctuation gone wrong, pluralization issues, at least one time possession was incorrect, and now a line even repeated later in a scene. It's weird because the translation has some amount of effort put into it, with short lines changed a bit to add character, and so on; it's certainly not bland, though I have no idea how accurate it actually is. It just... seems like either no QA pass even happened, or that it happened but none of the fixes were made.
Meanwhile, the system text is so bad that it absolutely has to be machine translated and/or the real translators weren't allowed to even touch it. I first noticed it when you're made to play a Short Episode for the first time, the description of the next story scene says "Adjacent Short Episode will be unlocked when cleared", which is the opposite of the truth - watching the adjacent episode unlocks the story scene. And then when you select one, it says "Going to scene" (with no punctuation!) as the prompt with "yes" and "no" as the choices, which... no, that's not a question. The titles of the Short Episodes seem stilted/blunt enough that they seem to fit this as well, especially as the one called "Hated Thing" has nothing to do with disliking things and is probably meant to be something like "the thing you're bad at". And of course, as I typed this I realized even the pause menu item descriptions have a bizarre tense choice: "Saving data.", "Changing environmental settings.", "Showing flowchart.", "Returning to title.", etc.
Also,
please tell me Ashen Hawk got more love than this
Meanwhile, the system text is so bad that it absolutely has to be machine translated and/or the real translators weren't allowed to even touch it. I first noticed it when you're made to play a Short Episode for the first time, the description of the next story scene says "Adjacent Short Episode will be unlocked when cleared", which is the opposite of the truth - watching the adjacent episode unlocks the story scene. And then when you select one, it says "Going to scene" (with no punctuation!) as the prompt with "yes" and "no" as the choices, which... no, that's not a question. The titles of the Short Episodes seem stilted/blunt enough that they seem to fit this as well, especially as the one called "Hated Thing" has nothing to do with disliking things and is probably meant to be something like "the thing you're bad at". And of course, as I typed this I realized even the pause menu item descriptions have a bizarre tense choice: "Saving data.", "Changing environmental settings.", "Showing flowchart.", "Returning to title.", etc.
Also,
the CG of the picture of young Hikage and Yamato is titled "The boy resembling young Yamato and Beniyuri" because ????
please tell me Ashen Hawk got more love than this
Ashen Hawk got more love! I mean it still has typos here and there, but it's not nearly as much as in BB.
Finished the common endings in Black Butterfly. I enjoyed it more as it continued, and I think if anything I have more issues with the pacing and how it introduces the characters. There are things that make more sense later but that doesn't stop them from being very frustrating early on. I'll share more thoughts once I finish, I guess.
Starting on the character routes now but I might slow down a bit this upcoming week cause I reaaaally focused on it this week at the expense of other games; I know I'll finish by when 428's out and that's the goal, so no need to rush completely. I did get Karasuba's bad ending and am reading his good ending right now; I'm following the order + guide Saphirax suggested fwiw.
I'll note that while getting to the good ending, I actually had 0 issue starting from the branching point of his bad end (which I'd actually already hit during my first playthrough, but jumped out of) in the flowchart rather than needing to start from the beginning as some people have. I had a theory that it might work and since it did I'm guessing my reasoning is true: I intentionally never made a choice my first time through that went against the choices for Karasuba, so there wasn't any other possibility I could have picked. (The only one that differed is that when I jumped out of his bad end I chose not to even have the scene that gave me the option, but of course that doesn't matter if I start from that scene.)
Now, the question is whether this can only work for your first post-common route, or if the game's keeping track of the last choices you made at each branch even if you don't play continuously. I'll test this during Yamato's, I guess? I'm guessing it'll just be that it works the first, since individual save vs system save stuff is already weird (it bothers me a bit that time played isn't shared across saves, and that when you hit endings it only saves the system and doesn't prompt you to save so you can load it to access the flowchart like it does at chapter ends). But if I'm right, it'll save some time while skipping at least.
Starting on the character routes now but I might slow down a bit this upcoming week cause I reaaaally focused on it this week at the expense of other games; I know I'll finish by when 428's out and that's the goal, so no need to rush completely. I did get Karasuba's bad ending and am reading his good ending right now; I'm following the order + guide Saphirax suggested fwiw.
I'll note that while getting to the good ending, I actually had 0 issue starting from the branching point of his bad end (which I'd actually already hit during my first playthrough, but jumped out of) in the flowchart rather than needing to start from the beginning as some people have. I had a theory that it might work and since it did I'm guessing my reasoning is true: I intentionally never made a choice my first time through that went against the choices for Karasuba, so there wasn't any other possibility I could have picked. (The only one that differed is that when I jumped out of his bad end I chose not to even have the scene that gave me the option, but of course that doesn't matter if I start from that scene.)
