22/11/2016

Sweet Fuse: Refreshing


Gee, it's been a while since I last wrote, isn't it? I apologize for the long delay, dear fellow gamers. See, I was pondering which game to play after my last post when I was suddenly forced to take care of urgent matters that invited themselves into my life with the grace and subtlety of a cannonball. I had to use a lot of energy to solve these issues and I didn't lay a finger on any of my gaming devices during the last four weeks. Fortunately, the matter is nearly fully solved as I'm writing; and as the dust is settling and blood is drying on the now quiet battlefield, I can finally indulge in gaming again.

I chose Sweet Fuse because I wanted an easygoing game that required as little player input as possible—I'm still quite low on energy, I must say. Sweet Fuse turned out to be a fun, entertaining little game that packed more punch than I had expected, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The story is gripping—albeit a bit too easy to figure out for my taste—and the romancing process is as simple as it gets: there is no flag system, and the game lets you kindly know when you've made the "right" choice, i.e. the choice that will make the coveted bachelor fall deeper in love with you. This is straighforward and unfussy, just as I like my video game romancing to be. On the other hand, the production values are the lowest of the low: apart from the rather appealing character designs and good voice acting, everything in Sweet Fuse screams "budget". I could probably count on my two hands the number of background pictures used throughout the game and the cutscenes look horrible most of the time. But that's a bit of a law of the genre, I guess; I still have to uncover a VN with stellar production values.

I remember reading reviews deploring the fact that Sweet Fuse was too geared towards a young female audience for males to play it without cringing. I'm quite perplexed by such statements, which I'm tempted to blame on the fact that otome games were virtually unknown in the West when Sweet Fuse was released; because honestly, Sweet Fuse is not that soaked in girliness. Main heroine Saki is far from being a girl's girl, the overall tone is rather grisly and the game packs so little romantism that Amnesia: Memories' rough story feels like an Harlequin scenario compared to Sweet Fuse. Sure, there are a couple of kiss scenes here and there, and they can be cringing at times; but that's mostly because they are very poorly drawn. In a nutshell, don't let the otome nature of Sweet Fuse stop you, for you would miss a deeply entertaining and fast-paced story in the process.

Now's the time to talk about the routes. Here's my own personal ranking, from my least favourite route to my utmost favourite one:

