Otome Game Review – Uta no Prince-sama Repeat – A Class

Are you suffering from sparkling bishie deprivation yet?

Just pretend the cover is blue and has the word ‘repeat’ on it. I couldn’t find a decent image of the actual cover. Surprised? I sure am. I thought I’d never get around to writing this. Since I usually otome game in my spare time anyways (LOL not that I have any of that any more), I thought I would do a post on it….I’m warning you now that I’m going  to go into a fair bit of detail here. There will be text and spoilers.

General Info on Otome Gaming

First things first, I’m sure some of you are asking: Just what IS an otome game? I’ve tried (and failed) to explain this to people before, so I’ll make up for it now. An otome game is basically a dating sim for girls. You play the role of a female who pairs up with one (or more sometimes) of a selection of male characters (though there are sometimes random female characters you can end up with) depending on your in game decisions. Normally the storyline of whoever you want to end up with is called a ‘route’.

What’s the appeal to otome games? Seiyuu, story and the entire romance thing are all reasons people get into them. The seiyuu in these games are normally excellent and there are some pretty solid casts behind these things. Personally, I play them because the characters I want to get together ACTUALLY GET TOGETHER. It’s much more satisfying than sitting through an entire season of anime only to watch the main character pair up with generic harem member A because that was the easiest thing for the writers to do. *Cough* Ranting aside, on to the game summary.

So yeah, if you couldn’t tell from the title, this post is a review/summary of the game Uta no Prince-sama Repeat. This took me a while to finish this much because I’m pretty kanji retarded (and I went through ALL of the endings (which unfortunately meant playing each route 3 times because I was stupid and played it all on one save file) so I could get to the extra stuff, which is what separates this game from the original), but hopefully I didn’t make any glaringly obvious mistakes in explaining what happened. Oh and I should also point out that there are quite a few differences between things in the anime and what happens in the game.

UtaPri in a Nutshell

For those of you who haven’t seen the anime, the heroine here is a girl named Nanami Haruka (name change possible) who is going to idol school to be a composer. Haruka also has anemia and doesn’t have any friends despite her being high school aged already. Haruka also has a favorite idol named HAYATO (who is MASSIVELY creepy and I will never look at Miyano Mamoru the same way ever again) and she watches his morning television program almost religiously. So here’s where the story diverges and Haruka either ends up in A Class or the elite S Class and this affects the bishie selection Haruka can get with. From there, you chose a bishie to partner up with for the year as an idol-composer unit to compete in the Graduation Audition. However, you have to finish the A Class bishies in order to unlock the S Class ones, so I decided to get them all over with first. I should probably also mention that the school Haruka is attending is called Saotome Academy and is run by Shining Saotome, who is possibly the most insane (yet awesome) man ever. Shining is also the one who created the rule that there is no romance allowed in school and anyone caught breaking it will be forced to drop out. …Of course, the whole thing is pretty redundant considering that this is a ROMANCE GAME.

Important characters in this post aside from the bishies include Tsukimiya Ringo (A Class homeroom teacher and trap) and Shibuya Tomochika (Haruka’s one female friend in A Class), but I don’t think I’ll be mentioning them much.

Ittoki Otoya-

First bishie on the list is Ittoki Otoya, your genki athlete character…Yes, apparently he’s an athlete. However, this rarely comes into the storyline, so it’s more like a title than anything. He and Haruka become partners through drawing lots (since luck is a big part of show business).

Eventually the recording test rolls around and Haruka meets Ichinose Tokiya, Otoya’s roommate, for the first time. Of course, she’s shocked because Tokiya looks just like HAYATO and Otoya learns that she’s a fan of his. This knowledge distracts Otoya during his test and so he has to redo it in order to pass. Tokiya has to redo his too since he doesn’t have any heart in his song (oh god not this again). In the end, Haruka cheers up Otoya by saying that she likes his singing and he passes his next test. Tokiya passes as well, but Otoya won because he put so much into his singing.

Next month is a water polo competition between the A and S Classes. However, Shining doesn’t think that the whole thing is exciting enough, so he says that the losing team has to dress as girls. S Class wins. So we get this lovely crossdressing CG. This happens in all of the routes, but I’m only mentioning this here.

