VN of the Month June 2010 - Deardrops
Entry posted by kivandopulus
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Deardrops and Comsome! ~Combination Somebody~ make the only masterpieces for me in June. And first one is more polished. Micchi for once agrees with me although anticipating even more from Angel Ring.
Shouichi was known as one of the ‘nobles’ of the violin world. Having started playing the violin when he was 3, he won the national violin competition when he was in middle school and went to Germany to play in orchestras. However, due to unknown reasons, he returned to Japan, gave up playing the violin and became a freeter. One day, he starts working at a live house and meets many other amateur musicians who are living their lives their own way. Together they will have to overcome obstacles in both their personal lives and as a band. To Shouichi, the live house is a new beginning in a new place… a new world which has opened to him when he thought that his future as a musician had closed.
Game is localized and has English reviews.
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It’s the beginning of summer in a normal town. Sousuke is your standard guy going to a normal school along with the typical cast of characters: the childhood friend living next door, the cute loli, the blonde twintail tsundere, the bespectacled discipline committee member… This couldn’t be anything but a slapstick school love comedy… until a girl with long black hair appeared. “I want to cry too…” Even though Hikaru is very strong, she is also weak at the same time. Everyone else is the same way – they are fragile when they are alone. That is why they seek bonding with others.
There are English impressions
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"Life is like a waiting room, except people don't leave in the order they enter."
Japan in the 1970s. Before the first hospices were established in the country. A boy grows up helping the family business, a senior citizen's home.
Regularly skipping school to help at home, he gets left behind a year in school.
One day, he meets a girl that had also been left back, and they become friends.
This is a story about two kids growing up.
About the wall between those leaving, and those left behind.
It is about the origins of the Seventh Floor hospice.
And finally, the origins of "the rules".
Game is localized and has English reviews.
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Daisuke attends Touka Gakuen in Miou-jima, a small town which is an 1-hour ferry ride from Tokyo. He is great at housework and studying, but because of his scary looks, people mistakingly think he is the worst deliquent. He works as the caretaker of the Yashima-sou school dorms where his two older sisters Otome and Megumi live. They know he is an earnest and kind person. One day, he receives notice from the school that Yashima-sou will be torn down.
Despite the allusive setting, main character does not attack girls, but dutifully patrols dormitory. Band performance is organized as a mini-game, but has no influence for the story. It's even possible to finish the game without the girl if by the time of final even none is flagged. So it's again rather interesting common route and disappointing individual routes (especially due to weird drawing at times).
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Satoru likes the 2D world and loves 2D girls. One day, he took care of a weakened pure white dove. When he woke up the next day, a beautiful girl who he didn’t know was hugging him. Not only that, but she was naked. His imouto Sana comes to wake him up:
“Hey aniki, hurry and get u- ehhhh!!?＃！※‡？々♂☆♀!!?”
The game is based around two concepts: ‘love angel’ and ‘angel ring’. Love angels come from heaven to support love between people. They don’t have any special abilities except for flying. They feel a great sense of responsibility towards 2D maniacs like Satoru. If there is someone who loves someone else, but doesn’t have the courage to take the next step, the ‘angel ring’ floating around the love angel’s neck will begin to glow. It helps the love angel realize people’s feelings.
There are English reviews.
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Yuu returns to his hometown after being away for many years and meets the Todoroki sisters, who run a takoyaki shop named Senju. He ends up living on the 2nd floor of the shop with them.
There are English reviews.
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This is the debut title from ad:lib. Masamichi was raised by his father who is a shrine priest. On the night of the day he began attending Souei private school, someone snuck into the shrine grounds. He thought that it was a thief, but it was actually Sakura, a girl who he had seen singing earlier in the day for the light music club. Her dad had left the family entrenched in debt, so she ended up homeless and came to the shrine to find a place to sleep. Having heard her troubles, Masamichi allows her to live with him.
K-On club has different outdoors activities with band itself as a side hobby due to recent light music boom. And for the same reason game stylized for anime. Scenario is very boring because nothing interesting is happening, even moe level is low. Compared to Deardrops there's very low focus for music. Another debut work that tries to ride the wave without investing in scenario.
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When the protagonist was small, he took care of a lost witch who would not show her anger even if she was teased. She didn”t talk much, but occasionally said “If I get my powers back…” One day she disappeared. Ten years later, the witch Prim comes back and declares that he will now be her servant!
A normal moege. At some point you just decide who to protect since you can't protect everyone.
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The protagonist Kyoutarou transferred to "Senshu school" to catch up with his deceased aunt - a troublemaker, infamous for her anti-social and destructive activities. Kyoutarou's objective is to find his sister, who mysteriously disappeared about ten years ago.
