Was that upfront enough to warn people away? If not, let me make this clear – this is a review of an adult otome game, with graphic sex in it. If you aren’t interested in those games, don’t read this.There’s also some profanity in this review, so be warned if that bothers you.

Alright, now on to the fun part. I was able to play Tsubasa no Oka no Hime (Princess of Wingfield) recently, and it is BY FAR the best R18 game I’ve ever played. I adore this game, I want there to be a fandisk just so I can support it more.

I’ve played quite a few R18 otome games (yes, they’re still otome even if they have sex in them), and some I enjoyed quite a bit, so what makes this one so different? The characters. I don’t know about you guys, but I am so used to Japanese standards of gender roles and sexism by now that I don’t bat an eye when a male character insults the heroine, especially in adult games where often the insults are while they’re having sex – calling the heroine a whore, ignoring her requests to stop, just generally being a total asshole. Even in the games I mostly liked (like Jingi Naki Otome, about a heroine unwillingly becoming the head of a gangster family), have a lot of problematic stuff in them – the aforementioned insults, questionable consent, and just general dickishness. It doesn’t make me give up on the game, but it can get pretty grating when it’s bad, and even when it’s not as obvious, it’s still annoying.

In contrast to all those games, there is the Princess of Wingfield. (Watch out, small spoilers ahead)

The heroine, Vivian, owns an area of land somewhere in Britain (probably Britain), including a village, rules over it intelligently, and every 19 years, has an epic battle with her nemesis and is reborn. She has done this 99 times, and thus has been around for almost 2000 years. She remembers everything, and because of this is extremely knowledgeable and capable. She also has a healthy libido, which she feels no shame about dealing with with whomever she finds attractive (and vice versa). The servants at the manor as well as the villagers not only accept this but still respect her and are fond of her! In most other games, she’d by typecast as the evil villainess/witch, trying to steal away the hero from the innocent heroine. Or she’d be used by the men and hated by the women until some hero comes along and makes an honest woman of her/accepts her horrible past in return for her being penitent/some other stupid crap.

Depending on your choices, you’ll see different aspects of her personality, but in all routes she not only enjoys sex, but is also assertive and enjoys teasing people. Because of her circumstances, she’s the more experienced one in all the loves scenes, yet at no time – NEVER – does anyone call her a whore, slut, or any other sexist insult. Well, actually there is one character who does, but he’s the Bad Guy so I can accept it as an example of his horrible personality.

So what I love about this game is the characters, and I think the story is quite interesting too. It’s fairly involved, as I found when I was trying to explain to people on the fly while playing it last week, so you won’t get the full story on your first playthrough.

Actually, on the first playthrough, you have to go through the novice butler Christopher’s route. It’s not hard, mostly just choosing who to talk to. The story is standard: innocent falls in love with rake/gets toyed with but eventually wins them over type of thing, but the sexes are reversed and Vivian is the rake, Christopher is the innocent. Amazing how something so simple can be so innovative, because I don’t know of any other otome R18 game that does this.

However, there is very little gameplay to speak of. This is a pure visual novel, so if you are looking for minigames or stat building, this isn’t for you. Most of the choices are simply deciding who to talk to, and then some in-scene dialogue choices that affect the endings.

Other things I like about the game – the art is gorgeous, the music is nice, and the seiyuu are excellent. It’s fully voiced, including the heroine, and I like her voice as well – even during the sex scenes I didn’t find her voice to be too high pitched, and unlike many games, both/all characters are obviously enjoying the action – one of my pet peeves is during sex scenes when the female character has way more lines and is way more…uh…vocal than the guys, who are often totally calm and sometimes even seem bored (even during blowjob scenes, I mean how likely is it that the woman is having a better time than the guys there?!). Not here.

SO anyways, if you haven’t tried this game, or have been disappointed with the over-the-top slut-shaming of other R18 games, you MUST try this. I recommend Tees as my favourite character and storyline, though they’re all pretty good (I haven’t finished Dyse yet).

The first game I installed and played on my PC once I got home from Japan was Gakuen Tokkyuu Hotokenser. This little gem from TWOFIVE is only $20 for the regular version(although I got the limited edition which Kureha is holding in that pic above), and it has full voice, great visuals, and a very fun story. Plus, if you’re a fan of slightly cheesy J-rock made for hero shows, some great music.

The heroine, Ootori Kureha, is transferred to a new high school on the recommendation of her ‘uncle’, a good family friend who’s the president of Hotoke Gakuen. On the way to school her first day, she encounters the members of the student council, who are all very popular – Kondou Ryuuichi (CV: Akabane Kenji), the student president, Sumeragi Rikuto (CV: Takagi Shun), the secretary, and Doujima Mitsuki (CV: Kimura Ryouhei), the vice-president. They all kind of get on her nerves, however, being respectively rude, overbearing, and just plain confusing.

