199 | in which I make a ridiculously long update about my OZMAFIA!! playthrough

[straightforwardly]

► Yes, I’m still playing OZMAFIA!!. Most recently, I just finished up all the endings for the main three (Caramia, Kyrie, & Axel), including the transferred affection endings. I have a lot to say! —Mostly about the transferred affection endings, because I took pretty detailed notes for those, but I do have comments on the Caramia and Axel routes overall as well.

One more organizational note: each of the transferred affection routes had two endings, just like the standard routes did. I ended up doing one of the endings for each transfer— i.e., for Axel’s transferred affection endings, I did one ending in the route where the original LI was Caramia, and the second ending in the route where the original LI was Kyrie. I organized my notes in the same way, and so am also going to be organizing this post that way.

Caramia

CAAARAAAMIIIIAAAAA. ♥ ♥ ♥

So, yes: my affection for him has not waned after playing his route. There were a few “ehhhh” moments for me throughout the route (I kind of got squicked at the part where he said that he originally conceived of their relationship as a father/daughter one, before his feelings shifted— just… one, Caramia, you are way too young to be her father and two, that is really not my kink; I also wasn’t crazy about the bit about the baths), but overall I was happy with it.

Unlike with Kyrie’s route, I did feel like I understood why Caramia was falling for Fuka even before I got the extra scenes from his perspective! The two of them are pretty cute too, though, as with Kyrie/Fuka, I’m not precisely shipping it either. I think they both fall under the category of “inoffensive pairings that I might or might not write something for, but don’t feel particularly passionate about”.

I did feel like this route highlighted a different problem for me, which is this: while Fuka herself is not a cipher, exactly, her feelings for the LIs kind of are. Her acceptance of their feelings always feels out of the blue. I know why this is from a mechanics perspective— unlike with most other otome games I’ve played, the character-focused routes start with Fuka and the LI getting together, and it’s hard to show a character falling in love with a specific LI when any of the scenes could hypothetically be seen while pursuing a different LI— but from a story perspective, it feels awkward.

This route also had me shrieking about Fuka’s poor life choices. Her choices in Kyrie’s route seemed very sensible in comparison! I feel like “do not sneak up on the mafia don in a dark street at night when you know that he’s patrolling for an enemy” should be the most common of common sense, and yet here we are.

In general, though, I liked this route well enough! The endings were some of the better ones, when it comes to the standard endings. (By which I mean: the endings where Fuka ends up with the same person she initially starts dating. The guide I was referencing calls them the “pure” endings, but… that word has some connotations that I’m not crazy about in this context. So standard endings it is.)

There were also plenty of great Caramia/Kyrie moments, which I really appreciated, and I loved seeing Axel actually suggest that Caramia go to Kyrie for advice.

Axel

I went into Axel’s route not really expecting much, and… that’s what I got, pretty much. I don’t hate him, but I am really, really not interested in him as a love interest. Also, that first Sunday scene with him was awful. My reaction essentially boiled down to “...if you’re trying to convince me to like him, this isn’t going to help”.

But there was one beautiful, beautiful highlight to his route, and that was the revelation that KYRIE HAS LITERALLY EATEN GARBAGE BEFORE. Caramia’s delight was my everything, and I love how he talked about his “love-filled cooking”.

The mystery of Axel’s shotgun was also revealed! I remember that in my very first playthrough back in April, there was at one point a reference to Axel pulling his shotgun out of his jacket, which made me go ??? because (I thought) there was no way that he could hide a shotgun under his clothing. But no, that’s not actually what it was talking up! His sprite shows him having a jacket hanging from one of his hands, and apparently it’s actually covering up his gun. Still weird, but at least there’s some sort of explanation for it.

Finally— okay, this bit deals with the love triangle portion, which I mostly am dealing with in the sections where I’m talking about the transferred affection endings, BUT in my first playthrough, there was one line that stuck out to me— and it was this one, said by Caramia: “If you were with me, I’d never make you sad. I’d never run off and leave you alone.”

