Masquerade KISS – The Boss Main Story

The main story for Masquerade KISS’s fourth and final suitor came out this summer. The Boss is the mysterious handler and long-time crush of our secret agent MC. She joins him on an undercover mission for this route.

If I didn’t already know that the MC had a thing for him, I probably wouldn’t have been interested in the Boss at all. Part of it is that I’m not into boss types; but also, in some of the other stories, he was not portrayed as someone she could wholly trust.

As usual, I read for free. In the other routes, I didn’t feel that anything significant was missing by taking the free options. In this one though, there were flashbacks to lines that you wouldn’t have seen if you didn’t spend the hearts for the Premium version of the story.

Overall, I didn’t get a good sense for what the Boss might be thinking during the story, or how he really felt about the MC.

There’s a scene in which he hurts “Akari”, and it’s pretty obviously implied that he had to do it in order to prevent further harm to her and the mission. But we don’t see him agonizing over it at all, and in fact, the whole thing seems to get swept under the rug as the story progresses. Honestly, I would have preferred it if he could not go through with it. As it is, I can’t help but get the impression that he didn’t cherish her as someone who truly loved her would.

Bottom line: I didn’t like him much compared to Kazuomi or Yuzuru. I might prefer him to Kei, but that’s because of my personal aversion to creepy types.

Masquerade KISS – Yuzuru Main Story

I started reading a couple of chapters of Yuzuru’s route a while ago, but it did not hook me enough to bring me back when I got busy. Recently, Love 365 held a 12-day special campaign where wait times between chapters were eliminated, and finally I was motivated to schedule in some reading time.

The route turned out to be really good! And it wasn’t because I personally liked the guy (I prefer more assertive, less tsundere types), but because the writing was great. The story had a good flow, and since Yuzuru was a man of such few words, it allowed “Mikoto” to really show some personality and sass. I thought their relationship felt more honest than the other routes, even though obviously, secrets and deception were part of the game. The ending (regular one – I did not shell out for the Super Happy End) rated high in the feel-good department as well.

This route had some nice, unique backgrounds. The music was the same as in the other 2 stories.

To sum up, I felt the MC and Yuzuru had enough believable chemistry in their fake-love-turned-real story that I’m willing to forgive the not one, but two coincidental meet-ups, and call this route the best of the 3 in Masquerade KISS!

Era of Samurai: Code of Love – Okita Souji Main Story

Okita’s main story is part of Love 365’s Free Titles promotion until the end of the month, so I decided to check it out. Okita, of course, is a skilled and ruthless swordsman of the Shinsengumi. The MC is a medic girl who is taken in by the Shinsengumi after some bad guys attack and destroy her home.

I thought Chapter 3 was too soon for the MC to be lecturing Okita about the value of life and wrongness of murder. He’d been a killer long before they met and they barely knew each other at this point. In fact, there was a very real chance she could become his next victim at any time. If they were becoming friends or considering becoming lovers, that would be a reasonable time to bring up that impediment to their relationship. Lecturing a stranger just seems cluelessly naïve and frankly dangerous.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable Shinsengumi period-drama even without the love story. As for the romance, their lives were so different; I didn’t see how they could truly understand and comfort each other. But whatever, it was still a decent little fantasy.

Masquerade KISS: Kazuomi & Kei Main Stories

One of the titles from Love 365’s otome app, Masquerade KISS features only 3 suitors and a MC who is an undercover secret agent. I recently read Kazuomi’s and Kei’s main stories concurrently; Kazuomi because he interested me, and Kei because his route was new and free to read without wait times. Normally there is a 5 hour delay between chapters if you’re reading for free. Being new to Love 365 and its Love Choice system, I read both stories completely for free just to see what it is like.

Kei, as expected, was not really my type. Guys with a tendency to lock you up are inherently kind of creepy to me, no matter how good looking or otherwise gentle they may be. I did like how he and “Nagisa” sort of became partners in crime. However, the early and middle sections were pretty slow moving, so I’m glad I was able to marathon several chapters at a time while reading his route.

Kazuomi was definitely more appealing to me, arrogant on the surface, but actually a good guy deep down. I found it believable that “Arisa” gradually came to admire him and feel reluctant about her assigned mission.

The same jazzy soundtrack was used in both routes, and it set a distinctive mood for these stories of love and deception. I particularly enjoyed the piece used in the ominous scenes; it sounded pretty to me.

The biggest factor that drew me in to Masquerade KISS was the smart and confident heroine. That said, I was a bit surprised that she was never suspicious about being tracked or bugged, even though it seemed strange to her that her boss always knew where to find her. Well, these are stories that are told in 26 very short chapters. They probably needed to keep the narrative moving and there was no time to make things more complicated.

I might go back and read the third guy, Yuzuru’s route eventually.