Code: Realize ~Future Blessings~ -- No Spoiler Review

Code: Realize ~Future Blessings~

System: Switch, PS4, PS Vita

Price: $39.99, $49.99 (only available bundled with main game), $39.99

Voice Acting: Yes (Japanese)

ESRB Rating: T (13+)

Overall Rating: Stole 8/10 ♥s

Pre-Game Perception: All the juicy weddings for the incredible romances we got to see in Guardians of Rebirth. Oh, and two new routes!

Morning-After Reflection: Largely a kinetic novel with cute after stories. The new routes cause complicated feelings about previously established characters, and introduced my first non-LI husbando to me.

Story: “Mystery. Adventure. A little Romance.

Taking place after the events of the first game, follow the main protagonist Cardia as she continues to build friendships and deeper relationships. Her companions have helped her through her previous trials and tribulations, and she will rely on them more heavily as she faces the lingering demons of her past.

Through a number of events both grand and seemingly insignificant, Cardia is pursued by the Royal Guard, kidnapped by the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, and joined by myriad handsome figures straight from the best of western literature. With her newfound friends (and suitors) Cardia ventures out in the world to unravel the mysteries surrounding her very existence.

• The Romance(s) Continue!

Choose to deepen the connection with your previous beau, or explore exciting new relationships with gentlemen you bypassed the first time.

• New Stories and Different Perspectives

Experience new scenarios taking place after the main story as the previous stories.

• New Men in Your Life

In addition to fan (and Cardia) favorites from the previous game, players will get to meet newcomers Herlock Sholmès and Finis in all-new scenarios.”

Interest Rating: 10/10 I wanted to see what happened after the main story, eager to get back to my boys and be the poisonous girl again. 

MC: Once again we play Cardia. Her first name is able to be changed. She appears as a sprite next to the text box and is in most CGs. She isn’t voiced. And she is no longer the girl she used to be. In this game, being the second game to the Code: Realize collection, we’ve already experienced the character growth from the previous game. Now a more confident and knowledgeable woman, her experiences from the Guardian of Rebirth game have shaped her into slightly different versions depending on the route you take, but overall still the same character. The issue comes when Cardia dances between understanding the world, and not understanding anything. Sometimes she’s extremely ditzy, like she didn’t spend six months to a few years learning about the world and experiencing everything she has. There’s a lot more focus on how Cardia feels about what’s going on around her that isn’t overshadowed by the big, Big, BIG plotlines from the previous game. It’s a natural progression to turn within now that without is no longer threatening her life, but most stories pick up much later when I’d assume these introspective character changes would have already been addressed.

Likability Rating: Yu. Cardia is more concerned with fitting in and being “normal”.

Plot: There are a few different sections to this game that cause it to differ from the typical otome format, but I’m told that’s just the way fandisks are made. This was the first fandisk I played. First, the goods most people are looking to get at are likely the continuation stories for Cardia and her hero. These are simply kinetic novels, a story without choices, that you get to click through to a single, unalterable ending. Each route has a different plot, and is solely focused on the couple with guest appearances of some of the original cast.

The second big part of this fandisk are the new routes. Those take place alongside the original main story, as if you made choices to pursue one of the two new characters instead of the original five, starting at the end of chapter 8 of Guardian of Rebirth. As you can expect, these are choice-driven routes with multiple endings. They vary greatly from each other, though each is also reminiscent of a previous route, so although the stories are their own, we’re not given much outside of the already established sequence of events.

The last selling point to this game is not even advertised. There is an additional story meant to have taken place during the main game that introduces new characters, and a new conflict. It is almost like this “what if” idea was developed to bring a bit of fun and drama into the original story, but scrapped before production because it detracted from where they were headed in the previous game. Now it is thrown in as a deleted scene to bulk up this game’s content. And, ya’ know, that’s not a bad thing if you can piece it in where you think it should belong, but it doesn’t allow any choices, so it is yet another kinetic novel.

Replayability Rating: ★★★☆☆ Every story is different, but you’re only really playing ¼ of the game.

Love Interests: Arsene Lupin, Saint-Germain, Abraham Van Helsing, Victor Frankenstein, and Impey Barbicane are all selectable routes in this game as after story kinetic novels. They each take place after the events of their respective good end in the original game. In addition to our fantastic five, we have two new LIs available to play through the Guardian of Rebirth storyline with more different plots that are also not more different. I say “new” but we’ve already been introduced to them, so they’re old new. Since there is no real path recommendation, let’s start with who was introduced to us in the original game first. If you recall, during the common route in Guardian of Rebirth, both Sholmes and Finis made an appearance on the train, but Sholmes wins out by a matter of minutes, so I guess he gets our first go.

Sherlock Holmes! I mean Herlock Sholmes! For simplicity’s sake, I’ll refer to this enigmatic detective as Sholmes, as much as I’m loathe to. The reveal on changing a single letter in order to hide who he is makes me think the greater London population is rather stupid. But that’s not what you’re looking for here. He’s not exactly what you expect based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, but I’d say they portrayed the genius detective quite well. He shares a certain drive as the other characters in needing to complete his life’s goal, but this one has more romance moments than some other revenge-oriented men in Cardia’s life. He’s almost upstaged by his assistant, the entirely too good looking Dr. Watson. Almost. But Cardia has eyes only for Sholmes. A good thing too, apparently he needs someone to look after him.

