Harukanaru Toki no naka de 4 – Tooya, Nagi, Futsuhiko, Oshihito GET! (spoilers)

Following the previous post, it’s time to cover the guys I did get in Harukanaru Toki no naka de 4, also in order of increasing desirability. Major route spoilers ahead, stop now if you plan to play this game.

Nagi – Chihiro’s childhood friend with the terribly-explained story. I should at least credit him for getting me interested in the game. I did his route after Tooya’s, so I had some idea of how the game was “supposed” to go. Then came the unexpected turn of events in chapter 5 which made me sit up and take a real interest in what would happen next. And what happened next was so stupid and horribly-written I came very close to quitting.

His story: Nagi was born into the royal family (meaning he’s related to Chihiro, but it’s never explained how) but was abandoned as a baby because of his magic powers. He was picked up by an old warrior who taught him everything he knew and then died. Somewhere, somehow, Nagi met up with Kazahaya and Chihiro and fled to the modern world with them. This “somewhere, somehow” should be a very important part of the story but again, no explanation.

In chapter 5, Nagi and Chihiro get themselves killed fighting the Black Dragon, but Nagi’s dragonballs magatama help them return to life. Since that magatama is a two-of-a-kind royal treasure, this clues the scheming advisor Lady Sai to the fact that he’s royalty. There’s a problem with this turn of events, however. First off, if that’s the case then Iwanagahime should have recognized it as well, way back in chapter 1. More importantly, Lady Sai should also recognize it whenever she runs into Nagi on any other route, since 1. he wears it out in plain sight and 2. the abandoned baby was also named “Nagi”. Even allowing for the fact that she’s old and possibly has bad eyesight, her officials also know about the magatama, but nobody ever mentions anything except on Nagi’s route. That makes no sense.

Back to the story, Lady Sai talks Nagi into kicking Chihiro out of the line of succession and declaring himself king. She’s hoping he and the dragon will kill themselves so Chihiro can take over later. So far, so good. Nagi doesn’t have a problem with that plan, because he, too, wants to lead the army against the Black Dragon and sacrifice himself to kill it so Chihiro can be queen of a free, safe country.

The part that gave me a headache was… Why is everyone following this upstart from nowhere? All the soldiers that pledged allegiance to her, the people she saved, those who had been in her service since chapter 1, they all kick Chihiro out on the spot and follow Nagi. The official reason is that she sucks at fighting and isn’t suited to be a leader but:

1. The whole point of the queen in Toyooshihara is not to be a war general but to be the dragon’s priestess. The entire story hinges on that fact. How can you possibly toss her out and pick a king who can’t hear the dragon’s voice?
2. Everyone knew Chihiro sucked from the start when they chose her to lead. Why is this suddenly an issue now?
3. If the problem is the battle that was lost at Izumo, Nagi was there too and he was just as useless, so demoting Chihiro because of that makes absolutely no sense.

Back to the story again. Chihiro refuses to give up. She and the gang find Nagi facing off against the Black Dragon and the Tokoyo army on the beach. This, of course, makes no sense either: in the previous battle at Izumo, the Dragon killed tons of Tokoyo soldiers including, apparently, their king. Assvin, Saty and Shani have all withdrawn and returned to Tokoyo. Which means the Tokoyos have no reason to follow the dragon into battle, which also means Nagi had no reason to get himself proclaimed king just so he could lead the entire Toyooshihara army against them, which also means… AAARGGGH, THIS WHOLE ROUTE MAKES NO SENSE!!!!

*huff huff* Okay, forget the analysis. To cut a long story short, everyone works together to defeat the dragon, Nagi realizes how important Chihiro is to him. He confesses to her on the beach and they hug. The end. …Wait, the end here? What’s going to happen next? Will Nagi abdicate? Will he remain king with Chihiro as his queen? Will she become queen and marry him? What? What? Don’t leave me hanging like this! AAAAARRRRGGHHHH! Worst. Route. Ever.

Futsuhiko – Numbskull! Cretin! Traitor! I liked him until I did his route, now I want him to die in a fire. I liked his looks, I liked his naive but passionate nature, I liked that he was a loyal, hard worker. What I failed to notice is that he is also an idiotic MORON. His route sees him angsting over a major issue which is coolly tossed aside at the end and never referred to again.

His story: The game started with Chihiro’s sister eloping with her lover, which brought ruin to the country of Toyooshihara. Turns out that “lover” was Futsuhiko’s older brother, which brought shame and disgrace on his family and got them banished from the capital. Quite naturally he is very disturbed when he finds himself falling in love with the princess and on the verge of committing the same crime his brother did.

