Release Date: June 6 , 2025 (Worldwide)
Developers:  Voltage Inc.
Publishers:  Voltage Inc.
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

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STORY

The Redbell Tree scrapes the sky, standing proudly in the heart of Hemeria, a land of sunlight.
In a land ruled by a monarchy for generations, humans lived in peace and tranquility.
That is, until the dawn of the day the world was dyed red.

On that day, vampires laid waste to Hemeria.
They preyed on, devoured, and devastated its inhabitants.
A great many people would go on to mourn their loved ones, their families and friends, for the rest of their lives.
One particular town of Hemeria bore such a tragedy.
A single girl was left alone in despair and disgrace.
She vowed revenge, and grew into one of Hemeria’s finest vampire hunters.

And one day, she became a member of the Elpis 7; those who inspired a light of hope in its people.
One day, she receives a letter from an unknown sender. Upon her arrival to the mansion indicated inside, she finds vampire hunters and royal knights awaiting her.
The hunters assembled receive an order from the monarch.
They are to form a squad and invade Nyx, the world of vampires.

A shiver of anticipation crackles through her at the opportunity she’s been waiting for her whole life.
However, this is but the beginning of a game wherein the fate of her world is at stake.
Pawns are sent forth, discarded, hidden out of sight…

And just how many will remain when this all comes to an end?

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ART AND MUSIC

Director:	Nachi (Voltage Inc.)
Artist:	Norita (Character Design), Kuroyuki (Chibi),
BG Artist:	Minoru Akiba (Studio Jack)
Scenario Writer Lead:	Yuzuki
OST:	9mm Parabellum Bullet (OP & ED Vocals and Lyrics)
BGM/Soundtrack:	Yamato

Voice Acting

Nobuhiko Okamoto as “Asher” – Minami (9RIP), Radie (Radiant Tale), Hansel (Code Realize), Manabu Souda (Collar x Malice), Taiga (Variable Barricade), Hizamaru (Touken Ranbu), Yang (Piofiore), Hiroya (Period Cube), Peter Flage (Cupid Parasite), Haiji (Charade Maniacs), Iris (Iris School of Wizardry), Bakugo (MHA)

Kengo Kawanishi as “Rhodes” – Noritsune (Birushana), Harumi (Lover Pretend), Rosho Tsutsujimori (Hypnosis Mic), Nansen Ichimonji (Touken Ranbu), Gen Asagiri (Dr. Stone), Munakata (Hiiro no Kakera), Roland Fortis (The Case Study of Vanitas)

Daisuke Namikawa as “Garrette” – Takeru Sasazuka (Collar x Malice), Kinji (Winters Wish), Silva (Hamefura Pirates), Hugh (Psychedelica AH), Chigasaki (Charade Maniacs), Oodenta (Touken Ranbu), Vishnal (Rune Factory 4), Yuichi Lomura (Hiiro no Kakera), Yu (Persona 4), Kagero (Scarlet Nexus), Shuji Daikoku (B-PROJECT)

Takuya Eguchi as “Ciaran” – Gretel (Taisho x Alice), Rei (Him, the Smile & Bloom), Miroku (B-PROJECT), Murakumo Go (Touken Ranbu),  Kazuki Hoshino (CollarxMalice), Tenma Sumeragi (A3!), Nomura Risaburo (Hakuoki), Klein (IkePri), Lee Gyu-hyuk (Buried Stars), Reon (Dynamic Chord), Roger Barel (IkeVil), Yori (Utakata no Uchronia), Kou (Hana Awase)

Masakazu Morita as “Jack” – Aiji Yanagi (CollarxMalice), Ichigo (BLEACH), Bolearis (Xenoblade 3), Kija (Akatsuki No Yona), Auel Neider (Gundam Seed DESTINY), Kazuki Hihara (Kiniro No Corda), Shiranui Yozaburou (YoJinBo), Shuya (Juzaengi), Meguro (Suuran Digit), Whis (Dragon Ball Super), Thoma (Genshin Impact), Tidus (Final Fantasy)

