Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms is an otome visual novel that is the second part of the story that started with Kyoto Winds. Rather than a sequel, it is more that the original story was split into two games, given that the pair of games are actually a remake of the original. Therefore, you must have played the first game in order to fully appreciate and even understand the context of the events of this game.
Despite taking place in Edo, it still reuses a lot of the same artwork and backgrounds as the first game, which took place in Kyoto. Naturally, this includes character models (understandable, and at least they have new costumes) as well as music. There’s still a lot of new content, but you’ll be able to recognise a lot of things, which can make the game feel a bit too familiar.
The story about Chizuru and the selected romanced protagonist as they arrive in Edo, chronicling (mainly) about their role in the continued war against the Imperial Army. It takes place during the period when the era of the samurai is ending. As Chizuru had seen all the positives of the way of the samurai, she is on the side where she doesn’t want them to be eliminated. The story is basically a climax for most of the playthrough, given all the set up was in the first game, so the pacing feels faster in comparison, but there’s still plenty of filler to drag it out into several chapters per route. Unfortunately, the story can have bleak and dark tone to it, with a lot of playthroughs leading to a forgone conclusion. Even most of the happy endings can be bittersweet.
While for the most part, the story is grounded in reality as it takes place during the time period where western influences are invading Japan’s historical hierarchy, there are supernatural elements. As revealed in the first game, there are demons, as well as the fabled Water of Life, able to turn any human into Furies. This gives them enhanced strength and rapid healing abilities at the cost of avoiding sunlight and the insatiable desire for blood. We soon find out the last few characteristics of Furies, but it is an ultimately underwhelming gimmick.
Despite all the attention and build up on the war with the Imperial Army in most of the routes, the endings felt truncated in the fact that the war ends up being an afterthought. There were plenty of promising plot threads raised in the first game and carried through to here, but we are given quick resolutions. The ending then focuses on rapidly developing the romance with its climactic confessions, and brushes everything else off. It’s disappointing and is poor planning.
Each character’s route shares a few things in common since the setting for all of them are the same. However, they are grouped in different scenarios where the focus is different. One might have more focus on the war with the Imperial Army, while another is more concerned with the mysteries surrounding the Water of Life. As a result, the fate of several side characters will also be different.
There are twelve romance protagonists to pick from and one neutral route, leading to a grand total of thirteen different main routes. Each one has their own unique playthroughs and multiple endings. Due to this, the game can feel like it focuses more on quantity rather than quality, especially with the rushed storytelling. This also has the side effect of the player sometimes not being able to remember who is who (apart from the character whose route you’re on) due to the sheer number of characters that each don’t have that much screen time outside of their own route. It pairs the tone of the route with the character as well, such as Hijikata being a seriously depressing story, while Heisuke being more lighthearted and upbeat.
Unlike the first game, which reuses swathes of the same text and dialogue for the beginning of each of the characters’ routes, this game improves on that. Each route has unique dialogue for the whole way through. Although, unfortunately, the flaw of repetition still settles in by the time you play the third or fourth route. As the two major story beats, being the war and the Furies, are the same, there’s only so many times at seeing the same things revealed again and again. The structure of each route is also too similar as the major turning points are all the same (setup, discover characteristic of Furies, first encounter with route’s antagonist, romance, final encounter).
The story plays the “damsel in distress” angle a bit too much. Chizuru is always a liability, and always has the romance protagonist saving her, which can get tiring. Her role in all the routes is basically a self-sacrifice role, which is really tedious when you go through it twelve times. The other thing the game does a lot is often portray a character in a positive light in one route, but in a negative light in another. It can feel somewhat inconsistent as you don’t know whether the character is truly “good” or not.
Each route takes around one to four hours to finish, depending on the character and how fast you read. As the game focuses on the quantity of available routes, it’s a relatively short story by visual novel standards. The routes also seem to get shorter with each character, or maybe you’ll just end up reading faster. The routes are too short anyway for you to develop any attachment to the characters. While the whole story (including the first game) follows events that spans years, so much is cut out that the build up of the romance isn’t strong either.
There are numerous bad ends. Living up to its name, these are really abrupt which doesn’t resolve anything. However, if you want to see everything, they are unsatisfying and are not worth wasting your time on. It depends on what your expectations are, given that some visual novels have chunky bad ends that are still satisfying and takes the story in a unique direction. Thus if you wish to not have a route end prematurely, you must make sure to pick the correct dialogue choices.
It has all the quality of life aspects of a visual novel, such as text speed, the ability to rewind back, quick save / load, and a skip function. The rewind feature is really hand as you can easily undo a mistake. The skip function feels slower than expected though so it can be a chore to get through the various endings. The other highlight of the game are the nice pieces of artworks.
Overall, Hakuoki: Edo Blossoms is an average visual novel. If you have played the first game, you need to play this one so at least you can find out what happens in the end. However, with both games together, it is a gigantic chore since there is too much repetition. It would have been better if the game had to be split into two, that they do six full routes in each game, rather than splitting all routes into half, making the repetition even more obvious.
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