Monday, August 28, 2017

Re:vice[D] - review


リヴァイスディー
Game: [Re:viceD]
Genre: Otome Game Visual Novel.
Developer/Publisher: Otomate.
Platform: PS Vita.
Release date: 2014-07-24

 Since the story setup ain't the typical otome I got interested since there's not much else
out these days so why not go back to some games I skipped out on?
This was like otomates first PS Vita otome game and impressions were good
but the values aren't so eventually I just grabbed a copy for 30$ on playasia
yep it goes for that cheap... they prolly just have too much stock and it needs to go to it etc.
Heck it even came with the preorder drama CD...
After the last game I played this was pleasant and much more enjoyable as a whole.


 I admit the art syle isn't why I bought it nor found it attractive at first but it grew on me.
 The music was great, definitely stood out and the OP was catchy.
I never skipped it and sometimes I'd leave it on the title screen so it loops.
-

Pro's
- Interesting set up for an otome game.
- Each character's interesting and has a reason to be a candidate.
- Comedy.
- Slick Art style.
- Music, great its not something to tire of.

Con's
- No touch features, I know this is otomate's first vita game but it may've as well been on PSP then!
- Typical truth route problems are of no concern elsewhere, guess Anvan is under tight-leash.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Not every route may be to your liking, well duh but whatever other con will there be?
 -

Aika's not amused at how laid back the other heavenly kings can be.
Our heroine Aika is  one of the four heavenly kings. She is tasked with finding
a successor in the human world, 3 of the other heavenly kings have already
assigned recommendations, Aika however adds the mysterious Yukine to that list.
Aika isn't a typical heroine she ain't one to take shit and this can lead to shenanigans,
It was funny to see her reactions and the guys to be blending in as a human highschool girl
but she's prett cool and won't sit still when her friends are in danger.
If anything she's anything but a typical otome game heroine
but remember no matter how cool she is, she's still a girl
some routes handle it better than others.
Aika isn't one of those otome game heroine's that would take the crap most do, she's more than capable.
Just by going through the prologue I was like? wow this is pretty fun/interesting
and it never beat around the bush while still having fun moments.
The system was standard so there's not much to add to that but I liked the way you select event.
 They're not long but sometimes it feels like a side story along general story but its nice
way to keep stuff character specific but uh by the last route everything flew by!
Gotta add that I found that it was a pain in the ass to read font in the selection screen, I literally
needed atleast a minute or two at times to decipher some of the scribbles, also
 no touch feature even though we're on PS VITA so use joystick or miss stuff....😅
 As unique the system was... without a guide I think you can get lost... because there's 
so many scenes and endings and without knowing you may derail into what you didn't want.
There are a lot of choices this combined with selection system made first play arguably 
the longest but each route was 4-6 hours at most which was decent in length.
Well I loved the interactions everyone had with each others, it feels some otome games miss out
on this comedic factor and only a few get it right to balance with serious & romance.
The common part of the game consists of Aika and her familiar Mike giving the candidates
situations to test themselves like will they face the problems and help each other or run away?

The side character Shinku, Suiu and Akatsuki were interesting as well and honestly
they do not need full routes, because story wise that would be jarring besides Suiu's an ass.
They do get endings though so there's something for them atleast!
All will become clear when you'll go through the routes, each character had his reasons
 for being chosen as a candidate, the weakest link may have been Hinatsu
because honestly he makes for a poor demon king, atleast his case was unique lol.
 My favorite character was definitely Iroha everyone else just followed.

The short version...
A somewhat decent otome game forever overlooked and it sold like crap
due to being the first new(that's not a port) otome on PS Vita
but didn't have much new features so it may as well have been on PSP.
While I only really liked two routes atleast every route was unique...
sadly certain character like Yukine just gets screwed over whom I only can pity.
It all depends on personal taste as I cannot like everything.
I suppose the only thing this game has going for it is unusual themes for an otome game
and crisp art due to vita but once again it may've been better if it was PSP.
 This is a relatively short game and the endings end when they should to the point
it can be good for those that do not play much otome and only pick one out
once in a blue moon after considering what the value is which sadly isn't that much
 since this is only one game, I still love the character interactions over most else which made everything come together but I wish Kuroda had more common events because his route flew by.😭
This may be a one hit wonder, you'll probably won't find anything else quite like it
nor does it specifically need more so even if one ends up liking it be prepared
that you'll won't find any goods related to it because its just not popular enough.
I guess some games like this and others are just outshadowed but that doesn't mean they're
not worth it, honestly Re:vice[D] is better as a whole than three otome games
 I played last year so that gotta say something.
hint: Period Cube, Moujuutachi and Suuran Digit.
Maybe its due to the way it was told and the comedy plus it not really losing sight of theme
while trying to keep it unique every route. I loved the characters, the story was there
and everything else was great, romance may need some work but what more do you want?
Otomate makes so much games and gems like this or that easily get overlooked
I am actually glad they didn't have much this year, means I can pick up stuff I passed on.
Re:vice[D] may cater to people who like otome game heroines
 who're more confident than average and don't mind its unique setting.

