Code:Realize ~Hakugin no Kiseki~

Riding on the popularity of the series as the whole, otomate went and released a 2nd FD for C:R, this time on the Vita and the PS4, which sadly is the only new release game to be on the PS4. Riding on that, I’m playing the PS4 version of the game and it’s beautiful. This game is pretty much drama-free fd with just pure, wholesome stories that we all want to read. The game consists of many different stories, but the main concept is based around Christmas/Wintertime with our 5 C:R men. Let’s get on with the summaries.

After Story Sholmes

Remember how Sholmes got the short end of the stick in the last game? This game pretty shits over his route even harder with the major amounts of extra angst that I agree was necessary, but not great, judging by how happy the vibe of this game was. Basically Sholmes after story is basically them cleaning up after Aleister/Moriarity left Cardia to be a ticking time bomb. Cardia & Sholmes live together peacefully, with him taking her on dates and trying to arrest Lupin. Unfortunately since Sholmes pulled the shit stick Cardia’s horologium starts acting up again, but Watson & Fran /still/ don’t have the cure for it. The two (+Impey) come up with the only solution, which is to knock Cardia out dead temporarily so the Horologium doesn’t explode. This works, and a year later Sholmes comes to kiss Cardia awake. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ Honestly I’m just all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  at the ending cuz it wasn’t that exciting anyway? It felt hecking dumb and forced so no feelings towards this honestly. Watson didn’t even get any showtime.

After Story Finis

Finis’ after story has him and Cardia living in the countryside, until one day one of Issac’s machines goes mad and starts destroying the entire city. Finis wants to head to town and save the city from being destroyed, but he gets stopped by Hansel saying that he can’t go to town cuz “he might cause another disaster”. Finis doesn’t give a fuck and tells him he won’t do so they just shortcut through Idea’s misty forest to help out with the situation. Finis basically stops the machine with the code he remembers and prevents the city from being blown up. After this whole incident though Finis decides he’s sick and tired of rotting in the country so now he’s in charge of a new organisation in the government called “Akatsuki” translated as “Daybreak” which will be to clean up all the shit Issac’s machines cause. Cardia ends up taking in Sisi to live with them as part of thei family. This one was a little more sentimental, but I guess its still a little forced? Still enjoyed because Finis is generally more interesting and cute, gotta give props to the ending scene where Finish assumed Cardia was marrying someone in the gang and almosted murdered all of them. 😂😂😂

Canterella

If it wasn’t more obvious, Canterella is about the singer Canterella who appears in this story. Canterella looks fancy and all but she lives in a dump old building since her adoptive dad Miles literally spends all her money gambling lmao. Canterella’s also being chased by a weirdo named Aiguille who, for some reason, wants her to sing for him. Unfortunately the truth about Canterella is that she is a Cardia copy which succeeded in looking like a human, but didn’t look like Cardia so Issac chucked her into a dump. Miles, her adoptive dad, used to work for Twilight found her at Issac’s base and ended up taking her with him since she was begging him to help her. Sadly Canterella isn’t complete either, so she often “gets sick”, in which her horologium prototype is burning her brain so he pretty much gets her to drink Zickterium to keep her alive. Miles gets the poison from Aleister, but Aleister blackmails him into killing Lupin & co. in exchange for the poison and their safety, so Miles declares to Canterella that he’s disowning her. This all happens literally a day before his “father anniversary”, in which Canterella prepared a song to sing for her dad to thank him for adopting her. Canterella loses her shit in which Aiguille shows up to kidnap her and Cardia. We soon find out that Aiguille just this cute ikemen who can’t walk and is bound indoors forever. The weirdo in the mask that many see is just his robot who goes to town in place of him. Aiguille’s favourite story was one about a princess who sings to create a castle that walks, and he’s been wanting to find it. After bumbling outside he ended up running into Issac who was actually creating the castle as a side project. He ended up giving the castle to Aiguille since it wasn’t working anymore, and told him that the only way for it to walk again was to find a “beautiful singer”. Aiguille’s been studying to fix the castle’s machinery and find a singer who can get the castle to move.

