Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds - (Re)view

Consider me spoiled after playing Nightshade. The second Otome game for me to play, Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds, has been a bit of a disappointment, to say the least. Not only because I haven’t enjoyed myself nearly as much as I did with other games of similar ilk, but because I fear this game is probably more accurate to the overall experience of the genre that I can expect going forward. I have yet to actually finish the game, but my mind is already pretty made up in terms of how I’d rank it, so I decided to make another sub-category of reviews that I will likely abandon in no time on this website and call it a (Re)view.

The Short of It

What I’ve Played

11 hours at the time of this review
Storyline with one primary suitor incomplete

Pros

Lots of potential guys to choose from to cater to a lady’s taste
Music isn’t bad

Cons

Branching questions in the dialogue do not provide suitable hints as to which choice you should make if your end goal is to go with a particular character
Plot really drags and seems to involve you in many scenes that are mostly irrelevant
Guys with whom your chance to pursue has ended still have scenes in which you can “improve” your relationship for no purpose, leading to pointless confusion; you need a walkthrough to date someone
Lots of repeated dialogue and narration for no reason other than to fill the time
Sub-plot about demons, vampires, and the protagonist’s dad is half-baked

The Rest of It

As I mentioned in the intro, I have not completed the story at the time of writing this. However, I do not think that any wild revelations held till the final scenes are going to change my mind about my overall experience with Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds. It’s a story-based game, and I find the story lacking. It’s a game in which you date guys, and I find that mechanic pretty uninspired as well. But we’ll get to all that.

You are a young lady of the Yukimura clan in 19th-century Japan. The Tokugawa Shogunate is in power, but Japanese history dictates that this is soon to change. The Shogunate has enlisted the Shinsengumi, a group of trained warriors similar to that of mercenaries, to defend different cities in the nation and keep the peace, including Kyoto. You are seeking your father, who has gone missing in Kyoto, and inevitably cross paths with the Shinsengumi when you’re attacked by a group of crazed warriors. You are dressed as a boy for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons, but the Shinsegumi quickly see through your disguise and take you prisoner as a witness to the monstrous warriors with which they have some insidious relations. You eventually learn that the Shinsengumi are also looking for your father and a mutual agreement is made to look for him together while you remain their prisoner. As you spend time with the group, you get the opportunity to date a plethora of guys from the Shinsengumi or guys who are loosely associated with them.

That synopsis seems perfectly fine when looking at it from the perspective of someone who hasn’t played the game. As someone who has played it to a certain point, however, I can say that most of what I just described barely matters at all. There’s a reason why I like Nightshade and Dream Daddy a lot more than this and that’s because the sub-plot or main story that is actually taking place while you’re looking for a dude to date is engaging, or at least thought out. In Dream Daddy, it was about building upon your relationship with your daughter and dealing with the fact that she wasn’t going to be a kid forever. In Nightshade, there were some ninja shenanigans, backstabbing of the literal and figurative kind, and a more complex dynamic among the main characters.

The plot of Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is barely a backdrop to what your goal of the game is. After 12 hours of ‘gameplay,’ a year has passed since you came to Kyoto and you still have no clue as to where your father is, a mission with which you never had much urgency. Every time it’s brought up, your character acts as though it’s so important to find him, but then seems content to go back to cooking, cleaning, and folding clothes for the Shinsengumi day in and day out. As the game goes on, it tries to inject drama with villains and plot twists, but they do nothing to change the character dynamics that are already in place. It just seems like power-fantasy nonsense that comes out of nowhere and is inserted into the story just to make things more interesting. In reality, they just make the game more boring or just confusing.

A particular thing that keeps happening in this game that irks me is when the game has a scene that has events that push your character’s romantic interests in a certain direction that no longer matters. As you progress through the story, you have your opportunities to pursue a guy via simple multiple-choice questions. Many of the guys you can date are available from the start, but if you make the wrong decision, you could lose the chance to continue a romance with them later on. There’s nothing wrong with this alone. It’s the fact that there are still scenes later in the game after the ship has long sailed in which you still get points with a guy. When trying to get with one guy, I don’t want scenes specific to other dudes with whom I have not been flirting to play out, especially when they don’t matter whatsoever to the plot or other characters, which they often don’t.

Despite not changing the dynamics of character relationships in the story with romantic advances, Hakuoki seems to think it can make up for its shortcomings by having more options of whom to date. There are a lot of potential suitors, but as you’d expect from a game like this in which the writing for the plot isn’t very good, the cast is little more than a bundle of archetypes. I know I mentioned in my Nightshade review that it’s par for the course for Otome games to have archetypes, but Hakuoki really piles them on. Think of a typical male anime character who is capable of wielding a katana and I bet you’ll be able to conjure up any of the characters in Hakuoki without a struggle.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

I still intend to see Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds story to its conclusion with at least one character’s plot completed, since I’ve come this far. However, I have not really enjoyed my time with it. The writing is dull, the main plot has very little impact on the rest of the game’s experience, and the characters are uninteresting. I’d much rather prefer shorter Otome games with fewer dating options that are more thought-out and written better than one like this that tries to stretch out an already thin plot with characters who lack depth. I haven’t played many of these types of games, but I can already say with confidence that there are better ones out there.

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