Psychedelica of the ashen hawk ~ Overall thoughts

Published by: Idea factory/otomate (JP)
ENG: Aksys
Available for Psvita & Steam (ENG & JP)

 

Hello! 
It's been while, last time I posted here was about my "future plans" for the blog and last game post was Birushana. Last year I didn't play that many otome games and Birushana was only one which I actually finished. I had started playing Variable Barricade and almost finished the game but for some reason I kinda lost my motivation in the second last route so I decided to change to another game. And it was Ashen hawk from Psychedelica game series. Suitable game for winter season!

Summary from Aksys games

A young woman who was born with an eye that gleams with a scarlet light. In order to avoid being cast out, she masquerades as a young boy and lives in a derelict tower on the outskirts of town. One day a mysterious treasuries stolen from the city church. Our heroine learns that not only do magic stones exist and are hidden within the city, but also the secret of her origins.

Overall thoughts:

I bought Psychedelica of Ashen hawk back in 2018 and saved this game for good moment. I have played the first game for Psychedelica series and I really liked it and it's still one of my favourite otome games. So I was very excited for Ashen Hawk too because the first game had left good impression. 

If you want to read my blog post about Psychedelica of Black Butterfly feel free to check it! 

Like in Black Butterfly, Ashen hawk also have flowcart system. The game start with scene where Jed/Eiar shows new dress for her mother but then suddenly atmosphere becomes tense and suddenly mysterious woman voice talks to Jed. After this the next scene was a lot of flames and all the characters talked to Jed, that she is the witch & she betrayed them all. So from this scene you can guess Jed was in the midst of flames as witch. 

In the end this scene was bad dream for Jed. Jed woke up and felt anxious & her other eye had turned to red, she is the witch. 

After this little "prolog" moment we get to know more about Jed's life and see other characters from this game.

When I played the common route felt like it started very slowly. Not sure if those a little "side stories" made it feel like that, where you are kinda "interviewing" all the characters from the game. To be honest I wasn't that interested to read about those. Well of course when the boys had those interviewing story parts I wanted to read it. But when there was some random side characters telling their opinion about e.g. the witch or different clans I was kinda like "naah not interested skip". I guess those little stories gave extra content for the main story but yeah for me it felt kinda pointless because later I kinda forget those already. 

~

I'm not going to write much about the story here because I want to make this "spoiler free" type of blog post. So I guess I go with same type of style like with Black butterfly post. And to be honest I wasn't 100% sure how to write this blog post without giving too much spoilers etc. So sorry if this end up to be kinda mess lol. 

Anyway...

Overall feeling about the story was: Everyone have their dark and not so dark secrets what they don't want to tell anybody. With some characters I didn't expect how their personality changes during the game or what type of secrets they have. While playing more different common routes I kinda started to guess what type of secrets some characters had or who they actually are. But then there was also some which I didn't expect at all. 

More I get to know about secrets and other things in this game more I felt like an idiot. Not sure why I felt like this. 

I really liked the theme in this game. This wintery, kinda medieval(?) witch hunt theme. When I played this one I thought it would end up to be kinda same with the atmosphere like Black Butterfly. But in the end it wasn't that "dark/depressing" like BB was. I knew this wasn't any happy go lucky type of game and the romance part was thrown aside. 

But now when I think about differences between those game maybe Black Butterfly was more on the depressing side and Ashen hawk is more sad & wistful maybe? Not saying this game didn't have any dark/wtf moments when you get to know about things. 

But overall the whole story in Ashen hawk was very interesting. When I played some common routes I noticed that most of it had kinda similar ending. Also it felt weird when the bad ending for the game didn't feel that sad/bad lol. Am I only one who felt like this after playing it or am I weird one here? 

~

Okay I guess need to say something about the boys,right. 

SO

Only LI which I was interested in was Lugus. When I played the game more I guess got more interested in Lavan & fourth LI too. But then Levi was just levi lol. 

I really liked Lugus because of his awkward,"I don't give shit" side but then he also had this tsuntsun side too. And when I was playing all short stories I just hoped that Lugus would appear lol.

Then Lavan.

I liked his onii-san side a lot and he kinda gave this red flag character vibe but hmmm I guess he kinda was like that but then not really. First I liked him a lot but when I went to his route I guess he kinda ended up to be boring lmao. Buuuuut good onii-san chara :DDDDDD

Aand my least favourite was Levi. 

Mmm I mean yeah first he was this very cute genki chara but when you get to know more about him mmm yeah. Even after getting know his secret felt like he ended up to be very boring character for me. Also when I was playing common route I found it hilarious how I wanted him & Lugus sister Tee to get together lol 

I guess there was also fourth LI character and I liked him a lot. Sadly his routes ended up to be kinda short and wanted more moments with him. 

While I played all LI routes my feeling was kinda "meh" when I played those. One reason why playing their routes were kinda ??? because I had played those short stories while I played all common routes. So it felt kinda stupid to skip a lot of stuff and then go to their routes. Which ended up to feel very short. But in the end most of the boys routes were kinda disappointment for me. When I played Lugus actual route I felt so sad because it was so bad. And after playing it felt like "True ending" was more like Lugus route.... 

So yeah for me all the character routes felt like weak point for this game. Like with Black butterfly I was satisfied after playing True ending and felt like I didn't need more of the story. I mean sure with other endings I get to know more about the past stuff but mmmm yeah. 

Not sure if I remember wrong but felt like LI routes were a lot better in Black butterfly than in Ashen hawk. 

Final thoughs:

Overall the main story for this game was very interesting for me and I liked it but then LI stories were kinda meh. Even after playing all the routes and side story stuff felt like this game still left some questions. Not sure if I waited kinda same type of endings like in BB. It's stupid to compare those two games when those are very different but when first game have left very good impression for you of course you hope that the second game would be as good like first one was. Not saying Ashen hawk was bad but I guess I have a little bit mixed feelings about it? 

I really liked the music for this game! Have listened OST a lot after playing this game and actually before starting it too lol. Art was also very nice, but sometimes I had to look at some of the CG like "what is happening in this" :'DDD 

Also it was funny when I showed some reaction pics of Fransisca and other side character for my friend. He were like "why those two characters look like they become some H-game" and I mean yeah lol

My favourite boys list:

So my favourite boys list ended up to look like this after playing the game

Lugus, Fourth LI(?), Lavan & Levi

other side characters which I liked were Tower lord,Elric,Tee & Lawrence.