Before the Shinsengumi, there were DEMONS! Let's Play Toki no Kizuna

Well, I finished up with all my problems/work a lot sooner than I thought I would, so I thought I'd put this up so I'd have it claimed and ready. I probably won't start on the actual LP for another day or two, but I'll let you all vote on the guy we want to pursue and in the meantime I'll work on my Koezaru thread and do lots of writing for my own VN. I've actually already translated/summarized the entire prologue of this game before this, so at least I have a bit of a buffer. :3



Anyway! The game we'll be playing in this thread is Toki no Kizuna. It's a PSP game that was released in July of this year. The name loosely translates to "Bond of 10 Demons". Why, you might ask?

Because this game is all about demons. 10 of them. ...well, actually we won't meet all 10 that the title refers to, but surely the number of characters in this game that are demons is more than 10...? ...err, moving along!

If you've played Hakuouki or read the LPs of the game here, I have a little treat for you, too: this game is a companion game to Hakuouki. I hesitate to call it a prequel because although the events do happen before Hakuouki, it's not like these guys have much to do with the Shinsengumi. But if you want to think of it as a prequel, you can.

Here's an abridged version of a scene from Hakuouki (Saitou's route):



(to be read from left to right, top to bottom)

Toki no Kizuna's plot surrounds this event—the things that built up to the schism between the demons and a bit of the aftermath. (in the year 1599! so quite some time ago) Thus, pretty much all the characters in Toki no Kizuna are ancestors to the demons of Hakuouki. Though you don't officially find out the TnK characters' surnames until later in the game, personally I think it's really obvious who's who. Still, I'll try and keep you guys guessing. (:

The plot of the game centers on our heroine:



One Suzumori Yukina. She's the leader of the Suzumori clan and one of the 十鬼衆 or jyukkishuu, which loosely translates to "10 demons", but it refers to the 10 people who are the leaders of their respective demon clans. They are all pure-blooded, as being the leader is something that's inherited. All four of the main guys you see in all the promotional art are also leaders of their clans. Anyway, the Suzumori clan is a special one—they're all sworn to protect Yase-hime, the princess who is the leader of the 10 clans and thus the leader of all the demons. The Suzumori clan and Yase-hime live in a secluded mountain village that has a barrier around it to prevent unauthorized entry.

Toki no Kizuna starts when Yase-hime has called for a meeting of the 10 demon leaders because she has some important things to say. But this meeting sets some things into motion that the princess never could have expected and our heroine soon finds herself outside of Yase village on her own for the first time, entering a strange new world...



The next few posts will be about the dateable guys, so you can like the post(s) of the guys you're interested in pursuing for this LP. I'll probably only do one route, but we'll see how it goes. I should note that this game is quite similar to Hakuouki in that it's not really that romantic. Also, there's a LOT of politics and war strategy and that sort of thing (a lot of my friends found the game a bit dry because of that but I LOVE THIS STUFF) so if that's not your cup of tea, well... There's plenty of other otome game LPs might be more to your taste.

This is kind of a blind run in that I never finished the game, but I'm quite familiar with the events and the general gist of things, so it's not completely blind, I guess... |D Anyway, to the men!

First up is Chitose. He's our ballsy, somewhat hot-headed, generally friendly, well-meaning but kind of a butthead sort of love interest. He leads the demons of the 9th district, which is part of today's Kyushu region.

Next up is Kazuya. He's very quiet, serious, and loyal, but can be rather sarcastic at times. He's very critical of others (and himself) and honor-bound. Kazuya leads the demons of the 5th district, which in the game is known as Mutsu Province.

Looks Good!
Protag-chan looks pretty badass, all cool and all. And the art's really pretty, looking forward to more of it!
And politics and strategies can be pretty interesting, heck, my whole class bonded in a chalet over the US presidential elections and we're in a different continent!

Holy crap, is Protag-chan as badass as she looks? If so, can she romance herself??

This is Kazutake, our reliable, somewhat snarky older brother kind of love interest. It bothered me that I didn't have in my notes which clan he's the leader of, but then I looked back at when he introduces himself and he literally just calls himself a "wanderer" despite being one of the jyukkishuu so I have no idea what that's all about. Guess he's trying to be mysterious or something.

Finally we have Shin, the frequent "yare yare" user, sarcastic, sophisticated-but-you-just-know-he's-judging-you, rather condescending (and fakely polite), mega fabulous love interest. I don't know what clan he's the leader of, either, because the first time you meet him all he does is insult you (fabulously!!) for your apparent lack of manners.