The story in this route is that Lady Sai (yes, that same Lady Sai) spread a rumor that Chihiro had summoned Toyooshihara’s dragon god. Chihiro had done no such thing, of course, but she had been in contact with the Black Dragon and knew he was trying to destroy humanity. When the Black Dragon appears, the people rejoice thinking he’s their savior. Chihiro says nuh-huh and shoots him with a holy arrow, and Lady Sai goes berserk and has her locked away until she agrees to pull out the arrow. Lady Sai sure picked up the idiot ball on this one. She wants the dragon freed because the people will panic without a dragon but… uhh, won’t they panic even more when he starts burning and frying, you know, everyone?!?

[Btw, I wonder why no one noticed that this dragon is black while their guardian is supposed to be the white dragon…]

I’d cry too if I had an IQ of -500

Well, Lady Sai is a jerk, and probably senile to boot, so we can excuse her, but… Why is Futsuhiko helping her?!?! Why is he trying to convince Chihiro to free the dragon? Why does he value his family name and his status over his loyalty to the princess? I thought you loved me, you gutless traitor! 布都彦の馬鹿！もう知らない！

In the end he has a sudden, random change of heart and helps Chihiro flee the capital and meet up with the rest of the gang. They charge back into the capital to find that Lady Sai has also had a sudden, random change of heart and is now fighting the Black Dragon. Only she knew he was dangerous from the start, so why is she only now turning on him? This makes no sense at all! (you might be seeing a pattern here, but it’s just your imagination)

So we fight the dragon and kill it. Somewhere in his pre-fight spiel the dragon casually tosses out the fact that he killed Chihiro’s sister and Futsuhiko’s brother, but no one takes him seriously because, duh, that’s totally not important. One dead dragon later, Chihiro is now queen.

Well now! Things have come full circle! What happens to the forbidden love between Futsuhiko and Chihiro? You know, the forbidden love that supposedly destroyed the country the first time around? The forbidden love that has tormented him since he met her in chapter 3? The forbidden love that everyone has been throwing in his face throughout his route? Well, whaddaya know, guess it wasn’t so forbidden after all, because they’re dating now. With everyone’s full knowledge and approval. In other words, it was a taboo when their siblings did it, but now it’s perfectly fine for the Queen and a servant boy to carry on a very public affair. But that makes no……. my head hurts.

Oshihito – Hmmmmmmmmm………. There’s something wrong with his face. His looks change slightly from angle to angle and from CG to CG, so I’m still not entirely sure what he really looks like. Personality-wise I don’t think he and Chihiro are a good match. Oshihito is so strict with himself and everyone else, she’d probably never be able to really relax and be herself around him. No fun being with someone when you always have to mind your P’s and Q’s.

Well, that’s my theory of what their relationship would be like, anyway. I have no way of proving it because Oshihito’s route is not romantic. At all. At best you have the very beginning of a romance that gets cut off before it goes anywhere.

His story: We find out that Oshihito is so strong because his twin swords are cursed and are eating away at his life. Although Chihiro gets him to promise not to use them, he does anyway and dies at the end after saving her life. At that point nothing particularly romantic has happened between them. Oshihito has gained a little respect for her as a leader (dunno why) and she’s getting along with him a little better. They make a promise to go see cherry blossoms together, but that’s all the progress they’ve made when he croaks. The end.

Well, not quite, there’s a second ending you can get using the cleared save data from this ending. This time they finally get to see the cherry blossoms, and they faintly remember promising to see them together – even though that happened on a separate timeline a la Radiant Historia. Now if people can vaguely remember things from other routes, then how come nobody takes a second look at the magatama Nagi is wearing…. No, stop. I’m just depressing myself now.

Oshihito and Chihiro have a nice time looking at the cherry blossoms (it really is a nice CG) then suddenly he starts spouting all these lovey-dovey lines about how he wants to be with her forever even though they never had anything close to that kind of relationship before. Or maybe he was thinking them to himself, even though he’s never thought such things before. It’s very bizarre. That’s one route that needed a lot more development. It could have been good, but it wasn’t.

Tooya – My baby~! The route I was most happy with, simply because I like Tooya. I just do. Even here, though, I had some problems.

His story: To summarize, Tooya and Chihiro turn out to be the reincarnations of the first-ever miko and her lover. They couldn’t be together because the miko died after sealing the Black Dragon away using the White Dragon’s power. Now they’ve been reborn, they’ve met again, and this time they manage to seal the dragon without killing Chihiro – by using the power of nature. She becomes queen and I’d like to think they live happily ever after. You know, apart from the fact that as queen she probably won’t be allowed to marry someone like him.

