Archive for the ‘Neoromance’ Category
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!
Edit: Tags aren’t working
Kin’iro no Corda 3 Seiyuu!
Since there are all-new characters in the upcoming Kin’iro no Corda 3 coming out in spring, let’s take a look at their seiyuu! All the original seiyuu are here, as well as several new ones. They’re also from four different schools, so you can have rivalries with them You can see art and some even have voice samples up at the Kin’iro no Corda 3 site. Looking at the teaser pic, I totally thought it was the same gang but Yunoki had cut his hair…but I’m glad they’re new, there’s only so long you can drag out the original story. Yay new Corda!!!
Hozumi Shiro CV: Morita Masakazu
MIzushima Arata CV: Kishio Daisuke
Kisragi Ritsu CV: Konishi Katsuyuki
Kisaragi Kyouya CV: Fukuyama Jun
Sakaki Daiichi CV: Uchita Yuuya
Tougane Chiaki CV: Taniyama Kishou
Toki Housei CV: Ishikawa Hideo
Myouga Reiji CV: Hino Sou
Nanami Sousuke CV: Souta Yuki
Amamiya Sei CV: Miyano Mamoru
Mizushima Yuuto CV: Mizuhashi Kaori
Yagisawa Yukihiro CV: Itou Kentarou
Why is voice such a big deal in otome games?
First, a long introduction (if you want the short version, skip about six paragraphs).
I’ve played video games since I was around 4 years old, back when they were just starting to become mainstream. Donkey Kong, the original Super Mario Bros., the first Final Fantasy – I played them and loved them (ye gads I’m old!).
I always gravitated to the ones with more story than action – Final Fantasy and King’s Quest (anyone remember that?), though there were some exceptions (I was pretty awesome at Mortal Kombat II). What did I like about them? Well, I love fantasy in general, and RPG’s were usually set in a fantasy world. But more than that, I love stories. I love seeing characters interact with each other and overcome the odds to save the world (or save the princess).
I loved this game.
I took a break from gaming in university, but eventually, once I had a job and some free time, I was tempted into buying a PS2. What game did I buy first? Final Fantasy X. Not only did the graphics look pretty, but I remembered the sense of adventure from the original, and the fascinating characters from Final Fantasy VII (which was, coincidentally, the last game I played before my break).
And boy, FFX did not disappoint. Not only did it have an epic storyline and interesting characters (Yuna wasn’t my favourite, but Lulu? kickass!), but they TALKED. With real voices! At the time, this wasn’t common at all, and it was amazing how much difference it made. It hugely increased the feeling of being immersed in the story, and though some of Tidus’ soliloquies seem overdone now, the first time I played through it they really got to me. Voice acting can convey so much more emotion and tone than plain text – as anyone who’s gotten into a fight on the internet over something intended as a joke can attest to.
Pretty!
A couple years later, I bought a Japanese PS2, mostly for RPGs. While I was browsing the import game website, I saw a game that had, instead of the usual army dude or swordsman, a group of cute anime guys just…standing around. One had a microphone. When I finally figured out it wasn’t a BL game, I ordered it, though I had some doubts. Of course I was familiar with shoujo manga (in a previous incarnation I was even more obsessed with shoujo manga than I am now with otome games), and had heard about ‘dating sims’, but really, it seemed so cheesy, and kind of…pathetic. I mean, trying to date guys in a game? But whatever, I thought I’d try it.
The game that changed my life…
When I first started up the game, I was unimpressed. It was just a simple background and dialogue window, and the characters didn’t even move. But soon enough, I was sucked into the story, and by the time the first minigame came (yes, I was lucky enough to get a first game that had a really fun minigame mechanic! And it was even integral to the story!), I was enthralled. The adventure aspect of the game also hooked me – I loved being able to choose how my character interacted with the others, and going down different paths depending on what I did and said. And I actually loved the romance aspect – so many times in shoujo manga I had wished for the heroine to pick the nice guy instead of the jerk (and occasionally vice versa), and now I could make the choice for her! Heaven! Of course, since I’m kind of a completist, I’d usually try to go through all the routes, but even then, it was a choice, and if I didn’t like how one route ended, there was always another I could think of as the ‘real’ ending.
