Posts Tagged ‘D3’
VitaminZ vs. VitaminX
It’s been a while since I finished MOST of VitaminZ (still haven’t got those bonus events!), and I think I can finally do a kind of final review.
If you haven’t gotten VitaminZ OR X, go out and get one! They are both awesome. The system and story might seem boringly similar if you haven’t played both, so here’s my rundown on the differences:
Characters
The characters in both games are totally different. You might think that the student in Z with a certain teacher from X would be similar, but it’s only a surface thing. For example – Both Tenjuurou and Tsubasa are rich heirs to a conglomerate, but Tenjuurou, unlike Tsubasa, has a great family, and doesn’t care at all about “high-class” stuff like Tsubasa did. Their personalities are almost opposite.
I enjoyed all the characters in both X and Z. Even the two characters I wasn’t looking forward to, Yakumo and Arata, had me really liking them in the end. If there’s an overall difference to X, in Z they’re nicer to the heroine in the beginning, though they still don’t really trust her until later. I also liked this heroine better, she’s not as ditzy as X’s heroine.
Depending on who you liked, and what you liked about them, in X, you can probably find someone in Z that has that aspect. If you like Tsubasa’s arrogance mixed with cluelessness, you’ll probably love Kei. If you liked Hajime’s ‘bad boy’ aspect, you might go for Nachi. And of course, if you like cute boys like Gorou, Yakumo will definitely be your pick.
Apart from the A4/P2, there are of course the B6, GTR, and the president & VP. Personally I wish the GTR had had a little more airtime and the B6 a little less, but with the extra ‘ura’ route and the append chapters, if you do a full complete they still have a lot of material. I’m also hoping for an adaptation like VitaminX Evolution to flesh out their stories a bit 
Plus, if you’re a huge fan of one of the B6 then you’ll probably be quite happy. Another thing that I like is that there is no flirting or anything between the B6 and the heroine, they still all like X’s heroine.
Plot:
The overall goal is the same, but in VitaminZ the school president actually has a sinister motive in picking an inexperienced teacher, and so the overall plot is a little more complex and interesting. The events happen mostly the same way no matter whose route you’re in, but what you actually see as opposed to what goes on behind the scenes, and the details that you’re shown, are always different.
You have the same school events as in X, but in Z there are also assemblies where things happen (mostly in the P2’s routes), and there’s a summer ’study camp’ (gotta have that kimodameshi doncha know!).
Gameplay:
VitaminX was quite easy to play (in terms of saving etc) and VitaminZ is apparently even easier. The setup of tsukkomi/through and month-end quizzes is the same, but in VitaminZ you have to pass a special quiz in Chapter 11 to finish a route, so it might take a couple tries. The character designer’s style evolved since X; though it’s still obviously the same artist, I like the newer designs better (Chisato, マジでかっこいい!!)
Other differences:
I think VitaminZ has a little more romance than X, in that the characters all show in little ways that they like the heroine earlier, and (maybe) a little more obviously than in X. And though each route has some drama in it, I don’t think there’s quite as much angst as in X (not that it was huge there either).
So. If you loved X, I think you’ll love Z too. Which one you like more will probably depend on your favourite character. And if you didn’t like X, because of the gameplay or setup, you may not enjoy this either. And if you haven’t tried either, go check out the characters on the D3 site (Vitamin X / Vitamin Z) and try out whichever appeals to you most! Although, if possible, I’d recommend playing Vitamin X first, just because you’ll then understand the B6 interactions in Z more, and it makes Z even more fun ^_^
Oh, if you choose Vitamin Z, YesAsia, has the Limited Edition on sale for cheaper than the regular version! In addition to the limited edition box, you get a drama CD and a calendar.
New games for fall!
Whee, several more games announced in this month’s B’s Log and Girl’s Style!
Fall 2009
- Signal – for the DS from D3 Publisher – set as a kind of sequel to one of their first otome games, Backlash
- Crazy Rabbits – for the PC from Tiaramode, this R18 game involves a company that specializes in…making couples break up. Interesting!
Winter 2009
- Last Escort -Club Katze- for the PS2 AND the PSP (at the same time!) from D3 Publisher
- memories – R18 game for the PC from Chocolatier, a new otome game brand. The basic story is of a heroine who transfers to a new high school and meets several guys, all different ‘types’ – the ‘cool guy’, the smart student president, the playboy, the cute innocent guy, and the older man.
