Archive for the ‘Otome Games’ Category

Review – Sangoku Rensenki

Sangoku Rensenki was originally a PC game, the first ever put out by publisher Daisy². When I first saw some pics for it, I thought it looked cute, but figured it would be one of those quiet releases that mostly get ignored, especially after it was delayed a couple of times.

To my surprise and joy, not only was it released successfully, but it steadily got really good reviews, despite still getting minimal press, and was consistently on the list for most-wanted to be adapted for consoles. It finally was adapted for the PS2, and will soon be released for the PSP as well. I wasn’t able to get a copy until I went to Japan in October, and I’m finally playing it now – I thought I needed to have a good chunk of time to get into it, and I was right.

What’s it about? Well, it’s a time travel story, normal high school girl gets transported to chaotic era with lots of attractive men. Sounds pretty familiar. The specifics are that Hana, the heroine, is working on a history assignment when an old book about the Three Kingdoms (ancient China) sucks her back in time, I think to AD207. She gets picked up by one warlord, Gentoku, but throughout the game is kidnapped by Moutoku, the current most successful warlord, stays with the last major warlord Chuubou, and also goes even further back in time for a bit and sees the origin of the current situation.

The first time through, you can’t “win” anybody, Hana has to go through the story trying to figure out why she’s there and what she wants to do. Unlike many other time-travel/AU stories, Hana isn’t a legendary priestess and her arrival wasn’t foretold; most people don’t even know that she’s from another world, just that she’s foreign. When she first arrives, a voice tells her to go meet Gentoku and tell him that she’s an apprentice of Koumei, a scholar and strategist. That’s how she gets treated as a guest. The book she read comes through with her, and when she tries to read about what’s going to happen, it’s blank. That is, until she figures out what she wants to happen, and then the book will show how that could work.

I think the game is excellent in a few ways that aren’t common – first, Hana not being expected or treated as a “savior” until she proves herself (by using the book to figure out strategies). Even then, she’s just respected as an advisor, she’s not expected to do any magic or anything. Second, I found that her reactions are very relatable – the first time she’s in the field of war and witnesses people dying, partially due to her own strategy, she’s shocked and almost can’t handle it. Afterwards, it takes her a long time to reconcile what she’s doing and come to grips with the deaths that war causes, which is totally realistic for a young teenager who’s never seen violence up close and is totally unused to war. She continues to struggle throughout the game with moral questions like whether it’s right for her to help with strategies that might cause large casualties for the other side. It’s also really nice how the warlords all have their own moral code – for example, Gentoku is very strict, and will never take existing land from a present lord or heir (this agrees with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms apparently). Hana has to try and stop the war while dealing with everyone’s competing principles, which I thought was much more realistic than many other stories where once someone is convinced, they do whatever the hero/heroine suggests.

Also, the romances so far have been really light-handed but good, and in Gentoku’s route, pretty wrenching. It’s not really angsty but the situation was just…argh, hard to describe except that sometimes I really felt like skipping to the end because I couldn’t take it, but it was totally worth it in the end. Miki Shinichirou sounded more agonized than I remember hearing him for a long time, and it was awesome.

Gentoku

There’s also a bonus that I adore during the credits of each route – it shows extra scenes around important storylines where you get to see the guy’s side of it. It’s really great, and I’m glad that it’s shown after everything. There are even CGs just for the credits!

While playing through, I kept trying to find exactly what it was that made this game so good (because it’s good, it’s very good). What makes me want to play through again and again, getting different routes, even though I skip through a bunch of the strategy when they talk about tactics and generals and old Chinese place names? I think in the end, it’s the characterization, of Hana and everyone else. Not only do you have interesting romanceable characters, but lots of minor characters get enough details that they’re sympathetic as people and not just cliches or cardboard placeholders. When I first went back in time the second time and realized it was before the main story (so none of the romanceable characters are around), I was annoyed because I thought it was just a distraction from the main story. But the people you meet there are important in some of the routes, and they’re all memorable, and honestly it was really cool how the writers established how different the atmosphere was in the area just 10-20 years before the main story because of the different political situation.

