Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk -- No Spoiler Review
Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk
System: PC, PSVita
Price: $29.99, Out of Production
Voice Acting: Yes (Japanese)
ESRB Rating: T (13+)
Overall Rating: Stole 9/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: Monstrous girl (witch in this case) somehow brings the clans together through actual humanity, and we learn that everyone else were the real monsters all along.
Morning-After Reflection: A heartwarming story of acceptance and a heart-wrenching story of the hard decisions we have to make to be a monster or not.
Story: “Uncover the secret – Unite the clans
In a town ruled by opposing clans and overshadowed by superstition and legend, a child is born with the dreaded mark of a witch.
She conceals her identity until the theft of a mysterious relic brings to light a series of staggering revelations.
The mysteries she will uncover could restore order... or destroy everything that she knows…”
Interest Rating: 9/10 This was one of the first titles I had bought back when I started my otome journey. I picked it up solely because it sounded interesting and I liked the art. I was unaware of some of the biggest draws (for me) of this game, and it would have easily hit a ten if they had advertised some of them.
MC: I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Jed, also known as Eiar, a main character that fought her way into my top three where she will likely stay for many years to come. My point is: Jed is awesome. When you start up the game you have the ability to change a male name (Jed) and a female name (Eiar). If you do not change these names, the whole cast speaks them. Jed will be used 99% of the time, so if you really want to have a different name, that is the one to change. Jed has a sprite by the text box and sometimes a full-sized sprite in the game as well. She’s in 90% of the CGs. And besides her badass attitude, the best thing about Jed is she is a voiced MC! And what great voice acting too-- but we’ll get to that later.
So I’m going to tell you guys a secret that isn’t a secret at all, but no one told me and I was confused until the second scene in the game; Jed is a 16 year old girl that pretends that she’s a man. What?! I know, not something I expected. Why isn’t this spread around as common knowledge for those interested in the game? I’m hugely drawn to cross-dressing characters and those that fall outside of gender norms. This is the “concealing her identity” part of the synopsis. The thing is, it isn’t something put into the story for laughs and to make light of cross-dressing, they actually approach it quite well so that it is both a pertinent issue and also not something to be admonished or demonized for. I had recently played a game with the female MC that portrays herself as a man for the majority of the story, and the way it was handled there made me feel uncomfortable at times. Not here. Developers and writers, if you want to see a strong female character that isn’t defined by her gender, just take a look at Jed. She. Is. The. Best.
On that note, let’s actually talk about Jed. She fights. She speaks her mind. She cries. She gets angry. She solves problems. Not all at the same time and not necessarily in that order. She is the heroine of the story, as she should be. Jed is allowed to be a complete person in this game without restrictions, as she should be. The writer doesn’t fall into misogynistic tropes to show how strong Jed is, and just how much she’s “not like other girls”™. It’s super refreshing. Physically, Jed rests squarely in androgyny, allowing her to straddle the line of masculinity and femininity. She’s small compared to the men in the game, who are all a few years older (at least). Her body hasn’t grown into a woman’s form (yet) since she’s 16. And she easily passes for a young man, or a young woman.
Likability Rating: Shu. There was never a time I couldn’t get into the mindset of Jed. She is a complex character that lives the life I wish otoge writers would allow most MCs to have. She’s strong, smart, and more than anything: real. Nothing was cut away to make her a capable female MC; it’s like someone realized that femininity isn’t inferior.
Plot: If you’ve played Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly (which you should because it is awesome) then you should have an idea how the flowchart system works. Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk is technically the second story in the series, but it is not a continuation of PotBB. It is a game that can stand on its own for those that haven’t played the first, but it was 1,000x more enjoyable for me because I have played PotBB. I’m going to draw some parallels but also try to explain the game on its own as well. In PotAH you go down the common route (much like PotBB) but you are not forced to finish all the common route endings first (unlike PotBB). There are very few choices your first time through, but once you’ve finished an ending, more choices open to other endings. Due to the flowchart system, you do not need to start a new game each time, simply go to the chapter you want to pick a different answer from. I preferred this structure more than I did in PotBB because I had more choice over which ending to do when, and arranged for what I thought would be best.
Okay, so that’s how the game plays out, but what is it about?
