This review is going to be on a Voltage route that's currently out for free right now. I've never actually played one of theirs all the way through before, so this was quite a new experience for me. The game is Kissed by the Baddest Bidder, one that I actually have a bit of history with.
The song I'm listening to as I type this sort of fits this game. It's "Bad Boys" by Alexandra Burke, and this game is full of very bad boys. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an AMV somewhere for Kissed by the Baddest Bidder with this song in it.
Anyway, I said that I had a bit of history with this game. Prepare for a bit of backstory! A few years ago I played my very first otome game, Shall We Date: Blood in Roses. I deleted it after starting a route, because the love challenges put me off. I thought that I would never be able to beat them. I also played Voltage's Samurai Love Ballad Party, but I ditched that too after choosing a love interest, because I thought that it would also be an impossible to beat cash-grab. So I searched the App Store for more otome games, and I came across Kissed by the Baddest Bidder. This was before Voltage had combined all of their paid apps into one app.
I read KBTBB's prologue, and I was super into it. It came time for me to choose a route, and I was all ready to pick Eisuke. I don't really know why I liked him, because now when I look at him I have no interest. So I went to click on his route, but then it told me I had to pay to continue. I was gutted! It was at a time where I didn't really have easy access to money. I had thought of convincing someone to get me an iTunes voucher so that I could actually buy coins to play a route, but I thought that it would be a waste so I just deleted the app. Somewhere I have a screenshot of the prologue, but I'm not going to bother looking for it.
That ended my brief affair with otome games, until I started playing Mystic Messenger about a year later.
I've always wanted to play this game properly, but I didn't really want to spend the money on it, because I'm cheap. Yes, I know I have paid otome games for my Vita, but most of them were either gifts or bought with Amazon vouchers. But imagine my luck when I decided to download Love 365, and a whole Kissed by the Baddest Bidder route was available for free! I immediately started it, not knowing who's route it was. I just knew that it wasn't Eisuke's, because he's way too popular to be given out for free.
I just skipped the prologue, but it was a bit of a stupid move on my part because I had forgotten a lot of details. The only characters I remembered were Eisuke and the copper with the beard. The character whose route I had started was one man by the name of Mitsunari Baba. I'll go more into his personality and that in a little bit.
I keep thinking that for these posts I have to remember every single little detail of the plot, but I haven't for this one. I have a bit of difficulty recalling the first part of the route because I played it yesterday. Still, I'm going to try to recap stuff as best as I can. First though, I'm just going to talk about some other stuff.
The art in this game is your typical Voltage style. It's nothing really special, but I think it fits the modern theme of the story quite well. I was surprised to see that there were so many different side character sprites. They looked slightly different compared to the main character sprites though, because they were outlined with thicker black lines. The MC doesn't have a sprite in the corner, but I expected that anyway. In CGs she looks like your typical eyeless otome heroine with long brown hair.
Speaking of CGs, there were a lot less than I expected, but the ones that were there looked really nice. They did quite a good job on them, except the one kiss scene did look a bit odd, but I find that most of those are always drawn weirdly.
The background images were alright. Some were quite pretty though, like the one of the bathroom. I think I just liked that one because the bath looked so nice. A few backgrounds had a slightly different art style though, so I think that multiple people worked on these. There were so many different backgrounds used, way more than I expected. I feel like they must reuse backgrounds across all of their stories, because it would be a waste to only use them on one game. I almost forgot to mention that the title cards between episodes were really pretty too!
The background music was decent, I suppose. I did like the jazzier pieces they used though. There were no sound effects though, they were just typed out. I didn't mind that though. Kissed by the Baddest Bidder has no voice acting whatsoever, but that's still alright for me. It just meant that I progressed through it quicker because I didn't have to listen to anyone speak. I think some Voltage titles do have voice acting though, because every time I open Love 365, it gives me a voiced line from some character I've never heard of.
This main route works in a very simple way. Often you are presented with three choices. Some give you more points, some don't. There are only two endings, and I ended up with the regular good ending. You have to get more points for the happy one, but I suppose I didn't pick the right choices. I didn't consult a walkthrough either, I just picked the choices that I would pick in real life. None of them really changed the plot at all, they just each had slightly different dialogue for a few lines.
