Review: Suito wa Hakumei (Holicworks)
Today I'll be reviewing the newest game released by Holicworks, Suito wa Hakumei! The game was announced in 2022 and went through some major changes, including a new lead artist, so I’m glad it has finally been released. This review will be mostly spoiler-free, though it will describe some details about what happens in each route. I also uploaded some CGs that were published on the official website and the DLsite page, but nothing that shows up later in the game.
Summary The story takes place in a city shrouded in twilight, where demons suddenly began to appear one day. The protagonist, Mahora, is a member of a special security force called the Yonomori, whose mission is to eliminate these demons. Despite this duty, Mahora lives together with a demon named Shuu. One day, another demon called Yae attacks him, demanding that Mahora returns Shuu.
This game has 4 routes and I think the best order is probably Hozumi -> Haru -> Touka -> Souma. Some routes have 2 different paths which leads to completely different endings and scenarios, so for the full experience I definitely recommend playing them all. I also recommend patching the game first before playing as it fixes some issues with certain sprites not showing up. You can download the patch here! If you can't access the website due to the region lock you can use a free VPN since the file size of the patch is pretty small. A guide of the game can be found here.
Story and characters This game focuses on Mahora who’s a member of the Special Security Guards or "Yonomori" who’s tasked to kill demons. Within the Yonomori there are 3 different divisions who all have their own tasks. The First and Second Divisions mostly do research and don't usually battle the demons, as they're considered valuable people who they don't want to lose. The Third Division on the other hand is a group where the more ‘problematic’ and reckless individuals go. According to Mahora, they’re basically disposable soldiers and the other divisions don’t care if they get injured or die. A lot of people join the third division mostly because they want to take revenge on demons that killed their friends and family.
The town where the story takes place is also interesting, as it’s a city where morning and daytime don’t exist, so the sky always looks like it’s evening/nighttime. This is something the characters don’t question at all, so it must have been like that for a long time. It also rains almost every day and sunny days are extremely rare. Based on the backgrounds and some of the backstory, I’m going to assume the story takes place somewhere during the Meiji period, though it's mostly a fantasy setting. Other than demons and humans, the game also has a third kind of creature who are commonly referred to as Tosenbo. In-game they look like giant bird-like creatures who are harmless, but sometimes they do block the paths in town because of their size.
This game has several important characters, but the ones you're introduced to first are Mahora's coworkers Hozumi, Suzuri and their leader Ibu. There's also Mikage, who's part of the first division and sometimes shows up to talk to Ibu. Mahora also meets Touka pretty early on into the game when he visits one of his favorite confectionary stores.
Before joining the military, Mahora worked at a kimono shop. One day the Third Division leader Ibu invited Mahora to join the Third Division as they were still looking for new people, despite him having no prior battle experience. At first I thought this would get explained more, but I think the Third Division is just constantly recruiting new people because they keep dying in battle… Mahora also lives together with a demon called Shuu, who unlike the other demons isn’t hostile. He has been living with him for a long time and can’t exactly recall how many years it has been, but it has pretty much become normal for him. Of course he can’t let too many people know about this, especially not because he works as a demon hunter.
One day while just walking around town Mahora suddenly gets attacked by a demon called Yae who wants Mahora to summon Shuu. He grabs his neck and threatens to kill him, but then a mysterious man called Haru saves him. After Haru brings Mahora home, Haru explains that he was raised by Tosenbo and that he’s able to use some of their abilities because of that. Haru doesn't want to explain much about himself though because he doesn't trust the Yonomori (fair).
Hozumi route This is the first route I recommend playing as it serves as a good introduction to the setting of the game and what kind of work the Yonomori do. Members of the Third Division usually work in pairs, and Mahora is partnered with Hozumi, who is quite the troublemaker. Before Mahora became his partner, his partner was a friend of them called Suzuri, but Hozumi accidentally injured him during a mission. One of the reasons he often gets into trouble is that he tends to make decisions on his own without listening to his partner, something Mahora is still getting used to as well. This route mainly focuses on the two of them investigating the Tosenbo around town, along with exploring Hozumi's own backstory. Suzuri also appears frequently in this route and does have his own endings, though the true ending of this route is Hozumi's. His route has two different paths and I think it's important to play both of them to get the full story. At first I wasn't sure what to expect from him because he's very stubborn, but he does get better at communicating later.
