Sword Art Otome comes west with a beautiful translation from Aksys that sadly masks the rather lacking – if gorgeous – visual novel underneath.
| Developer | Otomate |
| Publisher | |
| Franchise | N/A |
| Genre | Visual Novel |
| PSTV | Yes |
| Physical English | Yes – EU/NA |
World-building & Story
In Period Cube, the young female protagonist (named Kazuha) is on a journey to find her missing big brother Shiki and in the process gets sucked into a virtual world known as ‘Arcadia’ where running out of HP has very real consequences – namely dying in real life. The only way to beat the game is to unite the ‘Trinity of Swords’ to clear a powerful dungeon known as the ‘Ark’ and as such Kazuha reluctantly sets out to find a way back home after the ominous ‘Jaws of Death’ threatens the life of everyone logged in.
As you can guess from the above description, this is very much Sword Art Otome – except rather than being a harem, you’ll play as a girl and quest together with one of a number of eligible bachelors. Unfortunately, the overall plot here really isn’t anything special – it has the potential to be really exciting and memorable, but somehow the writers manage to muddle everything up and make the reveals far less impactful than they would otherwise be. Without spoiling anything, Shiki’s disappearance is tied to the events in Arcadia but no matter what route you pick, things rarely make sense or are well explained.
The prime example of this the idea that clearing special quests will allow you to return briefly to the real world, but no-one talks about what is happening because they fear repercussions if they do. Little conveniences like this, or the fact that there’s no physical thing pulling them into the game world (like the headsets from Sword Art Online) made me conclude that many elements of Period Cube’s story were rushed, which is a shame as there’s a very solid idea at the core here.
Sadly, Kazuha is another problem – she’s a weak protagonist who easily gets swept up in events but does little thinking of her own, particularly in light of the fact that she is the Almighty who has immense power (and one of the Trinity of Swords who everyone wants to use for their own means). I found it difficult to like her and she often gets used as an object or makes completely baffling choices, making it hard to feel any connection with her (it’s also particularly frustrating that she regularly goes along with silly suggestions by other characters seemingly for no reason).
The date-able men who Kazuha comes across are decidedly more mixed, with some having decent routes and others being an absolute disaster. Some of the better ones include Astrum, an angel who leads with confidence in the game world while lacking any kind of social skills in real life and Libera, a young boy playing a female character who ends up forming a deep bond with Kazuha. Slowly getting to know these two was fun and rewarding and there were plenty of similarly enjoyable moments with Kazuha’s childhood friend Hiroya, even if his route ended poorly.
On the flip side, the route for demon Radius that sees you flipping between his abusive in-game persona and frustrating idol persona in real life was a bust that offered few rewards. The biggest offenders come towards the end – Zain is an NPC who forms a bizarre connection to Kazuha that is completely creepy while Demento is a fallen angel whose story feels completely shoe-horned in to pad out the game’s playtime. What I assume is the ‘true route’ (which I won’t spoil) is the worst of all, incredibly gross at times and seemingly ‘redeemed’ at the end in a way that didn’t work for me at all (it’s also worth noting that there are bad ends for each character which can be genuinely creepy, if a little bizarre at times).
The major issue is just that each guy seems to fall in love with Kazuha without her having to really do anything. Compared to someone like Ichika from Collar x Malice, a strong female who it was easy to like, Kazuha just comes across as aimless and vapid. At least the supporting cast, from the sassy innkeeper Domina to the timid summoner Misera are fantastic – the banter between them was probably my favourite part of Period Cube, it’s just a shame that so much of it was repeated between routes towards the end.
At least the world of Arcadia is fully fleshed out and a fascinating place – even though this is just your average online world, it had enough quirks to make it a worthwhile setting. I also have to give credit to Aksys for properly translating a variety of MMO terms which are fully explained in the dictionary in a nice touch of authenticity.
Presentation & Sound
Despite its storytelling stumbles, I have to say that the artwork in Period Cube is absolutely gorgeous – easily my favourite of Otomate’s titles on Vita and an absolute visual feat.
The theme here is definitely a combination of soft blues, greens and purples which works amazingly well to create a visually stunning game. Things like backgrounds – whether it be the panoramic view of the Ark in the background brightening up the sky in a sea of light, or the bustling buildings of the twilight capital awash in shades of purple, I found myself taking many screenshots to capture specific moments of beauty.
This extends to the character art – as you’d expect from the genre they’re very professional looking, with intricate clothes like Shiki’s robes or Astrum’s colourful angel wings (they also all animate and blink when idle). The CG stills are also all amazing – serene scenes like Demento sitting by a lake or Poyo-Poyo hugging Kazuha are mixed in with more intimate moments that are drawn delicately and with care. With that said, a couple of them were particularly creepy (Hiroya licking Kazuha’s wound and Zain reaching into Kazuha’s chest) and felt out of kilter with the overall tone of Period Cube (or perhaps the tone was a lot more low-brow than I realised?).
There’s pretty much full Japanese voice acting here which is nice, while music is a decent mix of delicate tracks that sometimes degrade into background noise, but are mostly brilliant pieces on their own.
Soundtrack highlight – Special Feelings
Gameplay & Content
As an otome visual novel you should know what to expect going into Period Cube – you’ll mostly be reading, although there are a couple of tricks here to differentiate it from the norm.
So as always, you’ll progress through a straightforward story that branches at certain points – while you’re offered the usual binary choices which add to a bachelor’s ‘affection’ meter (which you can track from the menu), as it’s based on an MMO Period Cube throws in a neat trick to mix things up. This comes in the form of ‘battles’ where you can choose between fighting, buffing or running – although this is merely a choice dressed up slightly differently, it feels thematically fitting and very appropriate.
In fact, the game commits to this in a number of ways – you can dive into the menus which shows a character’s level, or the dictionary is on hand at any time to explain the variety of MMO terms that get thrown at you. There’s also a very handy history feature that allows you to rewind to any previous point in a route, while minor ‘his perspective’ after stories provide a nice insight into the minds of each of the guys (of which there are 7 in total, making this a fairly meaty otome with plenty to read).
If you’re not yet sold on the genre this won’t do anything to change your mind, but all the systems here are well made – it’s just a shame they’re not backed up by a more coherent story that’s worth seeing through.
Conclusion
Thanks to its absolutely gorgeous artwork, beautiful music, intriguing setting and fun choice systems, Period Cube seems like an attractive otome title to check out – but its winding, poorly-thought-out story really trips it up. It’s not a complete disaster and there’s moments of enjoyment in there, but in an abundant genre on Vita this definitely isn’t a must buy.
6.0/10
kresnik258gaming 