Genso Manege Review (Switch)

Who says I can’t free the Reve and gain a boyfriend?

My first otome for 2025 and Genso Manege has received that honor. This was one of the otomes I’ve been looking forward to playing and I’m happy to be here playing it and reviewing it. The game having a whole pastel look, cozy vibes, having a whole amusement park theming, and the protagonist being a witch easily sold me on it. Then after I heard that it hides some darkness under the cute, bright aesthetic was when I really got hooked. I wanted to play it before, but I had to check out to see what this otome had in store. What could be hiding under all the fluffiness?

There will be light spoilers here, with some heavier ones I still want to talk about being under a spoiler warning.

Genso Manege takes place in France and while we don’t know exactly when, it isn’t in modern times and this set in a universe where magic exists. Though, sadly, magic isn’t prevalent and I don’t believe most of the people alive really knew about its existence. Still, though, magic is feared and any sign can be met with force. Anyway, we step into the shoes of a 17-year-old teenager canonically known as Emma. While she may not seem like it, she does have a sad past. You quickly learned that she used to live in Paris with her family, but sometime when she was 10 there was an incident where she almost drowned in the Seine River. Emma obviously survived, but she came out of it as an orphan and with some amnesia. While her mother died due to illness before it happened, her father died during the incident and now Emma doesn’t remember much of her life before then. All she has is her treasured carousel music box that her dad made, things that she had before, and a sad, bad dream that seems to have some familiarity when she recalls it. Luckily, Emma was taken in by another family. She now lives in Blancbourg with Arnaud, a man that she befriended soon after the incident, and his mom Alice. They’ve gotten into a routine by now, but it soon does change when a traveling amusement park comes into town.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that Emma is a witch? Yep! In this universe, while magic does exist, it turns out those that can practice it have gone extinct over the years due to witch hunts and persecution. Her mother was also a witch and taught her when she was a kid, but now Emma is alone and has another dilemma. Ever since the incident, she hasn’t been able to use her magic and believes that she lost it. Not only that, but she also lost a precious keepsake on the night of the incident: a star necklace that matched her mother’s and also served to help control and relegate her magic. It’s been seven years so she’s come to terms with it, but that doesn’t stop her from hoping for the day she’ll be able to use magic again.

Anyway, it turns out that today is a turning point in Emma’s life as Arnaud hands her a flyer promoting a traveling amusement park called La Foire du Reve (or the Reve). Emma is super excited as she loves amusement parks, plus who knows when the next chance to go to one will be. Emma is reluctant at first, but with Arnaud’s encouragement and using it as a reward for doing all of her chores, she does end up going. The Reve turns out to be something that came right out of a dream as she walks around and observe all that’s going around her. Little did she know that this little visit would come with a lot of surprises. Not only does the Reve have a carousel, or manege, that looks exactly like her music box, but the park’s director seems to know her. He even knew, or I guessed deduced considering what happens when she touches the manege, that she is a witch. Emma is understandably wary, but he tells, and then shows, her that (mostly) everyone that works at the Reve are bounded and trapped to the park by powerful magic. Emma is their only chance they have at being set free. Sure, the Reve is a great amusement park and it does seem like everyone does enjoy what they do, but man it’ll definitely wear you down. Emma agrees and while she did inform him that she can’t use magic, it turns out that it was just dormant inside her all along and he’ll help her awaken it.

And thus, Emma starts down a path she could have never guessed she would be going down. Not only is she taking her first job and actually getting out of the house, but she’s seeing what happens behind the scenes at the Reve, meeting and getting to know her new coworkers that are also her love interests (LIs), having fun, and slowly awakening her magic with each practice session. Though, you’ll soon learn it isn’t all sunshine and pastel rainbows as you dive into each LI route and experience their unique storylines.

