Title: Sweet Fuse: At Your Side
Genre: Visual Novel (Otome)
Publisher: Aksys Games
Developer: Otomate (Idea Factory)
System: PSP
Release Date: August 27, 2013 (NA), June 14, 2012 (JP)
Here’s an otome game for a change of pace.
After Aksys’ first otome game localization, Hakuouki, returned a profit, they decided to bring to the west the mystery-themed otome game Sweet Fuse: At Your Side (original name Bakudan Handan). This game stars Saki Inafune (name changeable), the niece of game creator Keiji Inafune. Today is the opening ceremony of Mr. Inafune’s video game-themed amusement park, and Saki gets to attend it as a relative. Minutes into the opening ceremony, an explosion happens and a group of people are taken hostage by a stuffed animal mascot Count Hogstein. In order to free the hostages, seven people must solve seven deadly puzzles in seven days, lest the hostages be killed. Included in the group of hostages is Keiji Infaune, and so Saki volunteers to be a part of the “game” in order to save her uncle. Together with her are six boys and men, who seem to be participants specifically chosen by the mastermind.
For English visual novel fans, the premise may be slightly reminiscent of the Zero Escape series or Dangan Ronpa, with similarities in the main cast being trapped in a specific location and a mastermind that presents himself as a stuffed animal-like mascot character. However, while the aforementioned games are successful at providing a foreboding atmosphere and gripping storylines, Sweet Fuse’s tone lacks tension for a premise so reliant on suspense and its climaxes and revelations lack punch. The bits of foreshadowing are blatantly obvious, and the game could have also given a little more detail on how exactly the villain managed to set everything up, but the writers skimped on some details to focus more on romance and the individual character routes. Despite being under the threat of death, as the puzzles do actively try to kill or injure the main group, they seem to overcome their trials a little too easily. The characters also fall for some very obvious traps, but the villain is no better as he somehow manages to get intimidated and pushed around by an angry high school girl.
The strength of Sweet Fuse is the appeal of its characters and their interactions (Oh boy, I think I’ve said this phrase or some variant of it in the majority of reviews I’ve typed. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate my choices). This is the exact opposite to my experiences with Aksys’ other localized otome game, Hakuouki, which I liked for its long fantasy/historical story but wasn’t too keen on the characters themselves. In short, despite trying to sell on its mystery and plot setting, Sweet Fuse is better treated as a chara-ge.
Locked together with Saki in the deadly game are six men, ranging from teen pop idol scared out of his pants on the first day of the game to 32-year-old journalist with a daughter and no wife. Included are a hikkikomori NEET who only came to the amusement park because he was promised DLC, a muscular host with looks and attitude more befitting for a street punk, a mysterious fortune teller, and the surprisingly normal serious detective. All of them are possible romantic options for our 18-year-old protagonist, including the man with a kid, who would have been twice her age four years ago (the man, not the kid). The characters engage in amusing dialogue, and the protagonist herself would probably be much more welcome amongst Western consumers due to her proactive personality and lack of hesitation in calling out others for their shit (and the game consistently rewards the player for choosing to get angry). It is Saki who tends to provide important insight when the group gets stuck on a puzzle, which leads the player to wonder how does the rest of the group manage to solve the puzzles on the routes where Saki and her guy break off to act by themselves.
All romances develop during the period of seven days. While a few routes felt well-done in this regard, others left my eyes rolling at the extremity of the characters’ change (Urabe and secret character, I’m looking at you guys). The best guys, in my opinion, were Meoshi, Shidou, and Wakasa. Surprise, surprise, I like the hikkikomori NEET because I relate to him best. In fact, he was the one who really made me like the game despite all its flaws. Wakasa, being the cowardly idol on the first day of the game, also goes through pretty decent development as he tries his best from then on. Each of the characters have a little something for everyone, although I still struggle to find the appeal of the mysterious fortune teller who is as dull as a cardboard box but turns rather creepy and rage-inducing in his route. Then there’s the secret character, whose route should be played last for it reveals the secrets in its entirety (not that the player hasn’t figured them out by piecing together information from the previous six routes), but it left such a terrible taste in my mouth I wish it never happened. All the other routes had the villain running away, so I was hoping for a final true route where the team stays together and brings down the villain in a showdown of logic and debate (I did just finish both Dangan Ronpa games before this). Instead, all I got was a route that brings Stockholm’s Syndrome to the max and tries to make the player pity the villain, but with so little success that even Tales of Graces’ friendship speeches are less groan-inducing.
The music sounds cheap and the sound effects are badly synced and are possibly the worst I’ve ever heard in a video game. Simply selecting to have break time with a guy at night brings forth a jingle that sounds as if you won jackpot in a game show. Fortunately, the character design is very good, and the characters look distinct and befitting of their occupations and personalities (although some may raise objections at the teen idol’s fashion sense). It manages to set itself apart from the usually shiny otome game art style with similar-looking guys, and instead has designs gushing with character thanks to contribution from Ace Attorney’s art guy. However, this is one of those games where the regular talking portraits look better than the CGs. While the former are nice and crisp, the CGs have a good number of off-models and dull coloring (look in Wakasa’s route). A good number of them are bust shots, and most of them end up being disappointments as far as composition goes. There are some nice-looking CGs too, don’t get me wrong, but what also bothers me is that there are bust-shot CGs for a guy entering your room in a normal fashion, but many crucial plot moments are entirely told through the paper doll portraits.
Overall, Sweet Fuse is a decent choice if you enjoy the characters and are looking to play an otome with different-looking guys. While the plot is not great, the mysteries and trials should keep your interest for at least the first or second playthrough. I wish they made the in-game puzzles into actual puzzles for the player to solve, like the Zero Escape series, since watching other people solve puzzles just isn’t quite as fun. Judging from the Japanese spoken dialogue, Aksys took a good number of liberties when localizing the text, but the dialogues flow well in English. I’d say that they made several lines of dialogues sound less dull than they actually are. Either way, English-speaking otome fans probably don’t have an extravagant selection to choose from, so at least here is one with an easily agreeable protagonist and a story that doesn’t take long to start or progress.
