Winter's Wish: Spirits of PEAK or trash?
Other posts in this series
Welcome to the first post in this series that is posted in real-time and is not reposted from other sites I posted them to. I just published this now.
Usually, for the titles, I make reference to how “rated” the game is (over or underrated), but I really don’t know the reception. It’s a high-budget Otomate game I don’t see talked about in the otome comunnity a lot save for names I recognize like Yoichi and Ohtaro, and as for JP popularity it seems to not have a fandisk for a reason lol. But I love “historical” setting, especially with fantasy yay!
I took OVER THREE HUNDRED screenshots so it was mighty difficult to choose 30.
MAJOR SPOILERS for the entire game.
OHTARO
I did him first because he stood out to me the most with his combination of tropes: younger looking and cheerful. Although, I am weary because apparently all these “Vessels” are Oscar level actors who play out their character archetypes on purpose. Even so I’ve seen his name pop up with positivity, so how will this play out?
WOW OKAY WHAT SHITTY GAME DESIGN. INSTEAD OF MAKING AN ENFORCED ROUTE ORDER LIKE A NORMAL VN, THIS KUSOGE LAUNCHED ME INTO A DEAD END AND ONLY THEN IT TELLS ME TO COMPLETE THE POSTER BOY ROUTE FIRST.
God why didn’t I just use a guide from the beginning, the options looked simple and had correct choice indicator so I decided to not use a guide. How tf was I supposed to foresee this?
Whatever. I save the cumulative seconds using it.
GENJURO
So I’m going to do this one first because MC is one of the “I have an outcast backstory and I have low self esteem please be nice to me” so I want to see how nice the cold looking guy will be uwu. Kuudere ftw. Also, I just ragequit Ohtaro for now.
That being said his route truly defied expectations. It was HILARIOUS, with comedic moments that not only were engaging but also made the romance believable, from Suzuno explaining to Kuga how beautiful he is and him deconstructing that idea so autistically, to the part where Suzuno gave Genjuro a face full of (kimono suppressed) boobs. In the first place, I was apprehensive with the romance in general because these people literally have no feelings so I thought the romance would be very sudden and unearned, but at least with Genjuro it was a well done slow burn; even without the premise, usually in routes like these, when there is little romantic development by the time I get halfway through the route I think “yeah this is going to be a really slow burn isn’t it” but then everything is rushed in the last chapter. This route on the other hand, is peak, and maintains the slow burn all the way to the end with epic romance moments.
Enjoyment wise, everything was appealing. I love that Suzuno fights with him and he trusts her to cover him.
She really needs to stop saying things like this though. Minus enjoyment points.
Objective score: 9.0/10
Enjoyment score: 8.5/10
YOICHI
Thank you woke agenda localization for making him not say off handed sexist remarks in the common route (I will not take time period excuses anymore, my historical world must be free of sexism like in Nightshade). I heard him say “since you’re a woman, be more careful about your appearance,” but it got localized to “in the very least, try to look presentable.” Too bad Suzuno/the plot is already sexist in the common route anyway, but I digress.
…Oh never mind, Suzuno reiterates in plain words that Yoichi said she should care more about her appearance as a woman. Goddamn you localization, minus enjoyment score points! And this seems to be the route branch where Suzuno fights side by side with the LI’s too… ughhhh why can’t everything be perfect?????
Anyway, unlike Genjuro’s character growth plot for Suzuno I’m not satisfied with the one here in execution. I don’t know how they extrapolated that from her “not wanting to lie to the love rival Yato and not blow Yoichi’s cover.” It was a complete waste of time, there was no reason for her not to be firm, and it was confusing too, the issue was “lying to her” not “being honest about her feelings.” More on that, there’s the idea about how she shouldn’t react based on the person’s threads… wtf Suzuno that’s called “social skills”, people adjust their behavior according to people's reactions all the time without Hakuseki clan powers, and you’re treating a lack of such insight as something so breakthrough. Piss off with that preachy nonsense
Things get even worse with Yoichi himself. The storyline with his owner and how he regained his memories made sense, Yoichi himself doesn’t. We waste time on him getting mad that Suzuno pointed out he still didn’t have a heart even though he was the one who kept saying “ummm I dont have a heart stop treating me like that” earlier, then after they make up he keeps pulling the Vessel card.