I liked the Common Route here. It does a great job at introducing everyone, showcasing everyone’s personalities and dynamics, and even hinting at a lot of different things that gets revealed when you dive into each love interest’s route. The hints aren’t overly obvious, but they are hinted at enough that makes you raise your eyebrow and wonder what reveal that’s going to lead to or if it’s going to be brought up again later. It certainly helps that the mysteries of the Reve itself, why (mostly) everyone is trapped at the Reve, and what happened to Emma seven years ago are focused on and big enough to overshadow these hints until they become more relevant later on. Heck, you might not pick up on a hint or hand wave one. The hints do also serve as a good way to foreshadow what you can expect in their route. Well, partially as you won’t suspect what each LI route has in store for you. I loved seeing everyone interact and seeing Emma enjoy her job and finally being able to take steps to awakening her magic. I also loved the cozy, slice of life, vibe the Common Route had. I would say the story does take things slow, which also extend to the routes, but enough does happen to keep things interesting and the writing is pretty good here. Plus, like I said before, the character interactions are so good and fun to read through. Though, it’s probably best to not play this when you’re tired.

I do also want to say that I also really enjoyed Clara as a side character. There are a couple other side characters, but Clara is the more prominent ones and she is so upbeat, nice, and helpful.

I did also like Emma as a protagonist, though she can be a bit frustrating at times. Emma is an amnesiac character, but I do think that her character is written well. It’s a bit confusing on how much she lost, but it doesn’t feel like it defines her as character, but the trauma that she endured seven years ago that influences her actions today. Plus, it does make for an interesting mystery on what happened, how her life was before, and why she stopped being able to use her magic. Other than that, Emma is a very sweet character that is very lovable. While she does have moments where she is too embarrassed or shy, Emma does aim to always express her feelings or wants and asks others to do the same back. Emma can also be quite stubborn when she really wants to be and she does pick up on some subtleties, though she’s someone that doesn’t pay it much mind until she has more to go off of. She’s also pretty considerate, wanting to help people as much as she can and wanting those around her to be genuine rather than forcing themselves, and always aims to see the best in others. However, she is someone that finds purpose in being helpful. When she’s not helpful she feels useless. Even though she is helping, she still feels partially useless due to not being able to use her magic. While she is a bit impatient, Emma does work hard (both in her magic training and in her amusement park work) finds joy in it. She is also very easy to read, as you’ll soon see how spot on everyone is on guessing what she’s thinking or feeling.

Though, you’ll find out that Emma holds some pretty naive views and thoughts as you play through the game. Which, granted, is pretty expected for a teenager and especially one that barely left the house, but man no wonder Arnaud is so protective. I wanted to grab Emma’s shoulders and shake her every time she assumed someone was a good person based on something like their looks or throwing out the possibility that they could be doing something bad cause surely they would never. Not to mention that she does ignore some red flags and becomes stubbornly infatuated (even when she doesn’t yet realize that she is).

There is a minigame to break up the reading here called the Eveil System. It’s a two phase minigame where basically the first phase gives you 30 seconds to collect stars that gradually appear on the screen to fill up a meter. Then the second phase has you click/tap when an outline of a star overlaps with a star that is hovering over Emma’s hands. This is used to symbolize Emma’s magical training where she focuses on gathering the magic she senses within her and then calling out to it when she feels it start to connect to her core. This awakens her magic bit by bit each time as she reconnects with the magic that’s been dormant within her.

This minigame is pretty cute, albeit a bit repetitive. The minigame appears in most chapters, but Emma actually does a lot more magic training off screen. The minigame is pretty easy. It is a bit harder to do using the thumbsticks than using the touchscreen, but you won’t fail it unless you purposefully do. Though, if you don’t like it, or just not in the mood to do the minigame, you do get the option to skip it and automatically get the best ranking results after doing it the first time. I did like the minigame, even though it was easy and didn’t really matter aside from being a stat needed to get the best ending. I liked the theming of it, how it symbolized Emma’s training, and how you got to see her progress both when you see her portrait fill up (and you can check it when you go to the Status screen), but also in the story as it does feel like what she accomplishes in the story falls in line with her current level.

