My Next Life As A Villainess All Roads Lead to Doom – Pirates of the Disturbance – or Hamefura Pirates (because that name is a mouthful) has finally made its way to the West! Based on the popular light novel, manga, and anime series, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! – Pirates of the Disturbance – has been hotly anticipated by the fandom! This otome adaptation features an original storyline and gives us two new romanceable characters: hot engineer, Rozy Lind and sexy pirate captain, Silva!
But, coming on the heels of Virche Evermore and Hana Awase New Moon, some otome gamers may be wondering, “Is My Next Life as a Villainess worth getting on release?” Well, thanks to the awesome folks at Idea Factory International, I was able to check out the game early and I have some thoughts!
About My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom Pirates of the Disturbance
Catarina Claes is a young woman born into a family of nobility who has a memory of her past life as a high school student. She was reincarnated as a Villainess in an otome game called Fortune Lover. Exile or death were all that awaited her in this new world. However, she managed to evade these ends, and somehow made it through the year to spring break.
As fate would have it, both Catarina and her adopted brother, Keith, were to board a state-of-the-art luxury liner called the Vinculum on its maiden voyage during their time away from the Academy. Once aboard the ship, she realized her friends were also in attendance on what was meant to be a luxurious journey at sea.
The tides changed quickly when they were attacked by pirates who took over the Vinculum and held all of its passengers hostage.
This turn of events all seemed familiar to Catarina, and she begins to recall this was the storyline to a Fortune Lover fanbook.
Could this mean she’s living in a resurrection of a canned doom ending?! Will Catarina and her friends be able to return to Sorcier safely?The curtain rises for a new twist in this doom-flag-evading romantic comedy!
Characters of My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom Pirates of the Disturbance
Sail the Seas in this original pirate adventure
With the threat of Doom Flags far behind them, Catarina and her friends take to the high seas for a relaxing spring break on the luxury liner, the Vinculum. But, their peaceful days are cut short when, the ship is attacked by a band of pirates, led by the infamous Demon of the Fog, Silva. Now Catarina will have outsmart the pirates to protect her friends and dodge brand new Doom Flags lest she end up swimming with the fishes… literally.
Pirates of the Disturbance features a wholly original story crafted specifically for the otome adaptation. In universe, the events of the game are based on a fandisc of the in game otome, Fortune Lover, and follows a previously scrapped pirate themed doom ending.
There are lots of new twists and turns in this new storyline that build on the world and characters from the novels and anime. BUT, if you’ve never experienced this series before there are plenty of flashbacks and callbacks to the original series to help establish a lot of the existing relationships and plot beats. There are also two original characters to fall in love with, so there is something for existing fans and newbies to enjoy in this game!
Pirates of the Disturbance is a Laugh Out Loud Good Time
After the angst fest that is Virche Evermore I was desperate for something cute and fluffy to cleanse my soul with and My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom Pirates of the Disturbance came in clutch! This game is 100% a rom-com, that does not take itself too seriously. Hamefura Pirates is all about having a good time, even when the story takes a “serious” turn, Catarina or her friends come in with some much needed levity.
Even the bad ends are played for laughs—in my favorite Doom End, Catarina spends weeks stuffing her face with cake and gets too big to escape when the Vinculum sinks…
Pirates of the Disturbance even includes the Catarina strategy meetings, and believe me when I say Maya Uchida acts her ass off with the voices for the different Catarina personas!
The romance is more on the cute fluffy side, so if you have been craving some sugary sweetness, this is the game for you! While, the game can be a bit heavy with the slapstick at times, but with all the angsty, drama heavy otome games out there, it’s nice to have something silly to play!
Catarina actually ends up with someone at the end!
The gimmick of the series main series is that Catarina is way too preoccupied with dodging doom flags to even consider romance, so she never quite ends up with anyone. In a hilarious twist, she spends most of her time trying (and failing) to setup her friend, and heroine of Fortune Lover, Maria with one of the eligible bachelors. Of course all of her meddling backfires and they all fall in love with her, landing them all on the Friendship ending by the end of the anime and manga.
But, in Pirates of the Disturbance you can actually have Catarina end up with one of the OG four love interests or the two new editions. So if you’ve been wanting to see her actually romance someone properly, this otome game will be satisfying (#TeamKeith).
New love interests, Silva and Rozy fit right in with the original cast
The cast of My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom is pretty solid, and adding new love interests to the mix can be pretty hit or miss. But, both Rozy and Silva fit seamlessly into the existing dynamics and in some cases steal the show! Don’t get me wrong I love the OG characters, but the new boys are so much fun!
