Tokyo Onmyoji -The Tale of Rei Tengenjibashi-

I play maybe for an hour, I'm amazed with how good the quality is. The start of the story already draw me in, it's interesting and creepy. Full voice cast, awesome cgs, this game definitely worth it even with full price.
Buy it to support more BL games being localized! Also thank you for the team that translate and bring this game to english audience! I pray for other BL games future release!

Beautiful art, the voice over is exceptional. You have plenty of stories to choose from. A must have!
It is censored.

SPOILER FREE REVIEW:
100% Recommend this game to all BL and Visual Novel lovers! It's a classic BL visual novel that's been around for a while and to find out it's been localized, translated and readily available on STEAM made my heart soar!
WORTH THE MONEY!
I've always wanted to play the game when I heard about it years ago but with my limited Japanese and inability to play it prior to it being open STEAM, made me sad. NOW THAT'S CHANGED AND I'M OVER THE MOON!! SO PLAY IT GODDANGIT!
SPOILER REVIEW BELOW! (Prob will update as I've only played MEGURO's GOOD ENDING)
Tokyo Onmiyoji is more than just a BL Visual Novel. It is deep and rich in story, supernatural Japanese lore as well as an interesting mix of characters! I've only played Meguro's full GOOD route and ....it's just outstanding how intricate the supernatural elements, stories and lore have been wound into the story and it's characters! From understanding the evolution of Ayakashi, Onmyodo and to modern day Japan (Shinjuku) adapting to such supernatural phenomena ect. The characters are tied skillfully and thoughtfully into the lore and compliments the story/routes fantastically! I could go on for hours onto how amazing the story is. Heck, the smut scenes make sense when they appear in the story too! (And oh boy is the art in those R18 scenes YUMMY!) Please give this game a chance! ALSO IT HAS EPIC ANIMATION MOMENTS THAT ARE AMAZING TO SEE! Props to the animation and art team for this!
ART: 10/10 (Give these artists a R A I S E!!)
MUSIC: 10/10 (Nice set pieces and a good mix of tense, funny and situational themes that make sense in all scenes!)
CHARACTERS: Ehh....8/10 (points off for Kamiosaki for being for being an overbearing dumbass lol. Might change once I've done his route but ehhhh)
STORY: 10/10
PREMISE: 10/10 Come on its supernatural stories with a detective/monster of the week feel!
SMUT: AMAZING. YUMMY. A TREAT FOR THE EYES. I love me some Power bottom/sassy/self assured/confident/elegant UKE like our lovely Rei Tengenshibashi <3 You don't see enough of his type nowadays in modern BL. *sigh* BRING BACK THE CONFIDENT + SASSY POWER BOTTOM UKE!
*I'll prob add more to this review as I finish Basara, Yotsuya and ....eh...regretably Kamiosaki's routes!*
But anyways, PLEASE BUY AND ENJOY THE GAME AS MUCH AS I DO! IT'S WORTH THE PRICETAG AND I GUARANTEE YOU IT WON'T DISAPPOINT!*
EDIT: Finished game on 28/3/2022.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I'VE FINALLY FINISHED THE GAME (All good ends thank god) and my previous review from a few days ago stands. IT IS AN INCREDIBLE, STORY AND CHARACTER DRIVEN GAME WITH AMAZING PLOT, CHARACTERS, ART AND SOUNDTRACK! LOVED EVERY MOMENT!
Overall experience 9/10!
One point off for Basara's route not being long enough like the other boys ;_; Like I want a prequel detailing how he and Rei met and formed a bond together prior to the series and all aaaaaa
Oh well. Great game overall!

