Archive for the ‘Otome Games’ Category
Desert Kingdom – Done!
I’ve now completed 98% of Desert Kingdom (there’s one sub-route that I don’t think I’m interested in), and I think I should take back a lot of the criticism I originally aimed at the game.
Criticism 1: Too short
This isn’t a complete reversal of my first opinion, but more of a change. I still feel that there isn’t much story going on in the gameplay portion of the game, where you choose where to go and build up your power. The power buildup portions are a good length, with you, your target, and Unbara, but the parts where you visit the guys are often abrupt and sometimes no more than a couple sentences long. I still feel that that’s a little too short.
But the rest of the story, once you get into someone’s route, is quite long. I’d estimate at least a couple hours each. This is great if you like visual novels, but for those are bored with long discussions without player interaction, you might be annoyed.
Criticism 2: CGs
Yeah, so I picked the wrong route to start off with. Most of the CGs are excellent and very pretty, there’s only one other fanservicey (to guys) CG, and overall I really like them. Oh, and Vii’s other route (the Good instead of Happy) has a CG that I actually like better than the Happy one. Plus, once you get a certain number of routes (the first four maybe??) you get extra CGs that you only see in the gallery, which are the guys in out-of-character costumes/poses (a very nice extra).
Also, there’s a little extra feature called “With Sera”, where you have a little epilogue for each route, but as if you’re visiting Sera. These are separate from the regular epilogues in the games, though you can choose to see them after each one (I chose to save them up and watch them after, which I think is a good choice as some include spoilers). It’s light and fun, and is a great little addition to the game.
Final Word
After finishing almost all the game, I really love it. Not only are the characters interesting, but the plotline is done well and integrates everyone – and no matter which route you end up in, Kingdom’s ending is pretty much the same.
I also shouldn’t leave out Aspashia – though her visual design is more loli than I’d like, her personality is awesome and realistic as an immortal princess who is used to doing whatever she wants.
Having just finished the final hidden route last night, it leaves you with that feeling, you know, when you’re all happy and gooey inside. It’s so cute, and they don’t make you go through the whole game again, which is fantastic.
So I’m a little biased positively to the game right now, but I’d definitely recommend Desert Kingdom if you like visual novels. If you don’t, and want more gameplay and interaction, I’d say only get it if you really love the setup and Arabian Nights aesthetic, since the dialogue portions will likely bore you.
A little news
Je n’ai rien a dire! My weekend has been filled with non-otome stuff – I was hoping to get Desert Kingdom or Meikyuu Grimm on Friday but no such luck.
Anyways, new game announcements from Otomate!
Clock Zero – November PS2 (I love the genre description for this one – “Living in a broken world with you”)
Wand of Fortune II – December PS2
Hakuouki Reimeiroku – PS2 September (this seems to be a prequel to Hakuouki featuring Ryuunosuke?)
Nise no Chigiri
A couple days late, gomen nasai ><;;!
Probably the first otome game to be set in the warring states (Sengoku Jidai) period of Japanese history, Nise no Chigiri, set to release July 22 for the PSP, is the story of Mana, a modern high school student who somehow travels through time and encounters Uesugi Masatora, one of the generals. He decides to protect her, while his rival Takeda Shingen targets her. With Mana knowing the outcome of this war, will she change the future?
Uesugi Masatora CV: Endou Daichi: The most powerful leader in the Kanto region (around Tokyo), he’s so good at battle and strategy that his nickname is the Dragon of . The Takeda family is his enemy.
Kojima Yatarou CV: Terasoma Masaki: Masatora’s follower and the leader of the Kachigumi. Since Masatora was little the tall (almost 2m) samurai protected him, and he foresaw that Masatora would lead the . He protects the heroine along with his little sister, Ayahime. He’s very strong but kind.
Tougi Kanehisa CV: Ootsuka Akio
The former leader of the Nokizaru, he now acts as an advisor to Akatsuki.
Takeda Shingen CV: Ichijou Kazuya
The leader of the Takeda clan and a strong army, he’s called the Tiger of Kai. Though many people are unsure if Yamamoto Kansuke is totally loyal, Shingen trusts him a lot.
