Comments (5)

By Hemisphere, 16 November, 2008 12:16 AM

Mmmm. Those are some nice child-bearing hips. OH SHIT I ME-

I couldn’t take the somewhat slow pace and out-of-character feel that Miyabi’s route was giving off anymore, so I decided to go with Kusumi and her route instead seeing as Kusumi’s my favorite character in Prima Stella. From a rather lackluster start, it quickly progressed into a somewhat entertaining series of events (the somewhat’s to be explained later) that involves Kusumi and her family’s company. And I have to say, I REGRET NOTHING!

Like the rest of the routes, Kusumi’s route starts off with Kousuke enjoying his remaining days in Etoile with the four girls, with emphasis on the girl whose route he’s in – in this case, Kusumi. After they decide to go on a trip with just the two of them, enter the eventual kokuhaku scene followed by some action. Then you get to hear the news about Kusumi’s family and their company, which is the main tension of her route. I also got introduced to a jerk with whom Kousuke gets to to contend with, and later beats the fuck up. I have to say, that scene was pretty satisfying.

Now, I said somewhat entertaining earlier because I seriously meant it. For all it’s worth, while the matter of drama was different from Tomoe’s, their structure, pacing and presentation was not. You get one chapter showing the kokuhaku scene and what happens after, and the next chapter is dedicated to the trouble that looms just in the horizon.  After that comes the eventual faceoff, and then the next chapter is dedicated to the resolution and the ending. Even their pacing is rather similar! Not completely identical, but it’s enough to give you a recurring sense of deja vu. It’s certainly made me pause and wonder where I’ve seen it before…after which I end up putting the game on Auto mode and blitzing through the dialogue that follows.

Not to diss on Atelier Kaguya Berkshire Yorkshire here (FUCK THAT LONG NAME) as it’s understandably their first attempt at making a pure love kind of title that doesn’t involve sex with each of the heroines repeatedly with every option/event, but for some reason it just doesn’t sit well with me. The drama’s a nice addition and all, and it helps to serve as a focal point to keep people looking away from the sex as well as prove a point that this studio’s not all about the fucking, though I can’t help but get the impression that all this story and events are just buildups for the sex scenes in each of the girl’s routes. Sometimes they don’t even need an excuse! Just put Kousuke and the heroine whose route he’s on into an empty place, and watch them go at it. Thrice.

If there’s one thing that Atelier Kaguya’s good at, though, it’s their eroscenes. Having dramatic buildup moments before said eroscenes make them all the more enjoyable! That and the variety of it all…god damn. They really know how to make steamy, raunchy ero scenes. It’s like they have fucking Ph Ds for it!

Comments (4)

By Hemisphere, 8 November, 2008 6:47 PM

Tomoe’s route in Prima Stella, down! There’s still Miyabi’s, Kusumi’s and Shizuka’s routes left.

Tomoe’s route focused on her return to her tennis skills, while facing obstacles along the way which she managed to overcome with Kousuke’s help. You’d think that with him striving hard to recuperate and recover his own skills in swimming, her route would focus on two well-gifted athletes, but it doesn’t. It has Kousuke choosing to forsake his swimming in order to support Tomoe all the way through her recovery and subsequent rise to fame. It was okay, even though his reason for being allowed to stay in Etoile in the first place was for him to recover his swimming ability (and of course there’s Shizuka).

Now I’m going after Miyabi, but for some reason, I’m not all that motivated in pursuing her route as much as I was with Tomoe. In retrospect, Tomoe was a pretty adorable character: aside from being a kouhai, she was just all smiles and bubbly. Her XO face was a pretty hilarious sight to behold! Miyabi, however, feels too much like the generic ojousama. Not that there’s anything bad to it, but it was either that or the starting event for her route – which felt too uncomfortable for me because of how out-of-character Kousuke was -that drained me of momentum. Now I’m thinking of going for Kusu-nee instead!

