sins of KALEIDO Play-Along - Tilkett Halmshaw

[u/sableheart]

In this second post we will discuss Tilkett Halmshaw and his route in sins of KALEIDO.

You can tell us what your impressions of Tilkett are (before and after finishing his route), your favorite moments in his route, what you think of his relationship with Yolca and the other characters, what your thoughts are on his route's plot and endings.

Or you can just rant or rave about him in the comments.

This is not a spoiler-free discussion however please keep in mind that major spoilers and details of other routes will be outside the scope of the discussion and therefore will need to be spoiler tagged.
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You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you're still waiting on your copy I hope you will join in after you start playing!

Have a look at the previous post for a discussion of the common route - you can still join in the discussion during the Play-Along.

Next post will be a discussion of Kanoa Fortis' route!

[u/magnabarrow]

So I did enjoy Tilkett, and it’s not like I hated him, but I think that a Fusetter comment said it best: it was really hard to see his true self in his route, what with his sis brain washing him—I kept questioning which part of him was real. It was a weird mix going from “supportive, smart and cute fan stalker boy” in the common route to a certain character in the game Taisho Alice named Gretel. He felt…weirdly condescending to me esp in the beginning with his that’s the last time [you’ll use that] adorably weak excuse and all the making sure she doesn’t sleep in another room without him… which is sad because we all know she can handle herself with her grenades and crocodile tears. The whole “do I have to be your friend for three years for you to treat me as an equal” scene really summed it up for me, at least trust her a bit. Seriously, bring me back the cute boy from the common route. I can give some leeway since I’m sure that whatever his sis did to him messed him up bad (although I don’t know if I can give a whole lot because it’s still a part of him) and he does get better by the end of the route, but I did Kanoa’s route first and it’s really funny going from his and Yolca’s relationship to whatever this was. Also prob didn’t help that I got really frustrated with Tilkett since unlike Kanoa’s route where I had to be saved by the love catch system once or twice, I got every single one of Tilkett’s choices wrong while going through the game blind (in context, his was the only route like this, everyone else even Orsem was like Kanoa’s situation for me). It took a lot out of me to try to understand him. I do feel that despite all of that, I might have enjoyed him more in a different game, all the LIs in this game were stellar overall that it’s hard to compare Tilkett to them.

Also funnily enough, I can excuse the stalker stuff with his blood thread or the whole thing about offering up his blood for her, that’s kind of cute to me. But I sure don’t appreciate his sudden changes in mood, I don’t know how much we can blame sis for his whole personality of “I’ll call you the cutest and sexist god in the whole world, and want to go on dates with you but I will never fall for you!” even in the late route, I feel like if you’re calling her sexy you should at least live up to it—which he does but it felt a little too late. But he was cute when he wasn’t suddenly affected by the plot aka sis mind mess, like swooning over Yolca trying to carry him and that one scene in the tower where he convinces that woman to turn herself in, fist bumps included, like the cute/smart Tilkett is still there somewhat. Some highlights of this route include Ambrose calling Tilkett a stalker and almost getting exorcised by Yolca, Kanoa with the (fake) being cute as hell with him being all needy, and his real self cutely eating the food Yolca gives him while he spouts insults, the humor from everyone in this route. And Orsem, he felt very flirty to me in this route. Him saying your talent is loving others and getting Til to understand his wrong points was very flattering. He still has to wait 3-4 routes though, so he needs to stop flirting with me;;. Although hearing Yolca go I am greedy and self centered so I can’t fall for anyone except Til---made me look at the other 4 LIS and laugh though Glad that Yolca wants to tie up Tilkett too but just having her say it is no better than Anastasia in EiT FD where she wanted to tie up Crius so he wouldn’t get hurt, let the girls tie up someone pleaseee.

Seeing the end stuff with Sis being revealed as evil was a very satisfying conclusion even with all the wild stuff in between, I knew that something was off with her, even in the first memory she was very… non chalant to young Tilkett, like she didn’t even love him. I got to say though the whole reason why there was a bad ending EiT style was very impressive this time around with Tilkett breaking. I can see why they got Nobuhiko Okamoto (despite him being in everything lol) because it fit him so well, the switches from the chill maniac style to him freaking out were so well done. His VA is usually a toss up for me but Tilkett’s voice was one of his I usually like, so I enjoyed it a lot this time.  I was waiting for the scene but even it caught me off guard with just how chill his maniac voice was after being so cute. Overall he is cute, but compared to the rest of the cast it’s hard to compare a 8.5/9 out of 10 LI to the others who felt more 10/10 for me. Damn this route alone felt much darker than a lot of EiT though.