Genso Manege also keeps up with how much affection points you have with everyone on the Status screen. Every choice you’ll make will have the possibility of raising the affection between Emma and that love interest depending on if you chose the right choice. A lot of the time, it’s pretty obvious, but there are some tricky ones in here. There’s also a Love Catch system here, but it’s really hard to spot the animation that happens when you raise affection. I didn’t know this until my third route, but the affection up choice will have a subtle ripple animation. It also doesn’t help that it takes a couple lines for the newly added affection to reflect on the Status screen (which both shows Emma’s magic training progress and the affection levels between all LIs).

Each route also has two endings: Amour and Reve. Amour is the best ending, achieved with high affection and maxed magic, while Reve are the bad endings achieved when you have low affection and can range from being more akin to a normal end, bittersweet, and going into despair territory depending on the LI.

Well, it’s time to go into all the love interest (LI) routes! There are six LIs here, with one of them being locked. Genso Manege is also an otome where what route you do down is dependent on which LI has the most affection by the end of the Common Route. It’s been a while since I’ve played an otome that did that! Each LI has a scene where you can raise affection with them, but there is an early choice where you get to pick who to shadow for the day and that’s where you’ll get that extra affection to lock it in.

I did find a recommendation order for Genso Manege, but honestly I just did what I wanted. I basically did the LIs I didn’t care much about first, then left the ones I liked the most last (which, funnily enough, did partially fall in line with the recommended route order). I’ll be going into them the order I did them in and do my best to be short and sweet.

Hugo

First up is Hugo! Hugo is 25 and he’s the Reve’s director. He’s basically what you’d picture an ideal amusement park director would be, though he does hide the bad aspects of his personality. Hugo is the only LI that knew Emma before her incident, which you can tell takes him back, and he surprisingly is knowledgeable on magic. He’s also the one that brings Emma on board as he knew she was a witch and asked for her help. Hugo is honestly a good boss. He’s dedicated to being a good director (so much that you learn he changed his personality) he does aim to get the opinion for everyone for decisions, he tailors what the Reve offers based on their clientèle for the day, and while he may want to put on an event he knows that they need to have their finances in check and be able to make enough money to cover it. He also knows when to step in and use his authority when the situation really needs it. He is also kind, has a gentlemanly demeanor, and doesn’t mind when he needs to take time to explain things. Though, Hugo does do some teasing, has a playful side, can do some hurtful things, picks whats best for you even though you keep disagreeing with that choice, can lie very easily, and even when you catch him lying and want him to tell you the truth he will stubbornly keep at it unless the stars align and you manage to pry it out of him.

I’m actually pretty surprised that Hugo’s route is recommended to be played first. It does have elements that make it a good starting point, but there are some significant reveals here. Reveals that you would expect be revealed towards the end rather than at the beginning. Nonetheless, I did like the storyline this route. I liked the focus the Reve had and how Emma was training her magic, though it did feel a bit rushed as it was transitioning to focus on the romance and the conflict. For the romance aspect of Hugo’s route, I just couldn’t get over how much the age gap bothered me here (plus the technical power imbalance here too). I admit that the romance is sweet, albeit with some very questionable actions that Hugo does, but I heavily side eyed him due to him being 25 and her being 17. Especially with how naive Emma is and the reveal that happens that explains how Hugo already knew Emma. I also did not like how Hugo kept making choices for Emma, denying her choice, and how much Emma blamed herself for things that weren’t her fault or seemed to throw away regards towards how she felt for his feelings. Everything together made me not want Emma to be with him. Plus, I honestly got dad vibes from him.

And man, do I feel bad for Arnaud and how stressed he must have been. Especially after one spoiler-y thing she does that made me go “and this is why Arnaud was so worried about you!”

