Posts Tagged ‘PS2’
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…
Xechs’ Game System
So, more about the Scarred Rider Xechs‘ game system!
Girl’s Style lays the game path out using the first chapter as an example. In all there are 13 chapters, and they’re presented like an anime, with a little song and ‘preview’ of the next chapter at the end.
In the beginning there’s an adventure part, where you enjoy the noncombat life on the LAG base, develop relationships with the Xechs guys, and perhaps even see them play live as Odd I’s. Depending on what you choose, you raise either their ‘love’ gauge or their ‘death’ gauge (focusing on battle). After the adventure part is done Commander mode starts, and the guys ‘resonate’ with their Substance. Their Resonance personalities become more like their Substances the higher the death gauge is (their voices also change!), but apparently depending too much on the death gauge can lead to negative consequences…
Looking closer at the Commander mode, it starts when a red alert comes up during the adventure mode. A Vox (some type of vehicle?) brings all of you from wherever you are on campus to where the alert is.
Once there, you get a briefing on the situation, and choose which Rider to use in battle. The Rider resonates with his Substance, and the mission begins.
After the battle you see what the result is, and depending on your choices, the story will branch off.
The website has lots of videos, mostly just snippets of character dialogue, but they just put up a game intro video that’s pretty good at showing how it works.
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….
Scared Rider Xechs
First things first. I *think* it’s supposed to be Scarred not Scared, which makes a little more sense (if anyone knows for sure let me know!).This is the first otome game from Reds Entertainment, scheduled for release this summer on the PS2. The “Scared Riders” is a military team, based in Okinawa, formed to protect Earth from a mysterious group of alien beings from Mars called Night Fly Onoto. The Scared seem to refer to Night Flys that are helping the humans. In battle, the Riders transform with their Substance Night Flys and become Scared Riders. Fighting has been so intense that five teams have been destroyed already.
The new sixth unit is called IS (pronounced eyes), or the Scared Rider Xechs. The heroine is the advisor to this team, and the player will direct them in battle, and protect the Earth.
After all this fighting, as IS was getting ready to fight, the enemy Night Flys disappeared. While waiting for them to make an appearance, the members of IS formed a band called Odd-I’s – of course, what else would they do? 
Characters:
Asagi Akira: The genius heroine, she graduated high school at 10 and university at 15. Perhaps because she sped through school, she has no friends, and is a little naive and very serious. The very unserious members of IS often tease her.
Komae Christoph Yosuke CV: Suzuki Tatsuo
Hobby: Cooking
Noise Render: Vicious (a sword shaped like a guitar)
Band Position: Backup Guitar
Codename: Z.2 Zahl zwei
He’s half German, and his parents are dead. He’s cool, calm and very skilled. His guitar playing is pro level as well, but he doesn’t like it that much.
He also knows martial arts, and had top marks at the LAG acadedemny.
Substance: Fernandes CV: Takemoto Eiji
The classic impulsive, hotheaded hero type.
Kirisawa Takt CV: Miyano Mamoru
Hobby: none
Noise Render: Paige (Guitar-shaped spear)
Band Position: Vocal/Main Guitar
Codename: Z.1 Zahl eins
Acts as IS’s leader. Serious and a perfectionist, he’s always trying to fix things, which sometimes causes conflict with the others.
He’s very proud, and has absolute confidence in himself.
Substance: Lespouri CV: Namikawa Daisuke
A childish type that loves pranks, he can also be quite coldhearted. Takuto often scolds him like a parent.
Tsuga Yuji CV: Kondou Riku
Hobby: Soccer
Noise Blender: Bacchus (a bass-shaped axe)
Band Position: Bass
Codename: Z.3 Zahl drei
The oldest member of IS who acts as the ‘older brother’ of the team, he’s easygoing but shrewd. He also ends up being the mediator in team conflicts.
Substance: Deviser CV: Koyama Rikiya
Extremely proud and arrogant, he thinks of the world as his oyster, but values his comrades highly.
