So, I'm back! ♪ ..and for the second time this month! *O*
..that hasn't happened in a while ^^;
Like I said in my previous blog (if you read it), I'd be back in the near future to review Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ once I finished the game :3
Well, guess what?
It's the near future AND I finished it! >ω<
It was...yesterday when I finished the game;; and I miss it already :c
Which is strange that I miss it because when I first got this game, it literally took me forever to get into ^^; I don't know why, but that often happens with me when it comes to otome games :,) Like, it can take me a while to get fully immersed but once I do, I fall in love with them! ♥
I checked today on my PS Vita to see when I actually purchased the game and it was all the way back in February..! Σ(･o･;) And that's a long time to be playing a game!
8 months, in fact! (」゜ロ゜)」
But now that I have finished it, I really wish I had gotten into it straight away;; When I think back, I remember deciding to follow cheats from the start (which I'll explain more about later) and according to the cheats, it's best to start off with Van Helsing's route who is the character that is sort of...not
very connected with the main group? He joins in the second chapter with his own goals in mind and doesn't try to get close to anyone, so I think that maybe put me off? Like I found his route quite difficult to play through :,) Which is another super weird thing because he is now one of my favourites! >o<
very connected with the main group? He joins in the second chapter with his own goals in mind and doesn't try to get close to anyone, so I think that maybe put me off? Like I found his route quite difficult to play through :,) Which is another super weird thing because he is now one of my favourites! >o<
But it's mean to blame Van Helsing.. He didn't really do anything wrong >ω<
Aaaaaanyway :,)
I think that's enough talking for now! I'm just going to get right on with the review~! :3
--SPOILER WARNING--
I'll try my best not to give anything huge away, but just in case...
You have been warned~ ^O^
~ ~ ~
Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~
Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ is a Visual Novel/Otome game for the PS Vita system. If you are unfamiliar with Visual Novels and Otome games, I'll explain what they are right now :3
Visual Novel;
An interactive fiction game which usually requires the player (obviously being yourself) to make choices throughout which will lead to different possible endings.
Otome;
A story based game that is usually more directed towards a female audience. The point of Otome games is to follow different routes that centre around a certain male character and to build up a romantic relationship with that certain character. Each character route usually has good and bad endings.
So with that explained, let's get right into the review! ^ω^
Story~
This story begins in the country of Wales. Living in an abandoned mansion, a girl named Cardia who was told in a letter that her father left for her that she must never leave the mansion and that one day, he would come and get her. Living isolated and alone, Cardia accepts this letter as truth because it's the only thing she has that means something to her. So she stays inside the mansion; branded as a "monster" by the locals as her body carries a deadly poison that melts anything she comes into contact with, waiting for her father to return. One day, the quiet solitude of her life is interrupted when the Royal Guards come all the way from London to kidnap her. As they leave the mansion and begin their journey back, they are halted by the appearance of Arsène Lupin, the Gentleman Thief who has also come to take Cardia. He swoops down amongst the confusion he has caused and after causing even more confusion, he quickly helps Cardia escape the Royal Guards.
She agrees to join Lupin's company in the hope of finding her father and finding a cure to her deadly condition as she journeys through London with Lupin and his four other bizarre, yet handsome companions...
Game System~
With the main story covered, I'll now talk about some other aspects the game has to offer :3
Main Heroine's Name~
Once you start a New Game, you have the option to change her name or keep it as the default name which is Cardia. Personally, I recommend you keep it as Cardia because...well, that's her original name.. ^^; Also because when she is spoken to by other people, they will say her name but if you change it, nothing will be said.
Plus Cardia is a pretty name! ♡ Why would you want to change it? >ω<
Game Flow~
Obviously, with this being an otome game, you straight away jump into the role of Cardia as the game begins. Although occasionally, you will switch to the point of view of other characters, but you can't make any choices when that happens; it's just to see what's happening elsewhere that links to the story or reveals more about certain characters.
Again, with the otome genre continuing, you'll make choices throughout the game that will influence the course of the story and raise affection with certain characters.