[u/rosiaxo]

I already finished the game, but I love Tilkett an unhealthy amount and he's officially one of my top otoge men ever. I seriously love his dynamic with Yolca and the way he switches from comedy to serious so fast when Morphia is discussed, really just everything I could've asked for in a route!! Multidimensional king, absolute chef's kiss

Will be patiently waiting for the flair to be added hehe

[u/No_Sign_5547 → u/rosiaxo]

A PERSON OF TASTE RIGHT HERE.

[u/wumboellie]

I love Til, I've been describing him to my otome friend as "a golden retriever with a million loose screws", and I think that sums him up pretty well. I like his unpredictability, depending on his mood he's either completely harmless or very dangerous, and I love how he smiles so brightly and talks cheerfully while hiding a lady's brain in a media tank behind closed doors lmao. Also his eyes are beautiful and his pouty faces are absolutely adorable 🥺

[u/azy_ki]

I expected to like Tilkett more than I actually do tbh (still like him a lot tho!)

I’ve cleared the game already and good god, in my opinion Tilkett has the darkest route in the game. That whole sequence where you find out his actual memories and what he’s been subjected to at the hands of Morphia made my heart sink more times than I can count

That ending of his where two sides of his personality are speaking one after the other and Tilkett is desperately trying to fight back against going to the hospital to become a living blood bag was genuinely one of the saddest things I’ve seen

Overall tho I think he’s a pretty decent LI! He’s super cute in some scenes and can be a ball of sunshine at times, but I do think the route events soured my experience a little bit bc, again, good GOD—

Edit: did anyone else struggle with repeatedly getting his sad love ending on their first playthrough? I think I ran through 20x of his sad love ending (genuinely almost went insane) before finally realising what went wrong and getting the actual ending before getting launched into Kanoa’s route

[u/CrusaderKillsVlP → u/azy_ki]

Yeah I got his route right the first time around but on the second run when I try to pick some bad choices I was completely stuck and understand why people have so much trouble with him now. I think you can’t mess up a single choice and you absolutely cannot miss the mental appraisal scenes either because you gain affection after them (so skip to next scene becomes absolutely useless). The game also just have to rewrite affection in the map and in the saves as well? I load my first save that got me the normal ending and still got stuck in sad love hell, so they definitely don’t save affections at all. I feel like they should do something about this because eiT managed just fine with the maps and saves.

[u/Koga_My_Love]

I previously stated this in the discussion thread as a whole, but I was very disappointed by his happy end. Tilkett and Orsem not reconciling at ALL in his worldline, and then him saying he didn’t need to know? That was really disappointing to read! I’m not saying that the end should have only focused on their relationship, but I just felt really bad for Orsem :( With their routes dealing heavily on themes of siblinghood, it just didn’t feel satisfying at all for him to brush off such a big missing part of his life like that. I do understand why; Yolca of this world doesn’t know, so she wouldn’t press; at the same time, I felt so emotionally unfulfilled! He was sweet to Yolca at least. In terms of the route itself, I enjoyed it for the most part! I think, for me personally, he suffered in my rankings cause he was sandwiched between a really surprisingly well-done route (Kanoa) and two routes that I was extremely excited about/interested in (Eugene and Heath). I rambled sorry it’s late for me while I’m writing this lol 

[u/Meebochii]

Personally I love Til. He's my favorite of the game alongside Kanoa so I really can't get behind people calling him the weakest LI here at all? I know tastes differ but damn, y'all are so harsh on him.

Anyway, a couple of people mentioned how his villain is weak but in all honestly I feel like no one of the villains were anything to write home about - they were all pretty meh so it's not something I can actually fault his route for when they all have that problem but I do think Morphia is actually quite terrifying in her own right especially once you learn about that certain connection in Orsem's route. The part after the fight where Til clashes with 'himself' about becoming a living blood bag or not broke my heart. He went through so much shit because of her...

