VN Talk: Code:Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ - Part 1: Overview

In which I talk (write) about visual novels from a storytelling perspective...

Platform: PS Vita (also on PS4)
Release: 2019

I feel incredibly fortunate that the second Code:Realize fandisk made it to the US. It's unprecedented from an otome localization perspective, because being a fandisk, it's not geared towards new players at all. In fact it expects players to have completed not only the original Code:Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ but the previous fandisk Code:Realize ~Future Blessings~ as well. It's not a good place to start with the series, but it's a fulfilling piece of fanservice for those who want more of the characters. (And if you want to try otome at all, Code:Realize: ~Guardian of Rebirth~ is my all time favorite and I highly recommend it.)

Rather than an overarching story, Code:Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ is divided into different types of scenarios; Triangle Dates, Christmas stories set after the Finis route from ~Future Blessings~, epilogues to Finis and Sholmès' routes from ~Future Blessings~, a new side story that happens during the common route of ~Guardian of Rebirth~, and special epilogues for the original five love interests based off their ~Guardian of Rebirth~ endings. As I did with ~Future Blessings~ I'll break this discussion up into multiple posts centered around each love interest with separate posts for Finis and the new side story.

There will be some spoilers for triangle dating (which is plot-lite) in this overview post, but the major spoilers related to the actual routes will be withheld for the more detailed entries. For ease of discussion purposes, the special epilogues in the original timeline will be grouped with the Christmas stories, just so I can talk about the same characters in the same posts, even it's not possible to play those stories in that order.

When starting a new game the player is greeted an interface that resembles a Christmas tree, with the different story options being presented as gifts or ornaments. Unfortunately the player's view starts at the top of the tree, making the Triangle Date the first option the player will see. This is probably the fluffiest, least impactful of portion of the game, and it probably should have been pushed elsewhere rather than being presented first, because it's not possible to dive deeply into any of it.

The Alternate Stories: First Christmas, is more likely where the player will want to start, and these are in the middle of the tree. The Christmas stories are ~Wintertide Miracles~' solution to address the fact that all five love interests from Guardian of Rebirth have already achieved their happy endings with Cardia. ~Future Blessings~ struggled, not always successfully, to give the committed couples worthy epilogues. So what ~Wintertide Miracles~ does is puts the courtship back into play by setting its Alternate Stories after the Finis route in ~Future Blessings~ where the Guardian of Rebirth romances never happened. It's like a rewind button to allow everyone to confess their love to Cardia again, except this time during more peaceful times since they're no longer in danger.

At the bottom of the tree, presented as Christmas gifts, are the new Cantarella side story and the two epilogues to the Finis and Sholmès routes in ~Future Blessings~. The special epilogues appear on the main menu after completing the middle and bottom sections of the Christmas tree (triangle dates don't need to be completed as I hadn't completed two of the "secret" dates before they unlocked).

For the rest of this post I'm going to discuss the Triangle Dates, and while they're not the most fulfilling part of the game, I've found them to be a nice way to fill a half hour to an hour with some fluff.

Triangle Date

The triangle dates don't take place on any established route, in fact they might even contradict each other, but in general they make four assumptions.

1) Whatever danger there was is over.

2) Cardia has been cured of her poison.

3) The main cast is still living at Saint-Germain's mansion.

4) Cardia has not formed a committed relationship with anyone.

It feels like an alt-universe ending of ~Guardian of Rebirth~ where Cardia managed to stop her father's plot and become cured of her poison. This setup allows her to interact with any two of the main love interests as chosen by the player. Only those characters and Cardia show up during the scenario, which is not really a date so much as an excuse for the three of them to interact.

The comedy is dialed up and characters might be slightly out of character to make the scenario funny, but since they aren't part of the main storyline they ultimately don't mean much beyond what you see.

The Triangle Dates vary in quality and the amount of romance, ranging from obviously flirting to non-existent, but I didn't find any of them particularly bad. Some of them might even have been good additions to a more canon timeline, such as Cardia's trip back to Wales with Lupin and Impey so she can place a memorial to her father.

What the Triangle Dates are good for though is letting the player see another side of the various characters that might not otherwise come out. Most notably, we see a lot more jealousy between the men than we usually get. Saint-Germain actually tries to sabotage Lupin's attempt to give Cardia flowers, and Victor grows a strong enough backbone to let Lupin know that he's not giving up on Cardia without a fight.

On the other hand, a few scenarios are fairly platonic. Victor and Van Helsing's joint scenario results in Victor and Cardia nearly getting trapped by Van Helsing during his attempt to share his cooking with them (which we know from previous games is terrible), but they manage to turn it around by having Cardia cook instead to thank Van Helsing for all his help. The three then turn the event into a picnic that has a couple of romantic gestures, but neither of the men behave as if threatened by the other or comments on what the other is doing.

In general, Lupin and Saint-Germain tend to spar with whichever man shares the scenario with them (with the exception that Lupin does not feel threatened by Impey and Saint-Germain's outing with Victor is similarly friendly). Van Helsing only fights with Lupin and Saint-Germain because they start it, and Impey and Victor mostly get along with everybody.

There are also three "secret" triangle dates, which aren't really secrets (since the game tells you how to access them), so much as scenarios involving preset side characters. If you wanted to see what Nemo looks like without his glasses on, this is your chance, though I'm a little disappointed that the game does not include Aleister in the CG shot since he's part of the scenario.

