Well, I did it! After, I’m-not-sure-how-many-months, I finished Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani! I started this game last spring (maybe?), finishing Shiratsuki, Akuroou, and Hira’s routes long before I started doing write-ups for this blog (and maybe someday, I’ll get around to writing about these characters!).
I have to say, I genuinely enjoyed this game! It was such a pleasant surprise and I’m really glad I gave it a chance. The characters are delightful and the world of Sakuratani is interesting. I especially loved all the voice actors’ performances and I would recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a slice-of-life, Japanese mythology influenced otome game!
Dairoku ends with a “heroine-focused/friendship” finale route, where Shino doesn’t end up with any of the love interests. And while I can understand why this route exists, I can’t say it was my favorite.
As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut!
Honestly, this route wasn’t what I expected. But let’s start, with what I loved about it first!
I really enjoyed that after five routes, we got to witness the ayakashi event that Shino planned in the common route! For some reason, I found it adorable that the name of the event was: Big Sports Day! Something about powerful ayakashi naming their event something cute like that, just makes me happy! I loved seeing Shino working with the ayakashi. And for the first half of the route, Shino was confident and capable as she strove to make the big day special for everyone! The meetings she had with the Shires as they discussed what they wanted, and the prizes to be won, was sweet!
This route demonstrated, how much the ayakashi loved, trusted, and adored Shino! The ayakashi children loved to help and play with Shino as she did her rounds in Sakuratani, and the adults always wanted to speak with her and asked how she was doing. During sports day, Shino is mysteriously attacked and given desk work at the office for her safety. One day, Semi comes in with numerous gifts and letters for Shino from the concerned ayakashi (AWWWWW!). Oni Shire Hajun goes out of his way to tell Shino how beloved she is to the ayakashi. He tells her she is doing a wonderful job! And all the Shires come to Shino’s defense and are willing to protect her at all costs. All these moments were just precious!
The “girl talk” scenes with Tamamo and Kinka were a highlight too! They are great supporting characters, and seeing Shino open up to them is fabulous! Shino needs her girlfriends to help her through the trouble in this route, and to hear Tamamo and Kinka express concern for Shino as their friend and not because of her bloodline was lovely.
I thought the scenes with Shiratsuki were hilarious! I love this character! He is just so kind and thoughtful and always considers Shino’s needs. The way he continues to badger Shino to allow him to be her Shikigami is heartwarming, when you consider his past. I love how he failed horribly when trying to get Shu to talk with Shino! The poor man tried, but he’s a terrible actor! What can I say? I just have a soft spot for Shiratsuki!
Yakumo was a great side character in this route too! I loved seeing him take charge and use his abilities to protect his friends. There was one scene where an ayakashi child offered Shino some food. And since Shino had to be careful because her attacker was yet to be found, quick-thinking Yakumo took over the situation and bought new food for everyone to enjoy. This got Shino out of the sticky situation of not eating the food for her safety and hurting the child’s feelings. Also, Yakumo finally confessed his love for Kinka, and sweet Kinka just didn’t get it! Poor Yakumo!
I loved seeing Hira and Shiratsuki in their ayakashi forms! The ending of this route was the only time in the entire game that you got to see these character sprites, and they were lovely!
Unfortunately, there were a number of things about this route that I really didn’t love.
It started with the common route and the “apprehension” scenes. On one hand, I appreciate how short these scenes are considering this was the sixth time I played through the common route. On the other hand, the apprehension scenes did not fit into the flow of the game. I mean, you select the location on the map and the “battle” just happens! No context, no character interactions, no reason for why this apprehension battle matters. There was no connection to the story at all. Selecting this choice and “winning” the battles was nothing more than checking a box to get the finale route. At first, after noticing how spartan the storytelling was around the apprehension scenes, I thought maybe this was Shino practicing for a skill she used later in the route. And the importance and reason for these scenes to exist, beside telling the game I wanted the finale route, would be woven into the story.
Boy, was I wrong.
These battles meant absolutely nothing and had no impact on the story. And this was a missed opportunity.
