Illusion of Itehari is a brand new otome game project created by seasoned otome creators, and the first project from “LicoBiTs”, a joint venture by Broccoli and TIS Creation aimed at making games for the female audience.
In Itehari, the renowned and prosperous floating utopia, Hinagiku longs for the world beyond. One day, Hinagiku, having just turned 18 years old, encounters an amnesiac man. Their chance meeting drags her into a series of events involving the secrets and various truths hidden beneath the surface of Itehari… for this garden in the sky is a false utopia.
Game Details
- Fantasy | Steamunk | Romance
- Where to Play: Nintendo Switch
- Price: $49.99 (Standard Edition) | $59.99 (Limited Edition w/ Soundtrack)
- Gameplay: 80 Hours
- Similar Games: Steam Prison | Olympia Soiree
About Illusion of Itehari
The story takes place on a floating garden in the sky, the renowned and prosperous utopia, Itehari. Our protagonist is Hinagiku, a noble lady from a distinguished family who longs for the world beyond the flying town. One day, Hinagiku, having just turned 18, encounters an amnesiac man named Yashiro. Their fortuitous meeting becomes the catalyst that drags Hinagiku into a series of events involving the secrets and various truths hidden beneath the surface of Itehari…for this garden in the sky is a false utopia.
Characters of Illusion of Itehari
Illusion of Itehari has five romanceable characters and routes: Yashiro, Tobari, Awayuki, Yori, and Tsuyukusa. There are route restrictions in place, at the start of the game only Awayuki and Tobari‘s routes are playable. Completing Awayuki‘s route unlocks Yori‘s route and completing Tobari‘s route unlocks Tsuyukusa‘s route. After finishing the first 4 love interests, Yashiro’s route unlocks. Once you’ve completed the Best ends for all of the love interests the Truth route unlocks—this end serves as the finale to the game and wraps up most of the loose plot threads.
RECOMMENDED PLAY ORDER:
- For Story: Tobari > Awayuki > Tsuyukusa > Yori > Yashiro
- For Romance: Awayuki > Tobari > Yori > Tsuyukusa > Yashiro
- My Personal Play Order: Tobari > Awayuki > Yori > Tsuyukusa > Yashiro
Tobari (VA. Nobuhiko Okamoto)
Despite his young age, he is the current head of the entertainment district. While he may be unfriendly and takes an aggressive attitude towards others, he is quite the caretaker and is admired by the entertainment district residents. He is also the leader of the Shiranui, a rebel group.
- Romance: 💜💜💜🖤🖤 (3 out of 5)
- Spiciness: ❤️🖤🖤🖤🖤 (1 out of 5)
- Nonsense:💙💙🖤🖤🖤 (2 out of 5)
I want to start off by saying that I love characters like Tobari, aloof, kuudere types are among some of my favorite otome love interests. I love the satisfaction of watching the heroine wear down a prickly boy and make him fall head over heels in love with her! And I actually LOVE Tobari as a character! Man gives zero fucks about what anyone thinks about him and follows his own sense of justice (even to his own detriment).
I love Tobari, I just wish he had a better route to work with. They do something in his route that is super pointless, and it really takes you out of some of the “drama”.
He is so well written, just the right amount of subtle sweetness and awkward kindness to make my heart flutter, BUT, his route is really badly written. There is just entirely too much going on with the plot that Tobari kind of gets lost in the sauce… and it is such a shame, because I got to the end of his route feeling like I really didn’t get the chance to see him and Hinagiku really get to know each other. The route even throws in a whole star-crossed lovers romance that I’m usually into, but they spend so little time together that I really wasn’t invested in it…
Awayuki (VA. Soma Saito)
The heroine’s caretaker. He’s somewhat overbearing, but is a very capable attendant otherwise. However, he tends to express his love in ways that tend to be a little too intense, such as claiming that he is merely a piece of property that belongs to the heroine.
