Akazukin to Mayoi no Mori is planned for 2011, with 西緒十琉 (Nishio Tooru? Google-sensei gives no results, might be an alias?) in charge of artwork.
The main heroine, Teana, gets sent by her evil stepmother to the ominous forest of no return; knowing that her chores are just a pretext to get her lost and hopefully dead, Teana decides to put herself out of misery as soon as possible and goes on merrily into the forest to find a wolf willing to eat her. The one she does find, however, refuses deeming her too much of a kid… They didn’t even try to make her sound intelligent, did they?
Main characters so far include a wolf, a lynx, a fox, a hunter and seven dwarfs, with possibly more to come. Apparently the writer chose Little Red Riding Hood as the theme because she learned the fairytale could be interpreted as an allegory of a girl led astray and taken advantage of, and she thought it was perfect for this genre… Yeah.

MIO‘s Asaki, Yumemishi will be ported to the PSP by QuinRose with an added route for Yasutsuna and extra events for all other characters. MIO itself will be in charge of extra content. Note that both MIO and Cyc Rose (company that made Bara no Ki ni Bara no Hana Saku, which is also ported to the PSP by QuinRose) belong to the same parent company, Cyc-Soft.

AMEDEO‘s new project turns out to be a fandisc, Dare ni Demo Ura ga Aru Happy Gift, set for release in spring 2011 for 6090 yen. The theme this time is comedy, and the heroine has to form a comedian unit with her chosen guy to perform at the school festival. Extra route added for Kurou (the fat otaku). First press edition comes with a soundtrack and a drama CD.

Cast announced for Kago no Naka no Alicis:
Harvey: Maeno Tomoaki
Francis: Sakurai Takahiro
Kaito: Suwabe Junichi
William: Namikawa Daisuke
Darren: Yusa Kouji
Effy: Majima Junji
Gerald: Takatsuka Masaya
M & L: Mizuhashi Kaori
Alastair: Kondou Takaaki
Vivi: Kaida Yuki
Maximilian (mystery man): Midorikawa Hikaru

Looks like Rejet is following honeybee’s release strategy; their new game, TOKYO Yamanote BOYS, will be a three-parter:
TOKYO Yamanote BOYS HONEY MILK – 04/2011
TOKYO Yamanote BOYS SUPER MINT – 06/2011
TOKYO Yamanote BOYS DARK CHERRY – 08/2011
The heroine gets chosen as the national “princess” in a yearly contest and she becomes the trophy in a seven day long struggle between nine boys called the Love Royale.  Direction by Iwasaki Daisuke, artwork by Maeda Hirotaka, music by Mitsuda Yasunori (!). Cast is as follows:
Ninomiya Yuuto: Suzumura Kenichi
Misaki Kotarou: Morikubo Showtaro
Momose Ayumu: Yonaga Tsubasa
Kirishima Iori: Suzuki Tasuhisa
Isono Rui: Kaji Yuki
Kujou Takumi: Yusa Kouji
Ryuudou Jesus: Namikawa Daisuke
Morohoshi Satoshi: Toriumi Kousuke
Hamada Shinnosuke: Suwabe Junichi

Otomate will be adapting IM Label’s popular Are you Alice? series of drama CDs into a game, coming on sale in March 2011. No idea if they are going to get original writer Ninomiya Ai to adapt the scenario, but the artwork is going to be handled by someone called Meji, with Takura Toworu only credited for original designs. By the way, due to the nature of the drama CDs, it will most likely be neither otome nor BL.

honeybee homepage is back up; looks like they settled the plagiarism case paying royalties for the photos Kazuaki had referenced. Also, here’s a definitive release schedule for Starry Sky products, including delays:
26/11 Starry Sky ~in bitter season~
26/11 → 10/12 Starry Sky ~After Spring~
22/12 Starry Sky ~in Autumn~ Portable
24/12 Seiza Danna Series Starry Sky ~Scorpio & Sagittarius~
25/02 → 25/03 Starry Sky ~After Summer~
24/03 → 28/04 Starry Sky ~in Winter~ Portable
27/05 Starry Sky ~After Autumn~
26/08 Starry Sky ~After Winter~

Luckily, looks like none of this affects the release of the next Starry Sky x Itou Kanako single (￣ｰ￣) Amaranthine goes on sale on 22/12 from Media Factory and contains the titular ED theme for Starry Sky ~in Autumn~ Portable as well as two versions of Star-Crossed  used in the Spring and Summer PSP games.

See also lots of Starry Sky updates on their blog, including an option to (finally!) turn on the heroine’s face in After Spring and the cover to the After Autumn material collection.

The first volume of the Garnet Cradle manga will be out on 10/12, which is also when Katagiri Yuuma will spill the beans about the new Garnet Cradle project. I’m personally expecting a visual fanbook.

Also, the OPs for Starry Sky ~After Spring~ and Kaeru Batake de Tsukamaete – Natsu Chigira Sansen! are out.

CDs coming out on 26/01/2011:
Armen Noir drama CD (includes game OP, ED by Rey)
MIYAKO Original Soundtrack (again, includes game OP, ED)
Vitamin X The Animation Character Song Datenshi Honey (Makabe Tsubasa CV: Suzuki Tatsuhisa)
Vitamin X The Animation Character Song 100V no Ai Kougeki (Kusanagi Hajime CV: Ono Daisuke)

Sites open for Hana Oni ~Koisomeru Ken, Eikyuu no Shirushi~, Hakuouki Zuisouroku DS and VitaminXtoZ.

Release countdowns have started for MIYAKO and Crimson Empire PS2.

