On the first sight, "The Rose of Segunda" doesn't seem to be much different than most visual novels. It has simple, rather predictable story, decent writing and nice art. But I fell in love with this game and although it's not the best in the genre, there are things that makes it stand out.


Protagonist. It's such a pleasure to finally play as someone who isn't extremely shy or extremely stupid (in most otome games, it's tragic combination of both). Choices you make shape protagonist, her reactions and interests, but overall, even if you decide to play dumb, to win prince's heart, she's really intelligent and charming person. I loved her interactions with other characters. It was nicely done and realistic.

Other characters. Everyone here is likable. Seriously. I enjoyed all the rivals and love interests (I still have few routes to finish, but given what I've seen so far, I don't think I will be disappointed). Every character has something unique about them.

Relationships. The problem with many otome games is that they try to "do romance" too fast. There are berely few interactions between characters and suddenly they fell in love. This isn't the case here. Sure, you won't spent a lot of time with your love interest, but there is so much non-forced chemistry here that it didn't bother me one bit. I could clearly see why other characters were interested in MC and why she was interested in them. So refreshing after playing dozens of titles with boring protagonists that for some unknown reason is loved by literally everyone.


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Those were the things I absolutely loved, although I have one huge issue with the game. No way to track your progress. There is a gallery, sure, but that doesn't do much. I would want to know, how many endings there are, did I unlock them all or just a part of them, what I'm possibly missing, is there a point in replaying the same character path with different choices and so on. Achievements or in-game list of obtained endings would be really helpful and honestly this is a must-have for any visual novel these days, so I hope this will be implemented.

Still, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

TLDR;
The Rose of Segunda is a relaxing otome VN where you don't have to spend a lot of time worrying about trying to make only the perfect choices. Plus there's a demo. I'd consider it a hidden gem. And I got to tackle a man despite being a noblewoman 10/10

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I've never written a review on Steam before, but after finding and playing this game and seeing it didn't have any, I just had to. Because it's the first one, I'll do my best to be thorough and go over each aspect in an organized fashion.

While I have only gone through a single playthrough at this time, I really enjoyed what I had. Because of that, there may be some discrepancies. Also, because of playing the demo first, my playtime is a bit shorter than it is in reality.
I also won't be doing an average score at the end, since different people are going to weight the different aspects, well, differently. This review shall be for the most part, spoiler-free. No plot details really, just impressions and mechanics.

Art: 9/10
Starting with something simple you can see a little for yourself. The art is really lovely, everything feels soft and high quality. The character design is nice, and I was suprised at how diverse it was, given the setting, but none of it felt out of place. I thought the colors were bright without being overbearing. Overall, it's high quality, easy on the eyes, and quite frankly relaxing to look at. The CGs are even better. There are two things keeping me from giving it a 10/10 however. Firstly, the backgrounds sometimes fall a little short of the portraits, and would benefit from some additional shading. Secondly, there's a number of times where unimportant characters show up, and rather than having a beautiful portrait like the rest, it's merely a gray silhouette. While understandable, I felt like it breaks the immersion.

Music: 7/10
I didn't find the music to be anything very special, but I wasn't bored by it either. It took an important role of adding to the overall atmosphere of the game, both in time period and setting. I also felt like it complimented the art really well, being quite relaxing as well. A good job was also done matching the music to the current mood, which was nice. Having relaxing music during a stressful time can be disorienting.

Gameplay: 10/10
While I haven't played a particularly large amount of VNs or otomes, so I'm probably not the best judge, the Rose of Segunda's gameplay had some aspects I really enjoyed. It's a choice-based VN rather than a stat-raiser or a hybrid, but I'm tempted to say there's almost a hidden personality stat, based on your choices. I don't know how much of this is in the coding, but I felt like I was able to really shape her personality through the choices I made, rather than going by a set one. There's the dating sim aspect with the routes, but also a number of choices that have no bearing on the romances, or at least very little of it. Plenty of choices are there just for role playing and flavor, which I found to be a breath of fresh air for the genre.

