Posts Tagged ‘otomate’

Desert Kingdom – Done!

I’ve now completed 98% of Desert Kingdom (there’s one sub-route that I don’t think I’m interested in), and I think I should take back a lot of the criticism I originally aimed at the game.

Criticism 1: Too short

This isn’t a complete reversal of my first opinion, but more of a change. I still feel that there isn’t much story going on in the gameplay portion of the game, where you choose where to go and build up your power. The power buildup portions are a good length, with you, your target, and Unbara, but the parts where you visit the guys are often abrupt and sometimes no more than a couple sentences long. I still feel that that’s a little too short.

But the rest of the story, once you get into someone’s route, is quite long. I’d estimate at least a couple hours each. This is great if you like visual novels, but for those are bored with long discussions without player interaction, you might be annoyed.

Criticism 2: CGs

Yeah, so I picked the wrong route to start off with. Most of the CGs are excellent and very pretty, there’s only one other fanservicey (to guys) CG, and overall I really like them. Oh, and Vii’s other route (the Good instead of Happy) has a CG that I actually like better than the Happy one. Plus, once you get a certain number of routes (the first four maybe??) you get extra CGs that you only see in the gallery, which are the guys in out-of-character costumes/poses (a very nice extra).

Also, there’s a little extra feature called “With Sera”, where you have a little epilogue for each route, but as if you’re visiting Sera. These are separate from the regular epilogues in the games, though you can choose to see them after each one (I chose to save them up and watch them after, which I think is a good choice as some include spoilers). It’s light and fun, and is a great little addition to the game.

Final Word

After finishing almost all the game, I really love it. Not only are the characters interesting, but the plotline is done well and integrates everyone – and no matter which route you end up in, Kingdom’s ending is pretty much the same.
I also shouldn’t leave out Aspashia – though her visual design is more loli than I’d like, her personality is awesome and realistic as an immortal princess who is used to doing whatever she wants.

Having just finished the final hidden route last night, it leaves you with that feeling, you know, when you’re all happy and gooey inside. It’s so cute, and they don’t make you go through the whole game again, which is fantastic.

So I’m a little biased positively to the game right now, but I’d definitely recommend Desert Kingdom if you like visual novels. If you don’t, and want more gameplay and interaction, I’d say only get it if you really love the setup and Arabian Nights aesthetic, since the dialogue portions will likely bore you.

Desert Kingdom…kind of Review?

I got Desert Kingdom (and Grimm, but I haven’t played that much) this week, and I like it a lot, but really I’m not sure if it’s worth full price. It’s a lot of fun, but there are things that I think could be better. However, I’m only through two routes, so this is only a partial review.

Anyhoo, here’s what I wrote as I first played it.

The first thing I see is a garish stained glass border of clashing and psychedelic colours….then a simple melody starts up, which reminds me of the theme in early Final Fantasy games when you visit the ‘exotic’ desert country…or am I thinking of the Tetris music…hm. OK, now the opening song starts, the visuals are much prettier, and it’s a standard J-rock, which I can get behind.
After starting a new game, I pick a name and there are some intro story screens. This is a world with gods, where they are born from people’s prayers, and exist until those prayers stop.
But now, people have stopped believing, and miracles are disappearing…
Now another screen, a sandy desert and a silhouette. “A young woman walks through the desert, her hair dirty with sand, but she simply walks silently as if on a pilgrimage.
The wind blows. Sand dances around and obscures the young woman’s vision. Th sand veils the world. But still, she walks on, looking into the distance with beautiful eyes.”

Suddenly there’s a loud boom! and we get the first line of dialogue from the woman, and the lovely illusion disappears. Aspashia complains that she’s tired of this desert. Heh. She continues with a self-introduction, describing herself as the princess of EVUU, the kingdom of gods, and claims a long list of ladylike accomplishments, before someone (a narrator?) interrupts her asking who she’s talking about. Then she explains that she’s been walking the desert for two months without food or water, but is at her limit, and slowly falls to the ground, starting to get covered up by the sand.
The narrator cuts in again, bringing the story back to when Aspashia lived in EVUU. Aspashia explains, with some snark from the narrator, that EVUU is basically the land of gods/djinn, and is made from magic. You can’t do anything there without magic, and so one day when Aspashia woke up, having lost all magical ability for some reason, she couldn’t do anything, even get out of her room. She was trapped there for a week and almost starved until her father, the king Sazan, came and found her. He tells her that she lost all her magic because her mother (who died after giving birth) was human. This is news to Aspashia, who isn’t too happy about it. He also says that she’s used up all her magic, and unless she wants to stay cooped up in one castle room the rest of her life, there’s only one way to get it back. She has to go live among humans, get close to them, and grant their wishes. And then Aspashia promptly starts falling through the air. Sazan says she’ll land in about three hours, and after remembering that she has no magic to help her, summons a lamp djinn, Unbara, to help her out.