Calamelia’s new 18+ title is Akazukin to Mayoi no Mori (赤ずきんと迷いの森), coming from their new sister brand, Calamelia Torte. The theme is, of course, Little Red Riding Hood and it’s supposed to be more focused on ero than Riddle Garden.  Also the first Hiyo title since Love Drops not to have Toujou Sakana as the artist, which is why it’s being published by a subbrand. Official site opens on 20/11, which is when the new issue of B’s-Log is out.

AMEDEO has a teaser pic up for its new game. Again, more details to come on 20/11.

Demo movies for Kuro to Kin no Akanai Kagi. (NSFW warning!), Asuka! ~Bokura Seitou Koukou Yakyuudan~ and Tsubasa no Oka no Hime are out. The last one makes a much better impression if you mute the video and turn on some Enya.

Aromarie announces a joint fanbook for Tsuki no Hikari Taiyou no Kage and Gin no Kanmuri Ao no Namida, Bitter than Bitter -Aromarie Memorial Note-. It will retail for 2782 yen w/ tax starting 08/12. It looks to be quite comprehensive, containing all previously published promotional art, scenario writer interviews and a collection of both previously published and newly written short stories totaling over 20. Also looks like Marie-tan plans to announce the cast for Chou no Doku Hana no Kusari very soon.

Karin Entertainment is apparently working on porting one of their titles to the iPhone. What…? Why…?

Following the whole Kazuaki affair, honeybee has postponed Starry Sky ~After Spring~ from 26/11 to 10/12. Starry Sky ~in bitter season~, Starry Sky ~in Autumn~ Portable and Seiza Danna Series Starry Sky ~Scorpio & Sagittarius~ will not be subject to delays, however.

The theme songs for VAMPIRE SWEETIE are as follows:
OP: Beyond the time / Sakuragawa Megu
ED: One / Shimotsuki Haruka
Both are composed and arranged by Elements Garden.

A set of four sequel drama CDs for Daisy2‘s Sangoku Rensenki went on sale on 29/10.

And just because I can plug it: Liar-soft’s Shiei no Sona-nyl -What a beautiful memories- is out this month. It may not be otome, but it’s still going to be a damn good game.

Title: Monochrome Heaven
Circle: DIGICLA
Genre: Free female-oriented survival game
Release date: 06/07/2009

Finding Monochrome Heaven was the result of a little doujin game downloading spree, and since it was the first game I finished in a long time (slow reader, I am), I thought I might as well write it up.

In a grey city lives a poor flower-selling girl. One morning, the girl, Luna, wakes up in an unfamiliar, luxurious mansion. She is then welcomed by a man whom she recognizes as a customer who used to often buy flowers from her. The man introduces himself as Kamishiro Akito, the next head of the influential Kamishiro household, and explains to Luna that he had “bought” her to be his “bride candidate.” The Kamishiro lineage is haunted by a mysterious curse that dictates that who doesn’t find true love and marry before the age of 25 will surely die. Akito’s 25th birthday is coming up in two weeks and thus he decides on a gamble with his life on the stake: either Luna, a dirt poor, illiterate orphan will capture his heart within fourteen days, or he will resign himself to fate.

But what is the true nature of the curse, really? And what about the other inhabitants of the mansion?

No, you did not misread the genre – it’s labeled as a survival game and rightfully so, as out of 25 endings, 20 are bad ends ending mostly in Luna being disposed of. It is still, however, an otome game at the core, with 5 characters to go after, with varying difficulty levels.

I was heavily impressed with how polished this game is. Everything, from the menu to the music, gives off an air of gothic decadence. The story has considerable volume for a doujin game, as evidenced by the amount of routes and endings. That’s not to say it’s long – I’d put it at 3 hours max for a full clear. This is, of course, excluding the fact that Monochrome Heaven is hard – just trying to keep Akito happy enough not to kill Luna is difficult enough, and the crucial flag-raising decision combinations are just unintuitive. Halfway through I just gave up and consulted a walkthrough board. There is, at least, a cute chibi hint corner after each bad end. Only other things that put me off were some sci-fi/fantastical elements that arised in the final end; it just felt so out of the blue in an otherwise down-to-earth setting.

There are 3 CGs per route plus some misc ones, which I suppose is just fine for such a short game. No complaints about the artwork, it’s fitting with the atmosphere and the sprites have plenty of variety. The backgrounds are mostly photos.

I honestly didn’t think much of the music; it was inobtrusive, at least, but I remember there was quite a lot of silent scenes, which bothered me. I loved the menu theme though.

Oh yeah, I label this as “all ages” because there is no explicit sex or gore, but there are mentions and occasionally depictions of violence, bloodshed, sexual and physical abuse (hi, Ryuuta), so maybe 13+ would be more appropriate? (The creator herself puts it at 15, but nvm)

Conclusion: fun time waster. Try it if you want something short and not necessarily sweet.

Some stuff happened in the meantime too, but nothing less but a deluge could deter me from playing otomege and writing about them, so expect some new reviews just after I pass my driving licence test this Friday. Honestly, I have little idea in what direction I should take this blog – part of me wants it to be full of caps and incoherent ramblings – but yeah, in whatever shape, it will continue.

Also, the big announcements made while I was absent?

- Garnet Cradle social networking game. What the flying fuck? Are these people serious? Thankfully both Katagiri Yuuma and Kumoya Yukio hinted that there’s one more project coming up, so maybe that’s something worth to keep an eye out on. (Then again, knowing Orbit it might just be a PS2 port – so cries the girl who never a had a single console in her life)

- Mysterious D.C. Girl’s Symphony announcement. Oh come on Circus, everyone knows it’s gonna be a fandisk.

