I think the best way to start off this review is to say that when I first wanted Bad Apple Wars, I was turned away from it by a friend saying it was disappointing. When I finally took the plunge on it, however, not only did I cry for half the entire runtime, it was what encouraged my permanent return to playing new otome after a hiatus of nearly four years. Despite its reception I will forever vouch for this game.

BAW's strength is how personal it is overall - the story focuses on a small cast, their individual backstories and their attitude to their former lives, with nothing more at stake than that. This is furthered with how BAW depicts love and its overpowering strength, regardless of form, especially with certain side characters' stories. The main love interests all have really compelling backgrounds and despite each route following a similar formula, their uniqueness and lowkey nature allowed for them to remain fresh. My personal favourite routes (that had me crying almost the entire path) were Shikishima and White Mask, the latter in particular being a strong representation of the game's themes of hope and despair, in his case that pushing away hope simply to avoid despair will only breed more of it. All of this is aided with the stellar OST, which I enjoy so much I have actually bought and played other games since because of the procyon studio label!

I don't find BAW entirely flawless, however. One route presents some pretty glaring inconsistencies with the worldbuilding of the rest of the story, with said inconsistencies also feeling contradictory to what the rest of the game is going for. Despite this though, I have to commend BAW because this was my least favourite route and yet I still love the focal guy a lot - just not as much due to what his path reveals. I also have to admit the touch system wasn't my thing, but I pretty much expected that going in and I can respect why Otomate did it (to experiment with the vita's features), so I don't mind too much.

Suoh's art definitely brings the whole experience together and the character interactions make for a very entertaining watch as well, overall I absolutely want to see a port of this game to give it a second chance because I absolutely adore it! I also want to end this by saying that Rinka is probably one of my top protagonists for being totally misunderstood as much as she is. For a game about emotions and dreams of the future, she starts as a girl who believes she has neither while unknowingly being in a state of depression due to this. She starts out inactive and self-deprecating for this reason, but her development alongside the bad apples is all the sweeter for this - not to mention she pulls out some really entertaining quotes at times! She's great for a coming-of-age narrative and her reputation as "weak" and "pathetic" deeply saddens me for this reason.

It’s…. Fine? I picked this up when I was building my physical otome collection for Vita, as it was pretty cheap and easy to get at the time. I don’t regret it, but I have a feeling I would have enjoyed this more if I was still a tween, or better yet, a Japanese tween. The story feels specifically tailored toward Japanese high schooler ennui, so as a 30-something American I definitely feel a bit…. Unmoved, shall we say. I did appreciate the feral theatre kid energy of the Bad Apples though.

It wasn’t BAD, but felt a bit like an outline of a visual novel, rather than a fully realized story. A lot of side characters (who were more interesting that the LI’s, most of the time) have subplots that never get resolved. Despite the short length, the game still repeats itself a lot, and the “choice” mechanics were basically color-coded railroads. The touch system was also just…… odd.

CGs were lackluster as well… overall, everything just felt kinda halfhearted. That said, I DID love the visual style and music. I just feel like this game needed more time in the oven.