Released at the end of last week, Collar x Malice continues Aksys’ spectacular line up of otome games and as one of the few publishers willing to localize these titles they deserve a resounding “thank you” from the otome community. That being said, Collar x Malice provided a unique story-heavy experience that accomplished a lot of great things, but not without the usual tropes the genre tends to heavily fall back on.
Plot or Plot
While many otome games and even shoujo manga seem to wipe their protagonists clean of all emotion or memories to create a blank slate, it was quite refreshing to find a game where the MC actually has a personality and a strong sense of who she is. Players are dropped into the life of a young police woman named Ichika Hoshino or whatever the player decides to name her, who becomes caught up in the X-Day mystery currently happening in Shinjuku.
Currently, Shinjuku has been quarantined from the rest of Tokyo in an effort to contain a series of murders by a terrorist group called Adonis. The government has also lifted the country’s weapons ban and has issued a gun to every citizen above the age of 18 in an effort to arm the innocent citizens against this organization. With the untrained public now with firearms, Shinjuku becomes a bit like the wild west in nature and it is Ichika’s job at the police station to calm the fears of citizens and keep the peace.
While walking home one night, Ichika receives a call about a nearby park from her superior. She decides to head over and wait for her boss to arrive at the entrance and after waiting for quite some time, Ichika becomes worried. It is then that she is knocked unconscious from behind.
Once awake, Ichika finds herself in a chapel with an unfamiliar collar around her neck. She is groggy and can not move when a voice begins to emit from the device around her neck explaining that she is part of an experiment by the organization Adonis. She will be monitored and judged on X Day, January 1st. If she is innocent, the collar will be released, if not, a deadly poison will be injected into her body. This is the same poison that is currently in her blood stream in a low dosage, which is why she is unable to move. Any attempt to remove the collar will result in immediate death.
Just as she becomes aware that she may not manage this low dosage, a group of young men break into the church, explaining that they had received prior notice of what was going on as well as a code to input into her collar that would give her the antidote. The men work quickly and Ichika becomes temporarily saved, but there is no time to celebrate. The voice permeates the air again and explains that the key to unlocking the collar lies in the X Day murders. The team must further investigate and find the reasoning behind the mystery of what is happening in Shinjuku.
Dateables
Aiji Yanagi
Yanagi is the cool-headed one of the bunch and the first one to find Ichika in the chapel. He is the natural leader of the band of ex cops determined to solve the X Day murders and also the one that players will most want to date. Unfortunately, his route is locked until all other good endings have been played. I suppose Idea Factory saved the best for last.
Kei Okazaki
This guy right here is a bit of a creeper. He comes through the window of the group’s fourth floor hideout constantly and seems to appear out of thin air at times. He is constantly intrigued by Ichika’s reactions and plays along with her when she attempts to lie.
Mineo Enomoto
He is a sweet cinnamon bun. This is the guy that I chose for my review playthrough and he was nothing but a gentleman. While Enomoto does have some more traditional views, he is also super supportive of Ichika and constantly praises her grit and capability in the field.
Takeru Sasazuka
This guy is basically a tsundere. Since I didn’t play his route, he was consistently mean-spirited to Ichika and Enomoto. I imagine that his actual route would be quite different, but based on first impressions, I wanted nothing to do with him considering the only interactions the player has with him are insults.
Kageyuki Shiraishi
If Okazaki is a creeper, this guy is a whole new classification. He loves observing the world around him and the reactions of others, but this makes him come off cold and uncaring. Shiraishi is currently employed within the police department and frequently comes into contact with Ichika.
Is this Problematic?
For an otome game I was actually quite impressed with Collar x Malice. The game was actually heavily story based which made the romance take a bit of a back seat, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just don’t dive into this game thinking it will be similar to many of the app games flooding the market. There are some very real and tender moments sprinkled throughout the narrative that give the characters real depth.
Ichika is strong and has a real sense of justice and there are a few scenes where players actually get to SHOOT. How awesome is that? And something that is also amazing for this series are that people actually acknowledge her efforts in the shooting range as well as her hard work and tenacity. She has really grown since she joined the force and it shows in the way that she handles herself in times of crisis.
BUT…
The positives don’t negate the negatives. Ichika’s police uniform is NOT practical. While I understand there is a certain sense of aesthetic that is usually maintained within these games, it’s hard to say that Ichika can fully function as an officer of the law in a short skirt and collared shirt. Her uniform actually looks similar to a sailor fuku and other women officers are not subjected to the same outfit. I suppose the creators wanted to make her appear cute, but considering that she isn’t in uniform for half the game anyway, there were plenty of other opportunities to do so.
ALSO
While the idea of a collar has been used many times before in horror and suspense stories, the idea that Ichika’s was made cute with a cat charm kind of relegated her to some sort of creature inferior to the guys around her and they actually start out treating her as such. Sasazuka even goes so far as calling her “stupid cat” instead of by her real name and CONTINUES to insult her as such whenever she fails to meet his expectations. She even begins to believe all of this nonsense until she realizes that she has a different skill set and then puts herself into action. This gas lighting is something many women are familiar with and not really needed within this game.
ALSO ALSO
While I didn’t play Sasazuka’s route, it can be assumed that Ichika’s role is to change his hard heart into something more malleable, which is kind of messed up. NEVER go into a relationship thinking that a partner’s bad attitude and actions can be changed. There are many abusive relationships that begin this way and end up in heartbreak or something far worse.
Extras
Collar x Malice has many of the standard features of otome games including multiple endings for each character’s route. After a route has been completed, many of the cut scenes can be found in the sub menu Event under Album in the main menu. In fact, players can access additional short stories, voice recordings, and “situations” once a character’s route has been completed. Chapters can be reviewed under the Chapters menu so that players may be able to catch up with the story during long absences between game plays.
The Dictionary menu explains key words that players may be unfamiliar with due to cultural differences and the options menu allows players to customize their sound and text settings of the game.
Overall
I touched briefly on the basic story as well as some of the more problematic parts of the game, I was intrigued by a lot of what was going on with the story. One of the first things that stood out in the story was the arming of the citizens to protect themselves from the bad guys. While the story was clearly written in Japan, the relevancy to America was not lost on me. The NRA has constantly spouted that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun” and the story played out such a scenario by arming those within Shinjuku to defend themselves from terrorists, but not providing the relative training needed to handle such a powerful tool. While I don’t want to give too much away in the story, I can say that early on in the story it is made very clear that people are quite trigger happy in this new society where anyone can judge.
One of the other main plot points revolves around the public’s every growing distrust of the police, something that has been happening in America for quite some time and not without real cause to do so. As a police officer in game, of course Ichika sympathizes with the police and aims to prove to the public that the police are a force for good. Ichika’s efforts are noble, but she doesn’t realize that she is only one person and she can not control the actions of others within the force. While I still enjoyed most of the story, this part of the game really made me feel uncomfortable. Perhaps in the context of Japan, I would not feel that way, but in America it really makes me kind of queasy.
And last, but not least, there is one glaring hole in the narrative of this game. I admit that I had a lot of fun playing Collar x Malice and for those who love series such as Psycho Pass, this game will scratch that true crime and suspense itch you have been craving. But, when an evil terrorist organization places a collar around your neck that has a listening bug in it, WHY does everyone CONTINUE to speak out loud all their plans to me? Why did no one think to communicate via pen and paper? This giant plot hole was the only reason I had a hard time immersing myself within the story because it seemed like common sense. But, I digress.
Collar x Malice is out now for the Playstation Vita and was developed by Idea Factory and published by Aksys Games. Feel free to visit their official site here and if you’re interested in other otome games, check out our Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator review.
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