So after playing Birushana and feeling like I need to see more nice romance with the characters I decided to get the fandisk. Unfortunately my expectations were crushed hard and left me in a disappointment.

So there is 2 sections in the FD. The first section are after stories for the main guys in the first game the 2nd section is “routes” for the side characters of the first game.

Benkei – As I mentioned in the first game, I didn’t really like Benkei and Shanao romantically together so the entire route just felt extra awkward to me especially during all the heated makeout scenes. They go back to Hiraizumi and tell everyone Shanao is a girl so everyone immediately hits on her. For some weird reason though, Benkei decides he’s not going to tell anyone that she’s now his wife. ಠ_ಠ So because of this it felt like Shanao spent more time with everyone but Benkei lool. Eventually Benkei gets so upset about this and when Shanao visits him one night because she misses him too they furiously bang to make up for lost time. ( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆) The Fujimori dad wants to ship her with his failson Yasuhira and that’s when Benkei finally had enough of this shit so he bursts out that he and Shanao are husband and wife. After this Benkei and Shanao have a little wedding ceremony officiated by Fujimori dad. Why does Benkei get the one “both charas are nude” CG? Really? Out of all of them you chose the dude twice her age sigh.

Yoritomo – For some reason in Yoritomo’s route we move a step backwards and now nobody knows that she’s a woman so when she’s out with him, Shanao still continues to pretend to be a man and the “younger Genji brother”. ಠ_ಠ When not around others though, he switches from serious to extremely lewd and they end up banging on the beach lol. 😂 Shanao wants to live as a woman and marry Yoritomo but she doesn’t want to reveal the truth about herself/Shungen to everyone. Unfortunately Yoritomo keeps getting pressured to choose a wife and produce an heir by the emperor. Yoritomo decides to tell the emperor the truth, but the emperor starts laughing thinking it’s a joke. Anyway thanks for Fujiwara-dad he convinces the emperor to allow the marriage between Shanao and Yoritomo. After this the two of them go bang again and Shanao cries happy that she can finally stop holding back because of her status in the Genji. They bang so hard Yoritomo gets a new hair-down sprite. ( ͡⚆ ͜ʖ ͡⚆) Anyway not a huge fan of Yoritomo because even in the FD he only had 2 moods: Angry or Horny.

Tomomori – Tomomori keeps her cooped up in his uguu house but after he eventually agrees to let her see the others, he of course becomes insanely jealous and possessive. 😂 But then outside of that he and Shanao both feel kind of out of character. Shanao for example just puts up with him constantly making out with her and keeping her cooped away, but when she tells him she’s “not in the mood” after a nightmare, he actually respects her! He doesn’t force himself on her and just lets her sleep next to him to calm down. Who are you people!? So this whole “let’s bang my honey” and “sorry babe not now” routine pretty much continues and he rambles about how husband and life are supposed to be obsessed with each other and stick together like glue. The other guys in the game come and give him advice to give Shanao some space. And the reason of course is because Shanao has PTSD from the ending where they had to kill Tokuko and she constantly has nightmares where she hears the screams of Tokuko’s child yelling for his mother. So of course there’s a dumb misunderstanding, where Tomomori thinks Shanao is sneaking behind his back until he finds out it was just about the kid. And since the kid’s obviously fine, everything is resolved and they go back to furiously bang back at the house to make up for all the wasted time in the route. 😂 And of course at the end of the route Shanao’s preggo. Tomomori was so weird in his own route, he felt more canonical in Shigehira’s route ಠ_ಠ.