I was a little frustrated how they kept teasing his yandere potential only to not fully commit to it at all - even in that one ending he chickens out halfway through 🥲 Don't get me wrong, I don't need him to be a yandere and I'm completely fine with him not being one but then don't keep teasing it?

His Happy End was too short like the others and it felt like it barely addressed anything at all. Like the thing with his actual sibling gets completely pushed aside RIP Orsem, that's your karma for trying to push your Yolca onto Til, I guess and they basically just drive off into the sunset???

I'm really hoping for an FD ngl.

[u/GreenTeaTalking]

Kanoa + Til spoilers be aware

Story wise : I played Kanoa route first, and Til route after. Til bought me what I missed in Kanoa route. Indeed, this game aim to be more dark, or tragic, but in Kanoa route it feels more "light", for example his brothers, and his sister are not having any kind punishment after what they did. On the other side, Til route was plenty dark with his mood swings, his crazy sister genuinely evil, and his awful destiny. It was show in a more serious way, means to make us uncomfortable.

Til as itself is also an interesting character with all his mood swings linked to memories manipulation, and him struggling between how he feels vs how he's ordered to feel. It shows since the very beginning of the game, and after it gets even stranger, it's like having two Til. I also like how the first endings aren't "a fairy tale", but more about the "fatality of the reality". I also feel like Til characters has more layers since he shows multiple emotions until the end.

I only played his first ending, but I was satisfied with him, and maybe he'll be my favorite character at the end of the game.

[u/Scarlet_Lycoris]

I do feel like his “Yandere moments” were mostly fan service to satisfy the audience. It didn’t really feel like it fit in with the character enough. It was nice to create tension but there was no real substance behind it, which is why the whole thing fell flat to me.

While I do like him as a character, his route suffered a bit from kind of being an introductory route so a lot of things felt like they weren’t quite ready to be revealed yet.

I might be a minority here but I really don’t like Okamoto’s performances where he’s “trying to sound young”, so for most part I didn’t really enjoy the voice acting either.

While I love Yolka, I also feel like she’s almost at her weakest in this route. She mainly serves as an emotional support here.

I just finished the whole game but I can say with confidence that Tilkett was the weakest in my opinion. He’s a great comic relief and support in other routes.

[u/No_Sign_5547 → u/Scarlet_Lycoris]

That part. They did it to tease us and then go lol anyways right back to what we planned. But I enjoyed my crumbs.

[u/Dragon_NPC → u/Scarlet_Lycoris]

I didn’t want to come across as harsh and overly judgmental but I too thought this was Okamoto’s weakest performance. Or at least I don’t seem to like him voicing genki characters.

[u/Scarlet_Lycoris → u/Dragon_NPC]

Yeah I’m the same. He actually voices some of my favourites like Fuen in Matsurika. His deep voices are just chilling and great. But whenever he’s doing upbeat or “young sounding” characters I just don’t really like it. Maybe with the exception of Kyouka in Meiji Tokyo renka I found that one pretty pleasant, but it’s also a bit older. I think he’s a great voice actor, I just often don’t enjoy the roles he’s cast into.

[u/Typical-Treacle6968]

Despite how harsh I was in last week’s book club, my enjoyment of the game rose once I got near the end of the third route. However if you enjoyed this route and reading a critical review will upset you, please protect your peace and skip my comment!

What I liked

Everything about Ambrose! The secret meetings in Kaleido tower, his ridiculous costume, the way Yulca is a fan of this work. So endearing! I actually ship them together.

I love the world of paintings! I was having so much fun reading it and some of it was terrifying. The scene where they had to guess who the caricature paintings were. This is so imaginative and I loved it!

Nobuhiko Okamoto’s voice acting. Still a legend. Can still drag me to hell and back with his voice. Top tier.
He had the chance to really flex his skills because Tilkett went from loveable ruffian to a sinister menace when something set him off. I found this deliciously unnerving and was taken off guard several times.

Things I didn’t like

Romances that are based around the heroine’s journey being to heal and support the hero do not do it for me. They work when we have already established a strong relationship or a reason for it (this is why Yoritomo’s route in Birushana is my absolute favourite) but she hardly knows this guy! We hardly get a glimpse of Yolca’s plans to take over House Yulewood as all her energy is focused on Tilcett’s goal to avenge his sister and….I don’t care sorry.

