Recent reviews by GuignolSaint

Gakuen Club felt very forgettable to me. It was hard to pick back up in my free time. I found that I had to replay routes just to remember the plot of each one.

Story: The heroine makes it into a prestigious school only to be forced to be a server at a secret night cafe for the alumni/rich and powerful. Each boy competes as hosts to garner social connections. Once one of them proves to be the best, they earn any wish from the headmaster.

- My biggest complaint is the non-sensical way they tried to describe this situation throughout the whole game. Only a few routes try to explain the purpose of the night club, why they even have a secret club in the first place, why it was necessary for them to compete in this manner for the headmaster's favor, and why the heroine is forced to go along with it the whole way.

Character: Only half of the routes had substance, while the other half fell flat. Each boy focused on their dark backstory for 85%-95% of their route. I liked the heroine more in the good routes. She felt relatable to me when she questioned things the same time I did.

I recommend Toma, Asahi, and Saku's routes.

+ Toma had the most character growth, which was really refreshing for me. The heroine shined the best in his route by encouraging him in positive ways. Sad that he's barely there in any of the other routes.

+ As the poster boy of the game, Asahi has the most romance and story content. The whole plot of the game revolves around him the most. Be warned that his normal ending is a bad end and is not normal by any definition.

+ Saku's route has some lighthearted moments while also laying on the angst, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.

- Wataru has been rude every route I've encountered him on. His main conflict never hooked me in and felt poorly written near the end half.

- Renji's character fell into the playboy stereotype. He is seemingly better and good-mannered in other character's routes except for his own. Usually the playboy is associated with "another woman" problem. That's exactly what I got, but with a slight variant. I consider his normal ending the second worst bad end.

- Oh Yuya. I went in expecting a secret yandere character based on his sprite art. Every time the heroine had a conversation with him, he went full angst, followed by a "just kidding ^_^". Zero romance, all plot to mirror Asahi's route.
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+ CGs are beautiful and the sprite art is very good as well.
+ The VAs were excellent. Each voice suited their character.
+ I was expecting bullying by the heroine's peers, which is common in school stories. However to my surprise, she doesn't encounter bullying in any of the routes and even makes friends with her classmates and dormmates. I could fault that on the writing focusing solely on the boys, but I was glad to not have to deal with that here.

- Repetitive music, nothing special even for Renji's route where he played several piano pieces.
- Low quality stock backgrounds which are used in several mobile titles. The most glaring issue is the height of character versus the height of the furniture in the background.
- Low resolution on fullscreen, windowed is recommended.
- Very little choices and half of them make no sense in why they're the better answer.

In conclusion, I would recommend this game for half of the routes. You should only consider buying this if you really like the art and school life settings.

Not much story here. The memory game was fun to play and the voice acting was nice to listen to.

I do want to note that the font was a little hard on my eyes. The characters were bland, with their introductions reading out like summaries. The way they described themselves is different to how they interacted with your character (ex: Trin being angry and brash when she wasn't at all, and Joey being charming when he wasn't given any opportunity to show it off).

Despite the title implicating romance, there isn't any to be found here with how short the story is. This isn't a game I could see myself loading up to play again.

This is one of those times where I'm in the middle of a thumbs up/thumbs down for this game. It was fun enough that I enjoyed it. The common path story was decent enough on it's own. The gameplay itself was enjoyable as well.

I would recommend this game as a starting visual novel for players who like stat raising. However, I cannot recommend the game to otome fans because of the lack of romance content.

+ Voice acting is enjoyable, as it features a few popular VA's.
+ Stat raising was fun while going through each route.
+ I appreciated the effort of having clothes customization, as well as it being incorporated for certain CGs.
+ I like the artstyle of the game.
+ I appreciated the Opening Movie animation. It made the game feel more professional.

- Barely any story outside of the common path. I spent more time stat raising than watching a non-common route scene.
- Romance is rushed into and ends very abuptly.
- Music is repetitive that I muted it after 2 playthroughs.
- Lacks a bit of polish on the script not matching the VA's spoken dialogue.
- Art is a bit inconsistent in CGs.

The game is likeable for the effort and gameplay content added in. You can mix and match clothes, buy stat items, make cupcakes, and unlock a variety of places to advance your stats/relationships. The achievements were a challenge to earn, but I had fun going through each method to see each ending. The gameplay is well thought out so that you can earn heart/star points through different means. However, there isn't much freedom, as certain actions earned more points more efficiently than others.

