Otome Game Review – Will O’ Wisp

Alternative Names: ウィル・オ・ウィスプ

Company: Otomate (Idea Factory)

Release Date: 06.09.07

Official Site: http://www.otomate.jp/

will/wisp.html

Platform: PS2, PSP, DS

Genre: Romance, otome game, fantasy, mystery

Plot Summary: Set in 19th century London, there are dollmakers who can make sophisticated, human like dolls who talk, have feelings, blablabla.  Our heroine, Hanna, is a dollmaker in training who can see things and hear things no one else can- lol no she’s not on drugs.  Her uncle or grandpa, whoever he is, dies and she sees this as a chance to sneak into his private chambers and snoop around.  Feeling a strange air in the place, she finds a coffin and a key, opens it, only to find a ‘sleeping’ doll, and as any other sane person would do, she jacks the key into the guy, waking him up, and the story goes from there.

Will

The doll in the coffin that Hanna finds.  Unruly red hair, ice blue eyes and a black suit.  Is damn hot and voiced by Nakai Kazuya so double win.  Personality wise, he’s  oresama ish, sarcastic and aloof and does what he wants when he wants, totally not listening to Hanna for the the most part – in fact, the bastard makes her cry more than anything else lol.  Despite his rough attitude and all, he’s a nice guy, just can’t really express himself and gets pretty irked when the other dolls hang with Hanna (but her stupidity and inability to pick up on things irks him even more), being there for her and wotnot.

Will’s pretty damn mean to Hanna since she found him and the latter’s lesbian doll friend, Emily, dislikes him cuz he’s a prick.  Hanna finds out that Will’s in the cool clique of mannequins and he’s an elemental doll, created centuries ago by gifted Shamrock dollmakers, and unlike normal dolls like Emily, he doesn’t give out after a year or so and is immortal.  There are 5 elemental dolls in total and they all like her and shit apart from one, Ignis, who’s the main antagonist in the story.  This guy’s intent on killing Hanna, blathering on about dollmaker’s sin and is the only one who doesn’t have an owner, and wants to release all the elemental dolls.

Things are going pretty good with the elemental dolls cept for Ignis till Hanna’s lesbian maid doll Emily stops functioning due to the doll’s extreme jealousy of Will and other dolls.  Yeah I’m not kidding, she’s totally gay for Hanna, read: 「あなたは、私だけのものではない。そんな当たり前のことを、どうして、私は。。。」 and she has that whole “I know you’re not mine and shiet but still” thing which is awesome.

Will tells her that Emily should have ‘died’ ages ago cuz she’s low quality stuff and it’s been her lesbian love for Hanna that has kept her going for so long – lol even when seeing Hanna in such a depressed state, Will’s gets nice, making Hanna tea to cheer her up and then makes her cry buckets by trashtalking Emily, only that he really just wants her to give up on her cuz it’s bringing her so much sadness.

In order to fix Emily and turn her into an elemental doll, she needs the power of the elemental dolls and their keys, so Hanna goes around trying to borrow the elemental dolls from their respective owners.  However, Ignis is always there and stirs up shit everywhere, causing the owners to go whack and they all reject her request.  Wotever,  Hanna has Will so everything turns out okay and she gets all the keys.

Then Ignis kicks up a huge fuss when he reveals that Will killed his previous owners and they build up some stupid drama over something completely stupid – turns out the owner asked Will to kill him so that gave Will some trauma and he didn’t want to wake up ever again blablabla but now he has Hanna so he happy again and they have a nice huggy time.

In the end, Hanna finds out that the dollmaker’s sin is creating elemental dolls, and by doing so, has caused despair cuz the elemental dolls gotta do whatever their owners say and well you know, give humans a lil power and they nuke the world.  After bringing Emily back, Hanna decides to release all the dolls cuz she’s tired of fighting and she knows Ignis won’t bliddy stop till then.

The gang gather at the ruins of a castle, where the elemental dolls were created and Hanna tells Ignis that she’s gonna release everyone – you too Ignis.  A short fight ensues cuz (I THINK) Ignis doesn’t wanna ‘die’, but Hanna uses the Shamrock power to wipe everyone out.  As the dolls all vanish into the light, Hanna realizes that she doesn’t want Will to leave and wants to be with him.  He feels the same, hugs her, and they too are engulfed by the light.

