Game: Illusion of Itehari
Genre: Adventure, Visual Novel, Otome
System: Nintendo Switch
Developer | Publisher: Broccoli | Aksys Games
Age Rating: US Teen | EU 18+
Price: US $49.99 | UK £44.99 | EU € 49,99
Release Date: September 18th, 2025
Review code used with many thanks to MMPR.
Another great otome game published by Aksys Games. Before we start our review, it’s good to know that the European age rating is 18+. Though you don’t actually see the murders that are talked about in Illusion of Itehari, they are mentioned. With that said, let’s dive right in!
A Floating Island
Illusion of Itehari introduces us to the island of Itehari. Itehari is not a normal island, because it floats in the sky. Think of Itehari as a utopia, where no bad things happen and everyone has a peaceful life. Or so it seems… Our female main character (FMC) is a noble girl called Hinagiku. She belongs to a distinguished family and is the head of her family after the death of her parents. Her servant, Awayuki, and the uncle who took her in are the only ones she has left to take care of her. While Hinagiku loves her duties, she longs for the outside world and to see what is beyond the floating island.
After Hinagiku’s 18th birthday, she meets Yashiro. Yashiro has amnesia, and Hinagiku decides to help him out. This sets off important events in Hinagiku’s life, and she quickly realises her life was not as it seemed, and that the course of the Island Itehari will change.
Controls
Illusion of Itehari has pretty much the same controls as all Otome games. But this time, the quick actions menu is a little different. The Y button is for showing the menu and the X button is for the dialogue. The joysticks on either side don’t do anything, nor do the buttons on the left joystick.
Luckily for me, there is a love catch function. If it didn’t have this, I guess Hinagiku is never going to find her happy ending. This one is slightly different, though, because when making a choice, we don’t see any payoff. But you can view your affection progress at the status menu.
Itehari’s Eligible Bachelors
We have 5 playable routes in Illusion of Itehari, with one True route that unlocks after finishing the 5 main routes. Tobari and Awayuki’s routes are playable from the start, and these two routes unlock Yori and Tsuyukusa’s routes. To have the best experience while playing, I would recommend the following route order: Tobari or Awayuki -> Tsuyukua -> Yori -> Yashiro -> True route. Tobari and Awayuki can be interchangeable, but Tobari does have a minor spoiler at the end, but this doesn’t spoil anything for Awayuki’s route.
Tobari
Age: 21 years old
Occupation: Head of the entertainment district
Voiced by: Okamoto Nobuhiko. If we are talking about voice actor icons, Nobuhiko is the one for me in Otome games. So excited to have his voice back in a game. Known as: Peter Flage (Cupid Parasite series), Radie (Radiant Tale), Minami (9 R.I.P.), Yang (Piofiore), and Taiga Isurugi (Variable Barricade).
Tobari is the head of the entertainment district. He rules with strictness and makes sure everyone there keeps in line. Although he is tough for his age, there is a caring guy underneath, and surprisingly, he is well-liked in the district by everyone. He is also the leader of an anti-Tajiu group called Shiranui. Tobari is definitely the stereotype that never displays his emotions to others; he keeps everything inside. Of course, that is, until Hinagiku comes along.
This was not a bad start for Illusion of Itehari. The route did a good job of explaining how the society of Itehari works, but it also shows how corrupt the country can be. A downside to the route was that A LOT was going on. About three storylines were going on at the same time. I feel that they could have stuck to one conflict and fully focused on that. In the end, every storyline did get resolved, so there were no open endings. But sometimes during the route, I forgot about the other storylines. I really liked Tobari’s character. I guess I am just a fan of his stereotype. The relationship between Tobari and Hinagiku left some to the imagination, because the romance in this route was on the back burner. Mainly due to Tobari being too chivalrous, in my opinion. But in the end, I got my romance wish with the Short Stories.
Awayuki
Age: 26 years old
Occupation: Hinagiku’s attendant.
Voiced by: Saitou Souma. Known as: Yves (Virche Evermore series), Uga Kikunosuke (Tengoku Struggle -strayside-), Shungen (Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei), Akase Kyouya (Charade Maniacs), and Mineo Enomoto (Collar Malice series).
