Posts Tagged ‘PSP’
Genroh – Seiyuu announcements!
I’m already excited for Genroh, especially now that the seiyuu have been revealed! There’s no release date yet, but I’m going to guess September or October. It’s set in the Heian era, 1179, the exact same timeframe as Harutoki 3, with some of the same characters.
Going from right to left: Heroine, Yoshitsune, Benkei, Kotarou, Tsugunobu, Tadanobu
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke) – The son of the Minamoto clan. His deepest desire is to beat the Taira clan, and he fully believes in his older brother Yoritomo in Kamakura. His mother gave him a flute which he keeps with him at all times, and he watches over the heroine.
Musashibou Benkei (CV: Tsuda Kenjirou) A former monk of Mt. Hiei who now works for Yoshitsune. He’s intimidating without even trying to be, so he often scares people. He likes to cook and seeing people enjoy food makes him happy. Though he doesn’t show much emotion, he’s actually good at looking after people. (I am totally doing his route first. I knew I would like him, and I love his voice actor too!)
Kotarou (CV: Matsuoka Yoshitsugu) – A quick, nimble young man who’s good at talking to people, he has his own reasons for working for Yoshitsune. He has a complex about being short and is determined to become even bigger than Benkei one day. He can’t seem to help being mean to the heroine.
Satou Tsugunobu (CV: Miki Shinichirou) – Yoshitsune’s comrade who lives with him in Hiraizumi. He’s very loyal, and is almost too straightforward in his moral code. He also loves swords so much, he does some blacksmithing. He sees the heroine as a younger sister.
Satou Tadanobu (CV: Suzuki Yuuto) – Tsugunobu’s younger brother who’s an archery expert, and is seen as a bit of a womanizer. He likes to tease the heroine and watch her reactions.
Mikage (CV: Koyasu Takehito) – Yoshitsune’s mysterious teacher, he actually tries to kidnap the heroine.
Atelier Elkrone First Play
I got a bunch of games last night:
- Vampire Sweetie (PC)
- Black Wolves Saga Bloody Nightmare (PC)
- Scarred Rider Xechs + FD (PSP)
- Harutoki 5 FD (PSP)
- and Atelier Elkrone(PSP)
After not too much debate, I started up Elkrone first. One, I really want to see if there’s a good alchemy minigame, because I love collecting and making things in-game (yeah I am that annoying crafter in MMORPGs that wants all the recipes). And Otomate has done it before – Kanuchi had a crafting system that I really liked. And two, I’ve played Xechs and Harutoki 5 so the FDs can wait, and Bloody Nightmare…I need to work myself up to it, I hear it’s really dark. If it’s anything like Gekka Ryouran it’s gonna be intense. Vampire Sweetie I’ll probably play in fits and starts.
So far in Elkrone, I’ve only made one thing, but it seems really simple. You need three ingredients, and from my understanding you already have one or two of them (they’re more like catalysts and they don’t get used up) that you get from your fairy friend Popotto. Doesn’t seem very complicated, as you can tell when you have a match. I haven’t gone collecting yet though, so maybe that is more involved.
As for l’amour, I’m pretty sure I’ll go for Ralph (the main guy) first. I’m not even out of the intro, I’ve only met him, Johanne the adventurer, and the old weapon shop guy (voiced by none other than Madao! Gintama’s ruined me for this guy’s voice, good thing he’s not catchable). Ralph is a former classmate and classic tsundere, really obvious and pretty cute.
That’s it for now! Once I have more idea of the story (no idea if there’s an overarching plot but there are some hints) I’ll post again. And tomorrow or Sunday will be video time!
More May News! – Girl’s Style
I knew there was more!
Issho ni Gohan, the cooking-centric drama cd series, is being made into a game by Otomate for the PSP – for release in September. The heroine becomes the landlady at a boarding house for a nearby cooking school which she attends (which all the guys go to/have graduated from). In addition to the affection meter which changes with your dialogue choices, it will have a cooking skill meter which also affects your endings, raised by cooking minigames and quizzes.