You see, Shino has a “want” and a “need.”
Her “want” is to be a powerful spell caster, so she can protect everyone and not be a burden on those around her. And Shino practicing her spells, and apprehending misbehaving ayakashi in the battles, was a good way to incorporate Shino’s growth as a spell caster. However, this doesn’t happen.
Instead, from Chapter 5 onward, Shino keeps lamenting how she doesn’t know enough spells and she needs to study more to become stronger like Semi and Yakumo. And she tends to blame her lack of knowledge on the fact she’s been an ayakashimori for less time than her co-workers. But with all her free time in the route, due to being restricted to the office or her dorm, she never takes the steps to actually study. I mean, she could have asked Semi for study materials from the archive or his own personal collection, but she never does.
This makes her “want” to be a stronger ayakashimori feel hollow to the reader. She never does anything to improve herself and make herself comparable to her co-workers in this regard. All she does is complain that she feels worthless and is a burden because she has to be protected by “stronger” ayakshimoris.
And the ending of the route doesn’t have anything to do with her “want” either.
Shino lucked into saving Sakuratani. Nothing that happened was based on her researching, studying, learning, or practicing something new to become a stronger ayakashimori. She just held her family’s amulet and started praying. Shino saved Sakuratani with her earnest, pure, compassionate wish for the people of Sakuratani to be safe within their home. She saved Sakuratani by being the compassionate ayakashimori, and person, that she had always been.
So, in the end, her “want” never went anywhere. It simply existed to make Shino feel bad about herself and give some more angst to the story. And I’ll be honest. This is my least favorite version of Shino. Because of her insecurities, she needs constant validation from her co-workers that she is pulling her weight and doing what she can. This version of Shino has no self-confidence that she can do the job required of an ayakashimori, in spite of all the evidence around her that she is doing a wonderful job! This additional angst wasn’t needed. We already had her dealing with the truth about her bloodline and the concerns about what this meant for her future.
Ultimately, this ending ties into what Shino “needs.”
What Shino “needs” is to accept that she is already a fantastic and well-loved ayakashimori, just the way she is. She has no reason to need to prove herself. It is her compassion, kind-nature, disciplined work ethic, and her earnest spirit that has won the hearts of her co-workers and the ayakashi.
The ayakashi continually pour on the love, trust, and adoration and Shino is completely blind to it. I mean even Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga (aka Hajun) praises her as a wonderful ayakashimori, but Shino just can’t seem to internalize this reality.
And, disappointingly, I’m not even sure that by the end of the route, after Shino has saved Sakuratani by being the wonderful ayakashimori that she is, that she even accepts this about herself. To me, there wasn’t a moment where Shino looks back and is like, “Yeah. I am a great ayakashimori just the way I am! Yeah. I am enough!” And because we didn’t get this resolution, Shino’s character development felt incomplete.
She never fulfilled her “need.”
She never accepted that she was a great ayakashimori just the way she was.
Now, this is not to say, that Shino shouldn’t continue to grow and learn in her career. The point is, that she doesn’t have to become a better spell caster for her to be a good ayakashimori. She already is one. I mean, if Shino wants to become a better spell caster, great! It’s just icing on the cake!
In the case of Shino, I just felt as if we were left with an unfinished character arc. Which considering she was the “main” protagonist of the route, was very disappointing. But sadly, this wasn’t the only problem I had with how the characters were handled in this route.
I was really surprised how unequal the focus was on the love interests. Semi by far dominated the route, with Shiratsuki somewhat close behind him. Then followed Akuroou and Hira, with Akuroou getting slightly more attention than Hira. And pulling up the rear, for plot reasons, Shu was barely in the route.
I kind of figured all the guys would equally be the supporting cast to Shino, who should have been the focus of the route. However, Semi was so proactive and such an important character to the story, that he essentially took the role of the de facto love interest (though Semi and Shino’s relationship remained strictly platonic in this route). And what is frustrating is that the Semi in the finale route was the Semi I wanted in his own route!
