Bad Apple Wars - PlayStation Vita

I saw this before it was announced to be localized and I was actually contemplating whether my incomplete Japanese lessons would be able to get me through this game. When I saw an English version on Amazon I was so excited I pre-ordered it on the spot. I'll probably kick myself when it goes down in price in a month or two, but I live for otomes!! Anyway, I have now completed a route and am halfway through a second so I can now give a bit more thorough of a review. Firstly, I will say I think that even if people are fans of otomes not everyone will automatically like this game. I can genuinely say I enjoyed it for what it was though, but I'm an otome junkie. Regardless, this is not a Code: Realize, or even a CollarxMalice. Be warned that if you like otomes with dialogue choices you won't get much of thus. Any of those, truth be told. What route you're playing isn't quite as arbitrary to pick as say, Period Cube. But it doesn't require carefully picking the dialogue that will most appeal to the love interest of your choice either. You have points early in the game where you decide where the protagonist should go on the map, and there are different color-coded circles (each corresponding to one of the 4 guys who are automatically available to romance). It's very easy to tell early on whose color is whose. Their clothes and text boxes match. So you simply have to go to their location and it will initiate their route. Actually, the game makes it even easier by letting you pick if you'll be a Good or Bad Apple early in the game. Depending on your decision you'll get to pick between one of two guys for Good apple and one of three for bad. But the fifth and final guy isn't unlocked until you complete the other four play-throughs. I have also heard complaints not all the characters are equally fleshed out. Well, I'd agree that's true. But it didn't really make me dislike the game. Very few games successfully nail that aspect in my experience. There was also somewhere I read where someone said only the fifth guy "White Mask" gets an epilogue. I'm not sure if his route is more detailed at the end, but the character I finished romancing DID have an epilogue. Not a long one, but there was a resolution for that couple after Nevaeh (no spoilers).The chapters are short if I'm honest. Most routes have 9 story chapters and one ending chapter that's the shortest and acts as the resolution. I've heard that the character I'm romancing now, Shikishima, has one less chapter than everyone else. And everyone compares the plot to this or that and I'm not saying they're incorrect in their comparisons, but it might be a better playthrough if you just try to blank your mind and treat it as its own animal. I have to say usually I don't have much to say about the music in a game, but I really have enjoyed the music in this game. The game features a touch screen interactive option, with each of the guys. Where you touch effects if you get a good or bad end ultimately. Think good touch and bad touch. 😅 But the game warns you about this in a tutorial. Everything else about the game is pretty straightforward. If you compare it to some of the other otomes that came out this year, it may not stack up, but I still think it's worth a play, even you wait for a price drop on it.

Bad Apple Wars was worth playing once but for me, has no replay value. Let me say this was primarily a reading game. There was not many interaction for the reader like other otome games I have played before. There were a couple of options in two of the chapters where you can pick the correct color to go to a specific person when you reached chapter 6. Then you get a “touch” section – tapping the guy and finding their sweet spot in the latter chapters. The overall plot had a very interesting concept but got kind of boring after seeing it 4 more times. Even when you split up to specific routes, it did not diverge too far from each other. Getting the specific routes was easy-peasy. There were 2 routes – good apples (Satoru and White Mask) and the bad apples (Alma, Higa and Shikishima). (And yes, there was a bad ending but it was super easy to get and thankfully, quick to finish.) The endings were different from each other and resolved the issues pretty nicely. However, besides Alma’s, the endings felt just a tad shallow and left you wanting more. The romance wasn’t too strong in the game until the very end. It was, like, around chapter 7 that the couple would have this sudden epiphany of love despite appearing not to have spent that much time together. (My favorite route was Alma’s and my least favorite was Satoru’s.) Art style was interesting and pretty stylish. The color scheme was varied and garish. The guys were major cuties and I couldn’t help admiring their 8-packs. Music was nice but so forgetful. I found most of the translation to be really good but you can tell some liberty was taken. Especially for Naraka’s. And I was impressed that this was the first that there was no spelling errors, bar one. There were no bonus features besides the basics – the gallery, the music, movies and a flowchart. The language is in Japanese and there are English subtitles. In the end, it took me less than 15 hours to finish all routes and get 100% completion. It could be longer or quicker depending on how many routes you have done or you like to read. This game is not for everyone. Personally, I like the simple plot line and the pleasure of not needing a guide. For some, it may have the possibility of being boring. But if you are a fan of otome, get it. If you are new to the genre, this would be an easy lead-in. If you are not a fan of reading your games, this is not for you. Honestly, the price was a little pricey for how long I played it. It is up to you, but I would recommended waiting until the price drops just a little bit.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I bought this game but sweet jesus this was one of the best games I’ve bought. The art? The story? The love interests?! It’s all amazing! The side characters are SO interesting (Naraka my love 💖), and the music is beautiful. I could gush about this game for hours, which sucks because it’s not super well known when compared to other popular otome games! I also really like the endings; I like how even the good endings are picture-perfect, but it all flows wonderfully. I will say the “soul touch” aspect of the game was kind of weird, not to mention a bit hard (I had to look up a walkthrough for some routes), but it’s no more weird than the skinship stuff in the Fire Emblem: Fates games. Overall, 10/10, highly recommend!

