Reine Des Fleurs – Otome Game Review

I never thought I’d be done so quickly with this game since it has so many endings, but once you get past the main story for each character, it actually moves on really quickly, because the character routes are pretty short. And probably also because this is the only thing to do apart from my thesis. This is the better option. (;´･ω･)

Flying carriages led by unicorns, Laputa-like palace in the sky, a mystical tree of life; Reine Des Fleurs is a strange medieval-fairytale-wafuu mix, with the Taisho-Kimono clothes and the Knights’ countries each holding a reference to Japan all giving taste to its setting. All strangeness is possibly overlooked just because of Usuba Kagerou’s beautiful art and the detailed scenery BG. Add to that beautiful BGMs by Love Solfege and moe-able love interests, it’s a great game!

Or, should have been.

This game was a disappointment as expected and there were so many things that really pissed me off:

1] Third-rate scenario writing masked into the minigame-of-sorts called Ravir.

Ravir is some kind of battle-simulation where your conversation with the knight or the other characters are supposed to make you know them better, or get them to know you better and earn their trust.

Before each heart-to-heart-getting-to-know-your-knight scene, Violette the queen(Reine) (who doesn’t actually need to eat or sleep to live), uses a water mirror to spy on things, or has to go around asking other people what they think of that guy and collecting information about him and the information is used in Ravir by Violette to question them. Why the hell is she doing this?! Sounds like some PI or stalker. The fact that they make every conversation into a battle pisses me off big time. And the naming sense of the minigame selection ‘Ravir’, according to wikipedia:

Ravir (French)

1. to ravish (to seize by force)
2. to ravish, delight or thrill (transport with joy)
3. to charm, bewitch, dazzle or fascinate
4. to plunder, rob or loot
5. to kidnap or abduct

Is it just me that minds?

The system of Ravir goes where every choice you make either turns it into a Love point or Loyalty point, then from there on it branches out to every possible failed and wrong decision, leading to some tragic end you didn’t forsee. Hah. I knew words carry weight, but surely not to this extent.

I believe that they tried to make Ravir a reference to the hobby of rich upperclasses in the past who liked to play with words. I forgot what exactly it was, but I remember reading about it somewhere that the upperclasses loved ‘making conversation’ and turning it into some important topic. Afterall, they ain’t got otome games back then.

2) No one pays Violette much obeisance:

• Leon keeps trying to hug her and sees her only as love interest
• Louis is haraguro and only plays around with her
• Ghislain hates her guts for being a woman
• Orpheus treats her like a friend.
• Hubert is her teacher and almost like a dad and speaks in a condescending way sometimes.

Aren’t you guys going overboard? “Bow down before me, you pigs!” may be a bit of a stretch, but she doesn’t have much respect as the stand-in goddess who holds the power to reviving the world.

I really don’t remember much about the prologue when the guys were talking about their countries. Maybe it’s just me but I got really bored with the topics involved. The only thing I remember is when moekyunLeon blushes beetred and starts mumbling to himself to calm down.

It was totally moe.

3) There is too much talk about the glass glass glass. Perhaps there could have been a better way to execute this whole Glass thing. FYI (If I remember the shit right), Glass is a kind of vessel holding the power to heal the land. (Think of it as a water glass holding power). The Hanabito (Flower people) are literally, people created from flowers and they can wither away according to the Reine’s powers. The Butterflies are aides to the Reine and the four knights. Each of the knight has one, and Reine Violette has a pair of twins with her. Not that we really cared about what the hell Glass is in the first place, but the repeated mention of this thing that was so poorly explained can drive you up the wall.

4) Too little characters in the story for something so grand and large scale as this. The maids in the palace are disgusting marionettes.

The chef is a bunch-of-grapes-hat wearing, pear-as-necklace wearing old gourmet.

Now that I look carefully, there are bananas hanging on his hat too. His hat actually looks like a mango. 

The only Princess-like thing Violette does is have tea with Madame Enjyu, a gorgeous French Noblewoman-like Hanabito. So they said Violette was born as the goddess proxy. Born by who? Where are her parents? Hubert is also highly suspicious. Where exactly did he come from? Who appointed him as Aide? These questions were answered later, but not to my satisfaction even though it’s a main part of the storyline.

5) System is not touch responsive. I like my buttons but they forget this is PSVITA. And this ugly start screen!