On the romance side of the choices, rather than having single right answer surrounded by wrong, there are answers of varying degree of wrong or right. On the itch.io you can download a small text document containing the important answers which I used as a guide. Even not following it to the letter though, I still got the romance I wanted at the end, which is really refreshing to me. The most non obvious parts about it were the times where you needed to pick somewhere to go, so I'm glad I followed that part. I'd guess it can be forgiving there too though. Normally, I end up stressing myself out trying to play a VN perfectly to get what I want, but here I could loosen up and not worry about it so much.

Both of those together mean that if you want a challenging VN, where you have to manage a bunch of things, then this game definitely isn't going to be for you. If you want one to just sit back, relax to, enjoy, and see where it takes you, I'd definitely recommend it. Since that's exactly what I wanted to play when I got this, it's a 10/10 for me.

I wish I could tell you how many Endings there are to go for, since at the time of writing this, that tiny text document from the authors is literally the only guide. I can say that for my first playthrough, I got 8 of the 26 total CGs, and only 3 of them seemed route specific. Combine that with how it FELT like there could be at least 2-3 variations on the route ending I got, I'd say there most likely is.

Story: 8/10
These days, VNs with particularly novel concepts and shock value seem to be all the rage. Ones that start out cute only to slowly (or suddenly) reveal the darkness within them. Or ones in a particularly odd scenario. None of that applies to the Rose of Segunda, which is going to be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you want. The story is pretty much just as it presents itself to be, but it does what it is trying to do really well.

I can assure you it isn't COMPLETELY benign and fluffy though. Going after who I did, I still had a moment where I was surprised and taken aback, and my character felt the same way. And from reading on the itch.io (literally the only place where I could find people talking about this gem), there's plenty more drama to be found on the other routes. If you're looking for constant twists and turns though, you're probably going to be really bored.

On a more technical aspect of the writing, I felt like it struck a good balance between period appropriate, and easy to understand. Things were proper without breaking out ye old english. There were a small handful of errors, all of them using the wrong version of a word. Like consideration instead of considerate.

The length was also quite solid, it didn't seem like it ended too soon, nor did it drone on for too long.

I don't have enough to say on the characters to warrant an entire section to them, but from reading a lot of comments on the itch.io, there's a lot to love about all of them.

Closing Statements/Overview:
If you want something to challenge you, with a lot of twists and turns that will keep you on your toes, with bad ends left and right, don't get this game. Probably don't even try the demo, you're going to be some combination of disappointed and bored out of your mind.

If you want something soothing where you can sculpt your character to your liking via your dialogue choices, but don't want to have to constantly worry if you picked the wrong one and messed up your whole playthrough, definitely play the demo, and get the full game if you like it. And Tip: demo saves carry over to the full game. Not to say there aren't lots of choices, it's simply that the entire playthrough isn't constantly hinging on those choices you make.

As for the price, I consider it quite worth it, but the game is good enough that I definitely could've paid a few dollars more without feeling ripped off.

All in all, The Rose of Segunda is a solid VN/Otome that I think deserves far more love and attention than it is getting.

I bought the full version of the game after about 5 minutes playing the demo. I was not disappointed.

I highly recommend this game just for the 2 female romance routes alone, but the male romance routes are also fun and charming!

STORY: 8/10
The player character is a young lady from a powerful noble family in a fictional, vaguely Western European kingdom. She is sent to the Crown Prince's birthday party by her mother in an attempt to secure a marriage with the Prince. It is entirely up to you, though, whether you will obey your mother's wishes or pursue other romantic options. The events in the story are, as a result, limited to events on the palace grounds, but you do get to explore indoors and outdoors for a variety of settings. You can expect picnics, balls, boat outings, horse riding, etc. plus a few more unusual events, and of course private, emotional conversations with potential romantic partners. How you behave at any of these events, especially the public ones, is very much up to you. You are free to choose whether you want to play along with the social expectations of a woman of your rank or if you want to go against them.

I very much enjoyed that a theme of the game seems to be "society's expectations vs. individual goals in real life", with a lot of joy coming from refusing to mold yourself to whatever society thinks is "proper."