Yamamoto Kansuke CV: Sakurai Takahiro
Kansuke works for Shingen, but is very mysterious, and his motives are unclear. He takes an interest in Mana after hearing she’s from the future.
Masatora assigns a group of his men, the Nokizarushuu, to guard Mana.
Akatsuki CV: Kondou Takashi
The sub-leader of the Nokizaru and likely to be the next leader, Akatsuki is very straightforward, open, and loyal to Masatora.
Suien CV: Tsuda Kenjirou
Calm and always watchful, Suien seems friendly to Mana.
Rurimaru CV: Hagino Mizuki
He’s younger than Mana, and has a cheerful personality. …He grows to be fond of Mana and treats her like a beloved older sister.
Shuuya CV: Maeno Tomoaki
It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking because he doesn’t say much, but Shuuya is very hardworking and dutiful.
Masato CV: Maeda Takashi
A little older than the other members of Nokizarushuu, Masato is like an older brother to them. However, with Mana he’s not that friendly for some reason, though once in a while he’ll give her advice.
News!
B’s Log has news of several new games this month:
- Pandora: A new PS2 game from Otomate, with character designs by Kuroba K., who did the art for Souten no Kanata!! (I loved the art for that, though I still haven’t gotten to play it)
- SYK PSP version announced
- Omochabako no Kuni no Alice – an Alice fandisk (PC) announced from QuinRose
- Kuro to Kin no Hirakanai Kagi. – a new R18 game from little cheese. The credits list different names, but the character art really reminds me of Starry Sky
- Tsubasa no Oka no Hime – another new R18 game, from new publisher Snapdragon, set in Victorian England
- Not an otome game, but the popular webcomic/anime Hetalia is being made into a PSP game – produced by Otomate!
- Oh, and there’s a spread with Ruru and Julius…and a mysterious white-haired guy in a mirror! All it says is “Wand of…Truth?”
- It didn’t get an article, but in the release listing there’s a new (at least I never noticed it before) Takuyo game listed as ‘Shinigami to Shoujo’. Who knows if it will come to anything, there’s a game on there that’s been on for years (yeah literally over a year…)
- Tokimemo GS 3 will come out on June 24! Wow that seems fast!
- Hakuouki PS3 is coming in June too, not July! Yayy!
- A bunch of cast announcements, which I think I’ll do separately in mini posts
Other news:
And in personal gaming stuff, I finally got Love Root Zero! Uh, the production isn’t great, it’s taking me a while to get into it partly due to that. Though the seiyuu are good…oh, and the heroine has a voice! Also Last Escort Katze, I’ve gotten through a couple routes there so far.
Love.101 updates – erm, not too much. Planning to open the characters page this weekend though!
Xechs’ Game System
So, more about the Scarred Rider Xechs‘ game system!
Girl’s Style lays the game path out using the first chapter as an example. In all there are 13 chapters, and they’re presented like an anime, with a little song and ‘preview’ of the next chapter at the end.
In the beginning there’s an adventure part, where you enjoy the noncombat life on the LAG base, develop relationships with the Xechs guys, and perhaps even see them play live as Odd I’s. Depending on what you choose, you raise either their ‘love’ gauge or their ‘death’ gauge (focusing on battle). After the adventure part is done Commander mode starts, and the guys ‘resonate’ with their Substance. Their Resonance personalities become more like their Substances the higher the death gauge is (their voices also change!), but apparently depending too much on the death gauge can lead to negative consequences…
Looking closer at the Commander mode, it starts when a red alert comes up during the adventure mode. A Vox (some type of vehicle?) brings all of you from wherever you are on campus to where the alert is.
Once there, you get a briefing on the situation, and choose which Rider to use in battle. The Rider resonates with his Substance, and the mission begins.
After the battle you see what the result is, and depending on your choices, the story will branch off.
The website has lots of videos, mostly just snippets of character dialogue, but they just put up a game intro video that’s pretty good at showing how it works.
Deep breath…ok here it is! LOVE.101!
Well, here we are, one week late (sorry miruki!) but I have finally put up my game’s website!