I had trouble playing blind without a guide. I repeatedly got the Alone ending before using a guide to actually get onto a character's path. I'm not gonna nitpick the difficulty, as some may enjoy the challenge. Personally, I'm not a fan of stat-raising based visual novels. While the gameplay is fun, I much prefer to read through the story while making choices.

Most of the romance scenes involved a quick confession or opting to advance a work relationship followed by an abrupt ending where they kiss. It may be enough for some people to have that, but I feel unsatisfied with stories that stop at this stage. I enjoyed John and Adam's route for the little content it had though. My favorite route is Alvin, for being adorable.

As for it's retail price, I feel the amount of quality and effort that went into developing this game is justified in it's asking price. However, for the amount of actual story content, I feel it is better off as a discount purchase.

If you enjoyed Seduce Me the Otome or are interested in the continuation of the story, the sequel is a must have. There was much that was improved in this game that I feel the content is worth the full price. The creator does occasionally put her games on sale for half-off, so it'd be absolutely worth it to pick it up by then.

There are 2 alternating stories while the demon war takes place: the MC's involvement in the war and your love interest's conflict. There are 1-2 good endings for each route and a few bad endings. Like the first game, there is a hidden password attached to some of the endings that unlock a bonus. The bonus provides an interesting twist and also (out of context)clarifies the canon story (Sam's route).

+ A+ for voice acting. All of the cast did a phenomenal job. The bloopers were hilarious and well worth the effort to unlock.
+ Music has greatly improved. A few tracks from the first game do return, but there are some beautiful piano pieces that make me want to buy the OST. The ending theme song is especially lovely.
+ A majority of complaints from SM1 were repetitive scenes and choices. There is a greater effort in route variation. The choices give you a stronger sense of the MC's (or the player's) personality. The most repetitive scenes would be in the demo portion of the game, but there are plenty of choices added that make it worth re-playing through these scenes as you go through each route.
+ Writing has improved from the first game, but still feels a little stiff at times (during spoken dialogue and long explanations). I loved that there were more scenes where the MC was reflecting on her decisions and thinking about the weight of her situation- which I felt was absent from the first game. There were scenes where I felt tension, expecting a bad ending around the corner. There were scenes where I felt angry at certain characters; scenes where I felt depressed about the choices I had to make, but supportive towards the affected character. The creator did a great job in giving me more of an emotional attachment to the characters than in SM1.
+ The game provides a tutorial for Ren'Py shortcuts, covers content warnings, and goes so far as to offer brief explanations about the first game's story and route summaries. It was a very thoughtful addition that I appreciated having (served as a great refresher).

+/- The romance is already established since this game covers the MC's marriage. I felt the first game was more on the tame side, not being too smutty. Here, there are more intimate scenes added (3 per route with 1 exception) that takes it a step further while still being written in a tasteful manner. The sex scenes are still completely optional.

- Very minor typos. Again, some of the spoken dialogue came off as lengthy (such as explanations).
- Art still suffers anatomy and posing issues in sprites and CGs. The first game made them look older CG-wise. Here, they appear much younger. Some may be bothered with the new art, but I preferred the new style.
- The MC comes off as a Mary Sue during the war portion of the story. The way she quickly adapts her trainer's powers was not believable, especially given she learned so quickly in just a few days. The fact that the MC has inherit demon powers (which Diana took in the first game) coming back to the point she can suddenly master other demon's powers, was not addressed very well.
- There were a few scenes where it seemed like there should have been sprites on-screen, but there weren't. I also found it a little strange that the boys were mostly shirtless for the majority of their routes.

- The wives issue, which are "the kickstarter backer-rewarded characters that are not canon".

Many people are mixed on the wives. Some are supportive of the idea (as it should be a logical outcome), while others tend to react negatively toward them. I can't think of any otome game where the other love interests moved on and hooked up with someone else while playing through a route.

No matter how you look at it, the wives feel shoehorned in and out of place. They are all inexplicably non-human and are already married before the start of the game (which is a 2 year time skip from the ending of SM1).

There are no scenes to establish their backstories. They just exist and have "off-screen" bonded with each other like a family. Outside of Sam's wife in James' route (who wouldn't exist anyways because Sam is the canon route), they don't add any support or value to the story besides their random interjections.

Personally, I disliked the scenes where you eavesdrop in on them with their spouse. It felt like you could have swapped the MC into those scenes and it would not have made a difference. This made me feel like the MC was not important to the incubus' story at all.

