Otome Game Review: NightShade/ Hyakka Hyakurou Sengoku Ninpou-chou

Intro:  When Oda Nobunaga went to war, the Iga and Koga clans joined forces. Enju Ueno is the daughter of their unification. She desires to become useful to her clan by becoming a full-fledged shinobi. One day, Enju and her friends are requested to go to Kyo and locate Goemon Ishikawa, a notorious thief. However, she gets tangled up in the King’s murder. Her father disowns her and she becomes the stepping stone for the Council of Five Elders. For whoever kills her becomes Hideyoshi’s guardian and the most powerful man in the land.

Final Thoughts below:

Goemon: self-declared libertine, renowned thief, and an ex child-slave to the Iga clan. Though they get along at the beginning, when she learns his identity, Enju beats the shit out of him. When she’s framed for Toyotomi’s murder, Goemon frees her. Gekkamaru and Mokichi, a boy injured in one of their fights, joins too. He’s hired to kill her and he almost succeeds. She’s merciful to Mokichi and it moves Goemon. They’re having a moment when Hanzo arrives and the Fuma clan kidnap her. Goemon goes after them and he’s revealed to be their former leader, Kotaro Fuma. Her friends say Ishida will protect her. Goemon says tomorrow is their last day. He tells Enju he killed her friends, rejoined the Fuma clan, and is taking her to the authorities. He sent a letter to the 5 saying he’ll give Enju to the one with the most gold. Goemon gives her pain killers so she won’t feel her death when she’s handed over to them.

Good End: he makes a copy of himself with his jutsu and makes it look like he burned Enju to stop the 5’s plan. The pain killers were an antidote to protect her from his jutsu. They escape and throw the gold to the people and then confess when everyone’s asleep. Enju decides to travel with him and he proposes. Bad End: Yodo says her son doesn’t need a guardian and leaps onto Enju. She doesn’t dodge the blade and Goemon uses his jutsu to have the 5 kill each other while he walks into the night with Enju’s body in his arms. He promises to always be with her ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚

Hanzo: Aka scissors brand. A perfectionist who takes his job seriously and is good at calligraphy. He believes valuing others is a weakness. Ieyasu tells Hanzo to protect Enju, saying she’ll force him to see a side of himself he’d locked up. If they must fight she’ll protect the life he kept for her. He tells her to prove it and enemies surround her. She hesitates on the kill, so he kills them. He says everyone dies and what matters is she saved herself. They dry off in a cave while a storm rages. Enju takes a breather and is kidnapped by Goemon. Hanzo rescues Enju. Meanwhile, Kando gets orders. He’s all they paid me so I’ll send her bffs to kill herヽ(￣～￣　)ノ WORLD’S BEST DAD AWARD GOES TO. Kando gives Kasumi medicine that makes her go over 9000 and orders Kasumi to kill her. Hanzo takes the blow. Kando says the medicine is Iga Poison, a forbidden substance that makes the drinker obey one’s orders. He says he started the war and forced his wife to make the medicine or he’d kill their child-who she was still pregnant with. She tried to assassinate Kando so he killed her (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ Enju slices him in two.

Kazaori says Hanzo’s next mission is to kill Enju because Ieyasu desires to become guardian. Enju thanks him for everything. He falls to his knees and tells her to live. Then he jumps, throwing shuriken, and knocking out 3 men. Like a boss she takes out everyone so Hanzo can deal with butthole 2nd-in-command. They go to a cave where he tells her to go to a safe village but she won’t because he’ll kill himself since he failed his mission. Good End: They make it to the top of the mountain where Ieyasu and Kazaori wait. Ieyasu fucking cuts Kazaori. Ieyasu just needs proof she’s dead so Hanzo cuts her sash and Ieyasu-sama is pleased. Then he jokes about how sad it was to lose Kazaori. Stone cold killa. He fucking bids them good day *TIPS FEDORA Hanzo leaves her and retires because his wound is too bad. He finds Enju and they pretty much get down to it after he asks her to marry him. Bad End: They get to the cave and Enju says she’ll take his life so he won’t have to and nice boats themselves (つಥ▽ಥ)

Chojiro: is quick to realize his feelings for Enju but his belief to abide by his mission forces him to ditch Enju when she’s arrested. If his clan is found guilty in helping her escape, they’ll be wiped out. Enju travels with Goemon and Gekkamaru and soon their friends catch up. Gekkamaru stays to fight while Enju and Goemon run. He asks if she’s in ❤ with Chojiro and that she’ll know when she sees him again. When she meets him, she realizes her feelings. Chojiro strangles her as his mercy to her instead of chopping her up but he can’t do it and Kuroyuki gets her away. Chojiro’s route was Hunger Games because her friends kill each other ლ(ಥ益ಥლ)  They take Kasumi, the only survivor, back to a shack. Enju finds out her clan will be destroyed if she isn’t killed. She starts to nice-boat herself when he stops her. They’re heading back when Zatoshu show up. Kasumi asks why they’re doing this and she’s shot down by poisoned needles ಥ_ಥ Chojiro shields Enju and Hanzo says she must follow him back to Kyo or he won’t give her the antidote.

