A bridge of magpies

So, awhile back I'd bought an otome game called Pastry Lovers that had gone on sale on Steam that had popped up in my recommended queue. It was basically less than 50p (£0.39) so I just clicked and bought it without thinking. Then I realised it was only for PC and not Mac so GRRRR. It just sat there. Then little dude and I installed Steam on one of the old family laptops (the one with the broken touchpad so you have to use a mouse -- it's a few years old but isn't actually that bad, though the graphics card could definitely be better). He wanted a game called Subnautica (which is *really* straining the graphics card...) and as there was a sale on, I bought Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds.

I tried Hakuoki first as I'd tried the first bit in the mobile app and thought it looked interesting and everyone in the Reddit otomegames sub recommends it as a standard otome everyone should know kind of thing. And it's okay. It's just really slow going. Haven't gotten very far in it yet and am feeling a bit iffy about the heroine...I figured she'd be plucky if she traveled all the way to Kyoto by herself dressed as a boy to try and find her father but so far she's kinda...well...let's just say I'm not sure how she managed to get there unless it was a really short journey.

Anyway, so I also finally installed the Pastry Lovers one because I figured, hey, why not. And I actually quite like it other than the fact that the translation is iffy at best, cringeworthy at times, and sometimes just plain laughably awful. I mean, BAD. It's terrible.  SO bad. It's also got stat raising stuff and the art is...okay but nothing to write home about. Would definitely have liked a bit more out of the CGs at the end. But every now and then it has a really nice moment that makes it worth it (and heck, at that price!).

Hi, I'm the cool and aloof Henin and I teach painting and I'll
be your bonus love interest this evening...and yes,
I do always walk around with a mug in my hand. All the time.
No, it's not weird at all. Just focus on my lovely hair.

Basically, you are a poor orphan child brought up in a monastery. You have always liked to make pastries, which in this world is a really big deal and a very respected profession. Through luck and pluck, you make it into a prestigious pastry university where you will study for three years. There are 4 (plus one hidden bonus one) romance-able characters (or kind of 6 as there's some after-ending thing with a girl who is also included in the one ridiculously fan service-y piece of the game that's completely not necessary and is actually kind of inappropriately timed story-wise).

The stat building is all pretty easy. That might partly be because, for some reason, you start the game with a boatload of gold that I don't think you're supposed to get. Seriously. Like 6000g or something. I can see that if you started with a reasonable amount, you'd actually have to really work to raise your stats appropriately. I'm not sure if it is a bug or what, but it made this part of the game SUPER DUPER easy. Given that your normal wages are more like 10g to a whopping bonus of 50g for getting the best grades, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be far harder to progress than it is. I didn't really mind though as stat raising isn't usually my fav thing. Kind of a built in cheat.

The other nice thing about how the stat raising goes is that the game is divided into three sections: 1) you're in your village and interacting with the people there then 2) at the school and attending classes and then 3) in the final bit where you've chosen your love interest and each one has a very different path (or, at least, the two I tried so far were completely different). So even though there's a bit of grindy-ness to it, at least it is switched up so you don't get too bored.

Little dude commented, upon seeing the other NPC girl characters in the game, that the one you play is actually the plainest in terms of looks. He's not wrong. What's up with that? The standard Every Girl, I guess?

There's the soft-spoken blue haired dude who is her teacher (though only 7 years older, so not too skeevy, which is a pet peeve of mine that I think Backstage Pass failed at a bit), the cold-at-first blonde guy with an inconvenient possible fiancé, the red-haired firebrand who is flirty as all get out, and an actual prince who likes to wander around in the slums in disguise helping people out.

I didn't realise at first that it's a Chinese game (the MC's name being Sakura made me think it was Japanese because I associate cherry blossoms with Japan, I suppose) and maybe that's partly why I like it because there's a bit in the route for Christopher DM (yeah, that's his name...why? I have no idea.) where they are at a temple and he's feeling all unrequited because he's her teacher and they are at some island where they celebrate the Qixi festival and he's at the temple and he hangs up a tablet that says When will a bridge of magpies be built between us, so that I can be with you? Which was lovely and then that made me look up the legend behind it so now I know a bit more Chinese history/mythology than I did before and Lo, all is good. Seriously, just that bit made it worth it. A sad but lovely story, which in this case, turns out a bit better for our heroine.

So far I've done the blonde guy's good end (mostly to get him out of the way, as I'm not really into the whole tsundere thing...or blondes, for that matter), the bonus guy's good and normal ends (as you can save during the teacher route and knock it out quickly at the end) and the teacher's good end (very sweet). I was going to do the Prince next but it has become obvious that he's the end game as the only place you can learn about your absent parents is at the palace...so now I'm going to save him for last. You do get a bit more of the story each time about your past, so there's that.