  • Mitarashi: A rather unmemorable route as far as I'm concerned. In fact, I can't even remember what exactly happened. Mitarashi lacks depth and the whole "yankee-turned-escort" scenario was at once too far-fetched and too cliché to grab my attention.
  • Urabe: This is the Toma situation all over again, i.e. a guy who's incredibly kind and polite yet hides some dark impulses behind the polished surface. Just like Toma, Urabe is prone to confine and imprison the object of his affection in the name of protection; and just like Toma, he comes across as more than a little unbalanced. This route was actually rather entertaining and would have been ranked higher if not for the fact that it's too short and that Urabe whines way too much for my taste.
  • Shidou: My, what a disappointment. Shidou being a sexy b*tch with a cold-as-ice attitude, I expected a Defrosting Ice Queen scenario of massive magnitude rife with steamy moments—well, as steamy as a game geared towards teenage girls can allow, anyway. Alas, I was let down by Shidou's route. Not only does Shidou remains cold and boring until the end, but the route itself is far too long and poorly paced. As for the alchemy between Shidou and Saki, it's quite on the frosty side too. Heck, close to the absolute zero would be more accurate: during most of their cutscenes, he seems indifferent and bored and she seems ill at ease. Well, so much for the steaminess! Frankly, I expected more from the most popular character of the male cast and unofficial poster boy for the game. 
  •  Wakasa: A nice entertaining little route. It can best be described as mid-tier: good enough to be pleasant when you play it yet not good enough to be truly memorable. Although the idea of a blooming love story between an idol and a regular girl is too unlikely to really convince, it must be noted that Saki and Wakasa have a good chemistry—if only because they look so much like each other.
  • Shirabe: A surprisingly good route. It's fast-paced and gripping, and there's a very good love chemistry between Shirabe and Saki despite their age difference. I only regret that the developers threw Shirabe's daughter into the mix; it feels slightly forced and it cheapens the overall narrative in general and this route in particular. Obviously, your mileage may vary on that one, and maybe many a player found Shirabe's daughter a cute addition to the game; but as far as I'm concerned, having a kid from a former union in the picture is a trifle gross. If I were a teenage girl, there's no way I would get romantically involved with a man who's already been spreading his genes around—especially if the result of said spreading is more than old enough to be my little sister.
  • Mikami: Now we're reaching the top-tier routes and it's getting really, really good. Mikami's route is an intense, gripping and hectic route in which each wrong answer will result in an untimely death—exactly like Ukyo's route in Amnesia: Memories. Mikami actually shares something else with Ukyo, i.e. an unstable personality peppered with bouts of psychopathic behaviour. In other words, he's a bit of a nutcase, and that's why it's so enthralling to watch his story unfold. This route is the most "romantic" of the bunch, in the sense that it revolves nearly exclusively around saving Mikami from the dark side of the Force, shall we say. All in all, I deem Mikami more interesting than Ukyo in the role of the game's resident fruitcake: he's a charming nutter with a goofy side, a weirdly soothing voice and looks that make you want to take a trip to the nearest beach. 
  • Meoshi: Please welcome my favourite route! Not only was it enthralling and ideally paced, but the alchemy between Meoshi and Saki is quite amazing. The route is rife with sweet moments between the two of them and the slow blooming of their love story is just so totally believable that it made me all mushy and stupidly happy. Even better, Meoshi is the only character that undergoes some character development reaching beyond the scope of the narrative. We get to know quite a lot about his introverted personality and we see him come out of his shell and become bolder and more assertive as his route unfolds, which is a great development. This route resonated strongly with me, partly because I identify closely with Meoshi. There's the obvious "gamer" element, of course; but there's also the fact that I used to be painfully shy and introverted and prone to social anxiety in my early twenties. Heck, I was basically Meoshi in my early twenties; and just like him, I managed to overcome these hurdles. That's why his route had such an impact on me.  
Jeez, I'm quite drained after writing for the first time in a month. Let's wrap this up, shall we? I don't have much to add anyway, apart from the fact that Sweet Fuse is a refreshing otome game that deserves to be played. Oh, and Count Hogstein is hilariously awesome—totally on par with abhorrent Monokuma from Danganronpa. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

5 comments:

  1. Aww, you're making me want to play this game again. I played it last year it and enjoyed it very much. The "budget" factor didn't bother me too much since, well, I only paid 7 euros for it :p

    Trust an otoge gamer, the story and atmosphere is refreshing for the genre. It's free of the most terrible clichés and cheap drama that plague the genre, opting instead for a simple, but sound story with well rounded characters. The romance is too light compared to most games in the genre, but I found them refreshing enough because they were uncomplicated for the most part and worked well enough simply through the chemistry present between the heroine and the guys.

    I'd rank Wakasa way higher simply because a romance between an idol and the heroine isn't that rare, but it's so rare to see it done so well. There's no BS drama with his fans ruining Saki's life, no producers coming between them (which I find stupid give how short idol's careers are in Japan), etc. Instead it's just...them, the game and Wakasa's insecurities. And trust me their romance, even for this game's standards, was way better than the usual idol romance. They actually had genuine chemistry as people, whereas in most other games it boils down to "omg, he's so hot and I admire him" and "I like this random girl for some reason, probably because I'm a complete douche to her and she still comes back". Oh, and Wakasa is not a douche, which helps. A bit bratty sure,but not a douche, and I think he gets better by the end.

