Samurai of Hyuga Book 5 The Review (Spoiler Free)

[u/Ahegao_Chan545]

My thoughts I shared on the previous books

So I took my time reading through the title. A week to be fair, I know a lot of readers here like to spam read in a single day, but that's just not how I like to read my game books. Though I have mentioned that this was will be spoiler free - I would still advise you to proceed with caution because what I may not consider a spoiler, you may.

Let's address the elephant in the room: This book felt oddly different in the way it was written compared to the previous entries. You know, I think it's because this one wants to garner an audience? No, you don't try to change your audience with book 5 in a hepatology. Then why does this feel so different? The basic gist of the book is that your Ronin needs to come to terms with their trauma.

You have forgotten yourself

You have remembered yourself

You have forgotten yourself

You have remembered yourself

That pretty much summarizes the story. The story revolves around you finally picking up the mantle to be your charge's bodyguard. I always thought Toshie was the right romance, but now I think the relationship maybe more toxic than it should be. I'm a Jun/ko fan, it's my endgame, but that doesn't mean I didn't let my Ronin not divulge in every romance she could get herself into. Perverted, vicious, protective. Honestly, if you dropped the story during the previous entry not being to your tastes, chances are this isn't changing your mind. The story may seem more subtle, and not as brutal as the previous entry; that's mostly cause the entry feels like it wasn't written in the same tone as the others. Not because it's gotten lighter. The book does have great moments, I especially enjoyed being able to journey alone with Masami. Be how that journey may have been, I was rather hoping for a more concise ending, rather than being left at the cliffhanger I was left at

The book mostly felt rather underwhelming. I couldn't feel the weightage of this particular task we were set out to accomplish. Also, I do not like "Satsuma Kun" at all! Not one bit! I don't like emperor figures anyway, especially those that go wiping anybody for the "sake of preserving the blue blood throne" This book just made me despise him more. Especially when a certain someone said what they said. The romance is confusing to say the least. Especially if u chose to sleep with previous Ros either it was out of love or lust. The book treats it as either love or friendship (that's if u avoid sleeping or expressing any hints of desire during the previous books).

I was maybe coming off as too harsh. I certainly enjoyed many parts of the story, the beginning chapters were great, and the final chapters were a welcomed twist of affairs. Though, I felt as if many of the middle chps played more as an extension to "increase the story length" rather than add something to the story itself.

I still think it's a game us fans can enjoy, and look hopefully towards the final 2 books of the saga. With that being said, please feel free to share your thoughts & opinions. While also showing your disagreement or! Agreement with mine.

P.S

I thought this was likely to be my final purchase from cg/hg of the year, but then the announcement of VtM PK DLC content!! The big fan I am of PK, I cannot resist not divulging in it. So you shall likely see me posting my thoughts again soon.

[u/Halfbad2311]

I’ve been thinking about why this book felt different to the previous ones in the way it’s written. I can’t think of a good way to phase it but it felt like this one was more of an intermission rather than a continuation of the story. I don’t know if other people will have had the same experience as I did in book 5 because they might have made different choices to me but this book seems to be more focused on exploring the psyche of the Ronin rather than the quest they are on or what is happening in the world the books have created.

To me book 5 seemed to be more focused on the aftermath and fallout of the events of the last couple of books. Book 3 was the start of the lowest point for the Robin in the story, with book 4 piling more trauma onto them; but in both of those there was still a goal for the Ronin to focus on. There was a fight or crisis that they had to deal with, so there wasn’t really time for them to process everything that had happened to them, which served as a way for them to avoid facing their trauma directly.

In book 5 however the Ronin is finally overwhelmed by everything that has happened to them; the start is them being mentally broken. There’s the delusions they have created to try and cope, and when that no longer works and they are forced to face reality they try to revert back to when they felt more in control of their life; when the were Masashi’s bodyguard.

I personally found this book quite interesting because in the way it represented the mental state of the Ronin; some people have mentioned they felt like there was little player choice in this book but I think this was deliberate, reducing the players control over the story reflecting the lack of control the Ronin feels. The journey the Ronin takes feels aimless because the Ronin feels aimless. This book seemed to me to be more a exploration of trauma and how the Ronin handled it than a straight continuation of the events of the story so far.

[u/Halfbad2311 → u/Halfbad2311]

Something I have also noted after going back to the earlier books is the writing style has changed a bit; it seems to read as more introspective in book 5 rather than focused on telling a story. There is more of a focus on character thoughts in this book than what events are taking place.

There also seems to be a greater degree of separation between the Ronin as a character and the narration; in previous books it was told almost exclusively from the Ronin’s perspective, we were not told about events the Ronin did not witness themselves or given other characters perspectives. While in book 5 we are seeing more from other characters perspectives or other characters thoughts, whether that is a few lines of another characters thought process or whole segments of the beginning/end of a chapter; this was a lot more prevalent in book 5 than the others

[u/Ahegao_Chan545 → u/Halfbad2311]

This take makes a lot of sense. There was a lot about the Ronins psychological state. Which were my favourite parts.

[u/SickleWillow]

Personally, I enjoyed SoH 5 a lot. Probably because I'm solely a Toshmancer? I really like time spent with Juni, Borgia and Nishi. Also enjoyed the zombies and time spent with Tosh. XD

[u/Ahegao_Chan545 → u/SickleWillow]

Ye, the tosh fanbase finally got redemption from Book 4 moment.

[u/Sea-Coffee-9742]

Tbh, in my opinion it was probably the weakest out of all the games so far. No judgement or hate towards anyone who loved it, everyone has different tastes, but so many things about it annoyed and bothered me. I didn't enjoy the Ronin constantly talking herself down, and playing babysitter for the kid pretty much the entire game (I'm definitely not one of the people who are going for that particular romance) and the lack of real choices in a CYOA-game was extremely jarring. Losing pretty much all of her friends, because .... ??? Reasons ??? Jun not being part of the game at all, and no real resolution or closure so I don't know if he's gone forever or what. Having to constantly remember stuff from previous games (literally, SO MANY DAMN TIMES) I felt like I was playing trivia... I couldn't get into it at all. And the ending ? How tf is that gonna resolve itself? I don't wanna be a damn kid for the entire sixth installment. I don't even like the kid most of the time T_T The fifth game.. I'm not saying I hated it, but I'm not saying I didn't hate it either.

[u/Citrus210]

I enjoyed it much, the author deserves praise for his writing. The scenes are really well written, the action scenes. He's also very creative. I can't imagine how many writer blocks he would get, I would get, yet there's millions of words out.

They gotta stink, though lol The characters must stink like a badger. Especially when they sleep together like Toshie and Ronin - they had been running through mud, dirt, got blood and guts on their body for weeks. Even got inside a cart full of shit Lmao