Serge

Serge is next and he’s the other age gap romance here. He’s 27 and he’s the head of finances here at Reve. He’s also the first LI that Emma both sees and talks to, which starts off his first impressions as being an intimidating man that causes some anxiety in Emma. Serge is the more logical one between him and Hugo and he’s very by the books and serious. He also doesn’t show his emotions, not a man of many words, not that hospitable, pretty strict, and is very profit oriented. If Serge suspects something will lose them profit, or at least won’t break even, he won’t agree to it. He doesn’t even like closing the Reve for a day since they’ll lose profit, even if it’s for repairs. Still, he’s not all that bad. He’s very detailed oriented (which does annoy some), he can be convinced to change his mind if you can proof their profit margins won’t take a big hit, makes sure they have their supplies stocked up, likes being prepared and plans ahead for possible scenarios, makes sure there’s no misunderstandings, you do see points where he is genuinely happy, and he turns out to be a great pianist. Serge also looks up to Hugo and respects him, so much that he gets jealous when someone else gets casual with Hugo and Serge usually just goes along with what Hugo wants (with some exceptions).

I honestly liked this route a lot and that surprised me. I found this route to be pretty well paced and it handled transitioning from the romantic build-up to the storyline pretty well. I was a bit worried since the plot doesn’t fully rear its head until the last two chapters, but it did a really good job. It didn’t feel like it was being rushed, the timeskips didn’t feel like you skipped over anything that could have been an interesting scene, and it overall felt like it had the perfect time set aside for it. It also had some good suspense and the reveals that Serge’s route had were crazy. On the romance aspect, I liked it a lot. The age gap is not good, but I felt this route handled it way better. Apart from Hugo joking about a cute woman 10 years his senior being his assistant, I think this route handles it very well. To the point where I was fine with it. It has my favorite trope here that serves as a way for Serge and Emma to get closer, Emma doesn’t constantly worry about being childish, it was a slow burn vibe where it took a while for Serge to loosen up around Emma let alone start crushing on her, and how they expressed what they were feeling/thinking. It was also pretty interesting considering Serge basically has no experience, doesn’t understand some things, and struggles with how his actions are misunderstood so he has to explain his thoughts and feelings to set the record straight (which makes for some good small conflicts especially since it never goes too far). There were also just a lot of great scenes, some of which were so cute and sweet, and I loved how you can notice Serge gradually change (and even signs that he’s starting to fall for Emma) until he does the unthinkable. Lastly, I never felt like Emma and Serge were on unequal grounds.

I’m sad that we didn’t see any of the Crier-Serge dynamic, though.

Luciole

Luciole is up and he’s the LI that you meet last and know the least about. He literally comes in towards the end of the Common Route and before that he just gets referenced. Anyway, he’s 21 and is Reve’s resident mechanic. He does inspections regularly to make sure everything is in top shape and fixes anything that ends up breaking down. Interestingly enough, he can also see magic so he also makes sure the magic of the Reve is in top shape as well. He’s very good at his job and it doesn’t take him long to diagnose a problem, inspect something, and he knows how long it’ll take to fix something. Luciole is pretty different than the others, however. He’s a pretty recluse, tired, antisocial man. He rarely leaves his tent, not talkative, rarely starts conversations himself, pretty blunt, and is a bit rude at times. He doesn’t hesitate in airing his grievances, as well as doesn’t say anything that he doesn’t want to tell anyone. Luciole is also the only one here that hates magic, was against Emma awakening her magic, and you learn in his route that he doesn’t want the Reve to be free. He’s not totally heartless though, as you do see moments that show that he does care and you get to see him soften up when you go down his route.

Luciole is the one I was neutral on in the Common Route. He is the character that suffers from being introduced last, as he appears in the last chapter of the Common Route, and his scene being one where you’ll either start out hating him or feeling neutral towards him. It certainly doesn’t help that he barely makes an appearance in other routes (with some of them being antagonistic). I didn’t know what to expect from Luciole going into this route, but I ended up really enjoying Luciole as a character and his romance with Emma. This one is another one with a slow burn vibe where Luciole hates the idea of having to be around Emma, but with Emma’s persistence and effort he slowly warms up to her. Once he does, it’s honestly surprising how sweet he is. The way their relationship progressed was done really well here and there are definitely a lot of sweet moments here. It was really interesting having one of the LIs be against everything Emma was working towards, seeing him change thanks to Emma being persistent, and then learning about his tragic past which explains why he is the way he is. I didn’t see Emma as much of an unsocial shut-in as Luciole is, but I love how they try to bring the best out of the other as they recognize that they have (or had) the same bad habits. This route also has the plot come in at the last two chapters, but I found it to be a bit weak. Like, it needed more time dedicated to it or just needed to happen differently. I do think the storyline featured here is important, especially since we’re following Emma who has a rose-colored view of the world and I got the feeling that she doesn’t take what people say seriously when it contradicts that view, but it felt a bit…contrived. What kicked it off and how it ended felt a bit too convenient (though I see how the conflict gets resolved both as making sense and not making sense).

