Monday, September 19, 2016

Oumagatoki ~Kakuriyo no Enishi~ - Review

 逢魔が刻 ~かくりよの縁~
Game: Oumagatoki ~Kakuriyo no Snoozefest~.
Genre: Otome game Visual Novel. 
Developer/Publisher: Extend.
Platform: PS Vita.
Release date: 2016-08-25.

Otome game from a new developer, I was skeptic but tried it out anyway.

For playorder I used one an amazonJP reviewer recommended
and I recommend you to do the same, as Tokiwa's route is spoilerific and
doing him first would ruin the enjoyment in the long run.

Playorder:
Souta > Yoimiya > Hayate > Tsukishiro > Tokiwa > True end

Oh and I love the OP movie, Hosoyan singing is beautiful, I can't bring me to skip it ever.


Pro's
 - Interesting setting and characters.
- Insanely pretty art.
- Charming BGM.

Con's
- Heroine.
- pacing.
- Can get boring at times/TL;DR etc.
- Not every route is worth sitting through.

The first play is by far the longest due to common route also there are many choices.
Give or take 10 hours? 2nd+ play its cut down to about 6-7.
It's great they took their time introducing everyone and the setting
 but sadly the way they executed it made it so boring and only dragged it out
which reminds me of older games for example those of Quinrose.
I don't have a problem with long games in fact i'd take them over the short ones
but I can't help but critize the execution in this game because some parts were just boring to sit through especially the common stuff, it contributed nothing to the characters at all
all it was was some ghostbusting beavers or wtf those things were, oh well it could've been worse.

The heroine is very average though and I had trouble understanding her at times.
Sadly the guys don't say her default name, disappointing after all the other
otome games I've recently played which had this feature.
 Since it was so long they atleast knew each other longer I guess but pacing is another matter
and well if the romance was any good honestly depended on the route.
The system? you can't save when a choice is present so have to do it before or after.
Also the controls are different, used to ''camp menus''? this doesn't have it.
Press square and hold left dpad to save, right dpad to load and down dpad to skip.
Lotus system is okay I guess don't have problem with it also nice of them to use the vita touch screen for it.
Anyway I am thankful for the skip to the next choice feature especially so
because it such a really long game so it definitely needed that and another good point it doesn't skip
passed unread text! I wish more games had this feature and rejet sure could learn from extend for this alone.
One minus point is the screen dimming during auto mode, ah otomate how you've spoiled me!

Overall despite some of the boring parts of the story and pacing issues atleast two of the romanceable
characters were worth pursuing for me, those being Hayate and Tokiwa, the rest just weren't worth it.
All of them were combat capable but for the most part the writing didn't execute it well...
Good thing is no matter the character the confession scenes were oh so sweet.
In the end this game kind of reminds me of Quinrose games
 that suffered from stretched out scenes, TL;DR and way too many romanceable guys, lol.
Did I like this game? sure but its not without flaws, I'm just glad atleast two routes were worth doing.
Sadly I couldn't even begin to care about Souta and Yoimiya, it felt like they
just gave us them as options when they had no idea how to properly fit them into the story.
Atleast Tsukishiro made sense but then again his voice plus dull route just put me to sleep. -_-
Hayate was an adorable cinnamon roll and Tokiwa? he's just a tsundere dork, these
two along with the pretty art made Oumagatoki worth a purchase to me but
I am going to think twice before purchasing an Extend game again this was just average at best.
5.5/10

More ramblings and possible spoilers after the jump.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Collar x Malice - Review

 Game: [Collar x Malice].
Genre: Otome game Visual Novel.
Developer/Publisher: Otomate
Platform: PS Vita.
Release date: 2016-08-18.

 With Otomate being hit and miss ofcourse I had doubts about this otome game.
I had to choose between this game or 7'scarlet and I can't say it was an easy decision
since both games are mystery themed so it had to be one or the other, for better or for worse
 I decided to pick up Collar x Malice! since at times you just have to choose one or the other.
Anyway you may have guessed it but CxM focusses more on story than romance.
This IMO is good but for those expecting more romance, may be disappointed.
The team.
If you want a play order this one should be ideal:
Mineo > Kei > Takeru / Shiraishi > Aiji.
Please note that Shiraishi's route is locked till 2nd play, Aiji doesn't unlock till you've done everyone.
Mineo's route is very light on plot content so I recommend him first and Kei 2nd.
Takeru's route is pretty well balanced so he's perfect to do before the final two routes
though i you do Shiraishi before him or not shouldn't matter.
I have to add that after I did Takeru I was even more motivated to do the rest!

