Posts Tagged ‘PS2’

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 Tatsuhisa

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!

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…

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?

Sale: Himehibi 2

Yesasia has the PS2 Takuyo game Himehibi 2 for about 50% off! $43 is pretty good for a PS2 game, it’s only a few months old too (plus I liked it, heh).

If I notice any other deals in my wandering, I’ll update this post.

Kin’iro no Corda 3 coming next spring!

For the PS2 and PSP. One word – Awesome! Looks like this time the objective is a national competition.

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?