Archive for August, 2008
3-minute post!
I was so tired last night that I went to bed 2 hours earlier than usual and was actually able to fall asleep – usually I’d just lie there for hours. So anyways, nothing special to post on, except that I got my copy of Drastic Killer! So I’m going to try it out this weekend and see how it is – I hear that Love Steal can tire your fingers out.
The scoop on Vitamin Y and Z!
Thanks to sonnakai, my burning curiosity about the new Vitamin game is satisfied – there will be TWO games; one is a compilation of mini-games and not a new full story, but it sounds like Vitamin Z will have new characters and a story! Yayyyy!! Ahem. I’m very tired and giddy, so please excuse me if I start rambling.
Now, the lowdown!
Vitamin Y:
- Being released this fall on the DS, expected price Y4410
- 26 minigames – one bigger game with the B6 and T6 (and 3D rendering!) and 25 others
- the 25 are split into 2 with each B6 guy, 1 each with each T6, and 7 with a variety.
Apparently the games become available as you move through the main game. It’s school festival time, and though the class has decided on a café, Tsukasa announces that he’s getting his company to take over the whole festival and do everything.
Somehow you manage to convince him not to, but by the school festival, the B6 have still used Tsukasa’s resources to set up a bunch of attractions on school grounds.
Screencap shamelessly lifted from Gamewatch.
- Scheduled for Spring 2009!
- New characters, and the B6 will appear as well – as teachers!! O.o
- It will have animation in it!
- It’s set 5 years after VitaminX
- The new characters are the A4 (aho) and P2 (perfect 2)
- No word that I could find about platform
And I can’t believe, this was announced two weeks ago!! Gyaah, I could have been squeeing for two weeks already! I’ll just quote a Japanese blogger and say, “ギャー！買う、買います、全部下さい！！” 
OH, and since I’ve been enjoying the gymnastics at the Olympics, some real-life pics (never thought you’d see any on here eh??) of some awesome athletes that I’m cheering for!
Uchimura Kohei – one of the young guys (19) on the Japanese team – the commentators are driving me CRAZY pronouncing his last name as Oocheemeree – c’mon guys, Japanese names are not hard!! That’s an A not a Y!
And some Canadian guys who are representing us in the all-around competition:
Nathan Gafuik
and Adam Wong.
OK, bedtime!
New Vitamin Rumours?
Just a speedy post looking forward to the new mags this month – I wait until B’s Log is out before ordering Girl’s Style, but I went to the site to get a hint of news and lookie what I saw:
Vitamin Y!! Kyaa! If you don’t know, I’m a huge fan of VitaminX, and would love another title – now I wonder whether it would feature a continuation of the same storyline and characters, or a new teacher. My first reaction is to hope for a totally new title – VitX Evolution had the teacher endings that was all I wanted in addition to the original, so I really don’t need any additional story from the existing cast. But I’m sure if it was done well, I’d still love it – really any more Vitamins will be good for me
Speedy Otome Games
Nah, I’m not complaining about games that are too short (I know I tend to do that 
) – what I mean when I say speed is actually how fast things happen in an otome game. There are two factors I can think of here, and one is purely technical, the other a product of game design. The first is simply how fast do operations take – like saving, loading, moving from one scene to another, etc.
I was playing WoW last night and was doing something repetitive, so I thought I’d play Majoutsukai to Goshujin-sama to multi-task a bit. But when I put the CD in the drive, it started whirring like crazy and slowed my WoW right down – not good in an online game. Even though it’s a simple game (it doesn’t even have voices!) it seemed like reading the CD took a lot of power and time. Eventually I gave up and ejected the game.
Sometimes when playing on the PS2, load times between screens can be pretty slow. The difference between 2 and 4 seconds doesn’t sound like much, but if you’re playing something where you need to check things often (going to the status screen) or where scenes/characters change a lot, it adds up fast. Also, skipping can be pretty slow too – and anyone who likes to play multiple routes knows that slow skipping is painful. I’ve played games that were so bad that I kept a book in my hand to skim while I waited for the game (there’s that multitasking again). It doesn’t always seem that game developers consider it, but they should, it DOES make a difference in the impression of the game.
