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…

The first game I installed and played on my PC once I got home from Japan was Gakuen Tokkyuu Hotokenser. This little gem from TWOFIVE is only $20 for the regular version(although I got the limited edition which Kureha is holding in that pic above), and it has full voice, great visuals, and a very fun story. Plus, if you’re a fan of slightly cheesy J-rock made for hero shows, some great music.

The heroine, Ootori Kureha, is transferred to a new high school on the recommendation of her ‘uncle’, a good family friend who’s the president of Hotoke Gakuen. On the way to school her first day, she encounters the members of the student council, who are all very popular – Kondou Ryuuichi (CV: Akabane Kenji), the student president, Sumeragi Rikuto (CV: Takagi Shun), the secretary, and Doujima Mitsuki (CV: Kimura Ryouhei), the vice-president. They all kind of get on her nerves, however, being respectively rude, overbearing, and just plain confusing.

She’s not too happy when her uncle calls her to his office and announces that she is part of the school’s own masked monster fighting force, Hotokenser (she keeps calling it Hotoken-man, which the other characters are amusingly offended by), which is made up of the student council. Unfortunately she doesn’t get any real information other than this, and when she goes to the student council room after school, no one even shows up. Part of the beginning story is just her trying to figure out how to transform, since her uncle tends to forget explanations.

After the intro, you choose which character route you want to try. This makes each route really different, and I’d recommend saving Roku (the green Hotokenser) for last, because I feel like his has the most ‘real’ ending. For characters, I’m a sucker for a good-natured jock type (i.e. Rikuto), but they’re all good, and each has three endings, none of which are really bad.

I saw a review of this in Japanese that said fans of shoujo manga would like this. At first I thought it was a bit of a strange thing to say, because to me otome games and shoujo manga are already very similar. But after playing, I totally get it. The plots are very much like a Betsuma or Hana to Yume comic, with all the guys indifferent to the heroine in the beginning, and with various plot twists and sudden changes of heart.

It is kind of short, and the romance is not that pronounced, but it’s a lot of fun, and refreshing if you’re tired of heavy or angsty games. Even the monsters (which are very like the monsters of the week in Power Ranger-type shows) all have distinct personalities in addition to being voiced by well-known seiyuu, and there’s a lot of humour throughout the game. The only part I thought was overdone on that was poor Gomukeshi-kun (the eraser); I thought Kureha was pretty hard on him sometimes.

And one other problem – it needs a fandisk! Once you play, you’ll know exactly who should be a ‘hidden’ character, except there’s no route for him! So please Twofive creators, if you’re reading this (I can dream right?), make a fandisk! I want more. Even after listening to both drama CDs I got with it…I still want more.

Alright, now on to the fun part. I was able to play Tsubasa no Oka no Hime (Princess of Wingfield) recently, and it is BY FAR the best R18 game I’ve ever played. I adore this game, I want there to be a fandisk just so I can support it more.

I’ve played quite a few R18 otome games (yes, they’re still otome even if they have sex in them), and some I enjoyed quite a bit, so what makes this one so different? The characters. I don’t know about you guys, but I am so used to Japanese standards of gender roles and sexism by now that I don’t bat an eye when a male character insults the heroine, especially in adult games where often the insults are while they’re having sex – calling the heroine a whore, ignoring her requests to stop, just generally being a total asshole. Even in the games I mostly liked (like Jingi Naki Otome, about a heroine unwillingly becoming the head of a gangster family), have a lot of problematic stuff in them – the aforementioned insults, questionable consent, and just general dickishness. It doesn’t make me give up on the game, but it can get pretty grating when it’s bad, and even when it’s not as obvious, it’s still annoying.

In contrast to all those games, there is the Princess of Wingfield. (Watch out, small spoilers ahead)

The heroine, Vivian, owns an area of land somewhere in Britain (probably Britain), including a village, rules over it intelligently, and every 19 years, has an epic battle with her nemesis and is reborn. She has done this 99 times, and thus has been around for almost 2000 years. She remembers everything, and because of this is extremely knowledgeable and capable. She also has a healthy libido, which she feels no shame about dealing with with whomever she finds attractive (and vice versa). The servants at the manor as well as the villagers not only accept this but still respect her and are fond of her! In most other games, she’d by typecast as the evil villainess/witch, trying to steal away the hero from the innocent heroine. Or she’d be used by the men and hated by the women until some hero comes along and makes an honest woman of her/accepts her horrible past in return for her being penitent/some other stupid crap.

Depending on your choices, you’ll see different aspects of her personality, but in all routes she not only enjoys sex, but is also assertive and enjoys teasing people. Because of her circumstances, she’s the more experienced one in all the loves scenes, yet at no time – NEVER – does anyone call her a whore, slut, or any other sexist insult. Well, actually there is one character who does, but he’s the Bad Guy so I can accept it as an example of his horrible personality.

