I played: Butterfly's Poison; Blood Chains

I recently finished playing Butterfly's Poison; Blood Chains and thought I'd leave a review to get some conversation going in here.

I'm not sure how I even heard about this one honestly, I just remember grabbing it "for later," forgetting about it for a while, and finding it like a forgotten $20 bill in last year's winter coat one day. Sweet.

I'm surprised I haven't been able to find where I saw it mentioned, as after playing it I can't believe there aren't certain segments of the internet up in arms about it. There's quite a bit of "problematic" content especially with regard to age gaps, consent issues, and family relations. I personally can enjoy that sort of taboo content as I have a good solid wall between fiction and reality, but this isn't an otome for everyone, and I'm surprised people aren't madder about it. In particular, the bad endings can get very dark.

It's an interesting setting I feel like I don't see much of - Taisho era Japan, when the country seems to be struggling with its identity and how much western culture to adopt. The player character is a girl who's just come of age in a financially struggling noble family, and the story opens on a lavish birthday party meant to find her a good husband before the household collapses. Of course, the party doesn't go as planned, but I won't spoil anything until I warn you (and even then I'll only talk about personalities and content flavors, not actual events). The story is written in third person, for those who find that sort of thing important (makes no difference to me), and the MC has a canon name that's voiced in the dialogue if you choose to use it instead of changing it.

As for the love interests, we have:

  • Shiba, a nouveau riche businessman who's obsessed with the MC
  • Fujita, the gentle and reserved family butler who's watched the MC grow up
  • Hideo, a brash soldier and the MC's childhood friend
  • Mizuhito, the MC's older half brother, a lazy artist who appears to have little care for anything but the company of prostitutes
  • Majima, the distant family gardener and MC's first crush
  • Kyoko, an elite businesswoman who's the subject, and dealer, of numerous illicit rumors

I enjoyed all the routes, found the setting and mystery pretty interesting, didn't feel like the guys who didn't catch my interest dragged the story down, and didn't regret any of my time spent with this VN. However, I didn't come out of this one with any new figures for the "fictional men's hall of fame" in my heart.

I was also kind of disappointed to learn the original JP release was R18 with numerous NSFW scenes, while the English translation I read was a PC port of the (understandably, but sadly) censored Switch version in which entire 15+ minute scenes are reduced to a vague description line or two in which you can tell something sexy happened but see almost nothing about the character of how the guys approach it. There is NO H-patch for this one that I could find (or find mention of), but there are fan TLs of the NSFW scenes online that I was grateful to find.

Overall, I would give it a good 8/10 or so since I enjoyed it throughout but didn't get that "special something" that would leave it on my mind for years to come the way some other stories/LIs have.

That's about all for the spoiler-free stuff, but I want to end by saying more about my impressions/opinions of the love interests, and while I won't spoil the actual events of the story, you might still prefer to discover this stuff on your own, so here is your...

!! SPOILER WARNING !!

...since I still don't know of any hideable spoiler markup here on the threadiverse.

