Archive for March, 2009

Kiniro no Corda 2 Encore Random Tip

The number when you first pick an orchestra piece means the number of conditions you have to fulfill to get to the orchestra part. As you might expect, the more the conditions, the harder it usually is.

For instance: サックス奏者2人 means you need to find 2 people who play the sax. That means you have to go around asking people, then find the students, then make sure you have what they want.

• One is 兼山真治, and you need to get a leather or metal armlet to give to him for him to join.
• The other is 星徹也 and you need to give him either, ティッシュポーチ, ルームコロン, or 水彩画の画集.

I like doing these, I might do more later – if you’re stuck somewhere or there’s something you can’t figure out, email me at admin@lijaka.com and I’ll do a quick post for your answer!

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2 – More Details

After reading a bunch of comments on 2channel (yes, without new games I had some time on my hands!), and playing Harutoki Ukihashi, I got interested in Harutoki 2 again, and I’m surprised how much I’m enjoying it. And since you guys actually seem interested in Harutoki 1 and 2 (yay! I didn’t know if it was old news or interesting at all), I thought I’d go into some more detail about #2, since I’m playing that right now.

The first time I played #2 all I noticed was the very similar setup and character designs to Harutoki 1 – just look at the hachiyou side by side (left is #2, right is #1):

Also, several of the locations in Kyou are the same (though the pics are different, as #2 takes place in fall and winter, while #1 is in spring and summer), as well as the game’s overall flow: Learn about Kyou, get each holy beast seal (seijuu), then each myouou seal, then fight the end boss. Even the villains are re-used – both Akram and Shirin have pretty big parts in this game.

However, after playing it through again without having a fresh memory of #1, as well as paying more attention to the plot and dialogue, I’ve realized some key differences.

The biggest difference, I think, is that the heroine, Karin, isn’t acknowledged as the Ryuujin no Miko by the hachiyou at the beginning of the game. Though Yukari, the young ‘assistant’ from the Hoshi no Ichizoku, recognizes her right away and supports her through thick and thin, Karin has to find and convince the hachiyou on her own. In the beginning, even though Karin searches Kyou with one hachiyou whom she met when she first appeared in Kyou, that one doesn’t believe her either. And you can only choose daily companions from four of the total eight hachiyou for about a third of the game.

The reason for this is that the people and government of Kyou are in a state of unrest. The old emperor recently gave up his throne to his son, but the process didn’t go smoothly. Many nobles still pay more attention to the ‘retired’ emperor (called the ‘in’) than the new, and overall Kyou is split into two factions. Depending on your choice in the beginning, you start out on the current emperor’s or the retired emperor’s side, and only ‘get’ the four corresponding hachiyou until partway through.

Compared to Harutoki 1, where Akane was summoned with all the hachiyou ready and she also had two friends from home coming with her (Karin comes alone), Karin has it way harder – and this makes the story more interesting, in my opinion. It also lends more credence to the fights between hachiyou, since (of course) all the Heaven hachiyou are on the retired emperor’s side while all the Earth hachiyou side with the current emperor. This time, it’s not just personality clashes, but real mistrust that they have to overcome.

I also like Karin better as a heroine, mostly because she has to face a lot more adversity. When each hachiyou finally tells her they believe she’s the true Ryuujin no Miko and vows to help her, it feels very satisfying.

If you’ve recently played Harutoki 1, the elements common to both will be really obvious, and you’ll probably have to be patient to start appreciating what’s good about Harutoki 2, and what makes it worthwhile in its own right compared to Harutoki 1. I’d recommend waiting a while between playing the two games. But I do recommend getting it if you’re interested – like Harutoki 1, it’s a lot of fun, but it has a charm and atmosphere all its own.

Oh, and someone asked about minigames! Yes, there are several types of minigames in #2 (I think only a memory game in #1), none very complex. One is a memory game using clams, one is kind of a reflex game where there are items to win and you have to stop the gauge at the right spot to get them, one is like whack-a-mole (I find that one the hardest), and one is like Pong. If you succesfully ‘beat’ the game, you get both affection and belief stars for the hachiyou you’re with, so it’s worth it to give it a try.

Harutoki 1 and 2 – the beginning

With Harukanaru Toki no Naka de Ukihashi showcasing Harutoki 1-3, you may be interested in the original games. Though I have both Harukanaru Toki no Naka de Hachiyousho (the PS2 version of the first game) and Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2, I always thought they were just okay compared to Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3, which is one of my favourite otome games. I played #3 first, and I think it spoiled me a bit, because Hachiyousho and #2 weren’t set up the same way, and I found them a little too restrictive. But going back now and playing them, I appreciate that they’re actually more strategic than #3, as well as doing a great job establishing the story of the Ryuujin no Miko and the hachiyou.