Yusuke Kobayashi as “Flynn” – Tomonari (Winters Wish), Hira (Dairoku), Byleth (FE Engage, 3H), Shinano Toushiro (Touken Ranbu), Suwon (Yona of the Dawn), Yuli Norbert (MidCin), Manai Tomoki (Sweet Clown), Xavier (Love and Deepspace), Ugetso (Utakata no Uchronia), Kiyoshi Kurotani (Persona 5), Senku Ishigami (Dr. Stone)

Kosuke Toriumi as “Vlad” – Mikazuki Munechika (Touken Ranbu), Ichiya (Variable Barricade), Saito Hajime (Hakuoki), Higa (Sympathy Kiss), Poyo-Poyo (Period Cube), Shuu (Diabolik Lovers), Kagiha (Psychedelica BB), Rei Mikuni (CollarxMalice), Chojiro (Nightshade), Cecil (Uta no Prince sama)

Kazuhiro Yoshimura as “Oleander” – Alest (Radiant Tale), Minegeshi (Collar x Malice), Pepe (Bustafellows), Ten (Cafe Enchante), Maki (Side Kicks!), Souji Kamishiro (Suika Niritsu)

Hiromi Igarashi as “Lynaria” – Orion (Amnesia), Enda Shouma (AI:Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative), Corin Wickes (Zenless Zone Zero), Ishimi Kaede (KLAP!), Anzu Futaba (The Idolmaster), Princess Kaguya (Mary Skelter), Nicola Karnstein (Code Vein), Minori (Senran Kagura), Nana Ogasawara (Corspe Party)

Minori Suzuki as “Nicola” – Angie Yonaga (Danganropa Series), Ena Shinonome (Project Sekai: Colorful Stage), Riria (Prima Doll), Lumi (WuWa), Liko (Pokemon Horizons), Sora (Arkknights)

Mariya Ise as “Eileen” – Killua (Hunter x Hunter), Chousen (Juzaengi), Pao-lin Huang (Tiger and Bunny), Leo Kamiyama (Persona 5), Levy McGarden (Fairy Tail), Beros (MHA), Magallan (Arknights), Laura/Ines (Trails)

Ayaka Fukuhara as “Mulberry” – Sakuragawa (Collar x Malice), Keine Kamishirasawa (Tohou Gensou Eclipse), Sakuya Kudan (Kudan no Folklore), Zoya (Path of Nowhere), Gayle (Nier: Reincarnation), Gehya (Genshin Impact), Anastasia Palma (Sakura Wars)

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CAST AND CHARACTERS

The game structure is rather linear, so there’s no recommended route order implemented or hinted by the developers. In an interview with B’sLOG Magazine last year, Nachi (RBL’s director) and Yuzuki (the lead scenario writer) also commented on its linear structure and how the routes are interconnected.

Put simply, this means the developers wanted you, as the player to just sit back, trust the flow, and let the story take you where it’s meant to take you.

🔽 CLICK to read Gameplay Spoilers

Unfortunately, this is one of those games that requires you to complete all the routes before you can unlock any of the “happy endings”. Similar to Even if Tempest, you can expect the same kind of narrative formula when it comes to story-telling. The first part of the game forces you to play Asher, Rhodes, and Garrett’s routes simultaneously. In the second part, Ciaran’s route becomes available.

After completing Ciaran’s first chapter, you’ll unlock the story “Elpis8’s Last Game” along with the Final Epilogue. Once you’ve cleared both, you can finally choose to access the “Love” endings for each of the three initial LIs (Asher, Rhodes, and Garrett) or continue Ciaran’s route Chapter 2 all the way to his “Love End”.

As for which Love Ending to do first, or whether you want to continue with Ciaran’s story, that’s entirely up to you. Story-wise, I personally don’t think it matters, as each ending is pretty distinct and separated.

Walkthroughs:

1. Asher
2. Rhodes
3. Garrett
4. Ciaran

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Note: The CGs shown below are promotional images for The Red Bell’s Lament, provided by Amulit/Voltage Inc. All spoiler-related content in this review will be hidden behind a collapsible spoiler drop-down, that you can choose to view at your own discretion.

