[2015 Recap & Review] The year of Disappointment

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Personal Recap 2015

※ This section will be me ranting about the year personally, you can skip this if you don’t like reading personal drama

I feel like I haven’t properly introduced myself, aside from my introduction in “About Author” with that drawing of me looking up Kogitsunemaru’s hakama. My pen name/alias is Billy Crawford, nicknamed ‘bunny’ sometimes. I am an ex-Game Design student, I was in my 2nd year and I dropped out this year. Now I’m planning to go back to uni to study Japanese further from the knowledge I gained in high school. Along the way I decided to make a blog dedicated to otome games and other stuff.

The catalyst that started all of this was when a uni friend handed me their copy of Binary Star at the start of the year. Back then I wasn’t quite interested in otome games, nor knew of any news of upcoming games and my Japanese was still rusty. I played it from start to finish and before I knew it I was hooked and got back into otome games after 5+ years. I bought my first B’s Log magazine and one thing lead to another and here I am, addicted to Ensemble Stars and other games.

I started a blog few months back through encouragement by friends, where I can blog about my otome game shenanigans but I guess it ended up as a game diary blog for my app games lol. In the end I never got to review a ps vita game this year, after 6 months of having a blog. My time will come, maybe.

I kind of have this thing where I lack motivation/have a fear about making shitty content, which is a reason why I dropped out of my course.  I worried so much about the quality of my work that I refused to do anything at all. This has happened before when I was 15, I refused to write stories because I feared of what others may think. Five years and nothing much has changed. Which is partly why I’ve made this blog, to help me rehabilitate myself into writing stuff again and to not be afraid. I think the reason why I write or create content is because I want to share with others and help them out and now that I’m studying Japanese further I hope I’ll provide further assistance to others who can’t read/understand Japanese.

When I was a wee babby, fresh out of high school, I believed I wanted to make games that others will enjoy and see as a breath of fresh air. I wanted to make games that I wanted to play, but I guess after having a lot of my ideas ignored took away my self confidence, little by little. In August I was doubting my abilities & drawings and was in a bad place of mind, I took up a class that was about creating concepts and stuff. We had a week to think up a game concept and write down the important bits so we can pass them around the class for others to read & critique and by the end of the class we’ll all read out the game concept we had in our hands to the class. Tbh I was a bit nervous and worried having my game concept criticised and read out loud, so when someone read my concept and I saw the reader and everyone around him excited about it I felt some kind of closure… closure enough to make a decision to drop my course. Just to know my idea was good enough put me at ease but I still felt like I needed to work on myself so I won’t feel so anxious about creating things. I needed to learn to stop putting myself down and selling myself short and it would be better if I just released myself from that environment and worked on this by myself.

Which then comes back to me working on this blog. By working I don’t mean I’m being paid for this, more or less it felt like a duty to myself. At first I was thinking of doing this for something for myself but later in the year I noticed that some of the content I made actually helped others out, so I wanted to continue in hopes it’ll help out others. More or less this feels like a job for me lol. But I have fun with this, especially when I write up diary entries for Ensemble Stars because I learn some stuff by going through a story for the second time and pick up on some story elements.

So despite this year being really shitty for me, it feels like a time for redemption too. There is so much stuff I have yet to do for this blog, so I hope in the future I’ll get better at this and conquer my fears, as corny as that may sound.

Moral of the year is, the only person that can stop you is yourself. Don’t let yourself tell you that you can’t do anything, you can do it. To quote a great philosopher, “Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Just. Do it.” Try to discover yourself if you’re unsure.

Anyway, here’s hoping for a better year next year ヾ(☆´3｀)ﾉｼ⌒chu♪

Sorry for the long ass paragraph this year, next year it’ll be shorter for sure.

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2015 Games Recap (non-otome)

I keep getting this year and last years games that I played intertwined so I keep thinking that I played Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and other games this year. But yeah, this year has been lacking in non-otome games because I’ve been so caught up in app games. I wish I could just take a break from them. My poor ps3 controller, lying there, cold in storage waiting for me to pick it up… It doesn’t help that me and my ps3 reside in the far back of the house where the internet can’t touch us.

Anyway, here’s a quick review on some games I played, where half of them shouldn’t be considered ‘hardcore video games’. If I had more time, money and better taste I’d play better games.

