Mika Amamine is an exchange student from Japan living in Italy for 3 years but ended up arrested and put into a convoy while handcuffed with a bunch of random men and a young girl. Mika has the power to see people’s memories and read their emotions from touching them which is why she wears gloves. While trying to meet her friend for dinner, she encounters a man who begs Mika to use her power on him after he encountered her before and she knew about his wife who’s name he can’t remember. Suddenly the man is killed by someone but leaves the scene immediately after. Mika is taken in by the police and questioned but a group on men come and take her to the transit van she’s on.
So Mika finds out she’s in a van with a pickpocketer, a scammer, a hacker, a self claimed warrior of love otaku, a guy who had a wife and a kuudere motorcyclist 😂. All of a sudden a bomb goes off, leaving everyone to escape the van which eventually blows up after the gasoline leaks. Mika is super reluctant to start running away since the driver could be alive but is forced to come with the rest of the criminals. They eventually find a random unoccupied home and so Ramie lockpicks the door. They manage to break off their handcuffs and begin chilling in the home. Mika is reluctant to do anything though such as eating their food because she doesn’t want to be considered a criminal.
Eventually she gives in though cause Ramie tells her that people need to eat and the situation is what it is and she can’t pretend she’s not involved now. After this, they all go to bed but Sally manages to convince Gib that she and Mika should have the bedroom to sleep by modifying their smartphones so they can’t be tracked. Unfortunately the next morning, all of their faces are on the news and they’re wanted as criminals on the run. Mika is charged with murder, Sally is charged with cybercrime, Ramie is charged with theft, Camu is charged with the possession of dangerous goods, Hamiel is charged with fraud, and Ash is charged with assault. They also find out that the name Hamiel gave was fake and his real name is Hamiel. Gib is also actually accused of murder and not illegal possession of a gun. He was also a former police officer.
Mika Amamine is an exchange student from Japan living in Italy for 3 years but ended up arrested and put into a convoy while handcuffed with a bunch of random men and a young girl. Mika has the power to see people’s memories and read their emotions from touching them which is why she wears gloves. While trying to meet her friend for dinner, she encounters a man who begs Mika to use her power on him after he encountered her before and she knew about his wife who’s name he can’t remember. Suddenly the man is killed by someone but leaves the scene immediately after. Mika is taken in by the police and questioned but a group on men come and take her to the transit van she’s on.
Eventually they all have to go on the run again so they take some vehicles they find at the house they’re staying at. They eventually make it to Milan and stay at a hotel. They don’t have any money though so they decide to try and find a underground casino to gamble and make more money. In doing so, they’re scammed by the owner who cheats people out of their money. Mika tries to use herself as collateral damage and bets herself when they run out of money. Fortunately, they win but one of the guys there realize they’re cheating too and are chased out of the casino. As Mika is making her escape, she’s called by some woman who says she’ll help her and Mika gets in her van. It happens to be the reporter who spoke about them all on the news.
The reporter named Rebecca tells Mika that the handcuffs on their wrists that they couldn’t remove (after they got rid of the chains) has a tracking device and she found the electronic key for it at the crime scene. She tries to make a deal with Mika to tell her the “truth” of what happened while they were in that accident and she’ll give her the key to remove the handcuffs. Mika asks if she can decide later so she gives her a day to decide. After Mika comes back, she explains to the group what happened and so they all plan to steal the key themselves. After finding out what hotel Rebecca is staying at, they come up with a plan to steal the key that same night. Mika is im charge of giving everyone direction as Ramie goes into the hotel room to steal the key with the help of Sally hacking her computer and Camu setting off a firecracker as a distraction.
Ramie manages to steal the key and they get back to the hotel where they remove the handcuffs and throw them on a truck to make it look like they’re driving away. The next day, Mika decides to buy some running shoes so she can run more easily so Sally goes with her to buy them. Suddenly they’re approached by the police and start running to escape them. After managing to escape, Mika gets separated from Sally and almost gets knocked out by this crazy woman with a box cutter. A guy who she met at the casino and called out them cheating helps her and so she manages to escape. After this they realize they need to leave Milan and get back on the road. Unfortunately, the police are everywhere but Mika suggests using an escape route that a mysterious person texted her.
With no other leads, they manage to escape with the help of Sally hacking the police radio and Gib intercepting as a “police officer”. Unfortunately they still get chased but manage to escape and make it to Switzerland. They go to a restaurant but are encountered by the man that saved Mika and was at the casino. He says his name is Carlos and that he’s a reporter. He decides to blackmail them by stating he has evidence of Ramie stealing from Rebecca’s hotel and wants to interview them in return for it. He makes Mika be the one to answer his questions since he feels less threatened by him and tells them if they don’t do it he’ll hand over the evidence to the police. They then make a plan to have Gib shoot the evidence since he was known as a sniper that never misses even though he’s super reluctant about it and is worried about hitting Mika.
Mika reassures Gib it’ll be okay and that she believes in him. The following day, Mika meets with Carlos and has the rest of the group listening in on their conversation. She immediately asks to see the evidence but Gib can’t get a good shot from how they’re positioned. Mika is unable to figure out any other way to get Carlos to move so she grabs the evidence from him and holds it up for Gib to shoot. In doing so, the evidence is shot clean into pieces and Carlos just casually gives up and leaves. After this, they decide to head to Bern and stay there for a bit. While Ramie and Mika go shopping for food, they’re pickpocketed by a kid named Elmer who wants to steal a deed from this guy who bought the land his orphanage is on. Ramie feels bad for him so he wants to try and help him but everyone is against it.
Ramie leaves upset and so Mika follows after him. They soon find out Elmer went off to try and steal it himself anyway so Ramie decides to go to try and help him with Mika tagging along. They manage to find Elmer but he’s been caught by the guards in the mansion. Mika decides to be a distraction and pretends to be the owner’s girlfriend while Remie gets Elmer and escapes. Mika ends up getting separated from Ramie but Sally texts Mika and displays the mansion cameras on her phone so she can escape. With the help of everyone else, she manages to escape along with Ramie and Elmer. Ramie tries to give Elmer the deed to the land that he stole, but the director of the orphanage doesn’t allow it and calls Ramie a criminal for stealing it.
After the police are called, Mika and the others have to escape again and travel out of Bern to Basel. They stay at a new place and Mika decides to go grocery shopping again. Camu decides to tag along and notices a manga in the trash and goes inside a bookstore to return it. He meets a guy named Dominic who is also a manga fan like him and tries to invite him to come to his club but Camu knows he can’t because he’s a wanted criminal. Camu starts feeling crappy because he’s never had normal friends before. When they get back, the woman who attacked Mika appears and calls herself “child nurse”. She also has a butler with her with the codename “house steward”. They attack and ask them to come quietly or try and just take Mika with them whom they seem to be targeting. Mika manages to escape but gets separated with Camu in an underground sewer.
They unexpectedly find a bomb planted there and so Camu disarms it but gets upset when Mika didn’t run away when he told her too. He apologizes but Mika tells him she understands. Eventually they all leave to go to Colmar in France but Mika suddenly gets a mysterious phone call and answers it in private. It ends up being Rebecca who doesn’t seem to care Mika took the key from her and asks to meet Mika face to face to help prove her innocence. She thinks the people she’s with are just mere criminals but whenever she talks badly of them Mika defends them. Unfortunately they’re interrupted by the police who unexpectedly show up to try and arrest Mika. Ash then appears and grabs Mika’s hand and runs away with her. He admits he appreciated her defending them and is able to get her to escape.
Unfortunately, Ash is caught and arrested by the police. Mika goes back to the hotel to tell the others what happened but they kinda shrug and more or less insinuate Ash is screwed. Mika doesn’t care though and decides to rescue Ash herself. She goes to the police station and manages to sneak inside. There, she spots the interrogation room and finds Ash inside. She presses the emergency button to distract the police but unfortunately she can’t get inside. Thankfully, Ramie appears and has the key to open the door to the interrogation room. They get Ash out and run to meet the others who were chased out of the hotel by the police. After, they make it to a hut in the forest and stay there for now. Mika starts feeling sluggish and loses consciousness. When she wakes up, she hears everyone discussing how she may be a liability and not be able to continue on.
Hamiel is insensitive about it and says he doesn’t care what happens to her and goes on about how they’re not all friends anyway. After he goes to have a smoke, Mika realizes they’re probably right since these people chasing them specifically want her and even call her “acolyte”. Mika goes outside to see Hamiel who apologizes for being insensitive about the way he spoke about her. After this, they all wonder if there’s a reason Mika is being chased but before they can say anything, helicopters are heard outside and they have to start running for it in the rain. After hiding out for a night, Mika decides to reveal to everyone about her power of seeing people’s emotions and memories; which is why she’s a target. Surprisingly, they all respond normally and agree she should tag along to keep her safe from them.
However, Mika received a message from Rebecca saying she’ll be offered a plea deal so as along as she cooperates with them. But in doing so, she plans on trying to give enough time for the others to escape. Hamiel figures this out but doesn’t say anything and pretends he doesn’t care what she does. After this, Mika goes to meet Rebecca who does a live TV report on it. Unfortunately it doesn’t go according to plan because they’re interrupted by the two people who were chasing Mika. They end up kidnapping her and being her to a castle somewhere in Germany. When she wakes up, she meets the same guy she saw before who murdered the man she was accused of killing. He calls himself the “Chancellor” and says he has no intention of killing her yet before leaving.
Mika uses this chance to try and find a way to escape and spots a girl in the courtyard named Christel. She saw her in a dream after probably touching someone and seeing someone’s memories of her. She notices she has her smartphone and asks if she can trade it for her hair accessory. In doing so, she receives a call from Sally who tells her they’re on their way to come rescue her. After hanging up, Mika smashes something in the room she’s stuck in to get someone’s attention. When they open the door, she sneaks out and tries getting out of the castle. Her phone still has the app with the security cameras so she manages to direct everyone out. After that, they make their escape and Mika thanks everyone for coming to help her. They go to a new hotel and have a party there.
The next day Mika finds that everyone is gone and meets with Rebecca after finding out they went back to the castle she was taken to. Rebecca takes Mika to he castle after getting an interview from Mika about what happened before she was kidnapped by this strange people. Mika finds out that everyone was captured and the Chancellor was planning on having them killed. She receives another text from the person called “Bishop” who helped her before that said if she rescues the little girl they call Saint “Heiliger” who is staying there, they’ll help her. Mika doesn’t understand it but tells them ‘yes’ and they send her a map of the castle. After finding the little girl named Christel in her room, Mika takes her with her. After Mika finds everyone being escorted out of the room they were kept captive in, she puts a dagger that she found to her neck and threatens the men in black. She knows the Chancellor wants her alive so she threatens to kill herself if they don’t let her friends go.
The men put their guns down and everyone uses this chance to knock them out and get away. Mika later finds out that they were planning on killing the Chancellor to make sure he stops chasing her since she continues to be a target. After finding another place to stay, they discuss on what to do with Christel who is now with them. Mika shows everyone a text she got from Bishop that states to protect her and so they all agree to it as she’ll most likely be targeted and taken back if they leave her. Suddenly, Carlos appears after leaving a tracking device on them. Everyone is wary of him but he begins to explain he’s been investigating this group which is known as C.R.O.W.N. This group is apparently all over Europe and they have someone even higher up than the Chancellor called the Monarch who gives out orders to those below them.