ASHER THOMPSON

• childhood friend
• tomato enjoyer? 🍅

A childhood friend of the heroine, with a bright and gentle personality. After an abrupt disappearance he eventually returns, having made a name for himself as one of the Elpis 7.

Despite Asher being the “childhood friend,” a trope that many *might* find vanilla or boring, I think a lot of people will actually enjoy his character, as his story isn’t limited to that trope alone. There’s a lot surprising amount of depth and layering in his route.

In think Asher and Juliet had great chemistry, especially in the moments when they’re huddled together or trading their usual tit-for-tat banter. His Love Ending shows how close the two of them really are, though admittedly, I feel like, at times the romance seem a bit too convenient or a little too in-your-face.

RHODES HEARTFIELD

• flower boi 🌺
• best boi

An elegant and beautiful aristos vampire. An immortal being with a preference for human blood and manipulator of magic. Cloaked in the fragrance of flowers, he seduces his victims with his soft smile and sweet words.

I love Rhodes!! He was the best! …Or maybe I’m biased because I love his VA.🤣 But playing through the entire game solely for him was totally worth it for me (laughs). Much like the other routes though, his story was very much detached from the main plotlines of the other guys. It also focused more on the land of Nyx and the vampire side of the lore.

Romance-wise, I feel like he was the most consistent in his feelings for Juliet. I noticed his genuine care and admiration for her never really wavered, despite being on the opposing side (vampires vs. humans). Whether you choose his Sad or Love End, his charm is VERY MUCH apparent throughout the game, and I love how devoted and affectionate he is. Such a lovely character, honestly!🥹His route however, I was on the fence with overall, but Rhode’s Sad End in particular had me in a chokehold!

GARRETT WELKIN

• vanilla (good end)
• not so vanilla 👀(bad end)

The hero of Hemeria, promoted to Commander of the Royal Order at a young age. He is the public’s brightest hope against their fear of vampires. Although he has a serious and stubborn side, and claims to hate vampire hunters, he appears before the heroine as the commander of the hunt party.

I’m not exactly sure how I feel about Garrett. Just like every other LI in the game, he’s definitely a good character per se. Strong, dashing, and even has that classic knightly charm. I like him, because there’s literally no reason to dislike him, if that makes sense. However, I couldn’t help but feel like he was written a little too vanilla… or maybe too safe? Idk. He’s great, but not enough to really stand out in the main story, at least in my opinion. What’s funny, though, is that the *major* events happening around him ended up being more memorable than him as a character. (iykyk) 🫣🥩

That said, I think it was actually his Sad Ending that ended up being possibly the most unforgettable part of Garrett’s entire run in this title, mainly because it was one of the few moments that revolved entirely around him, and his character arc (if y’know what I mean).🤭

CIARAN LOWELL

• lone wolf jesus

Even among the elite vampire hunters that make up the Elpis 7, he is lauded as the strongest. There are whispers that he defeated an aristos vampire at the age of ten. Preferring solitude and isolation, he rarely mixes with others. However, he thinks favorably of those in pursuit of strength, and will at times cooperate with the heroine.

Ciaran definitely exudes that main character vibe. He’s clearly the devs’ favorite in this game. And I think we can all agree that he ends up being the most intriguing LI in this title, at least at the beginning. Whether that “main character-ness” was sustained through to the end is debatable, and in some ways, it felt like there was still more potential left unexplored.

I do like Ciaran, though. He’s pretty much a second favorite to me, after Rhodes.I love his stoic persona and the way he builds walls around himself, yet slowly lets them down, albeit awkwardly, which was satisfying to see. His route (starting Game 2), interestingly, felt more like a sequel to the main game, with a whole new narrative scope.