Characters:
Yoneda Hikari (CV: Kaji Yuuki) – the second-year student who’s able to become friends easily with anyone
Karasawa Rei (CV: Ono Daisuke) – the graduate with a harsh personality who’s running a nearby curry restaurant
Toriyama Yousuke (CV: Shimono Hiro) – the first-year who looks up to Hikari and is the house’s moodmaker
Daitou Natsu (CV: Tsuda Kenjirou) – a fourth-year in the Japanese food program, he grew up in a traditional Japanese house and knows archery and ikebana. He’s strict about people following the rules and has a hard time blending into groups.
Unoha Nao (CV: Fukuyama Jun) – the weak-bodied fourth year who’s a bit of an airhead, who’s also artistic
Umino Riki (CV: Suzumura Kenichi) – the popular second-year who DJs at a club to make money and wants to ‘produce’ a restaurant
Ther’s also a teaser pic about a new game about ‘glass heart syndrome’, and not being ‘allowed’ to get ‘tokimeki’(I think you’re not supposed to get romantic feelings in the game) from Otomate. More details next month.
And finally, a diagram showing all the different ways you can customize your guy in Custom Drive, resulting in (supposedly) over 1,000,000 variations: hats (5), glasses (5), personality (5), hairstyle (10), clothes (10), accessories (10), over 3 different characters. Now if I remember high school math, the law of permutations would mean that there are…hm, I only get 375,000 permutations. Either I’m wrong (impossible!), or D3 has some explaining to do! We won’t be satisfied with only 375,000, am I right?? …OK, I’ll give them a pass this time.
Kamigami no Asobi
Got all the mags in tonight! There’s a bunch on Kamigami no Asobi so that’s tonight’s post – tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll do a news summary.
- It’s set in a world where gods who have forgotten their love for humanity are re-educated by one young girl. The two characters shown so far are Apollon, and Tsukito, from Greek and Japanese mythology respectively. One thing the producer mentions is that the catchphrase is “Love is Pain”, and that they are trying out something rare in otome games, tragic love. It sounds like they want to try to have some very angsty routes, but they say they’re also putting in happy routes.
- The setting is a school, created by the gods, so it’s not a normal school at all – it looks like a European castle, and it has different sections for the different mythologies. For example, the Japanese part is mountainous, and the Greek part is a beautiful garden. The creators wanted to do a fantasy game, but one that had familiar rules, so they settled on a school life/fantasy mix.
- Besides the two characters presented already, Odin and Loki will be the Norse representatives, and there will also be Egyptian mythology figures (I hope they do Horus and Anubis, I’d love to see hawk (falcon?) and jackal-headed characters!)
Tokimemo GS3 PSP!
I got it a couple days ago and am going for Ruka first. I never finished his route on the DS even though I like him quite a bit – I always seemed to get pulled into love triangles and then go for Kou 
Skinship is pretty different here – all the guesswork is taken out, but instead there’s a timing challenge to get more hearts, which I actually find kind of harder than the DS version. I haven’t gotten to the point where I can choose koakuma or angel yet, but I can’t wait – I hear the angel side is similar to the DS so I’ll probably do mostly koakuma (like I wasn’t going to anyways).
The animation does make it feel much more interactive – character expressions match what they’re saying really well (I think better than the DS version…) and of course the better picture and sound of the PSP helps a lot as well. The CGs are so smooth!
I haven’t seen the new guy, Hasumi, yet – I think he might only transfer in for the last year.
Oh, and one last thing I’ve noticed – the birthday presents are different! Not too hard to guess though.
I’m not even done my first year, so still lots of playing time to get through and see what’s different.
Itty Bitty Review
Because I had to work late again I have no energy (and no memory power, which is why I can’t remember people’s names here), but I did play Ouma ga Toki a fair bit on the weekend. It’s good, but not as great as I’d hoped – I’ve finished two routes so far and they feel kind of short. I haven’t done Hisoka’s route yet, and I feel like that’s the ‘true’ one, so maybe that will feel more substantial. Also, since I’m not using a guide it’s quite possible I’m missing a bunch, although there aren’t that many choices to make overall.
I did Touno (Suwa, of course!) and the guy who helps out in the nurse’s room. One thing I found refreshing was that it was pretty heavily implied that once they were in a relationship, they had sex! Since they’re all youkai and pretty old, it makes sense that they wouldn’t be typically shy teenagers. Although it’s still not clear how old the heroine is – I think you only find out her whole story with Hisoka. I’ll have to finish his route next, but I took a break for some fluffy fun – Beastmaster and Prince ~Snow Bride~. Mofu mofu forever!