 Pro's
- Story.
- Characters.
- Art and bgm.
- Individual route is self-contained.

Con's
 - Many Bad Ends.
- Long routes, honestly this is both bad and good.
- Those expecting more romance may be disappointed.
- Not light-hearted in the slightest, can get pretty dark.
Hands where I can see them! :P
This game was fairly decent in length and actually managed to draw me in
because it was very suspenseful at times but in other areas like romance it was a little lacking.
 Though there were still enough cute bits because it is an otome game afterall.

The first route alone took me around 10 hours (give or take), I'd rather have a VN takes it time
 than rush itself, the story was really good so I can't even complain even if lack of romance.
Also I think Collar x Malice would have benefit from a voiced heroine! but sadly this isn't the case.
The heroine was really likeable atleast, also her brother didn't really care that much for her
which was nice considering how many games follow the onii-chan trope.
Kazuki is still a tsundere siscon even if he barely shows it at first. :P
Sadly Ichika doesn't know how to handle technology well.. which considering the setting is weird.

Also I am disappointed this game had no ending list, like I fully completed the game cg and all
but I was at a loss to see what bad ending I missed  and there are a lot.
Like come on otomate, when a game really needed one you go and pull this crap?!
Even Reine des fleurs has one... so why not Collar x Malice?
This is probably the only thing I am discontent about like seriously but oh well it can't be helped.

If you need a guide I recommend this one:
 http://dsadv.blog66.fc2.com/blog-entry-1133.html

Shhhh...
More ramblings and minor spoilers/CG's after the jump.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Moujuu-tachi to Ohime-sama - Review

猛獣たちとお姫様
 Game: [Beast and Princess].
Genre: Otome game Visual Novel. 
Developer/Publisher: Otomate
Platform: PS Vita.
Release date: 2016-08-25.

I got this game because I liked Beastmaster and Prince and because I like fantasy setting(I love those)
Despite amazonJP reviews being picky, this game didn't end up that bad
but its still a disappointment since its partially wasted potential.
First of the synopsis spoils so much... hench why I am not putting that here
which makes it even less stuff for you to find out not to mention the boys
already love the sheltered princess that took care of them in animal form when no one did.


My play order was:Ludwik > Mias > Jozef  > Ryszard > Henryk > Czarodziej.
I recommend to save Czarodziej for last because there is a huge spoiler in his route
that ties the two games together the order of the first three routes shouldn't matter, after those do
Ryszard, then Henryk and finally Czarodziej because the last three ended up being the most enjoyable atleast for me.

Pro's
- Setting.
- Characters.
- Art/bgm/seiyuu.
-Mofumofu.

Con's
- Julia is a weaker heroine compared to Tiana.
- The guys all love Julia from the start but don't fully admit this.
- Disappointing story.
- Semi-long common route, shorter individual route but short overall.
- No Ignacy route.


I know I complained about lack of volume in period cube but this probably takes the cake!
 Otomate just can't get it right... (;´д`)
The common route is decent in length but individual is short, first play was around 7~8 hours
maybe I took longer because I slogged through the more boring parts yeah it just wasn't interesting.
Almost half of it was common route so.... fasten your seat belts next round!
Route should be around 4-5 hours give or take how fast you read.

The route may be short though I know that it all depends on execution of the story
 but still I'd had hoped it'd be a bit more meatier/taken itself more serious.
Story? it certainly had some interesting bits but eh it was rather weak.
While it was interesting to me it just felt like it lacked something or to put it differently
this game just feels like it could've been so much more but it wasn't.
It literally goes like this, escape tower... run through forests to another country
and chillax there untill boom the witch shows up as last boss and then its the end.
They knew folks was coming yet act surprised and do nothing to prepare...
there's variations of who, how and why but thats the general gist of it.
The big issue is the animal boys that are with Julia from the beginning! they all love her
 because she's the only one thats nice to them and they all had some shitty past
this makes romance feel unnatural because they already love her so much.
 One way or the other Beast and Princess just didn't quite live up to Beastmaster and Prince.
 The heroine didn't stand out and in comparison to Tiana, Julia doesn't compare at all which is sad
but its not unnatural for sequels to be worse than their predeccesor but don't just put out shovelware.
It still had some repeat content like defeating the witch in like every other route or so
but it wasn't as annoying like that fangirl mob/cursed stuff at moujuutsukai to ouji-sama
maybe its because they had a different team working on this, ah it all makes sense now.

