The League of Extraordinary Bishies: let's talk about Code Realize: ~Guardian of Rebirth~

A girl with a poisonous body that can melt through human tissue and steel alike is about to be arrested by the British royal guards when she gets stolen away by none other than gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. The rest of the cast is all just as literary—we have Impey Barbicane who dreams of going to the moon on a cannon, genius alchemist Victor Frankenstein, hero of the Vampire War Abraham Van Helsing, and the ever-mysterious Count Saint-Germain (there's even a Dracula—the cutest Dracula ever, I'm sure—and a Herlock Sholmes, though he's only a romance option in the sequel), and they come together as she searches for her missing father—and a cure for her poison.

Cardia (I actually had to look up her name because in the game I just put mine in LOL) has got to be the cutest protagonist ever. Her clothes. Her little smile. She's the sweetest thing in the world.

The character designs are lovely, and the voice acting is simply stellar. The cast is great, and they put on some really emotional performances (in other words, they had these guys straight up sobbing in the studio).

It's a steampunk setting, which of course means we're in London and there's cogwheels of inexplicable function on nearly every wall and also hot-glued to everyone's clothes—which should not be read as a complaint because I love that stuff.

Structure-wise, there's a long common route followed by short character routes, which is my personal favorite format. I love having a snack while the read text skips by on the screen.

I was a bit miffed that you couldn't go for Lupin first (you can only unlock him after completing the four other routes), but after I first saw Saint-Germain I stopped caring. The order I went with was Saint-Germain → Victor → Impey → Van Helsing, somehow sandwiching my two favorite routes in between my least favorite ones.

Saint-Germain’s route develops into quite the insane story, so while I do feel it might’ve been more fitting to make this my last one before getting to Lupin, it's not like it spoils anything for the other routes—and it's nice to eat your favorite food first instead of leaving it for last sometimes. He has that sort of otherworldly vibe which I found kind of mesmerizing, but as you get to know him he's also so painfully human, it really gripped my heart. The scene where he holds Cardia’s hand to his face even as his skin melts off is like—that’s my personal fantasy, my idea of romance distilled to its essence.

I didn't dislike Victor, he's rather cute, and his route’s story is pretty good! It just didn't make much of an impression on me. I do however love the detail that he was able to become an accomplished alchemist in a version of the 19th century where it's an actual field of science.

Impey's route felt the “happiest” to me. A personal highlight was when we invaded the airship and he said something to the effect of “If you believe in me, I can do anything”, and I thought, “oh, is it like, ‘if the lady believes me, I can even fly'” (as in, from that Lupin III movie)—and then he really did say that. It's supposed to be Lupin’s line, though…! Anyhow, going from that to Van Helsing’s route felt a bit like this:

I suppose it's not really a story set in Victorian London if you don't have a brush with a Jack-the-Ripper-like. I'll be honest, I left his route for last because he was my least favorite, and I wasn't expecting anything out of it, so it was quite a surprise to have my heart put through the wringer like that. I was on the edge of my seat for that whole final stretch. I thought I'd die. I thought he’d die! Maybe I could've actually died of dehydration from how much I cried.

After that, it was finally time to get stolen away by Lupin. His route was every bit the fairytale I expected, in the sense that it felt like he was always there to save me I mean Cardia. Lupin’s backstory honestly felt kind of low-key compared to everyone else's, but it may be a bit of an unfair comparison…in a way, this is Cardia's route as much as it is Lupin’s, so maybe her own backstory is also overshadowing his—I’m not saying it's bad, though, on the contrary, it's a pretty good story. As for the main plot, we get a lot of title drops, and in proper “true” route fashion, the other four guys are going through redux versions of their character arcs slightly offscreen, which makes the final stretch feel rather busy. The ending was very lovely—they’re such a cute couple! I walked away with a big smile on my face.

There are also extra stories, all very short and cute, complete with a fanservice-y CG each (can't believe Van Helsing was straight up naked in his).

I went into this game completely blindly, not even able to tell someone what it was called when they asked what I was playing, and over the course of a week it became one of my favorite VNs ever.

Once I told a friend that I didn't know what love meant to me. They replied that they knew because it was in everything I wrote. My idea of love is acceptance. It is saying, “I am a monster! Can you still love me?” and having the answer be “I am also a monster, and I love you.”—and that's exactly what Code:Realize is about. How could I not love it?