Otome Game Review: Period Cube

Intro: SAO Arcadia is an MMO where players are split between Angels and Demons. There’s a rumor that the server World V locks players into the game forever. Kazuha Hanamiya’s brother hasn’t been in contact with her and his last text warned her away from the game. She finds the rumors are true after logging in to World V, and to logout, she must gather the Trinity of Swords and reach the Ark. Problem is Kazuha is one of the Swords, called the Almighty…and she’s useless.

Final Thoughts Below:

Tachibana Hiroya: waved to Kazuha across the street and some asswipe ran her over. Shiki blamed Hiroya because SURELY the driver isn’t responsible and since then they’ve drifted apart. At first, he’s your standard tsundere. Then he pins her down, hoping she’ll say what’s on her mind. When she protests, he strips her because he doesn’t believe her when she says she’s fine. He also made a remark about only how guys play games.

When they reach the Ark she’s kidnapped by Demento who beats the shit out of her. Onichan waltzes in and reveals himself to be God’s Heritage and has the cube eat Hiroya and Libera’s souls. She saves Hiroya with Ghostsan’s help and wakes up in the real world. Hiroya’s unconscious so she meets Natsu’s mom to get his diary. Natsu aka Ghostsan, was Shiki’s BROFOLYFE. They made Arcadia together but Natsu died in front of Shiki, who lost the few last screws he had.

Good End: Kazuha stops the period cube intending to nice-boat them, but Shiki shields her. She enters the Akashic Records, gets the guidebook to decode the game, and lives HEA with Hiroya while Shiki enters a new game called Amnesia. Bad End: Kazuha kills onichan and merges with the cube to save Hiroya. She reboots the cube, killing all the players so she can rule Arcadia. WOW THANKS.

Demento/ Karasuba Minato: a PK. Follows Astrum’s route until they get to the Ark. He hates his life in the real world but we never find out why. Then again, considering he’s a psychopath, we don’t really need to find out much more than how he gets aroused when people beg for their lives.

Demento is Otomate’s wet dream except the writers realized they wrote themselves into a corner. So in the GOOD ending they give him amnesia, her friends die, and the players are trapped in the cube for all eternity! In the bad ending, Kazuha goes screw my friends! and suggests they make a new Arcadia since the cube EATS the players after some time and they can’t be returned-SO HOW DOES SHE RESET IT IN THE OTHER ROUTES WHEN SHIKI CAN’T AND HE MADE THE GAME?! She says this new world can be one where Demento hunts her friends down (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Libera/Yuuki Riku: A nekama who uses the limited brain capacity of others to get rare items because they have no clue Riku isn’t a girl. Kazuha finds out Natsu was his bro and Riku is hospitalized because he’s sickly and his mom is terrified he’s going to keel over.  He’s afraid of death so he lazes about doing chores-SO why is Kazuha needed when he fills in for her??? *cough*

He gets into an argument with the other players about how they treat Kazuha as an item to bypass the Ark. He also tries to spin this argument so it somehow excuses him for tricking her from the beginning of the route. Like BRUH. He can’t handle the fact that he might be wrong too so he ditches them for a while. It takes the Jaws of Death-a data wiper of sorts-to nearly kill her for him to stop acting like an idiot.

Good end: Libera becomes a smoking ikeman who was accepted to med school in the states. But he doesn’t want to go if she’s not there. Kazuha tells him to go because she wants to tag along. Bad end: Libera starts having a heart attack so Kazuha kills everyone to save him. Afterwards they kiss under the stars. He says being in a dream is scary but she says it’s not and then lists in her head the people she killed. Like his mom.

Astrum/ Asou Tohru: the cringey role player. He’s a super nerd who wants to be 一護 but Shiki always is. He’s picked on and is very socially awkward. But in Arcadia he becomes a majestic oujitenshi. Kazuha actually trains and seems to make progress for once, but because she’s always being trained by Astrum, the others get pissed so she quits. Such ends her attempt at being useful. Cardia Beckford she is not.

They find Shiki NEETing at school because no one could think to check there when he went missing #allaccordingtokeikaku. Good end: they stop his plans after a run-in with Demento-thank you for dying piece of trash lol. Kazuha goes to school and Asou kisses her to prevent others from hitting on her. Bad end: he’s done with being #2 and kills Shiki. To prevent him from being a murderer in the real world, Kazuha kills her allies and in the new Arcadia she’s a lifeless doll for Astrum, letting him act out his fantasy of being a hero (*´Д｀)=3ハァ･･･ kill me now

Zain:NPC with no personality so his route depends on who merges with him. At first, it’s Orion Shiki. Later, a monster kebabs Demento and Zain together and Demento’s soul merges with Zain. He doesn’t do much besides spouting R18 lines ala Hirarin Velvet Boi through Shiki and sticking his hand through Kazuha’s boobs to show her his thoughts through Demento. Though I’m pretty certain the CG was meant to be something else entirely but alas, this is a Vita game where dem raunchy CGs are a no-no. *glances at Kamigami Vita*

He plans to steal her from Hiroya to bring her to the Ark. First he stabs Poyo to death but like Kyubey that mofo crawls back. Astrum and his angels intervene to free Kazuha from the debuff he cast on her. They go to the Ark where Shiki arrives. Zain somehow starts the Period Cube to make a fake real world and she manages to bypass his cray cray to talk to him.