ENDING TIP (could be a spoiler if you want to play blind):
The war portion is a standalone story that does not directly impact the love interest's route. The outcome of the war is an addition to the endings, but the choices you make towards the good/bad endings are entirely dependent on how you treat your love interest.

Achievements are doable without a guide, but require a bit of trial and error. I wanted to point this out because some of the choices are vague in their outcome. You could pick one wrong option and be locked out of the good ending.

Looking at the steam port, there are features lacking that I would like to see added: voices, the 7th love interest, the animated sprites.

The mobile version is pay per route/story which costs FAR more than the asking price on steam for the full game.

• Main Story - $3.99 x 7 (Iroha's sequel is not purchasable until you buy his first main story) = $27.93
  
• Sequel Story (not purchasable until you buy the main story) - $0.99-1.99 (I'm assuming based on length)
  
• Date Story (not purchasable until you buy the main story) - $0.99-1.99 (I'm assuming based on length)
  
• Sub stories $0.99 each x 16 = $15.84

If I assume the sequel and date stories are $0.99, the price for 1 route = $5.97 x 7 = $41.79

Therefore I think the steam version is the better one to buy if you want to experience the full game. The vita version is not available in English, but is the only version with voices.

+ Art is very nice. I quite like the painterly, soft colors with sketchy lineart. Sometimes the MC has eyes, sometimes she's drawn in an angle that purposefully hides them.
+ There are 2 endings for each guy, super happy ending and happy ending. Both endings are HAPPY in the full sense of the word, which I'm A-OK with. I've been playing a lot of games with bad/unfulfilling endings so these felt refreshing to me.
+ There is bonus content. You can unlock a few short stories as well as short epilogues.
+/- Romance is the main focus of the plot (forbidden love). Lightly to moderately smutty, ranging from descriptions of kissing and touching to metaphorical descriptions of sex. Brief scenes of softcore porn is the most accurate way to describe it.
+/- Quite a few grammar errors here and there on each route. This did not bother me much as I play a lot of mobile otome games where the translation is almost always poorly done.
+/- The story explores the world it set up, but does not focus on the truly dark themes it presents. Forbidden romance is the main theme of D3 Publishers's/Dogenzaka Lab's otome game titles. I enjoyed reading the stories for the most part.
- The MC is super naive and reckless. I should be tolerant of this, since these traits are so common for otome protagonists, but it doesn't stop it from being infuriating at times.
- BGM is monotonous, I found myself muting it after 2 playthroughs.
- Unvoiced. There is a voiced Vita version that also has a 7th guy, not to mention the mobile version has sprite animations that were removed from this port as well.
- Chapters end abruptly, which makes them feel short. The only exception is Iroha's sequel, which has less chapters, but are lengthy and are divided appropriately. The extra stories are also short.
- The choices don't really seem to matter, as you can easily achieve the super happy ending with less than 50% likeability (except Hayabusa and Iroha's sequel route).

I would recommend this because the steam version has all of the story content available for a reasonable price (versus the mobile version). I prefer stories that have a lot of romance (I'm pretty tolerant with sleazy, cheesy romances), so this game definitely fills that spot for me.

The steam version has gone on sale (about twice now) for about $10 which is a must buy price if you ask me. I bought the game on release which was $18 and I felt it was worth the value.

An official Otomate game on steam that should be played by every otome player. This isn't an indie title or an OELVN, this is one of the most popular otome titles in Japan by one of the largest otome game companies localized for PC. The game goes for $80+ or more in Japan, so $30 is more than worth the price of the game's content. It also gets a lot of discounted sales, so there is no reason to not buy this.

If you haven't watched the anime, I would suggest playing the game first. Also, consider using a random playing card generator to pick your route order, it was really fun for me lol. Playing in the order from top to bottom is best though.

