• Price: $39.99 USD (digital; currently on sale for $31.99 until July 10th)
  • Physical copies available via third party sellers
• Developer: Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Extend Inc.
• Publisher: PQube
• Release Date: July 30, 2021

Content warning: rated M; gun violence, death, human & drug trafficking, implied sexual assault, body dysmorphia + plastic surgery (Helvetica route), burn victims, mention of suicidal ideation & drug addiction, mentioned animal experiments & dissection, animal death (Mozu route)

With Bustafellows season2 set to arrive on Switch soon, I decided to play the first game in this otome series so I’d have everything fresh in my mind as I played the second one. Main character Teuta is a freelance journalist who may seem like an ordinary young woman, but she’s got a secret: she can travel back in time.

Her ability has its limits; she can only travel back a few hours or so, and her consciousness travels back into a random person’s body in the same city.  She only has a small window of time to change things. But despite her limitations, Teuta’s ability will come in handy when she discovers dangerous secrets about some very bad people.

Teuta first uses her powers when she runs into an infamous lawyer, who is shot and killed in front of her on the street. Shaken up by this turn of events, she goes back in time to save him. She conveniently ends up in the body of a criminal who’s been arrested, and calls that lawyer to keep him off the streets.

The hilariously named “Limbo” the lawyer is one of our love interests, and he’s naturally very skeptical of Teuta’s claims that she’s traveled back in time and saved his life. But she manages to convince him to meet her once she’s returned to her body. Limbo remains uncertain of Teuta’s intentions, and decides to keep her with him – and his team – until they’ve completed their current job.

Limbo and the other love interests do side work as “Fixers,” often participating in illegal activities to right (what they view as) wrongs in society. As Scarecrow puts it, they do this work “for the sake of the world, the people, and our personal profit.” 🤣

After helping them finish that job, Teuta is invited to stay with the group of men at Scarecrow’s house; her apartment collapsed, so she decides to accept the offer. It’s kind of a contrived way to get her to be around the guys more often, but ultimately it works.

In the common route portion Teuta splits her time between writing articles and helping the guys with jobs. A prison inmate specifically requests Teuta for an interview, and she tells her about a mysterious (and shady) organization she’s worked for; the woman wants Teuta to investigate the organization and expose them. Sounds dangerous, but Teuta is ambitious and curious enough to look into it.

The common route has 4 chapters, with 1 chapter for each love interest’s route plus a “Side B” story that takes place after their stories. I do wish we got more content after the common route branches off to a love interest’s story, as the characters are so likable that I wanted more time with them.

With Teuta, Shu, Limbo, Mozu, Scarecrow, and Helvetica all living in the same house, they develop a real sense of camaraderie. While they take their jobs seriously, there were many moments that made me laugh. The “found family” trope is one of my favorites when done well, and the group really does become a family as the story progresses. (Or as Teuta says at one point, they’re at least “family-ish.” 😂)

A lot of times when I play an otome I find that there’s usually one or two love interests who I dislike. I don’t think I really disliked any of them in Bustafellows, although if I had to choose a least favorite it would be Helvetica. 

Helvetica likes to tease Teuta, and he reminds me of Ryuki from Cupid Parasite due to his vocal opinions on people’s appearances, although Helvetica is slightly less off-putting. His Side B story was a bit disappointing.

Shu was my favorite love interest, without question. He’s gruff but kind and considerate in his own way. The banter between Shu and Teuta was the best, and his “B Side” story was so cute and sweet.

Scarecrow was a fun character across all the routes. I don’t love his hair, but he’s silly, adorable, and shy. He felt somewhat less mature than the other guys at times, but I still really liked him. I’d say he’s a major source of comic relief in the game, but that’s not all that he is.

As someone who is also socially awkward, I enjoyed Mozu as a character. I could’ve used less talk about dead bodies due to his job as a coroner, but he often says things that (unintentionally) end up being funny. He gets bonus points for being kind to animals and being able to cook. 😉

Out of all the love interests, I think that the romance in Shu and Limbo’s routes felt the most natural. Like the others, Limbo is good to Teuta. All the guys are encouraging, but to me Limbo seemed like the biggest supporter of Teuta’s career. 

I think the antagonists often took more of a backseat to the main cast and some of the side characters, but overall Bustafellows has an amazing cast. There are a lot of great side characters; Yang and Valerie were probably my favorites.

As a main character Teuta is fantastic. She has a lot of personality, she’s ambitious, and she has great sassy retorts when bantering with the guys. (Teuta actually gets voice acting, too!) At times she struggles with anxiety over her choices, but she’s still determined and strong-willed. I like how she thinks about morality and other people’s perspectives.

Overall they did a pretty good job with the writing. It was really neat how they introduced the love interests in the beginning with “third person” scenes that were not from Teuta’s perspective. I think they did tend to switch perspectives a decent amount in the story. 

The character interactions were where they excelled the most, but they did fall short with the way they resolved the main story. I was left with a lot of questions about the mysterious Ruy Lopez organization after playing through the entire game. (And that Auld Lang Syne story was pretty shocking, and not my favorite.)

In terms of general design they made some good choices. I love the art style they used for the character designs, and city backgrounds are enhanced by moving effects such as water running in a fountain, flashing lights, and even tiny vehicles moving in the distance. (The only other otome I remember having something similar is 7’scarlet.) They also used a larger font, which is nice for accessibility.

Bustafellows has a nice balance of drama, humor, and wholesomeness. I really enjoyed it, and would recommend playing it if you can handle the content warnings. I’m glad there’s a sequel coming soon, as I want to spend more time with these characters – and also see if they answer some of my lingering questions. (Is Teuta the only one with powers? What’s the deal with the CLOSER? 🤔) Check out the first game if you haven’t already, and if you have, try the demo for season2. ⬇️