(Note: Right now I'm playing Dungeon of Regalias, on a long-standing request for me to make an assessment. This doesn't have anything to do with my statements below.)
One of my pet peeves is companies that depend on their reputation to sell their games, regardless of quality. Pulltop, Navel, and Circus are the most frequent offenders on this side... Pulltop, in particular, has developed a habit of releasing second-rate games under existing IPs (the second and third Lovekami and their sex-focused FDs) that add nothing to the series. Navel has a habit of excessive sequels (Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou and Shuffle) and trips off into side-story wonderland. Circus has a habit of endless sequels (D.C.).
I call this 'resting on your laurels' because these companies are basically milking successful IPs to death in order to stay afloat, rather than generating really new content. Oh, I will be the first to admit that Shuffle really, really did need the rewrites it got later on, and the afterstories and voice patch for the original Tsuki ni Yorisou were hugely beneficial. However, Tsuki ni Yorisou, Otome no Sahou 2, despite the hopes of those of us who were interested to see how they would handle a second generation, turned out to be greatly substandard to the original, flopping massively in the heroine paths despite a promising beginning in the common route (which is probably why they've been releasing so many mini-fandiscs to 'rebuild trust').
As for Pulltop... The original Lovekami was actually a first-class VN that showed off the best of what a fantasy charage can be. However, its successors were... immature and pathetic in comparison (obviously written as moe-bait rather than serious efforts to continue the series). Koi no Resort was a rather blatant effort to make a spiritual successor to the kamige Haruka ni Aogi, Uruwashi no that failed massively (primarily due to the lack of comparable sensitivity in the writing, depth of the characters, and independent strength of the heroine paths... in other words, everything). Even Oozora and Miagete Goran visibly suffer from an excess of ambition and a lack of the ability and patience to achieve it (believe me, every time I go into a new main-company Pulltop game of late, I leave wanting to cry from disappointment). This is pretty sad, considering that Pulltop started out as one of my favorite companies after blowing me away with Uruwashi no and Lovekami in rapid succession...
I don't think I should even have to describe what Circus does with Da Capo, lol (I could, but it would just start a salt fight).
However, it isn't just charage companies that are the culprits. Even my beloved chuunige companies can fall victim to this kind of intellectual laziness. Propeller, the second it lost its primary writers, forced out two massively flawed works in rapid succession (one of which - Pygmalion - , to my despair, actually got localized *spits in disgust*) that weren't even worth playing (though Pygmalion probably would have been good if they'd used a different writer and actually put forth the effort to make it into a real story). Light, the producer of so many awesome chuunige, put out a work of penultimate laziness just a few months ago (Sora no Baroque). Nitroplus, in a rather pathetic effort to sharpen its skills at psychedelic stories, went off the beaten track with Sumaga and Axanael. Even Akatsuki Works, which has always been consistent, if nothing else, has of late been lowering its standards somewhat.
Understand, I am perfectly willing to accept that companies will not produce a kamige with every single project. The idea that any company could manage that, given the limited budgets most VN companies have to work with, is fundamentally ridiculous. I am quite willing to enjoy trips off into the wilds on occasion (such as Pulltop's surprisingly high-quality Natsuiro Recipe or Moonstone's Sakura no Mori Dreamers). I am also willing to accept that sequels rarely match the originals. However, I do think, if they can't match the original, they should at least build something of close to equal quality in a slightly different direction, instead. To be specific, there was absolutely no reason to make every aspect of Tsuki ni Yorisou 2 to echo the original's beginning framework so closely (to be specific, the way he suddenly became less capable than before when the heroine paths started made me want to various unpleasant things to the writer).
I am also willing to admit that a new set of writers means inevitable hiccups... I could have accepted that Propeller's works would need to be a bit different after Yuuichirou left the company. I would have even been willing to shrug off Pygmalion as a fluke. However, the way the company, rather than pulling in a single capable freelance veteran writer (of which there are plenty in the industry), dragged in a massive number of writers (all of which were mostly nukige writers) to make Jaeger.
Light... has no excuse. Light's fanbase, whether they started with Dies Irae or have been following the company for much longer, is accustomed to high quality long games with extensive setting and character development and highly complex stories where every last element of the setting is squeezed for everything it is worth. Sora no Baroque was a slap in the face, a game that departed greatly from the company's style, even aside from the raw quality issues.
Nitroplus did have an excuse... they were a company that was always seen as 'weird'. Experimentation has always been their norm (which is probably why it takes them so long to recover after each release), so Sumaga, while being a massively boring abomination from the perspective of people who liked their earlier works, was understandable and forgivable. However, Axanael... wasn't. To be blunt, it takes a peculiar type of brain to actually enjoy those two games, even if you aren't a Nitroplus fan.
Akatsuki Works' gradual descent really has been so gradual as to have been barely noticed. While their characters and situations have mostly maintained the quality we, the readers/players, are accustomed to, it has to be said that the gradual decreases in length and detail in the stories have been apparent for some time. I honestly enjoyed Suisei Ginka and thought it was one of the most conceptually exceptional of the company's games in years. However, it was also relatively short (less than fifteen hours for me is short for a chuunige) and generally over reliant on the 'Akatsuki Works Style' of VN design to keep the reader's interest. The 'style' is proven to work at keeping the reader's interest, but it is also so recognizable that anyone who has been reading this company's works since Ruitomo will recognize it instantly.
In other words, I just needed to spout salt about the companies I feel have gotten intellectually lazy due to past success, lol.
Conquest strategy games, as opposed to RTS, are games where conquest operates on a strategic (large-scale) rather than tactical level and is unconcerned with the activities of individual soldiers (soldiers are numbers, not capable of individual action). They involve the capture of strategic points in order to hold territory and the keeping of order and management of general resources (wealth and troops, as opposed to specific resources like wood, stone, and food).
There are certain rules to this type of game when measuring difficulty level... there are obvious ones such as the amount of money you start with (ideally, on normal mode you should start with enough to secure the region immediately surrounding your starting point without resorting to extreme methods like heavy taxes and plundering). However, there are less obvious ones that are as much matters of real strategy as game rules.
The biggest obstacle to efficient conquest, other than resources like troop numbers and wealth to pay for actions, is the number of points you have to defend and the limits on how much force you can bring on a single point.
The worst possible position to be in, in a continental conquest type, is to be situated inland, with non-allies on all sides and all paths open to invasion or for you to invade through. In this situation, it is difficult to limit the points at which you have contact with the enemy, and this makes it immensely difficult to hold or expand territory, since you can't concentrate your 'iron fist' to smash one or two points (the ideal situation for normal difficulty at the beginning). The best possible position is to be in a 'corner' area with only two points to defends and another two points that can be used to expand your territory while limiting the vulnerability created by such territorial expansion.
Generally speaking, the Sangoku/Sengoku Hime story paths tend to start with you having to unify your own province, with the first few parts after that concentrated on securing one or two other provinces at a time. This is further effectively handled by the fact that, in order to attack from a province, you must hold all the castles/domains within that province, and the same goes for your enemies. Thus, it is possible to preempt an enemy assault by snatching one or two castles in the neighboring provinces with your main forces or judge a province harmless or dangerous by whether multiple factions are active inside. However, this strategy falls apart if the enemy takes castle in the territory you are invading from in the same turn, and things can quickly become messy as a result (one situation I found myself in in Sengoku Hime 5 had me facing off against an enemy that could attack any one of five castles from the castle she'd taken, thus forcing me to concentrate a much larger force than I would have preferred to hold her off).
Public order issues are common to many VNs with gameplay and games of this type. If you capture a province, it is often necessary to rebuild infrastructure and regain the trust of the people during the political phase, and the necessity of recruiting troops to replace those lost is often counter to his necessity (in the Sangoku games, this can increase the possibility of famines and bandit attacks, for instance). Worse, it can sometimes take five or more turns to regain order after a conscription, making you vulnerable to all sorts of messy 'disaster' events (referring to the Sangoku/Sengoku Hime series).