But something that is different here compared to other otome games is that you can't actually see the level of affection with these characters. In most games, there is an option in the menu or something where you can see what levels you have raised and stuff, but here you can just tell by the way the characters interact with Cardia. With the first 8 chapters of the game, it's pretty obvious to see what options will lead to which character as you sometimes get to choose to spend time with one of them. And once you reach the end of the eighth chapter, there is a moment when Cardia herself chooses to go with someone and that someone is the person whose route you have unlocked.
[ RANDOM TIP WITH SERAH ]
I do recommend following cheats with this game. Usually I would say do a blind play through first which...okay, is maybe fine for the first 8 chapters, but once you reach the ninth and you split off into a character route, it's maybe best to use cheats from that point. This is because some options you can choose will give you a game over and unless you save before that, you'll have to go back and start all the way from the beginning. If you don't mind that, then fine! But the first chapters are pretty lengthy and...I'm not saying they're bad, but I wouldn't like to play through them more than I have to as maybe after the third time, they start to get a bit boring as you know it all by this point;;
There is something in the Main Menu called The Path of Genesis which lets you choose what chapters you can skip to, but unless you have completed the entire character route, you can't use that option yet, so.. That's only really necessary if you want to play again :,)
So... Yes. Cheats are recommend and they're very easy to find :,) Just search for them and they'll appear super easily and they are also super easy to follow :3
Main Menu~
I would explain the System Menu as well, but that seems pretty self-explanitory :,) You have options like Save, Load, Glossary.. blahblah, you know the story :,)
So I thought just sticking with the Main Menu would be fine as you have more fun options here! :3
Memory Trunk;
This is where you store most things earned throughout the game :3
So you'll have things like Character CG's to view anytime you want (..yay! ♥), you have BGM (Background Music) which is actually great because this game has such a wonderful soundtrack~! You can also view the Opening Movie and the Ending Movie that features each character once you've completed their Good Ending and there are also Extra Stories which, again, are unlocked once you've completed the Good Ending for each character. These are just really short scenes where something happens and you get a shirtless CG of each character ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ..which is as good as it sounds! ;3
..although;; My favourite, Saint-Germain, is just wearing a skin tight black shirt thing with a kimono (I think it was?) draped around him;; which sucks because OMG! I bet he would have such a sexy front ASDFGHJKL ♥////♥
*cough* ..I-I'm sorry ^^; I just love him~~
Glossary;
This is where everything you learn throughout the game is stored. So, for example, when you learn things about places or people, it's kept here and you can view it (..if you want) anytime :,)
It's basically just a lengthier explanation of something mentioned in the game :3
Trophies;
This isn't something kept in the Code: Realize menu, but I thought I'd mention it since you can earn them :3 They're super simple to earn! You don't have to do anything specific, you just earn them as you go~
[ RANDOM TIP WITH SERAH ]
You get a trophy for each character once you have unlocked all of their CG's, but for Lupin, you need to complete his Normal Ending to unlock all of the Non-Character CG's :3
So just keep in mind if you like to earn all of the trophies (like myself >ω<), then I recommend viewing Lupin's Normal Ending :3
Characters~
Like I always say when I do my reviews, my favourite part is getting to talk about the characters! *ω*
So... Let's staaaaaaaaaart~! (◞⁎˃ᆺ˂)◞
Main Characters~
Name; Cardia
Age; Unknown, but looks around 18-20??
Occupation; Erm...being poisonous?? >ω<" ..too soon? X,D
The supah CUTE protagonist of the game! ♥
Sometimes the heroines in otome games can get a little annoying because...well, they tend to not have any real "personality"..
*cough* Amnesia heroine *cough* XD
But Cardia is really sweet and really not annoying! ^O^
Due to the fact she has lived alone for so long, she isn't really knowledgable about how to act in front of other people which is shown when she begins to take off her clothes to show Lupin the Horologium which is a gem embedded in her chest that causes the flow of poison in her body.. Ah! But don't worry! Lupin is a gentleman, so he asks her to get dressed again! X,3
In general, Cardia is a really sweet and innocent girl who cares about her friends and will often put them before herself. As the story progresses, she becomes less shy and contained and is able to express herself better and defend for herself.