- Romance: 💜💜💜💜💜 (5 out of 5)
- Spiciness: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 (3 out of 5)
- Nonsense:💙💙💙💙🖤 (4 out of 5)
Awayuki is a huge SIMP, and that’s pretty much all you need to know about this man. He is down bad for Hinagiku to the point that he will do anything for his mistress. He can be super overbearing at times, a total helicopter mom, but all Hinagiku has to do is flutter her lashes and stare up at him with her big doe eyes and the man folds like a stack of cards. Easy peasy~
Awayuki’s route feels more like setup for Yori’s villain arc! So much time is spent on Yori being a straight up sociopath that poor Awayuki is fighting for his life for attention.
He is of course madly in love with her, but, because he’s her butler and *gasp* a commoner, he isn’t allowed to pursue her romantically (because Itehari is kinda classist). So, he spends the majority of the route pining in silence for Hinagiku, which forces her to take the initiative (which I love). Unfortunately, Awayuki has been suppressing his feelings for years, so he doesn’t fold easily. It’s a cute romance premise and this route is definitely more romantic that Tobari’s route. Also, once Awayuki gives into his feelings the man is horny af.
Yori (VA. Takuya Eguchi) 🔒
A steam soldier who maintains order in Itehari as part of the Kurozuru. At a glance, his good looks don’t quite match his job, and he has an awful personality in spite of them.
- Romance: 💜💜💜💜🖤 (4 out of 5)
- Spiciness: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 (4 out of 5)
- Nonsense:💙💙💙💙💙 (5 out of 5)
Yori is a Disney villain—the man is a red flag and he stays a red flag throughout the entire route… Hinagiku is just into that shit, and while I love that for her, I hate that for me. This route was not my favorite, I hate this man so much, which is crazy because I loved Yang in Piofiore and Tomomori in Birushana—but Yori, he can kick all the rocks. Man is a manipulative, sadistic, bastard and I will give him credit, he doesn’t pretend to be anything other than who he is, an asshole.
This man is villain, and not in a fun way. He is just an asshole…. and I hate that Yori and Hinagiku have the best romantic chemistry in the game. They definitely match each other’s freak.
This route had my blood pressure going through the roof with the stunts this man pulled. But, if I had to say anything nice about this route, I do like that Hinagiku has this man pegged from jump. She is under no delusions about Yori (mostly) and she does call him out on his BS constantly in this route… and he’s kinda into it.…freak… Yori is a noble from a high ranking family, so there aren’t a lot of people that truly challenge him (for fear of incurring his ire). But, Hinagiku is one of the few people that isn’t afraid to put him in his place and it genuinely shakes his resolve (which I love for him). Hinagiku is the highlight of this route, sis is in true form when she is clapping back at Yori’s BS! I’m gonna keep it 100 with y’all I spent this whole route wishing I could romance his much nicer, much more attractive older brother, Tsuwabuki!
Tsuyukusa (VA. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) 🔒
An arcanist and the heroine’s childhood friend. He runs Hangetsudo, a shop that does odd-jobs around Itehari. He doesn’t like going out aside from work errands, and will shut himself indoors when left alone.
- Romance: 💜💜💜💜💜 (5 out of 5)
- Spiciness: ❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤 (2 out of 5)
- Nonsense:💙🖤🖤🖤🖤 (1 out of 5)
I love Tsuyukusa, he is such a sweet, awkward bean and I want to give him all the hugs, baby boy is stressed in his route! The man just wants to be left alone to tinker with his machines in peace, but the plot just won’t let him! Like Awayuki, he is also madly in love with Hinagiku, man has been pining for her since they were kids. But, baby boy is on the insecure side, so he is content to stay comfortably in the friendzone… that is until she starts paying attention to Yashiro. Then he starts taking some initiative in their relationship.
I love Tsuyukusa (even though I can’t pronounce his name right). There were some interesting reveals in this route and I loved learning more about his backstory. Very sweet route childhood friend romance~
The romance in this route is really cute and soft, and because Hinagiku and Tsuyukusa are already friends, there is an ease to their interactions that is just so natural and wholesome. This is the best romance in the whole game!