The amount of territory you have in this kind of game directly effects how much of an army you can raise and maintain, as well as how often you can take political and military actions of various sorts. This means that falling behind the enemy in an 'open' scenario can often lead to you being in the worst possible type of position (for example, in Sengoku Hime 3, I once found myself facing a Miyoshi Clan that had taken over the entirety of Eastern and Northern Japan in the time it had taken me to secure Kyuushu and Shikoku, and I ended up facing forces of story generals in overwhelming numbers as a result... and I lost). Grabbing a larger territory early on can often allow you to expand faster later on, even if you haven't yet built up that territory sufficiently (maxed public order and public works, as an example).
Conquest strategy VNs and games are amongst the most satisfying type of strategy games... and time-consuming ones.
I went ahead and played my way through this... for the most part, the story is slice-of-life, with a lot more focus on the comedic elements than in the main game. The result is a lot of hilarious scenes... and really little else for most of the first two-thirds of the game. The endgame story is supposed to be a tearjerking final battle... but to be honest, I hadn't developed enough affection for the new characters to feel anything for what was happening. Too much of the content was comedic, and as a result, there was more of an emotional disconnect than there was with the original game. While there were attempts to develop the new characters, the actual events were so... predictable (even by normal standards) that I just sighed in resignation and slogged through the last two battles (which were annoying as heck).
The actual battles themselves are much easier than the original, mostly because you start out with Touka's supreme boss-killer skills... in exchange, a lot of Corona's skills were harder to use because the MP consumption was increased (to be specific, from 35 to 77 for the single-enemy barrier-stripper). Aka is as OP as Corona, though in a more conventional way. She is the most powerful Red Elemental besides Ayumu, though she is more useful, since she has both Red and Black attacks.
For those who want more of Yumina's and Corona's cast's antics, this is an excellent fandisc... but for those who are already tired of the cast, it is probably more effort than it is worth.
Now, I love nothing more than an interesting setting, and I'm tired of normal charage in general... so one of the biggest points that can be used to draw me into a charage is a crazy setting.
Crazy charage settings are settings that have no possibility whatsoever of happening in real life or are so far outside of common sense that they are inconceivable as a real possibility to most people. This includes fantasy settings and sci-fi settings, but more often it includes a simple concept taken to an extreme. There are several types that have become common in the last ten years (common as in they've popped up at least five times in the last ten years in different companies' VNs).
The Love City/School Setting
This is the second most common crazy setting that pops up in charage. To be blunt, it is a setting where love and romance are encouraged as a part of the law or by school rules. In this setting, love, sex, marriage, and/or children are desirable outcomes and the 'system' in those settings goes to weirdly extreme levels of effort and expense to create the desired result. This can be seen as a part of other crazy settings (such as Kamikaze Explorer, where having children as a student was encouraged) or on their own (as in Love Revenge, where romance was essentially forced on the students by the school's new owner), but this particular crazy setting has popped up at least fifteen times that I can think of off the top of my head in the last ten years.
The Virtual World Setting
This is the most common sci-fi setting, often mixing with fantasy ones, where a virtual world (partial or complete) is put into place either in common use or as a part of the main characters' lives. This has a relatively low rate of occurrence for a crazy setting on this list, but it has popped up six times that I can think of in a charage in the last ten years that I can think of. Some where 'enhanced reality' types like Harvest Overray and others were 'jack-in' types like Hoshi no Ne Sanctuary. However, the key to making this list is that the virtual world element is key to the progression of the story, at least through the common route.
The 'Get/got sent to another world' Setting
This is the second most common fantasy charage setting. It can range from 'After I defeated the Dark Lord' types (Valkyrie Runabout is an example of this type) and 'school life somehow in a half-medieval setting' type to ones where the protagonist just shrugs and starts living with the heroines whom he just met (Unlucky Re:Birth). I've come across this six times from VNs made in the last ten years, and mostly they are fun.
The 'Magical/mystical school' setting
The most common fantasy setting. This can range from Alia's Carnival types where the school is the only place where the magic/mystical element is practiced to charage based in mystical worlds (Such as Racial Merge). I can think of about seventeen VNs that chose this type of crazy settings.
The Cross-dressing Boy attends a Girl's School
This one is... well, insane on so many levels. However, it is also the most common 'mundane' (non sci-fi, non fantasy) crazy setting. I can't count how many times this has popped up since Otoboku and Shugotate started the main trends of this crazy setting (for silly/weird reasons vs for serious reasons), but it is also one of my favorites, since you can usually enjoy the protagonist's antics as he tries to fit in... or fits in almost too naturally, as the case might be.
My thoughts
Crazy settings can often be amusing and add flavor to an otherwise trite concept (fall in love stories, which dominate charage), but some people are put off by them. Also, utilizing a crazy setting in a relatively believable fashion is a rare skill amongst charage writers, and many such games fizzle in the end. Nonetheless, I'll probably keep diving into crazy settings, if only to keep myself from going insane with boredom at all the dating and romance that dominate charage.
Usually, I focus mostly on the perspective of a consumer when I write in this blog. I do this because I am and always have been primarily a consumer of material rather than a creator. However, that doesn't mean I've never created anything... just that I haven't published anything (well, under my own name... ghost writing doesn't count) since some early fiction on Deviantart over a decade ago.
So, since I'm not writing as many reviews, I chose to start a small corner describing the techniques I use when I'm writing fiction (which I still do as a hobby, though I stopped posting it after the last site I posted massively on went under).
Today's corner is about the techniques I use when creating a character (usually the protagonist and his immediate surrounding characters, as well as the antagonist) in the brainstorming process. There are two types I use... the flow of thought type and the 'important points' type.
The flow of thoughts (similar to flow of consciousness style of writing) involves simply writing out all the qualities, the basic history, and abilities/talents/weaknesses of a character as they occur to you in prose form. This is very similar to the character summaries given on official websites, but in much more detail, with specific important points (to you) described in detail. Immediately after I complete this process, I ink out the setting (I usually create a setting in parallel to the characters) and then I start the 'sculpting' process. The sculpting process involves slowly shaving away or altering parts of the character that don't quite fit with the full setting, are excessive (it is easy to make fantasy protagonists over-powered, for instance), or just don't seem to be internally consistent in retrospect. The final step is to try to write an intro scene for that character that would make sense for that character in the universe you've created, giving you an impression that you can use to form their role in a story.
The second method I use is more mechanical. In this case, I write out all the qualities in list form, based on what kind of character I'm interested in making. I usually use this for side-characters, as it is a much 'dryer' approach. Essentially, I create Personality, History, Relationships, and Abilities/Talents/Quirks/Weaknesses categories. Relationships is generally the first category I focus on, connecting their strand of the web to that of the protagonist and/or other characters. The second is usually either History or Personality. The reason is that this defines the nature of the Relationships, giving it a more distinct form. Last is the Abilities/Talents/Quirks/Weaknesses category. To be blunt, while this is important to their role in the story, it is the aspect that is most likely to be subject to change based on what is necessary to keep the plot going.
These are the basic techniques I use... to be honest, since I've never been formally educated in creative writing, I don't know how close my methodology is to that which is commonly used, but I find that this works best for me.
This is the latest VN by AXL, and it is also the latest in its 'swords fantasy' (there is very little magic in these games) series (I say series, but they are just a line of similarly-designed games). The previous games in this series include Princess Frontier, Hyakka Ryouran Elixir, Racial Merge, and Ou no Mimi ni wa Todokanai. This is also AXL's fifteenth game, making it one of the most prolific companies (ignoring subsidiaries) still active.
Like all the games in this series, it is based in a world whose tech level is medieval with bits and pieces of higher levels of technological development here and there. This one falls in an area similar to Ou no Mimi, rather than Princess Frontier or Hyakka Ryouran, meaning it has a somewhat more violent turn almost from the beginning. The protagonist is an antique dealer (thus the game's name) named Rowan who, due to the loss of his parents during an adventure at the highest levels of the tower, has had to deal with an aversion to the tower that is at the center of the town that serves as the center of the game's story. This changes when a young girl bearing a greatsword named Linaria comes into the picture, and he finds himself guiding a young group of adventurers through the lower levels of the tower.
Rowan is not only an antique dealer but an exceptionally talented dagger-user and toolmaker. He is also the only individual in the town that can repair the various machines that come down from the tower. If I were to pick his class, I'd consider him to be a cross between an engineer and a rogue, with excellent crowd-control techniques and stuns. Like a lot of mature protagonists, there is a disconnect between his emotions and rational behavior, and as a result, he will often take the logical path, even when it conflicts with what his heart wants, thus leading to him being a bit dense about emotions in general.
