First, there’s the “kimagure play”. Your dialogue choices and how you approach guys are separated into tenshi (angel) and koakuma (little devil). Your rating on this scale changes their feelings for you, and will even change their dialogue, and which events will happen. So yay, not only do we get to play many times, now we play each character twice! Heh, if I ever had to bring just one otome game with me for a long trip, it would probably be Tokimemo. It can be played for ssooooo long.

The skinship mode in the DS has been adapted into the approach mode. It works by using the analog stick to move over and choose whether to ‘look’ or ‘touch’ different parts of…the guys (ok, that sounds really pervy, but if you’ve played Tokimemo on the DS you know what I mean).

They’ve also added animation to the existing character portraits, calling it Live 2D.

And a third new feature of this version is that you can visit the guys’ rooms, totally separate from playing the game. The creators have made rooms for each in 3D, and when you don’t have much time to play or just want to check things out, you can go in them and see what’s up. The guys do things in the room in realtime (according to the PSP’s internal clock), and not only that, the room changes with the seasons.

Cute huh?

I already have Tokimemo 3 on the DS, but…this really makes me want the PSP version too!

• It’s kind of annoying that you can only do Chapters 1-6 once. It might be in the manual, but who looks there? I was surprised, and had skipped a lot, so I had to start over. As in other Harutokis, you can choose whether or not to activate several events, and I had thought to go back when I was doing that person’s route instead of having to repeat them. Since you only get to do 1-6 once, all the important events are on the story path, and the rest are just little vignettes, but I wouldn’t want to miss them.
• Though that was annoying, it’s nice that to do people’s routes you don’t have to jump around as much as in #3 (#4 wasn’t as bad IIRC). You can also do everyone’s events until at least Chapter 8, so you’ll only have to repeat a few chapters for everyone.
• The normal route is 12 chapters long, and you can tell when people’s routes start by looking at their notes, or “情報”. Just like in #3 and #4, this tab is invaluable in playing, it will show you each person’s flag events and how to get them (not all the answers, but specific places and times) so you can use it as a guide.
• Sometimes the jouhou will say your affection isn’t high enough, but there are tons of wandering enemies so it’s easy to get it up – and the after-combat screen even says “20 stars in combat = 1 star of affection”.

Combat Details
Combat is easy after the first playthrough – I never ran out of life, though I did have to go back to my world a couple times to recharge. Almost as soon as you get chain attacks, you can always get the ‘fast battle’ bonus. Just pay attention to the elements, and try to power up your weapons as much as possible – note that if you allow members outside of the battle group to join your chain attack, you won’t get powerup orbs from the enemies that attack kills.

One thing I realized after a while, is that you can replace one powerup with the exact same one, and still get the weapon upgrade – useful when a lot of the earlier monsters just drop the same, not that useful, powerups.
Once your weapon gets to level 6, it will change to something new. I’m currently on weapon level 6+ for all characters, and around level 20-25 combat, and everything, including the last boss, is E-Z. I am 1337! (Only in Harutoki do I get to feel this way, maybe that’s why I love it so much?)

Story
The story is the same no matter what route you do, but they show different parts of it in different routes. Also, what you and the route character do is different. I found that Yuki’s character is also different depending on the route you take, although in all of them she gets stronger and less fuzzy-headed than in the first part of the story (thankfully). That was a deliberate choice, I think, to make her development more obvious.

Characters
So far I have done Shun, Ryouma, Ouchi, Tatewaki, and Chinami (almost accidentally). My favourite was Ryouma, although Ouchi was good too. Shun’s is ok but kind of depressing in some ways, and Tatewaki, at one point in his story I really didn’t like him anymore, but by the end I liked him again. Chinami’s was ok as well, although part of his drama was resolved off-screen, and I’d rather have seen him deal with it with Yuki.
I’m looking forward to doing Ernest and Takasugi, but not really Okita – I know his route will probably have him making a breakthrough in getting his own willpower/conscience, but for some reason I’m not that interested.

I’m enjoying it, and the art and music is as high quality as ever, but I have to say that the lack of voice affects the game quite a bit. The whole intro is voiced, which is nice enough, but once you get into the meat of the game, each character only has a handful of voiced scenes (as well as being in other characters’ scenes). Since several characters aren’t with you the whole time, overall I’m having a hard time getting into the stories. Also, this is just my preference, but I felt that a lot of romantic scenes were whispered too much, especially for certain characters.

I still have several routes to finish though, and I might have just been in the wrong mood for it the last few days. So far my favourite route is Ryouma, but we shall see, I’m looking forward to Ernest and Takasugi a lot.

All I want to know is, when is something *exciting* going to happen?? Heh.

I’ve encountered five hachiyou, but only one, my adopted brother Shun　(CV: Terajima Takuma), has been with me for (almost) the whole time. The rest were one-time meetings. It just went from full-voice to non-voiced (boo!), and the heroine even had some lines (only when she was alone and reflecting on her situation, it was a bit strange).