She’s not too happy when her uncle calls her to his office and announces that she is part of the school’s own masked monster fighting force, Hotokenser (she keeps calling it Hotoken-man, which the other characters are amusingly offended by), which is made up of the student council. Unfortunately she doesn’t get any real information other than this, and when she goes to the student council room after school, no one even shows up. Part of the beginning story is just her trying to figure out how to transform, since her uncle tends to forget explanations.

After the intro, you choose which character route you want to try. This makes each route really different, and I’d recommend saving Roku (the green Hotokenser) for last, because I feel like his has the most ‘real’ ending. For characters, I’m a sucker for a good-natured jock type (i.e. Rikuto), but they’re all good, and each has three endings, none of which are really bad.

I saw a review of this in Japanese that said fans of shoujo manga would like this. At first I thought it was a bit of a strange thing to say, because to me otome games and shoujo manga are already very similar. But after playing, I totally get it. The plots are very much like a Betsuma or Hana to Yume comic, with all the guys indifferent to the heroine in the beginning, and with various plot twists and sudden changes of heart.

It is kind of short, and the romance is not that pronounced, but it’s a lot of fun, and refreshing if you’re tired of heavy or angsty games. Even the monsters (which are very like the monsters of the week in Power Ranger-type shows) all have distinct personalities in addition to being voiced by well-known seiyuu, and there’s a lot of humour throughout the game. The only part I thought was overdone on that was poor Gomukeshi-kun (the eraser); I thought Kureha was pretty hard on him sometimes.

And one other problem – it needs a fandisk! Once you play, you’ll know exactly who should be a ‘hidden’ character, except there’s no route for him! So please Twofive creators, if you’re reading this (I can dream right?), make a fandisk! I want more. Even after listening to both drama CDs I got with it…I still want more.

Sangoku Rensenki was originally a PC game, the first ever put out by publisher Daisy². When I first saw some pics for it, I thought it looked cute, but figured it would be one of those quiet releases that mostly get ignored, especially after it was delayed a couple of times.

To my surprise and joy, not only was it released successfully, but it steadily got really good reviews, despite still getting minimal press, and was consistently on the list for most-wanted to be adapted for consoles. It finally was adapted for the PS2, and will soon be released for the PSP as well. I wasn’t able to get a copy until I went to Japan in October, and I’m finally playing it now – I thought I needed to have a good chunk of time to get into it, and I was right.

What’s it about? Well, it’s a time travel story, normal high school girl gets transported to chaotic era with lots of attractive men. Sounds pretty familiar. The specifics are that Hana, the heroine, is working on a history assignment when an old book about the Three Kingdoms (ancient China) sucks her back in time, I think to AD207. She gets picked up by one warlord, Gentoku, but throughout the game is kidnapped by Moutoku, the current most successful warlord, stays with the last major warlord Chuubou, and also goes even further back in time for a bit and sees the origin of the current situation.

The first time through, you can’t “win” anybody, Hana has to go through the story trying to figure out why she’s there and what she wants to do. Unlike many other time-travel/AU stories, Hana isn’t a legendary priestess and her arrival wasn’t foretold; most people don’t even know that she’s from another world, just that she’s foreign. When she first arrives, a voice tells her to go meet Gentoku and tell him that she’s an apprentice of Koumei, a scholar and strategist. That’s how she gets treated as a guest. The book she read comes through with her, and when she tries to read about what’s going to happen, it’s blank. That is, until she figures out what she wants to happen, and then the book will show how that could work.

I think the game is excellent in a few ways that aren’t common – first, Hana not being expected or treated as a “savior” until she proves herself (by using the book to figure out strategies). Even then, she’s just respected as an advisor, she’s not expected to do any magic or anything. Second, I found that her reactions are very relatable – the first time she’s in the field of war and witnesses people dying, partially due to her own strategy, she’s shocked and almost can’t handle it. Afterwards, it takes her a long time to reconcile what she’s doing and come to grips with the deaths that war causes, which is totally realistic for a young teenager who’s never seen violence up close and is totally unused to war. She continues to struggle throughout the game with moral questions like whether it’s right for her to help with strategies that might cause large casualties for the other side. It’s also really nice how the warlords all have their own moral code – for example, Gentoku is very strict, and will never take existing land from a present lord or heir (this agrees with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms apparently). Hana has to try and stop the war while dealing with everyone’s competing principles, which I thought was much more realistic than many other stories where once someone is convinced, they do whatever the hero/heroine suggests.

Also, the romances so far have been really light-handed but good, and in Gentoku’s route, pretty wrenching. It’s not really angsty but the situation was just…argh, hard to describe except that sometimes I really felt like skipping to the end because I couldn’t take it, but it was totally worth it in the end. Miki Shinichirou sounded more agonized than I remember hearing him for a long time, and it was awesome.