SO, to make a long story short, I hugely recommend Sangoku Rensenki! Now I’ve gotta go, I have a warlord to romance…

Hakuouki Update

Hakuouki‘s English release date is quickly approaching, and there are some exciting things to report! Hakuouki is pretty much the first big-name otome game to be released in English widely, and there are many good things about it: it’s freakin’ gorgeous, it is going to keep the original Japanese(THANK GOD), and look, it’s cheap!

Normal edition: $29.99! Holy cow, for someone like me used to Japanese prices this is amazing for a PSP game.

Limited Edition: Only $39.99! It includes a 72-page artbook (very nice, as the art for Hakuouki is freakin’ gorgeous), and a soundtrack CD. I don’t really remember what the music is like. I’d rather have a drama CD, but considering it would be in Japanese, I can understand why they didn’t include one.

Hakuouki is set for a Valentine’s Day release (very cute!) and I am seriously considering having a party for it, or a podcast or something.

That’s it for today, sorry it’s short!

Beyond the Future – Intro

I got Beyond the Future -Fix the Time Arrows today, which I was really excited about, partially because it’s on the PS3 and I hoped it might be an RPG. I was wrong about that (oh well), but I thought I’d tell the story of the intro so far. I’ve played about 6 hours now, and still am missing two characters from my party, so I consider the intro pretty long.

Beyond the Future is about the gods of a certain world. Adonis (not that one) created the world, and his first wife whose name I can’t remember sacrificed her body to make the continent. Then each of their six children became the patron god of each major area.

The heroine Lilith is a novice at a temple for the first wife god, the goddess of love, and her fairy friend Camyu (CV: Suzuki Yuuto) has been with her her whole life. One morning her temple is attacked by a strange magical beast. An evil angel with black wings appears and tries to kill her, but a swordsman she just met, Kirite (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) saves her. While they’re fighting, a knight named Nayuta (CV: Fujiwara Yuuki) shows up as well. They manage to drive the black-winged man away, and Lilith receives a mysterious sceptre in the process from a strange voice that only she hears. Right after, a strange atmosphere envelops Lilith and Kirite, and Camyu realizes that someone is trying to teleport them somewhere. He and Nayuta follow them, and they all end up in a field far far away.

When discussing everything that’s happened, Nayuta says that as the captain of the White Lily Knights who works for the head priestess of Ingrid, one of the six cities, he’s been sent to bring Lilith to Ingrid because the head priestess had a vision that Lilith was going to destroy the world. Kirite says that he also got an assignment from Ingrid to bring Lilith, but adds that when they asked him (he’s a mercenary), they said Lilith didn’t have to be brought in alive.

Although Lilith has no idea what they’re talking about, she agrees to go with them and clear up whatever misunderstanding this is. So the group of four head to Ingrid, stopping in another major city Danis, on the way. The sceptre gets stolen, and in chasing the thief, Lilith is helped out by a confident young man named Sou (CV: Yoshino Hiroyuki). Later they discover that he’s a fighter who’s in way too much debt for gambling, and it works out that he helps them get the sceptre back while they get him out of debt. He also decides to join them on their journey to Ingrid.

Finally they get to Ingrid and Nayuta and Lilith visit the main temple. Nayuta argues on Lilith’s behalf but the head priestess is sure that her vision and the voice she heard was from Ingrid, and that Lilith is a witch who must be killed to save the world.

Lilith is locked up, and Nayuta lets her out the night before she’s supposed to be killed by fire, but he refuses to come with her, saying he must take his punishment. When Lilith rejoins the others, they figure that he will probably be killed as an example for his disobedience, and Lilith decides that they should save him. Getting into the temple isn’t too hard, but when they get to Nayuta, he refuses to come with them, saying that he doesn’t know what to believe, and that he wants to die a knight of Ingrid. Then suddenly a voice calls to Nayuta, saying that it’s Ingrid, and that Nayuta should kill Lilith right then. Nayuta is even more conflicted, and Lilith calls the voice out, saying that if the voice really is a god, it should kill her itself and not try to make Nayuta and the head priestess to kill her without any proof of her being a witch. In arguing, the voice shows its true form, a black-winged person similar to the one who attacked Lilith’s temple. They all fight him off, and after it disappears, Nayuta vows loyalty to Lilith.