  • Shiba is SO obsessed with the MC that several of the routes have "bad ends" that have her marry him anyway. As someone whose favorite LIs are the confident scheming relentless sorts with big fat bonuses for yandere and villainy (note: Shiba does NOT check some of these boxes and I'm not saying which ones), he ended up my favorite. This route is rife with consent issues with a dash of age gap; those who like a good hate-to-love arc will enjoy him.
  • Fujita was too gentle for me, but others will super appreciate his reserved sweetness and submissiveness. He has one bad end that's really not my cup of tea, but it's a pretty unusual one for an otome, so I can still appreciate that it was included. His route's problem content is the age gap as he's roughly twice the MC's age. Those who like to wear down a distant, professional LI until his control breaks will have a great time here.
  • Hideo... Now, this is the LI I felt the least for, but I appreciated that the obligatory childhood friend route wasn't all sweetness and simpering in this otome as he's pretty grumpy and tsun at the start. This route also suffered by blundering into the big mystery in a way that felt pretty unnatural to me, too. Right, as far as content warnings (bonuses? hee) go... the route definitely still has content some would consider a problem, but I said I wouldn't spoil the story events, so I can't mention it directly... those who really want the gist of it despite it spoiling a mild reveal early in the route should read back over this paragraph about Hideo and pay attention to the first letter of each sentence.
  • Mizuhito's route was surprisingly bittersweet; there's more to his listless lazy attitude and constant escape to the red light district than meets the eye. He probably has the most character growth of any of the LIs, and I appreciate that. The spicy (fan TL) version of one of his bad ends is really wild (and fun, IMO). His problem content revolves around the family relation; I have a high tolerance for fictional squick, but even I felt uneasy when he blurted out the line "I remember when you were a newborn" (or something to that effect). Those who like a broken LI they can "fix" will enjoy Mizuhito.
  • Majima... Based on my pattern of thirst in most otomes, this guy should have been my favorite. But something about him, while absolutely top-tier fun, wasn't as satisfying as he could have been, which let Shiba steal my top spot. The romance almost seems to interrupt his character arc rather than being the goal of it. Majima is enforced by the game to be the last route you have access to; you have to finish at least one ending from each of the other LIs to access his. His route has some consent issues along the way, as well as some other things I wouldn't dare discuss; by the time you get there, you'll know what you're in for. (I will say this route doesn't need any NEW content warnings, at any rate.) Majima's big appeal is, as you might guess from him being last, unraveling a mystery and discovering the layers under the MC's first crush.
  • I list Kyoko last because the romance on her route is left implied rather than direct (even though it's a very "Sappho and her Friend" type of obvious). She's a very fun character, and I give her a tie for my personal third place with Mizuhito. Her routes are short, and both the good and bad ends are important in their own ways, though I would say Kyoko doesn't have a "romantic" good end as hers focuses on the mystery instead. Only a broken MC can get truly close to Kyoko, and I want to give her bad end the trophy for darkest in the game (of course very debatable given some of the other awful things happening here).

Thanks for reading - feel free to strike up conversation about your experiences with this game, whether this review piques your interest, suggestions of other otomes that someone who enjoyed this game might also be interested in, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

Elevator7009, (edited )

since I still don't know of any hideable spoiler markup here on the threadiverse

[You should have had to click to see this text.](#spoiler) will work for this magazine, because of how its CSS is set up. However, there are issues with it working across instances and maybe across platforms (e.g. mobile vs. desktop). There’s more discussion of that here. So giving warnings is still probably good for now. As a quick test, I’m going to try to spoiler something. I’m typing from my mobile phone on kbin.cafe. You should have had to click to see this text.

Shiba is SO obsessed with the MC that several of the routes have "bad ends" that have her marry him anyway.

Oh my god I love this concept so much. I’ve been looking for a game where that happens, because I plan on it happening in the otome I want to make!

Those who like to wear down a distant, professional LI until his control breaks will have a great time here.

Fujita didn’t catch my interest until you dropped this line.

Hideo’s content warning thing sounds incredibly fascinating, not going to lie. I might not be into that in a sexual manner but oh my god is it ever ripe for drama yes please please please

I’m usually not interested in otome in historical Japanese settings, and I heavily prefer fluff to dark things (as a personal preference. I believe stuff with “problematic” content has a right to exist—I’m just usually not too interested in taboo things). However, your descriptions of the LIs has piqued my interest and I might have to give this one a go!

I can't believe there aren't certain segments of the internet up in arms about it. There's quite a bit of "problematic" content especially with regard to age gaps, consent issues, and family relations.

Also, my general perception is that otome seems niche enough that we generally don’t get the purity police chasing after us to make sure our content has Only Good Messages™. And its audience is adult women who are able to separate fun, consequence-free exploration of stuff in fiction from its harmful reality.

Thank you so much for the lengthy review. It’s really helpful for this community.

harmonea, (edited )
harmonea avatar

Spoiler markup unfortunately doesn't appear to be working as intended for me. Might have to do with a userscript I installed for more options, but I was also concerned about friends outside kbin as well. Thanks though!

I agree that otome is generally niche enough to not catch too much flak, but I sure have seen some takes about the more popular ones. (Maybe I'm just bitter deep down that my favorites get bullied when "worse" stuff is out there; if people are going to violate "don't like, don't read" can't they at least prioritize?)

Glad the review was of interest to someone or another :)

Elevator7009,

On my current kbin.cafe account, spoilers don’t work. Also doesn’t work through my Lemmy account, so it was definitely good to be considerate of people outside kbin. It does work on kbin.social though! At least for me, where I checked on mobile and am not using any plugins for any site.

