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Beat Blades Haruka


EcchiOujisama

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This one dropped about a week ago.  While @CeruleanGamer  is no doubt ovaries deep while NTRabisming your girlfriend, or words to that effect, there doesn't seem to be a lot of excitement about this one.

On the surface, you'd think this can't miss.  Commanding a pair of kunoichi and doing H things to them while fighting bad guys trying to take over the world.  What's not to love?  Quite a lot, as it turns out.

The first thing that sticks out is the two kunoichi you get on the first run aren't particularly interesting or fun characters.  You have Narika, the annoying, flat, jealous childhood friend you've only known for 2 years.   Then there's Haruka, who doesn't feel like someone from centuries ago like she is supposed to be.  She's every shy modern girl you've ever seen.  As the most interesting character with the best body, Subaru is of course off limits on your first playthrough.  

For the first 30-35 turns (going over 99 is automatic game over and bad end) you pretty much do nothing but spin your wheels as you try to build yourself up enough to do just about anything.  It's hard explain as it has a lot of interconnected moving parts that affect each other, but if you imagine playing some NES RPG that requires a lot of grinding (like Dragon Quest 1 or Final Fantasy 1), then lose experience points every time you take a step, you start to get the idea.  Except you have more like 6 interconnected parts here.

What really stood out is that it seems to replicate the major flaws of both Hitozuma Hime Club and Otoboku.  Like Hitozuma Hime Club, you're bombarded with far more H scenes in succession than (I'd imagine) anyone could ever get off to.  Sooner or later you find yourself clicking through them so the game can continue.  Like Otoboku, it has a plot and enough characters that are interesting enough (even if they aren't the main heroines) that it should be engaging, but somehow it just isn't.  While Eiyuu*Senki balances the gameplay and story pretty well, this one had a tendency to give gameplay when I'm ready for story and to throw too many nothing segments at me when I'm just trying to get strong enough to survive.  It's less difficult than it is more tedious than it needs to be.

Another annoyance is that the option to skip previously messages turns itself off.  I haven't figured out what causes it yet, but it's a regular occurrence.

If you decide to save yourself for Akira-sensei, don't wait too long during her first scene.  You've been warned.

I found the bonus game for extra CGs to be quite a lot of fun.  It's very simple, but an enjoyable slash-everything-that-moves game.  

I just don't see why this one gets the amount of love it does in Japan.  It is greatly outclassed by the Rance remakes.  It's a decent game, but not a great one.

For an extra challenge, try playing on Nightmare Mode.  An invention of one of the guys in the staff room, you need to orgasm during every Haruka scene.  It's harder thank you think. :michiru: 

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Hmm, no idea what is up with your skip option; that is not happening on my end UNLESS I actually click the screen during the skipping, (which is supposed to stop it.)

 

Also, this is a nukige, so complaining about too many H-scenes seems a bit out there :wahaha:

 

Agree to some of the other things you say though.

 

Personally I am just utterly and completely addicted to this game. It's so freaking entertaining when you get the hang of it.

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Actually, we'd already got the discussion link for this game (Created by me), and if possible, could the mod joining this thread with the linked thread below?

About H-Scene, admittedly in this kind of game you'll use it only for mana recovery anyway and boost your status (If you hate to click it, just ctrl it anyway since you could review it again in replay if you had the chance), and vanilla one also quite sleep inducing too. But if we talking about kainin sex scene, it's so entertaining to read, and maybe you'll laugh in the scene instead of being terrible (or still feeling terrible it's up to you). Oh, about Haruka challange, it's actually the challange from @Arunaru, and if you successful to do it, you will got 'Arunaru Seal of Sexcellence' approval from him. Oh, don't worry, I think to make it easier, just fapping to Dragon Synergy and Kainin scene (Although Dragon Synergy had 3 level each and Kainin had 2 level each though). Well, I'll definitely wouldn't do that, too hard.

