Divine wind
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
Themocracy
HNNNNNNNNNNNNGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I played through some of this trial a few days back. Manami is dangerously bracon and Saori is nice too (reminds me of Sumire in looks…) Loved the system too and perspective changes. The oppai balance in this game is a bit off though. Needs more small ones!
That is some good artwork. Ahhh I wish I knew japanese to play this eroge in all its glory.
DIBS ON THE OJOUSAMA
Indeed, the oppai balance is quite off.
Well, May 27th… I’ll be free of my exams by then! Though not free of my backlog
“downright stagnate (looking at you, Kiss, Maou and Tea)”
I’m actually redownloading this shit. Just. Because. Sarasa is 2hot2handle (never mind her character is basically fucked up hard by the lack of sensible plot). (TωT)ｳﾙｳﾙ
I kinda find it funny that the 1st year girls have sizable busts, while the 3rd year ones are on the opposite end of the scale.
In response to Mishio’s “Prometheus/Prominence” (the hell?), is she trying to be Blaze Baroness? (Look up “Cosmic Break” and “Blaze Baron” if you don’t get this one.)
I guess they were trying to call it Prometheus but someone on the team was being clueless with western stuff as usual so called it Promines- what the hell is that?
Prominence. Anyway… This game is fairly good just as a slice of life with a bit of magic eroge… but it would have been much better if they’d used the setting to give it a more serious edge throughout the story, rather than suddenly springing the serious stuff on you at the end and making everything into a happy ending regardless of what happened in the intervening steps. As it is, it is overfocused on the romance part of the story and as a result the serious parts seem almost like an add-on, even though they had a fairly high potential. In addition, the endings inevitably only show the characters a month or so past the end of the climax of the story, which is really disappointing for people who want to see what the characters end up doing with their lives afterward. Also, considering the powerful side-characters, it is obvious that they intend for there to be a fandisc eventually… I can see at least two new routes being added on.
Grisaia’s plot moves snail-pacingly slow but its characters and their interactions are sooooooo good that you can bear with it. In fact the common route is more enjoyable than the character routes so far. A harem route would’ve kicked unholy amounts of ass. Kiss Maou and Tea I just could not sit through even the trial (yes I admit I only played the trial). It was just random conversations for the sake of it over and over and over and it just dragged on and on.
There’s another upcoming game, Taiyoku no Promia or something. I glazed over the trial and I couldn’t get excited over that one either. I’m thinking of making a post on upcoming or recently released games that I’d recommend for or against based on their trials. Like that game, Mecha-con (oh god so uninspiring), and Koi de wa naku (the game could not get me excited over their film-making club stuff to save itself. Didn’t help that both main leads aren’t that likeable).
On the other end of the spectrum, August’s Aiyoku no Eustia kicks huge amounts of ass. Play it!