Fast forward some time after – Will has now become human cuz this is an otome game and every girl wants their happy ending so tragedy is obviously a no go.  Will has opened up and though still the same cynical turd as before, he’s a lot more playful and deliberately gets all touchy feely when he notices Hanna getting dere whenever he’s too close.  Horny bastard ;)

Ignis

Sephiroth’s long lost twin brother – needs no further explaining really.  Runs around raising hell for Hanna just cuz he can, and the only thing on his mind is killing her and releasing all other dolls.  Proud, serious, and cold but further into the game, Hanna sees that he ain’t as badass as his Final Fantasy sibling, and her innocence/ idiocy manages to turn him around somewot.

As stated up there, Ignis makes life hard for Hanna and wants to take a stab at her.  When she gets to borrowing Rudy, Rudy’s looney owner imprisons Hanna in his mansion, saying that she’s the only one who understands him.  Rudy discards his princely facade and tells Hanna that he’s siding with Ignis cuz he wants to be released as well.  Ignis then shows up and kidnaps Hanna and takes her to the Shamrock rubble.  There, Hanna makes up her mind to release everyone in two days when all the elemental dolls gather and maintains a positive outlook on things.

Ignis is fuck confused when Hanna approaches him at night outside the castle, talking about rainbows and how beautiful the world is instead of cutting herself and whining about how her life sucks.  She says she’s gonna die anyway so she wants to know more about Ignis.  Ignis tells her about his past, how he was the last doll made and how he stayed with his original master till his death.  Something happened and Ignis can now move even without a living owner, and it was then when he saw that elemental dolls + humans = massive shitholes.  Thus, in order to avoid having unnecessary tragedies, he’s now trying to release everyone and kill shamrock dudes to stop them from making elemental dolls ever again.  Hearing this, Hanna comes to the conclusion that Ignis is just a lonely kid, working against everyone alone, and that her very existence has hurt him in a sense.  She begs him to stay with her for a bit longer and he does, giving her his mantle but leaving soon after.

Next day, the fight, the release blablabla and having Stockholm syndrome, Hanna refuses to let Ignis go, and finally having found someone who seems to get him and all that, he doesn’t want to ditch her either, miracle happens, and Ignis is human.

Being human has stripped Ignis of his previous bad guy like traits and he’s now rather pussy and ‘too nice’ of a guy but regardless, Hanna likes him and they live happily ever after together.  Just for the record, what the FUCK is Hanna wearing on her head?  Hey maybe it’s just me and my bad taste but seriously man, you ain’t so poor that you gotta use some discarded biscuit box lid as your hat no?  Ugh, totally ew.

Jill

Fuck I know it’s GYL but what the hell, he looks like a bloody GIRL so it’s JILL to me.  Definitely, and I’ll say it again, DEFINITELY, the prettiest character in the entire game.  With long crimson hair, pale skin, and – oh screw it, this is completely self explanatory once one sees the pics so I’ll leave it at that.  The yuri whore within me wishes that Jill was born /made a girl …wait…they’re dolls right?  So no gender aite?  …Ah woteva.  So, as I was saying, the lesbian loving crackpot festering inside my being totally wanted Jill to be a girl cuz dude, yuri is win, but you know, the saner other part of me kinda liked Jill as a guy cuz traps are awesome and despite his girly looks, the man thing actually worked out pretty well.  Looks aside, Jill’s so gentleman and is soooooooooo pretty the only one who actually really listens to Hanna, no strings attached and no questions.

Jill’s owner is Gloria, the beautiful (nowhere near as delectable a sight as her doll lol) daughter of some rich earl who’s a long time customer of Hanna’s uncle and also a sister figure to Hanna.  Though she seems sane, pursuing Jill – actually, heading down any route quickly reveals that she’s a nuthead.  First signs of crazy are when Hanna visits Gloria and she goes from her usual nice to downright nasty and after some nonsense about living in a dream, she kicks Hanna out.

