Gray's Cozy Nook

Kiss of Revenge is an otome game by Voltage Inc. Driven by revenge by your mother’s death, you become a surgeon and work at the hospital where the director who operated on your mother works at, but you fall in love thwarts that desire. (Voltage Wiki)

It’s available on Android and iPhone.

The Playable Bachelors Who Will Either Suffer By Your Hand or Be Loved By You:

From the left, Issei Sezaki, Junpei Miyashita, Soichiro Irie, Kyosuke Narumi, and Naoya Hasegawa.

In this review, I’m going to be talking about Issei Sezaki, the TRUE ROUTE in Kiss of Revenge, or at least the one that ties up all the loose ends of the other bachelor’s routes. He’s the cold, silent, and brooding type, but when he falls in love with you his smile can melt even the ice that enraptures your soul.

WINNER OF GARBAGE FATHER, SCUM MEDICAL DIRECTOR, SHIT HUMAN BEING AWARD FOR EVERY YEAR OF HIS LIFE(*AHEM* I mean the person you’re plotting revenge against):

BE ADVISED, THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS IN HERE. DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE ROUTE.

PROLOGUE:

Okay ya’ll, You’ve finally made it to Ebisu General Hospital after working my way up through the ranks at Shimane Hospital. In the beginning, you enter the director’s office and are introduced to Director Sezaki (*cough* cough* shit father *cough* asshole person *cough* scum of Goliath’s toes). Soichiro Irie enters the room and the three of you head over to an expensive restaurant for a welcome lunch.

While Issei Sezaki couldn’t make it because he was attending a patient’s surgery and it’s revealed to be the director’s son. However, you decide to use the topic of medical malpractice as a good form of an ice breaker, and explain about how there was a recent issue about it on the news (yes, nice going MC, totally doesn’t make you look awkward), which makes scumbag director agitated. The situation is diffused thanks to Dr. Irie who then, after the director leaves, reveals that he has been pretending to smile and that you shouldn’t get on the Director’s bad side, hinting about the topic of malpractice you decided to bring up…

We go back to the hospital where you are introduced to the nurses at the department of surgery: Shoko Narumi (Head Nurse), Akako Okida, and Saomi Ikura. Dr. Irie leaves you at this time because he has a lecture at a university but kindly lets you know that there’s a welcome party for you later.

Shockingly, your old high school crush and friend, Junpei Miyashita enters the nurse’s station and recognizes you. He almost reveals about your mother having passed away at Ebisu General Hospital but you manage to stop him. You find out, he is also invited to your welcome party before the Nurse Narumi brings takes you on a tour through the surgery department.

As the tour ends and Okida rushes in to inform Nurse Narumi about an emergency operation from the Department of internal medicine, and magically, there are no other surgeons available. Since you are a surgeon, you volunteer to perform the surgery despite having no experience doing this specific type of surgery (I actually froze when I saw this and was like ‘no, no, no… that can’t ever happen, and if it has, I’ve never heard of it; MALPRACTICE LAWSUIT AHOY~!).

MIRACULOUSLY,  the operation is successful but just as you were about to stitch the patient back up, their blood pressure decreases, and you decide to do the WORST THING YOU CAN DO.

Panic.

As if on cue, Issei Sezaki, finally appears to save the day and helps you out but not before calling you out about panicking in the operation room. Both Issei and you switch, and you end up assisting him, luckily for everyone, the operation ends smoothly.

Once everything has wrapped up with the patient, you thank Issei for his help and acknowledge his skills as the Super Doctor. Issei is pretty cold in the beginning so he just leaves and  Dr. Kyosuke Narumi comes in (SPOILER ALERT, yes, he is related to Head Nurse Narumi). Dr. Narumi thanks you for taking care of his patient and makes some comments about Issei because they’re sorta like childhood friends per se.

The scene then moves to the welcome party, everyone but Dr. Sezaki Jr. is present. Your new work colleagues mentioned that Issei isn’t the type to go to parties or gatherings, so to not take it to heart. During the party, you find out that Nurse Narumi has known Dr. Irie since he was a resident at Ebisu General Hospital. This causes you to think about who you need to get closer to… and just as everything is wrapping up, Dr. Sezaki appears and acknowledges your skills. (Voltage Wiki)

Assessing Dr. Issei Sezaki aka Super Doctor

In my opinion, Issei’s route is the true route in the game, whilst everyone else had a compelling story; his route fills you in on almost everything that the heroine wants to know.

