Monday, May 30, 2016

Koezaru wa Akai Hana ~Koi wa Tsuki ni Michibikareru~ - Demo review

越えざるは紅い花
 Game: [Koezaru wa Akai Hana ~Koi wa Tsuki ni Michibikareru~ ].
Genre: Otome game Visual Novel.
Developer/Publisher:  Operetta Due and Dramatic create.
Platform: PC, PSP, PS Vita.
Release date of demo: 2016-04-28
Release date of full version 2016-06-23


Decided to try another demo, seriously otome games need more of these and dramatic create knows!
This was originally a R18 PC game but was ported to psp and psvita, honestly i'd love to play an r18
game but can never actually bring myself to actually play them because I am not fond of the porn.
Also they have to make the bad ends extra disgusting 9000% of the time so that is yet another turnoff.
Ok I admit that I'd love to listen to my fav seiyuu's nnngh if they're in one but eh I'm not up for it.
 
Can R18 games can do well without the scenes? sure, they can be replaced with other ways
to develop the character but feels like something is missing since it not as it supposed to be.

Oh and the heroine Naala is voiced! so that is a good thing, she's also pretty cool imo.
A bad thing is they don't bother to voice the various side characters! so Naala is
speaking to a guy on a market who has no voice, sigh that's just a bit disappointing.
you bothered to voice the heroine but you can't be bothered to hire some random guys to voice
townspeople or minor characters? Okay I guess they ran out of budget but it is awkward.

 The seiyuu cast is unique but there are a few known names like:
Shinnosuke Tachibana, Sugiyama Noriaki, Suzuku Chihiro and Kakihara Tetsuya.
 ~
So ever since Naala's mother was kidnapped when she was a child, Naala has been living with some
noble ever since that incident, Years later when Naala has grown up,  the same people
who kidnapped her mother are back to kidnap more women.
So will Naala still be able find happiness amidst the men who have taken her?
Only time will tell... 

 As for my impressions of the guys, just from the demo I am mostly interested in Touya.

Slen comes of as an haughty asshole at first but doesn't seem to be that bad
and then there is Nooru... well he was just creeping me out in many ways. ಠ_ಠ
Maybe he's a sweetheart but the first impression isn't favorable.

I am not far enough to judge them as a whole since its a demo... but they do not seem that bad.

Ruji is nice, well he's a doctor so it can't be a coincidence.



  The whole setting and story sound very interesting and the heroine being voiced is a plus.
Honestly I have only heard good things about Koezaru so far and that it was also
one of the better r18 otome games next to chou no doku hana no kusari.
Art is decent, its not really my preferred style but its not bad or anything and the music has its charms.

In my opinion this is worth a buy even without the porn so if you still haven't played it by now
this is a good chance to give this game another shot! atleast try out the demo since its decent
 in length as its 2+ hours and it sure should tell you if this otome game is for you or not.
From a personal stand point i'd say go with PC ver because you'd get the product
in the form it was intended to be, unless you dislike r18 then just get the vita port.
 Other than my complaint about minor character not being voiced this game sure is promising.
Honestly I don't think I will get it any time soon since I doubt I will have the time for it along
with the games that I already decided to get but maybe someday when I am tired of otomate's games
and want something with a bit more quality rather than quantity, sure I might get this!
No promises though...

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Period Cube ~Torikago no Amadeus~ - Review

ピリオドキューブ ~鳥籠のアマデウス~
Game: [Period Cube ~Torikago no Amadeus~] 
Genre: Otome Visual Novel. 
Developer/Publisher: Otomate/Idea factory.
Platform: PS Vita.
Official Site: http://www.otomate.jp/period-cube/
Release date: 2016-05-19

Oh boy, this seems like its going to be SAO/.hack the otome game.
As for the characters there is the classic childhood friend, mascot, missing onii-chan etc...
 It has an RPG-like system just hope it won't be annoying.
My expectations? not very high, I think it was a good idea I did not get my hopes up.
This was originally a drama cd series which I never bought since it seems like a cash grab.
CD1 is with the childhood friend chara which mostly seems as an introduction. the other CD's
 all seem to be much of the same, I heart the plot wasn't very good though which worried me
about the writing quality in the actual game.

I forget to mention this but this is the second? time Otomate used a theme
from a popular anime used and turned it into an otome game.
Bad Apple Wars turned out to be Angel Beats! the otome.
Now we have Period Cube which takes a lot from SAO/dot hack...
Is it laziness? because I heard BAW didn't even use its setting to its full potential.
^AKA much like Period Cube it could have been much better.
Oh well whatever...


Now to get on to the game, my play order is:
Hiroya > Astram > Ladius > Dimento > Zain > Libera > Shiki.