CHARACTERS: 10/10
If you complete all the routes, you will get a good picture of the world you live in and the other characters, with all their good and bad sides. I can honestly say I enjoyed all the routes, even if the key story events (e.g., a boat outing) are the same throughout. Each romantic option comes with a unique backstory that sometimes sheds light on the other characters as well. By the time I played the final route, I felt bad for having to reject the characters I previously romanced because I was still fond of their stories!

I also really liked the protagonist. Choices you make early in the game impact your personality and change what social options are available for you later in the game. You have a lot of freedom to roleplay, and can be, for example, an outrageous flirt, a conformist who tries to be "pretty but dumb" as society expects, a rebel with no interest in any romancing, or a schemer bent on gaining the throne no matter the cost. I highly recommend playing with different personalities because it adds replay value and also gives you an interesting, comprehensive picture of the young lady making her way through this world of nobles and intrigue.

YURI aka f/f ROMANCE: 9/10
I picked up this game due to the promised yuri (female-female) romance routes. There are 2 options: one with a commoner lady whose presence at court is already questioned, and one with a younger noble lady who might not be ready for the backstabbing and posturing at court. Both routes have satisfactory endings. Be warned, though, that due to the historical era the story takes place in, sexuality is sometimes refered to as a "prediliction" or preference, and it is clear that same-sex romances are still frowned upon by society. However, it also very clear that many of the characters in the game have no problem with this and don't judge you at all for your interest in ladies on those routes.

GAMEPLAY: 8/10
There are no visible stats to track, just action or conversation options to select, so gameplay is rather straightforward. Usually there are enough options that you can roleplay a character with a consistent personality.

When given options to go to other locations, I enjoyed trying to think about where to find other characters, based on their interests and hobbies, so the game generally felt fair and logical, but still gave me plenty of surprises.

The only text prompt is for your name in the beginning, although it was hard to understand what the prompt was for at first.

I had some issues with text I had seen before not skipping, but the text speed is fast so it was no problem to manually speed through scenes I had read before.

ART: 8/10
The artwork is simple but sufficient. The character designs are charming. I only wish the backgrounds matched the text descriptions a little better in some places (such as the palace being more lavish, or more areas of the garden being illustrated) but in the end the artwork was enough to help me imagine the rest, which is perfectly fine for a visual novel.

MUSIC/SOUND: 7/10
The game has some nice sound effects, especially for outdoor scenes, which really helps with immersion. The rest of the soundtrack is classical instrumental pieces, which suited the setting. Nothing spectacular, but still good.

WRITING: 8/10
The only complaint I have (and it is minor) is that sometimes the writing has some odd or incorrect word choices, but nothing major or incomprehensible. Overall the tone was consistently "old fashioned" without getting too ridiculous. The setting and the characters really came across well and efficiently, so you can easily play a route in an hour with fast text settings. I also laughed out loud at some of the conversations, so depending on your character's personality, expect some good humor as well.

DEMO: 10/10
Props to the developer for offering a free demo! If you're at all curious about this game, do give it a try!

This game was such a pleasant surprise. The beginning seems a bit dull and generic, but eventually it turns into quite a fun story.

Many choices don't actually have any influence on the story or romance route, but are for characterizing the protagonist. Is she going to be well-behaved or will she defy social norms? It's amusing to see different dialogue based on what is chosen. However, there are particular choices that will quickly end a romance route. Thankfully, those choices are fairly obvious; just try to please the person being romanced.

The romance options are 2 women and 4 men. One of the men is actually a secret romance route that can only be unlocked after playing through the other 5 romance routes. It's quite unexpected too! Spoiler: It's the protagonist's full-blooded brother. Yep, that's right. An incestuous romance option. This route isn't the only one with an unexpected twist either. Some of the other routes can be surprising as well. I was also really glad that none of the love interest characters had problematic behaviors.

The artwork is nice. The dialogue and story is well-written. Overall, it's a lovely game. However, I would've liked to have seen more dark-skinned characters, especially among the romance options. Tokenism isn't proper representation.

