Archive for July, 2008

PC otome games – Quick Overview

Who doesn’t have a PC or Mac at home? If you’re reading this, you probably do, and that means – you can play otome games!

For the longest time, I thought you needed a Japanese operating system to play Japanese PC games – how sadly misguided I was! How much otome goodness I missed!

Then I discovered that Japanese games will play on normal Windows, though you might have to set your language option for Non-Unicode programs (in your Control Panel) to Japanese.

Now I’m happily playing PC otome games, and the only hitch is how ungodly expensive they are for importing from Japan. Seriously, if anyone wants to set up a competitor to Himeya, which is the only online store I know of to buy these at, feel free! Amazon Japan will not ship electronics (PC or console games) outside Japan, so we’re kind of
limited for options.

Even so, it’s worth the effort, because a lot of otome games don’t make it to consoles. Consoles have a much bigger requirement in terms of licensing and sales numbers to be profitable, so a lot of smaller games are released only on PC. Some, like Princess Nightmare, are so successful there that they go on to be released on consoles. But why wait?

Here’s a selection of all-ages tome games for the PC.

Quinrose:

Heart no Kuni no Alice/Clover no Kuni no Alice: Two games about the adventures of Alice in Wonderland (kind of). Loosely based on the Lewis Carroll classic, it’s full of fantasy, violence (not on-screen), colour, and strong characters. Very popular, and of course, Heart no Kuni no Alice is coming to PS2 in the next few months.

Mahoutsukai to Goshujin-sama: The first in Quinrose’s otome game catalogue, this game is set in a kingdom of magic where the princess main character unfortunately has no magic power at all. To protect herself, she sets about finding herself a servant who does at the world’s foremost magical school, but she only has 25 days to do it. Arabian’s Lost follows on this game; though the plots aren’t really related, it’s in the same world.

Coming Soon

Crimson Empire: The third game from Quinrose set in the world of Mahoushi to Goshijun-sama and Arabian’s Lost, Crimson Empire is set in a country based on swordsmanship and strength. The main character has been trained in combat by none other than Curtis Nile from Arabian’s Lost, and has sworn to protect her prince in the battle for the throne.

Kogado:

Coming Soon: Another princess simulation from the creators of Palais de Reine, Ayashino Miya is a story about a princess (with possibly the prettiest character design I’ve seen recently) rumoured to have special powers who has to decide how (if?) to take control of her kingdom, while dealing with the many people who also are involved in it.

Pretty!!

Karin Entertainment:

You may recognize this company as the creators of Princess Nightmare. They’re making a new gothic otome game called Exorcism of Maria, where the main character has to exorcise 100 demons before her 14th Hallowe’en or she’ll die. She has a partner demon Uriel, and meets several other paranormally-gifted boys in her travels. Each has a deeva or partner that they can summon (similar to Uriel), but not all are demons – some have angels, some have animal spirits. Due out in 2008. Oh, and they’re already planning another game after Maria called Zettai Meikyuu Grimm, using Grimm Fairy Tales as inspiration. The main character Henrietta lives happily with her 3 stepbrothers, the brothers Grimm, but one day the 2 older brothers disappear. 5 years later, when Henrietta turns 15, she and the youngest brother Ludwig find the older brothers’ research journal…in this game, Henrietta gets involved not only with the brother Grimm, but characters from the fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood (here a boy), Hamelin, Rapunzel, and the Frog King.

The early pictures and character designs are freaking adorable, so even though I’m not a huge fan of young protagonists, I think I want this!

Mio:

Asaki Yumemishi: Coming out next week, this is a paranormal game that features three groups of potential allies – humans, spirits, and oni. The main character is trying to earn money by getting rid of harmful spirits during her summer vacation and meets lots of different characters, some who help her and some who fight her. Very nice art!

Sanctuary:

D.C.