But other than the fun story and the choice thing, the one aspect that made the difference between me just thinking, “this is okay”, versus falling in love with the genre like I did, was the voice acting. Few people would argue that Japanese voice actors are excellent, and if it wasn’t for the voices, the otome games we play would seem really watered down. Fans often complain about the Neoromance games not being full-voice (including me, I want more!). Often voice is significantly cut for portable versions (especially on the DS), and fans have definitely complained – when Otometeki Koi Kakumei was adapted to the PC after having voices cut for the DS version, the publisher made a point to announce that voice would not only be restored, but increased. In fact, in my unprofessional opinion, that’s one reason why the PSP is getting a good number of otome game adaptations rather than the DS – it has more memory for voice files, as well as better sound.
I took a look at the first-ever otome games to figure out when voice acting was added as a feature. I mean, Final Fantasy X was released in 2001 and was the first FF title with voices. I figured otome games couldn’t have been much farther ahead. Well, turns out I was wrong. The first otome game, Angelique (1994), didn’t have voice acting, but its first adaptation, Angelique Special2, did – just a year after the original’s release.
Otome games, kickin’ it old-school
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!
Update on Harutoki 3 figures
A few months ago, I found these made-to-order figures of most of the hachiyou from Harutoki 3. And recently they finally came out with the last pair, Atsumori, and RizVaan.
They are very nice, but I think if I was getting one, I’d get either Atsumori or Hinoe. I lurve RizVaan, but like Kurou, his hair is kind of too big for his face. Plus his face…doesn’t quite look like him. I am being very picky though.
There’s a pre-order period for these but also an ‘on sale’ date, so I’m not sure if you *have to* pre-order to get them or not.
It’s times like these when I actually wish I lived in a bigger place!
Kiniro no Corda PSP
Now that I finally have a PSP, after having the Kiniro no Corda original game for, oh, about 2 years XD, I am finally playing it. It’s interesting playing through the first story while being familiar with the characters from 2 Encore and seeing them meet and develop relationships.
The gameplay has some differences from 2 Encore, and it took me a while to figure out how to play. I’ll compare the process in getting ready for a performance in each:
1. Get music for a performance.
- Original:Each piece is split up into three or more sections, and you need to get them from Fahta (fairies) that you can only find in an area after practicing by yourself.
- Encore 2: Buy a piece of music at Lily’s store.
In both games, you need a certain skill level to play each piece, and if it’s not high enough, you need to practice other pieces to raise it first. But in the original, you also have a level for each of three styles, and these also have to be high enough for each piece. Also, harder pieces have certain skills that you require, which you get by perfecting easier pieces. You can also buy skills at the fahta stores.
2. Practice pieces alone.
- Original: It doesn’t matter where you are to practice other than being able to run around and look for Fahta afetr practicing. People don’t listen to you practice.
- Encore 2: Different places have bonuses to practicing in them, but you can also go where people are and get Bravo Points practicing in public.
3. ‘Finish’ pieces.
- Original: First you have to get the adaptations of a piece. To do this, you need to get to 20 with each section of a piece, then run around finding Fahtas with adaptation bells. When you ring these bells, you see a little skit (literally, it’s on the school stage with characters acting) about the origin of the piece and showing keywords to describe that adaptation. Sometimes you choose answers to add keywords as well. These keywords come into play when choosing what adaptation to play in a concert, because they each have keywords that you should try to match. The you need to practice an adaptation to perfect it – this is when you can get bravo points.
- Encore 2: You have to get people to play pieces in an ensemble with you. The concerts require different numbers of pieces to be ready, and you have to choose a good ‘order’ depending on the styles of the pieces. Each piece requires a certain combination of instruments, and each musician (either a major character or a music student) has a certain requirement before they’ll play with you. When you have an ensemble ready, you all need to practice together to gain expertise at a piece. Some characters (ahem, Kaji) are kind of low level when you first meet them, so you might have to practice with them (as a duet) before they’re high enough to play certain pieces.
