DAIROKU：AYAKASHIMORI Otome Game Review

It’s been months since I played this game but apparently Dairoku is to be localized to the west and I may as well as voice out my opinions and review of this game for my friends who have yet to play this.

Since it has been months, there are some parts of the routes I may not remember well. (This just means the game didn’t left any lasting impressions because of the mediocrity unfortunately.) But I will try to write out what I do remember and the final thoughts I have of each characters and components of Dairoku.

I heard bad reviews of the game and seen the horrible looking backgrounds and cgs. But I found a cheap second hand copy of the game and I really do love the artist Suoh’s character designs and I saw a friend still fairly enjoyed it so I thought I might as well try it out. There may be spoilers (not THAT much really because I more or less forgot…. sorry…) so skip to the art section if you want to avoid.

The game starts with our heroine Akitsu Shino as a newbie in the secret government that watches over the ayakashi. The other world where ayakashi lives called Sakuratani is governed by 3 different district leaders. Makatsuhi where the onis live. Kikutsune where the fox spirits (and other animal spirits) live. And lastly Amatsuna where the Tengus live.

Shiratsuki

First route I did was the nine-tailed fox ayakashi, Shiratsuki! (Pssst, he voiced by Sakurai Takahiro ugh wwww) Shiratsuki is the leader of the Kikutsune district. He loves fashion and pop culture but he talks like an old grandpa using washi to call himself so he was quite amusing to be with. Unfortunately, the pacing and the conflict and antagonist is just horrible in my opinion. I remember the conflict was just a misunderstanding and just felt very underwhelming. Which I find it to be a shame really because Shiratsuki personality is really funny and he seems to have a tragic past every otoge player just loves wwwww and the writers couldn’t use it to its full potential.

Hira

Hira is a tengu and the leader to the Amatsuna district. He can get very lazy and a hikikomori and left most work to his sub-leader Takao most of the time. At first, I wasn’t sure how romance is going to develop between Hira and Shino but I was so pleasantly surprised by how cute their interactions are. Like Shino’s somewhat pushy attitude managed to affect the lazy Hira and it was just so amusing wwww. I remember liking the conflict in Hira route a lot looot more compared to Shiratsuki and I can totally understand why Hira was ranked 2nd in the character polls.

Akuroou

Akuroou or in short Akuro is the sub leader to the onis at Makatsuhi district. I was completely surprised by Akuro’s character cuz he obviously looks like the evil last boss oni monster in an rpg but Akuro actually really just a polite ayakashi helping out others when in need. So the gap between his looks and personality was quite adorable. (Also Akuro by Tatssun and keigo Tattsun so cute ugh) If I remember correctly, the conflict in his route is about his hatred and anger and him trying to control it or else the dairoku will have to seal him away because he is dangerous???? (Please forgive me. It’s been months, the memory is fuzzy…. ;;;;) I remember this route is where some REAL actions happening so there was tension towards the conflict. Also I at least remember I still enjoyed Akuro route for what its worth.

Shuu

Ohhhh Shuu…. where do I start with this guy and his route….. Shuu is a snake ayakashi and doesn’t belong to any districts and kinda has his own district. Tho the dairoku people was not sure where their base are. I’m not really sure how to describe his route. There really a lot happening in his route and it probably could have been epic but all I remember is that it felt really underwhelming…. Again another big shame because Shuu himself as a character and personality was really cute and his interactions with Shino was just adorable. But yeah the plot itself sighs…

Semi Tokitsugu

And here comes poster boy and number 1 in character polls, Semi Tokitsugu! All I can remember in his route is Tokitsugu is so smooth it is unfair www. If I am to describe his route and relationship with Shino. It’s like workplace romance between a staff and her boss and it was actually really darn adorable. Sasuga number 1 popular character. The conflict between Tokitsugu and his little brother was really wholesome too I remember that. And maybe because both heroine and the guy are humans, so their romance felt the most natural and real for me. Lastly, may I comment on how I love the aesthetic of the pair having black hair AND THAT TOSSHI VOICE AUGH.

True/Final

There is also the last final true route unlocked when you finished all 5 other routes. This is where they reveal the weird happenings around Sakuratani and Shino’s origins. I I am to be honest, all of this is just really underwhelming and too sudden and really short and if I am to be blunt, kind of boring… But I guess this is a good way to end the game? Seeing all the characters work together to solve the last main conflict?

