Archive for January, 2009

Game mechanics – Dialogue scenes

Otome games in general include a LOT of dialogue, between the player and a character, or between several non-player characters. this is usually shown by having the non-player characters’ shown on the screen as if they were facing the player, and when there are more than one, they face each other or are placed next to each other.

There are some small features off these scenes that, over time, I’ve realized that I like or don’t like.  These aren’t game-breakers like the ability to skip through once-read dialogue, but they can enhance or detract from the overall impression I have of a game. I’m interested in seeing what other fans think of these little things, or if you even notice them.

1. The mouth-flap – This is the awkward term for games where characters’ mouths move when they speak.  It sounds like a small thing, but I really noticed when playing Harutoki 4 this summer, because #3 had the mouth-flap, but in #4 they removed it. It makes the scenes seem not as alive, more like pictures with a voiceover rather than an actual conversation.

2. Blinking eyes – This is a nice touch sometimes, but I don’t miss it as much as the mouth-flap when it’s not there. During a long conversation between two characters it can help give the impression that the one not talking is actually listening, not just frozen in stasis.

3. Character ‘movement’ – I’m really talking about two different things here.

One is how often the character picture changes, in expression or pose. Some games are pretty stingy in showing different poses – I’ve seen some where the same body posture is used for all expressions, and it can make some of them look really odd – like in Trouble Fortune Company Happy Cure, Kuze’s body is sometimes shown facing sideways, but at least one of his ‘expressions’ has his whole head facing directly at the player – it’s kind of freaky-looking.

He looks normal here, but he has a pose where his head looks the same, but his body faces sideways – very odd.

The other is actually moving the characters around on the screen. Some games never do this past moving characters to the centre if they’re the only one in the scene, but some do a fair bit of it to attempt some dynamic interaction (without actually animating anything, lol). Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails. Takuyo games (e.g. Sorayume) do this a little, but one recent title that used this very well is True Fortune (yes, I’m finally playing it!).

4. Special effects – Apart from the regular poses and expressions, some games add manga details like question marks and sweatdrops to emphasize a character’s mood.  It works pretty well in comedic scenes.

Do you notice these little things while playing otome games? Do you wish more games used them, or do you find them distracting?

Sawato-senpai! and Takuyo games

Yay, I finally finished Sawato-senpai’s route in Little Aid! I found this guide to work just fine, the only change is that the last decision is on the 21st, not the 22nd.

It’s interesting, Little Aid, actually all the Takuyo games, seem to kind of be interconnected. The first one I played was Panic Palette, where Sawato-senpai is a side character. Looking at the Takuyo website I recognized him in Little Aid. And now playing Little Aid, several side characters seem like they have a backstory of their own (that you don’t find out about in Little Aid). After doing a little digging, I found out that Little Aid is set at the same high school as e’tude prologue but one year later! So now I have to go and order e’tude prologue – stuff like this always pulls me in even if the links are pretty weak.  I guess it’s a good thing that companies keep adapting their old games for new systems, because e’tude prologue first came out in 1998!!

Harutoki 3/Izayoiki for PSP

Hmm, I don’t remember seeing this new item, and just noticed it on the Koei site – they’re released a combinedi Harutoki 3/Izayoiki for the PSP on March 19, priced at Y5800. If you’ve never played either game, Izayoiki is like an expansion on Harutoki 3, with more scenes, extra voices, and two new capturable characters, Tomomori and Shirogane. There’s also a premium version available for Y7800.

This is a great idea if you don’t have these two games already, because as most fans will tell you, you WILL want to get Tomomori after finishing #3 ^_^ And with this, you don’t have to do that annoying game disc swap every time.

Arco Baleno!

Arco Baleno is the second ‘restaurant’ otome game for the PS2 from Otomate, and features the same artist from Petit Fours. This time, the restaurant is Italian, and the main character is a trainee chef.

Murota Kaname CV: Fukuyama Jun – another trainee who’s confident in his skills

Nasu Haruto CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke – the main chef whose food is why Yuuna wants to work at Arcobaleno.

Saotome Nikichi CV: Mizushima Takahiro – the manager, he’s actually the oldest but looks the youngest.

Komatsu Ryuunosuke CV: Hino Satoshi – the friendly owner.

Katsura Fuuta CV: Naruse Makoto – the easygoing fellow trainee.

Along with the visual novel aspect, there will be twice-weekly ‘cooking tests’, where you can get special items, and that (I believe) affect the outcome of the game. The release date has been set for May 15, 2009.

Calendar Up!

See the shiny new calendar on the sidebar there? I just added it, I’ll try to keep it as up-to-date as possible with game releases. I’m still thinking what to do with games that have no release date yet…

New type of otome game? Starry Sky

Starry Sky is the new project from honeybee, a company that specializes in producing drama CDs – and not just drama CDs, its focus is on a series of CDs that are designed to…help you go to sleep by listening to a seiyuu count sheep.  Srsly. I have no words. Not even going to try to understand this

Anyways, it seems that instead of the usual game being released with a drama CD as extra, this is a series of drama CDs that comes with PC games as an extra! Every month throughout 2009, a CD will be released that represents that month’s astrological sign and one of the twelve characters. Every three months, a ‘planetarium’ CD will be released that represents a season and features three of the characters (it doesn’t look like they’re in order though – for instance, Spring includes Cancer, Pisces, and Capricorn) explaining their constellations’ legends, and including a PC game as an ‘extra’. The drama CDs will cost 1500Y each, and the planetarium CDs/games will be 3150Y each.

I can’t decide if this is a great idea, or just another way to get some more money from us otome game fans Then again, their ‘counting sheep’ series seems to have done well, so maybe honeybee is onto something here. Either way, the cast is excellent, full of seiyuu stars.

Spring (Classmates)
Touzuki Suzuya CV: Ono Daisuke
Nanami Kanata CV: Sugita Tomokazu
Tomoe You CV: Midorikawa Hikaru

Summer (Club Activities)
Kanakubo Homare CV: Hoshi Souichirou
Miyaji Ryuunosuke CV: Kamiya Hiroshi
Kinose Azusa CV: Fukuyama Jun

Fall (Adult Love)
Hoshizuki Kotarou CV: Ishida Akira
Haruki Naoshi CV: Kishio Daisuke
Mizushima Iku CV: Yusa Kouji

Winter (Student Council)
Shiranui Kazuki CV: Nakamura Yuuichi
Oozora Hayato CV: Hirakawa Daisuke
Amaha Tsubasa CV: Suzumura Kenichi

Other news and major linkage!

…finally gathered from the December mags, heh.

• Under the Moon is finally coming to PS2 as UTM Crescent. The R18 PC game been on the ‘most wanted for adaptation’ list for a long time, and finally is being released sometime in 2009, published by Dimple. It will be interesting to see how they change it…
• Will o’ Wisp Portable and DS will come out in March.
• A new fandisk for Palais de Reine for the PC came out on December 26th, called Palais de Carnaval. The main event is, you can probably guess, a carnival in town.
• Kiniro no Coruda 2 Forte – Corda 2 adapted to the PSP, with new scenes and a new character! Release date is February 26.
• Harutoki Ukihashi Special is coming to the PS2 on January 22.
• Vitamin Z scheduled for March!!  ^_^
• As Saki commented earlier (thanks for the tip!), Yagari also has a route available in the Vampire Knight DS game that’s coming out on January 29.
• Love Root Zero from Dimple is coming March 26th!
• Ouran Koukou Host Club, one of the few otome games I’m missing from my collection (yes I’m crazy, I know I know), is being released for the Nintendo DS on March 19! It’s based on the manga series.
• To add to the handheld otome madness, Arabian’s Lost by Quinrose is coming to the DS – Prototype will be the publisher.

Kazeiro Surf – Post WWI otome game

Yes, so I finally scanned some pics of the new games!

First up is Kazeiro Surf, scheduled for Spring 2009 for the PS2 from russell pure. I thought it was alternate history, but it seems to follow world history pretty closely except for its made-up setting, a northern European kingdom called Euchtrande. Set in 1923, a few years after World War I, it’s the age of early flight, and the main character, Erika, is the daughter of a well-known airplane mechanic, Antony. Erika is becoming a good mechanic under her father working on automobiles when the government sends a request for Antony to become the mechanic for a new airborne platoon. Not wanting her elderly father to overwork himself, Erika volunteers to go in his stead. She’s assigned to Robyih, a town near the border of Euchtrande with the empire it seceded from 270 years ago, Shuresberch.

Characters!

Ruka CV: Abe Atsushi - the youngest son of an aristocratic family, the Falgohres. 18 years old, he joined the platoon at the same time as Erika.

Korrin CV: Hamada Kenji – a skilled pilot that hasn’t yet had battle experience, Korrin is already a lieutenant at 25 years old.

Oswell CV: Maeno Tomoaki – the cool young engineer who at first doesn’t accept Erika as a fellow soldier. 22 years old.

Klaus CV: Fujiwara Keiji - A veteran pilot of WWI, now he’s a major and teaches young pilots.

Alec CV: Koyama Rikiya - A 38-year-old corporal in the supply unit, he worries about Erika being one of the only women in the repair team.

Serge CV: Yonaga Tsubasa – Taking care of a restaurant frequented by the platoon with his mother and older sister, Serge is a responsible 16-year-old that longs to work with planes.

Johanne CV: Hino Satoshi - A 24-year-old from Shuresberch, he’s travelling to see the world, but is staying in Robyih for a while.

The story seems to be based on Erika trying to gain the respect and acknowledgement of her peers as a mechanic, but there’s no info yet on gameplay. Russell Pure’s last game was Hakarena Heart, which was strictly a visual novel, so Kazeiro Surf might be one as well.

Anyways, it’s an interesting premise for an otome game – the character designer is new and the designs are definitely different. Some I like (Oswell and Korrin), some I’m not sure about. I’ll keep my eye on this one and see how it shapes up!

New games announced

Well, now that winter vacation is over (not that I meant to take any…), there was some news in the mags this month:

New games - one each for the PC and PS2, and I can’t remember which is which – one looks to be set in a kind of alternate history.  It’s in an imaginary country, but it’s about pilots and the planes look to be circa 1920, give or take a decade. It has an interesting artstyle that I haven’t seen before in an otome game. Some more info on Souten no Kanata, Wand of Fortune and Arco Baleno from Otomate, and a new R18 game from Mirai.

Other news - Garnet Cradle is scheduled for March 27 – so much for winter 2008 Some other things we knew already, like Will o’ Wisp being ported to both Nintendo DS and PSP with Easter no Kiseki – they’re both planned to be the same price, which is nice for PSP users. Harutoki Ukihashi is being adapted to the PS2, with extra scenes overall and material for Akuram, Shirogane, and Tomomori.

There’s a lot of scanning I want to do for the new games, hopefully I can do that soon!