The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya

[alaterdate]

So I bought this otome game on the switch because I've kind of been dying to play an otome game since it's been years that I've done so and it was on sale for about $8.

I had no idea what I was walking into.

The plot of the story revolves around a cursed island. The box text says that men cannot be born on the island, but in one of the routes that's proven untrue. What it really means in the story is that if a man is born on the island he will eventually be sent to a walled in city in the middle of the island called Yoshiwara. It's not just a city, it's the red light district, full of brothels housing men for hire (men who come from both the island and the mainland). The women on the island have to go there if they want to be with a man and if they want to have a baby. The women get "married" to the geisha of their choosing and they can only be with that man when they visit Yoshiwara unless they get a "divorce." It's a marriage that is only valid during the night. When the women return home they can do whatever they want, even find a husband on the mainland. They say it's rare for any of the women on the island to have a real husband and there are very few men on the island outside of Yoshiwara. The logic falls apart in a lot of places between the routes, but whatever, it's however they say it is in each route.
Bruh, it was so fucked up.

Like any red light district, any sex work, where the workers have debts they are being hounded for they are essentially slaves. It's not glossed over or presented as rosy in this game. It is not fun. I cried during almost every route. And I did not expect that. The premise was so damn absurd I was expecting a silly little game. And I've played games with even more fucked up story lines that could be upsetting, but this hit me so hard. I think it's because in those other games the bad things were just as absurd as their own plot, while this one's hardships are more rooted in reality.

The main character was a girl from a prominent family on the island who has to go to Yoshiwara because of her duty to produce an heir. She was better in some routes than others. In some she acted very silly, but in other she remained serious and smart. I liked her overall. I think she was strong and willing to work hard for herself and others and always full of compassion.

The love interests were all great too. In the prologue it seems like they are all a bunch of assholes, but once you get into their routes you see that they each have something interesting and are not rude at all like some characters in other otome games. They all work in the same brothel and are very supportive of each other even the ones that aren't sworn brothers are kind to each other. They have an interesting dynamic between each other even without the MC.
Almost every route was sad as fuck though. And I love angst, but man I had to set this game down quite a few times because I just couldn't take it. I felt so bad for all of them and even when I was playing a different route I was thinking of the other ones and sobbing for them.
There are no bad ends in this game. Only "Happy end" and "Super happy end" and thank goodness because otherwise I would have been destroyed.

I can say I liked the game and I finished all the routes with both ends (I still have the little extra side stories to do which I HOPE are lighthearted), but I don't know if I can recommend this game because I am still crying. You know how Aristotle was like "all stories should have catharsis" well, this game said "FUCK YOU. YOU WILL NOT BE CLEANSED OF EMOTION. YOU WILL NOT FORGET THIS TURMOIL." I'm glad for the guys in the Super Happy End and I'm thinking "thank god, she gets to marry them for real and have a happy life" BUT I'm still sad about everything else lmao.

Comments

[alaterdate]

It was a surprise for sure. I don't know if the current state of the world had made me oversensitive, but like I said almost every route had me crying. If you do check it out I'll say in advance that Utsusemi's route made me cry the most lol.

The other game in the series (Kikuya) appears to be more lighthearted/typical otome game from what I've seen in reviews. You don't have to play that one to understand Ohgiya, but there are a couple character cameos.