Another month, another Otome Rom-Com. For those unfamiliar with Otome, it’s a sub-genre of visual novel catering primarily to a female audience, and one which we haven’t seen a lot of in the west – see my previous Otome review (https://invisioncommunity.co.uk/dairoku-agents-of-sakuratani-review) for a deeper look at the genre. Whilst this type of visual novel was all the rage during the days of the Vita, many of the genres never made it across to the west. Thankfully, of late many are finally reaching our shores, and it’s thanks to AKSYSgames that Variable Barricade has finally had an official translation; but how does it hold up across the pond?
Like most visual novels, Variable Barricade is a game with a simple concept – you take the role of a protagonist and experience a number of short scenes, occasionally picking dialogue options to choose the route which you take through the story. These options often lead you to romance one or more of the game’s characters, and often you are also given the option (through menus) to navigate the story in different ways and unlock extra endings. Variable Barricade is that to a tee, and honestly, I have no complaints with that. The choices and menus are clear and concise (despite a little bit of Vita clunkiness) and the UI is very approachable. There’s even a full flowchart – though routes do require unlocking via the barricade system within this. Of course, the gameplay revolves entirely around the story and the quality of the writing, so let’s consider the plot itself.
You play as young heiress Hibari Tojo – a strong-willed yet somewhat reserved girl from one of Japan’s most prestigious and powerful families. Starting a new semester at school, she is all-of-a-sudden ambushed by four simultaneous proposals of marriage. It turns out that the scene is a big set-up, with the four bachelors having been picked by her strict grandfather as suitable marriage candidates. Despite her protestations, she is told that she must choose one of the four to marry, else she’ll essentially be disowned. The four suitors – Ichiya, Taiga, Shion and Nayuta are set to live with Hibari in a Villa until she makes up her mind, but unbeknownst to her initially each of them has a dark and disgraceful flaw of some kind. The opportunity for comedy and hi-jinks is put in place, bon appetit.
I’ll try to avoid spoilers for what comes after the setup, but I’ll briefly discuss the four suitors and their flaws, as these are revealed very swiftly in the tale. If you don’t want to read these, skip the next paragraph – you have been warned.
Ichiya is a tall, blue-haired stud who appears perfect and has an obsession with romance – but he’s also a bit of a player, having previously attempted to engage in marriage fraud. He’s a sweet-as-sugar creep with a certain cockiness – he really gives out “pick-up-artist” vibes. I wasn’t a fan of him initially, but I eventually warmed to him whilst navigating his route. Shion is an attractive daydreamer with seemingly no ability or drive to do things for himself. The game’s website describes him as a “kept man,” but I prefer to think of him as a professional moocher. Yes, he’s patient and relatively nice, but he’s also just generally lazy and I struggled to really see past that. Nayuta is helpful, devoted and likeable…but he’s also riddled with debt. I liked him and found him very relatable, but I also struggled to get past the fact he clearly went into this situation hoping to have that written off through marriage to a rich person. He’s a bit of a golden retriever, just one that can’t stop spending money he doesn’t have. Finally, we have Taiga, a cocky, pink-haired guy with a gambling problem. Obviously, he can stop whenever he wants to. Yeah, at first I found his character came across as the least genuinely but he really grew on me as the story progressed.
The story plays out through a variety of slice-of-life moments, although there were plenty of story moments and twists scattered throughout. Overall the story itself is very strong, and I enjoyed most of the routes. I especially enjoyed the final route, in which you learn a lot about Hibari herself and the Tojo family – it just ties everything together nicely. It’s very light-hearted and full of funny moments – it really does have rom-com value. More than once I found myself laughing out loud and I can’t think of many games which I can truly say amused me. Hell, I’d pick this over any Adam Sandler flick. The comedy also comes from a mix of genres – there are hilarious situational moments, absurdly funny events and plenty of great character giggles within it, showing a range I haven’t seen before in a Visual Novel.
The game also looked great, with a unique and clean visual style. There’s lots of interesting imagery in the UI and the manga-style backgrounds are beautiful. You can tell how much time and effort was put into making this look gorgeous, and I was glad to have my Switch OLED so that the colours in the images could truly shine. Too many games these days are grey, and Variable Barricade really feels like an explosion of colour.
The music and sound design are also excellent, and consistently so. The BGM varies from soft and romantic, with classical undertones, to full-blown guitar-driven pop-rock. It’s really great, so much so that I’ve even been listening to it outside of the game. Unusually for a VN, the protagonist is voiced, but I felt like this gave her more personality than I would otherwise expect. Unfortunately, the VA is all Japanese, with no English dub as far as I could see, but whilst I’m disappointed I’m not surprised.
Overall, Variable Barricade is a fun, chirpy rom-com with plenty of appeal to those who like their visual novels a little lighter. The story is generally good, and whilst I sometimes wished there was a little more drama I still had a great time reading through this excellent Otome.
Developers: Otomate, Design Factory
Publishers: Otomate, Aksys Games, Idea Factory
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch
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