6) Too many endings. I forget what I’ve done and forget what happens very quickly. Because of that, it leaves you with a bad aftertaste that nothing actually happened. I tried to be optimistic and say that the many endings gave Violette her character- that any little choice she made would be detrimental to the world since she is proxy goddess. But it could have been done in a better way by being less repetitive and not actually having to play the Ravir a thousand times. With so many games on hand, did they seriously think the player would enjoy going through every damn different choice? And I hated those ends where the couple is in their right minds but decide to kill everyone else so they can be together. It was so immoral. These two things really killed my interest in the game and by the time I got to guy #2, I swear I was ready to give up. But I hung in there for moekyunLeon,

and also for sexy Louis. There were so many kiss scenes in Louis’ route NamiDai fans like me are gonna get a double helping of his sexy voice. Too bad there’s no kiss sound effects like some games do :p

I thought Operetta was bad with their 24 endings. Who knew Otomate would win them hands down with 40 endings in total?

The only saving grace is that they title the endings so you can know which one you’ve not done if you use Choro’s guide.

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Good points:

Art, BGMs, BG art:

The saving grace of the game of course! Lovely BGMs by love solfege, beautiful art by Usuba Kagerou, lovely BG art that draws you into the world on RDF. As Choro says, this game would be kusoge without all these supplements.

Storyline: In considering the storyline, this game is not a straightforward love game, which has its merits when we consider the setting of a devastated world, but the romance was constructed really badly since nothing much happens between the couple and suddenly we see them thinking that they feel so lightheaded and happy around each other.

The only one I can forgive is moekyunLeon who is so mad in love everything is just hilarious. Above scene shows him crushing an apple with his hand because he thinks Violette is too cute when she eats an apple by biting it whole for the first time.

Ghislain was originally the guy with the design I liked the most, but pity, he’s voiced by Kondou Takashi and I am more sick than sick of his voice. And Tsundere Kondou Takashi too? He spoiled Ghislain for me. And the truth in his route, oh boy. It reminds me of DiaLovers and it was a little painful going through that route.

There were also times when another character that is not the couple commits suicide due to the degree of the destruction in the land (the Knights are linked to the land) and I felt that it was a nice thing to do to add to the stage of the whole “dying earth” thing. Violette also occasionally has to choose who to sacrifice to save the other lands which was kind of sad and great to make this a dark tragedy game. It was realistic at least, rather than otome games that cover it up. Saying so, it wasn’t that the whole story was dark and dreary. There were a few nice gags when they beat Leon up because he’s such an idiot, or here’s my favourite scene: Hubert sincerely presents this present to Violette who refuses to sleep:

Hubert “I got this wonderful soine toy for you, isn’t it cute? With this you won’t be lonely anymore.”

Violette upon seeing it “I-I-I’m not lonely anymore! I’m a big girl I don’t need it!”

Hubert: “What a letdown….” (He was actually sincere about it being cute.)

One thing about Hubert and Violette’s route: I felt that it was rather sad, but it wasn’t really believable. When Violette’s proxy-goddess role is revealed in the common route, I already though that they would somehow destroy Hubert’s route, but thankfully, most of it is saved by Gintoki I mean, Sugita Tomokazu’s deep sexy voice. Playing KLAP next will definitely make me happy.

Extras: Extra CG per character once you finish the Love route, Stupid Konpeito system.

Whenever you win a Ravir battle, you get some points to buy stuff from the shop, including Konpeito so that you can give them to the twins and make them get better information for you. Some little scenarios for each character in the ‘Extra’ parts as well. Music section to listen to the lovely BGMs in the game.

My recommended play order” Leon > Louis > Ghislain > Orpheus > Hubert.

They recommended that you play Leon > Orpheus > Ghislain > Louis > Hubert but really, that’s just so they can minimise your suffering of the multiple endings but it doesn’t make any difference. Just play whoever you want after moekyunLeon.

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Why did we play this shiet.

Everytime an Otome Game tries to write a story revolving around a ‘tree of life’, it ends up pretty shitty or confusing: think Chronostacia, NOISE, this game. Rebirth is by itself a big concept, and when so many other elements are added to it, things get worse. It’s a real pity because fans have been waiting over a year for this, and they then throw us so many endings to make up for the lack of storyline. The endings were nothing but time-buying. Whoever voted this for Gold Rating ought to be shot, because this game certainly doesn’t match up to the other Gold ratings in the Otomate bag.

3 stars. (Pity points for lovely art and BGMs)

Give this game a miss. Buying the soundtrack and artbook is a much better option.

Will be taking a short break, then starting KLAP!!!

(Wait for my whip, boys……..)