Lots of news about other, not brand-new games as well, including…a Hiiro no Kakera 2 remake!!! Not a port or adaptation, this is a pure remake…I might do a post on this later. In fact, just look at all those HnK releases – I think I’ll name October 1 Hiiro no Kakera Day!
Other news on release dates and adaptations:
- July 24: Souten no Kanata for the PC from Mi-o (YAY I was waiting for this!)
- Sept 17 2009: Hoshi no Furu Toki Portable for the PSP from Otomate – woot! I tried to order this (the first Otomate game from Kazu Kiyone) and they couldn’t find it – apparently they are starting to re-release old titles as “Otomate Classics”
- Oct 1 2009: Hiiro no Kakera Shin Tamayorihime Denshou for the PS2 from Otomate
- Oct 1 2009: Shin*Hiiro no Kakera 2 for the PS2 from Otomate
- Oct 1 2009: Hiiro no Kakera (original) Aizouhan (Perfect Edition) for the PS2 from Otomate
- October 2009: Death Connection for the PS2 from Otomate
- Fall 2009: Nade Pro (the seiyuu game!) for the PS2 from Gungho Works
Almost done VitaminZ!
Well, I’m almost done at least the normal routes of everyone. That means that I can finally finish the ‘ura’ or back route that involves the GTR, Bear-6, Kamijou, and the president guy. Each time you finish a character you can see one chapter of that story, and I’m near the end of Yakumo!
Who knows how long it will take me to really finish, since there’s so much extras – I’ll probably finish everyone’s dream and perfect routes soon, but getting all the extra scenes (especially the ones you get with perfect test scores) may never happen – I haven’t even finished all of them from VitaminX still…
Little Anchor – Recommended!
Finally, a sci-fi otome game! Does Little Anchor fulfill the hopes of a solid game that will satisfy a sci-fi fan? For me at least, it does.
Now, I’m not a huge sci-fi fan, so I was glad to find out that the amount of tech gibberish (that’s my official term for made-up weapons, chemicals, physics laws, and everything else you find in sci-fi) was fairly low, so I could focus on understanding the plot.
There are a few terms that you should get comfortable with, but not too many – and I won’t bother spelling them out, because I don’t remember and it has no bearing on the story.
Elushyon: The ship that the main character is captain of and where most of the story happens.
EUG: The Earth-based government that the main character’s father belonged to, and where all the Elushyon’s crew is from.
ICSEO: The mainly space-based rebel government
SG: Mecha that are used for combat – they look like Gundam units
Basically, the EUG is the existing Earth government. Way back when, the Earth had an energy crisis, and started creating space colonies to find a solution. A new source of energy, Helium 3, was found out in space, and is controlled by the EUG. However, some people on the space colonies felt that the EUG was taking advantage of them, and all they really cared about was Earth. Civil (planetary? galaxial?) unrest increased and became more violent and terrorist-like, and finally coalesced into a rebellion, with ICSEO as the largest group.
The main character’s father was an admiral in the EUG armed forces, and became a hero when he sacrificed himself and his crew in order to save civilians from terrorists. ICSEO is seen as a terrorist organization by the EUG, but as the story starts, they are starting peace negotiations. The Elushyon was built as a neutral ship that was supposed to symbolize this peace, and that’s why the main character was chosen as the captain, though she just graduated as an officer.
On launch day, the Elushyon is attacked in port by ICSEO SGs, and has to fight back to protect the civilians at the launch. This attack cuts short the peace negotiations, and the Elushyon starts taking order from the EUG.
The first half of the game is getting from Ceylon, the launch site, to Helsinki, where EUG’s headquarters are. The rest of the game is in space fighting ICSEO.
The plot is believable without getting too bogged down in details, and each character’s background affected their outlook and behaviour. I actually want to finish everyone’s routes, they’re all interesting, though I’d say Lucio’s is the most ‘normal’ (no twists really). The story is broken into 12 acts, and until Act 6 all routes are the same (though you have to choose different actions to finish people’s routes, you can skip most of the dialogue and the battles).
