Oscar Yamada is an otaku obsessed with a character named ‘Hikaru’ from a series called ‘Romakoi’. Her mother named her Oscar after Rose of Versailles so she has a complex with her name. Since her mother is a famous actress, she attends a rich school called ‘Bellrose Academy’ which is known for having a popular theatre department. This game is loosely based on the manga Rose of Versailles which it takes many elements from the plot & inspiration for the characters
The heroine, Oscar Yamada (CV: Senbongi Sayaka), is an otaku obsessed with a character named ‘Hikaru’ from a series called ‘Romakoi’. Her mother named her Oscar after Rose of Versailles so she’s worried about introducing herself on her first day of school. When she goes to school on her first day, she runs into a student with glasses named Andou and he drops his scripts of ‘Macbeth’. Oscar can remember the scripts well because of memorizing manga lines which he notices and is surprised by it LOL. During the entrance ceremony, Oscar witnesses a performance which inspires her to visit the theater department. There, she spots many talents and the one she initially was fawning over was a woman named Nozomi who dresses as a man.
They start discussing with their theater department manager they’re dissolving the grouo called “Soleil” and starting a new group called “Lumiere” much to her shock. Nozomi notices Oscar and decides to try and invite her saying she should think about it since she heard from Andou her memorization skills are good. So she comes back to the club and sees Nozomi perform thinking she looks absolutely stunning when she does. She decides to temporarily join the club albeit not as an actress. Nozomi also explains she started her own club because she felt ‘Soleil’ was full of students who were rich and had money rather than those with raw talent and wanted to make a club that was equal to all talents alike.
So while looking for different props and things to help build the stage better, Oscar meets Junko who’s her classmate. She explains how the art department and general department differ from each other and that the art department typically requires a lot of money (which makes her think Junko must be special for Nozomi to notice her). Her intents are becoming a model though and Oscar wishes her lucky and is happy to make a new friend. After this, Oscar visits the theater department again and sees Mari practicing whilw her fiance, Yuu, watches. Oscar meets Yuu who gives her a prop to use. Mari also encounters her as well and tells the girls who are talking shit behind her back to back off and to always come visit for advice.
Oscar continues her search and hears of an abandoned house that has things to use so she visits it. She ends up meeting someone named Charles who looks like the fictional character she loves, Hikaru. But after he shows her the inside of the place, he disappears in a ghost. Oscar goes back to the club and tells everyone she found props to use and even tries to show off the necklace but finds out it was stolen. Oscar starts freaking out and apologizes but they tell her to calm down and tell her they’ll figure it out the next day. Oscar ends up finding the culprit, Junko, who wants to sell the necklace for money and better chances of becoming a model. This shocks Oacar but she refuses to give it back and runs off.
After this, Oscar convinces Nozomi and Ando that she’ll convince Junko to return the necklace to her. In the end, Oscar manages to convince Junko to return the necklace and she mentions how there is actually someone intentionally trying to sabotage Lumiere purposely within the school. After talking to Junko again, Oscar finds out its the teacher in charge of Soleil named Shiratori-sensei. Junko tells them to be careful and not to lose to Soleil before leaving. After this, Oscar encounters Nozomi practicing a script of Romeo and Juliet. Oscar offers to help practice with her as Juliet and Nozomi as Romeo. They only have one script so Nozomi gets super close to Nozomi making her embarrassed lmao.
Oscar decides to read the script aloud, since she’s good at memorizing, to help Nozomi remember. This ends up being very helpful so Oscar promises to continue doing so to help Nozomi. Ando then comes in with boxed lunches he prepared for Nozomi since she eats so unhealthy lol. That night, Oscar decides to being manga for Nozomi to help practice reading lines. She takes some of her favorites and shares them with Nozomi the next day. Nozomi thanks her and Oscar promises to continue bringing more for her. After this, Oscar meets Axel when she visits Mari during Soleil’s practice. He mentions he was familiar with Oscar since her mother knew his uncle. After she leaves, Axel helps her when a few guys harass her and a a girl named Rika.
When Oscar was harassed, Axel let her borrow his handkerchief. But when she tries to return it, she overhears Axel and Mari confessing their love for each other. This shocks Oscar who knows Mari is engaged to Yuu. So next morning, Oscar encounters Yuu again and apologizes for the incident with the necklace she gave her. He tells her its fine but then asks if she likes Shoujo manga since she always mentioned a character named “Hikaru”. She admits she does and realizes he’s a fan too and gushes over her love for shoujo manga to him for a while. She apologizes for talking so much but he tells her its okay because he had fun talking about it too.
After this, Oscar wonders her feelings towards Nozomi and thinks about what exactly “love” and what it feels like. She gets a call from Nozomi to meet her after school. In doing so, Oscar ends up encouraging Nozomi and she tells her that whenever she talks to Oscar she feels relaxed and she wonders why. Oscar asks if its because she’s “special” and Nozomi agrees that’s probably the reason. This makes Oscar super happy and so she promises to keep doing her best as does Nozomi. After practice one day, Oscar notices that Ando finds Nozomi very “special” to him and asks why. He tells her that when they were kids they both injured themselves after falling off a tree and Nozomi saved Ando. She ended up hurting herself the most and Ando almost thought she had died until she woke up in the hospital.
After being told this, Oscar realizes that her “special” existence for Nozomi is very small. The next day, Oscar comes up with the idea to hand out flyers for Lumiere to attract more members. It ends up working after they all see a performance from Nozomi, but it backfires when a first year named Akira who’s known for being a royal dick comes in and decides he’ll join too. At first, none of them can stand him since he’s a royal dick to everyone and there’s all sorts of bad rumors about him. However, no matter how much of a dick he is, Nozomi happily welcomes him and knows he wouldn’t have joined in the first place if he didn’t love acting.
So when Akira finally decides to practice, he does so along side Nozomi and Oscar is shocked by how talented he is. Even when he’s reluctant to practice, Oscar chases after him and tells him she’s not going to stop pestering him until he agrees to practice along side everyone. Its then they spot a bunch of girls fawning over Nozomi and shit talking Akira. Nozomi defends him though and tells the girls that everything being said about him are just rumors and there’s no proof he’s done any of it. Akira is shocked to overhear this and even gets embarrassed (making Oscar realize he’s just a big tsun lol). After this, there’s an accusation against Akira going on which prevents the rest of Lumiere to practice since he’s part of the group. Akira says he didn’t do it but tells them they should just get rid of him. Nozomi refuses to though so he runs off angrily while Oscar chases him. She screams his name until he finally stops and calls him an idiot while punching him lmao.
Oscar manages to convince him to talk to her and he explains he only entered Lumiere initially to sabotage it. He was selling uniforms secretly to gather money for his friend and was caught. He was then blackmailed by the same teacher who’s been trying to sabotage Lumiere so she used this against him. But in reality, he loves acting and wants to continue doing so. So he comes back and apologizes for everything and of course Nozomi accepts his apology and considered him a member of the group anyway. After this, Oscar forces Akira to join an “Oscar fanclub” in order to show his appreciation for Oscar and invite members.
So after this, Pierre (the Lumiere club advisor) asigns roles to everyone to do the play of Rose of Versailles. Nozomi is Oscar, Reiji is Andre, Akira is Fersen and lastly Oscar is Mari Antoinette. They find out Soleil is doing the same play but don’t lose hope because of this. Soleil’s advisor again tries to start more shit by trying to blackmail Oscar into joining Soleil and leaving Lumiere.
[This is where the branch off to stay in Lumiere or join Soleil instead starts with Lumiere having Nozomi, Akira, ???’s route (+ Nozomi/Akira Nozomi/Reiji), & Soleil with Axel and Yuu (+ Yuu/Mari Axel/Nozomi, Axel/Mari).]