JULIET ROSE (Main Heroine)

• # JulietOkaberintaRose 🤪
• parfait enjoyer 🍨

Juliet is a good MC. She’s strong, she can fight, she’s a beast with her flechette crossbow, has urgency and also makes good decisions in the story. She ticks all the boxes you’d expect from a “good” heroine. But I don’t exactly know why I wasn’t invested in her as I wanted to be. It’s strange because, on the surface, Juliet has everything that should make a good and cool protagonist by today’s standards. And yet… that’s kind of all there was… It felt like she was written with a checklist in mind:

-Strong? ✅
-Can fight? ✅
-Not a damsel in distress? ✅
-Drives the story forward? ✅

She performs her role exactly how the plot needs her to. But outside of that, I found her hard to connect with. She felt a bit like a Y/A “cool girl” archetype (edgy on the surface, but not much underneath). Aside from her love of sweets, parfaits, and a game called “9-ring-ball” (is this billiards?), plus the fact that she says she loves to “game” and will do anything to win, there wasn’t much else. Even those personality traits felt more like a trivia than something that actually shaped her character in the story. The writers definitely had a clear idea of her archetype , but I think they stopped short of fully committing to it? I guess I was just was looking for more emotional depth from her, something to make me *feel* her goals, not just understand them. Don’t get me wrong though, her emotional throughline was there, but it just never stood out to me enough to make a lasting impact.

I hate to draw comparisons, but Voltage’s previous MC, Anastasia from Even if Tempest, comes to mind. I know the two protags are very different, and it’s not always fair to compare, but I think the reason I felt more emotionally connected to Ana, and was fully rooting for her the entire game, is because Even if Tempest was her story. She was the heart of that game. In contrast, Juliet feels more like she’s just filling the role of MC in someone else’s narrative. RBL doesn’t feel like her story the way EiT was Ana’s, and I think that disconnect is what made it harder for me to get truly invested in her. By the end, I realized I knew more about the love interests than I did about Juliet herself.

Am I being too harsh here? Did Ana just set the bar too high? All in all, Juliet definitely holds her own as the main character for RBL. She might not be my favorite, but if you’re into badass, combat-capable heroines who actually make smart decisions, she’ll definitely be up your alley!

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SYSTEM AND LOCALIZATION

Unfortunately, the game was released with a noticeable pile of game bugs. This seems to be a recurring issue with Voltage/Amulit titles as Even if Tempest had a similarly buggy launch two years ago, if I recall correctly. There were frequent crashes, freezing screens that made hard–saving impossible, choice texts that wouldn’t appear in the choice boxes, and even scene slides that were added to the wrong scenario. One example that threw me off was in Rhodes’ Game 3 or was it 4 (?); there’s a scene where Juliet tries to read a diary, but instead of seeing the correct diary slide, it shows Garrett’s diary from the Prologue. I had to do a double take when I saw that, lol. (You can review the game’s dialogue log to read the actual notes written in the diary btw.) There were also reports that the characters continued to call the heroine “Juliet” throughout the story, even if the player had changed the protagonist’s name at the start of the game.

Mini Games

I wasn’t too crazy about the mini-game puzzles either. They were fun at first, especially since they add more gameplay to this title rather than it being a full-blown traditional visual novel. But my main issue is that it takes forever to navigate through the puzzles. To top it off, with how slow the transitions are in the game overall, the mini-games dragged out about 40% of my gameplay. It’s a non-issue if you’re not a completionist, but if you plan to do all the bad endings, good luck navigating through this system.

Localization

Besides the tumultuous number of bugs, the text translations were generally alright. Some lines did come off a bit awkward, though that might be more to do with the game’s writing than the localization itself. A few of the protagonist’s lines also felt a little… awkward. There were odd translation choices, like repeatedly using “I spy” instead of something like “I noticed”, or the word “koibito” (こいびと) was consistently translated as paramour. Though I feel like the latter was more of a stylistic choice, so I didn’t really mind it.

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TRAILER

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OVERALL THOUGHTS

According to my Switch logs, I spent around 60 hours completing the entire game. This includes unlocking most, if not all of the bad endings I could find, as well as collecting 115 elgan crowns to unlock the short bonus special story in the Extras section.