Gentoku

There’s also a bonus that I adore during the credits of each route – it shows extra scenes around important storylines where you get to see the guy’s side of it. It’s really great, and I’m glad that it’s shown after everything. There are even CGs just for the credits!

While playing through, I kept trying to find exactly what it was that made this game so good (because it’s good, it’s very good). What makes me want to play through again and again, getting different routes, even though I skip through a bunch of the strategy when they talk about tactics and generals and old Chinese place names? I think in the end, it’s the characterization, of Hana and everyone else. Not only do you have interesting romanceable characters, but lots of minor characters get enough details that they’re sympathetic as people and not just cliches or cardboard placeholders. When I first went back in time the second time and realized it was before the main story (so none of the romanceable characters are around), I was annoyed because I thought it was just a distraction from the main story. But the people you meet there are important in some of the routes, and they’re all memorable, and honestly it was really cool how the writers established how different the atmosphere was in the area just 10-20 years before the main story because of the different political situation.

SO, to make a long story short, I hugely recommend Sangoku Rensenki! Now I’ve gotta go, I have a warlord to romance…

I’ve heard of this but didn’t pay much attention – there are lots of drama CD series around. But Yandere Heaven is coming to the PC this year, so we can all get stalked and potentially killed by the guys who love us just.that.much.

But hey, since I haven’t read up on it, I could be wrong – it could be an exaggeration. So let’s take a look – there’s still only a teaser for the game (which the pic is from), but there are some drama CDs.

So I went to the site, and did some sample listening. The first one features your little stepbrother Kakeru, and your sempai Atsushi.

When you listen to the samples, they seem to be more about getting rid of the other guy rather than blowing up at you.

Because this was the first edition, released two years ago, I thought I should check out a more recent one.

This one is about a girl, her fiancé, and her butler. This one also seems to focus more on the rivalry, although they do sound kinda crazy when insisting that she only care about them.

Although the characters definitely go into creep mode, in a fictional setting it doesn’t seem so bad.

However, the teaser pic for the game…suggests even more serious craziness. I’ll have to see more about the plot before deciding whether to get this or not.

A couple of you asked for more info on Ozmafia, so I had a look through my mags and the websites. It’s a PC game by the new brand Poni Pachet. The heroine, Fuuka, has amnesia, and is picked up by the Oz Family. In this city(world?) there is also the Grimm Family, the Boots Family, the Heidi Family, the Anderson Family, the Oscar Wilde Brothel, and the Wolfgang…er, gang. Recently the cast was announced, and there are lots of seiyuu I’m not familiar with, very exciting!

One thing you probably noticed is that it’s by the same artist as Diabolik Lovers. It’s very cute, with shiny eyes and multicoloured hair. I think I’ll actually wait for this instead of getting Diabolik Lovers, since it seems a lot more romantic overall – less of the Do-S thing that is kinda annoying me lately.

Fuuka (the heroine): Hanamura Mitsuko

Caramia: The leader of the Oz Family, he’s good at taking care of people. Shingaki Tarusuke – Gunparade Orchestra Nagano Eitarou, Kite Eishirou in New Prince of Tennis (awesome, I loved that character), and Kabrakan in Bloody Call.

Kyrie: the Oz Family’s advisor. He acts nice but has a black heart (or stomach) and is calculating. Okitsu Kazuyuki – Shinobu in Shiki, Ruskinia Harvess in Last Exile, Gill in Will o Wisp, Setsuma in Kanuchi, Medishus in Death Connection, Don Fitch in Desert Kingdom (I wish they’d re-release that for the PSP, I can’t remember that character)

Axel: a leading member of the Oz Family, he doesn’t do much other than what he’s ordered to. He uses a pistol but it lacks accuracy. Kakehashi Atsushi – Susumu in WagaHana, Kinoshita Mahiro in Bara no Ki ni Bara no Hana Saku, and Kenneth in Suikoden IV

Dorian Gray: the owner of the Oscar Wilde brothel. He might have a route, but not an ending (not sure how that will work, but that sucks!). Honda Hiroyuki – Wild Arms Crossfire – Rupert Dandridge

Alfani: the most popular male prostitute at the Oscar Wilde brothel, he’s a masochist. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have an ending. Yamaguchi Kazuya – no Wikipedia entry that I can find

Manboy (really?? really): the receptionist and jack of all trades for the Oscar Wilde brothel. He doesn’t have an ending. Awazu Takatsugu – nothing I recognize

Pashet: Fujii Kyouko – no Wikipedia entry that I can find. She has a route.

