Kokoro no Katachi to Iro to Oto (ココロのカタチとイロとオト) Review

CUFFS’s HOLOTTE brand spawned a sub-label called HOLOTTE ROI, and they put out a new game titled Kokoro no Katachi to Iro to Oto. The name is pretty generic—it literally means “The Shape of the Heart, Its Colors and Sounds.” The story follows our protagonist, who was born with a superpower: he can hear the “voice of the heart” and sense the “colors of the heart.” Anger is red, happiness is yellow, irritation is purple, that sort of thing.

Sounds cool, right? It’s not. Your head gets loud as hell because you can hear what everyone around you is thinking, and it’s annoying as fuck. Our hero is sick of it, so eventually he develops the skill of “automatically blocking out surrounding noise.” This stupid skill is actually necessary, because the game stops bothering to show his power in any complex way. Occasionally the screen flashes a color to indicate he heard something, but otherwise the player pretty much forgets he has this dumb superpower at all.

Then the game gets to the point. Two girls show up: a pink-haired one and a blonde one. The protagonist discovers his power doesn’t work on the pink-haired girl—he can’t hear her inner voice, but he can hear the blonde’s. Sound familiar? So even though he constantly hears the blonde’s inner voice screaming that she’s crazy about him while she acts tsundere and tells him to go for the pink-haired girl, he ignores the miserable blonde and keeps heating things up with the pink one.

Just as the protagonist and the pink-haired girl are moving fast—fucking first, romance second (yes, that’s the order)—he suddenly realizes the pink-haired girl has the same power as him. She can hear his heart too. And she’s more advanced: not only can she hear him, but she can also hide her own heart.

So it’s obvious. When the protagonist first met her and couldn’t hear her heart, she was actually reading his entire mind the whole time. Like Luo Xiang said: people love peeking at others’ privacy, but hate others peeking at theirs. The protagonist thinks he found true love in the pink-haired girl and that he pursued her, but he was played from the start. Everything was under her control.

When the pink-haired girl sees her PUA routine exposed, what does she do? She turns the tables, bursts into tears, and runs out, acting like she’s heartbroken. She says sorry, but her actions clearly scream that the protagonist should chase after her and apologize. She says she’s not worthy of him, but she’s really just waiting for him to come find her.

Why do I say that? Because the blonde is the most miserable one in this game! Not only does both the protagonist and the pink-haired girl see right through her heart, but the pink-haired girl has to know the blonde likes the protagonist. Even the protagonist knows it himself. And yet, with both of them fully aware of who the “true love” is, they choose the one who isn’t. The blonde, stuck between two espers as a miserable third wheel, is just so damn pitiful!

This is also a stupid single-route game. You can only pick the pink-haired girl in the end, so we see the protagonist and her forgive each other and embrace. Truly, the bitch and the dog deserve each other forever. Our blonde becomes a sacrifice to the plot, just like loser me.

Overall, this is a completely “unnecessary” game.

Sure, these days everyone cranks out short single-route games to make a quick buck, but I still can’t understand why HOLOTTE needed to create a whole new brand for this. HOLOTTE games already sell on gimmicks and Akane Ikegami’s art—was it really necessary to make a game that looks no different from the main brand? Even if you’re going for pure love, why the fuck add a cliché mind-reading superpower? And if you’re adding superpowers, what the hell is the point of adding a useless blonde?

Think about it: what’s the blonde’s purpose? To show she’s crazy about the protagonist? If you like him, then steal him! She won’t steal him and acts tsundere instead. The protagonist already heard her heart, so he should feel a little guilty and waver, right? But the game gives none of that. The protagonist just goes straight for the pink-haired girl.

Simply put: guy A likes girl B, but girl C likes guy A. Because C and B are fake friends, C won’t steal A away, so she quietly helps A pursue B. Guy A, knowing C likes him and secretly supports him, is deeply moved… and then picks B without hesitation.

So what the hell is C for?

The art and system are pure CUFFS, no surprises. The voice actresses are Juri Nagatsuma and Seiko… wait, I have to complain that Seiko’s recent voice work is super—awful. She should just go home and do something else to raise her kids.

All in all, this game has zero highlights, a stale premise, and a stupid plot. Playing it gives you nothing. I have no idea how it sold.

Of course, I soon found out how it sold.

While I was ranting about the game on Twitter, I got an email: my account was locked.

Then I got a warning email from Twitter saying someone reported one of my posts for copyright violation.

Looking closer at the email—well, well—CUFFS’s ad operator had sent Twitter a takedown notice claiming my post displayed “content that must be purchased and played to see,” demanding it be removed.

I checked the post. It was me complaining that in one of the HCGs, Akane Ikegami drew the protagonist’s dick way too long.

Got it. So I spoiled the protagonist’s dick. I never imagined CUFFS would not only make a shit game but also refuse to let people criticize it on Twitter—even getting my account suspended. Later I checked the game’s reviews on that shitty ErogameScape and, unsurprisingly, it had a super low score. My heart felt so good!

As of today, I’m a CUFFS hater.