Comments (12)

By Hemisphere, 15 February, 2010 5:34 PM

I’m pretty lenient when it comes to playing eroges – as I (half-)jokingly mentioned before, I don’t really have any standards when it comes to picking which titles I want to play, as long as it looks fun, interesting, and addresses at least one of my fetishes. I do, however, have one goddamn standard that I DO take rather seriously, as it is my barebones minimum requirement. That is, a title shouldn’t bore me to death.

Out of the two I’m talking about in this post, one of them has never failed to drive me insanely bored – with just the first Chapter ALONE. That one I’m referring to is Shukufuku no Campanella.

Why Campanella? I myself am surprised by it, because I remember going through it’s trial (which was also the prologue of the main game) and LOVING what I went through. It had a nice mix of love comedy, humor, and deredere heroines all with their unique quirks and characters, all presented in a colorful, vibrant world that looked so interesting it made me want to explore the whole place and learn more about it. Never did I expect that after the prologue came heavy, mind-numbing moments of sheer will-crushing boredom.

I understand that Campanella’s taking its time to lay the foundations in Chapter 1, introducing to us the various characters, the setting involved, and the circumstances the characters are involved in, all in greater depth. Or at least, it should, keyword being SHOULD. So far, I’ve gone eight quests in, and I haven’t seen anything new regarding the characters or the premise, except from what the prologue has already shown me. Which is pretty goddamn ridiculous, really. Yes, I have already gone on various quests for the clients of Clan Oasis, and have seen the different environments of Campanella’s world (and they’re all pretty lush and gorgeous), from the beaches to the snow-capped mountain fields to the underground mines and such. I’ve also had my share of fights, and have won them all. But all of those don’t really amount to anything when you don’t have any idea of just what the hell is going on entirely, relative to the game’s premise.

That’s part of the problem that I have with Campanella right now – the game has no premise, no NOTHING at all of what the whole game is about. Even the story section of Campanella in getchu is pretty much the prologue of the game’s events in summary form, nothing at all to tell you about what the story just MIGHT be about. Is it about Eru collecting? Is it about Lester making more and more inventions? Is it about Minette and that comet during that fateful night? From what I’ve seen of eight quests’ worth of Chapter 1, it’s about the characters going out there and doing stuff that are pretty menial. It feels like I’m slugging through an MMO-inspired quest one after the other, only no socialization with other players nor any back story or at least plot-relevance to at least keep me interested throughout the whole thing. For all its brightness and cheerfulness, it does nothing to relieve the feeling of trekking through sludge that I constantly suffer from every time I try to progress beyond this goddamned chapter.

I know that with this kind of pacing, it’s done to keep the player interested in future things to come as it’s just building up for things to come that would make the whole trudging through the boring sequences absolutely rewarding in the end once it starts picking up. But with this kind of pacing, it’s done with the premise kept in mind – and I’m still reminded of the fact that Campanella doesn’t really HAVE any premise at all to offer, aside from “here’s four ladies with various backgrounds and various motivations, you’re all part of a clan, here’s some quests to do, NOW GO OUT THERE AND TRY TO HAVE FUN“. Yes, the character interactions are nice and cute and a bunch of other things, but it’s all fluff whenever I’m reminded that everything I do and have done up to this point feels like it’ll hardly be relevant at all later on, seeing as NOTHING of importance has hardly happened.

So what’s kept me clinging to Campanella up to this point? Well, from what I heard, it’s a great title. Maybe the following Chapters are so awesome that it wiped the utter boredom that is Chapter 1 from everyone’s minds, which isn’t that far-fetched. Make no mistake; I’ve gone through my share of boring events in various eroge here and there, but in those titles there was a PREMISE that kept me going, that there was SOMETHING at the end of it all that rewarded my perseverance. For example, from the recent titles that I’ve played/replayed:

In Himegari: Former Maou trying to regain his lost body and reclaim his glory.
In Ikusa Megami 0: Serika’s story of origin and how he became this way.
In Chouko Sennin Haruka: Takamaru and his Sennin/s have to save the world from the Noroi.
In Yunibaru: Shinichiro and his residents cope with “everyday life” considering their “special” backgrounds.
In Shapeshifter: Ria Fouru(?) has to be protected from those trying to abuse its power in order to protect the Universe.

