Hakuoki – Analysing Okita Souji route

And so I continued on my adventure in Hakuoki today while trying to map out the various story branches.

I didn’t quite consciously choose Okita, I simply avoided making the same decisions that led to Saito. Though I have to say that I found myself more likely to gravitate to Harada with my choices than Okita. But the latter was the better looking of the two with his green cat like eyes and wolfish grin.

Anyway Okita seemed to symbolise the bad boy in this story. The guy you know isn’t good for you but you are somehow fatally attracted to. Here’s how the story progressed (spoiler alert).

1. Like Saito, Okita is one of the first faces you meet and seemingly the more cheeky of the two. You know you are headed for trouble when you realise that choices that raise your favour with Okita meant being slightly rebellious and wilful.

Like trying to escape when you’re supposed to stay put, putting yourself in danger so as to provide him an attack opening and screaming for help when Sanan was trying to be discreet, things that were rather counter intuitive to my first choice actions. Guess I am rather safe when it comes to how I want to live my life.

2. What initially drew me to Okita when I first played the game was that he played the rather easy going brotherly like figure that teaches you the ropes as you try to fit into the new ‘family’. However as he became gradually sicker due to his tuberculosis and the protagonist chooses to care for him, the role seemed to switch to her practically nagging at him. I always had the impression that bad boys hate having girls care and nag at them but perhaps I am wrong.

3. Turning point in story is when Okita drinks the Water of Life and becomes a fury at the coercion of Kaoru, simply because he was afraid of becoming an invalid and made to stop killing, the only thing he knew how to do. After that the protagonist feels guilty and blames herself for his choice but he told her to back off. He said it was his own choice, nothing to do with her and even says good girls like her should not get messed up with guys like him.

In fact after becoming a fury, Okita chooses to only come out at night so the protagonist had to stay up day and night just to see him. I mean in comparison, Saito chooses to stay awake in the day so he can continue to protect the protagonist. I suppose that’s the sacrifice you have to make when you choose to love someone who has given up on love. You have to take the leap and cross over.

4. While continuing to pursue Okita’s storyline, it eventually brought them away from all the political warfare and expanded on another version of story that traced the protagonist’s past and her twin brother Kaoru whose sole aim in life is to see his sister suffer, thus hurting the one she loves in the process.

We also learnt more about Okita’s loyalty to Kondou and his apparent rivalry with Hijikata having grown up together. Hence his manic desire to seek vengeance when Kondou was hurt, captured and subsequently executed which he squarely blamed Hijikata for.

Surprisingly in the many instances when the protagonist had to calm Okita down, she had to put her life at risk while trying to stop him (he did warn her many times not to get in the way or he would kill her). But of course he wouldn’t really kill her after all the favor she has won. I guess after we show that we genuinely care for someone, it gives one the liberty to knock sense into the other person.

5. The most poignant part of the story comes when Kaoru forces the protagonist to drink the Water of Life and changing her to a fury as well. There is a rather fatalistic scene when she drinks from Okita and he from her to manage the bloodlust. It is such a beautifully tragic scene which well I should have expected would lead to a fatal ending – game over.

I had to restart and choose to keep the blood feeding in check to get the happy ending. And even that left a bitter sweet taste as I found out that the Water of Life did not cure Okita of tuberculosis.

What is strange was why it was alright to keep feeding Saito blood but the reverse for Okita? Could it be due to a difference in their motivations and personality?

So there we have Okita Souji’s route. Not particularly satisfying for me probably because I don’t think I can ever muster the courage to cross over to reach out to a bad boy even though it has often been one’s fantasy.

Moving on to no. 3. I guess this time it would be Harada?