Collar x Malice -- No Spoiler Review

 Collar x Malice

System: Switch, PS Vita 

Price: $39.99, $39.99 

Voice Acting: Yes 

ESRB Rating: M (17+) 

Overall Rating: Stole 7.5/10 ♥s

Pre-Game Perception: Play a cool detective woman that relies on the kindness of strangers to do her job for her.

Morning-After Reflection: A rookie cop goes above and beyond her job in order to prove she is helpful, just to get a pat on the back for her service in the end.

Story: “As a young police officer, you must save a city under siege! A terrorist organization’s brutal attack has left you fitted with a deadly souvenir – a poisonous collar that could end your life at any moment. With time running out, five strangers offer their help – but which of them can you trust?

Will you be able to save your own neck, and the lives of those around you, or will this case end in disaster?”

Interest Rating: 6/10. Honestly, I wasn’t crazy about the idea of this game. It sounds fine, but it’s not the type of game I thought I’d like. They really play up the suspense aspect, and I wanted a romance game.

MC: Ichika Hoshino is our heroine for this story. Her first name can be changed, however, if you keep the default name then the other characters will say it when it’s scripted. Changing to a different first name will give you just dead air every time they refer to you on a first name basis. Ichika’s last name is not editable, and is used often. She doesn’t have a sprite, even by the text box, is not voiced, but does show up in CGs and one special screen that comes up at least once in each route.

Ichika is a 21-year old, brand new police officer in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. She’s described as a strong-willed woman who puts others before herself, and that’s not entirely wrong; but in order to be strong-willed you typically have to have convictions you’re willing to abide by. Ichika is pretty much driven by two things: being helpful in some manner, proving that she can be helpful in some manner. I mean, I don’t dislike her. I just don’t think there’s much to her. She seems like any other MC that’s blank enough that people can self-insert, but has just a touch of background revealed so she can stand on her own. Except she doesn’t stand too well. It’s clear that if the LIs didn’t drive the story, there wouldn’t be a story. I don’t want to be fed unrealistic expectations of what type of MC I’m going to get in a game.

If I were to describe Ichika, I’d say she’s a young, new cop who is still trying to figure out herself and her life, thrust into a position that is way out of her depth, and forced to discover what she believes and stands for before the game concludes. She is much more normal and unremarkable than some might try to sell her as. She’s not too bright (self-proclaimed several times throughout the game) and that’s okay with me. She’s a hard worker. And she genuinely cares about others much more than she does about herself. Ichika does have a little bit of badassery during the game, but she is constantly overshadowed by the LIs (and everyone around her) who have years of experience in everything besides cooking.

Likability Rating: Ryo. She’s acceptable but not exceptional. Many find her a strong MC, but I think she’s rather flat, simple, and singularly focused.

Plot: The game starts off with a bang, explaining the series of events that have taken place to throw us in the middle of the plot. Let me issue a warning, this is a M (17+) rated game for violence, not because of sexy times. Within a matter of minutes, the opening scene depicts four men who are shot once you scroll through a short amount of text. Point is, there are scenes of violence and the game has adult themes throughout. Now that that’s out of the way…

We start in the prologue of Chapter 0 where we learn about the current goings on in Shinjuku (where the story takes place) and about Ichika (the MC). During the prologue, Ichika is abducted and she wakes up with a collar locked around her neck that contains a deadly poison that could be remotely injected into her at any time. This is some serious shit. From there, we’re introduced to the LIs through the rest of Chapter 0, with a handful of choices to make before we end up on a LI path. Although all the paths are essentially the same timeline, just different focuses depending on which LI you choose, the game doesn’t feel super same-y.

There’s a lot of content to cover, and each route covers a different portion of it. References to other events are made, but only to establish both a timeline and how it impacts your current route. And if you understand what events happen when (meaning on secondary+ run throughs), you can see how your chosen route, and subsequent actions affect the timeline you’re on. I think it’s a good way to tell the same story without having to branch wildly and come up with new plots for each character. Divide and conquer. Also, the common route is so incredibly short, there is nothing to slog through repeatedly in order to get to the goods.

Replayability Rating: ★★★★★ It reminds me of those ‘5 different PoV’ stories that happen simultaneously until they all meet at one conclusion. Or the ending of the 1985 Clue movie, where this or this could have happened, but this is how it really happened.