Carlos claims he’ll keep in contact but without knowing his true motive everyone is still suspicious of him. After this, it’s smooth sailing so far as they look after Christel who begins to slowly trust everyone but cannot speak so they can’t get much info out of her. She gets closer to Mika who reassures her they’ll protect her. Unfortunately, there’s suddenly an explosion at the dormitory they’re staying at so they have no choice but to evacuate. The men in black spot Christel and immediately target her. Mika tries to protect her but ends up getting stun gunned and falls unconscious. This triggers Christel to speak for the first time and yell out Mika’s name. When Mika wakes up, Christel has already been taken away. Suddenly everyone receives a phone call at the same time.
When they answer it, it’s a distorted voice claiming to be known as the “conductor”. They tell them to collect the silver crown or Heiliger will be burned at the stake now that she’s no use for them since Mika got her to speak. They claim they will trade Heiliger for the silver crown and have 6 hours to obtain it and bring it to the meeting spot in Venice. Without any other options, they decide to make their plan to steal this super old crown that’s being held in a museum. Without the time to come up with an elaborate plan to steal it, Mika suggests they just steal it head on. Mika directs everyone once they have their positions and they manage to sneak into the security with the help of Sally and also disable the glass case security by having Gib snipe it. Ramie manages to steal it and escape among the chaos but he ends up stealing the replica by mistake.
With no other options, Mika runs into the museum herself and grabs the real crown. After making her escape, they all go to Venice to where they meet the House Stewart. He tells them that only one person can ride the train to meet the Chancellor and that person must be Mika. She already knows it could be a trap but with no time and no options she decides to get on the train. After hours of waiting, Mika meets with the Chancellor who brings Christel with him. Mika gives him the crown but instead of letting Christel go he explains that he never actually intended to kill Christel and only gave that implication to get her to steal the crown with a sense of urgency. He also explains that Christel is his real daughter and chose Mika and the rest of the group as his “pawns” to steal the crown. He also implies he knows her mother but doesn’t elaborate. Mika tries to escape with Christel anyway, but she instead uses herself to help Mika escape.
Character Routes
Ash Meyer (CV: Suzuki Ryouta)
Ash is from Baden, Switzerland and is a lone wolf type of guy who travels from place to place. He often gets into fights and prefers to be alone. However, he’s actually more kind than he looks and has a passion for motorcycles. The crime he was charged with is assault.
While Mika is still trapped on the train, she looks out the window and sees Ash on the motorcycle. He yells at her to hurry and jump on the motorcycle while his speed is in sync with the train. Mika is super anxious at first but Ash tells her to trust him and she jumps on the motorcycle. After the two of them escape, he explains he got separated with the others and all of them were almost killed after she got on the train. They manage to escape to other cities, but each and every time the police are there and chase after them. After they’re chased out of a place they’re staying at, someone picks a fight with Ash and he ends up beating the crap out of them. The police arrive so Ash and Mika have to make a run for it. Ash asks Mika if she scared of him since he’s always getting into fights but she tells him she’s not since she knows he wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t a reason for it.
Unfortunately, they have no where left to go so they end up wandering in the woods and try to stay there for now. Suddenly the woman with the box cutter known as “Child Nurse” appears and tries killing Ash. She manages to stab him so Mika intervenes and tries to grab her box cutter. After touching her, she suddenly sees a memory of Hartfield — the man that she was accused of murdering. When Mika says her name, Child Nurse starts becomes erratic and asks how she knows him since no one else but her and people within C.R.O.W.N. do. Mika is confused but she ends up running away in confusion and denial when Mika says he was killed. After this, Mika takes Ash to an old barn she found to try and treat his stab wound. Unfortunately, his wound is too severe so she has no choice but to go steal some supplies from a place in the village.After treating Ash, he only continues to get worse without proper treatment. Mika feels bad about it and starts crying. Ash finally wakes up and tells her not to cry but she says she feels useless. However, he tells her that her being there is enough. Soon after a man appears and Mika immediately apologizes for using his barn. The man calls himself “Daniel” and allows Ash and Mika to stay in his home as Ash gets properly treated. Ash lies about their names and they claim to be a couple that ran away after they eloped. He explains that he lives alone but used to have a wife and son. Ash and Mika stay there over a month and live fairly peacefully for a while. They help out Daniel with tasks and even celebrate his birthday with him. Eventually they find out his wife and son died in an accident and now he lives alone.Ash and Mika soon come to terms with the fact they can’t continue living here forever and need to soon leave. Ash feels bad for getting Mika involved but she tells him that at this point she’s his accomplice and if she was never in that convoy, she never would’ve met him. Mika also realizes she’s in love with Ash and implies this as Ash tries to build a wall between them. Eventually, Ash and Mika admit to Daniel they’re the wanted criminals but he admits he already knew and just enjoyed the time they spent together. He gives them supplies and his son’s motorcycle to them as they leave again. Ash and Mika finally leave and soon arrive in Ash’s hometown Baden in Switzerland. He takes her to where he used to live before he ran away when he was 15. However, when he gets there his mother greets him as his father “Peter” who apparently died in an accident. She also claims she has a son named Ash who is only 4 years old.
Ash is shocked to find out his father died and Mika tells his mother that she and Ash are business partners. Mika tells her that she already has someone she likes and tells her that their name is “Ash”. Relieved with this answer, Ash’s mother let’s them stay the night. That night, Mika finds Ash in the living room who starts crying. After she comforts him, she asks about his past regarding his father. He admits he hated his father and felt he wouldve killed him if he stayed — that was the reason he left when he was 15. Apparently his father worked in the mines but one day got injured and could no longer work. He turned into a drunk and would beat his mother. One day it was so bad that Ash had to intervene and almost beat his father to death. Ash continued to get into numerous fights after this but eventually decided to leave. He wanted his mother to come with him, but she wanted to continue to stay with his father.The next day, Ash’s mother is still calling Ash “Peter” and tells Mika about Ash as a child. She suggests they go to the hot springs together but Ash shuts it down and awkwardly says it’s a mixed bath and he doesn’t want other guys looking at her (😂). That night, Ash visits his father’s grave and Mika follows after him. He admits how angry he is for his father leaving his mother behind after everything. He also says that unlike his father he intends to protect the woman he loves. Ash eventually spots Mika who reassures Ash is nothing like his father. Suddenly, Child Nurse appears but is injured. She explains that she betrayed C.R.O.W.N. because she found out that the Chancellor killed Hartfield who was known as “Monarch”. Chancellor who has hid the fact the Monarch is dead and is pretending there are orders that are actually his own.Child Nurse tells Ash that all he needs to do is prove that the Chancellor murdered Hartfield and has been acting on his own while hiding the fact the Monarch is dead. In doing so, this will prove Mika’s innocence and the Chancellor will be deemed as a traitor by the C.R.O.W.N. members. Not long after, the House Steward appears and tries killing Child Nurse as a traitor. However, he uses this opportunity to try and kill Ash, but she intervenes. Child Nurse uses herself as a shield and soon after the rest of Mika and Ash’s group appears. House Steward decides to retreat and Child Nurse gives a final message to Ash. She tells him that she is the one who murdered his father after he got his hands on C.R.O.W.N. funds. Ash’s father wanted his death to look like an accident so Ash could receive insurance money. He also says his last message to him is that he won’t end up like him.After Child Nurse does, the rest of the group agree to head back to Rome and try to prove that the Chancellor murdered Hartfield. They scope out the restaurant where he was killed but can’t find any video evidence of the murder since it’s all been wiped and taken by the police. Mika suggests using herself as a decoy so she can get arrested and obtain it from the Rome police station. Ash decides to go with her and the two of them get arrested by the police and taken to the interrogation room in handcuffs. As one of them leaves, Ash knocks out the one watching them and they escape the interrogation room and get the SD card. After this, they observe the footage and find proof that Hartfield was murdered by House Steward by the order of the Chancellor.Suddenly Sally’s laptop gets a knife thrown at it as they’re being chased by the police and House Steward. They manage to escape to an abandoned building but try to figure out a plan to get the SD card to Rebecca. Mika again suggests using herself as a decoy but Ash is against the idea and doesn’t want her risking her life again. Everyone else agrees it would be better if both Ash and Mika make their way to Rebecca on his motorcycle. As Ash and Mika meet on the rooftop. Ash asks Mika if shes scared but she tells him as long as he’s with her she’s not. She tells him to make sure he lives no matter what and to put his life first. Ash tells her the same thing and that he loves her and they kiss for the first time 🥰🥰🥰.
Ash and Mika make their move and go to meet Rebecca to give her the SD card. Mika rides on Ash’s bike as he speeds by the police cars chasing him. After they arrive there, they greeted by the House Steward instead. He immediately demands for Mika to hand over the SD card. Mika asks why he was okay with betraying the Monarch but he says he only serves the Chancellor. Mika complies and hands over the SD card. But in doing so, Mika purposely touches House Steward so she can find out his name and the Chancellors. She tells him that their names alone will be enough information to expose them. This angers House Steward but Mika immediately calls for Rebecca who was already on standby. She snatched the SD card back from him and gives it to Rebecca who airs the footage.
The House Steward calls Mika a witch for her powers and attacks her first but Ash stops him. Eventually he’s knocked out and the police arrive to arrest him. Finally, Mika is proven innocent for the crime she never committed. Unfortunately, Ash is still charged for his assault and has to spend a few years in prison. As she says goodbye to Ash, she suggests she run away from him but he tells her he won’t and that he will pay for his crimes. Mika says she’ll wait for him and he smiles back at her as he’s formally arrested. When two years and six months pass, Ash is finally being released from prison and Mika rides his motorcycle to go meet him there. The two of them embrace and Mika welcomes him back so now they can be together forever (yay).
In the bad end, Mika and Ash are shot off the motorcycle. Ash ends up beating up a police officer while Mika is being pinned down to be arrested so he gets shot. Mika tries grabbing the gun near him but ends up getting shot herself and they both die on the pavement 😬.
[Another depressing BAD END CG!!!]
Thoughts: Ash was the first route I did so obviously I got my first impression of the game by doing his first. I knew he’d probably be my favorite character and I wasn’t wrong!! Ash is definitely a kuudere / tsundere who takes a while to open up to everyone. I like that you see that progression as you play through the game as he was the most standoffish at first. The fact he easily lashes out due to his trauma is very realistic so I liked that he was a more complex character than you’d realize. I can definitely empathize with his hatred for alcohol — especially when he had an alcoholic father that beat his mother. And the fact that his mother never left him would definitely make him more of a bitter / angry person so I really liked how realistic that was. The only thing that was weird to me was his situation with his mother thinking he’s her husband?? At first I thought she had dementia but I’m not sure what exactly it was. I definitely didn’t expect him to go to prison though LOL. It was sweet that Mika went to go pick him up after he did his time.
Hamiel Luis (CV: Katou Kazuki)
Hamiel is from Blanes, Spain and plays himself off to be a playboy who is con man. He has a cynical sense of humor and often spins fake stories about himself. He’s good at gambling and disguising himself. The crime he’s charged with is fraud.