So a month later, Haruka and Otoya go on a date as ‘just partners’ (riiiiight). The two go on the Ferris wheel as per request of Haruka and it turns out that Otoya is afraid of heights, but he didn’t want to say it in front of her. As he leans on her shoulder, Haruka suddenly notices that Otoya is wearing a rosary (no idea where she’s been looking all this time, it’s right on his character sprite). So yeah, Otoya’s mother was actually Christian until she went and died in a plane crash 15 years ago leaving Otoya orphaned because he has no idea who his father is. The topic eventually lands on Otoya getting permission to call Haruka by her given name and Haruka attempting to call Otoya by his given name. However, before anything happens, Shining appears (I’d like to mention that they’re still on the Ferris Wheel at this point) saying that he sensed love in the air and he reminds them of the no love rule.

During a talent show, Haruka finally calls Otoya by name and so he goes to kiss her. However, she pushes him away because of the no love rule (she’s happy about his feelings though). Otoya acts like normal afterwards, so things are okay. More stuff happens and Otoya declares that he has a problem with the no romance rule, so the two go and ask Shining what his problem is. Shining refuses to tell them though saying that love can bring misfortune and before they leave, Otoya accidentally knocks down a piece of paper while hitting the table in RAGE.  Afterwards, they meet with the rest of their friends, (who were researching Shining for them). It turns out that Shining donates a large amount of money to someone every month, but no one knows who it is and assumes it’s a lover or love child (however, Shining is still single). Otoya later tells Haruka that the piece of paper he knocked over was on telling Shining good luck on his idol career and was signed ‘Kotomi’. His mother’s name. So he thinks that Shining may know his father. (I should also mention that Otoya says that he thinks Shining resembles the man who donates money to him every month)

During the Christmas party, Shining warns the school about the no love rule. Otoya chooses this point in time to shout to the world that he loves Haruka, which is basically the equivalent of “I’m breaking the rules. Please kick me out of school.” He takes Haruka and runs, confessing to her outside. He also vows to get rid of the no love rule for her. Haruka decides to stand by Otoya and his decision.

So Shining agrees to let them date on a few conditions. One, they have to win the graduation audition and two, Otoya has to go through what Shining calls “training from hell”. So Otoya goes through a bunch of ridiculous trials like climbing the school without a harness while Haruka finishes a bunch of assignments Shining gives her and does… not much.

The graduation audition finally comes up and some people hide Otoya’s outfit because the writers wanted some last minute drama they’re mad at them being able to date while a ton of people got expelled. The find it on the roof though thanks to Tokiya and they win the audition.

So there are 3 possible endings. In the best (great love) ending, Shining allows them to date. Also, he explains the reason behind his no love rule. Apparently his agency made him break up with his lover when he debuted as an idol and when he tired to find her again, he learned that she had died in a plane crash 15 years ago. Also, he lets the two go on a vacation to the beach. In the happy ending, the two are allowed to date after winning. Otoya gives Haruka a contract that says that he will love her forever and sing her songs, etc. The 3P friend ending actually starts back in December, where Otoya doesn’t do anything stupid and Tokiya says that Haruka should join S Class. Shining likes this idea, so he moves Haruka and Otoya into S Class and forces them to audition with Tokiya. Shining’s word is law, so they form a group.

The extra stuff is also split into three different scenarios based on which ending you got. True Love route, Otoya and Haruka go shopping, have a few couple-ish moments (KANSETSU KISU) and then go back to the school for a massive nostalgia trip (since they’re not students anymore) even though I JUST finished the route. The Love after story, Haruka goes to the school/ flashes back to when they threw Otoya a surprise birthday party and other things. The Friends after story  is the best of them all (in my opinion). Shining names the idol unit W1 (it sounds like ‘double one’ when said in Japanese. Get it? because Tokiya and Otoya both have the character for ‘one’ in their names.). The two guys do a bunch of idol things including doing some  hilarious skit where Ichiko (aka Tokiya crossdressing and talking in falsetto) makes a ‘love love lunch’ for her darling and runs into Otoya, who accidentally takes the lunch and then thinks that Ichiko is in love with him. I think I died from laughing during this. Oh and later, Otoya gets jealous that Haruka is spending so much time with Tokiya, so he runs off. When Haruka finds him, he asks her out, she says ‘yes’, Tokiya is bro about this, etc.

So yeah, it is HEAVILY IMPLIED that Otoya is Shining’s son. I hope this makes you all feel as excited (sarcasm) to play Shining’s route (yes, he somehow gets his own route) in Amazing Aria as I am. This route (and Otoya) are really adorable though. …Plus I absolutely love how he calls Shining ‘old man’.

