Dance with Devils ~My Carol~ is the FD to the first game made after the anime, and like the Ken ga Kimi one, it’s a series of short stories packed in one game. The content includes longer stories that happen after the best ending of each route, as well as short after stories of what happens after each ending for each route, including the bad ends as well. As the trend continues, this will be a shorter review with short summaries of what happens in the game – let’s take a look at it.
I’d like to apologise a bit for this late review, I started the game around late-may to early june, finished it in July but never got the motivation to finish the review as it was smashed together with the anniversary period. My memory is a little hazy about what happened, but I think it’s sufficient for me to write this review & my opinions on everything. Similar to Ken ga Kimi, this game runs on short stories – except for the fact that there are only 4 categories, and there is much lesser content compared to Ken ga Kimi.
All Star
All Star is a common route for all the guys which happens shortly before the school festival. To try and loosen Ritsuka’s guard against them, Rem decides to start a school play starring all the student council members in it, and pressures Ritsuka to be casted the main heroine to try and get closer to her for the grimoire, and for whatever reason Roen pops up to help the student council as well. Lindo jumps in to help since he’s ur usual Rejet oniichan, so they start rehearsing for the play. Unfortunately the vampires are out turning the students of their school into their slaves to attack others so that they catch Ritsuka for the grimoire. Basically the vampires lauch their attack in the middle of the play, so Ritsuka & Rem improv it to look like the possessed students are acting like enemies so they safely beat up the vampires & keep the students safe while pretending it was all part of the show. The show ends up being a success and there’s a quick epilogue with every guy as kind of pre-route scene before the school festival happens.
My Carol + After Stories
My Carol is a longer 4 chapter story section taking place after all the Human 1 ends, mainly about some group of people causing trouble to the town again, depending on the route. The After Storie are short stories taking place after each of the endings available the last time, and these range from being insane to wholesome. I’ll be talking about them separately for each character.
Natsumezaka Shiki (CV: Hirakawa Daisuke)
Shiki’s My Carol talks about him reconciling with Azuna after he attempted to mass murder the entire school previously, so Azuna’s still apprehensive of talking to him, or even Ritsuka hanging out with him. It seems that Shiki’s crazy personality traits have calmed down a fuck ton thanks to him reviving as a human, so now he’s just trying his best to get Azuna’s approval. For whatever reasons Jeki’s also alive in this route, so he tries to attack them while they’re on a school excursion but Shiki really doesn’t have any power but he somehow manages to team up with Azuna & Ritsuka to exorcise him, but he escapes extremely bloody. Azuna accepts the fact that he’s changed and they’re now closer friends. I actually really liked this one, as Shiki finally reconciles with Azuna. At the same time though, it actually shows that he’s truly become human and there’s actually no creepo side to him ready to murder anyone, thankfully.
For his afters, Human end 2’s story takes place in the same time as the ending, except in Shiki’s deeper POV on all the events that took place in the route before they both get killed. For Devil end 1, Ritsuka cant get over her stabbing Shiki & everyone else in her life dead, and she practically lives on with the pain until her mother decides to intervene and wipes her memories of the whole incident. In Devil 2 though, shit gets far too creepy as it turns out that Ritsuka was only pretending to be controlled, and tries to escape one day to stab Shiki BUT HE’S ON TO HER ANYWAY. Basically he creeps up to her again and tells her ayyy LETS HAVE FUN and the madness continues. Great. I really enjoyed most of Shiki showing his human qualities, and he was definitely more fun thanks to the creepiness being taken out. On the other hand, the Devil end after stories were slightly questionable but alright, fits the theme of those endings.
Tachibana Lindo (CV: Hatano Wataru)
Lindo’s story centres around the aftermath of the vampires after they defeated Nesta. To no one’s surprise, the Vampires now want Lindo to be their new king, and are using any means to make sure he complies but uh, attacking him? I guess he can heal afterwards but I don’t know how effective that is in the first place. After Lindo refuses, the vampires start to aggravate their actions by continuously attacking people around the city, so Lindo steps in to stop them, by exterminating all of them using his half-vamp powers. He starts getting more aggressive as time goes by, so Ritsuka has to ~calm him down~ with her blood :^^^) (getting in on that vamp action ok rejet) He rejects it but Ritsuka has to tell him that she trusts him enough not to attack her anymore so he should just go for it, and woot they save the day with his vamp powers and exorcist powers combined!
