Samurai of Hyuga Book 5 has been released! Check out its page here!
I remember calling Book 4 a monster. And it certainly offered plenty of new challenges, requiring a fine-tuned ability to outline in order to create a very dramatic story involving the main character’s past along with a significant, optional romance.
But, clocking in at over 430,000 words with THREE story arcs for the price of one, I can safely say that Book 5 is a far greater beast. The difference in the amount of refinement and polish between the two is immense, on levels including story structure and prose.
So Much Stuff Happens
Having three stories in your book means three times as much outlining, but it also means three times as many ups and downs. Book 5 is a rollercoaster more expansive than any readers will have likely experienced, at least in interactive fiction form.
So much ground gets covered, both literally and otherwise, that I can safely say that you’ll be as exhausted as the ronin is after it’s all said and done. But it’ll be a good kind of soreness—at least, I hope so, anyway!
Portraits
Thanks to my awesome patrons over on Patreon, a long-desired goal of mine was made a reality. In Book 5, you can (optionally) select a portrait for your character that will show up on your ‘stats screen’.
Through polls and commissions, these portraits allowed me to interact with a ton of artists and fans alike, and it’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done with the patreon. I’m very happy with how they all turned out!
Well, that’s all I’ve got to say for now! Expect an achievement guide in about a week. As always, thanks for reading!
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seems like this will be the end of the story for me seeing i can’t access it on Steam since it’s marked as adult only and that’s blocked fully in Germany was a fun ride up until now
Talk about a bad end, lol! The laws in Germany are pretty rough, but they only apply to Book 5 on Steam. I recommend continuing your story on another platform. You’ll be able to import your saves just the same.
but i always used steam for the other parts
I’m very sorry that you can’t continue the series on your preferred platform. If I had any control over the matter, this would not be an issue. As it is, all I can do is recommend you continue by playing through the publisher’s website here:
https://www.choiceofgames.com/user-contributed/samurai-of-hyuga-5/
Congratulations on the release! I’m so happy for you! And for me, since I’ve been waiting for it so eagerly haha!
As per usual, I will be replaying the entire series before I get to the juicy new content, so it’ll take me a few days to get to it, but the mere fact of having it in my Steam library feels good!
Just a quick question while I’m at it!
The portraits seem lovely style-wise (judging by the few I’ve seen here and on the Steam preview images), but is setting one mandatory? Just asking in case none fits the mental image I have of my MC (since, unsurprisingly, it’s very vivid after so many years following his adventures!)
Hey Konoi, I hope you enjoy Book 5! For the portraits, having one is completely optional and won’t change the gameplay in any way.
Is there a save option at the end of book 5 on choice of games?
Unfortunately, new choicegames, even those in a series, don’t get a save option until many months after release. Sorry about the inconvenience!
Mari, the save option is only available to Choice of games once a certain percentage of the next book has been completed.
Amazing book as always, even better than four, though with how it ended I have a feeling the next one will be my favorite. Cant wait for more Masashi content, the dynamic between him and the protagonist being what made the series for me in the first place, as such the last chapters were definitely the best part of this one for me.
Probably going to have to hop on patreon for early access this time…
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How to get Sisterly Support achivement ?
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I love this book (and entire of this series) very much. It’s masterpice work That I ever read . Can’t wait see what happens in Book 6 . Thank you very much for good interactive novel .
Hey Zaya, thanks for the kind words! I’ll be posting a complete achievement guide for Book 5 here on Thursday.
*Chef’s kiss*
Another beautiful story! Having my favourite series update and getting to play another fantastic book, through the eyes of our dear ronin, is as always…AMAZING! I now only fear my excitement for book 6! I can’t wait to get to see these array of amazing characters and stories – Jun and Masashi being my favourite!
You are amazing dear author! Thank you for bringing these stories to life!
Congratulations on the release! Just finished SoH 5 and I enjoyed it immensely especially from certain RO-mancers. I’m looking forward to SoH 6.
Absolutely amazing! Being stuck in bed with Covid has given me the time to play the series back a few times, particularly to see what being with Tosh, momo, and Juu-chan would affect. I think going forward, it’ll be my ronin who despite trying to find the least violent outcome avaliable, will always and only love Junko I’ll be treating as my primary. The tension between them and masa, the guilt, obligation, and affection my ronin feels for them both. It feels right. With how much the series seems to want me to rail against her most of the time, I was worried that after the end of book 4, my ronin would just… move on. I’m glad they didn’t. They miss their Juu-chan, and so do I. If for no other reason then like they proclaimed on the baron’s island, even ronin deserve a second chance. Maybe even the legless wolf of the north. Eagerly awaiting book six!
Just finished reading my first playthrough of Book 5, and I gotta say. You’ve outdone yourself Devon! Samurai of Hyuga is, and will forever remain one of my favorite stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading through! I can’t wait to find out what happens next in my Ronin’s adventures, and I hope to be there on day one this time to congratulate you when Book 6 ends up in my email. Until then, keep up the awesome work!
I am just now aware the 5th book got published. I am beyond happy! I love this story and I can not wait to get started on this. Thank you so much for all your hard work.
Oh man, life has been so busy for me that I somehow completely missed the release date for this! It’s wild knowing that I’ve been a fan of this series since… idk when, it’s one of those things that seems like it’s been around since forever.