Lyon

It’s time for Lyon and he’s a costumed performer, that takes the form of a cute rabbit which is the Reve’s mascot. He’s the youngest one at Reve, being 15, and you can’t ask for a better mascot performer. Lyon is very good with kids, kind, does really well at entertaining visitors, and he does have a gentle and soothing nature. Though, he doesn’t seem to think he has work ethic. He also has taken up a goal of getting something in each place the Reve visits, specifically a book that’s unique to the town. He also loves picture books, and prefers to get them when he gets a new book at a new town. Though, Lyon does have an air of mystery surrounding him as he always seems wearing the mascot costume. No one has seen him without it and it does seem to have some magical qualities to it as he doesn’t have to take it off to eat. Though, Emma does spot a non-costumed Lyon; she just doesn’t know it until it gets revealed in his route.

Wow. It seems I’m saying this every time, but I really enjoyed this route. Going in, it’s what you’d expect based on his character. His route is so sweet and wholesome. Lyon is like a ball of sunshine and his route is one too. Lyon has some secrets of his own, but it doesn’t take long for those to be revealed. Which was a great choice as it allowed for a lot of great scenes between Lyon and Emma. I won’t spoil it, but I really liked their way of bonding, how supportive Emma was towards Lyon, and how everything played out. However, the darkness needs to come out sometime and man does it hit way harder here than in the other routes. It’s probably half due to Lyon being a character you want nothing bad to happen to and the writers of course giving the purest character the most tragic plotline they can think of. I was also pretty surprised at Emma here. I also really liked that this route had the storyline and romance be more intertwined rather than having it be more separated. Also, gotta love the interactions everyone has in this route in particular. Especially Clara. All in all, a lot of good choices were made here and it paid off.

However, this route does spoil a reveal in Crier’s route, so I’d suggest playing Lyon after Crier if you don’t want it spoiled.

Crier

Crier was honestly my favorite LI out of the bunch while I was playing through the Common Route and he still does have some great scenes in other routes. Crier is 17 and he’s a more traditional performer and Emma actually catches the tail end of one when she first visits. He’s pretty passionate about his performances and you find out that Crier also doubles as an errand boy as he’s the only one that can leave Reve and get things outside the park that they need or want. When Emma starts to get to know everyone at Reve, you soon learn that he’s a tsundere. He’s written very well and I ended up loving him pretty quickly. Of course, he acts like he doesn’t like Emma, but you can tell that he actually does. He may become cold at times to hide it, but he’s written well enough that you don’t mind cause you know he doesn’t mean it. He’ll complain and try to hide it behind some ribbing, but you can tell. He may complain a lot, but he’s considerate, absolutely loves sweets and loves talking about sweets, can be sarcastic, and his cheerfulness is pretty contagious. Crier is also sensitive about his height, hates when he’s being patronized, and doesn’t like it around people tiptoe around him.

Also, I love the dynamic that Crier and Serge have. They kinda have an antagonistic frenemies dynamic and it’s very entertaining to read.