Ouma ga Toki
I’ve been working late so I’m kind of brain-dead, but for what it’s worth: I’m still not far into Ouma ga Toki, but so far I like it – the heroine is self-aware, kind of a smart-ass, and awesome in almost every way. There’s no gameplay and the music is bland, but the setting is fun and the characters are good so far. I’m trying to go for Tooya (CV: Suwabe Junichi), the banchou-type, but who knows how I’m doing – I can’t see any affection meter or anything.
Also got Kanuchi Futatsu no Tsubasa from amiami – SAL packet with no customs (phew). Now I have to decide how to order more games with the best shipping…
And still no Tokimemo 3! Booo.
C’est tout! G’night.
Hana Awase
B’s Log came with a huge book for Hana Awase! 
It has lots of gorgeous art by Yura.
The heroine, Mikoto, transfers to Kasen Campus where the students (mostly the male ones) are trying to become ‘kaei’ – people who control hanafuda (flower seals) and can use them to play ‘Hana Awase’, a game in which they can bring forth power (to do things? it’s kinda vague). Mikoto likes card games, sewing and cooking, and easily gets involved in things. She gets interested in Hana Awase. The five boys in each year who win’ are called the Five Lights.
Vocab time:
華詠 (Kaei): The few (usually) boys who can use the power of hanafuda.
華アワセ (hanaawase): the competition level of kasen, which is so dangerous it can be fatal. It is only done by kaei and minamo. What the public knows is the ‘hanautsushi’ version only.
水妹 (minamo): The girls who support the kaei with all their body and soul. Always pure young maidens, one kaei will need many minamo to get strong, but a minamo can only dedicate themselves to one kaei.
泉姫 (senki): A minamo who is so strong that she can support a kaei all by herself and has enough power to move heaven and earth. There are no minamo at present who rise to that level, so right now the senki is like a legend.
華遷 (kasen): the game which uses hanafuda. It’s done at ceremonies, contests, and even required for national relations (international? not sure).
Characters:
Iroha (CV: Terashima Takuma) – the top of the top, the top of the Five Lights, and the object of the student’s admiration. He’s perfect and cool, and never shows emotion. He also has the ‘eyes of the moon’, which means that people can’t help but be attracted to him and there’s rumoured to be a test to get into his Chisengumi（地仙組）. The heroine also has this, but ‘the moon’ hasn’t appeared yet in her. Iroha acts the same way to everyone and is totally uninterested in love, but for some reason always shows up to help the heroine in a pinch.
Mizuchi (CV: Fukuyama Jun) – Brought up in a very strict household, Mizuchi believes in following the rules, and hates anyone who breaks them or betrays him. He’s used to discipline and became a Kaei as soon as he came to Kasen. He values the Minamo highly and treats them very well, grateful that they give him power, and so there are always lots of girls in his (鴻鵠組） who want to be his Minamo. He admires Iroha and wants to be like him more than anything else. Because he’s so used to controlling himself, he has no experience with love, and has never looked at any of the Minamo in a more-than-innocent way.
Himeutsugi (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke) – He got into Kasen by special selection, and like Mizuchi, quickly became a Kaei. He’s strong but modest, and always stays back a step from groups, but somehow has an open personality that makes people love him. He doesn’t like conflict, so doesn’t start Kasen contests on his own, but once he starts, he gives it his all. The people in his Gekkougumi (月光組） are mostly kind like him, and he takes very good care of his Minamo. He’s never had a serious relationship since he couldn’t stand to hurt someone’s feelings and he’s never let himself fall for someone…until he meets the heroine.
Karekurenagi (CV: Hino Satoshi) – He transferred in second year and quickly became a Kaei to everyone’s surprise. He is equally admired and feared, and often skips school to find trouble outside. He only plays Kasen when he wants. He always is with Minamo from his Oukagumi（桜花組）, and treats everyone in his group as his possessions. He seems to switch them all the time, but the girls appear to enjoy being played with by him.
