I had played Clock Zero ~Shuuen no Ichibyou~ Otome Game since it was first launched in PS2. Then, I re-playing the PSP version not long after PS2 had ended. I had forgotten some endings, but still remember about King. Because of watching two stage plays (Re-verse-mind & a live moment) and his presence remains my no.1 favorite character in otome game, I should have not forget about Kaidou Takato’s storyline forever in my lifetime now. Especially since his seiyuu is Namikawa Daisuke, currently the MC of Seiyuu to Yo Asobi on Thursday, is my no.1 favorite seiyuu too.
I had a lot of time replaying CZ this time. Since it was already 10+ years ago, of course I would re-play it (similar thing was done with Koezaru ha Akai Hana, re-playing the first game three times plus adding the Ayanasu Mirai). In this Switch 2019 version, there is a new route of Hanabusa Nakaba. I won’t write much about it since you can find review for his route online anywhere before my review. I will only give my thoughts about Devote here.
CV
Heroine Kurou Nadeshiko
Kaidou Takato / King / Kaga Akira : Namikawa Daisuke
Kanou Riichirou / Wanderer : Maeno Tomoaki
Hanabusa Madoka / Bishop : Toriumi Kousuke
Saionji Toranosuke / Traitor : Sugiyama Noriaki
Tokita Shuuya / Philosopher : Ishida Akira
Hanabusa Nakaba / Journalist : Sudou Shou
Rain Lindbergh / Rook : Matsumoto Sachi
Shinomiya Kaede : Shinsaku Kouchi
Saionji Yoshimune / Osa : Fujii Keisuke
Saionji Shigure : Shinomiya Saya
Kurou Yoshiaki : Nishimatsu Kazuhiko
Tokita Rei : Iida Naomi
I noticed that 65-70% of the stories are for child version. The rest is after Nadeshiko woke up as an adult. Now that I had replaying every route, I found the child stories are boring. I wonder how I could get through it in the past (but I played it at the time I was in college so I had many free times back then). I read every sentences, except when I could use skip button, and they’re mostly not affecting the whole route. Overall, the story just begun after Nadeshiko woke up in the future world.
Nakaba’s story is heart warming and cute. Nadeshiko was jealous when she found a charm for save delivery, which Nakaba got from a couple he had saved in the past. The two of them also saved Tora’s mother in Clock Zero, Saionji Shigure, which had lost memories. Before playing his route, I thought he will be over-shadowed by the other CZ’s male lead characters before him. But it turns out not. I can still feel his route is refreshing enough after Takato’s serious and heartbreaking mood, or the bland Riichirou’s route. I would still prefer Nakaba’s route than Riichirou!
Then, for the bonus scenario in middle school time, I found it’s very long! Otomate is generous enough to add more scenarios for the time skip in dream endings. Here, we could see the story of when Nadeshiko got a confession from a boy, but she refused him due to his bad mouthing her CZ friends. We could understand a part of Takato’s love for her too in the ending, together with Riichirou.
And there is Rain’s story, of how he doesn’t involve Takato in that world so it’s peaceful. It turns out Nadeshiko remembered a bit of Rain’s plan so she asked Rain not to bring Takato with him. Rain easily accepted her request. Another middle school story involved Kaede. He’s the junior of Nadeshiko and really admired her. A cute Kaede could be seen here.
I’m glad there are continuation of the dream world stories and the future stories. Here, all male leads have wedding story with Nadeshiko. Most of the time, her father, Kurou Yoshiaki, refused to have his son-in-law, except Shuuya or Nakaba? Yoshiaki have a fierce battle with his son-to-be… I’m so jealous of Shuuya’s route because it’s the only route we have Nadeshiko pregnant. For Takato and Riichirou, their routes are almost similar. But Yoshiaki didn’t approve of Takato because he didn’t want Nadeshiko to get involve with Kaidou group’s trouble, since they’re a big company. Meanwhile, Riichirou wasn’t approved with a bit of humour because Yoshiaki wanted Riichirou to have a strong mind to date his daughter. Different than the other routes, where Yoshiaki finally approved of male lead, he didn’t waver at Tora. It’s because Tora had bad past with fighting. The end of his route is when he have a pretend-like wedding with Nadeshiko, but hopefully it will get real later. Meanwhile, the future broken world’s added endings are full of despair, but still get a bit touching. They didn’t leave much impression on me. The broken world version is a bland and doesn’t have pretty CGs like the wedding.
I usually played CZ 1-2 hours a day and it took me around 6 months to complete! Of course I didn’t play every day. I really took many times just reading manhwa, manga, and watching dramas lately. Maybe because I have played many otome games last year and the list is now lower. But in the end, I could complete the 10th anniversary CZ series! Before finishing the VN, I had trouble completing the CGs. Turns out that I haven’t complete Tora, Shuuya, and Madoka’s going home CG. Every characters have four chibi CGs, but I lost one each char. It took about 5 hours re-playing 90% of their child stories!!! It sucks! Especially since I need to do well in the exam questions from Kaga Akira.
The ending for wedding story is very satisfying. Not many otome games have wedding ending and it seems finally CZ have reach its real end with this. I don’t like how Otomate milking Hakuouki with many versions I can’t tell anymore. Just glad with 3 versions of new routes or so.
I noticed the CGs from PS2 are longer than new CGs. So I put two versions in my uploaded CG pack. It seems Otomate still doesn’t think of localizing CZ even after 10+ years now. It’s sad for international fans. Many good otome games doesn’t have English translation, especially the series I like. For note, I like Clock Zero ~Shuuen no Ichibyou~, Shinigami to Shoujo, Kannagi no Mori, Kaminaru Kimi to, Haitaka no Psychedelica, and Tsumikui ~Sen no Noroi Sen no Inori~. The list will be there for more years to come. After completing CZ, I think I will try playing Tales of Arise on Steam. I hope I can do well because I’ve never played Tales series (only my sister played a few titles and never completing them). Oh and I’m so glad Tri Ace finally came back with Star Ocean 6 The Divine Force. But too bad the male lead’s design is a meh… I don’t like his hair so much and his large body but small head proportions. Many people teases Raymond as Bon Jovi and rather than working as a merchant, he’s more suitable as a labourer or porter.
Link for CG:
Mega
https://mega.nz/file/rtJFGIKY#Ju9dymUi3GA8zNPjhJm5KPHdTxQB8cYu0EYDbYdPLBI
Mediafire
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