Warning, this is not a game for the Call of Duty crowd and not for anyone who must have…gameplay. Okay, it's going to be pretty hard to be able to technically classify Hakuoki as a game. It's a visual novel, essentially a story that is voice acted out with pretty people and pretty backgrounds. The real appeal, however, lies in the romance factor. Part of popular almost Japanese exclusive otome genre, this means that the protagonist, a girl, is thrust into a reverse harem situation with multiple men you can romance. I can see of you guys rolling your eyes. Hold on, you guys can play it too and not have to romance anyone…unless you want to. If so, kudos to you, you're going to get a pretty decent ending!
The story focuses on the main character, default name Chizuru Yukimura, who is out in Kyoto searching for her missing father. A frightening event transpires and Yukimura is forcibly entangled in the affairs of the Shinsengumi, who were a sort of a special police force in mid 1800s Japan. Yep, you get to romance a samurai or two…or five.
This game can be a pretty confusing the first time around since it casually throws around Japanese historical terms frequently. Luckily, you're given an encyclopedia within game that lets you check key terms and even key events if you forget what happened. I'm going to be honest, I didn't take note of Japan's history before I played this and I certainly hope I wasn't the only one. It's almost recommended to check out a little bit of Japan's late shogunate era to get a feel of how the story will be. The story for Hakuoki heavily involves its characters in the politics of a Japan that was rapidly changing. Interestingly enough, the samurai you can romance were based on real people of the same name. It's really a big history lesson with major supernatural tones mixed into it and topped off with romance. If you were like me, you can go a complete play through with romance, but at the cost of an unhappy ending. The story is still interesting without romance and even has a few great twists along the way to keep you glued to the PSP.
Still, somehow, Yukimura can find romance in the middle of all this chaos. It isn't really until the second half of the story when you can really begin to check out your options on who you want to romance. Each character has their own little plot if you choose to follow it, and it can go anywhere from cheerful to dreadfully tragic. One of the many endings is even Romeo and Juliet-esque. It all depends on the choices that you make. That's one of the great things of this game, just how varied the endings are. I've played through four times already and I've gone from (probably) the most tragic ending to a much happier improvement. The replay value for Hakuoki is one of the best aspects of this game and I wish more games implemented this feature. The story is broken up into so many chapters and as you play along, you get to be able to go to the main menu, look at your progress, and even choose to go back a chapter or sub-chapter to redo a section. It gets rid of reliving the tiring beginning and lets you jump right back into the exciting parts.
The sound is generally people speaking in the original Japanese dubbing (there is a lot of talking, prepare your headphones) and repetitive music. Yes, many games do this but in Hakuoki, the music feels like it never ends. That's not to say it's bad, it's just that I can get tired of listening to the same song if its been playing for the last 20 minutes.
The first play through will probably take a good 5 to 7 hours, depending on your choices. This is one of those games best played with a blanket cozily wrapped around you with a hot mug of tea in hand. It's also not bad to play a little bit before bed. Yes, it's the near equivalent of an interactive book. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, seeing as I got a pretty worthwhile experience out of it. Hopefully more well known visual novels will release in the States. Aksys Games took a pretty daring move to localize a game like this, but I know for certain a crowd out there like me will eat these games up in a weekend. It was a fresh experience and I'll probably dive back into another replay this weekend. I think my victim of choice this weekend will be Saito! If you're in it for great story, buy it! You can purchase it for $25 USD on the Playstation Network or $30 to $40 on UMD retail for the regular or limited edition respectively.
