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By Ali  Players: 1 Platforms: Nintendo Switch My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance- (hereafter referred to simply as Pirates of the Disturbance or My Next Life as a Villainess) is an otome visual novel game that comes to us by way of Otomate and Idea Factory. It serves as a side story/follow-up to the My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! light novel and anime series, and is available now on the Nintendo Switch. I'm going to be reviewing this game as a complete newbie to both the franchise itself, and the greater otome game genre too. My views might be a bit different from those who are more familiar with both, but this should be an interesting journey nonetheless I'm sure. I am quite familiar with visual novels in general though, so it's not like the game will be coming out of complete left field for me. Anyhow, there's a lot to cover here, so we're going to cut the introductory bits a little short and get right to the review proper!
Before I talk about the game at length, especially its plot, I want to repeat that this is my first exposure to this series, and that means that some of my interpretations might be off compared to those who are longtime fans. Pirates of the Disturbance is an odd follow-up to the original light novel/anime series My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! that is both a sequel, as well as a non-canon side story. It opens on Catarina Claes, a young noblewoman who remembers a past life where she was a normal high school student who was a fan of an otome game known as Fortune Lover. Her new isekai-ish life is actually that of the villainess from Fortune Lover, and she's spent the time prior to the start of this game working very hard to reach the Friendship End of the events that make of her IRL version of the game. Reaching this end allowed her avoid the many Bad Ends that would've befallen her, which pretty much all revolve around her death or exile. One day, while on vacation from the Magic Academy that she attends with her friends, she accompanies her brother Keith on the maiden voyage of the cruise ship Vinculum. This pair is something of a last minute addition to the voyage, but they are soon joined by all of Catarina's friends once they board the ship. All seems fun and the usual anime hijinks ensue. Their carefree, food-filled vacation is cut short however when the ship is besieged by pirates who are led by a certain Silva, the feared "Demon of the Fog". Catarina soon realizes that the game isn't over for her as she has now moved on to a Fan Disc section based on a Bad End that was originally scrapped from the main Fortune Lover game. Scared that the Doom and Bad Ends she carefully avoided the past year are now once again upon her, Catarina must find a way to get herself and her friends home without anyone getting killed, exiled, or worse. Now I actually was under the impression that this is a sequel to a game to which the anime was based on, but I have since learned that this is the first game based on the franchise. It also is not meant to tie into the series as a whole, and is something of a standalone entry. This is shown to you the second you start up the game, but I was amazed how much it differed from the greater series after I started researching it for this review. I was glad that the game didn't necessarily have to rely on the original work since I was completely new to it, and besides a handful of confusing references to events that took place before the game began, I was able to mostly ease into the world. Having watched a few episodes of the anime prior to writing this review, I wouldn't say that this is the perfect entry point into the series, but one can definitely enjoy it without having any prior knowledge to it. One's first playthrough can be a bit confusing early on if you're not familiar with the characters and their relations, but that sorts itself out quickly as you play and experience the various routes that come complete with many flashbacks and scenes that clarify everyone's past history with each other. Considering that I discovered this series backwards, I will say that it's written in a way that newcomers won't have to worry about being left behind in favor of those who are already fans.
So, this is an otome game and that means romance. The game features four romanceable characters: Geordo Stuart, the third prince of Sorcier and Catarina's fiancée, Keith Claes, Catarina's adopted brother, Alan Stuart, Geordo's twin brother, and Nicol Ascart, the Prime Minister's son and friend to Alan and Geordo. There are also three important (non-romanceable) female characters in the game: Mary Hunt, Alan's fiancée and Catarina's childhood friend, Sophia Ascart, Nicol's sister and another good friend of Catarina, and Maria Campbell, the protagonist of Fortune Lover who Catarina befriends instead of become a villainess towards. Pirates of the Disturbance also adds in two new characters who you can romance, though are locked upon the first few playthroughs: Silva, the aforementioned "Demon of the Fog" and pirate captain, and Rozy, an engineer on the Vinculum. I'll go on a bit more about how one gets onto any one character's routes later, but the core gameplay here (if you can call it gameplay I guess) revolves around the "Love Catch" system. Basically at various points in the story you'll be given a series of choices, similar to a Choose Your Own Adventure book, and certain ones can affect your affection with any of the six romanceable characters. It's not always clear which option will boost which of the boy's affections towards Catarina, but if you have the Love Catch displays on you'll see a rose appear in a color that corresponds to each of the characters. You can also check your status with all the characters at any time via the in-game menu. As I already mentioned in passing earlier, you are only able to romance the six main male characters, and are unable to romance the female ones even though they are all clearly very openly in love with Catarina.
