[Otome Game Review and Reccomendations] A Knight's Devotion

Stabbed through the heart-- and you're to blame.

Back at it with another Voltage app review! This game is a lot older than 10 Days With My Devil though, like... I think it came out before Love Letter from Theif X old. It's also pretty much been abandoned by Voltage, so you don't have to worry about more sub stories and that coming out! Alltogether I think this app comes to cost $45 if you want all the routes and their epilogues and sequels. A blessing seeing as I spent over 100 on 10dwmd! Yeah, I have no life. This app also doesn't connect to the Sweet Cafe but I don't play enough voltage apps to really care about Sweets Cafe in the first place!! But that might be a turn off for Voltage enthusiasts?? Then again, if you're a voltage enthusiast you've probably already played this game 3 years ago huh!!

You play as a Princess (Who I named Yoshi. Thinking on it now, Peach would have been a better name, huh?)  that was raised most of their life as a commoner in a small village, unaware that she's actually royalty! One day a bunch of guys that look like Ku Klux members except in black, not white sheets, come and try to kidnap you. A bunch of hot (?) guys along with your childhood friend save you and tell you you are the princess of Rapier kingdom and that you must return home! But there are troubles ahead seeing as Gladius Kingdom wants the Royal Family dead, and now that you have been revealed, GOTTA WATCH YO BACK. So then you choose who you want to be your protector and live the runaway life to your castle wooo!

Shion Route

Ya'll better not be reading 50shades

I went with Shion's route first because he really felt like someone I'd want to get close to IRL. I like reading and being a lazy ass so I can relate to Shion. I also notice I tend to like the less emotional characters so YEAH. Shion's really cold at the start cause you chose him to be your guardian and he just wants to slack off in the carriage, sleep, and read books all day. A lot of times he skips out on his duty guarding you and so the others, usually Lute, take care of you instead. 

Princess is an avid reader in all routes too though so she keeps bugging him to read with him or go to the library with him or talk about what they're reading. Princess is the regular female reader that's really into smutty fiction and apparently her favorite ones are the forbidden love stories between Princess' and Knights. I bet when she found out she was a Princess she must have felt like she run the lottery then! Since she's a smut fangirl Shion makes fun of her a lot for being into rubbish like that but they still do book discussion so he must be cool with reading smut himself!!

Once the two start getting close some other Knight joins but unlike the other knights, this ones a girl, and no you can't be in yuri's with her. She goes by the name Sylvia even though her real name is Okinu cause she don't like her name. One funny thing I noticed is in every other route Sylvia appears as Okinu from the start and she says to be called Sylvia but everyone ignores her XD It's only in this route where she's called Sylvia all the time. Her and Princess become galpals but Princess gets the feeling shes got a crush on her man! And that he likes Sylvia! Well, spoiler alert, she sorta does, but Shion likes reading Twilight with the Princess more. It's soon after you confess your feelings afterwards though that you find out Shion used to have a crush on a girl but she died protecting him in a battle, and he also has a scar from said battle. He doesn't think he deserves anyone, and my eyes sorta glazed over until the guy that killed his old crush was revealed to be alive and he went into avenge mode.

There was also some scene where he hugged Princess and started angsting over how he never got to hug the girl he liked until she died in his arms... That'd be sweet if it weren't for all the angst. I wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or sad. The dude that killed his girl starts making himself known and wants to fight Shion again. He uses guns now, but was known as Shion the Silent Blade or whatever cause he's as good as Saito from Hakuoki apparently. Shion hates the name and shit so I guess thats why he took up using a gun.

 In the end he fights against the guy after you and Sylvia sneak into the place and find him while trying to escape while the place i collapsing. Shion almost dies but Princess jumps in front or something, my eyes were glazing, and he manages to prevail with the power of love!! However you and Shion get caught under rubble and have to dig your way out and it was actually really sad cause it felt like Shion was gonna die!? I mean, it's a voltage app so he can't die or they won't make money off his Epilogue and Sequels but yeah XD You dig a bit and then ring the bells Shion gives Princess on her wrists until the knights find you and save the two of you from the rubble. Shion managed to get back at the dude and realizes he loves Princess more!! So they decide to be like the Princess and Knights from her romance novels, just without all the smut cause Shion is a why tsun. 

I really liked Shions route and I thought it was a good first route too! I feel like Princess and Shion belong together and is like the OTP of this game for me since they really compliment each other and have the same hobbies and stuff. Itjust seems like a really beneficial relationship.

Lute Route

I was somewhat looking forward to playing Lute's route, mainly cause he was blushing a lot in Shions route and I thought his blushing sprite was cute. He's the real uptight ideal leader of the group, and is always reprimanding Haku and Shion for speaking of the Princess so casually or disrespectfully. As a result I knew a huge chunk of his route was gonna be over how he's dedicated to being your KNIGHT and only wants to be a KNIGHT to you. 

