I am proud to say that, after many years of thinking I should probably try playing an otome game in full, I have finally done it by rolling credits on 9R.I.P. after completing every route and achieving all endings. When I heard that there was an entire game dedicated to dating ghosts, demons, and spirits, I knew I had to give it a try. As someone who grew up in the Twilight and accompanying paranormal romance era of young adult literature, this title felt tailor-made for me. While I do think I was a tiny bit underwhelmed by the end product, which is a topic for its own post, the bachelors of the game were overall a very solid cast.
It seems appropriate to rank my overall opinions on each love interest and discuss my feelings about them. In general, I will try to be as spoiler-free as possible. I will be using photos for each guy straight from the 9R.I.P. website’s gallery so I don’t give away any additional CGs. My rankings are also not as straightforward as simply ranking the designs of each guy or their routes, as I found no individual love interest had my favorite design, route, and romance simultaneously. Let’s get started with unpacking my thoughts about each of these ghost boyfriends!
9. Seiya
I’m starting off with some controversy here, because I know Seiya is one of the most beloved love interests. I will agree that his individual route was actually pretty cool. He’s the Grand Warder of Hell, which gives him a level of power and agency that many of the other characters don’t get. Additionally, his plotline features one of my favorite CGs in the entire game.
So why is someone with a cool storyline at the bottom of the ranking list? Honestly, I just really disliked Seiya personally. This is petty, but from a design perspective, I found his hairstyle really off-putting and desperately wanted to give him a more even haircut the entire game. Additionally, his personality creeped me out. This will become incredibly obvious to everyone as my rankings progress, but I actually love a walking red flag romance option. The thing is, though, a fun red flag needs to be so over-the-top that I can’t imagine a guy actually acting like this in real life. As long as the love interest isn’t creepy in a way that’s actually believable to me, I can get behind a romance in fiction that would be considered deeply toxic in real life. The problem is that I thought Seiya was overbearing and possessive, but in a way that wasn’t exaggerated enough to break through the “believability barrier”. Therefore, I spent most of my arc cringing at him and thinking about how uncomfortable I would be if I was ever alone with him in real life.
Overall, his route is worth playing, and most people rank Seiya as one of their favorite love interests! I just wasn’t able to get over the creepy aspects to his personality.
8. Sena
I wanted to love Sena because I really liked his design and backstory as an idol that tragically passes away too soon. Unfortunately, he ended up having the opposite issue of Seiya. Where Seiya had an interesting arc and a terrible personality, Sena had a great personality and a route that was undeniably my least favorite of the game.
Surprisingly, while I think the common routes were generally weak in 9R.I.P., I actually thought that Sena’s role in his common route was great. I don’t want to spoil anything because I know the otome community is pretty small and I would love for my ranking to convince people to play this game if they’re interested in what I’m saying here. Therefore, I can’t really say why I hated his storyline so much beyond stating that everything fell apart the second his individual route started. There honestly just wasn’t a whole lot of romance between him and the protagonist because of the strange nature of his route, and what was there didn’t feel very believable. He also didn’t get a lot of character development, and given the amount of change that occurs over the course of his route I think that’s probably because of the overall poor quality of his route’s writing. I think a rewrite of his arc would have made him a far stronger character and I feel deeply sad that I’m putting him so low on my list.
7. Secret Route
I don’t want to say too much about the secret route because that would spoil things too much. I’ll be brief here and say that I thought the secret arc wasn’t bad, but it was too short and didn’t give me nearly enough to talk about. Honestly, until typing this up, I forgot this route even happened. After how much work it takes to unlock the route, I would have expected a little more from it. The only reason it isn’t in last place is because I don’t think it’s bad in any specific way so much as it’s just kind of…there. It didn’t do anything to offend or impress, either as a plot or a romance. It just exists and there’s nothing else to say about it.
6. Yukimaro
I had heard bad things about Yukimaro’s route going into the game, so I wasn’t terribly optimistic about it. Ultimately, however, I ended up liking Yukimaro. He was sweet and funny, with an immature streak that matched the lower stakes of his common route well. His design wasn’t for me aesthetically, but I will admit that he had some gorgeous CGs scattered throughout his route and my favorite associated theme song of the group.
My biggest complaint is that I didn’t buy the romantic chemistry between him and the protagonist. I really enjoyed their banter as friends, but their romance didn’t hold up for me. In general, I found that 9R.I.P. was bad about insta-love because most of the routes were too short to build up much chemistry, but I thought Yukimaro’s was one of the worst offenders. Maybe it’s because his route felt particularly short for me even amongst a game with pretty short routes in general, but I didn’t feel like there was enough time in his arc to believably build up any romance. The fact that the two of them worked so well together as friends, as well as the great group dynamic of the main featured characters of the common route, really salvaged what could have been the worst route of the game for me.
5. Kureha
Right in the middle of my rankings is my very first route, and the character that I saw most frequently in promotional materials while debating if I wanted to buy 9R.I.P. as my first otome title. I love Kureha’s route. In fact, it may be my favorite route in the game because it’s the only one that delivered on the premise of a scary otome. I thought, based on the reviews I read and watched, that every route would be like Kureha’s and be creepy and spooky. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and it’s really to the game’s overall detriment.
