Title: Reine des Fleurs
Kanji: レンドフルール
English Title: Queen of Flowers
Developer: Otomate
Publisher: Idea Factory
Platform: PSVita
Rating: Cero-C
Artist: Usuba Kagerou (Wand of Fortune, Will o’Wisp, Variable Barricade)
Composer: Love Solfege (with Marie as the soloist for Madoromi no Tsubomi, and Ayano Eiri for the ED theme and insert song)
Click here for the official site.
- ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥
In the past, there was a goddess whom extended a helping hand to a world that was about to perish. That goddess, along with the four knights who served her, healed the ruined land using “Grace”, a power that rejuvenates worn down life forces, and saved the world.
Ever since then, because the goddess’ consciousness went into a slumber, she was to be succeeded by someone who will become a representation of her divine spirit, known as a “Reine”, and four human knights that were chosen by the world. As the world continued to enjoy the goddess’ favour, it continued to develop and advance.
However, at a certain point, even after coming into the world for generations, a Reine was not born. As a result, the supplies of Grace stagnated, and the world was once again threatened to be consumed by darkness.
But finally, the Reine of the next era, “Violette” was born. Adhering to the customs, she selected four men to become the queen’s knights. However, the hearts of those men rejected to bond with the Reine, due to the Reine’s long absence.
In order to supply the world with Grace, the co-operation of the knights is essential. To obtain the trust and loyalty of the knights, Violette begins to take action…
(Source: VNDB)
- ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥
First of all, Happy New Year, everyone! It’s been a while! This is my first otome game review of the year, and boy. I’m glad I finally managed to finish this game. I didn’t finish it when I first went through it because I didn’t have the time but I was already halfway through the game. It’s been 2 years! I know this game is really notorious for its bad endings. And that’s how I discovered this game, to be honest. XD
A game where the central theme is flowers, and hey, even some of the names are flowers.
There are a few terminologies that gets repeated at every single moment of the game.
Grace is the magic liquid that gives life to Solvieux’s countries. I guess it’s a pun to the meaning of the word itself. The Reine (Queen) is the only one who can hold Grace and transfer it to different countries. Kamon is the flower symbol of each country, which is also held by the knights and the Chou. The Chou are the guardians of the knights (even the Reine has her own Chou, though).
Then there are the four countries + one living in the sky.
Parterdeame, the sky kingdom where the Hanabito live. Hanabito are flower people, and they do not require basic human needs such as sleep and food. This country is the origin of Grace, and it resides in the Tree of Life, that pink cherry blossom tree you often see in the game.
Pivoine, a place where there’s always winter and cold weather, even with sun on it.
Campanule, a place where it has so many resources such as food and agriculture.
Crysantheme, a country full of only men and is very militaristic. The men here are very hardworking and they struggle to survive each day.
Last is Villet, a place filled with many flowers, fauna and water banks.
And each country has a representative that becomes the Reine’s knights once her coronation is done! Well, for the most part that is their role, but there is something more sinister to it. Because they accepted their knight roles, they are also subject to Grace transfer effects. Which means, if the Grace of their country gets taken away, they get excruciating pain. Yeah, their soul is connected to the country – the moment they officially became knights, they left their physical bodies behind AND represent their country as a flower.
The game also features a minigame called Ravir (seriously, this game provides a lot of French). When there’s an important decision/event/choice to make, the game immediately initiates a Ravir between Violette and the person she is conversing with. (Funnily enough, Ravir means “ravish/enchant/delight” in French, I GUESS THIS IS WHY ONE OF THE BAD ENDS IS LIKE THAT. WW)
Spoilers ahead as I will now go on reviewing each guy’s routes!
- ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥
Leon is from the country of Pivoine, and he’s the most energetic of all the guys. At the start of his route he’s so excited and flustered to meet Violette for the first time! It turns out this was because a god named Zero has taken possession of his body (as a vessel) and Zero was the goddess Milene’s beloved. Same with Violette who is her vessel, they grow attracted to each other. Leon felt really bad because he starts to think his feelings were only manipulated by Zero but eventually he proved that he also has real feelings for the Reine.
