waterscroll | Entries tagged with ikemen sengoku

Inspired by a conversation with Scytale...

I think SLBP and IkeSen are intentionally coy about MC's age to allow us to self-insert better. In IkeSen I feel like the MC really could be any age from early 20s to early 50s. She's about to start her dream job, so she could be right out of school or at the peak of her long career. As a fashion designer she could be stunning at any age. I didn't see a lot of 'youthful innocence' tropes with her. So she could be young, or not. Since the warlords don't have canon ages, you could imagine them as younger or older depending on the age you give to MC.

With SLBP, we get a few more clues.
( mild spoilers for Mitsunari, Hideyoshi, Nobunaga and Shingen routes )

Do you have headcanons for MC's age? If so, are they the same across routes or different for different routes?

IkeSen Kenshin was enjoyable but I don't have a ton to say about it. Like most IkeSen route it was highly fanservice-y, serving enjoyable tropes while doing its best to respect MC's agency and consent. Here the trope was yandere and imprisonment. I didn't overthink it too much, but it did some clever things to run those tropes in a consent-y way. ( mild spoilers )

Now I'm replaying Mitsunari's route. So far I'm not finding the replay worth it, the scenes from his POV haven't added much. But I'm only on chapter 5 and we'll see.

Meanwhile, SLBP Kenshin is very much not like IkeSen Kenshin. He's gentle and very sweet, and though he also has traumas he mostly deals with them by being a hoarder and obsessively finding the beauty in everything. It reminds me of Mitsuhide's route in how slow and subtle it is, but I'm not liking it as much, possibly because Mitsuhide was more religious and Kenshin is more about aesthetics. In some ways it's even slower, I just finished chapter 8 and it's ony sort of begun to occur to MC that she might have feelings for Kenshin. It's mostly slice-of-life getting to know Kenshin and his retainers/extended family. Some of them are lovely characters, although none have routes yet. It looks like Kaegie will get one soon, but I would really like to see a route for Kanetsugu, Kenshin's no-nonsense practically-minded retainer who is an extremely devoted single dad and goes around with his daughter's name in big characters on his helmet.

I'm thinking I'll finish up this route around when Nobunaga's act 3 comes out, since it looks like it will be out March 8. Can't wait!

Meanwhile one PSA about the current event story - you don't get free energy hearts (and closet space) for reading. (ETA: This was fixed, you get the things now.) ~~So I did my normal strategy of burning 50-60 energy hearts in the double points and coins fever at the beginning, because that way I end up with more in the end, and whoops, wrong strategy.~~ As far as the stories themselves - I thought the Shingen one was ridiculous and he was acting like a caricature of himself, but I like the Saizo one, I thought it was an unusual take on him.

I really liked this route. I'd been using IkeSen as my fluff break while playing Samurai Love Ballad, but this route was really quite engaging. It was I think a good choice to replay a SLBP route while doing this one, because getting this involved in two routes at once might be more than I want.

( Physicist, ninja, history geek and surprisingly interesting boyfriend )

So: excellent route. If you're considering starting it's the one I'd recommend to start with, out of all the routes I've done. I'm sure I'll replay it eventually to do the dramatic route.

Next up I think is replaying the Mitsunari route. I have a few reasons for this:
1. I'll be doing the Shingen route next in SLBP and expect it to be brutal. IkeSen Mitsunari made me happy all the way through.
2. I'm curious to see how a replay works and how different the dramatic route is from the romantic route that I did.
3. Oh who am I kidding - because Kennyo has a major role in it, and I didn't pay much attention to him the first time around because all my attention was occupied by the shocking novelty of Mitsunari being alive and happy.

And after all those good reasons, I ended up picking the Kenshin route because his relationship with Sasuke made me so curious about him. Bring on the God of War!

IkeSen is treating me very well this month. Sasuke's route continues to be excellent, more about that later. And in addition I paid too much money for a few short stories about the evil warrior monk Kennyo, who unfortunately doesn't have a route yet (but probably will in about a year). I think they were worth the too-much-money though, because I've been watching them over and over again.

