Game review: Oumagatoki ~ Kaidan Romance

Made by: Quinrose

Genre: Otome, Romance, Comedy, Occult, School

Summary: Shizuka is an ayakashi, a descendant of a great and powerful water spirit. She and her ghost friends hang out around school at night when the humans are asleep to pass time. Her after-life becomes a lot more interesting when she meets a bunch of new friends and even fall in love.

Shikibu Hisoka
Shizuka and Hisoka go way back and they are always seen running around school, pulling pranks on everyone. On the daytime they also make themselves visible for humans and attend to human school. Hisoka uses spells and curses to attack with and he would be classified as a shinigami (death god).

Hisoka and Shizuka often tease Kyougoku, the student council president who is the perfect, strict "no fun allowed" type of character. Since Kyou used to be a human before becoming a ayakashi, he is stronger than most of the spirits, so the mischievous pair often have to make a run for it.

Hisoka is very playful and flirty type, but only when Shizuka is around. When sparring together she can't get through his barrier so she runs towards him and hug him instead, as a surprise attack. Shizuka finds out that Kyougoku used to have siblings when he was alive and she accidently bumps into his human little brother, Mitsugu. She says Kyou's name by reaction and Mitsugu is happy to meet someone who used to know his brother. They start talking about Kyougoku and without realizing it Shizuka starts talking about her little sister, before realizing she never had one.

Some Ayakashi are born when dying as a human, some born from ayakashi parents and some are born out of thin air, with no family or alike. Shizuka is one of the last mentioned, so she never had any memories before becoming a spirit.

The next day Shizuka takes Hisoka on a date after noticing Mitsugu acting weird around Hisoka. The shinigami buys her a ring and everything goes great until Shizuka asks abut Mitsugu. Hisoka admits he put a spell on him but only for a short while and did it because he thought it would be fun. Our heroine is not amused and tells him to cut it out and that this is serious stuff they are talking about.

Hisoka is really pissed off by now, saying that if Shizuka loves the humans so much, he will turn Mitsugu into a spirit. Kyougoku finds out about this and with the help of Shizuka's friend Wakako they team up to stop Hisoka. Days pass slowly and there is no sign of Hisoka. They eventually meet when Shizuka finds him sleeping in the bushes. They fight to vent out the tension and Hisoka says all kind of shit about Kyou and Mitsugu and humans in general. Shizuka finally realize that Hisoka likes her and that he is just being jealous.

This upsets Hisoka even more and the following night at school he locks her up in an empty classroom and molests her while whispering how he is going to kill her and make her his doll (ﾟДﾟ) Jesus fucking Christ.

 The big showdown is here with Mitsugu and Shizuka and her gang is ready to protect him. But Hisoka is stronger and they almost lose until Shizuka makes her surprise attack, a kiss. The yandere is so surprised he lets his guard down and Kyougoku successfully escapes with his unharmed human brother.  Shizuka and Hisoka hooks up in the end since Shizuka practically thinks "Oh well, even if he is a crazy yandere, I still love him".

Things are perfect until a tengu spirit named Tobiura shows up and says "You better start remember the past soon". Shizuka is confused but at the same time knows that weird feeling that have been swelling up inside her is no coincidence. That night she gets her memory back. She used to be a human, living with her family and little sister like any other kid. But Shizuka could see the ayakashi and of course people thought she was crazy. She got bullied in school and her little sister was also targeted. Their parents had no clue that this was happening.

Shizuka meets Hisoka when she still was a kid and he takes a liking to her, offering her to become an ayakashi. Shizuka rejects and to prove how useful it is, Hisoka kills a bunch of kids that bullied his human friend (((( ;°Д°)))) Shizuka grows up to be a beautiful young woman and Hisoka is happy since he finally can do ecchi things to her (lol). One day the bullying goes out of control and her little sister is forced to choose between Shizuka and her friends. Her sister, Kaori, apologizes while pushing Shizuka into the school pool, before running away.

