Archive for the Ashley P Category


A Tithe in Blood

June 25th, 2025

A woman with long silver hair wearing a yellow kimono, holds hands with a woman with long, dark-hair, wearing a blue jacket over a white blouse, as they lay head to head in opposite directions.by Ashley P, Guest Reviewer

As I desperately try to get more of my friends to try out visual novels I often emphasise the ‘novel’ part and not really mentioning or even reducing the ‘visual’ part. This is a bit of a disservice because some of the most affecting visual novels I have read have merged both fantastic prose to the rhythm of matched visual elements such as sprites and artwork to create an experience that matches the fun of any comic or puppet performance. I’m not talking about just having good art or sprites, but using those visual elements to create a feeling unique to the medium.
A Tithe in Blood is a recent new visual novel from Studio Élan and it is easily their most visually appealing game yet. Showing a levelof craft that I wish more games would strive for.

Asakawa Honoka is a Sapporo resident and university student who has tragically lost her family. Her despair and loneliness has led to an obsession with the blood magic writings of actual Renaissance poet Isabella di Morra. As long as she is willing to spill her own blood, Honoka can journey to seemingly Meiji era Sapporo and meet with the kind and graceful performer Yasue.

The withdrawn and depressed Honoka finds herself inexorably drawn to the sociable Yasue who performs whole kabuki plays on her own thanks to her incredible illusion magic. But to visit this alternate Sapporo, Honoka must pay a very literal blood tithe. This frequent bloodletting puts such a strain on her body that Honoka’s life continues to deteriorate even as she falls deeper in love with Yasue.

This enmeshment of both the healing power of connection after grief and the draw of control that self harm can bring is the core of the story and it is what gives Yasue and Honoka’s relationship so much bite. Honoka is so clearly happier when she is with Yasue but the only way to see her is for Honoka to hurt herself.

So often in stories about self harm the reader is not given a way to understand how this fundamentally bad idea can be so seductive. In A Tithe in Blood the whole yuri we are here for comes with a clear cost to our main character.

The high definition artwork and fantastic sprite direction that makes every interaction between Honoka and Yasue so wonderful is also used to show us Honoka’s scared arms. The perfect use of sprites and high definition artwork used to show Honoka and Yasue walking together in a cute scene is used to show the painful magical journey Honoka took to get there.

If that was the full story of this novel then I would have nothing but praise. The only issue is that the above is only about half the story of A Tithe in Blood. This is not bad in of itself. The other part is more of a magical underworld/detective story staring three other characters hired to observe Honoka. We get a beta couple in Tatiana and Kaoru, along with another narrator in Shino. I have no complaints about these characters, in fact, they are so charismatic I hope there is a sequel with more magical detective shenanigans with everyone. The downside is that the theming from this half that is more of an urban fantasy, does not match with Honoka’s story. If anything it reduces Honoka’s pain and it plays up misunderstandings between the two groups in ways that detract from the drama rather than intensify it.

Other than that though this is easily the most beautiful visual novel ever produced by Studio Élan who I hope continue to raise the bar into the sky.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 6
Character – 8
Service – 1
Yuri – 9

Overall – 8

I truly hope we get a sequel or spiritual successor to A Tithe in Blood, so that the team can really show off what they are capable of.

Thank you very much to Studio Élan for the review copy!





Black Rose Revue: Act 1, Guest Review by Ashley

January 17th, 2024

In classic 1970' shoujo manga black and white art style, we see a woman with short hair in a men's tuxedo, a woman with long black hair in a stylish "villainess"-esque dress and a woman with pale hair in a white dress between them on the sofa. The words "You Are Cordially Invited To The Black Rose Revue" are prominent in the middle of the image.Chihiro Sato is the rising star of The Black Rose Review. She has proven herself so skilled in her recent major role alongside top otokoyaku Rika Ikeda that she has now been picked for the staring role in the next production. But this rapid assent brings with it the problems of antagonistic seniors and a mysterious E.M. who keeps sending Chihiro bouquets of roses.

So far only act one of Phantom of the Black Rose Revue is available on itch.io and it does everything a good opening should do.

The game wastes no time introducing us to the cast. Everyone has at least one scene that gives us their deal or mystery. It truly is the very start of this story so we really only have the very first threads of characterization to chew on, with the exception of Chihiro, who is already a rising star, not a student. This is a choice that elevates her instantly compared to other similar characters like Kageki Shoujo‘s Sarasa Watanabe, Revue Starlight‘s Karen Aijou or the characters from Awajima Hyakkei.

Chihiro already has a role in the Black Rose Revue and so the focus is on how she can further her career; rather than if she is suited for it at all. A refreshing change from the usual when it comes to stories about performers. The adult world of working in the theatre is not a distant haze that Chihiro is striving for, but a world that she is trying to live in.

