For as long as I can remember the genre existing here in the west, I’ve always enjoyed visual novels. As a kid who loved reading until video games took over my life, it became a nice way to trick myself into going back to those storybook roots. There are plenty of lovely types of visual novels I’m happy to devour on a quiet evening, but none of them can match my beloved Otome games. After decades of having to play the male hero with all manner of scantily clad female love interests, it’s always nice to play a game which flips that on its head. With all the joy modern Otome games have brought me it only felt fair to try one an earlier Otome title, and Battlefield Waltz seemed like the perfect candidate.
The story of Battlefield Waltz follows Ran, a country girl who lives a quiet life with her family. This all changes when a long standing truce between villages is broken, and blood is shed. One victim of this attack is her father, who guarded the village and taught Ran to defend herself. In the chaos of this horrific incident, Ran sees her mum and a local kid in trouble and can’t help but step in.
With two soldiers planning on slaughtering this innocent duo, Ran needs to act fast. She’s no match for two trained warriors though, and all hope seems to be lost. That’s when she notices a bright light, which turns out to be the cursed sword of legend. Rushing to it she absorbs it into her body, becomes a powerful force, and changes her life forever as she becomes the not so proud holder of a legendary weapon.
The power of the sword comes from the fact it contains the essence of a boy, who every so often is summoned to snark at you and eventually get to know. Obtaining a legendary weapon has also made Ran an important person for the kingdom, and while the powers that be decide what to do with the next great warrior she’s taken to an academy to train among all sorts of colourful characters. These are the people you’ll befriend and potentially even love, so you’d better get to know them and pick your favourites quickly.
For my first run I decided to focus on Lustin, a pretty boy womaniser who appears to be incredibly self centred but you’d better believe has more to him than meets the eye. Maybe you’ll prefer Abel though, who’s the cool guy on campus and undefeated warrior at the academy who’ll show his soft centre for a mighty warrior woman. These are only a couple of a long list of romanceable hunks that Battlefield Waltz has to offer, and I must admit I didn’t really find any duds in the bunch. They’re varied and have enough depth to make multiple playthroughs absolutely worthwhile.
How do you romance a bunch of hunks though I hear you ask this wise old queen? Well mainly you just spend time with them. You’ll get time throughout the story where you have chunks of free time, which you can spend with anyone you can spot on the map. This isn’t just limited to your love interests either, there are plenty of side characters to hang out with like the lovely innkeeper or the mysterious sorcerer. It’s important you’re careful with this time though, because getting the best endings is a lot of work.
There are a lot of little things that affect the outcome of Ryan’s story. The most obvious of these is how much a character likes you, which you can see with a handy meter tucked away in the menus. There are also paths that you need to fill out to get the best endings, which you can see in the Chronicle. It’ll take some dedication and a lot of replays and skipping around to get the happy endings that our likeable heroine deserves, which admittedly I found a little much.
There’s a lot to like about Battlefield Waltz, but I must admit compared to Otomate’s more recent offerings it didn’t quite hit for me. The overall story does have some great twists and turns, but the setting isn’t quite as exciting as a traveling circus or the afterlife. It also has a few dated elements that I didn’t appreciate, like characters talking about light bites for women at the inn. It’s not as awful as it could be, but definitely takes away from the experience.
Battlefield Waltz is an entertaining Otome game, but I struggled to stop thinking about modern visual novels over this Vita remaster. If you’re looking for a more serious edge to your romance reads though you’ll likely really enjoy Ran’s story, just don’t expect the happy endings to come easily.