Love Interests: Collar x Malice brings you five dysfunctional LIs, though only three of them are available on your first play through. The fourth, Kageyuki Shiraishi, becomes available after you’ve completed a Tragic Love or Good Ending in one of the other three routes. All four routes must come to a Tragic Love or Good Ending in order to unlock Aiji Yanagi’s route, bringing him to number five, and considered the true route of the game. The only suggested route order for this game is that Shiraishi is left as the fourth route due to plot spoilers revealed, and of course Yanagi has to be the fifth. The other three you can do in any order you please. On my first play through of Collar x Malice, I wasn’t sure how you ended up on a route; once I got my first LI, I realized how I got there, so it isn’t exactly clear when you’re choosing who you’re choosing. I’m just going to list the LIs based on age, leaving Yanagi for last despite Shiraishi being older than him. There are no-spoiler guides if you care to go down a chosen path and haven’t yet figured out how to make the right decisions to do so. Otherwise, enjoy the ride!

Ah, the youngest. The one typically full of energy. So genki. This is Mineo Enomoto, voiced by Soma Saito. Our resident eyepatch wearing, fan flipping, constantly loud, awkward, honest, and adorable 23-year old redhead. He’s hanging out with the rest of these dudes, working on figuring out the X-Day cases, and you’ve set your sights on partnering up with this stranger because the cases he’s working on are the first of the string of crimes broadcasted by Adonis (the terrorist group behind your collar and current state of Shinjuku). The thing is, you’re both kinda… idiots. This route is waaaay more slice-of-life, get to know the world, introduction to the plot and characters, with just a little bit of death and mayhem to keep with the theme than what I initially envisioned after the prologue. If you want plenty of happy moments between sadboi moments, this is the route for you. The Good Ending is ideal, but the Tragic Love Ending is worth the few minutes to play through as well, imo.

Daisuke Namikawa voices Takeru Sasazuka (or as I like to call him, Sassyzuka) who is a fan favorite, and I can see why even if he isn’t the type I typically like. He’s a total tsundere, but the best type of tsundere I’ve ever seen written. At 24, he is an exceptional hacker and computer whiz, looking into the August cases of the X-Day cases. When he’s not tap tap tapping on his keyboard, he’s reluctantly getting involved with the rest of the group, continuing to push his agenda throughout the story. I didn’t want to like this one, I really didn’t, and often proclaim how unfair it is that his CGs are the sweetest, just like Sassyzuka’s taste for snacks. But that little dude found the string of code that led him directly to my heart. I’ve never been so stupidly giddy being called stupid… Anyways, we get more story here, and more focus on the plot presented in the prologue; though I feel Ichika takes a backseat as Sassyzuka flexes his genius in this route. The Good Ending is satisfying enough, though the Tragic Love Ending isn’t bad if you want more of the green-haired sweetheart.

You want cool? You want friendly? You want someone who will frustrate you, Ichika, and everyone to no end but in a manner that makes it impossible to hate? 26-year old Kei Okazaki is ready to ‘coincidentally’ appear as soon as you even consider the thought. His introduction makes an impression on Ichika, and certainly did on me as well. I was watching him with narrowed eyes. I knew what was going on-- at least I thought I did. This route was a game changer for me. I decided I needed this man game in my life. There’s comedy, intense drama, Ichika takes her biggest role so far in this one as well, and the whole thing pulled at my heartstrings thanks to the superlative work of Okazaki’s seiyuu, Yuki Kaji. Obviously, the Good End is where you want to end up, but this Tragic Love Ending is worth playing.

I can’t think of Kageyuki Shiraishi without making some sort of yummy sound.  As quirky as Okazaki is, and how… interesting his introductory appearance was in the game, Shiraishi takes the whole damned cake for making an impact on me at his introduction, and then continues to draw my attention every time he’s in the room. A lot of the draw is not only the character personality (those socially awkward smartbois get me), but the voice acting as well done by Ryohei Kimura. Shiraishi is a man I want to touch, but I feel he is always outside my reach, keeping his distance without ever fully leaving. His focus in the game is on the September and October cases, and as the police officer in this route, you do a lot of the legwork in order to drive the plot. Oh yeah! He’s 29 and just really loves cats, okay?! And lastly, do both Good and Tragic Love Ending for this one. Besides getting CGs for each, both endings are too good to pass up, imo.

All ends ultimately lead to Aiji Yanagi, the 28-year old otousan of the group voiced by Masakazu Morita. I think once in every route he’s referred to as the father figure, and on more than one occasion in his own route. I’m really torn about this route, and if it wasn’t the literal ending for the game, wrapping up everything that’s happened in every route, I wouldn’t have done it, and I certainly won’t be playing it again. It’s not Yanagi, it’s so many little annoyances outside of his character, dealing with the story and writing, that I just can’t appreciate him as a LI because I didn’t like his route.