Noritsune – Shanao and Noritsune have been living in some remote village and Noritsune’s been using the name Takahito so nobody would know who he really was. Shanao’s been using her old name as well but in private they still call each other Noritsune and Yoshitsune. One day while she’s helping out with the other ladies at the village they start chatting up about how her husband is an ikeman and he must be an ikeman in bed. However Shanao’s like “uh actually we haven’t done that yet….”. So then that night Shanao attempts to seduce him and it works but then right as they’re both getting in the mood, he stops and goes NO WE AREN’T READY!!!!!! ∑(ﾟωﾟ; )カ¨ーン So now Shanao has no idea why her husband won’t bang her and gets sad. 😂 Just in time, Tomomori and Shigehira show up somehow (because of a “wild guess”) finding them in this village lol. 😂😂 Sadly even though the whole thing is funny, somehow the route gets derailed into rescuing some random faceless villager’s kid. Anyway once that ends, the two brothers go back to making fun of Noritsune for not banging Shanao and tell him “why don’t you just do it already (́◉◞౪◟◉)” 🤣🤣 Eventually the 2 brothers go back where they came from, and Noritsune (after being trolled by them all route) finally bangs Shanao. 🤣

Shungen – Shungen and Shanao are on the run as usual traveling between places and living in abandoned shacks. His route started all smexy and stuff but as usual the FD writer decided we need yet another dumb side character plot full of side characters with no sprites so they are clearly meant to be forgettable. It’s like if you’re gonna give us throwaway characters why even bother with this side plot shit. ಠ_ಠ So yea they join this traveling troupe to be able to hide from soldiers figuring it would be less conspicuous than if they’re on their own. Since in the previous route they did the flute/dancing thing they use that to their advantage to earn extra money. But then some faceless NPC rando confesses her love to Shungen and Shanao gets so jealous she throws herself at Shungen that night being like “TAKE ME SHUNGEN I MUST HAVE YOU” ლ(́◉◞౪◟◉‵ლ) Sadly they decide to introduce more spriteless throw away characters, including a Yoshitsune impostor. 💀 Shanao pretends to be possessed by “dead Yoshitsune’s spirit” and ends up kicking the faker’s ass. Anyway they leave the traveling troupe and finally live on their own and have some sexy times to make up for all the time wasted by faceless NPCs. 😭The only saving grace was Shungen probably had the best CGs compared to all the other guys.

Takatsuna – The route began with an awful unnecessary flashback to the very start of the first game giving us an entire digest of a game I had JUST finished which felt like a huge waste of time. I know there was 2 years between releases but when playing this back to back to the first game, it’s a huge waste of time. So then what they did was slot in Tuna but rather than being his usual derpy self, he became this cold heartless killer who almost attacked Shanao not believing that she’s Yoritomo’s brother. He then finds out she’s a woman one day when facing off with her and accidentally seeing her chest compressor bandages. He then gets excited to be the only one to know her secret (even though he’s definitely not the only one who knows wtf). They end up pretending to be siblings to be undercover in Kyoto together but then he gets mad at being otouto-zoned telling Shanao to look at him as a man lol. So then oh noes drama ensues when the emperor wants Shanao to marry Tomomori to merge the 2 samurai clans. But then they defeat Heike and Tuna confesses his love to Shanao who also somehow fell in love with him. In the epilogue Tuna asks Yoritomo if he can marry Shanao and Yoritomo’s like uh okay whatever idgaf. In the bad end, Shanao is killed. Anyway meh route with mediocre voice acting that I could barely focus on because the game didn’t really do a good job of convincing me to care about Takatuna.

Tsugunobu – Tsugunobu tells Shanao that since she never had a brother he can be like a “brother” to her and I’m sitting here like no we just brotherzoned Tuna in the last route, not this shit again! So then they decide they’re gonna find a wife for Shanao – not knowing that she’s a woman. 😂😂 (Except Shungen who of course is shocked lol.) But then Tsugunobu who figured she might be a woman, tricks her saying that he gave her “poison that only affects women” which makes Shanao blurt out to him that she’s a woman. Tsugunobu tells her that he won’t change the way he treats her, and he convinces Fujiwara dad not to force Shanao into a marriage just yet. But then Tsugunobu starts to get all protective of her like “oh no you’re so thin and frail and you shouldn’t be on the battlefield” as if she didn’t just kick the ass of a bunch of samurai earlier. He eventually drops the brother act and tells Shanao that he wants her all to himself and doesn’t want anyone else to know that she’s a woman because they’d all hit on her. 🤣 During one of the many (insanely boring) battles, Tsugunobu takes a hit for Shanao and gets stabbed falling into a coma. Shanao comes to see him after the battle ends and shakes him like a wet rag until he wakes up lmao. 🤣🤣 In this route, Yoritomo basically boots Shanao from Genji because in this route he finds out that Shungen is the true Genji heir and since he knows Shanao is a woman, he no longer needs her. Tsugunobu slides into her DMs and tells her that he will follow her no matter what her status is and then confesses his love to her. In the epilogue, Shanao moves in with Tsugunobu and becomes a boring housewaifu lol. In the bad end, the emperor has the Genji army kill Tsugunobu so that the Genji doesn’t get too powerful by having Yoritomo and Shanao eventually fight to the death.

