If you’ve seen what games I play, you’ve probably noticed I’m into “swords and sorcery,” and not so much “mecha and high tech.” So Baldr Heart, along with its earlier predecessors, never really interested me. But there’s this pervert who’s about to end up in a police cell who constantly hypes the game up, tongue hanging out, pushing it on everyone he meets. And he’s screwed me over twice before, so I had no intention of taking his recommendation. Except I’ve got a big mouth, and I said, “If Baldr Heart ever gets fan-translated by Moxing, I’ll play it.” And so, as they say, if you don’t do stupid things you won’t die. I soon saw this… and it was shoved right in my face. You all know I’m a man of my word, so I had no choice but to play it.

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…