Release Date: January 31, 2025 (North America)
Developers:  MAGES / LOVE&ART
Publishers: PQube
Platforms:  Nintendo Switch, PC (Steam)
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

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SYNOPSIS

Set in a wondrously evocative re-imagining of France, the story follows the protagonist, Emma, orphaned at a young age, as she fights to uncover her forgotten memories.

A witch who lost her powers when young and now living a quiet life, Emma is led by the memento her father left her and finds herself swept away with the arrival of a travelling amusement park in town.

ART AND MUSIC

Scenario Director: Ayano Ishikawa, Ayano Suehiro

Artist/Illustrators: Meij

Scenario Writers: Uta Amemiya, Muri Sasaki, Touko Fujitani, Nami Tayama, Ayano Suehiro

OST: Naoki Chiba (OP Composition), Rico Sasaki (OP vocals), BigBoom (ED composition), H!Superb (ED vocals)

I was every bit as surprised to hear a jpop boy group in my otome games. If you’re into these niche spaces, I’m sure you’ve NEVER heard of H!Superb before (lol). And its because they are fairly nugu _^누구 (and I dont mean this in a negative kind of way, they are just internationally unheard of), but they have a very dedicated fanbase in Japan, so I was pretty happy to find out they did the game’s ED theme. It was my fav track of Genso Manege’s entire OST.

Meij, the illustrator for Genso Manege is a freelance artist, that’ve worked on a few joseimuke games in the past, including character designs for the unit Lancelot in I★CHU. They’ve also done several Nijisanji illustrations, one I can particularly remember was Uki Violeta’s birthday illustrations, which was just *chef kiss*.

Voice Acting

Wataru Hatano as “Hugo” – Wizard (TaiAli), Gekkamaru (Nightshade), Adonis Otogari (Ensemble Stars), Lindo (Dance with Devils), Noah (Cafe Enchante), Kawamura Kyoshirou (Winter’s Wish), Keith Howell (IkePri)

Yuichiro Umehara as “Serge” –  Paschalia (Radiant Tale), Kohei Minato (Sympathy Kiss), Benkei (Birushana), Canus Espada (Café Enchanté), Enishi (Jack Jeanne), Demento (Period Cube), Shingen Takeda (IkeSen), Sage (Nekopara Catboys Paradise), Rain (Shiro to Kuro no Alice), Oochidori (Touken Ranbu)

Hiro Shimono as “Crier” – Senri (Norn9), Nayuta (Variable Barricade), Sho Kurusu (Utapri), Kuroyuki (Nightshade), Zena (Akatsuki no Yona), Alear (FE Engage), Kiel (RF4), Hakusan (Touken Ranbu), Ray Blackwell (IkeRev), Kokichi Oma (Danganropa), Ryunosuke (The Great Ace Attorney)

Yuto Suzuki as “Lyon” – Shion (CollarxMalice), Noah Reed (Orfleurs), Sosuke (Spiral Memoria), Nine (Shiro to Kuro no Alice), Enforcer (Despera Drops)

Shirai Yusuke as “Luciole” – Scarecrow (BUSTAFELLOWS), Eltcreed Valentine (Steam Prison), Watson (London Detective Mysteria), Amemura Ramuda (Hypnosis Mic), Garu (NU:Carnival), Ars (Period Cube), Usui Masumi (A3!), Miki Hiraizumi (Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome), Tsuzumi (Ken ga Kimi), John (Mistonia no Kibou)

Abe Atsushi as “Arnaud” – Chinami (Harukanaru 5), Sorata Suzuhara (Norn9), Kohaku (Harukanaru 6), Suishinshi Masahide (Touken Ranbu), Kishinami Hakuno (FATE/EXTELLA), Musashi Miyamoto (Harukanaru 7), Camael (Tokyo Babel), Hinata Minoru (Digimon Survice)

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CHARACTERS AND ROUTES

There are six obtainable romance routes in Genso Manège. The only locked route is Arnaud’s, which becomes available only after completing Hugo’s “Amour End”(Good End). The rest of the guy’s are playable from the start.

The developers have suggested a recommended play order: Hugo → Serge = Crier → Lyon = Luciole → Arnaud. I played in this order, and while I thought the story flowed well this way, I personally think that Crier and Hugo’s routes are interchangeable as starting points since both routes feel more lighthearted compared to the others. Crier’s route, in particular, was a bit vanilla, and while Hugo’s route contained a couple of plot spoilers, its overall tone falls on the lighthearted side in comparison to others.

