Route Review for Sakuya Nijo
***VERY HEAVY SPOILERS***
Sakuya's route was the first route I played and in all honesty, I didn't enjoy it that much. I liked Sakuya (despite the fact that he's voiced by a woman, but that's neither here nor there), perhaps more than Mikoto ever did. I feel like Mikoto was way too cold to him throughout the entire route, even if she did have her reasons. Aside from that, I didn't really care for Mikoto too much. She was fine in her appearances while I was playing as the other two protagonists, but her thought process and need to take responsibility for everyone's welfare at all times bordered on ridiculous, and something I just couldn't relate to (I couldn't be bothered to do all of that).
Anyways. Like in every route, there is a traitor on board and they have to find out who it is. Mikoto is probably the one who takes this the most seriously out of everyone on the ship, constantly looking for clues day after day. (Honestly, if you're trying to find a traitor, you may want to look more at the actions of the people on board, not the actual ship itself but whatever).
Sakuya and Mikoto are childhood friends who both come from wealthy/noble families. Their circumstance is a bit different from everyone else's since they are really the only two people who knew each other and were close before boarding the ship. Mikoto has the power of barriers, which she consistently uses the protect the ship. Sakuya on the the other hand, has the power to see parts of the future. He can't usually see an entire vision, rather it's more of just tiny fragments with little to no detail of why things are happening. Since Mikoto acquired her powers early on, earlier than Sakuya, she was referred to as a goddess by her family and others and was often made to use her powers to protect her people. Because of this, she is always worried and does her best to protect everyone on the ship, but especially Sakuya. Sakuya was a sickly child and when he got his power, he was excited because now he would finally be able to help Mikoto.
Shortly after receiving his power, Sakuya had a vision where he dies protecting the one he loves. He tells Mikoto about it, and she is freaks out. When she asks who this person is, he tells her doesn't know yet, but if he has to die, this is the best way he could imagine. Still freaked out, Mikoto makes him promise that he won't fall in love with anyone, ever. Sakuya doesn't think it's a big deal (perhaps because he's been so sickly throughout his childhood), but Mikoto insists that he make that promise since it's the only way she can think of to protect him at the moment. It's this promise that becomes the center of the story.
Of course, Sakuya falls in love with Mikoto. His future still looks the same and since Mikoto also has feelings for Sakuya, the promise she made Sakuya make also becomes her responsibility to help him keep as well. Sakuya couldn't care less about the promise and still doesn't mind dying in that fashion, but Mikoto will not have it, often denying her feelings toward him and trying to maintain a distance so that Sakyua doesn't fall for her either (too late).
Konpeito (Candy) Ending...
This was so weird and to be honest, had I have gotten this ending through actually thinking that I wanted to press the issue with the candy, I would've been so pissed lol. Mikoto receives some candy from Koharu, but Sakuya won't let her have them. I would think, especially with how the options were worded, I would've just let him take them, but to get this ending, you need to press the issue. Sakuya tells you he had a vision and though he can't exactly say how these candies end up affecting the future, they will. He says even something that seems insignificant can ending up playing a large role in the grand scheme of things. Freaked out by hearing him say this, Mikoto insists she take the candies so that no one can be harmed by them or whatever they may cause. She snatches them from him and then proceeds to go up to the roof.
Still panicked by whatever these candies may do, she decides to put up more barriers to better protect everyone. It was actually kind of funny, she put a barrier around herself, one around Sakuya, and a second on around the entire ship. This is obviously too much, especially since the one constant barrier around the ship was already wearing her out. Feeling so tired from all the barriers, she suddenly gets a strong craving for sugar so she eats the candy. Immediately, she starts to feel bad, similar to the feeling she had when she ate the peach pie she had before with Nanami and Koharu. At first she thought it was food poisoning, but since no one else got sick, Sakuya proposed that maybe due to the strain the barriers put on her body, she's become more susceptible to things that never bothered her previously. She begins to feel faint and then a gunshot rings out... Game over.
Good Ending...
As in most routes, you guys all arrive at the island where The World is located. Aion gives her whole spiel about why they're all here and about The Reset. We also run into the guy Mikoto saw raid the ship back at the beginning (Natsuhiko). Sakuya provides moral support and they defeat Natsuhiko by Mikoto placing a barrier inside of Natsuhiko and expanding in from within him (ugh). Ron is revealed to be the traitor (shocking), but nothing really happens beyond that. Long story short (because there really isn't much), Sakuya doesn't die and the two of them are able to live happily together.
The ending was cute, but probably one of the worst as far as story/information goes. This is definitely not the route I would recommend doing first since literally nothing is explained and all that seemingly important stuff from earlier chapters is either never mentioned or quickly resolved in a single sentence.
Bad Ending...
I thought this was a bit better than the good ending. Still suffered from the same issues as the first as far as story/information goes, but in this ending, Sakuya does die protecting her. You get to see some of Sakuya's flashbacks of his past with Mikoto and how he began to fall for her when they were kids, which was touching. I guess it was sad since, especially since I went back and picked the "wrong" answers, they didn't really have any chemistry, and if you thought Mikoto was distant throughout the good ending path, it's even worse in this ending. So much so that the love almost seems one-sided. Sakuya died happy though, knowing that he was able to protect Mikoto this one time.
Overall feelings were mostly bad. I did like Sakuya as a character, but his route was the worst of what I've played so far (all except Natsuhiko at this point). I think the plot suffers the most in this route and hardly anything gets resolved, even in the good ending. I would suggest playing this route as one the last, simply because it'll make a little more (just a little) more sense that way. Then again, with how certain characters are portrayed (especially Natsuhiko), it may just end up confusing you more... I also had a problem with Sakuya's voice actor being a woman. No hate, just in an otome game, I don't think the guys should be voiced by a woman. I felt something was off about the voice when I first heard it. I didn't automatically think it was a woman, but the voice was lacking the soothing bass timbre typical of the voices of the adult male variation of the human species ;) She did a really good job, better than I could've done lol. Especially during the rare instances where Sakuya yelled, she managed to still sound like a guy. It'd be interesting to hear what her voice sounds like normally since apparently these male roles aren't rare for her.
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