Shall We Date? Blood in Roses+ Humphrey Review

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So basically…. imgur hosts my game image files, because otherwise with my horrible home internet (I live outside city limits and the average cell phone has faster internet than my home line) it would take forever to load the emoji I load my posts with, especially since some games have 40+ images associated with them. And for some reason, I have no clue why, it has deleted all of my images associated with Humphrey. So, F U C K, basically. I deleted a lot to save space on my phone. I have some saved to my HD, but it’s not all of them. And since Blood in Roses is a free game, it’s not like I can replay it and take new ones easily.

So on that note, I am sorry this post isn’t what it used to be. I can play Humphrey again, but it will take time to take caps of all the images again.

But even if my images aren’t there, my review is, and you can still get an idea of what playing through his story will be.

Marvelle

stardivider

I installed Blood in Roses when it came out and I absolutely hated Rupert and Alfred. So then I shelved it for many days until now, when I was bored and decided to install it again and see the new men added.

I started Daniel’s story and only got about two days or so into it. Then the wizard Humphrey was released. I admit, there was one thing drawing me to him:

THAT

FABULOUS

HAIR

 

I also really adored his nonchalant expression. I dunno, there’s something about the way he expresses himself that I adore.

So I started over with him as the lead.

IDK how the other stories in Blood in Roses go, but the premise of Humphreys side is thus: Because Alfred and Rupert bit Mina (I named her Noelle in my game so that’s why it’s different on screenshots) she’s going to turn into a vampire in 10 days. If she can drink the dew of the Rosapast rose then she can remain human.

But the doors to Rosapast are bound by some heavy-duty magic. And worse, no one knows how the rose is doing inside, and the magic of the Rosapast flower is what’s keeping the hotel you’re living in around.

So basically it’s up to you to save the rose and by doing so, save your humanity.

What’s nice about this is that Humphrey acts as support for much of the route. Mina is the one coming up with solutions to the problem and Humphrey is there whenever she falls to help her, but not carry her entirely. There’s a level of respect between them that I love to see in my romance stories.

She realizes her feelings early on and doesn’t spend much dwelling on what these “odd” feelings are. She realizes she was acting  jealous, realizes she was jealous because she liked him, realizes her feelings may not be heard, but decides to carry on anyway. She’s not as great as the Princess from Niflheim+, but she’s just as respectable to be an avatar to, and one of my favorites.

I liked that she’s not romantically clueless. We get a lot of those types of heroines in otome games and it’s refreshing to have a girl know what she wants and how to get it. For instance, there’s a cute scene in the second half where she thinks Humphrey may be jealous of Dominik and teases him by speaking good things about Dominik, enjoying how he seems to get more and more jealous as she does. She’s not entirely sure of his feelings for her at this point (though to the reader it’s pretty obvious) and she uses it to both confirm that he likes her and flirt.

They are mutually respectful of each others’ skills. He respects her abilities as a witch and doesn’t try to “save the day” or take over for her. She knows he’s much more powerful than she is and respects him as such, but he also thinks she’s no slouch in the magic department either. What comes of this is they both work together to solve the problem of Rosapast and find the solution together. It’s rare I’ve read a game where they truly worked together with mutual respect to their abilities (most of the time it’s the man who is better and ends up ‘teaching’ MC) so this was a refreshing change of pace.

     

Like the rant by Strawbarely There, I also hated the fact it was free. For one, I spent hours grinding for coins to get all the good scenes. I honestly didn’t get the first one, but I did get the next two premium scenes. That was a lot of installing/uninstalling and filling out surveys (78 coins per survey) to get the 1600 coins needed for the special stories. And you know what? They weren’t even that great. If I paid for them, I would have been PISSED. Yeah, I lost some hours, but I lost them while in the middle of doing other stuff, so no biggie. I rewrote one of them, and I may rewrite the other sometime in the future, perhaps.

I don’t normally like the playboy archetype. I don’t think I’ve read one I’ve truly enjoyed. I just don’t like how in playboy routes it ends up the guy doing his thing, having his women, while the MC ends up chasing him around like a puppy. I hate that. I hate reading that. But in Humphrey’s route you don’t ever see that side. The other characters talk about it, for certain, and they mention it quite a bit.

