[PSV] Kokuchou no Psychedelica – Review

Title: Kokuchou no Psychedelica

Original Title: 黒蝶のサイケデリカ

Company: Otomate

Release Date: 29th January 2015

Length: ~18 Hours

Links: Official Site, VNDB

Story

A girl wakes up in the foyer of a western-style mansion with amnesia. She has no idea how she got there or even who she is. She looks around and sees another person, who is hunched over and appears to be crying. The girl walks over to the person to see if they are okay when suddenly they let out an inhuman roar and turn around – revealing a masked monster.

The girl screams and runs away from the beast, whom is chasing after her, until she is pulled aside by a boy dressed in red who covers her mouth and tells her to be quiet,  explaining that the monsters use their hearing to track their prey. After the coast is clear, the girl and the red boy both realise that they are in the same situation and decide to look for an exit.

The pair head back to the foyer where they again get chased by a monster and end up trapped, only to be saved by a silent boy in white wearing a fox mask. The girl tries to speak to him but he runs away before they get a chance. Shortly after he leaves, they meet a boy in green, who tells them about an area of the mansion that the monsters cannot enter. It turns out that monsters congregate in areas with many black butterflies and avoid areas with a lot of white butterflies.

The girl goes with the two boys to the “safe area” and they all relax a little until they hear people shouting. Curious, the group decide to follow the voices and end up back in the foyer. They see two boys – one dressed in blue and the other in yellow – facing down a monster. The girl manages to summon a gun and shoot the monsters, who burst into butterflies and drop a strange crystal. The two boys are very thankful for her help, join the group and all return to the safe area.

After they get back, they all realise that they have unread messages on their mobile phones. Upon further inspection, they appear to be from the “Master of the Mansion” who tells them that they must collect the “Kaleidoscope Fragments”. A small girl wearing a rabbit mask arrives in the safe area, explaining that she works for the Master and that the monsters roaming the mansion carry these fragments and that if the kaleidoscope is completed then their wish will be granted. Can they trust the words of the girl and the master? The group decide to start searching for the fragments and their fight against the monsters starts now!

Characters

Beniyuri (CV Nakahara Mai)

The girl who wakes up in the mansion at the start of the game. She is understandably confused about the situation but remains polite and optimistic at all times. She tends to act as one of the peacemakers of the group, and will definitely let someone know if they’re out of line. She ends up doing most of the group’s cooking, even though she’s not confident in her abilities.

Hikage (CV Ishikawa Kaito)

The sarcastic boy who saves Beniyuri from the monster at the beginning of the game. He has a sharp mind, but an even sharper tongue and ends up arguing with Yamato often. Due to his natural confidence and prideful nature, he ends up becoming the leader of the group. Hikage likes to spend his free time time reading and doesn’t involve himself in social situations often, preferring to spend time by himself.

Yamato (CV Hosoya Yoshimasa)

Yamato is one of the two boys saved by Beniyuri, he is a tsundere who can often come across as blunt, even when he doesn’t mean to. He, more than anyone else in the group, is desperate to leave the mansion as he has a sense that there’s something he has to do. He also hates the sound of rain that permeates the mansion every “night”. Yamato generally causes most of the friction within the group – regularly arguing with both Hikage and Karasuba. He’s very athletic and enjoys playing football.

Kagiha (CV Toriumi Kousuke)

Kagiha is the gentle, kind boy who leads Beniyuri and Hikage to safety. He is normally very softly spoken but can speak up when others are arguing and becomes the group’s other peacemaker. He is very good at reading people’s emotions (especially Beniyuri) and can always be found with a hot cup of cocoa and a listening ear when times are tough.

Karasuba (CV Kakihara Tetsuya)

Karasuba is one of the boys that Beniyuri saves from a monster. He is a complete and utter flirt, who seems to care little about the current situation and is in no rush to leave the mansion. He is always fawning over Beniyuri and making fun of the other members of the group, causing some friction. He likes cute things, such as plushies. However, sometimes his true self might slip out and it becomes apparent that Karasuba is actually more guileful than anyone originally thinks…

Monshiro (CV Matsuoka Yoshitsugu)

Monshiro is the mysterious fox mask-wearing guy who saves Hikage and Beniyuri. He takes a liking to Beniyuri and appears before her every so often. However, due to the fact that his origin and intentions are shrouded in mystery, the other guys are wary of him and tell Beniyuri to watch out.

Sound

Opening Theme: Bloody Rain – Screen Mode

Ending Theme: Kokuchou no Psychedelica – Shimamiya Eiko 

The BGM for this game was composed by Hayashi Shigeki and there are 21 tracks.

Artwork

Character design and artwork for the game was handled by Yuiga Satoru, whom has illustrated for many light novels and manga.

System

This game also features a mini-game in which you must shoot the black butterflies that appear on the screen. This game is best played with the touch screen. I actually forgot to take any screen shots but basically you just have to drag your finger over the screen to “lock on” to the butterflies and then click the “shoot” button. I found it easier to turn my PS Vita upside down during these bits so I could target the butterflies with my right hand and press the shoot button with my left. You also get more points if you shoot many butterflies at a time so if you’re struggling then don’t press the shoot button until you’re locked onto 8+ butterflies. You don’t even need to shoot half of them to get the highest “S” ranking.