Next day, she goes back and finds Gloria fraternizin with the enemy, Ignis.  Gloria goes full out batshit insane and attempts to seal Jill and herself into her own world by doing some time space garble cuz reality is too shitty and she wants to live a dream.  Jill’s really weirded out by Gloria but (sadly) Gloria regains her senses and hands Jill over to Hanna cuz she doesn’t need him anymore.

Hanna gets imprisoned in Rudy’s place cuz he’s siding with Ignis in this route too, but Jill comes to save her.  Terrified, she cries and cries whilst she thanks Jill. Whilst busting her out, Hanna gets attacked by wimpy turd Irvine and having no other options, Jill steps in and kills said wimpy turd.  They grab Rudy’s key and run back home.

Just before the day of release, the two share a head banging moment where Jill goes romantic in a “no he didn’t just say that” cheesy way and after telling Hanna the night’s beautiful cuz it’s with her, he’s on the verge of confessing but chickens out and that’s that.

wot the bloody hell is the woman wearing?!

Yakyakyak, everyone’s released but Jill and Hanna like each other too much and they glomp each other before Jill turns human.  Jill’s pretty much the same when human, just openly hornier and wants to spend the whole day “touching Hanna” more than anything else.  Fine, it was probably in the hug/kiss sense and not bang bang but heck, he’s a guy and we all know what the dude wants lol.

Hobllrdy.

Wot. The.  Fuck.  What kinda fucking name is Hobllrdy?!  Cripes I know the names are supposed to be connected to the Will O’ Wisp story thing but jeebus chives – HOBLLRDY?!?!  The name’s so stupid that even the character himself doesn’t want to be called by it and requests that people refer to him as Rudy.  I lmfaoed when Will called him “Hob” – srsly man, shat bricks.  Appearance wise, the guy looks like a fairy tale prince, complete with the blonde hair, blue eyes and charming air.  Seems kind and all, but is actually pretty dark and cunning, hiding that all with his charisma to get what he wants.  Which makes him awesome cuz he’s just a couple steps away from being yandere <3

In his path, he doesn’t do no kidnapping and sides with the rest of the elemental dolls (sadly).  He charms Hanna and confesses to her pretty early but of course, that’s cuz he’s got ulterior motives.  Rudy’s owner, Irvine, is a paranoid little shit who’s completely useless without Rudy and believes Rudy to be his lucky charm, and Rudy really wants the guy to fuck off so he butters Hanna up to make her take him in (ish).

Shit happens one day when Hanna gets an image of Irvine’s condo in her head and she rushes over with Will.  Irvine has created his own lil dimension so Rudy can’t get out (WOWOWOWOW BONDAGE PICTURE YO.  HENTAI IRVINE XD) cuz he found his doll trying to take his key.  Irvine’s all “nobody take Rudy away from me” but Rudy’s actually able to bust out and tells Irvine that he doesn’t want a lame shit owner like him.  Hanna slaps some sense into Irvine and realizing what a stupid pussy he’s been, Irvine gives Rudy to Hanna (well actually, he’s just terrified of ‘real’ Rudy so he wants to get rid of him).

Hanna now realizes she’s been played by Rudy but she’s an otome heroine and they’re dumb so she forgets about it when Emily collapses from Clingy Jealous Girl syndome.   Rudy doesn’t get why Hanna  is so desperate to revive Emily and says that she’s got him, she don’t need anyone else.  Hanna says it’s cuz she’s her friend and crap, and he holds her hand to show that they’re completely different, with dolls being cold, and humans having warmth.  Even so, Hanna’s says that they’re all the same on the inside so Rudy gives up on trying to get her to give up on Emily.

Anyway one day Rudy gets horny and asks whether he can “touch Hanna”.  Sadly this is a Cero B game so all he does is put his head on her lap for a tad.  He says that he’s never felt so affected by anothers feelings, and he’s wants to have Hanna all to himself – ALL MINE.  D’aaaw possessive Rudy is cute Rudy.

Rudy is turned human cuz blablabla he and Hanna love each other too much so hug and voila!  MAGIC.    After all the shit’s died down, Rudy’s crashing with Hanna.  The guy’s still his same ol’ half princely half something else self and his path ends with him buying a necklace for Hanna.