In Campanella, I’ve got nothing based on what’s happened so far, so I’m very much goddamned tempted to just ctrl-skip the entirety of Chapter 1 and see if nothing of value would be lost once I start with Chapter 2 onwards. THANKS A LOT.

Now, moving on to Apricot’s MapleColors2…I started on this one and ended up finishing a route all in the span of a day (give or take), not knowing that I hit the ending until the credits started rolling. Now THAT’S the kind of immersion brought about by a good mix of both premise and pacing! It’s not as over-the-top in its hilarity nor is it a continual flow of gags like Yunibaru!, but MapleColors2 balances the serious bits and the funny bits very nicely.

MapleColors2 is about Togawa Soujirou who, during his transfer to his new school, gets involved in an incident and ends up dragging his whole class, the notorious 2-B, along with it. With this, they are given an ultimatum: to either win the school’s upcoming “festival”, or to lose and suffer an indefinite suspension. Most of 2B has given up on the chance to win, though, so the responsibility falls on Soujirou to gather his classmates together if they are to try and remove the penalty of indefinite suspension.

Most of the first three chapters will involve the recruitment of your hesitant classmates, after which you will be asked to choose which of the three events during the “festival” you’d like to participate on – this will also determine which routes will be made available. MapleColors2 uses a gameplay system that really gives off the feel of an adventure game, as this system involves navigating Soujirou around sections of the school and clicking on items/characters in order to progress, with most of the character recruitment and exploration done via that system. It’s also got around eight or so minigames available which helps break up the monotony, in case you get bored or something.

Not that you’d ever get bored with something like MapleColors2, that’s for sure. Like Yunibaru!, MapleColors2 doesn’t waste much of its time floundering around explaining this and that; it explains things in precise detail and brings the characters to life with such clarity yet with succinct brevity that (unlike Campanella) it’s able to retain your interest as events unfold. It doesn’t linger too long on certain events, all flashbacks are properly utilized within the scenes that they’re employed, and again, unlike Campanella, everything you do in the first chapter alone points towards the premise of the game: that is, to recruit your classmate and win the festival in order to avoid the indefinite suspension!

Every action, every event is linked via MapleColors2′s premise, which Campanella has yet to show me. So while I’ve already finished a route and greatly enjoyed MapleColors2 during the time I took to play it, I have yet to even finish the whole of Chapter 1 during the whole twenty hours and more that I’ve invested in it. Which is ironic because I’ve finished PLENTY of games around twenty or so hours, but then again, in those games I knew what I was trying to achieve and progress towards, while in Campanella I’ve still yet to determine that.

If you enjoy comedy and liked Yunibaru!, you should (or should have already) try MapleColors2! As for Campanella…I think it’s about time to ctrl-skip the entirety of Chapter 1 and hope for the best.

Comments (10)

By Hemisphere, 3 February, 2010 7:52 AM

A few days ago I was reading some eromanga, thoroughly amused at the nice mix of humor and ero, and wondered to myself why not a lot of eroges tried doing the same thing. It’s the perfect medium, after all, as eroges innately have ero with them; why not put in some humor to add to the mix? A good blend of comedy and ero will not only keep people amused, but hungry for more heroine action! Thus far, the only titles I’ve played that had the sense and level of humor I was looking for were Akatsuki no Goei, Honoo no Haramase, Doppuri Nakadashi, and to an extent, Osananajii ha Daitouryou. All those titles are mostly concerned with humor, ad while I know humor isn’t Akatsuki no Goei’s main focus, it does it so well that I can’t help but include it. Every other title I’ve covered only had sprinklings of humor here and there, which while not a bad thing, is just too little a sprinkling of humor for my taste. It might not be obvious, but I LOVE humor, and the lack of its abundance in eroges is enough to bring me to despair.