Which. THAT IS A FILTHY, FILTHY LIE, CARAMIA. This is literally the main conflict in the Caramia -> Axel love triangle route! (To be fair: Caramia has no way of knowing what happens in an alternate universe where he confessed to Fuka first. But I still found it amusing.)

Caramia -> Axel

Ridiculously stupid misunderstanding aside, I actually really like the plot of this love triangle section. Or, at least, I did this the second time around, where the extra scenes flesh out the mystery Caramia & co. are hunting more and take some of the spotlight off of that stupid misunderstanding.

Speaking of the “street slasher”, I’m wondering if he was inspired by Jack the Ripper. True, he’s a real person, not a fairy tale/children’s story character like the rest of the cast, but this is a nameless side character, the Jack the Ripper story does have some mythic qualities, and the name they refer to him by (“the street slasher”) + the fact that he murders prostitutes does make me wonder. I’m also curious if this is going to be the only time he shows up, or if he’ll maybe play a role in the brothel route. Especially since it is Manboy who kills him. (On that note, the way the scene was set up made me actually think for a second that it was Manboy doing the murders, rather than that he’d just murdered the murderer.)

Finally, while the “switch” between LIs was awkwardly handled, I did really like the detail of how, when they slept together, it was Axel’s first time. (And then there was Fuka with her, “well, idk if it was my first or not”, which: ♥ This game often drops the ball on Fuka’s amnesia, but they did it right here.)

As for Axel’s transferred affection route in general… I actually thought that it was much, much better than his standard route. It certainly did a better job of both making me like him and giving an insight into his character. There was this part where he and Fuka are talking about why he doesn’t talk very much, and he tells her— actually, I think I screenshotted that bit of the conversation, so let me just share that here:




Which was pretty much my favorite Axel moment in the game so far. (Not too long after this, he also mentions how he’s always thinking about things and has so much to say, but just… doesn’t, which: #relatable)

The later exploration of why he wanted a heart in the first place was also really good. Again, I’m really surprised that this wasn’t in the standard route, because I feel like it’s actually pretty important for his characterization!

(And that the conversation was with Caramia was just ♥ — I love how Caramia often takes on a “big brother”-esque role with him.)

Though— okay, so I know that the transferred affection route is the same regardless of who the original LI was, but I have to say, Axel and Fuka going to Caramia for romantic advice felt really awkward considering that, y’know, she’d left him in favor of Axel not that long ago. AND THEN AXEL MAKES IT WEIRDER BY SAYING THIS TO BOTH CARAMIA AND KYRIE:

“...Are you sure you don’t intend to take that opportunity to steal her from me?”

WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL, AXEL.

But Kyrie saved the scene for me in the end by just… casually implying that he was going to invite Caramia and Fuka to have a threesome with him. I mean. I know he was doing it to torment Axel, but that pairing’s literally something that I’ve been idly turning over in my head for a possible fic, so I was pretty taken aback to see it mentioned as a possibility on screen! (Especially since Kyrie— depressingly enough— usually shoots down the possibility of anything ever happening between him/men, but not in that scene… :D)

The ending was also pretty good! Though, uh, I didn’t expect Axel to murder Hamelin. That was a bit more gruesome than expected. But I loved the bit with Caramia being turned by Hamelin’s pipe (that actually happened a lot in these transferred affection paths, and I enjoyed it every time), and Hamelin referring to Axel as a tank (“power type” in the Japanese, or so it sounded) was great!

I also really liked Caramia coming to save Axel in the extra scene. “Maybe it was just from the smoke, but there were tears running down his cheeks.” — Just, yes. ♥ Though I do have one criticism — while I see what they were going for with the “extra scene on a second playthrough” thing, there are some places — like with this scene — where the transitions feel very abrupt without that scene. I’m explaining this poorly, but…

Okay. So the first time I played this, it went like this: Axel defeats Hamelin and then, horribly injured, begins to succumb to smoke inhalation while thinking about how he doesn’t want to die yet. Ending credits play, and then we hit the epilogue, where everything is happy and positive and he’s together with Fuka again! There’s absolutely no explanation about how he survived— because that explanation is in the extra scene you get in the second playthrough. I like getting extra scenes, and I like how they expand on the story and characters, but I also think that the original version should stand on its own as a complete story. In this particular instance, I think it failed at that.

