Scandal in the Spotlight – Ryo Chibana (Main, Epilogue, Sequel, Sequel Epilogue)

Intro: I’ve taken a break from Shall We Date: Demon’s Bond, because I noticed that Ryo was finally released in Scandal in the Spotlight!! I’ve wanted to play him since the prologue, and it took a long time to get here. But before I get to him, I just want to mention that I might be slow with blogging for awhile. My schedule changed at work and it’s kind of stressing me out and giving me less time. I have quite a few posts I’d like to write, so hopefully I’ll get around to it. I’ve also been nominated for two more awards by Krystallina and LitaKino (Thank you thank you!!!), which I will be posting about too. 🙂

Now, on to Ryo! (Some spoilers ahead)

Overall: I’m going to start off by saying that I had a huge smile on my face almost the entire time I was playing this game. Obviously I wasn’t grinning when we got to the drama later in the story, but I was just so happy to finally see Ryo and learn about him! Plus, he was so sweet and helpful, I couldn’t stop smiling! Since they are both writers, MC and Ryo get along well from the beginning. MC admires Ryo, and starts falling for him almost immediately.

And I don’t blame her. He was so sweet and cute, I couldn’t believe it! Quite a few times through the story I was thinking, “Is he secretly evil?” “Does he have ulterior motives?” “HOW IS HE THIS NICE?!?!” I guess Ryo has been so shrouded in mystery since the beginning of this game, I had a hard time trusting him lol. But he’s not secretly evil, just ridiculously stubborn and in denial. I wanted to give him a good shake.

While Ryo thought he was finding a new, better lyricist for Revance, what he really found was a muse for himself.

MC helps him find the inspiration he is lacking. It is a little similar to Taka’s story, but I feel MC influences Ryo and helps him through the problems a lot more then with Taka.Speaking of Taka, he was scary as hell yelling at MC! I couldn’t believe how mean he was. It was a bit of a shock after playing his route lol.
(Noooo Taka I love you! Don’t hate me!)

In the sequel, Ryo becomes a full-fledged member of the band and starts performing with them. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I don’t find it that plausible that they could suddenly train him into a good enough singer and dancer, especially with how high their standards are. I also kind of liked that he was a little more normal. But, it’s nice to see him with all his friends again, and working so hard to make up for everything in the past.

Overall: In the end, it’s really amazing to see Ryo with all the guys! Especially up on stage. After playing all the routes, it felt really satisfying to see all the boys with Ryo again. They missed each other so much! While I’m happy for MC, I was mostly just happy for all the Revance boys to be together, after seeing what they all go through in their own stories without Ryo.

And oh goodness, the little side story with Kyohei, Taka, and Ryo as kids was ADORABLE! They get yelled at by their moms! Hahaha! Look at these cuties in high school uniforms!!!

So now I have played all the guys from Scandal in the Spotlight. I kind of miss them already. I will definitely be playing any sequels they add, but I’m probably going to move on to a new Voltage app for a bit. Because of reviews from Jessichi Notebook, I really want to play Star Crossed Myth!!! Stay tuned!!

Scandal in the Spotlight – Takashi Ninagawa (Main, Epilogue, Sequel, Sequel Epilogue)

Intro: I’m not really into quiet guys (Nagito and Kyohei have been my favorites so far), but I was interested in Takashi from the beginning. I AM really into guys that are creative, especially musically. If they can play a musical instrument, I am all over that. I know all the Revance guys are musically talented – they can sing, and have helped MC with the lyrics in their stories. But Takashi is different. He writes all their music and plays the piano (I assume other instruments as well). Plus, he was just so stoic, it was hard to imagine him being interested in anyone romantically.

My Thoughts: MC is impressed with Takashi right from the start. Like me, she is intrigued by his musical genius. Not only does he write music for Revance, but many other artists also that request him. He is REALLY busy. Taka pretty much ignores MC in the beginning. He doesn’t do it on purpose, but he is so caught up in his own little music world, and he doesn’t acknowledge her talent yet, so she’s pretty much invisible to him. When he does notice her existence, it’s pretty much to say that she is not like Ryo.