Robin Hood: the doctor who takes care of anyone without any bias. He has a route. Fujinami Satoru – no Wikipedia entry that I can find

Scarlet (Little Red Riding Hood): a leading member of the Grimm family, he’s cool, calm, and doesn’t like warfare. He uses a sniper rifle. He has a route. Ichiki Mitsuhiro – was also Haruo in Magikano, Naoya in Maid-sama, Rejetta in Desert Kingdom (yay!! I loved that game, it was really fun even though it was short), and OMG, the teacher in Tokimemo GS 3!! Daihakuryoku!!

Caesar: the leader of *ahem* the WolfGang. He has a route. Kirimoto Takuya – mostly has dubbing roles, although there are several minor anime roles like Iver in Naruto.

Sou: Caesar’s right-hand man. He has a route.Iguchi Yuuichi – Max Aroze in Fairy Tail, Yoshizawa Atsushi in Ookiku Furikabutte ~Summer Slam~, and Oosaka Shouri in Sket Dance

Hansel (Hansel & Gretel): Enomoto ??

Gretel (Hansel & Gretel): Nozuki Masami – no Wikipedia entry that I can find

Andy (the little match girl): Uchiyama Yuki – no Wikipedia entry that I can find

Aering: Kurumatani Eri – no Wikipedia entry that I can find

Merisasu (Oyayubi Gentleman): Okamoto Mitsu – no Wikipedia entry that I can find

Heidi (Heidi): Toyojima Muto – no Wikipedia entry that I can find

Wow, a lot of names I can’t find in Wikipedia! It will be nice to hear some unfamiliar voices. Check out their webpage for a bunch of nice pics, and check out the theme song on the Special page, it’s an English band! Article One, with “I Love You More”. It’s still supposed to come out in 2012, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s delayed. I haven’t seen anything about the overall plot, just some cute vignettes.

I’m almost done 24ji no Cinderella (on thw last character, Linus), and I was just checking out online stores to see what I could order, and Ozmafia is scheduled for Dec 21! It always was listed as 2012 but honestly I didn’t think it would be released until next year. Since it’s a PC game, I can only get it through amiami, so I ordered it. And the website has voices up!

Also, CDJapan has a sale on now, a bunch of limited edition games are 30 or 40% off – it makes me want to buy some, like Mahoutsukai PSP and the Miyako fandisk (even though I haven’t even finished one route!)…and FFXIII-2.

Now off to finish 24ji! I’ve been a little distracted by Persona 4 and overtime at work, but I’m definitely doing a post this week on it. And I’m planning on playing Koezaru this weekend for sure!

Hey everyone! I wrote this two weeks ago and forgot about it, so since I have no time right now to write a post (though I really need to do a news post!!) I’ll put this up. This game is R18 so beware.

I’m playing through Koezaru wa Kurenai Hana (not Akai Hana as I said before! Akai = Red, Kurenai = Red/Crimson), and I’ve finished a couple routes. So far, I really like the heroine and setup of the story – it makes for a believable conflict, and the heroine is really good (especially for an R18 game), strong and intelligent.
It’s a fantasy set in a world with only primitive science and lots of superstition. Two neighbouring countries, Nasura and Rusu, are in a state of intermittent war due to a plague in Nasura that kills almost all women. It’s believed to a curse from the spirits, and in order for the kingdom to continue, Nasura men periodically raid Rusu and kidnap all the women of childbearing age they can.

The heroine, Naara, is an orphan – her father died when she was little and her mother was kidnapped when she was very young (6 maybe?). Her mother hid her before she was kidnapped, and she was found later and adopted by Rusu’s king, and the story begins with her and the prince Ohri, being engaged. Though Naara only feels family affection towards Noori, she’s ok with thinking that they’ll be married sometime in the future. Since her mother was kidnapped, Naara became determined to get stronger so she could save the ones she loved, and she’s second only to Ohri in swordfighting.
One night, however, the capital is raided by Rusu. Naara leaves the castle to protect her best friends over Noori’s strong objections. When she finds them, they’re being captured by Nasura soldiers, and Naara fights several of them off and tells her friends to escape. However, shortly after they agree (so she can fight all-out) and leave, a red-haired Nasura man comes and actually beats Naara in a duel. The last thing she remembers is being knocked out by him.

When she wakes up she’s trapped in Nasura’s castle along with the other captured women. She acts intelligently, making sure the Nasura soldiers don’t figure out she’s the princess of Rusu. When the Nasura commander, Suren, comes in and starts assaulting her friend, she sticks up for her. He seems like he’s willing to rape her right there when the same red-haired man who took Naara comes in and stops him. Turns out he’s the king, Tooya, and though he led the raid on Rusu, he’s not going to let the men of Nasura do whatever they want with the kidnapped women. He says the women will stay within a small guarded area around the castle, and men can only come in and try to woo them during the day. The women can choose whether to accept a man as husband; any man found forcing a woman against her will is sentenced to death.