After escaping the temple, the group is trying to plan how they’re going to get out of the city when Lilith hears a faint voice. When they follow the voice, they mysteriously meet no guards and safely get out of the city, and when they finally get to the source, they find that it’s three demi-gods who are there to help them. They say they aren’t as powerful as the city-gods, but can do more direct, small interventions in the world. They tell Lilith that the evil black-winged person who attacked her temple used to be a god, but got angry at people and was erased from mankind’s memory. The world has fallen into a sickness of unbelief, antagonism and has lost some of its love. They ask Lilith to try and save mankind from this sickness, as well as the black-winged god. The demigods also tell Kirite, Nayuta, and Sou that they’re the chosen guardians of their respective city-gods for Lilith, and urge them to find the other three.

So now, we’re on the way to Midvan, and though two other major characters have shown up as shadowy figures, they haven’t encountered our party directly yet.

New Year’s Post LOVE.101

Just an update, on December 31 (this Saturday) the LOVE.101 site will be updated with a short story. This is the first of monthly short stories to introduce the guys, so please check it out!

December News! Part 1

B’s Log will probably get here tomorrow or Friday, but I got the Girls Style and Cool-B.

Apparently 2012 is the year of police and detective games! There’s the Detective VitaminX game (in Feb), and Karin’s new game Eikoku Tantei Mysteria (with the son of Lupin III as a master cat thief!), and the new Tiny Machine Gun from Rejet, with the first CD coming in February and a game in September.

A few pages on Black Wolves Saga, which as I thought has the artist from Gekka Ryouran, and will be released in two segments – one, Last Hope, for the PSP, and the other, Bloody Nightmare, on the PC! In Last Hope you’re with Russ Bogard, a wolf boy, and in Bloody Nightmare you’re with two cat boys, Mejojo (pronounce the j’s as y’s) and Uuger (pronounced Ooje) von Garibaldi. LH is supposed to be a story of true love, whereas BN will show twisted love. Taking advantage of being on the PC, apparently there will be several ‘shocking’ scenes (it’s not R18 though, so I think they mean disturbing/violent). Now, is this actually an otome game? It actually sounds more like a visual/light novel.

New game from ASCII Mediaworks and Vridge, Koi wa Rule ni Shibararenai, for the PSP. In this game the heroine is suddenly appointed as the president of her school (not of the student council but the school!) She can change school events and rules, but the student council has a say as well and can either agree or oppose her decisions. Part of this game is trying to make the student council acknowledge you as the president. Next issue will have the cast, so I might do a post on it then.

Custom Drive is a different sort of otome game coming from D3P – you can customize your boyfriend, not only with accessories, hairstyles, and clothes, but even change their personalities! The producer says players shouldn’t worry too much about playing ‘correctly’, but just play how you want and enjoy the game. Each of the three characters introduced have their own short story up on the website that you can access through a QR code – I’ll have to see if mine works. They also have English descriptions (in SHOUTY CAPS, hehe):

Riito Touma (CV: Toyonaga Toshiyuki from Durarara!!): HE IS YOUR CHILDHOOD BOYFRIEND. Ok then!

Ruka Mayuzumi (CV: Hosoya Yoshimasa): HE SEEMS TO LOVE YOU, BUT…? Sounds ominous!

Shion Kannagi (CV: Kimura Ryouhei): YOU WILL COME TO KNOW HIS SECRET. I hope it’s good!

More info on Koisentai Love & Peace for the PSP. I still haven’t listened to my drama CD of it, so when I do that I’ll post on it.