Hijirikawa Masato-

Next up is Hijirikawa Masato. He’s the sweater vest wearer, and son/future inheritor of the Hijirikawa financial group, so he’s pretty serious. He also has an annoying overprotective butler named Jii, who enrolled with him, but somehow ended up in the S Class instead. Masato also plays piano really well and Haruka says that he has “magic hands” (which becomes really awkward when translated to English) after watching him play in front of the class. So Masato and Haruka become partners via Ringo tying ‘red strings of fate’ to their hands, making them partners.

So Masato’s rival is Jinguuji Ren, who is jealous that Masato is going to inherit his father’s company (while Masato is jealous of Ren’s freedom). That being said, Ren has this inferiority complex going on, so he feels like he has to outdo Masato in absolutely everything though technically Ren already one upped him when he joined S Class so he and Masato have a contest to see who should have Haruka as a partner during the recording test. Ren wins though because Masato’s song lacks ‘love’ (LOL is this going to be a pattern? What does Natsuki lack? Rhythm? Soul?). Masato re-tests (after encouragement from Haruka) and wins because he improved so much.

Despite the annoying as hell butler, Masato has an absolutely ADORABLE little sister named Mai who comes and visits him because she wanted to see her ‘Onii-chama’. So Masato takes her to Shining’s personal theme park to play and Haruka tags along. Masato also gets Haruka to call him by his given name since Mai is also named Hijirikawa (lol smooth). After Mai goes home, Masato gets Haruka to keep calling him Masato and the two hold hands.

However, Ren isn’t done with annoying Masato, so he hits on Haruka throughout the next couple months and the fact that Masato’s extremely controlling father visits Masato just to tell him how much he doesn’t approve of Masato going to this school doesn’t help the situation.  The A Class performs Romeo and Juliet for the Cultural Festival (with Masato and Haruka as the lead roles. Lol yeah, I’m not entirely sure how Haruka scored that role but whatever.) but during the death scene, Shining warns them that if they kiss, they’ll be expelled. Masato goes to actually kiss her, but she pushes him away, ending the play rather awkwardly. The two get REALLY awkward after that and Masato starts avoiding Haruka.

The month after that, Haruka visits Masato’s room and Ren starts hitting on her for the hundredth time this route . After Ren pushes her onto the bed, Masato walks in and immediately misunderstands. Haruka chases after Masato, but he pushes her against the wall, start untying her ribbon and asks her if she likes Ren better. However he stops after Haruka starts crying and asks that they have some space between them for a while. Ren kind of leaves Haruka alone after she says that she’s Masato’s partner alone and that she likes him because of his “magic hands” LMAO. There was also some drama somewhere in here about Masato having a fiance, but that’s pretty much a requirement for rich people in Japan. Thankfully, the awkwardness ends the next month during the Christmas party, where Haruka chases after him as her runs away from her. In the end, Masato is tired of lying about his feelings and wants to break out from his father’s control. So yeah, Masato and Haruka FINALLY become a couple.

Oh, I should also mention that there’s a whole back story where Haruka used to perform music on the streets for whatever reason and Masato heard her play one day after having his life’s ambitions crushed mercilessly by his father. Her music was the thing that convinced him to go to Saotome Academy and Masato’s encouragement was what made her want to compose. Haruka doesn’t clearly remember the encounter because she has a fever that day (apparently fevers cause memory loss) but Masato remembers and tells her. However, the drama isn’t finished just yet and Masato’s father reappears to bitch at him again for being such a disappointment. Shining stops him though after Masato’s father insults the school (lol) and has him kicked out. In February, Masato proposes to Haruka.

Finally, it’s the Graduation Audition, but there’s unnecessary melodrama again and Masato’s grandfather (who was the one to support him going to idol school) suddenly dies. Of course, Masato needs to leave, so Haruka is left waiting for him during the audition. He arrives on time though.

The Great Love ending, they win the audition, Masato’s father finally removes the giant stick that’s been shoved up his ass the entire route (aka accepts that Masato wants to walk his own path) and Shining approves their relationship as long as they keep it a secret. In the Love ending, Masato’s father only partially accepts Masato’s dream and says that if he doesn’t show progress, than Masato has to return. Again, Shining says that that Haruka and Masato can date as long as they keep it a secret. The Friend ending, back in December, Ren comes to hit on Haruka after Masato runs away. Otoya drags Masato back just in time to see Ren trying to get Haruka to dance, so the two fight like men with their fists. Shining lets this go on for a bit but stops them before they damage each other’s faces saying that Haruka should give them equal attention. …Masato and Ren get along better after this and the three of them start hanging out. Lolwut.