Yashiro (VA. Chiaki Kobayashi) 🔒
A well-mannered man who’s slightly hard to read. He lost his memories, and was taken in by the heroine after he saves her from an unknown assailant.
- Romance: 💜💜💜🖤🖤 (3 out of 5)
- Spiciness: ❤️🖤🖤🖤🖤 (1 out of 5)
- Nonsense:💙💙💙🖤🖤 (3 out of 5)
Yashiro’s route is almost a waste of time, because by the time you get to his route, all the other routes have revealed everything you need to know about him. Any mystique surrounding him as a character is rendered moot as we already know his “big secret”. The way I was pissed when Awayuki’s route just explained everything about this man like it was nothing, oh my god, why would you do that?! He’s a locked route, part of the fun is not knowing anything about them until you play their route!
This route was a waste of time. What is the point of a locked route if you’re just gonna tell me everything in the other routes?! Without the mystery, Yashiro is pretty much meh.
It also doesn’t help that his route was boring AF, because it’s just a rehashing of all the other major plot points from the other routes! There was maybe one “big reveal” in this route, but even that was underwhelming. The romance was rushed and I was not feeling the love between Hinagiku and Yashiro, the man was a little too subtle with his affections that I almost missed that he was falling in love.
Hinagiku (Heroine)
Hinagiku is the head of the Eastern Fifth noble house. She took over after the deaths of her parents years prior. Unlike most nobles who are content to stay among their own, Hinagiku regularly interacts with commoners and listens to their needs and wants. She is friendly and always upbeat, and unlike others in Itehari is interested in life outside of Itehari.
Hinagiku is an idealist, despite being a noble she is courteous to everyone regardless of their status. She goes out of her way to chat with the commoners under her family’s care and does everything in her power to make life better for everyone in Itehari. She prefers to walk the streets of Itehari on her own and take in the sights and sounds of the community, much to the frustration of her attendant Awayuki. She is a bit on the naive side, but she is very intelligent and is able to handle most problems she encounters.
Illusion of Itehari Review
This Story is Doing Entirely Too Much
Illusion of Itehari is a visually stunning and ambitious story crafted by a team that was finally allowed the freedom to tell the types of stories they have always wanted to tell. LicoBiTs/TIS Creation is an otome team made up of former Otomate employees who chose to sever ties with the company to make their own games, free from the restrictive creative culture of the otome juggernaut. And I love that for them, but, I kind of feel like the creative team had a bit too much freedom when developing Illusion of Itehari. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an interesting otome, that borrows the steampunk aesthetic from Steam Prison and Code Realize with the immersive world building (and fantasy bigotry) of Olympia Soiree. But, the story is messy and at times feels bloated with tropes and plot points that serve no other purpose than increasing the runtime—which given how long otome games normally are, can lead to a bit of gamer fatigue after a few routes.
Especially with the common route! Illusion of Itehari utilizes an evolving common route where each subsequent playthrough adds new content, so you’re encouraged to re-read it for every single playthrough. Are the additional scenes worth it? About 50/50 are, so it’s worth doing it for the “plot”.
This is an otome that could have done with a bit of streamlining. Like, one route literally had a character with a “terminal illness”, forbidden romance between classes, terrorism, political corruption, class based discrimination, a kidnapping that lasted all of five minutes, a fugitive arc, a “huge” betrayal, and arguably huge character revelations that I would have expected to see much later in the game just plopped in my lap with no real setup. It was honestly kind of hilarious how often big character revelations for locked LIs were dropped in the early routes… like damn, leave some secrets for the finale.
The Romance is Hit or Miss
Romance is the main draw of an otome game, but the romance in Illusion of Itehari is just kind of okay. I honestly was not really invested in any of the romances in this game. No doki dokis. No giggling and kicking my feet. Nothing. Which is largely due to the fact that there is entirely too much going on in these routes. There just isn’t enough time to really flesh out the romance in each route, so most of the romantic moments feel rushed or out of place in the larger narrative.