In the Lindo’s Akuma End 1, we find out that Lindo’s been /acting/ as a shitty vampire lord this whole time after he finds Ritsuka crying over Maria & has some tea with her. He pretty much did all of this to protect Ritsuka, and tells her they cant go back to their past lives anymore, and he’ll have to maintain his asshole persona till the end of time. Ritsuka accepts this and continues to stay in the demon world as Lindo’s wife. In the Akuma End 2 after, Ritsuka has moved overseas but she still cannot stop having dreams about Lindo. Eventually, the remaining spirit(?) of Lindo comes and tells her to forget about him and move on with her life. For Human end 2, Lindo’s still batshit insane until Roen shows up proposing a collaboration to take down Nesta one more time since the human world is in a mad chaos. Lindo comes to his senses, but decides that since Ritsuka isnt around anymore, he’s gonna take himself in a blast of a glory by killing everyone until he dies. As per usual Lindo really didnt sit with me well cuz he spends most of his time in this game cockblocking Ritsuka + guy so it was really hard to like him. He’s also hilariously cringey, but I guess its all part of the package. 😅
Nanashiro Mage (CV: Kimura Subaru)
Mage’s story is, in one sentence, the demons in the demon world hating on him & wanting to attack him just because he ain’t strong. That’s literally it, but with the added extra character development of him getting closer with Lindo! Mage’s trying his best to get Lindo’s approval but Lindo’s consistently shitting on him for being a demon & telling Ritsuka not to be alone with Mage. Ofc Ritsuka doesnt listen and hangs out with Mage all the time. Mage actually wants to be a family with them & have Lindo approve of him, but he really doesn’t know what to do in a family situation so Ritsuka agrees to help him along!! Lindo & Mage eventually come to an understanding when they beat up the hoards of demons after Mage together. In the epilogue, Mage pretty much proposes to Ritsuka to get married in the future.
Mage’s Devil end 1 after is basically another copypasta about demons attacking him again, this time bringing humans into the demon world. This really goes down the same, he beats up the guy, then promises Ritsuka he’ll make the demon world a safe place so her family will allow her to live there. His Devil end 2 extra takes place during his route, exploring the reason for his escape and and him protecting Ritsuka till the end in his perspective. His Human end 2 extra is yet another story in Mage’s perspective in the route from the original route after the school festival party. Mage’s stuff felt quite forced due to the fact that most of his content ended in the first game, and there wasn’t else much to add into the game in the end, so it felt really lackluster. Dates wise, he was fine and just as fun and wholesome as before.
Kaginuki Rem (CV: Saito Soma)
Rem’s story was honestly the funniest to me because of how the “villain” of the route was so clear but they kept beating around the bush over it. One day, the students of the school start falling sick for unknown reasons, with them spacing out and choosing not to turn up to school. As the number of absentees increase, Rem decides to look into the situation and finds that it’s kind of a plague that has been spreading around town. There’s also a bunch of shady people giving away bottles of water which apparently acts like some miracle weed water which can cure them. Unsurprisingly, the water’s been drugged with some form of enchantment which ony affects humans, and not anyone with demon blood, so most of the main cast isnt affected. The situation gets worse as a rumour spreads that the student council’s the cause of the plague, and everyone who has drunk the weed water starts to mob the student council. Urie, Mage & Shiki hold off the mob humans while Rem, Lindo & Ritsuka go to find the mastermind behind all of this, which is unsurprsingly, the priest. Yeah remember they didnt do much in Rem’s route? Yeah they’re here now so they just beat him up, and cure the town by distributing waters with the enchantment to cure them or sth lmao.
Rem’s Devil end 1 has Rem overloading on work to see Ritsuka again because he’s left her in a mansion away from the main castle . He finishes up, returns home and collapses on Ritsuka, which gives us a cute CG. For Demon end 2 though, for whatever reasons both Ritsuka and Rem appear in the space between the living and the afterlife. Ritsuka runs into Azuna first, who disappears after seeing that the 2 of them are happy. The couple then decides that hey, if they cant die together they’ll just stay in this space forever! Which left me with a lot of questions but it ended there so I was indeed, very confused. For Human end 2, this was pretty random in which Rem & Ritsuka both want to see each other but they’re apart, and somehow Ritsuka wishes for him and poof he shows up, he says he’ll be back to get her soon and that’s it. Quite forced, which made me a bit bored from it and it was quite forgettable. Rem also suffers the lack of content after the route so some of these afters were honestly, really boring and I couldn’t remember them until I checked my game to look at the stuff. For Rem’s overall content, once again, it’s wholesome and I enjoyed them.