The Great Love after story, Masato and Haruka keep getting cock blocked by Jii, but eventually they come to an understanding so Masato and Haruka can make out in peace. Also, for a commercial audition, Masato shouts the line “MAI WAIIIIIIFU”. Love after story, Masato reflects back on that couple of months he was emoing around, the two dress up since it’s Christmas time and dance/Haruka shows what a clutz she is. Friends after story, Masato, Ren and Haruka all go to the beach. Masato keeps yelling at Ren because he keeps grabbing Haruka’s hand (while Masato can’t do it so easily since he was raised in a girl-free box). Finally, Masato and Haruka escape Ren and Masato confesses to Haruka, who accepts his feelings. It turns out that Ren heard the whole thing and he confesses to Haruka too… but he thinks Masato deserves her more. He pulls the whole “I’ll take her away if you ever make her cry” line and in the end, the three kind of get along…ish.

R-Ren! Since when have you been so understanding?! …Ahem, so overall, Masato’s route was …meh. I’m sad that Mai never showed up again and I wish Jii would go die in a hole somewhere. I didn’t mention him much here, but he was SO ANNOYING with his constant “You’re not good enough for Masato-samaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” ing.

Shinomiya Natsuki-

Natsuki likes cute things, can play the violin and can’t cook anything edible to save his life. He partners up with Haruka after the two of them win some sort of scavenger hunt and he gets special treatment on picking his partner first because he plays the viola really well. He chooses Haruka of course and hugs her in front of everyone. Normally this would be a problem due to the no love rule. However, in this route, no one seems to care about that except for Haruka (seriously). Also, Natsuki has a violent alter-ego who’s power level is over 9000 who appears when his glasses come off.

So here I was wondering where Natsuki’s personality went because he was extremely mellow for the first couple months (minus the incident with his glasses coming off)… and then Syo showed up. Unlike the rest of the bishies and their counterparts, Natsuki thinks Syo is the cutest thing ever, much to Syo’s chagrin. Anyways, Natsuki doesn’t actually lack anything during his test, but instead Shining finds the whole thing boring so he has Syo and Natsuki retest in a duet.

Natsuki showers Haruka with love and affection nonstop until during the cultural festival, he confesses to her on the roof during fireworks (…taking off his glasses for some reason. Surprisingly, nothing happens). However, Haruka rejects him due to the no love rule and when she pushes him away, he drops his glasses and they break. Surprise! His alter ego comes out and introduces himself as Satsuki. He explains that Natsuki is gone because she rejected him.

Satsuki is a giant ass to pretty much everyone the next couple months. He pushes Haruka down in the recording room (which Ringo interrupted), but she believes that he wouldn’t do anything bad because Satsuki is another part of Natsuki. Eventually, Haruka has a decent conversation with Satsuki in December. Satsuki is thinks that Haruka will hurt Natsuki because everyone abandons him and he assumes Haruka will too. Haruka denies this of course and tells him that Natsuki is her important partner. Syo comes around this time and attacks Satsuki, but he’s beaten out of the way. …I only mention this because Haruka then confesses that she loves Natsuki right in front of the unconscious Syo and the two have a heartfelt discussion while completely forgetting about his body just lying there on the ground (lol). Haruka tells Natsuki that she loves all of him. Including Satsuki. However, he walks away. It’s not until the Christmas party that he returns as Natsuki. He hugs Haruka (who’s been waiting alone in the cold for him) and apologizes that he knew exactly what was going on the whole time.

So from there on, Natsuki and Satsuki switch regularly, but this somehow strains Natsuki’s body (I’d also like to point out that Natsuki is ALL OVER Haruka now, but by this point, the whole no love rule is a joke). Shining (who by the way, has a physician’s license. Whoever thought it would be safe to give him on needs their head checked.) says that if this goes on, Natsuki will eventually break. So Satsuki finally tells Haruka that his role is to protect Natsuki. You see, Natsuki was betrayed by his violin teacher when he was younger. He pretty much idolized her and wrote her a song, but she published it under her own name and ditched him after that. Yeah, bitch move. Satsuki didn’t like Haruka at first due to the similarities between her and the violin teacher, but since he’s part of Natsuki, he eventually fell in love with her as well. … And then he disappears saying that he wishes that he could have stayed with her. THE TEARS I CRIED.