The other part of speed I’m thinking of is gameplay design. Have you ever played a fairly long stat-raising game where every week or day you have to choose what you’re going to do, then watch some animation as you do it, and then do it again? Or a game that has something identical or very similar happen every cycle that get to be meaningless, such as in Harutoki 1, when Fujihime would greet you every morning. Those animations or little sound bites get to seem really slow and pointless after a while.
One game where I noticed how well the game designers avoided these time-wasters is Otometeki Koi Kakumei. Every week you have to choose what you do each day. But you start off each week with the template of what you did last week, so you can keep it, or just change what you want. And each action has a little slideshow it goes through. It’s set to medium speed, but one you get tired of it you can set it to happen almost instantly – it’s surprising how much time it saves.
Now, at least, most games have quick skipping options. In fact I can’t remember the last one that didn’t have one. And often you can press a button to start skipping as well, though sometimes it will turn off after a scene change or cycle change, which can be frustrating.
It makes me wonder about all you guys who play otome games with a translator program like AGTH. Does it slow the games down a lot? I have no clue how it works, but when this post topic occurred to me, I realized how much difference speed can make to my enjoyment of a game. It wouldn’t make me quit a game totally, but I think it has definitely put some games on the bottom of the ever-growing pile to finish.
Other gaming genres
Heh, lately I’ve felt like playing World of Warcraft and not my otome games, and it’s funny how I seem to go through cycles of what types of game I want to play. Otome games are my favourite, but once in a while I’ll feel like playing RPGs like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, and then I’ll want to play WoW for a while (it often doesn’t last that long though, that’s why I have tons of alts and only one 70 haha).
Do you play other types of games? I’ve never been into first-person shooters, either because my reaction time isn’t good enough or because I can’t keep myself interested in them without a good story, and I’ve never had anyone to play sports games with – but I used to adore fighting games (I’m talking a million years ago with Mortal Kombat II!) But mostly now, I’m mostly into RPG-type games (and bien sûr, otome games). I think since I started working full-time, I like games where I can take my time and enjoy a good story rather than treating it like a competition. How about you?
Olympics Post
Yikes, I didn’t post anything yesterday, sorry about that! I totally forgot.
I’m having a hard time thinking of something to say as well – I’ve been watching the Olympics for about 5 hours, and before that was at work for a few hours – I’m feeling kind of blank lol. No real weekend for me! Oh well.
When I thought about posting on the Olympics, I tried to think of what otome games even have a vague association with sport – here’s the somewhat pathetic list I came up with:
- Uwasa no Midori-kun – OK, not Olympic, but it’s the only one I can think of that’s actually focused on the main character playing a sport – even though it’s pretending to be a guy. There’s actually a sequel coming out this fall, which I think I’ll pass on unless I hear great things about it – the first one was just ok.
- Duel Love – It has sports! Though the main character doesn’t take part in the fighting, she is supposed to act kind of like a mascot…
- Houkago wa Gin no Shirabe – the main character starts doing kendou and actually goes to practice and stuff…
Um yeah, that’s kind of a lame list. Have I missed any? Or is it just that otome games have no affinity with sport? I figure the idea just hasn’t been developed yet. I think it could be very neat to play as a high-level athlete with maybe some sport mini-games (like Midori, but uh, more). It could totally work – I could see the love interests being:
- The coach – c’mon, it’s natural
- The ‘manager’ – they have those in manga all the time – you could replace it with a trainer or something too
- Your childhood friend who plays the sport too
- The captain of the boy’s team – that happens ALL the time in shoujo manga
- The guy who says sports are dumb and tries to lure you away from practice and stuff.