Playorder:
Hinatsu > Iroha > Ryoga > Yukine > Kuroda
This was recommended by others so may as well... use it
I do not know if Kuroda really needs all routes but honestly his makes the most sense
after Yukine and everyone else is self-contained compared to the last two.

Uh so you know character ramblings after the jump major or minor spoilers be there so be warned.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Utsusemi no Meguri - Review

Game: [Utsusemi no Meguri]
Genre: Otome Visual Novel.
Developer/publisher: Matatabi.
Platform: PS Vita.
Official Site: http://matatabi.tv/utsusemi/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v20326
Release date: 2017-07-27
-

Edo period, on a remote islands their exists two gates Higammon and Kogammon that lead to
 the land of the dead, they're guarded by humans and oni respectively.
One day a phenomenon is observed and the heroine Amane a human priestess
gets send to the oni-clan's village along with her human servant Yasuomi.
The secrets of the island will be revealed as the miko interacts with the oni-clan
and renews the bonds between humans and oni.

Oh boy who thought these guys would stick around for one more project?
This time their game centers on conflict between human and oni...
fate and forbidden--- ah you guessed it romance.
The whole synopsis sounds like we've seen it before but for some reason
I was intrigued at how'd they handle it and they seem to take their world setting
serious enough to carefully explain it so it can't be that bad right?
This otome game is very japanese with dark themes and by no means its not an easy read.
After being sent to the village of the oni the heroine Shizumiya Amane becomes
the target of youma who are like the living dead but what are they truly?
Moving on Amane is one of those good girl types taking the words of her grandma
to heart and tries hard to perform her duties as a miko, TL;DR she does as she's told
but doesn't value her own life and basically wouldn't mind jumping in front of someone.
Amane is an okay heroine and she's cute  but I don't feel attached to her at all
besides in some Kyouran/tragic route she got on my nerves.
As for length it took me maybe 10 hours till I reached my first end this includes
common route which was atleast 3-4 hours I think each route is 6 hours at least.
Said common route takes its time to introduce everyone in neutral manner and get the plot going
but the story while interesting was hard to follow maybe due to concepts I found it hard
to understand wtf was happening to the side characters or my japanese just sucked.

OP, well I like it but its a bit on the long side.

Pro's
- Interesting world view, pacing OK.
- Beautiful art.
- Decent length not too long or short.
- Character have Yin / Yan split route, one side is more happy the other is dark.

Con's
- Same-ish plot in all routes but a little different depend on guy yet only makes sense in the true route.
 - Minigame could be done without like you can even skip it at the press
of the button and still get the trophies related to it. -_-
- Gamebreaking crashes  among other bugs they're being worked on now but seriously...

~Art~
If you love ancient japanese aesthetics you'll love the backgrounds, seriously they're amazing.
As for CG's Puru did a great job its surprisingly consistent too but eh some angles are a bit...
strange but nothing to complain about! I made a selection of a few of my favorite scenery
How can I not share this? they're BREATHTAKINGly beautiful.