Bla bla bla I don’t care anymore. Seeing Suzuno and Yoichi together annoys me so I mashed the A button, only slowing down to try to pay attention to the lore. Ok so WTF. They never explained why Suzuno can’t see the threads on Yoichi? Garbage. Also I can tell they dragged out the final battle with the owner because Suzuno is so dumbed down in many ways, fucking TELL HER THAT HER FIANCÉ ACTUALLY LOVED HER instead of waiting till the end.
After playing through all the routes they STILL don’t explain why Yoichi’s threads can’t be seen??? I thought they’d talk about it in Tomonari or Ohtaro’s route but the only reference to that was in Ohtaro’s route in one line at the very end by Kuga of all people, how maybe you don't need threads to have a heart, but her powers are gone at that point so she can’t even see them lmao. Still a super preachy theme.
Enjoyment wise I’m not a fan of fake dating after all. It really cheapens the doki doki moments in the first two chapters. Also Suzuno is way too fucking shy and keeps blushing all the time and saying "WHAA", even later on where they’re basically married and she’s nervous about initiating a kiss 🙄 Kuga-san I miss you… oh well at least Yoichi blushes a lot and has a smoking hot casual sprite, with his hair down damnnnn
Artwise, final CG Yoichi looked weird… but mmmph. It showed his sexy leg 🥵🥵
Objective score: 5/10
Enjoyment score: 4/10
KUNITAKA
Aaaah it’s been such a while since I played the Onii-chan archetype… there’s just none of that in console otome. The last time was a now-defunct mobage “Ninja Shadow”.
Aaaand Suzuno falls for this guy almost instantly, taking no time at all to realize she’s in love. Come on Suzuno, we’re only on the fifth chapter… Oh well it’s not like it’s bad writing or something I don’t enjoy, I just really like slow burns, and since nobody has a heart I was expecting them to be more methodical like Kuga-san… damn his route really messed with my expectations for this game, I’m still hung up on him 😔 even Kunitaka is jealous of Genjuro because Suzuno keeps complimenting Genjuro in this route, further proving my agenda.
At the beginning, I thought it wasn’t annoying that Suzuno didn’t fight like in the Castle Town routes because she was too busy being an important asset in gathering information as a woman the daimyo wives can trust. Then she spends most her time moping over Kunitaka and the story even has her miraculously get sick so that she can continue moping over the subject. Her time doing tea parties or whatever doesn’t seem to take up much time at all. So they really COULD have done a nice slow burn that includes Kunitaka training her! Such wasted potential.
Damn it. The progression is such a dead end they need the fucking Shogun to third wheel them. And even then it's so cringe, Tokugawa’s like “yeah Kunitaka maybe you should get closer to her” 😂😂😂 why didn’t he accept her feelings once his seal broke if he was in love? He deserved the Suzuno blowout at least.
And it’s still cringe after that because he keeps flirting even though they have limited time to investigate. They make up and whatever but by the end Suzuno is still annoyingly prude even though they’re already in a relationship. Genjuro route Suzuno would never. WHY CANT EVERYTHING BE GENJURO’S ROUTE??
The only good thing writing wise is the plot and lore, they’re consistently doing a good job on that.
Enjoyment wise, reeeee he’s a smoker. Points deducted >:( more importantly, the “accidental kiss” trope is just too silly… there’s no way that is possible. Neither would it be memorable enough to trigger Suzuno falling in love with him, because I’m sure it would hurt more than be pleasurable, how tf did their lips wrap around each others enough to count as a kiss and to be so pleasurable and embarrassing. This isn’t Naruto.
Most of the things I dislike about the route are because of the silly tropes. Suzuno's blowout for instance, could have been interesting were it not for the fact that the "romance" started from some stupid kiss that makes them uwu around each other.
Also will he shut the fuck up? “tOSHIGORO nO mUSUME” it was okay the first couple of times but he keeps saying that. Are they trying to point out a nonexistent age gap? Or is that his way of treating her like a little sister? I don’t need to hear “a girl your age” just because she needs a proper sleeping kimono, tf does that have to do with her age 😂
Artwise… Kunitaka looks like he has six fingers in one of his sprites, but I guess he's otherwise consistent in the CG's.
Objective score: 7/10
Enjoyment score: 3/10
KINJI
Ugh it’s the same route writer as Yoichi, according to VNDB. Although this guy’s design and voice are so damn sexy, I’m keeping my expectations low.