Right now it seems like there are hachiyou on either side of this war, those supporting the existing shogun (Okita Souji　（CV:　Okamoto Nobuhiko), maybe Ernest　（CV: Shitanda Michael), and those trying to reinstate the emperor (Takasugi, Chinami (CV: Abe Atsushi). It’s a little bit like Harutoki 2 that way. Will I have to choose a side? Will things end up the way they did in our world? (Since the other world is similar to ours but not the same, they theoretically could).

I don’t know much yet, although I think I’d like to get going and stop switching worlds for a while. I want to get into the character’s stories! So, not much else to say right now, but I’ll update soon-ish.

1. The beginning feels like Corda, probably because of the music and the modern setting. The heroine’s cousin Miyako is female, though she looks and sounds like a guy…her CV is Saiga Mitsuki, whom I’ve always heard playing male roles, that might be it  (including Kuranosuke in my new favourite anime Kuragehime!!) Anyways, I’ll get used to it, though it doesn’t help that she gets jealous of the heroine’s male friends in a ‘childhood friend who loves the heroine’ kind of way.

1a (forgot to write this before): Sakamoto Ryouma (the guy with wavy brown hair) (CV: Suzumura Kenichi)…all I can hear in my head is him playing Okita in Gintama…must remember not to watch any Gintama before I play this.

2. Ouchi (longish light green hair guy) is so cute! Shy and meek, but openly admiring of the heroine, he makes me think of a big fluffy puppy. I can’t wait to play his route.

3. Another thing I’ll have to get used to is Tatewaki’s voice (he’s the long, dark green haired guy). Right now I keep thinking his voice sounds too young, or high or something.

4. The heroine seems extremely absentminded and kind of dense, but this is hopefully due to the scenes shown in the demo. And she seems to have never heard of the Shinsengumi or Okita Souji – though she grew up in Japan. Odd.

5. I think I’m going to laugh whenever Ernest (blonde guy) says something in English – not because of his pronunciation, which is perfect (though American/Canadian accented, not English), but because of the dialogue – “Gosh”, “My Dear Savior” being a couple examples. Then again, I’ve read some pretty cheesy romance novel dialogue, I’m sure I can handle it.

All in all, this demo does a pretty good job in making me impatient to play Harutoki 5! Thank god I have lots of other games to pass the time with until then, including replaying Harutoki 4 with all its new scenes, which I’m off to do now!

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And good things come to those who wait! Garnet Cradle is coming out on the PSP from Otomate, yay!! I hope there’s new stuff added in, but really I’m just happy to be able to play it. I’ve heard the story is not amazing, but that art…I can’t wait to see it on my PSP!

I also noticed a new R18 game coming out from Aromarie, Chou no Doku, Hana no Kusari (Butterfly Poison, Chain of Flowers), set in the Taisho era. It’s planned for Spring 2011.

B’s Log also had mini posters of all the H5 hachiyou as furoku *dies*. They’re pretty much the same pics as in the DOL article here. As well as a 20-PAGE ad – mainly showing the characters again, and a couple scenes. The first looks like the inside of a huge ruined building in a Western style, with a long silver-haired guy taking the hand of a girl in a high school-looking uniform on a half-gone staircase, and text which says,
“Choose. Which world will be destroyed?”
“Will he be the one to disappear…or will you?”
Then all the hachiyou have their own 2-page spreads, with a line of dialogue and a short description.
And then another scene where the girl in the foreground watches as a firebird erupts from a row of houses, and a group of people in Bakumatsu period clothes stare. The text here says “Time, long sleeping, is moving.”

So excited! XD

It’s set in the Bakumatsu!! I really don’t know how to feel about that, there have been so many games set there I’m almost tired of it But since Harutoki has been heavily fantasy-based, I’ll hope that they bring a fresh look at the period (some of the characters are the usual suspects, Sakamoto Ryouma and Okita Souji, but there are some I don’t immediately recognize. AND! They are finally changing the seiyuu!! Very mixed feelings about this too. After playing several games with the same cast I can see why they’d want change, but man, it will be weird not hearing the normal hachiyou. On the other hand, Suwabe Junichi in Harutoki? I’m down with that Other seiyuu announced are Suzumura Kenichi, Okamoto Nobuhiko, Tachibana Shinnosuke, and Yasumoto Hiroki.

They also have the following names up, I’m not 100% sure if they’re hachiyou or what:
Terajima Takuma
– Kirio Shun

Abe Atsushi – Chinami

That’s all I have time for, this weekend was so busy I just saw the news now on Nari Nari!
There are pics up at Dengeki Online and Famitsu.
Oh, and Venuseclipse from Unbroken Hours let me know that my comments are broken, so I will try and fix that ASAP! And here I was sad that no one was commenting

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 . I’ll figure that out later!

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

]]> http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/11/kiniro-no-corda-3-seiyuu/feed/ 0 http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/03/harutoki-1-and-2-the-beginning/ http://lijaka.com/blog/2009/03/harutoki-1-and-2-the-beginning/#comments Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:36:46 +0000 lijakaca http://www.lijaka.com/blog/?p=238 With Harukanaru Toki no Naka de Ukihashi showcasing Harutoki 1-3, you may be interested in the original games. Though I have both Harukanaru Toki no Naka de Hachiyousho (the PS2 version of the first game) and Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2, I always thought they were just okay compared to Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3, which is one of my favourite otome games. I played #3 first, and I think it spoiled me a bit, because Hachiyousho and #2 weren’t set up the same way, and I found them a little too restrictive. But going back now and playing them, I appreciate that they’re actually more strategic than #3, as well as doing a great job establishing the story of the Ryuujin no Miko and the hachiyou.