So, all in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It doesn't have great reviews and I can completely see why. I mean, the translation is dismal. But, at that price, I'm glad I bought it and I've enjoyed it. And there aren't many walkthroughs or guides for it, so it's a good thing it is fairly easy to puzzle out (it even warns you at crucial points when you need to save).

I wouldn't mind finding a few more like this, albeit ones with better translations. I didn't even mind the stat building (it's less of a hassle than in Backstage Pass, for instance). Will edit this after I finish to see how I feel after I've revealed all the endings.

Edit (very spoilery bit to follow): Am almost finished with the red haired guys route now...it's kinda...well...weird. I mean that in the sense that it doesn't fit in with the rest of the game at all. It's really out of left field. Basically, the MC has to choose to "Enter Society" to do his route. What does that mean? Ha! Well...you see, you had to have "blackened" your reputation a bit to even have taken his route (which you can do by either eating one specialised meal at the restaurant or by working in the Flower Street as...er...a hostess...of sorts...yeah. Kind of a low-key call girl where you flirt with older dudes and serve them tea. A geisha kind of thing. It's the most money making job in the game.)

The MC even acts more like an idiot when she's around him. Not really getting his appeal. Much preferred the Christopher DM character, but that's me. I'm not huge on "bad boys" anyway, especially when you have to act like an idiot to be with one. 

So...yeah...if you take his route, you basically forgo all your pastry education and he buys you the Flower "Cafe" you've been working at part time as the Madam is retiring. And you decide to turn it into a butler cafe. And he's basically involved with this Mafia-type stuff and lots of family drama and you get kidnapped at one point (in one of the bad ends you both basically die in a fire while clinging to each other in terror). So there's all that stuff balanced with you learning about English tea ceremonies, Italian Coffee, Japanese Tea Houses, and Chinese tea service. I didn't actually mind the learning bit even though it went on for a really long time because I thought it was interesting (so sue me, I like tea and coffee and learning about my heritage--and at the least the UK stuff was super easy as I live here. I can talk high tea, man.). It's not something I'd play through more than once though.

Anyway, nearly done with it but thought I'd go ahead and edit this post. It almost feels like the developers just threw in his route as a nod to bad boy lovers because it's such a pessimistic route compared to the MC's normal frame of mind (here she's very concerned about money and reputation and feels "soiled" and basically all the stuff she was dreaming of before is ignored). He's not bad, though, though he is flirty and it's definitely the more...er...adult route compared to the others. By far. At least he does seem to genuinely care about the MC.

Edit 2: Yeah, I finished it and it didn't change my opinion that it's the odd one out route. The after ending epilogue thing was even kind of dodgy (he's super possessive but is trying to be nice). It just all feels weird.

Edit 3: I finished the whole thing...(not from the very beginning, but from a save in the third bit) and did the William Good and Normal endings. So glad I found a walkthrough that gave some hints as I tried it once without any (you have 12 days to find 12 secrets related to your father/mother) and it would have taken WAY more than the 2 tries I did to get it if I hadn't found the walkthrough. And it wasn't even really interesting or insightful...it was all about timing. So kinda grindy. It was a fairly satisfying end (the Good one) in that she stood up for herself and didn't cave to either societal pressure or outsider influences. Either this one or the Christopher DM one are the best for that -- she stays most true to her original goals in these two routes, I think.

William's is definitely the end game as far as the game itself goes, however, even if Christopher DM and Henry Yin actually get twice as many CGs) because it's the only way to find out who the MC's father is. Not that we all didn't already know who it was (it was blatantly obvious from the first time you met him). And I suppose it is the most wish fulfilment end as she becomes a Princess Consort. Thank goodness William is a good guy.

I think the teacher is actually my favourite route, though. It was more satisfying somehow, perhaps because he cares about you from the very beginning (you wouldn't even have made it into the school if it weren't for him) and all the way to the end. It's a bit weird how you never see any of your other friends or love interests once you enter the end game too...I kind of think they should have added some closure there, like a CG of a school reunion or something.

The last thing to talk about is the after endings...Henry (blonde), Christopher (blue), and William (silver) all have pretty good ones. Haonan Ye's (red) is kinda sucky. And then there's an "extra" one for Lina (Christopher's little sister who is the MCs age and was a classmate) that's basically just fan service. It was...kinda ridiculous. I'd rather they have done one for Henin instead.

So...to sum up...I enjoyed this one. I don't think it's one that I would play again as I've finished all the good endings now and it is way too grindy for me to go back and do bad endings just for kicks. If the translation had been better, it would have been really good, I think. It wasn't horrible, exactly...it was just often really...awkward.