Collar x Malice Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: Collar X Malice
Genre: Adventure, Visual Novel
System: Nintendo Switch (previously released on the PS Vita)
Developers|Publishers: Idea Factory|Aksys Games
Price: USD $39.99|AUD $ 60.00|CAD $ 52.91|UK £35.99|EU €39,99
Age Rating: US M| EU 16+
Release Date: June 25th, 2020

Many thanks to Aksys Games for providing us with the review code!

This review contains a clearly marked section with content spoilers. Be prepared to scroll on by if you’re not interested!

When I grabbed a PS Vita a couple years ago, I started collecting visual novels. Collar X Malice is one that had thus far managed to evade me. So of course I wanted to review it when they announced it was coming to Switch in June. How did I like it? Let’s find out!

What is it?

“Don’t know who you are yet, but I’m sure we’ll be romantically linked soon!”

You play Ichika Hoshino, a young police officer in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo, who finds herself unwillingly involved in the shadowy organization Adonis’ nefarious plans to bring about a “rebirth” for Japan. In their minds, they’ll be purging corruption and failure in the local police force by committing a series of mysterious crimes that they clearly consider to be a form of justice. Your character is kidnapped and fitted with a collar that will inject her with poison if she discloses its existence to the authorities. Driven by her duty to protect her city, and hoping to save her life in the process, she finds herself walking a tightrope between the police she’s serving with, a group of ex-cops investigating the crimes, and the mysterious organization Adonis that has the power to kill her at any moment.

Gameplay

“Well that’s ok! Just as long as it’s not for your job.”

Nintendo’s site lists this game as adventure, but it’s also considered an otome visual novel. There are a handful of scenes that involve some point and click, and you have to hit A at just the right time to fire your gun accurately, but otherwise it’s straightforward dialogue selection. This is a reverse harem style novel in terms of relationships.

Story and text issues

You’re assuming I can read these “mere words”.

All visual novels involve some repetition, but I found Adonis’ lofty declarations trying when you find yourself viewing them multiple times. If you’ve ever wanted to yell at a villain “We get it! Stop talking and get on with it!”, then you know what I’m talking about.  

The story definitely seems muddled at times, particularly the ending. I’m not sure if this is a translation issue or a writing issue. I did find some definite translation issues (usually awkward wordings or spelling errors) but most of it is understandable. However, following Adonis’ (and to a lesser extent, the characters’) reasoning was a chore sometimes. I feel like I need a chart to know where everyone’s personal views on justice actually stood by the end of the game.

As shown above, some of Adonis’ declarations were very difficult to read due to the red text directly on the image. There are also a few other bits of text that were a bit difficult to read due to not being able to make the text background dark enough. Not a frequent issue, at least for me.

A note about Sasazuka

Suffice it to say, I’d like to delete his code right out of the game.

If you’ve played otome visual novels then you already know what to expect in terms of gender relations and the characters generally treating each other in ways that are questionable to western sensibilities. Buyer be informed. However, I found Sasazuka (pictured above) extremely exhausting due to the barrage of verbal put downs. Definitely a character I prefer to skip interactions with when possible.

Unfortunately, he does have an entire route. I finally gave up and skipped the bulk of the last few chapters because it’s my life and I have better virtual characters to romance.

Experience

This title is strangely timely for a re-release of an older game. The ward is under quarantine due to the unsolved crimes, and the entire plot revolves around the issue of corruption in the local police department, its failure to protect citizens, and what sort of rights individuals have (or don’t have) in pursuing justice for them and their loved ones. This is explored in some detail, including when it’s appropriate to use weapons as an officer, as well as the issues involved in having an armed citizenry. There’s quite a few other serious topics covered that are handled with varying levels of sensitivity. Some issues are touched on pretty extensively; others merely brushed past, leaving me wishing they’d just left it out entirely.

In short, there’s an element of surrealism in playing this title at this moment in history. I found it somewhat therapeutic to be playing a game that is based around such current topics. However, these themes, plus the dark content of the overall game, had me stepping away for a mental breather quite often. 