Tadanobu – In terms of copypasta, Tadanobu’s route was a slap in the face since it was basically identical to his little side story ending from the first game starting with the fact that some girl in town dumped him. ಠ_ಠ So then we get dragged into a side story of some village who got displaced from where they lived and in a desperate attempt for help, they attacked Shanao’s group to get them to come to them so they could ask for help. Most of the men died and now mostly only women, children and old farts are left so they begged to allow them to live somewhere safe away from wild animals. So now Shanao and co help these people rebuild their village in a safer area for the rest of the route. So in this route once again, Shanao goes to bathe and Tadanobu walks in on her and finds out she’s a woman. After this he can’t contain himself around her and keeps bumbling and blushing. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) He even challenges her to a duel along with all the other guys and as a reward asks to “take her out” for a day. Where he takes her out is to her old temple to make her feel better after Yoritomo made her feel like shit, as usual. He also tells her that even if she thinks her hands are too beaten in battle for a woman, he disagrees and kisses them saying he thinks they’re beautiful to him. (n*´ω`*n)

He vows that regardless of what she decides to live as, he will serve and protect her. But then during a battle she gets hurt and while Tadanobu’s treating her injuries, Yoritomo finds out she’s a woman and wants to use her to “deepen ties between allies” for the Genji clan (aka throw her into some arranged marriage.) 🤦‍♀️ He also tells her to GTFO the battlefield and when all the other guys find out they’re shocked too. Tadanobu doesn’t want her to just be married off to some rando, so he decides to run away with her. Shanao’s like fuck yea I don’t wanna marry some rando I’d rather be with you! Unfortunately Yoritomo gets pissed that she’s run away and sends an army after them. ಠ_ಠ While they are on the run, Tadanobou confesses to Shanao that he loves her but Shanao is like noo I can’t abandon our friends and just run away together! So then everything is resolved by just having Shanao and Tadanobu go into exile and travel together lol. I mean they were gonna do that anyway so…?? In the epilogue they end up traveling to another country to live together as husband and wife. In the bad end, Shanao goes berserk fighting the Taira bros and accidentally kills Tadanobu.

Shigehira – I was already mentally done with the game when I got to Shigehira, and I wasn’t really a huge fan of his psycho tendencies from the first game either. However the amazon reviews raved that he was the best route so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. The route basically begins as Tomomori’s route, including that kiss at the very beginning. 😂 Shigehira ends up at Hiraizumi cause he’s bored and curious of why Tomomori is so interested in Shanao. Shanao gets him drunk to try to get more info out of him and he ends up rambling how “I’m not into dudes but you’re kinda cute maybe I’ll make an exception” 🤣🤣 Anyway he ends up hanging out with Shanao for a while until he gets sick and is shocked she’s taking care of him on her own free will. He apparently got sick cause he kept walking around looking for a gift to buy Shanao because she said that “you give your friends gifts” and he wanted to be her friend uwu. 😂 He’s so out of it he accidentally succs her life energy out and when it makes him feel better he’s like oh shit sorry lmao. Because of this of course, he is now able to tell that she’s a woman. He promises not to tell anyone because he wants her all to himself. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) After they meet on the battlefield again, Shanao has her usual berserk mode and Shigehira not only stops her, but takes her away and lets her succ his life energy. He lets her go realizing he doesn’t want to give her to Tomomori, a change of heart since up until now he would do anything for his niisan. He tells Tomomori that he will not capture Shanao and even though henteiMori offers to have a 3P with her, Shigehira’s like wtf no 🤣🤣.