Sangokuren Senki is coming ot the PSP! (I don’t remember hearing about this but it may be old news) New events and CGs will be added, and an ‘episode’ for Genjou as well.

A new game from Takuyo – Kami-sama to Koigokoro for the PSP, where the heroine is training to be a nun and three of the guys are priests-in-training. Another love interest is a priest!

A new character will be available in Harutoki 5′s fandisk Kazahanaki. Rindou is a totally new character, an onmyouji who helps the heroine but acts cold to her, telling her to give up on being a miko. I thought they were missing something and I just realized – Harutoki 5 had no purple-haired bishounen! Rindou is a totally necessary addition. And Sou will also have a route!

Fandisk for Amnesia coming in March -= it’s called Amnesia Clatter.

And finally, there’s a teaser for a new game from Otomate, Hakuouki and Hiirno No Kakera’s producer and miko, the artist from Beastmaster and Prince. Not much is shown, but it’s set in the Sengoku period and apparently about oni. It looks very cool, I love miko’s art.

That’s all for now, more to come on Friday with B’s Log!

Gekka Ryouran Romance – First thoughts

When I first started this game up, it was more just to get an idea of it, as I didn’t have much time. I was still in Japan and in the midst of shopping heaven, but I couldn’t wait to see what it was like.

The first thing I thought was, ooh pretty! It has a distinct art style, partially in the characters but even more in the menus and dialogue boxes, with little details like a rose indicating the end of each sentence which is depetaled when you click for the next statement. the dialogue boxes are also vertical, besides the characters, which I feel makes a lot of sense on the widescreen PSP. The character art as well is very pretty, with wispy hair and shading that fades from light to dark on each character.

At the beginning, Nazuna is living almost alone while her parents work long hours and her older brother is away at a boarding school. She’s very focused on grades, especially after being dumped a while ago, and is at the top of her class.

Then her parents move away and she’s sent to board at the same school as her older brother. When she gets there she’s the object of attention from a select group of students in the ‘date club’, which sounds like a host club but even more sketchy since you go on dates potentially to secluded areas where you can do pretty much anything. They trick her so that she owes them money for dates (which she didn`t want), and a huge amount at that – over $10,000 by my estimate. She doesn’t want to pay, and I really liked her for this. If she had been alone she would have resisted to the last, but her brother is vulnerable since these students are all very powerful, so she agrees to a bet for the money: she’ll go on dates with them, and if she doesn’t fall for one of them, she wins and the debt is waived. If not, her brother has to join the club and pay the debt back 300Y per date at a time (this after saying their fee is 300,000Y each time). Also, until they decide the game is over, her brother joins the club as collateral.

Interesting, no? What’s also interesting is the whole feeling of this group being totally corrupted and generally immoral, which they really play up. I remember this being marketed as a very dark story, which aligns with this feeling. One other thing I loved is that Nazuna doesn’t just give up at this point, but tries to go to the authorities! She realizes that yeah, having a brothel openly operate on campus (not sure whether it goes that far, but they definitely try to give the feeling it does) should be way against school policy, and she goes to a teacher. Unfortunately, the date club students and their parents pay a ton of money for the school to overlook everything they do, so unless they’re caught doing something really illegal, the club is allowed.

This is the intro part, before you choose who you want to go on dates with, but it’s really long in-game. The first time I played I barely got to when Nazuna transfers schools.

However, once you get past the establishment of the bet, it goes fairly quickly. I’m almost done Fuji’s route now, and will have a review of that up soon.

Peter of Candy Island – Peter

So, Peter! I knew he would eventually be an adult because of the CGs and the box art, but they way they handled it was pretty interesting. I won’t say what it is because it’s a spoiler. There’s still a big mystery around him at the end though – I think I know what it is but I’ll have to play the rest of the game to see if you ever find out.