The tower is much like a lot of roguelike rpg towers (though this game isn't an rpg) where people climb the tower to gather treasure, fighting monsters and robot-like Guardians as they do so. The power gems taken from the Guardians can be used in various devices made from parts taken from the tower, and this is the source of most of the setting's higher technology. The tower itself is self-repairing and self-defending, deploying seemingly endless numbers of Guardians and monsters. No one knows how high it goes.
The three heroines are the young princess Karin, the protagonist's adoptive sister Mira, and the newbie adventurer girl Linaria. Karin is a sort-of tsundere who very obviously is in love with Rowan from the beginning. Her father is the second King of the country (that consists of the tower, the town, and the land around it), but she only realized she was a princess at a relatively late age due to the closeness of the royal family to the people. Mira is a responsible girl who takes care of most of the chores and the account books at Rowan's shop... and has an unnatural attachment to the spiky ball and chain she uses as a weapon (the first time you see her flushing after squashing an enemy says everything). Linaria is the daughter of a deceased adventurer who came to find out why her father abandoned his family in order to seek fame and wealth in the tower. Though she resents adventurers as a profession, she is too kind-hearted to actually take it out on anyone.
Common Route
The common route mostly accounts the trials and tribulations of Rowan and company as they rise through the lower levels of the tower to be acknowledged as full-fledged adventurers (novices are called 'virgins' until they reach town on the Twentieth Floor). If you like AXL games' style of character interaction, you'll like the slice-of-life elements, and the battles are actually tactically interesting (something that is unusual for AXL). There are a few emotional moments dealing with Rowan's past, but the common route mostly serves to familiarize you with the characters.
Normal Ending
This is an ending you get if you fail to pick one of the three main heroines. It is basically a joke ending where the results of his actions in the common route come home to roost, lol.
Karin
Karin's path starts out with a lot of light ichaicha and a somewhat annoying get-together sequence. However, at roughly the halfway point, it suddenly turns dark and violent... and outright bloody. The violence in this path startled me a bit, as it is out of character for AXL (AXL generally restricts violence to one or two scenes in a given path, and never on this kind of scale). However, the story was interesting, and I left the path feeling satisfied. The actual progression from lighter atmosphere to darker one is common on AXL's games, and anyone who has played one will probably recognize the pattern... That didn't bother me, though, since it was interesting in and of itself.
Linaria
I recommend that anyone that plays this game play this path last. The reason is is that this is the only path that deals with the tower itself and climbing to the top as its subject matter. It is also the only path where certain major issues involving the protagonist are completely and finally resolved in a direct manner. This is perhaps not surprising, seeing as Linaria was being presented as the 'main heroine' almost from the beginning. However, it is a situation where anyone who plays this path will be a bit displeased with the other two if they played it first. The path itself is a lot less bloody than Karin's (to be blunt, Karin's path is the only one that gets bloody and serious to that degree), but it is still a good path, with a more emotional focus than Karin's.
Mira
Mira is my favorite of the three heroines, so I left her for last this time. She is the protagonist's adoptive little sister, and she falls under the archetype of the 'imouto who scolds her beloved oniichan but adores him'. Mira is a serious girl who cares deeply about the antique shop they are running, and as a result, most of her path deals with the economic issues of the city and the tower. It was when I finished this path that I came to the conclusion that Mira's path is the 'merchant' path, Karin's is the 'nation' path, and Linaria's is the 'adventurer' path.
Mira's path is full of secrets and conspiracies, and it has some really good moments for Verbena (who is incidentally my favorite character in this game). It is also frequently humorous in ways the other two paths didn't manage, which was a plus for me.
Some thoughts
A few thoughts/complaints about this game. I honestly liked this game a great deal... but it seriously needed a grand route to put the themes of the other paths into a single one. The issues in each path weren't going to go away just because they weren't dealt with in those individual paths, and it bugs the hell out of me that there was no single path that brought them all to a resolution.
I also think Verbena should have had a path other than the normal ending. Sure, she is a slut, a heavy drinker, and takes pleasure in unleashing her spiky weapons (ranging from morning stars to kusarikama)... but her personality is just awesome. Seeing that kind of character go all deredere is one of my favorite AXL events (AXL does really good 'haraguro' heroines).
Conclusion
If you liked any of the other 'swords fantasy' AXL games, you'll like this one. It has all the elements that make those games great, such as the protagonist being equally or more important than the heroines, decent action without being focused on the action, and a mix of light humor and serious story that keeps slice of life from getting out of hand. I'll be the first to admit that AXL doesn't change its art style or character archetypes, but that never seems to effect whether their games are good or not.
On request and because I am a Kurashiki fan, I decided to play this, despite worries about the concept and the characters... and I came out finding my worries perfectly justified.
First, the protagonist Teru... in a standard chuunige, he would be the jackass that gets killed after begging for his life in the opening act after doing something totally scumbag-like. Worse, rather than being merely a cold-blooded manipulator (which is how the Getchu page presented him), he is actually an irritable kid who thinks he is a lot smarter than he is.
Second, the heroines... first, the punk-like Aira who overdoes her makeup and generally speaks like an airhead but has definite anger issues. Second is Asami, another man's wife who is generally weak-spirited and only clings to her second life out of a desire not to lose what she has left (her husband and child). Third is Mao, the protagonist's osananajimi who has a strong sense of justice, is pretty naive in general, and tends to get on the protagonist's nerves constantly (this gets worse after he dies and gets resurrected). Mao is the true heroine of the game... and also the single most annoying character in the game, even setting aside the protagonist's issues with her. To be blunt, she is yet another Victim A heroine presented as the true heroine of a serious game with violence...
Third, the writing... I wanted to cry at how low-quality the writing in this game is compared to Kurashiki's previous two Clock-up games. Both Okami and Maggot showed off his skills in full, and as a result, they have a cult fanbase even amongst those who don't like the sexual themes involved in the latter or the social ones in the former. The basic narrative quality is scaled down to the level of the protagonist, which is hugely disappointing.
Last, though this is more of a universal complaint for all Clock-up games... too much meaningless h-scenes. I hate Clock-up's visual style for H-scenes (there aren't any torture rape scenes in this one, outside of the bad endings which I didn't watch), and the presence of loli content made me vomit... twice. Seriously, was that really necessary?
The good points of this VN lie solely in the individual heroine paths, because the common route is just poorly handled and paced. The heroine paths, on the other hand, are slightly stronger, though only Mao's has a decent epilogue (even by VN standards).
Overall, this game felt like a really inept attempt at psychological horror. Considering how good a job Kurashiki has done previously at this kind of thing, it startled me how huge the gap in quality was between this and his previous works... both for Light and Clock-up. Even Sora no Baroque was better, and that is saying a lot.
Let's be clear about something first. I will be the first person to admit that I am really, seriously strange for actually enjoying the anime version of this. However, it turns out this story is a lot less frustrating in the written form, so I imagine that those that hated how the anime went might still enjoy the books. To be clear, Death March is, despite the whole setup, essentially a story of Satou touring the isekai to see the sights and eat good food while incidentally (to his mind) saving the world again and again. His overpowered nature never really changes from beginning to end, and I feel that he is a nice contrast to Hajime, the protagonist of Arifureta, in that he is the epitome of what you would expect from a good-hearted Japanese person with ultimate power and no real ambition.
For those who are curious, the web novel and the light novel versions diverge massively. The anime follows (imperfectly) the light novel, where a lot of events were changed from the WN version, most likely because the WN has some tragic points early on that the writer thought didn't fit with the atmosphere of the story when he put it in LN form. The essential points of the story don't change a lot, but there are certain arcs - such as the Lalakie arc - that simply don't exist in the WN version and some characters that exist in the Web Novel don't exist in the Light Novel.
One thing that frustrated me as time went on was the way Satou consistently ignored the feelings of the (adult) women around him, even when they were blatantly obvious about it. Considering this was an isekai anime, you would think he would just give in and enjoy the harem, given that he doesn't have any hesitation about using brothels, lol. His ignoring the feelings of Arisa and Lulu (for the most part) made sense since he didn't have any sort of loli fetish, though.
