Princess Maker 4 Special Edition – Meh

I’m done with Tokimeki Memorial 4, but I haven’t had enough of stat-raising sims yet, so I dived straight into this one, Princess Maker 4 for the Nintendo DS.

At present, I’ve finished this five times with Endings No. 19, 22, 31, 33 and 35. That’s the Soldier, Magician, Marriage to a Minor Noble, Prime Minister and Ordinary Marriage endings, if I recall correctly. I may have the numbers mixed up a bit. This is my first time playing a Princess Maker game and I didn’t use a FAQ, so I haven’t done too badly for myself.

It’s not my first exposure to the Princess Maker series though. My first exposure came in the form of a Princess Maker 2 Let’s Play I read last year. It was and still is one of the funniest game-related things I have ever read in my life, and it made me really, really, really want to play the game. I tried to download the English PM2 and run it, but my computer wouldn’t play along, so it’s taken me this long for me to find a version and a format I can easily handle.

Unfortunately Princess Maker 4 is a real disappointment compared to PM2. It’s essentially a severely dumbed-down remake with all the humorous content, fighting and adventuring removed. A lot of the elements I saw in the PM2 walkthrough are present in this game, but the parts I really got excited about – the battles, the special events, fairies, mermaids, adventuring, etc, have been almost entirely eliminated. PM2 also had a dizzying array of stats to raise and classes to take, many of which have been combined or removed completely in Princess Maker 4.

It makes some of the festivals a little meaningless. For example I won the festival battle for two years, but that was the only use I ever got out of my battle stats and equipment. It’s an insult to any gamer, working to raise your stats like crazy then only getting to fight once a year. But this is a 100% raising sim, not a hybrid RPG, so once I readjusted my frame of mind, I was okay. Well, obviously not okay since I’m still complaining.

Anyway, let’s back up a bit: if anyone hasn’t played a Princess Maker game before, the story usually goes that you’re an ex-hero of some sort who somehow finds yourself raising a little girl. This time she’s the daughter of your ex-partner Isabel and you have to raise her from age 10 to 18. Depending on how you go about it, you can get all kinds of marriage and job-related endings, ranging from positive (Queen, Princess, etc) to meh (barmaid, freeter)  to not so positive (sleazy barmaid, etc).

So every month you select a number of activities for her to participate in and she carries them out. Classes raise some stats and lower others, but cost money. Jobs give you money and stats, but make her tired quickly. If she gets too tired she falls sick and misses a whole month of the game, so you need to balance her health, her stats and her finances in order to raise her effectively. Other activities you can take part in include going on vacation, sending her out into town to meet people and having her take part in festivals to earn some money. It sounds complicated at first, but it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

I did a first full playthrough to get the hang of things, then a second playthrough where I made a few extra saves in year 6 and used them to get two more endings, then I started afresh and got two final endings before putting the game to rest. If I hadn’t seen what the Princess Maker series was capable of achieving with PM2 (a game that’s 18 years old now), I might even have been content with what I got.

Unfortunately my expectations had already been raised to high heaven. The game is fairly entertaining in the beginning because of all the new classes and jobs to do and people to meet, but within a year or two it falls into a stale, repetitive routine. Sure you get an occasional new job, meet an occasional new guy and take part in the occasional festival, but apart from that it’s the same old grind. Raise stat, lower stress, raise stat, lower stress. The endings are very abrupt as well. One second your daughter is all over you, the next moment she’s the Prime Minister, two frames later “The End”. W-wait, what, how, w-when? Huh? T-that’s it?

I mean yeah, it was clearly addictive enough for me to finish it five times, partial playthroughs or not, but I know for a fact that could have been waaaaay better. I even thought it might be the “Special Edition” that had dumbed things down for the DS so I checked out several FAQs about the PC original, but nope. Maybe Princess Maker 5 might hold out a little more hope for me. This time I’ll do some proper research before giving it a try.

Tokimeki Memorial 4 – Rizumi GET!

I’m happy I got her, but doing four routes in quick succession has robbed me of any and all desire to continue this game. It’s all over for me now, so this will be my final post about Tokimeki Memorial 4 for the foreseeable future. Rui and Tsugumi, I’m sorry. Maybe in a couple of months we can talk about doing this again.