But he never flirts with other women, he never goes on about his past exploits. It’s a little jarring to read them say that about him when he acts completely different around Mina. So much so, I feared a “twist” would be that he’s really a jerk or something.


I should have known better than to think that!

He comes across more as an eternal bachelor a la vintage George Clooney rather than a playboy. The narrative never expands on his past much, so we’ll never know. The characters are surprised when he settles down, but Mina’s like the reader and is like “??? He’s never acted like that around me…???”

So that was nice. heart17

The worst thing ever is this is the type of story I would like to read over and over again, but it’s impossible to do so outside the endings and premium stories. baww Please release a paid version of it so I can buy the stories and read at my whims and desires! baww

The only thing this has against it is that there’s no real twist or any “oomph” to the plot. It’s missing that final element that makes a truly great story. But this was a nice story and worth the days it takes to read it.

 

heartglowheartglowheartglowheartglow

holllywhat My heart scale is defined as follows – 5 hearts = a story everyone will fall in love with, regardless of preferences; 4 hearts = a well-done story that people who love the concept will adore, and people who don’t may end up liking it; 3 hearts = if you like this type of story or this type of hero, then you will enjoy this, but those who do not like either of those things will probably not; 2 hearts = it had potential, it squandered it; 1 heart = just a waste of time from the get-go; 0 hearts = why was this made?

Favorite Moments:

Oooh my, this is a doozy. The hallmark of a great route is that I end up screencapping a LOT. And by a lot, I mean A LOT.

So I’m going to try and group these together and talk about the scenes a bit, I suppose!

which means, of course S P O I L E R S

Step one to winning my heart: Treating me to tea

Mina is determined to save herself. She doesn’t mope around and wallow in her situation, she gets up and is like, “Okay, I want to stay human, I gotta figure this out.” I loved that.

 

This is an example of how the game puts them on equal footing. Mina trusts in her own abilities as a witch and never once thinks she’s useless compared to Humphrey.

Oh ho ho the blushing sprite appears! It’s always a treat when I see it. barrassed

 

Dominik is Mina’s childhood friend. Basically, while Dominik was being trained by Humphrey, he always mentioned a witch that was his childhood friend. Humphrey knew it was Mina, but he didn’t anticipate falling in love with her, so by time he meets up with his student again, there’s a lot of tension. I do feel bad for Dominik because he carried a torch for Mina his entire life but… well, he also didn’t tell her.

Because Mina is not content to sit around and let fate do whatever she wants, she ends up in danger a lot. She defends herself, but sometimes she’s not powerful enough to stop the attacker…

 

I don’t have the screenshots, but I would like to note one last thing — She said she loved him first~ and his reaction is absolutely adorable. In this scene she basically starts going on and on about Dominik, making him jealous, then she says that Rosapast is really only her problem because she’s turning into a vampire. Ah, I really love it when the main couple gets together before the story ends. I know the “first kiss” is a good finale to a romance story, but I also really like seeing them interact as a couple too.

16 Replies to “Shall We Date? Blood in Roses+ Humphrey Review”

  1. i also surprisingly liked humphrey. my heart still belongs to raymond cuz he was my first in blood&roses but humphrey was cool too. i just like how in both routes the guys are surprised and impressed by the heroine and she changes them by being a determined problem-solver and opening their eyes to thinking outside of the box. it’s like the routes in this game are her stories too in addition to the men’s, which is unfortunately a rarity in otoges.

  2. Oooo!! That makes me want to play Raymond~

    Strawbarely There and I were talking about Oz’s story in OZ+ and mentioned that very thing you did today! It seems like a lot of heroines exist to bask in the glory of the men and it gets annoying. 😐 But Mina is a really good heroine, I agree, I agree. 😀

  3. Ok, so basically whenever you give something 4+ hearts, I decide to check it out. I like your reviews and value your opinion.

    I liked Humphrey’s route. I liked the MC in this route. She was capable and it is really the only route that shows her abilities as a witch and the “connection” with her and Tatiana. It was different and creating a new Rosapast was awesome. It was really enjoyable, even if they didn’t have very many “romantic” moments. The story seemed to make up for it.

