Things 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 mild spoilers )

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.
Why yes I do have three app games going on my phone right now. No this is not sustainable, but I like all of them and they are each easy to play for only a few minutes a day.

Anyway, Scarlet Fate is a romance fantasy historical set in the Heian era. The protagonist is a princess who is also a priestess. She takes both parts of her job very seriously and seems to be very good at them. Part of her job is to guard a sword that can bring about the end of the world. In the prologue, we hear a prophecy that the end of the world is fast approaching, so clearly her being good at her job will be very important. She also has, for reasons we don't yet know, a lot of guilt and a lot of anger. And she's an exceptionally good fighter.

The first love interest that we meet is a demon in wolf form who is rescued by the Princess and shortly after turns into a handsome man. In Demon's Bond, I felt like it helped a lot that I did the routes in order. Since this is the same company and has a similar feel I thought I should do the same, but I ended up being completely compelled by a different love interest: the super-annoying guy she happens to be engaged to, who calls her 'wife' from their very first scene. Although he's rude and arrogant and they don't like each other very much they have a lot of mutual respect, he supports her leadership and isn't threatened by all her other significant relationships with men (including the cute guy she rescued) and she takes his learning and expertise seriously without feeling like she has to do whatever he says. They also make an awesome battle couple.

I've been thinking I've wanted to see a historical otome that *doesn't* impose modern ideas of marriage and romance...I'm not sure if this is exactly that, but I do like the idea of a protagonist who has other choices choosing to go along with an arranged marriage to someone she respects but doesn't love because she's okay with marriage working that way. I'm only in the second chapter but we'll see how it does.

Profile

waterscroll

March 2021

S M T W T F S
 123456
78 910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Apr. 23rd, 2025 03:04 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios