Posts Tagged ‘Daisy’

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…

Sangokuren Senki

From Daisy² for the PC

I thought I’d take another look at Sangokuren Senki today (yeah, it’s Sangokuren, not Sangokushi like I said before), and learn some more about it. The premise is that the main character, a normal high school girl named Hana, reads a book in a library and is transported to the time of Sangokushi, or the Three Kingdoms (the story was first introduced as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and also popularized in the war strategy games Sangokushi Senki) of China in the second and third century AD. She first meets a character named Koumei, who tells her to go and join Gentoku, who turns out to be a general of one of the armies. Somehow she’s mistaken as an advisor, so throughout the game she helps direct the army. Though you start off with the Gentoku army, depending on your choices you can join one of two other armies, Moutoku’s, and Chuubou’s. Apparently these were all real people in the story, because the designer talks about how she (he?) changed or went with the popular image of the characters.

So, here are the main characters in each army:

*********Gentokugun*********

Gentoku! The general, he’s a big brother type who inspires loyalty and is loved by his troops.

Fuyouhime – she becomes friends with Hana and likes to talk about girl stuff with her, but she also fights.

Unchou – he is usually calm and reserved, but will tell his opinions to close friends. He and Fuyouhime bicker a lot.

Shiryuu – he’s not very friendly in general, and especially to women, but he’s a genius with the spear.

Yokutoku – Not great at thinking, Yokutoku is likely to act without thinking. He’s very fond of Gentoku, and apparently though he’s usually friendly, when he gets drunk his personality changes.

*********Moutokugun*********

Moutoku - the second general, he looks like he doesn’t take responsibility seriously, but actually he’s an expert at being in charge and governs a large area.

Bunjaku – Moutoku’s right-hand man, he is serious and always wants to do what results in the most advantageous situation.

Genjou – He’s worked for Moutoku for a long time and is good friends with him. He’s friendly and trustworthy (I don’t think you can capture him though)

*********Chuubougun*********

Chuubou – Arrogant but somewhat insecure at heart because he’s trying to live up to his dead father and older brother, Chuubou commands a large navy in addition to his land forces.

Shoukou – Cheerful and good at archery, Shoukou is Chuubou’s younger sister who wants to join the fighting.

Koukin – Always smiling but never showing his real emotions, Koukin worked for Chuubou’s older brother before he died. He loves music and has a soft manner, but plays a key role in commanding the military.

Phew, that’s a lot of characters. I should really read that Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel I have and see who these guys are…but it’s really long! And I think it’s just the first volume…maybe I’ll buy the Coles notes version instead.

Anyways, so this game looks fun too (I know I know, like you need MORE games to buy ) and it is supposed to come out sometime this winter.

Maybe tomorrow I should do a game or two that’s actually coming out this fall, hehe. Is there one you want to know more about? Lemme know in the comments!