With a title that translates into ‘I thought it was harem heaven, but it was actually yandere hell,’ you can tell exactly what this game is going to be about. Also vague spoilers, because it’s almost impossible to talk about this game without touching its spoilers.
I did one out of the three routes in the game and decided to write something about it, since it’s unlikely that I’ll go back for the others.
The official genre is “Women and Money Simulation,” which is more or less spot-on with the exception that you don’t really do any simulation with the “women” part outside of the first month since you have to pick a girl early on and stick with her for the rest of the game. You’re an unnamed blacksmith fated to die in exactly one year due to an incurable disease. Since you’re going to die soon, why not just use the time you have left to play around and be irresponsible with your life? …Or so an agent of the 嬢郭 (Red Light District-like place) says, introducing you to three beautiful ladies who work there.
A dungeon-crawling RPG where you use various methods of torture on teenage girls to get them to learn battle skills. Developed by Imageepoch (known for the Luminous Arc series, and more infamously, Time and Eternity) and published by Nippon Ichi Software. It looks low budget like a cheap fanservice game, and while I wouldn’t argue against such accusations, I also found much enjoyment in it as a light RPG that’s reasonably balanced and easy to get into without having to make huge commitments or decisions. This might interest those who want a simple and straightforward RPG with some lewd mini-games.
Because I don’t have a lot to post about recently, I guess I’ll make a report on stuff that I didn’t bother finishing. I’ll be heading to China next Wednesday so I’ll likely be gone for 2 weeks if The Great Firewall of China interferes. I don’t think I’ll be able to post anything while I’m in China anyways. Not even sure if relatives have wi-fi in their house. No consoles for at least 2 weeks, but I’ll be bringing along my handhelds because I never leave the house without them. I don’t have anything new to review since I’ve been going at Ao no Kiseki slowly (I’m trying to make this game last! There isn’t anything out after Ao no Kiseki at the time of writing, so I’m gonna savour this game!) and anything else that’s on PSP has been pushed aside to a pause. Without adieu, here is a list of games that I didn’t bother continuing.
Wild Arms 3 – It’s been like what, a year since I last played it? I couldn’t get into it. I liked the unusual cast and the Wild West setting is pretty cool, but the combat and puzzles didn’t grab me. I got spoiled by the hex system, and possibly the linearity of WA4. The story also hasn’t picked up.
Phantom Brave – I like NIS games. I like SRPGs. But I cannot like this game for some reason. The lack of grids on the maps makes things less organized, and the characters tend to slip or waste their time jumping, so they’ll never move where you want them to. Each unit having a turn limit doesn’t help. I wanted to like this game, but I just can’t get into it. Maybe I’ll give it another try in the future, since I have it on PSP and I’m much more tolerant when it comes to handheld games.
La Pucelle: Tactics – There’s a reason why people tell you to play the Disgaea series in order. The plot and characters are subjective, but the gameplay gets better with each installment. Most people who played Disgaea 2 on the PSP couldn’t go back to the first game afterwards. La Pucelle is essentially Disgaea 0 in gameplay – a less polished SRPG. I think I enjoyed it better than Phantom Brave, but I’ve still put it on pause because I’ve got other games in the backlog I want to play.
D. C. Da Capo – The legendary moe-ge that everybody knows. I didn’t even get past the common route because I found it to be real dull. I’m usually pretty good at pulling myself through long common routes, but in Da Capo it wasn’t even funny or charming so I stopped. The music isn’t outstanding, and the art clearly shows its age. Another reason I didn’t continue is probably because I watched both seasons of the anime long ago, back when harem anime was still fresh (I know, I know) and the scenario seemed original. There are plenty of media that were really good when they first came out, but their age clearly shows now. The only reason why I decided to try it out is because I liked Kotori and didn’t like how the anime went with Nemu, but my love for her died down through the years. I liked the rest of the cast back when I watched the anime, but not so much now. Maybe I would have played further if I could play the vn right after finishing the anime, like what I did with Clannad.
Blazing Souls Accelate – I still like this game, I just put it aside for Ao no Kiseki after reaching a battle where I’m too underleveled to get a move in and have to grind. I’ll be continuing this game after Ao, or when I feel like I need a bit of variety in China.
Oh yeah, and here’s an obligatory currently playing report, because that is what you do when you have nothing to do.