So the route starts when Suzuno wakes up one day and decides she wants to make Kinji her beauty role model. She’s easily charmed by him enough to keep thinking about him as she works undercover at the brothel… it’s very superficial and kind of pathetic, been there done that with 10000 shoujo romance manga. Fortunately I forgot that I’m on Kinji’s route since the plot and setting are so engaging, so whatever; plus it's not that bad because despite how Kinji is, he reciprocates to some degree as pointed out by other characters.
In fact, it’s such an engaging setting, with interesting side characters and a plot that centers more on Suzuno, that you feel this real visceral reaction from it. It’s revealed that there’s an older rich guy who wants to groom Suzuno and “raise” her into his ideal prostitute because he wants to fuck innocent girls like her, bleeghhhh ughhhhhh wtffff. So in two days she will be basically raped as part of her “first day on the job."
Ohshitohshitohshitohshit
Everything that happened before culminates here. Kinji's faith in Suzuno to complete the mission, her trying to get close to him, her resolve and her values... somehow, this route managed to add meaningful layers to a relationship that normally wouldn't have nothing much at all going for it, which is crazy. See, this is the work of a well-executed and intricate plot, it can take common and sometimes annoying tropes and make something more out of it.
And it doesn't end there of course. Soon after Kinji recognizes the beauty of her strength, she is thrust into a position that would require great sacrifices of her. Kinji supports her in anyway that he can, giving us the catharsis with how desperate he is to protect her and how "illogical" he is. The flustered maiden that Suzuno was before gets some recompense in the person she is now and the recognition she gets for that.
I do enjoy the feminist subtext, with the criticism of prostitution, the grim reality of it all even if there are women who try to make the best of it, women not being allowed in kabuki theater and the final showdown taking place there and Okuni standing upon the stage and Kinji wearing her hairpin as an ode to her... all these little things build up and make this route real and impactful.
Thematic excellency.
Enjoyment wise, will you shut the ever loving fuck up Suzuno. We get it, the guy is hot and sexy and beautiful. She brings this up too many times, which is especially annoying because she doesn't do this to the other men. She could do well to be more resistant to bishounen.
Also, omg will she stop doing this. I didn't come here to ogle women.
Objective score: 8.8/10
Enjoyment score: 7.5/10
TOMONARI
Yeah he annoyed me at first due to the Ohtaro incident, but damn he is so cute, he charmed me in other guys’s routes. I just love the aloof, sleepy looking prince who is only affectionate with MC. Excellent choice for a poster boy, 10/10 right off the bat. I also want to hurry and finish these last two super special routes because I want to prove that Yoichi’s route sucks lol.
Ok but now I’m so invested in Kyoshiro and Mimi’s relationship that I forgot I was on Tomonari’s route. God I ship them so hard, ever since the Bukemachi common route, I hope they get together…
Mimi basically admitted that she's in love with Kyoshiro here; even Tomonari realizes he's being a third wheel.
Back to Tomonari. I just love how she’s so considerate of her feelings, he’s ride or die in the other routes too, just the perfect mixture of awkwardness, childishness, innocence, protectiveness, and reason. LI's like this often fall into the pitfall of bringing down the MC with their overwhelming character traits, but they really do develop into equal partners naturally and satisfyingly. Suzuno just has a lot to do, she isn't dependent on Tomonari, she investigates and despairs over the murders in Edo and slowly loses sanity, and Tomonari gives her room to breathe by running away with her. Because Tomonari looks out for what he perceives is her best interest, they have unavoidable conflict with their values while living in the village, and resolve it with Suzuno staying true to herself.
And of course, the romance is great. I was afraid Tomonari was going to feel platonic but he really knows how to play his cards and make his moves. He confesses early and isn't pushy with Suzuno and gives her time to develop as her own character especially given all the people they've met and what's going on in Edo, the plot gives her room for her feelings for Tomonari to not get in the way of that. And I need to talk about the bathing scene okay, it was was epic. You're telling me this is the same guy who voices GOATjurou from Mahoyo??? Holy shiiiiiiit
Incorporating the mixed bathing that existed until recently in Japan's history while reconciling it with contemporary attitudes towards nudity was very well done and definitely memorable.
