24.02.12 / Idea Factory, Japanese, Otome game, Romance game, Sony PSP, Video game, Visual novel / Author: Kina / Comments: (4)
Tags: mirai e no prologue, wand of fortune
The Wand of Fortune fandisc, useful only to those who have played the original and liked it. I’m sort of, kind of in that category, so I downloaded it and gave it a brief spin.
Can’t say I enjoyed it though. It’s too strict in terms of the choices you’re allowed to make. You’re locked into or out of certain routes depending on the first three choices you make at the beginning. You can do everything right after that and still end up getting the teachers’ ending.
The fandisc is divided into three sections: an original scenario called “Edgar’s Mysterious Loupe” featuring a new character, a long boring story about Cynthia (the blonde-haired Julius freak) and a section where you see what happened between Lulu and her chosen guy after the end of the first game. That’s the only part worth playing IMO. Edgar’s loupe deals with Lulu’s crisis of confidence after getting the “All” element in the first game, and a mopey depressed Lulu isn’t Lulu at all.
Still, I played “Edgar’s Mysterious Loupe” a couple of times. Got Edgar’s, Est’s, Lagi’s and Noel’s endings naturally, then used a FAQ to get Elbart (now known as “Elbert”, what gives) and the “True” Ending. In the process I discovered that I don’t really like Lagi as much as I thought I did, that Noel and Est are awesome and that Mr. E is still my number one. Elbie4Lyfe.
Getting those endings unlocked the post-original scenarios for Est, Lagi, Noel and Elbe/art, allowing me to see how they’re getting on with Lulu. Err, sort of. Apart from Elbert’s route, I fast-forwarded through the others because they were dragging on.
Elbert and Lulu: they aren’t getting on too well because Elbert is embarrassed to admit their relationship in public. As well he should be, the pedophile. If you’re going to date a student, you should at least take a leaf from Himurocchi’s book and choose a day-school so you can date them outside school on weekends. At least they were both clever enough to pick a school where the principals are okay with it.
In the end Lulu gets tired of him pushing her away and plants a kiss on him, the end. Heh heh, I love it when they get all embarrassed like that. Unfortunately I don’t see much of a future for E&L as long as Elbert continues to be so ball-less. Sorry darling, but it’s the truth.
When we get married, I'm burning this outfit first
Lagi and Lulu: they’re having issues because he can’t hug her and is nice to every other girl but her. Lagi’s a twat for making my Lulu sad, and I’ve had it up to here with his cranky, childish attitude. They did share a nice kiss towards the end, but I have no idea how they got there because I was forwarding my way through.
Noel and Lulu: more awkwardness, more unhappy Lulu. She wants him to be more affectionate and he’s too nervous to do so. Unlike Elbert he doesn’t even have his position as an excuse. I like Noel, he’s a funny guy, but this is unacceptable.
Est and Lulu: have a surprisingly sweet relationship, but I don’t remember much else of what happened in there. Something about him hiding secrets from her, blah blah, I want to share your pain, blah blah, and your colds and fevers too, blah blah blah. Fast forward for the win.
The older I grow, the shorter my attention span gets, so this outcome was perhaps inevitable. Moreover, while I liked the previous game, I’m still a little burned out from how long and tedious it was, so my opinion doesn’t count for much. Fans of Wand of Fortune won’t go wrong with this fandisc though. It’s nice to find out exactly what happened once they started dating, because a confession doesn’t automatically mean everything’s hunky-dory. The disc also has several new CGs as well as “dream sequences” with all the characters, and each route in each section is fairly short, especially compared to the original. It’s worth at least one playthrough.
19.02.12 / Atlus, Game Boy Advance, Romance game, RPG, Video game / Author: Kina / Comments: (7)
Tags: riviera the promised land
I got nostalgic for Riviera, so I’ve been playing it on and off for the past couple of months. I just finished my third and a half playthrough of this game and got Serene’s ending for the second time.
Since I’ve played it so often, I don’t have much to say about it. I first picked this up in… 2005-ish? Summer of 2005, I believe. It was my first “dating sim-ish” kind of game, the first time my atttitude towards my party members had actually affected the ending I got. I had no idea things would turn out that way, but I just went along being nice to Lina and before I knew it, I’d gotten a treasure hunter ending with her. I was hooked!
I immediately started a new game, which also makes Riviera the first game I ever did back-to-back playthroughs for. This time I went for Serene because, like, who doesn’t go for Serene? Got her, yippee, then right away I started another playthrough! I was going for Cierra this time, but then I stopped myself halfway though like, “WTF are you doing? How can you play the same game three times in a row like this? Stop touching that game. Stop it!”
You’ve gotta understand, that was the first time a game had ever had that effect on me, I thought I was going crazy or something. So, believe it or not, I forced myself to stop playing and lent the game to a friend I knew wouldn’t return it. And that was it for Riviera and me until now. Looking back, WTF was wrong with me?
Anyway, so I got a little wistful late last year and got a rom and played it. It was surprisingly hard to get through, for an unexpected reason: I remember just about everything that ever happened in the game. It’s been almost 7 years, but I still remembered most of the dungeons, most of the skits, the soundtracks, even which way to go and which way not to go. I guess I did play it 2.5 times, it’s only to be expected. The nostalgia trip was fun, though. And now I know I wasn’t crazy. It’s not the best game in the world, the story is cheesy as hell, the Practice Battle system makes things a little too easy and that 15-item limit just has to go. But even after all these years I had a blast with the characters and their interactions, the soundtrack, all the hidden items and traps… All still fun for me to explore after all this time.
