I enjoyed Collar x Malice quite a bit when I played it over two years ago and consider it to be one of the better otome games, but it is disappointing in some aspects. For one, it presents itself as one of the darker and plot centric games in the genre while maintaining an ironically safe and sanitized approach to the premise involving cults and terrorism. Most of the routes are actually on the relationship focused side, which is a double edged sword because for 3 of the 5 routes your enjoyment will highly depend on how much you like the love interest, and they're quite a mixed bag. Okazaki was probably my favourite out of the bunch. His route is one of the more romance heavy ones and I liked his possessive, clingy personality. Enomoto is fine but there really isn't anything much to his character beyond comic relief which can get annoying. Sasazuka was a miss for me. I like tsundere love interests when they strike a good balance that doesn’t make it feel like the love interest you’re trying to pursue hates you, but Sasazuka is a bit too tsun and not enough dere for me (plus his pale and frail looks are the least appealing to me out of the five). Shiraishi's route is one you'll probably like for the plot even if not for him. It almost feels like a secondary truth route which is why it's crazy to me that it unlocks after clearing only one route; I think it definitely should've stayed locked until right before the truth route. Yanagi is my second favourite love interest, but he is objectively too plain and perfect. His only "character flaws" are chainsmoking and unintentionally causing hurt to Ichika while trying to protect her, and it's honestly a bit boring. I think Saeki could've been a much more interesting alternative for the truth route, and I will always mourn the missed opportunity. The art is nice and polished, though in my opinion a downgrade from Hanamura Mai's work on Amnesia, and stylistically nothing like it. Some CGs have noticeable anatomical errors and some sprites are allegedly traced from other artists, which is a shame. There are some unique “minigames” like the point and click investigation sequences and trigger mode, but I find that these don’t really add anything to the game. Especially the trigger mode (which I have failed a few times despite how objectively easy they are because I misunderstood when the button was supposed to be pressed) is just a kind of a nuisance. Please don’t put QTEs in visual novels.