I’ve only played two games by Cybird, ー Ikemen Sengoku and Ikemen Vampire ー but the issue with their games is clear. They launch a new interesting game, decently designed characters and artwork, famous voice actors, cute dressing options and fun storyline. It’s no secret i’ve enjoyed the games a lot, but after they’ve milked their fanbase the quality of the game simply declines with time. Either more characters are released to bring up hype and attention back to the game or the game is left neglected of the quality it once was present.
Ikemen Sengoku had many characters being released when the number was already high to start with, so new character routes lacked the old characters making appearances- because there wasn’t enough time in the route for it.
Things went down by a new level when Kennyo’s route was released. In the western fanbase the route didn’t have a good reaction to spoilers and translations of the original version of a particular chapter where the main character has it’s clothes torn and is groped by the male interest.
I never liked the character and already had issues with the drop of quality in the game by then so I did not bother to play it.
Things didn’t get any better with the release of new characters and a new route, because they used the same recipe as before. Motonari’s character is mean to be the type of character that only wishes to see the world burn, and this is not exactly a bad troupe, but it is very badly executed. To me his character is despicable, but not written good enough in a way that would render me interested in it.
In addition his route is more of the same where the fetish of being humiliated and mistreated is used to attract the audience. While Kennyo’s actions in his route were meet with disgust, the formula seemed to work very well within Motonari’s route and was well received by many in the english speaking fanbase. I’m not here to judge anyone’s fetishes but back then I had not expected the game to take this route and being so honest about it.
Along with it came the tirelessly repetition of the same events. The stories barely different from each other, with the same couple words being repeated to the main character by the suitors.
The very, very bad work they did with the translations. The extremely annoying unnecessary amount of sassiness coming out from the main character’s mouth and thoughts, many which are then immediately contradicted by the actions of which the original story was written.
Basically changing her thoughts for English localization but maintaining her actions because they are not allowed to write or change the original storyline. This makes the heroine appear to be either hypocrite or straight up stupid.
And in routes as well as events this was an issue along with the addition of unnecessary english-centric references and short-lived internet memes and jokes inserted in it, which just age very badly.
Ikemen Vampire seems to be an excellent game that also declined in quality with time and even with routes still being released, each year that passes there is less and less players. I’ll leave Ikevamp for another post since this one is too long already.
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
romaincrisis
titsay
origamiaround
snowghoul