The battles are also pretty fun, if very simple once you get used to the controls. I’d STRONGLY recommend watching the tutorials, they’re not long and they pretty much tell you how to win. You can skip the battles on the second go-round, but there are some special events that only occur if you fulfill certain requirements during the battles, so it’s worthwhile to try and get those scenes at least once. I used La Primavera as my guide site, it tells you what the requirements are to get the scenes. There’s also a fair amount of battle dialogue that is triggered based on your directions and events (like your ship taking damage), and even CG videos for battle actions like SG launches and attacks that are pretty well done, and (thankfully) you can turn them off once you’ve had enough. I’m impressed with the battles, even though the battle map itself is primitive (looks like an electronic version of Battleship).
Let’s see, what else? The music is forgettable, but I quite like the art – it’s clean and attractive without being too generic (one thing I often don’t like about space settings). And the characters are great, I actually like all of them, even the main character most of the time (though once in a while she acts dumb).
Each character has two endings, so far I’m done Yukino’s, one each of Reishen and Lucio, and the ’secret’ character. Now I’m working on Joshua, and I can’t decide whether to do Alva or Violet next. The amount of romance and CGs is not huge, but acceptable – I think if I could change anything I’d add a little more romance to the ending parts, but not much.
To sum up, I’d recommend Little Anchor for sci-fi fans definitely , and general otome fans as well.
My next posts will be a bunch about new games and news, I’ve been missing a lot lately!
VitaminZ!
Yay, I got VitaminZ in the mail today!! I’m playing it right now, but I pretty much just started, so these are just my first impressions:
- The B6 aren’t real teachers, they’re just ’special lecturers’ and they’re almost the same as they were in VitaminX.
- So far the real teachers haven’t done too much, they seem interesting but don’t get much airtime.
- The setup of a brand-new teacher teaching trouble students seems to have some sort of conspiracy behind it by the school president
- The quizzes seem a little easier! They have general knowledge and trivia, though that is still pretty tough for a non-native Japanese speaker
- It’s fun!
OK, not much, but I’ll have more in a couple days hopefully if I get enough time to play it!
Saikin Koi Shiteru? More info
Once again D3 has created a really interesting premise for their new DS game, Saikin Koi Shiteru? It’s set in a normal high school, but it has a twist. The main character is a regular if slightly clumsy girl, who is hurrying to class on her first day when she falls into a spring on school grounds. It turns out that this spring is no normal spring, and she comes face to face with a saikin, a strange little creature. After that, she starts to see strange things, including seeing the little saikin hovering around certain boys. What does it all mean?
The art is pretty simple, but I can see it working on the DS. And the saikin are so cute! Apparently they’re little creatures that the main character sees when someone she’s talking to feels a certain emotion – there are angry saikin, sad saikin, etc.
If you’ve played Panic Palette, the concept is somewhat similar – when you’re having a conversation with someone and they feel a strong emotion, a saikin for that emotion appears. If you ‘catch’ it with your DS pen, you can collect that saikin for later use. Unlike Panic Palette, however, you need to talk to different people to get different saikin.
Later, when you’re talking with a boy and a star appears near him, you can then use one of your collected saikin to make his mood change for a moment to that feeling. The guy might show or tell you more than he would normally.
Little Anchor
Do you see that? Do you see the “SF” in the pic? Yes, this is the first EVER sci-fi otome game, being released next spring by D3 for the Playstation 2.
First things first – the characters!
From left to right:
Viore Lafare CV: Taniyama Kishou Country: Yemen
Riu Rei Shun CV: Sugita Tomokazu Country: China
Joshua Reinberger CV: Okamoto Nobuhiko Country: Czech
Lucio Suarez CV: Ohkawa Genki Country: Portugal
Alva Loren CV: Fujiwara Keiji Country: Italy
Shiranami Yukino CV: Midorikawa Hikaru Country: Japan
Well, I guess the Americas are too boring to have astronauts on this ship *sniff*, but that’s ok.
VitaminZ – P2 and Admin staff!
Sorry this has been SO long in coming, it’s year-end at my job and I have been really busy – plus (to be completely honest) I have been playing WoW whenever I have downtime to get ready for its new expansion.
So I’ve had these pics waiting for a long time, but better late than never, right??
OK, first up, the rest of the students Kita has to worry about – the Perfect Twins, or P2.
CV: Irino Miyu – this seiyuu is new to me, but it looks like he did Sora’s voice in Kingdom Hearts II as well as Daisuke’s voice in DN Angel!