Notable things about Rizumi’s route? Nothing remarkable. I got almost none of her CGs naturally, and couldn’t be bothered to FAQ it. Not that I don’t like her or anything, I’m just tired. The girl herself is okay. I love her fashion sense, and she’s really sweet even on dates that don’t go so well. I can live without the constant references to music, but that’s her “gimmick” so I get it.

Interestingly enough, her confession takes place in the music room and not under the legendary tree. Does this mean our relationship won’t last forever? The MC already sounds a little insecure about her popularity in his ending blurb, which doesn’t bode well for the future. Shame on you, MC, I don’t remember raising you that way!

Final notes about Tokimeki Memorial 4? Skills are a good addition, but I’d like them taken out next time. Once you know what you’re doing, they make things way too easy. I mean, not like the other games were hard either (except TM1, brr), but having 400-600 in every stat by the end of most routes has never happened to me before.

It’s good that the girls change up what they say and do frequently. There are far fewer line and event repeats in one playthrough, although you will naturally see several events over and over on repeat runs. The graphics are simple, but clean. The revolving wheel menu was cool at first, but I was craving a simple straightforward menu after a few days. Battling is fun. Your friends are cool, but I wish you could interact with them even more, ‘cos they were funny. Etc, etc.

Meh, I really don’t have anything left to say about this game. It wasn’t bad, but the girls were all alike: similar faces, similar personalities, similar routes. Some of them seemed a little different, but as soon as they started liking you a bit they became just like everyone else. The stuff I found most exciting on all routes was raising my stats, battling and learning new skills. And if that’s what I want, then any average RPG will do.

Still, I had fun. And it’s motivated me to give Tokimeki Memorial 3 another shot, after a sufficient cooling-off period. I’ll report on that if it ever happens.

“Finished” Shepherd’s Crossing

There’s no retirement in Shepherd’s Crossing, so I just gave up when I felt like it, on Day 5 of Acorn month, Year 10.

I would have quit much earlier, but just when I was about to say adieu, the random hunt that gives carrot seeds FINALLY popped up (the one against Waku Waku, if you were wondering), which gave my game a much-needed shot in the arm.

My game was crippled without dem carrots, because without carrots I couldn’t get angora rabbits, which meant I couldn’t get angora rabbit fur, which meant I couldn’t get spotbilled ducks, which meant I couldn’t get pumpkin seeds, which meant I couldn’t get any alpaca fur. And of course by the time I finally got alpaca fur in year 10, I didn’t need any of the trade-in items I’d gotten it for, so I decided it was time to call it a day. 10 years is a nice round number to stop at, anyway.

Final impressions? Haven’t changed much from my first ones. The inability to trade items for money really, really hurt the game, in my opinion. The only pluses that I can list are that hunting was fun till the end and that crops were easier to grow than in SC2. I successfully completed almost all the hunts without too much trouble, except for the final one with the three bears. My plan for that, which I never got around to implementing, was to defeat and collect at least one bear, and then have one of my dogs hide until the turn count was up. Ta-daa, instant success. I was also going to distract them so they couldn’t use Cow Kill, because that move has wrecked my entire party one too many times. But it’s okay. No matter what the reward is, I don’t need it now.

I say crop farming is easier simply because there are no diseases in this game and because adverse weather doesn’t affect crop growth. In Shepherd’s Crossing 2 even if you got every dog available to guard against marauding animals, you had no way of countering crop diseases and frost. You just couldn’t catch a break. Here you’ll be fine if only you have enough animals and enough fences. On the other hand, getting those seeds to plant in the first place can be hell, as my little carrot misadventure just proved.

It was addictive in its own way, of course. I had more “wtf, why does the clock suddenly say 5am” moments with it than I’ve had with any other game I’ve played so far this year. As an unexpected side effect, playing Shepherd’s Crossing made me want to play Tactical Guild again. They’re from the same company, and every time Success’s logo appeared with that little hum, I started hearing TG’s theme in my head. I looked around for the soundtrack, but I don’t think it exists. I’ll content myself with watching the mini-theater skits for now.

