Archive for July, 2009

Death Connection: Set for December

Yup, I thought it was scheduled for October,  but it’s now officially December. I don’t mind, the fall has quite enough money-sucking games already!! Oh, and the site is now open. The Story and Information is up, characters are coming soon.

Lucian Bee’s in depth

As a huge fan of VitaminX and Z, of course I’m planning on getting Lucian Bee’s (coming out July 30th), which is from a different publisher (5pb instead of D3) but with the same character designer (Maeda Hirotaka).

The full title is a doozy: Lucian Bee’s Resurrection Supernova – what that has to do with the plot I have no idea. However, that plot sounds pretty awesome.

The heroine is a new recruit to a secret group ‘Lucian Bee’s', whose mission is to makeover ultra dorky / jerky guys the world over for the sake of all women. A very noble task! The heroine has two comrades, and they’re all called Strikers. The game focuses on making over members of a new idol group, Romanxia, whose members all have problems keeping them from being “ikemen”, and are from all over the world. Let’s take a look shall we?

First up, Luke(from the States) and Anjelica (from UAE).

Luke Rockwell (CV: Takeru) is a major geek otaku, is the son of current President, and is very nice, but due to his social awkwardness, is made fun of by his beautiful and smart fiancée.
Age: 19 Height: 185cm Weight: 69kg

Anjelica Asiyuwan (CV: Hino Satoshi) is the oldest son of the mayor of Dubai who loves gambling and women. He’s very spoiled and his dream is to become the richest person in the world.
Age: 17 Height: 180cm Weight: 60kg

Lee Katoru (China) (CV: Kaji Yuki) has been raised disguised as a girl since he was young to protect him, since his dad is a mafia boss. He’s expert in dance and music, but since he’s been so sheltered, has a hard time trusting people outside his family.
Age: 16 Height: 171cm Weight: 56kg

Vann (Japan) and Jesse (UK)

Vann Caien (CV: Suzuki Tatsuhisa) is the leader of Romanxia as well as the top motorcycle gang in Tokyo. Though he’s not a scholar, he takes care of his friends and is trusted by his gang.
Age: 17  Height: 174cm  Weight: 65kg

Jesse “Kid” Squire (CV: Terashima Takuma) is the lead singer and guitarist of a popular London indie band, “Knights of Round”. He’s also the son of a famous rocker, but hates getting special treatment because of it, and doesn’t have a great relationship with his dad.
Age: 18 Height: 182cm  Weight: 67kg

Remmy “J” Belmondo (France) (CV: Miyano Mamoru) is the star of a national opera company, Grand Etoile. He’s very talented, but also pretty narcissistic and always wants to stand out.
Age: 19  Height: 177cm  Weight: 59.5kg

To help in this monumental task, the Strikers have the help of the Metropolis V, the advisors of Lucian Bee’s who each excel in a certain area vital to being a drool-worthy guy.

From left:

Guido Ashanti (CV: Yusa Kouji) Specialty: Fashion
Didie Lightnorth (CV: Suzuki Chihiro) Specialty: Cooking
Nathan Bloodline (CV: Kamiya Kouji) Specialty: Hairstyling
Frederick Barnard Jr (CV: Fukuyama Jun) Specialty: Design
Cromwell Neeson (CV: Oozuka Akito) Specialty: Etiquette

So what makes Lucian Bee’s job so hard? There’s actually a rival organization who work to turn cool guys everywhere into hopeless jerks and losers! Why? Hopefully we’ll find out in the game. Anyhow, this organization, Daresign, has a group called the Honey Buzzard VI:

Rai (CV: Suganuma Hisaya) Specialty: Fashion
Viola (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) Specialty: Hairstyling
Jagar (CV: Itou Kentarou) Specialty: Etiquette
Barbara (CV: Takahashi Hiroki) Specialty: Food
Michelle Woo (CV: Hatano Wataru) Specialty: Sense and balance
Zehyros (CV: Sugita Tomokazu) Specialty: Unknown

With all these secret organizations and conspiracies, this game is definitely going for a spy/undercover theme, which sounds really fun.

