This game is gorgeous; portraits, CGs, backgrounds, BGM and all. The mild horror elements and a pervasive sense of loss and grief can make the player feel like they’re drowning in it as much as the protagonist is. That protagonist, Beniyuri, is a rare fully voiced otome lead, and it provides a uniqueness to her character that would have been lost in the slightly questionable translation. Some Aksys-localized titles are worse on this, and some are far better.

The variety of endings this game offers are a very strong point, giving the player an unusual amount of control over the story’s conclusion. However, the story only allows these interesting branch points after completing the story to its intended “Best Ending” once. The fact that this game gives a very significant route and ending to its antagonist is another very strong point, and I can’t recommend it to people who usually want to romance the villain enough.

My criticisms are the rare unnecessary homophobic moments, and the implied and threatened sexual assaults. If either of these two may upset you significantly, take caution or avoid this game. If you’d like to kiss a villain or experience a heavy story about loss and its lasting trauma, please do pick it up and give it a shot.

(It’s also nothing like Ashen Hawk, so if you played that first and disliked it, don’t let it preemptively sour your impression of Black Butterfly.)