• Price: $49.99 USD (digital, physical via Play-Asia)
• Developer: Idea Factory
• Publisher: eastasiasoft
• Release Date: August 1, 2024

A review code was kindly provided by eastasiasoft on behalf of Idea Factory. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Content warnings: Rated M for “Blood, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence.” Stalking, attempted abductions, mentions of ritual suicide and executions. Supernatural elements.

The Hakuoki series has been around since 2008, with its first release on the PS2. Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom (PSP, 2011) was the first otome game I ever played, and I’ve been playing otome games ever since.

They later expanded the original game with new love interest routes for both existing side characters and new ones. The story arcs, set in Kyoto and Edo, were divided into two games. With Chronicles of Wind and Blossom, they’ve now combined Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms into one convenient remastered combo pack.

Historical Context

I’ll preface this by saying that you do not need to have background knowledge about Japanese history. It’s helpful, but not necessary. The story is set in 1860s Japan at the tail end of the Tokugawa period; during this time, the emperor was more of a figurehead, while the Tokugawa shogunate actually held the power.

Japan maintained a policy of isolation from foreigners under their rule until Commodore Matthew Perry essentially forced a treaty that opened the country to the United States in 1854. This was quite controversial, leading to civil unrest in Japan.

The love interests in Hakuoki are based on members of the Shinsengumi, a group of ronin who policed Kyoto on behalf of the shogunate.

Complications in Kyoto

Our story begins in 1863, with Chizuru arriving in Kyoto in search of her father, who has gone missing. Although she’s disguised as a male, she still ends up being harassed by some ronin. She’s rescued by the Shinsengumi, who take her into custody, as she’s seen something the group wants to keep secret.

They get off to a rocky start, but once they discover that she’s female and her missing father is affiliated with the Shinsengumi, they allow her to stay with them. The story takes place over several years, fictionalizing real historical events and characters. Along the way, Chizuru will fall in love with one of the love interests based on your choices.

“And They Were Housemates”

Chizuru mainly interacts with the higher ranked members of the Shinsengumi, although a few love interests do not belong to the organization. The romantic relationships do not really begin until the midpoint of the story, which takes place several years in.

I really like how the romance builds over time instead of giving us “insta-love” scenarios. Another plus is the lack of non-consensual elements (discounting Kazama’s abduction attempts).

The Originals

Hijikata

Hijikata is the Commander of the Shinsengumi; due to his strict nature and combat skills, he’s known as the Demon Commander. He was one of my favorite love interests in the original version, and that hasn’t changed. Despite his prickly exterior, he’s actually very kind. He takes his duties (and sense of honor) very seriously. I thought his route was romantic, but also bittersweet.

Harada

Harada remains my favorite love interest after experiencing every route in this version. He always does his best to comfort Chizuru. His friendships often provide the group with some entertainment, and he develops a fun frenemy relationship.

Part of the reason I like him so much is that he differs from every other love interest in an important way, and his ending seems like the happiest one to me. I love how he describes his hopes for his relationship with Chizuru. His route is one of two with implied offscreen intimacy.

Saito

Saito also remains a favorite of mine. He’s a man of few words, but he’s very loyal and kind. When Chizuru doesn’t grasp the complexities of a situation, Saito is the one who usually explains things to her. I like that he has a “special interest,” and he gets bonus points for being left-handed like me.

Toudou

As a younger Shinsengumi captain, Toudou is closer to Chizuru in age. He’s very friendly, and asks her to use his first name right away instead of maintaining formality. His conflicted feelings on politics make him a bit more interesting. I like him, but also wish we got more screen time with him in his route.

Okita

When I was younger I didn’t care for Okita as much. He comes off as cold and a little sadistic sometimes. This time around, I appreciated him a bit more, but the others still rank higher for me. His good ending doesn’t necessarily bring closure to something about Okita, but it’s memorable enough that I’ve remembered it for years.

Kazama

Kazama is the only original love interest who isn’t affiliated with the Shinsengumi; in fact, his goals are often at odds with those of the Shinsengumi. I’ve never liked obsessive love interests, and Kazama is more interested in Chizuru due to a familial trait than he is in getting to know her. I really dislike him in other routes; he’s okay in his own. However, his route was also very emotional (I actually cried).

Shinsengumi Side Characters

Side characters in previous versions who get their own romantic routes in Kyoto Winds/Edo Blossoms.

Yamazaki

I remember being salty that Yamazaki wasn’t a love interest in the original. Thankfully, they added him as an option. He’s the loyal “shadow” of the Shinsengumi, gathering intelligence on enemy movements. His quiet nature makes him perfect for that role. He’s nice, and shares something in common with Chizuru. His ending was one of my favorites, and he also has some of the more powerful lines in the game.

Sanan

I tend to like the “megane” characters like Sanan in otome games. He’s intelligent, and Hijikata values his contributions to the Shinsengumi. I have mixed feelings about his character, but his good ending was one of the more interesting conclusions to the story.

Nagakura

Nagakura is just okay for me. He treats Chizuru well after he warms up to her. It would be easy to write him off as another “meathead,” but he’s capable of being serious.