At the very least once again the characters were enjoyable... especially Jozef, Henryk and Magician!
Maybe i'm biased but sakupyon sure voices a lot of great characters! 
Sadly the characters aren't well developed at all, nor was the story exciting
but I appreciate the fairy tale like theme.

Anyway I still think the guys are all great in their own way, some just stood out more to me than
others did so I guess it wasn't so bad at all and every route was fairly self-contained to their own problem and past.
Also the game is too easy one could get the best end without a guide just perfect mofumofu
and pick choice that raise affection, don't do that and you'll get a bad end.

If a sequel does come out for this i'd probably buy it though... JUST BECAUSE
I like Hendryk and Wizard but I doubt they'd give Ignacy a route
as much as I love him he doesn't really have chemistry with Julia.
Then again I am doubtful they can work miracles and make it worthwhile if they did that.
I can't say no to petting cute animal boys! which is part of the reason I got this
and I like it enough to be willing to spend on a fandisc... yeah curse at me all  you want
but when I like the characters and want to spend more time with them I will support something
even if the original work left to be desired, also doM sakupyon doM SAKUPYON.😆

Still I think the main reason for Moujuutachi to ohime-sama's existance
 is to appeal to beastmaster and prince's fanbase... they didn't try all too hard though
they only focused on the art and the seiyuu's but the story? lol nope.
That definitely needed more work overall, the link to the original game was nice
but there is no doubt about it that this is a mediocre spiritual successor.
Now I am still going to say something very harsh but pretty art, seiyuu, likeable characters
 and petting minigames won't save a game and certainly not this one.
More ramblings and possible spoilers after the jump. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Otomate Party 2016 new game announcements

So I decided to make a post of otomate's new announcements!
(Since I haven't posted anything in a while...)

Ikemen Sengoku.
Otomate will be handling the vita port.

Osomatsu-san the game.
Not sure if this will be an actual otome game though...

Shinobi, Koi Utsutsu FD.
Yes please, more cute ninja dorks!

KLAP FD.
 Fandisk for KLAP, time to punish more bad boys!
Never played the original but i'll get to it eventually since apparently its pretty good.

Nil Admirari Sequel + Anime.
Nil admirari will be getting a sequel and an anime adaption.
I never played because of the scenario writer and after Princess Arthur and 
Senjou no Waltz I honestly had enough of her quirks to skip out on her next work. 
Who knows I may check it out the first game down the line but ahaha priorities


 Chouchou no Jiken.
Interesting, but I need to see more before I make a decision. 

    Sengoku Night blood.
Usuba Kageroo among others will be the artist for this mobile otome game.
 >M-O-B-I-L-E

Ahem... moving on we have yet another sengoku themed otome game...

  Sanada of the Crimson Flame.
 Ayyy Otomate jumping on the Sanada hype train like KOEI's Sandamaru 
and CAPCOM's with Sanada Yukimura den.

Variable Barricade.
I'm interested and the heroine appears to be a tsundere so I will be looking
forward to more info on this one but no promises!

~Final Thoughts~
 Too much Sengoku! not interested in the mobile and its too early to tell about the other one!
Out of all the new titles, Ninkoi FD,Chouchou no Jiken and Variable Barricade interest me...
 but still need to wait and see! pretty sure this isn't all otomate has up their sleeves
since they always end up announcing plenty of titles outside of otomate party
like for example the recently announced Shiro to Kuro no Alice.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

SA7: Silent Ability Seven - Review

 Game: [SA7: Silent Ability 7].
Genre: Otome game Visual Novel.
Developer/Publisher: Petit-Reve
Platform: PS Vita.
Official Site: http://www.p-reve.com/sa7/
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v16295
Release date: 2016-05-28