Kyrie -> Axel

This was actually the first love triangle section I ever played through. /nostalgia. I think I said this back in April, but, while I’m not crazy about the love triangle mechanic as a whole, I do really, really appreciate Kyrie’s self-destructiveness in his own relationship in this route. (Which, now that I’m thinking about it, is weird, because I absolutely h a t e d it in Axel’s main routes. I suppose that I like Kyrie’s more because he’s more self-aware about what he’s doing? He’s very deliberate in his sabotaging of his own relationships.)

Another thing that I noticed was that Axel was far more aware of his feelings for Fuka in Caramia’s main route than he was here, in Kyrie’s. He essentially had to have it spelled out to him by Fuka in the most awkward scene possible.

Finally, the gossip scene between Heidi, Pashet, and Fuka in the beginning of this love triangle portion continues to be just too good. ♥ Though— last time, I hadn’t noticed that Heidi doesn’t actually deny the possibility of her being into women— she just says that she doesn’t want to talk about it. She also mentions that she’d want to date a “nice, strong person”, and I’m definitely taking all of that as fuel for my Heidi/Peter shipping. Peter definitely is strong, even if I haven’t seen her say anything in-game yet to show if she’s nice or not.

As for the final scenes between Kyrie and Fuka— I do really, really like his “don’t apologize for doing what’s best for you” speech. (Though that bit where he’s refers to himself as having been “too twisted” for her was a bit, uh— wow. He certainly has a View of himself.)

With the context of Kyrie-as-the-original-LI, his tormenting Axel over Fuka when he goes to Caramia for advice has a very different context, and I’m kind of into it. Also, I love that we got an extra scene of Caramia, Kyrie, and Fuka’s night out! I just died at the innuendo that flew over her head— as well as Kyrie and Caramia’s shock when she innocently replies to them in a way that also sounded ladened with innuendo. So good. ♥

In this ending, Axel fought Caesar instead of Hamelin, which surprised me. Though I was even more surprised at Axel actually managing to hit something! Also, THAT EPILOGUE. *_*

My notes for this read as follows: “!!! FUKA DARLING i love it i love it i love it”. Basically— Fuka thought that Axel was being very cute, and in her exuberance she… accidentally tackled him to the ground. :D AND THEN KYRIE DECIDES TO KICK THEM “TO SEE IF THEY WERE DEAD”, and I’m grinning again just thinking about it. What a fun ending. ♥

Caramia -> Kyrie

This was definitely one of the love triangle sections where I felt the most uncomfortable about switching LIs. :( Just, poor Caramia! His reaction when he saw Fuka with Kyrie had me going “oh noooo :(“. He’s such a good guy about all of it, and I felt horrible about having Fuka leave him.

I am wondering about how well Caramia remembers Dorothy, though. He and Kyrie both say quite a few things that suggests that Caramia doesn’t actually remember their journey or Dorothy very clearly. (In fact, at one point Kyrie says, and I quote: “If you’re going to forget about something, forget it completely. This vague, partial memory stuff… it’s frustrating.”) Caramia does clearly know that they went on a journey to gain courage/brains/a heart, because he talks about what Kyrie used to be like in Kyrie’s standard route, and he talked to Axel about his heart in Axel’s transferred affections route, and he also definitely knows that he was once a lion, but I’m not sure how much more he knows.

The memory question in general is something that I really wonder about. I do think that Kyrie remembers everything, because he’s said as much, but even Axel has a moment (in the next section) where he doesn’t seem to fully remember. And, I’m jumping ahead again, but Caramia is the only one of the three who doesn’t have a moment in his transferred affections route where he talks about why he went on that journey.