With that, what a world indeed for Phantom of the Black Rose Revue to take place in! What this preview does best in the short time it takes to play it is provide us with a monochromatic optical feast. The character designs homages to Riyoko Ikeda right down to the powerful reaction sprites lovingly spelled with sharp highlights. But the stark black and white look of manga goes far beyond the characters and into the backgrounds. The backgrounds are drawn in the same style as the character designs allowing both to mesh together into a single image far better than games with a team more than triple the six people credited for the team here. Combined with lively sprite direction it makes the visual elements of this visual novel far more important than many others. I often found myself taking the time to just look at an animation or transition over and over because of the incredible synergy Phantom of the Black Rose Revue is capable of.

It is this effort to keep the different visual elements of the game congruent with each other that stands out the most in this brief demo. When the finished game is available to buy we can be certain that it will have a unique and complete sense of style, something that very few games manage to achieve.

No ratings yet, as this is only the beginning of the story.

Phantom of the Black Rose Revue can be downloaded on Windows, MacOS and Linux at name your own price on Yamino’s itch.io page.





Mizuchi 白蛇心傳 Visual Novel from Aikasa Collective, Guest Review by Louise P

June 17th, 2020

It’s my favorite day of the week today, Guest Review Wednesday! And today we have our Senior VN reviewer Louise P to tell you about a lovely new VN by the folks at Aikasa Collective. So, welcome back and  take it away Louise!

If you watched anime in the early 00s you probably were sick of sitcom shows set in some remote home, often Japanese style, filled with a bunch of young people who will not communicate properly, that we were supposed to find cute. Something that was very hard to do when characters were constantly in conflict due to either ignorance or malice. 

It’s wonderful then that we have Mizuchi, which follows Linh after she is rescued from being executed by Ai, a mysterious snake woman that Linh sees as a goddess. Linh ends up living with Ai and the two are later joined by Jinhai, a traveling former monk who has a lot of history with Ai.

Mizuchi‘s setup might sound familiar to you but that is where the similarities end. For starters while Linh may be the main character Ai and Jinhai are not jealously competing to seduce her. Instead we are given time for everyone to get to know each other in the usual manner for a visual novel, by talking about the food they are going to eat and the little quirks in the languages they speak.

But this is a yuri visual novel, we’re here for romance. Mizuchi does well by clearing the low bar of ensuring that the characters fall in love as they learn about and help each other. We fall in love with Ai along with Linh as she walks us through ‘baby’s beginners book of feminism’. Jinhai has plenty of opportunities to be dashing and kind so that by the time the game contrived a reason for Linh to fall out of a tree into Jinhai’s arms I was ecstatic rather than bored. 

It was really nice that so much of Linh’s time with Ai and Jinhai is learning skills and knowledge from them that were denied to her by her family or by wider society. Linh doesn’t just fall in love with Ai and Jinhai but also improves herself by learning from them and being mentored. Linh’s grows from someone who just goes along with what people set for her into a person committed to deciding their own fate. 

The story doesn’t ignore Ai and Jinhai’s relationship either. They are charmingly written like they are a pair of on again off again ex-girlfriends. It is delightfully clear in the way that the two both snipe at each other but also have nothing but good things to say about each other when they are alone. Ai will openly admit to how noble and kind Jinhai is but then at the same time she will wave a freshly butchered pig’s head in front of the very vegetarian ex-monk.

Mizuchi capitalizes on this charm with some of the best sprite animation since Heart of the Woods. I’m not a fan of sprites taking center stage, however the sprites in Mizuchi are endlessly endearing. Characters settle behind tables, slide smoothly in and out of frame and all three main characters have expressions that match them well. Particularly with Ai and Jinhai who have exppresions that play to their strengths to get the reader to fall for them in the same moments Linh does.

Sadly this wonderful found family situation is often hijacked by the wider framing. Whenever we are reminded of the village Linh has escaped from, the story develops a mean streak that does not gel with the scenes of day to day life.

At the beginning of the story, Linh is saved from execution in her hometown by Ai. This was brought about by a wrongful and sexist accusation of adultery. However Linh regularly desires to return to her family who we had last seen giving her over to a bloodthirsty mob. How she expects this to work out on her return is not something the reader ever learns it just becomes irrelevant way too late in the story. So at several points in the story we have Linh, our main character, pining to return to a town that we the reader have only come to hate. It is a real mood whiplash.

This is further compounded when Ai, the person who overtly points out the cruelty in patriarchy, constantly has her power demonised both in the story and by Jinhai. Whenever Ai gains or exercises power within the story she is criticized so much more than any of the men who willfully harm others for their own gain.

Jinhai openly says that if Ai were to rise to her true potential Jinhai would seal her. When this inevitably happens in the climax of a few routes Jinah jumps to seal Ai away even though the only reason Ai is transforming is to deal with a far more malevolent threat. A threat that is overtly male coded compared to whatever threat Ai poses. 

