Pyrite Heart: Otome game review

I'm back from the dead!  Yes, this might as well be an April Fool's joke since last I saw, I posted way back in April 2013.  My interest in otome games was re-ignited when I saw Pyrite Heart, voiced, clean art, and best of all- free!  It started with stumbling on Guardian's Spell, a WIP by Winged-Cloud on Kickstarter.

Review

The game itself is really short with an hour max for each of the two available guys featured on the cover (depending how fast you read).  I missed the hype train before the game without voiceovers came out, so I'm not struck down with disappointment.  However, do not play this game thinking it's the next Hakuouki, Tokimeki, Hiiro no Kakera, or whatever big name otome game you fancy.  The art is very pretty and clean, sure, but it doesn't save the cookie-cutter plot.  The premise is very simple, you play as Ahri Remono, princess to whatever European-style royalty family there is in Japan, who challenges her brother to a survival contest outside of her palace for one week.  The two guys you can pick are the loyal servant Kenta or the school president Ryuu.  I think the team must have placed most of their time and resources into the art and voiceovers because the story is painfully short given the designated time and simplistic plot devices.  You get the cosplay, doing-an-activity-thus-bringing-intimacy-together, accidentally hitting someone or getting hit yourself, and other plot devices.  There's no greater conflict other than Ahri getting by for one week without the comfort of her servants or palace (and that conflict quickly slams on her 2/3rds of the way into the story).  Kenta's story was kind of cheesy, because it takes on the master-servant relationship plot down to the tee, including implied reprecussions of breaking the taboo at the ending.  Ryuu's story was a big more refreshing to Kenta's with a resolved ending.  It pains me to admit that Ahri is a nice change of pace to the passive, Mary Sue heroines in many otome games, but at the cost of being a stuck-up, clueless bitch given her background.  The music fits, but nothing sticks out. Speaking of audio, while I appreciate the voiceovers, the volume was very inconsistent.  Not only was there no speech volume adjustment, but I had to deal with constantly adjusting the volume when one character spoke too loud and another spoke too low.  I have to give a hand at the female voice actor for making Ahri REALLY sound like a stuck-up bitch, but she kind of reminded me of Amanda Lee or other NA-based (or otherwise English) female voice actors.  Overall, I'd say give this game a whirl if you're craving for an otome VN fix that's free, in English, and killing time for a short story.

Let's Play thoughts (SPOILERS)

After beating her older brother Kichiro at a made-up game she pulled out of her ass, Ahri boasted that she's the best in the country/palace and that no servant could beat her.  Fed up with her shit, Kichiro tells her that her pampered ass can't handle the outside world for a week.  Buying into his "challenge", she declares another one at him, saying that if she wins then he has to do whatever she wants and vice versa.  Right out of the gate, she calls students left and right plebs and that she's the best (while trying to maintain a disguise that she's not a princess).  First day and she challenges Ryuu the school president that she can overthrow his position by the end of the week, and he gladly accepts knowing that he's not going to lose.  

Kenta's route

I just realized the game had a bit too much orange lighting going on.  Lol, didn't notice because I had Flux active.

Without realizing it, I placed myself onto Kenta's route and decided to get the best ending possible so as to not waste so much time.  The best ending possible also yields the most CGs compared to alternatives.  It's pretty obvious which of the two choices you're presented should be picked in order to get the best ending, because any other deviation will get you a "normal" ending.  So back to the gym, Ahri is playing basketball until Kenta warns her to watch out for a flying ball.  Kenta was sent to watch over her, and this pisses her off because she told Kichiro to not send spies.  Ahri decides to stay and watch Kenta play, while giving herself a pat on the back for teaching him how to play basketball well (pff, wut?).  Kenta challenges Ahri to play a game of HORSE, and the two are neck-and-neck (heh) until Kenta's face is breathing right next to her neck as she's trying to focus on her shot.  Denying that it's distracting her, Ahri misses and the two share an awkward moment about the breathing earlier.

(I think) Shortly after, Ryuu tells Ahri that he knows that she's a princess and Ahri flips her lid about Kenta telling him.  She storms over to Kenta and starts beating his chest with her fists from being outraged over her cover being blown, until Kenta said that he and Ryuu are good friends so he just pieced together her background based on what Kenta told Ryuu about her.  Once again, it's "yes ma'am, no ma'am, three bags full ma'am" from Kenta as he begs for Milady's forgiveness.

AWWWW YEAHHHH, FULL TSUNDERE AHEAD!

The next day, being the stuck-up bitch she is, Ahri challenges Ryuu to a cooking contest even though she never touched a whisk in her entire life.  Kenta offers to help her find recipes in the library and the two quickly fell asleep.  Realizing that she had slept on his shoulder, Ahri gently gets off his shoulder and tries to wake him up.  The two quickly exchanged blushing faces over the "transgression" of a servant and master being too intimate.

 The day when she and Kenta were supposed to be testing out the recipes, Ahri went ahead and tried to make a chocolate cake, only to fail hard because she doesn't know how to make the batter and melt chocolate.  On top of that, she also melted a pot because she fell asleep and let the milk evaporate and the cocoa beans to burn in the pot.  Throwing the pot out of the window, Ahri is confronted with Kichiro over why a burnt pot almost smacked his face.  In the heat of contesting Ahri's common sense and independent survival skills, Ahri bragged about how Kenta was too close to her during basketball and how she fell asleep on his shoulder at the library.  Infuriated, Kichiro was going to terminate Kenta's position until Ahri stopped being self-serving and begged him to not let go of Kichiro after learning her lesson about servant and master relationship.  Kichiro agreed, but only if Kenta helps Ahri's baking skills.