There’s not much to say outside of the tiny bit of information we’re given to start with. Jed is born with the mark of the witch, in a town that has two opposing clans, and is rife with superstition. She lives her life as a man to hide her identity. Eventually a relic comes into play in the story, and from there many mysteries begin to unravel that could either bring order or chaos to the town. It’s an extensive world that you get to wander through while conflict continues to build towards the climax and resolution. There are plenty of wholesome moments, plenty of tragic times, and plenty of dramatic scenarios to experience.
Replayability Rating: ★★★★☆ There is no reason to replay portions you’ve already played (and the flowchart system makes that easy to avoid), but every LI route is unique, so be sure to cover all possible endings. Choices are few compared to the length of the story, but matter tremendously to draw out vastly different endings.
Love Interests: Oh boy! Oh boy on boy-- erm, girl. Jed is a girl. Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk really only gives us four romantic love interests, though it could be argued that there is a fifth love interest, he’s just not a romantic one. I am going to include him in this portion as a love interest because first, five is a nice number that most games have; and second, because I really love every character in this game and excluding all those that are not love interests already hurts, but excluding one just because there’s no smooching seems unreasonable to me. That gives us five ridiculously complicated relationships to attempt to navigate in this story where a poly route would have been greatly appreciated by me.
So how are you going to choose the dude to do? Well, to be honest, I don’t know exactly. I followed a guided order recommended by a friend that had finished the game and decided her favorite ending order. It turns out that only a few endings are locked behind others, but most are easy to get to without the need for senseless unlocks. There are 12 endings, with each LI having one dedicated to them (one LI actually gets 3 of his own!). The rest of the endings are not really considered “bad” or “good”, just a different outcome that doesn’t focus on a romantic relationship with a LI.
I realize these names are going to mean nothing to you, but this is the order I went and wouldn’t redo it any other way if I could: Wolf -> People -> Heroes -> Bad -> Lord -> Lavan -> Levi -> Lugus -> Heroine -> Hugh -> Traveler -> Links. Oh, looks like I lied and there is a bad end. Get yourself a guide if you want to follow that order, I think this one is perfect for it. If you want to try it on your own, go for it! Play the way you want to play; no reason to not have fun with it. With no clear order, I’m going to just throw men at you the way we’re introduced to each of them in the game.
That starts us off with the dreamy redhead who goes by Ashen Hawk. Not only does he have one of my favorite seiyuus (I probably say that about all the seiyuus out there), his design is incredibly yummy to me. That beautiful hair, an intricately designed eyepatch, and did you say jewelry? That dangling earring is just perfect. Not to mention I find him ridiculously adorable. I’m probably going to say that a lot about all these fellas. Ashen Hawk is also very giving when it comes to compliments and affection, which is very sweet in the midst of this dramatic game. He can be my house husband any day he feels like stopping by.
Ah, the Hawk clan heir comes up next. Have I told you I have a thing for men who can give a good glare? Maybe I just have a thing for men. Full stop. But I do thoroughly enjoy a good piercing stare, something about the grump really gets to me. Lugus has enough grump to last a lifetime. It’s no surprise since the Lord of the Hawk clan seems to glare just as hard from the moment he wakes up. Anyways, let’s get back to Lugus, the blond boy that is authoritative and intimidating. Hottie alert. No wonder his clothes have that side window right above his belt, because that boy is steamy. Give me the quietly contemplative grumpy bois. I’ll gladly be the falconer to this Hawk heir. We’ll give “manning” a different meaning, if you get my drift. (lawls, bird training jokes)
On the other hand, we have the younger Wolf brother. Who doesn’t love a good pink-haired, spunky troublemaker complete with a dangling choker? What if I told you Levi was also a cutie with a smile that could dazzle the blind? I wasn’t keen on first meeting because his seiyuu is easily recognizable and I really didn’t want another Enomoto on my hands, but Levi turns out to be just darling. He’s adorable. He’s fun. He’s the type of guy I want to spend my time with, even if that time is being scolded by the Lady Wolf, head of the Wolf clan. I found the depth of his character surprising, and I just love Levi to bits.
Lavan is the Wolf heir, which makes him Levi’s older brother. The dependable, always calm and considerate oniichan. What a good clan lord he’s going to be someday. I also wasn’t too keen on Lavan when I first met him; yeah older brother characters are comforting and charming in their own way, but it’s not what makes me weak in the knees. As the story progressed, his wholesomeness swayed me to his side. I couldn’t help but fall into those dark eyes and want nothing but the best for big brother wolf, hopefully with me at his side.