After finishing off this book and doing a trip down memory lane retreading through the previous four books, it’s obvious that Devon’s improved a lot over the years working on SoH. Thank you for all the hard work you’ve put into tje series, and my ronin and I are eagerly awaiting the next entries (one of us is more excited than the other lmao). Ganbatte!!!
Hi there. I just finished book 5 on hosted games, and It didn’t ask me to save! I’m really happy with how my samurais story is turning out, and I really don’t want to repay it and hope I remember what I did when book six comes around. Is there anything I can do? I don’t know where else to ask
Hey Shin! For new choicegames, there’s never a save feature added until the next game (Book 6 in this case) is about to come out. It’s inconvenient and a common complaint a lot of readers have, but that’s just how it is, it seems.
Sorry for the late reply!
Hello Mulitple Choice Studios. I write this with a little bit of regret, as I have been a fan of your games so far, and I do not wish for this criticism to be seen as coming from any kind of negative place. However, I am currently a good way into Book 5, and mostly enjoying it, but I have been noticing a number of typos and other grammatical oddities that I haven’t noticed in the other games. I’ll try grabbing screenshots on my next playthrough.
The big criticism though is in regards to your portrayal of geisha. There is, unfortunately, a LOT of misinformation out there, especially in western media (particularly thanks to that awful book, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, so the error is somewhat understandable, but geisha are not, and never have been prostitutes or whores of any kind. It would actually have been illegal for them to be such. Geisha originally stem off from the oiran, who WERE prostitutes (but very high class), but the two are quite separate. In fact, it might be worth noting that the earliest geisha were men. Either way, geisha are strictly very high class entertainers, and very far from the glorified prostitutes they are portrayed to be in the games. To be honest, I’m not even sure oiran would behave that way (again, they’re VERY high class).
The way the geisha behave in the game is much more in line with everyday, lower class prostitutes/entertainers. I understand that it may be too late to correct this, but thought I would point it out, in case you would like to fix it in future revisions.
It is, of course, your story, and you may do as you wish, but since it is based in Japan, and Japanese culture, the portrayal is pretty jarring.
Again, please don’t interpret this as coming from a negative place, I AM very much enjoying the series so far.
Here are a couple of links you might find of interest: https://www.insidejapantours.com/blog/2018/01/05/are-geisha-prostitutes/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/japans-geisha-and-the-unfortunate-image-of-sex-workers/a-49137474
Please have a great day.
Hey Tsavo,
I’m sorry if the depiction of geisha in SoH has reduced your enjoyment of the series. It doesn’t happen often nowadays (as opposed to way back in 2015, when the first book was released) but every so often, I get feedback from a few readers who mention historical or cultural inaccuracies mentioned in the books.
The setting for Samurai of Hyuga is a fictionalized version of Japan that borrows from multiple eras and plenty of anime. It’s not a historical set piece, and I don’t think many readers would consider it a serious depiction of Japanese culture.
Elements of Japanese culture like kabuki theater, shogi, geisha, haiku, and Chō-han are used to help flavor the story I’m trying to tell (and better illustrate it in the minds of my readers). Tropes such as geisha being prostitutes, historically inaccurate as that may be, offer mental shortcuts for imagination.
These shortcuts are incredibly important both for storytelling and storyreading. I might write a blog post about the importance of tropes in the future when I have time to gather my thoughts on it. But the summary of it is, often the historical truth of something isn’t as useful for telling a story as the rhetorical.
As a fellow writer and creator myself, and as someone who lives in Japan and studies geisha, I am sorry, but on this I must disagree with you. Of course nobody expects everything based on Japanese culture to be entirely accurate (or “serious”, as you said), and even in Japanese media they have tropes that are relied on, along with inaccuracies. Also, of course, as it is a fictionalized setting and you are right that in order to tell the story, sometimes it is convenient to bend things to allow you more freedom to tell the story. In that I completely support you.
However, some tropes and misconceptions are genuinely damaging, and I am not saying that with any political motivation. The thing is, geisha genuinely dedicate their lives to becoming the consummate professionals, and continuing a genuinely ancient tradition and culture. The closest cultural comparison might be to professional opera singers, and ballet dancers (or, perhaps more accurately, a combination of the two).
Portraying them as prostitutes is not just slightly inaccurate, it is horrifically inaccurate, continuing misconceptions started by American soldiers and actual, legitimate prostitutes after World War II, and continued by stories like “Memoirs of a geisha”, which further blur things by pretending to be culturally and historically accurate. It can, and does cause problems for actual geisha, and it’s furthermore insulting to them. Even in popular fiction, we don’t casually portray ballet dancers and opera singers as being prostitutes (unless it’s a specific characters going against the norm).
In the case of “Samurai of Hyuga” (which I still love, by the way, and finally finished book 5, I cannot wait for the next chapter), it’s somewhat more confusing because the way you portray geisha is quite literally much more in line with everyday prostitutes, which did exist back then, and would be more culturally accurate. It just comes off as completely unnecessary to refer to them as “geisha” when “prostitute” would work as easily and even more accurately, without unintentionally insulting and entire profession and promoting terribly inaccurate ideas.
Once more, please do not interpret this as being stated with any hostile intent, I still enjoy the series and your work, this is just a case of professional and (hopefully civil) disagreement (also truly politics free).
Out of curiosity, do you have any plans to add any more (and less malevolent) youkai in future chapters?