Aww, what popular ones? Just curious.

harmonea,
harmonea avatar

My top LI of all time is Vyn from Tears of Themis, and I constantly see the Internet shaming him because his career is portrayed poorly (psychology is treated very differently in the east where the game is written to begin with, and it's clear no one on the writing team is in the field). But this is in a game with a Rembrandt-tier artist who also runs one of the biggest companies in the world at age 21, a master of all trades detective hacker spy Bond-gadget-maker biologist supersoldier, and an elite lawyer whose area of specialization is literally every field of law and whose win rate is 99.9%. But no one picks on their professions being unrealistic; instead we have to dissect whether the psychiatrist's degrees are legitimate and point out all the times he violated HIPAA (a law that doesn't exist where the game is written) and go tsk tsk, shame, toxic at his bedside manner when the current story's antagonist happens to be a patient.

And that's not even touching personality flaws. Don't get me started on the "red flag" commentary that ignores all the others' flaws. Characters need to have flaws to be believable, but for some characters this is unforgivable.

For other otome I understand a bit more given my usual type (anyone with a comfy cage or basement lol) but I still tend to always be drawn to the ones people say are disturbing and you must need therapy if you like. Maannn it's fiction, it's not hurting anybody. 😩

Elevator7009,

I feel the reason people are getting on Vyn is because a psychiatrist not following the rules hits a lot closer to home for some people, whereas the other careers are more removed from the average person’s life so it’s easier to let it go. And they might not be considering the fact that it’s playing fast and loose with realism in re: what the careers are actually like as well as the feasibility that the characters are that good at it.

Some flaws get on nerves more than others, or jerk people back into a reminder of an unpleasant reality they’re trying to escape with the fiction, which is why I imagine some characters’ flaws are getting ignored and others are getting picked on.

People are free to talk about their discomfort and analyze characters’ red flags, but from your posts it seems like it’s less discussion of these things, and more actively shaming people who enjoy the characters and/or narrative for daring to enjoy something with problematic elements.

At least, this is my guess as an outsider who wanted to like Tears of Themis but dropped it early on because I really hated the card battles. It’s less of a “ToT bad” thing and more “ew, a genre I personally don’t like”.

harmonea,
harmonea avatar

Yes, I do understand there are reasons (like "closer to home") that people feel it's okay to apply a double standard, and I still feel that doesn't actually justify it. And while people are free to discuss characters' flaws, it's utterly exhausting when it's always one character's flaws, and almost never from a character analysis point of view where a poster takes a moment to understand why those flaws are there and what kind of character arc it gives us the chance to see.

Anyway, roaming off topic. I think at least with the reviewed otome, there's some high quality "everybody sucks here" that would mostly prevent a single LI from being the punching bag, were it ever to reach the same audience. That's unique!

Elevator7009,

Still me, just swapped instances.

I feel it’s because sometimes the line between “objective review” and “this is my subjective opinion on the game” can blur when discussing otome online. I hardly think I need to give up my double standard about being uncomfortable with X character flaw but not Y character flaw when it comes to my subjective enjoyment. After all, I can’t change my feelings. As long as I account for all of it in an objective review. And I definitely get how it can be frustrating to see people constantly hammering in one character’s flaws and ignoring the rest, especially if you like that one character and everyone else seems to be coming from a place of dislike.

Maybe it’s because I’m running on not enough hours of sleep, but I’m not entirely sure I understand what you mean by this part:

I think at least with the reviewed otome, there's some high quality "everybody sucks here" that would mostly prevent a single LI from being the punching bag, were it ever to reach the same audience. That's unique!

And as always, thank you for the discussion!

harmonea, (edited )
harmonea avatar

I hardly think I need to give up my double standard about being uncomfortable with X character flaw but not Y character flaw when it comes to my subjective enjoyment.

I never implied this, and with respect, I've been growing increasingly uncomfortable with the pushback into new contexts here for a few comments now. The double standard I speak of is with regard to unrealistic professions and how people's personal relationship with psychology makes them think it's okay to pick on one LI's approach to his job without taking the time to understand none of the professions are making any attempt at realism. If that closeness to home is the dealbreaker for that LI for someone, that's fine, but it doesn't make him somehow objectively the worst as people like to portray.

I never said people can't have opinions or they have to tolerate all character flaws equally. I'm just tired of purity police with two-year-old surface level takes still feeling the need to bring up the same points as always about the game's whipping boy, and never with an eye toward why people still enjoy it, how it works in the character's favor, or how it compares to others' flaws.

Maybe it’s because I’m running on not enough hours of sleep, but I’m not entirely sure I understand what you mean by this part:

I was talking about Butterfly's Poison; Blood Chains here. If it had the reach of other larger otome, there wouldn't be one single most hated character because everyone has a hard-to-forgive flaw.

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