The core game is separated into several chapters, with the first two being the Common chapters. It's in these that your choices matter the most as they can set you on course for any of the six main routes. I say six, but there's actually a seventh "Friendship" route that you fall into if you fail to get anyone's affection meter high enough by the time the pirates attack. I prefer these Friendship routes, and it pains me that there is no way to romance the female characters. A missed opportunity if there ever was one. Anyway, this Friendship route is probably going to be most player's first one as it's not readily obvious what choices/actions will affect a particular boy's affections. I actually wish that these Love Catch-affecting choices were color coded on later playthroughs, as I found that I sometimes forgot which would trigger whose affection when I was trying for a particular route. This is really an issue though as you can sort of rewind time by going through the dialogue log and replaying the scene from before you made a particular choice. I'm not sure of the exact amount, but I think you have to have a boy's meter at least past the 25% mark by the pirates' arrival in order to get their route. Each of the routes isn't exactly a static end though, as you can still get different endings depending on what choices you continue to make. There are over two dozen different endings, and it will take many repeated playthroughs, and probably more than a little save scumming, to see them all.
Besides the fact that I felt that the three girls surrounding Catarina should've been romanceable in some way, I felt that the six that we did get we're all over the place when it comes to their characteristics and personalities. I will admit that there are enough traits mixed among them that will definitely endear them towards players, but there are some that I found odd. The game clearly puts the lion's share of attention towards Keith and Geordo, and I couldn't be bothered to particularly like either of them. I'll start with the obvious first. Keith is Catarina's brother. I know that he's not actually related, but the entire step-sibling (yes, I know that's not what they actually are) romance thing rubbed me the wrong way. If anyone deserved a Friendship-only route, it's Keith. Geordo on the other hand is so heavy-handed with his affections that I grew to despise him by the end of his route, even though I had managed to stumble onto his "Good Ending". I much rather preferred Alan and Nicol when it came to the romanceable options, though falling in love with Alan is a bit odd since he already has a fiancée. It looks like we're just hitting problematic bits everywhere. Nicol is probably my favorite of the entire bunch though, and the fact that his sister Sophia is trying her hardest to bring him and Catarina together is also rather charming. I enjoyed his route most of all, and his was the only one that I actively sought out. There are the other two to talk about of course. Silva and Rozy suffer from the fact that you barely learn a single thing about them in your first playthroughs. It's actually a bit odd that they'd be romanceable at all considering their initial lack of character when you think about it. Catarina herself isn't actually going through the Groundhog Day-esque routine of multiply playthroughs, only we are. This means that unless you factor in things like "Oh, he was nice to her in that other route!" it makes no sense at all that she'd fall for them. I'm probably thinking a bit too much about these routes, but seeing as they literally make up the entire game I couldn't help but feel that they were lacking at times. Then again, I did manage to come out of the experience with a favorite, so all was not lost on me I guess.
I went in thinking that this was a great game for those who aren't particularly fans of otome titles since it didn't go too heavy on the romance at first. Actually, it got a bit annoying how oblivious Catarina is to everyone fawning over her left and right. The friendship routes were my personal favorites, and I wish that there was a way to expand on those a bit. Seeing as I haven't beat the game 100%, maybe there is and I just haven't discovered it yet, but I have far more issues with the writing in the main chapters. Simply put, the actual plot of the game grinds to a halt once you enter a particular character's route. The urgency of being captured by pirates, and trying to discover the conspiracy that put them up to those actions in the first place, just drops by the wayside so you and your newfound lover can make doe eyes at each other. Everything just comes off extremely convenient, and the shock of everyone seeing Catarina being "stolen" away from them got tiresome after my second time through. This is probably why I also preferred Nicol's route the most since Sophia was also cheering the pair on, but it's pretty much just his route that is like this. It may sound silly to want to learn more about the mysteries involving Quid, the reason for the ship's voyage, the identity of the pirate's benefactor, and the importance of Maria in all of this, but they paint such a rich story and world in the first few chapters that I couldn't help but be annoyed that all that became unimportant very fast. Only the Friendship routes have any sense of urgency as you'll spend most of the character routes falling into convenient dating scenarios and sneaking in a kiss or two. You will eventually learn all the secrets about what is going on, but that will only come by way of repeat playthroughs that unlock new scenes. Or you can just cut to the chase and go through the Silva and Rozy routes to get the full picture. Seeing as I was the least bit interested in romancing those characters, I was of course annoyed that I had to play through their routes to get the closure that I very much desired. I don't want to make it sound like I didn't enjoy the story of Pirates of the Disturbance, in fact it was anything but that. Playing this game made me so intrigued about the greater My Next Life as a Villainess franchise that I decided to check out the anime to get more of the backstory. I guess it's just a fault of mine for expecting the story within an otome game to be the actual big draw, as opposed to the romance aspects. That said, I still do think that this is not only a great way to get into the greater series, but also to dip your toes into the otome genre if you're not normally interested in it. There was enough here that kept me going through many routes, even though I felt that much of the romance was a bit forced or off-putting at times. I guess I was expecting more of a standard visual novel approach, but the antics here were more than enough to make up shattered expectations. And just in case you were wondering, each route does eventually reveal several new aspects of the plot, even though some come off as more relevant than others. There's even a healthy amount of fourth wall breaking to go around.