Naara is grouped with her two best friends (who were captured after all), and one, Shana, is deadset against Nasura men while the other is more open-minded. Over the next few weeks, the kidnapped women slowly meet men and get to know them, and when one finally announces she’s going to marry someone, Shana is really angry, feeling like she’s betraying Rusu. Naara is sad but not angry, she’s very pragmatic about letting people choose what’s best for them. However, she’s determined never to marry a Nasura man, deciding to try and find a way to get the women who don’t find partners back to their homeland.

It’s around here where your choices determine what happens next; as you might guess Naara ends up marrying someone in most of them – the king Tooya, the captain who tried to assault her in the beginning Suren, the king’s sneaky advisor Nooru. There are also sub-routes for characters you meet during the early days of each route, I haven’t done any of these yet. And of course each main character has two or three routes.

The art is fairly good barring some odd perspective/proportion CGs (I’ve seen much worse), although there’s a strange quirk where most of the guys look like their forearms are put on backwards (looks like their elbows are on the front). I’ve stopped noticing it now, though at first it was odd (reminds me of when I first played Starry Sky and could NOT stop focusing on their weirdly shaped necks).

After playing through all of Tooya’s routes, and Suren’s best route, I still really like it…I actually really like Suren even though he makes the worst first impression (it probably has something to do with his seiyuu who I LOVE – and he’s in hardly anything). His character is written well enough so that I believe that he was horrible at first out of desperation, not from entitlement. I was a little disappointed at the end though, just because the ending seems rushed. I’m looking forward to his sub-route character, Naran. Tooya’s good route was pretty much all good, there was NO RAPE in it. Amazing! I’m not sure how Nooru will be, he seems to be the creepy yandere type (oh wait, that’s Tooya – but only his bad route). It might be a while before I want to try him.

There are little things I’d change in every route (in Tooya the heroine was a little too needy or something, in Suren a little too snarky) but I’m really glad I bought it, and I hope Operetta Due makes more otome games, I’d definitely buy them.

Yeah, I suck for not realizing how late it was, I got 5 minutes into Hana Awase and now I have to go to bed!

First things I notice:

• Cool music for the title screen, and lightning fast system (of course my PC’s pretty good, I don’t know how it runs on an older computer)
• The window is quite big, and in widescreen
• It feels like a true light novel at first – background with text. But adding in voices (just the main characters)
• There’s an experience bar and a battle menu

Hana Awase dialogue screen

I finally got through the introduction, which admittedly wasn’t that long compared to games like Hakuouki. But that creepy teacher really annoyed me. Apparently Mizuchi can only have one minamo (what? I thought they all had lots??) so Mikoto has to have a hanafuda battle with his current one, who is a total asshole (of course) and totally fixated on him (of course).
At first Mikoto doesn’t want to, but the teacher goads her into trying.

I’m trying out the teacher because he suggested I train. Of course, I save before choosing.

He gives some more detailed info on stats and tournaments. I reload and go to Momose to see what she has to say instead. She mentions that the fifth Light, Utsutsu, disappeared right after he became a light, which is interesting, though I knew that from the magazines. I’m looking forward to his route the most, actually, he seems the least likely to annoy me.
Then I ask about minamo, and here’s where my blood pressure goes up. Minamo have to be virgins; as soon as you lose your virginity you lose your power as a minamo. However, apparently as long as ‘it’s’ still in place it’s ok. Huh??? I guess women who didn’t have one to begin with, or who broke theirs through non-sex methods don’t exist? Or somehow your power knows when you’ve had sex? But apparently it just cares about the hymen (Momose says ‘some girls’ do other stuff but are still minamo), so…anal sex then? Whatever. I give that particular aspect a pass and try to forget about it. Only to be reminded that though sex is bad for minamo, the closer in romantic terms you are with your Light the more powerful you become as a support. So, like, you need to get close, but not too close? (Cause then you’re a no-good ho-bag, amirite??)
ANYWAYS. Let’s move on. She confirms that each Light only has one minamo, except for Kurenai because he hasn’t decided on one yet. She also says that after graduating, the best students in the game go on to work for the emperor, and most end up in government jobs. This makes me wonder, do they still have their minamo there? Are their minamo doomed to be virgins forever if they need their power? Hopefully I’ll know some of the answers by the end of this post.

I finish talking to her and encounter Aoi(meangirl) in the hallway. The teacher comes after and reminds me that if I win, she’ll have to leave the school. Which annoys me again because, if Aoi is a powerful minamo, why wouldn’t another guy want her? Or is she ‘used goods’ and thus not deserving of a spot at this school anymore?

