[OTOME] Alice in the Heart Ace's Route Review

Googleplay : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quinrose.alicehearten&hl=en

iTunes Store : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alice-in-heart-wonderful-wonder/id850436456?mt=8

This is the exact game from Quinrose but it is not the original game. It's one of the remakes that was released a few years ago finally translated into English. Before I go talking about the review about Ace's Route I need to note down the downside to the games and of course the good things.

Cons
-Bad English grammar and some translation mistakes. They tried, it's not like it's not readable if you understand English for the most part it's dumb little mistakes you can overlook and figure out what they were trying to say, but if you are sticky to correct grammar/correct translation this game won't be for you.
-If you have played the original game. You will see all new CGs but it's much lesser amount than the original game. There aren't any real gameplay anymore so it's been reduced to pure VN style game with choices which makes some parts of the game a little redundant and repeat itself if you play multiple routes/all the routes at the same time. (Some of the must see events happen in every route and I facepalmed when I heard Alice same the same thing to everyone especially in all the prologues..) But if time and speed is your thing, the game is actually shorter and easier to go through now + you can always skip things you don't want to read. I finished Ace in about 4-5 hours or so.

Pros
-Once you pay for the full game you can play the game OFFLINE. It doesn't ask for updates like *coughsomeothermobilegames* And it runs smoothly, I've never had problems with the game.
-All the original voice overs are in the game. It's quality voice overs by the original seiyuus from the game. Nothing was cropped out from their voices + ALL NPC are voiced as well. I mean unless you really don't like japanese voices then you can buy the cheaper full game without voices.
-With how mobile is structured, the gameplay is very smooth and the remake fits the mobile devices way better than it did for the PSP.
-I will add this as a pro but if it sounds like it's too easy for you, you can shut it off for a more guessing game for yourself to get the ending haha. They have this system where you can turn on to see if you choose the right choice. It'll flash a rose on the choices you made correctly for the character you are going for. If you didn't get it, you can easily rewind and do it again to get the points for the best end. (I didn't figure this until half way but I was pretty good with guessing by how Ace reacted to the choices I made lol.) The rewind feature is much useful than the save/load for this game...

Before I go ahead and start the review please note, I have played the original Alice game and the one which had my favorite character, Gray before but I did not play the remake so it's a bit of a new experience for me.

::START OF REVIEW::

The story starts off with Alice Lidell is listening to her older sister Lorina read a book to her outside under a tree. Alice's has a bit of a complexity with her sister since she's more "pretty" to the point where Alice feels she is inferior to how she is. (Alice is actually very low self esteemed, negative and a tsundere... well more TSUN than dere.)

When Alice takes a nap. Peter, the white rabbit appears and snatches Alice up throwing her down to Wonderland. He loves her at first sight and makes her drinks this liquid which makes her become part of the wonderland world. In order for her to return to her own world, she has to work around the wonderland until the bottle fills up to max again. But of course, people of wonderland won't want her to return to her own world, especially Peter. This world is suppose to be where everyone would love Alice and she isn't used to that so she'll Tsunemo all the way (except she does go out of her way to help the no face people and eventually learn that life isn't that bad after all...)

After the prologues for whichever character you go for where Alice tries to do work there so she can at least feel normal there. Alice's responses to everyone who gives her a job is the same regardless what they say back lol copy paste except Julius which had a bit of a variation thank goodness.

I choose to go through Ace's story first so she works in the Heart Castle. The way they crop the different events gives you a bit of a look on a little bit of everything until you start getting the character events.

Ace's a guy who loves to travel and camp so much he lights a campfire inside the castle corridor. (Which isn't really logical or allowed lolol) Alice would pass by him all the time when he is sitting there enjoying the fire and he would invite her to sit with him. Finally she does one day and she learns a little bit about Ace. That she doesn't like this type of guy, who is cheery and smiley all the time because it's unreal. She even flat out says, you aren't my type, but Ace is like well, I can see you being my type. ｡◕‿◕｡

 
After a while of the weird encounters with Ace, Alice started to wonder about his real personality since he has a face, he has an important role in the Wonderland, if he was truly nice how can he survive? One day a maid stumbles upon them enjoying the fire one day and told Ace you can't do that here. Ace glares through the maid scarying her of what she said, he's sly enough to finally get Alice to agree to travel around the Wonderland with him so he will not do the campfire in the castle.

Bad thing about Ace? He has no sense of direction and can easily get lost even in the Castle.  So when Alice goes out with him on travels they get lost... so badly that they need to set up tent every so often. Which I don't know how Ace magically has that stashed with himself nor do I understand how Alice always has a pillow with her lol but hey it's Wonderland.