Overall, it was pretty entertaining to say the least. Seeing Tomoe’s various facial expressions was a riot, and the ero scenes with her totally brought out a different side of her, as Merry mentioned here:

…AKBY knows how to make each of their ero-scenes new and fresh. You can learn more about a heroine’s characteristics during the steady progression of ero-scenes such as Miyabi’s love for mouth-to-mouth kisses while in the act or Kusumi’s stealthy and aggressive attacks under the covers.

And you know that Hemi loves that stuff. CLOSET NYMPHO OJOUSAMA BISHOUJOS, ZOMJ! Honestly, at this point the drama is all rather moot to me – and by moot I mean second in terms of priority, not disregarded altogether. It’s really the various ways with which Prima Stella presents its eroero content between the four heroines that has me all curious and motivated.

Guess this means I’m jumping ahead to Kusumi’s route!

Comments (16)

By Hemisphere, 30 October, 2008 8:39 PM

Thank you, Atelier Kaguya Berkshire Yorkshire, for producing a highly fappable pretty entertaining game. This whole week, I always ended up playing this one the moment I get home from work, and for good reason. Prima Stella’s mix of entertaining drama and ero is something that’s quite fascinating to behold, especially if you consider the gorgeous and moe moe-filled character designs. It really hooks you in, even more so if you’re into this sort of stuff!

Merryweather’s already written a review of Prima Stella on his blog which includes the basic backstory as well as brief character details, so you might want to check it out here. Right now I’m already in the fourth chapter of the story, and oh god. The studio, while reputably known for their moe moe-sexfests, did a pretty good job with Prima Stella in terms of making it turn out as more than just a sexfest. It presents itself as a high school romance story, with most of the events focusing on Kousuke’s interactions with the girls and how they change due to his influence while encountering drama as well as their fears and challenges along the way.

Of course, seeing as we’re talking about Berkshire Yorkshire here, it’s inevitable that it’d feature more sex than your average ADV. You get you first ero scene in Chapter 2, with Shizuka, and then one with Kusumi in Chapter 3. Then Shizuka loses her virginity to Kousuke in the same Chapter, followed by Kusumi who follows suit in Chapter 4. Chapter 5, you get Tomoe getting all hot and bothered while she’s giving him a massage, so she goes and gets herself off by running on his back, and I’m not even on one girl’s route yet. Not that I’m complaining because the eroscenes are all well-done, with them completely fappable geared towards sheer sexy eroticism. And to be honest, the eroscenes are really part of why I’m pushing onwards with this game; they’re just so – compelling.

The cast of characters are pretty likable. My favorite right now would have to be Kusumi because of her completely playful and obsessive deredere tendencies towards Kousuke, as seeing her tease the guy while going ﾊｧ(*´д`)ﾊｧ totally turns me on SO FREAKING MUCH just cracks me up. I can’t help it! I have a thing for girls with long hair, I like blue hair, I like teasing oneechan characters who act like they can’t conrol themselves in the presence of the lead and are barely able to restrain themselves from tearing the guy’s clothes off and lunging after his cock, and I especially like characters who tend to have the habit of throwing childish tantrums whenever something doesn’t go their way (hello Narukana-sama, please stop glaring at me, I’m not refering to you honest!). Hence why Kusumi right now is my favorite.

My second favorite would be both Tomoe and Miyabi. Tomoe’s total spunkiness and cheerful behavior adds to her overall charm, while Miyabi’s ojousama and teasing nature makes her very likable. I also love their character designs! As for Shizuka, I don’t know where she falls under. Sometimes I like her character a lot, but that’s only when the game decides to focus on her events and show her gradual character development. When she’s relogated to the status of a supporting character, I can’t help but forget all about her character quickly. It’s not that she’s a bad character in herself, only that I find her character rather lacking – without events to push her character forward and keep my interest focused, she becomes rather uninteresting.

Right now I’m thinking of going through either of Tomoe’s or Miyabi’s routes, then after those two I’d do Shizuka, saving Kusumi’s route for last. Between Tomoe and miyabi, though, I can’t decide who to go through first! Every time I think I’ve got my choice, the other girl would do something that would make my decision sway for her instead!