Yes, I decided to read another Kissed by the Baddest Bidder route. This time, I decided to go for Soryu, only because he's my usual type, and I thought he looked hot. Actually, I think I wrote in my review of the last KBTBB review that I wanted to unlock his route eventually.
So, let's begin another review, shall we? It's been a while since I've reviewed a full route like this.
Spoiler alert: I really loved Soryu, and did not regret spending my coins on him whatsoever.
I suppose we'd better get into the plot and characters. I'll admit, it's not as exciting as Baba's, and it can get a bit predictable at times. But really, I don't go into these games expecting high-class literature. All I want is a decent romance.
(Please note: Sometimes I forget a lot of details from the plot. This time I didn't take as many screenshots to help me remember, so I apologise if my recap is missing stuff.)
If you haven't played this game before, it's about a girl who works as a maid in this super fancy hotel, I think it's in Tokyo or somewhere. I actually only read the prologue once in 2016, but from what I recall and what I can gather from the rest of the game, the MC finds this undercover black market auction somewhere in the hotel. Unfortunately, she breaks something (a bit like what Haruhi did in Ouran High School Host Club), and it turns out that it costs about twenty million dollars. Oops. To pay off this debt, she gets auctioned off as an item! Luckily, you, the player, get to choose who purchases her.
Most of the available bishounen fit some kind of otome trope. I would say that Soryu's more of a kuudere/tsundere type, but I'm not sure exactly which one. He's from Hong Kong, and he also happens to be in the mafia. When the other characters annoy him, he doesn't hesitate to threaten them with his gun. At first, he's very cold to the MC, but of course, since this is a romance game, he eventually warms up to her.
Soryu's route basically starts off straight after he buys our heroine. He corners her in a room, shirtless, and tells her that if she's good and pays off her debt, he won't hurt her. Of course, this scares poor MC, like it would to most of us. Soryu doesn't even call her by her name at first, he just calls her "woman", which is very much appreciated. MC also gets given a pager, and whenever it buzzes, she has to come up to the penthouse and do whatever he says.
Oh yeah, she also has to stay in the same room as him. He's still OK with her doing her job throughout the day, but for some reason she can't sleep alone? Well, I suppose he's just treating her like his object, since he did buy her, after all...
MC goes back to doing her job, and a few things happen until one day, she sees Soryu with a girl. Even though they've literally just met and she's scared of him, this still makes her slightly jealous. She's so shocked because he actually seems happy around this girl...
As soon as I read this part, I could smell the fresh scent of an arranged marriage plot. Hooray. Why is it always high-profile or rich people like Soryu who get landed with this trope?
MC's like "WHO IS THIS GIRL?" and not long later, her pager buzzes. She goes all the way up to the penthouse, and all is explained.
The mysterious woman's name is Mei Ling. She's from another Hong Kong mafia group, and her dad just so happens to be the boss. She's been sent by her father to Japan to find a husband. But it turns out that Soryu isn't the one (I breathed a sigh of relief, but he still ended up almost marrying her later on!), he's just been hired to help with the search.
Mei Ling's not a mean love rival like you would expect, she's actually really friendly towards MC. In fact, she doesn't even want to get married, she just wants to have fun. So she goes out with our heroine to do touristy stuff. MC has been put in charge of keeping her out of trouble.
One day when they go out, some bad guys try to attack Mei Ling and MC, but of course, literally a second later, Soryu's there to save the day.
This means that Mei Ling's now a target, so it'll be incredibly difficult for her to go to any more marriage meetings. She technically benefits from it though, since she didn't enjoy them anyway. But because her dad really wants her to get married, Soryu comes up with an ingenious plan: get MC to cosplay as Mei Ling and do the meetings for her.
Of course, our heroine doesn't really want to do this, but she has to pay off her debt somehow! So she has to go to many boring meetings, while Mei Ling goes out and has fun with Baba and Ota.
Before MC's first marriage meeting, she has to put Mei Ling's outfit on. This is when we get the first signs of Soryu softening up to her. He actually says something nice, saying that MC actually looks good, but then denies that it was even a compliment in the first place. Then he ruins the mood by saying that if she fails this meeting, she dies.
