If you weren’t aware yet, Nightshade (or originally named 百花百狼 戦国忍法帖 – Hyakka Hyakurou, 100 Flowers 100 wolves) has just been released on Steam which would make it a PC game. This game is a bit different wherein the route order actually really matters. Having finished the game 2 days ago, I am actually still not entirely sure of just ONE route order. Without spoilers, there are actually 2 branches of the story just so it won’t confuse you why I am saying this.
I’ll be listing several in case of your preference and will explain each route order briefly.
COMMON ORDER :
Goemon > Hanzo > Choujirou > Kuroyuki > Gekkamaru
* This is the most common recommendation I’ve seen around. I myself used this order to play the game. They also call this the maximum angst route because it starts from the lightest to the heaviest. I actually don’t agree with this as I found Kuroyuki’s to be way more angsty than Gekkamaru’s but that’s just me. Maybe I can connect to Kuroyuki way more than Gekkamaru. Personally, I just found Gekkamaru’s route underwhelming because I pretty much figured it out before I even played his route.
However, most people said that Gekkamaru is definitely way angstier. It depends on the person but I don’t think you’d really go wrong doing it this way anyway if you happen to think the same way as me as at least you won’t end at such a heavy note either way.
STORY ORDER :
A. Goemon > Hanzo > Kuroyuki > Choujirou > Gekkamaru
or
B. Choujirou > Gekkamaru > Goemon > Hanzo > Kuroyuki
* These 2 route orders are divided up by Story. Since there are 2 branches, this would help avoid confusion I suppose? For A, it is a bit similar to the common route order in that it is lighter to begin with and ends the heaviest. However, just to note that BOTH of these routes may have different effects for people but it’s more common for Route A to be apparently more exhausting from what I heard.
While in B, I’d say is fairly brutal to begin with and it gives you a bit of a breathing room because of Goemon and Hanzo in the middle-ish part of this route. It would end with Kuroyuki’s which is fairly angsty. But again, I heard more people found Gekkamaru’s heavier.
Anyway, I would not recommend doing either of these routes if you’re faint of heart. I’m used to watching or reading all kinds of story/movie genres so I’m fairly used to it.
LEAST ANGST ORDER :
Hanzo > Choujirou > Goemon > Kuroyuki > Gekkamaru
* Man, this one was hard. But I don’t want to sacrifice the story order either so this is the best I could come up with I suppose. I tried to put Gekkamaru in the middle but it just doesn’t seem right. D’: I personally would’ve chosen to do this route as well actually come to think of it if I had known.
Anyway, that’s it! Happy playing and good luck. 😀