Haru route In this route Mahora gets closer to Haru and invites him to stay at his place, as Haru seems to be living in an abandoned shrine instead of a proper house… (which he admittedly doesn't seem to mind though). Because Haru was raised by the Tosenbo, he isn’t fazed by Shuu’s existence, as he can sense that Shuu has no malicious intent despite being a demon. Haru's arguments with Shuu were pretty funny because both of them have a pretty childish personality at times. This route mainly focuses on Haru’s backstory and why he wasn't raised by humans. I think this route also had some of the better looking CGs, I just wish his sprite art was as cute as the CG art... I think if I had to choose a favorite character in this game though it would probably be Haru.
Touka route Touka is described as a good-looking guy who’s well known around town for his flashy appearance. He helps out at a restaurant called Seikaro, though I did spend a long time wondering what he even does as he isn't often seen doing any work?? Mahora seems to wonder this too and at one point even assumes that Touka sells his body, though this turns out to be a misunderstanding. After Mahora spends some time with Touka, rumors quickly spread around town that Mahora is sleeping with him, even before they show any romantic interest in each other. This route also has two different branches and one of them heavily focuses on the side character Ibu, who is the commander of the Third Division. Even though Touka isn’t a member of the Yonomori, he’s friends with Ibu and they often talk to each other. In this route Souma's also often mentioned, who's a mysterious character Ibu seems to be quite interested in.
Souma route Very early into the game it's explained that Souma is someone Mahora remembers from the past, as they spent some time together when they were kids. He usually avoids going into town as he's known as ''the cursed child''. He's also connected to the demon Yae who attacks Mahora early into the game. Souma's route is locked and unlocks after you get all of the other good endings. In this route we finally learn the truth about the demons and also the whole mystery surrounding the town in general. I liked seeing more of Yae as he's surprisingly funny and he wish he had his own route, but (...small spoiler?) he does have his own ending and 18+ scene. We also learn a lot more about the demon Shuu who Mahora has been living with.
Final thoughts I played this game without guide so I was a bit lost sometimes until I realized each character has multiple route branches, so definitely keep that in mind and try playing them all for the full story. I think this game had its pros and its cons, but let's start with the pros. The game is pretty long (about 40 hours) which I do enjoy, as a lot of games I've played recently could be finished within just one or two days. It was about 35 USD on DLsite, but I did use some of their coupons which made it a bit cheaper. One thing I liked about the story is how involved all of the side characters are. The relationships they have with each other feel very realistic. I especially liked Commander Ibu and the demons Shuu and Yae. The only downside of this is that I sometimes ended up liking the side characters more than the main characters and wished they had their own routes. That said, Holicworks games do sometimes make this possible in their fandiscs, as I’ve seen with BeniTen and Taisho Mebiusline, though I'm not sure if this game will get any. I also think it’s important to play all of the endings, because even the ones I initially missed added a lot of information that isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the game, such as Yae’s backstory in one of Souma's other endings.
Unfortunately, the game’s lead artist was changed and I think multiple new artists replaced them. This is noticeable in the CGs, as the art style varies quite a bit throughout the game. I think Haru and Souma received some of the best-looking CGs, which were also fairly consistent, while Hozumi’s and Touka’s routes sometimes had some pretty noticeable art inconsistencies. I also think it would have maybe been a bit more interesting to include some of the main lore in the earlier routes, as those mostly focuses on the characters' personal issues rather than the fact that there's demons everywhere in town. You also never really see Shuu's reaction to Mahora getting together with the love interests, which is a bit strange because Shuu lives with Mahora, so it's not like he can keep this a secret lol? I sometimes also felt like Mahora could have gotten a bit more character development. In-game his only hobby is buying sweets and even though that's pretty cute, I think it gets a bit old after 40 hours of gameplay (but maybe that's just me). Lastly, there's also some typos and audio bugs that have not been patched out yet, but because I'm seeing Japanese fans mention the same issues, I'm hoping they can patch this!
Overall, I did have fun playing the game and unlocking all of the endings and I also liked the game's OST. I wasn’t left with any unanswered questions after finishing it, so at least they explained the in-game universe pretty well (I just wish there was more to the story I guess?). I’m always happy to play new BL games since new releases are pretty rare these days, but I also want to acknowledge the downsides before recommending it. I think the trial version of the game is also available on the official website (which you might need a VPN for too), so if you're not sure if this is the game for you, you can also download that for free to try it out!