One of the best parts of Nagakura’s character is that he is loyal to the Shinsengumi, but if he doesn’t like how things are going, he’ll say so. Unfortunately, I didn’t think there was any romantic chemistry between him and Chizuru, which is worsened by him saying she’s like a little sister early on… 😭

New in Town

Characters introduced in the Kyoto Winds/Edo Blossoms games

Souma

I think Souma is the only love interest who is younger than Chizuru. He joins the Shinsengumi as a page after Chizuru has already been with them for a while. She helps train Souma in page duties when he’s not improving his swordsmanship.

He’s very protective of Chizuru, and strives to be a true warrior like his idols in the Shinsengumi. I couldn’t stop crying towards the end of his route because of how heartbreaking some scenes were. They balance that with some humorous scenes with reactions to Souma and Chizuru’s relationship. (He’s also the only other character I remember having offscreen intimacy.)

Iba

An ally of the Shinsengumi, Iba works for the shogunate; he met Chizuru long before her arrival in Kyoto. Due to his familiarity with Chizuru, he’s extremely protective of her. I like him well enough, and he’s another character with some particularly good lines of dialogue. It’s nice that his storyline deviates a bit more from the routes for the main members of the Shinsengumi; however, parts of his story get a little ridiculous.

Sakamoto

As an outsider, Sakamoto stands out as the only other love interest to really disagree with the Shinsengumi in some way. He befriends Chizuru and visits her despite the Shinsengumi’s disapproval.

It was fascinating to read his analysis of the state of affairs in Asia (and its interactions with European countries). His route changes a few events in the Kyoto arc. Like Nagakura, I didn’t see much chemistry between him and Chizuru. The good ending is neat though.

Chizuru: “Loyal, Brave, & True”

Chizuru has her own route without any romance. It’s fairly short compared to the other routes, but it sure packs an emotional punch. I didn’t love it, but I could appreciate the way it pulled on my heartstrings.

I do like Chizuru as the main character. Technically she does have some basic training in swordsmanship, but she sadly doesn’t use it. I’ve always been a little sad that we don’t get to see Chizuru actually fight. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t try, even when she knows she doesn’t stand a chance.

The men of the Shinsengumi do have to protect her, but I don’t consider her a weak main character. She’s admittedly a bit naive sometimes, but she does anything and everything she possibly can to support the Shinsengumi.

Critiques & Compliments

There’s a ton of content in this 2-in-1 edition, with 13 character routes and multiple endings for each route. Each route starts with the Kyoto Winds arc, followed by the storylines from the Edo Blossoms game (which take place just after Kyoto).

While I definitely appreciated the large number of routes, I did think that they felt too similar sometimes when it comes to the main story and the conflict with each love interest’s antagonist(s). Repetitiveness was more of an issue with the Kyoto Winds portion of the story.

It was interesting to see how some characters switched between protagonist and antagonist roles across different routes, though. I did wish they would have included more about Kazama and Sen’s people, and/or a storyline that sides more with the Emperor to change things up.

Additionally, while I realize that bad endings are a part of otome games, I’m of the opinion that less is more in that regard. There were about 5-7 bad endings for each love interest across the Kyoto and Edo arcs, which got kind of exhausting.

Lastly, the English localization is good, but there are a surprising amount of typos. (On rare occasions they label a character with the wrong name over their dialogue box.) On the plus side, they did a great job of making the text legible with a larger font size, making this more accessible for those with vision difficulties.

The positives definitely outnumber any complaints. Your appreciation of the game will depend on how you feel about historical settings and fairly heavy angst. You’ll get endings that are happy to a certain extent in Hakuoki; don’t come into this expecting *everyone* to live. Keep some tissues handy to wipe your tears!

Violence is commonplace in this time period, after all. We do get to see what life is like in the Shinsengumi compound, but there are also many scenes depicting strategy meetings and battles. They really did a great job of bringing the battles to life, from the way they managed the perspectives of character portraits to the clanging sword sound effects and blood spatter.

And speaking of character portraits, they’re absolutely gorgeous – as are the CGs and backgrounds. They used real locations like the Nishi Hongwanji Temple, which is pretty cool! The game includes fairly lengthy encyclopedias for both Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms, which players can refer to to refresh their memory on key terms and locations.

The extras section also contains the usual music track and opening movie content. The soundtrack is fantastic; I particularly enjoyed the opening theme for the Edo Blossoms arc. Japanese voice acting helps bring the story to life as well. There’s also an extra scene for each love interest under the Annex section of the extras.

Something I really appreciate is that we can easily experience each ending using the “Record of Service” feature. You can choose the chapter and character, then the values for things that affect which ending you’ll get. This means that you don’t have make a million saves like you might in other otome to obtain each ending.

Overall, Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom is a good value for your money in terms of both (artistic) quality and quantity. HowLongToBeat estimates a play time of about 40 hours for completionists per game (Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms) for a total of ~80 hours. Hakuoki is a classic otome that they continue to bring to modern platforms for a reason, and I hope we eventually get the spin-off games on Switch as well. ⚔️

8/10