I never thought about it before, but since Ryo wrote Revance’s lyrics, and Taka wrote the music, they must have worked together a lot, and been very close. PLUS they were childhood friends. So they really understood each other and worked well together. So it is hard for Takashi when Ryo leaves and this new girl is dumped on him. MC really had to prove herself to him, especially since Takashi is such a scary perfectionist.

But she recognizes his talent and always takes his criticism well. As they work together, they grow closer, especially when he learns she can play the piano a little. It’s a very cute scene where he teaches her more and they play together.

The first 2/3 of the story aren’t super romantic. It’s easy to see MC admires and adores Takashi from the beginning, but Taka takes some time to fall for her since he is so absorbed in making music. But they steadily grow closer, so it feels real when they do fall in love. But!! They finally admit their feelings, but Taka says they can’t be together because he is too distracted! His head is full of her instead of music, and he is in a terrible slump.

This was a really hard scene to watch. I almost cried. I was so happy for them!!! And then it went downhill…MC was really strong here though, and had a great line.

I really loved that…All difficult things, even break-ups, help shape you into the person you are. Everything has a purpose. Possibly my favorite Voltage line ever.

Eventually Taka realizes instead of shutting MC out, he should use her as his muse, and when he accepts MC and all his feelings, he gets over his slump. And starts to write a lot of love songs LOL!

Overall: I ended up really loving Taka. Once he opened up to MC and started talking more, I thought he was really interesting and could be very sweet. I think I’m really going to like future stories when they are a couple, because the end of his story and the epilogue were my favorite parts, because they were very romantic, and Taka is adorable when he is jealous! The main story was very good though; I almost cried a few times.

Can’t wait for Ryo! I’m really curious how his story will go.

Scandal in the Spotlight – Nagito Aoshima (Main, Epilogue, Sequel, Sequel Epilogue)

Intro: Finally!! Nagito!!! The past few Voltage guys I’ve played have been…difficult, to say the least. I was so looking forward to sweet, easy-going Nagito! And he did not disappoint. His story took a turn that I was not expecting, but I loved spending time with him. Spoilers ahead for Nagito’s route.

My Thoughts: Normally I jot down some notes while I’m playing, so I can write a blog later, but I didn’t take that many with Nagito! I was too busy relaxing and enjoying the story, instead of scribbling notes about how the guy was pissing me off or doing rude things lol.

Nagi won me over immediately when he covers for MC when she messes up on her first day as assistant manager. He didn’t have to, but he’s such a sweetheart to help out.

He already thinks himself inferior to the other guys in Revance, so he figures he can take the blame for one more screw-up. After Kyo and Taka reject MC’s lyrics, she gets pretty depressed about living up to the great lyricist Ryo. Nagi really saves her though. He cheers her up, and makes her realize that she needs to be herself; that’s why they chose her anyways – not to be a clone of Ryo.

The story took a surprising turn in the middle, when MC (accidentally) announces to Nagi and everyone else that she loves him! It was great that they could be a couple in the middle of the story, and not at the end! Nagito seems to have feelings for MC too, and they go on a trial date to see how they feel.

But of course, it can’t be that easy. Nagi seems to have trouble getting over his first love, whom he could never confess to. Sadly, after MC realizes who it is, she spends a good chunk of the story assuming Nagi will always love her, even though it was pretty obvious to me that he had in fact moved on, and loved MC now. I was REALLY happy that there was not more drama with Nagito and his past love. They could have drawn it out more, but they didn’t. It was enough to give drama, without making it super depressing. Maybe some people will think it was resolved too easily, but it was apparent to me that Nagi started falling for MC early on, and that helped him move forward. I really just wanted a light-hearted, happy story, and that’s what I got, so I was grateful.

Overall: I don’t want to say too much else without giving away all of Nagito’s past. I will say that they always referred to him as the most pervy one in the group…and that was hard to believe! He always seemed like such a nice guy. But! Now I get it lol. He is quite a tease with poor innocent MC, but I liked that about him!