But after playing Yunibaru!, I was convinced that I was simply looking for the right games in the wrong places (or in this case, companies). This game is FUCKING HILARIOUS, so fucking hilarious that I was laughing my ass off from start to finish. The title is about Daisekai Geshuku, its owner Konoe Shinichiro, and its intriguing inhabitants, to say the least. There residents of Shinichiro’s lodging house are: Watase Megu, an alien who can use Ether; Ayakaze Kanae, a witch who uses magic; and Fu, a god who brings about various misfortunes (mostly upon herself). As for the lead, Shinichiro traveled the world far and wide during his youth, and has only recently settled in Japan, so he’s got a lot of experience in a lot of things. Which comes in handy because, due to the nature of his residents, certain organizations with to “recruit” (and by that I mean kidnap) them in order to further their agenda, and it falls to Shinichiro’s duty as the owner to protect them.

When it comes to the comedy, Yunibaru! pulls no punches. It’s akin to a roller-coaster ride, rarely hitting lull periods as the hilarity just keeps on coming. From the morning incident at the beginning of the game, to the spy incident, and then to the classroom hilarity and so on. Even when the story starts focusing on each heroine’s conflicts and their subsequent resolutions, the humor is still abundantly present. The “sweet talk” and the hitogata incident with Megu, the interrogation and the love hotel scenes with Kanae, and the church face-off with Fu, these are just some examples of said scenes. And let’s not forget the various references present! INAZUMA KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!

The game’s not entirely about humor as it does have some dramatic tensions and action unfold, mostly when Shinichiro’s mother makes her appearance, but even then the comedy is still present! It doesn’t ruin the dramatic tension so much as it strikes up a nice balance, because what Yunibaru! is good at is not taking itself seriously – something that most titles do and end up causing an inconsistency with the humorous material presented beforehand, thereby creating a dissonance with their audience.

I’d love to talk about the humorous scenes that I’ve been giving praises to, but I’m afraid of spoiling the entertainment so I’d rather leave a recommendation instead and have you guys check it out for yourselves. It really IS worth your while if you’ve been craving for some good, hearty laughs.

If comedy’s not exactly your thing and you just want to gawk at the pictures of naked bishoujos willingly submitting themselves before your almighty masculine virility, though, then note that Apricot doesn’t fail in that regard as well. All the ladies are attractive, are designed VERY WELL, and I’m sure one of them is bound to be your fancy! And if you want to know how they are in eroscenes…well, I recommend looking up Newprimus’ post about SisterxSister and reading up on what he had to say about the ero scenes in that one – the raunchiness is a bit toned down, but the sheer sexiness and eroticism of each scene is still alive and kicking in Yunibaru!

See, aren’t those just DELECTABLE? Sure to tease and please any loins!

The voice’s acting very well done as well. Hitomi voices Megu, Aoyama Yukari voiced Kanae (and her performance is quite remarkable even for me), the seiyuu who voiced Tayutama’s Yumina voices Fu (sorry but I just don’t like that high-pitched tone of voice), Kazane voices Arshes, and Isshiki Hikaru voices Shion (who is just PERFECTLY casted as the attendant in a meido fuku who HATES maids!). All of their performance is perfectly well-done, helping to bring their respectively voiced characters to life. Not only that, but the way they deliver their lines speaks of such vigor that it is actually very enjoyable to hear them act out their roles, especially during certain scenes (and I’m not just talking about the eroscenes here, mind you)!

Now while people might be intrigued to find out just what makes Shinichiro’s residents so special (aside from their obviously special natures), the special one is actually Shinichiro himself – and the game makes this clear early on with the “water tank incident”. What makes him so special? Compared to him, his residents are nothing…but I say, play it to find out!

Now, onto Yumina FD. Again.

I’ve been playing the Omake sections of the game, and while the battles are pretty tough (mostly because of the huge HP that the enemy/enemies have), the scenes both before and after the fights are very much worth it. Three ero scenes are unlocked via the Omake scenes, and via these omake ONLY. But more importantly, the omake events are goddamn HILARIOUS! From the new characters, I’d have to say my favorites would still be Rumine and Lily (don’t worry Luceid, I’m saying favorite, not waifu) for similar reasons – they’re both straightforward, passionate, and because of this they’re pretty much airheads. Rumine has her 2D complex imposing itself on various characters – Beldadia, for one, and also with Nayuta and Yumine with regards to Ayumu; Lily, on the other hand, has her overwhelmingly powerful 超無敵 focused desire for Ayumu. It’s just too bad that Rumine gets featured in three omake scenes while Lily only gets featured in one. Damn you Eternal! You guys created new characters that EVERYONE ends up gushing over! You guys better feature more of them in the future goddammit! If not, 絶対完全絶望 awaits!

