HanaHime * Absolute! was announced back in 2014, then delayed, delayed, and delayed until now. Nobody’s heard of the developer Mira, but if you look at the intro and OP, you’ll get a strong sense of déjà vu. Where have I seen this before? That’s right—Twinkle Crusaders (ティンクル☆くるせいだ). Same artist, same system, same coloring style, same OP animation director, same OP music… basically this is the spiritual successor to Twinkle Crusaders (I’m using “spiritual successor” correctly, right?). And since it’s a spiritual successor, you know Twinkle Crusaders was a game built around its combat system, so HanaHime * Absolute! is also combat-focused. As for the story? Who the hell cares…

First off, let me confirm that Twinkle Crusaders (ティンクル☆くるせいだ) is indeed a galgame. (dead serious) Visual novels have always been treated as digital novels, and some studios have tried to do something with the systems to make us feel like it’s a game, but most of them failed… Twinkle Crusaders is the first game that changed my mind about that…