He’s always so embarrassed around Violette, he can never say his feelings clearly. Another funny thing was when he discovered Zero’s involvement with him Leon started to hide himself and avoid Violette because he doesn’t want the god to awaken and he doesn’t want Milene to take over her (which happened during the coronation day when they touched). Violette didn’t want any of that of course, and asked everyone’s help to get them back together. I never really became fond of Leon other than he’s adorable and cute and is very deredere with his emotions, and I am more fond of seeing Ageha beat him to a pulp when he does something bad. THE CORONATION DAY WAS FUNNY!! XD;; Leon’s route was entertaining for me, to see the adorable cuteness he has, before the game plunges into drama. Oh, and Zero cameos. Lots of Zero cameos!
Next is Louis, the “prince” of Campanule. Why the quotation marks? He is an illegitimate prince born with a curse (not the same as Ghislain fortunately). A goddess cursed him to be reborn and have memories of his past, causing him great annoyance (and boredom, too) which led in his own route to have moments of himself asking if he could die already so he can be at peace. And because he has been living a long time he knows how to easily charm women. Violette was easily swayed by him the moment they first met. He doesn’t really care about his status as a knight and is just hanging around, but the pain he feels when his country runs out of Grace was something he considered to do to end his eternal suffering. Also he likes to play with Violette’s emotions – even so the Reine firmly believed he loves her.
I can relate to Louis in some way, because he’s a person who’s forced to live a life he doesn’t want but has to go through it for eternity. There is so much despair in that he wishes for himself to die all the time and he doesn’t want any pity or care from anyone because he doesn’t deserve those. His loyalty end is crushing because he PERSONALLY asked Violette to throw away all the Grace from Campanule! And that she had to lie to them while keeping up a straight face (yet deep inside she was broken). Even in the end Louis wanted to have a normal life. ;w;
Third is Ghislain, the knight from Crysantheme and has the most emotional route, no seriously. He too has a “curse” in which he goes crazy when his country doesn’t have enough Grace (or if the Reine doesn’t distribute to them) and he needs to slaughter every existing Hanabito to get more Grace. I feel really bad for him because HIS COUNTRY IS THE FIRST AND FOREMOST ONE TO BE GIVEN GRACE to keep them from crumbling. His country is already struggling and suffering enough, Ghislain can’t stand seeing it all. AT THE SAME TIME, he doesn’t know what being a knight is. It’s his first time being elected as one, and he thinks knights are people given orders here and there, they only exist as servants. His interactions with Violette are so cute! He asks for orders all the time and wonders if it’s meant literally or not www
The middle of his route is filled with despair and his thoughts about the survival of Crysantheme. Because he went crazy during Leon’s route, he was chained and imprisoned. It becomes pivotal here on his own route because Violette and her feelings made her go out of her way to get through Ghislain’s prison. He’s still not in the sane mind when they met, but the Reine made him aware of her true feelings. Enge played a role here too – she was the wife of the man who was slain by the former person who previously wielded Ghislain’s sword. The decisions after freeing Ghislain is the pathway to both the love and loyalty ends.
Orpheus is the 2nd to the last, and the last required in unlocking Hubert’s route. He’s the sweet, innocent knight from Villet. HIS ROUTE WAS RELAXING UNLIKE THE REST. He’s an orphan who always loved to play music with his harp. But it was his singing is what makes him dangerous, because it’s how his powers are unleashed. Orpheus is secretly a god too, like Milene and Zero. He has his own tree back in Villet, it’s pretty small but it’s a great treasure to him. He does have the power to create Grace but he doesn’t know how, and he is scared to find out how. So when he plays his harp, he doesn’t sing at all. He did one grave mistake though – accidentally taking Grace out of Parterdeame ww Orpheus needs someone to train his powers with, please.