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As far as the plot goes, I really had to sit down and sort out my thoughts with this game. For one, the gameplay structure feels very reminiscent of Amulit’s first console title, Even if Tempest, and I do wonder if all their future games will follow the same formula when it comes to its storytelling. RBL unarguably had a jaw-dropping, bold start, BUT… I couldn’t shake off this lingering worry in me as I was playing (since starting off that high can easily be a double-edged sword). Could the story really maintain that momentum all the way through?

Gritty Dark Tones

I think my main issue with the game is how the opening chapters set the stakes really high you can’t help but think, “Oh wow, what’s gonna happen next?” It was definitely an effective way to hook a player early on. But despite that strong start, the game somehow failed to maintain that level of engagement. All the characters seemed to be operating with a sense of urgency, yet the story’s pacing didn’t quite match that same energy. This disparity to me, sort of created a jarring dichotomy that I was left feeling strangely detached from the story.🤷‍♀️

To its credit, RBL does have several interesting story beats and darker tones sprinkled throughout the game, but I just think the writing lacked a strong commitment to fully explore or follow through them. Especially with how segmented the narrative felt (due to the nature of Amulit’s formula).

It also seems like the game keeps introducing big, dramatic dynamics without ever slowing down to really go in-depth w/ them. There are definitely a lot of cool ideas here, and the game was ambitious, at best. But the way those ideas were hastily patched together just didn’t mesh well, in my opinion. By the end of it, I was honestly confused about what the game’s end goal even was. And more than that, it felt like the game itself wasn’t all that sure either.

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A Stellar Cast, Adrift in the Plot

Maybe I was expecting a little too much from this game, so my gripes above might just be on me. I do want to say that I love the entire main cast for RBL. I didn’t dislike any of them. They were a solid ensemble, especially the Elpis8. Flynn, in particular, really struck my fancy among the side characters, and I think the Renwick twins slowly grew on me. I also liked Nicola, what a witty, bright character! Unfortunately, I couldn’t care less about any of the villains. They lacked substance and left no real impact on me whatsoever. They seriously feel like they were just there because, well… the story needed a villain. (laughs).😂 Vlad, who’s supposed to be the Big Bad, lucked out with a gorgeous sexy, dilfy sprite and Toriumi’s sexy deep voice, but other than that, he’s merely a cookie-cutter villain straight out of Dollar-tree-evil Antagonist Starter Pack™. (im sorry!) 😭

As for the love interests, I LOVE RHODES.🥰 Periodt. Ciaran comes in second, though, admittedly I was a bit disappointed that his route didn’t fully showcase his full potential.

With regards to the romance, I’d say the game had some cute moments between the heroine and the LIs, but I wouldn’t expect much beyond lukewarm-romantic-gestures (for lack of a better term). The game is very plot-centric, and very fast-paced, at that, so there’s not a whole lot of room for the relationships to actually grow or develop. Plus, with how the game is structured, it’s difficult to follow any sort of pairing progression outside of what’s shown in each LI’s Love End (or Sad End). (Read the spoilers if you’re curious what I mean.)

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Now that I’m done with all my nitpicks, I certainly believe that for what it’s worth, The Red Bell’s Lament did tie things up quite nicely in the end. While the execution wasn’t perfect, all the many plot threads were resolved, and the story clearly was devoted to seeing its resolution through. It ended everything in a nice note. So I did feel pretty satisfied about this. No, really I do! Plus, the tense, edge-of-your-seat journey was a thrill to experience, in my opinion!

Do I recommend this game? Well, YES. Though it might be worth waiting for Voltage/Amulit to iron out the bugs with a patch first. That said, if you’re craving an otome game with darker tones, fast-paced narratives, dramatic stakes, mystery, and a strong ensemble cast, RBL will definitely scratch that itch for you!

This game may not have made it into my hall of faves, but I do believe it will still very much appeal to others. While it may not quite reach the heights of Amulit’s first game, Even if Tempest, I think it’s still a ride worth taking. Overall, despite my gripes, I still had a lot of fun with this title, thought the concept was cool, and most importantly, walked away feeling genuinely satisfied with the experience.

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