Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei Nintendo Switch Review

Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei is an Otome visible novel that follows Shanao, the final inheritor of the Genjin clan, which fell in a civil warfare with the Heike clan in feudal Japan. Shanao lives a peaceable life (within the guise of a male) below a monk alongside her good friend and follower Shungen. Nevertheless, after rumors of an ex-monk terrorizing close by villages and attacking Heike troopers for his or her swords, one of many Heike household heirs, Tomomori Taira, seems to disrupt Shanao’s life by proposing a contest to see who defeats the monk first. If she wins, she’ll be left alone by the Heike. Nevertheless, after a sequence of occasions, Shanao should take care of extra eyes all of a sudden being on her and the specter of her secret being uncovered to the world alongside juggling interpersonal relationships and deciding whether or not or not she needs to reclaim the Genji legacy. 

An Otome’s Story

As a visible novel, Birushana is only an otome recreation right down to its roots. The sport’s forged consists primarily of males, save for the protagonist. The visuals and aesthetics are female however not in the way in which that may deter some other gender, and every scene purely consists of static pictures with no cutscenes. Nevertheless, the sport lets gamers immerse themselves within the story by offering dialogue decisions that have an effect on their story. The sport has 5 completely different routes attributed to every of the love pursuits Shanao can select. 

Nevertheless, a serious flaw I observed on this system is that these dialogue decisions (which pop up on the display screen now and again) don’t do an excellent job of letting gamers understand how precisely they have an effect on the present route or how they result in particular routes. Every selection prompts a flower of various colours to seem on the display screen; and these colours and flowers aren’t defined for some time. Nevertheless, you’ll later study that the pink, inexperienced, and blue colours characterize Shanao’s energy, kindness, and knowledge, which is smart as every dialogue possibility you select normally falls below one in all these traits/properties. 

One other irksome facet of the sport that’s frequent to Otome visible novels and a number of visible novels usually, is that the principle character doesn’t have a voice regardless of each different character being absolutely voiced (and fairly nicely if I would add). It’s normally argued that that is to instill immersion within the recreation, however to gamers like me, it evokes a nagging incomplete feeling. 

Historical past is Enjoyable

Apart from that, I take pleasure in nearly every thing else concerning the recreation, however I really respect the historic components and prompts which can be seamlessly blended into the story and actually strengthens the setting. All through the sport, you’ll typically see characters reference occasions in Japanese historical past, together with wars, clans, royal households, eras, and lots of extra. The beauty of that is that for those who aren’t an entire Japanophile like me and don’t know what any of those references are or how they relate to the story, the sport brilliantly consists of an in-game dictionary of phrases and phrases of curiosity that are highlighted throughout dialog.

These can vary from off-screen historic figures to cataclysmic historic occasions and are all the time enjoyable to learn or find out about both. The sport additionally sports activities a formidable soundtrack with a number of enjoyable tracks that go nicely with many calm moments and high-energy tracks in high-octane moments.

Coupled with that’s the unbelievable artwork befitting an excellent otome recreation that turns its historic figures into fairly girls and boys. One other noticeable facet of the artwork is that the developer tried their greatest to utilize the nonetheless imagery to interchange precise lower scenes by making them transfer in stiff-like motions, which mainly ends in a bunch of Jpegs being smashed collectively, which some might respect and a few would possibly actually not like. Both approach, it’s value mentioning as at the very least some effort was made, in contrast to in lots of different visible novels lately.

Ultimate Ideas

Lastly, if a participant completes a route and decides to chase one other, they’ll achieve this with the New Sport Plus mode, permitting gamers to max out the aforementioned stats. In fact, some routes are higher than others, particularly by way of romance, so utilizing this mode is advisable for gamers who need a full expertise. 

General, Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei is a superb visible novel that wears its extraordinarily Japanese themes on its sleeve. It covers a number of attention-grabbing topics like chauvinism within the feudal period of Japan, and educates gamers on a number of historic occasions and other people. Whereas a few of its solely gameplay components may’ve been higher offered, it nonetheless offered a enjoyable expertise with an attention-grabbing story many Otome followers will take pleasure in.  

Have you ever performed any otome video games? What do you consider Birushana? Let BagoGames know your ideas within the feedback part beneath.