Okay, this was my absolute favorite route in this game. I left Crier second to last as he was my favorite LI during the Common Route and I’m glad I did. It’s a shame one of the reveals here were spoiled in Lyon’s route for me, but it is revealed early in the route so it wasn’t that bad. Crier almost had me in the beginning as he is a bit of a jerk, and one where I was doing a “he’s just being a tsundere right? Right?” cope, but the route doesn’t spend long on it before you’re given an explanation and you can tell his heart wasn’t fully in it. Plus, his reasoning is a really good one and really makes you think what you would have done in his shoes. I also absolutely loved the romance here. Not only is Crier a tsundere, but this route has some of my favorite romance tropes (with one of them getting a nice spin on it, which made it so much funnier). I loved how their romance progressed, how much importance Clara got here (especially since most of the other routes hinted at their connection), the banter and bickering between everyone, and how much Emma helped Crier. This route also did a really good job at blending the romance and this route’s plot together, so much that it seems like it’s light on the plot when it’s really not. The overall storyline isn’t brought up here, but I definitely love how it let this route go full rom-com and allowed Crier the time to deal with his internal struggle. It also ended up being a nice change of pace too, as once you get a few routes under your belt you’ll see a pattern that (most) routes have in their route structure. I even loved both endings. I was smiling all throughout Crier’s route (bar the tragic parts of course) and his route made me even happier than Lyon’s.

It’s a shame we don’t get to see Crier and Serge bicker more, but I gladly traded it for Clara. Still, I loved the presence Serge still had in this route, despite rarely showing up.

Arnaud

Lastly, we end of Arnaud who is the only locked route here. His route unlocks after you complete Hugo’s Amour ending, though it is recommended to play him last despite being able to unlock him super early. Arnaud was actually the LI that I picked as my favorite based on looks before playing and lo and behold he’s the locked route haha. Arnaud is 19, takes the role of being Emma’s childhood friend, and works as a newspaper reporter. It seems like Arnaud’s family has a tradition for the family to go into the military and hold positions, but Arnaud isn’t the one to sit still and he found that writing has strength and journalism has the potential to make a difference. Arnaud prides himself in his articles, which we can only assume are great, and getting information that he personally goes out to gather and/or confirms into the hands of the people. Despite that, though, he is very modest about his work and the effects the positive effects it has. Arnaud is protective of Emma, worries a lot about her and wants her to be safe, thoughtful, tries to reassure her when she worries about not being helpful, and tries to encourage her to do things that she clearly wants to do but holds herself back. He also finds himself to be happy when Emma is happy and both of them do joke about him being brotherly. Arnaud does hide this pretty well at the start, but he also clearly has a crush on Emma. Although, Emma is pretty oblivious and Arnaud backtracks.

While Arnaud does know that Emma is a witch and tells her no one can know for her safety, he does find witches scary to some extent. You can also tell that Arnaud knows more than you think and is the opposite of Emma as he views people in a more realistic way where being nice or being attractive or having a certain hobby doesn’t mean that they’re a good person.

Man, this one sure was a ride. Arnaud’s route acts as a truth route and as such, the plot takes a much bigger presence here than it has in other routes. It focuses on the overarching mystery of the Reve, what happened seven years ago, and the whole Hamelin Phenomenon conspiracy; which were touched upon in previous routes as part of or as their plotline. I really liked how the plot was handled here. You’d expect it to mainly be a retread of the exact same information, but it’s not. Of course, things play out differently and you do learn some of the same information; but the way it’s told is different and you gain some new information that you would only be able to know through the characters that play a key role here. Not only rounding out your understanding of the events more, but giving you a new perspective on it. Plus, it really helps that this route also focuses on the involvement of a key party, and in particular a certain character (which actually gets directly hinted at being involved in another route). It’s hard to really explain without spoiling it, so hopefully that makes sense, but yeah. The plot here is great and really takes you on for a ride so having it be the main focus really paid off.

Romance-wise, I just didn’t see Arnaud in a romantic way at all. You’d think Arnaud would only have to overcome the “childhood best friend who is seen as an overprotective big brother to the protagonist” aspect (which is heightened by the fact that they live together) and how Arnaud has said some condescending things to Emma, but you will not expect that he would have to also contend with the plot and what it does to our characters. Cause man, it does not do Arnaud any favors. I will have to say that the route did a really good job at trying to put Arnaud back into the player’s good graces and it did work on me; but not to the extent that it wanted as he returned to being friend material by the end rather than boyfriend material. Which is a shame as the route did do a good job in the beginning to have that friends to lovers transition.