Shigehira then faces off with his brother, and gets his ass kicked but Shigehira leaves him saying he’ll face off Shanao when she’s stronger or whatever. After he’s gone, Shanao kisses a Shigehira on the ground giving him some of her life energy. They bring him back to Hiraizumi to let him recover, and while there they both confess their feelings to each other. After he recovers, he also helps train Shanao to face off against Tomomori and when they do, they defeat him – but he refuses to die to their pity and throws himself off a cliff into the ocean. In the epilogue, Shigehira mentions that if it was Tomomori and not himself that came to HIraizumi at the start, then the one who would have changed would have been Tomo and not himself. So he feels a bit guilty but also he ain’t wrong because basically this route is the opposite of Tomomori’s in the first game lol. He also kisses Shanao and says it feels familiar and makes her admit about the kiss she gave him to give him some life energy when he was defeated by his brother. In the bad end, Tomomori imprisons both Shighira and Shanao forcing her to basically give life energy to both of them – though she willingly gives it to Shigehira while Tomo just NTRs and sucks her like a Hoover. 🤦‍♀️ Unfortunately its still incest between Shigehira/Tomomori so while his route was one of the better ones I’m pretty meh about the whole idea of getting with your first cousin.

I am honestly so disappointed because I came in for romance but the romance I got was short, full of side character filler and/or copy pasta of the same crap I saw in the first game. It felt like Noritsune’s route was truly good route that was canonical to their personalities. All the other routes felt like they had created pointless drama or involved too many random (spriteless) side characters to try to create unnecessary plot. For side characters the best 2 routes IMO were probably Tadanobu and  Shigehira.

On the topic of side characters, I was hoping that the side character routes they added would do them justice or be a lot of fun but it ended up being the opposite experience for me. For example Tsugunobu, who I loved in the first game, was just very meh in his own route. Why were you better in other people’s routes?? ಠ_ಠ It also didn’t help that the side chara routes were basically like playing the first game all over again – but this time with the side chara shoved in as a love interest. That means it was the same boring war crap with the every-once-in-a-while romantic scene.　They even put effort into adding random spriteless/faceless character side plots into these routes and I’m sitting there like “all this effort that could have went into scenes between Shanao and her man.” They could have easily done some kind of “what happened after the war ended” with Shanao not picking anyone to give the side charas a chance. But no, they chose the lazy way, to just copy & paste the first game and just slot in each guy like a 金太郎飴.

Maybe the issue is the 2 games were 2 years apart so for some people the dejavu was “nostalgic” but playing the 2 games back to back was an absolutely draggy awful experience for me. I usually never force skip, but I found myself force skipping through basically every battle scene. The entire experience really put me off of otome games and I almost cancelled my  1 preorder for December but I decided to keep it just in case. That said, I think I’m going to stop buying any games with an old timey war plot as the baseline regardless of who made it. Historical games just bore the shit out of me, and when the historical part is the main focus, it just makes it even worse. Not even Shanao being a decent heroine saved things for me. Also I don’t know if it’s because of the localization or what, but Shanao felt more spunky in the English version than she did in the Japanese one so I’m guessing it was the localization. My priority in otome games is always romance and character interactions, and when the characters are interacting more with faceless/spriteless NPCs my brain just shuts down.

One last thing is some of the CG  art felt really off.  It was sometimes so jarringly different (for example Benkei looked “younger” in his CGs than in his sprite lol.) It felt like the CGs were done by some Otomate staff artist rather than the original artist who did the first game. Not a huge disaster but for those who care a lot about graphics might be bothered by it.  Anyway, if you’re a huge fan of the first game, including the battle portion, I think you will enjoy the FD. However if you’re like me and came for “fluff” that was lacking in the first game, you will be incredibly disappointed.