Yakuza 3

I’ve always been meaning to get into the Yakuza/Ryuu ga Gotoku series and when I saw a preowned copy of Yakuza 3 for sale in EB games I bought it ASAP because I would prolly not find that opportunity ever again in my life. Yakuza&Yakuza 2 were on PS2 so I had no chance on getting into the series from the first game, where in Japan only they got a HD release, but thankfully Yakuza 3 has the first two games condescend into separate movies that you can watch optionally.

Gameplay isn’t too complicated and I found it really fun to play, beating up punks and all. Side missions, although optional, are so entertaining to complete, sometimes you get goofy missions. I remember one side mission where Kiryu has to keep an eye out for peeping perverts trying to peek into a lady’s apartment and it was just a continuation of looking out for strangers that look sus, like hanging from a ledge with undies etc until you find the true culprit. The boss fights feel so good when you’ve got your combos&actions memorised and it was so bizarre seeing Kiryu beat the shit out of a guy in a bath towel(?) with a huge round stone disc. The  special attacks with certain weapons are really fun to discover. Theres so much going for this game I found it hard to stop playing.

The story itself is kind of reminiscent of those Hollywood movies where the guy is retired from work like being a cop/detective but then is called into duty for one last time to settle things but then goes deeper into the problem. I’m just sitting there thinking “Just let Kiryu have his retirement in Okinawa raising up these orphan kids in peace” most of the time. For a game about Japan’s underbelly it sure does have a lot of funny moments, which I appreciate.

Anyway, it was a really great game. I wished I didn’t stopped playing because I’ve forgotten how everything works, so its a bit hard to get back into the game (especially when I’m about to go up against my next boss battle). I’d like to buy more of the games in the future, that is if Sega localises it…

✦

Project DIVA F 2nd

This is my second Project Diva game, and I like the improvements they did here even if the new mechanic they introduced is a bit finicky. Most of these songs are from the old psp games with some new ones, tho the old ones are quite nostalgic of those teen weaboo days on youtube… waiting for a 4 minute video to load for an hour. I’d keep the youtube tab open for days so I can replay the song without having to reload for another hour, having my internet connected by a cable to my computer. Yeah those were the days.

I like that they’ve made new interactions for you and the idols, because the last game I played was that never ending rock, paper, scissors game. Ngl I had a match with Len that went for about 10 turns, always ending in a draw. You’ve got more costumes as well as DLC costumes for free from the previous game, which I used real monies to buy it last time smh. The DLC content for this game is about 60 bucks(?) in worth, I think, some of them being songs and costumes. Why not include those songs in the shipped game tho, because some of those songs are Vocaloid classics.

Anyway, its a good way to kill time when commuting to places, hopefully without anyone judging you using Kaito’s cyber cat costume. I haven’t played it in a while tho. I’ll be purchasing the japanese version of Project Diva X when it releases because it has MikitoP’s song, whom I’m a really big fan of. Its about time they added him to the list. Now if only they’ll get kikuo’s songs in too.

✦

Oreshika

I came upon this game when I was sulking around neogaf and saw an OT(official thread) of it and when I heard that you’ll get 2 free Gods if you purchase it during the first week of its release I bought it immediately. Jk. I read the gameplay and found it quite interesting, and I heard some good reviews from a podcast. Its quite a refreshing approach to RPG dungeon crawling, I think the only game that does this is its predecessor (that I think wasn’t released outside Japan). Oreshika is short for “Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke” which roughly translate to ‘Over My Dead Body’, and is the second in the series. The story is that your whole clan was killed to ‘appease the gods’, but then are resurrected by the gods to get revenge on those who wronged your clan. Or something along the lines.

However your new life is cursed, you can only live around 24 months(?) and you can only breed with gods or other cursed families to carry on your lineage. You create your own character as the head of the family, with two randomised brothers/sisters based off your looks/genetics to help you fight for your family. Like any other RPGs you’ve got a range of classes. Being in dungeons will be timed by months and time will progress within the game depending on how many steps you take in a dungeon or the actions you take back at home.

It has a lot of gameplay going for it, its quite hard to put it all in this post while trying to keep it short. I found that the story isn’t quite centred around you and your family, more of the Gods and the story behind your clan’s demise. However, I made my own story about my family through playing the game. Most of the stuff that happened to my family was out of my control, tho it was affected through my gameplay, if that makes sense. Like I’d find myself having to kill off a family line because I didn’t have enough room in my home, so I’d have to let him/her die without having a child to carry on their legacy. Or I’d get twins or triplets and having to decide which one will die a short life or live. I’d keep my main ‘Billy’ lineage alive first, it was my first priority compared to my ‘original sister’s lineage. Its quite interesting, I’d find myself playing for days, not even keeping my eyes off it until I finally stopped forever.

