Ayashi no Miya ~妖ノ宮~
This new princess simulation from the makers of Palais de Reine, Kogado, comes out on September 19. You take the role of a princess whose mother was suspected to be not fully human. In the info released as of now, it’s not clear whether or not this is true, and if so, what her mother was – an animal spirit? a demon? In any case, we know her father was the ruler of a large part of the eastern country Hachiman.
Now that her father is dead, the country is in turmoil, and she is only one potential ruler. The first thing you do is choose one of the 4 advisors, the Shitennou, as your backer in your bid for the throne. (One of them is a wolfman, which I love – hey, animals are cute!) That will determine where you stay. Then throughout the game you can choose many different paths with the eight guys who can be captured, from gaining their loyalty as a leader or being their partner in what they normally do. The selling point is that you can choose to act differently, and the guys’ reactions will change a lot based on that.
Now, the guys! First up, the “Wakajishi”:
Recruited at a young age as a talented warrior, Sukiwaka goes where he pleases and does what he wants.
Ayashi no Miya’s childhood friend who’s very fond of her and always tries his best to support her.
Somewhat shady, Kounosuke is a fortune-teller that always shows up unexpectedly.
Yes, a half-kitsune exorcist! At first he’s wary of Ayashi no Miya’s rumoured paranormal powers, but he tries to teach her to use them in the right way.
And now the more established members of the harem 
, the ‘Shikasen’:
Imari fought and won over a strong demon long ago and gained immortality, and now he’s 130 years old. At first he treats Ayashi no Miya harshly, but if you show him your honesty and become friends with him, he will be an extremely strong warrior for you.
Ooh, and he’s one of my favourite seiyuu! Miyake Kenta is also Konokage-sensei from VitaminX <3 <3 <3
Rokujouin Mikage: A high-ranking playboy
Tenzou is a foreign etiquette expert who’s travelled a lot in order to become knowledgeable and teach others about culture.
Another seiyuu I’m happy to see, as I don’t know much else he’s done – Hinoe from Harutoki 3! (and of course, Inori and whatsisface from 1 and 2, and Touya from 4). Yukinoshin is dedicated to perfecting his “kabukeren”, a performance art.
In the latest B’s Log, a few more characters were shown – a ninja, Yakou, who is looking for a new master after the old king died, Kumegawa Teruharu, a power-hungry aristocrat in the same department as Sawato, and Kaensha, a fire demon who rebels against Hachiman’s ideal of demons and humans living together.
It will be interesting to see what the gameplay itself involves, I liked Palais de Reine but it was, in some ways, a lot harder than the average otome game; it had a lot of strategy and some luck involved. Not that that’s bad – there are a lot of fun gaming hours in that game, and I want to go back and do more sometime.
Now, back to Hanayoi Romanesque for me – I’m only a few chapters away from the end!
I’m hoping the gameplay won’t be like Palais though… I completely gave up trying to play that game after so many hours of Game Over.
And while I like the setting and the character designs, if Palais is any indication it’s going to be rather lacking in CG (I read somewhere you don’t get a lot of CGs?), and in delectable men (Quinrose yay!)….
Also, somewhere on the forum I read the Ayashi no Miya has a supposedly-fiancee, is it true?
Yeah, I totally hear you on that – it made me feel very incompetent because I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, and what the effects were of what I was doing.
I was able to get Dietrich and the guy with the red hair, but I don’t know how much I missed if anything. And there are like 15 guys you can get!
I think 2 things will help next time I play:
1) Being more familiar with the system and having a vague idea what to do; and
2) Next time I’m going to pay way more attention to the tutorial and translate everything as I go so I hopefully understand more lol.
Hmm, I’ve already seen several CGs in the game magazines, I’ve seen two for each character (and I’m assuming there’ll be more) – hopefully only 8 guys being the ‘main’ characters will help with that. I don’t know if you can go for minor characters like you could with PdR.
I’ll check about the fiancé tonight!
I think Palais’ approach was sort of a welcome change. I do like playing mini games and such, but to actually have to manage things strategically is pretty interesting. But, this is coming from someone who loves tactical games. I agree that it’s frustrating when things get so complex it’s nearly impossible to win one of the guys. But Lija, you’ve mentioned you adore Love Revo and from what I hear that game has a ton of management as well – just on food intake/exercise instead of war planning. Haha!
Finding out Imari was older wasn’t a surprise to me since I tend to go for more mature men, but… 130 years!? It’s all good, as long as he keeps looking fine. XD *shallow* I also thought Mikage looked nice, but again, a player. I should’ve expected this. Actually, what got me to notice him first was because he reminded me of Akuram! No doubt their personalities will be totally different. Your guy is cute too – Hijiri… GAH. With this art all of them look enticing.
By the way – weird feet? Lol! I bet you just have a slender instep, so shoes don’t fit as well as they should. Have you ever tried gel pads for your shoes? They don’t entirely alleviate pain but they should certainly make it less excruciating. Or if you need something to stop the blistering there are products specifically made to help heels stick and prevent them. You should check them out sometime! They’re pretty cheap and even if you can bear the pain, I’m sure your feet will thank you. Needlessly suffering is no good. ; D
Oh, but i know the secret of Love Revo
It makes everything easy. It’s mostly just knowing the best order to build up stats. Whereas Palais you have to choose what to do each turn, but there’s some randomness so you might miss a chance to do something important, or someone might die (I was so surprised the first time that happened!). But I WILL go back and finish it…someday.
I actually do have those gel pads, but they’re still wrapped, eheh – I should try them out. It’s actually my heels that I *think* are too narrow, my heels are always slipping out when I walk – I recently realized part of the problem is that I was buying shoes too big, so now I just have to find a good brand that fits my feet shape. Although isn’t it interesting how your feet might fit one size in a certain brand, but a different one in a different brand? Clothing sizes are totally crazy nowadays!
This is a PC game right? Or has my memory started to go bad already? XD
Anyways, I never played Palais’ and after reading the comments, I’m a bit worried. I’m really good with tactical RPG’s though, so maybe that’ll help? XD
Yes, it’s for the PC
It hasn’t been made incredibly clear yet what exactly the gameplay will be like – at least not in the articles I’ve seen.
Personally I’m hoping it will be like Palais, just perhaps a little easier lol. Even if it’s difficult, it’s a nice change to the visual novel style that is so common in the genre.
Yes, I’d say if you like strategy RPGs, you might really like Palais. It’s not similar to, say, Disgaea on the surface(there’s no playing board or anything)but the idea of having to balance relationships and control in several areas, trying to figure out the best way to do it, might appeal to you.
[...] Well~ As far as new games go this month there’s Ayashi no Miya by Kogado coming out in like less then two weeks, this September 19th. The day I move into the dorms… I personally think it looks somewhat interesting, I mean from what I hear about the gameplay and all, as well as Miyano Mamoru being in there. But, I haven’t even gotten around to really pre-ordering it and probably won’t till maybe later. If you’re still interested Lijakaca wrote some more about it here. [...]