Imagine a very plain cake - it's uneven, the icing hasn't been applied with a masterful hand, and the baker is a complete amateur. You cut into it and slap it on your plate, pretty unenthused about the whole thing. And then you put your fork in your mouth.
It's the most delicious cake you have ever eaten in your life.
That's what this game is, and that's why I'm leaving it a review.
Yes, the art is a little rough. Some of the sprites are off-model (looking at you, Yotsuya), and the CGs are inconsistent quality-wise. Some of them are gorgeous, sexy, and creative. Others... Not so much. But genuinely, GENUINELY, that is one of the only "bad" things I can say about the game. That being said, I got used to it fast and began to ignore the handful of too-tiny hands and weird side profiles because I was so immersed in the story. I wanted to say this first because my initial impression of the art is what prevented me from purchasing the game upon release. Eventually, I bought it because I was stuck inside for a few days and really enjoyed the short demo... And it ended up being one of the best BL games I've ever played.
The story of the game follows the titular Rei Tengenjibashi - a 29 year old Onmyoji who is proactive, openly gay, intelligent (if shockingly emotionally repressed), and overall a very fun protagonist. This is a massive plus for me as a comfortably queer 20-something who is tired of the virgin/gay panic tropes that permeate BL games. In fact, this game is pretty tonally mature, and manages to avoid a lot of pitfalls that BL games suffer from. Of course, there is still rape, violence, drugs, etc. but nothing feels overtly gratuitous, or there for the purpose of being shocking, or unjustifiable in the plot.
All of the love interests are incredible, and they each follow their own individual plot line, instead of being tied to an overarching story. They are all very different people, and Tengenjibashi responds to them in different ways as well, making each route strike a totally unique tone. Without fail, all of the characters surprised me because of their complexity, and the juxtapositions of their traits. I never got bored, or felt like I *had* to power through to complete anything, and I ended up adoring all of them. One of the routes (Kamiosaki) feels comparatively bare bones, even though his route is probably the longest of the four. He gets fewer CGs overall, and not even a single kiss CG (!!) when the other two main paths get a handful each. Basara isn't a full route, and I feel like his story definitely could have been elaborated on further instead of essentially keeping him as a mascot. But neither of those things really affected my overall experience.
There is a huge amount of worldbuilding, and a lot of it is ultimately inconsequential to the plot. However, it does add to the flavour and keeps you immersed in the universe. It's completely subjective whether you find that kind of presentation appealing or not, but I'm a fan of in-depth storytelling and I consider it a big factor in my personal enjoyment, so it's worth noting.
The localisation is solid, and there are very few errors or awkward turns of phrase. A few of the lines are really hard-hitting, and the strength of the narrative is one of the biggest positives about the game. The voice acting is also absolutely amazing - minus a couple of minor characters - and I made LIBERAL use of the save voice feature. All 30 pages of it, in fact!
The only consistent and objective negative I can find is that it is VERY frustrating to play without use of a guide. The common route is structured in such a way that you have to begin to earn approval points from the LIs through Tengenjibashi's Onmyoji jobs before you've even seen the LIs for more than a few minutes, and you have to earn pretty much every point in their favour available to get on their route. On one occasion, I failed to unlock one route because I made a decision that counted against the LI I was pursuing, even though he was not present for the job at all. It's also very easy to die, or get a game over, or lock yourself out of a good ending hours before you even realise you've done it. It's fine with a guide, but it's a problem if you prefer going in blind or without particular intention to follow a certain route order.
A minor warning; there is one instance of transphobic language and narration in one short mission/sex scene, but you can easily skip over it using the spacebar. The sex scene is purely optional and the information in the mission isn't integral to the plot. For those who wish to take care, the name of the mission is ("Woman of the Outskirts").
It took around 35-40 hours to complete all of the routes - my play hours are so high because I loved it so much that I'm replaying it with a friend - so it's on the longer side for a VN, and in my opinion the price tag is worth its weight in gold. If you're debating whether or not to pick it up, I hope this helped you make a decision. If you're still on the fence, I say wait for a sale. Trust me on this one.
TL;DR: Looks bad on the outside, is absolutely amazing on the inside for a million reasons. Give it a chance and I promise you'll be really pleasantly surprised. Meguro please call me.

Very good story with an interesting group of characters that led to some very fun and shocking twists. Love this style of game where we understand the culture of Japanese in terms of spirituality and folklore with a mostly unfiltered voice.

Definitely one of the better BL VNs. Moonchime did a great job translating this *extremely* Japanese VN into English, barring a few minor typos and stilted sentences. It helps to be familiar with Japanese mythology and spirituality going in to this story, but it's not necessarily required. Just be prepared for some word soup when the story goes into the weeds regarding the finer details of onmyoji techniques and history. Again, Moonchime did a great job! It's just unavoidable sometimes due to so many terms not having English equivalents.
If none of the love interests seem appealing, play it for Tengenjibashi himself. He's a proactive and genuinely skilled protagonist that puts doormats like Aoba and Akira to shame. He's also written as and actually acts like the experienced working adult he is, which is refreshing in a genre that tends to infantilize the player character. The love interests themselves are more interesting than they first appear, for the most part. 3/4 routes go deep into their motivations and how they connect to Tengenjibashi. Tyrant opted for the less=more approach to characters and their stories and it paid off rather well.
Since it's one of the main draws, I'll mention the R18 stuff... everything is still censored, which didn't bother me but might turn away others. The scenes themselves are a mixed bag depending on your own preferences. I like Tengenjibashi's tendency to be honest about his history and what he wants (remember that "proactive" bit?), but the characterization isn't always consistent sadly (he tends to become submissive pretty quickly once things get heated.) There are some non-consensual encounters, N+C style guro scenes, and questionable situations but nothing out of the ordinary for BL. If that type of stuff bothers you, just avoid the bad endings. There is a guide in the Steam community to help with that. And, if I'm being honest, the guro isn't as explicit as some of N+C's worst stuff- Tyrant seems to have a tad more restraint in that regard. But again, it's easily avoidable for those who don't want to see it. The scenes themselves also aren't necessarily out of nowhere or awkward feeling like the can be in other VNs. The story-to-PLOT ratio is tilted in the favor of story in 3 out of the 4 routes.
Overall I'd say this is a great VN to play for veterans and newbies alike. Definitely give it a shot if you're interested in BL!

This was super fun to play, I will say though that after playing through all of it that I feel like there are some bits missing and that just makes it feel a bit incomplete? Like some routes feel more or less fully fleshed out but others feel sorta rushed and unfinished, I don't think this should stop anyone from playing though!