Hamiel saves Mika on the train by disguising as one of the men in black and when the train stops, Carlos picks them up in his car. When they get to Carlos’ hotel he explains that he was working with Hamiel the whole time and Hamiel was his informant since they made a deal when he was first arrested. Even so, he never revealed to Carlos the reason Mika is being targeted is because of her power. Carlos asks Mika if she’d want to work with him too but as he grabs her hand to shake it, she has a vision of a memory when people are screaming. This scares Mika so Hamiel manages to shoo him away by asking him to go buy him a drink. Mika tells Hamiel what she saw and suggests they leave since he seems suspicious. Mika thanks Hamiel for not telling Carlos about her power and thinks he really is a considerate person when he’s not lying all the time.After they leave, Mika suggests they find the others but at this point Hamiel believes he’d been seen as a traitor anyway and intends to go back to Spain to find his mother. Mika decides to go with him and they ride a ferry heading there. Mika asks Hamiel about his mother and he tells her that she was a Japanese tourist that visited Spain where she met his father. In other words, he’s half Japanese but has more of his father’s genes. When he was about 3 years old, his mother left and never came home. Hamiel’s father was already sickly so he eventually died and Hamiel blamed his mother for it and resented her for leaving them. This is why he’s never been fond of female Japanese tourists and tries tricking them more often because he finds them to be naive.
That night, Hamiel can’t sleep so he sits by himself as they still ride the ferry to Spain. Mika sits beside him and asks more about his mother. Hamiel says he can’t even remember her face but the ring he has on his finger is the only clue he has as it was a matching pair with his father and mother. When they get to Spain, they visit a hospital where his mother is supposedly at. They find out she’s been in a coma for 20 years and the staff suspected she had no family because no one ever came to visit her. Hamiel is in shock to find out that the reason she never came back is because she was in this state. He also confirms it’s indeed his mother since the ring he has matches the ring his mother has on her finger. Mika tries to comfort Hamiel and instinctively touching his hand. In doing so, she sees part of his past where he’s ridiculed by his friends.Hamiel pulls his hand away knowing that she’s seeing something but she decides not to tell him as she feels it’s too invasive and apologizes. He reassures her it’s fine and asks if she can try and see his mother’s memories. Mika asks Hamiel to speak to his mother in a coma as she uses her power to see her memories. In doing so, she sees a loving mother about to buy a stroller for Hamiel. Then another memory of her getting told by her father she’s shaming her family by marrying a foreign man instead of the one chosen for her. She’s eventually forced to be married with her chosen fiancé and is somehow involved with C.R.O.W.N. and was shot while at a party.Mika tells Hamiel what she saw and Hamiel ends up in complete denial to the point where he questions Mika’s power and even asks if she made a deal with Carlos. Mika gets angry and brings up the past she saw where Hamiel was being bullied as a child. He tells her to stop and says he gets it and that her power is real. He eventually apologizes and admits he was unable to come to terms with the fact his mother loved him the entire time and he resented her the entire time for no reason. After this, Hamiel shows Mika a place he used to visit when he was young and asks Mika again what she saw. He thanks her for being there with him because without her, he would’ve never known how his mother really felt about him. He’s also thankful to her for revealing a side of himself he’s never known since he’s always been deceiving himself and even the way he actually felt.
Hamiel also realizes he felt guilty from hurting her feelings and strongly felt he never wanted to hurt her again. After Hamiel finally opens up about his actual feelings, Mika tells him she wants to continue to stay with him if it’s okay. She also implies she has feelings for him and he awkwardly gives her a kiss on the cheek saying that’s all he can give her for now. The two of them stay in one of the boats and Mika brings up him kissing her on the cheek yesterday. He admits he doesn’t really know how he feels since he’s never actually liked anyone before and she admits shes confused about her feelings too. This makes Hamiel embarrassed for some reason 🤣. After this, Hamiel and Mika learn that the rest of their group is in trouble after they get a call from Sally and see it on the news.Hamiel and Mika return to Venice to help them and disguise themselves as Rebecca and her cameraman. The two of them pretend to get held hostage by Ash and Gib. But while they’re doing this, a strange man just crashes through the windows. He calls himself the “enforcer” and tosses around officers like trash that try to stop him. Mika almost gets caught by him, but with the help of Camu throwing a smoke bomb, they manage to escape. When they get to the hotel Carlos is staying at, Hamiel explains the situation regarding Carlos and apologizes for deceiving them. None of them really care but are more surprised to see him apologize and wonder why. He admits it’s because of Mika and even grabs her close to kiss her on the cheek. Ramie asks if they’re dating and he admits they are 😂.After this, Mika suggests if there’s a way where C.R.O.W.N. could be led to believe she’s dead so they’ll stop chasing her and the rest of them. This sparks an idea for them to fake Mika’s death. Just then, Hamiel receives a call from Carlos and Mika privately asks if anything happened. Hamiel confirms that his mother just died and asks to be alone for a while. That night, Hamiel comes out like normal and suggests a method of faking Mika’s death. When Mika tries to talk to Hamiel about it, he says he’s fine and already knew it may happen since she was in a coma for so long. After discussing the plans and drawing blood from Mika (to leave at the crime scene), Mika starts trying to think of ways to deceive everyone in thinking she’s actually dead so she doesn’t involve everyone in her secret if it ever gets out she’s really alive.
The next night, Hamiel asks Mika if she’s trying to deceive everyone and she admits she is because she’d rather go through with this plan without anyone knowing. When he asks if her saying he loves her is a lie, she tells him it’s not but she doesn’t believe she can be by Hamiel side if this will always be her situation. Hamiel tells her that he loves her and needs her by his side. If anything he’d expect her to be more mad that her life is about to completely disappear and will no longer be able to see friends or family when she fakes her death. He tells her that there’s no going back after this and if she wants to run she needs to do it now. However, Mika just tells him that having him tell her he loves her is enough for her. But he just asks why not someone else and then kisses her.
The following day, Hamiel states he’s changed plans and intends to go through things differently while hiding the fact that he’s going to make it seem like he really is dead along with Mika. On the day they initiate the plan, Hamiel runs with Mika on top of a building while the police are chasing them after they’ve been lured out by the others. Mika and Hamiel play it off like they’re two lovers being chased and don’t want to leave each other behind no matter what. Footage of them is being fed to Rebecca’s channel so they’ve seen live as they are on top of the building. When they remove their communication from the others, they jump off the building and land in the helicopter that Carlos is driving.
Mika feels uneasy about the rest of the plan as she can sense Hamiel is hiding something. However, just as things are going according to plan, the Enforcer jumps onto the helicopter and manages to rip open the door to get inside. Carlos tries shooting him but he stabs Carlos numerous times. Just before he can kill him, Hamiel grabs his gun and shoots him over and over until he falls. Since Carlos knows he’s going to die, he tells Mika that Hamiel was never planning on faking his death with her. He knows that C.R.O.W.N. is relentless and would never stop looking for her. In order to guarantee her safety, he planned to use his dead mother’s body since she was a Japanese woman like Mika. Carlos also calls him out for intending to let himself actually die and be a real body for them to discover.Hamiel defends it by saying he believed she could move on and find someone else but Mika angrily tells Carlos she never wanted that and could never live happily if he was dead. In the end, Carlos decides he’ll be the body instead along with Hamiel’s mother and the Enforcer. That way, there will be three bodies instead of two which would supposedly be Mika, Hamiel, and the helicopter driver. In the end, the helicopter crashes and both Hamiel and Mika make it out alive. In the newspapers, it’s stated that Mika, Hamiel, and the helicopter driver died. The charges on everyone else were dropped to their original charges and they served their time in prison as they normally would have. Meanwhile, Hamiel and Mika head to Japan to start their new life together.
In the bad end, Hamiel doesn’t tell Mika about his plan to have himself die in the helicopter crash. He gives Mika his hat to keep it for him and she jumps out of the helicopter. But when she’s on the boat, she finds a note in his hat that essentially tells her that he intended to actually die in the helicopter crash.
Thoughts: I actually liked Hamiel’s route a lot more than I thought I would! He comes off as an asshole who doesn’t care about Mika at all but there were reasons for his harsh demeanor — and I admit I didn’t expect him to be half-Japanese. He wasn’t nearly as flirty as I expected him to be either. I was a bit confused why his mother was involved with C.R.O.W.N. as it seemed really random, but I guess there needed to be a reason why she “abandoned” him. His route definitely felt the most romantic as he did get the most kiss CGs lol. I like how full of action and suspense the ending was — it really left you wondering what was going to happen. That being said, this man is dressed like Michael Jackson in Smooth Criminal and I really don’t think its a coincidence cause the outfit is just too similar!!!
Gib Baltzer (CV: Takeuchi Ryouta)
Gib is a former police officer from Rothenburg Germany who is on the run after being accused of murdering his colleague. When he was an officer, he was a skilled sniper and well experienced with firearms. He’s very serious and judges things from a realistic perspective. He takes the role of the leader of the group. He was once married to his ex-wife but is now widowed. The crime he’s charged with is murder.
As Mika is trying to escape the train, she hears gun shots coming from outside. She spots Gib shooting from Rebecca’s truck to try and save her from her pursuers. Mika manages to jump off the train into the open van where Gib and Rebecca are. Gib explains how he got separated from everyone and ended up asking for Rebecca’s help when he ran into her. Gib doesn’t know where to go from here since all he and Mika can do is run from the C.R.O.W.N. and the police. Rebecca knows about Gib’s background and suggests getting reinstated as a police officer in order to regain the trust of the police. She explains she knows about Gib and how he was a accused of killing his partner named Kilian. However, she doesn’t believe the evidence points directly to him being the killer as he and his partner were fairly close.Gib becomes more uncomfortable as Rebecca tries to discuss about this case but she stops going into detail and again suggests they look for evidence to prove Gib’s innocence. Rebecca always Gib and Mika to stay at her hotel since she’s not using it and asks them to keep in touch. When Mika and Gib arrive at the hotel, there’s only one bed so Mika becomes super conscious of that fact while Gib never brings it up. He ends up becoming awkward to the point where he accidentally drinks shampoo thinking it’s alcohol. As Gib says he’s leaving to clear his head, she accidentally brushes his hand with hers and reads his mind. Gib realizes he’s awkward being alone with a woman since it’s been such a long time since he has been.Mika decides to watch the news and sees that they’re covering about Gib after the incident where House Steward was trying to kill him. They talk about his crime of killing his partner, Kilian, in order to cover up crimes he committed and to silence him since he supposedly told Gib to turn himself in. When Gib gets back he notices Mika watching the TV but she tells him she doesn’t believe in what the media says and wants to know what happened from him. Gib continues to push her away and doesn’t tell her. That night, Gib sleeps on the floor with his gun instead of the bed. Mika tries waking him up which startles Gib and he ends up accidentally aiming his gun at her. He apologizes but Mika tells him it’s fine and that she shouldn’t have suddenly woken him like that.