In the finale route, Semi is fantastic! He’s proactive, working behind the scenes to figure out what is going on. He’s supportive to Shino and passionately and staunchly defends her. He’s a badass when he’s fighting and he essentially tricks one of the villains into confessing his crimes. He’s essentially everything you want in a hero!
I really wonder if the finale route was originally meant to be Semi’s, but the writers made a change at some point during the game’s development.
I mean the high point of this route are the numerous cute scenes with Sakuratani’s townsfolk. I mean, they could have just added these episodic scenes to the established routes or made them bonus content to unlock during the game play. But (to me) the writers seemed to craft a route around the townsfolk scenes. And instead of creating a new conflict and resolution for the “townsfolk” finale route, they took the conflict and resolution from Semi’s route.
As for Semi’s route, they decided to *kind of* keep the conflict the same, but gave Semi a different focus and resolution (For more on this read Semi’s article). This made Semi the poster boy for Dairoku, but not the “canon” route.
I mean, at least, this is how it feels for me.
I also think it’s a problem when the heroine of the story feels less proactive then the supposed-to-be side-character hero.
The way the writers handled Shino’s “want,” put a cap on how proactive she could be in this route. And on top of this limitation, the writers created a situation where Shino was restricted to the office or her dorm for her safety, which meant her actions couldn’t drive the story forward. Now, this time could have been used proactively for the story, if Shino had learned more spells to become a better spell caster, which she could have used to protect anyone AT SOME POINT in the route. But the writers chose not to go this direction. Instead, Shino just sat around wringing her hands at her uselessness and helping the folks at the General Affairs office with their paperwork.
It wasn’t until the 11th hour of the route that Shino proactively decides to try the ritual to save Sakuratani, no matter the cost to her. At this point, Shino finally chooses to take matters into her own hands. In the end, it was her decision that ultimately saved Sakuratani, but her actions weren’t driving the story.
The writers had Semi investigating the attacks, learning about Shino’s history, and communicating with Tokiwa, Yakumo, and the Shires about what to do. He was the most proactive character in the route!
This dynamic between Shino and Semi is another reason why I think the finale route was initially meant to be Semi’s. Semi’s ability to protect and his proactiveness and Shino’s kind, compassionate, earnest, and pure heart, work hand-in-hand to solve the conflict in the story. You can’t have one without the other. The story, as it is written, just wouldn’t work.
This isn’t a romance route, so I expected Shino to be the sole star of the route, with all the guys being the equal supporting cast behind her. I wasn’t expecting a story that wouldn’t work without the driving actions of one specific love interest.
Oh well.
I just had different expectations from what this route was meant to be.
And while that’s okay, I am still somewhat disappointed.
-Final Thoughts-
After loving Shino in Shu’s route, I was so disappointed with how the writers handled her in the finale route. After chapter 4, Shino spent nearly the rest of the route insecurely worrying that she wasn’t doing enough to be a good ayakashimori and also worrying about her family’s past and bloodline and what that meant for her future.
And honestly, I wouldn’t have minded the worry based on her family concerns. It makes sense that all this information is new to her and she has to figure out how she fits into her family’s legacy and what that means for her. But to double down on Shino’s character doing nothing but worrying about two separate issues at the same time was just too much! We didn’t need angst from two different angles. One would have been fine! And it would have given Shino some breathing room in the route to focus on something besides her many internalized concerns.
Honestly, Shino was the worst part of the route for me, which is just too bad! Having to deal with her insecurity about being a good ayakashimori (when all evidence supports that she is fantastic at her job) is annoying! She is a wonderful ayakashimori and has the love, trust, and devotion of the ayakashi!
FOCUS ON THAT, SHINO! GET OUT OF YOUR OWN HEAD!
I loved all the wonderful character interactions! The characters are what make Sakuratani such a vibrant place to visit and are, honestly, the highlight of the game. However, having to deal with Shino was tiresome. So, in the end, this route balances out to average for me.
Overall, I really enjoyed this game! And I will definitely revisit it in the future!
Otomes as Novels 