In order to get on Yanagi’s route, you get a new, more nuanced Chapter 0. I appreciated that. It gave us more info on not just Yanagi, but the other LIs. His route is also the longest, with an extra chapter tacked on since it touches on every previous plot to some degree. I thought Ichika was okay in this route, and Yanagi himself is pretty okay. I would rather he not be the true route because he certainly isn’t my favorite, nor most people’s from what I’ve seen. I don’t like being told who the MC is supposed to be with, because it feels like there’s no point in picking anyone else if it isn’t meant to be. I also dislike true routes since they tend to resolve most other LIs personal plots without the influence of the MC, rendering her pointless in playing any part in their story. By the time I got around to completing the other (Bad) endings, I would almost rather one or two of the Bad Endings over the Tragic Love or Good Ending. I was pretty miffed by that point. It was such a disappointing note to end on.

Boy Crazy Rating: 86%. The good ones are good, and the rest will be forgotten with time.

Romance: It seems that the romance in this game is integral to Ichika’s development as a character, and somehow important to the LIs resolving their personal plots. It’s not an afterthought, but the number of times it’s brought to the forefront as if to remind you that this is important makes it a little pushy. Here we have this huge, overarching conflict that needs five different stories in order to cover it all, and then there’s falling in love with strangers along the way. I’m not a fan of quick relationships, I prefer the slow burns. This game has many a quick love connections. Some of it is cute. Some of it is predictable. And some of it feels a little too forced to be enjoyable to me.

Heart Palpitation Rating: B-. Romance in a romance game. Most of it was okay, with only a few routes that really moved me.

Spice: I’m constantly hoping that one of these M-rated games will make me so hot that I’ll sweat, but it seems that death and blood is still more acceptable than talking about genitals. Actually, I don’t even want to go that far. I just want something to bring the heat. Collar x Malice doesn’t. There are perhaps three sexually charged moments in the whole game. After complaining about how quick the relationships are established, I suppose it isn’t fair to then complain that they take sexy times at a reasonable pace. But not even an awkward open shirt moment. 

Cold Shower Rating: Fail. Apparently they didn’t need sex to sell this game.

Angst: You want angst? Collar x Malice has angst a plenty. Not only is the entire game about surviving the constant threat of death, but also persevering while the power dynamic of the police is in swing against Adonis (the terrorist group in the game). If that wasn’t enough angst for you, add in a few cups of tragic character backstories, a pound of reasons to question morality, and several ounces of continued conflict to overcome.This isn’t the angstiest game I’ve played, but I doubt you’d be disappointed with the drama provided.

Drama Llama Rating: 8/10. The drama llama knows the recipe for disaster, luckily it left out a key ingredient so you ended up with just drama and not total destruction.

Voice Acting: It seems I have a lot of love/hate opinions on this game. On one hand, I hated the recording for the voice acting; I was constantly readjusting the volume in the same scene, or between characters due to a certain someone that tends to be suddenly very loud, especially when paired with someone that typically doesn’t tend to be loud. Ever. On the other, I thought everyone did exceptionally well, even the loud one, because he was quiet when he was supposed to be quiet, and over the top when he was supposed to be over the top. I enjoyed the diversity in Soma Saito’s (Enomoto) delivery of lines. I just thought the sound could have been regulated better.

Yuki Kaji (Okazaki) gets high praises from me in nearly everything he’s in because he’s able to put so much emotion in his voice, oftentimes stealing the show whenever he appears just to relay three or four lines before disappearing again. However, I’d like to crown Ryohei Kimura (Shiraishi) as the king for this game. The way he purrs his lines, or sucks the air through his teeth, or quickly rattles off his thoughts so matter-of-factly, it just does things to me. The interactions he has with Yuki Kaji are burned into my mind simply because they easily rival each other in portraying their characters. If I could take the time to name all the non-romanceable characters as well, I would, but there’s simply too many of them to call out individually for their roles. Needless to say, there wasn’t one I disliked from the full cast.

Expression Rating: Yu. The need to adjust the volume is the only reason this doesn’t hit a higher rating.

Art: This is the first time I’ve seen an art style of this sort. At first I was thrown off by the cat-shaped pupils of everyone, but eventually I came to like it. I’m not really picky when it comes to art, I like to see different styles and enjoy seeing the artist’s expression in the artwork. I personally liked the little details on each character that gave them personality. I find the dynamic look a little too dramatic for most occasions. Something on every character is flying as if they’re swiftly moving in one direction or another, or they have a personal wind about them. Cool concept, but something I just have to ignore when no one is moving. There are also body proportion issues on some sprites; if you don’t know what yaoi hands are, urban dictionary that. 