The last minute of drama here is Syo giving Natsuki and Haruka a letter from Satsuki explaining how he came to be and etc. He also wishes them the best. Great Love ending they win (duh) and are called to Shining’s office where he okays them being a couple since Natsuki is just a liiiiiiiiiiittle mentally unstable and Haruka keeps him sane. They move in to apartments right next to each other and one day while Haruka’s cooking, Natsuki starts talking they same way as Satsuki. Well they ARE technically the same person after all. Love ending, the two go to the roof and Natsuki confesses again for the hell of it. Friend ending, Satsuki collapses during the Christmas party, so Syo and Haruka partner up for the remainder of the year. However, Natsuki shows up right before the audition and they perform as a unit (and win). Afterwards, they go on a picnic as a threesome, but it turns into a foursome when Satsuki suddenly shows up again.

Great love after story, Natsuki and Haruka go on a picnic and Natsuki actually makes edible sandwiches. …And then Satsuki shows up and he and Haruka do…uh, PG13 things in the forest. Love after story, there’s reminiscing and Haruka flashes back to the school festival and how A Class had a cafe thing going on. Friends ending, Syo and Natsuki work towards their debut. However, Satsuki keeps showing up during practice and saying that they’re not good enough. Eventually Syo and Haruka start getting along with Satsuki though and he tries to disappear because he thinks Natsuki doesn’t need him anymore. However, Syo shows up and tells them that they’re not a trio, but a quartet so Satsuki stays.

D’aww I enjoyed this route so much more than I thought I would~. …And do I ever feel trolled about Satsuki coming back at the end. I should have seen this coming. Though why Satsuki can stay around in the Friend ending, but not the other endings is beyond me.

Overall Thoughts:

As gameplay goes, when they say Hard Mode, they mean it (they also have a Pro Mode (totally not me playing by the way) too in practice mode). Luckily, you can retry as many times as you need to and after you finish your first route, a practice mode opens up. If you fail a lot like I did at the beginning though, the bishie you’re playing gives you a look like you just kicked a puppy or beat up an orphan in front of them or something. That was pretty distracting lol. The mini games were fun though because I freaking love rhythm games. You have no idea how much time I wasted satisfaction I got finally getting an S rank on Pro mode xD. Plus after playing just the rhythm game for few hours in a row, I was able to reach some sort of weird level of concentration where I didn’t even have to think about the buttons and my fingers did all of the work automatically xDDDD. The game also has timed quizzes and fill in the blank lyrics that you have to do too, but again, you can retry however many times you want. They’re not all that difficult and there’s a lot of katakana and English in them, which made it WAAAAY easier to understand. Game controls were pretty straightforward as well.

The storyline was pretty standard. Or at least it WOULD have been if not for Shining and his crazy antics. Crossdressing? Threesomes? Hitchhiking to Hokkaido? His own theme park? Yeah, this game would have been boring if not for Shining. Even if the man was impossible to translate. I have to say that all of the bishie’s routes (or at least A Class) were better than I thought they were going to be (I kyaaaaa’d more than I thought I would). Overall though, the routes were pretty cliché. …Though I have to admit that I was pretty surprised when Masato and Satsuki had their ‘push Haruka against a wall/fence/the floor/where ever and speak in a sexy voice’ moments. Satsuki I can understand I guess, but MASATO HOLY CRAP, why didn’t that happen more often?! The guy was way too monotone throughout his route.

…Moving on, the music was EXCELLENT. Not only the seiyuu singing, but the songs themselves were really nice to listen to. This is probably part of the reason why I spent so long on practice mode.  The background music was pretty nice as well, though the bishie songs are definitely the highlight of the game. As for the CGs, I can’t say much about how they’ve improved since I never played the original game, but they were pretty to look at. Plus they came up once per month, so there was no playing multiple times to get a missing one or any long bouts of text without one. They were pretty good quality too, compared to some games I’ve seen. …I have to say though, for a megane character, the majority of Natsuki’s CGs were him without glasses. I’m kind of disappoint.

So the S Class + the ‘secret’ character (as if everyone doesn’t already know who he is) post is somewhat underway and should be coming fairly soon! A Class was great and all, but so far the S Class is following the anime less, so I’m enjoying it more. …So far. I have yet to deal with Ren and his groupies.

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.