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By Newprimus, 17 January, 2012 2:50 PM

SAGA PLANETS’ trial for their newest offering, Hatsuyuki Sakura, has been out for a while so most of you might have already played through it. Not to mention someone needs to breathe some life into this blog, otherwise it’s going to become a tomb haunted by ghosts. Fitting that the game I’ll talk about today is about such denizens of the other world.

Ran, the girl above, lives with Hatsuyuki, who is most definetly not the usual male lead. He’s a brooding, cold, lone wolf of guy. Blunt and often mean in his way of talking to other people, feared by many and respected by some. He holds sorrow deep inside his heart, and he has no hopes or expectations for his future, but perhaps there is some kindness underneath that cold exterior. He is so different from what you’d normally expect. Have you heard of anyone else who tells a girl off by telling her to go home and masturbate?

His tale and the game’s story starts when he meets the main heroine of the game, Tamaki Sakura, one cold winter night when he’s chasing after some rabbit that has stolen his money. She has come to this town searching for something called the ghost child, and Hatsuyuki ends up becoming involved in her little ghost-hunting quest. I will say one thing about all the characters in general, and that is SAGA PLANETS has refrained from using cheap, moe personality traits to bring appeal to their characters. In their previous game, Kisaragi Gold Star, you could easily observe what moe archetype each character takes after but that’s fortunately not so much the case in this game. What draws you to the people of this game is what’s revealed of them through Hatsuyuki’s interactions with them. They are more than a collection of moe labels, and there are hints that there may be more behind them than what you simply see or hear on the outside.

The next thing that makes Hatsuyuki Sakura wonderful is everything else. The graphics, superb. The music, wonderful to listen to and creates the right kind of mood. The OP’s also spectacular, like Rolling Star in the previous game. Which in the case of Hatsuyuki Sakura is a seamless blend of school romance and supernatural mystery, a surprisingly excellent fusion of comedy and drama. The light-hearted antics of Sakura, Nozomu, and the other girls contrast starkly to the mellow, sometimes sad malaise that pervades Hatsuyuki’s private life, the exact nature of which you won’t fully know until the end of the prologue–and when you do the story takes on a serious, even dark tone. Not overtly, but with subtlety that lurks in the background, never in your face unless the moment is right, and when it is the game delivers like a freight train. A story is well-written when the first act closes with the audience knowing exactly what kind of journey the characters must now take for the rest of the tale, and the end of Hatsuyuki Sakura sets the score to be settled so strongly you are just as determined and set on what you have to do, just like Hatsuyuki at the end of the trial.

Beautiful is what this game is. At the very least I am enjoying this hell of a lot more than Kisaragi Gold Star. Hatsuyuki Sakura is a more serious story, perhaps even moreso than Natsuyume Nagisa. The game’s a lot like Lump of Sugar’s Itsu-Sora in some respects. You sure as hell wouldn’t think so by visiting the game’s official site or looking at all the screenshots, but mark my words and prepare yourself. This game is no leisurely stroll through the neighborhood, but a foreboding trek through a haunted forest. In winter.

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By Newprimus, 11 April, 2011 5:01 PM

Clochette-soft is one of my favorite eroge companies, so when I saw the trial announcement for upcoming game Kamikaze Explorer on the company’s site I dropped everything, and about twenty minutes later I was smoking divine weed or something.

If you know or have played one of their earlier games, Suzunone Seven, then Kamikaze Explorer will not be a total stranger to you. It takes place in a similar modern world with magic sprinkled on it. The magic is called Metis and those who are able to call upon their own unique Metis power are called Metispers. Hayase Keiji is our protagonist who gets transferred to Suminoe, a high school built to train and develop Metispers, even though he doesn’t have a power of his own (yet). A familiar pattern follows: male lead becomes friends with his genki and highly sociable class pres who shows him around, reunites with an osanajimi whom he hasn’t seen in one and a half years, gets rescued from a pinch by a rich ojousama kouhai and her minions, meets the disciplinary committe chief sempai, and later the imouto transfers into the school in pursuit of her beloved brother. Oh yeah and the ojousama recruits Keiji and the class rep into her club, which is supposed to go around school and help random people with random problems or something. Like rescuing kittens and such. And lastly the male protagonist starts to discover his own, unique Metis power!! Oooooh~

It’s all familiar eroge standard fare, but that’s somewhat unavoidable if you want to make a great eroge, and some of the various eroge standards and archetypes like the osanajimi, the imouto, and the ojousama persist as stereotypes because they’re extremely fun if done right. Clochette-soft is one of those eroge companies that does it right. They take the stereotypes and bend them in interesting ways, and package it all with a well-paced story that moves along and doesn’t meander (like Grisaia) or downright stagnate (looking at you, Kiss, Maou and Tea).