Speaking of Success and Shepherd’s Crossing, it doesn’t look like they have any plans to release another handheld version any time soon. They’ve made a version for mixi and Japanese cellphones. I made a mixi account many years ago, no idea if it’s still active. I don’t even remember the password. I’m a bit shepherded out right now, but I’ll look into it again in a couple of months when the craving strikes again.

Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari – Screenshots

The game’s going well, now that I’ve figured out the correct way to play it. I was trying to marathon my way through like it was an ordinary RPG, but repetitive dungeon crawlers like Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari are best played in small doses. Once I started doing just one or two missions per day while playing other games, things got far more bearable.

I’m almost done now with just one in-game hour to go and everything set up for the ending. But today I just want to play with the screenshot plugin I got for the PSP. Wish the DS had one, it would make this blog so much easier to write.

I made my final promise with Rushdie, who still hasn’t betrayed me yet.

Thank you Rushdie, you’re the best! As a matter of fact I made all three promises with him, because he’s the only character I really liked. Cain has grown on me because of his incredible battle prowess, but he has almost no story presence at all, so it’s hard to get into him. As it turns out, once you make a promise with a character, they’ll let you sleep in their bed!

Look how happy he looks! It makes me wonder, what does he do while you’re sleeping? Does he stand outside? Stand by the bed and watch you sleep? (Don’t wanna clooose my eeeeyeeesss!) Or does he *gulp* crawl in with you? They’re bros so it’s okay but on the other hand it is a really small bed. I’d better not think about it too much.

Here’s the rest of my party:

Note the obscene amount of money I have now. Things were ridiculously expensive at first, but now I’ve got all this cash and nothing to blow it on. Note also that Rushdie and Wolf need the same amount of EXP to level up. As a matter of fact I have convinced myself that they are actually brothers (no seriously, I really have) and a result I restart any battle in which one falls without the other. Note lastly that Cain is still a little behind them after goodness knows how many levels, and that Sasha will probably not catch up before the end of the game. Another mugshot of the usual suspects:

This is the main menu screen. I have no idea why everything is in English in a Japanese game that’s probably never going to be localized, but that’s for Imageepoch to figure out. I had 1336 civilians rescued then, right now I have about 1550-something. Apparently it’s possible to rescue over 2000 (2042, to be precise) by doing the missions in a specific sequence, but there are absolutely no rewards for doing so.

Selecting the skills, then customize option takes you to a screen where you can improve your skills by adding customize points (CP) to them.

The little numbers next to each skill show what level they’re at, and the M shows that a skill has been mastered. I’ve had Sasha focus almost exclusively on healing and support skills so far, because that’s what I got her for. It’s possible that she’s a decent fighter as well, but I’m satisfied with her current role. Pressing the Square button on this screen would allow me to redistribute her CP if I ever changed my mind. Come to think of it, the only reason I got a healer was because I couldn’t afford healing items, but now I’m a millionaire I could toss Sasha out and bring Mallarme back so I can have four attackers instead of three. But raising her up from level 18 or wherever she is now would be too much work now. Oh well.

Moving on, you can overlay a map on the screen while you’re running around in a dungeon:

This helps you figure out where you’re going and let’s you avoid dead ends (those red Xs and crossing lines). See the little yellow dot in the top left corner? That’s where your current objective is. Combine this with the English menu and you should be able to get through the game even with minimal Japanese skills. In theory. It’s not like there’s a grand story to miss anyway.

Lastly, the major NPCs.

This girl, Ainey, is the blacksmith. The big lummox next to her is Ricardo, the item seller, and the girl behind the desk is Lissete, your navigator. As further proof of how laid-back the mood is in this game, Ainey spends most of her time just chilling in a rocking chair in front of her furnace.

This last guy is Julio. He’s just a hater. He shows up frequently to mock the Messiahs and make trouble for them. It was amusing at first, but then like most things in this game it was speedily beaten to death with the force of a thousand bludgeons. Note that she-who-shall-not-be-named has been censored from this shot.

That’s it for today. The next time I post about this game will be when it’s finally over.

