REVIEW | A Conclusion for Hakuoki Among the Edo Blossoms

Genre: Visual Novel, Otome

Platform: PS Vita, PC via Steam

Release Date: March 13, 2018

Disclaimer: The game is divided into two parts, Kyoto Winds and its sequel (Edo Blossoms). It’s advised that both reviews are read together.

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As previously stated in my Kyoto Winds review, the two visual novels mentioned above are meant to be a remake of the popular Hakuoki, which first launched for the PS2 in Japan in 2008. Thankfully because of its massive popularity, it has become one of the few Otome to be localized and released in the West.

After playing both sections of the remake, I don’t feel as conflicted about the decision to split it into two, since the outcome of the latest part wasn’t bad like I initially suspected it to be. The transition between the two installments is seamless, as it picks up from Kyoto Wind’s ending and even offers a short prologue recounting its most important events.

I still stand by my argument that the switch between the two entries was easier for me for the reason that I played both Hakuoki without the year-long gap from the release of one to the other. Nonetheless, rather than trying to put myself into another player’s shoes, in this review I’ll aim to describe my own experience with the remake as a whole.

The story this time around had positive aspects over the prequel, yet the overwhelmingly grim tone of the game brought negatives that often overshadowed the positives.

While Kyoto Winds is the build-up to the real drama, Edo Blossoms explores the most important plot points and delivers a mostly satisfying conclusion to each of its routes… as long as you don’t look at the big picture, of course. I’ll elaborate on this point later on in the section with spoilers.

The most prominent good highlight of the game is that it contains the mess that its prequel prepared us for. The main problem I had with the fist part of the remake was that it kept information from me by forcing me to run into an invisible wall in the middle of each guy’s route, which could only be overcome after clearing every route and moving on to the next entry. This move annihilated my anticipation not just for the future of the route I was playing, but also for the remaining stories I had yet to play, as I knew the plot would just end abruptly without offering the epilogue I needed.

Unfortunately, the negative aspects are brought up by the positives. Although it is true the story is inspired by the real tale of the Shinsengumi, I didn’t play the game to judge how closely it followed the historical events in real life, so the excessive angst definitely got to me as I worked my way through it. Players who are mostly looking forward to the romance will definitely find themselves in a predicament; no matter which guy you’re pursuing, the routes get increasingly more depressing as you progress and all of the endings are very bittersweet.

The highlight of Hakuoki’s narrative is definitely its characters. The general plot by itself doesn’t stand out much – the historical events are extremely boring and the whole demon deal is just an excuse to throw some ridiculous bloodsucking scenes into the mix. Also, seeing that the game was set in Edo era Japan, the “girls can’t fight”, “females tend to the household chores” and “a man needs to protect women” ideas are brought up every 10 minutes. This kind of misogynist ideology often comes up in Otomate’s visual novels, so the historical setting just gave them a reason to bring it up even more often than they usually do.

The main cast is the only reason I cared about what was happening, since I wanted to know what fate awaited them. The original Hakuoki had a bigger focus on the horrible writing described above, which is why I considered it a waste of time; however the remake manages to drown out the boring and annoying aspects by increasing the character and relationship-centric content.

Each main character has traits or behaviors that make them stand out from the rest. I genuinely came to care for most of them and the writers did a great job portraying twelve different individuals that stood out from one another.

[spoiler]

Souji Okita was a carefree tease who had a special attachment to the Shinsengumi’s chief, Kondou. Kondou often looked after him when he was younger, thus Souji grew up with incredible admiration for the chief. Throughout the entirety of the game it’s heavily implied that Kondou also had a soft spot for Souji and loved him like he would love a younger brother.

Okita also had an amazing prowess with the sword, earning himself the title of the “Sword of the Shinsengumi”. He was extremely dedicated since he wanted to be useful to Kondou.

In Kyoto Winds, Souji found out that he suffered from tuberculosis and thus his position as a captain of the Shinsengumi was compromised, for he was no longer allowed to fight alongside his comrades. He drank the Water of Life because he was under the impression that it would cure his illness, but this turns out to not be the case and it just further consumed his normal lifespan, as his Fury powers made him continuously try to regenerate the damage provoked by his tuberculosis at inhuman speed.

In Edo Blossoms, Souji is under doctor Matsumoto’s care, and although his tuberculosis seemed to be under control, whatever kind of effort to pick up his sword and fight worsens it. Unfortunately, he finds out that Kondou had been executed after turning himself in to save the Shinsengumi, and he decides to seek out revenge on the one who allowed Kondou to sacrifice himself, Toshizo Hijikata, the second in command.

