This route was okay, but ultimately bogged down by a lack of chemistry.
THE STORY (Spoilers Ahead)
The premise of Blood In Roses+ is as follows: MC is a witch living in a human village near the rift between the “dark” and normal worlds. She wanders into the dark worlds and gets yoinked by vampires who want her to fall in love with them, because she’s a descendant of a special bloodline that makes her essential to saving their home. Their home happens to be a big hotel for supernatural beings. After being bitten, MC is told she has 10 days to find a magical rose in the hotel to stop herself from transforming into a vampire.
Dominik is a friend of MC’s that also happens to be the apprentice of Humphrey, a magician staying in the hotel. He shows up like a knight in moderately-shining armor to save the day.
First of all, I absolutely cannot omit this: in this route it turns out there’s an equally magical rose garden OUTSIDE of the hotel that MC can use to stop her transformation, so she literally cures herself of vampirism like 2 days in. THIS IS FUCKING HYSTERICAL. In every other route there’s a full story of tension, and in this one it’s like, “Ha! Joke’s on you! It was in the forest the whole time!”
What a big middle finger to every other timeline, honestly. Amazing.
There are some other plot twists, but honestly this story is… incredibly boring. It’s one big “childhood friend makes MC to love him through sheer will” story and those are not fun to read.
THE MC
The MC in Blood In Roses+ is so good, guys! She’s not as funny or quirky as the MC of Niflheim+, but she’s more mature and experienced. She’s clearly had relationships before, and she has a really strong sense of her own identity. She can also be pretty sexually aggressive. She’s super satisfying to read.
THE COUPLE
Ughhhh, I hate this dynamic! He basically confesses his love the second he’s introduced, and then is just like, “I WILL MAKE YOU LOVE ME EVENTUALLY.” Screw you, dude! What if she wants to love someone else? It’s not her fault you’re super hung up on her, like can you not?
Additionally, their chemistry is lacking and the whole situation makes it feel more like she probably has feelings for him because he saved her, not because she just likes him as a person. Blegh.
MOMENTS
FUCK YOU RUPERT CATS ARE THE BEST
… *aggressively hits panic button*
I… wait, what?
Floating cat, floating cat, whaaat are they feeding youuu
Pfffffffff. I won’t lie, Alfred grew on me over time, even if he is a little TOO attached to a plant.
A NEW CHARACTER? I am intrigued!
And, finally… I laughed. Poor MC.
RATING:
Nothing egregiously bad, but very boring overall.
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?
I’ve been thinking about how to improve the Childhood Friend archetype. I think, mainly, they are difficult because they rely so much on their past relationship to define the new one.
From the girl’s point of view, she has to get over basically seeing him as a friend. Perhaps if she had a crush on him when they were younger it would transition easier.
The guy is a little harder. I feel like it would really work from HIS point of view, seeing how different the girl is, trying to figure out how he can win her over, ect.
A lot of times the guy gets impatient with the relationship progressing too slowly. In his mind, it seems like they are at a stage of the relationship the girl does not.
Hmm… I suppose it would need to be treated as a sort of “getting to know you again” or maybe even written the way someone would write a “falling in love again” story, like looking at them as a married couple looking to rekindle the fires.
I still don’t really know how to make it work. It’s something I will continue to brainstorm.
It would be good if you could make something like that work!
The route was weird in comparison to the others (with Rosapast). It made some of the other routes make sense though (Jack had a “special” knife he tried to kill Raymond with, it’s soaked with Dom’s blood).
I thought he was a sweet enough guy for the white knight archetype.
Like you said though, I’d rather see a Spade route!
HOLY CRAP
SPADE IS COMING OUT!
AAaaahhhhhh!!!
So, I’ve missed your hilarious reviews (I bet you were out having a life and all that…pffff) and I figured I’d try to comment where it would allow me.
Apparently Norton has a route on Oz….and I’m playing it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me….
If you ever get a chance, I’m interested in your thoughts!
It’s weird, you’re write about the writer jangle because Oz and Wesley are fantastic supporting characters in all of these newer routes and events.
I’ll admit I’m playing Norton because I was on his side with this bullsht prophecy. I hope they do him justice…