Introduced as Hinagiku’s loyal and a tad overbearing caretaker, Awayuki. He has been with Hinagiku since she can remember and has been the one to take care of her since her parents died in a fire. Awayuki is an amazing attendant; he is at her beck and call, but he can be very overbearing. Early on in the game, it is clear he has love for Hinagiku. But the way he shows it is very submissive. He is the kind of caretaker who sees himself as a tool for Hinagiku to use. But deep down, he knows he has a romantic love for her as well.
This route had an easier-to-follow storyline and kept it simple. But the route started slow, like really slow. We know early on that Awayuki has a mysterious past that he doesn’t wish to share with us yet. This leaves us with no information for about 5 to 6 chapters, and Hinagiku just strolls around town for fun and does nothing in particular. Yori also plays a big part in this route, and boy, he got me annoyed by the end of it. He was such a disgusting character that I actually started to hate him in the story. And the reason for his behaviour was so childish, not even something legitimate in my eyes. I had high hopes for the romance because Awayuki had my favourite character design before starting the game. But there was next to no romance or tension in it, mainly due to Awayuki having an issue with taking advantage of his mistress. Only in the after-credits scenes did we get some actual action between the two.
Tsuyukusa
Age: 18 years old
Occupation: Owner of Hangetsudo, a shop for odd jobs
Voiced by: Matsuoka Yoshitsugo. Known as: Akasa (Olympia Soiree), Gyoubu Souta (Charade Maniacs), and Alice (Taishou x Alice).
Tsuyukusa is a longtime friend of Hinagiku. She often visits him at his shop, Hangetsudo. He mainly has the shop to make extra money by doing all kinds of odd jobs for the citizens of Itehari. All the money he makes from it goes to his love for tinkering with machines and making cool gadgets. Tsuyukusa mostly keeps to himself and will only go out for his work or to help Hinagiku because he has a huge crush on her. But he is very intelligent and has a vast knowledge of Itehari and machinery.
This was a good route in Illusion of Itehari. A lot of Itehari secrets were revealed, and we finally got some more information on everything that is going on in Itehari behind the scenes and in the politics of the country. From the start, I was invested in the route, and it was much more enjoyable than the first two. At the start, Tsuyukusa is very timid and doesn’t want to take the lead in certain situations, but in this route, he comes into his own and is recognised as the genius and leader that he can be. Tsuyukusa and Hinagiku were so cute together, they are both shy and tend to dance around the feelings they have for each other. Although Tsuyukusa was the one to take the lead in their romance, he told her early on about his long-term feelings for her. Which made me very happy, because in the other routes, Hinagiku was the one chasing her love interests.
Yori
Age: 28 years old
Occupation: A high-ranking soldier of the Kurozuru.
Voiced by: Eguchi Takuya. Known as: Kazuki Hoshino (Collar Malice series) and Gretel (Taishou x Alice).
Yori is such a character. He is a high-ranking steam soldier in the Kurozuru and spends a lot of time in the routes investigating all the crimes that happen in Itehari. He is good-looking and is good at what he does, but his personality is absolutely awful. He is arrogant, doesn’t have anything he enjoys, and he hates the common people in Itehari. In all the routes, he mostly forces Hinagiku and her friends to do his investigating work and just annoys all of us in the process.
Honestly, upon starting his route, I really didn’t know what to expect from Yori. I despised him in Awayuki’s route, and in the other routes, he wasn’t particularly likable either. But wow, was I in for a wild ride. This route was great. This man is so insane that I actually started to love him. This was kind of a Yang situation (From Piofiore), where the character is so unapologetically himself that I myself wanted to please the man. But the ending… wow, I don’t think I have played a game before where the character was actually a bad guy. Even in the after story, we got a look inside Yori’s mind, and it was wild. I flew through it, and the route could have had 20 chapters in my opinion. As two nobles who entered an engagement, it was interesting to see how that worked in the Itehari world. And finally, we got a male main character who took the lead in the romance department and wasn’t afraid to show almost immediate affection.
Yashiro
Age: 24 years old
Occupation: Hinagiku’s saviour with amnesia.
Voiced by: Kobayashi Chiaki. Known as: Ray Under (Cupid Parasite -Sweet & Spicy Darling-).
Right at the start of Illusion of Itehari, Yashiro saves Hinagiku’s life from an assassin. After the incident, he has memory loss and doesn’t remember anything about Itehari. Hinagiku takes him in and makes it her mission to help him remember life in Itehari. Most of the time, Yashiro is a happy guy who is always down to help his friends. But he does have a serious side and is not afraid to protect his loved ones.
The route had a slow start, which I didn’t expect because there was a lot of information to cover. At about chapter 5 or 6, the story picked up. Of course, we already kind of knew where this route was going to go, from the information we got in previous routes. But it still had some information to share that we weren’t yet aware of. And the ending was really good, we saw Yashiro’s resolve in saving Hinagiku and Itehari, and it was great to see. Romance wasn’t as much of a theme in this route. Which I thought was a missed opportunity, I feel like Yashiro could have played up the romance a lot more and would have made for a great love interest. But in the end, we did get our romance moment and the lovey-dovey after story. That was such a good scene! Love to see Yashiro be a little jealous.
Visuals and sound
Right away, when I saw the art for this game, I knew it was the same artist from my favourite Otome Piofiore fated memories, RiRi. This immediately put my expectations high in terms of visuals for the game, and it did not disappoint. We got a ton of CGs in every route, and they captured the perfect scenes as well. One thing the artist does well is adding a lot of design details to the artwork. Using different patterns, colour combinations, and composition to make an image that is pleasing to the eye. I just kept staring at the images every time, because it was so beautiful. One negative note, though, is that in some routes, we didn’t see Hinagiku’s face at all. We only saw the back of her head and maybe one or two images with her face. But overall, I was amazed by the visuals.
The Opening and Ending songs were great, both of them sung by Mikansei Brave. Especially the Opening song, Dawn. The BGM was fine, not anything particularly exciting. As I played the game, I did grow to like the BGM more and sometimes even let it play in the background.
General thoughts
Let’s talk romance in Illusion of Itehari. In most of the routes, there wasn’t a lot of it. Especially in the first two to three routes. Often, it was clear that both Hinagiku and her partner had feelings for one another, but as there are clear rules in Itehari about a noble having a relationship with a commoner, no action was taken to make any romantic moves toward each other. Only in the Abyss or at the best end of the route did they confess their feelings or finally kiss each other. I understand that for the world-building, romance had to maybe take a backseat. But I would have loved some more love.
Let’s talk about Hinagiku. I love her character design; she is just stunning and super well-natured, willing to help anyone. No wonder almost every guy falls for her. But as she is a noble, grown up a little sheltered, and has a super overprotective attendant, she is so naive… I understand that Hinagiku doesn’t know a lot about men and how the world actually works, since she lives in Itehari. But sometimes it was a little too much. I would have loved to see her push back a little or have some sort of teasing back and forth with the men. Hinagiku was a little too predictable. Even with the men, she didn’t really take initiative, just waited for them most of the time. But all that said, it didn’t bother me much. It’s just a thought I had on her.
I was kind of in an Otome game funk, but Illusion of Itehari made me excited again. It has a lot of elements that I immensely enjoy in an Otome game: good-looking characters, beautiful, detailed visual design, and a great mystery story. I like how the writers give you one piece of the bigger puzzle in each route, and that even in the True route, there was still a big reveal that I didn’t see coming. After finishing it, I had the itch to replay some older Otome games, so that’s what I did.
Conclusion
While Illusion of Itehari started slowly with the first two routes, it definitely picked up its pace after that. I immensely enjoyed playing the game and exploring everything Itehari had to offer. Stunning visuals, great character design, and an amazing story. There is a good amount of playtime, with about 2 hours per route. I would highly recommend Illusion of Itehari to any lover of visual novels.
Final verdict: I like it a lot
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