Just finished it in a more er… Rough play through around the end. Losing certain people was crushing and I’m about to replay one and two so I can have another go with 3 as a different character. Lot’s of detail and work put into it,I love this is basically a summary of my feelings. I’ve become attached to all the characters and was really attuned(pun intended) to Jubei especially around the end.
I like that it was left for interpretation and if we really are Tosh’s second choice then that’s character development IMO because that does happen and that would be something to deal with.
Okay, I’ll forgive not being able to romance Hatch just because that made me chuckle. At least I can bromance him!
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Aww pity about hatch ): though he is a great bromance nonetheless! Cant wait for more tbh 
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From my perspective, the reaction that Tosh gave was a clear indication that there are some strong emotional response in relation to the Emperor. But looking back there are two way we could interpret this, either jealously because they had feelings for the Emperor or sadness/fear perhaps that they would be replaced as a close confidant? Or Tosh is just really protective of those he love as friends or otherwise.
@No_This_Is_Patrick : Like @Anathema said even if you reject them, the reaction is still present indicating something is admist. 
@harmonia I agree. I am not looking for Jane Austen level of romance writing and SoH is hardly a romance book at all. One thing I just want to see that whoever we pursue, it would be integrated and fully concluded by the end of series. =D
As for Hatch, my Ronin always sees a friend. XD He has always been one of my favorite character.
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Don’t forget that all these events come soon after leaving the Baron’s island - upon which Tosh was traumatised pretty badly; it’s entirely possible that the sudden emotion displayed by Tosh is (at least in part) due to her/him reaching out in a desperate moment; that is to say, an honest display of humanity. 
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I don’t think so. Since I remembered them saying that they had developed feeling for us since the very beginning. I think the reaction was due to the fact that the Emperor’s wedding was coming and they had to learn that fact from Mamashi and not the Emperor- who despite rank- is a closed and dear friend to him. This is a jealousy to some degree but not a romantic one.
Edit: Or I’m just in some sort of denying state for I am too jealous of the idea Toshi has/had feeling for the Emperor 
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But during the temple scene in Book 1, Tosh was there when the Emperor mention their upcoming marraige so I doubt this is the case?
But not coming that fast, I think?
It was clearly indicated when the wedding will be
You’re not the only one actually. XD When I saw that scene, I heard my Ronin’s heart cracked. 
And in the case of my ronin being a male, something almost broke as well 
but yeah, thank you for yhe screenshot. I’m a bit foggy about these things.
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Thank you for answering my question, I really appreciate it!
As for Tosh and his reaction to the Emperor’s upcoming marriage, I think it might be because after the Emperor’s wedding they have a year to finish the quest or everything falls apart. It’s like a stark reminder that the timetable is moving up. I also don’t think Tosh has to have romantic feelings for the Emperor to be nervous about the upcoming wedding. He’s BFFs with the Emperor, but he’s also a Kondo and Mas says his sister looks down on those she considers inferior. I think he’s worried about losing his friend and losing the role he loves.
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Well. I guess that’s it then. No need to save my Ronin’s chastity for hatch any longer! Curious though, will the MC’s feelings toward Hatch be addressed even if rejected? Love Triangle in the beginning, now becoming a Love Square would be both tension fulfilling and quite possibly hilarious.
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That is a possibility as well. Like I what said in my previous post, there was an emotional response when the news of the upcoming marraige came out and we may intrepret it differently. But your reasoning would be plausible for both who are not romantically involved with Tosh and those who are romantically involved. But another layer of reasoning could be apply as well for those who are romantically involved with Tosh since the reaction happened during the intimate scene between the Ronin and them.
I know I’ve said it a hundred times already so I apologize for repeating myself again. Maybe I’ve just looking into that specific scene too much?
I seem to remember that I don’t have an issue with Momo’s scene probably because it shows Momo really loves the Ronin? XD
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Somehow chastity does not come to mind when I think of the Ronin…
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LMAO, I’m still gonna make it happen! Maybe even go for a nun-totally-not-tainted-by-jun ending, who knows?
Well, finally played it (after various restarts because I’m a perfectionist and some choices didn’t really translate to the kind of tone I expected, I assume it’s my fault for not replaying the other parts before to get back into the story)…it crushed my heart. More than once.
I enjoyed the murder mystery sequence on the island. I know others said it felt like a chore but for me I have to disagree. It was a nice change in game mechanics.(…even if I have not that good of a memory and so it’s probably good that not more of those questions came up in the second half as it would have meant more retrying for me…but no, really, this game was really long and I would have been so thankful for a save feature because of it. It’s too easy to take the wrong choice by mistake and having to redo everything is just cruel…).
And the interactions our Ronin got with the other characters were great. (Hatch really grew on me during this book, what suprised me, considering I didn’t care much about him during book 1 and 2)
I really started to care for them! Thanks for luring me into emotional destruction that was really delightful! ^^ … T_T poor Ige…MC tried everything she could to save you, but she still COULDN’T 
The romance unfortunately left me pretty cold. Actually no, I caused me to start to despise the romance in this series. Momoko was bad enough in the execution (and her whole character tbh…rarely felt so turned off by a female character without anything about them making them even a bit redeemable as RO for me), but Tosh…eh. To be completely fair I wasn’t that head over heels about Tosh to begin with, but they really started to grow on me at the eblnd of book 2 and I hoped to see more of it in book 3 and - besides a really weird attempt to force sexual attraction by literally breaking a leg of all things (this really gets a place in the top ten of weirdest and most uncomfortable flirting scenes ever) - it seemed to deliver a believable development of their relationship.
Up until the kiss. …that…was so out of the left? Not so out of the left like the sexy massage of course. I still don’t know if saying no to both basically ended the “romance” or not or if this gets taken just as simple as “maybe not now? Maybe not so fucking fast?” I mean…was that supposed to be a race or a relationship development? Doesn’t matter anyway because as soon as the big kiss (not) happened Tosh got a pretty big personality shift that turned off every interest I had for that character. I really dislike the shift in MC’s and Tosh’s dynamic following the romance. And I disliked how on the face the “romance drama” was. We just had the drama with Momoko-Hatch-MC and we obviously can’t go without some Tosh-Kohaku-MC drama…no matter if MC even reciprocates anything at all (another thing that I didn’t like: MC got no chance to clearly reject Tosh)
That’s one of the reasons I’m a bit weary when I think about the potential of a Jun/ko romance. Not because I don’t see why some people want, but because it will be impossible to get away from the game shoving it at me if the way romance is structured in this games stays the same.
And Jun really is a character I wish to get away from very fast. I don’t even want to kill them but should MC get the possibility to somehow get them on the path of redemption I would wish it to be in a way that won’t involve the MC having to deal with them anymore. No really, get that characrer far away from my MC, let them find redemption if some want that sure (and let others kill them), but the hell, I don’t want to play a game in which MC is solely responsible for redeeming Jun/ko…though I’m still on the edge of wanting to stab that character (also because of some of the speculation considering the dream in book 2, indicating that Jun may aims for a female MC to carry his child, what makes him a sexual violent dude who obsesses over and wants to impregnate the MC (the player stand-in), what is basically my worst nightmare of a person , what means this character really provokes my defensive stab reflexes).
Anyway, I really don’t play this series because of the romance, it creates emotional gravitas just fine without it. Still I wish for it to may get better with romance…also because for some of the characters I could see myself interested in playing a romance much more as I did with Tosh, what realistically speaking probably influenced my displeasure with the way it influenced MC’s and Tosh’s relationship ( also “loved you from the first time I saw you” my ass, that so was not how I remembered the dynamic between Tosh and MC going, also one of my least favorite romance tropes .)
I found myself suprisingly interested in Kohaku for example ( even if I will be forever bitter that a choice I made three years ago with a coin toss because bi/pan MC was an afterthought in this game had me only discover through other people’s spoilers and not my own main playthrough that Kohaku can be a Sweet Polly Oliver! Do you know how many boxes this is ticking for me?? I so have to so recreate an “orientation”-swap version of my main!MC. )
Well I can’t wait for the probably soul crushing confrontation between MC and Jun/ko…also because honestly? I really hope to see those of the group that can do so try to find the MC. That probably will only lead to more pain and loss, but I guess I like emotional suffering…oh yeah, that is the reason I play this series.
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I agree with the deduction part since I am a big fan of mystery novels so I greatly appreciate that part of Book 3. I also have to agree with the interaction between our Ronin and the characters. This book really make me appreciate Hatch as a character.
I didn’t see the breaking a leg flirting scene… Probably because my Ronin is chivalrous perhaps? Well to be fair, my Ronin has been attracted to Tosh since Book 1. 
Anyway the shift in the relationship between Tosh and my Ronin felt okay with me since we are already halfway in the series and relationship started with various ROs are not set in stone. Devon did mention our Ronin arebstill free to mingle with others so probably no RO locking mechanic set in place and I got a feeling that who we eventually end up with will probably be set by the end of series. Either way, my Ronin will be faithful to Tosh all the way. 
As for Jun/ko, I am more interested with their upcoming clash with my Ronin since I am not planning my Ronin to get back together with them.
Very true!
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Probably. My main!Ronin is at exactly 50% between perverted/chivalrous, what most of the time translates to me getting the text for a perverted Ronin (but I am free to have her act however chivalrous she wants without losing attunement)
I really don’t think that being halfway in the series really justifies what at least for me felt like a very sudden change in dynamic between characters without reasonable buildup. And that may be a question of taste but for me there wasn’t enough buildup to justify how differently Tosh started to act. Yeah they were under extreme stress but falling for the Ronin happened really fast, so that I couldn’t help to feel at most uncomfortable to most of Tosh’s declarations for my Ronin. Some of the stuff they could say to MC just felt… dissonant(?), too deep for the actual level of closeness that Ronin and Tosh can have by now. That closeness just was so fast it felt out of nowhere. And tbh I also just plainly dislike the new dynamic they got after the romance started. It’s not what I hoped to get into when it comes to their relationship. Considering that we still have three more games to come the story should allow for more as just jumping from teased sexual attraction to insta relationship. But for me it exactly felt that way. Also the focuse on the sexual part of the relationship irritaded me.
And while I appreciate that there is no lock in for ROs that stops the MC from starting other relationships (what would be very frustrating considering how widly spread throug the definitive RO content is around the books) I wonder if giving more choices for gathering player feedback during the game may be helpful to code the romance in a way that wouldn’t feel so…awkward(?).
I really like the character interactions in this series and especially during this book, but the romance and it’s pacing just leaves me irritaded I can’t help it :T
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One thing I notice is SoH felt more a typical shonen type of genre where the author don’t really build up on the romance aspect of story. Devon did admit in his post few posts back that romance is not a major pillar for SoH.
Truth to be told I am not expecting a Jane Austen level romance to be honest but I do get where you are getting at. All in all, the way how I look into Tosh’s RO path, there is an attraction yes but the Ronin did question Tosh’s “motive” so there were still doubts. Have you chosen Tosh during the waterfall scene? I think there were some scene in relation to that but overall, it really depends on how one look into it. And there’s Tosh’s reaction to the upcoming nuptials of the Emperor. My Ronin took quite a hit.
One thing is I am looking forward to Book 4. I am hoping there will be more character developments there and hopefully sort out their feelings perhaps?
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