It’s not often that otome has a wider audience appeal. The ‘choose your lover’ approach to visual novels is a limited market regardless of the gender of the protagonist. Sometimes however, a game pops up with a concept that’s unique enough to warrant a playthrough regardless of your preferences for this type of content. A while ago, that was Collar X Malice and its sequel, Collar X Malice Unlimited (review here). Now, publisher Idea Factory is back with a new otome novel that pushes the limits in another interesting way!
Charade Maniacs is a unique visual novel from Uta Amamiya, the writer behind Psychadelica of the Black Butterfly for Sony Vita and Teita, the artist from Norn 9: Var Commons. The pedigree alone makes it worth a second look but there’s a lot more going on here than that. You are Hiroyi Sena, a high school student in a clean, safe utopian future where everyone is attached to bangles that are basically the replacement for smartphones. You’ve got a semi-boyfriend named Tomose who is kind of a douche, and things are pretty good overall. However, your robot dog finally stopped working recently and you miss your pet terribly. It all sounds ridiculous, right?
Don’t worry, things are a lot more interesting than they appear. It turns out there’s a pirate broadcast in this otherwise perfect world that people are quietly talking about. You’ve mentioned that you wish you could get your dog back and you’d do almost anything to make that happen. Well, someone may have been listening because before long you’re abducted and taken to a place called Arcadia. Along with 9 other people (all men), you’ve been taken to perform in that black-market off-grid drama…or die.
Sounds exciting, right? Things are definitely not going Sena’s way and not just because she’s trapped in an inescapable paradise with 8 handsome men and Tomose. That’s right, he came with and he’s remarkably unlikeable. His emotional vulnerability is irritating, especially since he lashes out to cover it. The rest of the guys are pretty great though with a wide range of personalities and one might even be a girl, but who can say? What’s interesting about Charade Maniacs is that it doesn’t just throw you into the deep end of dating a harem of guys. Instead, the game that Sena is trapped in warps her to various stages where participants must act out roles to gain popularity on the social media-like bangles. Enough likes and not only do they get to go home but they get any wish they desire granted. While they’re trapped, every need is cared for as well and they can request anything they want and it will be given to them. Sounds like as sweet gig, right?
Naturally, no one wants to be trapped acting for a living in an inescapable town full of odd people that won’t interact with them though, and it’s hard to just carry on if you don’t know what’s really going on so it’s on you and the guys to figure it all out. Charade Maniacs allows for branching decisions of course and there’s a flow chart allowing you to reference choices for future playback. Occasionally between rather long bouts of dialogue, you are given options to choose which guy or group of guys to visit and talk to, changing the storyline subtly and slowly working your way towards inevitable romance, all while trying to find a way home.
There’s one more thing that has been left out so far too. One of these other people is the Producer, the person responsible for everyone’s kidnapping. Find and identify them and everyone goes free. Guess wrong…and everyone dies. That puts a bit of a spin on things, doesn’t it? One of these handsome guys who seem to very much like you might be a soulless killer, kidnapping high school students and executing them if they fail to perform as demanded. In fact, not only can he kidnap people but he can alter them as well, torturing them for failure with penalties until they run out of points and are ruthlessly slaughtered. Fun times! So if you’re falling for someone, it pays to be a bit paranoid, that’s for sure!
Charade Maniacs really nails the atmosphere around the game setting and the dialogue is remarkably well-done but there are a few flaws as well. While this is not a kinetic visual novel, it definitely feels like one with hours and hours of dialogue and only a handful of choices here and there. There is a lot of potential in the story and it feels like some of that is squandered by not providing some brutal endings for Sena and the boys by making the wrong choices. The decisions you make aren’t really clear either and you’re really not given a chance to affect the acting in any given scene so there are plenty of missed opportunities here. That’s not to say the story is bad, just that you should buckle down and enjoy the ride because Charade Maniacs is definitely a slow burn and things take a very long time to get moving, even if there are plenty of endings and some unlockable routes with additional story.
Visually of course, the game is outstanding, with excellent art from Teita and crisp backgrounds. It would have been nice to have a bit more depth to some of the scenery and maybe some less static imagery, but for a VN, this is still top tier stuff, no question. The sound however is another story. As you’d expect, the entire game is extremely well-acted in Japanese with outstanding voice casting. However, there is no English track for those of you hoping for one so if you aren’t a fan of Japanese Vas, this might be a problem. You can of course turn the voices off, but it turns out that the music in the game isn’t well thought out and the focus is clearly on the voicework. Many scenes have almost no music at all and the music cuts out at random intervals. When it is playing, songs are repetitive and not very interesting, making Charade Maniacs frustrating for the players who do turn voice acting off.
There are really two ways to look at Charade Maniacs. On the one hand, it’s a traditional otome game that doesn’t ever get too steamy or questionable. Plenty of options, lots of slice-of-life dialogue, and some interesting plot twists. On the other hand, it’s a social deduction mystery that never really gives you a chance to deduce anything, instead letting you skip merrily down the paths that are laid out for you and not really challenging the player (or reader in this case). By dipping into both worlds, it seems like Charade Maniacs never really manages to quite fulfill the expectations for either, even with a slick UI, gorgeous artwork, and stellar voice work.
However it is definitely worth the time it’ll take you to play through its 20 hour main storyline and the plot is solid, even if it could have gone further. In fact, if you are really involved, you’re looking at a total of around 40 hours and that’s a pretty substantial game! The technical aspects are pretty smooth here too. Menus are clean, well-designed and responsive, there’s a backlog of previous dialogue, and the save system is easy to use. Best of all, Charade Maniacs is entirely touch compatible and you don’t even need joycons to play. You can just tap your selections on-screen and play the entire game via touch controls. This is a level of integration that every single VN should strive for and Charade Maniacs does an absolutely excellent job integrating touch control so that it feels natural and is intuitive to use.
All in all, Charade Maniacs is a concept piece, a mixed bag that appeals to a wide variety of audiences but never really seems to find its feet, even when you do make it to the conclusion. There’s romance, sure, but it doesn’t feel quite as passionate as it could and it doesn’t draw you in as much as you’d hope. Some of the guys are downright unlikeable too, making some pathways less appealing than others. But beneath those flaws, there’s an interesting story here and as an overall package, Charade Maniacs is an interesting game that will hold otome fans’ attention even if it isn’t really as genre-breaking as it first appears. At $50, you’re paying near AAA prices however and unless you’re a hardcore fan, you might want to wait for a sale on this one.
This review was based on a digital copy of Charade Maniacs provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. Charade Maniacs is exclusive to Nintendo Switch at this time.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.
