Shall We Date? Oz+ Wesley Route Review

Here I am. Reviewing another Oz+ route. Even after it’s done everything in its power to break me.

This is my life now.

THE STORY (Spoilers Ahead)

Fuck me sideways, I cannot beLIEVE the words I am about to immortalize on the internet.

…Wesley’s route is far and away the best in Oz+.

Typed with mine own hands. They’ll never be clean again.

I mean, holy shit, right? Remember that first mini-review? Let me tell you what happened to make me say this.

Okay, so, the premise is obviously the same as in every other Oz+ route. MC picks Wesley as a boyfriend solely because she wants to atone for killing him. Truthfully he WAS trying to kidnap and enslave her and she didn’t even know the water was going to kill him. I mean, as sins go this one’s pretty minor. I say she calls it a day and moves on, but then we wouldn’t have a plot, now would we?

Wesley lays on the creepy HARD at first, and in retrospect this may have been partly to freak out MC and get her to go away. He drops that pretty fast. The bulk of the route becomes about His Baggage (TM). Wesley’s been through some shit. Essentially, he’s from MC’s world and grew up as an abused kid bouncing through various orphanages. I’ll admit I was surprised by that twist.

MC goes through the whole, “WITHIN THE BAD MAN LAY A BROKEN BOY” thing and brings him out of his shell. The usual.

Toward the end of the story the other wizards realize MC actually loves Wesley and try some shenanigans to interfere. He dies, again. He gets resurrected, again. They end up living happily ever after as two non-magical mortals, at least in the True Ending.

The age difference is still UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE. The creepy beginning is still UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE. The worst part is that he begins being kind of creepy again right at the very end of the last chapter, as if this route could not just let me walk away hoping for the best.

FUCKING

WHY

That said… there’s actual character development. The plot is ten times more solid than the other routes, even if it’s still pretty bad. I’m the last person on planet earth to expect this route to be the best of the bunch, and yet here I am. Slap my ass and call me Bambi.

THE MC

You know what? She actually kinda has a personality in this one. She’s more assertive, less stupid, and participates in some banter. She’s still far from being a great MC, but this is about a thousand measures better than the MC of Crowlie’s route.

THE COUPLE

Say it with me: THE AGE DIFFERENCE IS NOT OKAY.

If MC had been aged up about 5 years, I might actually have LIKED this route. Like, genuinely enjoyed playing it! An Oz+ route! Can you imagine? But nooooo… MC’s gotta be 16. It’s the worst.

Wesley at least spents 95% of the route without that creepy act he was doing in the first chapter. He becomes a relatively likable guy, if only because he’s literally the only one that doesn’t actively pursue MC. He tells her early on why he’s there and that he’s not taking this boyfriend/girlfriend crap seriously. The love confession makes more sense since by that point they’ve genuinely been through some shit together. If it weren’t for that creepy-ass age difference this could have been an enjoyable route.

MOMENTS

Wesley shit-talking everyone was one of my favorite parts of this whole experience. It almost offsets some of what this game has done… almost.

This made me laugh because it’s how actual emotionally stunted men talk when they’re in love for the first time.

‘

Here we have MC being brilliant at enlightening us about a new character. Truly, her way with words is astounding.

Ew, no, fuck off.

Aaaand that time Leonardo decided to spontaneously test if water could still kill Wesley. Buncha geniuses in this game, lemme tell ya.

Also, this:

And finally… you couldn’t just let me forget, could you? UGH.

RATING:

If this route didn’t have such a creepy age difference, it would have been a solid 3 hearts. As it stands, I barely feel okay giving it 2.

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?