When I first played Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms, Yamazaki wasn’t even on my radar. And that’s probably because while he is a character in the original historical game, he’s not a member of the Original Six (Hijikata, Saito, Okita, Harada, Heisuke, and Kazuma) that were given routes. And because of this, in general, he is less popular and less well-known than the Original Six.
Well, the writers remedied this in Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms and Chizuru was given a chance to fall in love with Yamazaki. And while I thoroughly enjoyed Yamazaki as a character, I was left feeling like: “is that it?” Because I really felt Yamazaki was the least fleshed out of the new six routes added to the remake. In short, I kind of felt the writers did him dirty with how little new content he got in Kyoto Winds compared to the other new characters (also, was it just me, or was his route in Edo Blossoms shorter than the rest as well…hmmm?).
It wasn’t until I found the SSL walkthroughs created by the people who made the patch, that I realized Yamazaki even had a “route” in SSL. Talk about a pleasant surprise! And while I had a hunch, that once again, he wouldn’t be as fleshed out as the Original Six, I still finished the route thinking: “is that it?”
I am stating this now: Yamazaki needs more content! He’s one of the good ones!
As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut! There will also be a few spoilers for Hakuouki: Kyoto Winds and Hakuouki: Edo Blossoms and, well…essentially all other possible Hakuouki content in general.
Continue reading “Hakuouki: SSL – Susumu Yamazaki ~ Plot & Character Analysis” →