Let's get into the plot. I'm just going to recap the prologue quickly, but I haven't read it for years so I don't remember all the details. Our MC is a maid in a hotel until she gets caged and put up for auction for twenty-million dollars. I think she almost gets bought by some creepy man, but then someone else buys her instead. That buyer depends on whose route you choose!
In my game, our MC gets purchased by Baba. He's basically the token playboy character. When I first saw him, I was immediately reminded of Laito from Diabolik Lovers. (I mention that series way too much!) They're both very flirty, they wear fedoras, and they have very similar haircuts. It's a very uncanny resemblance. Just look at the two of them side-by-side, and you'll see what I mean. They are also both quite different from each other though. I was surprised to learn that Baba's actually 35 years old. Most otome games I've played like to make their love interests either very young adults or teenagers, so good on Voltage for actually including some older characters for once.
When I first saw Baba, I was like "Oh dear," because I wasn't really sure if I would like him. MC didn't really seem to be too crazy about him, either. He takes MC up to his room, but luckily he doesn't really try anything with her other than flirting. I wasn't really sure why he had spent money on her when he already has a billion women in love with him, but all that would be explained later on.
Even though MC's been bought by someone, she's still made to go to work as a maid. I thought that she'd be allowed to give up her work and her new job would just be acting as Baba's pet. She has to keep everything a secret though, because the auction she was a part of was very much illegal.
MC still gets to stay out in the penthouse with everybody, so that's not so bad. On one of her first nights there, she falls asleep and Baba just climbs into bed with her. He doesn't really do anything to her either except stare at her while she sleeps. Our heroine isn't very happy with him. I was getting a bit annoyed with him too at times. Luckily MC has the balls to push him away a few times. She's actually not that much of a doormat, so I'm sure some people will be pleased with that.
One day Baba has to go out to do something, so he just sends Ota to keep watch over MC. He literally sleeps in the same room as her to make sure that she doesn't run away. Ota is a character I had forgotten about, but he's in this route quite a lot. I think he's the youngest one and an artist or fashion designer or something? Throughout the route, Ota barges into MC's bedroom a lot and acts annoying towards her. If she had just locked the door, he wouldn't be so much of a problem!
Baba also takes MC out to a few fancy parties. He points out a lot of counterfeit art and all that stuff. I'm sorry, I don't remember these scenes too well. We do run into what's probably the route's villain here, he's this rich bloke who likes buying art and stuff. His name was Igarashi.
You may be wondering, what does Baba do except flirt around with girls? Well, it turns out he's a thief. But it's alright though, he only steals from bad people! I did not expect him to be a professional art burglar. I thought the route was just gonna focus on him and MC trying to get him to commit to only one girl.
Baba literally takes MC with him to steal stuff, even though she's a liability because she's never even done this before! Maybe you should hire somebody who actually knows what they're doing? He promises to let her go after she helps him with this one job he really wants done.
So, one day they're out trying to steal this painting when this detective man comes up and stops them. He attempts to catch Baba with these magic exploding handcuffs, but he screws up and accidentally puts one on MC and the other on our love interest. If they go more than five feet away from each other, they'll both be blown up. So... this is basically a plot device to bring our two main characters together, but I think it's a rather interesting one.
Even though they've now each got one handcuff, they still manage to escape from the detective. Shouldn't there be a tracking device on these cuffs? They seem quite high tech so you'd imagine that the police wouldn't want them to be lost.
MC and Baba now have to spend their time close to each other. This means that they have to go to the toilet together and sleep in the same bed. There are a few scenes where MC showers, and Baba has to use a blindfold so that he can't see her naked. For some reason this route talks about showering quite a lot, even when they're not under the magic exploding cuffs. Like the two will just arrive home and the first thing they think about is having a shower. Maybe it's just some Japanese thing I'm not understanding...
MC still has to take care of her job, even though her life is literally in danger. If I were her, I'd just take some time off! So Baba has to follow her, pretending to be a foreigner looking to gain experience. I didn't expect the CG that came with it to be so hot...