More or less I bought this game for this free God to make babbies with lol. Too bad in-game me could never have a divine union with him because I didn’t have enough devotion for it. It took about a bunch of generations later until one of my relatives could divine union with him. I’m proud of you, child.

I’d recommend it to those who want to have something refreshing when it comes to RPG dungeon crawlers. The lowest amount of time you can dedicate to this game is about 30 hours, I think. I’d get a bit emotional when it came to the deaths of my descendants, even if its so further down the family line. Their death quotes are fully voiced and are varied, some of them can be short while others a bit longer and more emotional. Even just thinking about it right now makes me a bit sad. I’d pick it up again if I had time!

✦

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

Another trip at EB games and I found this on for sale, along with its many other copies on the sales table… I picked it up because its been a while since I played a professor layton game. I think my last one was The Lost Future (which I’ve also not finished). I played the game as I went home from the city, on the train, on the bus and then straight home. The puzzles can be easy at times, a few difficult ones, but other than that all of it is feasible. I think this game is the first one I played with the character portraits being 3D models. I remember when I was a few years younger I was a bit disappointed they swapped out the hand drawn pictures for 3D models but I guess it gives it more animation/life to the characters. Still its a waste of good illustration.

I stopped playing it as soon as I fell asleep on the same day I bought it. I think I was all tuckered out from going to the city that day that I fell asleep in bed playing the game. I don’t think I got in too far, maybe in the middle of it. Maybe I’ll pick it up again? I enjoyed playing Professor Layton with Pandora’s Box, which was my first Professor Layton game, but with this one I’m kinda neutral. Maybe because I’m a lifeless adult now, I just can’t enjoy stuff I used to.

✦

gotta love that localised cover art

New Style Boutique 2

Whats this? A game about fashion? Yeah, if you ever saw me on the street you wouldn’t think I’d play something like this because my fashion sense sucks but I guess its a long tradition of buying the Style Boutique games since I was a babby. Tbh I didn’t even know this was released yet until I saw an ad on youtube advertising this. So I walked out the door, took the first train to the city and bought it for full price (59 dollary doos). Was it worth it? Maybe.

If you’ve played the series from start to finish you’ll be surprised by how the graphics improve each instalment, but for each instalment theres always something huge&new added to it. Last game it was men’s fashion in addition to women’s fashion and interior designing your room. This time you have a door that goes to an alternative dimension thats in need of your fashion sense to change the town, which is pretty much a dollhouse with dolls for you to dress up at your leisure while residing in their reality… I guess dressing up normal people is too boring for kids these days?

This time you can cut ppl’s hair, do their makeup, dress them up for shows, give fashion advise/sell clothes at your boutique and rent out rooms designed by you using miniatures that becomes a reality in the world once you’re done. I think its pretty clever that when you quit the game you’re just “leaving their dimension to go into your own world” by hitting the key icon that opens that dimension door. I guess thats what they were aiming for in the end. Tho tbh its weird that whatever you do you’re apparently very skilled at it. You know a bit of fashion? Here have this boutique. Understandable, but then you go onto cutting ppls hair & doing their makeup and they’re like ‘wow youre so skilled!’, bro pls I can’t even cut my own hair evenly nor can do I know what makeup is. Oh yeah, I forgot, you also get to design clothes and be your own model on the catwalk.

It feels like they’ve squished a lot into this instalment and its mainly for after the end game, which is to hold a fashion show to prove to some guy’s sister that fashion has substance and is not just to clothe yourself. I kept on thinking that I’ll be out of the tutorial soon during the first few 4hours of gameplay but it felt like I was released from the tutorial once the credits rolled. I haven’t played it since then. Also, surprise, surprise, yet again the guy thats teased as a ‘love interest’ says nothing about his kimochiis (jk). Then again, his alter ego ‘Mickey’ was used once and never seen again omg. Way to go. I’ll pick it up again when spring/summer comes so I can play around with the spring/summer collection.

✦

Cooking Mama Bon Appetite

As a small child I always wanted to own a cooking mama game, I remember always adding it on my Christmas Wish List to Santa whenever Christmas came around, along with a bunch of other stuff. So when I was shopping in my nearby shopping centre for some stuff like clothes and a drawer, I saw that this was on for sale (or maybe it was always 35 bucks) and bought it. Tbh I just wanted to buy it so I could learn something about cooking. I am sick and tired of grilling steak and eating noodles all the time…

One thing that I noticed about this game is that the graphics are surprisingly nice for a 3DS (New Style Boutique 2’s graphics were blurry for some reason) and the textures for the food is nice and clear so you can see the IRL pics of meat and other food. Another thing is how Cooking Mama seems to be putting her child through child labour for some of these minigames. I think one of my favorite minigames was the one where you have to spot all the kanji as the one shown on top because that was the only one I scored highest in lol.