Art

Oh the art in this game. Trust me when I say I love Suoh-sensei’s art to death and her character designs and sprites and promo art illustrations are just to die for. The sprites for all characters, sub characters included are just so unique and has that Suoh-sensei style which I really just admire. But the CGs in this game just absolutely awful. The CGs are not by Suoh-sensei herself and the copycat artist just… not good… not to mention the CGs are just really bland and comes in random scenes rather that the scenes that are more important.

Okay fine the CGs are bad but at least the sprites are super good right. YES BUT the game barely used these ayakashi form sprites of the main characters AND JUST LOOK AT THESE.

The design! The outfits! The details!! But these sprites barely showed up in the game. Like it was used during like only ONE scene. Shiratsuki and Hira got it even worse since their ayakashi forms literally showed for just ONE LINE during the true/final route rather than in their own routes. So really, just just a HUUGE waste of beautiful Suoh-sensei’s art. You should have seen the disappointment in my face when I saw these beautiful character designs in their official site only to see them being BARELY even used in game……

Okay lets also talk about the background. I can see the staff trying to give off this purple aesthetic but unfortunately it doesn’t work. The backgrounds felt too monotonous with only purples and to be blunt, feels like its just really lazy. I know they’re trying to give off this eerie(?) feel since it is always night time in Sakuratani but because barely really anything is happening, it just really boring is all I can say.

The UI design is really nice though. The different wafu-like patterns are interesting and not overwhelming either. That’s a plus at least.

Music

If there is at least one thing I love in this game, it is the OP and ED songs written and sung by Tosshi himself. You can listen to the song samples here. The opening is called Oyozuregoto. The ending is called Sakura no Tayori. I swear Tosshi plus wafu like songs are a holy pairing made in heaven. Extra trivia: the cd cover also has Suoh-sensei’s art of Tosshi and the cd cover design is just GORGEOUS.

The BGM in this game though hmmmm… I think the tracks individually themselves are really well made and the main theme track fits the game very well. But then those different track BGMs doesn’t really belong to the same game???? Do I make sense here??? I don’t know why I think of this since the music in the game are the same people who did Charade Maniacs and A3! and I love the music in those games. (Even tho I don’t like Charades very much….) Maybe it’s because the dull scenes also somewhat made the music unfitting as well? Really, aside from the main theme BGM, I have more or less forgotten what the other tracks are like. Aha… ahaha… sorry…

Story

I’ll repeat this again. The characters themselves has so much potential but the story and plot conflict is just not there. There are some few scenes I enjoyed and those scenes mostly are just really cute interactions between the boys, the heroine and the sub characters. Let’s talk about the heroine. Shino in my opinion is just okay. She has her moments but I feel like there’s not much depth to her character. Like I want to see more of her goals and reasons when watching over the ayakashi. And how she became what she is now because of her ability to see ayakashi and her family relationships. So all I can say is that Shino needs a bit more work.

The game works in a flowchart system. In the common route, you choose which districts you want to go. Then you enter the individual routes. I personally think you don’t really need the map system. If you want to enter the individual routes, you will eventually choose the character you go for in the map system anyway so they could have just make it immediately the individual routes? Get me? Not to mention the scenes during the map system/common route doesn’t really provide much for the conflicts and just some cute character interactions is all. (Some scenes even dull really…)

The world and character settings itself are really interesting. Usually when we think of ayakashi, we think of olden Japan or ayakashis living in the countryside forest or mountains. What I think that made the setting interesting is that the ayakashis are living in modern age Japan so it is quite amusing seeing the ayakashi learning how to use smartphones playing mobages and SNS, getting into pop culture, collecting figures and gacha capsules, reading manga and watching anime. So really the potential is there. Just needed a little bit of oomph in climax scenes, conflicts, antagonists and make the story pacing more immersed.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know how it was possible to dislike on the story but love the characters so much. But that is the case here for me with this game. There are still some scenes and character routes I really do enjoyed but it is unfortunate that there are still some bad, boring scenes. Aside from the cgs really, the illustrations/designs by Suoh-sensei in promotional art, sprites and goods are still a pleasure to the eyes. I still listen to the OP and ED till this day. So all I can say in the end is that Dairoku: Ayakashimori is not the worst game but it’s not really that good either in my opinion. I still think you can play for the characters if you want to relax or have the extra time and money. But yeah, that’s all really.

PS. I sincerely hope the next time Suoh-sensei works for Otomate again, let ALL the illustrations, CGs included, be handled by Suoh-sensei. (´；ω；`)