I’m not using a guide, so I kind of jumped randomly around after this. I visited Mizuchi in the 2nd-year hallway but he told me to basically GTFO because 1st and 2nd years aren’t allowed to hang out together at school (odd rule but ok), and he is all about following the rules.

Then I go to the greenhouse where Mizuchi is watering plants (with his power I think) and I fall down and he very reluctantly carries me to the doctor, worrying all the while that he’s ‘dirtying’ me by touching me. Yup.

After I recover from his screaming fangirls, I decide it’s time to level up, so I head over to the teacher’s room and proceed to kick my way through several opponents. This is the fun part – the game is based on an actual game that I’ve only played a korean version of (maybe after this I’ll get better at it?) where there’s a special deck with various pictures on them, that make up various sets. Depending on which sets you end up with in your hand and play, the point value is different. In this game, it affects the attack value. Of course, the special oni card that chose you makes your attacks stronger than others at the same level, so it’s not too hard. The interface looks confusing at first but it’s quite helpful, showing you what potential hands you have and making the decision-making fairly easy. There are lots of practice battles you can do, and once in a while someone challenges you, and if you win you add a card to your deck.

I spent a couple hours doing that (what can I say, I’m an RPG-er at heart), and then continued on. There was an event with Aoi where she’s a jerk to you in front of Mizuchi and he scolds her, which was a bit satisfying. Until he leaves and she says it’s your fault and slaps you as hard as possible, which has a painful-looking CG. Of course the heroine doesn’t do anything, just looks like she’s going to cry, all the other girls blame you, and I turn off the game for the night.

…Actually no, I did manage to get through that scene, which had some redemption at the end. Aoi is obviously the ‘psycho girlfriend’ stereotype that we all know and love, I can’t wait to see how she attacks the heroine.

…(10 minutes later): I was right, she does attack the heroine but she’s possessed by a monster while doing so (encouraged by her weak spirit of course).

So for the first chunk of playtime, I’m not sold on this at all yet, although the card game is a lot of fun. Mizuchi is fine, I hope the heroine gets to know him much better in the next chunk of playtime I do.

Usually Sweet Princess doesn’t have much new stuff, but this month it did!

Sanzen Sekai Yuugi Multiverse Myself, the 18+ PC sci-fi game from girls dynamics, is coming August 30! That seems fast, especially since the scenes they show are just line art…

The other news in Sweet Princess is that there’s a new 18+ label, As’Ring, and they’re making a game called Onedari Sharemate. It’s tentatively scheduled for next spring. The heroine, Ayumi, is a 25-year-old teacher who wants to be like the inspiring teachers in dramas (I hope she wants to be like Kumiko!) and has almost no experience with boys because in school she was plain. She had an older sister who died in an accident, and Ayumi’s first love was this sister’s fiancé, Kai Shintarou. She moves out from her parents’ house into a boarding house owned by Shintarou and is dismayed to find it’s all guys.

The characters are:

• Serizawa Haruto, one of Ayumi’s students (I really hope he’s 18, couldn’t he be a uni student helping out or something?);
• Minemura Yuzuki, a #1 host
• Minemura Itsuki, also a teacher at Ayumi’s school (and probably Yuzuki’s brother?)
• Fritz Wittgenstein, a half-Australian and half-Japanese violinist
• Isozaki Ryousuke, a childhood friend and ex-boyfriend who’s a professional basketball player (they have those in Japan, I just googled the NBL!)
• And of course, Kai Shintarou, a photographer and Ayumi’s dead sister’s fiancé

The creators say they want to make various types of relationships possible, from just enjoying living in the same house as your boyfriend, to stirring up trouble in a love triangle, to a harem, etc.

[EDIT: Ah, my first time playing Alice. I only got through one route (Blood), and it took so long I never did anthoer. But this game was definitely innovative for its time in terms of character designs and having a distinctive heroine, and it tried different things with the turn progression. The beginning of Quinrose's Alice dynasty!]

Originally from 2008/06/08

PC & PS2 game by Quinrose

So I still haven’t finished my first Alice character route, but I have enough to talk about just describing the game, so I’m going to start there.

You know, Quinrose might just be my favourite otome game developer. Their heroines are always smart and non-doormatlike, their heroes are definitely not stereotypical, and the premise is always interesting.

In Heart no Kuni no Alice, you are a young lady who acts politely in front of her beloved sister, but who is actually pretty cynical. Her father ignores her and her tutor whom she was in love with fell for her “perfect” sister. As a result, Alice doesn’t trust people much. One day she and her sister are out on their lawn, and Alice falls asleep while waiting for her sister to go get a board game.