Still Picture Rating: ★★★★☆ Many colored irises. Such dramatic posing. Very a’ight.

CGs: When completing all the CGs available for a character, you get a bonus CG for that character. Most are okay. One is very yes. The CGs for this game are pretty solid. They’re very expressive, and I enjoy that. There are some wonky proportions in some of the CGs. Shiraishi, for example, is 26cm (~10in) taller than Ichika; yet in some pictures she is quite a bit shorter than him, not even coming up to his shoulder, and in others she looks to be near eye-level, which is too tall for the height difference. Then there’s the size of body parts, specifically the hands. I mentioned this in sprites, but it carries over to the CGs as well. The choices for CGs are also only okay. Some are good, some are kind of boring and I would have liked to see other descriptions immortalized in picture form.

Look at this Photograph Rating: 85%. Inconsistent sizing, or unproportional parts take away from decent CGs.

UI/Mechanics: The text box in this game is floating instead of fixed. It’s always in the same general area, but it shifts around that portion of the screen. I thought it was fun, but for people who speed read it could become troublesome as there isn’t one central location to affix your eyes in order to zoom through the story. There’s also the issue of not explaining how to manage the “mini-game” aspects of the game. I had little issue figuring out how to do the shooting after failing the first shot in the prologue, never accidentally missing another. And when investigating rooms, some take more than one passover, while others only take one, which was highly confusing when I hit my first required multiple looks at an item. I thought I had missed something in the room and took entirely too much time pointing at every millimeter of the screen before finally clicking on something I had already done and that being the right answer. If you do this on the rooms requiring a single investigation it tells you you already looked at that. Besides these choices, the UI works just fine. The menu is easy to navigate and the controls are all pretty similar to other games.

What’s this button do? Rating: B. No explanation of mini-game mechanics, but not hard to figure out.

Errors: I’m disappointed in the amount of errors this game has**. It isn’t unplayable, and you can still understand what is going on, but there are so many translation issues, and not simple grammar problems. From text box coding problems so that spoken sentences are in the name field section, to mis-naming characters being spoken to, about, and sometimes even who is talking at the time being wrongly named in the text box. Thankfully I could tell that was certainly not Yanagi’s voice. It’s a mess for such a big name title. Without the MC having a voice, there are times that thoughts are not clearly marked as thoughts, so you’re left wondering if Ichika just expressed her hidden feelings for someone, only for her to actually express something different right after. Some sentences are cut off to be placed in the next text box where the PoV character is making an observation about the current scene and clearly not the previous person who spoke, but they have half the sentence in their box. In one route every X-Day case’s month is given to the previous month (i.e. August event is said to have happened in July). There are, of course, punctuation issues, and grammar as well, but those are typical of translations and the least of my complaints. That’s not to say they shouldn’t be addressed too, but I often forgive small errors of that sort. There is also a BIG translation error in a crucial decision that splits a path, and I was more than a little upset about it since it misled my choice.

**There has been a patch for this title and supposedly many of these errors were fixed. The translation error in the decision still remains despite it being the obvious biggest problem. However, there are some that have been cleaned up from a cursory glance, but not everything. One screenshot I have of the worst of the offenders making that scene unreadable no longer reflects the game. The month mix-up still exists, along with (fewer) text wrapping issues.

Here there be Bugs Rating: Fail. There’s a veritable colony in these parts. (One reddit user claimed there were over 1,000 errors throughout this game).

Background Music: I’ve heard some complaints about the music, but I liked it. The trailer is super loud when it rolls during the prologue, or when you idle in the title screen. There’s a scene in a club, and when the music switches there it is also rather loud, even though they’re both considered background music, so you can’t adjust one without the other. Since I had the same complaint about voices, I think the sound was just done shoddily. I liked that certain music was always used during certain actions or scenes, which, I know, is exactly what BGM is designed for, but hearing it got me ready for what was going to happen. It’s good stuff.

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? I would buy this game, but I would heavily consider it for several days, if not weeks. The price tells me it should be a good game, but the amount of errors throughout the game severely drop the value to me. There really are only a handful of routes I enjoyed enough to want to play Collar x Malice, so I don't even feel like I got the content out of it that I wanted. It's a decently long game, but I've played longer for a lower price point. It's generally an okay game. Some consider it great, and that's their choice. As for friends, I've explained the idea of the game and it seems to draw a lot of interest. However, once I tell them just about the bugs in general, I've seen interest wane. I don't even express what routes I liked or didn't, and the light in their eyes had already dimmed. If it goes on sale, I'd give them a nudge; but on that note, I also wouldn't try to talk anyone out from purchasing it.