lavayuki

I love the LIS series and was excited to see Max return as an adult, but this game was somewhat disappointing and I had no idea what went on by the end of the game, or what actually happened. It all seemed so speculative and there were a lot of story loopholes. The guy option for romance is an utter creep, I don't get why he was even a choice. The girl was nice, but to get all trophies you need to romance both, then one at a time and then neither so replaying the chapter 4 times. Safi's character was not great, she came across as somewhat aggressive/hostile to me, like not a real friend to Max. Your choices have limited impact, the story plays out mostly the same and characters behaviours also barely change. There are a lot less possibilities and no branching scenes like the first game and LIS 2; this game is pretty much linear. For characters other than Max, I liked Gwen, Amanda and Moses. But Safi, Reggie, Loretta, Lucas and Diamond were meh. Chapter 5 was all over the place, I felt like I was left more clueless than when I started the game.

I really enjoyed this game for the story and characters, the character design is gorgeous and it has as a lot of spice. It is all shoved at the end of the game, because the common route is like 80% and then love interest routes are very short. the MC also falls in love immediately/very fast, so for most routes I was left thinking how she came to like the love interest. The setting and how the game deals with sexism and prejudice in a society where your colour is your societal rank is interesting, almost representative of the issues in real life. I liked the cross over between Japanese history, folklore and fantasy. The bad ends are brutal, not for the faint hearted and it has a fair few triggers, but is perfect if seeking an emotional thrill. The choices and getting all ends is very straight forward as there are no game overs. Overall a great otome game for those looking for spicy romance, solid story and emotionally piercing endings

This game is a solid 10/10 in terms of otome games and is my favourite otome. It has the perfect level of a well written suspenseful story and spice/high more mature romance, plus an interesting setting in 1920's Italy. The love interests all look gorgeous especially Dante who is my best boy, but the overall character design is lovely and the side characters are also well developed. I liked the OST a lot, especially in the fight scenes. It does have tons of triggers, killing and violence, extreme bad ends/tragedy, yandere etc. and getting 100% is very hard without a guide so it's one for veteran otome gamers who want a title that is emotionally stimulating whilst being artistically beautiful with a solid story and well developed romance. The Finale route was the only disappointing part as I did not like the guy in that and it overlapped with one of the other routes, but it wasn't enough to make it anything other than a 10.

Interesting otome game but a bit too PG with the romance, however it's all very cute and innocent like a Fairy tail. I liked the love interests but none were captivating enough to make it to my best boy list. The game is extremely long with a lot of text. Cecilia herself is pretty cool as a queen, felt very much like Cinderella with the two mean older sisters and mum dynamic. It was overall very average as far as otome games go, also tame and beginner friendly for those who don't like extreme bad ends and yandere or crazy love interests. A safe bet for those wanting to dip their toe into otome games that is story heavy rather than romance heavy.

After playing every other Tales game up to Xillia 2, this is by far the worst, especially after playing Symphonia. I could barely stand Marta and her obsessive lovey-dovey scenes, with most of the skits being about how much she loves Emil to the point of mania. Other than that, only 2 main party members with every other character being only temporary and unable to level up/ change equipment and the whole monster capture thing did not appeal to me as a whole. The worst part was the characters though, it's the only Tales where I found the dialogue and skits to be too cringy to listen to that I couldn't bring myself to do a New game plus.