(I know this is kind of long, but I generally do these longer write-ups for otoge/VNs for my own memory’s sake.)

Play Time: ~25 hours

Completion Rate: 100% (All CG/movies collected, side stories read, all endings viewed)

Order of Route Completion: Goemon --> Hanzo --> Chojiro --> Kuroyuki --> Gekkamaru

Favorite Routes (Most to Least): Hanzo --> Gekkamaru --> Kuroyuki --> Goemon --> Chojiro

This was honestly kind of tough to rank because my character preferences didn’t necessarily correlate with my route preferences.

Just some background/gameplay stuff:

Various supporting characters and LIs are based on historical figures (Hattori Hanzo, Ishikawa Goemon, Tokugawa Ieyasu and the other Five Elders, Toyotomi Hideyoshi etc.). The plot is somewhat political, as it mostly revolves around the MC being framed for the murder of Toyotomi and the elders using this to gain more power. This takes place roughly in 1599 (Keicho Year 3), so right before Sekigahara, which I’ve become pretty familiar with over the years because of my love of the Samurai Deeper Kyo manga, haha.

The characters: The main character, Ueno Enju (16), is a Koga shinobi. The year before she was born, the Iga clan was by and large wiped out by Oda Nobunaga, and their rival clan, the Koga, took in the survivors. The sister of the Iga clan leader married the leader of the Koga, and then our MC was born. Because she’s this symbol of peace and unity between the clans, she has been cherished and protected by the village and her friends, despite her desire to become a fully-fledged shinobi for her people. The game starts with her finally going on her first mission…

Of the love interests, Chojiro (22), Kuroyuki (16), and Gekkamaru (19) are Koga shinobi. Hanzo (32) and Goemon (25) are “themselves” as much as they can be in an otoge. Chojiro is Enju’s first cousin (son of the late Iga clan leader) and her teacher. Kuroyuki and Gekkamaru, brothers, were brought to Koga from Iga when the clan was wiped out. Eight years prior to the start of the game, Kuroyuki (then 8) was sent on a mission away from Koga and is just returning, and Gekkamaru (then 11) was made Enju’s bodyguard.

The Routes: Each LI has a true route/ending and one bad ending. Kind of refreshing to not have to make a bunch of save files per character to get all of their bad endings. Then, for extras, there are 2 bonus scenes for each LI in the Memoirs (which is the menu section where you can reread individual chapters), and one longer special story each. The special stories all have a bonus CG as well, which doesn’t get added to the gallery for some reason. The special stories were all pretty cute, but the Hanzo one was absolutely precious. Did have a bit of a hiccup with the memoirs, as there are some choices you don’t select during the common route for any of the LIs, and you have to view every choice and the following relevant text for it to populate those chapters in the common route memoirs. There were guides for this online that I had to look up because there are a ton of branching paths in the common route that I had no desire to try to navigate through to find a couple of dinky choices.

You can also do the routes in any order, as none of them are locked behind a “finish these first” wall. There are always recommended orders, which I followed for my playthrough, and I’d at least recommend leaving Kuroyuki and Gekkamaru for last as they are the most spoilery.

Thoughts on the LI routes:

I loved Hanzo’s route for a lot of reasons. He’s voiced by Tsuda Kenjiro (who I know has more recently been blowing up in popularity for his anime roles, but I’ve been simpin’ for that voice since first playing Hakuoki a decade ago, haha), so enough said. Setting aside any ick you might feel from the age difference (he’s 32, she’s 16) considering it’s the late 1500s, their conversations had the most depth, and Enju got way more skilled and less damsel-y over the course of the story. The plot during his route was solid and did a good job of addressing Enju’s empathy and inability to “truly” be a good shinobi when she can’t put a mission above her friends and loved ones. Just a great route that covered all the bases.

I liked Chojiro himself a lot, but I was more icked by them being first cousins and him having been her teacher her whole life than anything, time period be damned. I kept expecting there to be some reveal where he was actually adopted by the Iga leader or something but nope. His route was also just devastating on multiple levels. The political side of the plot was so fucked and sad. Just didn’t enjoy the presentation of his route, despite how much I liked him as a character.

Kuroyuki’s route is red flag after manipulative red flag, but I can’t help but find him precious. Boy has been THROUGH. IT. and his route is heartbreaking. You just have to learn to expect at least one of these characters in an otoge. Definitely one of the “bad” otoge tropes, but at least he’s not locking her in a literal cage like one of the Amnesia LIs (been years and that’s the one thing I really remember about that game). This is also the only route besides Gekka's where you get some real answers about things, which is kinda lame in the sense that there were loose ends in the others because of it.

Gekkamaru is a solid character with a solid route. His route is more in line with Chojiro’s in the political aspects (there are basically two major ways that the assassination and frame job are dealt with across the routes, with some small differences). Gekkamaru, having been Enju’s bodyguard for half their lives, is very protective of her and puts her before everything else, including missions or the village. He's a good dude and a likeable character.

Goemon’s route was probably the most “different” overall, or at least tied with Kuroyuki’s. They all start with the same premise and the assassination/framing, but his story explored a lot of the history of the Iga and Fuma clans, had some twists, and was overall pretty entertaining. He’s just not my fav, and that’s par for the course for me with the always-included player/ladies’ man character.

Misc. Other Thoughts: There are some nice supporting characters, namely Tokugawa and Enju’s other friends from the village: Kyara, Ennosuke, and Kasumi. The friends are great characters whose lives are unfortunately at the mercy of the plot most of the time. Kyara will tear into Enju when she’s being wimpy, and that was refreshing. I also really liked that honorifics were included in the translation. Many VNs/otoge are still using Mr., Lord, etc., so seeing –san, -sama, etc., is pretty rare. Not everything was, but it’s a good start. This was a major issue for me in the original Norn9 otoge translation and bugged me a lot because I could hear how characters were actually addressing each other. I know it might not matter to some, or it might sound nitpicky, but I think the ways that characters address each other (and the times when that changes in familiarity) is a really important aspect of their relationships, especially in games about romance.

The music was pretty great, and the art is lovely. Lots of beautiful backgrounds depicting forests and mountains, and really nice character designs. I think the plot was overall kind of weak, and many of the routes had a lot of sections of just traveling, running into enemy, repeat. Hanzo’s route had great conversations and relationship development, considering he’s the man of few words of the LIs, which was another reason his was so enjoyable other than it being about him.

Overall, nothing mind-blowing or super captivating about this one, but it's not bad.