In the wake of his confrontation with Hijikata, Souji decides to spare his life subsequent to learning about his frustrations. It turns out that even if Okita often directs harsh words against Hijikata, he’s the person he respects most, next to Kondou.

The route ends with Souji helping Chizuru get rid of her evil father and brother –although the former’s death was accidental– and living out the last of his days with Chizuru. Kodo revealed the location of water that cured the effects of the Water of Life, but Souji had still consumed much of his lifespan thanks to using his Fury powers, and despite getting rid of his Fury status, he still had his tuberculosis eating away at his life.

Toshizo Hijikata was the vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, and he often took the strategical decisions whenever it came to fights. He was a well-known figure and was called a demon for the reason that he was incredibly strict and always led the Shinsengumi to victory.

In Kyoto Winds, he was deeply angered by the demons who constantly tried to abduct Chizuru –going as far as to develop a special kind of rivalry against Chikage Kazama, the pureblood demon who hated humans and often disrespected the Shinsengumi–, therefore he decided to drink the Water of Life to acquire the strength necessary to protect the protagonist and the Shinsengumi.

In Edo Blossoms, Hijikata truly shines as an individual, for all of his characteristic traits are exhibited throughout the events of his route. His story is the one most strongly tied to the Shinsengumi as a group and their actions in the war against the Imperial forces.

The Shinsengumi is mostly composed of swordsmen, thus they’re constantly mowed down by the western guns and artillery employed by the Satsuma-Choshu. The moment that marks the start of his desperation and gradual downfall into depression is when Kondou turns himself in to give the Shinsengumi time to retreat. Although Hijikata strongly opposes to this idea, Kondou convinces him that he has to leave to keep the Shinsengumi alive.

After this, Hijikata becomes increasingly reckless, constantly throwing himself into the heat of the battle and using his Fury regenerative powers as an excuse to not care about the risks of such behavior. Chizuru serves as his main moral support during this chaotic ordeal.

In the last stand of the Shinsengumi, most of its members are dead and Hijikata decides to dedicate what is left of his life to Chizuru, hence he gives up his new position as the chief to Kazue Souma, who had become a captain following the beginning of the conflict against the Imperial army.

In the ending, Hijikata duels Kazama for the last time and receives the demon name of “Hakuoki” (yeah, further confirmation that he is the poster boy), which demonstrates that even if Kazama often looks down on humans, he’s recognized Hijikata as his equal and thus given him a name worthy of a real demon.

Kazama loses the fight and Hijikata lives what’s left of his life with Chizuru. He has the angstiest ending despite the fact that he’s the main guy: it’s heavily implied that Hijikata has very little time left to live because he used his Fury powers in most battles of the war and in multiple fights against Kazama.

Hajime Saito was the warrior with the strongest morals in the Shinsengumi. He had a strong respect for swordsmen as a whole and in spite of the fact that he wasn’t passionate about “becoming a true samurai” like Hijikata and Kondou, he was the most respectable samurai of the bunch, as pointed out by one of the demons, Amagiri.

Hajime’s swordsmanship was among the best in the Shinsengumi, even if he was left-handed. Since he was immensely loyal, he stayed behind in the Aizu domain during the war to help them hold their ground and increase their chances of survival.

His ending shows that the Aizu rewarded him with terrain where he could spend a peaceful life with Chizuru. He drank from the water that cured the Fury effects and rarely ever used his powers anyway, so thankfully his future with the protagonist looked promising.

Heisuke Toudou was a youthful and likeable guy who often put up a strong front to avoid worrying those around him. He was the second captain to drink from the Water of Life and he was one of the most prominent members of the Fury corps, along with Sanan.

Although I’m not a fan of his route because it was mostly him having an emo crisis over being a monster, they still manage to show him overcoming his insecurities to move on with his life for Chizuru. He is forced to come to terms with his new self and accept that the heroine will love him no matter what.

Eventually Heisuke has to kill his close friend Sanan, who had lost his sanity and planned to turn hundreds of innocents into Furies to create a Fury kingdom.

Heisuke drinks the healing water in the end and is no longer a Fury, but it’s unknown how much of his life was lost for using his Fury powers.

Sanosuke Harada was an honest and easygoing man who naturally attracted the ladies with his manly charm, but his dream was revealed to be to find a woman, quit the Shinsengumi, and settle down with her. Unlike all the other captains he wasn’t interested in a samurai’s honor or endless loyalty to the Shinsengumi.

Along with Kazama, Harada is the only guy among the main cast to not drink the Water of Life. Thus, his ending is the happiest one, as he has a child with Chizuru and his lifespan isn’t compromised by the Fury condition.

Shinpachi Nagakura was Sanosuke’s lively and earnest best friend who dedicated himself to the Shinsengumi because of the time they all had spent together in the training grounds.

