So in hopes of some missing otome game action from the last game, I decided to play the (extremely short) FD. Unlike most FDs I’ve ever played, this one doesn’t take place AFTER the previous game – it takes place in BETWEEN chapters 6-8 of the last game during the summer. They knew they dun goof’ed on the bullshit ending in the last game so there was no real way to do an after story FD…so yea time to shove the missing otome events right!? And so for this reason everyone including the substances is all horned up for Akira and fights over her the entire time. 😂
The basic story has 4 events – the kimodameshi, hiding in Takuto’s room when Soichiro checks on them, getting possessed by their substance during a training exercise and then the final epilogue after their concert.
Kazuki – Kazuki is well….Engrish man as usual and nothing really romantic in his route except the end where he decides to kiss her hair as a “good luck” charm after their concert. I still wish he would eventually talk “normally” again…they never really did explain why he talks/acts like a complete fool the whole time.
Yuuji – Yuuji gets randy behind a curtain with Akira while they are hiding in Takuto’s room when Soichiro comes to check on them. 😏 Actually he seems like he’s hiding his closet pervertness way less in this game when he blurted straight out he wants to see her wearing a miniskirt, cat ears and thigh highs 😂. In the end I think he even gives her a hickey? We’ve come so far!!!!!
Yosuke – Yosuke was a bit less “all I do is cook” and more cute/awkward around Akira but then having him go really crazy because of Fernandez and attack Takuto was kind of a downfall. His kiss on the cheek (ear?) cg at the end was cute tho.
Hiro – Dusen was a good wingman for Hiro making his time spent with Akira really cute 😊. I like that giving him a hug also calmed him down during the resonance berserking and his kiss on the cheek at the end.
Takuto – Takuto was kinda disappointing cause I was hoping for more cute tsundere moments but they didn’t really focus on those and it was mostly him trying to keep his cool. (´・ω・`) Even his final scene felt really angsty which was a disappointment.
Hijiri – As usual, I love the interactions between Hijiri and Akira. He intentionally acts like he’s hitting on her and she immediately bounces back all his attempts right back at him. It was one of the more enjoyable routes even if as usual, the CGs were rather disappointing. The final forehead kiss CG was really cute though.
Souichiro – Also known as Amakasu, they finally gave him a route in this one and from what I read there’s more hints of him liking her from side material which I never really read. Sadly the whole thing was really watered down and it was really mild in comparison to having played Hijiri’s right before that.
Grand Bach – Well as expected he basically kills everyone and abducts Akira lol. Surprise surprise! Also he somehow gets more action than Souichiro did which is real shit lmao.
Command Room Trio – I honestly can’t even remember these guys’ names enough to care that they had an ending but well they did, and it wasn’t particularly that interesting lol.
Substance End – The only memorable thing I have is Fernandez’s attempt to get customers at their school festival cafe and him acting like he and Akira are on a date while Yosuke steps away for a moment lol. Their ending is them being upset that they have to stop their training cause all the pilots start mentally breaking.
Kazuki in a nutshell
Uh well I didn’t expect much so in that sense I wasn’t “disappointed”. The game still provided probably more romance than the original but since the game takes place “mid” last game, there was no “good” resolution or any kind of nice “ending” since they tried to keep canon (especially seen with Souichiro.) Personally my favorite routes in this were Yuuji, Hiro and Hijiri. I had high expectations for some tsundere action with Takuto but they completely dropped the ball on that which left me rather disappointed in that sense lol. Anyway it’s honestly a shame that they didn’t put more effort into the otome game feel for this whole series but I think they did a better job with Prince of Stride (which was apparently by the same writer lol) when it comes to romance. I ended up marathoning the entire anime series in one day while playing this as well and it definitely translates better into animated action than in game format. It was easier to tell what was going on with the battles and having Akira be voiced gave her a bit less wallflower feel. My only complaint was them changing some story elements and randomly shoving in an original character who didn’t need to be there lmao but otherwise I think maybe watching the anime first should give you an idea if you might like the series…and if you want to sit through 13 copy pasta battle chapters for the 5 minutes of romance with each guy. It might even be good to play this FD at the same time as playing the first game to add a bit of romance when it was “actually” supposed to happen in the story.