Ao no Kiseki – sdfdsfkdhdhdkghkgfdsflibfdlkadgh;fshgfdof;dsjfldskldsfjdklfskladhf *mashes keyboard uncontrollably* I MISSED YOU, CROSSBELL. ALSO OLIVIER AND KLOSE SFHKDFHKDHKFDKDVNKLDV DFJDFKDFKJFJESHK. RANDY SDKLFKLDSLDS BROS KJSDFDSKSDLF I THINK I’VE TAKEN A LIKING TO WAZY SDFKJDFLLS NOEL YOU FABULOUS MOB CLEANER YOU AND YOUR AOE NORMAL ATTACK DSJFHDSFHDKLSD CAN’T WAIT FOR TIO TO COME BACK KJDNFLKDFLDFSPD
…My apologies.
Glory of Heracles – Got this for $5 new, thought you can’t go wrong with $5. It’s okay so far, certainly on the easy side. I’ll see how this continues. I’ve enjoyed some lines like “I found out I was immortal after my dad threw me off a cliff” “That’s some great parenting right there”
Devil Survivor 2 – Will be going at this slowly, I’m always slow with SRPGs. I’ve never found Devil Survivor to be OMFG amazing. SMT will always be better as a dungeon crawler for me.
SMT: Nocturne – Starting this on hard on my first playthrough is probably a bad idea, but I think I was enjoying the fact that I died in the very first dungeon (where you are solo) multiple times. Hopefully I won’t become a masochist after this. Also, starting this right before I head to China might not be such a good idea…
I'll buy you, Falcom-chan! I'll definitely...!
I wasn’t going to buy any games before Tales of Graces because I known I’ll be hooked on that and any game I buy before then will just get chucked to the backlog, yet here I am, with a game for the same console as Graces, bought a week before it releases. I enjoyed Neptunia for them cute girls and game references despite its glaring gameplay flaws, but its sequel certainly wasn’t on my buy-within-first-week-of-release list. I was supposed to be attempting to clear some of my backlog before Graces, but those cute girls were just sitting on the shelf at GameStop, tempting me with their big eyes! And so I laid down the $50 bucks for the moe (there are plenty of humans who claim that moe character designs have no influence on their game-buying decisions because they’re not into little girls, but I am not one of them).
I’m 10 hours in, at Chapter 3, and my god this is such an improvement over the first Neptunia that I actually love getting into battles and fighting bosses! Importers weren’t kidding when they said MK2 was heaps better than the first game, in multiple departments.
It was a fun year, actually. I played quite a few games that were enjoyable, and finally managed to play eroge in Japanese. I also got a sexy new PS3, opening up my library to even more games. Dad got me a 3DS as a surprise gift, so I’ll be looking in the horizon for games for that. I’m pretty much broke now, and my trip to the US increased my backlog. What a great way to prepare for new handhelds, me. I guess the Vita can wait. I don’t really give a shit about processing power or online features or touch panel or whatever they stick in there, I just want to follow Atlus, NIS and Falcom and play their games.
It’s not like I beat the game or anything! And I didn’t find episode 9 and troll Flonne to be epic. Don’t get it wrong, NIS! I’m not going to praise your awesomeness and I certainly won’t go spend my time grinding and doing post-game content!
A-Anyways, I’m off to…NOT playing more!
It was Final Episode 1.
You got me, NIS.
It arrived in the strangest way I’ve ever seen. Normally, my package is left at my front door if it’s big, and stuff into my mailbox if it’s small like just a single game. I got the Premium edition so the box was too big and had to be fit inside the large section of the mailbox. Since my mailbox is joined with a bunch of other people’s there’s this one box that’s like twice as huge and it’s used solely for delivery of large packages. They put my game in there and then put the key to that box in my mailbox. I was extremely confused because normally they’d just leave it at the doorstep.
Anyways, I ordered from Amazon so there’s no NISA store bonus CD. I only have the Fuuka figure, artbook, and the game. The opening looks freaking fabulous on an HDTV and omfg HD sprites. Evilty system and buying your skills is back (sadface), and there’s a new ability called fusion. TIME FOR MY MANLIEST DREAMS TO COME TRUE!
Screw Gamestop, I don’t trust them when their Canadian website suddenly no longer has the Premium edition listed and neither does their database. I bought from Amazon instead, which saved me $3. I’ve got to wait like an extra week, but at least I no longer have to physically go to the store. Now, time to figure out how to manage my money so I can get Totori, Fate/Extra, ICO, and perhaps Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny. Apparently Totori is much better than Rorona, and I liked the former quite a bit. I had a look at the screenshots and they look amazing.
Disgaea 4 screenshots look pretty sexy too, using HD sprites instead of that PS2-level pixellated stuff from D3. NISA, keep taking my money please.
カレーまみれ勇者の冒険 Curry Chronicles 