Anyway, it’s a very sweet and affectionate route. I wasn’t sure what to make of Tooya when he showed up and started calling Chihiro his “wife,” but he soon grew on me. I think it was sad that he became human on his route though. Now he can’t see or hear the spirits any more, his magic isn’t as effective, he doesn’t seem to have any friends, and Chihiro is so busy governing that she probably doesn’t have much time for him. But he’s content with his fate, and that’s good enough for me.

There’s just one tiny little problem though: I hate reincarnation romances! They’re so cheap! They’re like a cheat button for lazy writers who don’t know the first thing about developing a romance. I mean, things were going very well between Chihiro and Tooya before the massive, abrupt leap from “fairly close” to “our ancestors were lovers so we must be lovers too!” rather ruined things for me. However since I believe they would have developed a relationship anyway even if the writers hadn’t rushed them, I’m willing to put it behind me.

Chihiro – I did her solo route as well. It’s the most likely one you’ll get without using a guide to fulfill all the bizarre obscure event requirements for the guys. Luckily it’s also the route that makes the most sense. Chihiro ends up as queen and everyone goes their separate ways. It’s also probably the happiest ending since, as I’ve noted, there’s no guarantee she’d be allowed to marry whoever she fell in love with anyway.

The post-game “Grand Finale” chapter allows her to run around the capital after she becomes queen and talk to most of the characters. Kazahaya is just hanging around being irritating as usual. Sazaki got a boat and became a merchant. Assvin is king of Tokoyo. Hiiragi vanished into the blue. Saty probably isn’t dead. Chihiro also gets a special event for those whose routes she has completed:

Nagi uses his magic to create an illusion of the modern world for her. Dunno why he bothered, it’s not like she’s ever said she misses the place. Tooya takes her for a walk or something and tells her he loves her. Aww~ You sweetheart. Oshihito has that cherry blossom scene I mentioned earlier. Futsuhiko… That guy has mental issues. Throughout the game he’s been all stiff and formal around her. Now he takes her to a festival in his hometown where anyone can say anything they want without punishment and starts hitting on her like a 10-cent gigolo. It’s so out of character for him I have to think he’s crazy. WTH is wrong with you, Futsuhiko? You just couldn’t resist ruining the game for me one last time, huh?

You know what, I’m gonna go now. I still have enough steam in me to do a final roundup of Harukanaru Toki no naka de 4, but just… not today.

Harukanaru Toki no naka de 4 – the undesirables (spoilers)

It took a while but I finally managed to get into Harukanaru Toki no naka de 4. Enough to get a couple of endings, at any rate. There’s a function that allows you to skip around the chapters, and you can “multi-task” characters for the first 4 chapters, so that helps. I still have a mountain of complaints about the way this game is constructed, but despite that I still managed to complete four character routes plus the Chihiro-solo ending.

First the losers, the ones I couldn’t be bothered to get, in order of increasing desirability/decreasing undesirability.

Kazahaya – To quote a wrestling promo, “I don’t like him, I don’t trust him and I don’t believe him. He’s a phony little piece of ****.” Something about his heavily put-on “nice guy” shtick just rubs me the wrong way. Which is weird because normally I like nice guys, but I just can’t stand Kazahaya. There’s just something slimy about him, like a nasty little crawling worm.

You find out later on that “Kazahaya” isn’t even his real name and that the real Kazahaya died years ago, but that didn’t even faze me because I knew in my heart that he was a phony. It never even occurred to me to do his route. Somehow I kept getting his events, which seriously creeped me out, but later on I found out that you have to do everyone else’s route first to get him (pfft, hell no). Can’t believe anyone would want him that badly, but there are some weirdos out there.

Ashvin – Smug bastard. Smug, cocky, thinks he’s all that. I hate his type. I hate him. And I hate those unwinnable battles he’s so often part of. His are the worst kind, where you’re clearly kicking the enemy’s ass, but then the scene switches to a cutscene and you’re on the losing end. “Oh no, he’s too strong, we can’t possibly beat him!” WTH, he’s at 1HP, we are totally winning!! It happens not just once but at least 3 different times I can think of, and all three times I was winning! In fact, when he finally joins my party, he’s weaker than a baby’s fart.

Then there’s the little incident with the overpowered unicorn in chapter 1. I finally beat the bloody thing just a few minutes ago. Plus Chihiro might be willing to let it go, but I haven’t forgotten that he’s the enemy and was responsible for the death of so many rebels before coming to my side – smug, cocky, murderous and treacherous.  No thank you!