Sogami Urie (CV: Kondo Takashi)
Urie suffered from worst story because I couldn’t decide whether his or Rem’s one was more hilarious. In Urie’s after story, Urie & Ritsuka do this thing where they cant fuck each other unless it’s in his dreams, and Urie doesnt want to open his mouth to say anyting to anyway. Anyways, this causes both their thirsts to overflow and guess what, his powers become sentient and turns into a clone of him, trying to trap Ritsuka in the dream forever!! How original!! So ye basically Urie has to fight his own clone off and Rem has to rush in to help them once again lmao!! Basically they fight off Urie’s magic clone or sth, and they finally they each other how thirsty they are. Oh and also they get a wedding end in the epilogue, which was nice but left me like >:c because where’s my wedding end for the other guys?
Urie’s devil end 1 involves Ritsuka trying to be a succubus but failing, but Urie likes her attempt anyway so they uh, make out I guess? (I really couldn’t remember much from this;;) For devil end 2, this is another flashback to within the first game’s route in Urie’s perspective when he tries to find a solution on how to get Ritsuka back to her senses after she turns into a devil. In the Human end 2 after, Ritsuka’s living a happy life but she realises she’s forgetting something. After going on a date with Urie, he reveals to her that this is her dream and he’s just created from her wishes to be with him forever. He tells her he can wake up anytime to go back to where her friends and family are, but she decides to stay in the dream world with him forever. Urie’s devil extras were pretty interesting, it mainly touched a bit about his family since Ritsuka’s now living with him, but it really wasn’t much and didn’t add that much to the plot. Urie’s my 2nd favourite, and most of his stuff was pretty sweet except for the teasing & his My carol, other than that it was good.
Roen (CV: Suzuki Tatsuhisa)
Roen’s after story was the sweetest to me – mainly because it was about Maksis & Maria, and less about them, but nevertheless still good. The Tachibana house is attacked by a mysterious monster one night, so Roen decides to go investigate the cause of the monster and realised its linked to the flowers near Ritsuka’s Grandpa’s house. Turns out Maksis actually bloomed these flowers for Maria while they were dating!! (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ Unfortunately, Maksis’ magic is now going out of control so they need to be destroyed. Roen was pretty hesitant on this since its the last of Maksis’ power, but decides that all his good memories are here now so he can let go of the past, so he destroys them with the power of Ritsuka’s love or sth and they go home together.
In Roen’s devil 1 end after, Ritsuka’s getting lessons from Roen on how to be a properly lady for when Maksis returns to the demon world. She’s a little bored, so Roen takes her to a flower field that Maksis once showed him previously. For the devil end 2 after, Ritsuka continues getting Roen to subdue anyone who’s after her, lamenting the fact that she can’t return to the days when she’s a human. When there’s an attack on their castle, they decide to protect it since its the last place that she can call home. For the human end 2, Roen’s pretty much delusional & thinks Ritsuka still exists, and constantly protects Maksis’ territory from anyone who trespasses it. Rem checks out the area under his dad’s orders, but seeing Roen’s state, decides to report back that its not worth taking over until hundreds of years later. Most of Roens stuff to me, (I say me because im biased to voice) was great. He still stands as my favourite character after all of this, and I liked that they added some content for Ritsuka’s parents for us to know about.
Extras
Most of the other extras were basically day-to-day date scenes with the guys, which were cute but unfortunately, easily forgettable as I really couldnt remember shit from them. They also kinda did a Jeki route thing where I have relatively high expectations but ended up being betrayed cuz it jsut really didnt turn out right. Basically it was just like Jeki catches Ritsuka then…..diabolik wifebeaters? Yeah there wasn’t much so it was really disappointing. The christmas date section was mostly similar too, the background was the same and they’d always end up at the illumination.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I would say that this FD for Dance with Devils, was mediocre. It did what an FD did, but it’s lacking in some places. The system was pretty much the same as the Ken ga Kimi one, but I found the former to be much more content heavy and had much, much longer stories for me to read and explore. For this, stories would end in about 10-15mins, which wasn’t much content. The My Carol routes also could be done in about 1-2 hours each, a little more to collect both endings but that was it. While the lack of content isn’t really the biggest problem, unfortunately for this game, most of the content was in general, sweet, but it caused it to easily forgettable and hard to remember unless I looked back at the content in the game. There wasn’t much CGs to couple with the content too, so I further couldn’t remember much. The blandness of the game was probably the reason why I had an issue trying to complete this review in the first place. A lot of the content regarding the routes (like the extras/after stories) ended up being forced, or really boring because it was a flashback, or some tiny short thing which happens which was pretty unrelated & didn’t add much to the plot of the route. While I enjoyed the game, it kinda was just there, but I couldn’t remember much from it after finishing the game, which is really sad. It’s also didn’t help that I couldn’t “feel” for the afters unlessed I checked my own review, because the last game was such a long time ago that I barely remembered any of it to feel for the after stories. Therefore, this game is worth a play when all the stuff from the first game is fresh in your memory, but after that, not so great.
未来へ向こう 