OreImo Tsuzuku Disc 1 Review [Some Spoilers]

[Nosebleed]

A forewarning if you didn't read the title, this review contains some spoilers (the anime is included in said spoilers) due to the way the game is built, I'll try not to give you any major spoilers (though with this lack of content there's hardly anything to spoil anyway). I'll try to avoid any spoilers as much as I can but If you absolutely hate any kind of spoilers, feel free not to read past this point.

 

 

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai Portable ga Tsuzuku Wake ga Nai (Disc 1)

(because short titles are for plebeians)

 

I still remember when I watched OreImo a year ago. I was having a fun time with the somewhat peculiar show. Lots of funny gags ands situations and plenty of development to be enjoyed by all fans, we could finally have one of those romcoms that actually has a conclusive ending, a Light Novel adaptation that doesn't completely suck! That is until the very last 4 episodes aired. Ah.. how I wish I hadn't watched the ending of this show, but I was naive, and thus i had my hopes and dreams completely crushed, just like many others. Have you ever wondered what it's like having an entire fandom rooting for different girls in a show and then watching an ending that literally ignores all logic and its fans and just decides to do whatever it wants for no reason? That's the bitter end most fans of OreImo faced in 2013.

 

But not everything is 100% lost, somewhere out there it was decided that this ending just can't be tolerated (just kidding they only wanted a cashgrab) and they decided to release a game based off of the anime to make their fans happy, OreImo Portable (I'm not writing the long version of the title), which later had a remake by the name of OreImo Portable Tsuzuku, which added new stories and was supervised by the original writer, Fushimi Tsukasa. Which just recently, after many months of waiting, just had its first disc completely translated by Rinjinbu Translations.

 

After hours of grinding in order to completely fix our walkthrough, I finally completed all of the game's endings and got every single CG, so I can finally form a solid opinion on the game.

 

Is the game worth it? Will it fullfill the gaping hole left by the anime's horrid and rushed conclusion? 

My goal with this review is to kind of give you a prespective on what to expect when going into the game and wether or not you think it'll be for you.

 

First things first, I want to point out that I only read the first disc and with this I can already say the story is not 100% complete so please don't attack me for it.

 

One thing you'll notice as soon as the story begins is that you're thrown right into the action with very little context or characterization. The game does all of its introductions and contextualization in the form of a flashback, referencing the entire season 1 of the anime in the first 5 minutes of gameplay, particularly when Kyousuke says his sister was away for months for some unknown reason but has now returned (because that's totally normal) which you can infer that the game takes place immediately after the first season's events, after Kuroneko joined Kyousuke's highschool and Kirino came back from America. From this point forward it's all original content.

 

This brings up one issue right from the get go. Unless a person has seen the anime, it is almost impossible to take any enjoyment out of the game. There's no meetings, no proper introductions, it just feels like a direct chain of events following the anime, so unless you watch that firs, this game is most certainly not for you yet.

 

Throughout its routes the came rehashes and reuses a lot of anime references, it almost feels like it's afraid to go in its original direction and is instead clinging onto the original plotline with its life, leading to many jokes just not being as funny and the overall plot of the main routes not really having that much original content to be enjoyed which to be was kind of a let down.

 

In terms of structure, the game has a very early branching plot with the first couple choices already deciding where you'll end up in later on. A major issue I had is that these initial events are usually poorly depicted and very rushed so you barely have any time to care for them at all and kind of wonder why are they even there. But where the story truly splits is after Kyousuke goes on a trip to Kyoto with Manami and Kouhei. A trip I might add only lasts 10 minutes and only has 2 meaningful scenes, one of which depends on which route you're going for and the second one is just some talking with Manami which, unless you're going for her route, is irrelevant to the plot. After this the game will take you to each of its individual routes.

 

There are five main girls in the game, much like in the anime: Kousaka Kirino, Aragaki Ayase, Tamura Manami, Gokou Ruri (Kuroneko) and Makashima Saori.