On the way back from her first cosplaying session, Soryu takes MC (still dressed as Mei Ling) into his mafia headquarters. This is where we get to meet the real star of the route, Ryosuke. Seriously, why can't we date him, Voltage? Another classic example of an amazing side character who can't be romanced...
MC has to do many more of these meetings, as well as continuing her regular maid job. Since she's forced to sleep in Soryu's room (not in the same bed though!), she doesn't go back to the employee dormitories. This makes all of her friends really suspicious, and they keep asking her if she has a boyfriend.
One particular night, (I think it was after MC got kidnapped as Mei Ling and Soryu saved her) our heroine gets to go over to Soryu's condo. She even makes him omelettes, which he seems to really like. They treat omelettes in this game like they're some kind of fancy food. Maybe they are in Japan? It just felt a bit strange at first, because in my house, they're the things you make when it's late and you've almost run out of ingredients, not a food you impress a man with. Japanese omelettes seem to have a lot more care put into them. When I make an omelette I put zero effort into it, I just splat a few eggs in, add some veg and I'm done.
That night, MC gets to sleep on Soryu's bed, while he gets the floor. However, when she wakes up, I believe he's right there next to her under the covers. We even get a CG of it!
I love CGs like this. This actually reminds me of a specific one from Collar X Malice...
(Sorry, I just had to read another summary to refresh my brains a bit...)
There's another romantic scene where Soryu gives MC a piggyback in the rain, which I really wish also had a CG with it. At this point, you can tell that he's starting to warm up to her. He's long since stopped calling her "woman" and actually treats her like a real person now.
I expected there soon to be some kind of tragic backstory dump for Soryu, but that never happened. That's fine by me. I think I've read too many console games that just stop the whole story just to give you some angsty tragic past monologue. Not every love interest has to have a depressing past!
Eventually, the conflicty part of the route comes up. Soryu's going to marry Mei Ling! I was actually shocked that he agreed to that at first, but then I realised it was one of those times where he accepts because "it's the right thing to do" or whatever.
Our heroine's pretty depressed because of this. She goes back to her job, where everything's the same, except for her newly broken heart. While she's busy cleaning a hotel room, she runs into Baba. He deduces that MC's sad because of the marriage, and then actually gives her some surprisingly decent love advice! MC tells him that Mei Ling's better off for Soryu, because they both come from the same background, but then he says that sometimes people who are similar aren't always attracted to each other, and that people with differences can fall in love too. I had forgotten how nice Baba actually was after I had played and reviewed his route! He's actually a really great friend to our dear MC, even though he is still a shameless flirt, and you know, a thief.
Baba also takes MC out to the hotel's resident casino, where she sees Soryu and Mei Ling hanging out. This causes her to get super upset. She tries to run out of the building, but ends up running into her work friend, who's all like "What are you doing up here?"
A few days later, Mei Ling notices that MC's been avoiding her, so she calls her up to her room and confronts her about it. Then, we learn that Soryu and Mei Ling are not, in fact, an item, he's just marrying her so that she can be free. In fact, all he could talk about to his fiancée back in the casino was how beautiful MC was. This makes our heroine happy and all that, but it doesn't solve the problem that the man she loves is engaged to someone else, someone he doesn't even love!
Eventually, Soryu goes off to Hong Kong to get married. This depresses MC even more, but she just sits around and cries about it until Ryosuke tells her to get off her backside and do something about it! He too really cares about Soryu, and also can't stand to see him married off like that.
That is when Eisuke gives her ten seconds to decide if she wants to go to Hong Kong and run after him. I expected her to immediately say "Yes! I'll stop this marriage!" but she took her time, finally agreeing to go literally a millisecond before the limit was up.
I also didn't expect Eisuke to care this much about our heroine's love life, but he's nicer to her than I thought. In fact, all of the other bachelors are nice to her here. I thought it was going to be another case of that "You're not in my route, so I'm not going to care about you" business. It's also nice that all of the KBTBB boys actually hang out with each other too, instead of being completely dispensable to each other.