- Aoi is having an affair with the twins’ mother
- Tomoe is ‘dating’ a lot of older women
- Sumire has an inferiority complex to Ayame
- Ayame saw his mother kill herself
- Kikyou was looked down on from the rest of the family because his mother was half-Russian
See? It would be awesome. And you could have rivals on your team (if it’s a team sport), or rival players, and maybe to capture the coach you’d have to do really well on the minigames…the possibilities are endless!
What do you think? Would you buy a sport-themed otome game? And did I miss any in my very short list?
Otome(ish) art!
I’ve been thinking that I should really get a decent otome-themed header up, and maybe some more art for my site. So I took a look at Deviantart, which I’ve known about for a long time but, since my artistic skillz are somewhat less than 1337, have rarely explored.
Conclusion from a few hours browsing: Wow there are some AMAZING artists on there! But the amount is so huge. I was specifically looking for art that would fit in an otome game, so was focusing on digital art, but even then, I couldn’t figure out a good way to browse through without taking way too long. At first I thought vector art would be the way to go, but then drawings also has a lot in it. And then paintings…
SO, I am asking for recs. Do you have some favourite artists on the site? Or other ideas where to look?
Starting Last Escort 2
Not much to write, just a little post about Last Escort 2, which I started last night. I haven’t done much yet, a couple new features from the last game like being able to buy and rearrange furniture (rearranging is kind of a pain, but you have to do it every week to ‘clean’ your place) and the minigames at the bar. So far I’ve played two and won one – the champagne drinking one of course, hehe. The other one is a word matching one, but it was pretty hard – you get a category and choose one of three words that match it within a very short time limit. You also take turns with the host to try to beat him, so you have to keep it up. Sounds easy enough. he category I got was…insects. Um, yeah, my Japanese insect vocab is not exactly extensive. So I lost that one.
I haven’t had any major events yet other than the first trip to Gorgeous, but I think I like this main character better. She actually has a job and lives on her own, just like moi!
That’s it for tonight, oyasumi!
Review-Hanayoi Romanesque
Yay, Hanayoi Romanesque! This was Marvelous Interactive’s first otome game since Orange Honey in spring 2007, which I don’t remember hearing much about. I played a teensy bit and then, I think, got into another new game.
Instead of all that bothersome cutting and pasting, here’s the OP from Hanayoi to remind you what it’s like:
To sum up the story, you’re a new teacher at an old school that’s closely involved with the Houjou family. When you arrive, you find out that the retired head of the household chose you because he knows something you don’t – you can see the family curse that holds the male members captive, Logos, and you can release them.
The story isn’t just about finding Logos though, it’s full of intrigue about who will be the next head of the family, past betrayals, missing people, and affairs.
Graphics:
Hanayoi Romanesque was originally a cell phone game, and it shows – the graphics are blown-up versions of designs made for small screens, so there’s not much shading in characters or detail in backgrounds. The artstyle is interesting and I like how it’s unique within the genre, but I think they could have improved the character art with some shading, because when you’re playing on a TV bigger than 20″, people look flat. An example below:
That said, the character designs are quite original – It almost, kind of, reminds me of a 70′s shoujo manga, where everyone has big eyes, long lashes and bouffant hair, along with very delicate bone structure. It takes some getting used to, but I like it now. Variety is good!
Music:
The background tracks are actually pretty good, they set different moods quite well and have some complexity.
Characters:
If you like bishounen with flowing hair and long eyelashes, here’s the game for you! All the characters definitely have their own distinct personalities (and their seiyuu are all very good), and character art – even the twins are easy to distinguish (not just because their hair colour is different!). You have the twins, one of whom is shy but nice (Sumire) and one who’s affectionate but kind of unbalanced(Tomoe). There’s the school principal (Aoi) with a dry sense of humour who likes to tease the main character. His brother is the teacher you’ve been hired to assist (Kikyou). And then there’s the super-student young man who has been named as heir (Ayame). There’s also 3 other capturable characters, the twins’ untrustworthy father (Shiyou), the old master’s assistant (Sakurazawa), and the mysterious guy you see in dreams from the Taisho era. As I mentioned before, the designs and backgrounds are a little simple for the PS2. The main character has an ok personality – she’s not a martyr, though she sometimes has to act like one to help out the guys.