Name; Arsène Lupin
Age; 24
Occupation; Gentleman Thief >ω<
Seiyuu; Tomoaki Maeno
[ You unlock Lupin's route once you've completed the other characters route; Normal or Good Ending ]
First of all...
Who doesn't love Lupin!? ♥
He is literally perfect in every way possible ;ω;
Lupin is a super fun character! He's always cheerful, optimistic and is full of confidence! He may be a thief, but he refers to himself as a "Gentleman" Thief because he doesn't steal for his own gain.. Though he'll keep any handling fee he earns X,D
Name; Abraham Van Helsing
Age; 27
Occupation; Vampire Hunter
Seiyuu; Junichi Suwabe ♥
At first, I really didn't like Van Helsing much;; He just wasn't very emotionally connected to everyone else in the group.. But after a while, I really started to like him! *ω* He can be slightly tsundere sometimes and I tend to like that in male characters.. >/ /<
He is a Vampire Hunter renowned for his amazing ability and fighting skills; he is even referred to as the "Human Weapon" as he was able to kill an entire clan of vampires in the Vampire War that happened two years prior to this game. He joins Lupin and his companions as he is searching for someone linked to Cardia with whom he wishes to settle a score with.
As a person, he is quite aloof and cold and rarely shows emotion. But deep down, he does start to care for everyone around him and will openly recognise skill when he sees it.
Name; Victor Frankenstein
Age; 25
Occupation; Alchemist
Seiyuu; Tetsuya Kakihara
Victor is definitely the cootie-patootie of the group! >ω<
Like, he's SO adorably cute and stuff~
He was once a government researcher, but left that life behind after a serious incident occurred with something he helped to create.
Victor is very clever and has an immense amount knowledge when it comes to the field of science and as a person, he is humble and sociable, but he is often shown to have a fragile self-esteem level.
While he looks like he could barely lift a pencil, he is very capable at defending others and himself as he can make an array of potions and concoctions that prove useful in battle.
Name; Impey Barbicane
Age; 27
Occupation; Genius Engineer ;p
Seiyuu; My love, Shou-chan! ♥ (Showtaro Morikubo)
Impey is one of those annoying womaniser characters -___-
BUT! Because it seems like that's just a title be bestowed upon himself, he's actually super easy to love :3
I'd say Impey is my second favourite character; he's just so much fun! >ω<
While his ingenuity is acknowledged by the other characters, they are seen mocking him more often than not.. X,D Especially Lupin and Van :,) But he still has an impressive level of self-esteem and confidence :,)
Impey is very care-free, energetic and friendly.. Maybe overly friendly sometimes as he never passes up a chance to flirt with Cardia :,) Though in his route, he is way more sweet and genuinely cares about her! ♡
He also claims he'll be the first man to land on the moon! (•̀o•́)ง
Name; Saint-Germain
Age; Umm... ^^;
Occupation; [ I'll keep that a secret to avoid spoilers ]
Seiyuu; Hirarin!! ♥ (Daisuke Hirakawa)
Behold!! My favourite!!
Saint-Germain! ///////
Just LOOK at him! LOOOOOOK!! LOOOOOK! JUST LOOK AT HIM!!!
His elegance! His beauty! ..HIS FREAKING LEGS OMG! GIMME!! >/ / / /<
*breathe in* . . . *breathe out*
..okay. I'm okay now! ^^;
I can't help that I love him so much ;A;
Saint-Germain is the most mysterious character out of them all. You literally find out next to nothing about him until you unlock his route which definitely kept me on my toes! *O*
I can tell you that he is a wealthy land owner with a mansion where he lets everyone else stay, but not for free, of course~ XD
He has a definite air of grace and dignity and speaks wonderfully~ Hirarin melts me~ ;/ / / /;
I will say though that he never opens his eyes, but when he does..