Lumiere
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Oscar is troubled by this and consults her mother about it which gives her the motivation to continue doing her best for Lumiere. Afterwords, Reiji reminiscences about how Nozomi would be so absorbed in her acting she wouldn’t eat. Because of this, Reiji started cooking healthy meals for her all the time. After Reiji leaves, Nozomi accidentally knocks over a vase causing concern from Oscar and Akira. Oscar goes to check on Nozomi and finds out that due to the accident where she fell off a tree and hit her head, her eyesight was affected. There are moments she can’t see well which is why it helped a lot when Oscar read the script. Nozomi begs Oscar not to tell Reiji who doesn’t know, since she’s certain if he did know, he’d throw away everything and all his ambitions for the sake of taking care of her; which she doesn’t want. Reluctantly, Oscar promises not to tell but makes Nozomi promise her that she won’t overdo it.
—
~Nozomi Maki~ (CV: Mori Nanako)
Nozomi is a 2nd year student at Bellrose Academy. She’s also known as ‘Oscar’ throughout the entire school because of her appearance and her commonly taking the role of ‘Oscar’ in the plays she performs in. She has a sense of ‘righteousness’ when it comes to the rich and poor being treated equally, which is why she started the club ‘Lumiere’ in the first place (since the arts department & regular department aren’t treated equally within the school).
Nozomi & Oscar
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When everyone is officially cast, Reiji doesn’t want to act in the play. Just as Nozomi and Reiji argue about it, Nozomi loses her sight so just as she almost falls over, she leans onto Oscar and uses it as an opportunity to make it look like she’s acting. When they go to another room, Reiji basically tells Nozomi he’s not doing the role and will ask him for something more minor. Meanwhile, Nozomi thanks Oscar for helping keep her secret. Although she can get surgery for her eyes, she wants to do the contest first since she would have to stay at the hospital beforehand and doesn’t want to lose time to practice. Reiji then comes in and tells them he was able to get out of the role. Eventually, Nozomi’s secret gets out and Reiji finds out that the affect of the accident damaged Nozomi’s eyes.
Reiji begs Nozomi to go to the hospital but she refuses and still wants to continue to spend time together at the school. But Reiji couldn’t accept this and left Nozomi to Oscar. He then drops out of the school and no one can get in contact with him anymore. Nozomi starts thinking of giving up which makes Akira angry since they would have done all this effort for nothing. While Nozomi is still down, Oscar tries to encourage her to continue their performance but Nozomi is still left hesitant and mentions how they still don’t have have someone cast as Andre. Oscar then tells Nozomi she’ll so Andre instead and demands Nozomi to get better and assures she’ll practice in order to become a worthy Andre.
However, even after Oscar practices really hard for the role, Oscar barely responds and makes no comment to her having the role. Eventually, Pierre-sensei tells Nozomi to get her shit together or she won’t be allowed to participate. In addition to this, Nozomi herself decides its probably best they disband Lumiere and she quits since she doesn’t want to perform halfheartedly. Oscar consults Mari and Axel on what to do and they suggest she talk to Nozomi one more time to express her true thoughts. So Oscar talks to Nozomi one last time and begs her not to run away from everything she worked so hard for. Nozomi finally realizes that she’s wrong and she’ll continue to do her best for Lumiere.
So Nozomi apologizes to Lumiere for trying to run away and also reveals her eye condition and that she will continue to see a doctor as she performs. One day, Nozomi invites Oscar to play with fireworks so they can make memories together. Oscar thought maybe it would be better if everyone was present, but Nozomi just wanted it to be the two of them. Since Andre eventually becomes blind, Oscar asks for advice from Nozomi to play him better since she understands what its like. Eventually they run out of fireworks and light one last one. Nozomi ends up stroking Oscar’s cheek when she tries moving the hair out of her face so she can see her beautiful face better LOL. Oscar is both shocked and embarrassed and says Nozomi is much more beautiful and feels she’s just plain looking.
Nozomi then makes a request for Oscar to watch her act and let her amaze her just like she did the first time. Oscar asks if its okay if she’s the one standing next to her on stage and Nozomi tells her she wouldn’t want it any other way and wants Nozomi next to her. On the day of the play, everyone is prepared to perform. However, Soleil’s Shiratori-sensei strikes again and ruined all of their costumes and props. But Nozomi encourages them not to give up and they use what’s remaining to make costumes. And so, Nozomi plays out a perfect Oscar. Its then Oscar as comes out as Andre and the play is a success. Nozomi tells Oscar she looked wonderful on stage and kept her promise of showing her the best Andre she’s ever seen. In the end, Soleil wins the contest but the judges were so impressed by Lumiere’s acting that they won an award as well much to their surprise.
In the epilogue, Nozomi is no longer attending school while she’s in the hospital preparing for her upcoming surgery. Oscar visits her and Nozomi beings up how Reiji watched their performance but didn’t come to greet them. Regardless, Oscar believes their paths will cross someday as does Nozomi. But Nozomi says she wants Oscar with her as long as she doesn’t have someone she likes more. But Oscar says she’ll probably never like anyone more than her so she’ll continue to be with her. Nozomi kisses her forehead and says if she was a man she’d definitively choose her and then thanks her.
Thoughts: Well, if you were expecting an actual ‘gay’ route unfortunately prepare to be disappointed. Not sure why Otomate insinuated this was a romantic route cause, it wasn’t really. It felt like sometimes Nozomi was borderline lesbian but cockblocks it by saying, ‘if I was a man I’d definitely pick you’. Oh…ok… guess if Im a girl… you wont?? tbh it was left very ambiguous. Well, she was talking about Reiji until the very end of her route. I’m guessing by default she’s in love with Reiji so I guess it makes sense. Still, I’m kind of disappointed cause I really wanted to romance her?? I guess I shouldn’t have actually expected a gay route from Otomate. Still, I haven’t read the manga of Rose of Versailles so I don’t really know how “gay” Oscar actually is. I feel Oscar is definitely bi though, I think. She’s always made her attraction to Nozomi pretty apparent lol. These two were cute though and from playing all these routes, I can tell Nozomi really did care for Oscar a lot. I know Oscar really liked her too cause even if Nozomi only had eyes for Reiji, she’s definitely in love with her. 😭
Nozomi & Reiji
Reiji finds out about Nozomi’s eyes and she refuses to get surgery which frustrates him. She again tells him its also because she wants to spend more time with him in school but Reiji says that she’s an idiot to sacrifice her health for such a dumb reason. After this, Reiji leaves school and Nozomi gets sick to the point where she has to be hospitalized. Oscar doesn’t want to give up though so she decides to take the role of Oscar and asks the help of Mari and Axel to help her practice. Meanwhile, Oscar tries to find where Reiji lives so she can convince him to come back to Lumiere. And so thanks to Akira’s help, they manage to track him down and both Oscar and Akira discuss the situation.
They both reveal Nozomi hasn’t received surgery yet and is actually hospitalized because she overworked herself. Reiji then finally reveals he was told to cut ties with Nozomi by her father until she has surgery since he was one of the reasons she didn’t want to. But Oscar manages to convince him that he should continue to be part of Lumiere and be with Oscar since he loves her. He finally does admit he loves her and agrees to come back. After that, Oscar visits Nozomi in the hospital who’s eager to be discharged and get back to acting. So Oscar asks Nozomi to come to the club after school when she’s discharged and leaves.
So Oscar invites everyone from Soleil and Lumiere and makes an announcement she intends to become the new Oscar for the play. She knows they won’t be easily convinced though so she shows her performance to everyone which surprises them. Even Nozomi recognizes her as Oscar and gives up the role since she doesn’t believe she could do better. She also intends to get surgery as well so she can come back to Lumiere prepared. After that, Reiji and Nozomi finally confess their feelings for each other.
In the epilogue, Nozomi finally gets her surgery and Reiji always goes to the hospital to take care of her lol. Eventually, the contest for the play arrives and Oscar performs an amazing Oscar. And when the play ends and they announce the results, Soleil and Lumiere’s group ends up winning.
Thoughts: This route was pretty cute and I loved seeing Oscar as Versailles Oscar (lol). I think this was probably the most ‘canon’ route for Nozomi since Reiji always loved Nozomi and she always loved him. Again, probably comes back to the manga with Andre/Oscar so I guess this route makes the most sense for their relationship? ? I think Nozomi/Reiji are cute though and clearly are meant for each other. I also just really admired Oscar in this route for taking over Nozomi’s role of Oscar. Her acting was so badass I really love her seiyuuuu.