One day, he finds a girl that's caught in trouble with some ruffian. He helps her escape and treats her a meal, but in exchange she steals his bag and runs away while he is in the washroom.
A few days later, she came to his house and said she was his sister. Obvious lie, but she had his aunt's business card. He allowed her to live in his house, believing that it was sort of a sign.
A traumatic memory for me since this game had huge number of choices and without walkthrough I faced gameover too many times before giving up. But it's mysterious Silver Bullet brand and Hino Wataru who brought us Rui wa Tomo o Yobu and Coμ , so miracles happen even to ordinary school setting. Things start to surprise from the start as opening and style is done in 8-bit RPG flavor as a battle against maou. There are a lot of fighting heroines. And "comsome" is actually a finished dish in french... But generally it's about a circle of friends, and their help is required to achieve the goal. Everyday scenes are a pain to read. A nuclear and unrefined mix, but with strong sense of individuality. It's not Ruitomo by shreer quality, but absence of trap protagonist and RPG-affinity makes this game special for me.
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Mika and Loki run a VA detective agency at Chesterland School, the Japanese branch of a British school for foreigners. Of course since they’re amateurs, they don’t get many cases. However, Mika is a psychometrist, able to understand the past of someone or something just by touching them. It comes at a price though. If used on a human, the target will lose all their memories related to him. Due to a past incident, his mother has lost all memories of him and so he now always wears a glove on his hand. One day, Loki read about a story about the murder of the owner of the club Couples Apples in the newspaper and wanted Mika to try to solve the case, but he is hesitant since he doesn’t want to use his power. Then, he was approached by two girls who say they are being threatened and want him to stop the culprit.
Abel Software must be desperate to even pollute detective setting they are probably best known for. Basically, it's four detective episodes with some H scenes. Protagonist has supernatural powers, so it's not great as a mysery.
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Yasuto confessed his love to the school idol Kyouka, but not having talked to her at all before, not surprisingly she said no. Broken-hearted, he went to the shrine where he had prayed constantly before the confession and cursed the god, calling them a liar. A darkness surrounds him and a large white fox appears. He apologizes profusely, but she sends tons of snakes after him as retribution. Evading the snakes by climbing a nearby tree, he thought he was safe until he heard a creaking noise. Then, suddenly the tree fell on the shrine, which was demolished. Fleeing to his house, he was surprised to find a miko with beautiful pale hair in front of him, angry that he had destroyed her shrine.
Lousy debut work. It looks like a nakige, but scenario is too short, so nothing even has a single chance to develop. Let's just pull minimum number of heroines together - four - and make it full price. Heroines other than kitsune are hardly noticeable.
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A school founded by a legendary hero 1000 years ago is now on the verge of bankrupcy. Ikumi wonders why the school entrance exam is exploring a dungeon. He didn’t do well at all, but somehow he passed! Something must be wrong since there’s only girls around. It seems that the school will now focus on adventures in love… Ikumi’s hectic hero life has begun!
RPG
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Following a final war with the dragon race thousands of years ago, the remnants of prehistoric technology called Pashiate is left. Lately, this technology has been used to create E-technology, the basis of wealth in the Fulcrum empire. However, there are people who wish to use Pashiate for ill purposes. Cal Ruslan is a student at the Imperial Junior Academy, and also a government agent known as a ‘Library’ who protects the Pashiate technology. She operates the giant heavy robot Alper, which is the only thing that can defeat the ghosts of the past.
There is an English impression
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The world ends. What will you see in the sky at that moment?
Marine Academy City Noah has gathered people from around the world who can use Wings, powers that manifest themselves as seals on their chest. On the island, there is a Colosseum. It is rumored that the person who wins 13 battles in a row will become an Ark. Until an Ark appears, these students live a peaceful life. One of them is Tsukasa Hayasaka, a second year student with no particular ambitions.
A mysterious new student, Zenobia A. A. Axelrod, has joined the school, and Tsukasa's best friend Kikunari Souma is talking about the end of the world. Ophelia U. Diefenbaker is the student council president. Honoka Yamamura, Naki's friend, helps her out. Tsukasa also has to deal with his feisty cousin Naki, the eccentric Kaguya Patelliere, and the only seemingly normal person at the school, Saya Sayado.
Until one day the news is broken that the world is already ending. What will Tsukasa and his classmates do?
Let's save the world seven times in loop with five times normally, then once epically and one in a harem to bring all memories from previous routes. Writer failed to make routes interesting, and harem one is redundant. With proper realization it might shine.