And finally we come back to the first scene, where Aspashia gets mad at Unbara (the mystery narrator) for telling her when she first landed that the nearest settlement was only 10 days away. Unbara says he didn’t want her to give up, but says they should be close now. Over the next hill, she finally spies her destination, the castle town Kingdom.

That’s the intro (which you can skip after the first time) to Desert Kingdom, and the rest of the game is pretty much in line with it in atmosphere. Aspashia and Unbara often trade banter, and often make reference to the game mechanics, sometimes very plainly. It’s quite fun, and I love how Aspashia sometimes literally breaks out of her avatar square (you’ll see what I mean if you play).

I went through Vii’s route first, the mysterious assassin who’s voiced by Ryou from Hiiro no Kakera (ok, Nomiya Kazunori). The first thing I was happy to find was that he was not the typical brooding type – in fact, none of the characters felt unoriginal, which, after playing so many otome games, is surprising.
The game itself is pretty simple, you go around granting regular people’s wishes (by using a roulette wheel) to slowly build up power, and try to get closer to one of the main characters to grant their big wish and regain the rest of the power you need to become a full Mashin again.

A couple things I wasn’t too impressed by were how short the story felt (Vii’s at least) and the CGs. They were well drawn, I just wished they were different – more closer angles or something. For example, there’s one in Vii’s story where Aspashia hugs him while she’s standing and he’s (I think kneeling). But the point-of-view is set near the ground behind her, so you’re looking up at the back of Aspashia’s bare legs, and Vii’s face is so small it’s hard to read his expression. It was odd.

I’ve just finished Sharon’s (CV: Masakaze Masaya) route, and his CGs were better, but it still seemed a little short on story.
I think it would be improved by having just a little more development in relationships in between the character intros and setups, and getting into their plots. Hm, I could be being too picky though, I’d like to know what other people think if you’ve played it. It could also be better on other routes, especially Sera’s since he’s the first one. I’ll have to report back.

However, overall I am enjoying it a lot; there’s not much gameplay though really, it’s really to fill in the blanks between the intro and entering someone’s route. And there’s not only one “mystery” character (who is not a mystery at all, but you have to do several routes to get him), but another one where you have to finish all the others first! I’m such a sucker for these, I think I’ll be spending some time this weekend finishing this for those routes…

Nise no Chigiri

A couple days late, gomen nasai ><;;!

Probably the first otome game to be set in the warring states (Sengoku Jidai) period of Japanese history, Nise no Chigiri, set to release July 22 for the PSP, is the story of Mana, a modern high school student who somehow travels through time and encounters Uesugi Masatora, one of the generals. He decides to protect her, while his rival Takeda Shingen targets her. With Mana knowing the outcome of this war, will she change the future?

Uesugi Masatora CV: Endou Daichi: The most powerful leader in the Kanto region (around Tokyo), he’s so good at battle and strategy that his nickname is the Dragon of . The Takeda family is his enemy.

Kojima Yatarou CV: Terasoma Masaki: Masatora’s follower and the leader of the Kachigumi. Since Masatora was little the tall (almost 2m) samurai protected him, and he foresaw that Masatora would lead the . He protects the heroine along with his little sister, Ayahime. He’s very strong but kind.

Tougi Kanehisa CV: Ootsuka Akio
The former leader of the Nokizaru, he now acts as an advisor to Akatsuki.

Takeda Shingen CV: Ichijou Kazuya
The leader of the Takeda clan and a strong army, he’s called the Tiger of Kai. Though many people are unsure if Yamamoto Kansuke is totally loyal, Shingen trusts him a lot.

Yamamoto Kansuke CV: Sakurai Takahiro
Kansuke works for Shingen, but is very mysterious, and his motives are unclear. He takes an interest in Mana after hearing she’s from the future.

Masatora assigns a group of his men, the Nokizarushuu, to guard Mana.

Akatsuki CV: Kondou Takashi
The sub-leader of the Nokizaru and likely to be the next leader, Akatsuki is very straightforward, open, and loyal to Masatora.

Suien CV: Tsuda Kenjirou
Calm and always watchful, Suien seems friendly to Mana.

Rurimaru CV: Hagino Mizuki
He’s younger than Mana, and has a cheerful personality. …He grows to be fond of Mana and treats her like a beloved older sister.