The game doesn't seem to force too much mmo terms at you and everything
you should know about is explained further via the dictonary LOL even the word level
and more terms one should already be familiar with is explained  so if you see an unfamiliar term don't hesitate to open up dat dictionary! or google it. Now on to the system...
I thought it would be annoying but it turned not to be, it doesn't beat around the bush
the way it is implemented its actually quite fun! I'm proud of you otomate
Still the MMO aspect is kind of just there to make decisions along
with the usual choice making in a visual novel so if you expected stuff like
Harukanaru toki no naka de or Real Rode you'll be disappointed because 
Period Cube is still a straight-forward visual novel. 
Some parts of the plot are a bit stupid though, its enough to make me roll my eyes.
  Still for a VN it does a good job of having the skin of an MMO...

 Anyway since this has no common route you get on the character route right
after the prologue ends because of the choices you make there, this is bad and good.
 Good = more time with the guy of your choice even if its still short, except for Dimento because
his route branches from Astram, which feels like Dimento was added for last minute lolz. >_>
Bad = no time to get to know everyone via a common route, so you basically
go into everyones routes blind if you never bothered with the drama cd's.
Another problem is that all the guys fall for the heroine's so quickly with
 the exception of Hiroya since he's the typical childhood friend but thats no excuse.

BTW I love the opening movie, the song is nice and I just can't skip it.


TL;DR
If you don't feel like reading the whole post.

Pro's
-Theme/Setting.
- Art, Kuroyuki's art is gorgeous.
- Music is good, some bgm are charming.
- Characters, alot of them have interesting reasons to be playing ''Arcadia''.

Con's
- Story is not that bad but you really shouldn't expect much since
Wtfbbq plot has more holes than cheese /mostly looking at you Zaine.
- Short game, 5~ hours to finish one route.
Pacing, it feels rushed especially the romance.

6.5/10
This game was too short for me to fully appreciate it the only good things are the theme of the game
as it was set in an MMO, the characters are all great in some way and  the plot was amusing
but I wouldn't say it was that good it also spoon feeds you basic info one should already know.
My favourite guy was Astram! Ladius and Zain come close though despite him being uh you know...
Honestly I bought this game solely to see if they could actually make it work...
For better or for worse it was amusing and it wasn't entirely bad in my opinion.

Anyway if you want a real otome game rpg I suggest looking into the Harukanaru toki no naka de series
or even Real Rode, its sad but Period Cube doesn't even come close to those two.

More ramblings after the jump, there are spoilers so skip to the end of the post to avoid.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Kenka Banchou Otome - Review

 喧嘩番長乙女
Game: [Kenka Bancho Otome] 
Genre: Otome Visual Novel. 
Developer/Publisher: Red entertainment and published by Spike Chunsoft.
Platform: PS Vita.
Official Site: http://www.kenkabancho-otome.com/
VNDB:  https://vndb.org/v17750
Release date: 2016-05-19

Oh an otome game version of the Kenka Bancho games, but why?
I had no intention of getting this but since I noticed alot of people seem to be pretty hype
 about this game I decided to get the digital version day 1 which came with a nice theme.

Since the story is done by Red Entertainment I had faith that it will be good(and it was).
Which is part of the reason I wanted to give it try.
Anyway I do think the premise is interesting but I am not a fan of school settings & crossdressing.
I like bad boys even tho I am not fond of the theme of this game, though it could be amusing.
Now I am having flashbacks of I DOLL U...  due to the whole replace your brother thing
but atleast the Kenka Bancho guys aren't that weird.
The production values seem to be pretty high, the heroine and the guys got different sprites too
this and that red entertainment handled the story helped me decide to give it a shot.


TL;DR:

Pro's
-Heroine is awesome.
- Characters are fun.
- Comedy, some scenes are just pure gold I'm not kidding.
- System is easy to handle.
- Art, looks kind of anime-ish but its not bad.
- Catchy music.
- Individual route is self-contained.

Con's
- Even though the plot is unique every route it follows a template that one is sure to notice.
^This can make things predictable as to when something good or bad is going to happen...
- Route is on the short side, 4/5 hours at most.
- On 2nd+ play why can't we skip fights during the common route? its annoying to sit through all that again.


The minigame isn't that annoying but it gets a bit to easy once you get the hang of it.
Apparently it doesn't matter what sentences you use during the staring phase
you can talk gibberish and at most the opponent will me like U Wot m8?
but as long as you beat him its fine whatever you choose don't worry if you wanna be funny be funny!
As that does not affect the endings in any way(truth be told I liked messing with those words).
If you use the right words you get an advantage but the minigame is fairly easy so it shouldn't matter.
Losing means game over but you can retry right away except in a certain fight in Kira route, anyway
like I said before the minigame is easy but does get a bit harder later on but not that hard.