Anyway. Plot. The specifics. We’re investigating a kuroi kage... omg HF? Ohtaro gives me HF vibes too… the cheery one that has a dark backstory that affects the entire plot which is why he’s last?!?!? I'm theorizing so hard. He uses kunai like the Hakuseki who chased Tomonari, looks like this Hibina guy I saw in the voice settings, always fucks off somewhere in every route... Honestly, because of this, I read the route really fast, I was in high anticipation over whether or not they’d reveal Ohtaro as the main villain and have him pull a Tsukihime on us and tell us how he orchestrated everything and killed Kyoshiro… but nope. Nothing. He acted the same as usual, what a complete letdown, i'm not saying it's bad writing I just want to know why tf he’s last so badly. Speaking of Kyoshiro He LIVES!!!! But the game seems hellbent on denying my ship? What do you mean he and Mimi are not in love??? That being said the final battle was mid (as in “average”), Tomonari is able to save the day by the magic raptor glove and Kyoshiro was able to revive even though it was destroyed for no reason lol, he should have stayed dead especially if they were going to deny my ship. I was totally prepared for the game to commit to the deaths even in the happy endings...
Artwise, Tomonari does not look like Tomonari in the CG's when viewed from the side. Is it me not liking the artstyle that much or is it truly design inconsistency?
Stop fucking saying thattttttt.
Objective score: 9.1/10
Enjoyment score: 8.7/10
Kyoshiro and Tokugawa are the GOATs, fucking awesome side characters. Image is also a perfect segway into my unavoidable chain of Nasuverse references below. My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny...
WINTER’S WISH: HEAVEN’S FEEL
Why the fuck is this guy LAST???? You would never expect the boyish looking, cute LI to have the most plot reveals (I assume) and be last in the (kind of) enforced route order. I wonder if it has to do with him fucking off to God knows where at the end of every route.
Oh shitttt. I was anticipating him to be the villain but I never thought he was a fricking blightfall. Top tier plot twists, everything makes sense.
This is how you do an atonement plot. Unlike others that I’ve seen, Ohtaro genuinely feels sorry for his actions, there is weight in every interaction he has with characters besides Suzuno, whether it’s Tomonari, the side characters, or fucking Tokugawa. He makes a fool of himself, gets slapped by Suzuno in from of the entire Oniwiban, admits that's he's a massive childish loser throwing a tantrum... he's thoroughly spent in every way to address every single loose end, he's so pathetic and angry I fucking LOVE HIM. All the conflicts regarding him tie into the prevalent themes of family throughout the route, too. He was envious of Tomonari and killed him (I think he and Tomonari really feel like brothers), he's the Formfolk of Setsu (Suzuno's mom); he wanted to join their family but he was the one "cast out" by circumstance, all the burden of everyone's guilt and hatred was placed on him, that's why he threw the huge tantrum he did. Truly a compelling character.
The way he gets his happy ending is believable too, he's like "uhhh sorry for trying to murder the literal entire country" and Yoshimune Tokugawa is like "apology accepted :)" which, given the way I wrote it, might break suspension of disbelief, but we already know from last route that Tokugawa is already personally involved in Suzuno's Hakuseki clan affairs, he knew her father, he got help from Hibina and knows what spurred Hibie's downfall, of course he'd feel for the guy who was a product of that.
Bow down before PEAK.
My only head scratcher that might take off points is the nature of Ohtaro’s feelings for Suzuno. I thought it was fine if he was always in love with her from the moment he saw her like Tomonari (because they also have the prior connection to back them up etc.) but them Suzuno expertly deduces the truth and he’s like “yup the feelings, it’s a lie.” I was able to believe it was a lie (unlike other otome plots that attempt the “lying all along”) because he told us that he’s an Oscar level actor since the common route when he explained vessels, but what, so he falls in love with Suzuno after she keeps trying to fix him? I guess it's not a bad thing writing wise but it seems unsatisfying. Or maybe not all of it was a lie since Suzuno then figures out that him covering his mouth isn’t necessarily because he’s trying to hold back laughter. Even then, wasn’t he a little too aggressive towards the MC to be likeable? Didn't the change in demeanor happen too quickly with zero hope for the relationship? Other otome routes, they’re sadbois so of course they inspire pity, but this guy is a ball of rage and you really have to dig through his scary empty expression to find the sadboi. He apologized for literally everything else but I don’t remember him apologizing to Suzuno. I guess he really did deserve that slap. Also, why didn’t he become a formfolk earlier?