Shuuya CV: Maeno Tomoaki
It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking because he doesn’t say much, but Shuuya is very hardworking and dutiful.

Masato CV: Maeda Takashi
A little older than the other members of Nokizarushuu, Masato is like an older brother to them. However, with Mana he’s not that friendly for some reason, though once in a while he’ll give her advice.

Moujuutsukai to Oujisama

The newest PS2 game announced from Otomate for a June 24 release, Moujuutsukai to Ouji-sama (The Beastmaster and the Prince) sounds like my dream game when I was a kid. Princes who turn into animals in a fantasy setting, what’s not to like?

The heroine, Tiana, wants to be a beastmaster like her mother, using a special flute made by her father, but hasn’t found any good animals to train. One day she’s at the market and finds four animals, a lion, a wolf, a duck (it looks like a goose though), and a rabbit, for sale. She trades a valuable brooch for them and takes them home. When she starts feeding them, they act strange, and then they start to talk to her! They explain that they’re actually princes from a neighbouring kingdom and were travelling by ship when an explosion occurred. When they woke up, they had been transformed. Tiana decides to help them get back to their true forms, but doesn’t realize that this their enchantment is only the beginning of trouble that will overtake the whole continent…

The princes are:

Mateus (lion) CV: Midorikawa Hikaru – The oldest brother, he’s very popular with women, but doesn’t chase them – they come to him (probably being a prince helps)

Afreto (wolf) CV: Toriumi Kousuke – the second oldest, all he cares about is getting stronger. He’s a better swordsman than even Mateus.

Rushia (duck) CV: Shimono Hiro – he talks a lot and is kind of lazy. He’s the same age as Tiana.

Eric (rabbit) CV: Kaji Yuuki – The youngest, he’s very cute and often acts childish.

Other characters:
Kraus CV: Yasumoto Hiroki – Tiana has known him since she was a child, but they’re not really friends. Kraus has made Tiana cry often with his harsh words.

Silvio CV: Terajima Takuma – He works at the village medicine shop and is very cheerful and honest with his feelings.

I’m loving the art for this game(I’m a sucker for cute animals and bright colours), and I’m definitely getting it.

New games announced!

I don’t like having my scanner broken! But I promise, if you want to see the pretty art for the games I talk about, the links have them!

anyhoo, there are a couple new games announced this week from Otomate and D3P.

The first, Natsuzora no Monologue, is set for the PS2, seems somewhat like a light novel, in the example screens the text covers most of the space available. This makes me less interested in it, as I’m not a fan of light novels, although I guess this has voice and character pics too so it’s not like a regular light novel.

It’s based on a time loop, and set in a town near the sea. The heroine’s name is Ogawa Aoi, and she has amnesia. She joined the chemistry club at school, but it’s being cancelled.
July 29 is the day before it’s supposed to be disbanded, but on that day, she hears sound from a 30-year-old skyscraper in town called ‘Tree’ (the description says the building sings), and the time loop begins. One major decision is that you can choose to escape the time loop, or stay in it.

This setup reminds me of Sorayume’s final route, it will be interesting to see how they treat it.

D3′s new title, Ishin Renka Ryouma Gaiden seems like it might be an alternate history from its Bakumatsu Renka titles, which were great but (since they followed known history closely) could be somewhat…depressing (yes, I cried sometimes, it was sad!!). It seems the story is based on Sakamoto Ryouma. The platform and dates are still a mystery.

C’est tout for tonight! I’ve been busy with other stuff, but I have some posts in draft about the new Moujuutsukai game, and I think I should edit and re-publish what I wrote a million years ago about Mizu no Senritsu 2….

Tidbits (mostly about Oomi in HnK1)

Wooo what a productive weekend (in gaming terms, not so much in, say, cleaning terms, or getting organized terms)! Even though I was pretty mad on Friday because my website was down when I wanted to write about the SYK fandisk – it’s happened before, and if it happens again, I might change my hosting sevice.

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…

Told ya so!

SYK fandisk, coming in March. I was one month off ^_^

Shin Tamayorihime – Hiiro no Kakera

I’ve been playing the new Hiiro no Kakera, and it’s good, although it doesn’t have the same punch as the original…I guess it would be tough to, since most fans are familiar with the storyline. I was really impressed with the seiyuu though – I totally forgot that they were all the same as the original! Except Touma, he sounds almost exactly like Takuma (has he ever done a very different voice?)
So far I still have Touma and Shun to do, but I’m taking a break so I don’t get bored. And their personalities are totally different too.

