Scarlet Fate: Kuso route
Nov. 10th, 2019 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waterscrollThings I loved about it:
1. The MC - her name is Shiki - is the protagonist of her own story, which revolves around her goals, choices and destiny. The LI is there to support her goals rather than the other way around. She's also highly competent at fighting, magic and governance. In her role as princess she is responsible for protecting her city and in her role as priestess she is responsible for stopping the end of the world, and her LIs are there to help her do these things in different ways.
2. The romance is slow-burn, lovely and different from anything I've seen in an otome novel before. They call each other husband and wife from the beginning, although as it turns out they are only engaged and don't get actually married until most of the way through the route. But the route plays up the dutiful married couple thing, so you get things like Shiki rushing into battle to save her husband because it is her wifely duty. The progression of the relationship goes resigned commitment -> grudging respect -> battle comrades -> trusted allies -> deep and overwhelming love. At the beginning of the route there's a lot of him protecting her but as the route goes on they turn out to be fairly evenly matched and she saves his life as often as he saves hers.
3. Kuso himself is a lot of fun. He's sarcastic and arrogant and at the beginning kind of pissy about being engaged to Shiki. But he steps up to protect her and her city because that's his job as her husband. He's smart, well-read, a good fighter, and good at magic. He's called a god by the narrative but in this Shinto-inspired universe that can mean a lot of different things, and in his case it turns out to mean that he has magical powers more or less on the level of some of the more powerful demons from Demon's Bond but is otherwise mortal.
4. His path to helping Shiki involves getting the help of a *much* more powerful goddess, who turns out to be a fascinating character with her own issues.
The main drawback is that the storytelling is repetitive and the route feels overlong, and the same narrative tropes get hit over and over. But I'd say it was generally worth it anyway.
Also: The sequel/fandisk of this one is actually available in translation, yay!
I'm guessing that Kuso was not the best choice to start with because in the other routes her relationship with him is the bad marriage that she needs to escape from and that will be harder to accept now that I've seen that he can turn out to be a lovely husband in the end. So, I'll have to try to forget that I know that. I think the next route I'll do is Akifusa, the commander of the MC's armies and her childhood friend. It is the one that is actually listed first, so maybe the one I should've started with. He seems very earnest and kind.
1. The MC - her name is Shiki - is the protagonist of her own story, which revolves around her goals, choices and destiny. The LI is there to support her goals rather than the other way around. She's also highly competent at fighting, magic and governance. In her role as princess she is responsible for protecting her city and in her role as priestess she is responsible for stopping the end of the world, and her LIs are there to help her do these things in different ways.
2. The romance is slow-burn, lovely and different from anything I've seen in an otome novel before. They call each other husband and wife from the beginning, although as it turns out they are only engaged and don't get actually married until most of the way through the route. But the route plays up the dutiful married couple thing, so you get things like Shiki rushing into battle to save her husband because it is her wifely duty. The progression of the relationship goes resigned commitment -> grudging respect -> battle comrades -> trusted allies -> deep and overwhelming love. At the beginning of the route there's a lot of him protecting her but as the route goes on they turn out to be fairly evenly matched and she saves his life as often as he saves hers.
3. Kuso himself is a lot of fun. He's sarcastic and arrogant and at the beginning kind of pissy about being engaged to Shiki. But he steps up to protect her and her city because that's his job as her husband. He's smart, well-read, a good fighter, and good at magic. He's called a god by the narrative but in this Shinto-inspired universe that can mean a lot of different things, and in his case it turns out to mean that he has magical powers more or less on the level of some of the more powerful demons from Demon's Bond but is otherwise mortal.
4. His path to helping Shiki involves getting the help of a *much* more powerful goddess, who turns out to be a fascinating character with her own issues.
The main drawback is that the storytelling is repetitive and the route feels overlong, and the same narrative tropes get hit over and over. But I'd say it was generally worth it anyway.
Also: The sequel/fandisk of this one is actually available in translation, yay!
I'm guessing that Kuso was not the best choice to start with because in the other routes her relationship with him is the bad marriage that she needs to escape from and that will be harder to accept now that I've seen that he can turn out to be a lovely husband in the end. So, I'll have to try to forget that I know that. I think the next route I'll do is Akifusa, the commander of the MC's armies and her childhood friend. It is the one that is actually listed first, so maybe the one I should've started with. He seems very earnest and kind.