Nozomi & Akira
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After Nozomi is unmotivated to perform, the club is disbanded until Nozomi can get her shit together. Meanwhile, Oscar tries to practice on her own but feels unmotivated. One day she’s invited out by Akira on a “date” and they walk around a bit until they sit down. Nozomi wonders if he’s in love with Nozomi after all and Akira just laughs it off saying she sounded way too serious asking that. He tells Oscar he has no intention of leaving Lumiere but won’t be able to come very often for a while. He’s actually working a part time job (which is a no-no for the school’s rules) because his grandparents are in a bit of a tight financial spot. he reveals he is worried about Nozomi and doesn’t want to worry her more so he wants Oscar to keep it a secret.
Afterwords, a rumor spreads around Akira that he’s doing some sort of shady work outside of school. So Oscar tracks down Akira to make sure the rumor is false. She forces him to talk with her and Nozomi and after Akira bitches for them doubting him, Nozomi literally slaps some sense in him. In reality, Akira was working as someone who guides traffic during construction. They all make up finally and continue to work on the play ad part of Lumiere. I epilogue, Akira and Oscar are basically rivals (?) to gain Nozomi’s attention (or love I guess? Tbh the end was short and vague so I didn’t really understand it all that well in the end).
Thoughts: I truly don’t know why this is called Nozomi/Akira route because it really isn’t?? There’s no romance between them in this route, I think its just insinuated that he’s attracted to her and wants to try and pursue her. It was more Nozomi/Akira/Oscar if you ask me. But anyway, this was a really short route so there’s not much to say about it. It was kind of cute I guess but was feeling more like Akira/Oscar at first tbh.
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~Akira Etou~ (CV: Ono Yuki)
Akira is a 1st year like Oscar who has a reputation for being a trouble student. Regardless of the rumors about him, he loves acting and is enrolled in Bellrose Academy because of his grandparents managing to come up with the money to help him enroll. Because of this, he has a thing against rich people and how they use money to get what they want rather than using raw skill.
Oscar tells Pierre-sensei she wants to convince Reiji to take the role of Andre since she believes it would be perfect for him. He rejects it though, mostly because he doesn’t want to “act out” things he really feels. So Oscar feels bad about and meets “Reiji” again in the music room after hearing him sing. She apologizes for trying to force him into the role and he tells her its fine. She also compliments his singing and he blushes and thanks her. The next day, Oscar mentions to Reiji about how he sometimes doesn’t wear glasses and says his singing was really good. He seems confused at first but then affirms it was her then. Oscar is confused but thinks maybe he didn’t recognize her without his glasses.
So after that, Oscar goes to see “Reiji” sing again. She brings up Nozomi and he asks her why she’s so drawn to Nozomi. She ends up fangirling over her so he thinks its interesting she’s so honest about it. He tells her he’s going to leave so she comes with him but just as she does she remembers she forgot something in the club room and goes back. She ends up overhearing Pierre lecturing Nozomi to be wary of her feelings for Reiji since it may affect her performance. When Oscar discusses about Reiji and how Nozomi feels about him, she says she probably is in love with him. However, because he’s served Nozomi’s family for generations, her father isn’t accepting of him as her fiance.
Akira & Oscar
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Oscar then decides to take matters in her own hands and try and get Nozomi and Reiji together. She tries inviting Nozomi out with the three of them but she declines saying she usually doesn’t have free time to spend leisurely outside of school. Akira notices this and gets annoyed at Oscar trying so hard for Nozomi and Reiji’s sake to the point where she’s giving herself a hard time and trying to do it for her own sake. Oscar starts crying and doesn’t know what else to do since she feels useless when it comes to cheering her up. She recognizes she doesn’t have talents or the looks like her nor does she feel people look at her since she’s just a lonely otaku.
Akira tells her that he does see her and he has been watching her properly. But Oscar says that he’s only ever admired Nozomi and doesn’t believe it. He admits its true he did admire only Nozomi at first but over time he admired how clumsy and hardworking she is and has fallen for her. He admits he loves her and Oscar’s initial response is that he’s lying lol. He tells her he’s not though and tells her over and over he loves her and even though she thinks she has no shine like Nozomi, he believes she does since he was attracted to it. 😭😭😭 Oscar thanks him and he hugs her saying she should stop putting so much on herself and say if she’s having a hard time once in a while.
After she stops crying and calms down, Akira sits there waiting for an answer lol. Oscar is so embarrassed she struggles to even say anything at first but admits that this was the first time she’s been confessed to so she needs time to think over her feelings. Akira tells her he’ll wait and hopes she’ll come around. Meanwhile, Oscar flips out in embarrassment at home and even apologizes to Hikaru for her betrayal of her favorite 2D character after getting confessed to for the first time by a real guy LOL. Next day they find out some bad news that the contest is being postponed from the fall to the spring. Thankfully, it gives them more time to practice. After class, Akira gives Oscar a rare gacha and she goes complete otaku mode over it. 😂
Even Junko starts to notice Akira being more clingy towards her and asks about it. Oscar admits he confessed to her but actually believes the two of them suit each other. After this, Akira gets called by Pierre-sensei who tells Akira that he’s better off not dating Oscar for the sake of his future in acting. Akira tells him to back off though and leaves. Right after this, some guys from the art department of the school tell Akira he’s being transferred from the regular student’s department. Akira realizes its Pierre-sensei’s doing and runs off to find him. He demands to know why he’s trying to separate them so badly and getting in their personal affairs as a teacher.
Pierre-sensei then randomly reveals he’s his father and while he was busy acting in plays he fell in love with a woman and had children. He was too invested in his work as an actor though and left his children with Akira’s grandparents. Akira knows he had a sister as well and asks what happened to her. Pierre-sensei refuses to answer though and Akira just gets more angry and tells him he robbed him of his happiness. Pierre tries to tell him he’s doing this for his sake but Akira tells him to never approach him again and leaves.
Oscar decides to visit her mom and consults with her. Her mom tells her she was in a similar situation where she decided to focus on her job rather than her relationship with a man she was dating. Oscar then ends up showing pictures from her class and her mom gets weird when she mentions Pierre so she decides to go home and investigate. She finds an album with pictures of a young Pierre and her mother. She also finds a photo with her and a child that resembles Akira with “Brother & Sister” written. Leaving her to believe that her and Akira may be brother and sister. Because of this, Oscar starts to avoid Akira and questions her feelings for him.
Akira notices this and even though he didn’t plan to transfer to the art department, Oscar starts insisting he does for his future. She tells him they shouldn’t see each other and leaves. So after a while of not seeing each other, Akira finds Oscar while she’s out on her day off. She runs away again but he chases after her and when he finally catches her he kisses her and asks her again why she continues to avoid him. Oscar finally basically admits she loves him but decides to finally tell him the reason and brings him to her place. She shows him her mother’s album and says she may be his younger sister. Akira is surprised by doesn’t get how they could be in the same year if she’s his younger sister.
So they decide to confirm it together with Oscar’s mom. Akira tells Oscar’s mom that he’s Pierre’s son and they ask if they’re siblings. She confirms they’re not siblings though and she split up with Pierre. During that time, Pierre got married too with someone she knew very well, so they often visited each other. There, they took a picture of Akira and Oscar instead of Akira and his sister since she too young and distracted at the time which is why ‘brother & sister’ was written. Akira then asks what happened to his sister and Oscar’s mother confirms she died along with his mother in accident. However, even though Pierre was a shitty father, her mother still loved him anyway. After hearing this, Akira starts to cry.
In the epilogue, Oscar and Akira are together. Akira decides to leave Lumiere to practice in the arts department but intends to come back. He then also asks Oscar to properly tell him her feelings and she so tells him she loves him. So he picks her up and says she finally became his lol.