- Zettai Meikyuu Grim is for the PSP. Apparently PCs are not good enough for Karin anymore. (bitter

So is that one eroge with the theme songs by Ceui and shotas looking like they walked out of Nakayoshi. (Yes, that is the extent to which I care. I couldn’t even make it through the trial, so let me drop this subject.)

Oh yeah, the sites for Crazy Rabbits and Bloody Call have been getting thorough updates in the meantime too, so go take a look. I am despairing that none of the ojisans in these games appear to be capturable. (There’s Sangoku Koi Senki too, but I get the impression nobody ever remembers about that, myself included.)

I’ve been keeping quiet recently with reviews, but that’s mostly because I can’t seem to bring myself to actually finish any given game (￣ー￣) Of course, there’s Danzai no Maria, which thoroughly traumatised me to the point where I’m not sure if I want to touch it ever again. (But I will, because I like depressing myself.) I think I’ll do a misc. post, just to get some things off my chest.

Say hello to Saiunkoku Monogatari: the otome game.

Well, maybe not exactly, but Mio’s new work has some jarring similarities. Considering that it’s out in less than a week and the trial is already out, I decided to give it a spin.

Starting from the very beginning, the interface – niiice. You can tell Souten no Kanata uses the same engine as Asaki, so stuff like the popup menu and config options stays exactly the same. What’s new is quicksave/load and the option to customize the textbox.

The biggest addition would be the chart map – aka Mio’s spin on the Chronicle system from Root games. Like in Garnet Cradle, it shows your overall progress and the flow of the scenario. The difference is that whenever a scene ends, you jump back to this screen and have to manually select the next one, even if that’s your only choice anyway. (Yes, choices take place on this screen, too.) This irked me in that it made the flow of the story feel disjointed, but I suppose I’ll get used to it. Not that it’s not useful; you can hover over both already seen scenes and those readily available to you to see a popup with an short synopsis of it, so you’re never going in blind – useful for those worrying about flags and stuff.

Oh, and I wish the chart was available at all times and not only when there’s a scene change. I hope it will be accesible from the omake menu.

Next up, the plot. The story takes place in the land of Kou, a country vaguely resembling imperial China (or Saiunkoku, if you will).  Though it seems peaceful at a glance, it has been facing a crisis for several years now – ever since the current emperor succumbed to an illness and became bedridden, and the two crown princes started fighting for the throne. That is because in Kou, birth order has nothing to do with the right to rule – instead, the new emperor is chosen by an auspicious creature called Uto, a winged rabbit. However, Uto hasn’t been seen for several years now…

Airei is a young girl working in the capital as a weaver to make ends meet after her parents both fell victim to an epidemic. What few do know, though, is that she was presented by Uto with the task of carrying out the will of Heavens and choosing the next emperor in its stead. Of course, this is followed by bunches of people stepping into her life – some friendly, some hostile and some just plain wierd.

Doesn’t sound like Saiunkoku Monogatari? Oh, but it will. Like the part where Shuurei Airei would have liked to study and become a court official, but she can’t because she’s a girl. Or Airei’s two childhood friends – Seiran Ryoyuu and Suou Gakuhou. Well, leaving that aside, it looks like much like Saiunkoku, Souten no Kanata will place some focus on court politics and the like. I’m looking forward to that.

The core staff is a complete change from Asaki, Yumemishi – scenario is now handled by Sakura Myuu, who previously worked on the likes of Before Dawn Daybreak and Kurai Mirai. Can’t say I was comforted by this, but the scenario itself didn’t turn me off. There were things that didn’t ring well with me, though – like, Airei meeting all of her potential suitors one after another in a series of unrelated accidents, all in one day. I didn’t really feel the world was presented that well, either – for example, when Airei is haggling with Taishin, she goes into a whole boring lecture about Kou’s monetary system when a simple “the bastard wanted me to pay 3/4 of my monthly pay for some silk thread” would’ve sufficed.

But really, worst thing about this trial? Why does it have to end there 。・゜・(/Д`)・゜・。 Stuff was only getting started!

Title: Garnet Cradle (Getchu)
Company: SPICA
Scenario: 高梨瑠花, 片桐由摩
Artwork: 雲屋ゆきお
Release date: 01/05/2009

Garnet Cradle is the virgin work of Spica, Orbit’s new child brand. It could be very well called the most awaited PC otome game this year, mostly due Carnelian’s involvement, as she spearheaded the project as the director. Most of the staff is borrowed from the main branch as well; in particular, Kumoya Yukio was in charge of designing backgrounds in Root’s Touka Gettan and is currently drawing its manga version, while Katagiri Yuuma wrote for Root’s Messiah, among other things. (The other scenario writer, Takanashi Ruka, doesn’t seem to have anything but Garnet Cradle to her name yet.)

Oh yeah, a disclaimer: I’ve no idea how to romanize all the vaguely Arabic terms in this game. Bear with me, and do chime in if you have any suggestions.