His moments with Violette are just as sweet as Leon’s. Good god his confession!!!11! He just suddenly invited her to watch the stars right after the coronation day and there you go. He holds her hand and suddenly says he likes her, and kisses her right after. He says he can’t hide it anymore!! Ww After all of that Orpheus starts to become very worried and protective of her, to the point that yes – he doesn’t mind creating his own Grace, so Violette won’t have to suffer anymore. The love end was pretty swell but the loyalty end is like the rest, there’s the tablespoon of sacrifice for the sake of a loved one. Orpheus is amazing, please protect him. ;w; He’s a true knight to the heart. All of his CGs with Violette was full of innocence xhbsfgsrfxhbsfxg///
Then there’s Hubert, the hidden character route. You clear the other guys’ first (doesn’t matter which order) for his letter to appear in the common route. By this point I already had a clear understanding of what Hubert’s true nature and purpose was (yes thanks to Orpheus and Leon routes!). He is Murasaki, the Chou of goddess Milene. In fact, she created him to serve her directly. He was all-so-loyal to her, even agreeing with her plan to move Parterdeame to the skies. He even agreed to her plan of raising the vessel (Violette) which Milene will take over on once the vessel becomes the Reine. A LOT OF PLOT WAS REVEALED IN HIS ROUTE. And because Murasaki/Hubert is Milene’s Chou, he will follow her orders whenever necessary. Violette tries to snap him out of it and tries to change his mind yet he only treated her as the vessel she was, waiting for the day Milene takes over her body. =w=
Hubert starts to get torn between his love for the Reine and his loyalty to the goddess. Violette fell in love with Hubert (even when she was still a child, nonetheless!!) and would do everything to make him stay by her side. That included having a deal with Milene in the loyalty end ww AAAHHH THE LOYALTY DOMINATRIX END, where Hubert has to serve Violette who took Milene’s appearance and voice. FOREVER. www The love end was everyone “cooperating” with Zero to destroy all the Kamon so no more Grace and Hubert as a Chou will be killed and he will be free from his duties. THE REBORN END WAS SURPRISING. I didn’t expect it, honestly. It was beautiful but hey, why did they rush from his child self to his older self by just Violette hugging him??! Ww
- ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥
Thoughts about RDF:
Am I the only one who appreciates this game because of the characters and the art? The plot is lacking and rushed. IT’S VERY RUSHED, even the transition of the knights getting to know Violette to each one of them falling for her was quick-paced. I wish they did more stuff about the plot, expanding it to the lore of the gods and what made them do such things (except for the sole reason of boredom). Some of the routes also had inconsistencies, like Violette’s Kamon. She actually has one, but uses Milene’s because she is the vessel. Nice one there. www
The Ravir made the game draggy because each decision/choice you make has to be Ravir. Whether you’re in the route for love/loyalty/bad end, the things you do in the minigame affects how you get them. I follow Choro’s guide and you have to fail the button selection at some points for the loyalty and the bad ends. It’s repetitive especially if you’re aiming to platinum this game. Approximately, RDF took me a week or two to finish (because I have work and I only play around 5-6 hours at home). Without the many bad ends it would have taken at least five days.
Aaaand the 40 bad ends weren’t really necessary, though. Otomate what happened when you wrote this game?? www Those bad ends could have just been part of the routes, and would be a good way to bring it out as a single bad end. Seriously, because some of the bad ends were A REPETITION of another one just with changed dialogue and a few scenes. _(:3/ Overall, this game was OK, not perfect but very interesting, only made it look meh was because of the amount of bad ends. This was Otomate’s first game with that amount of ends, so…it was negatively received by some. XD;; If you’re into fantasy/royalty setting with good art, Reine des Fleurs is nice. Just don’t get too carried away by the bad ends, the game is fine. They only need their plot fixed.
「大典太」 