Hiiragi – Another guy who’s just not my type. And another traitor, they’re just crawling out of the woodwork! I automatically get suspicious of guys who are too suave and too smooth-talking, but Hiiragi has served me faithfully since he joined my party. He’s probably saving the betrayal for his actual route, which I won’t be going on. While he’s almost as slimy as Kazahaya, an unlikely fact saves him from being ranked alongside Kaz: my sister looooves shady guys like Hiiragi. I don’t know why, she just does. The shadier, the better. So the fact that there’s a living, breathing human being out there who would go bonkers for him moves him up juuust a little bit in the desirability stakes.

Sazaki – No problems with his personality, and I have no issues with interspecies love… within reason, of course. Unlike certain others, he’s honest and straightforward. He doesn’t tease, belittle or ridicule Chihiro, he hasn’t gone all mopey on me (yet) and his looks are passable enough. There’s no real reason why I didn’t go for him, other than that I ran out of steam after clearing four routes. Plus when I considered their future prospects, it didn’t look like it’d work out. It would either end with a) Chihiro abandoning the throne to go treasure-hunting with him (noooo, I hate the outdoors!) b) the two going their separate ways, or c) Sazaki being reduced to the pitiful, constricted court life of a queen’s consort in the highly unlikely event that Queen Chihiro is allowed to marry a brigand. None of these scenarios seem very happy, so I left him alone.

I was going to follow up directly with the guys I did get, but I just keep writing and writing and the post keeps getting longer and longer, so I’ll split off here and continue with the other guys tomorrow.

Phantasy Star Portable – Final thoughts (spoilers)

All right! I beat the final boss again and watched the ending this time. Vivienne repels the bad guys with the power of her heart (no, seriously) and reseals the SEED in the void, where they will lie waiting until the sequel. After all that drama, my character and Vivienne wind up homeless and unemployed, making their living as armed robbers and extortionists that roam the galaxy in search of the Illuminus. And that’s the good ending.

New free missions opened up after I cleared the game. I did one, but it’s better to leave on a high note than to play so much that the game gets stale, so it’s time to quit. Final thoughts on the whole experience:

Why I liked Phantasy Star Portable

The story-mode was short and sweet. My save game file says 25 hours, but at least 60% of the time was spent doing free missions. Not every game has to be 99 hours and 99 minutes long to make a good impression.

Game flow is easy to understand. See monster. Kill monster. See terrorist. Kill terrorist. There’s only one major twist in the game, and they don’t go around hyping mysteries they don’t intend to tell you about until the final dungeon.

The challenge level is just right. For me, anyway. The last dungeon had some tough battles, but nothing I couldn’t handle. At the same time it was never so easy that I got bored or frustrated.

Very kind to people who suck. Like me. Offers free missions to grind on if you need to. I did each one once, did a few twice and I was at just the right level to take on the final boss. Enemies also drop tons of weapons and useful healing items, and almost every boss has a healing and recovery station right outside its door so you can get into fighting shape before taking them on. Story missions also give you regular chances to go back and save and outfit yourself before continuing.

Fast loading times. Normally I take fast loading for granted, but I appreciate it doubly this time because I’m playing Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 4 at the same time. Even with a data install it still loads like mack truck on every new scene.  PSP manages to do waaaaay better without taking up precious space on my memory stick. This must be…love.

Ooh baby, that red is so “you”!

Accommodates a variety of playing styles. I forget the exact number, but there are about 5 races and 10 classes you can choose and a LOT of weapons and skills you can give them. You can use magic, guns, fight at long range, fight ultra close-up, focus on speed and accuracy, tank your way through, all of the above, it’s all up to you!

I stuck to just two classes (Hunter -> Fighmaster), but I got to fool around with various weapons and change my style as the game got tougher and tougher. Started out with a single sword, moved on to twin swords, dabbled around with greatswords and guns (useless) and finally finished the boss off with double blades. In a single dungeon I would use the greatsword to clear out small mobs, twin swords to take down tough single enemies and double blades to do damage very quickly to the bosses. If I’d had more time I would have liked to experiment with axes and claws as well. Normally in multi-weapon games (e.g Rune Factory) I just pick a weapon and specialize, but there are so many types of weapons in PSP that it seemed a shame not to play around a little.

No annoying characters. There were some who could have been annoying if they’d been given the chance, but none of them hung around long enough to get on my nerves. Vivienne’s heart-fetish is so corny it’s cute, and Helga the bad guy is so cheesy and over-the-top that she’s actually funny.

You get to play dress up! Enemies drop money and sellable items like water, so I was rich. Rich! With nothing else to spend the cash on, I turned on my inner coordinator and decked my character out in a variety of fashionable duds. No self-respecting adventurer would be caught dead repeating an outfit. Not on my watch!