Amahashi Miku is a particularly accomplished first year at the elite Mifuta Academy; on top of being a top student and serving the student council, she gets chosen to play the role of Amira Miftaf in a play that’s been established as a school tradition. Afterwards, several things start happening one after another: the school nurse tells her about the mysterious cases of female students being spirited away; her mother announces that she has arranged her a marriage partner; an upperclassman confesses to her out of the blue; and finally, a black cat with different-colored eyes she had previously seen within the school starts appearing in her dreams…

One particular night, Miku follows the cat in a half-dreamy state and gets led to a mysterious corridor connected to the student council room and even further, to a strange underground spring. On the other side of the water’s surface lies Miftaf, a dreamlike kingdom in the middle of a desert where she is welcomed as “Azura Sayaraan” – a royal priestess who will decide the fate of this land by choosing the new king from among five princes – four of which are familiar faces she has previously seen at school…

Before long, Miku awakens in the real world, thinking of what she has experienced as unreal. However, when that night she drifts off to sleep, she once again finds herself in Miftaf, a continuing dream…

Amahashi Miku, a first year at Mifuta Academy. Member of the literary club, class representative, school council secretary and this year’s Amira Miftaf to top it off. Bra size 65C, as testified by Kagami-sensei. Personality-wise, she’s responsible, modest and mature, though she obviously has a problem with refusing people. Pretty much a top-class ojousama and honor student, though it seems she holds some complexes regarding her family, since she dislikes people pointing out her top-class pedigree. Completely disinterested in romance – or rather, she doesn’t want to fall in love, again because of reasons concerning her family. Can get sorta stubborn/dense/tsuntsun at times, but not enough to get annoying. (In fact, I was impressed with how well she handled Touya in his path.)

Saarliya, the primary reason people would even play this game, I imagine （●´∀｀） He’s the one who initally discovers Miku in Miftaf and initially intends to lock her up to keep her all to himself – the reason being, of course, his ambitions to the throne, as he views Azura Sayaraan as nothing but a tool to reach that goal. Naturally, this can only lead to Miku hating his guts and running away 8D Everything about him is shrouded in mystery; unlike the other princes, he doesn’t have any proof of his rights to the throne (whatever that proof might be; I don’t think it’s mentioned anywhere?) and is only allowed to take part in the power struggle by right of birth; namely, he was found as a newborn in the same sacred spring Miku came from. Because of this and his appearance, it’s speculated that he’s related to the goddess of Miftaf, Sayaraan, but again, there’s no proof of that. Suspicions shrounding his birth and legitimacy aside, he’s blunt, unsociable and makes no effort to get along with people, so it’s no wonder he’s the least liked of among the princes and his allies are few. (Faraasha, and, uh… Faraasha…?)

Well, this is the essence of Garnet Cradle. Do not expect to understand anything about Miftaf without playing this route. Do not expect to fully experience this game without playing this route and reaching the true end. I wouldn’t call it “epic” or “mind-shattering” or anything, but… Yeah, go play it.

Teshigawara Touya, likewise a member of the student council, honor student and Miku’s fiancee. Of course, as he declares right at the start, he has no intention of going along with it. He’s also chosen for the play to act alongside Miku as her prince, but of course fails at that completely. Very tsundere – it’s obvious from the start he likes Miku but is too childish and lacks the courage to admit it, so he tries to cover it up with rough behavior. (I think Kagami puts it best in one scene: “Teshigawara, you were the type to flip the skirt of the girl you liked back in kindergarten, weren’t you?” “I-I didn’t do that!” “Oh, I see. Didn’t even have the guts to do that, eh?”). Idolizes Rihito both at the school and in Miftaf, and fully supports his ambitions for the throne.

I did Touya’s route first and it sucked me in right away, though whether I owe it to his tsundere appeal or the story itself is arguable =ω= It was plenty fun, though I think I’d have liked more fluff. His path doesn’t dive very deep in the story, too, so it’s good to start with.

He also totally should wear glasses more. (←megane freak

Shirato Sou, Miku’s childhood friend cum bodyguard. He’s actually older than both her and Tsubaki, but stays in the highschool department to keep an eye on her more easily. Very calm and polite, but you can tell he’s scary when angered – particularly when the situation concerns his ojousama. (He’s actually very much like Tsubaki in that respect.) Both he and his sister have known (and protected) Miku ever since they were very little, but he still insists on retaining distance between them, seeing himself as a servant rather than a friend, which hurts Miku greatly. Yeah, pretty much the usual master/servant drama fare, with some interesting plot points mixed in – there’s a reason why, unlike all the others, Sou doesn’t his name in Miftaf.

Overall, nice route… Though the thing I mostly remembered from it was that making-out scene… (18+ fandisk plz?)

Sairenji Rihito, the student council president and head of the fencing club. Everything about him screams “young prodigy”. He makes no secret of his affection towards Miku and is pretty ardent about getting her to return his feelings, refusing to step down after she rejects him. He seems to be the only one to be retain memories of the happenings in Miftaf, and openly approaches Miku about them. He’s also pretty much Sarliya’s only rival to the throne, seeing how all the other princes decide to step down.

(Half-French, half-Japanese descent, blonde hair, purple eyes, prince-type… Haven’t I seen that somewhere before? Oh, right.)

The one major problem with Rihito: he’s damn creepy. Not exactly yandere… Okay, very yandere. Going down any other path should give you a taste of that, but only gets worse in his own. (Though I don’t suppose this should come as a surprise if you’d check the sample CGs over at Getchu.) Really leaves a bad aftertaste. Another thing is that certain things felt very plotholish in his path… (Also, the official description calls him “feminist”. What the flying fuck?)

By the way, I might not like him, but those killer lines whispered in Kakihara Tetsuya’s breathy voice are certainly something (#▽#)

Sakurazawa Kiichirou, aka Kiichi-senpai, a member of the soccer club. He’s got Hirakawa Daisuke’s boyish voice, so that alone should tell you what kind of a character he is – words like 涼しい or さわやか come to mind (￣ー￣) Or should I say iyashi-kei? A cool, reliable senpai who gets on well with everyone – he’s the only prince in Miftaf who’s moderately friendly with Saarliya, much to Miku’s surprise. Cooking, particularly making sweets, is his strong point waifu material detected.