Turns out the king didn’t die-he was having a midlife crisis. He faked his death and had Koga hunt Enju. Each shinobi represented one of the 5. Whoever lived would allow them to become the guardian. Kando’s all smug about the fact that his daughter’s friends killed each other. Enju and Chojiro are ordered to kill each other the next day. Good End: The say screw the Koga clan and escape. He asks if she’d be fine marrying him and they make out. Kuroyuki managed to survive and battles Kando. Bad End: they nice boat themselves.

Kuroyuki: Gekkamaru’s younger bro. He’s been gone for 8 years and it’s obvious he’s seen some shit. He breaks her out of prison and says their friends attacked him and captured Gekkamaru. He confesses to her right away and says just her being there is enough but of course it isn’t. They meet a performer troupe and they want them to join since they’re heading in the same direction, but Kuroyuki wants Enju to himself and gives the I’ll Kill You face ヽ(´ー` )┌  Goemon says love isn’t selfish and steals her away. However, Kuroyuki catches up. Eventually they get separated again and overhears her old friends talking.

Kuroyuki lied. He attacked their friends and murdered the king to steal her away. He takes back his promise of letting her go, attacks his bro, her dad, and discovers he took Enju’s place in the Kaga clan when he was little. He learned his jutsu to protect her but forgot it all. Kando, however, wanted to end his midlife crisis relive the glory days
of war and teamed up with Kaga to assassinate the king. Good End: They join the Tokugawa forces and ichaicha. Bad End: Enju’s dad stabs her and Kuroyuki gives her a vision of a perfect world as she dies. He tells her he’s going with her and it fades to black.

Gekkamaru: The sweetest cinnamon roll on earth, Enju’s bodyguard, and osanajimi. He and Kuroyuki were orphaned and then brought into the Ueno family before Enju was born. He’s constantly telling Enju she needs protecting and I’m so glad everyone else is like Enju can fend for herself. He quickly stops and tells her he respects her wishes. His route is depressing AF so don’t play his first rofl. Everyone steps up for round two of Le Hunger Games. When they reach the safe village for nukenin, Kasumi says she wants to join. Then she tries to kill them in their sleep. She reveals that Kando killed Gekkamaru’s parents because the Iga clan to didn’t want to join the Koga clan. He also killed his grandparents.

Kasumi brings a letter saying Enju’s mom put a spell on Gekkamaru to protect her at all costs. To break it she must fall in ❤ with someone else who can protect her. When she releases him he goes beserk and tries to kill her. But he can’t do it and nice-boats himself. Hanzo takes her back and surprise mofo’s the king’s alive -_- Enju is PISSED. She fucking loses it, hits her father, cuts the king etc and Gekkamaru pops in and together they murder her dad! Bad End: He kills himself to stop himself from killing Enju and she nice-boats herself to join him.

Final Thoughts:

Hunger Games x GOT

D3P had been on a roll of fails with Believer! and Vamwolf Cross. So a lot of otoge players were REALLY hesitant to even give them a glance when this was released. Turns out they figured out what they needed to do from day 1 because dayum. (though this could be thanks to Red Entertainment 😛 )

Heroine:  “We aren’t flowers that bloom only once. We bloom again and again.”

Enju was fantastic! If you liked Cardia Beckford, you’ll probably really like her. She starts off desiring to be helpful, but is unskilled and still a noob. Still, she tries. She does stuff. Her love interest is doing fishy shit? She calls them out. He’s someone she has to capture? She beats the shit out of him (ಡ艸ಡ). The love interests help pull the best out of her character and she evolves. Each of them were great for her-Kuroyuki was a huge exception though-and I especially liked her in Hanzo’s route. She became a BADASS. She also helps them grow. Ugh she was great!

System: Steam made everything really easy. However, I still had some issues. Could be just my fault but I got all my achievements for CGS and they…disappeared? one day? The company contacted me to help but they couldn’t figure out wtf I did. Still, I’m the only one with this issue. Patches are being released to help with the type setting. I never encountered any issues with that.

Art: Gorgeous! I LOVED how they added Enju to the sprites. She felt like a part of the story and I wish more otoge would do this in the future.

Music: Pretty good. Loved the battle themes. Sasage’s koto/shamisen was neat.

Characters: I can get down with Gekkamaru as the poster boy but like many, Hanzo stole my ❤

Play order: Goemon>Hanzo>Chojiro>Kuroyuki>Gekkamaru (save Gekka for LAST)

Overall, a really fun game! Enju was a great heroine and while she made some questionable choices, she did stuff. Sure, some routes didn’t give her much time for badassery but when it went down IT WENT DOWN. Definitely worth my time and money. Translations were pretty good as well. However, spoiled brats once again are ruining chances of more otoge. Don’t support pirating. Please. Else you won’t be getting anymore localizations….

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You can get Nightshade on Steam. You can play it in Japanese or English.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a slow burn romance like in Hanzo’s route where the heroine becomes a badass? I NEED MOAR.

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What did you think of Nightshade? Who was your fav character? What otoge are you looking forward to this year?

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