Edamoto Naomi no Shiawase Kitchen review

Happy times with Naomi Edamoto’s Happy Kitchen! I’ve been playing this since around the time I got Itsumo no Shokuzai, but I’ve been stretching it out because I didn’t want it to end! This falls under Category 2 of children’s games: children’s games even adults can enjoy.

Edamoto Naomi no Shiawase Kitchen is a kid’s game about a little girl named Tsugumi who promises to make a home-cooked meal for her dad. The only problem is, she doesn’t know how to cook! So, since it’s a kid’s game, instead of asking her mom to teach her like an ordinary person would, Tsugumi wishes on a star and the Fairy Queen on the Moon (uh-huh) sends down an angel to help her. This angel possesses and animates Tsugumi’s stuffed bunny Usako, and their adventures begin.

Oh, and also famous Japanese chef Naomi Edamoto (never heard of her) suddenly shows up to teach Tsugumi how to cook in fourteen lessons. Magic is a wonderful thing.

I got it because it was a cooking game, but I rapidly found myself more interested in the cute little adventures of Tsugumi and her animated dolls than in the actual cooking. Tsugumi’s so cute. I think they got her characterization just right, making her interesting and lively but not annoying. On one hand she’s sweet, helpful and hardworking, but on the other hand she can also be rash and hyper with just the tiniest hint of a mean streak (Tsugumi+Emily=win). The fact that she wasn’t Little Miss Perfect made me want to cheer her on all the more. Her cast of dolls was interesting as well, in a childish sort of way. I could have interacted with them more by choosing to stay home instead of taking walks in the park every day. Stuff for a second playthrough? I’ll think about it. Seriously.

The cooking itself is a series of chopping and stirring mini-games using the stylus. Chop up the onions, stir fry them in oil, add water, stir the soup, wash and boil rice, all using the stylus. The actions are repetitive, but the meals usually look and sound delicious. I made spaghetti neapolitan (a scrumptious-looking Japanese concoction of spaghetti stir-fried with ketchup, bacon and vegetables), minestrone and rolled cabbage for the final day, which earned me top marks as usual. If you just follow Edamoto’s instructions and then add lots of decorations to your meal at the end you shouldn’t fail.

Shiawase Kitchen is more of a cooking simulation than a proper cooking game, so for one thing none of the recipes come with quantities listed. Edamoto also skips a lot of steps, e.g. “Let’s make gyoza, I already made the dough”. Most likely the intention is for children to cook together with an adult, so they don’t see the need to be too specific. A pity really, some of those dishes looked great.

I never thought when I picked this up that I’d be that sad when the final day rolled around. :’-< Still, when all’s said and done, it’s very much a children’s game. And it’s in Japanese. And I haven’t played Cooking Mama, but it’s most likely more of the same. I loved it, but I can only recommend it to one group of Western gamers: beginners in Japanese. Since it was developed for Japanese children, it uses mainly kana with only a little kanji, which comes with furigana. Now the problem with kana-only text is that it’s usually hard for beginners to tell where one word ends and the other begins. Never fear, the writers were kind enough to leave spaces between words and phrases. It’s not exact, but it’s more than enough to be able to make sense of just about everything.

Plus they’re kind enough to highlight important nouns in red. Knife will be ほうちょう and will frequently have an arrow pointing to it, etc. If you didn’t know that pot was ‘nabe’ and rice cooker was ‘suihanki’ before you played it, you will by the time you’re done. If you’re learning Japanese and starting to wonder “When will I ever be good enough to play games in Japanese?!” you should give it a shot.

Come to think of it, I never did play games in Japanese when I was learning. That’s because I didn’t learn Japanese to play games with. I just liked the look of the characters and thought it sounded intriguing, so I learned a little here, a little there, took a few classes eventually and went on my merry way. I used Japanese mainly to read books and manga and watch the occasional anime and played all my games in English. Then one day after finishing Atelier Iris 1, 2 and 3, I found I really, really wanted more Atelier stuff. Gee, too bad they’re only in Japaneeee— waitaminnit! And the rest is history.

Enough about that. I’m slowly working my way back into Saigo no Monogatari no Yakusoku, I’m almost done with Rizumi‘s route in TM4, I’ve started TWEWY for real and I finally got some carrot seeds in Shepherd’s Crossing, so I’ll talk about one of those next time.