At the same time, he can be a real gentleman, and treats MC really well. Just like a princess, as he says. I can’t wait for more Nagito!

Scandal in the Spotlight – Kota Igarashi (Main, Epilogue, Sequel, Sequel Epilogue, His POV)

Intro: Kota started out kind of blah and mean, but somehow I was curious about him. Why does he want to be an actor? Why does he want to be in Revance? Luckily, the story answered all my questions for me!

My Thoughts: Thank you Nagito. This is how Kota is. They often describe him as a cat in the game, and that is quite true. Even when MC and Kota are a couple, he is perfectly fine off doing his own thing when he doesn’t want to be bothered, and he will pull away if you try to push too hard. But when he wants attention, it’s just so adorable and cute!

I ended up really liking Kota. The story does a good job of showing Kota and MC growing close, even with Kota’s weird personality. It’s so cute when they bond over their favorite actor, and you can really see Kota opening up. Kyohei and Iori are kind of larger then life personalities; they can be hard to relate to. But Kota seems much more normal with his comics and video games…he really just likes relaxing in his room.

Kota is 27, but to be honest, I feel he acts like a 17 year old sometimes. It’s just his mannerisms and the things he does…maybe he is emotionally stunted from having no friends as a kid? He doesn’t always seem to know how to handle people and relationships well. But when he is trying to make a connection with MC, it’s so cute.

For the main story, I liked the romantic ending better. You find out why Kota fell for MC and he’s just a blushing, adorable mess. For the sequel, I liked the dramatic ending, because I don’t like when they give in to the evil screenwriter!!! However the romantic ending is soooo cute when he calls her “dear” and acts like they are married.

Overall: It can be hard to get Kota to open up, but he’s such a sweetheart after you put in the work. You can tell he is the type of guy who is very dedicated and loyal once he has someone.

But thank goodness for Nagito in the sequel, who really pushes Kota and MC to be together. He kind of does that in the main story too…I’m not sure they’d be together in the main story without his influence either! Can’t wait for Nagito’s story!

Scandal in the Spotlight – Iori Enjo (Main, Epilogue, Sequel, Sequel Epilogue, His POV)

Intro: Oh Iori. I have a real love/hate relationship with him. He can be so incredibly mean and rude, but then end up doing these sweet things that really make me swoon! And he never really says sweet things, it’s all in his actions, which maybe proves how much he loves MC.

My Thoughts: MC calls Iori “evil prince”, and for good reason. He seems like a sweet, polite prince to his fans, but it’s all an act. His personality is totally different.

Thank goodness for Matsunaga who keeps Iori in check at the start of the story, so he’s actually decent to MC and they can start to form a connection. After Iori starts to fall for MC, he doesn’t turn over a new leaf and start treating her nicely. He just goes from being mean and indifferent, to teasing her. He keeps calling her a masochist, and while MC denies it, she must be a little bit to put up with the sadist Iori.

But, I can’t blame her when he turns around and does all these nice things! Iori is very observant. He notices when MC wants to go on a normal date, so he reserves a WHOLE THEME PARK so they can act like a normal couple for awhile (sort of). And he’s very cute when he keeps Nagito from touching her all the time.

The sequels and epilogues were pretty good too. I was worried about his father and first love Shiho for awhile, but they both end up being good characters.

Unlike Kyohei, I actually enjoyed the romantic ending better. I thought it wrapped things up better in both the main story and sequel. And this scene was just SO cute! MC loves oranges, and Iori always teases her for it. I just thought it was funny how he found a way to tease her, while still saving the day.

As a side note, Iori’s crazy fans in this story are awful! I HATE when there are crazy, mean fans. Do these people really exist in real life?? It’s hard to imagine anyone acting that way.

Overall: Iori is like a rollercoaster. One minute I’m swearing at him because DAMN is he being a mean tease, and the next I’m all AWWWW over his sweet gestures, and the way he supports MC. I’m not quite sure what to do with him to be honest lol. Luckily, this MC is pretty tough to put up with Iori. I don’t think everyone will like Iori just because of his weird personality, but he certainly keeps things interesting.