Being a fan of the anime and staying truthful to its title, I immediately decided to aim for the Kirino route, hoping I could finally have a proper ending with Kirino and Kyousuke. But to my disappointment and shock, this route was almost the worst in the entire game and it was incredibly painful to sit through all of it. Not only is the storyline completely unoriginal, pulling out one of the most cliché things ever, the ending is incredibly unsatisfactory and doesn't feel like any form of reward, and I even daresay the anime's ending was better than this. Now I'm not super dumb, I'm fully aware there is a second disc in which the endings get proper afterstories and I eagerly await to play it because I know Kirino's got a follow up in it, but as it stands in disc 1, it's most certainly not worth reading through right now. All Kirino's route is is just going back to square one and recycling the entire plot of the anime in the most boring way possible.

 

(Don't look at me like that, you should have given me a better story!)

 

But let's not get too negative here, I'm sure other endings redeemed the whole thing right? Well.. yes and no.

I'm going to go over all the main routes individually in order to cover what's good and what's bad about them.

 

Starting with the route I thought was the best in the entire game and the one that elevated the whole experience for me: Ayase's route

 

Ayase's route really provided genuine entertainment. It lets go of that clingyness I mentioned earlier and really tries to give you a genuine original experience between Kyousuke and Ayase. Throughout her route you'll be facing plenty of cute, funny and scary moments with Ayase and try to help her overcome her otaku phobia, which while still based off of how she felt in the anime, still give you new content to appreciate, and by the end I truly appreciated the existence of Ayase. But what was most important was that the ending actually gives you a meaningful epilogue that you can go "aww" on. Without a doubt, Ayase's route is the one that gave this game redeeming qualities.

 

(Look at this face, this is the face of love!)

 

Another great and unexpected story was Saori's route. A character who, in the anime, didn't have much focus except for a particular arc, but in the visual novel really had a lot going for her as throughout her whole story you won't be seeing much of the main otaku plot, but a true route focusing on Saori's issues and her personal life. But this also brings up one problem I had with it, the whole story drags out the same conflict for a very long time, only to be resolved in the most obvious way you can think of, which got a bit annoying at times since you'll be going back and forth the whole time with it.

However, for what it's worth, Saori's route really elevates her character to a whole new level and I think any fan of the series would be overjoyed to see so many different sides of this quirky swirly glasses character.

 

(Swirly Glasses will steal your heart)

 

Next up, a fan favorite, Kuroneko (real name Gokou Ruri although you'll only hear it twice in the entire game and not spoken by Kyousuke). Kuroneko's route is kind of a hit and miss, but overall has a positive tone by the end of it. One major improvement between this route and Kirino's route is that, while both branch off of the Siscaly Tournament, Kuroneko's route actually allows you to see the tournament in action which feels much more rewarding than just having the events told after they have happened. The story deals with Kuroneko mostly giving Kyousuke the cold shoulder 70% of the time and him trying to figure out what's wrong. After getting to the bottom of it Kyousuke and Kuroneko kind of form a duo and by the end you can guess what happens.

It's not super interesting since the conflict feels very dragged out with Kyousuke running after Kuroneko the whole time, and even more so because it doesn't really feel like Kuroneko's character is being given the proper treatment by the way she's portrayed, but the ending feels satisfatory enough, especially if you're a Kuroneko fan and even more so if you dislike Kirino.

 

(Kirino just got 360 no scoped)

 

And finally the last of the main routes, Manami's route.

Manami's route was.. mostly a miss for me. The game doesn't take any risks with it and uses pretty much every element it can from the anime, so unless you know her character previously, the whole thing will feel kind of forced to you. But not only that, the development throughout her route is super cliché and doesn't really have anything interesting going for it. I get where they were trying to go by finally giving a reward for Manami's efforts to get Kyousuke to notice her, but to me it just felt forced and unatural, something even the game aknowledges later down the line but doesn't really do much after so the end product is kind of an empty story with a couple very cliché romcom situations and then an ending which, despite being happy, really doesn't give you much of a conclusion to the story and it left me feeling like Manami wasn't given the attention she deserved. You'll still be able to see how Manami is like once she finally got what she always wanted, which is kind of funny to see at first, but by the end doesn't really provide very entertaining results.

 

(I'll eat your lunch because you're kind but your story was still average)

 

With the main stories out of the way, let's focus on another good point the game had, the extra stories.