Even though it's quite liked at erogamescape with more than 1300 votes, I think compared to Rance it's still quite low (Just for comparison, Rance remakes (01 and 03) got more scores than Haruka, while Haruka was at 80). The highest scored game from Alicesoft at erogamescape would be Kichikuou and Sengoku Rance (Both of them tie at 90) while the one with most vote were Sengoku Rance at around 2300 more vote. In general, recent Rance was score higher than Haruka at erogamescape. Although, in the end guess it's back to each other taste though, either Haruka or Rance (Maybe back at 2008 Japanese people like Naruto, so when Alice Soft release a game about female ninja, people got excited. Just my opinion though, and don't discuss Naruto here. And the gameplay was improvement from Escalayer apparently).

I think that's all for now.

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Decided to give it a shot. it's pretty bad, tbh. I'm assuming Alicesoft purposefully made this a exaggerated comedy/chuuni? Because it's just so goofy and contrived - other games of the rapey genre do far better imo (Bunny Black, Rance series). I found myself cringing so often, that I needed to quit. And that's nothing against MG staff, the work they put in shows - but the base material they had to work with is pretty suspect.

 

Though I'm not a huge fan of nukiges in general, there are much better ones out there imo. It's biggest strength - the Hscenes - aren't even anything fresh, hot or stimulating. I think Alicesoft made a mistake using this game to "test the waters."

 

The first thing I thought of when playing it, was Sakura Spirit with gameplay and actual sex. :makina:

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2 hours ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

Though I'm not a huge fan of nukiges in general, there are much better ones out there imo. It's biggest strength - the Hscenes - aren't even anything fresh, hot or stimulating. I think Alicesoft made a mistake using this game to "test the waters."

It's apparently selling decently, as Nukige tend to do. 

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16 hours ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

Though I'm not a huge fan of nukiges in general, there are much better ones out there imo. It's biggest strength - the Hscenes - aren't even anything fresh, hot or stimulating. I think Alicesoft made a mistake using this game to "test the waters."

I find this statement to be a little strange. There is 150 H-scenes in there, most of which are different, (except for the obviously similar ones, like the set stages of dragon synergy with each heroine,) and there is something for essentially every fetish and taste out there. 

 

Have you given more than just a few a try? I honestly find the variety in the H-scenes to be quite the strong side of this VN. 

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1 minute ago, Arcadeotic said:

And here's a handy-dandy fetish chart for the H-scenes :miyako:

 

Hidden Content

 

Yeah, but it is also a tad bit misleading, as many scenes has several of them, (most of the scenes has several CG variants, going from a blowjob to something else etc.) 

So thats the reason the blowjob chart is like, so incredibly long :wahaha: 

 

(Its also a not 100% correct. Missing some scenes for certain characters. But overall a decent overview I guess.) 

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4 minutes ago, Dergonu said:

Yeah, but it is also a tad bit misleading, as many scenes has several of them, (most of the scenes has several CG variants, going from a blowjob to something else etc.) 

So thats the reason the blowjob chart is like, so incredibly long :wahaha: 

 

(Its also a not 100% correct. Missing some scenes for certain characters. But overall a decent overview I guess.) 

Yes, it is kind of outdated and a bit misleading, but overall a nice synopsis

Aslo youj're not going to find anything better at this point of time, so there's that

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3 hours ago, Dergonu said:
3 hours ago, Dergonu said:

I find this statement to be a little strange. There is 150 H-scenes in there, most of which are different, (except for the obviously similar ones, like the set stages of dragon synergy with each heroine,) and there is something for essentially every fetish and taste out there. 

 

Have you given more than just a few a try? I honestly find the variety in the H-scenes to be quite the strong side of this VN. 

I find this statement to be a little strange. There is 150 H-scenes in there, most of which are different, (except for the obviously similar ones, like the set stages of dragon synergy with each heroine,) and there is something for essentially every fetish and taste out there. 

 

Have you given more than just a few a try? I honestly find the variety in the H-scenes to be quite the strong side of this VN. 