Good end: he sets everyone’s souls free from the fake world after Shiki tries and fails to overwrite his data. Shiki plays Amnesia again while Kazuha and Zain make out in public. Bad end: Zain returns everyone but Kazuha to the real world. In real life she’s dying while her soul lives everyday with Zain. Shiki and Hiroya visit her in the hospital everyday then have an argument because Shiki won’t tell him why he created the Period Cube. For a yandere he didn’t disgust me which is a first.

Radius/Aijou Rei: likes to go Kirito on everyone. The Jaws of Death wiped out his friends and he’s been blaming himself and refuses to befriend anyone. Until Kazuha gets oneshotted by a monster. He has her hold his weapon to heal her and because he was on a quest she’s able to return to the real world to recover. Radius is a super idol and every time she tries to talk to the dude he gets angry. He’s afraid to get involved but too bad for him because he’s attracted to her. Honestly I don’t think they fell too fast. If anything it’s infatuation.

Shiki has Hiroya take Kazuha to the Ark to protect her from the Jaws of Death. Poyo lets her go back to her world to speak to Radius. They go on a date and he tells her his sob story. Kazuha could’ve stopped all of the shit that happened next if she’d called out Poyo because she goes oh only the creator could’ve teleported me back home. But she fails and Demento waltzes in while Shiki possesses Zain to deliver his villain speech.

Good end: Demento beats Kazuha nearly to death and stabs Zain to death while Radius makes out with dying Kazuha before he’s sucked into the cube. Luckily for all of them Natsu arrives via deus ex machina and she saves the day. Rei has to run away from fangirls and then snogs Kazuha. He says let’s go home cuz he’s horny. Bad end: Radius kills Demento and Kazuha dies.

Hanamiya Shiki/Regulus/Poyopoyo: they aren’t blood-related praise the Lord. Still, Kimoi Oniichan reigns. As Poyo, he helps her escape Demento but she falls unconscious and he turns into Shiki and talks about how he wants to do stuff to her. And he does. Every night. Like undressing her and kissing her body because that’s how caring he is….Kazuha never wakes up during this except for the night he fucking murders some dude who wanted to talk to her. How does a man in the damn hallway wake you but not your kimoi oniichan touching you in the middle of the night?! Somehow she doesn’t recognize it’s Shiki DESPITE CLEARLY SEEING HIM and he struts into her room BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T LOCK HER DAMNED DOOR while she pretends to sleep and she doesn’t recognize her own bro’s voice.

The Jaws of Death start raging so Shiki “shows up” to save her. Then starts trying to kill her friends because how dare his precious imouto have friends. C’est la oniichan. She tries to stop him so he makes out with her while she stands there in shock. In the Ark he says 大丈夫！何もしません then snogs her face off BRUH wtf. Natsu gives her his memories where Shiki set him up so he’d get into an accident to see if the Period Cube could work. Shiki was the CHOSEN ONE who was allowed to enter the Akashic Records and since he was so traumatized that Kazuha not only was hit by a car but she lost her memories, he wanted to find a way to keep the soul from perishing and so that’s how he came up with Arcadia.

Good end: Kazuha enters the Akashic records to rewind time to prevent herself getting run over so Shiki doesn’t lose his marbles. The Warden’s all Yo I can make it so it never happened you don’t actually have to go back in time but Kazuha ain’t the brightest tool in the shed. We get this creepy scene where Shiki is being introduced to his new sister and he gives her a Poyo plush….FML. Fast forward to the beginning of the game where she takes a detour to visit Shiki. They go to his house where he can’t hold back anymore rofl and confesses. Kazuha says their liking each other is different but she still kisses him for some reason????

Bad end: She makes his dream a reality so now they live in the cube. They have nabe and when they leave, Shiki says it’s all her fault the guys like her -_____- then uses this as a way to force himself on her. After he bangs her, Kazuha lies there thinking how strange this world is and doesn’t want to know why. Then the game world kind of glitches, and then it finally, FINALLY ends. Hallelujah.