~System~
 You know the usual reading and choice selecting love catch etc.
The minigame this time is more simple its a purification ritual or whatever
and involves pressing buttons this may or may not save your life, or so they said.
Honestly this minigame could've done without... all it does is break the mold of only reading.
Atleast its just simply press this button in time rinse repeat untill its complete
and no rng bullcrap so it gets a pass even tho its sorta just there at the end of the day
 atleast add an automatic succeed/fail after one play so that's nice.
There are four endings, not all of them are happy and some are just painful.
I think that 4eds thing is similair to say Ken ga Kimi... because the one end you'll get
depends on choice and minigame success/failure there's a small change in route
scenario as well so yeah if you ask me its pretty similair.
~

Compared to rear pheles, Utsusemi no Meguri is a lot better, Matatabi seems to have
learned from mistakes and hired better devs, no more screentear in the movies
and the lips move and eyes blink, it even has its own save screen
plus the art no longer looks blurry on the ps vita screen, it is crisp now.
 I also love the general setting and atmosphere early on in this game
it had a great start to introduce everyone imo and it made me interesting
even tho the plot partly sounds generic. >_>
The pacing was good too like there's no long monologues\TL;DR that makes me bored
its just that some parts of the story are a little confusing to me.
-
However Matatabi's games still come with plenty of bugs like sprites may disappear
so only the eyes and hair show that's spooky right? but reloading fixes it...
granted that didn't happen to me but i've seen screenshots that it can happen.
You know I can turn a blind eye to that but the next...
There's a FATAL bug where the game crashes when you try and save I am just sigh. -_-
Mind you this only happened once... in common route so dunno if it was just a bad spot.
Matatabi definitely had budget for this... but could've worked a little on debugging
but maybe they ran out of time and had to release it as is, patch it later.
-
That aside I sorta like this otomege, the characters are all intriguing which may make you
want to do their routes because common route wise it won't get far.
I think the only one who was generic as is was Yasuomi... but Hiiragi definitely did not
 turn out the way I thought so yeah there's that! in fact he's my favorite character.
The story and relationship develops side by side... at times it may be stiff
but it'll get there, I found Hayate to be a slowburn but rewarding in the end.
This isn't a fun visual novel everyone seems to have a little darkness, some more than others.
Utsusemi has all the things that could make it decent but keep in mind its not for everyone
nor an easy visual novel language wise so with that in mind before you buy this...
As someone who do not like yandere... I am just happy Matatabi has most of that crap
reserved for kyouran/tragic ends much like rear pheles and their merry bad ends.
In most I prefer happiest and the only kyouran end I could stomach was Yasuomi's.
In short this game was rather average to me, it has a nice setting and cast
but if there was a revelation about a character I was usually ''oh'' about it.
In most routes it just doesn't try anything new... except the last route
where it hit me right in the feels and thus I only feel really attached to Hiiragi.
''Other than that nothing specifically wowed me nor made me say
 it just plain sucks, in the end its just fine.''

So I recommend this otome game to people who are:
A, Not tired of human x oni bullshit and old timey settings.
B, People who like a dark side to characters and yin/yang route split
as in one is more happy/natural yet the other is dark/sorta bad end-ish.
C, Do not have a backlog/read too many other otomege like this.
D, Like heart-wrenching true endings.

Playorder:
Hayate > Kai > Yasuomi  > Yuzuru > Hiiragi.
There's no official recommendations so just go with someone that strikes your interest, for me
that turned out to be Hayate.😌 The order I went with flowed surprisingly well!
unlike the last game I played... so I can recommend it to other people as well.
Due to events in Hayate I wanted to do Kai and in Kai's Yasuomi got my interest
which lead me to Yuzuru! Yuzuru's filled in my suspicions about him and gaps in Yasuomi's route.
Hiiragi is locked till you do everyone else... so no choice with him.
I did Happiest/kindan ends... then Kyouran/tragic love ends, this is to save whatever
likeability the characters may have Kyouran/Tragic is just shit gone horrible wrong.
Unless you don't mind that but... i'll leave it up to you to decide the order of endings.

That concludes my non-spoiler thoughts, rambles/possible spoilers after the jump.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Poll results

1th, Shiro to Kuro no Alice turns out to be most popular, understandable.
Well it's an alright game but I liked black bide more than anything. XD

2nd, Variable Barricade, I am also really interested in it but
due to otomate not giving updates I am just like please don't forget/cancel!
I hope its a case of we want to make sure its a quality product before releasing more info
or we announced it too soon, maybe otomate party 2017 has some more info on it along
with Sanada of the crimson flame, though its nice to see otomate slow down on releases
2016 was so crowded and filled with rather short and/or lacklustre game. (Pcube/Mojuutachi/Suuran etc)

3th, WoFR2/Haruka3 tied.
Surprise to see interest in Haruka 3, its an enjoyable otome rpg but prolly cursed 
to be JP only forever cuz vertical text box and ancient japan.
For WoFR2... who doesn't want the boys to mature or just see em again.