The gameplay involves makeover missions that you go on to ‘fix’ each guy. You first choose your target, then choose a mission (I think the missions for each guy go in a certain order, but once you finish one, you can replay it). You put on a disguise, and get briefed by the Metropolis V. During missions, you have to make sure the target doesn’t catch on to your disguise. The level is shown by the Stealth Gauge, which decreases as the target starts to suspect something is up.  If you get through the mission with stealth left, you’re clear! Then you get the results of your mission as to how successful the makeover was.

I can’t wait for this game to come out, I’m hoping that not just the character style, but the fun of the Vitamin series was brought in to this new title.

And finally, here’s the PV:

Prince of Tennis Doki Doki Survival ~Umi~

I had heard about Prince of Tennis from otome game fans, but for a long time I wasn’t sure if it actually had otome games, or whether people just liked some regular games (maybe with some love thrown in) because it’s such a popular series – especially with otome fans, since we love all those bishounen . But recently, someone told me that they DO have some otome games in the franchise, so I used La Primavera to figure out which one to buy, and settled on Prince of Tennis Doki Doki Survival ~Umibe no Secret~. It’s goes with ~Yama no Mystic~, and I think you’re supposed to play that first, since the series’ main character is there, but I didn’t know, so oh well. I don’t think it makes a big difference.

Anyways, here’s the story: you and a friend are going to an island down south for summer vacation, but there’s a mix-up with the travel arrangements and you couldn’t board the ship you had booked. So your friend’s father, a ship captain, is taking you along on a chartered ship with all (ok, 40) of the characters in Prince of Tennis. They’re going to be dropped off at a different island to do a special training camp, which is why players from several different schools are going. However, as you get close, a bad storm comes up, and you and your friend join some of the players on a lifeboat, eventually ending up on the camp’s island. All the players are accounted for, but none of the coaches or your friend’s dad are around. So you and your friend, along with the players, have to survive on your own until the adults or found, or someone comes to rescue you.

The first thing that happens is that the group splits into a mountain side and an ocean side. Your friend goes to the mountain side and you stay with the ocean side, thus Umibe (Seaside) no Secret. From then on, you go through the days choosing who to help with survival activities like finding food and water, and tennis practice as well. When you do so, you get some dialogue and maybe a question, and your affection with that guy will go up. To successfully finish a route, the guy’s heart (shown at the top right of the screen) needs to be at least 70% full, and for him to confess (as opposed to you confessing) it needs to be totally full. You have 4 days to do this, and if you stick with the same guy, it’s not that hard. There are a few events that you need to get, and there are also some ‘conversation topics’ that you can pick up from other guys to increase the dialogue and get more points.

I’ve never read or watched Prince of Tennis (well, I read the first chapter and wasn’t hooked), but this game is pretty fun. With 20 guys in this game, and 20 in Mystic, the routes are not that varied, and there aren’t very many CGs. There’s also not much romance – but it makes sense, since these guys are supposed to be in junior high (junior high!? I mean really…they all look and act and SOUND at least high school age). However, there a huge number of good seiyuu – in this one there’s Suwabe Junichi (Atobe), Takahashi Naozumi (Bunta), Ishida Akira (Mizuki), Ueda Yuuji (Akutagawa), Namikawa Daisuke (Ootori), Oda Yuusei (Saeki), Hiyama Nobuyuki (Jackal), and Yoshino Hiroyuki (Hirakoba) – plus several others, and the characters all have fleshed out personalities.

The minigames are also kind of fun, and apparently if you collect all the prizes from them, you get an extra – we’ll see if I ever manage that. A couple things to keep in mind before buying – if you’re not already a Prince of Tennis fan, check the character art first – it’s not awful, but it’s not romance-pretty either. Also, if you like a deep story in your otome games, this ain’t it.

However, with all the fun and good seiyuu, added to the fact that these two games are old enough to be out in budget form ($35USD at Play-Asia), I think they’re a good deal.