Thoughts: Ehh… I wanted to like this route… I really did… but Otomate seriously fucked that up completely with that “twist”. Akira actually confessed super quick at the start of his route which was kinda surprising. And you know, it could’ve been really cute had they not made it seem like they were related the ENTIRE ROUTE. I really don’t know what the hell the point of that was. The entire plot of his route was figuring out whether or not they were actually brother & sister. So when Akira is trying to kiss or show any signs of affection to Oscar it just seemed weird or awkward af with the player thinking ‘o shit they might be related’. I didn’t really think they were (and thankfully they weren’t), but the fact that you’re made to think they are is fucking weird. Unfortunately, it left a bad taste in my mouth & I didn’t enjoy his route because of it. Well, Akira’s probably the least important character in this game if we’re being honest. They didn’t exactly give him a lot of screen time in this game. I thought he was kinda cute being somewhat tsun but eh…
??? & Nozomi
One day after seeing “Reiji” again, they leave the room together and Oscar almost falls down some stairs. He catches her which makes Oscar super embarrassed so she can barely even speak to him. She then thanks him and leaves. After this, Oscar hears about how Nozomi is in love with Reiji but also wonders maybe if she’d start to like him too. Regardless, she wants them to be happy and be together. She visits her mom to consult her about it and she tells Nozomi it would be best to allow their love to happen naturally rather than try to force them together. But Nozomi still decides that she wants to help the two of them so she tries using her manga as a reference to get them together but fails spectacularly.
Even Akira tells her she shouldn’t try to force them together but she tells her to leave her be. She then visits “Reiji” again to hear his singing and she asks why he doesn’t sing in public and he says its because he’s too embarrassed. However, he tells her to come back to listen as along as she comes alone. Junko apparently overheard and saw them together and can tell “Reiji” sees her as someone special. She realizes she may have feelings for him and decides to visit him in the music room again. This time he asks her to sing with him and she has a lot of fun doing it so he tells her to come back to they can do it again. Oscar starts to realize she probably does like Reiji and wants to see him again.
When Akira finds out she’s been meeting him secretly, he tells her she’s better off not getting involved since he knows how much Reiji loves Nozomi. But Oscar can’t stop herself and apologizes to Reiji. After this, she runs into Yuu and consults him. He tells her that she should first try to hear his feelings first and it should give her a sense of relief. So to confirm her feelings she asks Reiji out on a date when she meets him again in the music room. He accepts and so they meet to see a movie and eat at a cafe. During this, Oscar says she doesn’t like broccoli so Reiji asks her to feed it to him, which she does.
After their date, they both tell each other they had fun and Oscar decides to confess her feelings for “Reiji”. She tells him even though she knows he likes Nozomi, she still can’t help her feelings anymore. He doesn’t really respond though and someone bumps into him, calling him Kazuki. He quickly pulls her aside though and tells her he has to go. Oscar is upset when she gets home, realizing her feelings didn’t get through to him. But she starts to realize that “Reiji” may not actually be “Reiji” and she’s actually been meeting someone else. So she decides she wants to find out and looks for him again and goes to the club to ask Reiji if he’s hiding something.
Finally, Oscar and Nozomi take Oscar to a hideout where they introduce “Kazuki” whom they had already met before Yamada. Apparently he’s not related to Reiji but just a doppelganger who they happened to meet. Kazuki was investigating the school since he’d heard bad controversial rumors about it and wanted to find out more. He made a deal with Nozomi and Reiji to use Reiji’s name and appearance to get around the school in order to investigate. But since Oscar found out they made a deal to stop if someone else came to know about it. So Kazuki apologizes to Oscar for lying and admits he really did have fun with her before telling her goodbye.
The next day, Oscar finds out Nozomi and Reiji got suspended and the contest potentially cancelled. Apparently Shiratori caught them discussing with Kazuki about how he infiltrated the school and pretended to be Reiji. Nozom refuses to accept it and runs outside where it’s raining. There, she runs into Kazuki who wonders what she’s doing. She says she intends to go to see Shiratori to see if she can fix things. Kazuki tells her to calm down and tells her she’d just risk putting herself at risk. He tells her they should think about it together and go to the abandoned building alone to get dry from the rain. He lets her borrow his jacket and helps her get dry from the rain.
Kazuki then explains that his mother used to be a student in the school and her father was from a company with enough money to get in. She ended up falling in love with a teacher but in reality he was just after her money and didn’t love her back and even knocked her up. Their company ended up going bankrupt though and so she started being unable to pay debts and even though she had a very good singing talent, she was eventually kicked out of the school. Because of this, Kazuki wanted revenge on the school and wanted to publicly reveal its secrets. After this, they decided to cooperate with everyone to try and create a plan to find a book with the financials of the school to show the huge gap between the rich and the poor in the school.
After figuring out the principal has the book where he manages finances, they also find out from Kazuki that many rich students have bribed their way into the school with money. They manage to get proof of this from someone who was helping Kazuki named Rabi-en-Rose. So they decide the following day they’ll interrupt the school’s public gathering to announce the scandals of the school. That night, Kazuki calls Oscar to come meet him since he can’t sleep and is nervous about tomorrow. He apologizes again after everything especially since he confessed her feelings for Reiji to him. But she admits she doesn’t like Reiji and only started to like him after meeting Kazuki and thinking he was him. Oscar asks for one request though after all this and its to listen to Kazuki’s singing again.
So the next day, everyone visits the auditorium and meet with the principal and Shiratori. Kazuki reveals the evidence against the school and threatens to reveal everything to all staff and students if the principal doesn’t change how their doing things. Finally, he admits to his wrongdoings and was blinded by his own greed when the school continued to receive donations of money. So he makes an announcement to the students that he intends to change the school so it is not built upon lies and students will be equally treated no matter how much money they have.
In the epilogue, time passes and now students can take an exam to enter the arts department. Although the contest for the play has been cancelled in order to be renewed. And now, Kazuki has entered the school as a student. And so Kazuki finally confesses his feelings for Oscar and admits he’s in love with her and has been in love with her since she asked him how he feels about her. He tells her he wants her to listen to his music forever and Oscar tells him she loves him too.
Thoughts: Okay, I actually liked this character a lot! He was actually really cute. I guess this was supposed to make up for the fact you can’t romance Reiji?? His voice is different so you can kind of immediately figure out he’s not Reiji, so then I legit thought he was his twin. So the unrealistic part of this was him literally being Reiji’s doppelganger but having no relations to him whatsoever. I think I’d be pretty shocked to find someone who legit looked exactly like me & is around the same age?? (plus they used the same sprite lmaoo). Well, that aside, his addition was kinda random though. Would’ve liked to actually hear him sing though… (I also need to check back in the credits I’m not sure who is seiyuu is). I guess he was supposed to be the ‘final route’, but I ended up doing his route pretty early. Not sure why Otomate didn’t have his route locked… But I mean, you could still do his route and not really be “spoiled” by anything.
—
Soleil
—
Oscar decides to go to Soleil after Shiratori blackmailed her. Much to everyone’s shock, she tells them all she’s leaving Lumiere and going to Soleil instead. After she leaves, they all suspect there’s a reason she must have left. Regardless, Oscar starts her practice with Soleil. Mari and Axel are super welcoming even though other student talk shit about her since she’s from the regular department. Mari helps her by showing her around and helping her. Shiratori also gives Oscar a new uniform to wear while she’s in the art department part of the school. Rika, whom she had met before, is also in Soleil and invites Oscar to eat lunch with her and often talks with her.
One day, Oscar is organizing papers in Soleil’s practice room and accidentally gets a paper cut. She goes to the nurse’s office where she finds Axel there. He notices her cut and helps treat it for her. The next day, roles are announced and Mari plays Antoinette as expected with Axel as Ferson. Oscar again hears Axel and Mari speaking in private and remembers when the two of them spoke their feelings to each other. When Oscar accidentally brings it up to Mari, she admits she is in love with Axel albeit her parents forced her into a marriage with Yuu. Oscar feels bad for Yuu’s feelings being betrayed and wonders whats right or wrong.
~Yuu Akechi~ (CV: Horie Shun)
Yuu is the grandson of the principal of Bellrose Academy and Mari’s fiancé. He’s quiet and kind and also interested in manga along with the heroine so the two of them tend to get along well.