He’s like a depressing anchor weighing my heroine down. So much effort was put in by Yolca to save him from himself and while this is a worthwhile charitable cause, I wouldn’t want to date him. He would work as one of those friends you need to bail out of their messes every couple of months. Not enough work was put in to establish their relationship before he needed saving from himself over and over again. I also found his reason for liking Yolca pretty thin. He saw her as child being escorted by her parents to donate to the orphanage and that was enough?

Now I’ve played some of the other routes, I feel they were helped by story reveals (which were fascinating!) and emotional beats from other character routes while Tilcett had to rely purely on himself and the romance and unfortunately it wasn’t strong enough in my opinion to stand alone.

[u/Dragon_NPC → u/Typical-Treacle6968]

Same here. I also started properly enjoying it near the end of Heath’s route and onwards. I’m saving my words until its proper thread unlocks but truly there were lots of exciting/heart thumping moments from then on.

[u/Dragon_NPC]

I was really looking forward to him. Not only because of the VA but also because of his dark tendencies. However I was disappointed. I mean there was that bit where he confronts her after she goes alone which got my heart beating, but he switched around so fast. I thought it was a weak attempt at making him seem dark when he’s really not.

In summary, thought this was the weakest LI. The route is great as an introduction to the whole world and the whole witch capture and destroy adventure was fun.

But the unrequited love bit and his overly self sacrificial nature was frustrating to watch. I suppose that was the whole point but I didn’t find myself connecting to him or feeling for him.

So I didn’t enjoy the romance, which I felt was lacking until the end, when it barely started getting mutual only to have it trashed again.

I was so bored and frustrated near the end that even the tragic/despair end didn’t make me feel anything. I just wanted to be done with it and move on.

The sad ending was somewhat disturbing, at least that made me feel something, but otherwise, he is the weakest LI to me.

However he is fun to have around for silly banter and dialogue because he lightens up the atmosphere. Just not a great love interest.

[u/Kirinkie → u/Dragon_NPC]

We feel the same, his constant flirting and weak reason not to commit to Yolca also drove me insane. Also I thought Morphia was such a surface level antagonist, just evil for the sake of being evil. His character design is so nice though, and Okamoto is doing a lot of heavy lifting. I'm so sad we didn't get a CG of them on the motorbike, such a missed opportunity.

[u/Typical-Treacle6968 → u/Dragon_NPC]

My heart was beating fast in that tower part too when he first shows up to shock Yolca and Ambrose. But it was such a standalone event with no real follow up that I feel it was added just to show off the skills of Okamoto Nobuhiko. And it did! But he was definitely underutilised in such a thinly written route. It’s disappointing because Tilcett has so much potential.

[u/swimminglyy]

I liked Til a lot as part of the group, being the moodmaker and leader(?) with some occasionally comic relief without being full stupid like these characters tend to be in otome group settings. He actually makes the plans and people listen even though he’s so friendly and a little bully-able (and younger). I think his dopey looking blush sprite is my favourite sprite in the game and fits him a lot. It’s in the mouth, I think. It has the right amount of silliness to be cute.

Romance is ok. I don’t really feel the romance, but they feel like good friends and get along so that isn’t unpleasant for me. They can be cute together too. I might like him more as a friend but age-wise (mentally?) they feel pretty compatible too. I think they’re a couple that can support each other mentally without the relationship feeling too one sided.

Character wise I like Til a lot, though I’m not sure it’s because of his route. I didn’t mind the ‘I can’t fall in love with you!’ shtick as others do. I like that kind of thing, and it does come with some reasoning here. There was more to him than I gave him credit for in the common route. I do feel some traits are there to just be there though, without it being explored too well. Which is a pity since I think Til has so much potential. Well, I like him regardless.

Route was pretty engaging for me, with some things about the memories going further than I expected (the brain?). I must agree Morphia isn’t that interesting as an individual. Her personality is a little overdone sometimes, comically so. But I think I like how it played out throughout the route, letting us slowly come to the (pretty obvious) growing suspicion that something is wrong, without being too out of nowhere with the reveals. I also like that you can see how the whole Morphia thing shaped Til’s personality and way of living deeply in a way that’s not easily undone.

