Update Three Hundred and Twenty-Nine: 01 October 2019
Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms
739 hours playtime, holy jesus christ, 36 of 36 achievements
AT LAST I AM FREE FROM THIS/10
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
OH MY GOD! OOOOHHHH my god! OH MY GOD! HEY!
It’s been literally two months!! TWO WHOLE MONTHS! I missed you guys!!
I’ve been playing this for so long I can’t possibly write a coherent review about it - like if you drop a cup of orange juice in a swimming pool, any coherent thought has been diluted just by the time and the experience and the utter joy that I don’t have to play this anymore. I gotta get used to writing video game reviews again, though, so I gotta muster up some semblance of trying.
Okay, Edo Blossoms is a direct continuation of Kyoto Winds (it originally was one game, they just split it in two because jesus christ). Rather than having a ‘main’ route like its predecessor, Edo Blossoms has you pick your route from the beginning, since you already did the heavy lifting of getting that hot samurai boy to like you.
Then you watch the same crushing defeat after crushing defeat from literally eleven fucking different angles. The game progresses pretty much the same, following the historic, meteoric, fated-for-doom Shinsengumi path, with only the fantastical elements and the samurai boy flavor changing. That shit is NOT enough, and what the game gradually reveals isn’t worth the slog. The art is beautiful, of course, but the heroine doesn’t move the story and any emotional ups and downs are flattened by the need to keep following the Shinsengumi’s slow march toward its end. The guys aren’t THAT much different from each other, so it really feels like I just played the same fucking seven hour route over and over again, just plus or minus a few degrees of snark or niceness or whatever.
I left this game open and idling SO much, you guys. It wasn’t a labor of love, but it was really a labor.
… wow. Jeez. There you go. That’s what I got. Two months, two paragraphs. Finally I am free.
I’ve settled into work. I’m in TWO real life D&D campaigns now. My friends are my light and my joy. I’m still drawing a ton and slowly getting better—
(The West: Second Saga main cast enjoying well-deserved nap and group hug. Can you guess which bitch is mine?)
And, uh, and, uh, and, uh, I’m buying a house (!!!). Our aim is to be moved in by Halloween.
A lot of stuff that’s been taking me away from gaming (and having two incredibly long games at once don’t help). I haven’t stopped thinkin about youse guys, though, and I’m ideally going to be playing much shorter games in the near future. While my reviews may have slowed, my love of gaming has not!
Next up: Okay okay okay okaaaaayyy please be short please be short—yesssssssss!!!!
See you soon!
I left this game open and idling SO much, you guys.
Here’s the answer to my question… after seeing the 700+ hours! :D
I didn’t give a ‘real’ playtime because I honest to god felt like I played this fucking thing for every single one of those 700 hours.
I had the same question, so I could ask, “why did you spend XX hours on a game you despised so much?” I do kind of get it though…it’s completionism, and it’s also not wanting to stop reading/playing a story/game you’ve already started, even if you don’t like it.
Because I didn’t want it to WIN! I didn’t want an otome game to beat me…! I… admit the art was just good enough. It was a slog for 700 hours… but it was 700 hours staring at cute boys.
I’m not usually like this, honest! I just didn’t want to quit.
wondered why I saw you had crimson gray achievements. I noticed yesterday that you finished 2 routes but whenever I looked it didnt look like you were near enough to the end but clearly i was wrong. Guess I’m not finishing both stories before you
Really? I didn’t even finish one! One achievement popped when I started the game, and the other one popped at just a story event. I’m maybe 60% through my first run?
It’s… so bad! But! It’s not Edo Blossoms so I’m enjoying myself immensely.
meant for edo i kept seeing the 2 routes in the end. i did see that you probably didnt actually play crimson gray though. i didnt actually mind it but i do get what you mean by edo. I’m starting my 3rd character soon and its like ugh i already know what will happen with all the endings at this point
Who…who are you again? :D
At that speed I’m really curious how many reviews you’ll get in before the year ends…1? 2? Have fun with the next game!
Waaaaah, Vitooooo, nooooo!!! God, I hope not. It’s certainly not going to be my usual run of like 10+ a month anymore, though.
I’ll be sticking to shorter games until 2019 runs out so hopefully I’ll be around more often!
MAN. I MISSED YOU. SO GOSHDANGIN MUCH.
-like literally, i’ve been stalking your profile every now and then to see if there’s even any progress happening-
and also hey I MISSED YOUR POST AGAIN BECAUSE GUESS WHAT time zones are a thing and so i was asleep when it first happened
now please have fun knocking out much shorter games and i will enjoy it as well :3
Hahaha, aww! There WAS progress… just slow… and hidden until I had something to show!
I’ll be back around more often c:
Yeah, I totally kept wondering “Is she… is she ever gonna come back? O-or… is she lost to those two long-ass games now?”
Just saw your new post! Again, so happy to have you back :D
tsuper!!!!!!!!!!!!! we missed you!!!
stef has started fatamorgana ;D
you better get many ornamental pumpkins for your new house!!! lol
I SAW!!! I SAW!! I was like YESSS STEFFFFF
I’ve also been listening to the Visual Novel Book Club podcast jokesters read through Fata Morgana and it made me SO nostalgic for it. I’m definitely replaying it next year.
I’m happy to be back - and we’ll try!
Welcome back! :D It did felt like someone was missing :)
That’s a really sweet thing to say, thank you! Happy to have returned.
Welcome back tsuper! Looks like your life has been good. :D
Thank you! It has! It so has! It so so so has!
… but it’ll be that much better if I can keep making sure BLAEO is in it. <33