Oscar & Yuu
—
One day, Nozomi greets Oscar and apologizes for not being able to get her to stay knowing there was certain circumstances going on. But Oscar tells her it’s fine since she joined of her own will and wants to do her best for Mari and Axel. She then notices she’s reading RomaKoi and admits she became a fan herself after Oscar introduced her to it. Oscar fangirls and is super happy that Nozomi likes her favorite manga lmao. Yuu appears and Oscar immediately tells him that Oscar is a fan of RomaKoi too and starts completely rambling about the series to them lmao. After that, Oscar encounters La vie en Rose-sensei who offers to have to with Oscar but ends up accidentally spilling it on her and his tablet.
When he leaves, Oscar notices on his on his tablet a manuscript of RomaKoi that she doesn’t recognize but isn’t able to confirm with La vie en Rose-sensei whether or not he’s the other. Oscar is in legit shock and realizes if he’s the author, then he’s basically a God to her lmaooo. She ends up following him around a while to try and see him working on the manuscript but she ends up finding him meeting with Yuu instead. And so, she’s shocked to find out the creator of RomaKoi isn’t La vie en Rose-sensei but its Yuu and he just helps him send out his manuscripts in secret for him. He tells her to keep it a secret though and Oscar promises not to tell anyone.
So after Oscar finds out this she can’t help but praise Yuu’s work when she sees him next and he thanks her. He tells her he intends to do his best since she cheered him on. However, she finds out that RomaKoi is on hiatus and wonders if Yuu is okay or if she put pressure on him when saying she was looking forward to new chapters. She finds out from La vie en Rose that he’s on a slump and isn’t sure what to write next in his manga. La vie en Rose tells her to contact him for inspiration and so she does. She asks if he wants to go out with her to help inspire him and he suggests going on a fake date to get an idea with what to write.
Yuu has no real experience with love and even though he’s engaged to Mari, he already knows she has feelings for Axel. Regardless, Oscar accepts in order to help him out. They meet up in town and Oscar tells Yuu he can lead the way. He ends up taking her to a PC parts shop since his hobby is making computers. Oscar is shocked and impressed he can make computers and draw manga. He thanks her and admits he considered it an embarrassing hobby but Oscar’s all I’m an otaku too so go ahead and buy whatever you want lmao. After that, they go to a cafe and since Oscar doesn’t know what to choose, Yuu suggests they come again next time so she can get something else.
Oscar asks about how his manga creation process is so Yuu tells her how he plans and draws his manga. He then realizes how much he’s talking about RomaKoi and tries to talk about other manga recommendations. But Oscar tells him to continue talking about it since its the manga she loves talking about the most lol. He tells her he actually based Hikaru on a foreign boy who helped him a long time qo but disappeared mysteriously. He always thought it was a dream, but since he was such a bright existence, he named him Hikaru. Oscar is delighted to hear this and Yuu thanks her again lol. After their date, he thanks her for helping him and says he’ll treat her as thanks next time.
So a few days later, Yuu meets Oscar in her class and shows her his new manuscript. Thanks to her he was able to write a new chapter and tells her how thankful he is to her for helping him. He asks her to go with him to give La vie en Rose-sensei his manuscript where he tells him he’s officially out of his slump and intends to keep drawing. Yuu then tells Oscar that when she told him she likes to learn about unfamiliar worlds, the same applied to when he first read shoujo manga. He tells Oscar she can call him by his first name instead since they’re already good friends.
So Oscar and Yuu go out on another date and Oscar decides to wear a flower ring similar to to a flower in the manga. Yuu notices this and says it suits her well so they decide to check out some accessory shops. After this, they sit down at a cafe and Oscar tells Yuu she read the manga he let her borrow and enjoyed it a lot. Yuu tells Oscar he feels they’re very similar and hopes to see a movie next time. Unfortunately, they end up getting lost and a bunch of drunk guys start harassing them. Yuu immediately tries to protect Oacar but then Yuu’s bodyguards appear to help. Apparently they had been following Yuu the whole time and before too.
Yuu’s bodyguard named Itsuki lectures Yuu for accompanying a girl who doesn’t understand his position and just how important Yuu as a status figure. Its then Oscar realizes just how different their worlds are and leaves ahead. Because of this, she starts avoiding Yuu, realizing she’s in love with him. Finally, Yuu manages to get a chance to talk to her and tries to tell her his feelings for her but Oscar tells him she doesn’t want to hear it and believes he should be with someone like Mari. A month passes after them not seeing each other and RomaKoi goes on hiatus again.
One day, she finds a bouquet of flowers in her shoebox just like a scene in the manga RomaKoi where Hikaru does the same for the heroine. Yuu had left it there along with a note to meet Oscar. She immediately goes to meet him and they finally talk to each other. Yuu tells her since the beginning his life was always planned out and writing RomaKoi was the only thing he was able to do of his own free will. But he also has Oscar to thank for helping him and giving him so much motivation. Yuu is intent on breaking off the engagement with Mari. And he doesn’t intend to give up on Oscar because he loves her and wants her to believe in him. He gives her a ring that matches her other one.
The two of them go on another date while holding hands. Yuu admits he liked Mari at first but didn’t feel like he was truly suited for her since he wasn’t cool or handsome. However, Oscar tells him that he’s a prince in her eyes and thinks he’s cool and a wonderful person. Yuu blushes and thanks her and tells her to wait a little longer so he can formally make their relationship official. A few days later, Oscar’s mother visits the school to see if Yuu is worthy of dating Oscar and to gain the approval of his grandfather. After Oscar’s mom talks to him and Yuu shows his determination and love for Oscar, his grandfather sees just how serious he is and gives his blessing.
In the epilogue, Nozomi and the others have a party to celebrate Oscar and Yuu plus Mari and Axel becoming a couple. Yuu tells Oscar he has a planned ending for RomaKoi but intends to start a new manga that he wants Oscar to read first.
Thoughts: wOW this boy was literally a cinnamon roll!!! He’s just so precious and sweet. Yuu was definitely the best person to be paired with Oscar. The fact that the two of them shared the same interest in manga and how innocent their love was… it was so cute. They made a great couple. Not only that, but at the end of this route, both Mari & Axel ended up together too. I think it was really cute seeing all of them happy at the end. Its unfortunate the romance was so short and there wasn’t any kiss CGs. I guess it was always them holding hands because the two of them are just so innocent and pure. Anyways, this route was less about acting and more about Oscar’s love for manga which was nice since it made you realize the two of them really suited each other. You don’t ever get two otaku’s in love in otome games… I want more….
Mari & Yuu
—
Oscar decides not to go on a “date” with Yuu because she doesn’t want to betray his or Mari’s feelings. One day, Oscar is forced to clean the theater room and ends up meeting Mari in there. They have tea together and Oscar thinks about how beautiful Mari is lol. The two of them also discuss about how gay everyone is for Nozomi (including Oscar lol). After Oscar brings up her love for manga, Mari suggests she write a script about a normal girl, similar to her manga, for Soleil. Oscar doesn’t think she can at first but is motivated to do it thanks to Mari’s encouragement. So Oscar does her own research around the school to try and write the script. When she finishes it, she shows it to Mari first who happily enjoys it.
However, Mari doesn’t believe she could play the main role because she’s never had the freedom to go out and hang with friends. So Oscar comes up with the idea of inviting her out to hang out like normal high school girls. In doing so, Oscar also invites Junko out with them. They eat crepes together while Mari figures out how to eat it lmao and take photos together. Its then Mari admits that she never actually went on date with Yuu before so Oscar encourages them to do so. Mari ends up asking Yuu to go on a date with her and they have a lot of fun. After this, Mari finds out Axel has to go back to Sweden but decides to give up on Axel and focus on her relationship with Yuu.
One day, Oscar decides to go see her mom in the hospital and Mari asks to come along. However, upon seeing Mari, Oscar’s mother reacts strangely and claims she feels sick. After the two of them leave, Oscar decides to contact Mari and Yuu’s bodyguard, Itsuki. But she ends up finding out something even bigger which is that she’s not actually blood related to her mom and her real mom is Mari’s mother, making them sisters. Oscar is in shock and disbelief but goes to her mother straight away to confirm it herself. Oscar starts crying and calls her mother a liar for talking about her birth as if they were mother and daughter and runs out of the hospital.