For a story about three women living together, where the main character is saved from being executed by a society that has deemed her worthless, having the final conflict being: “Oh no our powerful friend is now too powerful.” seems like entirely the wrong tone to take. 

Which is a shame because as I said earlier for most of the game these are charming characters who play off each other well and respect each other. Perhaps the best part of the game as a whole was that all three never stopped being friends in any of the routes. No matter who Linh ends up with the other never becomes jealous just to throw some additional conflict into the situation. Mizuchi does know that it is possible to be happy for others.

The story of Mizuchi is, at its core, one of three women supporting and nurturing each other, that eventually blossoms into a love that helps all of them become better people. A good relaxing summer romance read.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 6
Service – Well there are sex scenes and bathing scenes 10?

Overall – 7

Erica here: Thank you so much for the review. This sounds like it really hits all the marks on narrative, and style. Thanks for walking us through it. ^_^ Thanks very much to Aikasa Collective for the review copy!





LGBTQ Visual Novel: Heaven Will be Mine, Guest Review by Louise P

January 16th, 2019

It’s our first Guest Review Wednesday of 2019! Please welcome back Guest Reviewer Louise P for a look at a new Yuri Visual Novel for us. Take it away, Louise!

Heaven Will be Mine is a visual novel that starts right at what would be the climax for any other super robot story. The three factions have all their players, two super prototypes are finally operational and everyone is headed to the moon for the big final confrontation. There the future of humanity in space will be decided; or rather the future of humans who already live in space will be decided. Do they ‘return’ to Earth, live in space or cease to be human at all? These conflicts will be solved both with giant robots (called Ship Selves) and sexting in equal measure.

Heaven Will be Mine ditches a great deal of unnecessary visual novel tropes. There are no ‘heroine’ characters instead we have three protagonists, all equally important. There’s Pluto: the idealistic leader of Cradles Graces who finally has a ship self that matches her own overwhelming power. Luna-Terra: the jaded veteran of Memorial Foundation who has now broken so many hearts in space that it is finally catching up with her and finally Saturn, a pilot who totally gets this is a game about relationships and space robot battles and jumps into merging fighting and flirting so naturally it’s a surprise to hear that it is her first time in the pilot seat.

The story follows all three in their journey from the outer solar system to the showdown at the moon from the perspectives of Pluto, Luna-Terra or Saturn. While we begin right in the thick of things and there’s a lot of back story hanging over the characters and we are given enough credit to piece it together ourselves, as we see events from the perspectives of each leading character and their supporting cast. Emails often fill us in on the back-story, while the pilots live-chatting with their comrades provide some of the biggest laughs in the story.

But center stage is taken up by the confrontations between Luna-Terra, Saturn and Pluto. I do mean confrontations, because each character is an ace pilot for one of the three factions warring for the future of space; they’re supposed to be enemies. Like many other giant robot stories, this is fantastic ground for romantic tension and unlike many other giant robot stories, Heaven Will be Mine is doing this deliberately and it all pays off in the end.

What Heaven Will be Mine manages to create is a genuine sense of chemistry with the three main characters. Luna-Terra and Saturn slowly open up and learn to be vulnerable with each other. Pluto and Saturn learn about each other beyond their status as psychic celebrities and see each other as people. Luna-Terra and Pluto start with a tonne of baggage from the beginning but gradually work and fight through it. It’s a real delight to read as each scene is a blend of two of these unique voices that give a face to some very real queer experiences.

But while we may see these characters move from fighting with each other to falling for each other, that is not what we as the reader get to influence. Instead we decide what faction gains an advantage from the protagonist’s confrontations. What this really means is that we don’t decide who falls in love with whom but who makes the best case for what society that love has to live within.

Because, what everyone is fighting for in Heaven Will be Mine is whether or not they return to an Earth that sees them as something alien. Every character already knows what is at stake, but eventually it becomes clear that aside from the cool robots and space colonies, space is a place where it is easier to be a queer person. It is a place unencumbered by the history and preconceptions on what it is to be human, which allowed the people in space to have the bodies they have, the relationships they have and, most importantly, the power to shape their own destiny and make political decisions.

In space a queer trans woman can be accepted not just as a the woman she is, but as a leader of an entire movement. This looks alien to the majority on Earth, and so terrifying that Pluto and everyone like her are thought to be worth purging, either through exile or extermination. No one will care if the alien dies.

We look for lesbian characters with society and agency here and Heaven Will be Mine not only has those but makes the formation of a LGBTQ friendly society and what shape that will take, the climax of the story. Even though there doesn’t exist a route where everyone gets everything they want, everyone does agree to work to make it the best it can be.

 As Pluto says: “We don’t need a true ending. Whatever it is, we’ll make it the true ending.”