At first Peter is just a mega-annoying kid who likes to run around and be loud, and is totally selfish even with his ‘lost boys’, the other kids who live with him. They’re more like his servants, who always do things for him and try to think up games to amuse him – often ones that are dangerous/uncomfortable. While getting into his route, Wendy decides that he’s more ignorant than bad, and she’ll reform him, and she goes about correcting him and pretty much treating him like her own kid. Peter doesn’t seem to mind, although he humours her only because he likes her, and he admits to doing so. He has no sympathy for anyone else, and assumes he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants.

As Wendy gets to know him, Tinker gets more and more jealous, and finally Peter tells her off directly. As you might guess, Tinker comes back later and confronts Wendy, and this is a major turning point in the story.

Another thing that happens in this route is Peter trying to get Wendy to eat his candy, and her gradually giving in. I thought this was done well because it’s related back to Wendy’s complex about her mom, who never cared about her after her father passed away no matter how hard Wendy tried to please her. It’s also slowly shown to relate to Peter’s feelings about his life before Neverland, although this part isn’t shown as much. This is where their relationship really grows, and it’s pretty believable.

During Peter’s route I did feel bad for Michael and John, especially John, but hey that just means I have to do their routes next. I’m looking forward to seeing how Wendy deals with her family issues there and if it ends up very differently.

And ending on an Angelique note, I FINALLY finished the knights route, and yes I think I will love it in the end, though I was kinda fast-clicking a lot of parts. It pretty much went down the way I thought it would, though more dramatic and awesome. And now I get to go for Gerhart, yay! (yes Gerhart! Tachibana Shinnosuke doing a dumb but nice guy that uses a huge sword, what’s not to love!)

Angelique Story Outline

I realized that I didn’t say much about the story of Angelique last week, just the characters. The intro is really long and honestly boring at times, so if your Japanese isn’t great, or you give in to the urge to skip, you might find this useful.

Theresa lives with her adoptive mother and brother, Runo, in a small town on the planet Norg (style looks Medieval Europe-ishi). Runo acts younger than his age, because he was traumatized several years earlier when his older brother died, and he thinks it was his fault (I think the situation was one of those things like he died while looking for Runo or something).

In the town there have been several girls kidnapped recently, but they were each returned after one night away. And of course, one evening when Theresa is out to fetch Runo, who’s been praying to his brother in the nearby church as he often does, Theresa gets kidnapped. However, she’s returned after one night, and she doesn’t remember anything. Runo was really upset taking the blame for her kidnapping on himself, so he’s ecstatic when she comes back unharmed. He goes out to gather some fruit (IIRC), but this time he doesn’t come back. Theresa and his mother search far and wide for him, but there’s no sign of him. After a few days, the mother goes back to work, confessing to Theresa that she always felt that one day Runo would leave her. Theresa can’t stand the thought of just giving up, so she continues looking, and after a week she is looking in the forest when she finds a new path that she doesn’t recognize. A man shows up and suspects her of being a spy, and when she’s too afraid to answer, he says he’ll kill her to keep her silent. Theresa is so scared she runs away deeper on the trail, and comes to a large fortress. She sees many men doing military drills in the courtyard, and is looking for a place to hide when two men notice her.

She runs away again back into the forest. Somehow (sorry this part is hazy, and it doesn’t matter much) she passes out from fear, I believe because the first man has shown up and is threatening her again. When she wakes up shortly afterwards, many men are around her, including Runo! She’s very happy, but Renour says that he’s not going back home with her, he needs to stay there. Theresa doesn’t understand until a new man comes who seems familiar, and Runo calls him brother. The leader of the men, Levias, is a ringer for Runo’s dead brother, and Runo feels that he’s supposed to help Levias (also, this kid is very emotionally fragile). When she realizes his determination, Theresa decides to stay as well, and convinces Levias by saying she’ll take care of Runo. She’s also very surprised to learn that not only is he in Levias’ army, he’s a captain! All the men are, and Runo is learning magic from Levias.

