Enchanted in the Moonlight: Kiryu, Chikage & Yukinojo -- No Spoiler Review
Enchanted in the Moonlight: Kiryu, Chikage & Yukinojo
System: Switch, Mobile
Price: $19.99, Pay per Route (Unknown pricing)
Voice Acting: No
ESRB Rating: M (17+)
Overall Rating: 3/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: A harem game with monsters; something straight out of a 25-year old librarian’s wet dream-- wait a minute...
Morning-After Reflection: MC is clearly using a fake ID, and these ayakashi are just a hassle; why is it the very few conversations about books are the most interesting part of this game? More book love, please.
Story: “You're an average, 25-year-old girl whose life consists of working at the local library, keeping up your family's shrine, and not much else.
However, that all changes when gorgeous men save you from mysterious, malevolent forces!
These men aren't all they appear to be, though. They're actually Ayakashi Spirits!
You discover that your blood is imbued with an ancient power, one that the spirit world covets, and these handsome strangers are willing to protect you... for a price, that is.
Are you ready to make a deal with these otherworldly creatures?”
Interest Rating: 6/10. I came back to this game many times before purchasing it. After playing other Voltage titles, I thought I’d give it a go.
MC: The eyeless, average MC is prevalent in mobile games to allow for self-insertion. Though all of them are typically short, thin, delicate, with long brown hair and bangs that are always too long in order to cover the fact that you’re playing an eyeless monster. I kid. Kind of. Anyways, this MC is the same. She doesn’t come with a name at all, you create both a surname and given name. She is not voiced, nor is anyone in this game. There are no sprites of the MC, though she is in at least half of the CGs.
Blank MCs are difficult to rate since they typically hold very little background, few traits, and neglect a real starting point for any sort of growth as a character, because they aren’t a character really. They’re made for you to develop whatever character you want to play as long as you stay within expected parameters. MC apparently has parents that are away for some reason for an extended period of time, and she’s living in a shrine that her family owns and operates in Tokyo. She is good at cooking, cleaning, and not much else. I guess she likes books? She works at a library, and apparently has a favorite author whose books she collects, but it is barely mentioned in passing in most routes.
Her personality leaves much to be desired since the writers only want to put the basics of (I suppose) what the average otome consumer wants. She has very few thoughts and opinions on things: anything romance or sex related needs to involve love, she has some sort of strict yet mutable idea of what love should look like; looking at someone is embarrassing especially if she has any sort of “adult” thoughts, and everything is her fault except when it’s not (when it clearly is but according to her rules it’s not). She’s supposed to be 25, but is written more juvenile than some 16-year old protagonists I’ve read. She’s terribly inconsistent in personality. If she’s dumb, let her be dumb. If she’s smart, let her be smart. If she’s innocent, let her be innocent. And if she’s wishy-washy, I suppose she could be that too, but at least let her be wishy-washy and not decisive only when it suits to drive the plot. Constantly shifting between what type of person she is supposed to be leaves her difficult to relate to, unbelievable as a character, and completely unenjoyable to read about. If my tone is not conveyed well, I didn’t like her much.
Likability Rating: Fuka. MC is a ghost of a character in order to self-insert. There’s nothing of substance to like.
Plot: Enchanted in the Moonlight is a multistory game in which there are several stories for each LI that you progress down in order to unlock and do the next. In other words, there are several plots handled one at a time as you continue your romance with a chosen LI. Most have the same general idea, just different circumstances or events that take place in order to personalize it to the LI.
The premise of the Main Story is that one day you wake up in the middle of the night and feel odd, then the next day several strange and deadly occurrences happen where you are saved countless times by equally strange, but also good looking (can’t forget that) men who often have something chiding to say to you that you don’t understand but clearly they know what they’re talking about. That night you're confronted by the men you’ve met that day where they reveal their intentions, to protect you, but in return you have to “give” yourself to one of them, which means bearing a child, and in your mind, marriage. Things get a little more dangerous, they protect you yet again, and then you pick a LI to make the pact with. It’s a really simple story, and that’s fine with me, I don’t need a deep or complicated plot.