It actually scared me!! XD Like, he's my favourite, but whenever he opened his eyes, I'd flinch away from the screen! Even though they are the most beautiful colour ♥
But you get used to it~ So much that you miss it when he closes them;;
Also his route made me cry SO much! ; ___ ; You could see his suffering plainly on his face and in his eyes and it hurt me!;;
He's wonderful~ And the ending of his route it so romantic~ *blushes* ^/ /^
Supporting Characters~
These characters are technically supporting characters, but they are so much involved in the story that they could be considered main.. So, let's say Main-Supporting Characters :,)
But because they are quite closely involved in the story, trying to talk about them may lead to me spoiling certain things, so.. I'll just leave it as their Name, Age, Occupation and Seiyuu :3
Name; Finis
Age; Unknown, but... Maybe looks about 10-13, I'd say :,)
Occupation; Being annoying--! >ω<
Seiyuu; Of course, it would have to be Yuki Kaji ;3
Name; Herlock Sholmes.. Yes, you read that right :p
Age; 28
Occupation; Private Detective
Seiyuu; Kazuya Murakami
Name; Jimmy A. Aleister
Age; 54
Occupation; [ I'll keep that a secret to avoid spoilers ]
Seiyuu; Rikiya Koyama
Name; Delacroix II (later nicknamed by Impey as Delly)
Age; 12
Occupation; Heir to [ spoiler ] XD
Seiyuu; Miho Ishigami
My Thoughts~
After it taking me a long while to get into this game, by the end of it, I could definitely say that I enjoyed it very much! ^ω^
The first thing I noticed about this game was it's AWESOME Steampunk theme! Like, OMG! That rocked so hard! ♥ The characters clothes are all so cool! And the background designs are insanely detailed and beautiful as well :,) They even go as far as to add a mechanical leg to a small dog so even he has something Steampunky about him, as well! >ω<
STEAMPUNK! STEAMPUNK! STEEEAMPUNNNK!! /////
The soundtrack for this game was... Whoa.
It was really something else! So many wonderful and powerful pieces! You have your easy-going pieces for a fun scene and your serious pieces for a scary scene..
It all just fits SO well! *ω*
I have...many favourites, but I think this one tops them all~! ♥
It's so beautiful~ And moves my heart completely~
Oh! And this one too! You can't forget this one! ;ω;
You just know a really special scene is happening when you hear this~
And this one just because! >ω<
It just reminds me of Impey and I love it so much! :,D
Some of the ones I would also like to link haven't been uploaded, but you get the idea! :3
A-MAZ-ING SOUNDTRACK! ♡
As for the characters, I loved all of them :,) ..there were maybe a few exceptions..
*cough* Nemo *cough* He is a character who appears once, but has more of an impact in Impey's route, so I didn't feel it was necessary to mention him with the other Supporting Characters, but Nemo. Yes, he was very annoying. When you first come across him, it's like..
"Wow! He's so weird and funny!!" :,D
But the after a while of listening to him and stuff, it's more like..
"Someone just...take this guys meds away from him." .-.
But aside from Nemo annoying me and Finis (more so towards the end of Lupin's route) I could pretty much like everyone else :,) I especially enjoyed the interactions between Lupin and Herlock Sholmes >ω<
Talking more about characters, I loved seeing how Cardia developed relationships with them and also how they developed relationships with each other! ..I say that in a friendly manner, mind you ;p
It's just really sweet watching this naïve girl getting all cute and flustered trying to figure out what this feeling is that she has towards them :,) There was a pretty emotional scene in Van Helsing's route when he sort of just snaps at her and begs her not to follow him because he cares about her and doesn't want her to get hurt;; Impey was one of the funniest, too! :,) At first, Cardia is just like..
"OMG! This dude is weird, get him away from me!"
So when they finally develop and relationship, it's like..
"Heh.. You luuuuuurve him!" ;3
And also funny how no one believes Impey when he tells them :,) They literally think he drugged her or something and made her say all those things.. Okay, well maybe not "drugged"... But they still didn't believe him :,)
..although no matter how hard you look at it, Cardia fits the most perfectly with Lupin ^//ω//^
And because all the characters are so different, no route is exactly the same or travels in the same direction :3 Different routes focus on different supporting characters and give them more depth which sometimes helps towards your understanding of that person in another route!