So what I love about this game is the characters, and I think the story is quite interesting too. It’s fairly involved, as I found when I was trying to explain to people on the fly while playing it last week, so you won’t get the full story on your first playthrough.

Actually, on the first playthrough, you have to go through the novice butler Christopher’s route. It’s not hard, mostly just choosing who to talk to. The story is standard: innocent falls in love with rake/gets toyed with but eventually wins them over type of thing, but the sexes are reversed and Vivian is the rake, Christopher is the innocent. Amazing how something so simple can be so innovative, because I don’t know of any other otome R18 game that does this.

However, there is very little gameplay to speak of. This is a pure visual novel, so if you are looking for minigames or stat building, this isn’t for you. Most of the choices are simply deciding who to talk to, and then some in-scene dialogue choices that affect the endings.

Other things I like about the game – the art is gorgeous, the music is nice, and the seiyuu are excellent. It’s fully voiced, including the heroine, and I like her voice as well – even during the sex scenes I didn’t find her voice to be too high pitched, and unlike many games, both/all characters are obviously enjoying the action – one of my pet peeves is during sex scenes when the female character has way more lines and is way more…uh…vocal than the guys, who are often totally calm and sometimes even seem bored (even during blowjob scenes, I mean how likely is it that the woman is having a better time than the guys there?!). Not here.

SO anyways, if you haven’t tried this game, or have been disappointed with the over-the-top slut-shaming of other R18 games, you MUST try this. I recommend Tees as my favourite character and storyline, though they’re all pretty good (I haven’t finished Dyse yet).

Curse of Slate Rock Manor, by Red Panda Games, is set up as a mystery, but most of it is kind of locked room game, where you start out from the same point all the time and try to figure out the correct course of choices to get to the end. You can’t see the end and solve the mystery until you try 25 different paths (I think there are more than that possible, but there’s a minimum number, I believe, to get the ending). There’s a guide on the creator’s website  if you get stuck.

Story: During the intro, you, Delilah, get a phone call. It’s from a woman you don’t know who claims to be the girlfriend of your boyfriend, Trent. She asks if you’ve seen Trent lately, because he disappeared after going up to a place called Slate Rock to investigate ghost claims. After Delilah hangs up, she gets worried about Trent (not to mention wondering what’s up with this other woman, since Delilah is actually pregnant with Trent’s baby (!!?)) so she and her other friend Lyle head up to Slate Rock to search for Trent. Delilah’s relationship with Trent is a secret, so Lyle doesn’t know about it – as far as he knows, the three of them are all just friends. Once they get up to Slate Rock, the real story begins where you choose how to go about investigating the creepy Slate Rock Manor, which is supposed to be haunted.

Sound: It’s fully voiced! The voice acting is pretty good for an indie game. The heroine, Delilah, is the best IMO. The music is suitable but nothing stands out. Sound effects are done well. There’s a great extra at the end, where outtakes are played during the ending credits. Quite fun.

Visuals: The avatars are also very attractive, in an anime style. They have different expressions which fit them pretty well. The backgrounds are based on stylized photographs or simple 3D CG, which makes the characters and scenes seem unmatched, but I stopped noticing it after a while.

Characters: The main character Delilah is pretty likable, although I was surprised she didn’t seem that upset by hearing that her babydaddy-to-be was cheating on her. Then again, there were hints of issues from the beginning, and I don’t think Trent was supposed to have known yet. Lyle was alright, but was a little whiny at times – Delilah was definitely the cool head in that partnership.There are two other characters that are in most of the scenes, the maid and a police officer, and they play their parts well. Officer Dooley was great in a put-upon authority figure way who’s tired of all these stupid kids running around way.

Story: The background story to the manor is interesting, but most of it is told through information dumps and not through conversation. Also, the writing is kind of stilted, so a lot of the suspense and mystery is not as intense as it could be. The story that you actually go through is alright, but the gameplay mechanic makes it kind of choppy. You have to go through the same lines quite a few times so I ended up not paying as much attention as I should have to put the pieces together.

Many of the routes end abruptly on bad ends, but are not very realistic (you’re arrested on trespassing charges and are stuck in jail forever? not too likely), but that really didn’t bother me much, as the point of the game is the mystery, not a realistic drama. The real end was also a bit sudden and over-the-top (and there were some ablism issues), but definitely surprised me.

Gameplay: This is where I think the game falls down a bit. There were a few small things that could have been done that would make this a lot easier and fun to play. First, there’s no skip feature. That means that everytime you start at the beginning and decide to go with Lyle or wait for him, you have to start clicking the enter key many times to get through the dialogue and story. To make it worse, choices come up suddenly and it’s easy to mistakenly hit enter again and choose the first option. There’s no back or history key, so if you make a mistake you just have to play through to the end of that chapter.