( Thank you so much, IkeSen, for giving me another horrifying but idealistic guy to love. Also you know I always go for the religious ones, especially if they are terrible. )

I think this route might be my favorite so far. Sasuke is a major history geek and likes to run around confirming or attempting to reenact historical anecdotes. This is all fun and games until he offers Mitsunari a persimmon ( and oh look, even in this universe Mitsunari manages to break my heart )

Meanwhile in SLBP, I'm feeling like replaying Nobunaga's route was a good choice. I was resenting him until I was like 95% of the way through the route the first time and now I can appreciate him more. I can also appreciate the route more, now that I know that it isn't necessarily a tragedy but can also be ( something that can lead to a happy ending )

Not one of my favorites, but very interestingly structured, in that you don't find out what it's about until the second last chapter.

( If you want to know, click here for spoilers. )

I guess this brings out another reason that SLBP Hideyoshi always makes me feel somewhat nauseous, his route (and every ES I've seen) are set before the horrible things that he ends up doing. So you know his character arc is going nowhere good, because unlike IkeSen this isn't set in an AU fluffy universe. Or is it? SLBP isn't always *completely* historically consistent, so you don't know what's going to happen to Hideyoshi, or just how awful he's going to get.

I thought this was the best-written of the routes I've read so far, and it was definitely fun to read. The writers did a great job of showing-not-telling that Nobunaga is smart, determined and a great leader. They also filed off enough of his rough edges to make crushing on him feel like something a modern woman would plausibly do. Most of this route is a dubcon fantasy that they managed to write as silly rather than squicky. ( spoilers, I guess, although this game isn't very plot-heavy in general so it's hard to spoil )

There's not much to overthink here but it was fun to read.

I just started the Hideyoshi route and I'm liking it so far. It seems like it's going to be about Hideyoshi trying to make space for love in his life when he's so overwhelmingly devoted to Nobunaga, which is a kind of character arc that interests me. One thing I liked a lot in this route ( minor spoiler for the second chapter ) Hideyoshi himself seems sweet and earnest, and well, I have a type.

Now that I've been playing for a bit, a roundup of spending money in these app games.

SLBP: $1=1 pearl, but there are big discounts if you buy in bulk, so $50=80 pearls. Also you can get them free in-game.
IkeSen: $1=100 coins, no real bulk discounts. The only way to get them for free is by watching ads and downloading apps, and to get any substantial number of them this way can be time-consuming.

Things that cost money, ranked from most to least worth it to me:

SLBP:

1. Side story epilogues, 4 pearls. I've found the side stories so far generally engaging. The epilogues aren't essential but they are a nice character developing or relationship building scene. I've bought I think 7 so far and of them only one was a total dud and a couple have been truly excellent.
2. Extra chapter tickets, if you get them on a good sale. They have sales where you can get them at 20 for 15 pearls with a bunch of other things, and after buying pearls with the bulk discount that gets them down to a somewhat reasonable price of about 30-40 cents each. It's nice to not have to wait for the next day to resolve a cliffhanger. Not worth it for the normal price of $1/ticket.
3. Premium scenes where you pay extra pearls for voice acting, a cg and the ability to replay. These are pricey but I've enjoyed them. Price varies, I think 5-15.
4. Premium scenes where you just get an extra cg. 8-12 pearls. The cgs are sometimes mediocre and sometimes gorgeous but there's no way to tell in advance and in any case I don't want to spend that amount of money on a cg.
5. Extra clothes to dress up the avatar, extra closet space for the clothes. I'm not here for that.

If all you need pearls for is the occasional side story epilogue, you can get enough of them through the game and shouldn't need to spend money.

IkeSen:

Premium scenes cost $3 to $9. If you get the premium scene the writing is more detailed and you get to keep it and replay it. The pattern seems to go like this:

Scene 1: $3, you get more detailed description of UST. I've found these worth it.
Scene 2: $4, more UST. Also good.
Scene 3: $5, you get more detailed description of the first kiss. I've found these meh, most of what's good you also get in the normal scene.
Scene 4: $6, you get more detailed description of a first-time sex scene. Very much depends on personal taste.
Scene 5: $9, you get more detailed description of the end-of-route sex scene. Ditto.

I found chapter tickets worth it at a steep discount (50 cents or less) but I only was able to get discounts that deep in the newbie sale and haven't seen them since.

The side story epilogues might be worth it if you are very invested in a character but I haven't bought one yet. The side stories are mostly smutty fluff.

You can also spend money on clothes and storage for clothes, but again not what I'm here for.

How much I've spent:
SLBP: When I started I spent $75 on 120 pearls and spent about 80 of them on discounted chapter tickets. After three routes and 13 side stories I now have 19 pearls and 70 chapter tickets left. Most of the things I bought I enjoyed.
IkeSen: After two routes I've spent about $33 on premium scenes and heavily discounted chapter tickets. Many of the things I bought weren't worth it.

I guess this is the problem with the AU setting - what do you do with a character who has been AUed out of everything that made him interesting? Since in this universe Nobunaga lives Ieyasu doesn't get to do much conquering, empire building or governing. What's left in this universe is a highly competent, ambitious and violent warlord with an angsty past as a child hostage. The romance arc was ( spoilers ) So, it was fine, pleasant to read, but not that engaging. Probably worth the $3 I paid for it.

Probably I should read Nobunaga's route next, although I am considering Mitsuhide because that's the one I will almost certainly do next in Samurai Love Ballad. Historically Mitsuhide is the guy who killed Nobunaga for unknown reasons. In Samurai Love Ballad he's written as devoutly religious, honest, kind, very serious and intensely honorable. In other words, clearly going to be one of my favorites. In Ikemen Sengoku on the one hand he's devious and a little sketchy and on the other hand he *didn't* actually assassinate Nobunaga (because this is an AU where Nobunaga lives and in any case it was someone else who tried to kill him). So definitely interesting, but less written to speak to my interests in particular.

( spoilers for Demon's Bond, Ikemen Sengoku and Samurai Love Ballad )

In other news, I did end up choosing the Hideyoshi route to do next in Samurai Love Ballad. Currently it is meeting expectations, he is being very cute and seductive and (mercifully) not breaking my heart *at all*. Maybe this route will give me a chance to catch my breath. I took a look at the Mitsuhide route and it seems well-suited to my tastes, he's all about honor and duty and quiet obedience until he (historical spoiler) assassinates Nobunaga because he deserves it. But let me give myself a break first. Hideyoshi looks like someone I will enjoy being seduced by and not overidentify with, and that sounds nice right now.

I think I've made peace with the payment structure for this game. There are lots of things to spend money on but they are mostly not worth it. The premium scenes are nice, but it's the same events, just more graphically described. Early in the route that means more detailed descriptions of the attraction/UST, at the end it means a more graphically described sex scene. So, not really essential. I got two of the early ones, for a total of $8, and that felt like the right number and a reasonable price for a route. I feel like if I love a character enough to play through both the Romantic and the Dramatic routes I can always buy more of the premium scenes the second time around, since they are mostly the same in the two routes.

My hunch is that Mitsunari was really not the right character to start this game with, as he seemed intended to be the fluff break between angstfests in other routes. Mitsunari in this game is a pure, perfect angel of a man who is too honest, gentle and kind for this world and for his violent times. The plot, such as it was, was about him learning to live in a messy world and find love in it. It was also about fighting wars using brains rather than strength, and with as little violence as possible, and while trying above all to save lives. In other words, feel-good fluff very well targeted to my particular tastes. I am definitely curious about the choice to do this with a historical figure who is usually written as a nasty piece of work. (As he was in Demon's Bond, to be fair, for all his lovability in Kazutake's route.) I am not sure if this is very clever or very random, and I'm still thinking about it.