She’s woken up by a sound and sees a white rabbit run by wearing clothes. In the original Alice in Wonderland, she follows the rabbit down a hole…here it’s not quite like that. Alice determinedly ignores the rabbit while he tries to get her attention, but he eventually picks her up and drags her down the hole with him.

They fall for what seems like forever. Alice is understandably pissed off at this weird rabbit guy who kidnapped her, and he seems to know all about her, even how she recently broke her heart. He makes her drink this potion (by kissing her) which sends her to sleep.

When she wakes up, she doesn’t know where she is, though she sees that she’s in a tall tower. A man comes along and realizes that she’s from another world, but has no sympathy for her – he just shoos her out to find her own way.

From that point, you decide where to go – you can go to the Heart Castle, the Amusement Park, or the Hat Estate. Depending which you choose, you’ll end up staying there.

The rest of the game is mostly deciding where to go during each turn. Depending on the time of day (day, evening, or night) you may or may not be able to meet the person you want to. In this land, the time doesn’t go normally from day to evening and night, it changes randomly, so you never know what time of day will come next. You can get hourglasses that change the time of day to whatever you want.

When you visit a character, it raises their affection for you, and eventually you get progression scenes. For each character there’s about 20, as well as other events that occur You also sometimes have to raise other character’s affection to progress in a route.

While this sounds like a pretty basic visual novel, and it is, really, there’s a lot more material and CGs than in most others I’ve played. Plus, the number of characters available is pretty high – ten, well technically eleven, but two are twins and are pretty much one person. The world itself is fascinating – the three ‘areas’ (Amusement Park, Heart Castle, and Hat Estate) are all trying to win control of the whole land, and it’s anarchy – Alice almost gets killed when she first meets most of the characters.

All the characters are really interesting and have their own appeal:

The Mad Hatter (Blood Dupre)CV- Konishi Katsuyuki: A mafia boss who’s crazy about tea and acts very laidback.

The March Hare (Elliot March) CV- Mogami Tsuguo: The loyal right-hand man to Blood, he’s sweet but will kill people without hesitation, and denies emphatically that he’s a rabbit (he has rabbit ears). He also insists that he doesn’t like carrots, though all he eats is carrot-flavoured food.

The Bloody Twins (Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum) CV- Fukuyama Jun: Two boys who guard the Hat Estate’s gates, they almost kill Alice when she first arrives. All they care about is money and fun (i.e. killing people)

[b]The Queen of Hearts (Vivaldi) CV

I finally finished playing Ozmafia a while ago. It took a long time, because to get the ‘Grand End’ you have to finish most endings, including bad endings and versus endings. For the main three heroes, they each have versus routes with each other, and it’s tough to remember which ones you’ve done.

There is no backstory for the heroine. She wakes up in an alley, with no recollection of who she is or how she got there. Soon after, she’s attacked by a handsome white-haired man, and finally escapes into a different part of the city. She’s found by three men, Caramia, Axel, and Kyrie. They all belong to one of the city’s ‘families’, in their case the Oz Family, which controls different parts of the city. They invite her back to their mansion as a guest and she’s named Fuuka.

Throughout the following days, Fuuka meets more of the city’s inhabitants from the different families – Scarlet (Red Riding Hood), Hansel and Gretel from the Grim family, Heidi from the Heidi family, Pachet from the Longboots family, and Ande, Ering, and Melisus from the Andersen family. She also meets several characters that are somewhat neutral – Sou, who lives and works for Caesar, the man who attacked Fuuka in the beginning, Dorian Gray and and Manboy, who own and work at Oscar Wilde, and Robin Hood, the town doctor who can apparently heal anyone as long as they’re still alive.

For most of the story she stays with the Oz family and is pretty free to go around talking to whomever she chooses. There are some events that will always happen, such as her getting kidnapped by Caesar and then escaping, some gang scuffles, and then a sudden outbreak of violence due to a criminal, Hamelin, returning from his banishment.

At first I had a hard time getting into Ozmafia. Past the introduction, it feels very open-ended, and the first playthrough can feel like it takes a long time with many minor scenes and nothing really dramatic. However, once you get to the summer festival, things pick up a lot. This is when you choose someone’s route if you’ve made the right choices, but you still have several possible endings. You can also have versus routes, and can even CHANGE your relationship – break up with one guy (all the versus routes are with the Oz family IIRC) and start dating another. This is REALLY rare in otome games, other than Storm Lover I can’t think of one right now.

The endings vary wildly in how happy they are, and some are more bittersweet. Once you get all the different endings including the versus endings (there’s no in-game tracker which would have been really helpful), you can proceed to the Grand Ending, which explains a lot of very odd aspects of characters and what happens in the other routes. When you’re playing the routes they can seem not that important, but by the end you REALLY want to know what the deal is. The Grand Ending ties everything up, though that doesn’t mean it’s the best ending. I actually like some of the other endings more from a romance perspective (the Grand Ending really isn’t a romance).