Then again, I feel that the first five routes can be played in any order, as long as Arnaud’s is saved for last since his route felt like a culmination of the story that tied up loose ends.

Walkthroughs:

• Hugo
• Serge
• Crier
• Lyon
• Luciole
• Arnaud

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⬇️ Click to view Content Warnings

Kidnapping, death, women abuse, human experimentation, angry mobs, violence, gun violence, age gap.

HUGO

• Hugo with top hat < Just Hugo
• ENGR

Hugo is the Director of La Foire du Rêve and was the one who invited the heroine to be part of the Rêve and work there from the start. He possesses a gentle demeanor, and always speaks in a calm manner. He holds a certain authority within the Rêve that everyone respects. Most of the employees/staff, feel indebted to his kindness. At times, he shows his playful side to the heroine.

I actually wondered why Hugo’s route was the devs’ pick to start with. His route had a lot of revelations that related to the game’s overall plot, so I thought it would be best to play it before the finale (Arnaud’s). But, after playing his route, I realized that his story sort of sets you up where you are slowly introduced to the game’s setting, albeit only revealing a few plot points to help you understand the overarching story. I think playing his route at the beginning will also help you understand the circumstances of the other LIs, so in my experience, this really helped me grasp everyone else’s situation in the Rêve .

Romance-wise, I’m not exactly sure if I enjoyed Hugo and Emma’s chemistry, to be honest! Their relationship felt more like a guardianship rather than what it would be with lovers, at least to me anyway. Other than that, I wasn’t too thrilled with Hugo’s story either and I was not a fan of Emma here…🤷🏻‍♀️

Serge

• kuudere, megane
• soft

La Foire du Rêve‘s head of finances. Serge, is in charge of all the accounting aspects, and auditing related to the Rêve’s supplies and inventory. He is indebted to Hugo, who once came to his aid in his previous occupation, and has been diligently working for him ever since. Serge is very loyal and respects Hugo as the Reve’s Director. He has a cold, intimidating demeanor and he speaks bluntly, but he is just as harsh on himself as he is on others.

Get you a man who looks at you, the way Serge looks at Hugo! jk!
Serge, is your typical kuudere megane love interest. Blunt, stoic, completely clueless about love, cold, & always direct to the point…He’s very straight-laced on the surface but also a softie at heart. Definitely the perfect type of character to cast Umehara, right?🤭

For the most part, I enjoyed his relationship with Emma. I love their banter and how he adored Emma’s cooking. I thought the fluff here was done pretty well. Sad to say, I’m still not a fan of the heroine in this route.🥲

CRIER

• tsun
• dere 🥹

Crier is a performer at La Foire du Rêve. He’s skilled at juggling and doing various tricks that the audience, especially the youth, loves. He complains a lot about the heroine at first, but in truth, he’s very attentive and caring towards Emma. When he’s not performing, he’s busy running errands and getting supplies from town for the Reve.

I think tsun Hiro Shimono characters are essentially an otome gamer’s guilty pleasure, don’t you think? That said, I loved this route! Crier is such a cutie-patootie, but what really made him stand out to me was his personality and how caring he is, not only to the heroine, but also to everyone else. He was very likable in other routes too, which gained him plus points from me! Despite his initial harsh tone, the boy has a heart of gold! I also loved his dynamic with Emma, and yes, unlike in the two previous routes, Emma here was great! Hallelujah! She had a lot of agency and wasn’t afraid to bite back, which made her chemistry with Crier very fun, not to mention, believable!

On another note, I found this route to be the most lighthearted compared to the others. Based on the themes alone, I’d consider it fairly vanilla, which isn’t bad; quite the opposite, in fact! Though it wasn’t perfect, it had a clear direction on where it was going. The bad ending, however, was kind of depressing. Oof, I wish I had skipped it, but alas!😢

LYON

• what an angel!🥺
• so pure! must be protected at all times!🥺🤲

Lyon is La Foire du Rêve’s bunny mascot. The children who visit the amusement park love him. He’s very calm, sometimes quiet, and absolutely purehearted. He never takes off his costume, so no one really knows what he looks like in person.