I normally don't talk much about graphics or art style in a visual novel game since you're pretty much able to see everything worth seeing in just a trailer or two. There isn't any animation to speak of, besides lip flaps of course, so it's not like anything is going to jump out to shock you, or even cause performance issues. My comments here are going to center a bit on the character designs themselves. The boys all have standard otome tropes and poses, so I don't really want to discuss them all that much. It's the girls' are where things get a little weird. I couldn't help but feel that Mary looks like she was designed by a completely different artist than everyone else due to not only her always-visible cleavage, but also because of her overly wide eyes that made her always looked surprised. This also is a problem I had with Sophia's character art, but her design feels far more in line with everything else than Mary's. Also, and this is something that bothered me the entire time I had with the game, all the girls are constantly A-posing. Like seriously, once you begin to notice that they're pretty much always standing perfectly still with their arms at a near-perfect downward 45 degree angle, you'll never be able to unsee it. If the main female cast wasn't actually so important to the story I probably wouldn't care about this all that much, but they factor in just as much as the male cast. Hopefully you'll get used to that A-posing more than I did, because it took me out of the game dozens of times. Other than these issues I don't really have a lot to say about the visuals (Well, Keith's design is a bit too boring for my liking I guess.), so I guess we'll move on. Sound is one of the areas where Pirates of the Disturbance excels. I enjoyed all the music, both the various background tracks, and the vocal ones that bookend the game. I guess I would've liked more of those vocal tracks over the course of the game since you will be doing a lot of replaying, but what's here is well done. Since this is a visual novel the music has a very chill, laid back mood to it, but that didn't keep the developers from throwing together some catchy tunes. Some of these songs live rent-free in my head, and I might have to look up a soundtrack for the game in order to appease the desire to hear a track or two from time to time. Also, the vocal songs are all done by Aoi Shouta, who also voices Geordo, and I couldn't help but notice that they sound like they're coming from two completely different voices. Speaking of voices, let's talk about the voice acting. It goes without saying that this is a Japanese-language only game audio-wise, and it does not feature an English-language dub. This is standard fare for visual novels, but I felt I'd mention it just in case anyone was expecting the dub cast from the anime to pop in here. With that said, everyone here does a fine job within their roles. I actually had to look up a few of them since they felt very familiar, and I was not surprised to see that they had also appeared in many other things I was familiar with. I literally have no negatives to speak of when it comes to sound in general. If only the game's writing could be as near perfect as this.