I believe this is where the intro ends. The army is actually kind of a mercenary army, travelling throughout the universe (yeah they have a spaceship) and helping local wars be ended quickly through their overwhelming strength. The first time through you can’t get a character ending, so you go through the story of taking care of Renour, having him accept the violence of war, getting to know the other knight-captains, and eventually (IMO this part took too long), Theresa realizing that she has magic capability as well. You see, even before they met everyone, Theresa could always feel where Runo was, though vaguely. And after being kidnapped, she could tell exactly where he was – it was how she eventually found him. During their time at the fortress, the enemy (who at that point was unknown) attacked with magic, and Theresa somehow felt where the magic was coming from, allowing the knight captains to capture and interrogate the enemies. Though all the captains know about her ability, apparently it doesn’t occur to anyone that maybe Theresa would be more useful as a magician than the maid and quartermaster (that’s what she ends up doing most of the time, including making tea for everyone).

When she finally does start learning magic is after an episode where the fortress is attacked, and Levias says they need to power up the spaceship using Runo’s magic (Levias and other magic-users contribute as well, but Runo’s magic is pretty strong). But Runo is in no shape to use magic, and Theresa asks if she can try. She ends up filling the whole thing almost by herself.

Between the fighting and training scenes, we find out that the attackers are the Empire which rules the universe. Right now the Emperor is the fourth son of the previous Emperor, and Levias really doesn’t like him. It’s also implied that Levias is part of this family as well, and is planning a coup.

I’ve just gotten through a major plot twist, so I won’t say more than that as it’s probably near the end. But as you can see, the story of Angelique Maren Rokukishi is pretty complicated. I’m not sure how I feel about being forced to do a plot ending before I can really get into the romance – it’s not too bad, and you still get to know the guys, but not in depth, and the story can drag sometimes when characters are talking strategy and tactics – not just Levias’ army but you also see the Empire side. I also am hoping that in the other routes there’s less Runo, as he kind of annoys me whenever he shows up.

This is Otomate, so of course the art is pretty and the seiyuu are great. I love how the guys are actually varied in body type – you can see how Gerhart is large and strong and Giovanni is shorter and more lithe. In the first route there haven’t been many CGs, which is fine with me as I’d rather have them focus on the character routes. I think I’ll really like doing those, as several appeal to me, but right now I don’t even have much hint of what their route might be about (though it doesn’t stop me from guessing!). I bet once I start one of those, it will go really fast, but I have to admit right now I’m playing through just to get to the end.

So a bit of a lukewarm review right now for Angelique, but I’m hoping that will change. And now that you know the first 2/3 of the prereq story, you can just speed right through that and get to the good stuff

Peter Pan of Candy Island

Whoa, I thought I published this yesterday (monday EST!) Well, I’m still keeping to the new schedule, so expect an update on Wednesday EST!

If you’ve seen the Disney movie, then you know how pretty much how this starts. The kids are older though, the youngest Michael (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke) is still in school (he’s probably around 18). The older brother works in the dad’s company, and Wendy is the homemaker. Her own mom, who remarried a few years ago, is a workaholic, and we just see a bit of her treating Wendy coldly before she goes to work (after dinner).

That afternoon while grocery shopping, Wendy had a weird conversation with a boy whom she thought was lost. She didn’t think much of it, but Peter (CV: Ishida Akira) shows up at her window that evening and tells her he’s bringing her to his world. Her brothers hear a commotion and come running, and he says they’re all coming with him. Tinkerbell (human-sized) shows up and, though she dislikes Wendy on sight, sprinkles fairy dust on them and they all float up out of the house (their dog Nana comes as well).

Peter takes them to the other side of the moon through a long tunnel that’s so dark no one else can see.

The reason why they’re all taken to Never Never Land is to judge a competition. The major residents of Neverland (Peter, Hook (CV: Okiayu Ryoutarou), Scissor (CV: Miki Shinichirou), and Tink (CV: Sugiyama Kishou) periodically have competitions. Usually Scissor (being a navy official) is trying to kill Hook (being a pirate), and Hook is trying to kill Peter, but during competitions there’s a truce. At first, Wendy doesn’t want to be a judge; she’s vowed not to eat sweets ever and is very stuboorn about her principles, but she agrees because she’s afraid of Tinkerbell (who already tried to kill her once on the journey to Neverland), not to mention all the dangers of Neverland like Hook and Scissor’s pet crocodile, and the judges are also protected during the contest.