When Mika finally goes to sleep, she wakes up to find Gib not there. When she goes outside, Gib is trying to leave to supposedly take care of something and Mika asks him to tell her now that she’s involved. He refuses to but eventually Rebecca appears and asks Gib about a murderer named Yvon who he supposedly “killed” but is apparently not dead. Gib was shocked to see him alive on the news since he supposedly “killed” him. Gib begins to explain that 7 years ago when he was still an officer, there was a murderer named Yvon Verlain who committed random murders for the sake of enjoying it. Gib was eventually dispatched to take him down and shot him in the head. He confirmed his body so the fact he’s alive makes it all the more strange.Gib finally discussed what happened 7 years ago and explains how the police force was full of corruption back then where bribes took place and innocent people were being arrested. Gib wanted to correct the system and discussed this with his partner Kilian. However, Kilian was among the corrupted officers and disclosed this to the higher ups. Gib was given a warning and came home to find his partner dead, shot with his gun. Gib himself was framed to be the murder. Kilian felt guilty and was going to confess everything so Gib knew he was killed by someone in the police force. Gib ran away and vowed to find the person responsible who killed his partner and best friend. However, what Gib really wants is revenge but Mika believes she should try and clear his name rather than get revenge.Suddenly the police arrive and chase them out of the hotel and Rebecca stalls them. Once they get into Rebecca’s van, they decide they’ll drive to Rosenberg to find the officer responsible. Mika wants to help Gib but he continues saying it’s too dangerous but Rebecca makes a point that no other place is safer than with him. He agrees but since it’s so far, they end up having to stay at a hotel. Mika overhears Rebecca speaking to Gib about having feelings for Mika and he doesn’t deny it. However, he doesn’t believe he’s qualified to be with her (plus the age gap) and Rebecca just tells him he’s being dumb 😂. Mika also realizes he reallt was about to kiss her but stop himself earlier in the hotel. The next morning, Mika suggests to Gib that she should use he power to extract the truth from the actual criminal and clear his name. Gib doesn’t agree at first and believes its too dangerous but Mika convinces him there’s no other way.
Suddenly, they hear a sound and notice someone is at the door. Gib holds Mika close with his gun to the door but hears Rebecca on the other side. When he lets her in, he asks if she heard what they were talking about and she confirms she did. Now that she knows about Mika’s power, Mika decides to explain about it being the reason she’s being chased. Rebecca decides to confirm her power by testing it on herself and has Mika recall a memory where she had forgotten a bit about it which confirms she can bring up memories that may have been forgotten. So Rebecca initiates a plan where they’ll sneak into the Rosenberg police station asking for interviews about Gib’s case. Mika goes with Rebecca and disguises herself as Rebecca’s cameraman so she can shake hands with people there and see their thoughts.Rebecca and Mika manage to meet a man named Caspar who talks about how Gib was his mentor and taught him everything he knew about being a police officer. He knows Gib was asking strange after his wife was in an accident but doesn’t go into detail. They eventually run into their police chief named Domus who tries to kick Rebecca and Mika out. He makes a remark about Gib and Mika grabs him so she can read his thoughts. He admits to hiding the camera footage in his thoughts so Mika knows he’s the one who framed Gib. Unfortunately, he recognizess Mika as the fugative and so Mika pretends to have tricked Rebecca and runs away as Gib shoots in the distance to protect her. She ends up running into Yvon who speaks to her about saving Gib who allowed him to be reborn.Yvon grabs Mika and she ends up seeing his weird thoughts about him loving Gib and wanting to kill him. Gib tries to save Mika but ends up getting his ass kicked by Yvon since Gib doesn’t want to risk shooting Mika. Yvon starts going on about his love for Yvon and then reveals the incident where Gib accidentally shot his wife when he was given an order to shoot a terrorist in a mall. Gib angrily tries to fight back but ends up getting hurt in the process. The two detectives that were following Mika appear and Gib tells Mika this is the last time they’ll meet. Gib runs away and tells the officers to protect Mika before disappearing. Mika is then held in a hotel and the investigators holding her there believe she is innocent and want to uncover the truth.The investigators don’t know about Mika’s power but they bring up how Gib’s wife died in a traffic accident which Mika knows is not true and Domus is most likely the one responsible for her death and the cover up. The following day, the inspectors are called since there’s a shooting where chief Domus is targeted. This points to Gib being the suspect but Mika doesn’t think so and escapes the hotel to find him. She ends up getting picked up by the officer she met named Caspar who wants to help Gib. He reveals that their chief is actually part of a group called “Freikugel” that is working together with C.R.O.W.N. Caspar takes Mika to Gib’s home to find clues on where he is. Mika ends up finding a letter from Gib’s old partner Kilian where he confessed everything. He blamed himself for the death of Gib’s wife since he knew Domus had his wife killed in order to send a warning to Gib for meddling.Mika ends up finding a newspaper clipping of the news article where Gib’s wife was said to have died in a traffic accident. She then finds Gib at the cemetery where her body was buried as she figured he was there since it was the anniversary his wife had died. Mika asks what happened with his wife so they go to a park and Gib opens up about it. He says they were in the middle of a divorce since they were slowly growing apart from both being busy from their jobs. She was a lawyer and told Gib she’s fallen for someone else. She had all the divorce paper work ready for him to sign but Gib threw it away instead of signing it. Gib immensely regrets doing this as if he had just signed the papers, they would’ve been officially divorced and she wouldn’t have been a target. In addition, Gib was the one who killed her when he was told that his target who was supposedly a terrorist in a mall was his wife.After this incident, Gib ignored this warning and continued to investigate which is the reason his partner was killed. With all this shouldered on him, he decided to run away and no longer associated with anyone. This is why he’s afraid to love Mika even though he is indeed in love with her. He was going to get revenge, but his love for her stopped him since he knows she doesn’t want him to take revenge. He tells her to forget him after he clears his name and helps her, but Mika refuses since she loves him. Gib starts crying and says he doesn’t want to go through losing someone he cares about again but Mika tells him he can’t avoid happiness just because he’s afraid. She tells him she loves him and that she wants to be with him. Gib finally tells her he loves her too but wonders if it’s really okay and she tells him it’s fine because she wants to be with him no matter what and the two of them finally kiss.
Unfortunately, Gib and Mika’s kiss is interrupted by the rest of their friends who appear. Apparently they couldnt get in contact with Gib and Mika because their phones were broken. Gib and Mika relay the situation to all of them so they decide to catch and arrest Domus once and for all. When they go to the police station, they corner Domus into showing himself and Mika grabs his hand so she can see his memories. She sees him killing Gib’s partner with his rifle and covering it up. Mika reveals everything he did and while he tries to deny it, they already have evidence that Sally managed to uncover. Before they can arrest Domus, they encounter Yvon who is trying to kill him. When they go outside, Yvon tosses Domus on a bridge and tries to kill him. Gib decides to save him as long as he admits his crimes. Domus agrees to admitting his crimes and pleads for Gib to save him from Yvon.Gib shoots Yvon and he falls into the river while saving Domus who is eventually arrested. After this, Mika is put into protection and Gib is free as well. Gib isn’t returning as a police officer right away as there’s crimes he needs to make up for before he can return to that position. However, Gib tells Mika he wants to plan a wedding right away which shocks everyone including Mika. Gib gets super embarrassed he brought this up so suddenly but Mika tells him it’s fine and she does want to marry him. That night, Mika stays at Gib’s place and he hugs her from behind to thank her for stopping him from taking revenge. They again confirm their love for each other again. After that some passes as Mika and Gib plan their wedding with everyone’s help. They live like an actual married couple with Gib making breakfast in the morning.
On the day of their wedding, it’s very low key and a bit messy but Hamiel has Mika and Gib exchange vows even though they have no rings. After eating cake, everyone suggests that they have their kiss but before they can do anything, Mika is swept up by Yvon who has returned purge “Freikugel” which was the police group that was working with C.R.O.W.N. Yvon holds Mika hostage and attacks Caspar who’s coming out of the police station. He tells him he’s a traitor and was feeding everything to Domus. Gib is hesitant to shoot Yvon in fear of shooting Mika but she yells at him to do it. Finally, Gib shoots Yvon in the head and kills him. After that, his body is confirmed to be dead in the autopsy. Caspar also was the mastermind in manipulating the strings behind the scenes with fabricating a letter from Gib’s partner all to get Gib to kill Domus.
A month and a half later, Gib finally returned to work and is living peacefully with Mika. He suggests going somewhere with her and takes her to a wedding venue. They have a proper ring exchange and wedding since their last one got interrupted. After exchanging rings, they kiss. In the bad ending, flowers are sent to Mika by a mysterious sender. When Mika takes them, she’s grazed by a bullet. Gib figures out it’s Caspar and decides to try and pursue him. Mika tries to stop him from killing him but in the end, Gib shoots Mika because he gets in the way when trying to stop him. Mika tells Gib she didn’t want him to become a murderer and dies in his arms. Gib ends up killing Caspar anyway.
Thoughts: I’m not really big on age gaps but I really don’t mind it that much in fiction — and Mika and Gib definitely have a bit of one. Gib is 38 years old and typically this isn’t common in otome games so it was a nice change. After all, I don’t think 28 years old is considered an ‘ossan’ so I hate it when games act like thats super old (Yes, I’m referring to Yanagi from Collar x Malice). I’m not really one who likes the older types but Gib was definitely the exception for that because I liked how mature and built he was (I mean look at those boobs lol). This made sense though since he was a former officer and obviously he’d have a lot of training. Anyway, when I found out Gib was married I was worried that it was going to be a ‘lost lover’ trope. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case and they were more or less separated before she died. I don’t think you ever found out her name though? Weird. Anyway the route was interesting and the whole wedding being interrupted was so dramatic LOL felt like it came straight out of a movie. He was a sweet character though and super awkward at times.
Ramie Carriere (CV: Uemura Yuuto)
Ramie is a thief who calls himself ‘The Great Phantom Thief’ and primarily targets rich people. He’s good with his hands and is skilled at pickpocketing and lock picking. He’s very quick with his cat-like flexibility and can jump over walls. He’s super optimistic and cheerful but doesn’t like to be touched by others. The crime he’s charged with is theft.
When Mika is being chased on the train, she’s saved by Ramie who helps her escape by jumping with her into a river that the train passes. Ramie helps Mika swim out of the river but he himself suddenly collapses right after they get out. Mika drags his body into a nearby cave to try and keep warm. Ramie’s clothes are soaked so she tries to remove them so he doesn’t get hypothermic from the cold. Mika notices that Ramie has so many layers of clothing and when she does finally remove part of it, she’s shocked to find many scares and burns on his body. Ramie wakes up and has a nervous breakdown over it but soon calms down after he realizes what Mika was doing. The two of them awkwardly proceed to assess the situation and that they ended up stranded somewhere with their phones broken. They agree to go after The Chancellor and try to save Christel.