Its fun trying to make food, though I really want to try out what would happen when I completely fail one. Not sure if I can learn how to cook certain recipes following this game (no shit, lol). But yeah, will play again when I have spare time.

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2015 Games Recap (otome)

Now this is where the title of this blog post comes to play, that this year was disappointing to me on the otome games I played after having really high hopes from coming out of Binary Star. Maybe it was the nostalgic, first time feeling with Binary Star that tripped me up or that this year’s games were really shit in terms of story writing.

I hope to write full reviews of these games in the future/2016, but for now you’ll have to settle with these quick reviews. Not sure if I should do this every end of year, like waiting until the end of the year to review all the games I played, so tell me through this poll. I’d appreciate your feedback.

※ Try to complete the poll after reading both otome game & drama cd recaps

Edit: I’d like to make it clear that if I wait until the end of the year to write short reviews in the recap post, it means I might not be writing full reviews at all for some games. This post will be like a substitute for the games I don’t get around writing reviews on. So saying ‘yes’ would mean that you’re cool with me not doing reviews for a game until the end of the year.

Binary Star // (Completed)

Ah yes, the game that started it all. I borrowed it from a friend and I still have yet to buy a copy of my own, maybe I’ll play it for this blog’s 1st Anniversary. That is, if this blog lasts that long.

I can only comment on this game with nostalgia, even tho I played it about 9 months ago, some parts may seem a bit hazy. One thing I remember about playing this game was how much fun I had reading and experiencing it, especially when it was my first game where the whole written dialogue was in Japanese. The art was especially nice, tho I can see ppl not standing it because of the abundance of bright colors but I didn’t mind. All the characters are loveable, except for one stalker-like ‘antagonist’ character, and the protag is strong.

It was a nice introduction to otome games for me. I still wished they made a fandisk, but what can ya do? I’d recommend playing this game, even tho the plot is about drug busting & stuff, its not that dark? The ‘bad endings’ aren’t even that bad. The guys just lose all confidence/mess up big time and mop around the protag while she comforts them & the guys are being all touchy feely (lolwhat), but these ends are short and sweet so you can ignore them. Possibly my fav game of the year.

✦

Diabolik Lovers Dark Fate // (Incomplete)

So as I waited for when KLAP would release, I decided to hold a Jojo ASB CPU match to help me pick what game to play next. The winning result was Possession Magenta but I bought Dark Fate anyway because I hate myself.

I came into this game expecting nothing but shit and came away from it as an Azusa fangirl. Tbh this is my first Diabolik Lovers game, my first experience with Diabolik Lovers were short clips on nico douga from the Drama CDs and as a wee babby Kanato became my fav. As a manchild now I’ve noticed the wrong of my ways and the shit taste wee babby Billy had. Anyway, I was bracing myself for full frontal abuse like its predecessors were well known for but was surprised that most of the characters were less terrible than I expected, aside from the Tsukinami bros… Tho I think this is because of that ‘full moon makes them all soft’ thing.

I wouldn’t say this is the ‘best game of Diabolik Lovers’, I’d say its one of the better games, its not entirely shit but its still half a shit. The writing is kind of predictable, Boy: ‘I love you, I’ll protect you!’, Yui: ‘I love you too! Pls drink my blood.’, tho the predictability made it much easier for me to read. Its one of the easiest games I’ve read yet. I haven’t completed it yet, I guess going through 11 guys x 3 ends really took its toll, but all I know is that Azusa is bae. I was emotionally torn to shreds when they (spoilers, highlight to see hidden spoiler text) [cut off his fucking arm to save him and it made it harder for him to embrace Yui, just thinking about it makes me cry]. That messed me up. The ‘man servant’ endings don’t make sense, wheres my Do-M man servant boy? I have a lot to say about this game but I’ll leave it to another time.

✦

Possession Magenta // (Dropped)

As I mentioned above, I preordered this game thanks to a CPU tournament that helped out my choices to buy my next game. Tbh I wasn’t interested in the game before its release, I kept seeing ppl be hype about it and I was like ‘Maybe, I’ll try it out for myself’… Don’t let others hype affect your decisions, kids. This was prolly the most disappointing game I’ve ever played, especially when it was hyped up by fans, I’m sure they’re extra disappointed when they played it.

