VN Talk: Rose in the Embers - Part 1: Overview

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

Platform: iOS (also on Android)
Release: 2017

Rose in the Embers is a Love 365 title, which means that it's a part of Voltage's otome mobile app, which acts as a sort of game library for titles using the same engine and in some cases even sharing background art and musical assets. Though it's a romance visual novel like those I usually cover, it's pay-per-route, rather than getting all routes in a single package as you would in a console game.

I happen to like this one enough to have bought all the routes, so I figure it's worth a VN talk series. I'll only be covering the first of what Love 365 calls the "Main Story" for each route, which is the falling in love part of the romance. There is fandisc-ish material that follows the relationship as it progresses, but it's unequally distributed among the guys due to the modular way mobile content tends to get updated and sadly Rose in the Embers seems to have been retired so what there is, is all we're gonna get.

Rose in the Embers takes place during Taisho Japan (1912-1926), a period of transition in Japanese history when the country was adopting a lot of western culture, but it was still common to see people walking around in traditional clothing. Our nameable protagonist (who has no default name) is the daughter of a farmer who has gone into the city for a job that paid a lot of money upfront for her service; money that her family badly needs.

Of course, being a country bumpkin, she's unprepared for the ways of the capital, and soon learns that the money places her into indentured servitude for the proprietor of an extravagant inn; the kind that has rich and powerful customers who may want any number of things and "no" is never an answer. Our luckless protagonist (who I'll refer to as the MC for "main character" from now on) is horrified at the thought of prostituting herself and runs away from the customer she's supposed to entertain, causing a scene. Her boss gives her a choice, do what she's told or pay the money back along with the contracted penalty she cannot afford.

This incident kicks off the route branch. The rich and powerful son of an earl, Kyosuke Takatsukasa, happens to overhear everything and on a whim throws out a ton of money, more than enough to pay for the MC's debt, and buys her freedom, after which she goes home with either him or one of his friends to a new job. It isn't all that cleverly handled compared to console games, seeing as a menu comes up at the end of the prologue and literally asks the player to pick between Kyosuke and his three friends, but it gets the job done. The player gets to meet all four of the main guys during the prologue so there's just enough to go on that by the time it's over the player has a rough idea whose route they probably would like to play.

(The prologue is free, but the routes are not, so there is a design reason behind the abrupt transition. Selecting Kyosuke or one of his friends moves the player to the appropriate route where they can then read the first chapter for free. Also, I assume Atsuro was added as a love interest later because he is not at the scene in the inn and can only be accessed directly through the app and not through the prologue.)

Rose in the Embers is built on the idea of a forbidden romance due to class differences, so it's unsurprising that half the love interests are of a significantly higher station than the MC (Kyosuke and Takahisa), and the ones who aren't, are highly respected for their artistic endeavors (Tsukumo and Misao). Atsuro is really the only odd man out who is closer to the MC's level, and it's telling that he's not a part of Kyosuke's social group.

There isn't much of an overarching story that spreads across all routes. Really, the bulk of the MC's motivation is to hold down a job so she can send money home to her family, which consists of a disabled father and younger siblings. But that said, it is a very important motivation, because wanting to find a way to earn her keep runs throughout almost all the stories. She's grateful for the opportunity to find a new job (or keep her old one in better circumstances) and doesn't want to lose it, no matter what happens, especially since she ends up being an outsider on most routes. The man who sponsors her new position might be the only ally she has, if she can consider him one at all.

Though the MC is nameless, she is not devoid of personality. She's a little naive, being from the country, and rather traditional, but she's quite plucky and self-motivated. Her circumstances bring her low from time to time, but she never stays that way. She finds doing hard work to be the solution to just about anything and I like a protagonist who has her own areas of competence. She might not be able to do more than manual labor in most cases, but she's quite good with plants, courtesy of her farming background, and she can be incredibly quick thinking in a pinch.

Given the pay-per-route model, I wasn't sure if the other love interests would show up regularly after the prologue, but they do, though how much varies from route to route. Generally everyone, even Atsuro, will be present for at least one scene, but after that it varies wildly, with Kyosuke being the most frequent guest appearance. Since he is naturally an instigator, it's unsurprising that he would get involved with just about anything if it suited him, but this could be annoying if the player doesn't like him or gets tired of him playing Mr. Exposition.

To be fair, he generally does a good job of explaining things without feeling like he's specifically there to infodump, but after seeing this happen on multiple routes, it became increasingly obvious that sharing everybody's life story is just what Kyosuke does.

Rose in the Embers is unusual in that there is no "good ending" vs "bad ending" even though there are two endings per route. Instead they're split into Fortune's Fools and Favored Bold. Both of them are legitimately different ways the story could end (which ending gets the final CG is split between them so there's really no favoritism), though Fortune's Fools is supposed to be bittersweet and Favored Bold more of a traditional happy ending. I did not find Fortune's Fools to be that much of a downer though, and sometimes I preferred it, but it tends to be less dramatic and emphasizes how difficult the relationship will be going forward.

It's more of a case of whether you want the realistic ending or the one that doesn't worry about what the couple's future is going to be like.

Next week we'll look at Kyosuke's route, because a busybody can't be a busybody in his own story.