Decided to give another Petit-Reve otome game a try, skipped out on Goes! though.
In Goes! all guys voiced by female seiyuus which is nice in its own way but that game has an
uninspiring setting and after reading amazon reviews I decided to just skip out on that one all together.
On the brightside the heroine in SA7 is voiced so that was another reason to give
this developer one last chance before I probably decide to ignore them forever.
Which is exactly what I am planning to do, unless Petit-Reve decides to hire better writers and stop 
with trying to boldy go where no other otome game developer has gone before. 
Because sadly their games have all ended up being mediocre so far SA7 being no exception.

Anyway here's the OP!


 So one day when Yuki Ayaka walks home from school, she gets attacked by unknown.
The boys of Ark show up and save her, soon after it is revealed that Ayaka has an ability
 that can predict or more like see small bits of the future and so Ayaka ends up joining Ark.
Zero aka Rei is firmly against it but the others convince him, lol.
There also seems to be the element of a possible traitor... but the way they handled it was pretty bad
the whole setting takes itself lightly and not serious at all and not every route is worth it much like
otome game of the past there were only 3 route worth my time the rest felt like filler.


I based my play order off an amazonJP review this time since the person
mentioned that if you do Arthur too soon the rest might not be as interesting.

Recommended play order:
Eru(L) → Keel → Eiji → Zero → Arthur → Lead

If by some chance you are going to play this otome game, I recommend the same playorder.
Because Zero and Arthur routes reveal the most of the actual story and well
Lead's route was really enjoyable and a good way to end the game though
that might differ so might do Lead before zero/arthur.

Pro's
 - Voiced Heroine.
- Seiyuu cast,not much popular ones, its good in its own way.
- Art, its not bad and every guy had a kiss cg.
- Individual route is unique but some feel like omake.
- Common route + unique individual route.

Con's
- Mediocre story, nothing mindblowing.
- Too many routes, only two of them were worth it story wise.
- Characters are a bit stiff at times.
- Ending credits theme.

TL;DR start
Anyway SA7 tries the themes of secret organization, espionage and super powers
but as an otome game I feel it doesn't handle it well and that it doesn't take itself seriously at all.
Its hard to recommend this game to anyone but beginners but even then there are
better otome games I could recommend instead.

There was also no affection meter, to get on someones route
was basically to stalk him and if there is a choice that involves him select it.
It not hard once you know which spot the guy is at in town or you could just like use a guide.
The chart system is nice and all but a pain to 100% since it means selecting most if not all the choices.
Its nice but it just becomes a chore once you finish all the ends and you still have to go back for this.

I like the OP, Terashima's singing is really good but the ED was really out of place
like it was so cheesy, lol. I didn't like the ED at all, so I started skipping
 the ED after only two routes and I usually don't skip ED's.
Basically this game is lighthearted while somehow trying to be serious, though I did like how they
handled Tatsumi! except for the part that he's romanceable... that I didn't like.
Feels like they dumped all the moe onto Lead which makes it best
to save Lead for last to let's just say reward yourself with an adorable nerd!
Anyway most if not all the characters are average in terms of personality and the story doesn't take it anywhere new.


5/10
Its hard to recommend this otome game when it pulls off its themes in the most
mediocre way possible, its still possible to enjoy it but I'd wait till its on sale if you want
this game that much.
Also thats how I manage to enjoy their other game Soukai Buccaneers since I got that for 20$
but sadly I cannot use this same excuse with SA7, it wasn't worth full price.
I only liked maybe three routes in this game, Zero and Arthur are obviously the main guys
and for what its worth they had the better routes along with Lead.
Eru and Eiji's routes were boring and Keel's? why would I approve of a sixteen year old girl
romancing a 37 year old guy who even has a kid?! no no no no no no....
Even Murasame in Harutoki6 was handled better.
Not to mention the heroine was hard to relate to, I can't believe they let highschool kids into an
organization where they could get killed at night, she didn't even have that much training too.
This game took me three weeks to finish due to lack of interest, but its not that long at all
I just wasn't motivated to read more of a route at times because it just wasn't interesting.

SA7 will also get a trial/demo on Japanese PSN so if you want to try it out you can.