There’s also no indication of what choices you’ve  made before. Already-read text isn’t a different colour, nor are the choices you’ve picked already. So if you leave this game and come back, you’ll have to go by memory as to what routes you’ve done.

There is, at least, a progress bar when you finish a chapter to show you how much you’ve completed (and so roughly how many more routes you need to do to finish). That’s very helpful.

Summary: I don’t think I can fully recommend this game because of the gameplay issues. The story is interesting, and the voices are a definite plus. I would, I think, recommend it with the caveat that you should play through using the guide from the beginning, so you don’t get frustrated by trying to figure out the different routes.

For anyone wondering what kind of swag you get with otome mags, here’s a pic I took (the colour’s kind of off but whatever):

1 – several miniposters (one set of five or so from each B’s Log)
2 – two booklets about the Yamanote Boys series (one from each B’s Log)
3 – page of stickers from Starry Sky! very cute
4 – the mags – I got the April and May B’s Log, and the most recent Cool-B and Sweet Princess
5 – The 2011 Tokyo Otome Guide – I have to plan for my fall trip! it has listings of otome-focused stores, manga, games, cosplay, everything, as well as some hotel and restaurant listings (even some butler cafés!), with lots of pics and ideas. Lots of fun to read through!
6 – Two DVD-Roms that came with Cool-B and Sweet Princess. They have promo movies, wallpapers, game guides, and even some playable demos.

And now for the news from those magazines!
A fandisk was announced for Hiiro no Kakera 4 Shin Tamayori-hime Denshou, called Piece of Future. Scheduled for July 2011, the Suwabe Brothers will be capturable! Awesome.

Sangokuren Senki is coming to PS2!!! I’m extremely happy, I’ve heard a lot of good things about this game and darnit, I’m just a sucker for fantasy historicals!

A new Quinrose game, Mother Goose no Himitsu no Yakata (Mother Goose’s Secret House) – scheduled for the PSP on June 23. Apparently there are two parts, a quiz part and an adventure part. The story is kind of like Alice, in that the heroine falls into a different world and has to find a way out. But to do so, she has to pass quizzes based on nursery rhymes. The men she meets all know her, but she doesn’t remember them. There’s a lot of really gorgeous art for this, it seems that Quinrose has over 200 nursery rhymes (which will be shown in English and then Japanese translations) illustrated by lots of different artists. Here’s a pic!

Cute huh? From left to right, the characters are:
Cezary Fritche (CV: Morikawa Toshiyuki) – a poor scholar
Eric Burrell (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) – an odd jobs guy
Heroine
Arthur Lindgren (CV: Sakurai Takahiro) – a noble gentleman
Bacchus Moore (CV: Suwabe Junichi) – a cook
(sitting) Vincent Noble (CV: Yasumoto Hiroki) – a student of Cezary at a well-known school

The Nise no Chigiri fandisk, Omoide no Saki e, is coming July 21!

A new R18 game, Persona, is announced from Mirai, the creators of the Hoshi no Joou series and Jingi Naki Otome, It seems to be based on the Phantom of the Opera, but there was just a teaser spread this month.
More info on the new Otomate PSP game, Amnesia. The heroine wakes up with (surprise!) amnesia, and apparently has to figure out which of her (current?past?) boyfriends is the real one, or something.
Kago no Naka no Alicis, the all-ages fantasy PC game from icingCandy, is set for Apr 22.

Info on the Alice movie! It’s coming out on July 30, in 7 cities around Japan. The art is quite nice, dare I say, possibly nicer than the original game! Apparently the story is new, and they’re trying to make it accessible to people who’ve never played the game. Apparently Joker is in it, and that is a hint as to the story, and there’s lots of action.

Seiyuu announcements for Hotokensaa, the sentai otome game:
Kondou Ryuuichi, Hotokensaa　Blue: Akabane Kenji
Sumeragi Rikuto, Hotokensaa Yellow: Takagi Shun
Doujima Mitsuki, Hotokensaa Green: Kimura Ryouhei

Tokyo Yamanote Boys Honey Milk – April 2011, 3500Y
Featuring Ninomiya Yuuto (CV: Suzumura Kenichi) from Shinjuku, Misaki Kotarou (CV: Morikubo Shoutarou) from Ikebukuro, and Momose Ayumu (CV: Yonaga Tsubasa) from Sugamo

Tokyo Yamanote Boys Super Mint – June 2011, 3500Y
Featuring Kirishima Iori (CV: Suzuki Tatsuhisa) from Shibuya, Isono Rui (CV: Kaji Yuuki) from Akihabara, and Kujou Takumi  (CV: Yusa Kouji) from Meguro

Tokyo Yamanote Boys Dark Cherry – August 2011, 3500Y
Featuring Rudou Jesus (CV: Namikawa Daisuke) from Roppongi, Moroboshi Tetsu (CV: Toriumi Kousuke) from Ueno, and Hamada Shinnosuke (CV: Suwabe Junichi) from Shinagawa

There are also music CDs coming out for each release, as well as events. As you can recognize, the artistic as well as directorial team is the same from Lucian Bee’s. It’s interesting that they’re moving from the PS2 to the PC for this project, I wonder if it’s to keep the game costs down, since they’re splitting it up into parts?

