Hakuouki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom Review

Finally, I bought Hakuouki. It only took $25 to download from Gamestop, 198 minutes of downloading, and an extra dose of patience—mostly patience.

In case you don’t know what Hakuouki is, Hakuouki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom is a visual novel styled Girls’ game for the PSP. You play as Chizuru, a girl searching for her father in Kyoto. You end up in the care of the Shinsengumi, a special police force. after they save you from a strange bunch of creatures obsessed with killing. It turns out, the Shinsengumi are also looking for your father. You both team up to find him. However, things aren’t as they seem and you’re caught up in a dangerous situation involving the secrets of the Shinsengumi and your father. Despite the dangers, you can find love with one of the Shinsengumi members.

Hajime Saito in Full Version mode

Since the only other text based game I've played from Aksys was 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors for the DS, I was a little wary. While I enjoyed 999, it wasn’t a Girl’s game, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. This would be the first real time the US took on a game like this, and there were no predecessors. I was a little worried when they slapped the Mature rating on Hakuouki, but I must say, I am amazed at how the game turned out. The game has full Japanese voice-acting with English text, lovely art and unlockables, and pretty nice music.

Upon starting the game, you get to watch the games' opening. It's not very special, but it gives you a glimpse of the lovely CGs you can unlock and I kind of like the song. After the opening is the title screen (obviously) where you can Begin or Continue game, adjust Settings (text/skip speed and audio settings), view the Theater (unlocked character endings and the opening theme) or Gallery (unlocked CG images), read the Encyclopedia, or read the story thus far in Record of Service.

When you begin a new game, you can choose the protagonist's name, or leave it as Chizuru. Then you get to witness the Prologue. Luckily, after your first playthrough, you can simply skip the whole thing. From then on, you read the story and choose options that affect the storyline and Romance level with each character.

During gameplay, you can access tabs such as Save/Load, History, Encyclopedia, Settings, and Title Screen by pressing the Triangle.

Save and Load: These are self explanatory, but they allow you to save your game or load to a particular save file. The little image on your save file is the person you currently have the highest Romance Level with.

Encyclopedia: Although, the game is in full English text with the exception of several Japanese words with no English equivalent such as daimyo and zouni. These words, as well as Japanese proper nouns are highlighted in red. All words highlighted in red can be found within the game’s Encyclopedia tab in Encyclopedia Main along with information about each character. During Gameplay, you can also access the Status section of the Encyclopedia to see your level with each pursue-able character. This menu is unavailable from the title screen.

History: In addition to the Encyclopedia tab, there is also a History tab. The History tab allows you to see previous dialogue up to the last load point, or beginning of the chapter. Upon picking a certain part of dialogue, you can replay the audio, or rewind to that particular point in the game.

Settings: Within the Settings tab, you can change your options for text, sound, or mute. Text options include: Skip Mode, Skip/Autoplay, Text Window apperance, Text Speed, Aspect Ratio, and the Love Animation (the flower animation seen when you gain Love Points). Sound options include: Background Music, Sound Effect, and Voice volume.

Title Screen: This tab takes you back to the initial screen when starting the game.

Return: Returns you to game play.

CHARACTERS: ♥♥♥♥♥



I wasn't actually sure who to start with, but I ended up with Hajime Saito because I had the highest affection with him at the time. Despite choosing at random, Saito is currently my favorite character. In the beginning, I hadn't seen much in the way of interesting characters, but as you play through the story you begin to like them.  Each character has their own feelings and insecurites, which are addressed as you play through the game. To be honest, I actually played through Saito's route three times to get all of the CG images.Worth. Every. Minute.

I am a little annoyed at Chizuru's inability to protect herself for a minute despite repeated mentioning of her skills. However, she has her moments where she does help in battle so she isn't completely useless like other protagonists.

Heisuke's voice was a little irritating compared to the other members of the Shinsengumi, but it wasn't that bothersome.

 STORYLINE: ♥♥♥♥♥

The storyline didn't feel generic even though the game is in fact a typical reverse-harem. However, unlike other games, Hakuouki's approach feels less like "Every guy suddenly wants me!" and more like you have to gain each person's trust. Despite being a game geared for girls, it's not all fluff and sunshine. There are sad moments; people die. In fact, quite a few people die depending on the route, including Chizuru (which I found out the hard way) and main characters. However, it makes the game a wonderful engaging experience. I found it well worth the money and time.

The game isn't actually gory. Aside from a few blood splattered images, and descriptions of death and battle scenes, there isn't much else. There's a little bit of swearing, but it's almost non-existent in the later half of the game. No dirty images, no nudity, nothing. They probably could have gotten away with a T for Teen rating.

MUSIC: ♥♥♥♥♥

The game only has a few background songs. They're fine, but after a while they get a little annoying after hearing it looped. The BGM (background music) isn't good or bad, either. It's just average.

I enjoyed the opening song, but it's not anything I'd want to listen to multiple times.


OTHER:  ♥♥♥♥♥

The text in the game is a little too small for my liking, but that is negligible.

When using Skip Previously Read Text, it skips the first few boxes of unread text. This was a mere annoyance, but became extremely bothersome when I made alternate choices and hadn't viewed the scene yet.

The History feature came in handy very often. I loved it. It was extremely useful when I had forgotten which option I picked, made a bad choice, or just wanted to replay a scene.

I'm completely in love with the art. Which is very important because art is one of the most important features to me. The game has plenty of drool-worthy images you can view. They have two aspect ratios: the full version and PSP sized. I suggest viewing in full version mode.


OVERALL: 4.5/5
All in all, Hakuouki is an amazing game --Buy it. You won't be disappointed.