LOVE.101 will be a little otome game set in university. As the heroine, you’re trying to survive the first semester as best you can and see if you can meet someone special at the same time!
Several updates are still to come, and hopefully I can get that ugly link border away from the buttons (I should have just coded it in Flash), but it’s up!
More info on the characters, game system, and of course, release details, to come in the days to come!
Hi no Kioku ~Mizu no Senritsu 2~
I liked Hi no Kioku ~Mizu no Senritsu 2~ a lot, and was surprised at how little-known it seemed to be. It was released three months after Hiiro no Kakera in 2006, and I wonder if it was overshadowed by it.
First, the setup. It helps you understand the story if you play #1 first, but if it doesn’t appeal to you, I wouldn’t force it – Hi no Kioku, while characters from Mizu no Senritsu show up, is pretty independent of the first – with one exception. Shitara Suguru’s story has strong ties to the first game.
Have you ever heard of the myth that eating mermaid flesh gives you eternal life? Well, this story is roughly based on that myth. Long ago, a woman called Yaobikuni supposedly did just that, lived for 800 years, and could control the elements. Her present-day descendants, the Kusou and the Ichiyou lines, have different abilities. The Kusou all live much longer than regular humans and have superhuman healing powers as well as each having a special power, but the Ichiyou only live a bit longer, and have their own special powers.
The heroine, Kashiwagi Kira, is an orphan who lost her parents when she was only a baby. She’s her high school’s kendou team ace, has a strong sense of responsibility and is a little self-conscious about not being cute. She has a crush on Kyousuke, who came to the orphanage around the same time as her, but is several years older. He has no idea and treats her like a sister. One day they visit a nearby hotel where his parents were killed (his story is in the first MnS game), and Kira stays outside to give him some privacy. She finds a small shrine, and a strange light fills the air. There’s a flash and Kira finds herself holding a sword, with a voice telling her that it will lead her to her destiny. A strange mark appears on her hand as well, but fades.
Over the next few days she has several confusing encounters with both the Ichiyou and the Kusou (after one she wonders if they’re two rival gangs, lol). She also discovers that Kyousuke is in love with Hina (the heroine from MnS).
Eventually she finds out that someone is attacking both the Ichiyou and Kusou, and though they’ve recently reached a truce, this danger is threatening their ceasefire. Depending on your decisions, you’ll join a certain group and try to find out who is behind the attacks.
On to the characters!
Kashiwagi Yoshiharu (CV: Shimono Hiro): He lost his parents very young and lives at Kashiwagi Home. Kira sees him as a younger brother.
Azumi Yasuhide (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki): The student president at Kira’s high school, he’s smart but doesn’t trust the Ichiyou. He’s from the Kusou.
Shikibu Yoshino (CV: Kishio Daisuke): A flirty Kusou member who saves Kira when she’s suddenly attacked by monsters. He can tell where people are by somehow following their shadows, and also uses ofuda (seals).
Akizuki Ryou (CV: Kondou Takashi): The older brother of Akizuki Kei from MnS in the Ichiyou family, he works as the instructor of the local kendou dojo. He can temporarily put enemies to sleep.
Shitara Suguru (CV: Saiga Mitsuki): The young Ichiyou hunter, he was an important sub-character in MnS. He’s a tsundere, and he also has a guilty conscience so he doesn’t believe he deserves to be happy.
Shana (CV: Konishi Katsuyuki): The bad guy. Can’t say anymore to give away plot!
The beginning half or so is straight visual novel, but once you choose a side, you start to patrol the neighbourhood, and there’s a straightforward but kind of fun battle system. You choose who to patrol with, and during the battle you build up energy to do special attacks. There are several combo special attacks as well.
I like the art, but the tachi-e aren’t that pretty – it almost seems like an anime artist did them, someone who’s used to having to do several frames so they use strong, very simple lines. The CGs are quite good though IMO. I actually think the visuals will translate really well to the PSP and the smaller screen – there are some screenshots here showing different aspects of the gameplay (this website sometimes works for me and sometimes doesn’t…)
I won’t say much about the plot because I don’t want to give things away, but I thought the story was done well, and Kira is one of my favourite heroines. If you like supernatural adventuer (it’s actually listed as a “gothic romance adventure”), I’d totally recommend trying the new PSP version.