If you were to ask me how good the story is, I would say it is significantly lower in quality than Arifureta. If I were to say that Arifureta is at the level of my favorite VNs of all time, I would say that Death March falls somewhere just above the average. If it weren't for the fact that the series fit my tastes almost perfectly, I probably would have dropped it after the third LN, and I certainly wouldn't have gone through the trouble to read both the LN and WN versions. So, unless you liked the anime during the first half of the season (as unlikely as that might be), I can't honestly recommend the books to you.
Rather than being a series that gives me extreme laughs or feels, this one is one that makes me smile, more like comfort food than anything else.
The first thing most of you are going to ask is why I didn't play Deep One first, given my tastes... but the answer is fairly simple. An a-hole spoiled the entire story on the release day to me in a PM on another site, and I read it before I realized what he was doing. As such, my enthusiasm was dampened to almost nothing, and I'm left feeling listless about everything in general. The commentary about it all over the untranslated VN community only accelerated its trip to being sealed in my archives, lol.
I picked up this game mostly because Hulotte games are generally good for cheap laughs and funny characters in slightly mystical settings. This game is unusual for them, in the fact that there is a true path and heroine. Sadly, my tolerance for happy SOL games has gone down greatly in recent years, and so don't be surprised if I'm a bit harsh at times while writing this commentary.
First, the protagonist, Yuuma (how many Yuuma protagonists have I encountered now? lol), obtains a watch that can stop time for five minutes from a clearly suspicious fortune teller named Hakua who promptly worms her way into his life, constantly encouraging him to use it for sexual reasons. Sadly for her, he gets bored of the watch inside the prologue, and the watch itself only serves as a catalyst to move the heroine relationships forward outside of the climax of some of the paths, lol.
I'll be straight with you... I love Sakura, so when her path was over, I felt like I'd been cheated greatly. Oh, there was some decent drama and incest love is always good for me, especially when her actions are so hilarious. However, this path is the one that decided my impression of all the non-true paths. I felt that there could have been some more detailed drama included in this path, and the drama that was there was mostly her being an idiot. The path took only about two hours for me to read, and I came out of it feeling cheated, somehow. *sighs*
Unfortunately, this greatly effected my feelings toward the other paths as I played them, and I became so bored by the end of Noa's path that I dropped the game outright for a week while I did other things (like work and playing random video games) before picking it up again yesterday. I forced myself through Kanon's route, enjoying some of the moments but still fuming about Sakura... and in the end, I couldn't even fully enjoy Hakua's path. Part of that is Hakua's path is nothing I haven't seen a few dozen times in games like this, but that was made worse by my lingering sourness on the game in general.
Objectively, Hakua's path is obviously better structured and written than the others... but it follows the pattern of self-sacrificing true heroines everywhere. Moreover, the exact happenings in the story were rather predictable due events in the other paths which established just what state she was in before I even headed into it. In the end, I came out of this game feeling cheated and wishing they'd just stuck with the harem formula from their previous games.
December was a month with a ridiculous number of highly-anticipated VN releases... and after having played three of them in such a short time, I felt a need to recall which ones I hadn't.
Currently, I'm playing Shinsou Noise, which is a dark fantasy mystery written by the Liar-soft team and drawn by the Silky's Plus team (of Nanairo Reincarnation fame).
What remains after that that I planned to play is:
Venus Blood Ragnarok (sequel in the 'main setting' of the series)
Akiyume Kukuru (apparently the final game for the makers of Harumade Kururu)
Honoguraki Toki no Hate Yori (a horror game by Moonstone)
Now, the question is... do I go ahead and play all of them, or do I ignore at least one? To be honest, in most months I tend to limit myself to four VNs given a choice. With those three, the number goes up to seven... and to be honest, even I think that is a bit ridiculous. If I do not play one of them, which one should it be? I honestly can't see myself not playing Akiyume, given my fondness for Natsukumo and Harumade...
I should note that I've been following this series since I played the third game two years ago, and I'm going to rehash some of my feelings about it as a whole.
The first three games of the Sangoku Hime series had a number of good and bad points, even if I don't compare them to the Sengoku Hime series, which has been refined a great deal more due to it already being on its seventh installment.
Pros
1- Male sprites are... badass cool, in general. Insanely detailed, actually impressive, though they contrast greatly with the more moe-type female sprites.
2-Ginga, the protagonist of the first three games, is a pure warrior general, with his abilities almost as extremely designed as Lu Bu's (Ryofu Housen), with high tactical and military skills (insanely high) and relatively low intelligence and politics skills. This actually makes him amongst the five most powerful frontline generals in the game. In addition, Ginga's psychology and life, as it was described in III, is just... cool.
3- First-class prologues and endings. For the first three games, moe-bait was avoided assiduously outside of the romantic side-episodes. The prologues of these games were great intros and the endings were powerful, emotional, and sometimes even inspiring.
4- in 3, at least, you could alter the fates of certain doomed individuals (in particular, the Sun family), though this often cost you others.
5- Numerous unit types, all with their own unique abilities and uses.
6- Absolutely perfect portrayal of Cao Cao's feminized character, both in personality and in art (She makes Karen from the Koihime Musou series seem pathetic).
Cons
1- Way too much sex, way too many 'romantic' side episodes with random female generals. This was also the case with the early Sengoku Hime games, but the amount of text and time spent on h-scenes actually outweighs the main story of each path.
2- Almost nothing in the way of the story after you 'settle in' (conquer the first two or three provinces, reach the story's first turning point after the prologue).
3- Romantic elements mostly feel forced.
4- Illogical handling of public order system and conscription (this is common to 4 and 5 as well).
5- Game difficulty skyrockets about one third into the game, and resource management is made insanely difficult by random bandit attacks stripping your treasury.
Hard to Judge (for both)
1- 'Architect' skill system, which allows for you to improve your characters by using points gained from battles, training, and political actions, allows you to customize story generals to some extent. In 1-3, this meant you could turn any character into an all-powerful demon lord, but this has been greatly nerfed in 4 and 5.
2- Elemental affinities are just an unnecessary complication... and generally too much trouble to bother with, since you have only a limited number of actions per turn to move troops around.
For 4 and 5
Pros
1- H-content and romantic side-episodes have been greatly reduced in number, thus reducing fatigue.
2- More 'directed' story campaigns, which don't leave you trying to fight enemies on all sides without being able to secure a buffer of resources and generals.
3- Toutaku (Dong Zhuo), after being feminized, goes from a nihilistic dickhead to a Reinhard Heydrich-Class possessive yandere (If you betray her by stopping being hers, she tortures you horribly so that your last thoughts are of her, so making you belong to her even in deaht).
4- Akito, unlike Ginga, is a more flexible character, though less exhilarating as a protagonist. As a generalist, he is actually an excellent general, though his starting troop class is the somewhat mediocre light cavalry.
5- Improved story to gameplay balance (massively improved, in some of the paths.
6- Lu Bu now has a measurable brain, so she is actually useful outside of battle... though she isn't as cool.
Cons
1- Cao Cao's makeover. To be blunt, the new Cao Cao, is so... stereotypical.
2- Nerfed Architect system. To be blunt, the architect system is one of the few advantages you have over everyone else, in a game where strategic options are limited in the first place. The degree to which it has been nerfed in these two games is ridiculous, considering the turn limit.
3- Weakened story generals. While this isn't true of all of them, most story generals are weaker than their counterparts in 1-3. This is especially marked with Cao Cao, the Sun Family, and Guan Yu. Since they are the only generals you don't have to bribe to like you, this can be irritating.
4- Male sprites are now moe-bait.
5- Endings and prologues, while still decent, no longer have the impact of 1-3.
6- The mouth movement gimmick in these games sucks donkey ass.
7- Sun family personalities are now moe. (blech)
8- Troop class advantages, other than that of the sorcerer (which curses enemies so that all damage they receive is doubled) are nerfed.
9- Stories now start later in the history (meaning that you miss a lot of the best parts).
10- 5-specific bug where Akito's Architect grid resets after the final turning point in each story path, thus eliminating a ton of hard work. Moreover, where other characters inherit their Architect grids across multiple playthroughs, he doesn't... which is weird, since he is the protagonist.
On 5 specifically
I've already expounded on the gameplay above, now I'll go over the story. I've played two of the six paths in this game (the sixth being Ryofu Housen's path, which branches off from Toutaku's). The two I played were Toutaku and Cao Cao...
