Aksys Collar X Malice - PlayStation Vita

I've been waiting for this to get released for a while.Compared to a lot of other otome game titles, there's less romance here and there was much more focus on the overall mystery plot. That's the strength and disadvantage of this game: on one hand, it is an otome game title that can be recommended to non-otoge fans, but much of the controls are still visual novel choice style and there is not much room for exploration and not a lot of choices (despite having more endings than most otome games). There is "trigger mode" a feature in the game where one basically times Ichika's shots. But that's more of a feature really. This is a game that can't seem to decide what it really wants to be. Nonetheless, the narrative is pretty strong, and present compelling arguments about corruption and the dispensation of justice. One way that this could improve is that if only the writers gave the protagonist much more option to explore certain moral choices (ie if Ichika can side with Adonis), but as this is an otome game wherein choices tend to diverge with guy can Ichika date or fail at doing so--a design choice really in otome games the romantic scenarios and the characters tend to be written first before the actual world--I would see why this is developed this way. Such a shame though. This could have been a game that could have been so much more.The romance-able boys in this game still fit in a number of character types (Tsundere, the baka, Ukyo-style yandere, etc) but they don't strictly conform to these types, and that made the characters likeable than most. Ichika, the heroine of the game and player character, pretty much follows Otomate's badass-but-one-that-does-not-outshine-the-boys kind of badassery (others similar characters like this include Code Realize's Cardia and Sweet Fuse's Saki).Gameplay time can be around 30-60 hours which is longer than the usual otome game.There are some misspellings and types in the localization but they're not too distractingStill, it is a great game to pick up and it's been one of my favorite otome game releases so far this year.

At the time of my writing of this review, I have only completed Enomoto's route and I'm halfway through Takeru's route. That said, I'm enjoying this otome game a lot. I think it's a very lovely game.As for the story, the city Shinjuku has recently become unstable due to a series of violent crimes known as the X-Day Incidents. These crimes are being committed by a terrorist organization named Adonis. You play as Ichika Hoshino (name can be changed) who is a rookie police officer. One night, while responding to a call, Ichika is ambushed. Upon awakening, she finds out that Adonis has placed a collar around her neck. This collar has poison inside of it which can be activated remotely by Adonis. Later on, Ichika meets a few mysterious men who are investigating the X-Day Incidents. She ends up joining their team to help them solve the mysteries of the X-Day Incidents and figure out why she had a collar placed around her neck.First of all, the art is gorgeous! The CGs are very pretty, and the characters are quite gorgeous. Secondly, the characters are great. As for the main guys, I really like them so far! Like I stated above, I've currently only completed Enomoto's and some of Takeru's route. But, the other main guys seem great from what I can tell. There isn't a single one I dislike, which makes me excited to do the other routes! The supporting characters are great, too!There's also a few nice features in this game. For one, there's the "glossary" which provides you with information regarding certain terms. Next, there's the "Materials" menu. This is a place where you can access information regarding cases and things related to investigations. Speaking of investigations, there are also parts of the game where you get to investigate scenes yourself. Lastly, since Ichika is a police officer, there are times when she needs to use her gun. When this happens, you enter a quick shooting mini-game. I think all of these features are a nice addition to the game.Now, let me talk a bit about the game's translation. I've heard a lot of people complain about the translation. While I was playing Enomoto's route, I didn't think the translation was that bad. I heard his route was full of errors and typos but I didn't really notice any. It's possible that my brain may have auto-corrected most errors, because I had only noticed 3 in his route, and they weren't bad enough to where it hindered my enjoyment of the game. However, I've noticed that Takeru's route is a bit worse with the errors. In chapter 1 alone I had noticed several mistakes. I can usually handle typos, but there are parts of his route where the dialogue boxes would be mislabeled. Like, one character will be talking but the dialogue box indicates that a completely different character is talking. It's a bit annoying. Another mistake I've heard that happens in Takeru's route is that the protagonist will sometimes be referred to as her default name (Ichika Hoshino) rather than the name you've given them. I haven't personally had this problem, because I use her default name, but this is something that I've heard several people complain about.In conclusion, I heavily recommend this game. Especially if you like murder-mysteries. Another thing I've noticed is that this game seems to have a heavy focus on the plot, which doesn't bother me at all! There's still a fair amount of romance. It's a bit of a shame that the translation has some mistakes, but they haven't hindered my enjoyment of the game at all! I definitely recommend getting this game!

Love this game and I am determined to complete all the stories. Another great otome game to get

Bought the game upon release and OMG LOVE THE STORY LINE! It may feel complicated at first but you are provided with every tool to reread and go through clues in case of doubt. Each character may start off with the feel stereotype feel to some but the moment you go through the story you end up with so much more originality and action!!The main character is a woman with solid great values and amazing marksmanship (wich you'll have to use at least once per storyline) so it makes the stories spicier.This is a bittersweet type of game and just the Mature audience had me throwing money at my screen. Zero regrets.

I just finished playing this and while I do not think its a bad game I wouldn't say I would ever be tempted to ever play it again.The story was fairly interesting in each rout and they were all uniquely different so it did not feel repetitive to play and the art style for the characters was lovely but beyond those factors the game was kind of ho hum for me.When it comes to otome VN's I expect to see more romance evolving and being displayed than what was shown in this game. That's pretty much my major nit pick with it. I honestly feel that this was more of a detective type VN than an otome one. I also detest the heroine in almost every rout except Yanagi's where she somehow develops a brain to a small degree. I don't know why it is, but in the other routs she just seems like a pathetic simpleton for the most part.This girl is supposed to be a police officer yet most of the time she has zero ability to protect herself or think without someone having to explain everything in detail to her....I have to say this heroine goes to the top of my list as a character type who should not be portrayed in any game.