Uh-huh, this guy is much better than the old student president! His name is Houjou Kei, he’s good at every subject and wants to be a detective like his father.
and his twin brother Houjou Nachi.
CV: Nojima Kenji
More approachable than his twin brother, he’s the student vice-president. Supposedly though they’re ‘perfect’, these twins are totally inept in their own way – guess we’ll have to wait to find out how!
Now for the staff! Only three teachers (so far?), but they’ve changed the school principal and vice-principal and thy are much better than that old bald guy!
The Big Cheese and his Second-in-Command (does anyone else think the principal looks like a crazy vampire version of Tsubasa?):
Principal (on the left, bien sûr): Saeki Kagetora, CV: Koyama Rikiya (ZOMG, this is Basch from FFXII!! <3!)
Vice-Principal: Kamijou Motochika, CV: Kusao Takeshi
Sensei-tachi:
Young and fashionable!
Kagami Ranmaru (CV: Suwabe Junichi)
Cool and mature!
Kirioka Rintarou (CV: Hanawa Eiji)
Charming and debonair!
Tendou Ruriya (CV: Kamiya Hiroshi)
And I can’t believe I forgot the seiyuu for the A4! Here they are:
Tenjuurou: KENN
Chisato: Maeno Tomoaki
Arata: Morikubou Shoutarou
Yakumo: Yonaga Tsubasa
Wow, lots of new seiyuu! Well, I’ve hardly ever disliked a seiyuu in an otome game, so I have high hopes for these guys. And Trick Shot Princess, I agree with you, I’m totally going for Chisato first! Unless I can go for Kirioka-sensei, love the shibui type
That’s pretty much all the pics I have for VitaminZ, but I’ll keep posting any info I find – next spring seems a very long way away!
Vitamin Z!
OK, I’m still here!
I’m very excited about the Vitamin Z game scheduled for next spring, and the December B’s Log had a big spread on the characters.
It’s a whole new bunch of students and teachers, and they seem pretty original.
Let’s start with the main character, Kita Manami. She just got her teaching license when she got a job offer from Seitei. Then the ‘Aho 4′ or A4 start at Seitei and are put into her new class, Class Z. As before, she has to try and guide them towards successfully finishing high school and getting into college.
The Idiot 4:
Narumiya Tenjuurou – the charismatic leader of the A4, Tenjuurou is uncomplicated – he loves surfing and watching pro wrestling, and dislikes indecisive people. Though he’s also the son of a big company like Tsubasa, he has a good relationship with his family and is very loyal to people once he sees them as friends.
Fuwa Chisato – the most apathetic member of the A4, his family has been servants of the Narumiya family for a long time, and Chisato kind of takes care of Tenjuurou. He’s an expert in martial arts and likes cooking.
Mine Arata – Arata’s major goal in life is to be popular with women, and he spares no effort to achieve it. He plays tennis (to look cool), always takes care of his looks, and prefers French cuisine to gyoza (they smell too strong).
Tachibana Yakumo – a cute and slightly selfish idol, apparently there’s some secret about his family. He’s usually cheerful, but people say you should try not to make him really angry.
Next up, the Perfect Twins and the teachers!
Little Anchor – The first sci-fi otome game?
I finally got around to reading through D3’s site for its newest game, Little Anchor.
The story sounds very interesting – the main character is the captain of a spaceship! Awesome!
More about the setting: In the near future, the founding of a city on the moon allows science and our knowledge of space to improve rapidly. A worldwide organization, EUG, is founded to organize the new space activities, but like today, powerful countries decide things to their advantage. Another group forms in protest, the ICSEO, and war breaks out.
Several years (generations?) later, the EUG wants to make peace with ICSEO, and prepares to send a large spaceship as an olive branch. The main character, as the daughter of a hero, is chosen as captain, and a crew is chosen, all with their own peculiarities. However, as they’re preparing to launch, ICSEO starts a large attack on EUG, and the ship has to make an emergency take off.
Can the main character win the war and bring peace to the world, which is what her father wanted? That’s the object of Little Anchor, which is scheduled right now for Spring 2009.
I should be getting the December (really November but w/e) mags tomorrow, so maybe they’ll have some more info!
Nise no Chigiri
VitaminX Evo Plus
Miyako