So, I promised a post about my first impressions of Eien no Aselia – Kono Daichi no Hate de. And here we have it. This is by far the best game so far that I´ve played this year. Hopefully something can top it since it isn´t a game that has been released this year.

Story
Yuuto is somewhat of a jinx, his parents died and he was adopted by his new sister Kaori´s parents. Soon after they also died and Kaori being in coma. As the young child he is he can´t do anything but pray. He wishes for a miracle, that Kaori should be saved and he would give anything for it to happen.

A voice appears in his head, with short and hard to understand words it promises to save Kaori if Yuuto abides to make a contract. To save Kaori and give her a happy life Yuuto agrees to this.

Kaori is saved and they start living together as brother and sister.

They grow older and start going to high school. Yuuto has headaches on random intervalls and he can´t understand it.

These headaches get their explanation the day he himself and Kaori are transported to an alternate world. A world where spirits exists and Yuuto is called an Etranger. Looking for Kaori Yuuto finds himself before the king of a land, Rakios and Kaori is kept prisoner.

To guarentee Kaori´s safety Yuuto has to fight against the other countries spirits as an Etranger.

Characters
There is a great mix of characters and personalities here. Yuuto himself is being torn a part by his mind, is killing spirits alright to save Kaori? What is his other alternatives? He can´t find any. But he still wants to help the spirits that are under his command. They do not have to die if they ask him and he treats them as humans where everyone else is treating them as tools of murder and slaughter.

Espelia, a green spirit in maid clothes is the dorm master one could say and while she is excellent in everything she does she seems to have a dark past.

Aselia is a blue spirit with no sense of living except for battle. It is when she in battle that she is shining the most. Even if she doesn´t speak much and it takes time to get to know her she is full of thoughts and is good at crafting.

Orpha is a red spirit and acts much like a child. She calls Yuuto “papa” and is hyper active. She is a mixed personality, she enjoys killing her enemies as everyone around her will praise her if she does. But she still has a soft side to her.

Lesteena is the princess of Rakios and she does not share her fathers view of controlling the surrounding countries by force. She believes in a world where there is no war and will gladly act the part of the villain to aquire this.

One thing that is pretty cool is that in this game some minor characters, one could call them generic spirits are also given some time in the spotlight if you keep them alive. You get to know them better.

Battles
The battle system is great for a SRPG. So far I am able to have four squads based on: Attacker, Defender and Support.

The attacker is the position where you will attack the enemy. As long as you have a Defender you will not be hurt as a Attacker unless the opponent uses certain magic skills. Any type of spirit have certain attack skills but from what I can understand blue spirits along with red spirits are a good choice for this position.

The Defender is the guard of the squad and is the one that mainly takes the assault of the enemys attacker. Thanks to their high def and hp green spirits are a good choice for this position.

The Support unit is a bit of jack of all trades. They can make stats increase, attack with magic, seal the opponents magic, heal and on and on. All depending on what kind of squad you want to build you may use blue or red spirits here for either cancelling the opponents magic or attacking with fire based magic. Green spirits usually boost defense or heal the squad when placed in this position.

There is also a fourth type of character. These are called all-round but since I haven´t gotten the time to play with any of this type all I can say is that they get to use all their skills in one turn. Which is great.

Battles take place on a world map.

You have a set route where you can attack or move each round. Or train your soldiers. When it comes to attacking or defending a town/castle the siad town/castle can provide special boosts in defense to the defending group. You also regain your skill uses and a fixed amount of HP after each turn is over.

So if you have a town/castle under your controll you have a big advantage.

It´s fun to play and fight. Sure it can get a bit repetetive since they only have so much to say before they use their attacks and skills. But still, this system is great and brings out strategy. A weaker group can defeat a stronger unit if played correctly.

Thoughts
This is the non erotic version of the game. So all erotic scenes and some bloody scenes are removed. But I don´t mind. I like this game and I sure as hell recommend anyone who has an interest in a great storyline and a great system for battles to get your hands on this title. With or without the erotic material.

I just wish that they would work on Seinarukana. The sequel I think it is.

If I should have to complain about one thing it is that the girls are designed to look a bit young for my tastes. Aselia is super cute but she doesn´t appear to have any chest. So while it is refreshing to see that they don´t focus on having a mix of breast sizes it would be better if they had somewhat more different ones in this title. Not that I focus on that when I play.

But just a quick reflection. Otherwise this is a great game.

It´s quite simple. I try to post on Tuesdays as those are my own day for posting here. But yesterday just went and ended without me having the energy or idea to make a post.

The reason? Well for starters as usual I hadn´t been sleeping as I should. I played trough Lunar to the PSP so I might write a review about it soon.

But the biggest reason for me not writing a post yesterday has to be that I found, or should I say that I almost found the God´s own nectar.

I´ve been wanting to play Eternity Sword 2 for a long time. Mainly because of Narukana-sama, but alas, no English Patch and I suck at using the different translations methods available. That or my virus program tells me the big file is a virus/trojan and has been deleated.