Speaking of dark content…

Spoiler warning for some content issues

This is one of the few times where I wholeheartedly agreed with the American M rating. There’s intense violence, disturbing behavior towards women (including discussions of stalking so intense the victim wishes to kill all men in retaliation, and references to/attempted sexual coercion), harm to children, survivor’s guilt, references to intense bullying, and content involving suicide or other wishes to die. There’s a few other things, but that’s what I thought was dealt with extensively enough to mention. Also, please be aware that this game uses some stereotypes of certain mental illnesses (BPD, DID, and OCD) that are considered damaging and dismissive. Some of it is brief, but not all.

It’s a lot to take in.

End spoiler warning

Save and save again!

I just skipped through two chapters because I failed at Saving 101, so I think I earned that look!

Make a wrong selection and you’ll find yourself poisoned, or dead in some other seemingly random occurrence. I highly suggest finding one of the many walkthroughs to follow, and save when recommended (particularly if you’re determined to see all the bad endings as well). I failed to do this on my first character path and ran into a scenario where both paths led to game over, and had to go back nearly to the beginning and speed through a couple chapters. Lesson learned. Manage your save files wisely!

Edit: It has come to my attention that the rewind feature (where you can scroll up through the previous dialogue, select a line and start back at that line) could have been used to backtrack and fix the double dead end. Although I had used it to backtrack a few sentences here and there, I got so wrapped up in the story that I frankly didn’t think of using rewind as a possible solution at the time. 
 
Furthermore, you can use a chapter select feature unlocked when the routes are complete to backtrack and try out the bad endings, but I’m a bit old school and find it easier to just save and go back in order.
 
Still, I feel very silly for going through two chapters needlessly. I refer back to the above comment by Shiraishi!

Speaking of failure…

Hit A at the right time or you’ll be going back to your save file.

I went through an entire path without understanding that I was supposed to do anything during the trigger scenes. This unsurprisingly resulted in a bad ending. I went back and checked, and I don’t see anything instructing the player to perform any action at these scenes. I guess I was just supposed to know from previous gameplay experience.

Regardless, when she fires her gun (as pictured above) hit A when the circle most closely matches the circle around the gun’s muzzle.

Visuals

“And why do you look so dreamy in this time of crisis?”

The characters and backgrounds are top notch. Nothing exceptional to note, just gorgeous animations perfectly suited to the genre.

Music and Voice Acting

A jaunty investigative theme is appropriate here. Some scenes, not so much.

Music is good where it fit, but the “investigating” theme was too bright a track for some of the grisly murder scenes it played under. One scene in particular had quite a lot of blood and emotional intensity. To have that upbeat little theme going was very disorienting.

“I heard the piano theme and just went for it.”

I am a particularly big fan of the piano theme played under the romance scenes. The happy ending theme added strings which is even better. Take note game developers: Piano themes are always improved with the addition of strings! (Granted, I’m a violinist so severe bias is on display here).

The voice acting is good. I was particularly impressed by Kageyuki Shiraishi, voiced by Ryohei Kimura. I love his inflections. He brings a lot of life to that character.

I was also very impressed with Haruka Yamazaki’s portrayal of Hana. This is another performance I just loved hearing.

The guys

A mixed bag of hair colors, personalities, and vocal registers.

My favorite character route is Enomoto’s, but Yanagi and Shiraishi are the ones that left me wanting to know more. If I do play Collar X Malice Unlimited (coming to the Switch in August 2020), it’s definitely going to be because I want to know more about Shiraishi’s life after this game.

I think it’s very important to save Shiraishi for just before you unlock Yanagi’s route. Spoilers abound.

Conclusion

This game was a bit like reading Harry Potter: Personally, I don’t care much for the main characters. However, in every chapter I was so engaged in the story, or fascinated by the side characters, that it overwhelmed the fact that I really didn’t care that much about the fate of Harry and his friends. 

It’s an uphill battle to normalcy in Collar X Malice. 

Playing Collar X Malice was a bit like that for me. I wasn’t always very engaged with the protagonist or her partner, but the intrigue of the story, the way it tackled the issue of justice and how it can become entangled with the many grey areas of human emotions and experience, as well as the side characters and villains that cross and re-cross your path as you play through the routes, make it a title I can’t make up my mind about. My feelings on it are all over the map.

This is a game where I suggest careful consideration before playing. I’m no stranger to difficult themes and stories in gaming, movies, or books, but this game is tough. 

For all of the above reasons, I’ll have to rate this:

Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure

One comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *