Review Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly

(by Vic)

Game: Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly
System:  PS Vita
Publisher: Aksys games
Developer:  Otomate
Price: € 44,99 (Eu) , £39.99 (UK), $33.99 (USA)

Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly is part of the “Summer Of Mystery” releases in 2018 which also includes 7’sCarlet and Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk.

The next game is Psychedelica Of The Ashen Hawk, and that is due for release on June 29th.  They do not appear to be linked so you can play them in any order. The games were released two years ago in Japan and they are rated Teen.

I am personally a big fan of Visual Novels, especially otome. So this game initially took my interest.

The Storyline

Black Butterfly tells the story of a woman, you, having amnesia and waking up in a huge creepy mansion.  You quickly meet up with four men who have also lost their memory. You team up to try regain your memories and find out how you ended up there.

Monsters roam the halls at night and you discover whoever put you there needs them to be defeated to collect fragments. This involves an annoying mini game where you use the touch screen to select the black butterflies and shoot.

Collecting fragments mini game

I found this very awkward to do and not enjoyable at all. You don’t have to use the touch screen but I found that slightly easier. The more butterflies you select the bigger the combo and points. You also have to keep replaying the same ones to get more points. I did not see an option to jump straight to them so I had to fast forward the same dialogues a few times. Points are used to unlock side episodes. And you need to watch a certain amount to progress to the next chapter.

In each side episode you either view a memory from your past or find out more about your new friends.

This didn’t really flow well for me and it is a different format than I am used to. You feel forced to watch them, which are mostly uninteresting.

After several chapters I found myself not caring about the protagonist, the other characters or the main plot.

I did however like the art style, the atmospheric music and the characters are very detailed, particularly the outfits. However there didn’t seem to be much variety in the locations and I wasn’t overly impressed with the voice acting (but you can at least turn off the protagonist’s voice).

Overall despite the game not being overly long it felt like a chore and the story did not flow well. It did not keep my interest long enough to replay and see the other endings.

Not much in the way of romance

The romance side of the game is an afterthought and I feel they shouldn’t really call this an otome game. I guess it’s a matter of what you expect from the game: if you’re looking for a romance story then probably avoid this. But if you like dark plots you may be interested.

I feel certain people will enjoy this game but being a visual novel fan I was very disappointed and will not be playing the other game Ashen Hawk, despite the plot of that one sounding more interesting.

Unfortunately I cannot go into more detail with this review without revealing spoilers. I feel that there are plenty of better otome visual novels but wait for a sale if you want to try this one.

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