Since that was so fluffy I've just started the Ieyasu route, and apparently he is both tsundere and yandere. Should be fun.

I'm also most of the way though the Mitsunari route in Samurai Love Ballad. This game is somewhat more to my taste, everyone is terrible and it's more deeply connected to the history. This Mitsunari is super-interesting on a lot of levels and I'll write a post about him when I'm done with the route.

I'm definitely committed to both games, there's nothing I love better in a game than being able to date people from all sides of a historical conflict. And playing two of them at once gives me enough to read that I don't mind only getting half a chapter of each game every day. Plus it is super-fun to get these dramatically different interpretations of the same character.

The payment structure is definitely something to get used to. You get five tickets (enough for half a chapter) per day. You can buy more but they get pricey fast. Then every few chapters you have a choice between premium and normal stories, and if you buy all the premium stories it also gets pricey fast. So far I did one premium story and one normal story and I liked them both. I think you get the same story content in both, you just get more elaborate descriptions in the premium story. Then there are skill checks that you can pass by grinding but you can also get buffs by spending money. So it seems like the way to play is: log in once a day, read half a chapter, do a few grindy tasks, close the app and come back tomorrow.

As far as the story itself ( very minor spoilers, also for the Kazutake route in Demon's Bond )

I expect the other routes will be different. The one I most have my eye on is the vengeful warrior monk. His route isn't out yet but he seems like my type, especially since he seems to be the antagonist in many routes.

In browsing around for another thing to play that I can play on my schedule I found Shall We Date: Scarlet Fate. Which is like Demon's Bond in that it is: 1. Also historical 2. Also by Otomate 3. Also seems to be more Themes and Plot than fanservice-y romance 4. Also pay-per-route. This seems to be a collection of things that I like, so I've downloaded it and will check out the prologue when I get a chance.

One of the feeeelings that Demon's Bond left me with was extreme sadness that I couldn't rescue Mitsunari and run off with him because it's not that kind of game. But then I realized: of course I can. I just had to move to a different game, that is ALL ABOUT saving Sengoku warlords and running off with them.

The premise: 21st century fashion designer is swept back into the warring states period, where she immediately saves Oda Nobunaga's life. She then very quickly meets a large number of different dateable guys, who all immediately flirt with her. They include many warlords and also a physics student who specializes in handwavium and who also went back in time. The prologue introduces you to a lot of people very quickly so there isn't time to really get to know any of them before picking a route. I was a little tempted to pick Oda Nobunaga because he's the one we spent the most time with in the prologue so maybe he was the one the game was pushing as the default choice. But, I know who I'm here for.

This version of Mitsunari is unfortunately not very much like the Demon's Bond version, but he seems interesting in his own way. He's kind, bookish, more than a little clueless, and tries to be respectful of the protagonist. I'm curious to see how the route goes. I'll probably start with the Romantic route first. So far the game is VERY SILLY but I understand the stories get good eventually.

I do not AT ALL like the game mechanics with the princess lessons and glam-offs. I am going to as much as possible just pay for a route with money and see how that works and how much it ends up costing. I spent $20 on in-game coins and if that doesn't get me through a route I'm going to be a little annoyed.

ETA: $20 is going to be nowhere near enough to just buy a route outright. Just to get all the premium stories is $27 for one route ($36 if I want both the dramatic and romantic routes). And that's *still* doing all the grind-y tasks to get through the route itself. Buying enough chapter tickets to just pay for the route would be an unrealistic $130 (for one route!) plus if I don't want to grind I'd need to buy enough potions and stuff to pass stat checks and I have no idea how much that would cost.

On the other hand the routes can be done for free if you're willing to read a little each day, do the (not unpleasant) grindy tasks and read the normal scenes instead of the premium scenes.

So I will have to figure out what is worth paying for, which looks like it will be complicated.