This game had a lot going for it, a great artist, a good system, great graphic design, likeable characters, gr8 BGM, a good premise and theme but it all fell flat on its execution of story. The way routes work is by gaining affection to a guy during the common route, which takes up the whole game, and then you’ll get his ending during the ‘end game’. The whole common route feels like each chapter/act focuses on one boy on an intimate level and then goes straight to next guy where its all intimate again with no change. With my first playthrough I was all confused, I thought I entered Kosuke’s route but no, its just part of the common route. And let me tell you, going through everyone’s “routes” is too troublesome and repetitive that I just gave up on my third route because each route gives nothing new to the story. Also the story was pretty predictable, tried to throw in a red herring character to put you off the trail but in the end it was pretty predictable.

But its just sad seeing everyone else’s hard work go to waste, while at the same time was frustrating to play and not quite enjoyable. I find it ironic now, thinking back on a quote from one of the characters that said something along the lines of “My life is nothing but a kusoge (shitty game)”. And thats what I feel like towards this game.

The Jojo ASB CPU match up system was against me that day…

Never again.

✦

Shinobi Koi Utsutsu – Setsugen Kakkkoi Emaki // (Completed)

When I saw Kamakiyo on the official website I knew that I had to get this game. If you know me well, I never owned a psp as a wee babby so I couldn’t buy the original if I could. But thankfully otomate released a PS Vita port along with a new story. While the PSP story was a pleasure to play, the PS Vita new story was…….. what.

As ports go, everything seemed to be transitioned pretty well into the vita. I don’t think any of the art got downgraded or anything. In fact, I think they added animation to the PS Vita addition, I’m not sure. The voices for the main guys are nice and clear but for the sub characters tho… Its like they didn’t bother with the audio quality. Tho I just tried to ignore that and play the game, which is really good. Most of the characters are loveable and surprise, surprise, Kamakiyo is really adorable. I think if it was a psp port alone the game would’ve been great but…. then they had to add a new story.

The PS Vita story side had maybe two and a half (maybe one and a half, give or take) decent routes out of 4. Half of Yoshie’s story was nothing but dragging him by his feet around & babysitting him and not a single thank you, I think, and in the final scene he tells Kanade he likes her with a deadpan voice or something. While Hanzou’s route, one of my most anticipated route for the PS Vita story, was gr8 the first half but then somebody had to put someone in their love cage against their will for the final part of the route. Why. I just wanted it to end. What happened to that feeling I had when I played through the PSP game? What went wrong? Thats just my thoughts, maybe its different to somebody else.

One thing that won’t change is that Kamakiyo is bae and forever will be. One of my highlights of this year was seeing that my comment for Kamakiyo got printed in the character poll. Even tho he was second last in the poll it made me happy seeing my comment, maybe a lil embarrassed.

(Try and guess which comment is mine, lol)

✦

KLAP ~ Kind Love And Punish ~ // (Completed)

My most anticipated game of the year, and it was all right. It met some of my expectations but it didn’t go far beyond my expectations. In the end it was an enjoyable game, I’d prolly replay it for the Torture modes again lol.

I’ll praise it for the ‘torture mini game’, its putting the touch screen to good use and its treading into territory that I was hoping some otome games would go into, jk jk. Take away this unique system and you’d get just a normal visual novel. More or less I hope to see more otome games that uses the vita’s touch screen to the best of its ability. One of my pipe dreams was making games for the vita because I believed it has a lot of potential and I still do, creators just need to take that giant leap, that risk for innovative gaming. Not quite saying whipping 2D boys is innovative gaming or anything (I prolly am).

The graphics are incredible, imo. I remember reading the main character artist for this game commenting in their tweet how their graphics on the ps vita is almost as good as when they created it on the computer. And I can see that whenever they do a close up of the character portrait, I keep thinking how the artist must’ve worked on a huge canvas to create such a crisp character profile. I think they improved their illustration skills too, their coloring too (if they’re doing the coloring, I think someone else did the coloring, I’m not sure). Like any good game, the characters are likeable and I like the aesthetic of the world the ‘youkai’ live in, reminds me of those picture books I read as a child where theres details in all of the backgrounds.

The protag is pursuing a dream to become a teacher and become someone that ppl can rely on, tho somehow got wound up into ‘discipling’ youkai aka whipping some animu bois. She’s not sadistic as you’d think, shes pretty much doing this out of the kindness of her heart and wanting to see her students graduate into a youkai that can interact in the human world without berserking. Prolly one of my fav heroines.