After this, Oscar runs into Mari and tells her what happened. Mari is shocked as well but knows Oscar must be more shocked to find out she’s not related to her mother. She then asks Oscar if she wants to meet her real mother. Oscar ponders about it but then decides to see her mom in the hospital to hear the whole story. She finds out that Mari’s mother and her were good friends and she saw her one say during a party looking sick. She was actually pregnant and had an affair with another man who was not her husband. Apparently they made a promise to be together but Mari’s mother was suddenly forced to marry for money. It would’ve been over if it was found out so she was on the verge of killing herself and her child. But, Oscar’s mother wouldn’t allow it, and decided to protect her child for her. However, she always loved Oscar like her own child and Oscar knows it. Her real mother is her and she doesn’t intend to meet her blood related mother. She hugs her mother and apologizes for what she said.
In the epilogue, Oscar tells Mari she doesn’t intend to meet her mother which Mari already expected as much since she already has a mother she loves. Mari then shows Oscar her revised script by Shiratori-sensei who was actually impressed by it. Oscar tells Mari she was shocked to have an older sister but is glad its someone like Mari. She also tells Oscar she’s glad to have a cute little sister. After this, Axel officially leaves and says goodbye to Oscar and Yuu. Mari also tells Oscar to start calling her “onee-sama” which she does finding it super embarrassing though lol.
Thoughts: They call this route Mari/Yuu but really its not focused on their relationship which kind of surprised me. Although Mari does technically end up with Yuu, this more actually focused on Mari/Oscar’s relations + Oscar’s backstory (which I didn’t really expect in this route tbh). But after playing this route… well, yep it makes sense why Mari didn’t get a “romance” route (not that I think they really would’ve gave them one). It was pretty random of them to be sisters, but super cute honestly. It’s nice to see a cute sister relationship in an otome game. Usually, it’s literally always brother/sister relationships in these games, so it was a nice change. Plus, Mari is just super adorable and sweet.
—
~Axel Hatori~ (CV: Suwabe Junichi)
Axel is an exchange student from Sweden who is friends with Nozomi and a member of Soleil’s theatre club. He’s in love with Mari and she’s in love with him, but they’re are unable to be together due to Mari being engaged.
Oscar visits her mother and is suddenly told she’s going to be temporarily staying with a fan of her mother’s in order to help take care of her financially. He’s very rich and has helped Oscar’s mother a lot in the past. Apparently he also has a son the same age as Oscar and hopes they’ll get along. But in being taken to this large mansion, she meets Axel there. Apparently its his uncle’s home and its his uncle who’s a huge fan of Oscar’s mother. Oscar is in utter shock when she sees the inside of the mansion since its literally like a castle. After that, Axel escorts Oscar to the dining room and tells her that his uncle entrusted him to look after her.
However, when Axel comes in Oscar’s class to bring something she forgot, she insists he tells no one that they’re now living together. Axel just laughs at the way she acts about it but tells her he won’t tell anyone. After Soleil practice, Oscar gets distracted with her work and leaves late. It starts raining but she doesn’t have an umbrella. Luckily, Axel appears and tells her that they can share umbrellas while walking home. Axel tells her to actually stay in the umbrella or its pointless. Albeit Oscar finds it embarrassing, she reluctantly comes closer. He then compares her to a flower he sees that is seemingly gloomy at first on the inside but blooms beautifully on the outside.
The next day, Oscar comes home and Axel gives her macaroons as a present. Oscar eats them and offers one to Axel. He eats it from her hand though which totally throws Oscar off guard lmao. This makes Oscar realizes that Axel is acting very familiar with her so she decides to discuss it with him. She tells him she doesn’t have friends so she doesn’t want to cause a misunderstanding. Especially considering his relationship with Mari which she asks to know more about since she knows she loves him. So he tells Oscar about when he first met her and knows even now they’re not supposed to be together since she’s engaged to Yuu (whom he considers a good friend).
The next day, girls in Soleil start to notice how well Oscar and Axel are getting along. Oscar notices this and after school she runs into Axel. He asks if she wants to walk home together but she flips out and tells him to be quiet or people will find out they live together. Azel again laughs at her exaggerated reactions and Oscar tells him to stop being so mean lmao. She warns him that girls from the club may start making rumors about them dating and doesn’t want to trouble him by it. But he unexpectedly tells her he wouldn’t mind rumors like that and leaves.
Axel & Oscar
—
The next day, Mari asks to speak to Oscar and has noticed how differently she acts around Axel. She asks how Oscar feels about Axel and Oscar lies saying he’s like an older brother to her and is cheering on him and Mari to be together. However, in reality, Oscar may have feelings for Axel. When she gets home and Axel greets her, she tells him not to be so kind to her and runs to her room to cry. Axel tries to speak to her in her room and tells her that there’s no specific reason he’s being kind to her and is trying to treat her like family. After this, Oscar decides she’ll set aside her feelings and try to get Axel and Mari together.
The next day, Oscar invites both Mari and Axel without them knowing to a cafe. Oscar takes Mari to meet Axel who expected to be waiting for Oscar so the two of them could get closer. Oscar starts crying after seeing the two, knowing it must be because she likes Axel. When she gets home, she tries to hide in her room but Axel comes home quickly. He tries to confront her about it and asks why she left the two of them since he waiting for her to come back, but Oscar quickly apologizes and runs up to her room. The next day, Mari thanks Oscar for trying to get them together. She invited him out on another date but realized it seemed like Axel was looking at someone else and wonders who it was.
During practice, Oscar collapses while working on props and a worried Axel brings her to the health room. Oscar wakes up to find Axel there who was worried for her and even cancelled his plans with Mari. Oscar decides not to hide her feelings anymore and admits she’s in love with Axel. Although she didn’t expect it, Axel feels the same way and tells her he believes his love for Mari and her love for him was just a way to escape their fates. She asks him if its really okay for him to choose her and like her but he tells her he wouldn’t be with her right now if it wasn’t. She starts crying and Axel hugs her to comfort her.
That night, Axel tells Oscar he plans to tell Mari everything and end his relationship with her. Oscar only hopes she can still be friends with Mari since she still considers her very important to her. However, Mari is absent from school the next day and bad rumors start spreading about her and Axel. Oacar consults Yuu about this and he admits he’s in love with Mari but is glad she fell in love with Axel since he knows he would treat her well. Oscar feels bad that she’s going to hurt the one he loves, but decides she won’t just let Axel talk to Mari and wants to speak with her as well.
The next day, Oscar and Axel wait for Mari in the club room. Suddenly, Nozomi comes in angrily and smacks Axel on his ass. She heard the rumors about him ditching Mari. Oscar admits that its true he left Mari for her, but tries to explain the circumstances behind it. Mari then arrives and decides she’ll no longer play Antoinette in the play and gives the role to Oscar. Everyone is shocked and Oscar tries to refuse the role but Mari insists only she can do it in her place. That night, Oscar is worried if she can even do it as well as Mari but Axel tries to encourage her and tells her to rely on him if she needs to. However, students in Soleil keep talking about Oscar’s crappy performance making her lose even more self-confidence as she tries to practice.
This discourages her even further to the point where she runs out of the classroom. That night, she sees Axel at home and he tries to encourage her by telling her to just listen to his voice. He hugs her making Oscar super embarrassed and tells him not to do that so suddenly lol. She tells him she doesn’t think she’s good enough to compare to Mari’s Antoinette. But Axel tells her she should just do her own performance of Antoinette, rather than worrying about Mari’s. But she tells him she isn’t like Axel or Mari who were born for such good appearances. Axel decides to leave realizing trying to cheer her up just backfired lol.
After this, Oscar consults her mom and she gives her basically the same advice as Axel which is to do her own interpretation of Antoinette. In doing so, Oscar does her own research of her character not only in Rose of Versailles, but in real life too. While practicing, Axel comes to visit and brings her dinner lol. She asks him to let her perform alone though since she wants him to see her at her best. The following day, Oscar finally shows her Antoinette to everyone in Soleil and performs alongside Axel as Fersen. Everyone is amazed at Oscar’s performance as Marie Antoinette. After class, Axel tells Oscar her performance was so good he almost felt she wasn’t acting. She admits it was all true though cause she loves him, making Axel blush lmao.