No way to check affection but its easy to know which choices to pick, especially with q.save/load.
My advice? keep Cool/Maiden guages around neutral, make a save at the start of july so
you can adjust the guage to get the love/friend endings easily and so you have enough for the endings.
I didn't even need to use a guide for this game and I got a love end on my first play...
Yes that is how easy this otome game is.

Anyway despite me being meh about this otomege at first, this game is alot better than I expected!

My play order:
Konparu > Totomaru > Yuuta > Rintarou > Houou.
The routes itself are very self-contained, so the order shouldn't matter I recommend either
Totomaru or Konparu's route to be done first. The pacing is okay though after two routes
I could clearly see a template if sth good or bad is gonna happen but honestly I don't care.

I recommend starting with either Totomaru or Konparu on your first play, save
Rintarou and Houou's route for later anyway like I said it shouldn't matter that much
other than that it is important to do Houou last since his route reveals important plot details about the heroine.

More ramblings/spoilers after the jump.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Scared Rider Xechs Rev - Review

スカーレッドライダーゼクス
Game: [Scared Rider Xechs]
Genre: Otome Visual Novel.
Developer/Publisher: Rejet and Red entertainment
Platform: PS2, PSP, PS Vita.
Official Site: http://scared-rider-xechs.jp/
Release date: 2015-11-19


Since Scared Rider Xech's is getting an anime soon I decided now is a good time to read the game!
I bought the digital version cuz I don't want to wait and besides missed the tokuton's already.
The vita port does not contain the FD, I heard that the fandisc for his game was kind of bad anyway. 
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started but I heard SRX was still fun despite its issues.
So hear goes nothing!
This is a six year old game by now and if you still haven't played it you may want to get to it.
Either way you ever wanted an otome game about a bunch of Rockstar Kamen Riders?
Well you got it! as usual rejet and red entertainment deliver us this crazy tale that is scared rider xechs!

First CG in the game, just who is our heroine Akira?
 Pro's
Interesting setting & overall story.
- Characters.
 Art, Pako's art is suberb.
 Music, great usually music in otomege its forgettable but SRX? nope it is awesome.

Con's
  - Plot holes and many unanswered questions.
- Long common route not much of an individual route + repetitive shit makes this game not all that appealing.
 - First time through this game is long but on repeat playthrough its quite short.
 - The guys don't say the default heroine's name, always dem Kimi's, Anata's and Omae's
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday, May 16, 2016

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders Review

サモンナイト6 失われた境界たち
  Game: [Summon Night 6: Ushinawareta Kyoukaitachi]
English Title: Summon Night 6: Lost Borders.
Genre: SRPG.
Developer/Publisher: Mediavision & Bandai Namco.
Platform: PS4, PS Vita.
Official Site: http://www.summonnight.net/sn6/
Release date: 2016-03-10

I decided to write a review for Summon Night 6, I finished it a while ago
and I really wanted to write about it so here we go!

Ah yes Summon night that one game series that got screwed over in the western world.
As only three spinoff games were localized in the past by Atlus, two for the GBA and one for DS.
Recently the 5th main entry Summon Night 5 saw a western release courtesy of Gaijinworks
which had a hilarious weird translation choices, I also found 
certain renamings quite offensive and you'll know it when you see them.  
But lets not go deeper into that seriously let us not...
And as turns out Gaijinworks is back... to localize this game.
Well atleast it is coming, if it isn't GW who else? i'm sure Bamco themselves wouldn't do it.
I might not like Gaijinworks but I do appreciate the fact that they give this series a chance in the west.

 Summon night 6 is a crossover game it brings together characters from 
the main series (Summon night 1,2,3,4 and 5) together in a new game.
The protagonists of Summon night 6 are Raj and Amu along with Yst.
The first 13 chapters are basically the introduction the first five focus on Raj
and the next 5 on Amu, chapter 11-13 are with Yst after that you can finally select
which protagonist(Raj or Amu) you want to stay with, there are no major story changes
except for chapter 24 and the general POV but even then again its not that different.

Pro's
- Character interactions.
- Beautiful Graphic and Stable FPS on PS Vita, even better on PS4.
- Fun minigames.
- 300 hours of gameplay.

Con's
- Weak story.
- Partially voiced.
- Strategy elements could have been alot better with more interesting gimmicks.
- Characters and the world of lyndbaum might be hard to understand without having
played the main Summon Night games.

More ramblings after the jump and yes there are minor spoilers.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Ozmafia review

 オズマフィア
Game: [Ozmafia]
Genre: Otome Visual Novel.
Developer/Publisher: Poni-pachet.
Platform: PC, PS Vita.
Official Site:
Release date: 
2013-06-28 (JP PC version)
 2015-02-26 (JP PS Vita version)
2016-04-29 (English PC version)

Ozmafia is finally out in english thanks to manga-gamer, you can buy it on their site or on steam.
Also for the love of god don't pirate this game, the developers(poni-pachet) even asked you not to do
so in plain english and well if you did pirate it then that's on you but don't blame
companies for not localizing more otome games then.

