REVIEW: Homura: The Crimson Warriors


Title	Homura: The Crimson Warriors
Developer	Idea Factory/Design Factory
Publisher	Idea Factory International
Release Date	March 31st, 2026
Genre	Otome, Visual Novel
Platform	Nintendo Switch
Age Rating	Teen
Official Website

While I’ve now played a lot of Nintendo Switch otome games, almost all of them were developed by Idea Factory, and I haven’t played any historical otome before now. That’s right, Homura ended up being my very first historical otome. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. But seeing as almost all of the love interests looked appealing design wise, I was excited to try out a historical otome for the first time.

Homura: The Crimson Warriors takes place at the very end of the Warring States period of Japan’s history, specifically 14 years after the Battle of Sekigahara. The Tokugawa took over and control most of Japan at this point and now they want to fully get rid of the Toyotomi side, who they previously won against at Sekigahara. The Toyotomi clan decides to find samurai still willing to fight for them, whom they then invite to Osaka Castle with the hopes of this time beating the Tokugawa.

The game’s main character, who you control and make decisions as, is Mutsumi Mochizuki. Her father is Rokuro Mochizuki, who used to serve Masayuki Sanada as a member of the Sanada ninjas. Now a ninja herself, trained by Hakuunsai Tozawa, Mutsumi is sent by Tozawa to serve Nobushige Sanada. Nobushige, the son of Masayuki, was exiled along with his father, to Mt. Kudo, as punishment for fighting against the Tokugawa previously. Now with his father no longer around, Nobushige hopes to be the one to join the Toyotomi at Osaka Castle with his own group of Sanada ninjas. They all know the battle will be tough, but everyone, Nobushige and those who serve him, are still hoping to win and take back Japan for the Toyotomi clan.

Each of the love interests in Homura are one of the ten Sanada ninjas, and then there’s Nobushige Sanada as the last LI. The Sanada ninja options are Sasuke Sarutobi, Saizo Kirigakure, Juzo Kakei and Kamanosuke Yuri. Before I started playing Homura, since the game has been out already in Japan for some time, I decided to check online and see if I could find an existing recommended order of when to go after each love interest. It was suggested to start with Kamanosuke, then do either Saizo or Sasuke for second and third, follow them up with Juzo and finally do Nobushige last. So that’s what I did; however, I ended up deciding to do Sasuke’s route before Saizo’s. I had a feeling Saizo, Juzo and Nobushige would be my three favorite guys and thus, I wanted to get Kamonosuke and Sasuke out of the way first.

After playing through every route, I was surprised to find that Juzo ended up being one of my least favorite of the five love interests. For reasons I obviously cannot discuss whatsoever in this review, spoilers and whatnot, I found Juzo to be extremely frustratingly bad in certain ways. Honestly, I ended up wishing I could replace him with one of the Onibi Warriors. One Onibi Warrior in particular, Hachiro Chinzei, happened to really appeal to me. He has a significant role in a couple different routes and if I could cut Juzo and replace him with Chinzei, I absolutely would. Despite how much he frustrated me, Juzo’s route has its moments, which still made it worth experiencing. Saizo on the other hand, ended up being an even more enjoyable love interest than I first expected. In the end though, maybe because he’s the main, most important Sanada in the game, whose family the Sanada ninjas are obviously named after, Nobushige became my top favorite. Still though, I think Chinzei would’ve made quite the interesting love interest if only it had been possible.

Because Homura is a historical otome, it’s actually extremely light on romance. Also, this otome has to be the lightest yet on extras out of all of the Otomate titles I’ve now played. There are no extra little story bits to unlock whatsoever. None for more minor background characters, nor any for the love interests. You only have the gallery of CG images you saw throughout the main story and each route, the glossary explaining various terms in addition to important people and places, the atlas that lets you look back at a variety of war maps, and the ninja scrolls menu that acts as this game’s chapter select. Oh, plus the video menu where you can re-watch the opening and the different ending credits scenes, along with the music player that lets you listen to the soundtrack. Regardless, pretty much the only satisfaction you get from each route is the brief epilogue when you reach a good ending. Every character has both a good and a tragic ending. There are also a ton of choices to make throughout the game. Homura is very heavy on the amount of choices you can make, which sometimes makes it a bit tricky to reach a good end, or any end at all should you hit a literal dead end. I spent about 45 hours playing through every single route and getting both endings for each guy.

Homura has a really enjoyable soundtrack. The atmosphere, I wouldn’t necessarily say is top tier, it’s mostly full of a lot of war and a ton of fighting throughout every single route. But the music that goes along with it is nice. Also, I would say it has the least typos or grammar mistakes I’ve ever found in a localized otome so far. Thinking back, I’m not sure I saw more than a couple mistakes total, I can hardly even remember them. The biggest issue I ran into was during Sasuke’s route, where it felt like it was lagging because two lines during his story were completely missing. Once I got past that part, I was able to check the log and see the lines I missed, which didn’t appear on the screen when they were supposed to. That was about the only major issue I ran into with this one, as far as mistakes are concerned.

Ultimately, I enjoyed my time with Homura: The Crimson Warriors for the most part. But as someone who is now just a bit too obsessed and addicted to otome games, I was disappointed by the severe lack of extras. I mean, I guess I knew a historical otome wouldn’t be the most romance filled title ever. But I had hoped there would at least be some satisfying extras to unlock. Homura would really benefit from a fandisc. At the same time though, it’s not my first choice among otome games I’ve played that don’t have a sequel or fandisc, yet I hope will get one. That honor still goes to Sympathy Kiss. Nonetheless, if you enjoy history, or you’re a fan of visual novels full of battles and historical war excitement, this might be a game for you. I definitely think it has plenty to enjoy. But, if you’re mainly an otome fan and not majorly into history or war, this probably won’t be the next best otome for you to pick up. Or even if you’re a huge historical otome fan specifically, I still find the lack of unlockable extras to be quite disappointing.