Tokyo Onmyoji -The Tale of Rei Tengenjibashi-

I totally didn't expect it to be such a pleasant, exciting read (●♡∀♡))ヾ☆*。It was so fascinating I didn't want it to end T_T Who would have thought I had such a gem in my wishlist. Thanks, Добрый, for digging it out for me, it was one of the best gifts I've ever received <3
At first I was really hooked by the setting & story itself with all those supernatural elements, riveting Japanese myths & mysterious cases. That was already enough to make me feel totally engrossed. There are quite many gripping cases where your choices may lead to either successfully solving them or to gruesome deadly endings.
What's also important for me in a good story is an appealing MC & here he's one of the most endearing chars I've ever read about! (♥️‿♥️) His background, opinions on many different things, decisions he makes, his weaknesses and strengths, absolutely everything I found just perfect! In most novels all the protagonists (esp female chars in typical otome) are unbearably annoying, I have to endure their stupid actions but in this case I could just relax, easily associate myself with MC & enjoy that entertaining experience. I'm gonna miss the guy 🤗
But after all those cases it suddenly turned out to be an explicit, passionate BL novel O_O as I try to avoid reading store pages not to spoil the pleasure it was an astonishing surprise :D I believed all that romantic tension while solving the cases & occasional hot, sexy but dark endings is all the love content I was going to get but you can unlock four routes after the main part. That was amazing ♥️
Absolutely all the love options are attractive, fun to read with their unique engaging conflict to overcome, bright, distinctive personality and significant part in MC's life, making him finally contented and blissful what he deserved so much. Though all those numerous bad ending in the path of the only happy one are truly devastating. In general, the story was very emotional for me, in both positive & negative aspects.
Of course, I can't omit mentioning stunning visuals (I've made almost 300 screenshots), gorgeous voices (I couldn't make myself click further until I finish all the lines till the end, there was just zero unpleasant voices) and short but fun extra stories for each love interest <3
So, the game is almost perfect in my opinion, except such minor complaints as
--abrupt lines, the sentences almost all the time were cut short, continued on a new line for whatever reason and every time it ended in the next slide the first two words were typed together, no space. Reading fast it always sounded a tad weird, I stopped, it drew me rudely out of my immersion, I had to reread that part to figure out what was that... so annoying :(
--Basara didn't have a route strictly speaking, it was just one short scene, that was so unfair T_T to both readers and poor, loyal shikigami <3
--blurry censorship :( though it definitely can't be the reason not to recommend the game as one of the curators I follow did O_o All those intimate scenes were passionate enough without explicit images though I get it why it's so annoying, let me have my fun to the full extent😡
Welp, now it's undoubtedly one of my favorite novels, I'd like to replay it one day. I hope that irritating status 'Profile Features Limited' will be removed soon and I'll add it to my steam profile among the best games <3 Чтобы хоть как-то поспособствовать этому, если есть желающие из моих русско-говорящих друзей, кто хотел бы пройти новеллу и написать рецензию, дайте знать в личку, я куплю эту игру в подарок первому написавшему. Не знаю, кстати, изменилось ли что, но помнится раньше я не могла дарить игры людям из других стран, т. к. у них ценник был выше, сейчас вроде региональные цены убрали, но кто их знает, потому предлагаю только своим))
More thoughts about the game in a Reading Nook

Wow. What a trip.
On one hand it looks like this is all going to be just the MC working as an Onmyoji and kicking supernatural but, some BL and lewds involved and yet... It turned out to be much more than that. I would also say that this could be considered "Dark" in certain areas... Especially if you give it enough though.
Alright well. While you might start out confused/unused to everything, it will eventually all start to make sense. I will warn people ahead of time, that this game does contain a certain "dark" theme: rape and if you can't handle it... You can avoid it by just not getting a bad end. (Although I will also have to point out that some of these bad ends provide more information into the psyche of the character and adds to the story, so eh...)
It also feels like this game was split into two "light" Love Interests and two "Dark". More like one fluffy, one childhood one, one dark and one overly psychotic. Also: if you do Basara's route... His route is THE SHORTEST!! All other Love Interests have incredibly, far longer story than Basara's. But if you want something cute I suppose...
I only read Basara's and Suguru's. Why? Because once I get into the route of the childhood friend troupe... Every other Love Interest falls away for me. I knew I should've saved him for last and yet... He was so fluffy!
Despite me reading only two and being familiar with *some* of what the other two LI are capable of... The story isn't all nice and kind. I already told you that. It had underlying dark themes and even Suguru, who appears to be kindhearted... Isn't like that fully at all. That much is obvious... No human can only be "good".
For now, I will leave it here. I have to move past my attachment for "I loved you for so long", before I can actually try a different route.
Therefore... The mystery continues... Ooooh~!
(But yeah, interesting read. Enjoyed the portions I have went through and the lewd scenes were hot. Not into guys crossdressing and yet that didn't detract from it. Will definitely need to come back to this in the future. :D)

It's a very good game, I'm surprised this game doesn't have more exposure.
* Story: Quite long (some might get bored); you get to work as an onmyioji (sort of demon exorcist) and pick the jobs you want to do, accompanied by at least 1 of the ROs; good balance of comedy, drama and spicy scenes; there's also 1 bonus story for each RO, after you finish their routes;
* Characters - MC is a well rounded character, confident in himself and actually acts like his age (29); the ROs also have good, believable backgrounds and 3 out of 4 have pre-existent relations to the MC and are into him whether you do their routes or not
* Routes: childhood friends to lovers route, enemies (rival) to lovers route, the silly smitten sidekick route and the friends with benefits to lover route; they add character development both for the RO and the MC himself;
* CGs: a good amount, a few are slightly animated and have some cool visual effects;
* Backgrounds: kinda meh, sometimes they get reused;
* VAs: fully voiced (aside from 3rd person narration); amazing voice acting;
* Sound: fitting music, not that special; a surprising amount of good sound effects, subtle and well placed;
* Adult content: does not require a patch; pretty descriptive scenes; intimate parts are pixelated; people calling this "censored" are vastly exaggerating, as you can see the unpixelated body fluids dribbling, the unpixelated pubic hair, the colour and size of their d*cks, them being the ONLY thing pixelated and perfectly inside their original shape at that; the pixelation is minimal, it's hiding close to nothing; with how simple the art is, it would've probably just been a couple lines filled with the skin colour and no other details - I've seen some curators not recommend this game entirely because of this "censorship", absolutely ridiculous; people read their kind of crap and think the game has no sex scenes or is missing them in the way JAST USA butchers their NitroChiral games, which isn't the case at all; I uploaded a screenshot with the pixelation for one scene, for anyone who's wondering (not even the most explicit one, as I was trying to avoid spoiling it too much); MC is bottom for all ROs; there's some dubcon & noncon, mostly in the bad endings;
* VN features: very polished, 150 save slots, gallery, can save voice lines, can save on choices, skip is pretty fast.