4. Perform in concerts.
- Original: Here you compete with the other major characters. I haven’t won one yet, haha, so I don’t know exactly what it takes, but I think it’s a combo of difficulty level of the piece), perfection level both in the original and adaptation.
- Encore 2: You put on a concert and try to get a certain level of audience response. Before the concert you also have to play in earshot of enough people to get them to attend – each concert has increasing required attendance. The audience response depends on how many people are there, how perfect your ensemble is and how good the players are at the piece, and the difficulty level. You also don’t get as many points if you re-use pieces from past concerts.
5. Win.
- Original: Apparently you don’t have to win the competition to get a good ending – I didn’t, and I got Yunoki’s ending, though I’m not sure if it’s the *best* ending possible with him.
- Encore 2: You do need to ‘win’, but it’s more a question of survival – each step has its own pass requirements that you need to achieve.
Other differences:
- In Encore 2 Lily is the only fahta
- In the original you can do quizzes with Lily to get free items, as well as getting them when you’ve found certain numbers of fahta.
- No Kaji in the original! Wahhh!!
- Some different spots in the original that you can run around, like the train station.
- No dates in the original, since you’re just developing relationships.
- No ‘fights’ in the original – in Encore 2 major characters would have an argument while practicing in an ensemble and you’d have to help them make up.
- I don’t know if there’s any point in playing a duet or ensemble in the original, though you can do it. Maybe just more bravo points? Also, in the original you have to be near each person you want to play with, you don’t just call them up like in Encore 2.
- In the original time to practice and talk to people is calculated as minutes until 6pm when you go home. In Encore 2 you have a set number of practice sessions and events don’t factor into this.
Overall, I think I like Encore 2 better – it’s slightly easier, and characters have more events. But the original is definitely very good, and as the first in the series, is important to play to get background for each character.
Has anyone else played both? Which did you like better? Anything I missed that you’ve noticed?
Harutoki Izayoiki
So as I mentioned, playing Ukihashi made me want to try Izayoiki again, and I finally finished Shirogane’s route! Woot!!! Now I have to figure out how to get Tomomori…not tonight though. I need to sleep sometime.
Game figures & Vitamin Y release date
I’ve heard a little about the otakudom of figures before, but never really paid attention – but now I’m searching for more info, because apparently someone will be sellling figures of hachiyou from Harutoki 3! I don’t know if I’d get one, my condo is too small, but I really want to see what they’re like…I’ll report my findings soon!
Also, Vitamin Y has a release date of October 30 – this is the minigame compilation.
Otome Game History 101 – Angelique
Hmm, there doesn’t seem to be much news right now, in the dog days of summer – I don’t know if it’s hot where you are, but it is HOT and HUMID here. For my real job (yeah, strangely enough I don’t support myself on blog postings ) it’s quarter-end soon, and since I’m in finance that means crazy days and tense nights, but everywhere else seems to be in vacation mode, including otome games!
So unfortunately, I don’t know of any news about games, new seiyuu announcements, or even a port *sniff*. So I decided to take a look way way back, to the first otome game ever…Angelique.
Angelique was the foundation of the now extremely popular Neo Romance label from Koei that includes Harukanaru Toki no Naka de and Kiniro no Corda. The first game was simply called ‘Angelique’, and was released on September 23, 1994 for the Super Famicom (Super Nintendo for us English speakers). It was a mix of strategy, simulation, and romance – not unheard of in the Japanese market, but definitely revolutionary – just because it was targeted to GIRLS. Girls don’t play videogames! But apparently, if the product is right, they do.
The plot involved a young woman, Angelique Limoges, who is a nominee for the Queen (of the Cosmos). She is pitted against Rosaria, another beautiful, accomplished young woman, and has to beat her by successfully creating and nurturing her own continent.