I bet you'd think that I'd have nothing at all to say about controls in a visual novel/otome game right? Well, you'd be wrong, because I actually do. I didn't mention this earlier, but throughout the game you come across Memory Scenarios while conversing with the main cast. These scenarios are marked by a book that appears on the upper left screen, and you select it to go into the Memory itself. These are missable in more ways than one, and I found it bothersome trying to collect them all while also skipping through dialog in subsequent playthroughs. Like most visual novels that have a skip option, you can skip all text, only what you've already seen, or all the way to the next in-game choice. I'd have loved to keep it on the next in-game choice, since skipping text even at fast speeds adds tens of minutes of wasted time to repeat playthroughs, but it was hard to do this as I was trying to grab Memory Scenarios I had initially missed. (I thought the book icon they used was an autosave icon my first time through.) Seeing as these are only on-screen for a few text windows, it could also be hard to see them if you're not actively paying attention to the scene you're skipping. This may sound like I'm nitpicking, and I probably am, but it made going through some of the other dialogue chains something I actively avoided. It doesn't help that there seems to be some bugs with text skip option itself, as the speed varies, and it can sometimes start and stop at odd times for a window or two. Also, with an entire console controller at your disposal, you'd think there'd be proper mapping for all the in-game options. This isn't really the case though, and there are some odd button choices here and there. These can all be remapped, but the default control scheme felt so wonky that I constantly had to go into the menu to see which button did what. Here's where I would normally say something like: "I guess this is due to this originally being a PC title," but as far as I know Pirates of the Disturbance is only available on the Nintendo Switch. These minor gripes with controls aren't any big issue, but it's weird that they're here at all.
Tackling the topic of replayability is hard when it comes to a game like this, since it really depends on the player as to how much mileage you're going to get out of it. If you're a completionist, and need to unlock every CG, ending, and memory, then you're looking at well over 50-70 hours of gameplay. I'm not even exactly sure if that's a correct amount as I'm just guessing based on how long a standard run is. A regular friendship route, with no romance, will take about 3-5 hours to complete depending on your reading speed. A romance route is about twice that at 5-8 hours, depending on not only your reading speed, but also if you skip all the already seen bits that you can. Seeing as there are countless dialogue choices, endings, and more to see, it can take quite a while to get anywhere near that ever-elusive 100%. Then again, I spoke to some of my otome-playing friends who say that they tend to only play enough so that they see everything there is to see regarding their favorite romanceable character. Seeing as this is pretty much what I ended up doing with Nicol, I guess I can see that reasoning too. Even if you only go after your favorite(s), you still might want to do a few other routes just for that story closure. With this in mind, a full playthrough of the game for story closure purposes might be half of that earlier estimate at about 25-30 hours. However you cut it though, there is a lot of game here to experience, and the high production values make this one easily worth its $49.99 price tag. This is the kind of game you'll be sinking many weekends into, and I've definitely paid that amount for games that barely gave me a few hours of fun for a full price tag.
Even though I've been raving about My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance- here and there, I'm still at a loss as to what kind of recommendation I should give this one. Clearly, if you're an otome game fan, or a fan of the My Next Life as a Villainess franchise, go out and get this now. It's a great game, it shakes up some of the standard otome tropes, and it has hours upon hours of gameplay between six different romanceable characters. If you're a casual player, you might want to weigh out if you're willing to go through some of the romance-heavy plot elements to get to the surprisingly rich visual novel that's underneath it all. It really is worth giving it a go, but even I'll admit that it might not be for everyone. If you're on the fence then maybe you could check out the anime, watch a trailer for the game, re-read my many gripes and praises above, and then grab it if all that still gels with you. Either way, if you do end up getting it, be sure to clear your calendar as you're going to be here for a while. Oh, and stay away from Nicol, he's mine! Check Out My Next Life As a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance- on The Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/my-next-life-as-a-villainess-all-routes-lead-to-doom-pirates-of-the-disturbance-switch/ Story: B- Gameplay: B Graphics: B+ Music/Sound: A Value: A Overall: B+ Pros: + A long game that features over two dozen endings and six romanceable characters. + Serves as a great introduction to both the My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! franchise, and to otome games in general. + Each of the six romanceable boys have varied enough personalities that there is sure to be one that will become the player's favorite. + The over-arching plot of a pirate kidnapping, complete with a conspiracy involving who hired said pirates, is actually just as interesting as the romance elements. + A full rewind/replay system makes seeing the various outcomes to choices far easier, and makes one less reliant on save scumming. + Features an amazing soundtrack and voice cast. +/- The subplots kind of drop off once you enter a character's route as the focus shifts to romance almost completely. Cons: - Catarina's total obliviousness to everything and everyone around her becomes less and less endearing as the game goes on. - Quirks in gameplay, and the text skipping options themselves, make repeated playthroughs a bit more of a chore than they need to be. - Some of the romance options just seem... weird or off. (Looking at you Keith!) - Going through the same common chapters to get into the romance routes gets quite boring after the third or fourth time. A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.  Literally my life. #MyNextLifeAsAVillainessPiratesOfTheDisturbance
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