The problem comes when your love story continues. The overall writing is not very good. It reads much like someone broadcasting on the radio, or an announcer for a sports game; things are told in a play by play manner. The characters are all rather shallow. We get surface thoughts and no complexity to actions. Backgrounds are cobbled together when convenient, or at least revealed to us in that manner, so it doesn’t appear that there was thought put into it until we needed to know in order to explain character actions as if there is some deep meaning to every action someone does. I think what I’m trying to get at is that it’s a game that tells you what is taking place instead of showing you.
Replayability Rating: ★★★☆☆ The story follows the same pattern, so it’s bound to feel same-y.
Love Interests: I played the Switch version of the game, which has two games under the same title, each with three LIs. In the phone version, you simply pick your route and pay per story. In this version on the Switch we are presented with Kiryu, Chikage, and Yukinojo, whom you pick before even reading the prologue. Each has exactly the same prologue, so it doesn’t matter who you pick to start off with. From there you can go down all the stories offered. There are two endings per LI, a Happy Ending and a Good Ending. Yes, you read that right, they are both primarily good endings, one is just more good. There are several guides to get the Happy Ending, but with no measurement for right choices besides whatever ending is the result, a lot of the guides differ on which choices to make. There is no order to which LI to choose first, the prologue is basically where the story splits and each goes down their own path. At least until the next story where the same elements are introduced for everyone and each LI handles it differently. Now that route options and endings are handled, it’s time to meet our demon-blooded breeders.
:sigh: Let me be honest here, I didn’t like any of these guys. I had a hard time getting through the main story on most of them, and just gave up for some of them after a few stories. I didn’t finish this game. It isn’t entirely the LI’s faults, the MC was aggravating, the writing was not to my liking, and there were no consequences for actions on anyone’s part, forcing some conclusions to resolve so readers could be appeased with a happy ending. But I’m going to try to be objective here and keep it from turning into a bashing session.
Let me tell you about the aloof dragon, Kiryu. He’s not even in the prologue. Not at all. So, why would you pick him? Well, he makes himself available during the “choosing” after you select his path. In fact, he doesn’t just make himself available, he kind of… claims you. Apparently he was there the whole time (watching) and struts in to make a pact with you for himself, with no one able to say otherwise because he’s Mr. Powerful or something of that sort. He’s got some good qualities, I guess. He’s closer to human than anyone else that is offered up. Kiryu also has a presence about him that just feels sharp. He certainly is used to people doing what he says and expects the MC to go along with everything, and he’s not very nice about any of it. If you want a controlling, sometimes threatening LI, Kiryu is your best option. I played roughly half the offered stories in the game for him, and though I wouldn’t mind coming back to this babe, I was also not invested. I liked him more as time went on, but dropped the game when a newer, shinier game came along.
I guess it’s Chikage’s turn. Described as the icy tengu, that is an apt description. He’s cold in that he puts up a front that he doesn’t care for anyone. He earned his place in the world, and expects everyone to struggle equally as hard. He’s a strict taskmaster. And strangely enough, he's both arrogant and self-defeating. I thought I’d like him, but once again, we’ve got a mean one on our hands. He’s the intelligent outcast, the black sheep, the underdog. These are all things I like, but when it comes down to it, he’s just a badly written tsundere. I thought, based on Chikage’s personality, that I didn’t like tsunderes. It turns out I just don’t like his type of tsun. I completed less than half of the stories offered in this game for Chikage. I didn’t like him any more as time went on, and eventually gave up on him with no intention of going back. Not even my completionism can make me finish his route.
And then there was one. Oh, Yukinojo. Either I, or the game, was not fair to you. Probably both. I didn’t complete his main story. At least I got half-through the first story? That’s not really saying much. So, I liked Yukinojo on other routes. He’s a nice, gentlemanly person. He smiles kindly, and offers unsolicited advice for whatever problems you’re facing (on other paths), and seems like this carefree dude that hangs around with everyone while you’re romancing whomever you’re romancing, content to just be. He appears to be super insightful, always aware of what is going on. But on his route? He is Mr. Snow Spirit. And I don’t mean that in a Daddy Dom sort of way. He seems to have a lot of misplaced anger that is directed at the MC for no reason. That insightfulness comes as distrust of your motives. And he certainly isn’t offering to help guide you along in your problems in this route. I suppose they captured the ideal image of a snow spirit. Romancing Yukinojo is like romancing a sharpened icicle; touch it too long and you hurt yourself (frostbite), handle it without care and you hurt yourself (impaling), and be rough with it and you shatter anything you had. MC is also most inconsistent in this route, imo. The guy never had a chance.