Oh yeah, MC also has to go to Baba's job too. The thief who had twenty-million dollars to buy a woman works at corner shop for some reason. I really didn't expect that. When the corner shop scene came up, I thought they were just shopping, I didn't realise that they'd actually be working there! Some random thugs try it on with MC in the shop, but of course Baba protects her.
They also go to a bar, and some random women who work there give us a bit of info on Baba's Tragic Backstory ™. According to "Woman 1", he fell in love with some girl in the past but something happened and now he won't get close to anybody else.
Even though they're under the handcuffs, Baba still takes MC on a couple more nicking sprees. She doesn't really like it at first, but she seems to not mind after a while because he's just stealing from bad people. They almost get caught literally every time they go. The newspapers start picking up on it, and Baba gets dubbed as the modern Arsene Lupin.
After one such time, MC and Baba run into the forest and he asks her if she's in love with him. She sort of denies it, but that makes him glad. He says the typical otome line "You shouldn't fall in love with a man like me". Apparently he'll make her cry if she dates him.
One day someone in the group of love interests figures out how they can remove the handcuffs from them. They have to get the toe print of the detective man. The detective does have a name, I think it's Ayase? I'm just gonna call him that anyway.
I was thinking that MC could try and seduce him into bed and then get the toe print, and funnily enough, Eisuke suggested the same thing a few seconds later.
I thought that they were actually gonna go with that plan, but MC didn't want to do any of that.
Instead, they get Ota to construct these super realistic masks which they use to get into the police station and find Ayase. Baba cosplays as Mamoru, the bearded copper love interest, while MC just pretends to be some woman, they never really said what she did.
So they go inside the police station and act really friendly with Ayase, then MC spills coffee on his feet, and they use that as an excuse to get his socks off. Then they secretly get his toe print, say goodbye and run out. Then their handcuffs are unlocked, and they're free! That was almost too easy...
Even though they're now free to go wherever they want, MC still decides to remain in the penthouse with Baba. He just lets her stay even though they don't really have that much of a romantic connection.
These next few bits I don't seem to remember as well as I thought.
One day MC goes out to get something, when she sees Baba with another woman. This annoys her, so she just stares at him and runs back to her apartment. I think she even cries too. She still texts Baba though, and he thinks that she's inviting him over. He said that he was going to sleep with that woman, but he just didn't feel into it.
Then a bit later on, MC and Baba are there sleeping in the same room, but separate beds. This is when we learn a little bit more of his backstory. The only reason that he steals stuff is because a thief saved his life when he was younger. We don't really get any detail on how he saved him though. He just really wanted to be like that thief, so he decided to do it as a proper job. He met Eisuke when he went to nick stuff from his house, but accidentally came to the wrong place. Somehow that blossomed into a friendship. He also fell in love with a woman he stole from, but pushed her away because he was a criminal. I thought his past love life was going to be more in-depth than that, but this is all we get.
Also, that Igarashi man from before is threatening Baba. It gets in the newspapers and all that. Baba decides to nick from him again, but this time he's going alone because it's too dangerous for our heroine. MC still insists on going anyway, and luckily he lets her come.
They go to Igarashi's mansion, and MC stakes out the front for him. Oh no, she gets kidnapped by the security guards! Of course she does. They drag her into this room and lock her up.
I thought that she was going to be stuck in there for ages, but Baba's there rescuing her like five seconds later. Literally every single rescue in this route happens so quickly. Our MC spends hardly any time being kidnapped.
Baba drags her out into the forest and he's quite angry. He doesn't really understand why MC cares about him so much when he's a criminal who bought her in an auction.
He just dumps her back in her apartment and tells her that she's free, because if you love someone, you have to let them go. Try telling that to a yandere!
The next day, MC's in the hallway or something when she sees Baba with another woman. She thinks that he's trying to get in her knickers, but we find out later that he was actually just giving her a birthday present. This causes our heroine to run and cry. She really hates him now and basically thinks that he's an awful person who doesn't care about anybody's feelings.
Baba finds the MC and says some stuff I can't remember. Then he kisses her!
MC's reaction to this kiss is the best thing ever, she slaps him. That was not what I had expected. Then she runs off and goes out to the pub with her two girlfriends. Yes, there are actually other female characters in this otome. As well has her friends, there's also this girl called Erika whom MC works with. She's your typical mean girl, complete with the two other girls who follow her around and parrot everything she says. Erika's only present earlier on in the route though.