Plot-wise, he’s the prince who is the least linked to Miku and her dilemma, so his route doesn’t have many revelations or high drama in that aspect. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing – when I first started chasing him, I quit about 1/4 in because there wasn’t much happening. Then I switched to Sou’s route, completed that, and went back to Kiichi with a newly earned appreciation of what a blessing his lack of angst can be… Yeah.

Kagami-sensei, the school nurse and literary club advisor. Spends most of his time drinking, smoking and flirting with girls in the school infirmary. His role within the story is unclear, to say the least, since all he’s pretty much the guy who gives out mysterious, vague statements that imply he knows more than he lets on, but what is he actually? And why is he on the title screen when he has less lines like a subcharacter like Haruka-sensei? No frigging idea. See, this is why I say Garnet Cradle desperately needs a fandisk of some sort. Certain things just don’t add up.

Faraasha, Miku’s #1 ally in Miftaf. She was originally Saarliya’s attendant, but since she’s taken a liking to Miku, she decides to take care of her regardless of whom she chooses. She’s still loyal to Saarliya, though, and pretty much the only person who knows how to handle (and tease) him. She’s also the one who explains the majority of Miftaf’s history and circumstances to Miku.

My favorite character (*´ー`) Half of my enjoyment of Saarliya’s route came from her teasing, and yet she doesn’t even appear in any CGs…

Shirato Tsubaki, Sou’s little sister and Miku’s other childhood friend. Like her brother, she swore to protect her hime-sama at any costs. At first glance, she seems like a perfect, polite, meek yamato nadeshiko, but gets really fired up whenever she thinks Miku is being disrespected, showing no mercy even to her own brother.

Nonose Misaki, aka Nono-chan. She fills the role of the normal best friend, supporting Miku from the sidelines and occasionally giving out advice. Head of the literary club, very high-tension, energetic personality. Listening to her ear-piercing shrieks, I find it hard to believe that her VA also voiced Faraasha…

Zero, I repeat, zero complaints about the artwork, quite the opposite. Then again, you can probably tell by just looking. I couldn’t say anything bad about the visual side even if I tried. Plenty of event CGs, more character sprites than you can shake a stick at… What I find particularly commendable is that every single subcharacter has a distinct sprite and a voice; no recycling or talking to faceless ghosts here.

Really liking the interface in general here, it’s both very sleek and incredibly convenient. I’m not really partial to the blurring backgrounds though, they’re pretty so it feels like a waste not being able to actually see them. Oh yeah, about the backgrounds: they’re mostly really well drawn, but every once in a while, there’s one that looks like a photo put through Photoshop filter hell. It can get sort of jarring. That, and I don’t understand why some backgrounds are available in the CG gallery when they’re just that, backgrounds.

Speaking of convenience, there’s the Chronicle system, which has previously appeared in other Orbit games; it works both as a barometer of the player’s progress and a scene replay mode, as it allows replaying any given scene without interrupting gameplay. Basically, at any point during the game you can bring up the Chronicle, click any previously seen scenario bead, and then return to where you left off in the actual game without any problems. Very handy, I wish more games would pick this up.

There are plenty of save slots, but I didn’t really use them… Since there’s like only one choice point that actually matters. Yeah, not much scrambling and worrying about flags here. Anyway, I mostly used the three special slots: one for quicksave, one at the last encountered choice and one autosave made when exiting the game.

The soundtrack is handled by Elements Garden, which should be a guarantee of quality in itself. Hum… It seems to me I’ve ben impressed by the soundtrack in every single game I’ve played recently, but even among those, the music in Garnet Cradle stands out (；￣ー￣) About half of the music is the usual moodmaker fare with a classical touch, while the other half consists of Arabian-flavored Miftaf themes. Needless to say, both couldn’t be any more fitting. I just wish Spica would hurry up and announce the soundtrack…

Anyway, re: scenario. I’d rate it as definitely above average, but while Garnet Cradle did glue me to the screen for a whole week (I’m a slow reader, yes), let me grumble for a bit. For one, the story feels very linear, not very visual novel-esque – as I said before, there is literally one painfully obvious choice where you choose the route you want to enter. The forced loop at the beginning of each gameplay was pretty much the only part where I thought the scenario actually took advantage of the visual novel system.

The linearity probably stems from the fact that, painfully obvious as it is, Saarliya’s path was written first as the primary and final one, and then the rest of the routes was based on that. I’m not talking about the general direction of the plot – I’m talking about the part where the entirety of the third chapter is the same stuff repeated with the guys’ names (and angsty pasts) changed. Really, all the same. There are two unused CGs in the archive that suggest that Saarliya’s and Sou’s paths were supposed to be subjected to even more copypasting, but thankfully someone decided it would be a good idea to add some variation.

Oh yeah, speaking of angsty pasts – when the “we met when we were little, but you forgot!” thing came up for the first time, I didn’t pay much attention to it. The second time, I twitched. The third, I started wondering if I wasn’t playing Kanon. Come to think of it, Miku’s a lot like Yuuichi in that respect…

One final complaint is about the stuff that gets glossed over. Do not go into this game expecting to understand the truth about everything in Miftaf, because you won’t. Ema, Rihito and Kagami suffer the most because of it – actually, Rihito sortakinda gets an explanation of the whys and wherefores of his existence, but either my comprehension is at fault here or the information given is conflicting, or misleading at the very least.

Oh well, in the end, Miku gets a happy ending with the guy she chooses and that’s the end of it; stuff like the previously mentioned is easily overlooked, provided you don’t think too hard about the details and concentrate on the characters instead of the big picture.