Also, Arnaud got automatic points for not liking how Hugo is towards Emma.

Here’s my route rankings:

Crier > Lyon > Serge > Arnaud > Luciole > Hugo

Overall, I liked all the routes. I have to admit that I was not optimistic starting out due to the two age gap LIs, but every route had something that I enjoyed. In fact, I enjoyed the majority of every route (aside from Hugo’s). There are aspects that I didn’t like here and there, but overall I had a good time with Genso Manege. I found that each route progressed nicely, there were no points where it felt like a slog, I did like how routes would subtly hint at what another route will be about, and I really enjoyed the interactions between all the characters. I liked how each route was tackled where the LIs that had some involvement with the overarching plot/mystery had their route plotlines focused on it and the others that didn’t focus more on an inner conflict they were dealing with. It may not seem like it starting out, but it turned out to be a great choice. I did also like how most routes balanced the route’s plot and romance. It’s honestly no surprise that Lyon’s and Crier’s route blended both the best and I did enjoy two routes having my favorite tropes and character types incorporated into it. It’s a shame Arnaud’s route wasn’t able to have much on the romance aspect, but the storyline more than enough made up for it (even if it killed him as boyfriend material for me). I did also enjoy all of the reveals, some are easy to guess, but there are some crazy reveals here and even if you guessed a reveal there’s still a surprise. I also did find Emma to be well written and pretty consistent through each route. There are definitely times where I was annoyed with her (like when she blames herself for things that weren’t her fault or does something stupid), but she was a wonderful protagonist to be in the mind of.

I did also notice some nice little details sprinkled in as well. The Eveil minigame is narrated by a LI and I noticed that two certain characters don’t narrate it until they come around to being okay with it. Lyon’s chapter screens start out with him in his mascot costume, but switch to how he really looks underneath after it gets revealed. There are also some continuities here too. You’ll hear about a malfunctioning automaton on the routes where the LI would know about it, a character will do the same action for an event even when it happens differently as it aligns with what they would do normally, and finding out what characters were planning to do in an Amour Ending and seeing that they did it in the Reve Ending. There were a couple times where the timeskips and the descriptor of when something happen didn’t seem to line up, but it was mainly fine.

I surprisingly found myself having difficulty doing my rankings here. I’m not sure I mentioned this before, but for my route rankings I take into account both the LI themselves and the route. I for sure had my favorite route and my least favorite route, but where do I put the others? Each route had places where the other did better in, but at the same time it did better in places where the other didn’t. I especially had a really hard time placing Arnaud. Just know that it was a really close battle.

I have to also mention, that I’m so surprised that the recommended route order is the way it is. While I definitely understand why Hugo is recommended to play first, but it’s pretty surprising considering what gets revealed and it’s the prerequisite for a locked route. Not to mention that its reveals pertain to the overarching mystery and story. I don’t regret the order I played Genso Manege in, and honestly you can probably play this in any order as long as keep Arnaud last. Though, I honestly would recommend this order if you want to gradually learn the truth:

Luciole -> Crier -> Lyon -> Serge -> Hugo -> Arnaud

There are some extras here, which are pretty cool. First of all, there is a digital manual here which you can look at from either the title screen or during gameplay. And I’m not just talking about it just showing the game’s control scheme, it’s just like the paper manuals we used to get with physical games. It goes into the different systems, the controls, the minigame, gives you the story summary, and gives you a character rundown of Emma and each LI. It was honestly pretty cool and something I didn’t expect going in. Once you finish a character’s Amour Ending, you also unlock their special character profile, which gives you more information on them and their answers are in the form of quick little scenes, quick commentary from their voice actor, and After Stories. After Stories are basically epilogues to the route epilogue where you get to see how that pairing is doing and what they’re up to sometime after the events of the main story. You don’t have to read these, but you can if you want to see what their future had in store for them and wanted to see an extra romantic bit between them. Though you need to go through the After Stories if you want to complete the CG Library. Talking about that, there’s of course the CG Library, which you can replay the scene through, a Sound Library, and a Clear List.