 

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 9
Characters – 10
Yuri – 10
Service – 3 (but also kinda 10)

Overall – 10

 

I am not saying that Heaven Will be Mine is perfect, it is exactly what I needed to read at exactly the point I needed to read it. Thinking about this story and its characters makes me a happier person and that’s why the score is so high. It is available on itch.io, Steam and iTunes.

Erica here: Wow, this sounds appealing, if this kind of thing ever appealed to me. ^_^ Thanks for the review! 





Yuri Visual Novel: Ne no Kami – The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto, Guest Review by Louis P

January 24th, 2018

Welcome to another Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu! I am pleased as punch to welcome back our good friend, Okazu Superhero and Guest Reviewer Louis P. Take it away, Louis!

Ne no Kami – The Two Princess Knights of Kyoto, a visual novel by Kuro Irodoru Yomiji, starts of promisingly enough. Len Ese is a compelling and interesting protagonist, with the ability to sense the presence of living things. Before you can say ‘ordinary high school student’ she is dropped into a new life and a new home just outside of Kyoto. Reuniting with her childhood friend Shinonome Sarume she is whisked away to a secret village, the headquarters of Kunai a secret organization of sacred sword wielders who have promised to fight Ayakashi that threaten the human world. Len learns that Kunai wants her to help them fight these dangerous Youkai, she even gets a cool magic sword that only she can wield like her friend Shinonome who also works for Kunai. In fact everyone in the small village she used to visit growing up works for this secret monster fighting organisation.

Now if that last paragraph makes you think that Ne no Kami like some kind of fun supernatural version of Thunderbirds, it isn’t. In fact it is quite the trip to watch Ne no Kami systematically make its setting as pleasant to read as dry white toast. The writers were clearly fans of the urban fantasy visual novels that have long periods of exposition mixed with everyday life (Aoi Shiro) but they seem to have missed that what you then need to do is populate that everyday life with interesting characters and make that exposition meaningful to events we have already experienced early on in the story. No, instead Ne no Kami decides to front load its entire mythology right from the get go and when it is not doing that the characters’ daily lives feel truly banal. Quite an achievement when Len is moving into a new home, re-uniting with two childhood friends and learning about a secret youkai war but all these scenes are populated with characters that have such low energy it is hard to stay awake never mind care.

And that is a pity because…

Spoiler warning here but seriously you are not missing much and knowing this is probably the only reason to buy this visual novel. If you really do not want to know, skip to the second set of asterisks.

****

 

It turns out that the war the Ayakashi have been waging against humanity is not as simple as Kunai have been making out. Indeed it seems that Kunai is pretty much the illuminati and the war is not so much to save humanity but to expand their control over it. In the end Len, Shinonome and their remaining allies must find their own way to survive after being betrayed by the very people who taught them and us about the entire setting. This throws all that we learned in the first third of the story back into uncertainly for both the characters and the reader.

****

It is a nice twist even if the people that will betray Len are pretty obvious from the moment you meet them as well as those Ayakashi that will prove to be not blood thirsty monsters. However this twists power relies on how invested we are in the lie we are fed at the beginning which, as I said, was dull and boring and I did not care about. So while this sudden twist feels inspired it did not put the work in at the start to make us feel invested in the status quo. So I was far more relived to find out about all the deception and that one of the most annoying characters was evil enough to deserve what was coming to them.

‘But what about the Yuri?’ I hear you ask, now that is actually a bit more interesting although you have to pick it out of the gizzards of the poorly told story and the character designs that are ridiculously infantile. What is nice is that both Len and Shinonome have their own love interests. Uzume Sarume and Ruka Himemishi: both of whom are given serious significance in the story but are also lacking in nearly any kind of agency. It doesn’t help as well that Uzume is deliberately made up to be a shut in with a really creepy crush on Len that somehow blooms into romance while Ruka’s story is making you think that she is one kind of fetishised ill girl when she is in fact a fetishised traumatised girl and then one-upping how exploitatively traumatic they can make her back-story every two chapters.

Despite everything it does wrong I could imagine recommending Ne no Kami, five or seven years in the past. It is clearly trying and its heart is in the right place. I mean love between women is what saves people at the end and our heroes are two pairs of girlfriends but in this modern world with Kindred Spirits on the Roof, Butterfly Soup, Highway Blossoms and Ladykiller around there is just better stuff to spend your time and money on. If only this had been released ten years ago it could be something like Sapphism no Gensou. Yeah we read it despite all its glaring flaws but it was because there was so little else to read. Today however I have no such excuse.

Ratings:

Art – 3
Story – 5
Characters – 2 (I had to look up everyone’s name while writing this. That should tell you what you need to know)
Yuri – 8
Service – 8

Overall – 5

Erica here: I would like to thank Denpasoft for the review copy of Ne No Kami. It was much appreciated! And many thanks to Louis for another cogent review.