For those disappointed that Watson was not a love interest in ~Future Blessings~, you might feel a little better in that he's part of a secret Triangle Date scenario, but he's mostly there to be an overprotective father figure despite being the same age as Sholmès. His scenario is also weird just because he's paired with Hansel (not Sholmès). The two have never interacted before in game and Hansel is already an eccentric personality, so the "date" goes about as well as you'd expect.

Surprisingly neither Sholmès nor Finis have anything to do with the triangle dates, not even as part of a secret pairing.

Next week I'll diving into Victor's routes. Given how much I enjoyed him in ~Guardian of Rebirth~ and ~Future Blessings~, would I ever pick anyone else?

Thoughts on Psycho-Pass 3 and Sinners in the System Movies

Psycho-Pass is one of my favorite anime series, mostly for the first season's well-thought out dystopia where crime is virtually non-existent (until it is). It's a bit like Minority Report, except instead of predicting crime before it happens, the Sibyl System is able to judge someone's criminal inclination. Latent criminals are put away for treatment before they become a danger to society. If treatment is successful, they are allowed to return, though it's implied that this event is rare. Once someone's too far gone, it's not possible to go back.

The two seasons of Psycho-Pass have followed Division 1 of the Criminal Investigation Department, which has been composed of two inspectors (people with good Psycho-Pass ratings) and four enforcers (latent criminals who are trusted enough to hunt other latent criminals so the inspectors don't get corrupted).

Though the story has largely been told through the eyes of inspector Akane Tsunemori, the fan favorite is enforcer Shinya Kogami, who used to be an inspector until his Psycho-Pass worsened due to his desire for revenge over the murder of his former partner. Season 1 saw Kogami satisfy his revenge at the end of the season by taking out the main villain, but in doing so, he went from a latent criminal to an actual one, so he had no choice but to flee the country at the end of the story.

That was fine. It was the ending that we knew was coming. Akane would never have killed Makashima, because she believes in working with the law, even if it is a flawed system, whereas Kogami's sense of justice had long fallen outside the Sybil System.

Then Season 2 happened.

While it had a number of flaws that had nothing to do with Kogami's absence, the fact the fan favorite was gone didn't help matters. (For me personally, I would rather have had Ginoza's role punched up since the guy's life was put through a meatgrinder in Season 1 and we don't see much of the fallout from that.)

About a week ago, Psycho-Pass 3 was announced, and it'll be airing in October this year. This wasn't entirely a surprise, considering that the Psycho-Pass: Sinners in the System movies started releasing earlier this year. No one's picked those up for North American distribution yet, but chances are Funimation will since they have the previous movie and both TV series.

And here come the spoilers.

I started reading the reviews for the Sinners in the System movies because I figured they weren't coming over to the US anytime soon and I wanted to know something of what they're about. I knew the first was a sequel, starring Ginoza and Mika; the second was a prequel, starring Teppei and the now deceased Masaoka; and the third was a sequel, picking up after the previous stand-alone movie with Kogami. (Which I haven't actually seen yet.)

I didn't feel a strong need to see what Kogami was up to, but I still wanted to know what the movie was about. So when the review went up at ANN, I read it, and realized that there was more going on than I'd thought.

The movies weren't just to bring Psycho-Pass back into the awareness of its audience in preparation for Season 3, but also to lead in to Season 3. And it sounds like Kogami is coming back.

I'm not entirely sure I like this, though if it's handled well, I'll roll with it.

Until this point, Season 3 hadn't teased any of the previous characters coming back. In fact the first promotional image is of two new characters we've never met before, though from their outfits and their Dominator weapons they are clearly part of the CID like Division 1.

Unfortunately we also don't know most of the staff for Season 3 either. The lead writer changed from Gen Urobuchi in Season 1 to Tow Ubukata in Season 2, which is what most people have credited as to why Season 2 was so much poorer than its predecessor. While I think it's possible for someone to write a good Psycho-Pass story without being Gen Urobuchi (as shown by the Mandatory Happiness spin-off game), Season 3 is really going to need to earn some trust back, and I don't think shoving Kogami back on the show is going to be enough.

Whichever way it goes though, I'm pretty sure I'll be watching in October.

Captain Marvel

No spoilers in this post. Just general comments.

I watched Captain Marvel this weekend, which is unusual for me. I'm not a movie person and I hate crowds, so I see most films after they've been out for a couple weeks. But one of my friends asked if I wanted to go see it this weekend, and since it's a female-led superhero movie, I figured I should give it my support dollars, because goodness knows we need more of these.

And it was money well spent.

In fact, I was surprised by how much I was moved by it. I had enjoyed Wonder Woman, but I actually cried during Captain Marvel, and not because there were strategically placed "sad" moments. I found Carol Danvers to be incredibly inspiring, in her struggle to keep standing up when various men in her life put her down for being a girl. It's bad enough to be disappointed in your own performance, worse when someone doesn't think you should have even tried in the first place.

But Carol kept getting up.

I like that the two people most important to her are both women. I like that she's a superhero without a love interest.

And there were other good moments in the film too. The special effects de-aging Samuel Jackson were excellent and held up the entire film even in different lighting environments. Goose was adorable. I could've used more Agent Coulson (being an Agents of Shield fan), but I know he's always been a bit character in the larger MCU so it's understandable he wasn't in it more.

But when I get back to it, the best part is still Captain Marvel herself. I can't wait to see her join the team in Avenger's Endgame.