With this final entry, Aksys Games’ Summer of Mystery comes to a chilly end. I’m serious about it being chilly; unlike the first two titles, this one takes place in a world where winter never ends. But that’s really the only difference between this one and its predecessors. It’s still an otome with multiple endings, it’s about a girl who is learning who she is, there is a flowchart to follow and reload as needed, and multiple paths unlock as you complete various endings. Also like the others, its story is unpredictable and overall rather sad. Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk was incredibly hard to put down once the story got going, although it would have been nice to have a little bit of a challenge when it came to finding all of the endings. Come and Listen to My Story About a Man Named Jed
Our protagonist is a girl, as one would expect from an otome visual novel, but she doesn’t appear to be one. She has her hair cut short, wears men’s clothing, works handyman jobs, walks like a man, talks like a man (cue Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons), and generally does everything possible to prove she’s a man. Her name is even the hickest man-name imaginable: Jed. Sure, I could have changed her male name easily enough, but you haven’t lived until you hear Japanese voice actors say “Jed.”
Jed has a reason as to why she poses as a man, and it’s not only because men’s clothing is more comfortable. One of he...