I keep wishing that they’d do a fandisk but I’ll settle with the drama CDs.

✦

I DOLL U // (Dropped ?)

I bought this game for the main illustrator, as well as the character and well… I ended up dropping it along with a couple of other games (Reine des Fleurs & YunohanaSpRING), prolly because I was in my breakdown that led up to me dropping out of Uni.

I didn’t get too deep into the game, all I know is that these idols are awful together lol. They need to shape up and poor Aika is thrown into all of this thanks to her onii-chan. Thanks Onii-chan. The music mini-game is a bit awkward and I’m terrible at it after playing two songs and the ‘Kiss Mode’ is so weird. You could just rapidly spam the touch screen and clear the mode while your 2D boy is spamming you with phrases that keep stopping and starting because of the touch screen spam. Why is it in there tho.

The GUI is bad on the eyes, reminds me of something I or any of my team members would put out for a first year game prototype project. The other graphic design kind of puts down Cocoa Fujiwara’s great artwork, at least make GUI’s and stuff like that visually blending with the main artwork…

I’ll try to pick up this game on a later date because the characters are so interesting but I heard some bad things about how they wrote the routes/endings. We’ll see.

✦

Reine des Fleurs // (Dropped ?)

My uni friend who lent me their copy of Binary Star was really anticipating this game. I remember she showed me the official website and talking about the artwork and seemed really excited for it. I now feel sorry for both me and her because this game has a bunch of bad ends and I heard it put Kagerou’s artwork to waste.

The Ravir System they introduced is quite interesting but it kinda seemed too repetitive/popping up frequently. I didn’t go so far into the game after experiencing about 4 Ravirs and having gone about nowhere, so I’m not sure about what to think about the game. I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as the other games, it was a pretty chill game.

The only selling point for me was the art, so I’ll only come back to this game to unlock the CGs.

✦

Yunohana SpRING! // (Dropped ?)

Bought this game for the RiRi illustrations and concept of running an inn, but it felt like it didn’t meet my expectations with the running inn part. Nevertheless, the artwork met my expectations.

I played through one route and then called it a day, kind of felt tired/burnt out after all of these games. Its not a bad game, I wouldn’t say its the greatest game I’ve played, its all right. Strange thing is when I try to remember back to the story its kinda hard to recollect what happened. But I do remember having a fun time with Kintarou’s route, laughing and smiling at times. Tbh the only routes I want to play through is Kintaro’s, Takahira’s & secret guy’s, sorry other guys.

Out of the ones I semi-dropped, this one is No.1 on the list of the games I want to get back into playing. Hopefully soon, once I get some games finished.

✦

Amnesia:Memories // (Incomplete)

After seeing that it was on sale I decided to dip my feet into translated otome games and see how companies go about localising/translating games. Tho too bad for me, I already watched the whole anime so I’ve been spoilt and my thoughts are based around the anime while playing this. So I keep on thinking the protag keeps moving from timeline to timeline, until she finds her true timeline… which is still unknown by the end of the timeline. However that is not the case in the game, but I keep falling back to the way the anime carried the story lol.

Localisation wise its all right but needs some improvements as there are some typos. I think some wording needs some work, other than that its an a-ok localisation, comprehensive and not too off the linear meaning of the original Japanese dialogue… or at least thats how I remember it.

Tbh the only thing that I found weird was how the CGs seemed to be a bit inconsistent at times, like theres a bunch of artists providing their work in random places. It might be just me who’s thinking this, might just be my imagination. Also, whats up with everyone wearing belts and zippers?

I’ve only completed two routes so far, accidentally went into Toma’s route first, tho that means I got that cage of love route out of the way. I’ll get back onto playing it even though I know how all of these routes end thanks to the anime. Kinda regret watching it now. Plus I have it on my Europe/Australian PSN account and I rly can’t be bothered changing accounts right now…

✦

Code:Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ // (Currently Playing)

One of my more recent games I’m playing & another localised game I wanted to examine. This time I have no idea what this game is, but I have heard good things about it and really wanted to try it. Thankfully they localised it before the anime is realised so I can enjoy this in its original form with no spoilers.

If you haven’t noticed, I’m taking it slowly with this game because apps keep taking up my time with their events. So far I’ve finished one of Impey’s true ends and I’m liking it so far, despite my stop and starting. I’ve never seen/experienced such an interesting heroine as Cardia that keeps growing before my eyes. The story/scenario is so beautiful too. Where have you been all my life. Tbh, this kind of story is something I wanted to see for a while. I’m glad that this game exists.