While MC's out drinking with her mates, she comes across Ayase. Luckily he doesn't arrest her, because he believes her to be some innocent woman who was just roped into helping Baba nick stuff. He gives her a bit of info on Baba's past lover, which I accidentally mentioned earlier instead of now.
They're having a little chat until they run into Mamoru. I have a feeling he's called that because in Japanese "mamoru" means "to protect", and he's a policeman who protects. So they all hang out and chat, then they go out and meet up with MC's friends again.
Then someone tells MC that Igarashi's hired a hitman to kill Baba, who's just about to steal from his mansion. MC immediately gets up and runs to the house to protect the man she slapped.
She runs into Baba outside of Igarashi's house and he's rather annoyed. She tells him that he's going to get shot, but then she gets kidnapped by the security guards. They drag her into Igarashi's private room, and he tries to get a little bit frisky with her on the bed.
But Igarashi never gets anywhere, because he and all the guards conveniently get called away for business a second later. Then MC tries to escape, but it doesn't take too long for Baba to come up and save her.
The CG combined with the jazzy music just made this scene awesome. It reminded me a lot of Code: Realize and all the scenes with Lupin in.
Again, when I thought MC was gonna be stuck for ages, she was immediately rescued.
Instead of taking our heroine to safety, Baba drags her upstairs into this scary attic. It turns out that Igarashi had been keeping some orphans hostage and forcing them to make counterfeit paintings. Then the man himself pops up and threatens to shoot them, but before long Eisuke's helicopter comes up with all the other love interests in it. They happen to have a gun too.
Soryu's meant to be in the helicopter here, but his sprite's in front of it instead. Oh well. I really do want to play Soryu's route though. He seems like my kind of love interest.
Then Ayase appears. He arrests Igarashi then tries to do the same to Baba, but he escapes in the helicopter with MC. The helicopter is driven by Ota, and it takes them all the way back to the hotel.
What makes me laugh is that after the copter lands, Ota says "I've never driven a helicopter before!" , meaning that they all just let somebody who doesn't know what they're doing transport them like that? Eisuke's supposed to be filthy rich, so couldn't he have just hired a pilot instead of getting his friend to do it?
So they all live happily ever after. I got the good ending and only read that, even though it'll let you read the happy ending without having to go back to the start.
Baba takes MC back to the empty auction hall and tells her why he decided to purchase her. When he was a kid, he was an orphan, who was adopted with some other children by a rich man who kept them captive and treated them terribly. When he saw MC in that cage, he felt sorry for her and absolutely had to buy her. So he didn't want her as a pet, he just wanted to rescue her.
Not much else happens after that, and then it ends. The good ending didn't even come with a CG! Oh well, I got this story for free, so I can't really complain.
There's a lot of after stories and extra routes for Baba, but you have to actually pay for them. I think Kissed by the Baddest Bidder has a lot of extra stories, because it's one of Voltage's most popular titles.
I actually enjoyed this route way more than I had expected to. At first I didn't really like Baba that much, but like the MC, I gradually grew to like him more and more as the story went on. He had a bit more depth than I thought he'd have. Still, I thought that they would focus on his backstory a bit more, but that's just because I'm used to Otomate games with really long flashback scenes.
I'm glad that I got to try Baba's route out, because I don't think I would've bought it otherwise. The Love 365 free story offers are actually a good idea, because it allows you to try out stories that you'd never think you'd like. If you're reading this now, I'd suggest you give his route a try before the end of the month when you have to pay for it again. It's really good!
The route was super short though. I probably spent only around two hours reading it, but I am a very fast reader. At least it's not one of those routes where you have to spend days on, and there are only two endings so it's really hard to mess up and get a tragic ending or something.
I think that I'm definitely going to check out more Voltage stories in the future. Maybe not until I've finished my Cybird routes, because I'm working on three at once right now. But I will cover more, probably during the periods when I have no Vita games to cover.
This concludes my review. Thank you for reading this! I hope you all have a nice end of summer. If you're sad about it ending, just remember that it's only a few more months after this until Christmas.
Goodbye!
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