Now, the question is whether this can only work for your first post-common route, or if the game's keeping track of the last choices you made at each branch even if you don't play continuously. I'll test this during Yamato's, I guess? I'm guessing it'll just be that it works the first, since individual save vs system save stuff is already weird (it bothers me a bit that time played isn't shared across saves, and that when you hit endings it only saves the system and doesn't prompt you to save so you can load it to access the flowchart like it does at chapter ends). But if I'm right, it'll save some time while skipping at least.
Finally started Ashen Hawk. The setting is once again super interesting. And again, the characters and art are GORGEOUS.
They've also already specifically mentioned a character has two moles under their eye which makes me worried after what happened with Black Butterfly lol
They've also already specifically mentioned a character has two moles under their eye which makes me worried after what happened with Black Butterfly lol
Since Aksys did not announce Unlimited being localized, I bought the AmiAmi limited edition and it arrived recently. The box is much nicer and easier to open without damaging it than many western limited edition boxes.
Thought I would update everyone about the Princess Arthur iOS version. It lets you download a free copy and then you have to buy each route individually. That kinda sucks for those who want to complete the full game, especially since pretty much all the boys are pretty interesting, but I'm limiting myself to one now. The translation I think is pretty good so far though!
Otome game where you get to be a slutty bisexual? This game was made for me!
Otome game where you get to be a slutty bisexual? This game was made for me!
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Uff, reading the plot synopsis definitely has me interested. Whyyyy aren't they releasing the Vita version?
I would assume that Sony has at least some amount of standards regarding the translation of games.
Cause it's sure not a good sign when even the store page screenshots are that messy.
They do not. Just look at games such as SAO, Digimon etc. In fact, SAO's localization was much worse.
I thought SAO was an English release in Asia? Or did they release that in the US too and I'm just blanking on it.
Because yeah, what I've seen of that is definitely worse than this, so you're right.
Been focusing on other stuff, but came back to Black Butterfly in the past few days for my second route, Yamato, and will hopefully start on Kagiha's today too.
For what it's worth, my experiment was a success. I had 0 trouble getting his endings by jumping around in the flowchart rather than skipping through the entire game, seeing his short episodes at the appropriate times as I went. I'm not sure why others had trouble with him and Karasuba's, unless it was a matter of not making every choice (and potentially missing having to pick the default option on choices that weren't available at first), hmm. Clearly something's documented and/or working weirdly if it's such a common issue, and there's a chance I just haven't made some unnecessary choice that breaks it, but it worked fine for me.
Specifically, I did, after getting Karasuba's route...
Kagiha's next... but he has so many short episodes, and they're indeed very short, but I find it very hard to focus on the disconnected scenes so I'm about to waste a ton of time getting distracted, ugh.
For what it's worth, my experiment was a success. I had 0 trouble getting his endings by jumping around in the flowchart rather than skipping through the entire game, seeing his short episodes at the appropriate times as I went. I'm not sure why others had trouble with him and Karasuba's, unless it was a matter of not making every choice (and potentially missing having to pick the default option on choices that weren't available at first), hmm. Clearly something's documented and/or working weirdly if it's such a common issue, and there's a chance I just haven't made some unnecessary choice that breaks it, but it worked fine for me.
Specifically, I did, after getting Karasuba's route...
I should say I saw About Brothers beforehand due to the common route short episode quota, but that's what I would have started this with if I hadn't. Now, with -> for jumps and commas for things I did sequentially (immediately jumping out of the last scene of a sequence once I reached it), I did...
2-2, 2-3-2, 2-4 -> I Hate the Rain -> Favorite Food -> 3-3, 3-4-2, 4-1 -> Friendly Quarrel -> 4-3, Yamato route through the ending, after credits load save on Yamato route -> 4-3, 4-4 -> Bathing -> In the Greenhouse -> Long Hair -> 4-8, 4-9, 4-10-2, 5-1 -> 6-3, 7-1 (I wasn't actually given the choice here) -> Epilogue-1 and then it gave me Takuya's ending.
2-2, 2-3-2, 2-4 -> I Hate the Rain -> Favorite Food -> 3-3, 3-4-2, 4-1 -> Friendly Quarrel -> 4-3, Yamato route through the ending, after credits load save on Yamato route -> 4-3, 4-4 -> Bathing -> In the Greenhouse -> Long Hair -> 4-8, 4-9, 4-10-2, 5-1 -> 6-3, 7-1 (I wasn't actually given the choice here) -> Epilogue-1 and then it gave me Takuya's ending.
Kagiha's next... but he has so many short episodes, and they're indeed very short, but I find it very hard to focus on the disconnected scenes so I'm about to waste a ton of time getting distracted, ugh.
