Great Otome Games – Harutoki 3

I’m working on a Garnet Cradle post, but for tonight I thought I’d take a step back and look at what I think is one of the best female-targeted games ever – Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3 (From Far Away 3) from Koei, for the Playstation 2.

For anyone who’s not familiar with the series, the premise is that the heroine, Nozomi, is a regular high school senior in Japan. One day while moving to the next class, she and her two childhood friends are transported to a faraway world that resembles historical Japan. In this world, there is magic, and she has been chosen by the Dragon God to be his priestess and protect the capital city of Kyou with the Minamoto clan. To help her, she has eight Guardians, called hachiyou (who all just happen to be young handsome men ^_^), but she doesn’t simply wait and let them protect her. She learns how to use a sword, and is the only person who can exorcise the ‘onryou’, or vengeful spirits, that the attackers of Kyou use.

In addition to the RPG gameplay, where Nozomi and her hachiyou fight onryou, gain allies and abilities, and battle the enemy (the other side here is the Heike clan), there’s the romance aspect. By fighting with them and winning, Nozomi’s bonds with her hachiyou get stronger. There are also story events for each hachiyou that illustrate the growing relationship between him and Nozomi.

Depending on whether you get all the ‘events’ for a hachiyou, you can get a love ending with them as well as saving Kyou. There’s also the ‘normal’ ending, where Nozomi doesn’t get together with anyone but saves Kyou and goes back to her world.

The gameplay is fun RPG and adventure, without being too heavy on either. The voice actors are great (if you can understand Japanese!) and the story is also strong. I really wish Koei would bring it overseas, they’re definitely big enough!

Tomorrow’s my day off, so I’ll be back on Saturday with a Garnet Cradle extravaganza!