(This was a challenge on Otome Amino that I decided to pursue since it seemed interesting and I a mean, WHY THE HELL NOT?)
You’ve arrived in Steampunk Kyoto, with nothing but an amulet, pocket watch, a piece of a puzzle, and a mask that states ‘Invitation to the Shadow Masquerade.’ Uncertain to the remnants of who you are, you have come to the capital of Japan to find clues to your past. Beware, nothing is ever as it seems, remember… Everyone wears a mask to protect who they truly are.
Prologue
Year 1863, Bunkyu Era
Kyoto, Japan
Steam hissed from the steampowered carriages that zoomed passed you, stirring a little wind beneath your clothing you clutch a fist to your chest as you marvel at the wonder of Kyoto. You’ve traveled far from where you awoke, the only clues to your past may lay here but uncertainty grips you as you look down at the puzzle piece in your hand, and the letter attached to it.
“In the land where the sun rises,
share a drink, and rest with care.
For friends become foes,
when a dance of swords sings in the air.
Dance with the wolves in blue,
one of them holds a key for you.”
Dressed as a foreigner, you manage to have come this far on your own dressed as a man, and using your wits to escape dangerous situations. However, the time has finally come to raise the curtain on the grand mystery that is about to unfold. Stepping into Kyoto with nothing but the items you found on your person and the clue left behind, you are on a mission to find the truth of who you are and what The Shadow Masquerade is.
The Heroine
Age: Unknown
Eye Color: Gold with traces of red
Hair Color: Rose Gold
Occupation: N/A
“I’m fairly certain that trouble is afoot.”
In order to find out the truth of who you are you go on a journey that crosses almost all of Pangaea, but are you willing to use your wit, discernment skills, and wreck your brain with puzzles to find out the truth of your existence?
Armed with only a pocket watch, an amulet, a puzzle piece, and a mask with initials that have been scratched away on her person, the scene opens with the heroine barely arriving in Kyoto. Disguised as a man, she makes her way to Ikedaya in the hopes to find information on the Shinsengumi, and find the person holding the key to her past.
>>>The heroine approaches events or issues with a calm demeanor, however, she talks to herself out loud and usually gets her into trouble when she does so. She likes to solve puzzles, and is skilled in the art of alchemy and botany, although she is uncertain as to why. She has a weakness for cats, whether they love or hate her, and she tends to try and cuddle things that SHOULDN’T be cuddled with… like a bear.<<<
Hijikata Toshirou
Age: 28
Eye Color: Brown
Hair: Ash Black
Occupation: Vice Commander of the Wolves of War
Type: Kuudere, Possessive
C.V: Tomokazu Sugita
“It would be wise to run then make friends with a wolf.”
The vice commander of the Wolves of War, after he saves the heroine from the seige in Ikedaya he brings her back with him to HQ. It is then he is tasked with eliminating the heroine under orders of the Matsudaira Katamori, uncertain as to why he must kill her, he is at a crossroads.
While he was given the order to kill her at all costs, he finds himself questioning the reasons to eliminate the heroine. Determined to find out the truth behind the girl, he puts his orders on hold to kill the heroine and follow her on her journey to find out why she is a danger to the restoration of Japan.
>>>The ever silent and quiet person, he has no use for words and rarely speaks unless it is to the trees. Skilled with a blade but horrible at cooking (
HE BURNS EVERYTHING HE TOUCHES, DON’T LET HIM COOK, I’M SERIOUS), we at least know he’s sincere about his code of the samurai and loyal to the Wolves of War. While you both journey together, you grow closer, but… Can you trust him to not kill you before finding the truth?<<<
Prince Yoshinobu Tokugawa
Age: 26
Eye Color: Gray
Hair: Brown
Occupation: Lead Scientist of the Argo
Type: Flirty, Deredere
C.V: Yuki Kaji
“I do believe the best way to get your memories back is to kiss me.”
A prince who wishes nothing more than to stay out of the public eye and not be addressed like royalty. Yoshinobu is the first person the heroine encounters by fate in the town of Twilight on the edge of London Library’s Jurisdiction. In a moment of realization, Yoshi is taken aback by the heroine and her appearance as he suddenly grabs her and asks if she remembers him. To his dismay, she shakes her head uncertain about who she was before the war and that she herself is trying to figure out why both Japan and Europe are after her.
The flirty, enigmatic, and sometimes eccentric man, Yoshi is passionate about science and astrology. He tends to sing off-key at the laboratory and gets on everyone’s nerves every once in a while because of his tone-deaf range. However, there is something he is hiding in plain sight of the heroine… Can you trust him?