Ramie helps start a fire and the two of them warm up and dry off near it. Ramie notices Mika is still cold so he goes behind her and tries to block the wind by putting his arms around her without touching her. Mika starts to realize that Ramie doesn’t like touching people nor does he like to be touched and wonders if the scars he has have to do with it. Mika thanks Ramie and tells him she knows he’s kind just by the fact he does these things for her. After this, the men chasing Mika start to catch up to them so they decide to run away again. Ramie finally opens up more about his past and tells Mika that he grew up as an orphan since his parents abandoned him when he was born. He was named “Ramie” at the orphanage and grew up with his friends there. Unfortunately, the orphanage eventually closed due to lack of funding and he ended up on the streets with his other friends.Ramie would sleep on the train on cold days and steal food when hungry. He did what he had to in order to survive and doesn’t regret any of it. Mika doesn’t really know what to say but he tells her he would prefer if she continues to lecture him to not steal. He feels this makes him feel more normal and doesn’t mind if she continues to get mad at him for it. Eventually, Mika and Ramie make it to the highway and decide to hitchhike. An older man picks them up in his truck and gets them halfway of where they’re going. They then decide to sneak on a truck where Ramie and Mika are crammed into. Mika gets somewhat self conscious when she realizes how close she is to Ramie. This throws him off guard a bit and admits he’s never been that close to a girl before as his friends he grew up with were all boys.After they get off the truck, they make their way back to the castle where Christel is being held. They manage to slip into her room but find she’s unresponsive and acting strange. She ends up attacking Mika with scissors and tries throwing a chair at them. The Chancellor then appears and tells them about a medicine he intends to use to purify Mika which he calls the drop of Uruzu. He already gave it to Christel which is why she was acting so strange. Ramie stands there in shock so Mika has to snap him out of it and help him run away with her and Christel. They manage to escape with Christel and run into the others who were coming to help them. Camu throws bombs at the men chasing them and they to get away they go back to the dormitory they stayed at before.
Ramie and Mika relay to everyone what happened and how Christel was drugged. Ramie speaks as if he knows about the drug but doesn’t elaborate and leaves. Mika goes after him and finds him looking at the bell he’s worn due to Hamiel complaining about him sneaking up on him. He wonders why Mika hasn’t asked him anything since he clearly knows more than he lets on. But Mika doesn’t want to pry and would rather just sit next to him silently. Suddenly, the two of them run into Elmer who’s super happy because the orphanage was saved and run by someone else and it’s his birthday. After he leaves, Ramie realizes he never celebrated a birthday before and wants to establish a day for it. He decides to make the day where he met Mika, July 16th, his birthday so he can celebrate it someday.The next day, Christel finally wakes up and tells everyone that she doesn’t want to go back with her father. They decide to protect her while figuring out where to go. Ramie goes out with both Mika and Christel to show her around but they end up running into the same man from the orphanage who called the police on them. He ends up apologizing to Ramie and Mika because without their help their orphanage would’ve been gone. Suddenly a man named Duran appears which makes Ramie go stiff as he recognizes him. He appears to be the one who bought over Elmer’s orphanage and touches Ramie’s should saying he’s glad he’s doing well. Ramie ends up hyperventilating and Mika tries to help him calm down.As Christel runs to get everyone’s help, House Steward appears but has other business to attend to so he doesn’t intend to attack Mika or Ramie. He does reveal that he knows Ramie and the Duran guy have met before as he was Ramie’s master at some point. Eventually he leaves and the others come to help Ramie who’s still in a pained state. They take him back to the dorm and give him some medicine to calm him down. Ramie eventually wakes up and tries to pretend he’s okay but he can no longer smile or laugh the way he usually would. That night, Mika notices Ramie is missing and goes looking for him. She finds him mindlessly walking somewhere with blood on his hands. Mika notices there’s something going on and sees that Duran has been killed by someone.Mika worries that it could be been Ramie and tries to go after him. He eventually finds him and he again tries to pretend he’s fine but starts yelling that he doesn’t want to go back to the old him. Mika tries to calm him down but he ends up screaming at her to not touch him or that she knows nothing about him. Eventually, Mika tells Ramie it’s okay to not smile and he can cry instead. Ramie starts sobbing and Mika hugs him as he does so. After that, Ramie explains he’s taken the drug that Christel had before. He met Duran with the other orphans that were his friend. Duran took them in, fed them, and gave them a place to stay. However, the Uzuru drug was tested on Ramie’s friends and put them in a trance like state where they would violently beat Ramie.
Eventually, his friends ended up dead and he too had the drug used on him and Duran perfected the drug where he could make him do what he wanted. Ramie ended up with bruises and wounds that he didn’t remember getting along with beating up other orphans that Duran took in. Ramie could never truly forget any of this and still had nightmares. Now he hates being touched and doesn’t know how to cope with it. Mika suggests that he just practice and has him touch her instead. Ramie feels more relaxed when he touches Mika and wants her to pamper him since he doesn’t know what that entails. She ends up patting him on the head and he hugs her again but then they end up kissing 😜. Ramie apologizes but Mika tells him it’s okay but he admits he loves her and Mika tells him she feels the same way.The next morning, the two of them run into Elmer and find out that the House Steward went to Duran’s mansion to obtain something. They figure he was going there for the finished Uzuru drug and head towards Duran’s mansion to try and stop C.R.O.W.N from getting their hands on it before they use it to manipulate more people. They both make it to Duran’s mansion and look for the drug but House Steward beats them to the punch. He tells them there is no drug there but instead a key to access the drugs in a separate research facility. He also discloses that Duran was killed by him because he started to use the drug for his own personal gain. In addition, Ramie never took the drug in the first place. He was kept as Duran’s personal favorite pet in this small room he called a “birdcage” and called him his “angel of trash” (wtf).
This man just liked to do things for his own personal pleasure and enjoyed breaking things that were beautiful. He wanted to do this to Ramie and apparently never drugged his favorites. He even made a business out of it with other rich guys because the drug could make them forget anything that occurred. While his research was helpful, C.R.O.W.N disapproved of this and had him killed. House Steward then tries knocking Mika unconscious but Ramie intervenes. He ends up overpowering him and taking the key. Thankfully, everyone else arrives to help him and Mika once the police arrive. After they escape, they make plans to infiltrate the facility where the drugs are being kept. Mika and Hamiel sneak into the facility while posing as researchers. Sally hacks the system so they can get in and eventually Ramie and Mika meet up in the room where the drugs are. Unfortunately, House Steward is there and ready to stop them. Ramie manages to outsmart him by activating the gates as the finger print authenticator fails upon use. House Steward is pinned down and can’t move and Ramie tries force feeding him the drug to ease his pain and get revenge. Mika manages to convince him not to as she doesn’t believe that he’ll get the satisfaction he’s looking for nor does she believe he’ll gain anything from it. Ramie then tells Mika to escape as he can no longer leave because he trapped himself inside with the bombs already set in the room. He tells Mika to leave but when she refuses he tells the others to force her out. She escapes as the bomb goes off and leaves Ramie behind.
Mika thinks Ramie is dead after this, but surprise!! Ramie appears at the window where Mika is. He survived the bomb by hiding behind the safe door which protected him from the blast with everything else getting destroyed. He tells Mika to come with him so they can go steal the world together (lol). In the bad end, Ramie gets stabbed by Christel thanks to the Chancellor who gave her the drug.
Thoughts: Ramie definitely meets that trope of character who is overly happy and optimistic to compensate for his trauma. And while you expect all these characters to have trauma… his route definitely went in a direction I didn’t expect. Its heavily implied that Ramie along with his other friends were constantly sexually assaulted… especially since Ramie didn’t like to be touched and wore lots of clothes to hide his body / scars. It didn’t go into detail about it too much, but you could tell how traumatized Ramie was in a lot of different scenes (you also find out he was never drugged in the first place and only his friends were because he was “special”). Either way, it was pretty messed up so it was nice to see Mika help support him and his trauma. I didn’t particularly favor him but he grew on me more as the route progressed. But yeah, I definitely didn’t expect his route to be as dark as it was considering how lighthearted of a character he was. Makes it all the more sad because of how much he was bottling it in and pretending to be happy all the time.
Camu Einhard (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke)
Camu is the self-proclaimed revolutionary ‘Earth Warrior of Love’ who works for the sake of protecting the environment. He’s a student in engineering who loves anime and Japanese comics. He doesn’t like conflict and has no friends his age due to his anxieties. The crimes he’s charged with is the possession of dangerous goods and property damage.
Camu rescues Mika from the train by planting explosives and planning an escape route. Unfortunately they don’t get far because they’re intercepted by a man in formal clothes. This man says he’s Camu’s father and asks him to return home with him. With the police coming after Camu and Mika, they have no choice but to comply. Mika and Camu are forced to change into formal attire and have dinner with Camu’s father. It turns out Camu is from a rich family with servants but Camu’s relationship with his father is strained. Camu’s father lectures Camu for abandoning his family name as he’s the one who’s supposed to be the next heir in his family since there’s no one else. After an awkward dinner, Camu asks Mika to come to his room to talk. Mika immediately sees all the manga and anime piled in his room and he admits this is the first time he’s had a friend in his room.
Camu explains he was taught by a private tutor growing up so he didn’t know how to interact with others in university. So the only friends he ever had were his books until he met Mika and the others. He was also avoided a lot because his father would use dirty methods to cover things up when it involved his family name. He doesn’t pretend he didn’t have it easy, but because he felt so isolated he turned to manga and anime. He wanted to be just like one of the heroes in a manga and enact his own sense of justice. In doing so, he would cause trouble on purpose for the sake of being disowned but his father always covered up his crimes. This is why he blew up part of his home in order to put a stain on his family’s name.The next morning, Mika wakes up to find her room locked and her phone missing. Camu sneaks her out of her room and they listen in on his father’s conversation. It turns out Camu’s father is part of C.R.O.W.N. and wants to trade Mika for the sake of obtaining their forgiveness and protecting his family name. Camu’s father tries to convince Camu to give up Mika since betraying C.R.O.W.N. could mean losing everything as their wealth was built upon their mutual trust. Camu refuses and tells his father he’s despicable for trying to sacrifice Mika. Camu decides to run away with Mika and the two of them escape from his room after he uses a bomb on his house again. After this, Mika and Camu are on the run again and go to a restaurant to eat. They’re suspected by the person serving them and are asked if they have money. Camu ends up showing a load of cash he grabbed from his room and Mika grabs his hand telling him to put it away.Camu starts freaking out in embarrassment from Mika touching him and she apologizes 😂😂😂. The two of them are eventually chased out by the police and stay in a tent together (much to Camu’s reluctance lol). In the end, Mika finds Camu sleeping outside because he was too embarrassed to sleep in the same tent as her. Eventually they’re chased again and stay at a hotel where they see themselves on the news. The media is painting them as two lovers who are trying to elope. While this isn’t true, according to the news, Camu’s father didn’t approve of Camu’s relationship with Mika and was even framed for murder. Now they’re on the run to take a revolutionary stance. Camu and Mika eventually make it to Thun and meet Rebecca there who gives them a rundown on what social media has been saying about them.Rebecca says that it’s being said they’re trying to go against the privileged class and start a revolution in Europe. Apparently there’s a lot of protesters who are in favor of a so-called revolutionary person who’s of high social status trying to rebel against it and help someone of lower social status. Camu’s website that speaks about the shady things his father does is also getting attention. Before leaving, Rebecca suggests that Camu turn himself in as he still is a criminal who planted the bombs. Back at the hotel, Camu apologizes to Mika for being happy about being called “revolutionary” and admits he doesn’t want it by violent means and even though he made bombs he isn’t a violent person.Mika tells him she knows she’s accidentally read his emotions and could tell she was worried about harming the servants in his home. He also indirectly admits he likes Mika but doesn’t outright say it. Mika admits there’s parts of him she likes too so Camu starts flipping out when he realizes what he said. Before they can continue, they receive a phone call for Camu. A person who wants to join the “rebellion” asks Camu attend the bombing they’re going to set off at midnight to a man who is supposedly buying over an orphanage for the sake of building a hotel. Mika and Camu decide to stop this by sneaking in and dismantling the bomb. However after they do that they’re tased by stun guns by the cult that tried to start a bomb before. They claim that Camu extinguished the flame of revolution by disarming the bomb. Camu tells them he wants to help but rather do it a different way.So they decide to take him and Mika to their underground hideout to meet their sub leader. Most of the members are students and they explain that their goal is to dismantle the European Union for the sake of the poor and underprivileged. The way they go on about it sounds like a conspiracy theory but Mika and Camu start to realize they could be referring to C.R.O.W.N which is a group that has been invisible and hidden by the public. Camu agrees to join their cause but later talks to Mika about it. He admits he never wanted to start a revolution and did everything for his own reasons but wants to at least gain more power to bring down C.R.O.W.N. and fight for the same cause as well. He also doesn’t think he’s strong enough to protect Mika on his own and wants to be able to do that. Mika starts crying because she starts to realize how Camu’s very kind but also selfless to the point where he prioritizes everyone but himself. Camu hugs Mika to comfort her and she tells him to promise that he’ll take care of himself too and not do anything too dangerous.