Anyway, that's it! There's also one more secret character you can pursue, but you have to unlock him and I haven't done that yet. :'D Just telling you who he is would be a big spoiler, so we'll just pretend that he doesn't exist for right now. Go ahead and like the post of whichever guy you'd like to see me pursue and then I'll start sometime in the next two days or something like that.

By the way, this is our lovely Yase-hime:



No, you can't pursue her, but you can at least stare at her nice design.

The art seems good, but I'm more interested to see how this game incorporates history, a la Hakuoki. I'll be watching.

Despite the fact that the demons are center stage this time around, the game is still heavily historically-based. Once you get onto a guy's route, you are basically with him and his chosen political faction during this conflict and lead-up to the Battle of Sekigahara. That's the...least spoilerish way I can explain it.

I would say that compared to Hakuouki, Toki no Kizuna has a lot more... battle-oriented stuff? And I don't mean one-on-one sword duels like in Hakuouki (though there are certainly those, as well) but this sort of thing:



I'm not as familiar with this time period because it's at the very end of the Sengoku period, but I do plan on doing my research on the battles and all that fun stuff so that I can provide as accurate (and informative) a translation as I can.

I'm still most curious about whether Protag-chan is as kickass as she looks, because damn, I will rage with the fury of a thousand suns if she turns out to be a helpless ball of incompetence just so the hot men can rescue her because it is the romantiq

Welp... Kimigiku the supposed demon ninja from Hakuoki was a great big disappointment in the one route she actually stuck around for, so I'm not getting my hopes real high regarding Yukina.

But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised?

I can't really answer that since I never got that far into the game (a lot of people were posting spoiler CGs and stuff around when it came out, which totally turned me off so the game's been sitting in its box on my shelf for months :/) but I have heard that whether or not she gets to show her strength (she's also a ninja, by the way) largely depends on what route you're on.

Ooh, this should be good! I think this deserves a little happy dance:

In which case, we as a group have a moral obligation to pick whichever route that gives her the most badass points. Competent and empowered otome protagonist revolution!!!

Torn between Kazuya and Kazutake. Being oddly hypnotized by the Spongebob dance is not helping.

I was similarly torn, but I ended up voting for Kazutake based on the "who has the most skin on display" criteria. It helps that his description/personality is a type that appeals to me as well.

I wasn't sure who to vote for after hearing that Yukina's ability to be a competent protagonist depends on the route chosen. I went with Kazuya because he seemed like he'd be a likely candidate for bringing out the usefulness in a person. I could be totally wrong though.

Oops, it's not too annoying is it? I'm sorry!

No, no, it's not annoying - just bizarrely captivating. :)

Wikipedia has a brief but helpful overview of the Sengoku era, for those unfamiliar with it. No mention of Nobunaga dressing like Leather Batman or of Tadakatsu Honda being a giant robot, unfortunately.

Kazuya. He has the best combos. But be careful if you match up against Hwoarang, he has a reach advantage.

Sorry, cast my lot with Kazutake. Can't go wrong with a smirk like that, can we?

I voted for Shin b/c fabulous and then changed my mind and voted for Kazutake, because snarky guys trying to be cool (and usually are) and then end up being badass instead and also happen to be demons (or other supernatural being) are kind of exactly my type. Also YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY THIS THING EXISTS WILL IT EVER COME OUT IN ENGLISH I DONT CARE IF I HAVE TO WAIT YEARS though by then I'll probably know enough Japanese to get by without to much trouble.

I'm voting for Kazutake, because he looks sort of like the closest thing to a Nagakura route we may ever get a chance to have.

Dammit Chamo, I need a life and you're depriving me of one by continuing to LP amazing games >:(

KEEP DOING IT <33333

Voting for Kazuya because Kazuya. If he was also vaguely tsundere and wore reading glasses, he'd be the most perfect thing to ever exist. Do you have any dirt on their CVs? If one of them is voiced by Sugita Tomokazu, I swear my head is gonna explode from all the awesome.

Also, we look badass. I approve heartily.

I'm sorry. XD <3 But only a little.

Chitose is voiced by Itou Kentarou. Kazuya is Kamiya Hiroshi. Kazutake is Nomura Kenji. Aaand Shin is voiced by perfection--err Hino Satoshi.

Hnnnnng. I am a fan of Itou Kentarou and Kamiya Hiroshi, and though I am less familiar with the other two, Hino Satoshi voices some pretty cool characters that I know have fantastic voices.