+ Art is top notch quality and absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous colors, complex character designs, and a multitude of CGs. Although the backgrounds are a little weak, you don't spend too much time in one place.
+ Japanese voice acting is and always will be an A+ for any game. Personally, I put the text speed to 0, so the text could match up with the spoken dialogue length.
+ The routes are long. Multiple endings add a lot of replayability.
+ A great choice system that applies to you (the player) and the heroine's personality. The consequences do matter as you could put yourself into a bad ending. Getting the good endings without a guide was extremely satisfying for me. The effort to reach all the endings don't require walkthroughs (though tempting), it just requires a lot of patience (a quick save/load function would have been appreciated).
+ A strong mystery story and good use of the amnesia trope. The routes cover entirely different storylines with an overlapping mystery that is revealed through the final route. The story reaches a satisfying conclusion, although bittersweet, and should answer all questions.
+ Strong character personalities that go beyond otome stereotypes, I was thoroughly surprised that Ikki became my favorite guy when I had written him off as the player type.
+ A lot of extras such as short stories, minigames, and nice CG rewards for being a completionist
+ I prefer a balance between story and romantic scenes, which Amnesia does right. There are cute moments and sexual tension scenes. Ikki managed to make me blush after trying hard not to. I felt satisfied with each world's relationships *except Toma's
+/- The minigames in the menu aren't utilized in the main game at all, even though there are scenes where the minigames could have been used. For that reason, they felt more like an afterthought as an extra. Also, the air hockey minigame has unexplainable lag, which makes it frustrating to beat, but not impossible.
+/- Music is so-so. It sets the mystery (with a bit of horror) mood, but no tracks really stood out to me.

*A note for achievement advice: the gallery has a hidden minigame. The rose stickers on certain CGs have voice clips hidden in several spots of the photo (follow the controls). I can confirm that you must do this in ONE SITTING to unlock the achievement. Thoroughly click all over the pictures because there is about 6-7 dialogues each (don't forget the variations and zooming out).

Overall, Amnesia has become one of my favorite otome games and I really hope the other titles (Crowd, World, and Later) can be localized.

I feel torn because I like the fantasy setting of the game that I would recommend it. There aren't enough pure fantasy otome games! It has a good frame for a good story, but lacks enough content for a full price purchase. I bought it at a 50% discount and think that is a reasonable price.

+ The music is fitting and pleasant to listen to. The BGM changed frequently between tracks to suit the situation. There is also a BGM player in the Gallery which is a bonus for me.
+ Unlockable short prequel stories that added much need depth
+ A strong intro with a strong willed protagonist. The demo covers this and left me intrigued enough to purchase the game afterwards.
+/- The art is good for the most part. The colors and character designs are suitable to it's fantasy theme and the shading is very good. The flaw lies in the character anatomy. Sometimes the CGs looks decent, other times you can tell when the proportions are off. There is actually a mod that fixes a few character sprites, but I did not find this out until after I was done with the game.
- Romance feels lacking and unbalanced between routes. There are kiss scenes in 2 routes while the others end platonically as far as I can tell. Not enough chemistry is shown for the relationships to progress naturally.
- The routes fall on the short side. The pacing of the story goes by quick. To me, it felt like a 12 episode anime that got crammed into a 2 hour movie. I would have liked more explanations about backstory or world lore. In fact, there are quite a few things that are left unexplained. Game time takes place over 15 or so days.
- I did not feel attached to any character. The extra stories added what I felt was lacking in the main game and wished there were more mini-scenes peppered between the days.
- Linear choices. Every choice is A or B. Each character has a good and bad ending. There are little to no variations. I found myself skipping most of the common parts in later routes.

Personally, the parts with the non-humans were the best. If this game is on sale or in a bundle and you generally like fantasy themed stories, then go for it.

This game is really good one time through because it's very long and packs a lot of story content.
+ Excellent character interaction
+ Well written dialogue, great humor
+ Long play time with multiple interweaving stories. Overwhelming at times.
+ Music is nice and atmospheric.
+ Choices open up alternative paths, such as skipping skill checks.

+/- Art is ok. The sprites are ok. The ending CGs are kinda meh. It looks really flat overall.

- Text heavy. This game is meant to be played in breaks because there is too much information to digest. A lot of stuff flew over my head. I would have LOVED a term library- such as what Hakuoki uses, so that I could have had a better understanding of the archaeology terms and of the time period.
- The romance endings end with cliffhangers hinting at a sequel.
- No scroll back to see missed dialogue. Quick load is useless. It goes to the load menu instead of auto loading your quick save. The skip/quick save/quick load are inexplicably hidden at the bottom right corner in TINY MOLECULAR FONT.
- The menus are clunky. It was easier writing down dates in a notepad. There are no warnings about automatic events, unless you write down the specific dates.
- Stats are complex. There are too many stats and not enough time to pass events.

Here is a breakdown:
- Stats are valued at 100 = 10. To pass events, you need to pass a 10+ score. 5+ stress increases that number.
- You use +skill cards to make up the rest of your score.