Anyways! On to Kyrie’s transferred affection route proper. I was pretty delighted by this one. Kyrie showing signs of a conscience re: how he manipulated the situation between Fuka and her original LI in order to win her! The return of the “maybe we love each other because neither one of us is normal”, aka my favorite aspect of the Kyrie/Fuka romance! I also liked getting to see Fuka standing up for herself a bit more here — the whole ‘her problems may seem trivial to him, but they’re important for her’ conversation was fairly satisfying in that regard.

I was struck by how, in this route, we actually see Fuka vow herself to the Oz famiglia, unlike in the standard Kyrie route, where he thinks to himself that he’d like to put that day off for a little longer.

I loved, loved, loved the set-up for the ending conflict in this route! The mysterious arson! PASHET ACCIDENTALLY MEOWED. SO CUTE. Gretel throwing oil on the fire by saying that burning down a barn sounds fun and Hansel’s face when she says that!

And then, of course, there was that battle between Caramia and Kyrie, which was basically everything for me. *_* Such a fount of goodness! I think it was also here where I learned that possessed!Caramia literally grows claws when he’s in his more beastial state, and that the “incident at the church” that they referenced in Caramia’s standard route probably involved Caramia being controlled by hamelin too…

AND THEN. Fuka’s dramatic sacrifice to save Kyrie! His heartfelt confession! And, in the epilogue, Kyrie actually blushed and dear reader, I died.

And then there was the extra scene between Fuka’s Sacrifice and the epilogue, and just. KYRIE AND CARAMIA BICKERING. Robin Hood sighing over them being insufferable patients. FUKA REVEALING THAT SHE HEARD KYRIE’S HEARTFELT CONFESSION AND CARAMIA REVEALING THAT HE HEARD IT TOO. KYRIE BLUSHING ABOUT IT. ROBIN HOOD BEING IRRITATED ABOUT THE IMPRACTICALLY ABOUT GIVING YOUR BELOVED A HEARTFELT CONFESSION INSTEAD OF GETTING HER TO THE HOSPITAL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Everything is wonderful. ♥ I love it, I love it, I love it.

Also, this Caramia comment in the epilogue was golden:



Axel -> Kyrie

Before I go into the more negative stuff, let me just say that the extra scene where Caramia goes to Robin Hood for advice re: Axel and Fuka going to him for relationship advice was absolutely beautiful and I loved it. “love consigliere” indeed. :D

Now, on to the rest...

This… might have been my least favorite love triangle section overall? I don’t like either of Axel’s, honestly, because his lack of communication with Fuka frustrates me, but I find it even more annoying in this— probably because he’s actually there to talk to her but just doesn’t!

Though, that extra scene where it’s revealed that Kyrie encouraged Axel to write Fuka a letter to express his feelings and Axel’s just happily thinking “Sometimes Kyrie does have decent advice” left me internally shrieking. No wonder he was so angry when Fuka and Kyrie came home! I still think it was a massive overreaction on his part, and his actions in that scene really creeped me out, but it’s not as out of nowhere as it first seemed.

Also, Kyrie was wayyyy creepier in this nighttime scene than the other one, and it’s not like the other one was exactly perfect either. And even though I don’t really like Axel or Axel/Fuka, his reaction to her leaving him made me feel so bad — even worse than I felt with the above Caramia -> Kyrie route!

Honestly, it’s a shame that I hate both of the love triangle sections leading to Kyrie’s transferred affection route, because that route is so good! Much, much better than Kyrie’s standard route. And the extra scenes in this route were particularly good! I give you:

• Kyrie being upfront about how he has a bad personality, to which Fuka has the cutest “should you really be saying that about yourself??” reaction


• Kyrie revealing a bit more about his backstory in a conversation that I’m going to talk about more below


• a conversation in which Caramia calls Kyrie cute, multiple times, until Kyrie’s both blushing and irritated!


• a really interesting conversation where Kyrie talks to Axel about their journey and what they obtained — or lost, which. It’s been hinted at before, but I’m still pretty struck by how Kyrie seems to feel like he lost something when he received his intelligence — that he thinks he was actually happier before.