PCA/ACA Conference!
I’m very sorry, I couldn’t post yesterday because I was out of the country, at The National Popular Culture & American Culture Associations Annual Conference where I presented an intro paper to otome games! It was a lot of fun, there were tons of interesting papers, unfortunately I could only see a handful of them.
I was in the Romance section, which had some really interesting papers as well as many great presenters! Jessica at the romance blog Read React Review is putting up summaries of the panels.
I’m going to post my paper up here soon, for longtime otome fans it will seem pretty basic, but maybe it will help some people who haven’t had too much exposure to them, and that’s what this blog is for too!
Things I learned on the trip totally not related to pop culture:
1. When going out of town, double check your route on the other side. I didn’t realize that there was a train link and took a 45-minute taxi ride from the airport to the hotel.
2. Also make sure you will have Internet access. This one killed me, the hotel charged $15 USD per day for internet, not even wireless!!!! AAAAAGH.
3. Don’t go exploring the first night in heels, change to flats even if you think you’ll only go a couple blocks! I don’t know what I was thinking (can I use jet lag as an excuse, even though it was only one hour’s difference?)
Not much happened in the last week in otome games – oh, the Hakuouki anime starts today! Other than that, pas beaucoup…
And my next post, should be up tomorrow or Monday, will be a synopsis of Mizu no Senritsu 2 Hi no Kioku, because I finally went and searched through my old IGN blog, and apparently I never did a full post on it! So that will come too.
And now that my paper is all done, I can focus on making the game! Expect the website to come next week or April 16th!
Scared Rider Xechs
First things first. I *think* it’s supposed to be Scarred not Scared, which makes a little more sense (if anyone knows for sure let me know!).This is the first otome game from Reds Entertainment, scheduled for release this summer on the PS2. The “Scared Riders” is a military team, based in Okinawa, formed to protect Earth from a mysterious group of alien beings from Mars called Night Fly Onoto. The Scared seem to refer to Night Flys that are helping the humans. In battle, the Riders transform with their Substance Night Flys and become Scared Riders. Fighting has been so intense that five teams have been destroyed already.
The new sixth unit is called IS (pronounced eyes), or the Scared Rider Xechs. The heroine is the advisor to this team, and the player will direct them in battle, and protect the Earth.
After all this fighting, as IS was getting ready to fight, the enemy Night Flys disappeared. While waiting for them to make an appearance, the members of IS formed a band called Odd-I’s – of course, what else would they do? 
Characters:
Asagi Akira: The genius heroine, she graduated high school at 10 and university at 15. Perhaps because she sped through school, she has no friends, and is a little naive and very serious. The very unserious members of IS often tease her.
Komae Christoph Yosuke CV: Suzuki Tatsuo
Hobby: Cooking
Noise Render: Vicious (a sword shaped like a guitar)
Band Position: Backup Guitar
Codename: Z.2 Zahl zwei
He’s half German, and his parents are dead. He’s cool, calm and very skilled. His guitar playing is pro level as well, but he doesn’t like it that much.
He also knows martial arts, and had top marks at the LAG acadedemny.
Substance: Fernandes CV: Takemoto Eiji
The classic impulsive, hotheaded hero type.
Kirisawa Takt CV: Miyano Mamoru
Hobby: none
Noise Render: Paige (Guitar-shaped spear)
Band Position: Vocal/Main Guitar
Codename: Z.1 Zahl eins
Acts as IS’s leader. Serious and a perfectionist, he’s always trying to fix things, which sometimes causes conflict with the others.
He’s very proud, and has absolute confidence in himself.
Substance: Lespouri CV: Namikawa Daisuke
A childish type that loves pranks, he can also be quite coldhearted. Takuto often scolds him like a parent.