For anyone who doesn’t have the games yet, or if you’ve tried one but were kind of confused about the setup, I thought I’d post about the basic storyline, timeline, and how gameplay works.

Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 1 and 2 have a lot in common with each other, so most of this will cover both games.

Story: A high school student from Japan (Akane in #1, Karin in #2) is leading a normal life when one day, she’s transported to another world which resembles historical Heian Japan (around 900-1100AD). She’s dumped in Kyou (Kyoto), and is declared to be the Dragon God Priestess, or Ryuujin no Miko, by a young girl from the Star Family, or Hoshi no Ichizoku. The Hoshi no Ichizoku are an aristocratic family who are the keepers of eight dragon globes (gyoku), and who use their psychic ability to help the Ryuujin no Miko.

Kyou has a legend that in times of crisis, a girl from another world will appear as the Ryuujin no Miko. Her job is to summon the Dragon God who watches over Kyou, and save it from whatever is endangering Kyou. She has eight hachiyou, or guardians, to protect her and help her do this, and the gyoku give the hachiyou special powers.

Game Timeline: Both #1 and #2 follow the same basic timeline. First the heroine is transported to Kyou, where she has to meet all the hachiyou. Each hachiyou has a certain element (fire, water, earth, tree, or crystal), as do all the monsters you have to fight and the locations you can visit. Each element is strong against one element and weak against another, so if you know what kind of monster you’re fighting, you can pick the hachiyou with the element that’s strong against it. The heroine also has an element, but that doesn’t affect fights so much as minigames.

Once you’ve met all the hachiyou, you choose what to do each day. You have three slots of time in each day, and each morning you pick one or two hachiyou to travel and fight with. Then you pick where to go, and if there’s a monster there, you fight it. If not, sometimes an event will happen, otherwise you’ll get a mini-game to get items. Sometimes not all the hachiyou are available in the morning, and sometimes locations in the east, west, north, or south are unavailable because of the flow of ki. When you beat monsters of a certain element, you gain that element’s power, which you can then use in special attacks of the hachiyou. For example, Yasuaki in #1 is an earth element, so if you have some earth element power, you can use his special attacks.

Your first assignment is to obtain the help of the four sacred beasts (seijuu) that are under the control of the Dragon God – Seiryuu, Byakko, Genbu, and Suzaku. Each seijuu has two hachiyou, so for example Yorihisa and Tenma in #1 are the two Seiryuu hachiyou. This usually means that you travel with these hachiyou to a certain location, listen to the seijuu, and do what it tells you to prove your worth. You only have a few days to obtain the help of each seijuu, and of course there’s always a bad guy who tries to stop you from getting it.

Once you have all four seijuu, you gain the ability to seal monsters, instead of just temporarily beating them. When you seal a monster, you gain that seal (a fuda) which you can then equip to improve the heroine’s or a hachiyou’s stats.

After getting all four seiyuu, you need to get special attacks for each pair of hachiyou. These attacks come from spirits called ‘myouou’, and the process of obtaining them is similar to the seijuu.

Once you have all the myouou (though I think you can fail in this and still continue the game), you are strong enough to fight the final boss.

Does this sound complicated? It isn’t bad once you’re used to the whole element system and how to seal and everything, but it can take a while to figure out. Also, because your time is limited, it’s easy to fool around and not get things done on time if you’re not sure where to go or what to do. And I haven’t even gotten into character events or love routes yet!

In #1, each hachiyou has had an important memory stolen from them. In #2, it’s only the four hachiyou on ‘your’ side when you start (emperor or retired emperor). To go through the ‘true love’ route for each hachiyou, you must find all four pieces of their heart (kokoro no kakera) and get through the accompanying events successfully. Besides the true love route, there’s also the ‘rush’ route (in #1) or the ‘obstacled’ (shougai no aru) route (in #2), where you don’t have to gather kokoro no kakera, and it depends on raising the hachiyou’s affection and belief levels only.

Belief (the green stars in the character pane) can be built by beating monsters, healing the hachiyou, winning minigames, and acting like a strong miko. Affection (orange/red stars) is harder to gain – it’s also built by beating monsters and winning minigames, but much more slowly than belief. You can also gain affection by successfully navigating character events, and a couple other methods involving the ‘monoomi no hi’ and incense.

Finally, once all this is done, you choose who to go with to fight the final boss, and if you’re successful, you get an epilogue. I believe in Hachiyousho there are 3 endings for each character (staying in Kyou, going to your world, and a ‘hachiyousho’-added ending), and in #2 there are two (staying or going back).

Yikes! Explaining this took up so much space, and I don’t even have any pics to go with it! Well, hopefully it will be useful to somebody.