Canterella ain’t amused at any of his shit, but she sings and the castle actually starts moving. Aiguille is extremely happy until the castle suddenly swallows her and it starts moving. Canterella’s thrown into some control room where she starts hearing Issac’s voice, in which she starts going mad wanting to be the “real” Cardia. The castle starts moving very aggressively & even Aiguille can’t control it, and it’s headed straight for London. Lupin & co. eventually corner Miles in which he reveals that he joined Twilight again to keep Canterella safe, so Lupin punches him and tells him to get his dad shit together lmao. Miles also reveals to Lupin that he quit Twilight because of Canterella & a friend who couldn’t take working in there anymore. Before anything else can happen though, they see the castle stomping towards London so they run off to save the girls. They eventually get to the control room where Canterella’s going nuts and starts hurling random shit at them when they get close. Cardia starts singing which controls the system down, so Miles can get to Canterella and tell her that he loves her like a real daughter. This calms Canterella down and she starts crying while they have their father-daughter moment. (´；ω；`) In the ending, Miles recovers while Canterella continues her singing job, since she’s apparently stable now after exploding during the incident. Aleister writes Miles to be dead so he can live his life. They decide to leave to travel around Europe, in which Canterella says that she wants to hold a party soon and invite Aiguille. ೭੧(❛▿❛✿)੭೨ A day before they leave, Cardia & Canterella hold a private performance for the whole group. I really like this story as much as the Mafia one, the writers really know how to write a story about familial bonds, they’re all so sweet. Unfortunately, it would have been nice to have more interactions between Aiguille and Canterella, there’s so much potential there. A shame that Cardia doesn’t know about Canterella, but I think it’s fine since this is set before any of the routes in the first game.

First Christmas

First Christmas is a bunch of stories with the main 5 guys, all set in Finis’ after story. It’s Cardia and Finis’ first christmas of their lives, so the guys are organising a party at San’s house for them to enjoy themselves. Since this all takes place after Finis route Cardia doesn’t hook up with anyone, but has feelings for one of the guys so depending on the route, different things happen. Overall, I found all the stories to be hella cute, even sentimental so I won’t be writing any thoughts at the end of the routes.

Abraham Van Helsing

Van’s been busy travelling all over Europe with Delacroix to find vampires in hiding to support their cause of removing all the discrimination from vampires. This pretty much has Van being Delacroix’s dad as that’s all he does anyway. On their way back to London, the two decide to stop by Cardia & Finis’ house to visit them first before the party. Unfortunately the two are out shopping so they end up waiting outside in the cold for them, until the siblings crash their way back home. Since it’s late, they let stay over for the night. Cardia’s rushing gifts for the guys for the party, so Van helps her knit everything together over the next few days since he’s staying until christmas eve. But we can’t have a moment on Van’s routes without some teeny drop of angst so Van has a talk with Finis in the middle of the nigh about how he’s gotten over the whole murder of his family since it wasn’t Finis who ordered it anyway. Finis is pretty cool with Van too, and basically tells him that he wants his sister to experience love basically giving his otouto seal of approval. They head back into the house, in which Van finds Cardia fallen asleep from knitting and gives her a pat on the head. （*´▽｀*）In the morning, they head off to London. They have time before the party, so Van & Cardia go out shopping where shit gets /real/ awkward between them because they have feelings for each other. At the party, Cardia gives everyone their present, except for Van’s. In the evening, Cardia finall gets some alone time with Van to give him her present which is a coat, and they confess their love for each other so they decide to start dating.

Victor Frankenstein

Fran’s running a clinic in the slums, and has been bothered by Cardia until he gets called out by Watson while they’re discussing medicine. Thanks to this, Fran decides to tell his parents that he’s got a girl he’s interested is as part of his update to them, but they assume they’re actually dating and are in love so they’re coming down to meet her!! 😂 Seeing this Fran rushes his ass to Wales to ask Cardia to pretend to be his lover HAHA. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ Cardia’s hella disappointed Fran didn’t truly ask her out, so she demands to go on a date with him as “practise”. They head to the party as lovers where they hold hands and Fran yells at everyone that they’re dating. Everyone’s like “yeah we knew that already” except for Impey who’s screaming. They go on more dates in which Fran starts to realise he truly has feelings for Cardia but he can’t say anything cuz he’s scared HAHAHA. On the other hand Cardia starts getting sad these dates are all a sham and she legit wants to be his lover. After hearing that Fran’s parents are coming down, the gang cancels the party so he can meet his parents. The night before Fran’s parents arrive, he takes her ice skating where he has to support her since she can’t skate at all. After that date though, the both of them finally decide to confess their feelings for each other and decide to be real lovers, so Fran kisses her at the train station when she agrees. (ノ*゜▽゜*) Fran’s parents soon arrive, so he introduces Cardia as his lover.

Saint-Germain

San’s taking a break from his Idea work, so all he does is hang around his house alone because everyone has left. San starts cleaning his house, but starts feeling extremely lonely due to the lack of people and Cardia at his manion. He then decides he’s going to invite everyone to his mansion for the christmas party, so he gets Hansel and Guinevere to help him decorate the house lmao. Unforunately, on the day of Christmas, London’s experiencing extreme amounts of snowfall so no one has reached the party yet. The poor dude decides to start packing out when Impey, Cardia, Lupin & Finis literally crashes into his house saying they’re late. This is followed by Fran, Van & Dela running in panicking wondering what happened. San starts crying, the poor dude’s been so lonely and misses everyone. ;w; They get the party moving along, and San & Cardia meet each other outside the mansion. San wants to confess his feelings here, but he can’t because he’s got his Idea duties to do…until Omnibus shows up wanting to join the party. And she also tells San that he’s getting an indefinite vacation for the next few decades at least HAHAHA. 😂 With that San grabs Cardi and they head off for a secret date while the rest of the gang freak out over Omnibus showing up. At the ending, Cardia is about to leave for Wales, so San kisses her on the cheek saying he can’t wait for her to marry him so she & Finis can move in to his house. (୨୧ ❛ᴗ❛)✧