So when I read that the first Eternity Sword game had gotten a patch I was very much so interested in this title.

Having grabbed the patch I installed it. And started to play.

My first impressions will be up sometime this week, not just today. This game is the sole reason for me not posting yesterday and making this apology post today.

It is that good.

So now you know why I´ve been gone and silent for the last couple of days. I´ll probably be gone a few days more before I write the first impressions post. Really want to get to know the game system better.

THIS GAME IS GOOD.

It’s been a while since I’ve consistently played a visual novel. These are my first impressions.

Story

Ikusa Megami Verita (or “Battle Goddess Verita”) is the fourth game in the Ikusa Megam series and is a prequel, but is also a sequel to the Genrin no Kishougun series.

As such the game follows two characters.

First is Celica, the God-Killer (Kamigoroshi) who was originally a human male, but came to possess the body of a goddess (long story). As such, he looks quite feminine. He is possession of sword containing the mind of his comrade, Haishera (an earth demon). He is accompanied by Ekuria, whome he has taken as his cohort. Ekuria is the former Princess General of Karsha, deposed by the actions of the other protagonist….

Louie. The half-human king of Menfil (his mother was human, his father was a godly being I think, I’m alittle confused on this bit). Having exiled Ekuria after beating Karsha in the Lesperent Kingdom (god these names are great) in Genrin no Kishougun 2, he is depressed. His wife Irina is now dead, killed by Ekuria (who was under influence of a curse at the time)

Both come into conflict with the emergence of a new threat known as Bureado and a new sect of demons.

Gameplay

Whilst simple, the gameplay does somehow manage to make me not dread random battles as I usually might.

The combat is an interesting mix rectangular based areas of Disgaea and the relative turn based gameplay of any RPG. Instead of just casting the same spell over again, you are able to to power-up your spells to one of 5 levels at the cost of MP (for magic) or TP (for power attacks).

In helping out beginners, the game offers a nice gradual difficulty curve. There are lots of refill points, and you can easily return to any visited area if you want to grind more levels. The AUTO system is still present and allows you to let the computer take the best course of action for you, or if you are too lazy to sit through level grinding.

Both Celica and Louie play using the same system. Cept I found that Celica’s side is more magic based, whilst Louie’s is more power attack based.

As some new added features. Sidequests are now accessed through a separate station, which is good as in the previous game (Ikusa Megami ZERO) it was more a matter of stumbling upon them.

Art

The game is in widescreen format, which is always a plus. The art is beautiful as always, maintaining a sense of moe and seriousness.The backgrounds of the game are surprisingly detailed. This really does look like a 21st century eroge.

Sound and Music

As with all Eushully games, only the female characters are voiced, but thats fine , cause they are all so damn beautiful.

The music of the game is astounding. I was not expecting too much, though the last game in the series had some relatively awesome tracks. The battle music, for general battles and boss fights, has much been improved.

Note: it may take a while. But let me upload some tracks over the next few days

Overall

It’s a relief that this game has turned out quite awesome. My understanding of the story is limited, but regardless I am able to play through it with ease. Completing this one is going to leave me empty.

Sorry for making this review short. Gotta keep playing.

Leave it to a good localization team to make this guy’s name sound awesome in America as it does in Japan (in Japan it’s Mitsurugi Reiji)

This is the first of the Ace Attorney series that I have actually played. I had just been watching play-throughs of the other games, seeing that they aren’t too bad.

For uninitiated. Miles Edgeworth is the childhood friend and rival of the original protagonist, Pheonix Wright. Miles is probably one of the best characters in the franchise, being smooth talking and very sharp (…excusing the pun in his name EDGE/POINT GET IT).

So ultimately Capcom figured they should give him his own game, and so they did.

Story:

Having completed 4/5ths (four of five cases) of the game, the story is not too bad. Whilst not relying on character development the story makes do with simple characterization and allows the player to focus more on the mystery aspect.

You don’t feel a sense of attachment to the characters, but most of them have a aura of coolness that keeps them in your mind at least.

Like the previous games, there is an over-arcing story that ties all five cases together. This follows Miles’s involvement in the investigation of a smuggling ring, and a mysterious vigilante that is trying to expose it (I should write movie summaries).

Mechanics:

Unlike the previous games, Investigations actually features some section where you physically move around other than click “go here”. I think this is a bit of an improvement over the other games because seeing controllable sprites on the Nintendo DS makes the game a bit more appropriate for the platform.

Like the previous games you have to display evidence and such. Knowing what evidence to submit is sometimes not as obvious as I would hope, (ie. the game makes you have to think). Though this is actually a good thing in retrospect.

Music:

Having listened well to most of the series’s discography. I say that this soundtrack is probably one of the best.

The games before it (other than the fourth game Apollo Justice, which many people have trouble accepting, which I’ll sympathize with) all had a particularly noticeable MIDI background music. The music in Investigations sounds a lot more “real” and more orchestrated.

The 2009 version of Announce the Truth is quite beautiful. Whilst the newest “Objection theme” doesn’t disappoint. Though some of the MIDI-ness is still there, and it also does not disappoint.