Amazon US has several of Aksys' otome releases on sale. The Summer of Mystery games are all under $30 USD and Future Blessings is $20 USD, though they might not get more copies in.
Some thoughts on Black Butterfly, since I just dumped them very vaguely on Twitter and meant do post clearly on here anyway, and should get them out of my head before continuing my day. It feels good to write about it like this too - there's things I didn't really think about my feelings of till I was in the middle of typing on Twitter or right here.
On the second to last character for me and then I only have Hikage and the last extra bits left.
that was way too many words and time to spend on very generic thoughts, hah
...in the end I expect I'll enjoy these last parts more, and then enjoy Ashen Hawk more when I get to it after 428, which I'll hopefully play through at a good pace despite being on PS4... if Mysteria comes out before I'm done that, I'll probably still play Ashen first
On the second to last character for me and then I only have Hikage and the last extra bits left.
The format is interesting to me, still, but doesn't work super well in practice? So much of the short episodes are kinda boring and meaningless. They also are super hard for me to focus on - though I'm doing better with it these past few days, because I'm trying harder to use techniques focus in general - because many are very generic fluff that hit the same exact notes and themes. I feel like skipping through a common route only to hit choices + new scenes at least ties things together in a way that makes me focus on each thing that pops up, hmm. And everything set early on has potentially interesting foreshadowing if you saw it at the time, but disconnected it's just tedious as hell to see the characters barely understand their bits of memory, over and over.
But maybe that gets into the issue of the plot being sorta... weirdly handled in general? So much of the monster fighting and such happens offscreen, which is fine, centering it on the characters' makes sense. But even the short episode gating feels like it's forcing you to go get a sense of what their lives are during that time like instead of actually showing that naturally. And then the setting feels arbitrary given that the mystery is very specifically about these characters, hmm. Maybe Hikage's stuff will change this, but as I see Monshiro confronting him at the start of this route, I'm kinda struck by the fact that Hikage and this entire mansion setup seems like... completely unrelated to anything that actually matters beyond things coincidentally happening at that specific lake; it's not like he was directly involved, beyond maybe the mansion itself being cursed in a way (which... would make it all his fault?). In the end it's a short game, with very distinct parts (given the pools of short episodes tied to a period of time), and I feel like not a ton actually happens.
Then there's that the character routes kinda... are very similar too? Because they have to address the exact same baggage and don't do it very uniquely, especially with Real World and the common end/epilogue already having to delve into it to begin with. Karasuba and Yamato's good endings are both about you barely starting a relationship and not really showing anyone moving past their issues; their bad ends aren't anything special. Kagiha is just extremely boring as a character because the vaguely interesting things about him are on the common route, and his bad end, his only ending, is basically just Karasuba's. I'm particularly frustrated there's no Natsu ending - maybe it's meant to be common epilogue + Real World + the few extra things I have yet to see that aren't Hikage related, but for all the annoying repetition of dealing with the fallout of that summer day, I would have liked to see Beniyuri deal with moving on as a person and not just in association with dating one of the guys. To see her deal with her guilt in a way that's not just related to a guy's own guilt.
Along those lines, Beniyuri is... not bad, but arbitrarily slow to deal with things/share information and weak willed a lot of the time, in frustrating ways. Even when she takes a stance, it feels like she's still deferential to the guys. Later in the game it does go way more into her emotions about that time and the guys not telling her the truth, but... she doesn't change much? And all this is made worse by one big aspect of the story: it's specifically EXTREMELY frustrating to me how she's actually super strong willed as a kid! She's basically the group's leader, standing up for the weaker ones and not taking any shit! And it just vanished completely as she ages?! How does the kid who stood up to bullies who went after her friends for being feminine grow up to be the girl who's relieved when Hikage goes "oh, it's not that I think you specifically aren't capable, I just think all women are incompetent so I need to worry about protecting you"?! And none of that strength even comes back with her memories, at all. Even her resolve to move forward is a very different thing than reclaiming the strength she'd buried due to guilt. That's why I wanted that Natsu-less Natsu end, to have her deal with this, and... also the matter of her involvement with the incident.
Because there's like... this very weird handling of who's to blame for what (not that I think it's fair to actually blame any of these kids for this, but...). Takuya did the intentionally poor ribbon tying, sure. Aki hates that he was unable to do anything. But Ai is to blame... for going to the mansion? Like, that's a thing they weren't supposed to do, sure, but she also explicitly rushed them to cross the lake rather than waiting for help (even without hearing Aki - which could also have been used as a point of contention between them if he didn't know they didn't hear it), and that feels like a way more direct contribution to it? I'm not saying it's reasonable to blame her for even that, mind, but in terms of "it was your fault!" or "it's my fault!" blaming being thrown around, that bit makes way more sense as something thrown at her/what she herself sees as why she's at fault, than just going there at all!
