When I first started to play Ikemen Sengoku on the phone (way before I got the Vita version), I was instantly curious about Masamune. Maybe it’s because I consider myself to be a free spirit as well…or maybe it was the eyepatch. Either way, I thought he was and is massively sexy. Not to mention Kazuki Kato has an amazing voice as Masamune. Cybird obviously knew he was perfect for the role. 🙂

Just like the others, he has a Romantic route and Dramatic route, and they are actually both very good. The heartbreaking scenes in the Dramatic don’t seem to be as bad as I thought. When I think dramatic routes…I think it’s going to be utterly devastating. The vita version has those routes, and I was so upset by the ending, it just crushed me and my feelings. Masamune is the first one I’ve finished both routes with.

The Beginning

After the prologue where all the guys are introduced, the option pops up to pick the guy you want to do a route with. Masamune is instantly eager to get to know you, and he doesn’t want any changing minds. While Nobunaga finds you, as the main character (MC), entertaining and the outrageous story of coming from the future, Masamune is even more interested, and he almost instantly believes you about being from the future. But this is after the fact he visits MC’s room, puts a sword to her throat to get the truth of where she’s from. He finds it harder to lie with a sword pointed at the person. He welcomes MC to “Japan of the past”.

With that said, he finds the sketchbook of MC’s fashion design sketches, and is incredibly impressed. He is charming, complimentary and then ends up taking one of the sketches simply because “he liked it.” Masamune also says that MC is special because no-one can make the things that has been drawn in the sketchbook.

MC is left speechless as Masamune leaves. But it’s obvious that she’s become interested in him, despite being confused at the same time.  MC gets comfortable with where she is and is pranked by Masamune as she starts her first day as chatelaine, asking Hideyoshi, Ieyasu and Mitsuhide if they needed anything. Nobunaga has called a council meeting and it turns out there is a daimyo that is pretty much a traitor to Nobunaga. Nobunaga sends Masamune, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu to go there and settle things. He also sends MC because she is his “lucky charm”.

Hideyoshi comes across as a prick, telling MC not to be in his way when they are leaving to go to the daimyo’s home. Masamune hoists MC up onto his horse, catching her by surprise. While Hideyoshi warns Masamune not to go crazy, Masamune does anyway, and goes galloping off with MC clutching on for dear life. I think he, in his own way, tries to comfort MC as she grips onto him and shuts her eyes at the breakneck speed they are going. He tells her he would not let her fall, and urges her to look at the world around her. His words are powerful enough to make her relax and enjoy the ride.

Once they meet with the daimyo, it turns out the warlords Shingen Takeda and Kenshin Uesugi are still alive and the daimyo claimed he had been loyal to those warlords and when he found out they were alive, he simply wanted to go back to them. Meanwhile his farmers and their families are starving as the daimyo starts gathering weapons etc. To make a long story short, the farmers the daimyo had demanded to fight for him against the Oda forces, half of them surrender when Masamune detected they weren’t fighters. The daimyo escapes and as soon as he does, the other men surrender too. Masamune runs down the hallway and finds MC fighting the daimyo, insisting he goes back and surrenders. He knocks MC over and is about to hit her with his sword but Masamune rushes over and blocks his hit. Masamune is impressed by MC’s ability to be brave and fight off someone much bigger than her…without a weapon. They take the daimyo back to Azuchi, and on the way back Masamune begins flirting with MC, blowing in her ear as he talks to her.

For MC to understand everything a little bit more, Masamune takes MC out to meet with his scouts hidden in the woods, where she meets Yojiro. She discovers Masamune cooks when he hands his scouts food. This is when Masamune flirts with MC again, chasing her around trees. It’s a very cute scene. Until MC hits an unsteady piece of ground and ends up falling up in a lake with Masamune, who had reached out to save her. They survive and get back to land, where they talk some more. Masamune splashes her with water, and MC tries to get him back. MC talks about her fears, and again Masamune gives her words of encouragement. He obviously likes her, but is clueless about what those feelings are at that point. But they end up kissing, and Masamune takes her down to the ground. This is when their relationship changes. Nothing is official yet of course and they aren’t really at the love part of a relationship. But it’s obvious something is building up.