I also got to reminisce about the days when I thought Sting was a great developer, based on just this game. That was before I went on to play Yggdra Union… Stupidly confusing stupidly complicated randomly hard battle system… no, we won’t talk about that game today. It’s like the same way Imageepoch publicly soiled themselves with Final Promise Story, except I forgave them once I played Criminal Girls while Sting has yet to be saved. They’ve got other things like Blaze Union and Gloria Union, but I’m not touching them. A while ago I was downloading random ISOs and came across an SRPG called Gungnir. Oh, a new SRPG, downloaded, fired it up… Sting. *florporplorpl* my gaming boner wilted on the spot.
Yes, I Mad. Although I suppose 6 years is a rather long time to hold a grudge… And maybe I just sucked at YU… No, forget it, I Still Mad. …Yeah, definitely still mad.
Well, that was a nice trip down Memory Lane, but I can’t stay in the past forever. Next up, I’ve been exploring the Wand of Fortune fandisc, Mirai e no Prologue. More about that once I’ve fooled around with it a little more.
13.01.12 / Japanese, Konami, Nintendo DS, Romance game, Video game, Visual novel / Author: Kina / Comments: (20)
Tags: anime, Boku ga Romeo de Romeo ga Boku de, Hayate no Gotoku
Yes, even monkeys fall from trees. And even normally careful gamers forget to keep backup saves and accidentally overwrite precious New Game+ data with an actual new game save.
In most games this wouldn’t be a problem because each route would be (mostly) separate. But in Hayate no Gotoku, the only way to unlock Maria as a romantic partner is to clear all the other girls. No cleared save data = No Maria. No Maria = No point in continuing. And I just had Isumi to go before getting her, what a pity.
On to the next game!
08.01.12 / Japanese, Konami, Nintendo DS, Romance game, Video game, Visual novel / Author: Kina / Comments: (0)
Tags: anime, Boku ga Romeo de Romeo ga Boku de, Hayate no Gotoku, review
It’s been a while since my DS saw any action. And I’m a little disgusted with my PSP after that Blade Dancer experience, so for a change of mood I decided to play something lighter and funnier.
Hayate no Gotoku – Romeo ga Boku de, Boku ga Romeo is the first of three handheld games based on a shonen manga about a debt-ridden butler named Ayasaki Hayate. If you haven’t read it, I’m in two minds as to whether to recommend it or not. On one hand it’s a very funny, charming series with a great cast of characters, but on the other hand the story hasn’t gone anywhere in ages and even I have stopped reading it, so… Eh. The game is for fans only, so if you don’t know the series you can skip the rest of this post.
Since this game came out in 2007 before anything really earth-shattering happened in the manga (Greece arc, A-tan), it still has that silly, gag-filled atmosphere that drew me in in the first place. As such Romeo ga Boku is the kind of story that would work well as a filler episode in the anime. Hakuo Academy is going to stage a play, and one way or another Hayate is going to be cast as one of the leads together with one of his many, many love interests. You have your choice of Nagi, Hinagiku, Ayumu, Sakuya, Isumi, Maria and a “secret character” (I’ll let you find out who that is).
The game is a visual novel 95% of the time, with the occasional save break that allows you to play mini-games to earn Pathos points. Pathos points can be used to unlock special outfits for the girls and also to unlock alternative answer choices during the main game. Apart from that you pick your girl, watch the scenes play out, pick an answer when given the option, hope you get a bad ending because those are hilarious and generally just make your way to the end of the game. Along the way you will also unlock voice clips and CGs that unfortunately I can’t show you because unlike the PSP, the DS does not have a screenshot plugin (I stole these ones from the internet).
Now then, although I normally dislike visual novels, the fact that the game features characters I already know and like, and the fact that each route is short and frequently funny has lead to me pouring more effort into this than I normally do with this kind of game. Right now I’ve gotten Nagi, Hinagiku and Ayumu’s endings. I just started Sakuya’s route and I’m kinda regretting it because I don’t like. But after her I’ll get Isumi, then finally Maria.
Hinagiku: Her play is “Snow White” and nothing much happens on her route until the end, where you have to battle your way up an RPG-style tower to rescue a puppy. She spends the whole play agonizing over what will happen during the kissing scene at the end, but then she panics so much that she sits up before Hayate can kiss her and the play ends there. Bummer. Hinagiku is as twitchy as ever, so her route has quite a few bad endings. That’s all part of the fun, of course.
Ayumu: She’s boring, so her route is boring too. At least she only has one Bad End. Her play is “Romeo and Juliet.” The “climax” of her story occurs when her father spots her practicing in the park at night with Hayate and sets his zombie coworkers on them. You might be wondering how Ayumu got to star in a Hakuo Academy play when she doesn’t even attend that school… well, don’t sweat the small stuff.
Yes, elephantiasis is a horrible disease.
Nagi: The most romantic of the three routes so far, because a magical statue actively tries to bring them together. Nagi’s play is “Cinderella.” Or more like Cinderella mixed with Dance Dance Revolution mixed with Fist of the North Star. Come on, it’s Nagi. The crisis on her route involves Nagi being kidnapped and held for ransom by the same guys that tried to hijack Sakuya’s ship way back when.
It’s been a while since I saw Nagi’s old mansion and bedroom, so this route was a nice trip down memory lane. Speaking of Nagi and her mansion, the realization Hayate would be a dick to end up with anyone else but the girl who loved him enough to throw away her zillion-dollar fortune is part of the reason why I stopped reading the manga. Foregone conclusions are no fun at all.
So that’s how far I’ve gotten. Graphically and musically this game isn’t much to write home about, but it’s cute and it’s funny and it helps pass the time, so that’s good enough for me. I am getting a leeetle bit tired though, especially of the “Tiger’s Den” scenes where Hayate has to try desperately to please these overly-sensitive girls. I might take a little break before continuing with the rest of the characters.