Oscar also reconciles with Mari who came back to school and had been in Lumiere with Nozomi. She heard about Oscar’s performance as Antoinette and was very happy for her. After this, Oscar and Axel decide to visit Oscar’s mother. Axel decides to hold hands with Oscar. She flips out though due to embarrassment. Axel almost thinks she’s crying but she tells him its just her face which is like a bomb and he just gets more confused. In the end, she tells him she doesn’t dislike it and ends up saying if she wants her hand so bad he can tear it off if he wants LMAO. Axel then almost pisses his pants in laughter after she says this.
So Oscar introduces Axel to her mother who already has a great impression of him. Suddenly though Axel gets a phone call and leaves the room. Oscar leaves to get a drink and overhears a bit of his conversation. She asks for the truth and Axel tells her he’s not really an exchange student, but rather a “spy” who gathers info on rich students and sells it to companies. So basically the real reason he tried to get close to Oscar was to gather info on her mom who’s a famous actress. He tries to explain his circumstances, but Oscar is upset upon hearing this. She runs out of the hospital after telling him she really did love him and wonders if everything was just a lie.
The next morning, Oscar meets with Mari who begs her to “save” Axel since she couldn’t herself and if she really loves him shell believe in him. Oscar decides to confront Axel and ask his circumstances. He tells her that he came as a spy and when he met Mari whom he also tried to gather info from, she soon found out and they started this sort of “forbidden love” while sharing this secret. It’s then he met Oscar and knew about her mother. However, he tells her that his feelings were not a lie and he really does love her. Oscar tells him she believes in him but asks how she can help him. He tells her to wait so he can go back to his country and stop his spy work once and for all. Oscar promises that she’ll wait for him and so they smooch. 💕💕
In the epilogue, Oscar has been waiting for Axel’s return but he hasn’t contacted her nor has he given his address to her either. Nozomi is pissed that Axel won’t contact her poor kouhai and keeps saying how she’s gonna kick his ass when he gets back lmaooo. After this, Axel finally appears and both Oscar and him are reunited. She runs up to him and hugs him and welcomes him back. He promises to never leave her side anymore and he thanks her for coming back as he thanks her for waiting for him.
Thoughts: I actually ended up liking Axel’s route since him teasing Oscar was fun to watch and I liked his character. Idk if I’d say they really suited each other though…? It’s clear Axel loved Mari (maybe if Nozomi) so him with Oscar is pretty random in retrospect. Still, I think the highlight of the route was Oscar though lol & they weren’t bad together. I think overall Axel is pretty genuine and I half-expected if to be a generic flirt. The part they revealed at the end though was kinda random though… I don’t know if him leaving and coming back as a ‘better man’ had to do with the manga but I guess it was kind of weird for them to throw that in at the last second. I definitely think he got the best romance CGs with Oscar though. Well, he’s the only one with a kiss CG aside from Akira lol.
Mari & Axel
—
Oscar decides to cheer on Mari and Axel while Mari is very happy to talk about her feelings for Axel, she feels bad to do so in front of Yuu who’s her fiance. But rumors start spreading that Axel and Mari are actually together in secret. One day, Oscar goes to the Soleil club room to grab her things where she finds Mari and Axel hugging each other in the dark lol. This causes a bigger misunderstanding and with Mari being engaged to Yuu, she’s accused of cheating on Yuu with Axel. After this, Axel decides to drop out as the role of Fersen, leaving Mari depressed she can no longer see Axel. However, Itsuki manages to find out that someone tried to set both Axel and Mari up by purposely having books fall on Mari and Axel to protect her (making it look like he’s embracing her). With Axel gone, Itsuki then decides to take on the role of Fersen in Axel’s place.
After that, Mari gives a letter to Oscar to deliver to Axel since she knows she’s currently living with him. That night, Oscar gives the letter to Axel but they’re unexpectedly visited by Nozomi. She asks for the circumstances behind everything and Axel explains it all. Axel and Mari we’re supposedly called by each other to meet in the salon but in reality someone set them both up to meet. Just as they decide to leave, the lights are turned off and something almost falls on Mari and someone rips her clothes too. Axel protects her and that’s how they ended up in the situation. Nozomi didn’t realize the situation behind it all and apologizes. Axel then asks Nozomi to look after Mari in his place.
Meanwhile, Mari is still getting harassed (like her outfit being torn up) so Nozomi and Oscar decided to search for clues as to who the culprit behind it all is. Rika apologizes to Oscar for doubting Mari and actually really looks up to her as an actress. Oscar ends up finding a secret passage where the Salon is so the culprit could’ve sneaked in and out without being noticed. Meanwhile, Axel thinks about leaving the country after all of this is over but Oscar encourages him not to give up on Mari since she’s rooting for them. Unfortunately, more hell goes lose with Mari as a gossip magazine is released with everything about Mari leaked. This leads to Mari leaving Soleil of her own will and the role of Antoinette being given to Rika.
After this, Oscar finds out everything that happened so far was Rika’s doing so she could get rid of Mari and steal her role from her. However, Oscar has no proof Rika is the culprit so she can’t do anything. Oscar then comes up with a new plan and that’s to leave Soleil, and have Axel and Mari join as Antoinette and Fersen. Shiratori-sensei even drops out of being Soleil’s adviser so she can help Mari. Even so Rika pulls even more shit and mixes bleach into Mari’s face cleaner (wtf what a little bitch??). Oscar is able to catch this because Charles helps her (albeit no one but Oscar can see him) claiming Mari looks like his mother.
So Mari and Axel practice in Lumiere for the upcoming acting contest while Rika shits everyone in Soleil and acts like a complete bitch. On the day of the contest both Soleil and Lumiere perform but Lumiere ends up doing better than Soleil making Rika bitter. Both Mari and Axel were both planning on their performance being a way to say “goodbye” to each other. But Yuu talks to Mari after her performance and tells her he wants her to be free and do what she wants. So he approves of her relationship with Axel and decides he’s going to cut off their engagement. Mari thanks Yuu and runs to tell Nozomi and Oscar. So both Oscar and Mari chase after Axel and when they find him, Mari tells him what happened and they both confess their feelings to each other after finally being able to be together.
Thoughts: Man, I really felt bad for Mari in this route cause she was shit on a lot. Damn, though Rika’s personality took a 180. I honestly didn’t expect that and actually kind of thought she was cute (her interactions w/ Oscar were kind of funny) so that was kind of disappointing but yea I guess she was an actress ppftt?? ? But holy shit she was such a bitch. She basically assaulted Mari and then attempted to assault her AGAIN by replacing her face cleaner with bleach like what the actual fuck?? Then there’s Yuu taking one for the team… of course he’d want everyone else to be happy and give up his happiness for others. Yuu is precious even in this route….. Axel/Mari end up together in Yuu/Oscar’s route so its a win/win. I think by default that’s the best route for these guys.
Axel & Nozomi
—
After the things that have occured with Mari, Axel asks Nozomi to look out for her and protect her in his place. While walking Nozomi out of Axel’s home, Oscar manages to figure out that Nozomi has or had feelings for Axel. Nozomi admits he was her first love but tells her to keep it a secret from him or Mari which Oscar promises to do so. After that, Nozomi comes up with ways to cheer up Mari and holds a lunch party in the Lumiere club room with food all made by Reiji. Mari asks if she can practice in the Lumiere club room since everyone is hostile towards her which Nozomi happily agrees to. In addition, she welcomes Oscar to come back to the clubroom as well.
So Mari practices along with Nozomi and the others in the Lumiere clubroom instead. Meanwhile, Nozomi laments about Axel and talks to Oscar about it. She wonders if she lived a normal life as a “woman” if she would have been able to be together with him. However, she doesn’t regret the life she’s living but finds it painful to talk to Axel or even hear his voice. Meanwhile, Axel’s uncle is hosting a party and invites Oscar with Axel to escort her. Oscar declines immediately at first but is inclined to go after Axel’s uncle insists he invites her friends too. Oscar asks if Mari can go but she declines and asks for Nozomi to go instead for Axel’s sake.