For anyone who doesn’t have the games yet, or if you’ve tried one but were kind of confused about the setup, I thought I’d post about the basic storyline, timeline, and how gameplay works.

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 1 and 2 have a lot in common with each other, so most of this will cover both games.

Story: A high school student from Japan (Akane in #1, Karin in #2) is leading a normal life when one day, she’s transported to another world which resembles historical Heian Japan (around 900-1100AD). She’s dumped in Kyou (Kyoto), and is declared to be the Dragon God Priestess, or Ryuujin no Miko, by a young girl from the Star Family, or Hoshi no Ichizoku. The Hoshi no Ichizoku are an aristocratic family who are the keepers of eight dragon globes (gyoku), and who use their psychic ability to help the Ryuujin no Miko.

Kyou has a legend that in times of crisis, a girl from another world will appear as the Ryuujin no Miko. Her job is to summon the Dragon God who watches over Kyou, and save it from whatever is endangering Kyou. She has eight hachiyou, or guardians, to protect her and help her do this, and the gyoku give the hachiyou special powers.

Game Timeline: Both #1 and #2 follow the same basic timeline. First the heroine is transported to Kyou, where she has to meet all the hachiyou. Each hachiyou has a certain element (fire, water, earth, tree, or crystal), as do all the monsters you have to fight and the locations you can visit. Each element is strong against one element and weak against another, so if you know what kind of monster you’re fighting, you can pick the hachiyou with the element that’s strong against it. The heroine also has an element, but that doesn’t affect fights so much as minigames.

Once you’ve met all the hachiyou, you choose what to do each day. You have three slots of time in each day, and each morning you pick one or two hachiyou to travel and fight with. Then you pick where to go, and if there’s a monster there, you fight it. If not, sometimes an event will happen, otherwise you’ll get a mini-game to get items. Sometimes not all the hachiyou are available in the morning, and sometimes locations in the east, west, north, or south are unavailable because of the flow of ki. When you beat monsters of a certain element, you gain that element’s power, which you can then use in special attacks of the hachiyou. For example, Yasuaki in #1 is an earth element, so if you have some earth element power, you can use his special attacks.

Your first assignment is to obtain the help of the four sacred beasts (seijuu) that are under the control of the Dragon God – Seiryuu, Byakko, Genbu, and Suzaku. Each seijuu has two hachiyou, so for example Yorihisa and Tenma in #1 are the two Seiryuu hachiyou. This usually means that you travel with these hachiyou to a certain location, listen to the seijuu, and do what it tells you to prove your worth. You only have a few days to obtain the help of each seijuu, and of course there’s always a bad guy who tries to stop you from getting it.

Once you have all four seijuu, you gain the ability to seal monsters, instead of just temporarily beating them. When you seal a monster, you gain that seal (a fuda) which you can then equip to improve the heroine’s or a hachiyou’s stats.

After getting all four seiyuu, you need to get special attacks for each pair of hachiyou. These attacks come from spirits called ‘myouou’, and the process of obtaining them is similar to the seijuu.

Once you have all the myouou (though I think you can fail in this and still continue the game), you are strong enough to fight the final boss.

Does this sound complicated? It isn’t bad once you’re used to the whole element system and how to seal and everything, but it can take a while to figure out. Also, because your time is limited, it’s easy to fool around and not get things done on time if you’re not sure where to go or what to do. And I haven’t even gotten into character events or love routes yet!

In #1, each hachiyou has had an important memory stolen from them. In #2, it’s only the four hachiyou on ‘your’ side when you start (emperor or retired emperor). To go through the ‘true love’ route for each hachiyou, you must find all four pieces of their heart (kokoro no kakera) and get through the accompanying events successfully. Besides the true love route, there’s also the ‘rush’ route (in #1) or the ‘obstacled’ (shougai no aru) route (in #2), where you don’t have to gather kokoro no kakera, and it depends on raising the hachiyou’s affection and belief levels only.

Belief (the green stars in the character pane) can be built by beating monsters, healing the hachiyou, winning minigames, and acting like a strong miko. Affection (orange/red stars) is harder to gain – it’s also built by beating monsters and winning minigames, but much more slowly than belief. You can also gain affection by successfully navigating character events, and a couple other methods involving the ‘monoomi no hi’ and incense.

Finally, once all this is done, you choose who to go with to fight the final boss, and if you’re successful, you get an epilogue. I believe in Hachiyousho there are 3 endings for each character (staying in Kyou, going to your world, and a ‘hachiyousho’-added ending), and in #2 there are two (staying or going back).

Yikes! Explaining this took up so much space, and I don’t even have any pics to go with it! Well, hopefully it will be useful to somebody.

Release – Kanuchi Black

Title: Release – Kanuchi Black
Link out: Click here
Description: Kanuchi ~Kuroki Tsubasa no Shou~ released for the PS2 by Otomate.
Date: 2009-04-23