Shinpachi is strongly opposed to the Furies and only became one once he was cohersed into drinking the Water of Life to protect Chizuru.

In Edo Blossoms, he grows increasingly frustrated with Kondou because their humble beginnings were quickly forgotten and the Shinsengumi began fighting for reputation and glory. He eventually quits and joins another group that is allied to them.

Shinpachi decides to live as a human with Chizuru so they settle down in his village.

Keisuke Sanan was one of the first captains of the Shinsengumi and had been a member for a long time, prior to suffering a grave injury that made him unable to wield his sword. He consumed the Water of Life and became the lead of the Fury corps to regain the ability to fight for the Shinsengumi.

Sanan seemingly betrays the Shinsengumi in favor of joining Kodo and his group of superior Furies. This turns out to be a ruse and Sanan just wanted to infiltrate the enemy troops and get rid of them.

In the end, he travels with Chizuru to look for a definite cure for the Furies.

Susumu Yamazaki was a valuable spy of the Shinsengumi, and his duties mostly involved tracking and gathering information that could possibly change the tides of any battle. This position of his brought him much sadness as he was frequently obliged to watch his comrades die in battle without being able to interfere, for his priority had to be escaping safely to communicate whatever findings he ran into.

In his route, he quits the Shinsengumi to settle down with Chizuru, and after abandoning the lifestyle of an informant he becomes the new doctor of the Yukimura Clinic.

Hachiro Iba was a guard of the shogun, an old friend of the Shinsengumi and Chizuru’s childhood friend. Much of his characterization involves his deep love for Chizuru and his dedication to protecting her. Thankfully, more often than not the reason he gave for this behavior was his love for her, rather than her gender.

He became a Fury in Kyoto Winds to be able to recover from severe dismemberment that would render him unable to fight for Chizuru. After drinking from the Water of Life, he replaced his missing arm with a demon’s arm that was being protected by the Yase Clan, led by Sen.

In Edo Blossoms he continues with his mission to protect Chizuru but he’s thrown into a predicament as soon as his demon arm starts making him have constant lustful thoughts about her. At one point he tries to convince Chizuru to go with Sen to her village, because he considered she would be safer away from him.

Hachiro’s mental condition is healed once he confesses his love for Chizuru, since the demon inside of him respects his feelings and loyalty to her, and thus decides to completely submit to him.

Unfortunately Hachiro has one of the most rushed endings – following a final fight against Kanryuusai Takeda, a crooked ex-captain of the Shinsengumi who sought to abduct Chizuru and force her to give birth to his children, Chizuru wakes up in Hachiro’s arms after recovering from a fatal wound. Hachiro is surprised that she finally woke up, and promises that he’ll dedicate his life to her from that moment on.

The thing is, she abruptly lost consciousness because of her injury, and it’s not explained how much time she has spent unconscious. For all we know, she could’ve been in a coma for a long time – war was over, she was wearing an entirely different set of clothing and they had already settled down in a peaceful land. Up to this moment I still ask myself what exactly happened in this ending.

Kazue Souma was a hardworking warrior who decided to join the Shinsengumi after seeing the way they fulfilled their duty of protecting Kyoto.

Souma’s swordsmanship wasn’t nearly as good as the other captain’s, therefore he became a Fury to be fit to protect Chizuru.

In Edo Blossoms he… does nothing special. It’s shown that he’s endlessly devoted to the Shinsengumi and stands by them until the very end of the war, but that’s it. To be honest, if I had to choose someone as the black hole of Hakuoki’s main cast then I wouldn’t have any second thoughts before choosing Souma. He severely lacked any development in his relationship with the protagonist –they got together because they suddenly fell in love for absolutely no reason– and he had no particular character traits nor a backstory that would make him set himself apart from a side character. Heck, even the actual side characters like Kondou had much more depth than Souma.

Souma’s ending shows a dying Hijikata appointing him as the Shinsengumi’s new chief, and Souma turns himself in to the Imperial forces… for some reason. He explained that as the Shinsengumi’s new chief he couldn’t run with his tail between his legs but it still made no sense to me. He even recognized that he was possibly heading to his death by running such a risk, yet he didn’t really care.

Thankfully Souma only gets imprisoned for three years and reunites with Chizuru after his sentence is over.

Ryouma Sakamoto was a ronin who cooperated with the Tosa Domain, but his allegiances often changed to accommodate his own personal interests. Over all, he had a strong passion for his country and politics, and wished to follow the path of actions that would lead to a better Japan. He was a carefree soul at heart and had a strong passion for naval ships – his dream was to set sail across the entire world.