Radon Lupin
Age: 27
Eye Color: Sliver
Hair: White
Previous Occupation: Assistant Detective
Current Occupation: Grand Magician
Type: Tsundere, Arrogant
C.V: Shotaru Marikubo
“If you try and hug a bear, of course, it won’t welcome you. Come here, I’ll hug you. Geez…”
The heroine meets Radon after solving a locked room mystery, what was supposed to be a clue to her past ends up being a person!? Radon, recognizes the heroine and is angry that she has returned to the capital of Britannia he immediately makes it clear that she shouldn’t be here unless she wishes to die. While the heroine explains that she doesn’t recall who she was and why Radon refuses to tell her what she wants to know and threatens that if she doesn’t leave someone else will come willingly to kill her.
A former student of Sherlock Holmes and childhood friend of Arthur Holmes, Radon is an arrogant man and skilled in the art of alchemy. Albeit he doesn’t use his alchemy towards things that he used to due to certain circumstances, however, as you progress through the route you find that there’s more to the egotistical magician than meets the eye.
And why is both Arthur Holmes and himself, now, enemies? Can you trust him?
Arthur Holmes
Age: 29
Eye Color: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Previous Occupation: Assistant Detective
Current Occupation: The Queen’s Wolf
Type: Mysterious, Yandere-Mayadere
C.V: Tetsuya Kakihara
“Was escaping fate too boring for you?”
The son of the great detective, Sherlock Holmes, you come face to face with him on the streets of London after escaping the hands of Jack the Ripper. However, he makes Jack the Ripper look like a puppy when he recognizes you. The man who holds the truth behind your past is also the right hand of Queen Victoria, who has ordered that you be captured at all costs.
Faithful to his queen, Conan is mysterious as he is also dangerous. He speaks in a seductive manner towards the heroine and usually has a poetic nuance to most of his words. Even the creator of this otome is baffled with his persona as he is a Rubix cube of diabolical proportions. Straight up, don’t trust the man! RUN!
GAMEPLAY & MECHANICS
The Heroine’s journey is full of riddles and puzzles, which you as the reader must help her solve in order to understand her origins and what destiny has in store for you. Solving them will win you a piece of the heroine’s memory that his been locked away for safekeeping, but you will also help you get clues to the Grand Shadow Masquerade.
MAP OF PANGAEA
In the beginning, you are only mobile by foot or what little money you can obtain to get you around by steam train or carriage. However, after meeting Yoshinobu, you’ll be able to use something called the DRAGONFLY to travel around the areas much quicker than usual.
THE DRAGONFLY
The Dragonfly is a helpful flying machine that helps you travel at fast paced speeds to neighboring countries, you obtain this machine after you meet Yoshinobu. Albeit the machine has its moments where it refuses to work for anybody except the heroine, which causes the crew to believe that maybe the Dragonfly might be alive….
REWARDS
You will receive rewards for puzzles or teasers accomplished, as these are how the heroine is able to retain some of the memories. However, the memories come in objects, mostly masks of various types. Each mask that the heroine dons on will unlock a new memory and also another piece to the puzzle for you, as the reader, will need to remember in order to get a full grasp of the true ending. Also, the main story is Shadow Masquerade… A mask is necessary to survive in this world. no?
Common Routes:
Hijikata Toushiro
In the ending of Toshi’s route, you are able to come to terms with the fact that you will not know what the truth behind the Shadow Masquerade is, as you end up killing Arthur Holmes and taking down Queen Victoria’s kingdom. You put a stop to the plans of the Queen’s scheme to take control of the experiments and knowledge of Hermes Trismegistus and using it to her advantage.
You return back to Japan with Hijikata where you both are told that there will be a reformation of the Shinsengumi and you are to report to Edo, where your new life will begin.
While you may not gain all your previous life’s memories back, you are with the love of your life, and you help to restore balance to the lands alongside him.
Prince Yoshinobu Tokugawa
In the ending of Yoshi’s route, you find out that you were an experiment of the Steam Wars created by Hermes Trismegistus. It is then found that the Queen wishes to utilize the knowledge of Hermes to her advantage, and for her to do so she needs the heroine’s body to seize complete control of the something that was created in the Shadow Wars.
You find that the heroine is the key to unlocking The Philospher’s Stone, and creating the Elixir of the Moon. Her blood being the major component of creating mass destruction, Yoshi, and the heroine look for a way to bend fate in their favor.
While you have some of your memories restored, you do not gain full insight into the real truth of your existence. In the end, you save both Britannia and Japan and live happily with your husbando in Britannia as his secretary to help restore balance to both nations.