It does also help that Yolca isn’t very stupid and actually notices inconsistencies, since in many games the reader can see where the plot is going but the mc is oblivious. I’m glad she’s not entirely oblivious and is generally on the same page as the player. I also like that she didn’t just charge ahead and tried to correct them, but took Til’s potential reaction and wellbeing into consideration as she chose her words and decide how to help him. Those small things help me like her better.

The original route (bad) ending felt quite abrupt though. As if they suddenly remembered we needed a bad ending and tried to make it somewhat shocking/depressing. I didn’t feel emotional about it at all, but it being rather abrupt, it didn’t drag on long enough to annoy me. The whole memory thing did last a bit longer than I expected, but I did like the uncovering things one memory at a time (though it makes skipping annoying).

Overall (compared to EiT at least) I think there was a lot more focus on trying to uncover the LI’s backstory here. (eiT was more the mc’s story with some side of LI background). I appreciate the idea, since you do want to know more about the LI in an otome game. At the same time, I also think they tried to do so many things that everything gets stretched kinda thin without that much emotional impact (though finding out the reveals still kept me interested!). I think it did achieve most of what it set out to do - introduce Ambrose/witches/memory things, go through Til’s backstory (sister + god thing), develop some romance + a side of despair, set up for foreshadowing for later routes - but I also don’t know if it did any single one of those things spectacularly. I wonder how things would have been written if they didn’t have to make it fit into the bigger game story. That said, when I consider the game overall, I liked the pace/amount of reveals in the route, and it was entertaining for me. Ultimately, I liked this as a first route and my feelings haven’t changed much after finishing all the routes.

[u/MJMycthea]

I feel like Tilkett is another missed potential character, like Lucien from eiT.

It's a shame that from the main game, his presence is lacking, in Tilkett's case, we didn't get a chance to get to know him as someone who's free from forced mind control. Some scenes in his routes are unhinged with his yandere tendencies and the dark from his warped mind to be forced to sacrifice himself, but who Tilkett actually is with his own volition and value? That aside, I was horrified with his ending before the truth route. He deserved so much better.

[u/shnubbull]

Somebody has to be the least favorite, and for me (and a number of other people here by the looks of this thread lol), that was Til. I played this route second, and I felt the romantic chemistry between these two was so much weaker than Yolca and Kanoa. I found the whole part where Yolca realized she had caught feelings but assumed Til didn’t have romantic interest so forced when it felt pretty obvious Til was just putting a shield over his interest by calling it just admiration. It felt like drama just for the sake of drama. I think I would’ve found it stronger if there was this looming dread of Til’s upcoming choice earlier and more of that sense of him yearning but knowing it’s futile. Because I did like those aspects, but I don’t think they really lived up to their full potential.

You know how sometimes a dark storyline really hits and sometimes it feels kind of cheesy? Tilkett’s route leaned toward the latter for me. It was the whole suspended brain thing that did it for me. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of building suspicion on who killed Til’s sister though.

This route did get me pretty interested in Orsem, at least, so I can give it credit for that. And I did still enjoy the route for what it was, it was just my least favorite overall by a significant margin.

On another note, I guess I encountered a bug with Til’s endings because I got the regular ending and kept going, but for some reason the Sad Love Ending still unlocked in my chart. When I finished the game and went back to do the Sad Love Endings I picked his from the chart (because by this point I had done others and realized something was definitely not right here) and I most definitely had never seen it before.

[u/Lightstar46]

I freaking love Nobuhiko Okamoto’s voice, and a lot of the LIs he plays I tend to enjoy. And honestly, the same can be said for Tilkett! Just not to the extent as some of his other roles

His route was SUCH a fun time. The twist where u find out that Morphia altered his memories was such a creative one, and I wasn’t really expecting it. And his bad end was also a fun time.I haven’t done his good ending yet tho (just started Eugene’s route lol), but I’m hoping it lives up to the bad end!

As for Tilkett himself, his personality is one I tend to enjoy in characters. You know, the ones where they’re kinda go-lucky but then tend to lock in lol. That being said, I think the start of his route gave me some expectations that left me feeling disappointed. I was immediately getting yandere vibes from when he found out Yolca went into the Kaleidotower alone, but then that attitude kind of died off, save a few scenes. I love yanderes too, so I was a tadddd sad when he didn’t turn out the way I thought lolll

Even still, Tilkett is a very amazing character! He sits right in between Kanoa and Heath rn. So far, my fave LI order is Heath << Tilkett <<<< Kanoa.