I was pretty much right. A lot of the conflict is how Princess has feelings for Lute, but Lute is self-deprecating, he doesn't mind if he lives or dies as long as he protects the Royal Family, and often tells Princess he'll give up his life for her. This upsets Princess cause she doesn't want him to die for her, he wants him to live for her. She tries and improves his outlook on himself, and come to see her as more than just a dignitary. 

The reason Lute is so devoted to the knighthood is because he was raised in an orphanage, his parents were killed by the men in black robes, not to be mistaken with the Men in Black. One day the king sees Lute fighting with sticks in the orphanage and adopts him, putting him into the Knights academy like Lute wishes. As a result Lute feels overwhelming affection for the Royal Family, and wants to protect them. He also wished to be a knight so that the same thing that happened to him would never happen to anyone else. So, Lute feels like he owes his life and purpose to the Royal Family, which is why he gets so upset when anyone disrespects Princess or says how he'll sacrifice his life for her.  He also has a huge hoard of fangirls but Lute gives no fucks,  he just wants to MAMORUUU. Well, actually, he's really REALLY nice with the fangirls, and makes sure to respond to all their letters even if he has to write "I'm mamorusexual" fifteen-hundred times. 

One event that gets Lute to discover "Oh no, I want to date Her Highness" Is because one of the other knights, Haku, keeps hitting on her and asking her out!! He gets jealous over it  but can't quite understand why outside of "Disrespectful" They even wind up having a sparring match for Princess with Haku saying he's serious about her. Lute wins of course and then he realizes he loves Princess and angsts over it cause now he wants to live for her not die for her

 :,(

Soon enough the enemy sword kingdom (seriously can't they have come up with better names? Rapier? Gladius? Really?) gets in the way though and Lute almost gets killed... But his love for Princess helps him overcome the injurys and kicks their asses!! Honestly my eyes were kinda glazing around here so i'm sorry if i'm off on some info XD 

All in all I think Lutes route was also a nice starter. The romance doesn't pick up as much, but they put in a love triangle with Haku to sorta make up for that I guess?? I'm glad he got over the whole "Die for my kindom" thing with her cause if he kept being like that with her I woulda raged!! One thing that sucked though was his ending and how they're still very much hiding their relationship and he keeps saying he's her Knight.... sigh. Can't win everything I guess.

Haku Route

This CG is definitely the best one in this game

I wasn't all that psyched for Hakus route since he seemed way to similar to Satoru from 10dwmd and it felt like his route was gonna go the same way. Now, they do share a lot of personality quirks but I was pleasantly surprised by his route! One thing that upsets me though, is the reveal is a double edged sword. 

So basically Haku becomes your guardian and he keeps being overly familiar with Princess. Dragon the horse (nice name) also has a bit more meaning to the story this time cause he's constantly biting Haku and really affectionate with the Princess. He protects you from the men in cloaks and tells you that you should fall in love with him. Well, the Princess is a maiden and his advances get her to fall for him...

One night she sees Haku alone and looking at a locket, inside of it is a picture of a young girl. Haku finds  out she was watching and tells her it's a picture of his sister, and it means the world to him. Brocon lol. Next day they go to some village known for thieves and some brat steals his locket and some of Princess' stuff. Haku starts angsting and Princess helps find the brat but they're too late and discover he already sold it to some bandits that control the city or some shit so he could afford medicine for his sister. Haku relates to him cause he's a brocon, and they work together eventually after some angst to get the locket back.

After that the TWIST comes. Haku is a spy for Gladius kingdom. How he got to become a knight I'll never know. But he was ordered to kidnap the Princess in exchange for his sister who Gladius is holding captive. When they arrive at the castle Princess goes to see her father, but her fathers a fake ass hoe from Gladius and he declares HER a fake and she gets locked up in a dungeon. Haku tells her all of this about his sister cause he actually really wants to hit that ass even though originally he was just using her!! So he breaks her out along with the knights and while trying to find her way out she finds the room their holding Haku's sister in. 

Eventually the doctor that was behind everything comes in, finds her, and locks her up. Haku comes down there and they have an emo moment, but they find a way out with the knights and try and find a way to show the hoes are fake. It was also revealed Dragon could sense Haku was a fake hoe as well all this time and that's why he was always biting him!!

The thing about Hakus route is afterwards I looked at each route with him and kept wondering "Is he still a spy?" and "If he is, why isn't he doing anything?" Because I know things happen differently in each route, but basic character backstory and that is still kept route to route So it made me feel like his route was one big AU or that he's OOC in the other routes. I thought his route was good but the fact he's not a villain in the other routes at all kind of undermines everything, and makes his route feel useless in the grand scheme of things.