• Kyrie implying that he chose Caramia to be the don


• Fuka seeming to feel pain-pleasure from receiving the brand????


• THE REVELATION THAT KYRIE SET THE BARN ON FIRE, HOLY SHIT

I need to expand on two of those! First, the backstory bits:

So, it turns out that Kyrie’s eyes aren’t the same color! I admit, my initial reaction was “I’m so glad that he hides it” because I have a hard time looking at characters whose eyes aren’t the same color— it makes me feel itchy in a way that I have a hard time describing, and I tend to dislike those characters because of that. Yes, I realize how ridiculous this is!

And then he revealed that his other eye is basically a mood ring and my first reaction was “no wonder he hides it” — he confirmed it a few lines later, but I definitely can’t see Kyrie being happy about the idea of willingly showing off what he’s feeling to all and sundry.

(For the record: yellow = happy, blue = sad, and purple = something he refuses to reveal, but I’m going to guess it’s love.)

But what I really loved was the reason behind why he has a differently-colored eye, which was this: when he was a scarecrow, the farmer who owned him had set him up in a way that the rain washed away the color from one of his eyes much more quickly than the other. The farmer regularly repainted the eye, but for some reason, he decided to repaint it as a different color each time. I already really like that bit of backstory on its own, but it doesn’t hurt that it also came with this moment, which made me melt:



Second, THE ARSON REVELATION. Even now, I’m a bit :o about it. It makes so much sense, but it also completely blindsided me. To quote my initial notes:

“WAIT KYRIE SET THE BARN ON FIRE?????
holy hell he did it because of fuka’s desire for peace.
holy hell. holy hell.”

So. Yes. I’m still struck by it. It’s so perfectly Kyrie— who else would respond to their beloved’s “I wish people would stop fighting/hurting one another” with “well, if I just have all the rival factions wipe each other out, then of course there will be peace again!” Just. W o w. I love it.

Also — this was revealed in a conversation with Dorian Gray, and during that conversation, Dorian Gray said, “Watching people fall from virtue is a delightful way to cure boredom”, which— entwines really well with the novel he’s drawn from.

The ending continued on with this general excellence — it might be my favorite ending that I’ve gotten so far, though I’ve gotten enough good ones via these transferred affection routes that it’s hard to say. I’m not even sure where to start with all the things I loved about this one! Caramia checking the bullets in his gun to make sure that he hadn’t shot anyone while possessed was a really good detail. As was his pouting about how Kyrie can fly! That was really cute.

And on that note, Kyrie summoned the crows again in this ending. And it was even better than the last time! And— that whole sequence as he goes to Hamelin was just so beautifully written. Very atmospheric — especially in his yearning to be a scarecrow again, and how in that moment, he recaptured the joy of that time of his life.

Also, I was… weirdly into Kyrie and Hamelin’s interactions in this ending? Idk.

It also had so many excellent Caramia/Kyrie moments, both in the extra scene and the epilogue! ♥ I loved Caramia making sure that there was a fresh set of clothing on hand for when Kyrie came back from scarecrow-mode right after Kyrie reveals just how much he hates how that mode makes him so damp and dirty.

Also, CARAMIA KNEW THAT HE WAS THE ONE TO SET THE FIRE. <333 Considering that he wasn’t even present for the Kyrie/Fuka conversation— and so, had no way to know what Kyrie’s motive was— I can’t help but feel like it says a lot about how well he knows him. Especially since Fuka herself still has no idea. There was also more of Caramia calling Kyrie cute (!!!) and talking about how seeing Kyrie happy makes him feel “warm and fuzzy” inside, and just, so much good content for my OTP. ♥

Kyrie -> Caramia

Kyrie’s reaction to realizing that Caramia’s in love with Fuka in this love triangle section was… weirdly cute? I also deeply, genuinely love how Fuka talks about her feelings for Kyrie in this section — it’s genuinely one of my favorite descriptions of “love’s not always enough” that I’ve ever seen.