Radon Lupin
In Radon’s route, you find out that he was one of the people who helped assist the heroine escape from an underground laboratory beneath Antarctica’s region. Himself, Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Holmes, and Dr. Watson had found clues to something called ‘The Shadow Masquerade’ from entries written by the late Hermes. Uncertain as to what was in store for them, they go the facility to find that Alchemy and Shadow Magic are being conceived to create darkness that would consume the world and cause mass chaos.
In the center of it all is the heroine, a woman who is the walking Philosopher’s Stone, and who can create the Elixir of the Moon with just a drop of her blood. She is the major key to unlocking the Shadow Realm and having it consume the world and allowing her to live meant putting the world at risk.
In the ending, similar to Yoshinobu’s route, you are able to negate the power in her blood and render the capabilities of the Philosopher’s Stone useless. You then go around Pangaea with Radon as his assistant in his shows to help destroy any remaining evidence of your past and also to secure that no one will have a way of creating another Philosopher’s Stone.
TRUE ROUTE:
Arthur Holmes
In Arthur’s route, the man is going through all means necessary to kill you, however, when he finally gets the chance at killing you; he cannot. Instead, he places a sigil on the heroine to keep her bound to him until he finds a way to properly dispose of you. Confusion is evident for the heroine as this man is keeping her alive even though it is his sworn duty as the Queen’s Wolf to bring her body to the queen, and yet he wants to kill her? Or save her?
However, you find out that Arthur knows the truth of your origins and why you must die. Mysterious as he is, the heroine is able to pick up on his riddles quite quickly and figure out his true intentions. You find that his father and Dr. Watson are imprisoned in the underneath the Queen’s castle for ruining the plans of the Shadow Masquerade, and are being tortured daily.
The truth behind the invitation to The Shadow Masquerade…
A deadly plan disguised as a grand ball of a lifetime to all the leaders of the world who are invited to Buckingham Palace. It is there when all of the major leaders are present the Queen would initiate her plans in opening the Door of Revelations with the Elixir of the Moon and call forth the Shadow Realm. However, in calling forth the Shadow Realm, the God of Chaos would also come forth and destruction of the entire world would be imminent.
The heroine, usually calm and cool-headed is unable to comprehend the insight after obtaining the final mask that completes her memories in Arthur’s route.
However, the mask triggers an unforeseen circumstance and activates the properties of the Philosopher’s Stone within her, which causes destruction in the town of Twilight. Arthur loses sight of her in the calamity that unfolds and is sent smashing into the wall after she awakens the power of the stone inside her.
During the chaos of her awakening the heroine is captured by the queen, and Arthur is also captured and imprisoned for going against his orders.
The Queen succeeds in opening the gates of Revelation but does not anticipate that the God of Chaos wouldn’t accept her offering of all the world’s leaders for complete power to rule all of Pangaea. It is then that the God of Chaos plagues Queen Elizabeth with his power and she is consumed by her own shadow, and thus, creating a ripple effect as all around her are enveloped in the darkness that they themselves carry.
Arthur who has been rescued by our awesome crew unites with his father and Dr. Watson and together they go after the heroine.
The heroine is imprisoned in a cell created to leech out her blood in certain increments, locked in a dream Arthur finds her with the sigil that he has bonded them with. Calling towards the heroine, his voice reaches her as the heroine is almost engulfed in all her own darkness and shadows that she had repressed over time. Arthur tells the heroine that regardless of her darkness and who she is, she will always be herself and someone he loves no matter the trials.
The sigil imprinted on the heroine reacts to the amulet that was given to the heroine and causes her to awaken to her true entity, the Priestess of Gaia, a vassal who can help destroy but also create new hope.
Accepting your darkness, and understanding the truth of why you denied your memories, you realize that in denying yourself you helped create the void because you chose to run from destiny.
All your true memories are restored, as the history of your existence and life are uncovered and you seal the God of Chaos back into the Shadow Realm alongside Arthur.
Six months later
After having regained her memories and who she was, the heroine returns to her true home in the mountains of Yamagashi where a temple is laid in ruin and desolation. Her memories of waking up in this deserted temple are bittersweet as she remembers this was her home before Hermes had taken her away.
She places flowers upon the steps and lighting incense, she prays as she remembers the people and her life before the Shadow Masquerade.
Arthur stands beside her quietly as she makes a final prayer and then both of them leave in silence. The Priestess of Gaia and the former Queen’s Wolf make their way back to Britannia as they fly through the skies in the Dragonfly, their fingers intertwining as the sun sets in the east.
PHEW! I could have written more details, but I don’t think that would have been a grand idea considering this is just a game concept idea that spawned off the top of my head. If this were a full game I would have written the epilogues and stories in a much more concise manner, but then, what fun would that be to give away everything about the stories themselves?
Anyways! I hope you enjoy my hack-shaw of a game concept!
Gray's Cozy Nook 
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