Archive for September, 2008
Vampire Knight
I’ve been running around getting ready for my vacation, but I finally read the info on Vampire Knight!
It is scheduled for a December release on the DS, and is said to be a ‘what if?’ story – it’s not really part of canon. That’s so that you, as the heroine Yuki, can have a love story with not just Kaname or Zero, but 4 other guys as well!
If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s set at a school with a ‘day class’ and a ‘night class’. The day class admires the night class because they’re good-looking and cool, not realizing that the night class is actually all vampires! Yuki, attacked when she was little by vampires, was raised by the school president, and together with Zero, the last in a line of vampire hunters, acts as a ‘Guardian’, keeping the day and night classes separate to preserve the secret. In return for living a semi-normal and protected life, the vampires in the night class aren’t allowed to drink blood directly from humans.
Character Seiyuu:
Zero – Miyano Mamoru
Takuma – Chiba Susumu
Hanabusa – Fukuyama Jun
Akatsuki – Suwabe Junichi
Senri – Hoshi Souichirou
Apart from Zero, they’re all in the night class.
The gameplay will consist of 7 chapters, and will be simulation – you raise Yuki’s six parameters with your choices, as well as minigames. Apparently you also use the DS to touch characters for some minigames…
That’s about it for now! And now I’m off to Cuba for a week in the sun, so no posts from me for a while!
Vampire Knight Game!
Maybe this is old news by now, but I just got the new B’s Log, and Vampire Knight will be a game! I think it said for the DS.
I still am flipping through it, but some other items:
- Shirogane wa Houkago no Shirabe is coming to the PC
- There’s more info on Vitamin Z, including (small) character pics!
- Also the ‘part 2′ games for Himehibi and Hanayoi Romanesque have short articles
I’ll be following up later with more info!
Comic Garden and drastic killer
I got a PSP for my birthday…got distracted by it last night, so no posts! I already had Kiniro no Corda so I tried it out, but was surprised to see how similar it looked to Encore…of course this is going on about 5 minutes of play, so all I noticed was the same backgrounds. Anyways, I’ve finished Aki’s and Eva’s route in drastic killer, and am pretty much near the end for Nagi – I really liked his personality, it was different than what I expected. I really liked Eva’s character, but his ending was not as dramatic as I thought it would be…don’t know why. But playing through these makes me more interested in Sou and Riku – especially seeing them in Inorahd.
As for Comic Garden, I still have to try and get it Sensei’s ending – does anyone know if you have to go through Ryou’s confession every time? It makes me feel guilty 
Same with Hibiki, I thought I would get Sensei first but right now I’m getting Hibiki’s ending…*shrug*. Anyways, I should finish them soon and then I’ll get Kanzaki – I dunno if I’ll go for Kyouichi, I’m not especially excited about him.
Comic Garden playthrough
I finished one playthrough of Comic Garden last night, so I have a better idea now of the whole game. Once the intro is over, there’s one major chapter for each guy, and during those chapters there are times when you can choose who to talk to on the map and raise their affection level. Other than those choices, the game’s plot moves down the same path until Valentine’s Day, when you can choose who to give ‘true love’ (honmei) chocolates to vs. duty (giri) chocolates. I believe (won’t know for sure till I play another route) that this sends you down a character’s ending chapters.
On one hand, it’s kind of weird that you’re getting close to more than one guy at a time, but it limits replays, so now that I know the system, I like it. I got Ryou first, because he’s my favourite, and I enjoyed the ending, though he had a sudden personality change that I thought felt a little forced. Near the ending the main character doesn’t have much choices, and it would have been nice to be able to affect how the outcome develops, but oh well, it was still fun ^_^ next I’m going to get Sensei’s route and Hibiki, I just have to go back to Valentine’s and start from there, so they should be quick.
I’m also in the last stages of Aki’s route in Drastic Killer – I had to go back and start from the beginning, because I was bad and didn’t save before >.> So I was wondering when you actually go to the other world – it’s around June 20th, a few days after the school festival. That’s when Touko fully ‘awakens’ as well. Then I really want to finish Eva’s route – for some reason he actually interests me more than the brothers.
Finishing games feels soooo good! I’m definitely a Virgo, lol, love to clean up those loose ends.
Loose Ends Weekend
I have decided that this is Loose Ends weekend for me, where I try to finish off some of those to-do’s I listed so long ago. I finished Shirogane in Harutoki 3 Izayoiki, and almost got Tomomori – but I hadn’t done the full ending yet! So now I might have to go back and start again…wahhh!! And then I might try and finish one of those games I tailed off on…drastic killer, Last Escort 2…gah.
Tomorrow’s my day off (I’m going out for my birthday, yay!) but I swear I intend to post some pics from Exorcism of Maria this weekend. And my B’s Log should come next week, so we’ll see if any exciting news has come out!