So, everybody goes to Hong Kong in Eisuke's helicopter, for the grand finale of the route. Once they arrive, MC runs into Mei Ling and is made to dress up as her. She then goes into this place and runs into no other than Soryu himself. He actually called off the marriage, but now he's going to be killed for it. Basically, Mei Ling's dad's gonna shoot him because he wouldn't marry his daughter. What??? Look, I know they're in the mafia and all that, but that's a bit... crazy, isn't it? I mean, there are plenty more fish in the sea! Oh yeah, I forgot, it was all a business deal, wasn't it? Yes, I remember, they were going to marry so their mafias could expand and become one super mafia. OK, it makes a bit more sense now, but it's still a bit dramatic! There are probably a billion more men from even bigger mafias Mei Ling could marry!
Soryu gets handcuffed by this man, and MC follows them. It turns out that "this man" is actually Baba in disguise! He gives our couple a few minutes to talk, and our heroine finally confesses her love! In return, she gets a kiss, but then Soryu gets taken out to be killed. Some really dramatic piano music was playing in this bit, and it sort of reminded me of a soap opera. In fact, this entire route felt like a soap opera.
The suspense continues, when Soryu is taken to a very dark room. But surprise! Mei Ling's dad Simon comes in, and he's not actually going to kill our man after all! Now everybody can live happily ever after, right? Not yet.
Everybody goes to the airport to leave, but it turns out that Soryu is staying, but before MC can cry, he promises to come back for her.
I originally had gotten the Good Ending (even though by then I knew the secret to getting the better one), but I went and read the much happier one anyway. Luckily I didn't have to go back and re-do all of my choices, I could just go straight to it. It even came with a CG, and it was slightly more steamier. I now regret not reading Baba's Happy Ending, the only reason I didn't was because I clicked on it and thought it was the same (the beginning text in both endings is exactly alike), and just went back and gave up.
I'm only going to write about the Happy Ending, because it's superior to the other one, and has the same sort of plot anyway.
MC waits a few days for Soryu, afraid that he'll never return. One day, she's working in the reception area, and guess who shows up? I don't even have to tell you who it is, because it's obvious. Soryu hugs her in front of everybody, and steals her away to take her home.
They arrive in Soryu's flat, and she makes him an omelette. He tells her how much he loves MC and her cooking. Then he takes her to bed, and they have sex. Baba's route ended like this, too. Does every main KBTBB route finish with the MC getting lucky?
The next morning, the fresh couple wake up and we get a very fan-servicey CG. I'm not complaining though, look at this!
After that, Soryu requests another one of MC's omelettes, and they all live happily ever after.
The end.
No, I did not have enough coins to purchase the epilogue.
So, what are my concluding thoughts on Soryu and his route? I don't know if I like it more than Baba's yet. Usually I always like the thing that's freshest in my mind better, but if you give me a few days, I'll probably be able to pick a favourite. I definitely like Soryu better as a character though. He's much, much less likely to cheat on you, and he's exactly my type. He's also really hot. Actually, I expected him to be a lot more mean, but Soryu's really a decent bloke once you get to know him. The only thing that prevents him from being boyfriend material is how he treats MC at the beginning, and the fact that he's in the mafia.
This route was predictable, and yes, it was like a soap opera, but I loved it. It's nice to have a break from complex console games full of angst with otome like this. Kissed by the Baddest Bidder is a very cosy feeling series for me, I just love the fancy hotel setting, the music, and the characters.
Soryu's route doesn't just end here though. There are loads of special stories and sequels for him, so many that it would be hard to keep track. I don't know if I would buy another one of his if I had the coins. Maybe I would, it just depends on how long they are and whether there are CGs or not.
Would I buy another character's route from this series? Yes, maybe Eisuke's. He was who I originally was going to choose back in 2016, but then I decided during Baba's route that I didn't really care for him, but now I want to romance him again. I don't have an interest in Mamoru or Ota, but there are also other bachelors added later on that I could try. If Voltage made a Ryosuke route, I would 100% be interested in getting it!
Well, that concludes my review for today! I'm going to try to refrain from talking about other stuff at the end of these posts, like I usually do. I feel like it dates them a bit, and going off topic isn't the best habit to get into. Hopefully you all enjoyed this. Goodbye!
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