Yeah, I got complain a lot, but I really consider Garnet Cradle a very enjoyable game overall; definitely my pick for the best otome game this year, provided the likes of Bloody Call or Souten no Kanata don’t pull something extraordinary.

Anyway, am I the only one who sees a Garnet Cradle ported to the PS2 with a Kagami route added a year from now?

I’ve got a lot of complaints about Danzai no Maria on the whole – for one, it seems like Karin Entertainment splurged half of its budget on famous seiyuus and then tried to cover it up with stylish gothicness ( ﾟ,_ゝﾟ ) The scenario alternates between “fucking awesome” and “wtf is this shit” pretty often, most of the time averaging out on “passable”, but really, that can be said about each and every aspect of this game. (Except for the text box. If I’ve been playing this game for some six hours and still can’t figure where quickload is, then there’s something wrong with the interface design here.)

But anyway, one thing that Karin did exceptionally well (in my perspective, that is) is making Maria an actual character.

With her name right up there in the title, it would probably be stupid to think she’d be just a proxy for the guys’ own stories a la Kanon, but still, it’s refreshing to see a game so unapologetically centered on the heroine. Karin plain throws out the window several industry standards that severely annoy me. In particular, I like how they include the heroine-naming gimmick just to ignore it for the majority of the game by refering to Maria by her baptismal name. She has a face, a voice, a past and a personality, which just shattered my expectations, in a good way. She’s not a doormat! She’s cute! She actually acts on her own initiative! That’s a whole lot more than I’m used to expecting. Just for that, I’m willing to forgive Karin for the many, many ಠ＿ಠ-inducing moments in the scenario.

Now if only this trend would catch on… Don’t think that’s possible, though, seeing how Princess Nightmare for the PS2 flopped massively （；_；）

Brief notes on QuinRose’s Heart no Kuni no Alice. Vague spoilers for Peter’s route follow?

One character down, ten more to go… That being said, I’m sort of doubting I’ll ever get that far.

Starting from the thing that impressed me the most right from the start: the music. It’s incredibly addicting, with a rockish feel. I often keep the game running in the background just to listen to the music. Unfortunately, looks like the OST was only a limited edition deal and is unavailable anymore… D:

Getting to the point though, I don’t think I’ve ever been polarized by a game this much before. I loved the lulzy beginning, and Alice was exactly the kind of protagonist I had wanted,  but now I’ve reached my first end and I’m left wondering if I really want more.

For the good things: Alice is absolutely revolting. Half of the notes I took during playing (yes, I do that – you can call me overeager) can be summed up as “lol Alice is awsm “. She’s realistic, she’s cool, and I daresay she intrigues me more than any of the guys so far. But since she’s so tsuntsun (at least towards Peter), down-to-earth and not a purehearted maiden in general, it makes this particular otome game feel… Not very otome. Not that it’s a bad thing. The bad things started once the game progressed to the point where she realizes her own feelings. Past that point, it sort of feels everything is moving forward, only Alice stays in the same place. It really bugged me that once everything in Peter’s ending started going downhill (re: “it’s fine even if you don’t love me; I love you and that’s enough to make us lovers”), she didn’t try resist seriously. Being dominated by a stalky lovey-dovey bunny-eared weirdo? That’s not something the Alice I knew at the start of the game would agree to. The again, the whole relationship progression felt rather wtf-y. (Kissing, constant confessions of love and sleeping in one bed still don’t make one lovers, apparently – might be true in certain cases, but here? Plain wtf.)

…I’m nitpicking, I know. （´3´）～♪ I suppose I should just recognize the fact that most of my problems with the scenario stem from picking the aforementioned stalky lovey-dovey bunny-eared weirdo. His ending left me with a bad aftertaste and a feeling of “…what? That’s all?”

Another thing re: the lack of otome feeling is the realism. We’re in Wonderland, but everything is still ruled by realistic principles. I can’t explain this very well, except for quoting Vivaldi when she said that from the start, Alice had three choices: return to her world, stay in Wonderland or die and avoid making the choice. No deus ex machina that magically makes things right and allow her to have both. I’m getting a feeling there’s a point made in the moment she makes that choice in relation to the whole Alice-wanting-to-stay-a-child thing, but maybe I’m overthinking things.

Anyway, I confess I absolutely hate the whole turn system. It’s obnoxious, repetitive and ruins the game’s flow. It really puts a damper on the mood when you have three supposedly consecutive events with ten turns of filler in between. Well, I do think 300 turns is way too much in the first place… But then again, I always prever pure novel-style games over hybrids of any sort.

Finally, people were right about Quinrose games skirting the border between all-ages and 18+ （〃▽〃） Really too bad they probably won’t ever release an actual eroge, since I’m sure the h-scenes would be comedy gold.

Anyway, I think I’ll go after Nightmare next, since he seems to fill the bill of “low tension”, “iyashi-kei” and “most probable to divulge the truth about Wonderland”. Also, sexy Tomokazu Sugita voice

Title: Asaki, Yumemishi (Getchu)
Company: MIO
Scenario: アダシノネコ
Artwork: 銀木夕,  天空すふぃあ
Release date: 25/07/2008

First, some background info: MIO is an otome-oriented branch of Cyc-Soft. Cyc announcing establishing an otome brand some two years ago came as a surprise to pretty much everyone, but looks like they’re doing fine; their second release, Souten no Kanata, is nearing its release date and looks mighty fine indeed.