Anyways, back to Kureha. His route had lots of scary moments and had me on edge the whole time. Additionally, I thought the romance was well-done and believable, along with Kureha’s overall design being one of my favorites. The main issue for me that prevents Kureha from going any higher on the list in spite of his numerous positive attributes, is that I simply thought he was a bit of a nothing character. He had very little personality beyond being the scary ghost that doesn’t like scary things. While I thought everything around him was really well-done, he himself was a forgettable let-down for me, unfortunately.
4. Koyo
I’ve heard many people say that Koyo is the best boy of this game, and while I don’t quite agree with that sentiment, I did really enjoy his character. He had a strong story that felt unique to his character, which is difficult to accomplish in a game with so many routes. Additionally, he was really sweet and the chemistry with the protagonist was immediately evident. He had one of the best romances in the game, and one of the only relationships that felt like it progressed at a normal pace instead of being insta-love. I went in expecting something of a tsundere archetype, but I don’t think that’s quite right for describing Koyo because he’s honestly too kind-hearted for that descriptor.
Overall, the only reason he’s not in the top three is because there is secondary character that is the worst aspect of the game for me, to the point where I almost stopped playing it at one point. Again, I’m being vague for spoiler reasons, but unfortunately, this character most prominently appears in Koyo’s route and it really made his arc hard for me to get through.
Fun fact: I have no idea why, but in my head, every time I heard Koyo’s name, I heard it the way that Kirby pronounces “Poyo!” in all of his games. That made an arc that’s very not-funny unintentionally hilarious for me.
3. Minami
My top three are proof that I apparently have questionable taste in fictional men. Minami is a demon from Hell who is basically locked in a battle with Seiya throughout the common route and his subsequent arc. First of all, I absolutely love his design. Who would have expected a demon from Hell to have funny little demon ears that look roughly as threatening as cat ear headphones? Once again, like with Kureha, I was happy to have a character that really lived up to what I was expecting out of this game. Goofy character design aside, He was creepy, often morally ambiguous, and basically a walking red flag. His romance definitely brought out a different side to the protagonist, as she rightfully had to lose a bit of her sanity to date a demon, and it was really fun to watch unfold. Ultimately, I loved my time with this goofball, and since he feels like a developer favorite, I even got an extra CG from him compared to other love interests.
My only criticism for Minami is simply that the Hell common route is my least favorite of the four split arcs, so it does weaken him a little that I had to sit through that to get to his very fun individual route. Since the individual routes are pretty short, not liking Minami’s common route does mean that I dislike roughly 50% of the time I spent with him. A lot of this is because his counterpart in the common route is Seiya, who I have discussed at length already and I clearly do not like. Therefore, to get to Minami’s very fun content, I had to listen to Seiya be creepy for a long time, as well. That’s not really directly Minami’s fault, but it does unfortunately make his route slightly less enjoyable to get through. Thankfully, his individual route is so much fun that it almost makes up for the lackluster common route, but it still keeps him from being my number one, overall.
2. Koharu
I didn’t have high hopes for Koharu when I first met him. While I do generally like a tsundere archetype, I thought his initial treatment of the protagonist in the opening chapters of his common route to be similar to Seiya in that it felt too realistic and simply like bullying behavior that I couldn’t overlook. Thankfully, his common route is actually my favorite of the four, which gave him plenty of time to evolve and grow alongside Yukimaro.
As he softened up towards the protagonist, I found his story fascinating and compelling. He really takes care of the protagonist and I found that they had one of my favorite overall romances of the group, with a really sweet dynamic where he wants to take care of her. Additionally, even with the ponytail that normally wouldn’t be my style, I think he ultimately had my favorite character design of the group, especially with the bruise placement over the eye that’s just begging for an emotional revelation during his route. In terms of personality, he’s my favorite of the group and I’m glad my first impressions of him were incorrect.
1. Hibiki
Finally, my number one. Hibiki is probably the biggest walking red flag of the group, even over the literal demon from hell. Obviously, that means I absolutely adored him, and I don’t know what that says about me. Hibiki has it all for me. He has a great, emotional arc that really brings out a different side to the protagonist that was a lot of fun to explore, a romance that I found surprisingly believable given how concerning his personality could be at times, and his character design was really cool on top of everything else.
The biggest mark of a good character for me, though, is that he is the only one that I really wish I could have spent more time with out of the entire group. While I will certainly play the sequel at some point, even if it never comes out in English and I have to find a way to import and translate it, Hibiki is the one that I would mostly pick the sequel up for, above any of the rest of the guys. At the end of the day, while I love my whole top three, that’s how I know that Hibiki stands a bit above the rest.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with 9R.I.P. in spite of some of my complaints. I think every guy has something going for him and no individual route felt like a total waste of my time. This game is also the reason that I’m likely to play every single otome title that I can get my hands on from now on, so I guess I owe it for that.
Have you played 9R.I.P. before? Whether you have or haven’t, which guys intrigue you based on their art or descriptions? Let me know in the comments below!
The Hannie Corner 