Did I forgot to mention that Kenta was planning on ditching servitude and going to college?  Yeah, I totally forgot that, which is why I'm bringing it up now when Ahri pops the question to him.  Ahri asks for Kenta's help, without being humble at the same time and admitting that Kenta does most of the work.  The two created a chocolate-y and cake-y mess in the kitchen when they were trying to make a decent cake (because Kenta doesn't know how to bake either).

1...

Ahri finally pops the question about why Kenta was going to leave and Kenta reluctantly told her that he loves her, but he can't stay with her forever unless he became famous or something worthy of her status.  

2...

She said she doesn't care, but he said it's already done at the end of the week.  He kisses her on the cheek and leaves her alone in the kitchen (where she doesn't even belong).

3- BAM, heartbroken.

The final day comes and she's as dead as a dull lecture, while she follows Kenta's instructions for baking the cake.  The two of them know the inevitable, but try to make the most of the day.  Before the day ends, Ahri tries to convince Kenta to play one more game of basketball, but he's like "Nah, I'm out" and walks back to the palace.  She chases after him and confesses that she loves him and doesn't care about their status.  The ending only showed Ahri grabbing his tie and kissing him, AND IT'S THE END.  LIKE WTH, MAN.  THERE'S NO CONFLICT AFTER THIS AND WE'RE JUST SUPPOSED TO IMAGINE THE TWO OF THEM GOING AGAINST THE ROYAL FAMILY'S WISHES?  In conclusion, Kenta's ending was the super tired cliche of kiss ending with implied taking-on-the-future kind of thing, just like many other short stories where a couple is formed and you don't know if they broke up or not.

The normal ending was when you pick one bad move and you get directed into the friends (?) forever ending or a I-love-you-but-I-think-we'll-get-together-later ending.  Pretty much no kiss CG.  The bad ending was something I didn't want to do, but wanted to see if I can get a CG of Ahri being a stuck-up bitch through and through... and I got what I wanted.  By taking on the overly aggressive "tsun" side of tsundere, I got Ahri to piss off Kenta enough from shoving him off her in the library and blaming him for everything.  The bad ending was Kenta following through with his college plans and yelled at her for being a super cunt who can't take care of herself, yet has the gall to call herself flawless.  Even though Kenta felt bad for yelling at her, he still left her and she ran back to the palace with no one to come to her.  TAKE THAT, BITCH!

Ryuu's route

2nd guy I've seen with a camera taking pics of cute things

Easiest way is to just avoid Kenta (sorry).  By leaving the gym, Ahri was kicking rocks out of frustration from dealing with the backlash from Ryuu.  Ryuu tells Ahri to quit kicking rocks because he needs to take a picture of something she scared away.  When finally conceding to him and not kicking rocks at him, she waits with Kenta to see what will jump out of the bushes, but she decides to jump in and grab the critter.  Turns out it was a stray kitten Ryuu was taking care of and the first time Ahri has seen a gentler side of him (don't we all in other shojo stories?).

WHOO! He really goes all out.

When the history quiz game came around, Ryuu wagered that if she loses, then she has to wear a maid outfit and vice versa.  Of course, Ryuu meant he'd be her butler and not a maid.  This is the part where anything but the third option will yield Ahri's loss.  Surprisingly enough, I guessed "Mussolini" and I was treated to a sub-branch of Ryuu the butler.

Ahri should go work at one of those "Tsundere" cafés, all "tsun" and no "dere".

Because Kichiro warned you about burning a whole city block.

Getting Ahri to lose will reward a CG of Ahri dressed as a defiant maid and will go through a similar set of dialogue when Ryuu takes his absence.  When Ryuu leaves the classroom, all the students Ahri has insulted or has been rude to gang up on her, tells her that she dressed like a slut/forced Ryuu to be her butler, and belittled him in the end.  Ryuu comes in to break up the confrontation and saves Ahri from being bullied by the fangirls and pissed boys.

The cake testing scene will carry over if Ryuu's the butler, so Ahri still continued to be a snobby princess by ordering him around to bake a cake or cremé bruleé.  Letting Ryuu handle taking out the cake led to a stumble-and-fall gag where Ryuu's outfit is messed up and Ahri patches him up and asks if he's ok.  A similar thing happens when Ahri the maid is trying to bake a frozen pizza and it gets on her outfit.  Sadly, no CG was made for this scene.

Cooking day comes and Ryuu helps Ahri make her cake instead of doing hers.  The best ending had Ryuu tell Ahri that the two of them make a good pair and that he wants to be with her.  Ahri, however, said that she only gave herself a week and is super sad about having to never see him again.  After running off campus, she runs into Kichiro and tells him that she doesn't want to go back.  Ryuu quickly follows after and says that since Ahri told him that he won the contest, his wish was for Kichiro to let Ahri be where she wants to be.  Kichiro complied, the rivals come together, and they kissed for the ending.  Now this was the ending I was hoping for, resolution and whatnot by clearing with Kichiro.  The normal ending was Ahri being with Kenta and Ryuu as good friends or some shit.  The bad ending wasn't pursued because I'm pretty sure it ends with Ryuu telling her she's the biggest megabitch ever and she needs to wake up.

Anyways, the highlighted parts are probably common sense since it's obvious that being a douche will yield a bad ending, but they're there for the sake of the "walkthrough" part.