The problem is that the contest requires all the judges to agree on which candy is the best. Since Wendy and her older brother John (CV: Yusa Kouji) refuse to try the candy, the contest can’t end and they can’t leave. Michael is the only one who seems to be enjoying himself on Neverland, exploring and enjoying the candy – oh, I forgot to mention that in Neverland, candy grows everywhere, even in houses (which are grown from seeds).

And so begins the story. After this intro (yeah it’s pretty long), the story progresses by choosing where to go each day, talking to the characters. After a few days, you get locked into a certain route. And on Wednesday, since I doubt I’ll finish Angelique or Gekka Ryouran Romance till then, I’ll review Peter’s route

Angelique First Impressions and Friday Videos

I finally got Angelique Six Knights, and have been playing a fair bit, but really haven’t gotten too far – apparently the first time around you have to do the non-romance route, and I haven’t even finished that yet. I’m still getting acquainted with all the knight captains, and the battle and bad guy(s?) haven’t shown up yet. Here are my impressions of the knight captains.

Kain (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki) – the oldest knight captain, he’s the defacto leader when Leviath isn’t around. He’s mature and intelligent, and his company is the Dark Crown Knights.

Kiefer (CV: Hirata Hiroaki)- a snobby jerk, although he does have a point when he complains about the unfitting behaviour of Giovanni and Gerhart. His company is the Sharp Ice Knights, and he actually keeps them in line by whipping whoever comes in last during sparring.

Gerhart (CV: Hiyama Nobuyuki) – a big sweetheart, his company the Sea Dragon Knights are apparently former pirates, and one of them is his sister Maria, who becomes friends with Theresa as the only other young woman at the fortress. He’s often drinking and gambling with Giovanni, though he always loses.

Giovanni (CV: Morikubo Shoutarou) – a casual flirt, he always wins when Gerhart gambles with him. He likes it when the heroine puts herself in the middle of things like trying to stop a fight. His company are the Shining Light Knights (or something like that).

Eugene (CV: Ono Daisuke) – the knight captain who likes the heroine the least at first – Kiefer treats her with contempt but Eugene almost kills her and definitely wants her out of the fortress, his company is the Moonlight Knights who focus more on magic than fighting. After a while it seems that it’s more that he doesn’t like new people, and he warms up to Theresa faster than Kiefer.

Shona (CV: Kaji Yuuki) – not the most socially adept person but he’s quite perceptive. His company is the Fallen Angel Knights.

Leviath (CV: Narita Ken) – the leader of everyone, he seems cold but has shown some moments of warmth. He looks just like Renoux’s dead/missing brother.

And since this was pretty short, I thought I’d throw in some videos.

First up, Omochabako no Kuni no Alice, coming out this month:

Beyond the Future – I pre-ordered this one, probably won’t be playing it until after Christmas:

The newest game from Rejet, collaborating with the creators of Are You Alice:
Tiny x Machine Gun

A bunch of UtaPuri playing videos, this one is only one song on hard, but it brings up a bunch of other ones as well:

Black Wolves Saga, also from Rejet in 2012, which they’ve been tweeting about incessantly:

It’s about werewolves, and it seems pretty dark.

And Strobe Mania, which I TOTALLY forgot about, I think it’s out already:

Finally, for anyone who’s a Gintama fan (I know it’s 50% toilet humour, 30% meta, and only 20% amazing story arcs, but I just can’t quit it), here is something we would all love to see – don’t even pretend you wouldn’t buy this! (though the video is eight minutes long, the relevant part is only the first two)

Next week I’ll hopefully have a Gekkan post up, and perhaps a Peter Pan one as well!