Toutaku's path is a masochist's wet-dream, since the protagonist is essentially in a controlling relationship with a possessive yandere who generally loves and is possessive of everyone who serves her or lives under her rule. Considering Toutaku not only raised but educated the protagonist (in multiple ways, including sexual and more mundane meanings), her being dominant wasn't a surprise. However, the sheer one-sidedness of her possessiveness was awe-inspiring at times, especially toward the end. There are also times in this path where the faint of heart will probably drop it outright. Akito's role in Toutaku's court is as an assassin, spy, general, tactician, seducer... and torturer. In comparison to the kind-hearted, easygoing guy he is in the other paths and in 4, it was a bit shocking, even for me. I mean, he casually mentions that he seduced a man's wife, had her poison the husband, then killed her afterward... and feels no guilt for it whatsoever, because Toutaku told him to. lol
Cao Cao's path is much more mundane, in comparison. It starts right before Cao Cao initiates the campaigns against Yuan Shao (Enshou), thus leaving all the events around the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo in the dust (along with the fun involved). I'll be straight, while the character interactions in this path are frequently amusing and I honestly liked things most of the time, the inclusion of moe-aspects into Cao Cao's personality is a non-starter. Cao Cao's crueler side never comes to the surface in this path, and Akito's hero worship turns to love in the most cliched way possible. In other words... this path was entirely unlike Cao Cao, and thus, I deem it a failure, despite its good points.
I also played Choukaku's path up until the turning point... and I dropped it like a hot potato. To be blunt, I found the mewling idealism that suddenly surfaces in that path about halfway to be repulsive (in another game, I probably wouldn't have minded as much... but Zhang Jiao/Choukaku basically closed her eyes to rapine and plunder on a massive scale for years before Akito turns things around, so I thought it was all a bit too convenient).
Overall, I give high points to Toutaku's path and intend to go back and play the Ryofu path that branches off from it at a later time... but Cao Cao's path has made me tired. Choukaku's path made a shot at the 'redemption from darkness' thing, but it fell flat to me so badly that I couldn't bring myself to go any farther. It didn't help that they killed off two of your most valuable generals in a path where you only have five story generals (as opposed to the 8-13 seen in the other paths) right before opening you up to invasion from five provinces at once.
Since I'm playing Teito Hiten for VN of the Year 2014 right now, I decided to let the fans of my VN of the Month thread decide which VN I'll play first from March. These are the three I considered. One is from Saga Planets, another from Rosebleu, and the last is from Minato Soft. Since these three are companies I actually pay attention to, these were my first choices to play, from March's releases. Whichever has the most votes by the time I get done with Teito Hiten wins and will be played/reviewed first.
I haven't decided which of these VNs I will play this month, but I thought I'd let yall in on my thought processes.
Basic Impressions (based off of previews, official pages, and Getchu pages)
Hamidashi Creative- This looks like a solid charage, just from the way they actually decided to handle the intros. https://vndb.org/v27449/chars?view=2S-7Nx23xHY#chars
1) No protagonist intro- Speaking from experience, when the protagonist doesn't even have a brief introduction on the official or Getchu sites, that usually means there is a good chance of a kusoge. This is because it usually signals the writers' intention to twist the protagonist's personality to fit the heroines in each path, rather than giving him an actual solid characterization.
2) The story summary actually describes something valid to the story, giving you at least an impression of what the game might be like- This might not seem that important, but games that avoid giving such impressions, focusing 90% on introducing the heroines only, are basically moe-whore-bait. Very few aren't kusoge in those cases, and the ones that aren't are because the writers were actually hiding a story behind the fluff they put up beforehand (a tactic that tends to have negative consequences, but still some companies do it).
3) The existence of an imouto heroine- Very few charage that don't have an imouto heroine or imouto support character are any good. I don't say this because I love imouto characters (though I am moderately fond of them), but rather because for some reason, imoutos as support characters tend to help characterize the protagonist and heroines both. For some reason, charage writers seem to have trouble making heroines feel real if there isn't a token imouto standing by in the wings.
4) One of the heroines is presented as being 'whimsical'- This might seem like a weird sign for me to mention, but if at least one of the heroines (preferably an older one) or support characters is a whimsical and influential individual, the game tends to be more amusing and/or interesting. This is because the whims of this character can break up the monotony that plagues the average SOL game in ways that keep the reader interested, even if it isn't their favorite genre.
Sakura no Kumo * Scarlet no Koi https://vndb.org/v26664
1) NOT based in the modern era- This in itself can make things interesting, depending on how it is handled. Generally speaking, the 'present-day SOL school setting' is the most abused and overused setting in all of JVNs and visual novels in general.
2) Possibly a mystery VN? To be honest, this isn't that much of a draw for me. However, sending a modern-day guy back to the Taishou era (twenty years previous to WWII, before the extremist fires of Imperial Japan reached their peak) sounds like an interesting premise (technically Hachimyoujin did something similar, but it isn't the same thing). As such, I will definitely play this eventually, even if it isn't picked for this month.
3) Protagonist is introduced in the official and Getchu pages AND he has a sprite- This really is important, because it shows how much, in the way of resources the makers of this game are putting into it. Most of the time, even if the best friend and support characters have sprites, the protagonist won't, mostly using a FP perspective as an excuse (and it is an excuse). That he doesn't have VA is a downer, but VAs for protags outside of chuunige are rare, at best.
Kagi o Kakushita Kago no Tori https://vndb.org/v25670
1) Cabbit game- All Cabbit games are weird. No, I'm not kidding. They can be SOL one moment, with mild-mannered heroines doing normal things, then turn creepy as all hell the next moment, depending on choices or the events of the story. Midori no Umi was creepy from the beginning, but their other games were a bit more up and down. You can never tell what a Cabbit game will be like just by looking at it, so I'm interested to see what they'll do to my brain this time.
2) Androphobic heroine- This might not seem like a positive element, but the act of slowly getting past the guard of an androphobic heroine can be extremely therapeutic for the reader. It is also often interesting (unless they go the dark nukige route) to watch. Of course, depending on how it is handled, this can destroy the game too, lol.
3) Murder Mystery- This isn't the first time I've played a Cabbit game with a murder mystery, and, considering how they handled it in the other games, it is probably going to surprise the hell out of me. That said, I've already guessed the two most likely perps, but I'm still interested to see if I'm right (cues in character descriptions).
I have numerous reasons for putting Ai Yori Aoi Umi no Hate on hiatus... including that I'm tired of slice-of-life and the oddities of the setting are driving me a little crazy. However, the fact is that I'm just tired. Every once in a while, I fall into a sourceless funk, where I don't want to do anything - fun or not - and I'm in the middle of one of those now. I can tell you for certain that I'm not really interested in this VN right now, despite the fact that, until about eighteen hours ago, I was enjoying it despite the massive holes in the setting.
This might be a case of me making excuses to myself, but I can guarantee I won't give this VN a real chance if I force myself to read it now... and the same goes for Haruoto. I just don't have the energy or the wherewithal to be nice and treat all VNs equally right now.
I realized that I've always focused excessively on Sora, the protagonist, when I was describing this game, so I thought (on a whim) that I would go ahead and introduce the heroines to you all.
SPOILER WARNING
1. Amatsu Kanata https://vndb.org/c8804
Amatsu Kanata is the first heroine in the recommended play order and perhaps the heroine who comes closest to Sora in personality. Selfish, cold-hearted, ruthless, and in possession of an iron will that would make a normal chuunige antagonist shudder, on the surface she plays the popular student council president. Her past is probably the nastiest and most victimized of the heroines, but the personality that past created is by several degrees the most naturally dangerous while being coldly rational in most ways.
Depending on which path you pursue for her, you get an ending where she takes the lead or Sora takes the lead. Ironically, she is far more forgiving and easygoing in the one where she takes the lead, and in the one where Sora takes the lead, her bloody-minded nature is far more in evidence, especially toward the end. Kirito (Sora's friend) describes her as being someone who, rather than taking a situation as it is and fitting herself in, molds the situation to her liking. He also remarks that taking such a course is the resort of a genius or a madman, while avoiding pointing out which she is.