Now, that’s not to say that there isn’t romance in the game. Much as I loathe Yori as a character, he and Hinagiku actually spent a lot of quality time together and while their romance is more of the toxic sexually charged variety, there was a clear progression with their romance. Tsuyukusa’s route had a nice sweet childhood friend romance thing going on, but more times than not the plot kind of got in the way. So I never really felt like I got to sit and enjoy the romantic moments. Even Awayuki’s route, where the forbidden love premise practically writes itself, the writers turn the melodrama up to infinity, which made it a pain to get through, to the point that I was exhausted by the end of the route. The romance just wasn’t doing it for me…
Though, I will say that some of the side stories get a little steamy, the one that lives rent free in my head is Awayuki’s because we get a really delicious CG. But, Yuri is a lil freak, so he definitely delivers on the smut too.
The World Building in Illusion of Itehari is Amazing!
I know I’ve been a bit lukewarm on Illusion of Itehari, but one thing this game has going for it is the worldbuilding! This game has such an immersive world and it is clear that the writers put a lot of thought into how this world works—from the politics, to the culture, to the social interactions. But, it also didn’t escape me that there were more than a few similarities to other otome games. The whole premise of a young noblewoman living in a steam powered utopia where the wealthy live up above and the “criminals” live in the Depths, sorry, the Abyss reminds me a lot of Steam Prison. While the strict hierarchical social structure and the lore surrounding The Great Taiju puts me in the mind of the creationist mythology of Olympia Soiree.
Illusion of Itehari is a Gorgeous Game
I loved RiRi’s art in the Piofiore series and they are in full form here in Illusion of Itehari! I love the character designs, pairing the tailored steampunk aesthetic with the vibrant patterns and colors traditional Japanese clothing is absolutely stunning! Like whoever decided to take the game in this direction gets all the praise from me, because it’s beautiful! Even the more subdued steam soldier uniforms have small flourishes and accents that elevate the looks and make them pop. Peak character design!
I also loved the addition of the live2D animation, it really helps bring the characters to life (but is murder for screenshot taking lol).
As if that wasn’t enough, the CGs in Illusions of Itehari are beautifully rendered! There wasn’t a single dud in the bunch, even the ones that were just close ups of the LIs were so pretty. Of course there were a few steamy ones that are a feast for the eyes. The UI is in line with the steampunk aesthetic, featuring cogs and clockwork motifs alongside sleek clean designs. Also, I need these developers to stop making so many hot side characters I can’t date… seriously, dangling Tsuwabuki in front of me in Yori’s route is criminal…
Is Illusion of Itehari Worth Playing?
Okay, given all the hype surrounding LicoBiTs/TIS Creation and RiRi’s art, I had high expectations for Illusion of Itehari, but it didn’t live up to my expectations.
Illusion of Itehari is a gorgeous game and the premise is quite ambitious, however there are quite a few things that hold this game back from being truly great. The worldbuilding and premise are so interesting, but there is entirely too much going on in each route that some of the finer details get lost in the bigger picture of the team’s “vision”. Also the writer’s tendency to spoil their own story is absolutely maddening… NOTHING IS A SECRET, they just tell us everything about everyone! Where is the mystery? Suspense?
Illusion of Itehari is an otome that could have done with a bit of streamlining to really hone in on a few key elements and really flesh out these characters and their motivations. As it is, this is a pretty, but ultimately pretty middle of the road otome game.
Thank you to Aksys Games for providing a copy of Illusion of Itehari for this review.
LOVING the nonsense meter 😭 very helpful for gauging my expectations lmao. Can’t wait to dive into this one!!
The Nonsense meter was absolutely necessary for this game lol
Some of these routes were pushing my suspension of disbelief 👀
tyvm for your review! I really appreciate the honesty in pointing out the games flaws. I already pre-ordered it so I’m hoping the romance still scratches that otome itch for me 🙂
It definitely has some interesting ideas and I like (most) of the characters, but it just needed a little fine tuning and it would have been perfect.
But, I do hope that you have fun with the game when you get it! There are definitely some cute romantic moments that’ll scratch that itch!