Lastly, our boy Hugh makes an appearance and hot damn, that beautiful man is a sin to behold. Hugh remains a mystery for most of the game, and that’s fine by me. I don’t need to know as long as I can look at that sexy beast. I rather enjoy the way he speaks in riddles and can talk circles around most people. He’s so flippant yet honest. He seems to be having the time of his life at every moment, and he gives Jed so much agency that I can’t help but feel the warm and fuzzies whenever he’s around. And as much as I loved that side window in Lugus’ clothes, Hugh has a hip exposed in a particular outfit and you can bet I wasn’t looking into his eyes in any scene that I could see his Adonis belt. “Excuse me, miss. My eyes are up here.” Mhm. Yes. Whatever you say. I’m sure it’s thrilling because I sure feel thrilled.
Boy Crazy Rating: 99%. I’d husbando every. Single. One of these guys. I’d husbando characters that aren’t even love interests in this game. I loved the way they loved, and I felt a bit of pain when I had to choose a man and turn the others away. Normalize non-traditional relationships, please. I need my husbando harem to be part of an actual game and not just headcanon.
Romance: Going into Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk, I was aware that the previous game was very plot heavy, so I assumed we’d get just the bare minimum of feels for this game as well. I was wrong. It isn’t laden with romance, but it certainly is leaps and bounds more ingrained and involved than PotBB. PotAH is still plot heavy. Don’t get the wrong idea and think this is going to be a big slice of life dating game. It’s a dramatic game that is written in a way that I can get behind every romance and whether it’s the voice actors or the script, it really brings a punch. Sitting here and writing about it, I can still see the scenes in my head and feel the emotion that comes with them. That’s pretty impactful.
Heart Palpitation Rating: A. My frozen heart has been awoken with the love in this game. I was moved in the best of ways and I enjoyed the bittersweet feeling in my chest left from this story.
Spice: Let me be honest with you, there isn’t a lot of spice in this game. There are some moments where I was fanning myself, because they were hot hot hot, but that is not the norm for the game. There certainly aren’t any points that I’ll be using as fapping material in the future. Jed does have a pretty good lusty face, and since we get to see her next to the text box I got to see it every once in a while. That’s possibly what made the very few scenes that brought the heat even better, because I could see the MC getting flustered in a way that didn’t come across as childish embarrassment. Unfortunately, this means the game doesn’t get a pass for sexiness because when I consider the game as a whole, those few scenes do not smolder enough to keep the fires burning for as long as I played it.
Cold Shower Rating: Fail. I wish this game was more lusty, because it could have been very sexually charged, but it wasn’t written in the stars. A cool cloth will bring you back down to temp, no need to drench yourself in cold water.
Angst: This game is Angst Central. The writer for the Psychedelica games knows how to build atmosphere. It may not be the angstiest of angst I’ve come across; some titles hold the crown for being the angst games when it comes to otoge, but PotAH sure has its fill of angst. The MC is marked as a witch, the town is steeped in superstition, there’s ominous weather, murders in the night, and much mystery abound. This game is a tragedy in story, granted, there are happy endings, but several are bittersweet and not sunshine and rainbows as most would classify happy endings. I did, in fact, shed a few tears while playing, though I wasn’t a sobbing mess. Your mileage may vary since I’ve long ago realized I’m just not moved emotionally as much as the masses. That being said, the amount of tears that fall isn’t what I measure angst on, because the angstiest games got nothing from me in that regard. I can still identify drama when it happens.
Drama Llama Rating: 8.5/10. The drama llama has decided to guide us through the Swamp of Sadness, and luckily they were better at it than Atreyu guiding Artax. We survived for another day.
Voice Acting: Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! If only I could go on and on and on about how great everyone in this title is! There is not a single seiyuu that I felt didn’t put their all into this game, and it just makes me appreciate and love them all the more. Knowing several of these seiyuus in other roles really helps to show their talent and their range and leaves me going “Sugoiiiiii!”