...all that being said, Monshiro's route is off to a much more interesting start than anything else between Real World and now, with the revelation that he didn't actually know he was still alive (unless I missed the regular ending mentioning this...?). I have some small issues with how weird he acts (I know he's been alone for 10 years, but Kazuya just seemed shy, and for him to be this exact same way without becoming more normal in the epilogue a year later...?), but he's more actively entertaining than most of the others. I expect seeing a take on things actually more clearly with his + Kagiha + Hikage's input is what will make things engaging again, hah.
But maybe that gets into the issue of the plot being sorta... weirdly handled in general? So much of the monster fighting and such happens offscreen, which is fine, centering it on the characters' makes sense. But even the short episode gating feels like it's forcing you to go get a sense of what their lives are during that time like instead of actually showing that naturally. And then the setting feels arbitrary given that the mystery is very specifically about these characters, hmm. Maybe Hikage's stuff will change this, but as I see Monshiro confronting him at the start of this route, I'm kinda struck by the fact that Hikage and this entire mansion setup seems like... completely unrelated to anything that actually matters beyond things coincidentally happening at that specific lake; it's not like he was directly involved, beyond maybe the mansion itself being cursed in a way (which... would make it all his fault?). In the end it's a short game, with very distinct parts (given the pools of short episodes tied to a period of time), and I feel like not a ton actually happens.
Then there's that the character routes kinda... are very similar too? Because they have to address the exact same baggage and don't do it very uniquely, especially with Real World and the common end/epilogue already having to delve into it to begin with. Karasuba and Yamato's good endings are both about you barely starting a relationship and not really showing anyone moving past their issues; their bad ends aren't anything special. Kagiha is just extremely boring as a character because the vaguely interesting things about him are on the common route, and his bad end, his only ending, is basically just Karasuba's. I'm particularly frustrated there's no Natsu ending - maybe it's meant to be common epilogue + Real World + the few extra things I have yet to see that aren't Hikage related, but for all the annoying repetition of dealing with the fallout of that summer day, I would have liked to see Beniyuri deal with moving on as a person and not just in association with dating one of the guys. To see her deal with her guilt in a way that's not just related to a guy's own guilt.
Along those lines, Beniyuri is... not bad, but arbitrarily slow to deal with things/share information and weak willed a lot of the time, in frustrating ways. Even when she takes a stance, it feels like she's still deferential to the guys. Later in the game it does go way more into her emotions about that time and the guys not telling her the truth, but... she doesn't change much? And all this is made worse by one big aspect of the story: it's specifically EXTREMELY frustrating to me how she's actually super strong willed as a kid! She's basically the group's leader, standing up for the weaker ones and not taking any shit! And it just vanished completely as she ages?! How does the kid who stood up to bullies who went after her friends for being feminine grow up to be the girl who's relieved when Hikage goes "oh, it's not that I think you specifically aren't capable, I just think all women are incompetent so I need to worry about protecting you"?! And none of that strength even comes back with her memories, at all. Even her resolve to move forward is a very different thing than reclaiming the strength she'd buried due to guilt. That's why I wanted that Natsu-less Natsu end, to have her deal with this, and... also the matter of her involvement with the incident.
Because there's like... this very weird handling of who's to blame for what (not that I think it's fair to actually blame any of these kids for this, but...). Takuya did the intentionally poor ribbon tying, sure. Aki hates that he was unable to do anything. But Ai is to blame... for going to the mansion? Like, that's a thing they weren't supposed to do, sure, but she also explicitly rushed them to cross the lake rather than waiting for help (even without hearing Aki - which could also have been used as a point of contention between them if he didn't know they didn't hear it), and that feels like a way more direct contribution to it? I'm not saying it's reasonable to blame her for even that, mind, but in terms of "it was your fault!" or "it's my fault!" blaming being thrown around, that bit makes way more sense as something thrown at her/what she herself sees as why she's at fault, than just going there at all!
...all that being said, Monshiro's route is off to a much more interesting start than anything else between Real World and now, with the revelation that he didn't actually know he was still alive (unless I missed the regular ending mentioning this...?). I have some small issues with how weird he acts (I know he's been alone for 10 years, but Kazuya just seemed shy, and for him to be this exact same way without becoming more normal in the epilogue a year later...?), but he's more actively entertaining than most of the others. I expect seeing a take on things actually more clearly with his + Kagiha + Hikage's input is what will make things engaging again, hah.
that was way too many words and time to spend on very generic thoughts, hah
...in the end I expect I'll enjoy these last parts more, and then enjoy Ashen Hawk more when I get to it after 428, which I'll hopefully play through at a good pace despite being on PS4... if Mysteria comes out before I'm done that, I'll probably still play Ashen first