2. Minami Mutsuki https://vndb.org/c4110
Minami Mutsuki is Sora's sex-friend, a whimsical senpai who has a tendency to play with words, deliberately poorly concealing what she wants in any given situation. Like Kanata, she is highly intelligent, but her personality is a great deal more mild and open. Part of this comes from the fact that she still has living family (a rather silly older brother and his wife), but a great deal of it comes from her essential nature. Sora remarks internally and to her several times in the story that she is a lot closer to being human than he is.
Unlike Kanata and Sora, Mutsuki is capable of feeling guilt, though only toward people she considers to be worthy on an instinctive level (a trait common to all the heroines is that they are unbelievably cold to people they don't consider equals under the surface). She is a hedonist, indulging in sex (with Sora), cigarettes, and frequent sleeping just because she feels like it. Outside of pleasure-related activities, she is mostly apathetic, but she has a sense of honor unique amongst the heroines.
3. Mukou Misora https://vndb.org/c4114
The only 'full adult' in the group. She is a teacher at the school and the older sister of Azumi, Sora's violently whimsical osananajimi. She is very good at hiding her desires and impulses, even going so far as to present a false face to Sora throughout much of her route. Unlike the other heroines, she has a strong desire to see Sora find some kind of normal, conventional happiness, though she herself is a bit too twisted inside to really understand such things.
Because she 'sees' too deeply, she misunderstands Sora's nature the most out of the heroines, save for perhaps Mei. Like all the heroines, she is coldly ruthless in going after what she wants, and she is also an inveterate liar. At the same time, despite her greater age, she is the most vulnerable (in every way) of the heroines, though her attitude toward people she doesn't like goes beyond cold into being outright murderous.
4. Nanagi Akane and Akari
https://vndb.org/c8806
https://vndb.org/c8805
Twin sisters who share all of their emotions and most of their sensations. Though Sora isn't aware of it, both of them have been in love with him since early childhood. Akane is the more rational of the two at the surface-level, whereas Akari is more primal and instinct-driven. As such, Akane has a tendency to fall behind Akari when it comes to acting on her emotions. In the setting of this game, twins who are also 'Enja', have to keep a careful balance between their wants, desires, and their fulfillment. If one wants to take one as a lover, one has to take the other as well, lest they gradually go insane.
Akane is very much a 'pretender', putting up a facade of geniality in normal life. However, she is also brutally sadistic and cold toward those she dislikes, while being somewhat cowardly and malleable in the hands of someone she loves. Like all the heroines, she possesses a strong urge toward violence and an inherently primal nature that goes beyond that of normal humanity. Other than Amatsu, she is probably the best at hiding it though.
Akari is kept confined to their home, due to the fact that her 'henshitsu' has already proceeded to a point where subtle signs of inhumanity have begun to show (eye color, a desire for the taste of blood, etc). She is not particularly dissatisfied with this arrangement, but she does wish she could see Sora. Unlike Akane, who is intensely jealous of her for something that happened in the past, Akari is deeply concerned for her sister. Also unlike Akane, Akari doesn't bother to hide her darkness, since she never goes out amongst 'normal humanity'.
5. Aono Mei https://vndb.org/c4113
To be honest, the best description of Mei would be 'innocent evil priestess'. Mei is like a more violent version of Hecate from Shakugan no Shana, as well as being even more innocent in some ways. Her only real interests are in her duty and in Sora... an interest that is profoundly unnatural given their natural positions within the natural order. While she is profoundly innocent in some ways, she reacts automatically to threats with excessive violence, often to the point of splattering those who threaten her without understanding they couldn't possibly know how stupid it is to provoke her.
Dir Lifyna is the name of the world in which Eushully's Ikusa Megami games, Kamidori Alchemy Meister, and most of the rest of their games are based.
I love Dir Lifyna. I don't think I'm alone in this, since it was the unexpected popularity of the setting in the original Ikusa Megami that resulted in the ridiculous number of follow up games that culminated in Ikusa Megami Zero (which most fanboys consider the best game Eushully has ever made).
The setting is deep, based in a world built in the aftermath of a pure fantasy world (with no humans) being linked then melded accidentally with a future Earth that was apparently far beyond even our current technological level (think matter-of-course genetic modification and cybernetics, as well as artificial lifeforms of more than human complexity). At the end of the war that resulted from the initial contact, humanity's deities (artificial and otherwise) lost to the 'Living Gods', and humanity's history and most of its technology was systematically erased from the world. Most of humanity's original gods either died or went into hiding, and the remaining humans mostly worship the Living Gods. Other races that were 'hidden' before the initial contact (Nagas, for example) retained a faith and service to some of them, but that has just resulted in them being ever more marginalized in the world as it has become.
Humanity, ironically, has become the most numerous intelligent race, providing most of the faith (which provides power to deities) to sustain the Living Gods, causing even those Living Gods' own creations to often be as marginalized as the servants of the Old Gods. Demihumans often find themselves forced to coexist with humans or pushed out of the better lands, leading to conflicts in which the churches of various deities often take sides, even if the deities themselves don't (most deities that aren't a devoted patron of a certain race tend to prioritize the power gained from worship over all things, it seems like).
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the various games set in this world is that they rarely provide a purely human-centric viewpoint on things. Serika, the protagonist of the IM series, can't be considered to be human in any wise (either in perspective or body), Meishoku no Reiki's protagonist is practically a demon lord, Madou Koukaku's protagonist is the ruler of a mixed-race country, Kami no Rhapsody is all about people competing for the right to rule over a multi-race federation, and the Genrin series focuses on a half-demon protagonist who tries to conquer a mostly-human region for the sake of survival (at least at first).
'Chosen Heroes' (usually half-immortal paladins called 'shinkakusha' granted a portion of a deity's essence) are often monsters wearing human skin, priests are mostly political animals or dogmatists, and the conflict between Darkness and Light rarely falls into a 'good vs evil' formula, regardless of perspective.
That's when the games are trying to be serious from beginning to end, such as with Genrin, IM, or Madou Koukaku. However, some of the more 'frivolous' games (such as Sankai Ou no Yubiwa, Kamidori, or Kamiyui) are often lighter affairs, though the essential nature of the setting usually bleeds through at odd moments, usually near the end.
Unfortunately, Eushully has a bad habit of switching writers frequently, and this results in huge dips and rises in quality between releases, story-wise. As a result, while the company manages to produce kamige like IMZ on occasion, it more often hits a more moderate note like with Verita or Kami no Rhapsody... or strays into outright kusoge territory like with Sankai Ou or Himegari.
Gameplay wise, the company's works in this universe are a mixed bag... Ikusa Megami's battle system is essentially a variant on the ATB system, combined with a 'use it and it grows' approach to skill trees. On the other hand, Genrin was essentially a crappier version of Fire Emblem, Madou Koukaku was conquest strategy, and Kami no Rhapsody was a fairly horrible take on standard Japanese-style srpgs (seriously, obsessing over gimmicks like touch screen adaptation with an ero VN gameplay hybrid is just idiotic). It seems at times like Eushully wants to try every popular Japanese single player game genre at one point or another...
Anyway, if you are still reading, thanks for paying attention to this random ramble.
This is a question I wonder if many people here have asked themselves... do you honestly like Japan, as a country (whether you've visited or just look in from the outside)? My own feelings are... mixed. Japan has a pretty fascinating culture that is essentially a scrapbook of various elements drawn from cultures that contacted it that were then evolved based on what the people of a given era wanted/needed. However... the country itself is pretty problematic looking at it from the outside. Political corruption, resurgent nationalism, toleration of organized crime, and the tendency to ignore all 'domestic issues' by those outside the household in question (including the police) are all reasons to be ambivalent about Japan. However, the closeness of police to people's lives (the kouban system), otaku culture, and the traditional aesthetic values of Japan are pretty interesting.
We all have our reasons for the way we feel about Japan, if we feel anything. If you'd asked me fifteen years ago, I would have unhesitatingly chosen option 1, but the more I studied, the more I realized just how many problems the country just fails utterly to deal with. That said, if you asked me the top three countries - other than my homeland - that I'd be interested in living in, Japan would still be number one. Why? I got addicted to hot springs after a visit to one in Arizona, and studying history is one of my major hobbies. Pretty hedonistic of me, eh?
First, I should state that I went into this game with a specific heroine in mind from the beginning. I might go back later and play one of the other heroine routes, but I played this game specifically because I thought the concept was interesting and I liked Hanna's character description.