So, to start at the start, I have to give the biggest props to Namikawa Daisuke (浪川 大輔) for his role as Hugh. Besides being just great in every role he has ever had, hearing him in PotAH and running through all the characters in my head that I’ve heard him as, it just hits me how amazing his range really is. It almost makes me feel bad that I thought he was good but not exceptional in previous shows and games I’ve heard him in. Jed was voiced by Tamura Mutsumi (田村 睦心) and she did an excellent job! She has a voice in the timbre that I like, even when she was more feminine she never reached too high of a pitch for me. She also delivered her lines exceptionally well, giving me the emotion I needed when it was needed to really make the script work.
As much as I want to gush about the rest, I’m going to try to make my honorable mentions short. Hirakawa Daisuke’s (平川 大輔) portrayal of Ashen Hawk captured the character well. He has such a singsong voice that I never tire of hearing him in any role. Levi was done by Saitou Souma (斉藤 壮馬) and he really surprised me with this role. I enjoy his more chill delivery than when I heard him in Collar x Malice, he has such emotion in his voice acting. Hino Satoshi (日野 聡) was smooth and calming as Lavan. They cast such a great seiyuu for the big brother character. We also got to hear Ishikawa Kaito (石川 界人) as Elric, and I’ve been hearing a lot of him lately. I already just like his voice, but this is the third time he has played a completely different voice and character for me that shows off his talent and range. I appreciate him even more now.
Expression Rating: Shu. Yet another game where it simply wouldn’t have been the same without the perfect delivery of powerful emotions by these talented seiyuu. The more I play, the more interested I get in things like Drama CDs because the ability of some of these voice actors is something special, imo.
Art: The art is both similar to Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly, and also different. It was a different style to match the mood of the game, which really reminded me of the old children’s books I used to read when I was 8. Character sprites are kind of sketchy with all the details penned in and then color added on top. Outfits are all unique to each character. And the return of the super expressive faces comes to Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk, but I didn’t hate them. They were actually a highlight of the game. I snipped so many faces to add to my Discord server so I can have an exaggerated pout in every fashion, and those grins and smirks were killer, I just really loved how the artist drew all the emotions clearly. Perhaps it has to do with how I process expression, but I was never uncertain as to what someone was trying to convey with the spoken form and the way the sprite was drawn.
Speaking of sprites, all of them basically have three outfits. I really enjoyed the accessories and details personalizing each person’s clothing. Each sprite has a variety of faces and expressions, more than a few different poses, and they draw so much movement with head tilts and directional facing that the characters almost look animated. Not to mention that they actually do move, much more than they did in PotBB. They rise and lower if they stand, sit, bow, maybe even to show handing something to someone. They slide across the screen sometimes to show movement. They shake, which was probably my least favorite part of the art, because the shaking could easily become annoying with how slow I read.
Overall, this art is something I really enjoy. All the movement - both when the sprites are static and when they actually are moving - really adds something extra to the story itself. The game does a great job of bringing you into it; instead of keeping you outside to just view a visual novel, it was more like an interactive storybook.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★★★ Many expression. Such immersive. Very atmosphere.
CGs: Honestly, not the strongest part of the game. Surprising, since I loved the CGs in PotBB so much. We get some issues with yaoi hands, and Jed appears to be tiny in some of these CGs making her seem more like a 10 year old boy than a 16 year old girl. Sometimes details were left out of the CG that the story had, which is kinda the point of a CG, to show the details of the story that you don’t get in the normal art. There are some odd proportions as well, where limbs shouldn’t be in that angle, but perhaps it was done to show how awkward it was? I’m not certain. It didn’t come through for me. That’s not to say it is bad or unfortunate, it just isn’t what I expected and seems to lag slightly behind the rest of the game.
With that being said… There are a lot of CGs. You get 107 unique CGs with about 20 extra variations. That’s more than PotBB for both unique and total. It’s more than a few other Otomate titles as well, from both PC and Switch. And the scenes they decided to put into CGs were chosen well. I did enjoy seeing what was going on, and most of them were rather impactful. I know I listed some objective and subjective critiques on the CGs in the previous paragraph, but I don’t feel anything is worth complaining about. Perhaps I just don’t want to rate the game any lower than what I think it deserves for things that might have been overlooked if I wasn’t trying to find something to pick at.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 92%. Many pictures of good scene choices, with good-low quality puts this up in the 90’s for me. Easy to find. Easy to recall. And you can even jump to the scene through the gallery, which is always a plus.