Gameplay:
As expected from a cell game, the game is split into many small chapters, with something dramatic happening in each, so there’s quite a few things to do in each chapter. In addition to the several dialogue choices, you also have to keep a look out for conversation topics (new for PS2), and Logos. Your fatigue metre drops when you’re in detect mode, so you can’t just keep it on all the time.
The game has a total of 34 chapters, but the last two play out without any player input. In total the game is quite long, but who you end up with is solely a function of who has the most ‘points’, so it’s good – you can play all characters concurrently for most of the game, and then just save with a few chapters to go and focus on one character.
The ending was a little disappointing – the same thing happens in all the routes (well, for the main characters anyways), with pretty much the same ending dialogue. The epilogue is also not very long. That said, all the characters have several events throughout the game, so I didn’t really feel cheated – but some different dialogue and art in the ending scenes (I don’t count changing someone’s clothes and hair as different) would have made it better.
Plot:
As I played more and more, the backstory is revealed – and boy, this family is messed up! Affairs, suicide – it’s like a soap opera, except that these guys have the excuse of the family curse. Really, all the issues they have could exist without a curse, but it makes it more believable that all the guys start to like the main character, and makes the guys much easier to sympathize with (I know guys that act that way without a curse, and they could never be otome game heros ) Some of the first things you learn about each character:
How’s that? Don’t worry, there’s a bunch of other plot points and drama that I haven’t even hinted at. A lot of it is intertwined with the origin of the Logos curse, which you uncover as the story goes on.
After you finish someone’s route, you can use the conversation topics you got and talk to them. If you skilfully choose, you can get an extra date event (yeah, I haven’t been able to get one yet).
Overall, I’d definitely recommend this game, especially if you like one of the seiyuu or like lots of drama. It’s pretty long the first time you play it, but you don’t have to replay all the beginning parts if you’re careful about getting points for each character.
Hmmmm
Just a blabby post today, I’m trying to decide what game I’m going to play next. I just finished (mostly) Hanayoi Romanesque, and I’ll be posting a review soon, but then I have a choice to make. I have several games that I have not even opened yet, but I also want to finish or do more in some older games.
New:
Last Escort 2: I might play this one first, since I liked the first one and I’m more interested in it than the other two….
Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden and FY Suzaku Ibun: For whatever reason, I’m just not too into these right now, I’d rather ‘meet’ some new characters than rehash a story I saw about…10 years ago lol.
Your Memories Off Girl’s Style – I’ve had this for a while and haven’t even tried it. I should really at least check it out.
Hoshiiro no Okurimono – Um, I totally forgot about this until I looked at my shelf. D’oh!
Sorayume: For this I’m waiting for the guide in B’s Log – heehee, now I can admit to using them. Hopefully it will be in the October mag.
Older:
Heart no Kuni no Alice: Yup, since I’ve still only finished Blood, I should really get off my butt and try for someone else. But it takes a long time…
Princess Nightmare: I need to get the new PS2 endings for Franken and Cheshire…shouldn’t take too long.
Hiiro no Kakera: I haven’t finished Shinji or Oomi yet – usually I prefer the older guys, but in both HnKs I go for them last – hopefully Oomi isn’t as annoying as Ryouji whatsisface in HnK2, because I couldn’t stand him!
Oh, and then I have Togainu no Chi too, maybe I’ll give that a try as well. Decisions, decisions!
Tokyo Demons
Diabolik Lover
Renai Banchou 2
Atelier Elkrone
Juuzaengi
Brothers Conflict
Shinigami to Shoujo