Last is Kagura Douchuuki, the first title of Debonosu Works (or as some of you might call em, Studio E.go! redux). Their latest one, Kagura Gakuenki was part of the January releases, and since I wanted to try it out I decided I might as well start with Douchuuki first. It involves two mikos who were sent to a small town to investigate the recent disappearances of people (all of them ladies, of course – see where this is going?); you’ve got the katana-wielding miko Ibuki and her kansai-ben, and the naginata-wielding tsundere miko Nazuna. Ibuki’s pretty much an airhead, and she’s the source of the game’s humor via her interactions with other characters. The gameplay is fun to get into as it is an RPG, though it can be pretty grind-intensive.

If you’re into mikos kicking demon ass, then Kagura Douchuuki delivers that via the gameplay. And if you’re into mikos getting violated by demons and the like, then Kagura Douchuuki has that to offer as well! It’s just like Chouko Sennin Haruka or Kleinhasa – if you want to see your heroines submitted to degeneration and humiliation, then just make them lose the fights they get into. This game’s got more miko molestation CGs and scenes than you can shake a stick at!

Ibuki and Nazuna are just too adorable though, so I couldn’t bear the thought of subjecting to lowly demon fornication with tons of humiliation and degeneration involved. Nuuuuuuuu, not my mikos! ;_; Plus, their boke-tsukkomi manzai is always good for some laughs, thanks to Ibuki being the boke and Nazuna playing the tsukkomi.

That’s it for this post! Man, am I glad I tried out Yunibaru! – the damn thing’s got just exactly the kind of humor I was looking for. Yumina FD and Douchuuki weren’t bad themselves, as they were like the appetizers before the main course!

Next: Seirei Tenshou and some more titles! I’ve actually already played Seirei Tenshou AND finished Rur’s route, but the ending I got was meh despite it being the normal ending…so now I’m just waiting for a guide on Seirei Tenshou before I pick it up again (AND GET THE GOOD ENDING THIS TIME AROUND) just to determine what the necessary conditions for the endings are.

EDIT: FUUUUCK I FORGOT! Ikusa Megami Verita’s page updated, introducing more characters! Oh man, it’s really shaping up to be one epic, awesome game! I JUST CAN’T WAIT FOR IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH-

Comments (7)

By Newprimus, 18 May, 2009 10:59 AM

You all know I already made one post on SisterxSister (title makes me think of Sister Act for some reason), so I won’t need to go into explanations on premise. Suzune’s route starts with the act of practice-dating with Kazuhisa, and Aika’s route begins with the unwilling discovery of her true personality. Obviously this kind of game isn’t one for intricate plot or characters.

So how was the revolution afterall?

I hope you have plenty of fresh underwear. The revolution does not permit soiled underwear before battle.

Needless to say this game’s ero level is MONSTROUS. The girls experience overflowing amounts of hammering, so much so that they must find new forms of communication to convey their experience. Suzune does it by basically losing command of language so much that she reverts to primal vocalizations and erotic gagging noises. Aika just cuts to the chase and goes speechless – literally. Either way, this game is way, way above most others in the art of heroines getting screwed senseless by the protagonist. Even Atelier Kaguya’s girls don’t devolve to such extents as Suzune and Aika do during lovemaking.

Character-wise Suzune and her route isn’t all that interesting. She basically gets addicted to sex with Kazuhisa that she can’t stop thinking about it and getting horny, which clashes with her sense of duty as a teacher. Aika’s is better; her story starts with her secret being blown and a true love relationship blossoms over time.