Why Phantasy Star Portable is not very good

My Granddad once said this, almost word for word

Very much a spin-off (of Phantasy Star Universe and Ambition of the Illuminus). This is a good thing if you’ve played and liked those. Otherwise you’ll feel a bit left out as they go on and on about who did what when. The story is skimpy enough that I was never confused, but they took a lot of things for granted.

Might be too easy for some. If I found it “just right” then it’s bound to be too easy for the more hardcore kind of player.

No deep story or complicated plot. I liked this about it, but anyone looking to play a typical RPG will be disappointed. It’s an action game first with the story very much tacked on at the end.

No engaging characters. I didn’t dislike anyone, as I said, but I wasn’t crazy about anyone either. Except maybe Vivienne, she was kind of sweet. Since the protagonist is actually mute (and not just pretending) this time round, his/her interactions with other characters are extremely limited. Mostly he just gets talked at instead of talked to, so it was hard to develop affection for anyone.

Battles can get messy. It can be hard to see what your character is doing when the screen is full of characters and enemies executing all kinds of flashy moves. There were many, many moments when I didn’t know what was going on. I just tapped the triangle and square buttons like mad until something died.

Occasional slowdown for busy battles. A little irritating, but not so bad as to be unbearable.

Stupid visual-novel choices. I must have done something right, since I got the “good” ending, but there was frequently no way to tell which the “good” choices were, and no easy to go back and redo them if you thought you’d done something wrong. Consider the choice in the screenshot on the right. What’s the difference?!

Visuals are very dark. I thought it was my PSP that was on a low brightness setting, but looking at the screenshots I took, dang, that’s a dark game. On the plus side, the game itself isn’t depressing at all, it’s fairly upbeat.

Little variety in the missions. They’re highly monotonous and always play out the same way. Enter dungeon, beat up monsters to unlock keys, open doors, go to next block, go through three or four blocks in the same fashion, beat dungeon boss, end of mission. The exact same pattern for Every. Single. Mission. A little more variety, e.g. escort missions, rescue missions, timed missions, search-and-recovery missions, would have made things much better. Not that I didn’t enjoy myself, but there’s definite room for improvement on that score.

And so on, and so forth. I’m going to order Phantasy Star Portable 2 and give that a go as well, once a little time has passed. I can’t stay stuck on the same game forever, so it’s time to move on. If nothing else, it’s given me the courage to try games I normally wouldn’t bother with because “they’re not my type” so I’ll try to be a little more adventurous in the future.

Finished Phantasy Star Portable, but…!

NOOOOO! This can’t be happening! I just killed the final boss of Phantasy Star Portable. It was a hard fought battle, my teammates died like flies and I completely ran out of healing items near the end, but I did it. I did it! I was so proud of myself I thought, “This deserves a screenshot!” And so I tried to take a picture of the boss in its dying throes… and of course the PSP froze… I know, I was totally asking for it, but it still hurts. I wonder if my save data is okay.

I think I’m beginning to understand the appeal of action RPGs, though. Turn-based RPGs can be challenging in their own way, but there’s something extra satisfying about running and dodging and hiding and putting the finishing touches on the boss through your own skill. It might be just a Phantasy Star Portable thing, but winning that last battle felt sooooooo good. I think I’m going to try it again and pass on the screenshot next time. Won’t it be funny if the first time was a fluke and now I can’t beat the boss any more? (hint: no, no it won’t be funny)

I’ll leave you with this summary of 75% of the dialog in this game: my partner KOS-MOS Vivienne and her friends waffling on and on about hearts like a bunch of Care Bears:

 

 

I can’t help thinking the game would have been 10 times better if they’d stopped trying to shoehorn moral lessons in there and just let me enjoy wasting monsters. Not every game has to be “inspirational” or “uplifting” you know.

Now then, I seem to have gotten my second wind. Time to see if I can put paid to the boss for the second time before I sleep. Hopefully the euphoria will have worn off by the time I wake up, and I’ll be able to write a more objective post about this game. I worry I may have inadvertently given the impression that it is good, or even interesting, when the reason I like is precisely because it’s so bland. For now, less talking, more boss-killing!

I aten’t dead

Still around, still playing games. Still trying to finish Phantasy Star Portable and Harutoki 4. I’m playing them in turns, so it’s delaying the completion of either one. Since I’m determined not to start anything new until I finish one of those, I’m going to be out of circulation for a little longer. After I finish them, I want to play Saiyuki, and then Grand Knights History. I was hoping the latter would have come out in English by now, but it’s been delayed till who knows when, so I’m just gonna go ahead and do my own thing.