The heroine, Iori Saya (her name can be changed, but I always go with the default one anyway) is a fuda-using freelance taimashi – a profession akin to an onmyouji, tasked with ridding people of pesky spirits. Seeing how her savings are down to triple digits, Saya and her partner, an ayakashi named Giou, decide to take up an offer of staying in a remote village somewhere in the mountains for the summer to keep any supernatural phenomena that might occur in the neighborhood in check. Everything about the job, from the pay to lodging, seems to be too good to be true, which raises Saya’s suspicious immediately – and for good reason. While making her way through the forest surrounding the village – Inasagou – she suddenly feels her blood boiling and led by a strange feeling, she runs deeper into the forest, leaving Giou behind.

There, she encounters a strange, vaguely threathening and definitely non-human lady who calls herself Aya and seems to know Saya. Thankfully, before she can harm the heroine in any way, she gets chased away by a man with a katana who would turn out to be Saya’s employer. (GJ, by the way – nothing like running into a creepy forest overflowing with supernatural aura and leaving your fuda case behind.) But that would only be the start of a whole avalanche of otherwordly happenings.

The summary above might give the impression that Asaki is very srsbzns, but in reality, about 50% of the game consists of hilarious character interactions, and this is where it really shines. Heck, I’d say half of the fun when playing is seeing the characters bickering – this game has a wide cast and uses it to hilarious effect. The other half would be the actual plot, which is very engaging and tightly-knit. Each of the routes reveals something new about the big picture and each of the antagonists. That is not to say it’s perfect – for one, Aya’s and Ichito’s characters remain largely unexplored, which makes for some unanswered questions.

My main complaint would be the endings – there are ~30 of them, and while each of them is satisfying (maybe save for the bad ends), none of them, not even the true end, feels really complete. Considering the game makes a very good job of making you feel for the enemy characters, it’s sort of disappointing that there’s no way to make everyone happy.

Or maybe I just got too attached to cannon fodder. :’(

Saya, the protagonist and adopted daughter of the Iori house, a famous and influential family of taimashi. She’d be a normal highschooler if not for the fact that she’s the successor of a bloodline of human sacrifices destined to be offered to oni. Her pure blood boosts her ability as a taimashi and grants a superhuman healing ability, but in exchange, a few drops of it is enough to call whole crowds of ayakashi. Needless to say, she didn’t have an easy life.

As a whole, Saya was quite likeable… Except that apart from her powers, there wasn’t anything really special about her – at the very least, nothing to warrant guys falling left and right for her. This particularly hurt in Rin’s path, but I won’t say anything more in fear of spoilers.

In any case, I just wanted the heroine to kick some actual ass when she had the chance; most of the time during battles, she either just stood there or played support.

By the way, this game has quite the wide cast, so I’ll just outline the six character routes.

Yaegaki Chihaya, the young village head and Saya’s employer. Having been brought up away from Inasagou and coming to take up the post vacated by his dead mother only a while ago, he’s as much in the dark regarding the circumstances surrounding the village as the heroine is. Generally, a surprisingly normal guy for someone in charge of a village inhabited in 70% by ayakashi, if a little short-tempered and tsuntsun.  But, of course, there is a reason for the strange feeling of familiarity Saya feels towards him…

Really, from the start it’s immediately clear that Chihaya is the main guy, though his route on its own explains very little. That is to say that yes, it’s very sweet, but for all that buildup, the truth unearthed here turns out very typical, or rather, not very original. It’s fine, just don’t raise your expectations too high.

Giou, an ayakashi who has been sidekicking Saya ever since she saved him some years ago. Bookish, polite type, reserved towards pretty much everyone but Rin and Saya. Uses a sort of antiquated, oyaji-style speech and possesses the sort of innocence that is possible only when one has acquired most of one’s knowledge from books. Looks like a shota, but actually as an ayakashi, he ages much slower, so when everyone see him and Saya, they assume they’re like an older sister and younger brother when it’s the other way around.

If I had to rate his route… Normal. Some angst, some comedy, lots of moe shota appeal, so if you have something against shotas, you probably won’t like it as much. It probably would have used some more plot relevance, since pretty much all it does is opening Kagachi’s route.

Iori Shuuichirou, Saya’s non-blood-related oniichan. He was the one who originally took her into the Iori house and is pretty much the only person she could call a real family there, until he left both her and the entire family and disappeared. Now he appears in Inasagou searching for something on behalf of the Yukarimon, a very powerful taimashi organisation. Serving directly under the current head of the organisation, he’s incredibly powerful, which coupled with his ikemen looks earn him many admirators, both male and female. Except that they don’t know what Saya knows: that is, Shuu-chan is a complete dame-ningen who can’t eat strawberries and green peppers, can’t hold his alcohol despite loving drinking, doesn’t know the first thing about cleaning, wears his black coat regardless of the weather and is more of a kid than Saya despite nearing his thirthies. Not to mention, his overprotectiveness of Saya reaches ridiculous levels. A tennen boke who can fall asleep everywhere.

On the whole, Shuu-chan is a hilariously adorable character, but I think I liked him more as a supporting character in other routes than in his own. Then again, he did win the official character poll and I did see ample praises of his route, so I think it has more to do with my own preferences than anyone else. I just don’t really like damsel in distress-like situations…

Toshimitsu Takatora, Saya’s kouhai who ended up chasing Ichito all the way to Inasagou to avenge his brother. Saya didn’t know him before, but recognized him as a taimashi be the seifuku (since their school is an institution founded by the Yukarimon and focused on educating taimashi, apparently). Appears cold and focused, but instantly takes a liking to the heroine after she saves his life and vows to protect her. Insanely fun ドＳ character. Pretty much the inverse of a yandere, since he doesn’t make any effort to hide his black side, nor his affection towards Saya. Of course, things are only made more fun once she gets used to the constant teasing and turns the tables on him

Really, he has to have the highest percentage of killer lines in the whole game. The whole “senpai, please prepare yourself to be loved by me, I’m quite obstinate” speech was just… Haaah. That, and it’s possible to branch out from his scenario to the three onis’ end, which are a completely different brand of fun entirely. (Also, my favorite subcharacters in the whole game.) Lots of impeccable comedy, serious plot matters and （●´∀｀）ﾊｧﾊｧ moments make this my favorite route.