 

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Final Thoughts:

Oniichan Online

If you heard all about the Oniichan then look no further because that’s the entire game! 

My first complaint has to be the description Aksys gave the game. I could be wrong and it’s not JUST Aksys but the way they try to sell the game is by taking away Kazuha as the MC and saying YOU are the MC. Not a bad move considering a lot of people self-insert in otoge but damn….then again Kazuha didn’t have much going for her but STILL. She had more personality than the Amnesia heroine! And yet I still prefer the latter.

Heroine: 

#PeriodCube Srry for the quality. Then again this route is worse soooooo😂 pic.twitter.com/PmEvlf3wcE

— Leafの夢が。。。 (@Leafydream) May 24, 2017

Kazuha is the epitome of YOU HAD ONE JOB. She’s a high school girl who can’t understand basic technology. She has a phone. But can she use it?? I have no idea how this girl functions in life. She has no idea what the flip ‘Login’ even means-yet she has to otherwise how has she been doing her assignments in school?!

#PeriodCube #Gaming101 #Facepalm pic.twitter.com/LuezFrxDfg

— Leafの夢が。。。 (@Leafydream) April 28, 2017

She tries to do things. Believe me she says she tries. The only times this girl actually accomplishes shit is either A.) in the bad endings, or B.) Radius’s and Shiki’s routes. Why?! I don’t understand why this girl waits until the last moment to do something. 

Deus Ex Machina: Literally this game. Oh no the Period Cube is out of control. Kazuha enters Akashic Records. Day is saved! Or, Kazuha activates her awesome Almighty powers just in time! Or, Natsu tells Kazuha what to do because he knows this girl is hopeless and will doom humanity if he doesn’t reach beyond the grave to do it for her.

System: Has the coveted “Skip to Next Choice” that should be in every otoge now but alas seems to be reserved for kusoge. I guess that’s our clue….

Art: The backgrounds are amazing. Colors are bright and vivid. We have the glorious kiss CGs aka “Move heads close together and draw lips at the side” because that’s hot -_- Also, old news but yeah…..this was a thing. I’m actually going to be reviewing BWS shortly so wow.

Music: Really good. Op and Ed were great and the battle themes were badass. 

Characters: I just….Kazuha aside, the rest were alright. They at least had a personality. Or a trope to work with. If Kazuha hadn’t been so mind-numbingly dull, perhaps I might have liked the game more than I did. But even if that were the case the game would still have suffered. The routes that shone the best imo were Libera, Astrum, and Radius. Shiki deserves his own Oniichan-tier because damn. I went in expecting crazy and KIMOI and that’s what I got so his route delivered.

I was looking forward to Zain because Hirarin and his design is precious. His route was trash but I enjoyed it weirdly enough. Hiroya was there to suffer for eternity because he’s the childhood friend. When you play his route he flip flops so much it’s like the writers couldn’t decide what he was. He even goes MIA a lot of the times. Radius was actually great. A lot of people complained they fell too fast but they only had 7 chapters to get there and all of the guys fell for Kazuha fast. Hiroya has an excuse because childhood friend, Astrum was like ZOMG a girl in a game and fell the second he saw her, etc. Libera seemed to have the most development regarding romance. However, Radius’s route was a lot of fun and seemed longer than the others.

And Demento can forever burn in hell. Seriously Otomate what the FUCK were you thinking?! (ﾉಥ益ಥ)ﾉ

“You know girls love dem bad boys these days. Why not make the love interest a serial killer. And he can beat her to death in some routes. Girls like dem bad boyz.”

—Otomate Writer

They had Jocus and Mergo, heck even ALTH but NOPE gotta give you the psychopath. 

Overall, this game was pretty bad. I went in with low expectations because the original reception for this game was low and guess what? (눈_눈) they were right. There were a ton of unanswered questions that the game will never answer and many inconsistencies. I can see a lot of things this game had going for it, though. It ripped off SAO-but then again nothing is original anymore so why not-so the scenario was interesting. The character designs were neat. The game was about your favorite, the Oniichan! rofl And there’s the uguu cage of love for those interested.

The routes were short and all catered towards one trope or another. However, the way they were written just made the game a slog to get through. The heroine was so stupid I couldn’t even half the time and this had nothing to do with how she didn’t understand game lingo. We all start off as noobs. The problem is she couldn’t figure out her priorities, had nothing but convenient things happen for her, and never even tried until the end where deus ex machina would take care of it all for her. 

If you want a short game with well written routes and a great heroine, please check out Nightshade (available in English and other languages). 

If you still want to check out Period Cube please consider using my link to support this blog ^^ 

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What did you think of Period Cube? What otoge would you like to see in English?

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