Mari tells Oscar she can borrow one of her dresses so Oscar goes to try one on in the Soleil clubroom. Nozomi comes up to check on her and finds Oscar wearing a dress and compliments her saying she looks like a flower that has bloomed 😍. Oscar notices Nozomi looking at the dress with a solemn look on her face and she basically admits she would like to wear a dress like that and dance with Axel (albeit she’s going to be wearing a suit at the party). So on the day of the party, Oscar waits for Axel and Nozomi. When they meet up, the two of them are looking like handsome ikemen wearing fancy suits lol.
So Oscar is escorted by Axel and Nozomi into the ballroom where many people are complimenting Oscar and her suitors lol. First Oscar dances with Nozomi who takes the lead. Then she dances with Axel as well. Nozomi and Axel then leave the ballroom with Axel’s uncle temporarily. After that, Oscar is swept away by Reiji who’s wearing a disguise. He asks for Oscar to give Nozomi a dress that his grandmother had sewn for Nozomi. He tells her he wants Nozomi to be able to dress and act like a woman for once. He also knows that she probably wouldn’t listen to him and wants Oscar to convince her to wear it.
Oscar agrees to do so and manages to get Nozomi alone with her and convinces her to wear the dress and dance with Axel since she knows deep down its what she wants. Nozomi agrees and when she goes back to the ballroom to dance with Axel, he doesn’t even recognize her at first until she tells him who she is lol. After this, Nozomi thanks Oscar for giving her that opportunity but still decides she’s going to give up on Axel. In the epilogue, Axel comes back to school after his reputation is fixed and thanks Nozomi for looking after Mari for him.
Thoughts: Maybe I would understand Nozomi/Axel’s route better if I read the manga, but I don’t have enough backstory between the two of them to really feel their romance to be honest. However, I did enjoy this route though! Even though these are separate pairing routes, it doesn’t tend to really focus on that said pairing. Seeing Oscar in a pretty dress alongside Axel and Nozomi was a treat cause they all looked so beautiful. I think the focus here was Nozomi’s internal struggle of wanting to embrace her femininity. Which, “Oscar’s” role in the original berubara manga probably makes sense when you consider women and how little power they had back then but, but hmm… maybe not so much in the present day and age? I dunno…..
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[They didn’t have an extra CG or anything for completing the game so…]
Final Thoughts: Well, this was a fun game!! I didn’t buy any tokutens or anything for this game (literally just bought the regular edition at animate in Japan) but I don’t really regret it since I ended up liking the story/interactions w/ the heroine rather than the sole characters. I think my favorite character in this game is probably Oscar, then my favorite pairing being Oscar/Yuu. If I had to pick a favorite guy, it’d probably be Yuu since he’s honestly the route that felt the most genuine. I had higher expectations for Nozomi’s route truthfully (with her being on the main cover art) but I still liked her a lot as a character. Idk what route order I’d recommend, there wasn’t a “true” route but I guess the secret route would be most like that since it focused more on the school’s backstory. I ended up doing the secret route pretty early since it’s on the same part of Akira’s route. But honestly, I don’t feel like it really matters who’s route you do first. I started off w/ Lumiere and did Nozomi > Akira > Nozomi/Akira > ???’ > then in Soleil I did Yuu > Mari/Yuu > Axel > Axel/Mari > Axel/Nozomi. Nozomi and Akira I recommend to do first regardless though. Oscar was definitely the highlight of this game for me. Her reactions w/ everyone really just made this game. AND SHE WAS SO GAY for all of the girls in this game I swear to gOD. Oscar is totally a bi heroine tho. She made it apparent gender didn’t matter when it came to love & admired everyone’s beauty. Lastly, I didn’t really expect any supernatural elements to this game, but there was never really any explanation to ‘Charles’ (who is one of Mari Antoinette’s children & appeared like a sort of ‘spirit’ to give Oscar advice) so I guess it’s just supposed to be one of those unexplained occurrences or nod to the original manga I guess.
Story – The story focuses on the heroine Oscar Yamada who admires the ‘Oscar’ of the school named Nozomi–who invites Oscar to the acting club Lumiere in order to compete for an acting contest. There isn’t really a set story for this game, it was more a focus on the character’s relationships with each other. Since most of the characters are based on characters from the manga Rose of Versailles, a lot of the plots of each route reflected this. Being slice-of-life, the story had a lot of silly and fluff moments along with romance/drama. Otomate doesn’t really release a lot of slice-of-life nowadays, so it was a nice change. This game tends to feel more like a shoujo sometimes rather than an otome game.
Characters – The main characters in this game were all based on characters from Rose of Versailles so my first impression of them were kind of my only first impression. I think if you’re familiar with those characters, you’d probably have a better distinction of their personality or how their routes would be. Even so, I definitely liked the cast of characters in this game, but none of them really stuck to me as an actual “favorite”. Yuu was probably the best guy out of all of them, he was so precious. Oscar was a such relatable heroine, though. The fact she was an otaku made this game so much more hilarious. She was definitely the best character in this game for me.
Visuals & System – I could tell the art in this game was going for a older anime style that replicated Rose of Versailles and I actually thought it looked really nice (can’t say I’m familiar with who the artist is though). This game actually had a lot of routes (because of the pairing routes) so each route wasn’t that long. There was different paths basically based on whether you were in Lumiere or Soleil so when you got into the path of one route, you could diverge into a pairing route. There wasn’t anything specific to this game’s system and it was pretty straightforward for the most part. I didn’t really have any issues with the CGs though.
Music – The opening of this game is so ‘shoujo’ and very upbeat. I think the music in general is supposed to have a rich western feel to it which I definitely got from it. The music in most otome games never usually stick to be honest, but I remember one track that had a royal ‘Tales of’ vibe to it, lol.
Overall Thoughts: I can definitely say that I enjoyed this game as a whole. There may be nitpicks here and there, but honestly I think on it’s own it’s a really fun game. Truthfully, a lot of the time it didn’t really feel like an otome game, but a shoujo manga. I mean when you consider it being loosely based off a shoujo manga, it’s really not all that surprising. Although she’s definitely not just a self-insert, I think Oscar is kind of supposed to be like “us” who enjoy fawning over manga or fictional characters and is put into a sort of “manga-like” setting which ends up being pretty surreal for her. I really like that idea though because even though Oscar isn’t a self-insert heroine, you can still very much relate to her because her reactions and thoughts are similar to what our reaction (the player) might be. As for routes go, because of the pairing routes alongside the main routes, you can tell this game’s main focus wasn’t just romance with the heroine. Rather, it wanted to focus on each character and their reactions with each other. Unfortunately, I never read Rose of Versailles so I can’t exactly compare each character to the original ones, but I mean, I did enjoy it regardless. It’s a nice homage to the original manga and I think if you read the manga, you’d definitely be able to find even more charm in these characters.
Either way, I think anyone who enjoys slice-of-life romance or otome games in general would enjoy this game regardless. But don’t expect this to feel like a traditional otome game. It’s definitely a romance, but its diverged between a lot of different romances so you’ll find Oscar’s routes may not be as ‘in-depth’ as they could be. I don’t think that should be a reason to not play though because the fun interactions with the characters make up for it. I don’t know how well this game did in Japan, but I feel like it would be well received here, honestly. I can’t say if it would ever be localized though. Being a Switch game, it is possible but it’s also apparent not a lot of companies have a lot of interest in localizing these types of games in English. And based on Aksys otome lineup, they really only like localizing games that are story focused. Unless for some reason IFI rises from the dead to localize a game other than Hakuouki lmao. But that being said, I know recently the manga has been published in English, so maybe it’ll give a push and shove for interest in this game? But man, the trend of Otomate having a voiced heroine is great and I really wish they’d just have one for every game. Oscar having a voice really brought her to life and I’d love it if all heroines had that luxury.
Otome Adventures 
thank you for Review/Summary ♥
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