Example: Checkpoint says 23 Occult Lore // 100 Occult Lore = 10 points // 1 card has +13 General and +7 Occult Lore = 20 Occult Lore // base score 10 + card score 20 = your score 30

- On Easy difficulty, the highest checkpoint (Turkey, Dream, and Main events) goes to 65+ (5-15 stress). On Hard difficulty (or a lot of stress) goes well over 100+
- Individual events are grouped into 4-10 checkpoints. Checkpoints use diversely different stats. You have to know ahead of time which stats to work on first.
- The game lets you carry 10 cards initially. To increase your carry limit, you need to successfully pass Dream/Main Events. Passing them rewards you with great cards (20-90 general)
- There are time limited sections. You must constantly cycle through raising a stat, farming cards, passing events, passing hidden automatic checkpoints, lowering stress, and repeat to the next section.
- Skills are grouped under trees. The tree has a separate 100 value. A high tree score makes it faster to train the skills under that tree. You can only earn tree points passing certain checkpoints and dialogue choices. It's NOT randomized, but there are NO complete guides so you literally need to make your own walkthrough to know what checkpoints give out what skills and tree points.

Example: Occult Lore is under Wits. // 100 Wits = +10 Occult Lore w/ stat raising // Spend 10 turns raising Occult Lore to 100

In conclusion, the game was too text heavy for my tastes on top of a difficult stats system that I couldn't really enjoy myself.

If you are a completionist, this game will leave you unfulfilled. Stats and achievements are still bugged, including some that effect which endings you get. There are no complete guides and with so many endings, you will not see all of them.

A short 15-20 hour RPG with a simple story to follow along. Because of the short length, the story and characters feel condensed. The ending really does come quick. This is the first RPGMaker game I have played. I enjoyed it for what it was and I did get a key for free.

Some notes on the game:
- Map layouts are sometimes confusing, but are always linear, especially with the color coded puzzles.
- Checkpoints are generous, so healing and MP management was never an issue for me. I never used any healing items aside from reviving.
- Forging was only useful near the first half of the game. Once I got enough ore and forged my things, I was already at a shop where I could buy better armor.
- Money was not really an issue either. It's best to save for when you get the highest tier shops near the arena.
- Fights were mildly easy with the right setups. When the classes fully unlocked, I felt way overpowered at the endgame.
- It's pretty easy to run past monsters. They aren't randomized and they don't respawn, but I fought them all anyways.
- My max level jumped from 49 to 67 by getting everything and beating all bosses (beating the hardest optional boss gives you a giant boost in levels).
- The optional boss in the last dungeon was pretty challenging, I really enjoyed that fight.
- Another reviewer mentioned this, but they are right about stats. STR deals attack power, even for Corwin. INT is for tech and magic damage which is useful for Claret and Alda's tier 2 and 3 class skills.
- Debuffs (Equalizer, Majesty, and Humiliator) are extremely useful.
- The best way to power up is through augments: clusters, ingots, and then rainbow prisms.
- I suggest giving the weight reducer potion to Claret. I gave it to Sullivan, but his final gear was way below his weight limit.

+ Art is very nice, especially the sprite art
+ Music is pretty atmospheric and pleasant
+ Well written. The choice setup has nice variations. I wound up saving beforehand to see each choice's reaction. Ted is my favorite for having his accent reflected in his dialogue.
+ The in-game tips were very helpful. I had no difficulties in figuring out the stats system and getting all the endings.
+ Each of the characters had different outfits for different scenes. This small attention to detail was a plus for me.
+ Characters have believable flaws. The romance felt really natural. Nicole's personality worked dynamically well for each guy. The three pair scenes were really fun as well. Otome games usually don't include 3P scenes unless it's a love triangle, so it was refreshing. Only one route was kind of questionable.
+ The pacing of character scenes is good. They are well padded throughout the game. They give a good amount of time to catch up on stats without having to save and reload if you are efficient.
- The mystery endings all led to the same conclusion, so they ended up being a little repetitive.
- UI is a little wonky when taking screenshots and seeing the sprites bleed out of the game window. I would have liked a proper CG gallery with the full uncut CGs.

Being the same developer, I was wary going into the game, but left feeling impressed. Nicole was much more enjoyable and pleasant to play through than Always Remember Me.

I think getting this during one of Winter Wolves' 50% off sales would be best.