Izayoiki and Comic Garden
So I got Comic Garden a couple days ago, yay! I’m playing it at the same time as trying to finish Izayoiki, since I’ve played Harutoki 3 so often before So far it’s fun, and I love the cute artstyle that’s very cartoony. The comic parts (minigames) are fun, though not that difficult, my only pet peeve so far is the lack of options – you can only save at certain points, and it seems like there’s no auto feature. The game is going fairly fast though, so maybe it won’t be too bad. I’m not using a guide, and apparently I’m on course to finish Totonoki-sensei’s route (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru).
And I’ve now finished Saku’s route and am trying to get Tomomori!!! It’s tough because other than right after you finish Shirogane, the hint section doesn’t give you any help, and you can’t see how you’re doing. You also have to try and avoid a lot of events – right now I’m most worried about that, as I’m supposedly about halfway through but I’m not sure if I mistakenly went off course somewhere…I’ll find out soon I guess!
Harutoki Izayoiki
So as I mentioned, playing Ukihashi made me want to try Izayoiki again, and I finally finished Shirogane’s route! Woot!!! Now I have to figure out how to get Tomomori…not tonight though. I need to sleep sometime.
Geekout! Otome game figures
ZOMG! I finally found the figures, and they’re pretty awesome. They’re being released 2 at a time, and right now the first 6 can be seen here. The details are really nice, the only thing I didn’t love was that their heads often seemed a little too small (I mean, Kurou’s bangs are big, but not bigger than his face). They’re each 6930Y, not cheap, but if I had more room I’d definitely be tempted – heck, I’m tempted now!
Harutoki 3 Hachiyou Figures
Release dates:
End of December: Kurou and Masaomi
February: Benkei and Hinoe
April: Yuzuru and Kagetoki
They don’t have Liz Vaan and Atsumori up yet, but I’ll post again when they are.
Hiiro no Kakera figures:
I also found the Hiiro no Kakera figures, they’re SD and very cute. They come in a pack of 9 for around 5200Y.
Looking all this otome fanstuff, I came across a bunch of Harutoki (anime) trading cards and Harutoki 3+ Izayoiki-based cards…I can feel myself reverting to my college days as we speak, when I used to work for merchandise in lieu of payment from an anime store (would I have bought it with real money? I don’t know…). I think I still have Kenshin cards hidden somewhere in my parents’ house, I should really get rid of that stuff on ebay or something.
Between these and playing Ukihashi, I think I’m in an Izayoiki mood tonight – I’m off to attempt Shirogane once more!
Game figures & Vitamin Y release date
I’ve heard a little about the otakudom of figures before, but never really paid attention – but now I’m searching for more info, because apparently someone will be sellling figures of hachiyou from Harutoki 3! I don’t know if I’d get one, my condo is too small, but I really want to see what they’re like…I’ll report my findings soon!
Also, Vitamin Y has a release date of October 30 – this is the minigame compilation.
The question of fandisks – are they worth it?
On a recent post here I was talking about Ukihashi and miruki commented that it’s not really a game by itself, it’s more of an in-between thing, and it’s true – players new to the franchise really shouldn’t start off with it.
But when fandisks cost almost as much as completely fresh games, are they really worth the money? I’d say a cautious yes. As long as the games have some new idea, and provide enough content to satisfy fans of the original, I’d say they’re worth the money.
Let’s look at some fandisks vs. their regular games:
Hiiro no Kakera vs. Hiiro no Kakera Ano Sora no Shita de
Hiiro no Kakera was widely liked for its deep and complex storyline. It was full of drama and angst, and was quite long for a straight visual novel. It also had very different storylines for each guy.
Ano Sora no Shita de took a lighter tone, having no real conflict and just being set on a festival night (and an extra small Valentine’s minigame). You got to see the characters have fun and just be normal. There was lots of interaction between the characters, and personally I really liked it. I was lucky enough to get it in a double pack with Hiiro no Kakera though – I don’t know if I would pay $50 or so for it alone.
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3 vs. Izayoiki vs. Unmei no Meikyuu
Harutoki 3 might just be the queen of fandisks – it has Izayoiki, where the only true addition is that you can get Shirogane and Tomomori, Unmei no Meikyuu, basically an excuse to put the hachiyou in modern clothes, and now Ukihashi as well. However, each of these also adds a fair bit of gameplay and events – though of course, as with most Neoromance games, they’re not fully voiced.
Angelique and Corda d’Oro also have a couple fandisks. In fact, the only Corda d’Oro game I’ve played so far is 2 Encore, which is technically a fandisk, but it had enough gameplay that I think it stands on its own. Though the story itself was bare bones, I found the game to be a lot of fun, and it made me want the original game.
Now Will o’ Wisp is getting its own fandisk, Easter no Kiseki, coming out on October 10. I’m kind of skeptical on this one, because the original game felt very short to me. I liked it, but didn’t really feel it was a full-length game, especially as most routes followed a very similar path. The only new thing I see in this one so far is that Emily is brought back as Emilio, a boy. I really liked her subplot in the game, so I might get this on sale, but I still don’t think I’ll get it when it first comes out.
When you really like a game, do you buy its fandisks? Do you think they’re worth it?
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