I looked through them with CeruleanGamer's savefile, after losing interest in the story. Really it held nothing particularly amazing despite the quantity. I've seen more variety (or maybe just sexual appeal?) within games such as Kamidori alchemy meister, or the Rance titles.  Hell, I found more steamy sexual content in Princess Evengile, or Boob Wars - if we want to compare to other offically localized titles.

 

But I never said the hscenes were "bad", just that they didn't really bring anything new or great to the table. Nothing that tempted me to be "proactive" anyway :makina:

 

17 hours ago, Rooke said:

It's apparently selling decently, as Nukige tend to do. 

Guess that can be considered a good thing.

 

Hopefully it means other Alicesoft titles may make it - or, if nothing else - it's a bit more cash MG can invest back into the business.

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16 minutes ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

No, I looked through them with CeruleanGamer's savefile, after losing interest in the story. Really it held nothing particularly amazing despite the quantity. I've seen more variety (or maybe just sexual appeal?) within games such as Kamidori alchemy meister, or the Rance titles.  Hell, I found more steamy sexual content in Princess Evengile, or Boob Wars - if we want to compare to other offically localized titles.

 

But I never said the hscenes were "bad", just that they didn't really bring anything new or great to the table. Nothing that tempted me to be "proactive" anyway :makina:

 

Guess that can be considered a good thing.

 

Hopefully it means other Alicesoft titles may make it - or, if nothing else - it's a bit more cash MG can invest back into the business.

Well, to each their own. :sachi:

I have at least been ... Very "proactive" with this game :makina:

So much yummy stuff in these scenes. :pyaa:

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51 minutes ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

I've seen more variety (or maybe just sexual appeal?) within games such as Kamidori alchemy meister, or the Rance titles. Hell, I found more steamy sexual content in Princess Evengile, or Boob Wars - if we want to compare to other offically localized titles.

That doesn't make any sense. Kamidori pretty much only consists of vanilla hentai (with monster girls). Rance mainly features Comedy Rape. Princess Evangile has only vanilla scenes. And Boob Wars is obviously limited to one specific fetish. None of the examples you mentioned actually has the variety you criticized. They all are offering only a specific kind of hentai content.
Haruka on the other hand has a multitude of different fetishes, ranging from vanilla to hardcore, from normal to kinky. Just look at the chart Arcadeotic posted.

Maybe Haruka is not your cup of tea, but you certainly can't blame the game for not having enough variety.

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1 hour ago, Tyrosyn said:

That doesn't make any sense. Kamidori pretty much only consists of vanilla hentai (with monster girls). Rance mainly features Comedy Rape. Princess Evangile has only vanilla scenes. And Boob Wars is obviously limited to one specific fetish. None of the examples you mentioned actually has the variety you criticized. They all are offering only a specific kind of hentai content.
Haruka on the other hand has a multitude of different fetishes, ranging from vanilla to hardcore, from normal to kinky. Just look at the chart Arcadeotic posted.

Maybe Haruka is not your cup of tea, but you certainly can't blame the game for not having enough variety.

Sure I can, I did so above :sachi:

 

And, in some defense to my opinion - I "did" state it may be more an issue of sexual appeal (or perhaps presentation?) rather then variety. Mood, setting, positions used, clothing, voice acting, writing style, they all can play a factor. And if you think Boob Wars catered to primarily one fetish - you are missing the meaning of my comparisons altogether, as the actual sexual content within my listed titles involved far more sexual content then you claim. Incest, anal, watersports, sub, dom, I can can keep listing off the fetishes within the various titles I presented~

 

In my opinion, BBH doesn't "do" anything that hasn't already been done before - and has had better presentation elsewhere.  But at the end of the day, opinions are like assholes - we all have one.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay, I finally finished it, or at least one play-through which is certainly enough for me. But man, that was that dull - its only saving grace is probably the gameplay part which was surprisingly addictive and fun. It wouldn't be enough to motivate me for another play-through, but for the first one it was entertaining enough.