Aw. I actually love this route too.🥺 I liked that there was a strong build-up to the mysteries surrounding the Reve’s magic here, and the way Emma and Lyon uncovered things bit by bit was enjoyable to witness. On top of that, Lyon is absolutely a darling cinnamon roll. His cute bunny mascot embodies his adorable persona to a T. I couldn’t really fault him for anything in his story! He’s an angel!🥺This route made my heart sink because of how wholesome it was. Though, I’d say out of all the guys, Lyon had the most difficult circumstances in the Reve. The angst here was pretty up there. Made me profusely sob.😭

LUCIOLE

• the hikikomori mechanic
• secretly a cinamon roll, but…

A man of few words and even fewer appearances, Luciole is the mechanic of La Foire du Rêve. He only comes out at night to perform maintenance around the amusement park and keeps to himself in his tent during the day. He seems to despise the idea of magic and is strongly against the heroine using her powers.

There’s a reason Luciole is so adamant and unwilling to accept the use of magic. In this route, you’ll get to find out why. At the heart of it, I really liked Luciole as a character. His route started off strong, especially during his back-and-forth exchanges with the heroine. Their little tete-a-tete through letter exchanges was cute!🥹 His entire route however, felt pretty weak, in my opinion. They did a great job building up tension and intrigue with his story, but the turning point and resolution, especially at the end, felt rather too convenient, almost frustratingly so!

**On the positive side, the best part of this route was hearing Shiraimu shift from being a tsun to a total cinnamon roll!🥹

ARNAUD

• not the oniichan route
• Arnaud with frenchman hat < Arnaud

Arnaud works as a journalist and is Emma’s childhood friend. After an accident seven years ago, Emma became an orphan and was taken in by Arnaud’s family, so she has been living with him and his mother, Alice, ever since. Arnaud tends to fuss around Emma and dotes on her on account of her amnesia.

This route is meant to be played last, as a lot of plot events from the previous LIs were all revisited here, and I thought that if I had played Arnaud’s route earlier (immediately after Hugo’s), the story likely wouldn’t have made as much sense to me, so I’m glad I stuck with the suggested route order.

I think Arnaud may be my fav LI in this game, and that’s because he’s such a polarizing character… (or maybe I’m just being biased because of Abe Atsushi? lol) He was quite possessive of the heroine, and I didn’t mind his overprotectiveness at all; I actually enjoy that trope! Heh. 🤭 I can understand why some might find it uncomfortable though, given their familial relationship and the fact that they were raised under the same roof. But for me, it didn’t come off as creepy in the slightest. Plus, he has the most gorgeous CGs in the game!

EMMA (Main Heroine)

• macaron girlie
• sometimes good, sometimes 🧍‍♀️

Emma is alright, I guess? There were routes where I considered her decently written, like in Crier’s and Lyon’s routes, and maybe in Arnaud’s route too. I thought these were the stories where she had the most agency and displayed a bit of critical thinking. However, a lot of the time, she remained very passive that it got on my nerves.😭 There were situations where she’d dawdle the heck out when something is urgently needed of her. She is aware of this though so I’d credit her that self awareness. And in her defense, she’s only 17 and was raised very sheltered. But still… sometimes, she just… really isn’t… logically thinking through her decisions. The scenarios where she fell short seemed to outweigh the good (at least in my opinion). There were scenes in the game that would literally go like this:

Emma: (After everyone repeatedly told her not to use magic in public) 🧍‍♀️
Also Emma: *Proceeds to use magic in public*

Emma: “This town doesnt like newcomers, I must not act suspicious”
Also Emma: *Proceeds to act suspicious*

😭😭😭

There were a lot of inconsistencies in how she was written across all routes. And while I’ve facepalmed several times during her 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️ moments, I don’t think she was terrible overall, to be honest. Like I said, she’s alright!🙂Not a fav, & could’ve been better.

I have to say, though, her love for macarons made me crave for them too, that I had to get out of the house in the dead cold winter afternoon and drive up to a local pâtisserie to get some french macarons myself!😭

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SYSTEM AND LOCALIZATION

The UI for Genso Manège was a standout to me. The animated clip that plays before the menu screen was absolutely beautiful, and to top it off, the pastel-colored manège/carousel on the opening screen ticked all my aesthetic boxes! Ha!

