Developer: Idea Factory, Otomate, Design Factory
Publisher: Idea Factory
Platform: Switch (2)
Tested on: Switch 2
Birushana: Winds of Fate – Review
Hot on the heels of Homura: The Crimson Warriors, Idea Factory is back with another otome visual novel… sort of. Technically speaking, this new release isn’t a full-fledged visual novel but instead a fan disc. That means we’re looking at an official follow-up to a previously released “main” visual novel. It’s not quite a sequel, mind you, but instead a collection of fan service content. The fan disc in question is Birushana: Winds of Fate, which follows 2022’s Birushana: Flower of Genpei. This admittedly puts us in somewhat of an odd position, as we haven’t read Flower of Genpei, but then again, if you’re already a Birushana fan, you probably won’t need convincing to pick up the fan disc. Can Winds of Fate stand on its own?
Story
Before we dive into Winds of Fate’s story content, we’ll briefly recap Flower of Genpei, or at least what we could find about it. The protagonist of Flower of Genpei is Shanao, the last heir to the Genji Clan, who is secretly raised as a man. In truth, her name is Yoshitsune, as she’s, in fact, a woman. Torn between her clan’s duty and her personal desire for peace, she must navigate the Genpei war and choose her own path. Throughout her journey, she meets both allies and rivals, and her choices shape not just the outcome of the war but her own destiny. Winds of Fate picks up directly after the story of Flower of Genpei, with a series of post-war epilogues that tell the story of what happened after the events of the first game. We won’t go into too much detail about the contents of each epilogue. We don’t want to spoil anything for returning fans, first of all, and we ended up feeling lost for a good chunk because we were missing out on so much information from the first novel.
Interestingly enough, the game doesn’t just focus on the five returning love interests, but it also introduces four new ones, for a total of five epilogues and four new main routes. Those four “new” love interests were side characters in the original game, and their upgrade to potential love interests was in direct response to fan reactions to them. We did find it easier to get into their stories, not in the least because these routes are accompanied by a brief recap with all the necessary info. By nature, romance elements are the main focus of a fan disc, so if you’re here for deeper insights about the Genpei war, you won’t find them here. If, on the other hand, you want to know whether Yoritomo or Tomomori is the better long-term partner for our protagonist, then rest assured that Winds of Fate has you covered.
Graphics
Being a fan disc, Winds of Fate’s artwork leans heavily into fan service when it comes to its CG visuals. We can’t say for sure whether or not the content here pushes any boundaries compared to the original, but rest assured that the art doesn’t go into NSFW territory… although it’s still explicit enough that we wouldn’t be comfortable reading through Winds of Fate on our daily commute. That said, the quality of the CG art itself is high. Stylistically, it fits with what we saw in Homura. Sprite work, on the other hand, can be a bit hit or miss, with some sprites feeling decidedly less detailed than others. We’re not sure which sprites are being reused from the original game, if any, but if there is indeed a divide, we’d know which ones to point out. Being a visual novel, Winds of Fate isn’t too taxing in terms of performance, and it runs as smooth as butter.
Sound
Probably the only aspect of Winds of Fate that we could enjoy on its own, without needing to familiarize ourselves with previously existing source material, was the game’s soundtrack. To be fair, it is pretty good and fits with the overall atmosphere of the stories. We’re particularly fond of the song that accompanies the game’s opening movie. Winds of Fate also features partial voice acting in Japanese. We presume the cast of the original release came back to record additional material, and the performances are great, although given the credentials of the voice actors, that shouldn’t be surprising.
Gameplay
Rather than a single, lengthy visual novel with branching routes, Winds of Fate lets you dive straight into the content that you’re here for. If you absolutely want to know how the epilogue with your favourite love interest from the original novel plays out, you can immediately get to that. That’s perfectly justifiable in this case, because Winds of Fate wouldn’t know who your chosen beau(s) was (or were) when you read Flower of Genpei. In terms of mechanics, there isn’t anything to say here that we haven’t said when we covered Homura. Winds of Fate makes use of Idea Factory’s “standard” visual novel interface, and it includes all the same features. The only difference is that, due to how Winds of Fate is structured, the individual stories come across as much shorter, though we imagine that if you add everything up, you’ll still end up with a sizable amount of reading time.
That does bring us to the one thing that always stood out to us when it comes to otome visual novels: their price point. Don’t get us wrong, the production quality of these is typically top-notch, with great CGs (even if they’re not necessarily our cup of tea), a high-quality soundtrack and good voice acting. Even then, though, they seem very expensive, both compared to non-otome visual novels and to other games in the same price bracket. This feeling is emphasized particularly here, as we can’t even consider Winds of Fate a visual novel in its own right. It’s a companion piece to a full-fledged visual novel, and that €39.99 price tag seems excessive because of it. If anything, Winds of Fate should’ve been a DLC rather than a standalone release.
Conclusion
For an outsider like us, a fan disc is just a curiosity. Not having read the original novel, the importance of this kind of content is probably lost on us… but that’s okay. Winds of Fate is pure fan service, with emphasis on “fan”. We can’t recommend this one to anyone unfamiliar with Birushana: Flower of Genpei, and if you are familiar with the original visual novel, then you already know what you’re here for and won’t need convincing. Our score reflects Winds of Fate‘s worth as a standalone release. If you’re returning from Flower of Genpei, you can probably add a full point or two to that.
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