It’s time to get problematic. Leave your pearl clutching about age gaps and step-siblings at the door because it’s time to talk about Brothers Conflict! But in all seriousness, if these topics deeply upset or offend you, please skip this one for both of our sake.
Originally a series of light novels, Brothers Conflict revolves around the life of Ema Hinata whose father gets remarried to a woman who has (drum roll please) THIRTEEN sons! Those are the new brothers in the titular conflict. The conflict being, they’re (almost) all immediately infatuated if not in love with her. The novels have since been adapted to a few seasons of an anime and two otome video games. Both follow the same general idea of Ema having to navigate living with her new brothers but with different outcomes.
Brothers Conflict is an incredibly successful franchise, so why hasn’t it even been officially ported and localized? Well, it goes back to the intense age gaps and the fact that you’re dating your step brothers. For whatever reason, the anime seasons did make it over and even have a dubbed version, but the games never did. I have a lovely hacked Vita, the English Language fan translation patch, a fiancé who set it all up for me, and a dream. And that dream is to play the otome games so scandalous that no localization company wants to touch them!
There’s two Brothers Conflict games because there were too many brothers for one game originally! They are called Passion Pink and Brilliant Blue. They were later combined and sold together as Precious Baby. Passion Pink and Brilliant Blue were originally on the PSP, with Precious Baby on the Vita and Switch. They’re basically the same game with half of the brothers’ routes in each. I started with Passion Pink, so that’s where I’m starting with this article.
Let me lay it out for you. Thirteen brothers, ranging in ages 11 to 31. Ema is 16. No one is off limits. I can see how this would ruffle some feathers. I’m not going to get into age gap discourse here other than to express to you that the game is incredibly light-hearted and wants you to enjoy the slightly taboo nature of it all. Your dad and step mom do not care and actually encourage you to fall in love with one of the brothers, hilariously so. Ema is at first trying to resist but ultimately fails. You also have a pet squirrel who can talk but only you can understand him. He tries to look out for you! You and eleven of the thirteen brothers live in a condominium where everyone has their own room with the 5th floor being the common area. The parents live in their own house, and Ema didn’t want to intrude on their newlywed life.
Ema is a stronger person than me because if one day someone told me I now have 13 brothers that I have to live with then I’d probably walk into the sea. But this is a fantasy where all the brothers are nice and handsome, so she’s safe.
One thing that always really struck me with these step-sibling and step-parent plots in Japanese media is that the extended family doesn’t meet the new family members until they’re already engaged or married. Like, Ema didn’t know her dad was dating someone much less that she had 13 kids until it was already decided they’d get married. This may all be made up for the drama of it all, but in America it’s a given that all parties will meet up well before any talk of marriage. But for a dramatic set up, you really can’t beat it.
Once you start up a new game you’re greeted by most of the brothers in rapid succession with a lot of CG art. I was really impressed with how many CGs it had! The art is a bit dated in style but I like that kind of stuff, give me that mid 2010 anime style!! Most of the brothers are working adults, but a handful are still in school. Their professions range from highly respectable to seriously questionable as do their personalities. One of the older brothers is a highly respected pediatrician but another one is a monk who loves earthly pleasures and immediately asks if he can kiss you in “other places” when you meet him. I was so shocked by this event, I forgot how to take screenshots on my Vita and frantically took a picture on my phone.
For my first route, I went with Yusuke. He is a boy at the same school in the same class as Ema. We played it safe!
One big difference in this otome game is the scheduling system. Every week, you schedule out what you will do and who you will hang out with each day. You can choose an activity with the whole family that raises your family affection, an activity with one of the brothers, or do something by yourself. Ema can work her part time job to earn money for gifts, movies, games, and more for her family members. Working raises her stress level but you can play games by yourself to lower it. I followed a guide pretty religiously for my first playthrough and never had any trouble having enough money or being too stressed. It felt more like set-dressing more than anything else to try and play up the “time management” aspects. The scheduling also got really tedious at some points. I wish there were more visual novel segments more often!
Basically you stalk your desired brother, doing activities he enjoys and going on dates over the weekend. There’s regular otome gameplay as well where you need to choose the best response on these dates to raise your affection level with him. There’s 6 locations for dates and 3 scenarios for each location, meaning there’s 18 different dates to go on. The only downside is that it’s RNG which you get each time, so I repeated a bunch. I think you’ll end up repeating them no matter what, though.
As you go through the year, there’s family events, holidays, and events with your brothers. That feels weird to say. Basically, raising affection unlocks these events on certain days of the year. Once your save switches from picture of Ema to a picture of one of the brothers, you’re locked into their route. Now, more about the first route I completed.
Yusuke is terminally tsundere. Like, a textbook example of tsundere. I-it’s not like I’m h-happy that we’re l-living together, baka!! But he was sweet. I feel kinda bad for him, because I figured out pretty quickly that he’s been in love with Ema for a while now, way before they became siblings. That had to suck. He’s rough around the edges but kind and protective.
Spoilers for Yusuke’s Route
His events basically involve hanging out with him at school. There’s a very small conflict with Ema’s male friend confessing to her, which you turn down. It was very slice-of-life themed vignettes surrounding Japanese school life with festivals, holidays, exams, etc. In the final three events Ema and Yusuke become high school seniors, but one girl Yusuke knew in middle school also enters the school. She bullies and harasses Ema, as she had a crush on Yusuke, and Yusuke doesn’t notice until another brother points it out. He then confesses to her in front of everyone, and Ema accepts.
Aww, cute! Except they didn’t kiss ONCE in the entire main story! The romance was basically just Yusuke being tsundere and blushing while Ema was a bit oblivious to why she likes being with him so much. We didn’t get a kiss CG until the after story, buried in the extras. At least I got one I guess!!
Brothers Conflict: Passion Pink has been a very different experience for me so far. The schedule system and light-time management is very new. I found the common route and events to be very strong with a lot of CGs and character moments, but Yusuke’s events are a little lacking. I think they should’ve introduced more conflict sooner, but this is the “safest” route so to speak. I also don’t love tsunderes, but he was pretty inoffensive. I’m very interested to see how the others play out! How the hell will they rationalize the other romances! I’m excited!
Stay tuned for more about this game! 13 brothers are way too many to put in one article!
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