Masquerade Kiss is a free to read spy story with a rarely seen MC personality and, some sexiness, but Kazuomi’s route leaves you wanting more spy.
In Masquerade Kiss, you play as a top spy agent trying to uncover a drug ring threatening to infiltrate Japan. The first story released is Kazuomi Shido, who is the 3rd richest person in the world, and a known womanizer. Through a set of circumstances, the Main Character, who is going by Arisa Mifune to hide her identity, becomes his secretary. This comes with a caveat where whomever gets the other person to fall in love with them first wins. Win what? Exposing the other’s secrets.
What proceeds to happen, and how one will feel about the story as whole, depends on your expectations going in.
The personality that this MC has is one that isn’t seen a lot in otome. She has smart comebacks when someone is being inappropriate with her. She also presents herself as being professional regardless of her inner thoughts.
This story is very heavy on the fact that the MC uses her womanly ways to
to get information from men. It doesn’t matter if she does it through flirting or letting them touch her in ways one wouldn’t. She spends all of her time having Kazuomi, and sometimes his college buddy Kei, constantly tell her how hot she is and how much they’d like to sleep with her.
For the most part, the MC doesn’t to put up with the shenanigans. However, she seems fall for Kazuomi a little too quickly. Kazuomi seems to constantly change his approach to see which one sticks, while also reminding her about their bet when it seems to be working.
The part where the story most lacks is despite being a spy story, you will find it being very light on the spy aspects for large chunks of time. There are times that you will forget you are reading a spy story and only to be reminded due to the MC thinking about her mission. Then when the spy parts do kick in again, the MC seems under-equipped to handle the situation.
If you have played Voltage games before, you will notice the character design that is in many of their games. The soft shading art is very nice to look at and looks even better when it comes to the game’s illustrations. The background music is all over the place when it comes to what type of mood the scene wants it to convey. There is even a frequently used track that is reminiscent of generic 90s House.
This is part of their “Love Choice” series, meaning every five hours you can access one story to read for free or you can use hearts to read the next chapter. You can get hearts using coins which you can purchase with money or win in the app. The story also has choices that you uses hearts in order to read.
Overall, if you can manage not to focus too much on the spy aspects that are lacking, it’s a start to finish satisfactory story. I think that the story would have been better off with an MC doing her first major test. Not a spy at the top of her game with how she seemed to completely fall apart when it counted. However, getting to play as a woman who can use her sex appeal to her advantage is a fantasy that not many are afforded. So some may find more enjoyment out of the story than others.
Breakdown
- An adult MC who acts like the adult and, for the most part, doesn’t let people step all over her.
- A decent read without the use of most common tropes.
- Not as spy forward as I would have liked.
- A lot of telling, but not enough “showing” which leaves frustration in the later chapters about the MC’s abilities.
- Illustrations are all very well-drawn.
Rating: 3.5/5
Final Comments: As I was looking forward to the spy aspects of the story, I am frustrated. Not only is there a lack of spying, but there was also confusion when spying happened. In the end, sometimes it’s easier to stick to the tried and true formula of otome. I would have given this a better rating if there had been more of the MC not only being spy, but being a good spy. This hopefully is improved upon in the other routes in the game.
Disclaimer: Access to the Collector’s Edition of this story was provided by the publisher.
System(s): iOS/Android/Amazon
Price: Free to read with a new chapter available every 5 hours, Paid choices
Text Language: English
Download: https://app.adjust.com/e14p4sr
Website: https://voltageapps.com/love365/
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