Anywyas, I finally finished the original Hiiro no Kakera – I had never done Oomi’s story, so I did that and his bits in ~Ano Sora no Shita de~. Hmm, I tried to take it slow and read everything, but I got impatient sometimes because the story is so long, and near the end it’s like, okay, I know he does this, I know this happens, hurry up and do it and get to the ending battle! It was satisfying to finish though. I was surprised that his guardian backstory wasn’t anything special, I guess one good thing about having an older character is that you can have their issues coming from their current life instead of a past one, heh. I think his storyline was also one of the sadder ones (not necessarily for his story, but for what happens to other characters in it).

Anyways, I think I actually like the ‘Oomi’ storyline better in the new Hiiro no Kakera. In the original, for me, a lot of the suspense and drama was diluted because I’d done all the other storylines and knew most of the plot points already. In the new one, it doesn’t depend much on plot, it’s more of a character struggle, so it works even if you know the basic story.

And another milestone – I finally got the real Tomomori ending in Harutoki 3 Izayoiki!! I had the ‘fake’ one, and was disappointed, but went online to check, and found out what I had to do. It only took a few minutes, I should have done it a long time ago. Ah, Tomomori ~fans self~ Anyone thinking Edward Cullen is the ultimate in sexy bad boys should play Harutoki 3 – Tomomori blows him out of the water.

Now I’m playing Lucian Bee’s again trying to finish it – I had two characters done when my save file got corrupted, so I had to erase the whole thing and start over (yeah, I was NOT happy). But now that releases have slowed down for the winter, I can finally go back and finish stuff! My orderly Excel-spreadsheet* loving side is very happy! Maybe I should make another To Do list…hmmm…

* Some of you might know, I keep track of my otome games in an Excel spreadsheet, and have a percentage complete as well with lists of endings to check off. Yeah, I’m a list person…

The six guardians are, of course, descendants from the original six, except for Shirou, who (though he may be descended from Ryou since he has the same last name) was more made into a guardian rather than being one naturally. There are two enemy groups trying to control Kanna City’s source of (spiritual) power, one being the Tenyakuryou (sp?), whose head scientist raised the heroine, and the other being the Teni, a religious group whose leader says she is the Tamayorihime. Half of the guardians have connections to the Tenryakryou and half to the church, and depending on whose route you go into, the ending ‘boss’ will come from one of these groups. Then there are the mysterious twins Kyousuke and Teppei (both acted by Ueda Yuuji), who act as both deus (dei?) ex machina and comic relief. I really like them, and almost wish they could have more part in the story.

The story isn’t as angst-filled as HnK1. Each route has its intense moments, even happy-go-lucky Shirou, but they’re not drawn out for long (IMO Shinogu’s is the most angsty so far). Also, at least so far, there’s been no route where it’s the heroine + 1 guardian against the rest, so the story’s atmosphere isn’t as oppressive as Hiiro no Kakera 1 was. Overall, whether these changes are good or bad is a matter of taste. Personally I think I’d like to have seen some more story for each guardian where it’s just him and the heroine – one of the downsides to having the guardians on your side is that there’s a lot of group scenes and not too many one-on-ones. And the scenarios for each character could, I feel, have been explored more. It is ‘easier’ to get through the story though – in the original sometimes I wanted Tamaki to just run away, the whole village (including her grandmother) seemed horrible

How do you guys like it? Which do you like better, and why?

1. Lucian Bee’s – I just can’t wait for this, the ‘undercover’ plot and gameplay look really fun!

2. S.Y.K. – in this game I’m looking forward to the characters the most, even just in the screenshots I’ve seen their interactions look pretty funny.

3. Souten no Kanata – and for pretty art and (hopefully) the epic storyline, I really want to play this. However, it might have to wait a while, since it’s for the PC and I’m trying to save money by not buying PC games…but I dunno, it’s very tempting…

4. Shin Tamayori-hime Denshou HnK 4 – new art, pretty much new story – can’t wait to see how holds up to the first 3.

5. Death Connection – I’m interested to see how this game develops; the premise is definitely new, and the setting too, the game in total could be really cool.