It's just...all very well done, I think ^ω^
I also absolutely LOVED the story!! *ω* While at the end I thought Cardia getting her poison cured felt too easy, the rest of it was great! I love how each route really reflected so well on the specific character and I also loved that each character had a really deep and emotional backstory;;
But back to the main story :,) I really felt that it was very detailed and very well thought out :3 I also liked how each chapter focused on something brand new and elaborated on that and how also something in each chapter ended up circling back around and connecting to Cardia in some way :3
If there was maybe something I disliked...it was maybe the length of the chapters;;
I remember when I reviewed Amnesia, I commented that the chapters could have been longer, but with this game...maybe a little shorter? I'm not contradicting myself too much, am I? ^^; Like by saying I loved how detailed the story was but wanting the chapters to be shorter? ^^;
Maybe not so much the character chapters, but the first eight chapters. I already mentioned this, but by the third time you have to start this game, you've pretty much memorised everything that happens in these first eight chapters and they start to become really difficult to play through .-. I swear the amount of times I fell asleep and actually played through them in a sleep-type...daze...thing? Like I remember starting Chapter Six which is one of my least favourites ^^; I started it and what only felt like a few minutes in, I was already half way through! :,) So I must have hella been dozing to miss all of that :,)
I mean, they were GOOD. But if there was a way to skip them, I would have taken it;; It's just you have to play through them again to make all the choices necessary to move onto another character route;;
That also links to why I recommend cheats :,) Because it would be A LOT of effort to complete all of those chapters, enter the character route, choose something wrong, get a game over and have to start All. Over. Again. >. >
I say that, but I also recommend using cheats because it's interesting to get a game over :,)
Once you've made a choice that leads to a Bad Ending, the story doesn't continue for much longer, but it's still fun seeing what the wrong option leads to, you know? :3
So as long as you save before you make your choice, you can get the Bad Ending and then go and load your save and continue without having to start from the beginning again :,)
I also recommend you actually try to get the Bad Endings and Normal Endings :3 because it adds a new level of depth to the story :3 The Normal Endings tend to be very sad, but are interesting to see how the characters develop when that path is taken! ^O^ Of course nothing beats the Good Endings (especially Lupin's! ♥), but do it because it's just...fun! ^ω^
But this game really is worth playing through purely for the ending of Lupin's route! ♥
It's SO romantic and literally everything you're hoping for and more! *ω*
I recommend that you play this game :3
I know I slammed a lot on the first eight chapters for being so tedious after the first few play throughs, but it's worth it once you reach a character route because they are all so great! ..I can't find a thing to fault them about, actually! O:
So...yush :3
Serah recommends this one! ;D
Overall Score~
Like always, I rate specific categories individually then rate the overall game after :3
> Background Graphics: 10/10 (STEEEAMPUNNNK!!!)
> Character Designs: 10/10 (everyone looks B-E-A-UTIFUL!)
> Music: 10/10 (beautiful music and so fitting)
> Story: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
..I can't help but rate everything so highly ^^; It's all genuine scoring, though! ^ω^
But I rated the game an 8/10 overall though because of how repetitive it was to replay the first 8 chapters.. It doesn't lessen the quality of those chapters, just the feeling of replaying them again was kind of boring because you just KNOW everything.. ;A;
But regardless of that, I really did love this game and I really do recommend it to anyone who loves otome games! It's also on MAL (MyAnimeList) as it'll be getting an anime adaption...at some point, I don't know when yet :,) But hopefully that'll be good, so I'm looking forward to that! ^O^
..I digress :,)
Definitely give the game a try! :3
~ ~ ~
So that was my review for Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ :3
I hope you enjoyed it and it helped you decide whether or not you want to play the game if you haven't already ^O^
If you have any questions about the game, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply as best I can~
Thank you for reading and have a great day~! ^ω^
BYESIES~! c:
xoxo~
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