Ken Route

Now while with Haku I wasn't expecting much and came out feeling good, despite the double sword AU thing, I came into Kens route excited for it, because I love childhood friends routes, and came out SHITTING PURE BRICKS OF RAGE.  Just writing this I need to compose myself cause I feel like going off and ranting from the start over how shitty Kens route is. But okay. I'll try and summarize.

Ken is your childhood friend that lived with you in Kanai as a blacksmith. In reality he was sent there by the King to watch over you as a Knight. It started out really nice with playful banter and making fun of each other and just generally being close. They even kissed (Except Voltage is gay and instead of getting a kiss CG we got one of him on a horse in the SAME CHAPTER. Why couldn't they have made the CG of the kiss? Is him on a horse more important?) And realized early on they loved each other. However HERE'S WHERE THE RAGE COMES IN.

So in this route, the King left to go look for something somewhere and you have to find him. While looking for him you wind up in this library and you and Ken look at some book with the family tree. In it Princess AND KEN are listed as the Kings children. So at that point I was like "OH GOD IT'S AN INCEST ROUTE. AND THEY ALREADY KISSED BEFORE FINDING OUT. THEY ALREADY LOVE EACH OTHER TOO MUCH. OH NO."

So already at this point my face was basically this image over this revelation 

So then the two of you go into super angst mode cause yknow, you got the hots for your brother and can't help it. Ken starts being a cold ass dick to you to make matters worse. Because HE JUST WANT TO PROTECT HIS SISTER BAWWWWW IM SO EMO I WANT TO BANG MY SISTER BUT I CAN'TTTTT. ORE NO IMOUTO GA KONNANI KAWAII WAKE GA NAI!!! They also wind up meeting with Ken's aunt who throws salt into the wound by saying the King had the hots for Kens mom who was a Maid, banged her, and had Ken! But he was engaged to the Queen so he sent Ken and his slut maid away!! So now the Princess pretty much hates her dad and herself cause she's his daughter!

But then, yknow what makes it even worse? They find her dad and he explains that NO KEN IS NOT HIS SON. HIS SON BY THE NAME OF KEN WAS STILLBORN AND HE NEVER BANGED KEN'S MOM. KENS MOM BANGED KEN'S DAD THAT WAS A KNIGHT AND DIED WHILE PROTECTING THE KING. The thing is, the knight dad was close to the king and was like "Yo can I name my son after your stillborn? And Ken can protect Princess and everythings cool." SO THE WHOLE ROUTE KENS BEING A DICK TO PRINCESS AND PRINCESS IS ANGSTING FOR LITERALLY NO FUCKING REASON. THEY COULD HAVE JUST ASKED SOMEONE TO CONFIRM CAUSE THEY WERE HIDING EVERYTHING FROM THE KNIGHTS AND THE AUNT THAT TOLD THEM DIDN'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT HIS SISTER CAUSE SHE MISUNDERSTOOD!!!

fuck this

I'm just so...!!! Wow!! Sorry I'm ranting but this whole route was so rage inducing and finding out they weren't even related made it feel like a gigantic waste of time! At that point I hated Ken because he was a giant douchebag to Princess so whatever!!! Fuck you Ken!!

Gaia Route

I was still fresh with the rage playing Gaia's route and at that point I wanted to curl up into a ball and die. But luckily Gaia was a nice pick me up purely for one reason: Cat's. Okay. Gaia is a sweet dude too, but nothing gets my heart strings pulled more than a route with a cute cat in it. (Ey, maybe I should buy Nekopara) The only way you can ruin a route with a cat in it is if you make them abandon the cat or the cat dies, and luckily Voltage isn't that huge of a dick, so the cat was just there for cute times. 

Gaia is as uptight as Lute is, though a lot less emotional and more just "Srs business." However he likes a ton of cute things and is a huge softie. When you start his route you're uncomfortable with him cause he's so strict but then you both go to get shaved ice and he wants Strawberry flavor and everyone knows if you want strawberry, you're cute. In the village one night as well, Princess sees Gaia with a cat and Gaia's like "I keep trying to get rid of it but it keeps coming back rubbing at my legs" lol. Princess then begs to keep the cat on their journey and Gaia trys to refuse but he's a softie that loves cats. He also named it Corona and im like... lmao beer brand. Gaia drinks barrels of beer so I'm 99% sure voltage chose that name because of the Beer Corona. 

So Gaia's conflict is that he wants to be honorable for the Royal Family, a perfect knight.It's a lot like Lutes route was honestly. You find the reason for this is because his dad that was a head knight went missing and he was always ashamed of it and hates his dad for abandoning the country. So he had this burden where everyone sees ad compares him to his dad. I can actually relate a lot to this so I really felt bad for the guy. However, the true enemy in this is this priest guy. You get to the castle really fast in this route, and find out some people are attempting to overthrow the throne because they're not satisfied with how the king handles things.