I tried to go for Subaru first, which unfortunateley failed since she turned out more as a side character than a full heroine who only joins the team much later on. So I was more or less stuck with Haruka. Narika was pretty much out of discussion since I've probably never seen a girl that looked less like a ninja girl than her. She also had such a high pitched voice that I was almost relieved when she didn't participate in conversations and I wasn't forced to keep my drinking glasses away from the speakers out of fear they might burst. :unsure: However, for better or worse conversations outside H-scenes were a rarity anyway. That's not to say that the other heroines would have been much better, they were just less annoying. Haruka pretty much had no personality at all and Subaru who at least had the potential for a cool ninja girl was left just as a mere side character.

I was actually surprised that a Subaru route was unlocked after my play-through with Haruka. Though considering that Haruka's route more or less only consisted of a few more H-scenes and maybe half a page more additional text, that's certainly nothing special. Except that you have to beat the final opponent with your chosen girl which was a very bad surprise for me since my far strongest character was Subaru and not Haruka. :wacko:

There's also little to no story, since the game mainly consists of the gameplay parts and picking H-scenes. The text and dialogue inbetween is usually just repeated over and over again with the exception of some rare key scenes.

And even the H-scenes were overall more tedious and boring than anything else. That's not to say they were badly drawn - considering their age they were fine for the most part even if I did hate the protagonist shadow obscuring the girls. The main problem was that they lacked a decent setup that gets you in the mood. They were just training after all, a mechanical act like making your daily coffee for breakfast or bringing out the garbage, nothing more. No tension or emotional bond to make them more engaging. And if that wouldn't be enough already, you have to play every H-scene three times (!!!) to get the full version of it. :amane: I've also seen repeated H-scenes beyond that, so the total amount of unique H-scenes isn't really that high, especially considering that there are only 2,5 heroines. And if you don't play the evil route you can just cut them in half.

The overall production values were more on the average side. The title has only partial voice acting and the heroines just 1 - 2 different body sprites. For the most part I was just looking at a few 'hovering' heads talking with each other. Having just played a Yuzusoft title with a highly dynamic sprite and facial expression system, this was almost a slap in the face. :vinty: On the other hand, most side characters were drawn so I at least didn't have to endure exciting conversations with air, void and emptyness. 

Despite my not exactly glowing review, I wouldn't go so far to call it a bad title. While it's certainly light years away from something like Kamidori, I'd say it's at least comparable to the Raidy titles quality wise. It's still a lot better than what MangaGamer and Jast were churning out in their cheap nukige days and it's certainly fairly priced compared to what they charge for their cheap nukiges from Softhouse Seal & Co.

Overall, I'd rate it a subjective 6.0, but since I only played the good route I grant it a more objective 6.5 since it also offers an evil route I didn't play. This getting a high rating on EGS can probably only explained with the time it was released. Those days, the production values were probably a lot higher in comparion to the average VN than today where it would probably hardly reach a 60 on EGS anymore. So time definitely matters for ratings, especially for those that just rely on artistic and technical merits instead of story and writing.

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Sorry guys, but how do you get Akira's lvl 2 h-scene? Been trying but I just can't seem to get there. Finished the 1st run on Haruka's ending, and I'm on the 2nd replay now. I've tried to google it but it only says that we need to finish the game at least once, and then you can only access the h-scene if you're not on the harem route. But I went on to Subaru's route but I didn't get Akira's Lvl 2 h-scene. Some help please?

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On 3/22/2016 at 3:50 AM, xxsaberxx said:

Sorry guys, but how do you get Akira's lvl 2 h-scene? Been trying but I just can't seem to get there. Finished the 1st run on Haruka's ending, and I'm on the 2nd replay now. I've tried to google it but it only says that we need to finish the game at least once, and then you can only access the h-scene if you're not on the harem route. But I went on to Subaru's route but I didn't get Akira's Lvl 2 h-scene. Some help please?

Beating the game has nothing to do with Akira's scenes. Get her first one then her second will trigger the day after you've chosen Haruka/Narika as your heroine. As long as you don't enter Subaru or Harem routs, you will get her 2nd scene automatically. Love or brutal don't matter.

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