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When it comes to otome game preservation, Voltage is making efforts to keep forms of mobile titles alive via Switch ports of them. The downside is, they aren’t always the complete story and may feature some missing characters. Court of Darkness is a perfect example of this. It started with Court of Darkness: Temptation’s Kiss keeping the first part of the game with the first five love interests available. Court of Darkness: Captivation’s Kiss brings even more of the otome game’s story and characters to the Switch, but at the same time suffers from the same drawbacks as the original installment. On the plus side, I think the cast options might be better in this one!
Since Court of Darkness: Captivation’s Kiss is again an otome game that’s offering more routes from an existing Voltage mobile release on the Switch, the backstory and lead-up is the same as Temptation’s Kiss. The orphaned heroine was at home during a blood moon having dinner with her cat when she passes out and wakes up in another world named Saligia. Princess from five kingdoms attending an academy happen upon her and realize that contact with her strengthens their magical abilities. Headmaster Lou happens upon them and places her under the school’s protection, finding a means of disguising her so she can safely live in the area while finding out what’s going on and if/how she can go home again. The main difference this time around is the love interest routes available. Dia Akedia, Headmaster Lou, Prince Aquia Avari, Prince Rio Voleri, and Prince Lance Ira are the romance options this time.
This may sound a bit controversial, since Court of Darkness: Temptation’s Kiss featured the “main” cast of the otome game and more notable character, but I like the love interests and routes in Captivation’s Kiss better. Rio and Lance are more interesting primary princes, and I liked the story for Aquia more than his brother Guy’s from the first installment. The headmaster’s route is also incredibly fascinating due to the information we learn from it. The main character also remains quite personable and great through their routes. I found the characters available made this installment more enjoyable.
Like Court of Darkness: Temptation’s Kiss otome game, the Switch Captivation’s Kiss release is incomplete. Book 1 and 2 of the common storyline are there, and each love interest’s Book 1 Consort Paths and Perspectives are available. The thing is, you can’t just jump into them. You need to go through the Book 1 section in order to. Which is disappointing, as the common route is pretty much an identical retelling. I already played the first game. While I didn’t expect it to check for save data, it would have been nice for an in-game option to click and immediately unlock the routes instead of leaving my Switch to auto-play.
Funny thing, however. The localization for the common elements seems identical, from what I saw. (It’s quite good!) However, I did notice that the font is much improved for Court of Darkness: Captivation’s Kiss! It’s a minor touch, but the increased sign and choice made it feel easier to read. It was a nice touch.
Here are some side-by-side, spoiler-free screenshots I took to show the difference. Temptation’s Kiss images are on the left, and Captivation’s Kiss ones are on the right.
However, the UI remains the same. Since this is based on what was once a mobile game, it features the same menu and structure. Chapters for each Book are short, which means the common Book 1 will feature 15 chapters, but one chapter might only take you about ten or fifteen minutes to read because of the mobile structure. The sections for each guy’s route has a character description and makes it feel like you’d be heading to an individual section, perhaps even to “pay” for them. It’s fine. The controls have the skip, quick save, and quick load options you’d expect and a log where you can tab back to specific moments. The Extras section holds a gallery. However, since this is limited to specific Books from the original game, each character only has five CGs to unlock.
While Court of Darkness: Captivation’s Kiss features the same flaws as its predecessor Temptation’s Kiss, the Switch otome game features great characters and marks a continuing preservation effort. I’m a bit disappointed there wasn’t a quality of life feature to perhaps let folks skip to unlock routes, especially if they already played the other installment. It also still not being up-to-date with the original mobile release remains disappointing. The story can be interesting though, especially since the love interests here offer new sides to the story that I often liked better.
Court of Darkness: Captivation’s Kiss is available on the Switch, and the original game appeared on mobile devices.