When Issei practically corners you in the car you get into when you are going home, he is already suspicious of who you are, regardless that you happen to be a pretty good surgeon. You’re able to shake him off course in the beginning, but I want to be upfront… Anyone would figure who the heroine was because she was really ridiculous on her sleuthing skills.

I was practically facepalming consistently at her way of trying to get information, and immediately having people become wary of her actions.

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I am possibly biased about this, but I’m guessing because I love reading thriller novels, detective mysteries and such… She made it hard to believe she was really dead set on getting revenge properly. For better words, she lacked restraint and is completely hot-headed to the point that she could blow her cover whenever she ‘thought’ she’d been bestowed a chance at finding more info about Director Sezaki.

I DIGRESS

In the beginning, a lot of our conversations with Issei are very flat, because he has a stoic and very brooding personality. He doesn’t like letting people close, for good reasons, however, the heroine has no idea about it so you kinda keep prodding him in very obtuse ways.

When your first couple of attempts at getting to know him fail, you try extracting information from your coworkers and end up finding out from Dr. Narumi )and also a bartender) that Issei wasn’t always a cold person but he has changed since becoming a doctor.

After finding out a little about Issei’s past personality and it changed a few years ago, your tactics change a bit on how to approach him and get closer. Using your skills as a surgeon and volunteering to be either Issei’s assistant or watching his operations, you start to slowly gain the man’s trust… However, and becoming closer to him also comes with its hardships as certain disagreements unfold.

Mostly the disagreements are because the heroine is such a hot-headed individual, it’s tough for me as a medical associate to digest her mannerisms. I understand a part of her actions though, as a fairly new doctor on the field, she has yet to actually mature her mind and thought process, so she comes off as ‘I WILL SAVE THE DAY!’ ‘THE PATIENT NEEDS–!’ ‘YOU’RE NOT THINKING ABOUT THE PATIENT YOU’RE ONLY THINKING ABOUT BLAH BLAH–!’

Note, I understand it’s for drama and to create the fantasy of making people think we are like Grey’s Anatomy or something, but her explosive nature… As much as I can understand what she felt and everything. She let a lot of her emotions cause bad judgments against her work colleagues… And you’ll see me talk about that in other reviews.

With Issei, there was significant disagreement about a patient being discharged because of a female actress wanting to be operated on, although this actress, did not have an emergency. The MC disagreed with having to kick out a patient who was very kind and was only listening to the family’s needs, but NOT what the PATIENT wants.

So, I’ll say that again, she was LISTENING TO THE FAMILY and not the PATIENT, however, because she’s very psyched up on thinking Director Sezaki and Issei are a$$holes; Issei and her have a disagreement. However, I will say that Issei is also at fault here as he’s basically like the heroine’s ‘navigator’ and he should have directed her to speak directly to the patient and not the family.

You end up finding out that THE PATIENT wanted to be discharged and be with the woman he loves in his final days of life, and not hospital-bound (because his children are greedy AF brats who want his money and want to control him through the hospital).

However, after finding out the truth, the MC does see the error of her ways and apologizes to Issei, but she does tell him he NEEDS to speak up more around her. It’s here at this point, you start to see his true colors as a doctor come to light. While Issei is the quiet and serious type, underneath that exterior, is a compassionate and caring individual who does all that he can to assist his patients.

Issei’s story is flooded with various emotions and actions that occur in the medical field, he is one of the most relatable characters in the series. That I can easily identify with, and understand. He’s driven to care for his patients, and you find that he mourns the losses of those he couldn’t save through a notebook he has kept with him for over some time. For me, this is something I do or something similar where we have a ‘burn’ journal or diary to get our emotions out because medical can be stressful.

For every loss, we mourn in silence, it is not our place as providers to show you weakness when you are in the hospital, our duty is to make sure we always do what is best for the patient. His way of releasing his emotions is bittersweet for me, and the heroine realizes this as well… Thus, the relationship deepens between the two and starts expanding from work colleagues to something more intimate.