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?

Hanayaka Nari, Waga Ichizoku

Hanayaka Nari, Waga Ichizoku is the newest title for the PSP coming from Otomate (developer Vingt-et-un Systems) sometime in 2010. It’s set in Kyoto during the Taisho era. The heroine Haru grew up poor, and at the beginning of the game, has been hired into the Miyanomori household, a powerful zaibatsu (think Doumyouji’s family in Hana Yori Dango) as a maid. What she doesn’t know is that the head of Miyanomori has just stated that he is stepping down, and will choose a successor from his six sons, sending the whole family into disarray.

The six Miyanomori brothers:

Left: Tadashi, Right: Isami

Tadashi (34 years old): The oldest son, Tadashi always assumed that he’d inherit control of the Miyanomori concern, and he has a tendency to look down on others. He’s in charge of the family’s banking business, and is a workaholic.

Isami (31 years old): Isami has a high rank in the military, and only cares about his country. He thinks that if you’re not increasing the power of Japan, you’re useless.

Left: Shigeru, Right: Susumu
Shigeru (26 years old): As opposed to his older brothers, Shigeru hates rules and being controlled, and loves freedom. Though he’s part of a huge
zaibatsu, apparently he’s been seen performing in the city’s entertainment district.

Susumu (22 years old): As a police officer, he has a strong sense of duty and morals. He strongly respects his brothers and family.

Left: Hiroshi, Right: Masashi

Hiroshi (18 years old): Curious about everything, Hiroshi’s hobby is invention. He’s very friendly and often chats with Haru.

Masashi (16 years old): Masashi is immature and childish – he only does what what he wants to, and dislikes anyone who disobeys him. Sometimes he also shows a cruel side.

Haru is drawn into the sons’ power struggles. The time limit of the game is one year. The gameplay includes setting your schedule of chores (and I believe these affect parameters).

S.Y.K. – Fandisk coming in 3…2…

I’m playing S.Y.K. ~Shinsetsu Saiyuuki~ right now, determined to finish everyone so I can get Gokuu – yes, to get his true ending apparently you need to finish everyone else first! Well, the number of characters is small (3 or 4, I’m not sure if the ‘kakushi’ character counts), so it’s not horrible – just enough to make me determined to do it ASAP!

The game is set up a bit like a TV series – there are 12 chapters, and near the beginning and end of each the theme songs play. Also, there’s a ‘Next episode!’ teaser after each chapter (until you get to the character-specific ones, usually 9 or 10). The first time playing takes much longer than subsequent playthroughs, especially since after the first time, you can choose to completely skip the first two chapters (basically the character intro and setup chapters).

Each chapter is a mix of story dialogue and ‘gameplay’, where you choose a point on a map and then go through events for it. The event is usually someone asking for help, you choosing to help or not, and then choosing which of your comrades will help them. This will increase their affection level, and if it’s successful, your ‘toku’ level will also increase. Toku is kind like the miko level in Hiiro no Kakera, except here I think you can raise it as much as you like. There are also character events, and then the main event of the chapter.

So far my favourite character is Gyokuryuu. Though there’s hardly any romance in his route, he’s touchingly devoted and his story was, for me, the most emotional. And he’s just so cute, with his semi-bloodthirstiness and amorality! That sounds wrong, but once you play you’ll know what I mean (plus, Miyata Kouki is excellent voicing him).

The art is, as you would expect from Otomate, beautiful, both the regular art and the CGs. There’s quite a lot of narration, sometimes I get bored and don’t read all of it, but it definitely gives the story volume. And I *think* they re-used some music from Hiiro no Kakera – I mean to go back and check later, but some of the background music sounds awfully familiar. I don’t really mind, it’s nice music, and they do have several new tracks (and of course the OP and EDs are new).

So far I’m really enjoying it – the guys are all very different, and it’s fun to see their different approaches to solving the same problems. They also do a lot of fighting and joking with each other, and some of the dialogue is quite funny. Also, you find out different things about the guys in each route – since the heroine was actually the original Sanzou Houshi 500 years ago, the four companions are all also reincarnations of the original four…or something like that

Oh yeah, the title of the post? Even after playing for only a few days, I’m sure this game was designed with a fandisk in mind. There are at least 3 characters I’d really like routes for that don’t have them, and at least 2 more that are possibilities.

So fine, Otomate, make your fandisk and I’ll buy it, darn you! I’ll even take a guess at when the fandisk will come out…hmmm…I’ll say January/February 2010.

Anyone else out there playing this? Who’s your fave so far?