The next day, Mika and Camu speak to the group’s leader for the first time via radio communications. They state they know Mika and Camu are being chased by the Chancellor and want them to be the Hero and Goddess of the revolution that will lead them to freedom. Mika and Camu just go along with it and even have some guy ask Mika to bless him with a sword (😂). He then asks for a kiss as a greeting and Camu flips out saying he didn’t even get that yet. They all remember that they’re supposedly lovers and Mika lies saying that they’re waiting to kiss once they’re married. When Camu hears the word “marriage” he literally falls to his knees (omg he kills me 😂). After this, they hear news that some of their members were arrested and want to go raid the police station to save them.Everyone in the cult is eager to go ahead and start their revolution but Mika tries to think of a better way. Unfortunately, no one will listen to her so she decides she will lead along with Camu to at least stop it from getting more chaotic than it needs to. On the day of their revolution, Camu takes Mika to a lake he used to come with his mother and father when he was younger. It was the only place he felt like a normal kid and cherished it deeply. But eventually he found out his father wanted to build a powerplant there and that he was indeed a corrupt man. This is why Camu started this whole “revolution” idea in the first place to protect the beautiful things in the world. However, now that he found out his father is part of C.R.O.W.N. he has a mutual enemy with her and wants to fight against them.
Camu finally admits he’s in love with Mika and she says she feels the same. Before they share their first kiss, he tells her he doesn’t want to be alone anymore and asks her to stay with him. After vowing to make a change for their future, they suddenly run into Camu’s father who’s waiting for them. He grabs Mika and holds her hostage while aiming a gun at Camu. He tells Camu he needs to bring Mika to C.R.O.W.N. or he’ll be killed like his mother was. Camu is shocked and doesn’t believe him at first but his father explains that his mother’s death wasn’t sickness and he only told him the story that they all spent that time together near the like because he was young and couldn’t remember. He tells Camu he doesn’t want to make the same mistake of disobeying C.R.O.W.N. since he knows they would kill Camu next.Camu grabs the gun from his father and aims it at him, telling him to let Mika ago. However, Camu’s father eggs him on and says he won’t be able to do it — because in fact he wants him to. Mika realizes this after looking into his father’s past and seeing how devastated he was to lose his wife and almost lose Camu’s when they almost drowned in the lake. Camu realizes he can’t kill him and so his father demands him to make a choice because it can only be one or the other. Suddenly, a voice calls out saying it’s too late now because they took too long and tries shooting Camu. But Camu’s father gets in the way and gets shot himself. The person they see standing there is Luca who worked as Rebecca’s cameraman. However, Luca’s father calls him the “Footman” who is a part of C.R.O.W.N.Camu intended to kill Camu but his father got in the way. Camu tries throwing one of his smoke bombs at him but he escapes. After this, Camu reconciles with his father after he admits he wanted to build over the lake because it was the place he proposed to his mother and there were too many painful memories there. After his father is taken away on the ambulance, Camu leaves with Mika to stop the revolution but they’re already too late as they’re starting fires and looting. When they help Rebecca after she gets her camera smashed, they tell her about Luca who betrayed them. After she leaves, Camu disarms the bomb he made for the group that they set at the police station. However, they all deem him a traitor for this because the leader of their cult is apparently Luca and he lied to them that Camu told them about their base.
They gang up on Camu and beat him up but he refuses to fight back and protects Mika. However, Luca suggests they give them a public execution and attempt to do so but Camu sets a special bomb and topples on Luca. The other students try to help but suddenly Ash and the others appear and get Mika and Camu in the car with them. As they drive away, Camu reveals the bomb he set was fake and it was never going to set off. After they regroup, Camu tells everyone what happened so far when they were separated. They managed to find out Luca was acting separate from C.R.O.W.N and his true goal was to assassinate European leaders and merely used the students in order to accomplish that. The students were also given dynamite thinking it was a sort of firework.Since Luca already had a plan in motion to eliminate a European party member, Camu plans out a sort of Sentai of Love program where everyone acts like heroes and exposes Luca’s crimes. They have Rebecca air it on TV and expose Luca’s crimes by showing images of him giving dynamite to the cult members. Mika and Camu manage to find Luca who just admits he only did this because he wanted fame and there was no particular reason. He tries to detonate another bomb he stole from their hideout but it turns out it was a fake that Camu made. After Luca is arrested, Camu and Mika thought they were as well. However, the police that arrested them were actually the others in disguise and they brought them to the lake where they first kissed.
Camu and Mika try to hide out there for a while until one day they’re brought back to Camu’s residence. Camu’s father explains that he negotiated things with C.R.O.W.N. while the true criminal has been caught so Mika will no longer be chased. Camu and Mika are told to stay there since they won’t be chased for now. One night, Camu decides to talk with Mika on the rooftop. He explains that he intends to take on the family name and won’t run away anymore. But once he does so, he wants Mika to marry him and presents a ring to her. She happily accepts and they kiss. In the bad end, Mika and Camu are caught by Luca and the students who want to kill them. They’re told by Luca to either take poison or be ripped apart by the angry mass. Mika and Camu try to run but get trapped in a church and end up taking the poison. The angry mob lights the church on fire and they die together.
Thoughts: Camu was such an enjoyable character to watch and while he didn’t have the most traumatic past per-se (I mean he was a sheltered rich boy for the most part LOL) I can understand him turning to anime / manga to deal with his anxieties. Honestly, for a game that has so much traumatic shit that happened to each character he managed to have the most comic relief — especially with the end of his route basically being a sentai movie lol. Overall, I liked how nerdy and awkward he was and some of his lines made me laugh out loud. Tachibana Shinnosuke did such a good job as him LOL. The one con about his route was that it was a bit too political to the point it kind of dragged on a bit but stayed interesting for the most part. His bad end was so depressing though… Romeo and Juliet-esque thats for sure.
Sally De Testa (CV: Itou Kanae)
Sally is a genius hacker who loves Harajuku fashion. While Sally has committed numerous cyber crimes, she doesn’t like to be considered a cracker since its something she doesn’t consider to be so bad. Sally also has a fear of elevators due to a past incident. The crime Sally is charged with cybercrime.
Sally saves Mika from the train by hacking it and stopping it. However, Mika wanted to try to save Christel too but Sally makes her get on the motorcycle to run away. This upsets Sally since Mika almost put herself at risk again after she tried saving her. Sally starts crying saying she wanted to help Christel too but she had to make a choice. Mika thanks Sally for helping her and Sally makes Mika promise she’ll continue to stay with her. After they reconcile, Sally tells Mika she got separated with the others after House Steward attacked. Their phones got hacked so she can’t track them and their locations are being tracked in random places. Sally decides to take Mika to her home in Klausen Italy.Sally brings Mika to a messy apartment that she claims is her hideout and her parents aren’t there. Mika decides to help clean it up since it’s so messy. She ends up finding photos of her and her brother with her brother’s face cut out. Sally tells her that her brother died a few years ago which is why her parents left but her relationship with him was fine. This confuses Mika since his face his cut out in each photo but she doesn’t pry. After a while, Sally eventually falls asleep while trying to do something on her computer. Mika ends up falling asleep too with her head on her lap and has a dream about Sally with her brother. When she wakes up in the morning, Sally is there awake and takes a shower.
When she gets out however Mika is surprised to see her upper body is that of a boy’s. When she questions her being into sports, she says that her brother played soccer but she liked to watch. Mika decides to forget about it and eventually they get a knock at the door. The two detectives Noah and Dolce barge in as Sally and Mika are caught off guard by it. Instead of arresting them, they want to know where their friends are and even tell Mika they believe she’s innocent. They noticed the camera footage of the restaurant when she witnessed the murder had gone missing and the police that recovered it aren’t giving any answers. In the end, they make a deal with them that they will cooperate as long as they can help them find their friends.Noah is part of the cybercrime division so he ends up working with Sally to pinpoint the location of Ash and the others. Unfortunately, the one who hacked their phones before who called themself the “Concert Master” is manipulating their data, making them untraceable. As Mika gets food for them, Dolce speaks with Mika privately about Sally’s missing brother named Uriah. Mika is surprised to hear he’s missing though since Sally said he died a few years ago and their parents just left. Dolce has his suspicions, but doesn’t elaborate because he has no proof. After this, Sally figures out that Ash and the others are being sent fake messages to head to a convention center. Mika sneak out of the apartment while the detectives are still inside.When Sally and Mika arrive at the convention center, they find out that there’s a European Chairman that C.R.O.W.N. is attempting to assassinate. The fake message sent to Ash and the others by Concert Master state that Mika and Sally are being held there even though they’re not. Mika suggests taking the elevator but Sally gets super anxious over it and wants to take the stairs instead. While the guards are off chasing the intruders, C.R.O.W.N. intends to use this moment to assassinate the chairman and pin the blame on Ash and the others. Sally and Mika manage to infiltrate the convention center and find the others who think they’ve been kidnapped. Sally explains that the whole thing was a trap to lure them there and to leave right away. Sally and Mika help the chairman and she tells Mika and Sally to follow her to a hidden library and begins to explain that she knows about C.R.O.W.N. She goes on about European politics but ultimately states that C.R.O.W.N. and the EU have two different approaches but C.R.O.W.N.’s method has been continuously shady and the only way to stop them is to figure out what they’re planning.