Towards the middle of the route, you find out the heartbreaking truth about your mother’s operation when the MC accidentally picks up Issei’s journal that he keeps… Finding her mother’s name is written within the pages, and his confession… his sin of losing her on the operation table twelve years ago when he was a resident doctor.

The MC is taken aback when she realizes that it was none other than Issei who was the one who operated performed the simple operation that ended up killing her mother. The tension gets thicker as a phone call from Issei takes place at this moment, and you either make the choice to give up on your revenge for love and answer his call… or go forward with your revenge and ignore him.

Realize this though, Issei was a resident MD at the time he was told to do this operation, which means he was directly under the supervision of his father  Dr. Toshiyuki Sezaki. However, because his father left in the middle of the operation to perform a different surgery (WITHOUT EVEN CALLING ANOTHER OVERSEER TO WATCH ISSEI EITHER!), and told Issei to finish up the task, the operation ended in the death of the MC’s mother.

Note, whenever a ‘resident’ is put into play whether you are a nurse, CNA, MD, the person who is responsible for you and your actions is the person who is your ‘navigator/handler.’ Hence, his father is also at fault for putting his son in the front lines without supervision, not only did this event scar Issei it changed his entire life from that point on.

What’s more frustrating, is his father uses Issei as a cash cow for the hospital, because if anyone else has played KOR, Dr. Toshiyuki Sezaki is not only power-hungry, he is MONEY HUNGRY.

But, there is a critical lesson learned, (albeit, Issei doesn’t see it as a lesson…. because of what happened during his residency) Issei reflects heavily on his practices and ethics daily, taking time to sit and pour over reference books and sit in silence at a nearly abandoned stairwell to mull over his thoughts and what would be the next best move forward for hands-on care.

He works himself three times as hard to be good and precise in his profession, which is commendable and yet… heartbreaking because this is how he chooses to handle his constant guilt (basically it’s his way of ‘suffering’). In those long nights and days, he pours over his work, you realize he’s waiting for someone to bring justice upon him, and when the MC appears he recognizes that Judgement Day has finally arrived.

>>>>Thus, if you proceed to follow through with your revenge, Issei, who is already deeply in love with the MC gives her ample opportunity to take his life… And when she chooses not to end his life because of her own feelings for him, he forces his father to resign as director and also gives up his entire career for her to repent for his sins. <<<<

In his ‘Another Story,’ where you choose to forgive him, he becomes entangled with you in a very clingy manner. The thin lines between his guilt for the death of the MC’s mother and his love for her becomes toxic… While he is willing to give up his career as one of the best doctors to go live in Bora Bora with the MC. The MC recognizes that this isn’t how she wants him to repent for what happened, and thus puts distance between them by going to America to gain more experience in her skills. This separation makes Issei think more clearly about what he was doing and helps him reaffirm his goals as a doctor and what he wishes to do in life.

Falling in Love with Issei

I solidly loved both Issei’s Main Story and Another Story, the drama that entailed in both are terrifyingly real and relatable. But damn, when this man falls in love, he is possessive and he lets you know it in small cute ways. Plus, that blush… it made me so giddy I was gaga over how adorable he could be after all that coldness he gave off in the beginning.

I recognized there’s a gentle side to him that isn’t seen by many except his patients and the heroine, and it really touched me because it is RARE to see a doctor in a BIG hospital with his ethics. In my time traveling and being at hospitals with various personalities, doctors like Issei are a rare breed (heck, all the doctors in here were a rare breed LMAO), and I did not only fall for Issei, I respect him as a fellow medical worker.

A stark difference from his half-sibling (Naoya Hasegawa), Issei takes great strides in his goals as a doctor and pursuing knowledge to better himself. While he may come off as severe in the beginning, this man is someone to respect and is a kind soul. It’s hard to not smile at him when he finally looks your way and asks to be with you, even if it’s only for a few minutes.

I recommend his route for anyone who wants the full-on dokidoki moments and bittersweet romance that entails when you choose to be with him. However, gamer, beware… Be ready to meet a sweetheart that not only captures your heart but leaves a tattoo on your body too (yes, he’s that kind of possessive…).

Thanks for reading! See you on the gaming side~!