Localisation wise, for the most part its smooth but sometimes there are bumps that take me out of the story telling when I hear the Japanese audio call Victor Frankenstein ‘Fran’ while the english dialogue is ‘Victor’. My fav nickname localisation is ‘Saint-G’ or something. At times there would be random british phrases that pops up in the dialogue, I guess its because its set in Steampunk England, but its just so random whenever it pops out of nowhere while the rest of the dialogue is just simple english with no British jargon or jargon of any kind. For those who don’t know Japanese well its ok, but for me it always takes me out of the game whenever that happens I stop reading and think ‘wait what, why?’ at the wording choice and then continue with a puzzled look on my face for a few seconds before getting back into the game’s story.

Also I happened upon some typos that weren’t picked up as well as one big bug in Impey’s extra scenario…

In Impey's extra scenario
I guess no one at QA tested this part pic.twitter.com/7MRrW7EsVJ

— bilby (@otomebunny) December 22, 2015

I think they’re gonna make a fandisk as well as drama cds (correct me if I’m wrong), so I’ll be looking forward to that as well as the anime.

✦

Scared Riders Xechs Rev. // (Currently Playing)

I got to know about this game through Dengeki Girl’s Style and was drawn to how its pretty much Sentai-the Dating Sim: The Game. Little did I know there was more to it than that.

This one is a port to the vita for the first PSP game, I think its as part of a 5th Anniversary project. The port isn’t as great as Nin Koi’s port. The graphics seem to have a small amount jpg noise, not quite crisp and especially noticeable on the character portraits. Audio is ok. The animated cut-in videos are all right. The CG’s are kinda weird in terms of how its framed, instead of being full screen its almost like a small box… Not sure if this was in the PSP game or the PS2 game. I’m guessing its because of the PS2 limitations or something.

sexy leg in 4:3

That aside its an interesting game, it has all of the tropes a sentai show would have and its got some humor in it too, especially Kazuki who just says random english all the time I guess its because he’s the lyricist of the group. Like, they’re heroes but also a band at the same time so their weapons are also music inspired. One thing I have to gripe on is the ‘Commander Mode’ because its repetitive and just drains out all of my energy, plus I have no idea what I’m doing during that mode but I somehow survive it each time.

I’ve been trying to play Code:Realize and Scared Rider Xechs on separate nights lately but stopped because I gotta do these blog posts and trying to draw that Christmas pic thats taking centuries to complete.

I’ll get back onto playing it real soon, especially when I stopped at a place where shit really went down.

2015 Apps&Browser Games Recap

If I summed up 2015, it’d be “wasting my time on apps & browser games”. Even now I wished I got the back the time I wasted on these games to do something more productive but at the same time it felt like the right choice to waste time with them lol.

I’ll try to keep it short and sweet with these recaps/reviews because these games are never ending and I can prolly never complete it in my lifetime. Some of the games I won’t talk about because I’m planning to do a post about them, hopefully soon.

Touken Ranbu // (On&Off Playing)

Ah yes, I remember the days where I’d rush to dmm to get into a newly established server to try and play this game only to miss out and wait until next month. I remember my first sword, my first combat unit consisting of tantou sons, Yamanbagiri and Nikkari. I remember getting Moon Jiji on my 10th day and feeling empty because I wanted the case for Moon Jiji to last longer. Now here I am, logging in inconsistently to check on my swords and calling it a day until an event happened, still looking out for Foxy Grandpa. The lust for Foxy Grandpa knows no ends and I still search for him till this day.

What a time to be alive.

✦

KoeKare // (Dropped ?)

So when I thought I may as well play one of DMM’s other otome browser games, what little they have, and picked up KoeKare to play when I have down time with Touken Ranbu. For a game that has “Koe” (voice) in their title it sure does have small amounts of spoken dialogue lol.

I slowly dropped it as I picked up new app games and everything got so busy that I just forgot about my cute bfs. Now they have like 3 new boys added to the game since I was gone OTL. Tbh I wanted to write up game diaries for this game as well as Mystiage because their events were quite interesting to talk about but ended up not to because I stopped playing it regularly.

I’d like to pick it up again one day to check out the new guys… tho I bet when I get back the BFs I have will be like “Where were you, I missed you?” and guilt tripping me into playing it for a week. We’ll see.