There are ups and downs between their relationship, as MC struggles to find out why Masamune believes the way he does. This all goes downhill when her friend Sasuke and his friend Yukimura kidnap her and try to convince her to go with them. Masamune is told that she is missing and he goes after her. He flings a sword at Sasuke, just missing him and hell breaks loose. MC gets in his way as he tries once more to kill Yukimura and Sasuke (he threatens to kill her if she didn’t move) and Sasuke and Yukimura manage to escape . Masamune is pissed that they get away and MC begins to cry. Masamune tries to take her hand and tells her they are leaving and she slaps his hand away, and tells him she’s leaving…alone. MC leaves and it’s pouring out. Meanwhile she’s getting sick with a cold and collapses, only to be caught by a very worried Masamune. MC is confused as to why he could be downright cold-hearted one moment and then care about her the way he did at that moment. The next morning she wakes up, and finds a necklace by her side. She figured it was a gift of apology from Masamune. Meanwhile Ieyasu is there taking care of her.

Masamune’s route is one of those routes that feels like a roller coaster (which MC describes their relationship as later on). They hit the high notes of a relationship, and then it takes a tumble, albeit small. I think, after playing it twice, the tension is due to their lack of understanding in one another, and both of them are willing to understand one another better. Masamune admitted he failed to try to understand her in the beginning, while MC had been trying.

Masamune gets injured when he and his scouts get attacked by their enemies at the same camp that Masamune had taken MC to. This worries MC, despite not having spoken to Masamune in three days. Mitsuhide, cunning as he is, tells MC the infirmary could use her help. She goes, even though she’s feeling uncomfortable, and then sees Masamune helping his scout Yojiro. Masamune and MC begin to talk in a separate room when MC discovers he’s been wounded and won’t take care of it. Masamune wants to understand MC as much as she wants to understand him. It’s pretty much obvious that Masamune likes her more than a one-night stand kind of like. He questions himself why it bothered him when she wasn’t smiling around him, and how it hurt him to see her look tense and the fact she slapped his hand away bothered him too.

Masamune asks MC to meet him at Mitsunari’s that evening so she can truly understand him better. MC discovers that Masamune invited her over for dinner, and while his plan was to help her understand everything, Mitsuhide switched Masamune’s water out with sake. Masamune is completely weak against alcohol. ANY. He ends up drunk and MC helps him to a futon while Mitsuhide and Mitsunari,. leave MC in an amusing situation. MC ends up sleeping with Masamune.

The Middle:

At this point war is beginning between Nobunaga and his forces against Shingen and Kenshin. As all other routes, Kennyo plays a role in Masamune’s as well. MC leaves a note for Nobunaga saying she was leaving for battle with Masamune. Masamune accepts her, but makes no promises in saving her. In which he does, surprising himself. But an adorable scene is before the battle, Masamune and his troops stop at a festival in a nearby village. MC and Masamune spend time together there, where MC tells him about games she would play with sparklers. They go by a river and light sparklers. Masamune ends up winning the second round and makes up a rule. He kisses MC and this is nice intimate scene between the two before the battle that’s yet to come.

Masamune’s route was the first route I did and after doing other routes, I end up going back to him because it’s really enjoyable for me. You get the wild, fun loving guy that can be brutal and threatening, and have this extremely passionate side that MC discovers. What I’ve discovered, with ALL the routes I have managed to get finished so far, is that most of the Oda forces MC has been with either don’t understand how they feel or why they feel the way they do (Mitsunari is an EXCELLENT example of not understanding). Hideyoshi is the only one I can think of that actually knows what love is.

Masamune is a bit iffy. When he and MC fought, Mitsuhide had noticed Masamune was “grumpy”. Obviously the fight and MC slapping his hand away hurt him more than he admitted. And Mitsuhide called him out that not understanding Mai was bothering him.

The battle takes place, and eventually MC rides a horse down to help Masamune. Why? Because the night before the battle, Masamune saves MC from getting killed. MC had discovered the culprits that had poisoned the water, causing Masamune’s men to get severely sick; sick enough that Ieyasu needs to make an antidote for them.

MC is frightened that Masamune will die, but it’s a romance game, so obviously it doesn’t happen.

This leads to MC riding to Masamune when he is fighting Kenshin. There are reasons I hate Kenshin, and one big one as to why I will never play his route.  Kenshin realizes Masamune is hurt once MC’s cover is blown and he decides to stop the fight until Masamune was fully recovered.

The battle wraps up when Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide’s armies show up, and Masamune begins his flirty ways when he discovers that MC had broken her promise with Masamune with keeping his injury a secret, and Ieyasu reprimanded him. Masamune seems to like chasing after MC, and MC seems to love it.

It’s soon after the player can choose the Dramatic or the Romantic route. I’ll cover both routes in separate pages since there’s so much to talk about.

What I like about Masamune’s route overall, is that there is always something going on. MC getting kidnapped by Sasuke, Masamune and her falling into a lake, etc. It’s never a dull moment around Masamune, and I do think MC becomes attracted to that whole feeling with him. I’ll write about the Romantic route before Dramatic, so stay tuned for that.