To my surprise, and something that left me dumbfounded, I found myself enjoying the "What if" routes the game had to offer, which fix pretty much any issue I pointed out earlier because all of them give you original content regardless of the one you go for which felt so refreshing to read through.

Not only that, if you were disappointed with Kirino's ending, you have a somewhat more proper ending to her route in these bonus scenarios which kind of salvaged Kirino's trainwreck of a story.

 

My favorite bonus story, and one I knew about and was very eager to read through was Kanako's route, a character with very little focus or relevance in the anime, which the game really elevated by having Kyousuke go on dates with her and see the more bashful side she has to offer. It was just an all around funny story to read and of course provided a very satisfactory ending. If I had to point out a problem with this route is that it's not a main route, but it instead branches off of Ayase's route. Just make her a main girl already.

 

(I-I'm not a lolicon!)

 

Other extra scenarios include the Rock route where Manami and her brother go down the path of Rock n Roll. The Forbidden Yuri path, which to you might sound like a sweet ending where Kirino and Ayase get together, but you might actually be surprised (I shall not spoil any of it). The Kyoto Inn route which will bring out a very scary result. And the Abominable Kirino route, for those who thought they just hadn't gotten enough of being ordered around by Kirino.

 

(I love you.. Onii-chan...)

 

Overall, there are more positives than there are negatives with all these stories. While there are a couple big disappointments, there are also a couple of really fun routes and the others were average to good.

The major issue I had is that the game clearly gives up quality over quantity by offering shorter stories in exchange for a wide range of scenarios. In some cases it works out, but in others it just feels inconcistent and rushed and doesn't really reward the reader with any form of meaningful plot. This is more noticeable when we're talking about the setting which the game hardly ever bothers to expand on, it instead focuses almost entirely on character interaction, leaving out quite a chunk of basic plot. The common route, or the tiny amount there is of it is very lacking in context and would probably be more well recieved if one read the game shortly after finishing the anime so you can actually feel a more natural follow up.

But as a reward for the anime's severely lacking ending, it pays off for some characters (Ayase, Saori, Kanako and Kuroneko) while not really giving the proper attention to others (Kirino and Kuroneko), but given the amount of scenarios the reader can experience, the bad points almost dilute themselves which is probably for the best.

 

On the more technical side of things, the game's main mechanics are fairly similar to other PSP visual novels. You have a list of items you can use to unlock certain choices and then you have a dialogue mechanic. These are the main game mechanic to get into the different routes.

The item format doesn't have much to it, you just kind of have to talk to characters and see what character gives you what item so you can unlock certain paths. This is both facilitated and made annoying by the game's built-in flowchart. Why facilitating? Because it allows you to see every single branching plot so you can make different decisions in your next playthrough. Why annoying? Because you can't access it in-game, you need to go to the title screen every time you need to check up on it which is incredibly frustrating if you don't remember certain paths.

The dialogue mechanic is actually what I kind of liked and disliked about the game. The real time choices are pretty entertaining since you feel like you're properly talking to the characters. The  Live 2D animations is also rather smooth for a game that came out in 2011. But then you realize most of them hardly have any impact in the story. Most of the dialogues are meant to unlock CGs and only a handful are meant to lock you onto a specific path, usually later on in the game (i.e you'll get a normal end instead of a good one by failing). In short: You can't actually fail the game because most of the choices are meaningless and even the meaningful ones usually only lead you down to a normal end. 

 

In terms of artstyle there's nothing to complain about if you enjoyed the original OreImo anime. The character illustrations are done by Kanzaki Hiro so expect the same level of quality you see in the anime, nothing more and nothing less. It's a fairly distinct artstyle which you shouldn't have a problem getting  accustomed with it.

 

And lastly the soundtrack. Oh boy the soundtrack, possibly the worst thing this game has to offer is its soundtrack.

There are a total of 17 tracks in the whole game that play in the background and all of them feel incredibly repetitive and boring. It's the same loop over and over and over. Every. Single. Time. This game has almost nothing of value to offer with its soundtrack. If anything, you can probably use it for good elevator music.

