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By Hemisphere, 8 April, 2009 7:15 PM

Ugh…I hate it when I’m being lazy. And when you’ve got a thesis knocking on your door. But ah well, on with the show!

Akatsuki no Goei – I came into this one without any expectations, and ended up finishing three routes plus following up their afterstories in the span of two days. What the fuck.

The setting of Akatsuki no Goei takes place in a future Japan where the equilibrium between the rich and the poor is so completely fucked up that there exists two sides of Japan, the side where all the poor and desolate are left to rot, and the “normal”, prosperous side. The former side exists in a very dystopian state where every day is a battle for survival, while the latter is similar to modern day society only with more reverence and emphasis to those belonging to the upper class. It also follows that the dystopian side is sealed off from the “normal” Japan, and that the people there aren’t socially registered in any manner at all. So you can see that things are really fucked up, but people take it for what it is.

The male lead is Asagiri Kaito, who, unlike his companions eagerly into their training as future bodyguards, doesn’t really have his heart set on being a bodyguard. The game starts off with a brief introduction to a kidnapping scene which Kaito bears witness to, then cuts away to events two weeks prior, where his nature and reasons for joining the academy are disclosed. Kaito takes his leave from his bodyguard training and is set to become a free man until he witness the kidnapping attempt, during which he ends up following the kidnappers all the way to their hideout – not because he wants to protect the victim, but because he was looking for something “out of the ordinary”. So he beats up the thugs, gets the ojousama back to her home, and goes off – at least, he tries to leave. Turns out that the girl he ended up rescuing is a VERY distinguished personality, and she has other plans for Kaito, plans that involve him becoming her bodyguard despite his MOST adamant refusal.

Seriously? I really recommend this game. Kaito’s personality and character is COMPLETELY distinct and different from any other eroge lead I’ve seen – his personality is 50% of the reason as to why I couldn’t tear myself away from this one. The other 50% would be the heroines and the completely intriguing premise and execution of the story, not to mention the various  gags and exchanges between characters. Sure it hits some snags here and there, but it’s still a very good title, one that’s worth checking out if you’re desperate for something new and interesting. My favorite routes would have to be Reika’s and Tsuki’s, partly because I really like their characters a lot, and because of the events involved.

Battle Goddess 0/Ikusa Megami 0 – Just noticed that I haven’t written much about this one, so…yeah. Ikusa Megami 0 is the prequel to the whole series, though to be honest I really haven’t played any other Ikusa Megami titles aside from this one. But what I do know, however, is that this game is just about perfect. The gameplay system is easy and intuitive, battles are fun to get into, and the story is more than just riveting – it’s a very engaging saga, one that’s worth seeing from start to end. For those new to Eushully and their stuff, I can imagine it being more than just a tad confusing, so I would suggest you either get people who are familiar with their works to ease you into it, or to try out their other titles to get more understanding of the world surrounding BG0.

Nothing more about this one needs to be said, aside from it being a must. If you haven’t played this one yet, you should. You owe yourself that much.

At the very least, play it before Himegari comes out this month!

Edo Ranze – After Afker’s several proddings, I went ahead and tried out this one out of curiosity for the tsundere character. It’s merits goes beyond that though – it’s a lighthearted, completely amusing title from the guys over at AliceSoft. Unlike their standard eroges, this one’s purely ADV, and the fun lies in seeing the various GAME OVER scenarios as well as the hilarity in most of the events.

Plus, you’ve got some quirky characters in this one – and I mean, quirky. A loli ninja who gets off from seeing the main lead suffer, two gay guys who both serve as the princess’ loyal bodyguards, among others. It’s a small game judging from its size, so it doesn’t take much dedication to play through and finish unless you’re extremely lazy or have eroge ADD, like me.

Flyable Heart – Unisonshift Blossom’s titles have a fairly singular ambiance or feel about them, and if you’ve played Nanatsuiro Drops, I can say that Flyable Heart shares the same ambiance. It has really friendly characters, bright visuals, and cheerful, light-hearted expositions for the most part – also standard fare for Blossom’s stuff, which I’m not saying is a bad thing. Everyone else has also written a piece about Flyable Heart and I don’t feel like repeating what they’ve said in part because I am lazy, so just go and check out what they said about it.

Kururi, however, is much love. Which brings me to a rambling of sorts – with Unisonshift Blossom’s stuff, how come I ALWAYS end up liking the flat-chested characters more than ANYBODY else? In Peace@Pieces, Anzu and Death-sensei were the girls for me; Nanatsuiro Drops had me smitten all over Sumomo; now in Flyable Heart, Kururi’s got dibs on my heart, and then there’s Gumi! It’s not like I’m biased towards flat chests, as it’s more their personalities and characters that I REALLY end up loving, but the coincidence amuses me. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.

Mahou Senshi Lemmtear Knights – I’m a newbie to Triangle’s stuff, so this would be my first foray into their eroges. I am NOT, however, a stranger to mahou senshis and the like, as it is one of my most sought-after fetish. If you’re after mahou senshis and ero, then this is a GREAT way to find out and see how the two mix. You play the role of the main baddie whose purpose is to enslave the heroines against him into his side. In order to accomplish this, you have a variety of demons and magic spells at your command, and said enslavement occurs after you engage in combat with the heroines.