Although he began talking to Chizuru to gather information about the Shinsengumi, he eventually grew to genuinely love her and stayed with her to help her keep her father from creating more Furies.

In the end he makes his dream come true with Chizuru at his side, thus they sail together for their “honeymoon” and aim to become rich traders that support Japan from the shadows.

Finally, Chikage Kazama was a pure-blood demon who sought to make Chizuru his wife, as female demons were extremely rare.

In spite of the fact that he initially kept trying to force himself onto her, by the end of Kyoto Winds he respects her enough to accept that she has the right to choose what she wants to do. Chizuru opts to travel with Kazama and find her father and the Shinsengumi, hence in Edo Blossoms they’re traveling companions on friendly terms with each other.

Kazama’s route is perhaps the most depressing one – Chizuru is forced to witness and accept the death of her two remaining family members, and despite her best efforts to find the Shinsengumi and reunite with them, she’s always one step behind, receiving the news of a new death each time she progresses.

In the end, she reaches the place of the Shinsengumi’s last battle and accepts the death of her loved ones. Having fulfilled his objective of helping Chizuru witness the end of the Shinsengumi, Kazama leaves to tend to other business but promises to come back for her once she’s ready.

A few months later, Kazama visits Chizuru’s new home and claims to have come to take her as his wife. She obviously agrees and we get yet another bittersweet ending, with the death of almost everyone but the protagonist and her lover.

As mentioned before, Hakuoki’s plot is filled with angst and it gets more depressing over time – every single ending follows the formula of basically every other character dying while the guy you choose has a happy ending with Chizuru. Such a heavy atmosphere became supremely tiring and it definitely took away from the game’s replay value, I don’t expect all the visual novels I play to be a bundle of fluff and happiness, nonetheless when angst is overdone and in such a repetitive way as it is in Hakuoki… it just makes any motivation to play disappear.[/spoiler]

As a whole, the writing felt more consistent in Kyoto Winds, taking into account the fact that Edo Blossoms often dropped the ball with the plot’s progression. The writers came up with many revelations and turning points for each story, however they felt like Spanish soap opera material because of how randomly dramatic they were, and the transition from one to another was often rushed.

To be honest it seemed weird that they often cut short many scenes, it almost looked like they just didn’t want to write more. Each route was 3 to 4 hours long, so I couldn’t help but wonder if they had strict time constraints – perhaps the fact that they had to make 13 routes played a big part in this.

My opinion on other aspects of Hakuoki remain unchanged, since the resources used for Edo Blossoms are largely the same as the ones in its prequel. The only noteworthy addition are the new sprites and CGs.

Although I have to admit most characters’ new haircuts killed me inside because their original long hair was superior, the new designs with Western uniforms for each guy were great and the quality was consistent with their original sprite. I only wish Chizuru got her own Western uniform in more routes – it only made an appearance in 4 routes; in the other ones she was the odd one out still wearing Japanese clothes.

The CGs this time around fixed an aspect I talked about in the first game’s review – the scene and composition choices were much better. All routes had beautiful illustrations of the guys with the protagonist, and it was just eye candy all around. The original main cast got more illustrations than the other characters so the graphics were superior in their stories –since you got to see a new CG every other scene– but thankfully the images are evenly distributed in the other routes so that you don’t spend long periods of time without seeing a new illustration.

As gamers may already know, remakes can be a hit or a miss, considering that the magic of the original installment is often lost when developers make haste to pump out more rushed material and end up turning a series into a cash cow. The Hakuoki remake as a whole was a hit, and the end result was much better and more complete than the original game. Many “what if?” scenarios were explored in the newest entries thanks to the new scenes and romance options. Even some of the previous problems that made the visual novel boring to play were fixed; I’m unsure if many scenes were rewritten because this time around the main routes weren’t a bother to play.

When it comes down to evaluating Edo Blossoms itself, it’s not a bad entry but the writing does take a hit at times, and the angst might be very overwhelming if you’re like me and prefer more light-hearted games. It’s not that I hate angst in general, it’s just that the entirety of the narrative in Hakuoki was war, death, and depression. The game does have many romantic scenes scattered throughout it and succeeded at keeping me invested in the plot’s development despite the fact that by the ninth route I was ready to finish the VN and move on to playing something else.

Edo Blossoms’ story isn’t uninteresting per se, it just has a lot going on which makes it overwhelming at times. The hiccups in the narrative aren’t present in the visuals, and the art is definitely an improvement over the previous installment. I’m relieved that I played Hakuoki again, since now my opinion on it is mostly positive, however while it is an otome game I would recommend, it’s definitely not among my favorites. This second part of the remake does complete the Kyoto Winds experience, so make sure to try it out if you liked its prequel.