Each game is set in the last week of the tournament, when only three guys are left.

The story is really good, it’s fantasy and set in another world where elemental orbs keep the balance of nature. Each orb has Guardians to protect them, but there is one orb, the Death Orb, that has been inactive for a thousand years but has just been reactivated. Many people have forgotten about the Death Orb, and there’s a group, the White Order, that is trying to seal the Death Orb because of its harmful power.

After a prologue where the heroine escapes imprisonment after waking up without memories, she’s brought to a castle by the Oracle.

[spoilers]

The heroine in this game is related to the Death Orb, which is interesting because there’s this tension between the balance of the orbs, and how the Death Orb really does bring sickness and death to places around it. So it’s not a clear-cut story about you being on the good side and beating evil at all.

[/spoilers]

The characters are quite good and all have their own motivations and personalities:

Rune – one of the heroine’s guards, he seems to only want to hide from the world, and is very protective of Mina.

Aysel – another guard who was brought in by Rune, she’s nice and is devoted to Rune.

Caius – quite a jerk, he taunts the heroine a lot and doesn’t seem to care about anyone, in fact he talks about hurting people with enjoyment.

Oracle – the mysterious hooded figure who rescued Mina.

Varian – someone Mina meets outside when he saves her from the cold, but he’s very abrupt.

Aurelius – an outgoing ‘celebrity’ orb Guardian who meets Mina and takes a liking to her. He has a bit of a white knight complex.

Those are the most important characters, though several others are key to the story.

I was most impressed by the story of Frozen Essence; the plot is well thought-out, and each character has their own important backstory that’s related to the main plot. I would actually love for the stories to be more fleshed out, just to enjoy them for longer.

The art is good, much better than I thought of when I heard it was an indie VN, and the music is also quite good. This is a free game so understandably had a very limited (nonexistent??) budget, but I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the backgrounds and art in general. And there are a lot of CGs, more than I expected.

The game doesn’t take too long once you’ve played through once, I’d estimate the main story to be an hour or two (depending on how fast you read of course), and then 30 min- 1 hour for the different routes.

One last thing that I appreciated a lot was the effects and transitions. Probably more because now that I’m working on LOVE.101 (yes I swear I am!!) I know how much work goes into each scene and all the special effects, movement etc.

Though it’s free, Frozen Essence has a donation button through Paypal, that I strongly encourage you to use if you play and enjoy it! It will help the creator, VenusEclipse, make more games, and I really think this is worth it. Unbroken Hours is also looking for artists and other talented folk for its next game, so if you’re interested, check it out!

If you know of other good indie otome games, please let me know in the comments – I stumbled on this one but I’m sure there are more.

The cast is:
Faust: Sakiware Spoon : The oldest brother, he likes drinking and is quite old (vampire and all that)
Mikhail: Sakura Hiroshi : The second oldest, the element of darkness is very strong in him, so he’s weak against light. He doesn’t show much emotion.
Yuuri: Toomi Haruka : She’s cheerful and takes care of people, and has a strong heart.
Aron Valente: Kijima Uta : The third brother, he’s strong with light, so often spends time outside.
Joshua Valente: Yuuki Takuto : The spoiled youngest brother. He can talk to animals.

Of course, these names are R18-specific names, if you want to know who they really are you’ll have to search a bit ^_^ But some hints: Sakiware Spoon was Asou in Jingi Naki Otome, and Kijima Uta was Yuki in Sumire no Tsubomi.　I actually don’t know the other two at all, so if anyone knows, please leave info in the comments!

Of course I have non-LOVE.101 related posts ready too, I might post one in the interim…

But till then, some videos!

Who doesn’t love HnK? I just got #3 for the PSP, here’s the OP, which as usual is an amazing song, Unmei no Hito (Soulmate) by Fujita Maiko

And I also just ordered ~Motto!~ Gakuensai no Ouji-sama, which is the DS adaptation of the Prince of Tennis otome game, with the guys from Shitenhouji added! I somehow found this awesome fan video of PoT featuring Rikkai, which I believe parodies some other anime song.

And this one I’m just in awe of (3:20 to 4:10 is my favourite segment)!