Hanafuda-Inspired Otome Visual Novel ‘Hana Awase New Moon’ Coming to Switch with English Translation

Publisher Dramatic Create has announced Hana Awase New Moon, a Nintendo Switch edition of the quadrilogy of PC otome games. Besides being the first console release for Hana Awase, it will include English and Chinese subtitles for the first time. It’ll be available in 2023 and, though Dramatic Create has yet to confirm the worldwide release, it’s unlikely to be exclusive to Japan considering previous Dramatic Create games.

Hana Awase tells the story of Mikoto, a young woman who’s fascinated by card games as well as cooking and sewing. Once she gets to know the Kasen game, a special Hanafuda variation, she is allured by its depths but isn’t skilled in it. However, as part of a special academy focused on the game, she’ll have the chance to become a Minamo, a maiden who brings inspiration to the top male students known as the Gokou.

Part of the appeal of Hana Awase is its inspiration in classic Japanese poetry, with characters inspired by historical poets and poems. There are four games, each of which has one or two main characters but they also include other short routes. The division is as follows:

• Mizuchi Volume;
• Himeutsugi Volume;
• Karakurenai/Utsutsu Volume;
• Iroha Volume.

Each volume offers a different universe with slight alterations to characters’ personalities, traits and functions. Despite that, it’s still better to play them by release order to get the most out of the experience. The games also include a hanafuda-like minigame.

Hana Awase is written by Gekka with illustrations by Yura (Enzai, Luckydog1). The English translation will be edited by Mary Borsellino, who worked on various BL and otome projects before, such as Fashioning Little Miss Lonesome, Room No. 9, and Slow Damage. Multiple translators worked on the game, including Tania Torres-Delgado, whose previous translations include Hashihime of the Old Book Town, UUUltraC and The Patient S Remedy.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated as Dramatic Create reveals more information on the upcoming release of Hana Awase New Moon.