Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds/ Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms
True Romance
A young girl in distress in the fort of eligible fierce samurais (bachelors) is a dream come true for otome fans. This is what’s in store in this game and more. Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds is the first of the two part games of the remake of the original Hakuoki: Demons of the Fleeting Blossom. Other than the improved graphics, music and sound effects, the game has additional scenes, paths, and more characters to have romance with.
If you have played the original game then this game has the same premise, only improved for the better in all aspects. The story starts with the main character Chizuru Yukimura being left by his father Dr. Kodo Yukimura as the doctor is set on a journey for work in Kyoto. Months went by and the letters from Dr. Kodo stopped coming and Chizuru started to get worried so she decided to go to Kyoto in search for his father. A series of events led Chizuru in the hands of the samurais of Shinsengumi. She was held captive as somehow she witnessed their group’s secret, her fate on whether she will live or die remain on balance.
The second game Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms, which is the direct sequel of Kyoto Winds, is released a year after. Every feature in Kyoto Winds is here and just continues the story of Kyoto Winds.
Choices in the game really matters on what will happen next and to what path the protagonist will be on. Story telling is impeccable and the build is superb. There are many paths (this remade version added much more) depending on your choices and affinity to certain characters. While Kyoto Winds is very detailed, Edo Blossoms on the other hand tends to be more straightforward in its storytelling. Edo Blossoms also focuses more on the Fury element in the story and is on a more serious note.
I want to point out that there is no way to truly get a good ending even though you could be on the best romantic path. One way or another, a tragic event will happen to your group. And although this reflects the reality of the story as it happened in a war period, as a person who always want to save everyone, this leaves some dissatisfaction to my personal goals in-game.
One of the things to note though is that there are too many terms to learn before you fully understand the story in terms of where they are in the state of war, who are their allies and who are their enemies at a certain point in the story. Since this fictional story is arched in a real war during the Japanese Bakumatsu era (1853–1867), it mentions a lot of events and people that you may need to be familiar with. Good thing is that there is a readily available encyclopedia that you can read to remind yourself of the terms that are being thrown in the story.
As there are so many story arcs in this game, the romance just won’t stop for our girl Chizuru as almost everyone in the character roster can be her path to romance. This ultimately lead in a story very different from the other. This gives a lot of replay factor to the game as it will be a very different experience every single time as long as you will have more affinity to another character. And in a single path, there are also the Romantic endings and Tragic endings, so imagine the possibilities. A new feature in this remake is the Record of Service that allows you to start from a previously encountered point in the story and you may proceed from there. This is convenient for those moments of what-ifs that you want to discover what’s going to happen otherwise. There are also new features that speeds up the dialog if you want a faster new game.
Graphics-wise this remake is a much improved version of the original Demons of the Fleeting Blossom. The characters are more detailed — from the facial expressions and hand and eye movements. The drawn illustrations when special events happens are also beautiful to look at. And there are many of them you can collect and view in the gallery. The interface of the game is very nice to look at in PS Vita screen.
The music in game is very appropriate to the story that is happening. It’s relaxing when the flow of the story is and it’s tense if there are conflict. The sound effects in the game is in-sync to what’s happening to the story. Even though the game will not show you everything that’s happening in animations or graphics, sounds compliments the story. Whether it be clanking of swords during attacks or splash of blood when someone is cut, it’s very vivid and it work very well to the imagination of the player.
Overall, even though Kyoto Winds appears to be a stronger and longer game in terms of storytelling than Edo Blossoms, I personally think that these two games is just one game split into two. Kyoto Winds builds the story up and hook you into the story and Edo Blossoms ultimately succeeds in tying all things up to end.
Whether you’ve played the original game before and want a renewed experience or this is the first time you will play the game I think it’s worth it to play this two-part remade tale of Hakuoki.
Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds (PS Vita) — 9/10 (Excellent)
Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (PS Vita) — 8.5/10 (Excellent)
Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds (PS Vita) (STEAM)
Developer: Otomate
Publisher: Idea Factory International
Released: September 25, 2015 (JP)/May 16, 2017 (NA)/May 19, 2017 (EU)
Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms (PS Vita) (STEAM)
Developer: Otomate
Publisher: Idea Factory International
Released: June 16, 2016 (JP)/March 13, 2018 (NA)/March 16, 2018 (EU)
Both Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms are reviewed on PS Vita. PS Vita review copies for both games were provided by Idea Factory.