There’s a LOT of mahou senshis in this title, which made me really really REALLY pleased. They even have En Ciel Rena in here! And playing as the baddie for the main role was, while a bit disorienting, fitting for the various eroscenes present. It’s just that, you know, I’d rather PERSONALLY see to the capture and enslavement of these bishoujos myself, with my own dick in tow, and not have fat old balding men or demon lizards do the job for me. But this is how Triangle does things, so…eh. I don’t exactly have a choice.

The bishoujos, however, are very much abundant, and very delicious to boot!

Tokino Senka -Would I be right in saying that this is Studio e.Go!’s last title? Tokino Senka involves Amagi Hayato, a young man from the future who wakes up in feudal Japan during a strong thunderstorm, only with no recollection of his memories. His sword skill, however, proves valuable in defending the country that he finds himself in, as well as his special ability to see events ahead of time. He allies himself with the resident lord, Akitsu Yoshihiro, and with him at their side, they set about to turning the tides of war around on their enemies.

Hayato’s a pretty quirky but likable character – he can be badass when he needs to be, and perverted whenever his male instincts call for it. It’s also worth mentioning that HE’S VOICED, which is a very welcome feature as his voice matches his personality very much. For the heroines, I ended up liking Kikyou, Yui and especially Karin the most out of them all, though I kinda wish that Hikage was capturable, or a secret heroine.

It has a decent battle system, which resembles an RTS, though units can quickly degrade into clusterfucks, which is hardly helpful when it comes to en masse battles. Unlike most RTS games, though, only the units are what you can command in this one – no need to build structures or harvest resources to be converted into precious war funds. Storywise, it later involves several “what-if” scenarios that, as a history buff, I found amusing. Like, what if the feudal Japanese armies employed Hoplite tactics? What if they had access to automatic rifles and grenades, or a tank?

WLO – Newprimus has already put up a brief write up of WLO based on his experience with the trial, and it’s already appropriate enough for an introduction as to what the story is about so feel free to read up on it if you want. In my playthrough, I was hesitant in choosing between Yuriko and Arisa, so I went ahead and followed my own advice: “when in doubt, go for the osananajimi“. And so my first playthrough was done with Aina’s route.

Let me get this out of the way first: I hated the protagonist. My god was he annoying, though thankfully he changes before you hit any of the girls’ major routes. Still, prior to that he was hair-tugging infuriating, and I swear I wanted to punch my monitor more than thrice. I lost count the seventh time I felt that raging urge rising within me.

It’s a pretty hilarious title though, and VERY in certain routes and events. I’m in Arisa’s route right now, and the scenes prior to as well as after the play just had me laughing so hard, and that’s just in the beginning of her route. Between Aina and Arisa, I’m rooting more for Arisa. GO ARISA! Her character is more interesting, and her route is more intriguing than a plain old boring osananajimi route.

Comments (15)

By Newprimus, 21 January, 2009 6:53 PM

Human society exists in great part thanks to the power of empathy. Empathy is the capacity to share and understand another’s state of mind or emotion. “Putting yourself in another’s shoes,” is a common descriptor. To feel what others are feeling. And empathy works because there are commonalities between you and another, which is why it’s easier to feel for a dog or a cat than a fish or a cockroach. Hence society exists in good part due to commonalities we share amongst one another. It’s hard to relate to someone who is too different, which is why society instills in its members a common set of behaviors, expectations, and codes of conduct. That’s why people can meet each other in the street and interact easily because they share the same method of communication, mannerisms, and social expectations.

But that’s out in society, where sameness is a necessity that keeps people together. This is a different world. Where the power of the message is more important than the way it’s delivered. Where you can wave greetings to a beautiful bishoujo or take her body with the force of a hurricane, fettered only by the sounds of mixing body parts and her voice howling in ecstasy, and both could be ways of casually saying hi.

This is the dark beyond night. The invisible beyond the unseen. The chaos behind the unpredictable. This is a special place, and only those with their heads screwed on in special ways tread here. Are you special?

I am Newprimus, and as you can clearly see Hemisphere kidnapped me from my idyllic school life, took me to his dungeons, raped me with and in all manner of ero-cliches until I was brainwashed, and then installed me as an author inside his little kingdom of lust and madness. Maybe he’s the lust, and I’m the madness. Time will tell, if it’s still around later on to say anything.

Today I will discuss a number of web trials I played recently as my first post as an author of this blog. The games ツンな彼女 デレな彼女 by PeasSoft, スズノネセブン！ by ClochetteLumie, and W.L.O. 世界恋愛機構 by AkabeiSoft.