These encounters happen quite often until one day as they were in the tent and Ace stripped off his jacket. Which finally clicked Alice to ask him doesn't he feel... he shouldn't really do that in front of a girl. He answers it's only his jacket not like he's full on going to strip down to the nude. And then twists the question back to her, well what would she do if he actually did start to strip. Alice would of course choose to punch him before running away which turnedhimon to a degree because he was excited to see that happen one day if she really would do that. But he won't pull that on her, because if he really was into her, he won't let her EVER run away... because she can't. （｀ー´） <--Ace

Alice learns Ace's nice exterior is actually not true to who he is... and feels a bit more comfortable around him because she couldn't deal with a legit true nice man. (because from her ex's experience and how negative she is... she feels it's more real if people had a worse side to themselves)

As each encounter goes, it's obvious Ace and Alice get closer in the tent scenes to the point where Ace finally kisses her one day. Saying he likes her but Alice who is also not just Tsun but was like I don't want a lover (because her ex dumper her for her sister. She still loves her sister but envy her because of that too.) she became a brick to "love". Ace advances to the point where, after that, every time they spend in the tent, they do more than just sleeping. Alice just accepts it  because she became a brick? (lolol wut) Doesn't help she feels this place is just a dream world and not real. Even though it is real in a different degree.

Ace ends up teasing her more and always wanting to get more closer to her. Even though she rejects his closeness (but ok with his advances? *shrug* ok lol...)  Ace eventually becomes really attached to Alice to the same degree as Peter but in opposite extremes. Ace and Peter never gets along and they play very amusing wordy wars with each other and to the point to fight against each other because it's "fun" and that's how the Wonderland game is, where people try to kill each other all the time. The whole "You are pure ideals makes you "great". Unlike you, My impure thoughts lead to impure actions." lololol Ace wasn't afraid to hide he was having ero times with her.

When Ace says I love you vs how he first just liked her (I'm sure the tent scenes helped... lol...) he protects her like a knight would. Meaning no one gets to touch her or harm her. He gets jealous when she's with someone else or talks about someone else. So he cockblocks even Vivaldi who shares candy with Alice, gets jealous when Alice brought cupcakes for Julius on their visit together to him and at the night ball he questions her about her ex who danced with her before. He'll do anything to keep her in Wonderland and keep her to himself. Alice ended up falling in love with Ace just not knowing it. She just noticed herself always seeing him and to the point let's not camp outside, just come to my room... like all the time lolol. (・_・ヾ

During the ballroom scene if you choose to stop dancing, they go back to the room and well, he explains how Alice said he really wasn't much a knight. Because well he isn't and he didn't have his usual composure of being smiley faced. Ending the night being all ero.
 

(That typo lolol. But basically he wants her to himself no matter what because he doesn't share.)

Through the route though as much as Ace is a eroeroyan he has his adorable moments, I really loved when he rests on Alice and talks to her. His ero moments are not disgusting perv but charming in certain ways lol he just loves teasing her. Which is one of the things he mentions he loves doing to Alice adding loving the way she is, that she doesn't have to change at all. He also has the scene where he questions about if she really has to leave one day... which leads to the ending where if you get the Best End she will stay behind for Ace. Even though from the experience in Wonderland finally made her realize she wants to be a better person and fix her mistakes in her real life.

The ending cracks me up, because Vivaldi tries to teach Alice some "tricks" to make Ace happy so she can spend all his money lolol but Ace overhears it ALL (despite him getting lost, he seems to always just find Alice pretty easy.) and teases her over it. Alice through the whole game, despite going out with Ace and being lovers. She never say she loves him because she's too TSUN and just really worries about after Ace hearing that, he might dump her and find someone else. She finally shows her love by action (instead of being the brick lol) and kisses him. Which was enough for Ace already because he loved that she can show him how she feels by her actions and he understands because she stayed behind for him.

END OF REVIEW

Rest of the CGs (I don't include the variations.)

Final Thoughts : I really like the Heart no Kuni no Alice when it first came out. It had over the top characters in a world that isn't your typical Alice in Wonderland story. But you can't help but love them. This isn't the original game nor the second remake but the remake after that. I honestly prefer the first remake if I had to choose between the two regardless how long it took to play.

But with the fast paced games we play now and how gaming in general is now a days. This game fit on the mobile device really well. I can imagine people being frustrated if you bought this version on PSP but it isn't the case on mobile devices.

If you love the world of Alice and the idea of dating characters in that world it's a must try. I honestly really enjoyed the play through especially since I can play on plane rides and when I don't have internet hooked up. Even though this story was written a few years ago, so they censor all the erolike scenes (unlike now a days, it's written all over the place even in detail especially for mobile games.) It's still a good game. The fully voiced feature really lightens up the game for me the most.

I've played countless localized otome mobile games and Alice in the Heart is still better written than some of the mobile games I have played. (Which says a lot... It's not all but even with the cuts/changes Alice is still a good game especially the fact it's released in English for people who aren't familiar with it.)

If you never played the previous versions of Alice or thought the previous version were too hard and long to pass. This is for you. Anyone new to the Alice franchise will be able to fall in love with the characters and series pretty easily to pick up. But I honestly suggest to get the fully voiced for the full experience... I don't think I could stand just reading through bad grammar the whole way but that's just me. 

(And Ace looks so good in the white suit... I still can't get over it haha.)

I will be playing through the other routes because I bought the full game and I want to see the other character routes. I might not write out a second review however because there are too many characters + it's best to experience it for yourself. I do feel meh that Nightmare route isn't included (even though he suppose to be from the PSP port...?)