Utsutsu (CV: Sugiyama Noriaki) – He became a Kaei in his second year, but disappeared shortly after. There are rumours as to what happened, but no one knows for sure. Right now his ‘Houougumi’ (鳳凰組） is led by a deputy, but without the charisma of a Kaei, it’s very small and there aren’t many Minamo. He knows the heroine, although it’s unclear how they meet, and he feels positively towards her. The quote on his page says, “Mikoto is my special one. I only need Mikoto by my side”.
Just talking about Hana Awase took a long time, so I’m going to do the rest of the news on Wednesday!
Arcana Famiglia Redux
As Ebi pointed out, I have had the wrong idea about Arcana Famiglia since the beginning – I thought the game came from a series of novels, but it seems like the only thing that came out before the game were some drama CDs, and those were specifically leading up to the game. Time for some geeky detective work(my favourite kind)!
Twitter icons - cute!
Looking back at the magazines, the first time I saw anything was way back in the July 2010 Girl’s Style (released in June 2010!). It just had teaser pics of the guys (no Dante, guess he came after lol), with quotes – for some it seems a little different from their final personalities. It’s interesting because B’s Log doesn’t cover it at all until a year later, in their August 2011 (sold in June) issue! Although, they had it in their calendar for a few months before that. Maybe Girls’ Style had an exclusive deal or something.
Comfort was the actual creator although HuneX published it. Its vision was to be a combo of shounen manga (thus all the comic style speech bubbles and action) and otome game (with everything else). And it definitely succeeded – it will be an anime during the Summer 2012 season. It seems like the plot of the show is the same as the game, which I’m a little disappointed in – I thought they could have started it earlier and shown some history before getting into the tournament.
Just for funsies, here’s the first drama CD on Amazon.jp – Volume 1 Arcana Famiglia Piachure! La Primavera.
I haven’t finished Nova, who might be the last character I finish in Arcana for a while. Dante and Jory don’t interest me too much (although if I didn’t have such a backlog I’d totally finish it), but I’ve done everyone else. I find The Lovers ability pretty fun to use, I thought it was well done, and if you know where to look, I don’t find the fighting to be very difficult.
And after poring through magazines for an hour looking for it, I always forget how much is in them. Though I do the news monthly when I get them, it’s mostly just highlights – new games and ports/adaptations. There’s so much other stuff, including some fun little gag comics – I should put them on tumblr or something.
Review – Arcana Famiglia
[EDIT] Hah, I totally meant to have more in this review but it posted without me realizing. I’ll do a part two tomorrow.
I wasn’t that interested in Arcana Famiglia for whatever reason, but Rita recommended it to me and I’m glad I got it on her rec. It’s enjoyable, has some innovative narrative tricks, and some neat (although mostly unnecessary) gameplay.
Arcana Famiglia the game is based on a series of novels of the same name. I’m not sure if the stories are totally the same (apart from the character endings which I’m pretty sure had to be created fresh), but you can tell that the worldbuilding is solid.
First, if you’re not familiar with the Tarot, it’s a set of cards that has 22 special cards called the Major Arcana. In the story, the Major Arcana can choose someone as their bearer, marking them with a stigmata, and that person gains powers depending on which card it is. There are also some heavy penalties to pay; these factor heavily into most of the storylines.
The heroine, Felicita, is the daughter of a mob boss, Il Mondo, who takes care of a Mediterranean island called Legalo. He has several teams of workers, each headed up by a captain who is a Major Arcana. On his 59th birthday (he’s looking good I must say!), Il Mondo announces that in two months, there will be a duel between all the existing Major Arcana holders, and the winner will 1) take over the boss role of the Arcana Famiglia, and 2) get to marry his daughter. In addition, she will be confined to the family mansion for the rest of her life.
Well, as you might guess, Felicita (along with some of the Arcana) don’t think too highly of this, so she determines to win the competition herself. Unfortunately she’s not that strong yet, so she needs to train.
Once you get through the introduction nad meeting all the characters, you start moving through days, choosing who to visit each day. Depending on the day, each guy might have just a chance encounter (short), a character event, or a love event. The game is nice and indicates this with symbols on the map selection screen. During most events, your choices affect the affection level of the guys. Also, you can use your Arcana power of The Lovers to peer inside the guy’s hearts and get a glimpse of their thoughts, also raising their affection a bit each time.
Tokyo Demons
Diabolik Lover
Renai Banchou 2
Atelier Elkrone
Juuzaengi
Brothers Conflict
Shinigami to Shoujo