This game is by Hook Soft, a company primarily known for its combination of lovey-dovey relationships, mild comedy, and surprisingly long paths. This company generally produces high-quality charage, but I always found it hard to play their games because of the sheer amount of ichaicha involved (it is probably more than you are imagining). Their protagonists are usually reasonably capable (so far, none of the ones I've played has had an average or stupid protagonist), and their heroines tend to have their own strong moe-characterizations (this company is a bit heavy-handed on the moe sometimes).
This game is no exception. The protagonist, while having the usual 'light and joking' qualities of a charage protagonist, is mostly an honor student who lives alone, works part-time to pay for his living expenses, and keeps his grades up for the sake of his scholarship. As such, it immediately passed the first 'charage hurdle' without a problem (charage hurdles being stupid tropes that ruin everything but are endemic to the genre).
This game's theme is also its gimmick. As the title hints, you have a choice after the heroine is locked in as to whether the protagonist will take the lead in the relationship or the heroine will. This results in differing outcomes and h-scenes, which provide some extra depth to the experiences with the heroine in general.
The heroine I focused on, Hanna, is technically a foreign transfer (not exchange) student, having moved to Japan with her parents and little sister Lisa some time before the game begins (relatively recently). She attends a rich girls' (ojousama) school in the area and is an object of admiration for her grace and beauty both in and outside the school. She is a gentle-mannered girl from beginning to end, meaning you'll only rarely see her angry... but she does get jealous (in an adorable fashion). I liked how the path and common route both hand the protagonist learning what kind of person she was, her circumstances, and filling in the gaps between his initial perceptions and the reality as it went.
I really want to praise this company for the smooth transition from the common route to the heroine route. It felt so natural that I wouldn't have even noticed if it weren't for the choice as to who was to take the lead in the relationship. In fact, I've rarely encountered VNs that were this smooth and well-paced, which reminds me of why I kept trying to play this company's games despite the fact that the huge amounts of ichaicha could wear on me at times.
Hanna- Protagonist Lead
The path where the protagonist leads is pretty straightforward. As they spend time together, Hanna gradually changes, losing some of her hesitance to rely on others, and she gradually comes to rely on the protagonist deeply. This is generally a path where an already adorable Hanna becomes even more adorable and reveals more facets to her personality and her relationship to her family. There is a ton of ichaicha, as is common for Hook soft games, and the 'small drama' common to charage heroine paths is fairly easily resolved in a way that provides a neat conclusion to the path. The epilogue is fairly cute, and it made me smile.
Hanna- Heroine Lead
The first thing I noticed was that the confession scene was completely different. Where the protagonist was the one desperately pushing himself to confess to her in the previous route, in this route, it was her trying to find a way around her hangups to confess to him. The interesting thing is the difference in how the initial hangups are resolved between the paths, and I thought it was a clever gimmick.
While some key parts and details are echoed between the path, they are presented differently, and in this path, Hanna is far more aggressive about the relationship, whereas the protagonist is slightly more passive (this route actually feels more like a standard charage route, given how most charage protags only have fake personalities). From a visual perspective, Hanna's everyday-wear outfit is changed in this path from the other and the common route (indicating that you were meant, at least in her case, to play the other one first - yay me! - most likely).
In addition, this path has short scenes from Hanna's perspective, something the other path lacked, probably because it was a path focused on the protagonist leading the relationship.
What is most marked about this path in comparison to the other is Hanna's personal growth. She quickly goes from your standard 'passive ojousama' to a strong personality that dominates the relationship without crushing the protagonist's personality or pride. I liked that they changed up how Hana acts in every way while not ruining her basic characterization, and I had to appreciate how carefully thought out it must have been in advance. Indeed, there are facets of Hanna that come out only in this path, which makes it worth playing on its own.
Conclusion
A Hooksoft charage with an interesting gimmick/concept, some good comedy, and a lot of heavy ichaicha. If you want the 'gold standard' for charage, Hooksoft is one of the companies to look to.
Ogishima (Brandole) Jun
The son of Id Brandole and Yukari of the Ogishima family. He was raised as a human by his mother, who sealed his vampiric nature on a regular basis since early childhood. While he seems mild-mannered on the surface, he has an incredible capacity for rage and ruthlessness in defense of those he considers family. He is highly intelligent, even brilliant. At the beginning of the story, Belche arrives to inform him that, if she thinks he is fit to rule, he will take over the Brandole Family of vampires and marry a woman of good family (Lian). Jun, while he resents the intrusion at first, quickly adapts to Belche's presence in his life, coming to see her as a mentor, a second mother (who loves him deeply and makes it obvious in a number of little ways), and vassal. His tendency to value 'family' (in a broad sense) over anything else is apparently shared by all men of his bloodline. As a Shinso/First, he is technically immortal (he can be killed but will eventually resurrect given time) and will turn anyone he bites or shares bodily fluids with. His blood, saliva, and other fluids feed his vampire virus to his servant vampires, maintaining their lives and powers.
Belche (Elceranto De Annoyance)
Belche is perhaps the most interesting character in the game. She was originally from Ireland (up to four hundred years ago, as the rumors and historical records are blurred and she herself states she forgot just how old she was), and she was turned into a vampire by Id Brandol in order to grant her revenge on those who had harmed her. She relates her experience of growing into vamprism as a process of 'staining a white canvas, as my common sense was blotted out by a frightening darkness' in a tone devoid of any emotion. To the entire Ogiwara 'family', she is a mother figure, gentle but strict, wise beyond words. To the enemies of her family, she is death and horror itself, the Witch of Cacophany, who brings death and horror with her wherever she goes. (it is also remarked a few times in the story that she is the most powerful Second to have ever existed)
「‥我が身は不老にて不死、死して尚、主人のために何度でも立ち上がる‥」
「我が名こそは最強にして最悪、我が名を耳にしたる者、正しき者には安らぎを‥悪しき者には地獄の響き‥」
「ブランドル家使用人、エルシェラント・ディ・アノイアンス‥我が存在の全ては、ただ主人のために‥以後お見知りおきを‥マスター‥ンむ‥」
"My flesh is untouched by age and undying. Even should I die, I shall rise again and again for the sake of my master. For my name is both the strongest and most terrible. For those who hear my name, let those who are correct find tranquility... and for those of evil heart, may they hear the echoes of Hell... I am a servant of the Brandole Clan, Elceranto De Annoyance. All of my existence is solely for the sake of my master... Pleased to make your acquaintance from now on, Master."
Lian Lucie Dimermore
Lian is a lesser First of the Dimermore family, which is known for the sheer amount of the vampire virus they carry in their blood. At first she comes across as arrogant and ignorant of the ways of the world outside of vampire society, but she is also deeply loving. Having been raised as a noblewoman intended to marry the successor of the Brandole Clan, she was originally promised to Id (who was MUCH older than her), a fact that did not in any way displease her, as he was one of the few adult vampires that didn't treat her as a bother or a tool to be used. She has the ability to alter the minds of those around her, and she has a tendency to use it with casual ruthlessness on those she considers lesser.
Rika Pembleton
Draculius's resident tsundere, a fake nun from a vampire-hunting organization who is insanely trigger happy, has problems with details, and is something of a zealot. Her fiery nature causes her a great deal of trouble, and she becomes Jun's first 'child', to both their dismays. Like many tsundere characters, she actually has an immense capacity for emotional dependence, and she also has a strong need to have a purpose in life, which is one reason why she is so zealous in her work. She is also Jun's first lover. She gains the ability to alter the flow of time, which also allows her to alter the trajectory of her bullets (an ability that was eventually given to the protagonist of 3rdEye's Bloody Rondo, along with part of the terminology used in this story). Of the characters, Rika probably changes the most obviously depending on which of the two paths, the joke path or the true path, you choose to go down.
Takayanagi Misao
One of Jun's closest friends, a trans girl who constantly clashes with Jun and Shuu for teasing her (because they both think of her as a boy and Japanese society didn't recognize trans officially at the time this was made save as a curiosity or a trope). She is fairly simple-minded, though reasonably intelligent (she gets good grades but is easily tricked and manipulated). She is something of a glutton and more than a little childish, constantly being mothered by those around her to a ridiculous extent. She is not a heroine in the story, though she wishes she was.