You play this mini-game in order to collect points which will allow you to unlock the side episodes. However, don’t worry about your point total – I only played the mini-game when required by the game and still ended up with 20,000+ excess points.

My Thoughts

Okay, so I’d heard really amazing things about this game which made me want to buy it even though I normally prefer games with more romance, did it live up to the hype?

First of all, it’s very important for anyone one considering this game to know that most of the game’s story lies within one route – the one that you’re locked onto on your first play through. This route takes up like half of your overall play time and you can only get one of two endings – “best” or “bad”. I’d recommend not looking at any guides and just jumping straight into the game. In fact, the ending you get is determined by one choice only so just pick the top choice to get the bad ending or the bottom to continue with the story.

As you may have guessed, the actual character routes all feel tacked onto the main story and are generally very short, with all being less than 2 hours in length and one route in particular taking like 45 minutes to read. Most of the “cutesy” scenes take place within the side-episodes, which are available to read using the flowchart. It’s important to keep on top of reading the side-episodes as you won’t be able to see certain endings or even enter some routes without having read them. I personally really enjoyed the side episodes – especially the “daily life” ones, to the extent that I was heartbroken when I had run out of them! I was super surprised when I learned that Benihara Kaoru was partially responsible for writing these as I really never enjoyed two of the other games she’s written parts of – I Doll U & Bad Apple Wars.

Okay, enough beating around the bush, the main plot of this game is absolutely amazing – there are so many twists, most of which caught me completely off guard! It’s even more frustrating because the game drops really subtle hints that make so much sense once the truth is revealed! The story is so sad and depressing that it can be hard to read (through your tears!) but is so addicting that I can almost guarantee anyone reading this game will be done in like a week!

The characters are another place that this game shines – with all of them being interesting and complex. I also felt that most of the characters in this game felt realistically “human” in the ways that they acted, something that most otome games aren’t able to pull off. First up is Beniyuri whom is actually a good heroine and I liked the fact that she actually has a personality and isn’t a damsel in distress, it also helps that she was voiced! Next up is Hikage whom interested me at first with his sarcastic take on things but despite his route arguably being the best, he never ended up being one of my favourites, although I do still like him a lot.

Yamato is one of those characters that you know is going to be good if you like tsunderes and he was indeed suitably likeable and surprisingly sweet. I really liked him, even though he was the most “generic” character in the game. Kagiha is one of those reliable big-brother types (I was immediately on edge because the fact that he’s a green older-brother voiced by Torikou reminded me of Period Cube, haha) who can sometimes be overbearing. I think Kagiha suffers a lot because of *insert plot here* but in general was one of the more interesting characters in the game and he made me cry a lot.

Now, I’m not normally into the チャラ男 (flirty, very easygoing and talkative guys) trope but I genuinely just found Karasuba to be absolutely fascinating. His take on the whole situation was so different to the others that I found myself immediately drawn to him and those glimpses of a shrewd and pessimistic man  that really showed his more human side definitely endeared him to me. In a sea of generic, “perfect” otome game characters, seeing a flawed, realistic character like Karasuba is rare.

Last and definitely not least is Monshiro, aka an actual angel. He acts almost like a small animal and I found how clingy he acts over Beniyuri to be absolutely adorable! He holds a lot of secrets and  even more inner pain, with his route reducing me to a puddle of tears. I kind of wish that his route was longer though, it felt that we needed an epilogue!

I really liked this game’s soundtrack with track 20 “Mirai” being my favourite! The ending song is also gorgeous! I really need to order the soundtrack at some point… The voice acting was top-notch, as expected, and I’m continuously being surprised by just how versatile Ishikawa Kaito’s voice is.

I wasn’t really sure about the art before playing the game. Like, it looked okay but that was about it. I thought that the use of bright colours, in contrast to the muted, dark colours of the setting was really quite nice. It was also nice to see art consistency in an otomate game for once (haha). I thought that the character sprites, while sometimes a bit “off” looking were really expressive and I also liked that there were sprites showing the characters backs, allowing the normal ADV scenes in the game to have a sense of depth? This is actually the first time I’ve seen sprites like this in an otome game, although they’re quite prevalent in galge. There are also a good amount of CGs for such a short game, although the way that the CG viewer is programmed means that a lot of the CGs repeat, tricking you into thinking that there’s more CGs than there actually is.

Final Thoughts

My Score: 9/10

Kokuchou no Psychedelica is definitely a game that I would highly recommend to any otome game fan, or honestly, just anyone with a PS Vita that can read Japanese. The first route that you play through is undoubtedly the best “route” I’ve ever played in any game. The only negative in this game is that some of the character routes can be a tad underwhelming but I think that it’s possible to look past this and still fully enjoy the game.

Character Ranking:

Karasuba = Monshiro > Yamato > Kagiha > Hikage

I’m really unsure of a recommended route order, as I’ve seen so many different ones floating around the web. The order I played in (which seemed good enough?) was:

Kagiha → Hikage → Monshiro → Yamato → Karasuba

but I’ve also seen some recommendations that say to leave Hikage until last so the choice is up to you~

Thanks for reading as always!

I actually already own Haitaka no Psychedelica but figured that I need some time to emotionally prepare for it, haha….

Next up for me will be the Klap Fandisc – which will be the first game I’ve reviewed this year that was actually released in 2017!