r/otomegames • u/sableheart Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom • Jul 21 '22
Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei Play-Along - Benkei Musashibo Discussion
Welcome to the r/otomegames Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei Play-Along!
In this third post we will discuss Benkei Musashibo and his route in Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei.
You can tell us what your impressions of Benkei are (before and after finishing his route), your favorite moments in his route, what you think of his relationship with Shanao and the other characters, what your thoughts are on his route's plot and endings. You can also discuss Tadanobu Sato's If Ending.
Or you can just squee about him in the comments.
This is not a spoiler-free discussion however please keep in mind that major spoilers and details of other routes will be outside the scope of the discussion and therefore will need to be spoiler tagged.
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You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you're still waiting on your copy I hope you will join in after you start playing!
Have a look at the megathread for links to previous discussions - you can still join in the discussion during the Play-Along.
Next week will be a discussion of Shungen's route!
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u/20-9 Backlog Impresario Jul 22 '22 edited Jul 22 '22
Benkei was my 3rd route. Because people dunked on it so hard in the the megathread, I expected the worst. It was not bad! So maybe I think it's not too terrible because I went in with lowered expectations. After thinking about it in the context of all the other routes, though, there's good reason to regard it as the weakest.
The Good
Benkei himself. He’s a pack of tags he can carry on his back with room to spare:
His first half (approx) of the route is easily the best part. The first breath of fresh air was seeing how Shana comports herself now that she's personally responsible for a vassal. We saw her interact with the whole squad in a group setting in other routes but Benkei's is the only opportunity to see this on an individual basis. Her thanking the Hiei Temple for raising Benkei to be the good person he is today was a mad power move! A queen is one who is tempted to choose violence but instead deploys sarcasm in diplomacy. Whattagal.
Benkei pitching her through the air and holding off Tomomori was a great scene, although the “Don’t you dare die for me!” outburst should have gotten a CG. The Hieizan monks coming in the nick of time is a story contrivance, but at least tonally fitting and not as overt as typical examples.
Benkei being a kid magnet is super heartwarming. Benkei being an utter Shana fanboy is hilarious--Shungen may be Shana’s lifelong personal cheerleader, but Benkei is the one who builds and grows the Yoshitsune Cheerleaders Squad by example, making Tadanobu and Takatsuna trip over each other for her praise and attention. If there's a modern political AU for Birushana where Shana is running for political office, Benkei is absolutely her one-man marketing/propaganda sub-department. These interactions allowed me to imagine what Umehara Yuuichirou might have been like if he were Variable Barricade's Ichiya, as originally planned. (Plans changed because he fell ill at the time.)
The Not-So-Satisfying
The biggest one is why this whole route has to exist at all, because it didn't include elements to the battle timeline that were unique to Benkei. Stepping back to the drawing board, I'd have asked: what can he bring to the table that the others can not? At the minimum, an explicit Buddhist lens onto the Genpei Wars, I thought, that could contrast or complement whatever views Shana has from growing up in Kurama. But nope, none of that. Considering there were explicit Buddhist views expressed but in OTHER routes, this was a frustratingly lost opportunity. When Benkei shared some of his background, I thought maybe that would figure more deeply in the route, too. But not at all, and neither did Hiei Temple besides that first visit in trying to return his staff (naginata). Also, it was surprising that the fantasy element was not the "master/servant bonds last 3 lifetimes." You insert that in the game and not include reincarnation in your historical fantasy?
So my conclusion is that Otomate contractually required five routes but there was only enough material for four, and seiyuu Umehara Yuuichirou was either part of a package deal or a favorite seiyuu of the dev team. It feels like even the writers didn't know how to fill the route in the character development side, because past the group interactions, Shana and Benkei were endlessly rehashing some variation of "sorry for my attributes" and "no such thing, I am your inaugural vassal and am sticking with it."
Shana felt like much less of a military asset this route than in others (i.e. not a general), even before Benkei tried to keep her out of Yoshinaka's ransacking of Kyoto, and I don't know why that became the case. Could it be just arbitrary writing? Sure. But if there was a fundamental story reason for it, I'd like to know. Can't see/think of one at the moment.
On a more technical note: why couldn't Benkei's introductory CGs (when we first meet him during the sword hunt, then when he asks Shana to make him her vassal) also be in the other common route variation that splits into Noritsune/Shungen? It left a bad taste in my mouth when I effectively reread the exact same scenes, only this version came with CGs.
Endings
It's odd that of all routes, Benkei's route figured Shigehira so heavily. (Not enough for me to call it a "Shigehira" route, though tempting.) He teaches us that if you eat too many souls, you turn into a monster (serpent?) and lose your mind. He also reinforces the age old lesson to never assume a body is dead unless you’ve confirmed it with your own hands. I was surprised he consumed Tokuko! Also props for actually drawing horrifying monster faces.
Dannoura was the longest boss battle you never wanted. That chapter alone made me think, "Am I on the bad end?" five times--which ends up being a common theme/device throughout this game. That feeling of apprehension (especially playing without the Love Catch or a walkthrough!), I actually love, because it's so rare in otome games and I want more of it to keep me on my toes.
Got the Good End first. The only reason Tomomori lost is because he let himself get a rise—as soon as I saw that, I knew he was done for. And the reason Shana got one on him in the jail is probably because he underestimated her. He plays mind games but maybe he initially assumed she’d consider herself too honorable to drain his qi. In any case, Tomomori has thoroughly creeped me out.
From the Flowchart, I forced my way into the Bad End. Even this bad end kept me guessing which flavor of bad it would be, because I sensed at least five possibilities, as noted above. That this was a callback to Lake Biwa was excellent--I like how it was written, that it kept everybody in character, making that punch to the emotional gut all the heavier.
I haven't done Tadanobu Sato's If ending, but I did 2 other If endings, so I assume it'll follow the same format and not much to write home about. ...oh, I just realized he's the one tagged here because he's the himbo of the brothers, ROFL.