Shizuka realizes that now that it's come to this point, her life have no more meaning, so she drowns herself. But before she can, Hisoka pulls her up and turns her into a spirit, promising to avenge her and to make her forget everything bad that have happened.
Waking up, Shizuka is beyond mad at Hisoka. Not only did he turn her into a spirit, he also killed all those other people.This was the reason Hisoka didn't want Shizuka near any humans and tried to stop her whenever she was thinking about her past. They meet and Shizuka is unable to kill Hisoka, so she leaves school saying that when Hisoka is the happiest, she will take her revenge.

Jesus Christ, Hisoka is just awful. I'm sorry but I can't sympathize with this crazy yandere at all and his constant "You're my doll" talk to Shizuka pisses me off so much. Well at least I'm done with this asshat.

Hibiya Kyougoku (Kyou for short)
Shizuka and Hisoka have always been causing trouble and messing around with Kyou for fun and since he used to be a human, he is extra strong. The downside is that he still have a "human smell" around him which causes some spirits to try to eat him.

His route starts with Shizuka going to tease him, but since it's almost lunch time they end up eating together in the garden. Shizuka is surprised when Kyou says he got a bento and when he blushes he admits that he made it himself. Shizuka steals some food and surprisingly he is a really good cook.
Before leaving she tells him they should hang out sometime again and Kyougoku is dumbfounded but happy, saying most people find him stiff and boring.

Shizuka runs into Kyougoku every now and then and her impression of him starts to change. She used to think he was stuck up and strict but now she finds him gentle and caring. Shizuka meet Mitsugu, Kyou's little brother. Kyou's death is unexplained and it is one of those rare "disappear without a trace" type of cases. Kyougoku himself doesn't remember how it happened either, but his little brother still believes he is alive.
Hisoka notice Shizuka is hanging around Kyou more and gets jealous. He blabbers all kind of shit in front of Kyou before adding "Joooking~ (◠‿◠) " by the end of the sentence.
Shizuka is pissed at him and tells him to cut the shit out before leaving with Kyougoku (Go Shizuka!)

The two of them go on a date to the amusement park and Shizuka holds Kyou's arm, who in responds blushes and go "B-Baka! Girls shouldn't do that! It's my first time holding hands with somebody!"
When they are riding the ferris wheel Shizuka confesses about Hisoka targeting Mitsugu and they decide to try to stop him together.

Because Shizuka is such a powerful spirit her energy is constantly building up and if she doesn't release it, she ends up not being able to control it. So now that she haven't had any time messing around school she is slowly building it up more and Kyougoku offers her to drink his blood since he is half-human but Shizuka says there are other ways, like (kissing for example) so they go and have sexy time in the school infirmary~

The fight with Hisoka takes place and after they win Mitsugu passes out. Kyou and Shizuka carries him home and while they are there they take a look at Kyou's old room. Nothing has changed at all and it's like his family is waiting for him to come home. Shizuka is saddened by this but Kyou kisses her and says that if he didn't die he would never have met her.

Same thing happens as in Hisokas route, Shizuka regains her memories and this time realizes that the one who killed Kyougoku was Hisoka. One day when talking to Hisoka he flirted with her and as usual she rejected him, he then asked her what type of guy she liked and she described a guy who was smart and mature and the opposite to Hisoka. So Hisoka found Kyou and killed him in order to make Shizuka happy.

Shizuka is yet again not able to kill Hisoka after all and after their fight she meets Tobiura again, who tells her that he found out something very interesting. A spirit can become a human again through a very complicated ritual. Shizuka gets the spell ready and Kyou arrives at the rooftop just as planned. They start talking about Mitsugu and when seeing Kyou's sad face, she completes the transformation.
She kisses him farewell as the last of his spirit powers disappear and she hugs him tight, even though he no longer can see her. She is happy he got his life back as a human, even if it means they can never meet again (´；ω；｀).