Xeno Jailburn
Lian's werewolf servant (she is also a vampire, since Lian's and Id's virus was used to allow her grow up healthy) who is obsessively loyal to her mistress. Despite her loyalty (which is absolute), one of her favorite pastimes is making fun of her somewhat naive mistress, and her sense of humor is definitely the most hilarious in the game. Like her mistress, she has a deep capacity for love, but that capacity is very narrowly focused, usually limited to people she considers family (which is a very strict delineation in her mind, stricter than Jun's). She takes great pleasure in rubdowns in her wolf form from those she trusts, but earning that trust is not easy, to say the least. She has the ability to turn into a liquid, which allows her to do things like hiding in Lian's shadow or entering areas through cracks in doorways.
Really, the name of this game says it all... 'A Dragon Princess's Lazy Life'. This game centers around Takeru, a young martial artist NEET who will do anything to avoid real work, his osananajimi Suzuka, and the dragon he picked up off the street, Haru. I'll be honest, this game is pretty similar to Nekonin in length, if not in quality (it is slightly better), and I mostly enjoyed it because the double-boke of Takeru and Haru is so hilarious. Neither Takeru nor Haru has anything resembling common sense, and they are both perfect sponges, so most of the game has them quite naturally sponging off the people around them, Suzuka in particular.
The H in this game is plentiful for its length (four scenes in a three hour game), but they really aren't that important. Neither Haru nor Takeru has a serious bone in their body (all they think about is food).
I'll be honest when I say I can't call this a great game... but it was amusing. I'd hoped that this would be a new plotge by Whirlpool, but I guess I can live with a short comedy VN.
I have to say I apologize to those who voted for Minikui Mojika no Ko... my original instinct not to play this game at all was correct. This game feels too much like a dark rape nukige to allow me to play it anymore, so I had to drop it. Not to mention that I hate all the characters and think they should all be tossed into the nearest garbage dump.
For those interested in this game, you have my apologies... but I honestly just couldn't bring myself to play anymore of this after completing the short common route and Sohori's route. I have a number of reasons, but the main ones are:
1. This is a lolige. I am not and have never been a lolicon and my tolerance for non-immortal human lolis is pretty low. All but one of the heroines in this game are either complete lolis or borderline, and to me, that is just visually tiring after a while, especially when nobody acts like it is strange that a whole bunch of lolis like the same guy.
2. The protagonist. First, he is a 'nobody' whose background setting should have let him be somebody. I am so tired of nobody protagonists and cipher protagonists. Despite apparently being capable overall and a pretty good beginning characterization, his basic personality changes (branches off about sixty degrees) the second you enter a heroine path... He comes across as a serious, straight-laced guy with a strong sense of responsibility in the common route... and when you get on the heroine routes, he turns into the usual 'doofus character' that defines so many moege protags.
3. I am not in the mood for a pure romance VN right now... to be honest, even if this were a kamige, I don't think I could really enjoy it at the moment. Fortunately, it is nowhere near that good (the protagonist's personality change kind of sinks any chance of that), so you really aren't missing anything, from what I read.
I honestly normally wouldn't bother explaining why I choose not to play a given VN in a given month, but with Hooksoft games, given their rather high popularity, there is a real need for me to say something.
First, I don't like Hooksoft games. They are written well, are visually pretty, and generally have moe-stimulating heroines. However, they are also perfect examples of every reason I can find not to bother with the genre at times. The characters are cute, there is plenty of ichaicha and slice of life... and the protagonists, no matter their role, are always just 'normal guys'.
This game, in particular, managed to make me lose interest inside the prologue, where most VNs manage to catch my interest. The simple reason is that the protagonist's accomplishments have already occurred in the past, and all that is left is for him to literally pick one of the girls from his harem of the school's best beauties.
To me, this felt right off the bat like a cheap excuse to avoid relationship formation issues. Within the first thirty minutes, all of the girls have confessed their love to him, on one level or another, and he is put into the position of picking one of them.
I'm going to say this straight out... I loathe this pattern. If they'd gone through the student council election campaign in the prologue and hit this in the first or second chapter, I probably woold have been willing to forgive a lot more, but the decision to start in the middle of things was a seriously poor one in this case.
As such, I absolutely had to drop this one, as it kept putting me to sleep.
This is a VN by Circus, the company that makes the Da Capo series, which I'm sure most of our resident moe-addicts are familiar with. It is also based in the same universe (well, I'm pretty sure it is, since a Professor Amakase made an AI with emotions who likes bananas and who is the true heroine of this VN, lol).
To put it straight to you... this is a very old style of VN. It is a lot closer to the old Da Capo games and Key's early VNs than it is to anything else made in modern times. Like Da Capo, it has its emotional moments... and some decent drama. However, in exchange, the lateral relationships are almost nonexistent (character interrelationships other than with the protagonist tend to be weak to nonexistent, beyond a few templates). This is the standard for this type of VN, and it was more than satisfying enough for me when I first started playing VNs... but now that I've experienced more fulfilling interactions between casts of characters, this VN feels startlingly dull at times.
Both visually and audio-wise, this is a VN that 'feels' like a Circus VN. Almost all of the tracks are 'honobono' (restful) or playful in atmosphere. Visually, it is a reasonably pretty VN... but it isn't near the higher end of things.
I feel a need to mention the ero simply because of the degree to which the spare (short and plain) h-scenes screw up the rhythm of a VN that doesn't have that good of a rhythm in the first place. This is a VN that was definitely made with an eye toward releasing a console non-H version later on, and it shows. As such, the ero is fairly meaningless and tends to be more of an obstacle to enjoyment than is usual.
One more little thing that had me peeved about this VN was the fact that the protagonist is nameable... and that is also the single element that caused me the most difficulty in enjoying the VN as a whole. I don't say this to be an ass, but this particular trope has a singularly dehumanizing effect on the protagonist of any VN in which it is used. Considering how weak and pale charage protags are in the first place, this is a really bad idea, lol. In particular, when there is a blank spot in various spoken dialogue from the heroines where nothing is said or the name is changed to a pronoun, it feels really weird and breaks my engrossment in the story. Style-wise, this is one of the most abominable tropes in existence, and it is the reason it took me five tries to get into and finish Hoshi ori Yume Mirai, despite the overall high-quality of the VN otherwise.
Now... this VN particularly shines in its heroine routes. Those routes are done - as I mentioned above - in the 'older' style, where the heroines have a serious problem that only comes up when they are with the protagonist and the protagonist solves, thus affirming their bond (after some shakeups). Now, I don't particularly hate this particular archaic type of story, and the heroine routes themselves are fairly high-level... but looking at the VN as a whole, the weak scenario design outside of the heroine paths (the lead up to the romance formation) is absolutely abominable to experience. This, in some ways, makes the heroine paths an experience in the good slowly carving away at the negativity of the early game.
Overall, this VN is a typical Circus experience... good in some ways, godawful in many others. It is difficult to call most of the games by this company a kusoge, but this kind of BS is why this company isn't anywhere near a favorite of mine.
I'll be blunt... I got this for free a while back from my supplier, and ever since then, I've kept it shelved, simply because the description makes it sound like a nukige. Fortunately, it isn't one... in fact, it is pretty far from that.
Basically, it is a propaganda piece, speaking on the issue of rewriting the part of the Japanese constitution that prevents them from fighting except in a case where they were attacked first. The heroines and other characters line up behind either the ones who want to change the constitution or those who want to keep it the way it is. To be honest, this was such a blatantly political story that I almost tossed it back into the abyss of my account so I could forget I'd ever seen it.
The romance in this VN isn't terribly strong... mostly because the pacing is so fractured that you can't help but wonder why they bothered in the first place. It isn't that the actual writing is bad... it is just that the attempt to graft a standard charage onto a political debate story weakened the overall storytelling to the point where I literally fell asleep sitting up several times while I played this.
My biggest complaints with the political side of it is that this is an obviously pro-change propaganda story (though the outcome differs depending on what heroine you choose). The ones who are against the change are universally presented as silly idealists during the debate scenes and the ones for it have a tendency toward realist arguments, though arguments on both sides were pretty extreme. It wasn't terribly blatant... but it wasn't subtle either, at least from my point of view. I have to wonder if someone paid Ja no Michi to do things this way...