First there’s the protagonist. Keiji, like nearly all eroge protagonists, is sociable, kind, smart, and dense as neutronium. His obliviousness to the affections of all the girls around him makes you wanna smash your head on something. So the game makes it one of its focal points. The osanajimi, Okihara Kotoha, has longed after Keiji for a long time since their childhood and had given up trying to get him to notice her feelings but hasn’t forgotten about him. This game plays from the girls’ perspectives a lot, much more so than the majority of other games. It’s not like feng’s Hoshikaka where you choose a girl’s POV at the end of every chapter. In Kamikaze Explorer the POV is not strictly set upon Keiji, and is more neutral and third-person in a sense. A girl’s thoughts can pop up during a conversation, the game POV switches to girls somewhere else in the school, and all this occurs frequently. It’s actually jarring at first because you’re not used to being shown the girls’ perspectives so often, but it works out because for example in the case of Kotoha you can see just how frustrated she is with Keiji as her advances and invitations bounce off of his wall of donkkan. It’s very nice to be able to directly sympathize and root for a heroine like Kotoha as she tries once again to get Keiji to recognize her love for him after having given up for a long time.

Now you’ve got a donkkan male lead. What better opponent for him than a female heroine who is nearly just as dense as he is about love? Himekawa Fuuka is the first girl Keiji meets and she’s his classmate (along with Kotoha) and class president. She shows him around the campus and becomes a constant companion since day 1. When Keiji is brought into the Argonaut club she desperately joins as well; despite the fact that she has never joined a club yet so far, stating her class rep duties as the reason why she supposedly can’t afford the time. She’s roommates with Kotoha and later you get a conversation between them where Kotoha realizes that Fuuka is pretty much in love with Keiji, but the latter has no idea that she is. Seeing whose wall of neutronium is denser should be intersting.

Yutenji Mishio is the ojousama character, but she’s no ordinary ojousama. Her Metis power is Promines and it’s basically fire spam. Her appearance and demeanor are equally fiery and she gives off a commanding, almost domineering presence you’d expect from the daughter of a hugely wealthy and powerful family. Except it’s all FAKE. :D Not the Metis power or the wealthy ojousama bit, those are very real. But underneath that haughty exterior is this completely timid, meek girl who wants nothing more than to get closer to the boy she loves. Which is Keiji, and it seems like she’s met him a long time ago, but he obviously doesn’t remember. She’s also a kouhai. And her two servant/bodyguard girls are totally awesome. One is basically Azumanga Daioh’s Sakaki: tall, big breasts and katana skill on the outside but soft and loves cute things on the inside. The other is this short, small-chested 3rd year who is the most devious thing in human skin and delights in watching her mistress sweat and squirm as she unsuccessfully tries to perfect her domineering ojousama guise. Mishio’s also voiced by Aoyama Yukari, who uses both her soft and hard voice simultaneously for this role. And her H-scene in the trial rocked my balls off. AND her pinup is the most tastefully sexy. Obviously you know who my favorite heroine in the game is so far. ;)

Usami Saori is the sempai. And the chief of the disciplinary committe. Except she’s one of those what do you call it…. oh yeah, a dame-ko. Frequently on the receiving end of the butt-end of a lot of situations, mocked frequently, and worst of all her roommate’s one of Mishio’s minions. The 3rd year. Yes, the one that’s like satan on female legs or something. And she’s got a vendetta against Mishio’s club. And against Keiji because he saw her panties and flashed it to the rest of the cast. If you for some reason don’t enjoy the fact that every other member of the cast has superbly awesome tits, Saori’s got your relative flatness to satisfy your DFC needs.

Hayase Manami is the imouto. If it’s a romance eroge, you’ve got to have the imouto. Energetic, sociable, big breasts on a loli body. Very perceptive and sees through Mishio’s disguise almost instantly, and soon becomes friends with her. Forces one of the school’s recruiters to let her transfer into Suminoe. Totally raburabu over her brother to the point of perceiving all the other girls as dangers to Keiji’s purity, but keeps denying it. Oh and the parents totally know about Keiji’s denseness and Manami’s blatant bro-con but don’t really do anything about it. :D

The production values of this eroge are quite top-notch. High resolution, well-done interface. Character art is very, very good and there’s a lot of movement from the characters on-screen. As I mentioned earlier, pacing is very good. The story probably won’t be one of those deep ones like Subarashiki Hibi or something, but for a romance comedy it’s hard to beat something like this. Too bad this game comes May 27th, which feels like an eternity away. At the very least I’ll leave everyone these samples of Mishio and Kotoha smexy. If you fap hard enough you might pass out long enough and wake up on the 27th :)

Getchu site: http://www.getchu.com/soft.phtml?id=688507

Game site: http://clochette-soft.jp/kamikaze/index.html

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By Hemisphere, 5 January, 2011 8:10 PM

What’s this? No Christmas or New Years post? Yeah, well, I got tired of doing that shit two years ago or something. Anyways, Kamidori Alchemy Meisters Demo Movie up – download is here. In case you haven’t heard of this title, stop living under that rock and take a look around the website.