The characters are really interesting and not as easily described as many otome games. One thing I found interesting was that no one was really 100% good and honorable, not even Fuuka. Sometimes I was surprised at how callous she could be, which contrasts with her character design a lot and makes her much deeper than a lot of otome game heroines. And some of the endings…wow! Just…finish all the Oscar Wilde endings, you’ll see what I mean. I can’t really pick a favourite character, though I always tend to want to go on Axel’s route just because he’s my ‘type’.

The game’s not perfect – sometimes I felt that the pacing was off and I’d love more meaty character scenes, and the constant eye captures which you can’t skip easily get really annoying. I had to follow a guide really closely to get to the Grand Ending. But overall I really enjoyed this game as a whole, and I’m ecstatic that it’s getting an English release. I even have a bunch of Ozmafia merchandise (including a tapestry, yup) because I really want it to do well so Poni Pachet will make more with these characters.

Ayakashi Gohan is the new game coming out for the PC by honeybee.

There’s a little restaurant somewhere deep in the Japanese mountains which serves tasty meals to ayakashi (spirits) as well as humans, called “Ponpokorin” near a village called Momojimura. It was opened by a kitsune in human form whose motto is “Eating delicious food together makes everyone happy.” One day, the heroine is brought to live there by the kitsune because she’s just lost her parents. She meets with the owner’s almost 7-year-old son, a pair of twins, and starts helping at the restaurant. The story is about her getting to know them and the customers of Ponpokorin, as well as some classmates from school. Her school, by the way, is a typical country school except that some ayakashi attend (in human form), slow-paced and not standing out in club or sports activities. For a while it was going to be closed, but a high-profile designer was contracted to redesign the uniforms, so they’re pretty stylish, and apparently it worked and more students are slowly joining. (Does this work, by the way? Do Japanese students really decide to go to a totally rural highschool with no distinctive features because they like the uniform??)

Anyways, the big theme of this game is about making food together and eating together as a way to develop relationships.  Let’s take a look at the characters:

Heroine:

You start the game when the heroine is 7 years old, and depending on your choices during this ‘shoujo’ period, the heroine develops one of two personalities, changing the possible routes (I love this idea). If you end up on the ‘human’ route, the heroine is shy and reserved, and the story is about her learning to enjoy eating with people she loves. If you end up on the ‘ayakashi’ route, the heroine is outgoing, and the story is about her teaching someone to enjoy eating with those they love. I think it’s a really interesting way to change the story up.

The human-side routes:

Inushima Uta (CV: Shimono Hir0): The older twin. He talks roughly but always means well, and he’s popular with the ayakashi like an older brother figure.

Ibuki Haginosuke (CV: Mizushima Takahiro): The human son of a priest who’s fascinated by ayakashi but doesn’t understand them very well. Like the heroine (in this side), he’s not very good at eating with other people.

Hana Suou (CV: Sugiyama Noriaki): A cat spirit transformed human who attends the heroine’s school. He dislikes humans, but actually wants friends. He’s always cold so he sleeps in the sun a lot, and has a sensitive tongue (cats and all that) so he can’t eat too hot food.

The ayakashi-side routes:

Inushima Yomi (CV: Kaji Yuuki): A cold poet who hates humans, he’s very lazy and unemotional. He does enjoy learning things, so he reads a lot of books. His older brother Uta usually performs his poems.

Serigano Manatsu (CV: Okitsu Kazuyuki): A local shopkeeper’s son who often delivers ingredients to Ponpokorin. He’s 25, and the local elders always push him towards omiai. He enjoys having tea after making deliveries to P0npokorin, and ends up listening to an ayakashi’s problems and giving them advice.

Kimura Asagi (CV: Ishida Akira): A mysterious student who loves playing pranks on people. It’s unclear whether he’s human or ayakashi. Because he’s never been far, he dreams of travelling.

Other characters are the owner, Gin, his young son, Tsuzuru, who’s very shy and always hides behind his father, and Kamisama, the village spirit.

Once you get past the ‘shoujo’ chapter and have gone onto either the ‘human’ or ‘ayakashi’ side, you go through a shared route for that side, and your choices in that chapter either decide on a specific character’s route, or a bad end. Within character routes, they all have a best end, a good end, and a tragic love end.

The atmosphere seems quiet but soulful. I like the routes splitting along personality lines, and the setting is unusual – the only other games series I remember being set in a contemporary isolated village (not just the school either) is Hiiro no Kakera. Unfortunately I can’t find anywhere to order this (Amiami doesn’t seem to have it) so I’ll have to wait until I go to Japan to get this.

I noticed today that Ozmafia has a page on Steam, and the release date is April 29! Very exciting.