I’m going to do a couple posts on the last two games later (probably when I get next month’s mags with more piccies ^_^), which also happen to be the latest releases. I ordered the list according to which I’m looking forward to most and it’s completely subjective – how does your ‘Most Wanted’ list compare?

Why? Well, let’s take a look…

1. The newest installment in the series, Hiiro no Kakera Shin Tamayorihime Denshou (New Tamayori-hime Legend) is released for the PS2 – 7140¥. One thing I just noticed, the Hiiro no Kakera is in katakana for this game, whereas in the original and #2 it’s kanji/hiragana.
2. Hiiro no Kakera Aizouban, the original Hiiro no Kakera game and Ano Sora no Shita de, along with the extra scenes and events added to the PSP version, is released for the PS2 – 5040¥.
3. Shin* Hisui no Shizuku ~Hiiro no Kakera 2~ is released for the PS2 – 6090¥. Several, even most aspects of the game are being improved or simply re-done. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this before: the voices have been re-recorded (with the same seiyuu) and the soundtrack has been re-done as well. Also, there are ‘added special effects’; I have no idea what this would involve, hopefully they’re not too cheesy. There will also be new scenes and CG’s, and while that’s normal for a re-release, the amount sounds like more than usual, and each character will have more ‘action scenes’ in his storyline. A staff member says that the whole story and each route will also be more dramatic, and responding to fan requests, even the characters themselves have been improved.

I’ll be very interested to see what this will turn out like – it was actually Hisui no Shizuku that really got me into the Hiiro no Kakera franchise. For some reason, though I had the original, I didn’t get into it, and really just rushed through one route without really understanding or appreciating the story. I think it might have been timing, and the fact that it was the first long, straight visual novel I played. Hisui no Shizuku, for some reason, was easier for me to get into (knowing the basic plot from HnK helped a lot), and motivated me to go back and play HnK 1 again (though I still need to finish Shinji and Suguru, eheh).

So, with three games from the same franchise coming out ON THE SAME DAY (oh, did I mention the twin pack of HnK Aizouban and Shin HnK 2 coming out as well?), I’m just going to call October 1 Hiiro no Kakera Day.

Now whether I’ll buy these is a good question…I’ll pay close attention to further updates on what the changes to HnK2 will be, maybe I’ll play it again to try and figure out the differences between it and HnK1, which was, and is, so popular – even now, 3 years after it was released, Takuma and Mahiro are STILL in the top 10 characters, and the game currently sits at #2 on B’s Log popularity poll.

I think I’ll probably get the HnK2 remake, and of course I’m planning on buying Shin Tamayori-hime Denshou. But the Aizouban…I dunno. I already have the original and Ano Sora no Shita de…is it worth the 5040¥ for the Christmas event and a few new scenes? If anyone has the portable version, is there enough extra for the money? Hmmmm……

Anyways, just for fun, here are the original promo videos for

Hiiro no Kakera

Edit:the vid has been removed, I could only find the OP for the DS version

and Hisui no Shizuku Hiiro no Kakera 2

No vids that I could find yet for Shin Tamayori-hime Denshou!

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

Release dates:
End of December: Kurou and Masaomi
February: Benkei and Hinoe
April: Yuzuru and Kagetoki
They don’t have Liz Vaan and Atsumori up yet, but I’ll post again when they are.

Hiiro no Kakera figures:

I also found the Hiiro no Kakera figures, they’re SD and very cute. They come in a pack of 9 for around 5200Y.

Looking all this otome fanstuff, I came across a bunch of Harutoki (anime) trading cards and Harutoki 3+ Izayoiki-based cards…I can feel myself reverting to my college days as we speak, when I used to work for merchandise in lieu of payment from an anime store (would I have bought it with real money? I don’t know…). I think I still have Kenshin cards hidden somewhere in my parents’ house, I should really get rid of that stuff on ebay or something.

Between these and playing Ukihashi, I think I’m in an Izayoiki mood tonight – I’m off to attempt Shirogane once more!