Omgggg these new meters are EVERYTHING!! I love them so much, I hope they stay forever lolol
So glad y’all are liking that! The nonsense meter was 100% necessary lol
Also you inspired the spiciness one when you asked me about whether the game was spicy during stream!! 💜
I’ve heard the lack of romance and the jumbled plot and all in this game, but I did not expect it to be like this. I’ve been wondering for a long time now whether I should buy this game or not, but maybe I’ll refrain myself from buying for a while until I read more reviews.
You hate Yori and yet you said that if we like Yang we’d like him kinda contradictory there. lol
Just how bad Yori is? As a Yang and Tomomori fan, I really need to know what makes Yori so different from them.
And just to make sure I’m not misunderstanding, what does the Nonsense meter means here?
So, to fully explain why I don’t like Yori I would have to go into spoilers, which I won’t do here. But, it largely boils down to Yori being a petty b*tch. Yang does things because he can, but there is also a clear reason for the things he does. Tomomori has a clear agenda for why he does things, he just chooses the absolute worst ways to go about obtaining his goals. But Yori… he’s just petty.
I also mention in his character section that I fully acknowledge that it’s kinda contradictory that I hate Yori, but liked Yang and Tomomori. But, I’m entitled to my opinion.
I compare Yori to Yang, because he is the best comparison to the vibe the writers were going for with Yori.
Also the nonsense meter is just how ridiculous the plot was… purely subjective.
Okay, I’ve heard more about Yori from other players that I know who also provides translation from BLog interview about the characters, and now I can understand why you hate him. Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to like him either. And now I don’t think it’s contradictory that you like Yang and Tomomori but hate Yori, because Yori is not even close to a comparable level of Yang and Tomomori.
So glad for this review!! I’m still quite new to otome games, so I did want to ask about the recommended play order. What makes one of the recommended play orders “for romance” and the other “for story”? How does it differ from your personal play order?
So, the dev team actually created their own recommendations for playing the game (story & romance). If you want to immerse yourself in the romance over the more intense plot elements that path eases you into the heavier topics.
If you want a more story heavy experience that explores more of the world building and lore that play order is better.
My personal play order is purely vibes based. I went with the characters that appealed to me most independent of plot or romance. Lol
Hope that helps & welcome to otome!! 💜
Hello ! Thanks for your review. Can i ask you if the level of spiciness is on the same level as Piofore and Olympia soirée ? ♡
Hey there!! The spiciness is not on the level of Olympia Soiree or Piofiore… it’s pretty minimal. BUT Yori’s route is the spiciest and I would compare him to Gil from Piofiore, but with the personality of Yang. Hope that helps.
Thanks ! That helps a lot 😺 What are you planning to play next if you already know ?
Right now I’m playing the BL Lucky Dog 1, but I do have some otome in my backlog that I need to play… just waiting to see which game speaks to me the most lol
One thing that I really noticed about this game…is how the design treated the heroine. She’s gorgeous but not a single person, not even the commoners(except for her friend) noted her beauty. The game heavenly focused on how attractive the men were, but she was essentially chopped liver. Personally for me, this created an atmosphere that men are the object of affection but not also women. Sure, she was a “capable” woman, but at the end of the day that didn’t add up to much. A classist culture like this would not leave a marriagable noblewoman alone- not when she had status and her own territory that men could easily take from her. But of course she’s never been proposed to, and any attention she does get, the game is adamant in making sure that it’s not bc she’s wanted as a woman…yet this is an otome…right.
I got the feeling that this is another media that draws a girl absolutely beautiful, but in the plot, she’s “ugly” or rather “not bad.” Cuz players could immerse themselves.
This behavior was driven further in Awayuki’s CGs, as in all but a few, her face was hidden.
It’s weird. Do players want to romance characters but not be romancable themselves as the heroine? Do they not want chemistry? As soon as chemistry was happening, the game drops it like a hot potato(notably in Yori’s route).
Even her clothes were a haphazard design to wash her out…
Aha. Sorry. Those are my thoughts.
I really wanted to like this game…