4th, Nil admirari no tenbin kuroyuri en'youtan and KBO FD.
Hmm seems people want more trashy romance. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Also who doesn't want more Kenka Bancho Otome? if only it would get localized already
I feel the longer they wait people will lose interest, maybe its partially because of the system
of choosing words to shout at the opponent is not easy to localize. /thinkemoji/

5th, Taishou x Alice heads and tails. 
Well I sorta didn't expect them to release a FD either and was quite satisfied with
the original so I can't say I am excited either but i'll get it if it eventually comes to PS Vita.

6th Utsusemi no Meguri and Choucho jiken.
I can't see many people know about matatabi... they don't have much presence
and their first otome game turned out to be a trainwreck so people interested in 
an old timey oni x human otome game with dark undertones is slim.
Ah chouchou jiken... I guess due to lack of info people just sorta forget about it 
also seems to be rather shameless in synopsis, hopefully due to info starting to roll out
now along with the first manga volume people will get more interested.

Dunno about next poll but i'll make another eventually.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Kenka Bancho Otome ~Kanzen Muketsu no My Honey~- Review

 喧嘩番長乙女 ~完全無欠のマイハニー~
Game: [Kenka Bancho Otome] 
Genre: Otome Visual Novel. 
Developer: Red entertainment and published by Spike Chunsoft.
Platform: PS Vita.
Release date: 2017-07-27

The fandisk of Kenka Bancho Otome... well it must've done pretty well to warrant one!
Since the previous installment was a last minute digital purchase, this suffered the same fate.
I didn't really pay attention to prerelease info or the anime shorts.
 Said anime just turned out to be an advertisement with mash ups from the original game.
When I looked at the official site I honestly found it rather lacklustre...
From what I did gather this FD contains side stories(summer themed) and after stories...
which was honestly all a fan needed to know, Whether this was word it or not... saa let's find out.
  I expected them to be fun and/or sweet but alas most were not as it seemed.
Also they have the first anime ep in the game itself.... dunno if just a preview
for the bluray release but it seems like a waste of space.


Pro's
- Still the same old boys we all know and love.
 - Comedy.
- A fun and to the point side story on da beech.

Con's
- Long loading, slow text skip which is bothersome in side scenario.
- Rintarou's after story is downright terrible.
- The writer still uses the same template for everything maybe its his/her thing.

The game is divided into two sections, first of is the after stories set after the love ends
in the original game, nothing else to it really. Secondly there's a summer camp scenario
which is sort of an AU friend scenario. Characters are grouped together such as
 Totomaru&Konparu, Kirarin&Yuuta or Hikaru&Sakaguchi etc.
Your choices in that scenario determines who you're grouped with at the end of that dunno
 the whole thing was maybe 4 hours at most, not including repeat play for other pair up.
The comedy is still golden and almost never a dull moment one could say its a pointless
scenario with nothing to gain but why would you have a problem with camaraderie? I don't.
I already started snickering less that 10 minutes in, compared to the last vn I played this is g r e a t
but I didn't have much fun doing everything in there for completion's sake
and you have to fight everyone once including minor chara for a trophy and it is here
I realized the loading time is sinfully slow... probably cuz Unity but it ain't rear pheles bad.

In short its an enjoyable FD to fans of the original but I thought the original wrapped most
stuff up nicely, I already said this but it must've done well enough for it to happen!
I guess if you hated the whole now that they know she's a girl and the guy trying to protect her
or stop her from fighting then it will be a partial miss cuz some of the after stories continue
 that line of thinking but they do try to make them come to terms on it that Hinako can hold her own.
The summer camp scenario is like an AU friend route for everyone... so there's that too
and you already know I liked it for what it was no need to go into it. 
All in all its not bad its just that some after stories are either a hit or a miss my favs were  Konparu
and Totomaru... the rest just followed with Rintarou dead last honestly even Houou was better.
The FD is decent but also a little short despite each story having some length
to it but still has that stupid template which in some was more noticeable than others.
When I look back only Totomaru and Konparu's after stories were really
enjoyable to me and the content they had is what I expect of fandisks.
I want to see the characters under relaxed circumstance not
drama about yakuza gangs or a brother yearning for attention. -_-
There's not much else left to say... without being more detailed is there?
8.2/10

Ramblings and possible spoiler and/or CG's after the jump.