Beat Blades Haruka features a diverse array of characters. The protagonist is a normal Japanese high school boy named Takamaru Ikusabe. Well, he seems to be normal, and definitely considers himself to be so, but he is the current era’s Dragonian. That means that he has been chosen to lead the Crescent Moon ninja organization, and it also means that he has a special power that allows him to give strength and power to females through sex. The exact reason for this is detailed in the story towards the end. There are three kunoichi that form your primary group of girls, but there are also several ancillary characters that are also important to the story and to your character. Notably among the world of Visual Novels, Takamaru is the only character that is unvoiced. All other males in the game are voiced, so that means the decision to not give him a voice is entirely based on wanting you to put yourself in his place. During the sex scenes he will often appear, but seldom in any full way. This is also to give you the immersion of imagining yourself in that role. Other than those scenes, he is always off screen and directly addressing the person he’s talking to.
Haruka Takamori is from the past, and when she failed her mission to stop the Noroi faction from time jumping, she went after them. She is a powerful ninja in her own right, but she has always had a bit of an inferiority complex. Her comrade Subaru was always more talented, and she was still new when the world was thrust into chaos. Having been raised by the Dragonian of her time period after her parents sold her into slavery, she has become fiercely loyal, but without any regard to her own well being. So sometimes it is best to protect her from herself. But she is sweet and kind and loyal to a fault, much to the chagrin of Naruka. Her life is only about the Crescent Moons. Haruka is actually a couple years older than Takamaru, but the only way this shows is in her womanly figure, especially her ample bosom. Mentally and emotionally she seems to be younger than he is, and Takamaru comments on that as well. Her true love route is the “canon” route and is focused on her journey to confront her past, come to terms with her current environment, and to find a life that doesn’t consist of what fight is next. Her previous interactions with the Dragonian from the past were just heavy petting, so she is actually a virgin. There is something about Takamaru that makes her think that this time she wants to go all the way for her Master, and not just for the extra power.
Narika Shihoudou has known the protagonist for years. Takamaru trains in martial arts at their family shrine and has recently taken to living there as a tenant of her father. As our story begins, it seems like they have a somewhat tumultuous relationship. Narika treats him more like an older brother and is constantly riding him to fit her expectations. Added onto that, she always turns up to ruin any chance he has with girls. Takamaru has a bad habit of falling head over heels for girls fairly easily, but he has never had a girlfriend: Narika always ends up telling them details about him that drive them off. She is doing so for two reasons. One is by the orders of her father, to save up the Dragonian’s power to only be used on Crescent Moon Ninjas, but she has also secretly started doing so to save him for her. Initially, when her father told her of her duties as a kunoichi of their clan, she was extremely unhappy. But a certain event made her reconsider that. And now, she has grown to love Takamaru and looks forward to the day when she can become a full Beat Blade. But then Haruka comes in from the past. Will she take Narika’s destiny from her, and does she want her to? Narika is quite the tsundere, and she is brash and loud almost at all times. She is a couple years younger than Takamaru and is a bit self-conscious of her very young looking body (especially her chest size). If you can get past her thorny personality, though, she is quite the cute girl.
Last of your three Beat Blade kunoichi is the mighty Subaru. She is also from the past and was greatly respected for her power. One reason for her extra power was having a full sexual relationship with her previous master, whom she loved despite not being his wife. The other reason is how much effort she exhibits in training and discipline. She is truly a force to be reckoned with, both physically and mentally. She suffered a major defeat in the past to the Noroi second in command Ittou Hagane that allowed them to jump time. Subaru lost her right arm in the fight and was captured. Through rape and mind control, the Noroi faction has tried to get her on their side. But Subaru has proven quite resistant to their methods. She never truly submits to them, but they manage to temporarily get her to fight for them through a nefarious means. You and Haruka end up saving her from herself. But not all of those wounds have healed completely, no matter how tough she is on the exterior. And, if you so choose, you can make her feelings for you even deeper than they were for her former master.
Akira Kurogane is the school nurse. She is pretty popular with the students, especially the boys, for obvious reasons. She is secretly the vice-chairman of the Crimson Moon group. She mostly tasks herself with inventing the gadgets that the group uses to fight general crime and the Noroi faction. Now that the faction has finally appeared in the present time, she has had to take a much more active role than she previously has, especially when the chairman of the group is captured. She was a former Blade and lover of Takamaru’s father. But, maybe under the right circumstances, she may be willing to show his son a thing or two in bed.
Master Shihoudou is Narika’s father and your martial arts instructor. You find out that he is the chairman of the Crescent Moons clan and he has been orchestrating events to keep you close so he can tell you of your destiny when you are ready if events require it. He has also been complicit in the Narika’s strategy of keeping you perpetually single until now. A wise leader, and a great fighter, he is a Master to look up to. But when he is captured by the Noroi faction, will the Crescent Moons be able to survive without him and also be able to rescue him as well? Those events set off the start of the fight between the Crescent Moons and the Noroi faction. Takamaru is thrust into a destiny he had no clue about. But with the help of his Beat Blades, only they can turn the tide against Noroi’s plans to destroy humanity.
Just why would the Noroi faction want to destroy humanity in the first place? Well, it turns out that almost all of them merely want to reform some of what they consider bad human practices; the only one who actually wants to destroy humanity is Noroi himself. The rest of his followers think they are doing the right thing. That leads some of his followers to be scary in their zealotry, as anyone who is supremely confident of their ideals can be, but also leads some of his followers to be hilariously misguided. Many of them do certainly have a point about some of the worst aspects of humans, leading the Crescent Moons to at times question whether stopping them is really the right thing to do.
A good example is the above Jonin. He is a Buddhist Monk that has tasked himself with bringing humanity back to its natural state by getting rid of all false smells. That idea may be particularly insane to Western readers, especially given his hilarious outfit, but that thought process is not too far afield. There is a reason that he calls himself a Buddhist Monk. Some sects in the past adamantly refused any false smells and proselytized that natural human smells were closer to dharma than to cover them up. So all the Noroi faction believe themselves to be correct, even the four masters of the seal. Noroi just twists their views and makes them react in extreme ways to enact punishment on humans and especially on any Beat Blades that end up in their capture. The rape that happens at their hands always ends up having something to do with reforming humanity from their sinful ways, teaching both the kunoichi and humans what is wrong with the world.
When you fight female members of the Noroi faction, things are a little bit different. The enemy females will not rape or abuse your Beat Blades, but the enemy minions they arrive with will off-screen. So, you will still receive both the stat increases and stat losses of a normal rape event, but no separate sex scene will occur. And instead of just being destroyed, like the male members are, they are defeated and captured by your Crescent Moons. Then Takamaru has the option, entirely optional, of having sex with them to turn them back to good. Each time it’s not rape, the protagonist could not bring himself to force his way onto anyone, they are given a choice. But once he convinces them to have sex, his Dragonian powers remove the curse of Noroi and help them think clearly again. In all cases, the elements of their problems with human behavior are still there, but it removes their hatred of humans and desire to destroy or punish them. This also gives you a fairly nice boost in your Libido. What effect does Libido have? I’ll get into the gameplay systems in Part 2 of the Review. Stay tuned.