    Raymond surprised me. He was romantic, dedicated and unbearably sweet after it all came out. However, MC came off a bit more immature and selfish in this route. Not by much, but just enough to irk me a tiny bit. Although, the story and ending (sunlight) was great. An unexpected villain and unexpected sacrifices showed up! You also saw a little bit of Humphrey’s playboy side and just how freaking amazing he is as a wizard.

    Daniel was “safe”. He was the safe, gushy romantic little wolf man that was adorable to love. Nothing too exciting, but nothing too terrible. Their interactions were cute with each other though, and I liked them as a couple. However, it would have been bland without Jack. Jack and Daniel are just adorable together and I should probably just ship them. It was just your regular, sweet love story.

    I reaaaaaally wanted to like Jack’s route. I find him and Daniel hilarious together. He reminds me of Hotaka from NA. I couldn’t though, there were just way too many damned questions left unanswered. It left me frustrated.

  4. Ugh, I am THAT serial poster. I’m sorry…..

    So although I’m only halfway through, Dominik’s route is actually pretty interesting so far.

    The only complaint up until this point is that MC is fairly inactive….

  5. I’m still playing Humphrey’s second ending. ^^;;; I have a really bad habit of NOT logging into the daily stories. It’s part of the reason I like paid. I can sit and play through it, but oftentimes I forget to log in, especially when the story isn’t drawing me in to the point I HAVE to know what happens next.

    It’s part of the reason Strawbarely reviews all the freemium games LOL

    I really enjoy the moments when we get to see Jack/Daniel/Humphrey together in his story. They all jive together so well. I’m glad we were with them a lot instead of Alfred/Rupert. Alfred is tsun, but tsuns aren’t really fun unless you’re playing them because otherwise they’re just bratty at best or assholes at worst hahaha

    I can get behind a Daniel/Jack ship. xD

    I need to play Raymond!!! I’ll do him once I finish with Humphrey 2.0

  6. Never apologize~ <3 I ramble a lot too.

    Is Dominik one of those "knight in shining armor" type stories where most of it is spent with him saving her from danger and in general being protective?

  7. I didn’t see you other reply! Sorry.

    I know what you mean about the freemium stories! It’s annoying to have to builds so many points!

    I think you will like Raymond’s story!!!

    Daniel and Jack OTP! They are just too cute together!

    Dominik IS that knight in shining armor. However, it actually hasn’t been boring. You get a new character, and MC surprised me in chapter 2. We’ll see how it goes.

  8. I didn’t like him in the prologue, but where I’ve seen him outside of it, he actually seems really sweet. I like that he’s a bookworm too.

  9. Yea I noticed that.

    In Jack’s route it appeared that his affections were sincere and he even tried to protect her.

    That was a weird route. It’s like they didn’t think it through.

    I think I know who the new release will be though, they made it pretty obvious in Dominik’s. I just wish she was the capable witch she is in that one.

  10. Ah, is that the Cedric character that’s in the character list now? What type of character is he?

  11. Sorry for the delay, I tried posting this yesterday but my comment kept getting eaten away -.-.

    So yea, it’s mostly likely going to be Cedric. I’ll try not to give everything away but basically he “seems” human but you don’t know when you first meet him. He’s wants to take over the hotel in order to make it a haven for all species. He’s all about species equality but thinks he is the most awesome of awesomes. He’s travelled, well read and is friends with Humphrey and Dominik. So there would probably be more Domink punching in his route. Cedric shows an interest in MC right away.

    I honestly thought Spade might get a route, but oh well.

  12. He seems like the “never give up” type though because Dominik said he and MC needed to pretend to be together so she wasn’t picked out by Cedric.

  13. Oh no! Someone else had that problem and I think I figured out which plugin caused it, so hopefully it doesn’t happen again. :/

    I thought Cedric might be Spade in the character list. We can romance the mascots in all the other games, gimmie da black cat! xD Oh well, maybe they’re saving Spade for last or something.

    He sounds interesting! I need like another three accounts so I can play characters concurrently hahaha

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