At first glance, Kamidori looks like a less-chaotic Himegari Dungeon Meisters, and I’d partly be inclined to agree. Partly, because, Kamidori doesn’t really so much look like it’s a light-hearted take on Himegari, but rather, Tayu Uta’s feel with Himegari’s system. Which I am totally okay with, seeing as Eushully’s gotten over the male lead archetype reminiscent of the one in Tayu Uta.

And in case you might be led to believe that Kamidori’s gonna be all cheerful and happy with butterflies and rainbows and sparkly shit, please remember that this is Eushully that’s producing this game. The demo alone already shows the main characters getting embroiled in a war, which should be interesting. Knowing Eushully, that’s just going to be the bare tip of the iceberg.

By the way: if Rifia and Evalyne are extra characters via append (remember, they’re heading to where Kamidori takes place), but Louie, Carian, Fami and Petrene are following the both of them…does that mean Louie and company MIGHT show up in Kamidori as well?

I personally love how Kamidori ties into the main lore (that is, the 戦女神 series) with the aforementioned disaster (the demon dragon incident, most likely). If I recall, this is the first time a title outside of Ikusa Megami gets linked to it, which is intriguing to say the least. I’m sure Kamidori is going to have a story that will stand on its own, but I’m curious as to whether they’ll include any connections or references to the events of VERITA.

Gameplay wise, I’m very much taken aback and deeply interested with the new system additions. I’ve always wondered how it would feel if Eushully tried their own hand at making an Atelier series clone, and it seems Kamidori’s the title for it. In the screenshots I’ve seen of the missions, it seems that Eushully has limited the number of units deployable to four, which is fair for making more challenging scenarios. Himegari had up to a total of nine deployable units, and all I did back then was just send out everyone and just blitz through an area.

Lastly, Yuera and Seraui are still bitching HOT. I always felt that I’d make Yuera my main in Kamidori, and that feeling just grows stronger with every additional information released. Also, I’m curious as to exactly how popular Sylphine’s route in Himegari must have been…not that I’m saying that there’s a direct connection between the popularity and impact of that ending to everyone who played Himegari, and Kamidori’s lighter-than-Himegari feel. Just curious.

Bloody Rondo’s trial was released 31 December 2010, and is available here. Look it up if you’ve got an interest in vampires and that stuff. From what I’ve played, it’s a jumbled mess of events and serves to only give us sneak peeks of the characters involved, so don’t expect to understand much of the story’s premise via the trial alone. It’s also got some preview H scenes, which are around five to six lines of dialogue at best per H scene preview. I’m rooting for Luna, Linette, Francesca and Alice, whoohoo.

I like the system’s appearance, keeping with the whole bloody vampires thing. I also like how some of the events look animated, the use of cut-ins, and I definitely love the seiyuu line-up for Bloody Rondo. An all-star seiyuu cast, if you can call it…it’s just insane. I just hope it won’t end up anything like Hyakka Ryouran…all-star ensemble, but bleh.

There’s also Damamuko’s trial, here. It’s interesting, and hilarious from what I’ve seen so far. My only gripes would be that the lead is too damn whiny about what happened between him and Reona during the past, and that the h-scene in the trial felt forced and totally out of place. Long live Rin versus Reona!

Now to die one day at a time until April 22 hits.

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By Hemisphere, 19 November, 2010 11:52 PM

Eushully’s upcoming game, set to be released Spring 2011. Yeah, it just got announced, but what kind of crazed delirious Eushully fan would I be if I don’t dedicate a post to it, right?

Site is here! Enjoy! And yes, it is very much like Himegari, only more…refined, I suppose.

In case you need to know what I think…all you have to do is just look to the right. My twitter account should be flooded to hell soon with what I think of it, complete with HNGHs and DELISHUZ.

PS. I forgot to add, but the VERITA Guidebook also comes with Append 3 for VERITA. Apparently it adds extra stories for both Celica and Louie!

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By Hemisphere, 7 November, 2010 7:27 PM

Their website is here, with the updated character page here. Their twitter account is here.

OP sung by Aoba Ringo, who will also be voicing the main heroine. Hitomi and Miru are also voicing characters! That makes 3 of my favorite VAs in one title! Oh wait, there’s also Kawashima Rino! YAY!

BISHOUJO BABES! WITH WEAPONS! AND VAMPIRES! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO in! The name Luna Fried Queen still makes me laugh, but hey, it’s Aoba Ringo, voicing a blond twintailed ojousama (so most likely tsundere too) vampire loli who wears a red goth loli outfit and carries a huge fucking scythe around. IF THIS ISN’T TRUE LOVE I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS!