Shortly after my last post about Idea Factory’s fantasy blacksmithing otome game, the writers hit the reset button and reset most of my progress back to square one. To recap the story a bit, the two nations of Takamahara and Yasuna have been at war for approximately 2017 years. Aki, an ordinary Taka-whatsit village girl, moves to the city to work as a blacksmith so she can buy medicine for her sick grandpa (he’s all better now, thanks for caring). Somehow or the other, she gets possessed by Kayana, the legendary Taka warrior queen from 2017 years ago, but they manage to make things work out.

While Kanuchi does have a romantic component and about 12 or so potential partners to woo, romance isn’t really a major aspect of the game. It has more in common with the older Atelier games, where you can get endings with particular characters, but that’s hardly the main character’s goal in life. But since the Takahamara guys were all more or less decent, I had Aki/Kayana play nice with them in the hopes of getting some good lovin’.

Left to right, top to bottom. Apart from Aki they’re all members of the King’s bodyguard.
Klato – Aged 18. Searching for his missing twin brother. A little cranky and serious to a fault, but basically a good guy. He helped Aki out a lot early on when she was trying to save her grandpa. I thought I’d reward him by letting him marry her, but one thing led to another and Ouba cut in instead.
Mitoshi – Aged 15. An astrologer, more or less. He speaks in a cryptic, halting fashion that takes getting used to, but he can be very funny sometimes. I wouldn’t have minded chasing him instead (he’s only 2 years younger than Aki, strictly speaking), but somehow he just dropped off the map.
Shin – Aged 29. A playboy. He’s very kind and friendly, but a playboy? No. My Aki will not date anyone who does not respect his own body, much less those of others.
Ouba – Aged 48. Looking for his missing son. Cool old guy, with an emphasis on the ‘old’. Somehow the reactions of the other characters to the idea of him dating Aki were just so funny that I kept letting the events happen, thus getting locked into his route.
Ukitsu – Aged 21. One of those “not so bad once you get to know him” guys, but I haven’t forgiven him for being so mean to Aki early on. He’s out.
Kugami – Aged 13. King of Takahamara. Has a very blatant crush on Kayana. Nothing against him, but I just don’t see him as a love interest. Shouldn’t he be home watching Power Rangers or something?
Aki/Kayana – Both aged 17. They bicker a lot, but they’re also really good friends. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have their own route if you choose not to chase anyone else.

So I spent the first disk and the first 14 hours on these guys. Did a ton of alchemy, made a lot of money, things seemed to be going well with Ouba. Then, right at the end, the King of Yasuna sent his goons to kidnap both girls and whisk them over to Yasuna to start life afresh from disk 2 onwards. At least he was generous enough to provide new digs:

I also get new cooking/bathing/smithing animations, 200 new quests to fulfill, a ton of new foraging items, an extra 30 or so cooking recipes and an extra 50-ish forging recipes for my trouble. That’s it for the good news. The bad news is that I lost my horses, my bags, all my smithing experience (I must have hit my head during the trip), and my money is divided by 50 but everything still costs the same. To make things worse, for storyline reasons Aki and Kayana move in and out of prison like unrepentant felons, so my time for foraging is severely limited.

Worst of all, though, is what happened to my love interests. Affection levels for everyone in Taka is reset to 0, basically meaning I can’t get them any more. Ouba’s affection is reset to 50, meaning I can either stick to him, or I can play fast and loose with the Yasuna Palace Guard:

Akuto – Aged 18. Klato’s missing twin brother. Hates Klato for supposedly abandoning him as a kid. Starts out moderately friendly and cooperative. So much so that I was tricked into going on his route, only for him to turn around and start snapping at Aki, even threatening to torture or kill her. Of course the game would have you believe he “doesn’t really mean it,” but I couldn’t run away fast enough. In the end I was forced to reload a save from day 41 before I got too friendly with him, losing approximately 30 days and 6 hours of progress along the way. Never date a man in a choker, my dad always told me, and now I know why.
Hinoka – Aged 15. An ex-buddy of Mitoshi’s. Also an astrologer. Has the power of ‘Futoma’ that allows him to change the future at will, at the expense of his life force. As with Kugami, he’s okay but I don’t see myself dating him.
Kasuga – Aged 30. Kasuga-chaaaaan <3 The only relatively normal guy of the bunch. No stupid past trauma, no mean attitude to Aki, not STD-ridden, old enough to be out without his momma. Also has the sweetest CGs, so Kasuga wins the day.
Takami – Aged 17. Almost certainly Ouba’s missing son. Assassin. Does what he feels like when he feels like it, as long as it promises to be fun. What stops him from killing Aki or cheating on her in future just because it ‘seems like fun’? Out.
Sanato – Aged 25. Magician. Keeper of the key to Valhalla. Has some sort of history with Ukitsu. Has the most interesting-sounding backstory, but is the least interesting guy as far as I’m concerned.
Hitohira – Aged 42. Cruel, capricious king of Yasuna. If there was a way to kill him, I would. Obviously he doesn’t get the girl.

I haven’t finished the game yet, but one thing led to another and I’m on Kasuga’s route. Actually I had 50 points for both him and Ouba at decision time, but apparently Yasuna guys get priority, so Kasuga it is.

Don’t mind me, just peeping on guys in the bath. Double standards and all.

But, as I said earlier, it’s not that romantic a game. There’s a story going on that seems set to have a rather tragic ending (Kayana… You’ll be okay, won’t you?). A war to stop, a hostage to rescue, an assassination plot to foil, an immortal to take revenge on and a super-sword to forge, all within the remaining 4 chapters of the game. I’m rich enough that I don’t need to do any more blacksmithing, and I expect Kasuga’s route to be a low-drama one, so I should be done soon.