Tears to Tiara

Genre: Fantasy war/action, harem
Score: OK

Long ago the demon king Arawn was defeated and sealed away. Now a group of dark priests, hoping to revive him and wreak destruction, kidnap the priestess of the Gael tribe as sacrifice. Arawn is awakened – and decides to side with the girl instead.

It’s clear this series wants to be Utawarerumono, but just doesn’t quite have it. It has a great many of the same elements – a combination of war with magic, a righteous cause against a greater foe, a charismatic but mysterious leader with a history that’s connected to the state of the world, a harem of cute girls in ridiculous costumes, some of who and warriors. Even the lead haremette is just as wet and useless.

But it seems somehow to be missing the integrity. Or possibly the attention span. In Utawarerumono every battle was hard won; in this, things just seem to happen that way. Along the way they join forces with bandits, elves, giants and even dragons, with no more reason than “we’re the good guys”. At the end the focus switches with no explanation from defeating an empire to taking down a single fortress. When the big bad is revealed, and Arawn declares “I knew it was you!”, but we have no idea who he is.

It fills the quota of fighting and cute girls, but not of meaningful plot.