While I wanted to enjoy this game especially due to its unique story, it was quite repetitive in all routes and doesn't even have a replay value for me. I trudged through though, wanting to finish every character and while there were some funny moments throughout the game, it just fell flat. The characters were just okay (I was more interested in minor characters at some points). The art style is different from what I'm used to, but I did like that aspect. The music was agreeable. Overall, (and I hate to say this, but) I could not say that I would recommend this.

So if you've watched Angel Beat's then you basically have already played this game in a way that it has a similar story. Bad Apple Wars has a beautiful opening sequence that you can just watch over and over again due to its perfect editing and song choice. The character intros (especially for the teachers) are nice in the op. The downside is unlike other otome games only having the first part be the same before it branches off onto a route this game will repeat the same exact events and texts in every guy's route in the middle, end, etc, other parts of the story so it can get pretty annoying especially when you binge play. The touch system. This game has a unique take on 'choices' for certain parts. Sometimes instead of clicking choice one or two you actually touch certain parts of the cg. The only downside is that since this game is originally Japanese and there are no English VA's (Although that part doesn't bother me, this game has amazing voice actors) so you have to rely on the audio to see if you are heading the right way but there are no english subtitles for it so you kind of have to take a guess. It can get annoying getting the wrong choice. It doesn't matter what side you choose because the same result will basically happen in the end for the character story wise. Some endings seem lackluster, but there are some cute stories, and sad stories. It's a shame there were not more routes available with other characters it might've given thee game a better chance with having more variety. I'll try leaving a better review when I can find a way to word it better.

Japanese VA and English text work just well tho sometimes I cringe a little because of how much actors TRY... nice game, just started it not long ago, cute art style and interesting setting, the game itself was in a perfect condition and came without any problems

To be honest I wasn’t as satisfied with it as I was with previous otome games that came out this year. But I did enjoy the story. The art was different from what I’ve seen in other Otome games I’ve played. The characters where unique and their endings where satisfactory which is very important to me in a game. But I felt there was something missing in this game. I wish we were given more choices to make to determine the ending. But I would still recommend this game.

I gotta say I just finished my first route today and I’m both happy and disappointed. I just played Alma’s route and seriously it wasn’t the lack of choice. There wasn’t any choice to be made at all! Sure you decide we’re to go location wise but besides that there’s no other choice you make as a heroine. I was just basically reading the entire thing like a book. Plus the translations this time had weird words mixed in I think when a character said ‘what’ or something the word would say “Quoi” instead of translations. If that actually means ‘What’ too then I apologize but I see no point if ordinary people reading it don’t understand. There were other ones but I forgot them. The way the cgs were touchable/interactive like Amnesia, no better than Amnesia, was nice and new. Plus the relationship chart aka the Flow chart was a first for me and very convenient. It allowed me to go to any part of the route. The entire story line reminded me a lot about Angel Beats and seriously the lack of choice still gets to me. That’s the only thing I have huge complaints about. (Of course I’m holding nothing towards the translators about that.) The story itself (not all) although similar to Angel Beats, wasn’t so bad, I had fun breaking rules with the bad apples 😉. 4 stars is the most I can give though. I was originally gonna give 3 stars but Alma’s route really hit me in the heart and resonated so I couldn’t bear to give this game a 4 star. I’ll check out the other routes too but at a later date. Edit: Ya know what I take back what I said. There are choices (-_-) in the touchable cgs. If you don’t choose to touch the right places it’s immediately off to bad end. Learned that the hard way with White mask’s (not planning on spoiling his name) route. The story is inconsistent in some part. Also White mask is the only one without an epilogue which is pretty mean. The cgs are so nicely drawn and pretty. I heard Higa’s route (blue haired guy) was the worst one out of all of them so probably not a wise choice to start with him. Also I didn’t mention this but I really like the fact that everything can be touch screen controlled unlike many other otome games which are only partial touch screen enabled. And also ‘Quoi’ is apparently french for ‘what’ why would someone translate something to English just to have parts of it in another language. It wasn’t just Quoi either, there were other words, probably in french, that I forgot what the word was so I won’t mention.