Jack

Whew, last guy.  The plainest guy of the 5, with short black hair, glasses, and nothing really striking about his appearance, but I like his simpler character design and his personality made up for it.  He’s the doll of some rich Victor Redmond guy.  Stoic, pokerfaced and not much of a talker, he seems much like an observer of events, checking things out that are “interesting” and “deep” but never really doing much about it.  He appears to be the most mature out of all the 5 along with Jill, but he’s actually pretty naive, knows nothing about emotions, and will do whatever as long as it interests him.

His owner, Redmond, wants Hanna to create an elemental doll for him so he can seal his dead daughter’s soul into it and bring her back.  Jack sees nothing wrong with this cuz he’s good anything as long as it’s interesting.  Hanna goes over to stop em cuz it’s ‘plain wrong’ to play with dead people and she can hear the daughter crying for help to stop the dad.  Hanna calls up the soul so the daughter can tell em all herself how the dad is being fuck annoying by not letting her rest in peace so the dad stops and gives Jack to Hanna.

In this route, Gloria is more fucked in the head and actually tries to kill Hanna when the latter requests to borrow Jill.  Jack charges in to save Hanna, and though Hanna tries to stop him, he can’t do anything cept shield Hanna with his shawl thingy and stab the mad bitch.

Jack doesn’t get it when Hanna goes emo about losing Gloria as a friend – dat crazy bitch tried to kill you so why you crying for a murderer like her?  Jack goes on to say that he doesn’t get people cuz they’re illogical and don’t make sense and as he’s about to leave Hanna, she grabs onto him from the back and tells him not to leave till she’s done crying.   Jack thinks she’s taking too long to stop weeping so he picks her up bridal style and tells her this is how mothers deal with crying babies lol.  Gah Jack XD

In the end, after that huggy “i loff you too much” scene that happens with every single one of the elemental dolls, Jack becomes human.  He’s still a bibliophile and finds that his body can’t be at peace until Hanna is somewhere nearby and takes her into his lap as he reads, and his route ends on that note.

Afterthoughts and Conclusion

First, charas.  I don’t really have a favourite cuz I liked all the 5 guys, but didn’t really LIKE LIKE them.  Will cuz his whole sarcastic ‘i do my thing u do urs’ was amusing but his trauma thing was lame and not tragic enough, Ignis cuz he’s the bad guy but I can’t really see how Hanna fell for him and vice versa, Jill cuz he’s SOOO PRETTY but a tad flat a character, Rudy cuz he’s a bastard but not effed enough to be yandere, and Jack cuz his stoic, straightforward but naive at the same time thing was cute but it still wasn’t enough.  The characters had potential to be awesome, but the story and scenarios just didn’t allow them to be.

Music was boring, can’t remember any pieces.  Voices were good especially Will’s cuz Nakai Kazuya is <3

Plot was kinda meh too and didn’t get me really interested.  The parts I applaud Will O’ Wisp on are though, the bits where all the owners went delusional and completely mad cuz it was hella entertaining to see unhinged characters and some angst instead of the happy laughy shit on otome games.

Best part about this game is duh the art.  Usuba Kagero’s art is fab and this duo caught my attention when I saw Edel Blume.  I love the gothic visuals and yeah Kazuki Yone is brill and shit, Kagero’s art has an ethereal air to it, something that Yone’s art lacks.  The characters have an almost ghostly feel to them (pale skin and all I’m guessing) and I swear, Jill is one of the prettiest characters I have seen for ages.  A really distinct style.

There was a hell lot of stupid melodrama that admittedly could have made Will O’ Wisp more interesting but sadly, said drama was a tad lacking and weak.  The romance aspect of this game didn’t make up for the somewot boring plot cuz it was near nonexistent – in fact, for once in my gaming experience, none of the characters said the words “suki” or “love” – and it was difficult to believe that the dolls and Hanna saw each as more than just friends or acquaintances (they don’t even kiss, not once).  Overall, alright a game, about 3/5 stars, but it falls cuz nothing is really all that well fleshed out.  The art is still GOD though >w<