So Princess and Gaia run around town at one point but some dick stole an old dudes stuff or something and Gaia runs off, telling Princess to stay where she is. A bunch of merchants hustle her and a crowd gathers around and she gets lost, and a priest helps her back to the meeting place. The priest then talks shit about the kingdom when he sees Gaia, and you find out he's the one behind the rebelling. And it's one thing if the King really was a shit, but the Priest is the one that's a shit and must just like seeing the world burn.

This dude comes and thanks Gaia for helping him or something, telling Gaia he's like his dad, and Gaias like wtf you know my dad. The guy tells him to follow him to his village and it's found out that his dad wasn't a hoe that ran off, but he actually died honorably while defending the village from the Priests shit brigade! Gaia sheds manly tears at his grave before the Priest comes and tries to kill Gaia and Princess but Gaia ain't having none of that shit! He manages to chase off the shitters, but they come back later to overthrow the castle but the old dude reveals all their shittery and the knights help out some bros with getting rid of the church of kuso. I'm being overly humorous here so it's not a boring summary, but I loved Gaia a lot. Shions my fave boy, but Gaia's second cause he's not a shit and he has the best blushing and smile in the game like DANG MY BOYS. Also he's a cat lover so that instantly made him great to me. His cat is also the top percent by being orange (i should know, my cat is orange and is the best). His route probably isn't the best for a first playthrough, but it's an enjoyable second or third and helped wash my mouth of Ken rage.

Final Thoughts

Ken is a shitlord don't play Kens route. This game obviously isn't Voltage's best, and I can see why it got abandoned. The CG's aren't great and they choose the worst scenes to make into a CG (Like in Kens route, prime example, instead of a kiss CG you get him on a horse CG. Woo.) The plot is very predictable outside of Hakus route, but his route felt very out of place in the game when looking at it objectively. It felt like an AU with Hakus characterization. I can't really recommend this game much cause it's really typical and boring. The Sequels are more about political intrigue than of the boys and it just felt a bit soul less and my eyes glazed over a lot of the routes. The guys aren't all that interesting once you pass over their Main routes as well.  Some plot lines are just plain enraging and it feels like they needed to put in a conflict in order for them to make a route and what they choose felt like a waste of time. If you want to play a Voltage game I recommend playing 10 Days With My Devil or Love Letter From Theif X instead. Oh, and if you want this game for the Princess aspect, play Be My Princess instead, and if you like the idea of a guy protecting you, play My Sweet Bodyguard instead. 

Recommendations 

This is gonna be a lot faster than the 10 Days With My Devil Recommendations that's for sure. For one thing, in the english version there are no Sub Stories. That section is completely blanked out. Kind of disappointing but what can you do. 

MAIN STORY: (5 dollars)

Shion Route: 9 Points. Highly recommended. Comes with a nice blend of romance and the relationship with him felt like the OTP to end all OTPs. Acts as a good first route as well.

Lute Route: 7 Points. A good first route, though not as high in romance or OTP as Shion. Lute development takes awhile to take flight.

Haku Route: 5 points. It's a good route with a nice twist do if you only want to play one route, play his and never look back. The bad thing is when you play his route you'll never look at him the same in other routes.

Ken Route: -100 points. Kens a shit. Avoid at all costs.

Gaia Route: 8 points. Very cute route, Gaia a cute. Cats a cute. He has the same negatives as Lute, but done a bit better. Not recommended for a first playthrough, however.

EPILOGUE: (2 dollars)

Only buy if you really like the guy. Really short with 1 CG and most of them aren't all that romantic when compared to other games CG's. Shions was rather nice.

SEQUEL: (4 dollars)

Play any of these AFTER playing their Main story.

Shion Route: 7 points. Main plotline is a Princess summit and one of the Princess' gets a crush on Shion and tries sabotaging you and stealing Shion away. It can be rather frustrating but how Shion reacted was really good.

Lute Route: 4 points. Plotline is you're saving a village known for Lychees by raising money to build a dam. Devoid of romance and the writing is rather shoddy. MC conveniently forgets plot points, senate does a 360 at the end etc.

Haku Route: 8 points. Plotline is similar to Shion with the Princess summit except the princess in this loves her knight and gets jealous that you show your feelings with Haku openly and tries to ruin your princess cred by doing various bad stuff. It was a pretty interesting route and Haku got a damn fine CG.

Ken route: Ryu was a nice character but Princess was a bit whiny at the start and Ken is a shit. If you like him though, I say go ahead cause the plot for this was at least interesting. Why do you like Ken though.

Gaia: 9 points. You and Gaia sneak into a village posing as civilians to investigate a corrupt Count. The two pretend to be married which was the most romantic of the sequels I feel.