Tsuga Yuji CV: Kondou Riku
Hobby: Soccer
Noise Blender: Bacchus (a bass-shaped axe)
Band Position: Bass
Codename: Z.3 Zahl drei
The oldest member of IS who acts as the ‘older brother’ of the team, he’s easygoing but shrewd. He also ends up being the mediator in team conflicts.
Substance: Deviser CV: Koyama Rikiya
Extremely proud and arrogant, he thinks of the world as his oyster, but values his comrades highly.
Kurama Hiro CV: Shimono Hiroo
Hobby: Reading (especially Japanese culture and philosophy)
Noise Blender: Campbell (drum-shaped weapon that makes energy waved)
Band position: Drums
Codename: Z.4 Zahl vier
The youngest member of IS, Hiro is meek and bashful. Because he’s so socially inept, he often says things that sound harsh unintentionally.
Substance: Duesenberg CV: Takahashi Naozumi
He is male but his heart, actions, and speech patterns are feminine. He loves beautiful things, and loves that IS’s members are bishounen.
Suzuki Kazuki CV: Takahashi Hiroki
Hobby: PC
Noise Blender: Gureko (a gunlike long-range weapon)
Band Position: Keyboards
Codename: Z.5 Zahl funf
Kind of a narcissist, he often does and says strange things, and his teammates have a hard time understanding him.
He’s very straightforward in what he likes. He calls himself an artist, and is very serious about the band. He also thinks of himself as a hero, and takes his role in IS seriously. He writes lyrics and songs for the band, but has no talent for lyrics.
Substance: RickenBacker CV: Okamoto Nobuhiko
For some reason (maybe he can’t remember the words), he’s never been to converse with anyone. He mostly only has outbursts of snickering or other sounds. However, apparently he and the other Substances and he and Kazuki can talk.
Mutsuki Hijiri CV: Kenn
Hobby: Gambling
Noise Blender: Casino (a mic-shaped bladed weapon)
Band Position: None
Codename: Z.6 Zahl Xechs
The most recent member of IS. He’s friendly with a stray cat Ochzuke. He is a playboy and not very serious, and sometimes will go ff somewhere without warning. He has also been suspected of being a spy for the Night Fly.
Substance: Epiphone CV: Fujiwara Yuuki
Apparently he was the first Night Fly to come to Earth. He doesn’t speak much and is often alone. He is very cool in battle. Only recently did he choose to become Hijiri’s Substance.
The character art is very long and lean, and on the (heavy Flash)site there are a few mini-movies to watch that are mostly little teasers, but fun. No info yet on gameplay, but the idea of having the guys’ ‘mecha’ actually be characters as well is quite cool!
Corda 3 First Play!
I got Corda 3 yesterday and have been busily playing through it. I love having all new characters!
The gameplay is pretty similar to previous Corda games, but there is an added minigame during performances that demands some hand-eye coordination (not too much on easy mode thankfully).
At the beginning I couldn’t help giggling, the first scene is so!dramatic! and Fukuyama Jun is being very!angsty! but it gets over that pretty quickly, and it makes sense for his character (kind of immature). And in fact, Corda 3’s plot does seem more dramatic overall, I’ve already agonized over one contest (I don’t think I cried though…). I’m actually interested to see how this works if you are going for a guy from a different school – in the beginning you have very limited interaction with non-Seisou students. According to the manual I still have semi-finals and the final to go, as well as a violin final – since I’ve already beaten one rival school, I wonder how that works if I’m trying to do their routes.
Oh, another thing that made me laugh is that they’re going a little Prince of Tennis on us(with all their crazy ‘tennis’ moves), and making the performances less realistic. You know how when you were really good in Corda 1-2 it would show effects and lights and stuff? Well now that effect is supposedly real, and is called a Maestro Field. Supposedly when you’re really good you can make the audience see/hear/feel the landscape of the music (mmmhmmm suuuuurrre).
Anyways, so far it’s lots of fun! No fairies so far, but lots of exciting!drama! plus a couple appearances by Hihara and Kiriya (I avoided spoilers so have no idea if anyone else shows up). And of course the characters and their voices are totally different, especially Morita Masakazu!
Now I’m off to train for the semi-final, wish me luck!
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