Overall:

As part of the Ace Attorney series, I say this game makes a great addition. Of course this is the first one I played, but the experience has been quite enjoyable, so I’ll just pray that no-one yells at me for being wrong.

I would complain that there is apparently no way to change the text-speed, which is kind of weird considering the game is like 98% text and I am a fast reader. However it is not as bad as the massive annoying nature of Hotel Dusk which features much slower text which really breaks the follow of the gameplay.

For any person who wants a simple visual novel, I would recommend this. The plot is not horribly complicated, but this game is a really nice way to pass the time.

First off. This translation came out of nowhere, by the same team that translated Saya no Uta. It is a Nitroplus game, their third game infact, and is written by Gen Urobuchi.

Story Summary

Kikokugai (literally “Wailing Demon Town” or “City of Wailing Demons”) takes place in a dystopic future China where technology has become more advanced yet it does nothing to help the enviroment (wow, did I just make a political joke?). Along with the addition of cybernetics, criminal syndicates wasted no time in applying them to enforce their power.

The story features Kong Taoluo, a non-augmented fighter (a rarity in this era), who is following the path of revenge against his sister’s murderers. Additionally he is attmepting to see if there is a possible method of resurrecting his sister though her body no longer exists.

Style of Writing

I had been told that this was one of Nitroplus’s most finest games, and I can see why. Do not see this game as some Ghost in the Shell inspired visual novel. It focuses on the concepts of honor and brotherhood, as well as the addressing the whole “black-and-grey-morality” that seems to seemingly find itself in any Nitroplus game.

Story and Characters

The game has some good characters. You don’t find out too much about them, essentially just enough
to get you interested. You could say that the game’s characters are ridiculously simple, but I find that to be now real bad thing.

I did like how the game did not go over the top in showing off it’s antagonists. If a character is evil, the demonstrate it only once. They don’t show fifteen different scenarios of them killing off innocent people, they just show them as calculating and almost realistic. That said, the antagonists have depth to them (for the ones that last longer than one chapter)

I feel a really good aspect of the story is that it creates the it’s own future world and yet does not rely on it for a good story. It takes place in a future-China, nothing more nothing less. There is no “OMG NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST EXTRAODINAIRE. NUKES R BAD IMPLICATIONS, PHILOSPHY YOU DONT CARE ABOUT”,

For the story to have been bad. There would have had to be more emphasis on the world and less emphasis on the story.

Music

For an older game, the music is rather good. Some of the music feels inspired by Chinese themes (Riverside History, Acid Rain), whilst the battle themes are techno-based (Sword Dancer I) which reinforces the future motif.

For emotional moments, the game’s music becomes more contemporary and modern. One of my favorite tracks “Vow of Sword“, does a great job of detailing the emotions of Taoluo.

Overall

Kikkugai was a fun visual novel. I ended up finishing it in two-hours, and I felt that it was well spent. Compared to Saya no Uta, I’d say that it could have used some voice-acting (though a drama CD was released, with Yukari Tamura as Ruili <3 )

But if you want to know what Nitroplus is all about, go play this game.

What do you like more….The concept? Or something that exists because of the concept?

One barrier people have to get past is art. That is, they dislike the art of a certain media and will not look into the media because of that reason.

This is the case for me in relations to western comics, and western animation. I have gotten much more used to Japanese anime style art. I hardly watch Western cartoons because I do not find the art appealing, though I am trying to break through this barrier of considering the animation style: “stupid art”.

Of course sometimes the barrier is more specific. For instance, many people will not look at the work of Nobuyuki Fukumoto because it is very different from the usual shounen, bishoujo, style.

Ultimately, there are two problem with labeling art as “good” or “bad”.
1. People have their own opinions.
2. Certain art is designed for different things.

To use Fukumoto’s art style as an example, it does not try to be “moe” or “appealing”. Fukumoto’s art is designed for the serious stories he makes, often filled with gambling and psychology.

On the doujin scene, many (American) newcomers are critical of “unrefined” art style of Umineko and the original Touhou games.

In the case of Umineko, there are those who saw the Umineko anime first and thus the visual novel art clashes with them. Whilst of course they fail to understand that Umineko began as a sound novel, the art is not the main focus.

But moving away from that excuse, I personally do not think the art by Ryukishi07 is “bad”, the coloring is not like more commercial games, but compared to the art from the Higurashi doujin games, his art is has improved and has good proportions. The art is good enough to give us an impression of what the characters look like, the expressions show us what the characters are feeling.

For Touhou. One blogger (can’t remember which one) said that Zun is a “great concept artist”, and this is absolutely correct. Zun’s art gives the defining features of the characters. It may not be the greatest art, but it gets the point across. We know that Reisen is a girl with rabbit ears, wears a suit, a skirt, and has a moon badge on her chest, that’s the concept.

So I would like to hope that people who don’t know this philosophy that I’m preaching, will learn about it from this post. And for those who already have it in their heads, just understand that you are not alone.