Finally, there’s Denouement, which unlocks when you achieve everyone’s Amour Ending and acts as the game’s finale. It acts as an extension to the truth route as it goes over Emma’s memories that would not have fit into the other routes. Each scene granting new information whether it was a memory Emma didn’t remember in a route, additional scenes of what was shown before, seeing how events happened through Emma’s perspective after seeing it through others, getting to see how other key events truly (and fully) happened, and getting to find out how Emma came to assume certain pieces of information. I also kind of view this route as the true route too, considering what happens here. Denouement is definitely a must read as it rounds out the game perfectly and it ends on such a wonderful note.

There are several negatives that I have for Genso Manege. A total nitpick, but it hurt only having a seven character max limit for the character name. It’s the first time I played an Otome with the canon name for the protagonist. I’m so used to using my name or username that I thought I wouldn’t like it, but honestly I didn’t mind it. I was unsure how much of her memories Emma lost as it first says she lost most of her memories before settling on her losing only a year’s worth of her most recent memories. I didn’t like how subtle the perspective changes were, but this may be because I’m used to it being announced in other otomes I’ve played. Of course, I personally don’t like age gap romances (especially with how Hugo’s is handled). The Love Catch is too subtle. There’s no chapter select. It may bother some that this game isn’t fully playable with touch screen (you can’t go into menus or get out of them without using a controller) and the text backlog does take some getting used to moving it with touch screen as well. It is a bit hard to read the text with how pastel the game is sometimes. During regular play, you can change the text box opacity and the font style to make it a bit more readable, but it can still be hard to read. I did find the off-color they used to read text to be easily readable though. The text backlog is hard to read most of the time due to a combination of the font style, how pastel and bright the backgrounds can be, and the selection indicator being white. Lastly, I did have at least five crashes when I was using the touch screen to look through the text backlog. I’m not sure what was causing it, but I know every time it happened it was when I was using touch screen and touching the scroll bar to look through it. There is an alternative touch screen way that didn’t produce crashes for me though. If you slide your finger down it’ll scroll up and holding it will have it continuously scroll; and sliding your finger up to scroll up.

I was actually pretty worried about the translation here. The last two visual novels I’ve picked up that were localized by PQube were subpar and were bad enough to hurt my enjoyment of those VNs. So, what’s the situation with Genso Manege? It’s actually in a really good state. I only caught a handful of mistakes and funnily enough I noticed there was one mistake for each route. So yeah, you can dive right into this one without any worries. The writing style is also quite nice.

To wrap this all up, Genso Manege does sound and look beautiful. The soundtrack is pretty nice and fits with vibe of a cozy amusement park, while turning it up a couple notches when there’s some drama or a tense scene happening. The voice actors also did a great job in bringing the characters to life and there were some lines that cracked me up with how they were delivered. The art is also beautiful as I love the pastel color scheme and the art style that was used. It really does make the Reve have this dream-like affect. Plus, there are some striking backgrounds when it does move away from the pastel. Also, I did really like the text box encravings. It may be hard to read the text at times, but man did I like the star transition animation that happens whenever the text box appears/disappears. My only complaint is that Luciole looks weird in some of his CGs (I have a feelings it’s his hood though). In fact, hats do not do any characters any favors.

Verdict

Overall, I had a wonderful time with Genso Manege. I had my worries going in and this title does have its flaws, but I had a great and fun time playing through the game. I enjoyed all the routes, each route progressed nicely, the reveals were great, and I loved the way the overarching plot aspects were handled in the end. Even when a route had aspects I didn’t like or was weak in, it was still great in another aspect. The writing was also really nice and gave a cozy, slice-of-life feel to the whole game. All while not having any moments that felt like a slog. I also personally didn’t mind the minigame, loved the pastel direction the game took with its visuals, and really liked the extras that were added.

If you’re looking for a cozy, sweet, slice-of-life otome draped with a pastel color palette with some plot whip cream and angst sprinkles; pick up Genso Manege. However, you may not like it if you’re looking for a title that is more plot focused and don’t have age gap romance LIs.