TL;DR end

More ramblings and possible spoilers after the jump.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Taisho x Alice -All in One- Review

大正×対称アリス
 Game: [Taishou x Alice].
Alternative title: Taisho Alice.
Genre: Otome game Visual Novel.
Developer/Publisher: Primula and Prototype.
Platform: PC, PS Vita.
Official Site: http://www.prot.co.jp/psv/taishoalice/index.html
VNDB: https://vndb.org/v16032
Release date: 2016-06-02

Taishou x Alice was originally an episodic release for PC but have no fear as the PS Vita version
contains all four episodes, so if you still haven't gotten it now is a good chance to do so.
 Also this is getting an english release thanks to e2gaming but if you already know japanese
and can import I recommend to get the vita port since E2gaming is also doing a partial release.
Plus there is no way of knowing if E2gaming's localization will live up to the original.
  I'm willing to give E2gaming a fair chance though, since they had a rough start, I can only hope
they don't make any more mistakes! hopefully they can license the VA and are able to use
 the original OP and ED's it would be sad to see this game release in english without it.
/looks at post and see how I never edit this... wait e2gaming errr we all know how that turned out!
god bless manga gamer for releasing this in english.


  The heroine of the story is Arisu Yurika, after she runs into Alice in the prologue they find a
 crystal mirror and end up inside it! several fairy tale characters reside here such as the 
Little Red Riding hood and Cinderella... but their genders are reversed. XD
On way or another the outcome of this story will surely be interesting.


Start/TL;DR
The system? nothing special, standard VN stuff.

My play order is:
Akazukin > Cinderella > Gretel > Kaguya > Shirayuki > Mahoutsukai > Alice.

As for play order you have to start with Akazukin or Cinderella(episode 1) in the vita port
but after you do one of the two routes available the next episode unlocks except for episode 3 since
this one is locked till you have done ep1/2 and epilogue won't unlock till you've done everything.
As for ep 3 the first time you start it you're locked to Shirayuki's route for obvious plot reasons.
Also every single route is unique and you select the guy right after the prologue ends.
Anyway I still decided to finish episode 1 before moving on to ep 2 like it should be.
If you play out of order for the sake of character... nothing will make sense
and you'll basically only shoot yourself in the foot if you do that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Pro's
- Great heroine.
- Unique seiyuu cast, (a few well known ones though).
- Most if not all the characters are likeable.
- Art.
- Individual route is unique and is mostly self-contained.
^It does keep you interested in the rest of the story as it slowly reveals things.

 Con's
- Heroine uses english words at random, this can be annoying but doesn't happen often.
- BGM, it has its charms but some is kind of grating.
- As an otome game it may leave to be desired once you get to 'epilogue'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This game focuses on romance and its characters, the overall story will slowly unfold
as you go through all the episodes and it does a good job in keeping you interested and
 wanting to learn more, it actually rewards the reader in the end.
Don't mean to spoil but even though before epilogue you might find your fav...
it will become obvious there's only one real choice in the end.
9/10
 Taisho x Alice is a great VN with a good story, I fully recommend it.

I have to mention it AGAIN, if you are playing or are going to play it especially the PC ver...
PLEASE play in order the games came out Ep1>ep2 >ep3>epilogue because else you'll ruin the
whole story for yourself because things revealed in ep1 will be casually blurted out in ep2 and so on.
TL;DR/end

More ramblings and possible spoilrs after the jump.

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Poll results


Decided to close the poll that had been running on my blog, the reason was because the
due date was faraway and there was a decent amount of votes.
Also updated my blog design since it looks much better than this.





1, Collar x Malice.
2, Wand of Fortune R.
3, Ozmafia!
4, Moujuu-tachi to Ohime-sama and Eikoku Tantei Mysteria the Crown.
5, Nil Admirari and Kenka Bancho Otome.
6, Period Cube.
7, Suran Digit.

Most popular otome game turned out to be Collar x Malice, Wand of Fortune R came in second!
Ozmafia! was third, most likely since its english release was just around the corner.
Suuran Digit got no votes, it didn't even have a release date yet so
I can see why no one was that interested in it yet but I've included it in the next.

The new poll is up so feel free to vote on an upcoming otome game
you're interested in that is released after july.

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.