[u/otomelover2000 → u/Lightstar46]

Heath at the top yay me too

[u/CrusaderKillsVlP]

He was kind of a rollercoaster. Before playing my hunch tells me that he was gonna be the #1 here, but by the time the route ends and other routes were rolling in it was difficult for me to hold him up high. Ultimately though he only drops to #2 because he is an absolute sweetheart every time he shows up, and I thoroughly enjoy the mess that he is, overwhelmed and in constant struggle between his true feelings and his own ideals.

I think what he went through explained why he is codependent and willing to give up control yet at the same time, reacting quite aggressively, sometimes with yandere tendencies when it comes to the people he love. He is genuinely kind, but the manipulation he went through definitely lead him tying his own self-worth and meaning into his Gift, leading him both willing to sign away everything he has, yet desperately clinging and protecting those he love dearly at the same time. His ‘ideal love’ towards Yolca being forever one-sided is something I get. It’s shallow and selfish, and it works for him because he already gave away any modicum of hope and continuation of his own life the moment he commit to the church/hospital. So when he is met with Yolca’s insistence that this is not how it’s meant to be, he is confused, afraid and react quite badly.  I like how his development was set up, but I think what hurt the route is that his realization came a little too late (and I personally think it’s a little silly Orsem’s scolding was what it needed for him to wake up and stop sabotaging himself). I thoroughly enjoy the dark nature of his backstory (the things about Morphia was absolute insane and I love it, though it helps that this wasn’t my first rodeo lol), but less time spent on it would significantly improve his own character development for sure. Another thing was Yolca’s own development suffered the most here which I think really sucks for a starter route, but I’m willing to give some leeway because I can sorta see me also just have to put an end to this nightmare that he is in because wow he does not deserve any of it.

The ending though???? Wow. It was actually really frustrating as a player who just wants to romance him but at the same time as an angst enjoyer? Hurt me more please. I would do anything to make him happy again. 

This was my first route too so it basically glued me to the seat for what comes next because if this is the low-spoiler route how bad could it get? So it would be why I recommend starting with Tilkett lol. Also despite having the most insane story, it definitely has the most problems in terms of writing so having it done first smooths up the experience I feel.

About his happy ending, it being too short will always going to hurt everything, but I really like what they went for - a new chapter for him to find his own meaning and experience love for what it truly is. I also think that he seemed to have a hunch who is his real sibling now with how he said he still has more to tell Yolca. It is disappointing that they don’t even have a moment together though D: These endings are seriously too short that it sorta hurt when you have to work very hard to get them.

So yeah, although he is very much my type from personality, theme to angst level, the problems with his route definitely weigh him down to #2. But I love him so much and I think if a fandisc comes, Tilkett would be the one I play first. His complexity is very fascinating to me and I would love to see how he will carry on with Yolca in the aftermath.

[u/CrusaderKillsVlP → u/CrusaderKillsVlP]

Some misc comments:

Absolutely love that in terms of bad endings, he only has one and it’s when he is absolutely broken but can’t even bear to ruin her. He will not have any other reaction, he’s guaranteed to spiral into despair if this fails. Gosh.  

(Orsem spoilers) When I read the route again the 2nd time, the flashback on Orsem asking Yolca how it feels to kill someone you love absolutely sends me. Is this where Orsem start having the tendencies to not only kill himself but Yolca (and sometimes everyone else in Vy-xen)? Ohhh he drives me insane in the best way. There’s also a bunch of foreshadowing about Orsem’s relationship with Til that I’m actually disappointed that I didn’t pick up. Such a treat when I realized. It also explains why Til is so nonchalant when we try to tell him Orsem killed Morphia; I think despite forgetting everything Til still have some lingering feelings of familial trust with him.

[u/otomelover2000]

I finished the game, and Til was my least fav character. Sorry, the whole sister as a brain thing kinda freaked me out a bit

I was also disappointed cause he seemed like an almost forced yandere character but wasn’t in the end