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[ainyy-520]

Collar x Malice LIs: Kei Okazaki (mild spoilers)

Overall, I loved Okazaki visually and audibly. He was my favourite based on first impressions, but unfortunately his route, romance-wise, left me a little underwhelmed. I will say though, I made the mistake of playing his route first, so story-wise I may have decreased my enjoyment of the actual recommended starter routes (Enomoto /Sasazuka) by accident.

Stay tuned for the other LIs!

Kei Okazaki

Visuals/CGs: 5/5 Right off the bat, I liked his visual art style the best out of all the LIs. His CGs were extremely cute and the art was beautiful, my favourite being his bonus CG and the movie-time CG.

Plot: 5/5 I made the mistake of going through Okazaki's route first but enjoyed his plot greatly regardless. This is what got me hooked on the game after all. One of my favourite villains is featured in his route as well. The whole story line was coherent, relevant, exciting, and rewarding - for making the certain choices vs others.

Romance: 2.5/5 Unfortunately Okazaki's lovestory with Ichika was one of my least favourite. He follows that happy-go-lucky, but you know nothing about him, hiding some deep sadness, type of personality trope, and is often described by other characters as being very unlikeable. However, I felt there was missed opportunity to really play this up as the central conflict in his romance with Ichika. Instead, it felt like all of a sudden, love went from 0-100 for no reason other than Ichika getting mad. Even 'till the end, why did Okazaki fall for Ichika? What did he like about her? We'll never know.

[ainyy-520]

Collar x Malice: Post-completion thoughts

Ok so I basically binged the game and as my first real otome game, overall thoughts: loved it. I felt the game had a good balance of visuals, plot, and romance which ended up just completely sucking me in. The game itself has some pretty dark themes in its plot, but I feel the setting of the game is obviously fictional enough that I don't need therapy after (ahem, Piofiore I'm looking at you). As well, the music and art are 10/10, perfectly matching the themes of the story.

Imo CxM, while having darker themes of mass murder and homicide, is not overly heavy. It is actually quite gentle when compared to Piofiore (I'm about halfway through right now). The Tragic Ends in CxM are pretty much just straightforwardly bad, and not bittersweet or psychologically twisted for the most part (iykyk). As well, the random Bad Ends throughout each route are pretty brief and to the point.

In terms of the hotness, CxM definitely has it's moments, but I think the majority of CGs and romance are more sweet and cute and doki-doki, and not quite volcanic nosebleed tier. I'm certainly not complaining though, I mean come on, the Shiraishi hand-holding CG is some of the cutest shit I've ever seen.

If it wasn't clear yet, would HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone. So good!!!!