Arsene Lupin

Lupin’s been up to his usual business of robbing rich people, but he almost gets caught by Leonhardht one day because hE’S TOO BUSY THINKING OF CARDIA. Thats right, the dude hasn’t been in contact with Cardia for ages because he’s too awkward to say anything. With San organising the party, he decides to write the invite letter to Cardia and he spends a shit ton of time thinking of the right thing to say. After sending it though, Lupin doesn’t get any reply for ages so he starts freaking out thinking Cardia’s found a new boyfriend in the countryside and has dumped him!! The date closes in so he decides if she ain’t replying he’s just gotta fly over and steal her heart again. Meanwhile, Cardia’s upset she hasn’t been receiving any contact from Lupin for the past few months, so she goes to sleep when suddenly there’s a Santa Lupin knocking on her window. (◕‿◕✿) Cardia’s overjoyed to see him so she lets him into the house, where they find out that Lupin’s letter never arrived because Impey kept sending letters so Finis just took away all it. Finis apologises for this, but they start wondering why Lupin never received Cardia’s letters. They fly back to London on the Ornithopter and find out San was confiscating the letters so Lupin can actually /do something/ to get his girl. Lupin starts trying to confess his love for Cardia the entire day, even through the party but he keeps etting cockblocked so he decides to flee the house leaving a letter saying he’s taken Cardia off on a date. Lupin takes her over all the roofs in London until they reach the large Christmas tree display – where he can finally confess his love and they kiss. (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

Impey Barbicane

Impey and Cardia both have mutual feelings for each other, but they haven’t said anything to each other. This time, Impey’s in charge of sending the invite so he sends a mini robot of him with a full recording of his love confessions to Cardia with the invite. Unfortunately, on the day of the party itself London’s hit by a snowstorm which causes the train Cardia & Finis are on to be stalled. Impey’s worried they won’t get to the party on time so he gets on the Ornithopter to get Cardia, and Finis tells Cardia she can go first since he doesn’t want to cockblock them but Impey cockblocks himself anyway by saying he likes the scenery more than Cardia. 😂 They delay the party for Finis’ arrival, so Cardia finds Impey and tells him to tell her “I love you” cuz she wants to confirm if his love is real. Impey becomes hella flustered so he runs off to find Nemo in jail, in which the latter suddenly speaks like a human and tells Impey to go back home this instant, and gives him a switch as a present. Impey heads back to the mansion, and brings Cardia on a date while the rest of the guys are partying. He tries to avoid saying the word “I love you” to Cardia throughout the time, and takes her to the science museum where he talks about his dream. At the end of the day, he uses Nemo’s switch and fireworks start shooting across the sky so he confesses to her, this time telling her a sincere “I love you” and they kiss. (*´◡｀​*)

Triangle Dates

The triangle dates are a section in the game filled with short stories about Cardia going out with 2 ikemens in the game. The stories go from hilarious to wholesome and cute, or maybe just the mens fighting over Cardia. I guess my favourites would be the one with Impey & Lupin cleaning up her old room in Wales and have a nice dinner to have better memories there. Also the ones where Cardia pretty much sleeps with the 2 guys in the story – either by accident or because they’re worried for her. (✧≖‿ゝ≖) There’s the “joke” ones too like Dela & Sissy where Sissy has apparently found a mate dog to hang out with. The Watson & Hansel one pretty much has Watson being a overprotective dad yelling at Hansel for doing shameless things to Cardia in public lmao. And well, the Aleister & Nemo one has us seeing Nemo without goggles, and he apparently has very attractive eyes but just no one sees it.

Special After

Special After is a whole section which are short, 30min-ish short stories with all the guys after their routes in Shukufuku no Mirai. For Van, Fran & San they finally get their wedding ends while the 2 married couples get some extra stories about them, all super good, pretty short and simple to conclude all the routes from the last game. Since the stories are pretty short, here are the summaries.