UI/Mechanics: Do you remember me complaining about the lack of a keymap in Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly? If you haven’t played that game, why are you here? You certainly should play it first! But perhaps you simply didn’t read my review, which is fine, it’s not a new game. Anyways, PotBB didn’t have a keymap for controls on the PC. Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk remedied this, which is good. Clear and simple, the keymap is in the configuration section of the menu. The good news is it has the same controls as PotBB, so if you memorized those it’s easy to jump into this game.
But let’s break down PotAH, shall we? It’s a basic VN with choices that will pop up in which you will decide the route of the game. There aren’t many choices, it is a very long game for how few decisions you get to make, but that does mean those decisions weigh more as they will literally change the entire game with one choice. The flowchart system is still my favorite system out there. I like being able to go back to the exact portion of a chapter that a choice is made so I can ride out the other options. There are no mini-games in this game, unless you count the interactive map as a mini-game.
For the interactive map portion you get thrown into a map during your trek through the story, where you have to talk to townspeople for memory points which you spend in the Antique Shop for bonus stories. You also get side stories in the map portion instead of having to find them under the flowchart. This is both neat and also tedious to me. I enjoyed being able to pop onto PotBB and read a side story or two between doing things in the real world. In PotAH, you are required to do a certain number of stories and “memories” before you can advance the story. When they tell you to. Not before. Not after. This leads to what has been dubbed Map Hell since Chapter 2 has SO MANY side stories and memories to collect. I think I spent ⅓ of my overall time in-game in Chapter 2 alone. There are 10 Chapters for the longest ending(s). It was rough.
All the movement that I mentioned in the art section still seems pretty cool to me. There’s more in this game than PotBB, and I rather enjoy how immersive it is. The UI is wonderful. It may not be the prettiest I’ve seen, but it is nice and I liked it. I had no issues navigating through any of the controls or menus. The Notes that you end up purchasing through the Antique Shop are in the flowchart area of the menu, if you read the display at the bottom of the screen it says press i for notes, so do that and you’ll find those.
What’s this button do? Rating: A. A good menu, with all the bells and whistles I like in a game. Easy to navigate, hard to get lost. The Interactive Map probably was not the best idea to get people to read the side stories and explore the world building of the game, but I can’t think of a better solution at the moment.
Errors: Uhhhhh… No? For real real, there were less than ten text issues where a word was missing. I can’t even remember any of them, but I know when the first came up after like 8 hours of gaming I went, “Oh, that’s interesting. First mistake.” And that was pretty much the biggest mental note I made about it, which was nothing. There were no errors I can easily point out. This game was localized beautifully and ported perfectly.
Oh, well, no. That’s not right. There are two rather big errors that are not game breaking but bothersome to completionists. The first is that you cannot obtain the 100% Achievements achievement on Steam if you close the game EVER. You literally have to obtain all achievements in one sitting in order for the game to recognize that you have done so. This is why it is a “<3% of players have obtained” achievement. The second is also an achievement issue, but can easily be solved. You can be granted the 100% Endings achievement without 100%ing the flowchart, which sounds impossible since every decision is supposed to split the route, right? Well, no. There is one decision that literally doesn't change the story at all in a side story that you might overlook as I did. I simply went back to the map it was suggested that I might have missed something on and easily found it. 100% Flowchart achievement completed.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Pass. Despite PotAH not making it on my Perfect Game list, there are no game breaking bugs and the translation is amazing. Basically, you’ve gotten a mosquito up in here, and it may be annoying, but it isn’t going to do any real harm. Not even the basic creepy crawlies are hanging around.
Background Music: Hngh! I want to buy this soundtrack but I can’t! (;﹏;) I’ll have to look elsewhere, as Steam isn’t offering it if it even is available anywhere. I loved this soundtrack. I love the PotBB soundtrack, though not the way it was put together for consumption. But this is not PotBB. The music in PotAH is so good that I went to the store to buy it no matter the price, but it doesn’t exist. I’m not sure I’d really throw down more than $20 for it, especially since it might be put together just the same as PotBB and not all that great for anything besides looping with itself. But, anyways, ignoring my lamenting, I thought it was good. It’s not the same you hear for most games, and I think that’s the novelty of it. It’s unique and something I could listen to in many situations and not just game music.
Comments
Post a Comment