 

 

As a final veredict, I can't exactly recommend this game as any major visual novel. It feels more like a treat, a side dish to go along with its anime counter part. The stories are short and albeit some are fullfilling, others fall kind of flat and as a whole they're usually lacking meaningful expansion and stay in a very safe zone. I know there's disc 2 which will expand on all the stories, but so far this is the impression I've been left with which, overall, isn't a terrible one because if I didn't enjoy it I wouldn't even have completed a walkthrough for it, but at the same time it wasn't the best experience you could get and it really serves to rehash the fact that PSP visual novels adapted from anime are more often than not lacking in the story department and focus on trying to provide rewards to all of its fans.

 

If I were to ever recommend this game, the person who I'm recommend it would have to at least seen the anime, there's no way anyone who hasn't seen it will take any meaningful joy out of this and the game is clearly targeted at those who have seen the show.

If you're a Kirino fan and wanted a true ending for her like I did, I suggest you wait for the disc 2 translation (or learn Japanese!), because you'll be left almost empty handed with disc 1 alone. If you're a fan of any of the other girls, I suggest you give this a go but go into it with the mindset that it's more of a way to wrap things up where the anime didn't, not a way to construct and build upon the anime's plot to give you a whole next level experience. 

 

In short, it was decent.

[Ceris]

Glad to hear it didn't turn out as a disappointment, especially Ayase's route, who was my favorite in the anime despite me not liking Yandere characters. I'll make sure to get around to reading it soon, since I love OreImo

[Nosebleed]

This game is worth playing just for the Ayase route. If you liked Ayase then you'll likely be satisfied enough with just her ending.

She's a really fun character to interact with in the game.

[GetterEmperor]

In short, it was decent.

Good enough for me.

[DERPDERP91357]

I probably screwed up in this game somewhere but i am missing the last cg and scenes 128 and 150 even though the flowchart is completely full- otherwise I hope they are going to translate disc 2 cause every route cept ayases was not really complete

[Gaporigo]

I probably screwed up in this game somewhere but i am missing the last cg and scenes 128 and 150 even though the flowchart is completely full- otherwise I hope they are going to translate disc 2 cause every route cept ayases was not really complete

 

Did you ever figure out why that was? i am missing the exact same things and can't find any info about it at all u.u

[matihood1]

On 9.03.2015 at 6:05 AM, DERPDERP91357 said:

I probably screwed up in this game somewhere but i am missing the last cg and scenes 128 and 150 even though the flowchart is completely full- otherwise I hope they are going to translate disc 2 cause every route cept ayases was not really complete

 

On 29.06.2015 at 8:55 AM, Gaporigo said:

 

Did you ever figure out why that was? i am missing the exact same things and can't find any info about it at all u.u

I know I'm like 5 years late but have you guys ever figured out how to unlock scene 128? I also can't unlock it no matter what I do. I unlocked scene 150 easily though - just don't pick the ORE when the confession scene with Ayase is about to happen.

 

Edit: I found the way to unlock the scene 128! In "Kyousuke-shi is suspicious" segment, you have to pass the first O.R.E. and pick the second one that pops up. Then you'll get a special ending.

Edited February 9, 2019 by matihood1

[Stormwolf]

Seems the translation for disc 2 is dead though. Such a shame as it was nearly completed.

[matihood1]

On 3.02.2019 at 7:57 PM, Stormwolf said:

Seems the translation for disc 2 is dead though. Such a shame as it was nearly completed.

It's not dead though. It's progressing steadily afaik. Check out this tweet:

 

Edited February 9, 2019 by matihood1

[matihood1]

Since I can't figure it out myself, does anybody know how to unlock the second part of some of the O.R.E. descriptions? I've got 100% game completion and all CG unlocked but the contents of some of the O.R.E. still aren't fully available for me. Do I need to complete some of the girls' routes multiple times or using different combinations of O.R.E. or something? I really don't know...

Edited February 10, 2019 by matihood1

[Sohkka]

I know it's been a long time.. But I'm missing the last CG from the gallery, I've tried everything and I can't get it...

[Stormwolf]

It wasnt for no reason as far as i remember that the ending was changed. Writer of the novel was pressured by her company, either pressured or forced to make a non incestous ending. What the holy fuck was the point of allowing it in the first place?