Van

Cardia & Van have pretty much got their wedding planend in order except that on the wedding day itself, Cardia’s kidnapped by a bunch of randos! They drag her off to another church where she’s supposed to marry another guy and Cardia’s all “wtf is this you’ve got the wrong person”. Upon hearing that his waifu was kidnapped Van busts into the church and is about to beat everyone when they realise it was a misunderstanding. Turns out that it was some rehearsal for a film and they thought Cardia was the replacement actress lmao. Van’s pissed that he couldn’t get to see Cardia in her dress formally so she gives him a kiss on a cheek to calm him down, and thye proceed on with their wedding. (✿◠‿◠)

Fran

Fran’s working for the government again, and he’s got his own lab with him as the lead researcher and a bunch of other dudes. Cardia hangs out at his lab once in a while to help him, and they’re technically married but they haven’t had a proper ceremony yet. Cardia’s cool without having one, but when Victoria hears about this she ain’t having that at all. Victoria then agrees to loan out St. Paul’s Cathedral to them to use for the wedding, but Fran’s gotta impress her with his love for Cardia. Fran spends all his time planning the wedding, and surprises Cardia at the local church by proposing to her again saying that he wants a ceremony. They end up getting married at the Cathedral.

San

San & Cardia are back in London for Fran to check her Cardia, and turns out her poison’s all gone so they head off with their wedding ceremony. San’s got everything in order though, with him buying the cruise ship from the mafia story to use as their own personal travelling boat lmao. They put a lot of prep into their wedding with the dresses/decorations, and invitations. They decide to send one off to Idea, but they get no response. The night before their wedding though, they’re brought to Idea base where Omnibus tells them that they pose no more danger to the world so they dont have to watch them anymore. Omnibus then gives them her blessing and sends them off to their wedding ceremony in the morning. (❁´‿`❁)*✲ﾟ*

Lupin

Lupin’s route already has them married ages ago so this is another short story, in which they go on honeymoon to France when Cardia asks Lupin about his parents. He was orphaned since young, so the only person he can call his “parent” is his teacher Theofrost, who basically is the guy who worked with Miles in the Canterella story. Lupin talks about how Theofrost was trying to save all the poor “children” (cue the 600+ clones of Cardia) so he wanted to stop the plan. Lupin takes Cardia to Theofrost’s grave where he pays his respects to him & Cardia thanking him for raising Lupin & allowing him to save her. Before they can leave in peace though the France police are still butthurt over letting Lupin go so they’re after him, so Lupin goes on his thief ways and escaping gracefully again, this time with Cardia. (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

Impey

Impey’s been out for a while regarding the sea project, and Cardia’s bored waiting at home. After San pops by with information that Issac did do some research on space, Cardia figured she spend the time waiting for Impey to search Issac’s research for any clues regarding space. Cardia leaves a letter saying she’s going back to her hometown and when Impey sees it, he freaks out and flies all the way to Wales to find her HAHAH. Cardia’s searching the library in the old house when she hears noises, but before she knows it she gets tackled down by Impey who begs her not to leave him. 😂 Impey thinks he upset her because he left her alone at home for 3 days but Cardia’s just “??? i’m here to help you get info”. Impey calms down and starts kissing her “as punishment” for leaving him such a vague letter.  (✧≖‿ゝ≖) They then go to see a meteor shower where Impey gives her her wedding ring which they forgot about, and they renew their vows to go to the moon. (๑•͈ᴗ•͈)

~Final Thoughts~

This game was so good. Despite it probably being the last game of the series, I’m completey satisfied with it. Much less drama and soap opera in this game (except for Sholmes if you’re into him I have bad news for you), and directly cuts to the chase to all the happy things. Both the after stories for Sholmes & Finis felt rather forced, but thankfullly Finis’ one was saved by the christmas route being amazing. Also, it was very nice to play during the christmas season and I don’t regret saving the game till christmas to play. I’m still slightly bitter that the anime didn’t choose to end with Finis surviving, it would have been a nice touch but they just didn’t want to do it, so Finis just existin and being a good younger bro to Cardia just made me happy all the way. Canterella felt like another “AU story” to lengthen the game, but I gotta say, it was hella amazing on how they managed to tie the story to points in this game that weren’t covered. It’s a nice touch, and I cried at the end so that takes everything away. While I did find some art to be a little wonky, I think everything was still pretty overall and I’m hoping not all the CGs were drawn by a copycat artist cuz that’s what Otomate’s up to nowdays sadly. Also, with this being my first (and sadly, probably the last) PS4 otome game, I was extremely pleased with the high resolution of the graphics and how the screenshots come in sweet 1080p resolution. Not sure what resolution the Switch is on, but hopefully it’s on par cuz I have been spoilt by this game already. I highly recommend it, just like any other C:R game.

This review was supposed to come out much earlier like in January, but I procrastinated on clearing the Special After section of the game because I didn’t want it to end, but I’m finally done with it on Valentine’s. I know, this review didn’t come out on valentines but I finished the game on Valentine’s, and I am happy for that. Hopefully I’ll still be able to pick up some titles Otomate ported to the PS4 since I’m quite a Sony fan, and still savour them on the system until there’s no more left to play.