Shinonome Rin, the sli~ghtly suspicious information seller who introduced Saya and Giou to the job in Inasagou and ends up following them for whatever reason. Old friend (?) of Shuu, so he’s known Saya ever since she was little. Basically, comic relief character, and he does a magnificent job at it (half of this I attribute to Konitan’s fabulous voice). Seeing him rile up the other characters is priceless and I love him in tandem with Takatora.

That being said, his route feels really unbalanced… Like, the pace in the beginning part is really jerky. It picks up later, but the beginning parts feel very sudden and lack justification.  His route goes through an odd progression of comedy -> angst -> fluff -> serious, so it’s jumping all over the place. And, really, most of this could have been avoided if only Saya had more of a character (　´_ゝ´) She does end up doing some kickass stuff later, though.

Setting that aside, Rin’s route is probably best played last, since it’s loaded with plot related matters and this is where Asaki enters all-out awesome mode. It does feel quite odd though, since Chihaya is obviously pushed as the main guy, but it’s Rin’s ending that is the true end… And this is only reinforced by Chihaya acting incredibly sweet and supportive in this route so just… Ugh. I wouldn’t call Rin’s route a mess, but there was a lot of things that smelt foul here.

Kagachi, the tsundere snake ayakashi openly antagonizing Saya and especially Giou. Loyal to Tayuu and Aya, though he doesn’t hide his dislike of the latter. Keeping in with the traditions, he looks cute and harmless, but has quite the sharp tongue and is actually very dangerous.

Considering he’s mostly met at night, Kagachi has maybe half the amount of everyone elses’ events, and that affects the pacing – overcoming his tsuntsun takes some four days and feels rushed. His route is definitely the cutest and the comedy moments are a high point. Just, well, if only it was longer…

Oh, and if you’re wondering about that suspiciously short hemline, don’t feel bad – everyone including Saya had doubts about that at some point 8D Being voiced by Saiga Mitsuki doesn’t help.

Ichito, the primary reason Shuu and Takatora are in Inasagou. An ayakashi of considerable power, he runs away from death by taking over bodies of dead people, which explains his pale complexion. He seems to go along with Aya’s and Tayuu’s plans at least nominally, although like pretty much everyone else, he has an objective of his own. It’s for the sake of that objective that he stole an object of great value to the Yukarimon from the Toshimitsu family’s sacred ground, killing Takatora’s elder brother in the process and taking over his body.

If Kagachi’s story felt like half a route, then Ichito’s was maybe like 1/5 of a route… Actually more like he didn’t have a one at all. This is instantly remedied by his good end being my unquestionable favorite ending, because really, it was just creepy and sexy and sad and kickass, all at once. See what kind of names can Saya take once she decides to stop giving a damn about the whole affair and starts doing what she really wants. And it just happens that what she really wants is Ichito…

If I had to do a route ranking… Takatora > Kagachi > Chihaya > Ichito > Rin > Shuu > Giou. Of course, this is mostly influenced by my weakness against being called senpai. （￣ｖ￣）ﾌﾌｯ That being said, in my opinion, the supporting characters – Kokuu, Buchi, Madara, the three onis – definitely steal the show both in comedic and serious matters. I mean, I’d definitely take Suiki over Giou any day…

The interface is very clean; options like save, load, backlog etc. have been relegated to the popup menu on the upper right. Each of them is also available through a shortcut key. Among others, by clicking J you can view the status window, showing each of the boys’ affection levels and the heroine’s rank as a taimashi. The first one is self-explanatory, while the second, raised by performing purifications, affects what ending can you get. For example, Ichito’s good end occurs only if the heroine is at the highest taimashi level.

At first the textbox bothered me because it looked too sleek and modern for a game like this, but I got used to it eventually.

One thing to note about this game is that it has tons of omake content. Apart from the usual CG gallery and music box, unlockables include an ending viewer, omake voices and several minigames. There’s also a gallery of achievements, which range from easy (visiting all the locations) to hard (viewing all random events) to amusing (flag-crusher achievement). For all that, there’s no memories mode, which is a definite minus.

(By the way, nearly every menu function has a voice comment upon hovering. I swear I spent some five minutes turning Kinki’s voice on and off just to hear her say “Kinki, shaberu!” and “Kinki, damaru…” repeatedly. So cute… In any case, it’s a nice touch.)

Something needs to be said about the music, because it’s definitely above average. 19 instrumental tracks and 3 vocal songs, which unfortunately aren’t available in the music box. The soundtrack, heavy on traditional Japanese instruments like biwa and shakuhachi, fits the game perfectly, from the peaceful piano-driven everyday bits to slightly synthesized battle themes. My favorite has to be 決意, an appropriately-titled uplifting “decisive” theme.

I don’t like grading games with some rigid scores, so I’ll just say this: Asaki, Yumemishi is very good. It probably won’t go down in otome game history, but if you’re looking for an eastern-style mix of mystery and fantasy with decent comedy, this is your best bet.