Girl’s Symphony – the first otome game from a company with a lot of experience in the dating sim genre, this was just announced and has a regular high school setting. The 16-year-old main character has just started living with her cousin after her parents move overseas for work, and has a secret – when she gets excited, her feelings are broadcast out loud without her saying anything.

Well, I think that’s enough PC gaming goodness to last a while, don’t you think? At least till I finish some more of Alice (I just finished Blood’s route tonight! Next up..maybe the twins)

Links up!

It’s kind of hard to see, but the Links section is active on the righthand side! Not too many right now, Sonnakai had a good idea to link to otome game producers and I will definitely do that. I wonder if I should do a separate section for mature otome games, because I have found a couple English reviews of them (they’re pretty funny actually) but I don’t want to classify this page as ‘adult’ in Google or whatever, which it will probably will if I have a section labeled that.

Also, I’m planning on doing a post on PC games soon! There are some great games not available on consoles yet, and PC games (as I just realized a few months ago) are EASIER to play for English-speaking fans who can’t understand Japanese! Yes, I was dumb and thought you needed a Japanese PC to play them…very sad how much time I wasted due to that misconception.

So many plans, so little time!

Real Rode! Fall game from Kadokawa

Yah, so I just realized, there are no pics yet in this blog!! Blasphemy! So here’s a post with lots of cute pics:)

Real Rode is a new otome game, the first that I know of coming from Kadokawa, the same company that produces a lot of great shoujo manga like DN Angel, Angelique (yup, it ran in Asuka at the same time it was released as a game), X, and many others.

Just as an aside, when I checked Asuka Magazine’s site to see what was going on with them, it looks like this month’s mag comes with a CD of Fukuyama Jun and Sakurai Takahiro in a…laughing contest? Truth is stranger than fiction, folks. I also notice that the artist of Angelique, Yura Kairi, has a new series that’s being adapted to anime. I think it’s about a girl who dresses as a guy to medically treat people in the court of Heian?? Japan, but I could be totally wrong because I’m going on a random blurb.

SO ANYWAYS, Real Rode is coming from a company with some good history in making female-targeted products, and this game looks totally fun. The main character is a gaming otaku (woohoo!!), Niina, who keeps her hobby a secret from everyone, including her popular boyfriend Naoya. One day she’s whisked away into the fantasy world of her favourite games, Rode, after she’s played it 99 times (yeah, even I haven’t played a game that often).

The player (you, not Niina), chooses what kingdom to start in, White or Black, and that determines two of the characters who end up in your party – a prince and his advisor. The rest are always there. Then you all go on an adventure to defeat the evil demon king to save the world.

Characters (I couldn’t resist putting the SD versions on the right, they are just too cute):

Niina: Cute and stylish, she nevertheless has a complex about anyone, especially her boyfriend, finding out about her secret hobby of playing games. Weapon: She uses her game controller as a weapon! It’s still a mystery how she uses it…

Alvand CV: Takeuchi Ken The ‘white’ prince, he’s noble, strong, etc. And pretty! Look at those long blond locks! Weapon: Sword

Raclot CV: Nakai Kazuya Alvand’s advisor, he’s known through the whole land of Rode for his knowledge. He’s smart and aloof, with a dry wit. Weapon: A book! He uses it to cast spells.

Dyse CV: Kamiya Hiroshi The ‘black’ prince, he’s supremely confident and very powerful. Weapon: I think he uses a sword

Keith CV: Midorikawa Hikaru Dyse’s servant, he keeps his thoughts to himself and is hard to figure out. Weapon: He uses a gun that he made himself.

Lukia CV: Kishio Daisuke The cute, curious bard who tags along for the adventure, he can use healing magic. Weapon: He uses a crystal staff as seen in his SD pic.

Shinn CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke A cool archer who never misses his target, sometimes he shows an eccentric side. Weapon: Duh, his bow and arrow.