After this, Mika and Sally go back to the lodge where the others are staying. Sally explains the situation after they all have a big meal together. Later that night, Sally gets a text message from Concert Master asking if she’s a hacker known as “Prophet” and starts acting weird. Mika goes to comfort her but Sally starts wondering if Mika would start to hate her and states ambiguous things about not wanting to change. Sally asks if Mika loves her but Mika doesn’t feel like she truly knows Sally and while she does like her she can’t answer right away. The next day, Mika feels like Sally is feeling down so she decides to take her out to eat gelato and hang out. Mika decides to ask Sally when she started hacking and Sally states it was around when her brother died. Even though it was deemed an accident, Sally says it was a hacker’s fault and she wanted to find the culprit.Suddenly, a kid starts talking to Sally and says he recognizes her but it can’t be who he think it is because she’s dead. This comment doesn’t phase Sally at all so Mika starts to feel uneasy. When Sally and Mika get back, Sally anxiously tries to hack C.R.O.W.N. but continues to get errors. Finally, so many errors appear to the point where her whole computer is hacked and a video plays where a girl dies on an elevator after getting trampled by people stuck on it. Sally screams in terror and runs out the door as the men in black from C.R.O.W.N. keep everyone occupied. Mika follows after Sally and runs into Rebecca who drives her to where Sally lives. Unfortunately, Sally isn’t there but she gets clues from Sally’s laptop and finds an article about “Sally’s” death. Mika heads to the gravesite of “Sally” and finds Sally there. However, Sally is merely a shell of herself and keeps saying how Uriah killed her.
Sally finally states that she is not Sally but Uriah, Sally’s twin brother and he killed Sally. Sally tries shooting herself with a gun but Mika grabs her and stops her. In doing so, she sees Sally’s — or rather, Uriah’s memory of Sally who is his twin sister. The two of them were fairly close and while Uriah was working as the “Prophet” online he’d get money from doing random hacking jobs and buy Uriah fashionable clothes from Japan. One day, instead of going shopping with his mother and Sally, Uriah decides to stay home and work on a request to hack a building that is said to have the most impregnable security. But in doing so, all of the elevators and systems are turned off. Uriah shockingly discovers that Sally is in the elevator with a crowd of people and panics to try and revive the system.However, Uriah is unable to do so and everyone on the elevator starts panicking to the point where they pry open the door to escape the elevator and trample on top of Sally who’s fallen to the ground due to the crowd of people crammed inside. Eventually, rescuers come to aid Sally but she’s pronounced dead on the scene. After witnessing this, Uriah screams at the computer after he notices he got his payment in exchange for his sister’s life. After this, Uriah goes into denial and kills “himself” and becomes Sally by dressing and acting as her even after her funeral in front of his parents. Mika pins down Uriah to stop him from trying to kill himself but he continues to say he wants to die and asks Mika to kill him.He claims Uriah already died once and he needs to kill him again. Suddenly, Child Nurse appears and tries to kill Uriah since the Concert Master revealed their location and told her to kill Sally. Uriah doesn’t care and even wants her to kill him but Mika immediately protects Uriah. Child Nurse attacks her until finally Uriah tells her to stop and shoots her in the leg. Unfortunately, Uriah thinks he’s protecting “Sally” who is actually Mika. In order to wake up “Uriah” who is still hiding from himself, Mika begs him not to kill the Sally she loves inside him since she’s still apart of him. Uriah finally realizes that he has Mika and he doesn’t need to take his own life to make up for Sally’s but constantly apologizes to her.Child Nurse tries attacking again but the others save Mika and Uriah while she escapes. After this, Mika and Uriah are soaked from the rain so they both urge each other to take a shower. This prompts Uriah to reveal she’s actually a man much to everyone’s surprise. However, they tell him they don’t care either way and don’t react harshly to it. When Uriah comes out of the shower, he still wears his usual Sally attire and tells Mika he’s still afraid of fully becoming “Uriah” and feels most comfortable dressed as her. Everyone understands and reassures him he should just do what makes him feel comfortable. Sally suddenly hugs Mika and thanks her for bringing him back.
After this, Sally goes back to having a hacking battle with the Concert Master and manages to pinpoint his location. They arrive in Milan where they find out he’s staying at a fancy hotel. Just before they can infiltrate it, the concert master infiltrates a speaker and makes an announcement that he’s holding the entire hotel hostage and will blow it up if Sally and Mika don’t participate in his “game”. Sally realizes that this is all just a game to him and he just wants to beat Sally as the “Prophet”. Sally and Mika decide to go into the hotel together but as soon as they do everyone is suspicious of them since they’re wanted criminals. The European Chairman they spoke to before is there and speaks on their behalf and asks the two of them to help save them.Sally and Mika have to make it to the top floor so they proceed to go up the stairs to find the concert master. However, he continues to play mind games with them by making Mika and Sally ride an elevator. Sally is hesitant due to the trauma related to it, but even so they decide to ride it. The Concert Master takes control of the elevator by making it sop abruptly and then go again in order to stir up anxiety in Sally. However, Mika holds Sally’s hand and says everything will be okay. Thanks to that, Sally takes control of the elevator with his PC and they make it to the top floor. There, they meet the Concert Master who is actually the same kid they met before.However, he’s even younger than Sally so they start teasing each other until Mika intervenes. The Concert Master’s real name is Julian and his goal has always been to beat the Prophet since it was the Prophet aka Sally who was technically supposed to be the Concert Master but they considered Uriah “broken and unusable” after the incident with his sister. The Concert Master tries to ask for back up but both the House Steward and Child Nurse tell him that they no longer are their bodyguards since he starting doing things of his own accord by playing games with Sally and Mika. Sally immediately starts hacking into Julian’s computer to uncover the secrets of C.R.O.W.N. but Julian starts flipping out about how they activated a bomb on that floor. Fortunately, Sally starts hacking fast enough where both the secrets of C.R.O.W.N are uncovered and the bomb is disabled just in time.A few months pass and both Sally and Mika are now under the police’s protection. While not all of C.R.O.W.N’s secrets were uncovered, they managed to get enough information to make arrests. Sally made a plea deal that they’ll avoid jail time and work with the police to uncover more about C.R.O.W.N. Sally decides to take Mika to a boutique and takes her to the dressing room to show them dressed in boy clothes. Sally admits that they’re still Sally but may find that they eventually change and become “self” suitable to Mika. Sally asks if Mika lovers them and of course she says she does and they kiss 😘. No matter what form Uriah or Sally takes on Mika vows to be together with Sally from now on.
In the bad end, Mika ends up taking the elevator on her own but gets trapped on it while the Concert Master toys with Sally and tries to make them hack money into his account. Sally manages to get the police into the building by defusing the bomb and opening the elevator. However, the elevator ends up losing control and falls to the ground with Sally and Mika on it. The rubble from the ceiling almost hits Mika but Sally protects her. Mika wakes up in the hospital but Sally apparently has amnesia and no longer remembers who they are whether it be Sally or Uriah.
Thoughts: Where do I even begin my thoughts for this route LOL. It was a lot more complex than I was expecting. Well, first impressions is that Sally is a female character (with a female seiyuu) and I really did think she was until she brought up having a twin brother and it all clicked. I mean, it wasn’t hard to figure out when you consider the constant comments of how Sally is stronger than the average girl. That being said, the impression I got from this route is that Sally really did think she was Sally — due to trauma that was induced by his twin sister dying. I switch from ‘he’ to ‘she’ but ultimately in this case I think Sally just considers themself Sally AND Uriah, so I guess they’re both? I do like that at the end of the route Mika indicates that she doesn’t really care how ‘Sally” presents themself as long as they stay true to who they are. In that sense, I think Uriah became someone different from both Sally and himself. It was nice seeing that no one judged Sally for staying in the same clothes she was comfortable in. That being said, I think Sally’s route was definitely one of the most interesting and the way his twin sister died was terrifying jfc. I am a bit disappointed that Sally was never a female character (it would’ve been a nice change) but its obvious for plot reasons this literally couldn’t be the case. I also think Sally is adorable and funny so I hope they continue to keep that personality. I’m really looking forward to how they portray themself in the DLC!
Truth Ending
While on the train, Mika tries to save Christel herself. She goes into the dining area where a man in black has Christel and the Chancellor is gone. Mika rams a food cart into the man in black to get Christel free and grabs a gun that fell on the floor. Mika aims the gun at the man and tells him not to move as she escapes with Christel. However, the train suddenly stops and when she gets off she sees her friend Aida who tells her to get in her car as she stopped it on the train tracks to stop the train. The Chancellor is also there and makes a comment about Aida’s father not in agreement with her decision. Mika is super confused but goes with Aida anyway. Eventually, Aida explains the situation to Mika.
Aida’s father is part of C.R.O.W.N. and was ordered by the Chancellor to have Mika meet Hartfield. To the Chancellor, Aida’s father was just another pawn so he had to do their bidding after he was helped by them as a politician and ended up in debt. Aida claims she was only following orders but had no idea that Hartfield would be murdered. Regardless, it wouldn’t have changed anything even if she did know because she coldly tells Mika she never thought of her as a friend and was merely pretending to be her friend upon C.R.O.W.N’s orders. Apparently she knew from the beginning that Mika had powers and why she was being targeted because she specifically was told to join the same university as her to keep an eye on her
Aida is resentful of the fact Mika came to Italy as a foreign exchange student. Thanks to that, Aida was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a stage actress and had to join her University instead. She tells Mika that she hated her, her father, and herself. However, Mika doesn’t fully believe her since saved her and when she asks why she doesn’t answer. Christel who was listening also thinks Aida is lying and she wants Mika to hate her because that’s the best punishment she could have for betraying her friend. Aida finally admits that she’s right and she can no longer pretend that she really did care about Mika and wanted to help her. Eventually Aida parts with her but gives Mika her passport and unfortunately can’t go with her because she has a tracking device on her.
After this, Mika goes back to the unoccupied home where she first stayed with everyone since this was established as “that place” everyone would return to if they somehow got split up. Mika stays there and gets a call from Rebecca telling her to look at the news which claims everyone may have died in a fire. However, suddenly Mika encounters Luca who tracked her down via the tracking device on her passport. He’s part of C.R.O.W.N and is called the “Footman”. He was apparently the one who told Aida that Mika was on the train which is how she knew to come help her. Luca starts going on a tangent about how he’s going to be the new king of C.R.O.W.N after capturing the “Acolyte” and “Heiliger”.
Luca takes out a gun and threatens to shoot Mika but Christel helps her get away until she can grab the gun she kept. Unfortunately, even while she has the gun aimed at Luca and bluffs about being taught how to use it by Gib, she doesn’t realize the safety is on. Luca does realize this and almost manages to overpower her but thankfully Ash and the others arrive in time to help her. They manage to knock out Luca and leave him to get arrested. The next day, the TV in the living room is hacked and the person calling themselves Bishop contacts them all. They reveal that even though the Chancellor calls Mika “Acolyte” she was originally known as the “Queen” just like her grandmother who was from Italy and the owner of the home they are staying in. The only one who is after Mika is the Chancellor who is manipulating C.R.O.W.N. behind the scenes by lying about the orders of the top leader “Monarch” who is actually already dead.