The OP is seriously about Kyrie, isn't it?

TL;DR
Pro's
- Interesting setting and overall plot.
- Likeable characters.
- Art.
- Charming music.
- Unique seiyuu cast.

Con's
 - Can be confusing to see which route you're currently on.
- Most routes don't get anywhere plot wise.
- Pacing.
- NTR.

If you have any triggers for rape you might want to skip the brothel route, its
 self contained and it only shows how disgusting Dorian Gray.

I really like this otomege but it has some issues that I just have to point out!
For one at times scenes abruptly end and there is a sudden time skip...
A prime example is a scene where Axel got hurt and Fuka runs off to Robin hood, however
the scene just ends there abruptly and you basically have to imagine its gonna be ok. Another
instance was when Axel and Fuka have to visit Ande's home but we never get to see them there
because the game just skips ahead to sunday were you can spend time with someone of your choice.
See what I am getting at here?
but as turns out you get bits of information about it in different routes, though I wish they would
 just not half ass it because it still feels like I am missing something I guess its incentive
to go and play other routes but at the same time those parts are from of the common route...
 So yeah this otomege's pacing is way off at times but overall its still good.
Still  I can certainly see that at times there are holes and inconsistency in the story at times


Also our dear heroine Fuka has amnesia, too bad that in most of the routes
she never figures anything out about it. Anyway considering the real plot of this game
 its okay if Fuka never regains her memories as she can still be happy with someone else
for better or for worse, oh well  sadly most of the routes are not very memoral to me as some feel
unfinished and random like Scarlet or in Soh's case get a crappy ending which left me very unsatisfied.
Fuka as a heroine though, she's an airhead who leaps ahead without thinking, she's weak
but she's not exactly strong either, while she's cute I can't say I liked her that much.

I only have one other thing I can complain about and that is the screen with a jingle
when you get to the next chapter, its okay at first but starts to get really annoying especially
once you get to the character route and the chapter/scenes get shorter, I wish we could turn it off.

The triangle route thing may be off putting but this can easily be fixed by using a guide and
staying with your preferred guy, I gotta be honest but I am not a fan of NTR.
Sadly there is no escape from NTR, you'd still need to do it to get some CG's in OZ's routes, if you
did their two regular endings so you'll just have to deal with it if it, I don't like it either but it can't be helped.

/Rant
 Like the whole NTR shit starts because Fuka's relationship with one of the Oz guys she is originally
going for faces some issues, so then one of the other two Oz guys sees their chance and confesses
that they've been in love with Fuka this whole time and well you know what makes it worse?
If Fuka accepts and gets Ntr'd away from her original choice she also casually
spreads her legs and spends the night with him... I am just like WTF?!
 After two NTR paths I honestly had enough of that shit and started skipping them because its just so
unfair, Fuka why? you've been spending so much time with guy A and just cuz your relationship is
facing some issues you decide to screw guy B just because he also had feelings for you!
Mein gott... WHY?!
/End rant.

The seiyuu cast is amazing, its not the popular bunch so if you're sick of
hearing the same old guys don't worry because Ozmafia gives you a unique voice cast!
I really appreciate it when developers use lesser known seiyuu's every once in a while, I really do.
Sadly the PC version is only partially voiced, the PS Vita version is fully voiced with
some added scenarios(IIRC after stories) but sadly this version is only in japanese as of now.
I also think there are too many routes so no wonder that atleast three routes
get the short end of the stick, welp i'm sorry if I made this version of the game look bad.

 Honestly all the characters are likeable in some way! For first impressions:
Caramia is just so kind, Kyrie is a troll, Scarlet, Axel and Soh are really cute!
Caesar's really mysterious, Robin and Pashet seem nice...
This game is very focused on the romance and its characters, the plot is still there but sadly
 there are routes like for example's Soh's that don't get anywhere except give you a hint or two but
in the end it didn't explain anything, so whether you do his route first or last shouldn't matter.
Basically the grand finale contains the real plot of this game which is either good or bad.

6.5/10
Anyway if you love otome games go support by buying this game! its not that bad
but not that great either, might as well support it so we can possible get games or others.

Recommended play order:
I recommend to start with Caramia, also do Brothel as soon as possible, I can't guarantee you'll like it.
Hamelin's route spoils some things about Robin and after you do Robin you might be
more interested in Hamelin so that is why I recommend the following  play order:
Caramia > Scarlet > Brothel > Robin > Hamelin > Pashet > Axel > Kyrie > Caesar > Soh > Grand Finale.

More ramblings and screencaps after the jump.