Kurama Hiro CV: Shimono Hiroo
Hobby: Reading (especially Japanese culture and philosophy)
Noise Blender: Campbell (drum-shaped weapon that makes energy waved)
Band position: Drums
Codename: Z.4 Zahl vier
The youngest member of IS, Hiro is meek and bashful. Because he’s so socially inept, he often says things that sound harsh unintentionally.
Substance: Duesenberg CV: Takahashi Naozumi
He is male but his heart, actions, and speech patterns are feminine. He loves beautiful things, and loves that IS’s members are bishounen.
Suzuki Kazuki CV: Takahashi Hiroki
Hobby: PC
Noise Blender: Gureko (a gunlike long-range weapon)
Band Position: Keyboards
Codename: Z.5 Zahl funf
Kind of a narcissist, he often does and says strange things, and his teammates have a hard time understanding him.
He’s very straightforward in what he likes. He calls himself an artist, and is very serious about the band. He also thinks of himself as a hero, and takes his role in IS seriously. He writes lyrics and songs for the band, but has no talent for lyrics.
Substance: RickenBacker CV: Okamoto Nobuhiko
For some reason (maybe he can’t remember the words), he’s never been to converse with anyone. He mostly only has outbursts of snickering or other sounds. However, apparently he and the other Substances and he and Kazuki can talk.
Mutsuki Hijiri CV: Kenn
Hobby: Gambling
Noise Blender: Casino (a mic-shaped bladed weapon)
Band Position: None
Codename: Z.6 Zahl Xechs
The most recent member of IS. He’s friendly with a stray cat Ochzuke. He is a playboy and not very serious, and sometimes will go ff somewhere without warning. He has also been suspected of being a spy for the Night Fly.
Substance: Epiphone CV: Fujiwara Yuuki
Apparently he was the first Night Fly to come to Earth. He doesn’t speak much and is often alone. He is very cool in battle. Only recently did he choose to become Hijiri’s Substance.
The character art is very long and lean, and on the (heavy Flash)site there are a few mini-movies to watch that are mostly little teasers, but fun. No info yet on gameplay, but the idea of having the guys’ ‘mecha’ actually be characters as well is quite cool!
Corda 3 First Play!
I got Corda 3 yesterday and have been busily playing through it. I love having all new characters!
The gameplay is pretty similar to previous Corda games, but there is an added minigame during performances that demands some hand-eye coordination (not too much on easy mode thankfully).
At the beginning I couldn’t help giggling, the first scene is so!dramatic! and Fukuyama Jun is being very!angsty! but it gets over that pretty quickly, and it makes sense for his character (kind of immature). And in fact, Corda 3’s plot does seem more dramatic overall, I’ve already agonized over one contest (I don’t think I cried though…). I’m actually interested to see how this works if you are going for a guy from a different school – in the beginning you have very limited interaction with non-Seisou students. According to the manual I still have semi-finals and the final to go, as well as a violin final – since I’ve already beaten one rival school, I wonder how that works if I’m trying to do their routes.
Oh, another thing that made me laugh is that they’re going a little Prince of Tennis on us(with all their crazy ‘tennis’ moves), and making the performances less realistic. You know how when you were really good in Corda 1-2 it would show effects and lights and stuff? Well now that effect is supposedly real, and is called a Maestro Field. Supposedly when you’re really good you can make the audience see/hear/feel the landscape of the music (mmmhmmm suuuuurrre).
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
Kin’iro no Corda 3 Seiyuu!
Since there are all-new characters in the upcoming Kin’iro no Corda 3 coming out in spring, let’s take a look at their seiyuu! All the original seiyuu are here, as well as several new ones. They’re also from four different schools, so you can have rivalries with them You can see art and some even have voice samples up at the Kin’iro no Corda 3 site. Looking at the teaser pic, I totally thought it was the same gang but Yunoki had cut his hair…but I’m glad they’re new, there’s only so long you can drag out the original story. Yay new Corda!!!
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
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…
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?