The “Monarch” was Hartfield who was killed in front of Mika by the Chancellor. Now, the Chancellor hides his death and has his own agenda while the original purpose of C.R.O.W.N. was and is to unify Europe. They try asking what the Chancellor’s purpose is but Bishop ends up cutting out and is no longer in communication with them. After this, Mika says she needs time to process what she heard so she goes back to the room she was sleeping in. She finds a picture mounted on the wall that she remembers her mother calling her “special treasure” and finds out it has a secret cabinet inside. In there is a letter to Mika from her mother to her “unborn child”. Her mother explains that she was given a chance by her mother, Mika’s grandmother, to live a normal life not as the role of “Queen” that her grandmother had to live.
Mika’s mother met her father while he was a foreign exchange student and her grandmother gave her the opportunity to go live with him in Japan which is where Mika was born. After learning this, Mika finds everyone discussing what they should do. Ultimately, they decide to go to Vatican which was the place Bishop spoke of before they got cut off. Once they arrive, they split up to look for clues but run into Carlos who says he saw Christel being heading somewhere with an older man. Sally arrives with some injuries after Christel was taken away and they decide to try and go find her. They eventually end up in an underground sewer where they see many bombs planted underground.
Eventually, they find Chancellor there with Christel next to him. When they try to get her to come back, she attacks Mika while she’s under his control and Ash protects her. The Chancellor then explains how he’s going to use his daughter to rebuild Rome by destroying it with the bombs he planted and having his daughter be the saint that survived. He also wants to use Mika’s powers to make her seem more believable as a saint as telling the thoughts of people would seem like a miracle. Unfortunately, when the Chancellor tries to activate the bombs through the crown he stole, he’s unable to because the code to activate it has changed.
The person who changed it was the Monarch or Hartfield and he did it before his memories were supposedly erased because apparently that’s what happens when someone becomes Monarch. The reason he asked Mika to read his memories in the first place was so she could tell him about the memories of someone he forgot. That person was Mika’s grandmother, Eliza.The Chancellor tries to force Mika to remember it since she touched Hartfield’s hand, but she tells him she can’t. He then threatens her friends but thankfully the lights turn off and “Bishop” can be heard trying to help them. However, the shocking revelation is that when the lights go back ok, the person who is Bishop is the Chancellor who acts as though the Chancellor isn’t him.
Everyone is confused but ultimately need to stop the bomb so Mika inputs the name “Elizabeth” which was the full name of her grandmother. This does stop the bomb but unfortunately the system gets hacked by Concert Master who intends to detonate it in the next 20 hours. The Chancellor reappears again but when they point out he was “Bishop” he clearly doesn’t remember which insinuates he has multiple personalities. The Chancellor tries to take Mika with him but she ends up escaping with her friends but gets trapped alongside them in the room. They all assume they’re probably going to die under there but make plans to somehow blow up the other side of the wall. Thankfully, Carlos appears from the other side from a hole in the wall.
Carlos manages to gather supplies for Camu to make a small bomb and blow up the other side. When doing so, rubble almost falls on Sally so Mika saves her and ends up unconscious. When she wakes up, the two detectives, Rebecca, and Carlos are there. After hearing about the situation from the others, they decided to help stop the bomb together. They use a private invitation to get on the cruise ship where many European leaders are attending along with the Chancellor whole intends to announce his plans there. Mika and the others come up with a plan to stop the bomb and obtain the deactivation code that the Chancellor knows. While they’re on the boat, the Chancellor begins his speech and shows footage of Rome being destroyed.
However, the footage was fake and everyone changed the times on the boat 10 minutes ahead so he believed the bomb had already set off when it was in fact being hacked by Sally. While Gib has a sniper rifle aimed at the Chancellor, Mika grabs his hand and reads his mind to see what the deactivation code is. After stopping the bomb, the Chancellor uses one last attempt to set off a bomb on the ship. Unfortunately, he doesn’t expect Christel to be on board, who tries to stop him. Because of this, he’s unable to detonate the bomb and tries kill himself. He’s stopped by Gib who shoots the gun out of his hand. He’s eventually arrested but the police begin chasing the others so they can arrest them. Even though Detective Dolce tells Mika she wouldn’t be punished like the rest of them, she makes her decision to go with everyone and escapes on a boat that Carlos was driving.
Carlos eventually reveals he was actually part of an intelligence bureau that doesn’t exist to the public and fights against C.R.O.W.N. in secret. Carlos tells them all they have two options which are to keep running indefinitely, or to join his bureau. In the end, they decide to join and he calls them the “7 drops”. While Hamiel was against the idea of Mika giving up everything to join the band of criminals, she doesn’t care and doesn’t see a point in a world where she doesn’t have them all by her side. So now they all live together in their own secret hideout agency I guess (😂).
Thoughts: This ending was so refreshing!! It was very open ended but I love that the team came together to fight against the Chancellor. You also learn a bit more about what makes Mika so important to C.R.O.W.N. and the Chancellor. To be honest, this whole route reminded me a lot of Detective Conan — a lot of suspense and tackling the bad guy (especially because they were on a cruise ship — I know I watched a movie where they were on one?). Anyway, I was about to be super disappointed if Mika decided to just go back to her normal life. But nope!! She ended up sticking with all of them and just accepts she’s a criminal like them LOL. I find you don’t get this a lot in otome games — the heroine typically just wants things to go back to normal. But I like the idea of them joining this secret group and just continuing to do what they normally do. I just love that Mika sees them as her found family.
Overall Thoughts
For a game that came out of nowhere and didn’t have a huge amount of PR for it, I got to say this is probably one of the best otome games I’ve played in a while. I was definitely drawn in by the fact the artwork is drawn by Yusuke Kozaki (best known for Fire Emblem) but the fact the scenario writer was Yoshimura Ririka gave me another reason to try it! First of all, the characters were very nicely written! I was surprised by how much I enjoyed each route as I usually have at least one character I either can’t stand or just don’t really care about. I saw some Japanese impressions on twitter compare this game to Bustafellows (especially with the heroine having a special power) but… it’s definitely different. I actually liked Mika more than Teuta because she doesn’t act as naive about real life situations — especially when addressing crime. I also like how Mika isn’t afraid to taint herself black a bit, while Teuta always stays in the grey (if that makes sense). They don’t act like they can commit any crime they want but they continue to commit the sins and crimes for the sake of others or finding out the truth. I think if I had a critique, it would be not having a full explanation for Mika’s power. Unfortunately, both Bustafellows and Sidekicks suffered from this and while I understand its just the usual plot device of a random power — I would’ve liked a bit more backstory on it. Perhaps it started with the ‘Queens’ in her family but I don’t remember it saying her mother or grandmother had the power. I think people may dislike the fact that the common route is so long but trust me it really does help with the pacing and character development. Mika starts off as very meek and quiet — she’s also very hesitant to commit any sort of crime no matter how small. But as the story progresses, she decides to fit in with everyone else and you even have her at one point sneaking into a police station by herself, using her powers to take advantage of situatons, aiming a gun at someone, ect. I felt like each route had really good pacing because they didn’t drag on too long and things were happening quick enough where you didn’t feel bored (which I really like because sometimes I get bored easily if the events are too dry and text heavy). However, at times there was a lot of mentioning of European politics and to be honest some of it went over my head because I know next to nothing about it to be honest LOL. But I really recommend this game to those who like action / suspense otome games!
Story – DesperaDrops is a action otome game full of crime and suspense. It follows the main character Mika who is accused of murder while she’s studying abroad in Italy. When she’s arrested she ends up in a transport van with a bunch of other criminals who are being transported somewhere. But the transport van crashes and all of them escape while on the run from the police. The common route is quite long (about 12 chapters) but don’t let that deter you from playing! There’s scenes for each character depending on which route you pursue and also plenty of individual scenes to get a feel for each character and their personality. The story itself is also very fast-paced so there isn’t a lot of huge text dumping as the characters move from place to place as they are on the run.
Characters – This game has an absolutely charming cast and I like that they stand out from typical otome games — especially because every love interest is from a different country in Europe and only the MC is Japanese. Even though Mika starts off as very quiet and meek, its amazing how much you see her grow as a main character and its refreshing to see. I think giving Mika a voice definitely helped with this as she felt like an important member of the cast and could always hold her own. She knew that she didn’t have a special skill like the others so she always tried to be useful with her powers. As for the rest of the characters, I think they all stood out on their own and had unique personalities that didn’t feel too generic or overdone. Ash was my favorite, but I really enjoyed Sally and Gib’s route too. I liked that there was a considerable amount of bonding between everyone so it made you feel a stronger connection to each character.
Visuals – As a huge Fire Emblem fan and someone who has played Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates — I was super stoked to see that Yusuke Kozaki had worked on an otome game. I felt like the character designs themselves were really unique and not overly — pretty…? If that makes sense. Sometimes its refreshing to get a set of characters that don’t look like your typical bishounen characters. As for the CG visuals, I really liked that most of them were used for romantic scenes and I think my favorite CGs came from Hamiel as he had some really nice ones. I did notice some of them looked a tiny bit awkward at times. Perhaps it was the inconsistency with Mika’s face — she looked weirdly too young in some because her head was so small. That being said, I really liked the artwork and felt it suited the backgrounds nicely.
System / UI – The system itself was fairly straightforward and I’m always thankful for a skip to next choice option as it helps shave off the time it takes to get in each individual route. There aren’t many specific features in this game but it does have a ‘mission mode’ where you direct everyone to do something as you watch the cameras. This mode wasn’t particularly difficult or anything as it just involved making the right choices. That being said, it’s a bit annoying you can’t skip it when you go through it once as you’ll always have to go through it to do another route.Music – The OP theme is by Zwei and boy does it get you in the mood of suspense! I haven’t heard a lot of their songs but I know they sing for Steins;Gate 0 and I really liked the ED song for it. They sing the ED song for this game as well and I can say for certain it really works for the mood of the game. As for the BGM, I love how each character had a character theme! Gib’s was super mellow and had a detective vibe to it. I feel like my favorite was probably Hamiel and Sally’s. Hamiel’s clearly has spanish flamenco energy while Sally’s is super upbeat and techno.
Final Thoughts: Ultimately, I’d like to convince more people to play this game! I think I’ve started to get more and more picky with otome games because I get tired of overused plot devices, character tropes, ect. Anyway, I don’t think I’ve seen too many people play this game and so far it seems very underrated. I know it hasn’t come out in English yet but I’d definitely vouch for a western release! I think its definitely the type of game that would charm westerners especially since its a game that takes place in Europe and has characters from many different countries. Again, I’ve seen this game compared to Bustafellows and while the two of them have their similarities — they are very different! I think Bustafellows has a lot of charm because of the urban aesthetic it has, but there were times I felt like the story felt a bit convoluted. That being said, I’m not really looking to compare the two — I just think this game is unique and stands out on its own. That being said, I think those who have played Bustafellows, Collar x Malice, ect. would enjoy this game. I was a bit disappointed that Mika didn’t have her own sprite shown but I was really glad that she was voiced because it definitely gave her character more depth. Apparently this game is getting DLC too; you don’t often see that with otome games but I’m more than willing to purchase it! Believe it or not, I think this is my first D3 publisher game as I never finished Nightshade and I don’t think I’ve played any of their other games before (at least I don’t think I have). Still, I’m having a hard time being impressed by Otomate’s games recently so here’s yet another game not by Otomate that seems to impress me more.
Otome Adventures 