Now Aika is quite the character. Foul is the gentlest description possible. Imagine a volcanic tsundere with a dere side that only shows up when she’s getting vigorously piston-ed in bed. Kazuhisa has a hard time throughout the story figuring out what he really is to her, but it all comes down to the reason why Aika looked down with contempt on all the confessions various boys have made to her: they’re all just words. Aika is a person who believes in action rather than simple words anyone can mouth off at any convenient time. Kazuhisa can say he loves her, but can he actually show the same?

Kazuhisa finally shows his love through a certain event but Aika doesn’t say anything that indicates she feels anything for him afterwards, and is still as foul-tempered and violent as ever following that event, but you have to remember that she’s a woman of action. Watch what she DOES rather than says as the story progresses, and at the end of the story she too finally shows rather than tells her love for him.

Aika is like a high-risk, high-gain investment. You pay a lot and HARD with her foul temper and VIOLENT jealous tendencies (like being on the verge of castrating Kazuhisa when she suspects he’s going after some other girls), but the rewards are boatloads of awesome sex with a seriously hot girl who seriously enjoys doing it with her lover, and true romantic feelings in return – though coated with harsh language and sometimes confusing courses of action.

So get out there lads! Take big risks, earn big rewards! Join the revolution of love!

Comments (8)

By Newprimus, 17 April, 2009 11:41 AM

April 24th will mark the day the small and weak band together and rise up against the great and powerful. That day will be known as the day they declared that no longer shall the few lord over the many, and that the oppressed shall be oppressed no more and that the splendors of life shall no longer be the sole dominion of the privileged.

It will be the day that Apricot decides to rise up against Atelier Kaguya and show them that they are not the only ones who should possess the holy mantle of rampant eroticism.

Apricot is a company that probably diverged from Crossnet. They are known as the creators of Ayakashi and especially as the makers of the somewhat famous Maple Colors. Their latest major work is the sequel, Maple Colors 2, and now they seem to have created their own version of Atelier Kaguya’s Berkshire Yorkshire or Team Heartbeat division: Apricot Cherry, and they are about to release their instrument of revolution: シスタ×シスタ～Lovevery Sisters～

Story so far in the trial is simple. You pick from one of two branches right off the bat: one for the teacher, Nishizono Suzune, and one for the honor classmate and younger sister of the first, Nishizono Aika.

Suzune’s story goes that you, Kazuhisa, confess your love to Aika and get shot down instantly. The teacher, Suzune, notices your despair and tries to inspire you to not give up. You decide to mend your heart by taking a day off and you receive a phonecall from Suzune-sensei who proposes the most off-the-wall idea: go out on a date with herself as practice.

Aika’s story is that she’s chosen to participate in some English speech contest without her consent. During break or something, Kazuhisa spots Aika going somewhere and follows her up to the rooftop where out of curiosity he decides to spy on what she’s doing all the way up here.

Aika basically reveals in a fit of rage that she’s not the always-polite, well-mannered honor student that she seems to be. She’s arrogant, sees her classmates as a bunch of morons, and is putting on the front of an honor student in order to maintain her own and her family’s reputation.

Obviously Kazuhisa knocks over a bucket trying to escape and gets caught by the not-so-well-mannered honor student.

That’s pretty much the story so far, but that’s not what this is all about. It’s about these (be sure to mouse over for captions):

The above picture alone (and that mole) should show you how dead serious Apricot Cherry is. Revolution is serious business.

In this scene she gives the impression she’s being taken somewhere she doesn’t wanna go cause she knows that once she gets there she’ll never want to come back.

Here’s some of the other girl now, Nishizono Aika:

The second image only lasted about a second but I managed to close the UI and take the screencap before the image automatically went away. You know what they say about reproduction being the most essential drive of all living creatures.

Play an Apricot or an older Crossnet game and it almost feels like animation sometimes. All the better for fapping.

Apricot Cherry is clearly trying to duplicate (or do better) what Aterlier Kaguya is famous for, and so far they’re doing a wonderful job at it. The exquisite art, the fleshiness, the “I’m being hammered so silly I’ve lost my sense of self,” facial expressions; all enhanced by dialogue and occasional sound effects guaranteed to light a boner in your pants.

Apricot Cherry’s revolution is coming. Are you ready to take the plunge into Aika’s delicious woman-hole?