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.

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.

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.

Official Site: http://www.dramaticcreate.com/benibana/

VNDB: https://vndb.org/v10051

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...

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.

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.