Rozy is a sweet engineer who gives off big bro vibes. He always seems to be around when Catarina (and her stomach) needs him. He befriends Catarina after he gives her some homemade gummy candies.
While Pirate captain, Silva has that whole mysterious, forbidden, dangerous energy to him—this is a MAN among boys! He’s the leader of the Weiss pirates a rogue band of raiders who have attacked a number of Quid vessels over the years. While he can come off a bit crass, Silva has a surprisingly sweet and caring side.
Their routes don’t feel tacked on or lazy in the slightest and actually expand on the story in ways that the other routes kind of fall short on. Honestly, Rozy and Silva’s routes had some of the strongest writing in the whole game.
While you can’t technically romance the ladies, they do have their own ends (kinda)
One of the biggest complaints about My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom Pirates of the Disturbance is the omission of romance routes for Catarina’s friends, Maria, Mary, and Sophia. If you’ve seen the anime or read the novels/manga you know that everyone is thirsty for Catarina, and I mean everyone. Mary especially, is cutthroat when it comes to making her affections for Catarina known (sis has a whole escape plan ready). So, folks were expecting to see some payoff with the WLW relationships in Hamefura Pirates, sadly, it is not to be.
While the game does acknowledge that the girls are all in love with Catarina, there isn’t really a “they run off into the sunset” romantic ending for those relationships. But, the game does offer some pseudo-romantic endings for Catarina and her girls…kind of. They aren’t “romantic” in the traditional sense but they do at least acknowledge that the girls’ feelings and give a vague “they live happily ever after” vibe to the relationships.
Bakarina is a STAR among otome heroines!
At it’s core, what makes the Villainess series so iconic is Catarina. Affectionately known in the fandom as Bakarina, sis is endearingly oblivious. This girl is a riot! Catarina is down to have fun with her friends and eat delicious food—which sounds like a pretty good time to me.
She can be frustratingly dense when it comes to just about everything, including the affections of her unfortunate suitors. But, what she lacks in self-awareness, she more than makes up for in heart. Catarina is such a genuine and sweet person who goes hard for her friends and always sees the best in others. You just can’t help but root for her!
Dodge those Doom Flags and Play My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom Pirates of the Disturbance!
So, is My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom Pirates of the Disturbance! worth playing? HELL YES! This game is such a good time and you’d be wild to skip out on Pirates of the Disturbance! Fans of the original series will find a lot of new things to love in this otome adaptation, while newbies to the Villainess series will fall in love with Catarina and her hapless suitors.
As someone who has seen the anime and read a bit of the manga, My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom Pirates of the Disturbance! is a fun addition to the franchise that made me want to go back and revisit the whole series from the beginning! But, whether this is your first time diving into the Villainess series, this is definitely a fun way to experience all this hilarious and heartwarming series has to offer!
Thanks to IFI for providing a copy of the game for this review!
I’m curious about this series honestly but with the anime backlog I have, I only watched 3 episodes. I’m not that interested in the pirate theme though; is there enough fun with the characters to warrant picking up this game some day? Or will there ever be another entry of this game localized (I’m not sure how many were made since I’m new to the series)? Thanks for the review!
It’s so good! I HIGHLY recommend giving it a try,, the 1st season is a quick watch.
I wasn’t sold on the premise for the game at first, but the characters make the experience. It’s definitely worth playing, especially as a palette cleanser for some of the darker otome games we’ve gotten recently.
It’s just this game I think, but I’d love to see another one day too.
Thank you so much for reading and for the nice comment!
Awesome! So this is basically the start of the game spinoffs of the series then. I do like the seiyuu, which is why I started watching, but got very sidetracked haha. And sounds like this is fun fluff like Radiant Tale then, nice!
I thought you’re going with the usual review using your emoticons about each route and all, so was a bit surprised you didn’t for this. But nevertheless, I’ve been waiting for this. You got it right that Catarina can be frustrating with how dense and thick-headed she is about the others’ romantic feelings for her, so seeing her to FINALLY end up with someone is truly one of the best gifts for Hamefura fans! XD
And the new LIs also looks promising. I’m particularly being charmed by the pirate captain at first sight. (^///^)
Wanted to try something different for this one, but I might do a full review like usual at another time. Thanks for still checking out this type of review too! 😀
I had a lot of fun playing this one, especially since I’ve watched the anime and read a bit of the manga. FINALLY getting a satisfying romance for Catarina was SOOOOO nice!
The new LIs are both great, but Silva definitely VERY easy on the eyes!