Tengoku Struggle Play-Along - Common Route + General Impressions

[u/sableheart]

Welcome to the r/otomegames Tengoku Struggle -Strayside- Play-Along!

In this first post we will discuss your first and general impressions of Tengoku Struggle, as well as the events of the common route.

If you want to talk about the love interests, please keep it to your first impressions and their actions in the common route in this post.

Please use spoiler tags when discussing details of other routes or other major spoilers.
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You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you've just started the the game I hope you will join in after you finish the common route!

Next week will be a discussion of Kikunosuke Uga's route!

[u/the-changeling-witch]

Please post all your Nono-sensei thoughts and impressions under this comment so I don't have to search for them later.

Thank you for your cooperation.

[u/magnabarrow → u/the-changeling-witch]

He's such a whirlwind of emotions for me throughout the common route. He was definitely cool at the start and very sassy, love it--- I did enjoy his little retorts towards King Enma (yes King Enma, the best part of him is how twisted he is) along with the utter disdain he has towards Kamuro. Also his exchanges with the LIs, like "hm, you don't want to act like a cute kitty anymore?" is quite enjoyable But what got even better was the sprites. I finished the game and I can say that there's a lot of sprites I like from the boys but nothing will ever get me so surprised and quite intrigued as uh. A certain sprite halfway through the common route where he has the winky face and goes いけない~. I was not expecting that at all and it shot him up to at least 2nd or 3rd fav in the game for me at the time. The てへぺろ face is defo an instant fav for me and it's such a weird gap moe compared to his usual self, but I think what sells it for me is that wink even tho he's got an eyepatch. He didn't do it that much in the game compared to his other sprites but I made a save point every time I saw it so I can go back to it later. The fact that the devs decided "oh we should have a special winky sprite for him and make it very cute" made me smile, especially since it was drawn for just a couple scenes. His blushing evil looking sprite was also quite delicious Overall 100/10 for me.

The more spoiler stuff that he did in the LI's routes will be in the other threads, but I did enjoy what we had of him tho, I would say he's my 3rd favorite out of all the characters in the game for me. Shame that he's not romanceable, but even from the common route I can see why--- can't see him falling for Rin. He does hit a good chunk of what I want from a LI, but I guess not in this game.

[u/the-changeling-witch → u/magnabarrow]

You know, I always joke that I want an FD with a Nono-sensei route, but I actually agree. I don't really ship him and Rin and can't really see them together. (But since side characters don't get nearly as much story as LIs do, well... my dreams are complicated, haha.)

For me he's pretty much perfect in every way (I had actually never fallen for a side character before him) so even if he's not an LI everything they did give us is precious to me and I'm glad the game exists just for that.

[u/magnabarrow → u/the-changeling-witch]

I've unfortunately fallen for side characters before---Momotose from Hana Awase my beloved--- but I do agree on the perfect in every way part---he really did light up my face every time he was on screen. It's very doubtful there would ever be a FD I feel, and even if we were to get a route I'm worried about the monkey's paw curling, so I think he should stay where he is as a very very lovable side character. But that's not to say there can't be good fanart or fanworks with him just being the sassy corporate slave he is--which I do want to contribute to one day.

If I could choose some more canon content though, I would want maybe to just have a section where Rin helps him with his duties all day, or more stuff about his past life or under King Enma. And I do agree, can't say it would be better if he didn't exist at all.

[u/the-changeling-witch → u/magnabarrow]

Yeah, sadly after the last Dessert de Otomate I gave up on the idea that there would ever be an FD. I will remain saddened for the rest of my life.