I experienced a few of “black-screen” bugs in the game (both handheld and TV mode) where if a scene transitions to the next chapter or slide and you accidentally press any button during the transition, the screen completely blacks out while the game continues running. I don’t exactly know if this is an issue with my switch since it only happens very randomly, but a way to circumvent this was to completely close the game and restart.

About the Mini Game
Eveil System – is a mini-game that lets you collect stars that appear in random locations on your screen. If you’re playing in handheld mode, you can simply tap or glide your fingers on the screen to collect them. If you’re playing in TV mode, you can use the L and R joysticks to collect the stars. After completing the tutorial (on your first playthrough), you should be able to skip this mini-game whenever it comes up. There are no consequences for skipping it during the story, and it won’t affect your endings.

Localization

The localization was well done, and the translations flowed smoothly in the game. Granted, I blitzed through this pretty fast, so I didn’t really notice any typos or text errors during my gameplay. There also weren’t any text box issues, so overall, it was pretty solid!

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TRAILER

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OVERALL THOUGHTS

This was a decent-length title, not too short but not overly long either. It took me around 40 hours to complete everything (playing docked on TV). Chapters 1-3 make up the game’s common route, and Chapter 4 is where the LI’s route branches off. There are also only two endings for each love interest: the “Amour End” (good end) and the “Rêve End” (bad end).

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Not as Fluffy as You Think

My initial impression after finishing my first route (Hugo) was that the game kind of deceives you into thinking it’s all going to be a fluffy ride throughout due to its bright pastel, sparkly-colored theme. But in contrast, the game actually carries a whole lot of angst. It’s not on the level of Cafe Enchante deception, though, so you can rest easy on that!😂

This title was a mixed bag for me, some routes were great and decently paced, while some faltered and dragged the narrative too much with trivial things. Given how often the titular manège (magical carousel) was mentioned in the common route, I expected it to play a significant role throughout the story. But, it turned out to be crucial only in Hugo’s route and was barely relevant elsewhere. It would’ve been more satisfying if all the routes had some connection to the manège, like maybe, make use of it as the central element that tied the story together. That would’ve been a nice full-circle, no? Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. The entire *magical manège* theme felt underutilized, which I found disappointing.

On a different note, I have to say, unlocking the reverse harem ending was a good reason to finish all the routes in this game! 😆

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Speaking of routes (and love interests), I think, Arnaud ended up as my favorite LI just because his character was a bit polarizing at first. I’m also a big box-pusher (hako-oshi), so I thought all the guys were great in my opinion. None of them really annoyed me, and that’s a good thing! As for their individual routes, the one I enjoyed the most from start to finish was Lyon’s.🥺 Albeit, his story had one of the most angsty themes in the game (I still ate it up, haha).😆

As for the romance, this game showcased a lot of sweet scenarios between the heroine, and her LI. It’s also worth noting that this otome game is rated CERO B in Japan, so I think it’s designed to appeal to all audiences, especially the younger crowd. There are no spicy, mature scenes here, so if you’re after that, you are going to be disappointed.

**As for the ratio of kiss CGs, well… I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed in that regard as well.🥲 All gripes aside, I do think Lyon’s very wholesome story was a breath of fresh air,🥺💛💛so if you’re a fan of the wholesome cinamon roll type, I really recommend not skipping his route!🥹

Do I recommend this game? YES.
In all honesty, I never thought I’d see the day where Genso Manège would get localized. I remember it being one of the few non-Otomate titles announced in Japan, back when the otome genre was slowly transitioning to the Switch console in 2020. This title also garnered a couple of votes in the localization survey, I did five years ago.🥹 So getting to play it in English now feels rather surreal.

Genso Manège feels light on the surface, but it’s actually a title that isn’t afraid to reveal its hidden gray undertones. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “dark,” the story can definitely get pretty heavy. This is also a game that I think would be great for beginners in the otome genre who aren’t afraid to explore heavier themes in fiction.

For the seasoned players who love angst, I definitely think you’ll enjoy this too, though I’d suggest tempering your expectations, as it isn’t on the grandiose level of the AAA games, like Hakuoki. But, it has the right touch and balance of romance & adventure, not to mention, likable love interests, to keep you sufficiently entertained! Do pick it up when you get the chance!🫶

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