Period Cube: Shackles of Amadeus is an otome visual novel (i.e. for the female target market) for the PlayStation Vita. The game follows the heroine, Kazuha, although you can input any name you wish. It takes place in the real world but she finds her brother missing. After some investigation, Kazuha finds out that he plays the online game Arcadia. There is an urban legend where if you play on the server V, it will transport you into the game world and trap you there. Naturally, Kazuha gets transported into the game's work and it is this setting which makes it stand out from other visual novels. The backgrounds are colorful and detailed, and sometimes the choices are portrayed as in-game menus for attacking and dodging.
In order to escape, they have to conquer the high level dungeon The Ark. The game has two opposing races, Angels and Demons, and whichever race finishes the dungeon first can escape while the others are trapped forever. In a twist, Kazuha is the Amadeus, the third divine sword which is said to help immensely in clearing The Ark. Thus, she is the target of plenty of players, from both factions. If players finish a special quest, they are allowed to return to the real world for a short amount of time. Then they are automatically transported back (and their real world body falls unconscious).
The first love interest is Hiroya, who is a childhood friend of Kazuha, and also a friend of her brother. Hiroya also plays the online game but he had stopped a while ago. Nevertheless, when he is transported into the game world, his level is still at a decent level (compared to the heroine's starting level of 1, which is practically suicide as it is said server V's harder than other servers). He takes it upon himself to protect Kazuha and teach her the mechanics of this game world.
Radius is a high level solo player. As typical of solo players, he is cold and does not party up with anyone. Thus it is a surprise when he saves the heroine and invites her to join him in a party of all things. Unfortunately, the interactions between Kazuha and Radius are limited and thus when they fall in love, it doesn't feel natural.
Libera is one of the first people that Kazuha meets when she is dropped into the game. Libera is a really cute girl that everyone seems to lvoe and give her presents. Unusually though, she doesn't join parties or fight monsters, she is content to just stand back, not level up and let someone else beat the game for her in order to escape. However, just like Kazuha, Libera has a strong link to the reason why everyone is trapped in the game and her background is quite interesting.
Astrum is part of the Angel faction and he is the defacto leader of the race. He has the tendency to roleplay and is filled with cringeworthy dialogue that even his fellow Angels find tough to accept. However, he has one of the Trinity of Swords, required to beat the Ark and thus he garners a lot of respect, as well as being one of the most powerful and high leveled character in the game. Astrum's route is the one where there is a little bit of padding in the form of monsters repeatedly appearing, being destroyed and then their death animation playing, which gets tedious really quickly. Otherwise, like the rest of the routes, it is too short for the romance to feel credible.
Zain is a NPC that the heroine meets in the game. Zain initially gives out special quests for the heroine to complete in order to return to the real world for a limited time. However, he starts to gain feelings and develop a unique personality. It takes a turn for the stranger though and it is never explained how he managed to gain real intelligence.
Demento is a player killer and his route is unique in that it shares the vast majority of it with Astrum. This is because he is consistently portrayed as the bad guy in all the other routes. As a result, the romance between him and Kazuha is even more shallow and unrealistic. This is a guy who has targeted players knowing that killing them here means killing them in real life, and he still went ahead and did it. Thus, when the happy ending comes, you feel that he does not deserve it and there is no justice.
The seventh and final love interest is Poyo-Poyo. He is a mascot within the game and the info broker. He usually knows anything that the characters within Arcadia need to know about the world and the current events. This is also the closest to the true route of the game but it has a disappointing and anti-climactic ending.
Each route is fairly short at around 1-5 hours depending on how fast you read, as a result, the story feels truncated. Kazuha is low lever, then before much happens they hit the final dungeon The Ark (which in normal terms in a game, that would be suicide). Then once again, in the blink of an eye, the grand reveal happens and they win at the game. It's a little bit disappointing. It's the same with the romance as there is simple not enough time to build it up.
There is too much repetition in the general events of each route making it too predictable and not enough differentiation between each route. You can speed through text already read but perhaps one of the best things is that you are able to skip to the next decision immediately, saving a lot of time. You are also able to jump to a specific chapter and route from the main menu, adjusting parameters such as affection.
There are usual visual novel extras such as a glossary, gallery and additional chapters with each of the love interests form their perspectives instead of the heroine's. Overall, Period Cube: Shackles of Amadeus has an interesting premise but the execution doesn't live up to its potential. The first few routes you complete are interesting but then the predictable structure starts to bog the game down. Each route ends too quickly such that the romance doesn't feel natural. However, it is still worth a playthrough if you are interested in visual novels.
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