I recommend it to those who like romance visual novels!

To summarize the game's plot. Our MC, Iolanthe is the a daughter of a Duchess. The prince's 20th B-Day is coming up and Mother dearest all but forces you to go to the B-Day Celebrations with the intention of gaining favour and being chosen as the Prince's bride and hence become the future queen. The celebrations span for almost 2 weeks so it's up for our MC to either go along with her mother's request or not...

For me the strength of this game comes from the characters and their interactions, the plot itself is also nice, a lot of the stories for each characters routes are very interesting, and would have loved to see expanded if the game was longer.

The MC herself is a witty, fun and charming character who pretty much makes it clear she's not truly interested in being used as a marriage device for connections regardless if you choose her to go for the prince or not. I really enjoyed her character, one of the few Otome MCs I can add in my list of absolutely adoring.

There are a total of 6 love interests (4 male and 2 female). I can say that all of the love interests are very likable, and interesting and also fun in their own way. Each has their own story to tell that'll get you interested in them more. I absolutely enjoyed seeing them interact with our MC.

My only complaint is that the game can feel too short for my taste, but that's probably a testament of how much I enjoyed this game.

Overall, I do recommend this to people who loves Otome games, you wont feel disappointed.

Wonderful characters, and hilarious and above all intelligent writing.
I highly recommend this entertaining and delightful romance - or maybe romp is a better word, depending on your Lady's character. While the heroine of our story is an intelligent and generally independent spirit, it is entirely in your power to allow her to submit to her mother's wishes and become as insipid and dutiful as every other contender for the Prince's hand. Alternately, you may choose to allow her to set the court on its ear with one escapade after another.

I wish this game had trading cards, just so I could have a badge to put on my profile page!
I was the tiniest bit disappointed that there was no grand finale (or perhaps I simply wish for an epilogue), and no checklist of possible endings. At the same time, I rather like that those who prefer not to play certain types of routes don't feel any pressure to do so.

The game has a wonderful setting, and does so much right. The best part, for me, was getting to laugh out loud at the antics of the cast. I will never forget the vindication of the Thorn Witch. And Charlotte and Sofia were each lovely - it was nice to have sympathetic characters among the rivals.

A nice short otome. MC has personality, and I liked all the romance options. Though I do wish there was a little more manipulation you could do regarding who ends up with the Prince. He's too nice for Franchesca, even when I'm on another route. It could perhaps seem dull to some players? It's not as dramatic as many games of this type. But it's well written, and a nice break from all those high school otome.

Could stand to be a bit longer, but there is a sequel in the works~, and it doesn't overstay its welcome as some games have. Overall I'd recommend if it looks like it might interest you.

This game is about a young noblewoman being sent to Court in order to gain the favor of the King and marry his son, the crown prince? Will she succeed or will she follow a different path?

The dialogue is quite fascinating and you almost feel like you are inside a Jane Austen novel while playing. You can get to decide how your personality will be which is a quite interesting concept. The characters feel more realistic than in some other games I have played.

My only problems are that I wish there was more romance and I also wish the story was longer as it is actually quite short. However, I did overall find the game enjoyable and would recommend it to visual novel fans.

(Actual game time so far about three hours. Disregard Steam.)

A delightful otome game. I've played through half the routes so far, and I've enjoyed each one. Something I appreciate is the personality customization - too many games of this kind box you into a certain type, but you can be as sweet or sassy as you want and it feels natural.

Now I'm off to finish off the rest of the routes and then rock back and forth repeatedly as I wait for the sequel to be finished.

Recommended!

I wish there was a way I could play a million more versions of this game, it's just that entertaining. It's witty. The visuals are rich and lovely. The story is interesting. I had such a great time I replayed through the different character lines to tweak my choices to see if I could alter the endings slightly. I will say this-literally every choice matters. Your very first choice of what to leave behind actually does effect the game. Each choice may not have an enormous effect, but it does make some for variation. What a fantastic game. I can't wait till they're finished with the follow up to this game. I highly recommend this if you enjoy playing story-based, otome, or romance games!!