I'm usually pretty annoyed and biased against Yusa voiced megane character but I really like Kyou. He grows on you and his character development in the game is great. He deal with a lot of pain, seeing his little brother grow up from afar, while his family still keeps hoping for him to come back home. His love for Shizuka is very innocent but at the same time he shows that he wants to protect her and take care of her properly.

Izumi Reiji is a fox spirit who at first doesn't like Shizuka very much. Or well, that's what she thinks, but the truth is Izumi is just a tsundere~
Izumi is in the archery club and when Shizuka goes to visit him, he gets nervous and misses the target completely. The two of them got a rival-relationship going on and they end up competing against each other in everything. Shizuka discovers that she does indeed find it fun to tease tsun-tsun Izumi and make him blush, so she starts saying embarrassing stuff just to see his reaction (✧≖‿ゝ≖)

Because Izumi's health is pretty bad he often skips PE and rests in the nurse office. Shizuka finds him there and when leaving he grabs her hand and ask her to stay by his side. He kisses her quick as a way to steal some of her energy, but Shizuka takes advantage and deepens the kiss.

Izumi loves anything that got to do with foxes and on their first date Shizuka buys him a fox plushie. Izumi goes "Wow! You got great taste! Foxes rule! Go foxes!" but then they start to argue because Shizuka thinks they're cute and fluffy while Izumi insists they're cool and dangerous.
As a way of showing his appropriation for the date, he invites her to his sister's wedding.
After the ceremony they go back to Izumi's house and since it's so late his mom says it's best if she spends the night there. They both have trouble sleeping, knowing their rooms and right next to each other so they sit in the hallways and talk for awhile.
Shizuka jokingly says "Fufu, do you want to share a futon? I bet we would sleep better" but Izumi gets super serious and accepts the offer. No brainer, the two of them starts making out and I'm pretty sure neither of them got much sleep that night~

It's time for the festival and the two of them somehow lose sight of one another. They find each other in the forest again where Izumi puts on his fox mask and shyly confesses his love. Shizuka is like
"What was that? I can't hear you under the mask  (￣ω￣)" so he takes it off and kisses her.

I really loved Izumi and his route was super adorable. I think he make a good choice for a first route and leaves you with a good impression that makes you want to continue playing. His personality changed a bit after they hook up, but nothing that bothered me too much.

Yurajou Keigo
The wolf spirit who is working at the nurse office. He loves helping people and have had a crush on Shizuka since he first saw her, but because he is shy and innocent and she is cool and strong, she never noticed him until now.
Since Keigo always fixes Shizukas wounds when she is hurt she repays him by helping him with his homework. One day when they are studying in the library some yokai kids accidentally nudge a bookshelf which falls right on Shizuka. But when opening her eyes Keigo is on top of her, taking the hit for her. She panics and asks if he is alright, but he just says that if it's for her sake, he can bear any pain in the world. Despite usually being turned-off by Keigo's puppy-personality Shizuka finds the gesture sweet and they share a kiss.

The two of them starts dating and Shizuka is invited to Keigo's home. He got a lot of sisters and brothers and Shizuka feels happy being around such a big family. It almost makes her wish she had one of her own. The youngest children transform themselves into puppies and Shizuka spends the day playing with them. When she and Keigo share a room he is surprisingly quiet and just says Goodnight without touching her at all. After waiting for 10 min she goes
"Don't you want to kiss me? I thought you liked me. I'm sad when you're so reserved..." which makes Keigo jump on her faster than you can say horny dog.

It's time for the festival and the pair share a lot of cute moments together. Keigo always talk about how he would die for Shizuka and how he admire her more than anything. While flattered, she sometimes doesn't know how to respond to such commitment. Keigo always tries is best to impress her but sometimes says his embarrassing thoughts  out loud without realizing it which makes Shizuka laugh a lot. Keigo starts hinting that maybe it's something important that Shizuka has forgotten and after seeing his wolf form she remembers saving a wolf from a hunter when she was young. The wolf was in fact Keigo and ever since that day he have been head over heels for her.