Boy Crazy Rating: 40%. I could live without every single one of these guys. In fact, I’d rather.
Romance: Now this is an interesting aspect of the game to analyze. Since the premise of the main story is bedding the MC, you’d think the story would focus on romance. It doesn’t. They have a plot that sidles up to the main story, you remember talk about how dangerous, deadly things are happening in the prologue? Yeah, that has to be resolved in the main story. On top of that, the MC is adamant about not really developing a relationship with most of the LIs because she was coerced into her decision on who to make a pact with. It was that or die. So she tends to be rather distant towards the guys. Let’s also not forget that a sidelong glance can cause her face to inflame. :sigh: The romance isn’t completely absent, there are some moments, it just isn’t a romantic game.
Heart Palpitation Rating: F. I’ve seen better relationship building from muppets.
Spice: Well, are you okay with dubious consent? What about non-consent? There isn’t full on rape in this game (at least not as far as I read), but one LI attempts it. There are a lot of sexually tense moments, with pushing the MC around (against walls, floors, etc.) and either engaging in adult content, or simply too close for comfort while alluding to adult content. There are definite sexy times, consensual, thankfully. And flowery talk about f*cking. There are no explicit descriptions, or visual depictions of sex. There are a few CGs with compromising positions, or open kimonos and bare male chests partially exposed. I’m not sure how I can sound so clinical about it. Maybe because this is the only selling point of the game, as I see it, so I’m trying not to sell it hard, or at all.
Cold Shower Rating: Pass. Finally, a game that earned its Mature rating other than through violence. It was worth a cool shower, no ice bath needed.
Angst: I mean… There’s conflict. There are skeletons in everyone’s past. Most of the LIs have daddy issues. When you’re talking about a pool of three, like here, there isn’t much to pull from. Yukinojo seems to be the angstiest, and I never figured out why since I didn’t even finish his first story. Chikage is broody and grumpy, but I think he probably handles his angstiness the best. And Kiryu is like “whatever”. I get a lot of teenage rebellion from him. There aren’t a whole lot of emotions thrown around due to the writing style. It’s a drama, but not drenched in angst.
Drama Llama Rating: 4/10. Drama llama petting zoo. Violent conflict is the only thing keeping the rating from sinking any lower.
Voice Acting: None. Zip. Zero. It’s a phone game ported to the Switch.
Expression Rating: N/A. Can’t rate what isn’t there.
Art: You get the bare basics here. Sprites with very few poses and a few wardrobe changes. Base details on sprites and backgrounds. There is shading, so it isn’t all flat. But the art looks good to me. Sure, it’s not top-notch, or high resolution, but it accomplishes the job in making a visual novel and I find it just fine to look at. Nothing wonky in the sprite and background art.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★☆☆ Many repeats. Such basic. Very okay.
CGs: These are better than the basic art, but still not without issue. You can see where corners were cut in things like making the background a solid color, or keeping patterns and clothing simple, but that doesn’t make it bad. I think, for being a phone game originally, it’s pretty okay. It’s acceptable. I wouldn’t pay for prints, and none will end up as a background photo for my phone or computer, but I wouldn’t consider it as poor work. Some CGs are dynamic, and good choices, but with the lack of stuff filling the space, I honestly can’t remember what was happening during the scene besides that exact moment.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 73%. It is what it is. I appreciate the CGs, but they don’t provoke any sort of emotional response.
UI/Mechanics: This is a very uncomplicated game. The menu is easy to navigate. There are no mini games or special combinations that you need to be aware of. Saving is simple. The textbox is static, and the whole UI looks clean and pretty standard if you ask me.
What’s this button do? Rating: B. No complaints. Nothing exceptional.
Errors: I’m not sure what the standard is for translation errors, but I’d say this game is pretty standard. There are spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. There was a time or two that I had to reread something a few times in order to figure out how it was supposed to be put together to be understood. The vocabulary is pretty basic, which is fine by me. I don’t need anything highbrow just to enjoy it. No game breaking bugs, and surprisingly few to no UI errors that I can recall. It’s all just translation issues, and even those are not bad, certainly noticeable.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Pass. Low passing. They’re there, they’re just not overwhelming.
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