Of course, what we’re so familiar with now but what was totally new back then was that as well as the regular game, there was a chance to romance the guys 
. Angelique, while raising her continent, had the chance to romance one of the guardians, the men who symbolized a natural element in the universe. They were: Light (Julius), Dark (Clavis), Wood(Marcel), Metal (Zephyr), Earth (Ruva), Water(Lumiere), Fire(Oscar), Wind(Randy), and Dreams (Olivier). However, back then there were no voices – this is back in the Dark Ages, remember 
The first version with voices came the next year, on December 22, 1995, when NEC Electronics released Angelique Special for the PC-FX system (though it says PC, it was actually a console). A few months later, the game was re-released as ‘Angelique Voice Fantasy’ for both the Super Famicom and as ‘Special’ for the PC, both with voices added. In 1996, Angelique 2 Special for the PC-FX and eventually the Sega Saturn and Playstation was released. A new Queen was introduced here, Angelique Collete, in a very similar game.
Not too much new happened for the series for several years – there was a game called Angelique Duet released in 1998 for the Sega Saturn and Playstation, but it was mostly the same except that you could choose to be either Angelique or Rosario, and there were some friendship events.
In 2000 a completely new game, Angelique Trois (3) was released, for the Playstation 2. In it, Angelique Collete and all the Guardians (and teachers, um, pretty much everyone) were transported to a mysterious universe, Arcadia, to formulate. In addition to the guardians, the player could also have a romance with her teachers or a ‘mystery’ character (Arios), and there were different events depending on the season.
In 2002 Angelique was released for Gameboy Advance with the same content as the Super Famicom game, but with voices. In 2003, another new title was released, Angelique Etoile, where the player is a totally new character who has to start developing a new universe with the help of the guardians and 3 new characters. Then, in 2004, Angelique Duet was released for the Nintendo DS but had no voices (two steps forward, one step back!)
Along with the games, there were anime – the earliest one was Angelique ~Shiroi Tsubasa no Memoire~ from 2000. There was also a fairly successful manga that started in 1996, running in ‘Fantasy DX’ from Kadokawa for 10 volumes until 2003.
My own experience with Angelique started pretty late, when I bought the Angelique Trois. Not in 2000 when it was first released, no, I think I bought it at least 5 years later. It was totally different from what I expected – all I recognized was the whole harem of guys from seeing shitajiki and kinda reading the first two volmes of the manga, so the whole continent-building aspect was new to me. Now I think of it as a primitive SimCity love sim. It’s a lot of fun, even though there are SO MANY GUYS. In Trois alone you have the nine Guardians, 3 teachers, and 3 ‘helpers’. Then in Etoile, which I got later, you have all those plus three new Guardians. OVERLOAD. Hehe.
I think the creators agree with me, because after Etoile they created a completely new game where only the mythology was left. In Neo Angelique, the main character interacts with four main guys, with three or four others. The continent-building was also scrapped in favour of a sort of RPG-type gameplay.
Have you played Angelique? What are your impressions of it?
References:
Several images and info found at: http://www.famicom.biz/
Harutoki 4 Fanart Links
Since I’m on a Harutoki 4 high, I’ve been surfing the net looking at doujinshi and fanart and found some very pretty stuff. The links will take you to the top pages of the circles, then you usually click a banner to get in. Arrrgh, just when I should be getting to sleep…
「Holy Pledge」: http://holypledge.com/ – Click the banner, then click ‘Works”, and then the pic of the pink cross for Haruka 4/otome game pics
「psy」: http://page.freett.com/aotukinanase/ – First click on the banner. then in the left column click ネオロマ under Gallery
「Sassei」: http://sassei.fool.jp/ – Click the banner at the top, then “Illust”, then in the menu on the left pick 遙か４
「Shunya (not sure on the name)」: http://kaeto418.hp.infoseek.co.jp/corda2.html – has manga too. just scroll down and choose “Pict”