Even though Keigo is on the verge of being too clingy and jealous and creepy, his route still managed to be adorable with a lot of good moments in it. It's hard not to fall for Keigo's puppy like charm and Namikawa did an awesome job in this.

Tono Atsuro
The badass tall guy in school who everyone is afraid of. He always gets into fights and even fight Shizuka when she need to release her daily dose of power. He have always seen her as a rival and opponent so when they start dating he realize she is actually a girl.
Shizuka and Atsuro don't get along very well in general but that change when they meet each other at the cinema. Turns out they both got an interest in movies and got similar taste to top. Atsuro asks if she wants to go and see another movie sometimes since their discussions are fun and Shizuka agrees.

Even though Atsuro seem like a bitter and grounchy person at first, Shizuka finds out he actually like fuzzy and nice things. But she is conflicted with her feelings and when Atsuro confesses she doesn't know what to say.

She likes him a lot, that is true, but she is afraid their relationship will be messed up since they are such good friends and rivals. On the school trip she and Atsuro ends up in the same group and with the help of her friends she realizes that she does indeed like him. They meet in his room at midnight and start making out while Shizuka is going "Hey, this isn't that bad~" lol.
He tells her to forget their old relationship and accept her feelings. If she becomes his girlfriend he will make her the happiest woman earth.

So Atsuro was kind of boring. Nothing really happened in his route and his character fell flat for me even though it was a bless to listen to Junichi Suwabe playing a cool type as this.

Tobiura Moegi is a tengu spirit who is very creepy and stalker-ish (why do he even have a route?!?)
Anyway so Shizuka and Tobiura goes to the town and when he sees some kids he decide it would be fun to watch them die, so he kills one of the girls walking by. Shizuka is very disturbed by this and Tobiura turns out to be a real sadist who loves watching others suffer.

Tobiura takes her to a old weird shop where she finds a cut-out from a magazine about a mysterious murder where the oldest girl in the family killed the others and then disappeared. Tobiura goes all "Oh wow! That suuure sounds suspicious *cough* *cough*" before they leave but doesn't mention it again. Since his route is only a side-route nothing really happens beside him showing off his tengu wind dance for Shizuka and doing creepy stuff to her to see her scared face, which he loves.




Nashibatake Wakako
She is Shizuka's best ojou-sama friend who also gets a yuri side-route. Her short story is about her finding a boyfriend, but in all of her endings she ends up with Shizuka instead lol. I found Wakako to be a cute but very overprotective character at times. I don't mind yuri at all so this was just a fun thing to add to the game~

Gameplay
 This being my first Quinrose game, I did find the system to be very simple and a bit annoying. The skip button needs to be pressed down all times and the menu feels uninspiring. It does have it good points though; you can rewind the game at any time and even choice a different option if you happen to take the wrong one by mistake. Other than that, the game is a normal VN. I also missed the option to take screen shots which is my excuse for the lack of CGs in this post.

Final Score:
Story 8/10
Oumagatoki manages to tell a interesting story that both got comedy, mystery and love. Shizuka is truly a kickass heroine who is easy to relate to compared to the usual weak willed girls.
Most of the guys (with exeption for Hisoka) are all very funny and each route had it's own charm. The characters are well developed and overall I had a great time playing the game.

Music 7/10
Pretty forgettable and nothing that really sticks, but that doesn't mean it's not good. It's just that nothing really stood out and I can't remember the songs if somebody asked me, but they didn't feel annoying when playing.

Art 7/10
A bit inconsistent at times and the anatomy was weird in some CGs but you can tell Quinrose are improving fast just by looking at the lineup of their games.

Voices 8/10
As usual the voices were fitting and as I mentioned before I was pleasantly surprised by Yusa in his role. Toriumi Kousuke did a great job as tsundere Izumi.

Total: 9/10
Despite not loving the QR system, I do love Oumagatoki. If you want a good game with funny and interesting characters, intruding story and an awesome heroine I really recommend Oumagatoki.
I'm looking forward to the spin-off coming later this year and the sequel!