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Mitsuhiko attends Seiyou Gakuen and one night, his childhood friend Rio was going to confess to him when there was a loud noise. He sees his classmate Koiboshi on the rooftop with a blank look on her face. Not listening to their calls, she falls from the roof. He runs to catch her, but her body is surrounded by a mysterious light and he falls unconscious. When he wakes up and found himself and the school in a very deep hole. He gathers the remaining students and teachers and begins to find a way out of this hole.
RPG
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The young heroes from the demon, god, dragon and human worlds meet at the Trinity school to hone their skills. There was a world-destroying war 25 years ago caused by human greed. Now, one young man has a vision of the past human hero who tells him that the future is in his hands. Which future will he choose: Vell of the demon world, Note of the god world or Ururu of the dragon world?
There are English reviews.
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Seitaro Hino has lived a life secluded from society, together with his mother since childhood. He easily gets ill whenever he inhales the polluted air outdoors, so he spends his days by indulging in self-studies and literature in his apartment, darkened by the boarded-up windows. One day, when his mother suddenly dies, Seitaro is forced out into society and surprisingly his respiratory disease seems to have been cured by itself.
Nevertheless, all these sudden happenings and new impressions are too much for him, and he is soon struck by aphonia. His aunt, Yoko Oshikawa, decides to take care of him until he has adapted himself to the new environment and is able to stand on his own.
Doujin, but with English reviews
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Occuring some years after the original game, this follows a new crossdressing boy and the lady-like girls who surround him at Seio Girl’s Academy. Chihaya is a boy with beautiful silver hair who was teased in class due to his looks and ends up transferring into a girl’s school run by his relatives. There he meets a girl named Kaoruko who tells him to be totally honest no matter what happens. They soon become close friends and are both nominated to become the next Elder!
Trap games can have sequels? That's new. Just spare me from it.
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BLOCKED
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1. Clannad - Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi de ＣＬＡＮＮＡＤ -クラナド- 光見守る坂道で [100603] Key 1 2 3 4
A "visual sound novel" adaption of the Hikari Mimamoru Sakamichi De short stories. Fandisc with English reviews |
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2. Manken! まんけん！ [100621] atelier773 1 2 3
Comedy fanatic and high school student Mairu Hibisu has decided to set up a comedy club in her school, but her nemesis and the head of the student council, Chitose Karasuyama, isn’t about to make things easy… The school rules require a minimum of 5 students to set up a new club and Mairu is 3 people short! Spring break has just started and Mairu has until the end of April to recruit the 3 new members she needs to start the club or Chitose will have the last laugh!
Guide Mairu through idyllic Cherry Tree Town as she makes new friends and endeavors to persuade them to join her high school comedy club in this anime-style comic adventure game.
~Laugh and the world laughs with you~
Doujin, but localized and with English reviews
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3. Eroge! ~H mo Game mo Kaihatsu Zanmai~ えろげー！～Hもゲームも開発三昧～ [100625] Clock Up team Anise 1 2 3 4 5
The player takes the role of Mochizuki Tomoya, a guy that lives on his own with only a day job at a convenience store keeping him afloat. While he really likes eroge, he can't draw, isn't much of a writer or composer, and doesn't know much about business. Still, his dream is to get a job at an eroge studio in hopes of creating what he loves, eroge.
Tomoya's luck takes a turn for the better when he sees a help wanted ad for the local studio Flower, and after a meeting with the company president (who to his surprise looks like an elementary school kid), manages to get a job as administrator of the company's website. Tomoya's glee at being part of the eroge industry is short-lived, as he soon learns that Flower is on the chopping block due to their first title being a massive failure.
After playing through Flower's first title, Tomoya realizes that his co-workers don't know anything about eroge, lacking the insight and understanding needed to make a good game. After some nudging from the president of Flower's parent company and some soul searching of his own, our protagonist takes it upon himself to save Flower by teaching the four girls on staff the ins and outs of what makes an eroge good. The story thus focuses on Tomoya's role as a pseudo-consultant while getting to know the four heroines of the story as the player is given an interesting look at the world of eroge development.
Nukige, but localized one and with English reviews
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4. Kud Wafter クドわふたー [100625] Key 1 2 3
The Little Busters' trip was a complete success, and summer vacation has finally begun. Everyone heads home for a bit to see their families. Everyone, that is, except for Riki (who has no family) and Kud (whose family lives in another country). One day, an accident occurs that floods the men's dormitory, which leaves Riki with no place to stay. Luckily, Kud is willing to lend a hand, and she's also looking for a roommate. Fandisc |
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