Somari CV: Yonaga Tsubasa The friendly deliveryman who works in a small town in the blue country, he wants to explore the world… Weapon: A baguette! How cute is that? That’s gotta be one stale loaf to be used as a weapon…

Wataru CV: Miyano Mamoru A crafty thief who steals anything he desires. Weapon: A short sword and hatchet.

Naoya CV: Kondou Takashi Niina’s nice and popular boyfriend. Weapon: His tennis racket – does he hit monsters with it, or use it to shoot balls at them?

Gameplay:

There will be three types of gameplay in Real Rode, normal ADV mode (dialogue choices), town mode, where you can train with other characters to raise your stats, and RPG mode where you travel around, go to dungeons, and fight monsters!

Here’s a screencap of a battle. Yup, it’s 3D SD, looks a little similar to Ururun Quest: Koiyuuki if anyone played that (I did, but I might have been the only one ) Hopefully the RPG elements are better-executed than they were in that title…

The world map looks a little like a board game, where you follow a path with icons on it representing different events, like a monster fight, a dungeon, a town, or a character event.

Looking for links!

Hey y’all,

Now that I have the wonderful WordPress blog, I can do links – and I’d like to get a nice bunch of otome blog or fansite links, so if you own or know of any, please let me know in the comments!

And in the meantime, I will continue trying to make this theme a little more user-friendly.

Harutoki 4 Fanart Links

Since I’m on a Harutoki 4 high, I’ve been surfing the net looking at doujinshi and fanart and found some very pretty stuff. The links will take you to the top pages of the circles, then you usually click a banner to get in. Arrrgh, just when I should be getting to sleep…

「Holy Pledge」: http://holypledge.com/ – Click the banner, then click ‘Works”, and then the pic of the pink cross for Haruka 4/otome game pics

「psy」: http://page.freett.com/aotukinanase/ – First click on the banner. then in the left column click ネオロマ under Gallery

「Sassei」: http://sassei.fool.jp/ – Click the banner at the top, then “Illust”, then in the menu on the left pick 遙か４

「Shunya (not sure on the name)」: http://kaeto418.hp.infoseek.co.jp/corda2.html – has manga too. just scroll down and choose “Pict”

Harutoki 4 – Final Impression (minimal or no spoilers)

Well, I just finished Harutoki 4 – all characters and sub-characters, and saw all the ending events.  Here’s my list of favourite endings from most to least:

1. Kazahaya – the most developed, and I love guardian romances
2. Ashvin – partly for the ending and partly because I love his character design
3. Oshihito – made me cry dammit
4. Tooya – there was a lot of potential, but he didn’t say much
5. Sazaki – I think Sazaki has the most straightforward romance
6. Nagi – some cool stuff, but I kept wondering – how did he get involved in the first place?
7. Hiiragi – also cool stuff, I wish we found out more of his background
8. Futsuhiko – he was cluelessly cute

6-8 is kind of random. I felt like there was so much more that could have been explored, but I really like how going through all the stories, including the sub-characters’, you pick up bits and pieces of the whole picture.  Going through them all in as short a time as possible is probably not the best way to do it – but once you start, it’s hard to stop Oh ,and for anyone who hasn’t played yet, there are no more anime scenes, maybe they decided it was either anime or 3D. Still mostly beautiful CGs though, although a couple of the final ones have Chihiro looking like an emotionless doll, which is kinda creepy. The guys all look good and that’s what really matters, right??

I will probably post more with spoilers later, but right now I just have to bask in the glow of completion ^_- And then I can finally concentrate on other things, like other games and adding stuff to the blog!

Cheap otome games!

I’m just making my bimonthly Yesasia order and there are some cheap otome games available! Now is the time to buy if you have to watch your spending! (And nowadays who doesn’t?)

• Memories Off Girl’s Style 17$
• Hoshigari Empusa 24$

I am ashamed to say that I have both these games bought at full price, and I still haven’t played them.  Darn you full-time job, cutting my gameplaying time!