I just want to vote for whichever route that will most facilitate Protag-chan being awesome. Someone who knows the game, tell me who to vote for!

Chamomile. You pick the best games. Kazuya up there sounds perfect. And yes, actual battle strategy. /rubs hands together and prepares to take notes/

-chinhands- yessss... I voted for Kazutake. It'll be nice to finally have translations of this game after playing it ages ago~

If Kazuya's voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi then he's automatically my vote.
Hopefully Protag-chan will be as badass as she looks.

I HAVE NO ATTENTION SPAN and an even crummier sense of humor so I'm really not the type of person who can play a hilaribad game or something just for the lulz... I salute the people who have the humor and articulation skills to do that. XD So if I'm LPing it, it's gotta be pretty awesome and probably full of plot and feels-inducing drama. If it wasn't, I'd wander off too quickly. 8D;;;

I have a stack of all the English books still in print about the Battle of Sekigahara (and the surrounding events) on my desk and a number of Japanese websites to use as resources. One of the English books even has battle maps, too! SO I AM SET AND READY TO BE ALL SCHOLARLY AND STUFF. /pushes up non-existent glasses

Hino Satoshi is one of my god tier seiyuu, meaning I'm obligated to (try my best to) buy every drama CD/otome game in which he is main cast. /)_(\ Well, I was interested in this game because of the Hakuouki tie-in, but Hino certainly sweetened the deal. Actually this game has Tachibana in it, too, so it has two of my god tier seiyuu...

OH YOU'RE HERE HI <3 Tell me if I screw up any of the details, haha. Gosh, I didn't even announce this LP on Tumblr, how did you find me? XD

I have lurked this place for ages and happened to see this 8D
I don't know if I'll be any help because my Japanese is ... quite laughable at best..

A fellow Californian! I would say welcome but you joined long ago (and on my birthday at that :3).

Yukino looks a lot more badass than Chizuru, but I'm not getting my hopes too high. From what I've heard Otomate's protags are kind of ineffectual.

And I can't not vote for manly aniki route. I just can't. I bet he's an oresama, too.

EDIT:
Also man are these the most beautiful sprites and designs I have ever seen for any game, let alone a VN.

It honestly kind of depends on the game?? You have to understand, though, that this is just how Japanese people like their heroines. Chizuru was voted best otome heroine by fans some time ago... BEST HEROINE. Fans generally don't like it when the heroine is more strong-willed. :x So of course companies won't make many of them because they want their game to sell. In the west, the ideals on what heroines/females should be like is very different, so it seems mismatched to us, but that's just what their culture is like over there.

STILL. Otomate fairly recently released Jyuza Engi:



Which is basically Romance of the Three Kingdoms except that the kingdom of Shu is made up of cat people and the heroine is a genderbent Guan Yu. This is Guan Yu:



So the heroine is the strongest warrior in in the entire kingdom of Shu/cat people group and singlehandedly beats the crap out of her enemies on a fairly regular basis throughout the game. The drawback, however, is that she's extremely (FRUSTRATINGLY) dense when it come to love/guys/that sort of thing.

Aaaaand guess how popular this game/heroine was? :x Though SOMEONE ELSE SHOULD TOTALLY LP JYUZA... I would, but my knowledge of Romance of the Three Kingdoms-era China is pretty darn sketchy, sadly.

Who is the guy slightly off center? He looks...intriguing. and stoic.

If you mean this guy:



That's Cao Cao. Who normally looks more like this:



AS A DYNASTY WARRIORS FAN, PLAYING THIS GAME WAS EXTREMELY CONFUSING, LET ME TELL YOU... They genderbent Lu Bu, too................ (it amuses me that they quite literally genderbent the strongest warriors, historically, into women, though!)

Well then Japan just sucks

Nah, I do understand that there's that massive cultural difference there, thus also why there are so many weak-willed indecisive male protagonists too. It's like looking at the difference between heroes/heroines in manga vs. manhwa, heroes of manhwa speak their minds to the point of almost coming across as sociopathic, which is still closer to our Western ideal of a hero.

It only mildly bothers me in Japanese media. Western media that takes cues from Japanese media, on the other hand...

EDIT: GENDERBENT LU BU WHAT
NEED PIX

I voted for all of them because YES. YES. TOKI NO KIZUNA.
Is it alright to speculate on who is related to whom?

If you don't already know and really are just speculating, then sure, go for it!