Tsun na Kanojo Dere na Kanojo (my limited Japanese thinks so) is a high school romance game with a tiny spice of…I’m not 100% certain but am fairly sure what it is. The tsundere ideal is what defines this game, as the title would imply. Half the heroine cast are dere, or mostly dere, and the other half are mostly or entirely tsun. The game starts and progresses fairly normally, with the deredere osanajimi who wakes you up in the morning, the tsun tsun osanajimi/little sister figure, and the male best friend. There’s also a genki female friend trying to get the deredere osanajimi closer to you but secretly has a crush on you. There’s another osanajimi who you reunite with, but hates you for some reason yet to be explained (in the above picture), plus the other tsun and dere girls. Then there’s that mysterious meteor that crashed one night. It’s like a small bucket of special in an ocean of generic. It should turn most people away, but there’s that little bit of uniqueness that retains a grip on your curiosity. In the end it’ll probably inflate your backlog and consume your time but not much more. Malicious little thing, isn’t it? Don’t let those deredere girls fool you. They’re all ticking yandere time bombs ready to explode in a shower of blood and sawblades.

Next game is Suzunone Seven, by ClochetteLumie. Clochette did Kamipani, and at least one seiyuu returns for their second game.

Recall Happiness? Pretty much the same kind of setting here. A modern world with magic and magic schools. Suzunone Gakuen is the one the game takes place in, and the story is that the male protagonist, his female best friend, her older brother, two upperclassladies, a semi-shy girl, and the school director’s eccentric grand-daughter are selected to be this year’s “Suzunone Seven”, each of whom are one way or another problem students of some kind. Their mission, given to them by the school, is to cohabitate together in a single room within the school complex for one month and individually accomplish something to clear themselves of their problem status. The male protagonist has a particularly complex mission, which I believe is “Realize someone’s wish,” or something like that. That’s deep, dude. Good luck.

Everything about this game is better than TsunKano, if you had to compare. Characters, plot, humor, voice-acting, perhaps even art. Amane’s seiyuu returns to voice Minato, the female best friend I mentioned, which is also what Amane’s role happened to be in Kamipani. In fact, both characters are very similar and could be said to be the same character type. The differences are:

1. Amane is smart and is a student council president. Minato is dim-witted and is a problem student.

2. Amane is energetic at times. Minato is HYPER at times.

3. Amane is skeptical of magic and supernatural. Minato goes NUTS over magic.

4. Amane has a 88cm bust. Minato’s is 92.

5. Amane has no problems being naked in front of Tomoyuki. Minato has no problems demonstrating a good morning handjob to a sheltered ojousama upperclasslady by using a magically-pinned Yukimura as the model (though the sempai faints before Minato starts so nothing happens).

Basically Minato is Amane. But better. Which means a good thing, but even better. Hence win.

For the rest of the cast you have Nino, the semi-shy girl whose magical powers have a tendency to go berserk and nuclear at inopportune times and Sumire the school director’s grand-daughter who is…….. strange. There’s Yuzuri-sempai, the aforementioned sheltered ojousama, and a top-class magic student, and her constant companion Riri, also a sempai, who is probably a lesbian and has romantic feelings towards Yuzuri. There’s Shin, Minato’s older brother, who is just as crazy as she is. Kujo Kaname, the group’s hilarious, often-depressed and underpaid teacher who is undergoing the cohabitation together with her charge as a supervisor (note the same last name as Amane from Kamipani). There’s also that other teacher who is a celebrity in the world of magic and whom the students can’t decide whether she’s a sadist or a masochist, and also Sumire’s older sister Momoka who has a hobby of taking embarrassing photos of unsuspecting students. And lastly Yukimura, the male protagonist. Hard to get a bead on this guy. I guess sarcastically or sardonically straight-laced but relaxed would be the phrase to describe him?

The third and last game I tried is WLO-something from AkabeiSoft. I played none of these games with AGTH, and this one I skipped through much of with Ctrl due to time so I have little idea what’s going on. I can only give you a partial impression of what I’ve gleaned from this game.

First, AkabeiSoft. If the name of that company isn’t familiar, then how about Sharin no Kuni, Himawari no Shoujo? How about G-Senjou no Maoh? Familiar now? Fairly epic, plot-filled drama is what Akabeisoft is famous for, but WLO, so far as of this web trial, is different. Not different like in a different kind of story or drama, but different in the sense of someone hitting his head real hard or smoking a lot of hard drugs and developing a totally different personality, or a number of them. It’s like the staff of AkabeiSoft all went completely bonkers sometime after the completion of G-Senjou no Maoh. Because that’s what WLO is. Totally bonkers.

You’ve got a mysterious organization called “World Love Organization” and its rival the “Nothing or All”, both competing over our male lead for some reason. A loli robot who spontaneously takes off her clothes in the middle of a bar. The leader of the WLO bribing the protagonist’s parents for his human rights, and getting them. And many more, both incidents and people, but by far the absolute best part of this game so far is this girl:

You should see the parts where these thought bubbles of hers suddenly pop up that cover half the entire game screen in non-stop, near-incoherent, delusional babbling. This trial is unvoiced, so to hear the dialogue in the final game as well….

Again I haven’t gleaned much of what this game’s actually about, but madness, pure unadulterated madness, is at least part of what’s going on at Akabeisoft. How much of that makes it into the final game remains to be seen.