I also genuinely, truly loved how Caramia’s confession was handled here. It doesn’t feel out of place at all, which is— not something that I can say for all of the confessions in the love triangle sections. (I’m looking at you, Kyrie-in-Axel’s-main-route.)

I also really like that, when Fuka comes to him, she says that she’s not actually in love with him yet — that before his confession, she’d never thought about him in that light. Again, that felt more natural. (...Except for the part where they have sex almost immediately afterwards, but “Fuka immediately has sex with her new LI” seems to be a Thing in these routes. And what we saw of that scene was very sweet. ...Though I am both delighted and amused at how, the morning after, Fuka observes “the scratches on his back”. Just: NICE, Fuka. Nice. ♥)

Seriously — why are Kyrie’s love triangle sections so good? They’re almost the only ones which are, really. And while I’m talking about this — and to continue some of my thoughts from his previous love triangle section — I’m actually very struck by the difference between Kyrie’s reaction when he’s the first one to confess to Fuka vs. when someone else beats him to the punch. I think you can boil it down to “self-destructive” vs. “determined” respectively, which… says a lot about Kyrie himself, I think.

Okay! Now, to move on to Caramia’s actual transferred affection route. Just like the other transferred affection routes, it was really good! This particular route/ending was the last bit of gaming that I did in 2018, and I actually finished it up about six minutes to midnight. It was a really great way to finish up the year — I played it with headphones in because the room I was in wasn’t very quiet, and it helped suck me into the story even more. It didn’t hurt that it both continued to fuel my Caramia/Kyrie feelings and gave me more Caramia/Kyrie/Fuka moments (though none as blatant as the one in Axel’s transferred affections route).

A minor note: Fuka getting inducted into the famiglia was completely brushed over this time, which made sense, considering how large of a scene it had in Caramia’s main route. Also, the background conflict was also, for once, not between Famiglia Grimm vs. Anderson, but Anderson vs. the Wolf Gang! — Though that was later explained away by Hamelin.

I also never noticed that possessed!Caramia’s eyes were so gold before playing this. On that note, I definitely went “oh nooooo!” almost immediately when he showed up back at the manor! And Kyrie’s quick reaction to possessed!Caramia was just <3333. He realizes it so quickly!

But more importantly: Kyrie tying Caramia up on his bed. *_* (...To prevent him from being used by Hamelin, true, but details, details, details, I don’t care, I’m going to enjoy it. *_*) Also, the answer choices for Fuka during that scene were truly something — you have to choose between “Poor thing...” (emphasis mine) or “How fun”. I take everything that I said last April back — I love this game.

Also: “If I ever laid a hand on you, I’d regret it for the rest of my life.” Considering what happens in Caramia’s main route, I think it’s safe to say that we know that he isn’t lying about that.

Determined!Fuka is so cute, and I really enjoyed seeing the three of them working together to save Caramia — even if it turned out in the end that Caramia didn’t actually need to be saved.

(Also, is it me, or is there something weirdly shippy about Hamelin and supposedly-possessed!Caramia’s interactions? I know I said something similar about Hamelin and Kyrie above, but really.)

Finally, Kyrie and Axel teaming up to tease Caramia was an unusual, but delightful combination! Though, of course, it quickly turned back to the usual Kyrie-torments-Axel dynamic, which is also pretty delightful. And I adored the extra scene at the end— the gen/ensemble scenes are honestly some of my favorites in this game. Kyrie using a pit trap on Axel so that he can get to Axel’s hidden diary first! Again: I take back what I said last April, because, even though it definitely still has the flaws that I pointed out back then, I genuinely love this game now.

Axel -> Caramia

The first bit of gaming I did this year! The last of the love triangle sections! ...And one of the worst ones. :( If Kyrie has the best love triangle sections, then Axel definitely has the worst. I hate his attitude towards jealousy so, so much. I mean— considering his total inexperience in relationships, I suppose it makes sense, but he’s so horribly childish about it. It frustrates me.

I did like the detail about Caramia covering up Axel’s absence by telling the soldati that he’s on vacation and, while I wasn’t too crazy about how this particular get-together happened, I did like that Caramia acknowledged that Fuka had feelings for Axel not that long ago / that it makes sense that he’s still on her mind, even if she chose Caramia.

Moving on! Like with Kyrie’s transferred affection route, the extra scenes in Caramia’s were especially good. I did initially have a bit of a kneejerk =/ reaction to Caramia being a bit jealous of Kyrie helping Fuka out in the beginning, mostly because I really dislike jealously, but, well:



...He kind of has a point, considering how Kyrie goes about winning Fuka for his transferred affection route...

I also really loved seeing Kyrie and Axel reminiscence about what Caramia was like before he got his courage. That was super-cute. ♥

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY. This time, I went with the “How fun” answer, and the resulting scene was glorious. Fuka discovering her inner dom! Kyrie’s commentary on what this might mean for their sex life! ...Okay, Caramia did douse my enthusiasm a little by claiming that he’s not into that, but it’s not like he would admit that in front of a room full of people he’s not sleeping with, plus he didn’t seem entirely opposed to the idea of Fuka getting free reign to his body when they were alone in a room together, so… Operation Dom Fuka is a-go? :D?

In this ending, Fuka is going along with Axel instead of Kyrie. If I had to guess— I think that probably the only reason Kyrie agreed to take her with him to Caramia in the other ending, is because he knew that Caramia wasn’t much of a threat to her. As far as I can tell, in this ending, Caramia was genuinely possessed, so it would have been much more dangerous for her.

I’ve never given Ande too much thought, but holy shit, it turns out that she can actually be very creepy while in combat! “...I’m a much better shot” was said in such a chilling voice, and something about her in this battle really reminded me of an antagonist in a magical girl series, for some reason. In any case, I was very engaged in that battle!

This was also another ending where Caesar shows up! Apparently, he’s affected by Hamelin’s pipe too— he references having to shake its effects off, first. On a similar note, I was also very charmed by Caramia’s sheepish admission of how often this — the possession — happens.

Finally: this route ends with an extra scene with Axel calling Kyrie out on being worried for caramia and unwilling to admit it, and just: < 3333

tl;dr the transferred affection routes/endings were universally and overwhelmingly better than the standard routes! (I was about to say “with the exception of the love triangle sections”, except it’s not like those sections were any better when Fuka sticks with her original LI, so.)

► I’m still not 100% decided on whose route I’m going to do next now that I’m done with the main three, though I’ve narrowed it down. I did google the recommended route order, and the main points that I picked up on were that Soh and Caesar should be done last, and the “Brothel -> Robin Hood -> Hamelin” endings should be done in that order. Which leaves Scarlet and Pashet to be played whenever you’d like.

I think I’m going to do one of those two next, then the “Brothel/Robin Hood/Hamelin trio”, then the one that I hadn’t done yet, and from there do Soh’s route and then Caesar’s last. (Mostly because I like to end on a high-note, and I have approximately zero interest in Soh.) But— I’m really, really torn on whether I should do Scarlet or Pashet next. On one hand, Pashet has f/f potential, though I’ve picked up via osmosis that the route itself is unfortunately a friendship route/platonic. On the other hand, Scarlet is a member of Famiglia Grimm, and I am d y i n g for more on Hansel and Gretel. They’re easily the side-characters that I care most about, and I really want more!

...I also wanted to talk a bit about one of my theories for something that didn’t show up in the main three’s routes / that I am now thinking might show up in the brothel or Robin Hood routes, if it shows up at all, but the above turned out to be so much longer than I thought it would be (almost 6K!!! holy hell), and I am exhausted. ….Seriously, this update took me so long to write. I really should have updated more in-between if I wanted to talk about this playthrough in that much depth. Someone save me from myself. ;_;

► Unlike the rest of this entry, this has nothing to do with OZMAFIA!!, but I also posted my usual writing wrap-up post for 2018 over here.