Flight-Plan is a game studio I hold near and dear to my heart. They're were most well known for their Summon Night series which English speakers will recognize as Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 1 + 2 on GBA, but the mainline entries are actually SRPGs. While the actual combat of SN is fairly basic, the main appeal has always been the characters-- The most important feature of every entry has always been the Night Talks. You pick a character, you climb up to the roof, and you have a chat under the full moon. It's a simple thing, but the expressive facial portraits and surprising amount of voice acting let you know where Flight-Plan's priorities lie. Wanting more, I picked up Black/Matrix, their other beloved flagship series. When it's mentioned by English speakers it's always for the impressive game play ("one of the best srpgs ever created" is common praise for this one) but I didn't expect to carry much of the same character-driven charm as it's sister series. I'm 40 minutes in and already in love.
Black/Matrix has got style in spades. Gothy angel and demon aesthetics are the name of the game here with an unexpectedly varied soundtrack. Character designs are done by Weiss Kreuz artist Kyōko Tsuchiya, who gives everyone a very of-the-era leather dog collar edge. I saw on several walkthrough sites that the game is considered a shoujo (at least in the original Saturn version, before the art was redone). It's pretty surprising since 90% of video games are made with a male audience in mind, but ya gotta remember this is Flight-Plan: The first Summon Night entry had not one, but two female player options, with some extra consideration for the fujoshis in the audience (Hayato x Kir was semi-canonized in the Magical Disc animation released with the DS remake, it's actually a very beautiful song so please give it a look!). I wouldn't exactly call SN shoujo/otome games, but they do have a unisex quality to them I've always appreciated. Queer stuff has always been around as well. Most famously there's Sugar and Pratty's girl kissing antics in Swordcraft Story (Sugar only offers to kiss you if you're a girl, but I might be misremembering so please correct me if I'm wrong), the Hayato and Kir pairing from the magical disc, Leica and Kite from Dragon Shadow Spell... And more relevantly, Zero and Abel from Black/Matrix. When starting the game you can pick a master who will act as your romantic interest, and by inputting a super secret code that isn't all that complicated actually.... You can grab Zero, the emo blue haired dark demon boy who is actually far sweeter than he looks.


This is the pinnacle of gaming. The emo devil boy in my SRPG is feeding me homemade porridge by hand.
The opening sequence is effective as all hell. You get a few FMVs of a very evil popeman explaining the world view-- ie "angel are sinful losers who should be enslaved and demons deserve to rule over everything"-- before getting the option to pick your master/partner/sweetums. The girls are fairly cute (I like Domina, she has a very stylin' leather top and miniskirt can I go clubbing with her pls) BUT punching in X -> Y -> Z -> A -> B -> C -> ENTER beforehand at lightning speed will allow you to become Homosexual Instantly.

After that, it's time to battle.
....Just kidding!
Before you battle, you have to get domestic. Your partner explains how they found you, a bloodied amnesiac angel, out in the mountains and how they dragged you back to heal you. Any other game would black out the screen with a "1 YEAR LATER" but this Flight-Plan, so they're gonna make you cozy. They will tuck you in, you will get some coco, and you WILL fall for the emo but actually very sweet anime devil boy. You see Zero feeding you porridge by hand, you see him help you as you learn to walk again with crutches, and you see him snuggled up with you in front of the fireplace, heart laid bare for you.
This is the path of every master you choose but it's not simply a new name slapped onto old dialogue, it's all unique stuff to suit each character's personality with full voice acting to boot. Zero himself is voiced by Itou Kentarou who has been in more things than I can count but I can say that he Shiraishi from Golden Kamuy, so if you've ever dreamt about giving that goofball's balding head a smooch, this is the game for you.

Once you are healed up you decide to head out to face the Dark Emperor or whatever the heck but your partner is very much against that, so they decide to lay a whole year's worth of chores on you. No battles yet. You have to wash the hecking dishes.

The minigames are a lighthearted, familiar affair from Flight-Plan with it's obligatory fishing, sweeping, whack-a-mole and rat catching. Completing these activities will give you a slight boost in certain attributes as well as some cute dialogue with you and your partner. The animations are incredibly expressive, with your buddy hanging their head in disappointment or the protagonist stretching as they wonder what to do next.

Also look at how cute the season icons. The presentation is very charming. Just cute stuff all over. And this is only in the first 40 minutes!
Finally, your master fails to come home, and you venture out to find them.... And I was very sleepy because I was playing this at 1 am, so I saved and put the game down. I still haven't battled yet. But thanks to the voice acting and forcible dish washing mini games, I am very much in love with what I originally thought was a "kinda pretty cool" SRPG. There is an immense amount of character packed into the opening chapter. I came for the much appraised gameplay but was instead met with a very deliberate decision to get the players comfy. You live in a space, and you find affection for it.
For Flight-Plan, it was never about being grand or show stopping. It was about getting personal with the characters and living day-to-day with them. It was less about going for gold and more about fallin' in love.