It's okay you can call me— I mean Suzuno, a dumb dog uwu. See she gets me, she's blushing. Jokes aside, I appreciate that the story acknowledges that she's a massive idiot for shilling for him, but that ultimately this is what she wants.
Fortunately, ALL of these questions are answered in the fucking Sorrow End. Wtf peak fiction game. One of the best otome bad endings ever, it’s incredibly well written with great narration from Ohtaro's POV. I do prefer that these plot details were included in one single storyline though, but I guess even now I’m still not sure how to approach VN’s. Even so, I'm still factoring this into the score.
So many moments in the bad end went so hard. W Tomonari development, peak familial themes (even if she did fuck Tomonari quite easily last route lol) that tie into the overall lore with Setsu,
Overall, Ohtaro is easily the best of his kind that I’ve ever seen in otome and the closest route to being the otome version of Fate stay night Heaven’s feel, they even have the same “Sakura” kanji in their names😭😭😭 I want to write about how similar they are, I'm going to do it I'm telling you I will.
Enjoyment wise, points off for saying “a guy wouldn’t be very happy about being called cute” in the common route, but Suzuno does call him “cute” again at the end and he accepts it without the sexist nonsense. Maybe that line was just to get you to lower your guard since he was deceiving everyone at the beginning; after all, at the end, he still retains a lot of his aggressive personality, so maybe he really doesn't mind being called cute. Holy peak.
Artwise, amazing CG's, probably these are the best in the game. Great and consistent sprites too and lovely and memorable art direction, every single one of his expressions leaves an impression, I love his blushing, angry (he so angry all the time 😭), and blank, soulless expressions the most.
Objective score: 9.6/10
Enjoyment score: 9.5/10
SUZUNO/OTHER THOUGHTS
Kinda disappointed it’s yet another fantasy historical world where women don’t seem to have as much rights.
I like that they portrayed the red light district to be a serious place where women have to “earn” their freedom, and not something glamorous like Demon Slayer portrays it to be.
Great worldbuilding, it really makes you engaged. To add on the point before, imagine being a formfolk and gaining a soul and you take on a female form only to be forced to be a prostitute. Men suck. Human women don’t have to suffer the unwanted pregnancy, birth, and STD’s from prostitution, at the cost of a new subclass of women being created. Truly another form of hell, this is some insanely good worldbuilding
Suzuno has clearly different facial features in the CG’s than her sprite, which takes points off all the CG’s art-wise.
Kiyohiko has the exact same color scheme as Chojiro from Nightshade lol, same skin, hair, and eye color. On the other hand one of Genjuro’s sprites has the same exact pose, facial features, and expressions as Chojiro, I couldn’t stop thinking about that.
The entire game is just Nightshade but better (except nothing can top Hanzo’s route of course). Tomonari is a better Gekkamaru and Ohtaro is a better Kuroyuki, CMV.
The Entertainment district common route gave stupid motivations for Kiriko. What the fuck, she decided to risk a lot and be the Nekomata Boy just because Tatdu said he inspired him once in the past??? That’s ridiculous. If she could leave that easily then why the fuck didn’t she do it before????
I’m glad the entertainment district is a literal entertainment district, at least during the day.
Castle town route: reeeee >:( “a woman’s hair is her life.” I’m not against sexist ideas being mentioned in media, but the protagonist seems to agree with that sentiment 🙄 to compare and contrast, in Nightshade, a story that took place 200 years earlier in Japan, the MC only mentions being TOLD that her hair is her life, and there are girls with less than shoulder length hair. Also it’s just funny, because I have shoulder length hair and the Kamikiri victims are so distressed over having shoulder length hair 😂 oh well at least it’s very normal and common for the men to have long hair (as they should, like lions do), but my problem is I only see that beauty standards for women are constantly mentioned, not for men, and to add insult to injury it’s treated like a vital part of being a woman. Enjoyment score points taken off by default for the castle town routes, is what I would say, but I decided not to do that because the guys are responsible for what happens in their own routes not the common route.
VERDICT
Lots of great routes in this one and it's all because of excellent plot and worldbuilding and side characters. The romances and character journeys of LI and MC are also top tier of course. That being said the common route holds the game back somewhat, especially the wack Entertainment district plot for the Kinji and Ohtaro routes, so my game score will be lower than my individual route score, 8.8/10
Even so, this game most definitely is "Kimi wa Yukima ni PEAKnegau.”
As always, feel free to discuss and/or argue with me in the comments :)
