PSYCHEDELICA OF THE ASHEN HAWK
Witch eligible bachelor is The One?
Otomate has delivered another trippy otome1 visual novel in the Psychedelica series – each providing standalone stories where things might not be as they seem. 2 This time, the story is focused around a small medieval-style town constantly plagued by heavy snow and fog (and murder), where nobody seems to be able to leave. It’s ruled by two houses, the hawks and the wolves, who are constantly in conflict with each other, in classic Romeo And Juliet style.
The inhabitants blame the unrelenting years-long winter on the curse of a witch, a woman said to have red eyes. Unfortunately for you, you’re a woman (named Jed) whose eyes turn red when you’re under emotional stress. Naturally, this means your adoptive mother, head of the wolves, has helped you pretend to be a boy your whole life, before you move out to live in a tower with some random guy and become a handyman. Rumour has it bringing the families together will lift the curse. You’re hired to find a mysterious artefact that’ll help do just that at the annual masquerade.
This time short episodes have been folded into the main story, via map chapters that crop up now and again where you select different locations to visit. In addition, supershort town episodes give you a small voxpop with a citizen. Unfortunately, this slows the pacing down massively at the beginning. While knowing everyone well pays off when things hit the fan later, it can feel like a slog getting there. But when the story kicks into gear, it’s well worth the time as it’s one of the most thrilling visual novels on the system. Oscar Taylor-Kent