    Overall, I'd rank Wakasa second because I expected everything bad from him and instead I got something cute. Plus, he fits better with Saki given their close age, their chemistry, the lack of daughters from a previous relationship, him not going to jail....

    I liked Shidou more than you did, but we have the same opinion on the other guys. I found Shirabe's daughter to be cute, even though IRL I would find that completely unacceptable. But again, I liked how drama free their relationship was compared to other games. Shirabe likes Saki, Saki likes him and his daughter, okay then, let's try and make a happy family. No drama from the mother or Saki's family. The simplicity was cute.

    And Meoshi is just the most adorable thing. I love how he still grows a little even in other routes, like in Shidou's route (if I'm remembering correctly) where he's still being a good fighter against Shidou in the last game. But either way, his chemistry with Saki is amazing, and the end of his route was bringing me to tears. It was also very suspenseful when he Saki got separated from the others, so overall his route was amazing.

    Man, I gotta replay Meoshi's and Wakasa's routes.

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    1. Forgot to add: I agree that Mitarashi's route was the meh'est, but dang, it was worth going through it just for that one moment during their last confrontation with Hogstein in that route. I'm pretty sure you know the moment I'm talking about-it was hilarious.

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    2. Ha ha, I can see someone here has a soft spot for Wakasa!^^ If there's one thing I like about him, it's definitely his expressions. Especially his starry-eyed face, which is just hilarious. It's a pity he's not featured more prominently in the game; he's probably the character that gets the least screen time. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Mai and Hogstein appeared more often than Wakasa.

      I loved this game so much that I could very well see myself replaying it, which is not something I could say about Amnesia:Memories, the only other otome game I've played. With hindsight, I regret not having purchased a physical copy of Sweet Fuse a couple of years ago when such copies were still cheap, because they commend unreasonably high prices nowadays. I love that game, but I'm not sure I want to fork out +40 euros to get my paws on it. On the other hand, it is really a great game and it would annoy me to lose it if the PSN goes belly up... Oh well, we'll see. If my collector instinct compels me to get Sweet Fuse physical, then I'll get it! ^__^

      "I'm pretty sure you know the moment I'm talking about-it was hilarious": alas, I actually don't remember that hialrious moment at all. Will you refresh my memory?^^

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    3. Yep, I definitely have a soft spot for Wakasa. Though I'm not sure how much of it is due to him and how much of it is due to awful, awful experiences I had with idols in other games, making him seem that much better. Either way, I'm sad that you're right and he doesn't get that much spotlight.

      About the hilarious moment: you know how you can make the heroine deliver "the reason you suck" speeches to the characters, accompanied by her yelling "what's wrong with you!" and the receiving character freezing with shock? You can have her do this to Hogstein several times and some other characters (Shidou and Shirabe come to mind).

      Well in Mitarashi's route, at the end he's going to do something stupid so the heroine can be saved at the cost of his own life (it's while he's carrying her, I think he's going to charge at Hogstein, who is armed), but she yells out "what's wrong with you!". Like usual, Mitarashi freezes in shock, but it turns out Hogstein ALSO freezes in shock, probably because he's so used to having that phrase directed at him. This allows Mitarashi to charge at Hogstein while he's frozen, letting them solve the issue with both him and the heroine alive.

      I thought it was funny how they incorporated a feature that was meant to be funny (and mostly optional, depending on your choices) into something that saves the story in one route. The whole game as a whole had a lot of funny moments that were really well incorporated into the rest of the more suspenseful plot.

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    4. Ah yes, I remember now. And Hogstein says something like "wait, why am I apologizing?" after having been caught in the storm of Saki's anger. As a whole, being able to frighten even Hogstein with the mighty power of Saki's anger was a nice touch. I was fidgety about this feature at first, thinking that a misuse would maybe lower the guys' affections; but it didn't seem to have any negative effect, so I could relax and let the steam out by letting Saki blow a fuse whenever I felt like it. Great fun, really.

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