The other route available in this game is for Finis. Hey, it happens. Writers slip a sibling in as a LI with Western audiences appalled that they’d be so bold as to offer an incestuous route, and those of us that find a reason that it’s okay play it then learn the truth: it’s never what you think. There is no incest going on. Promise. And I wouldn’t skip this route if that’s your only reason for putting it off. You want angst? I want angst. This is the angst level. If you enjoyed seeing Cardia grow in Guardian of Rebirth, I have a feeling you’ll like seeing both the Beckford’s evolve throughout this route.

Boy Crazy Rating: 83%. I’d rather try my hand at the side-characters, but the new LIs are okay, I guess.

Romance: Five out of eight stories are focused on an established relationship. Two others are building a relationship. And one is pretty much the common route shenanigans all over again. There is romance a plenty in this game, and all types as well. Well, maybe not the kinky kind since the ESRB is T. Future Blessings doesn’t skimp in offering heartfelt moments as a buffet for their love-glutton fans. This was the reason I bought the fandisk, and I was not disappointed in the amount of love given.

Heart Palpitation Rating: A. Even my cold, dead heart was toasty with this one.

Spice: The sexual tension is real, people. After the bonus stories from Guardian of Rebirth that gave us glimpses of some fine body parts, I was hoping that things would get hotter in here so we could take off all our clothes. I was not given what I wanted, but instead offered more head-canon material. They have to keep that rating somehow, and I believe they toed the line without crossing it. There are no references to sexual conduct, but I can fill in some blanks about what goes on behind the scenes. So, is it spicy? Only a little more than the last game, but it certainly is tense.

Cold Shower Rating: Pass. It did things to me without giving me the goods. My thoughts were burning up.

Angst: Everything is not sunshine and rainbows in the after stories of Cardia’s life, but we’re certainly not going to see the same amount of tragedy as we did before. You do have two new LI stories, one fairly angst-filled, the other less so, but still angsty. And then you have the side story to the common route, that brings the usual expected drama. Out of the five guys that we’ve already fallen for, we’re talking pretty mellow conflicts for most of them.

Drama Llama Rating: 6/10. The drama llama is our friend, but watch out for biting.

Voice Acting: Welp, I gushed about Yuki Kaji in my last Code: Realize review, and he brings the same amazing acting in this game as well. All the guys do their part, and once again I enjoy the feelings that come with the delivery of their lines, despite not knowing the language. Shotaro Morikubo, also known as Impey Barbicane the genius inventor, shines a little brighter in this game, I think. Special mention to Miho Ishigami who plays Delacroix II for her work, as well. Overall, everyone did another masterful job.

Expression Rating: Shu. I just can’t get over how perfect these seiyuus are in their acting for these roles.

Art: There aren’t any noticeable changes to the style or design from the previous game. I’m still loving all the details on each sprite and in all the backgrounds. However, as a sweet teaser, there is a costume change in the side story that I just had to snap a few screenshots of. Dem boyz cleaned up nicely.

Still Picture Rating: ★★★★☆ Many pretty. Such background. Very picture.

CGs: Once again, great choice in CGs. There were many that I stared at for entirely too long, simply to take in everything about it or relive the scene they came from. The CG for completing all the CGs is humorous, but not as good as the last rewarded group photo, imo. And if you love that cute little vampire friend, Delly’s final CG for completing the Delly’s Room extra stories is grand.

Look at this Photograph Rating: 95%. I Wish I had an artbook for this game.

UI/Mechanics: Same UI and game mechanics as Guardian of Rebirth, except the menu is slightly different to accommodate the different modes of this game. Easy to understand.

What’s this button do? Rating: A. No complicated controls. Easy to navigate.

Errors: Unfortunately, there are grammar and punctuation errors in this game. It seems that Future Blessings wasn’t given the same care as Guardian of Rebirth, or the same amount of combing through to get all the tangles out. It wasn’t ever difficult to understand what was being conveyed, but we’re missing quotation marks, parentheses, and some words were gone or mixed up with a few spelling errors as well. It’s strange, they translate with some eloquent and sophisticated word choices which would convince me someone understood English well, but then they mess up “there”.

Here there be Bugs Rating: Pass. Even with the bugs, it wasn’t game breaking or difficult to understand.

Background Music: With new games comes new music. To be honest, I don’t think I was as impressed with the music as I was with Guardian of Rebirth. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t bad, I still played with it on. I simply don’t recall any of it, so it must have been just okay. I think, because the stories were so short, there wasn’t time to truly appreciate the BGM per scene or route. I could be wrong here. Whatever the case is, I didn’t come away with a sense of joy or annoyance based on the music provided.

BY OUR RATINGS COMBINED!: Oh ho! You thought you were done, didn’t you? Don’t worry, this will be short. Sometimes my individual ratings do not always add up to my overall rating; this is because I find a reason to rate the game based on things that are not listed in my (very) long review. I couldn’t section everything. Sometimes price factors in. Sometimes personal tastes. Basically, what it comes down to is would I buy this game knowing everything I know? Would I recommend it to a friend? As much as I love this series, and as much as I enjoyed this game, I'm not sure I would buy it all over again at the price given. I would at least heavily consider it for days, if not weeks. The fact that you don't get to play most of it, but instead just read a story really bothered me. But now that I know what fandiscs are, I'm aware of what I'm getting when I buy one. It is a good game, if you're not looking for a game. But would I suggest it to a friend? Also on the fence. I would mention it, and let them know what sort of things to expect, along with the point that it isn't a playable game through most of it. It is also very short for the price point. C:R FB is still a long game, but for being more expensive than the first, it should at least match the time played, imo. It doesn't.