✦

Mystiage // (Service No Longer Available)

Another DMM game that I got to know through B’s Log, it was one of those lost-and-found games where you have to find the item prompted underneath… and now its gone forever.

Along with KoeKare, I also slowly dropped this game because things got too busy. I guess I was so busy I didn’t realise they ceased the servers for the game during September/October until now when I tried looking it up for a screenshot for this post & found it was no longer available. I feel sad tho, the characters were great and the heroine was superb and now I’ll never see them again. I’ll never see my Half-Werewolf BF Dietrich ever again…

Thanks DMM, for taking down one of your few otome browser games. Then again I think it was because the lack of profit coming in was the breaking point of deleting this game from existence.

It would’ve been better off as a visual novel or something along the lines of that. Theres still a storyline and mystery that I’ve yet to uncover and now I can’t.

✦

Ensemble Stars // (Currently Playing)

This game is a blessing and a curse. I love it to bits, even tho the gameplay is lacking everything else makes up for it. This game made me laugh, cry, get frustrated and felt like if my day was shitty these guys would cheer me up a bit.

Thank you Happy Elements for taking the risk to make this game into a reality. I hope this game will keep developing into something really special for everyone and a big thanks to the writers (Akira-sensei especially), all the artists, programmers and planners and the whole team for making Enstars what it is as well as the voice actors. Especially the newbies whos first major voice acting roll was prolly this game, ya did great, kids. Special thanks to the fans for contributing content that made the experience so fun.

Honestly, this game made my year less tragic than I thought it would be.

✦

Ai Chuu // (Dropped ?)

Oh Ai Chuu… Where do I begin? I don’t hate this series, its just complicated. I just wish you could run smoothly on my iPod so I can enjoy you more. I also wish my android phone wasn’t so busted so I can actually play from time to time.

But without this game my blog wouldn’t be what it is right now and I wouldn’t have found an appreciation for mobile rhythm games. In a way this game changed me a bit, it frustrated me but in the end it was enjoyable to play. Maybe one day when I have a powerful device I’ll get back into it.

✦

Tokimeki Restaurant // (Dropped ?)

(*´д`*)

(；´Д｀)ﾊｱﾊｱ

(*´Д`)ﾊｧﾊｧ

(:.;ﾟ;Д;ﾟ;.:)ﾊｧﾊｧ

(;´Д｀)ﾊｧﾊｧ/lｧ/lｧ/ヽｧ/ヽｧ

(;´Д｀)ﾊｧﾊｧﾌﾝﾌﾝｿｳｿｳ

(;´Д`)ﾊｧﾊｧ (*´Д`)/lァ/lァ (*` Д´)／/ア／/ア！！

Oh, what? Sorry, I was distracted by Kento’s beauty.

Fun fact, this game was my first otome app. I saw it in my first copy of B’s Log and was like hey, why not try this out its about food. Little did I know there was a skinship system where the guys are just moaning into your ears (if you’re using earphones). But also about food and running a resturant, and maybe about Idols?

I kinda dropped it when I got more into Ensemble Stars and Ai Chuu and I had no time for running my restaurant and skinshipping with the idols bois. Seeing that this is me, I have a heard time dropping something I’ve dedicated a lot of time with and liked playing for good, so I’d like to get back into one day… If I have all the time in the world, that is.

✦

Yumeiro Cast // (Currently Playing)

Subaru is bae. Thats it.

Taking this seriously tho, its prolly one of my favorite rhythm games this year. Its lacking in a strong story like Enstars but I guess it makes up in the character scenarios. Its always surprising me with different varying events so nothing gets really old.

Prolly gonna play it next year too until I get tired of it.

✦

BF/Boyfriend // (Dropped)

Its a good time waster but not my kind of time waster. There were a few gems of good characters but I just ended up being salty because I’d have to pour in some money to get better cards of my fav characters.

I can say for this game is that its dropped and dropped for good. I don’t plan on picking it up any time soon.

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2015 Drama CDs Recap

2015 was the year where I dipped my toes into Drama CDs and then fell into the deep end. As a teen I didn’t think highly of drama cds, always thought they were just a few minutes of content and thats it, which is kinda true. Now here I am with a bunch of Drama CDs to lull me to sleep.

For future post purposes I’ll be excluding some CDs that I’ve bought recently from this post, so I can talk about them fully in another post. Some of these I’ve been meaning to write up a post about it but didn’t end up doing because I was too lazy/busy. I’ll try to keep these short too, if I can.

Yuugen Romantica

If you know me pretty well you’ll know that I have a soft spot for mythology and similar topics like it and that I have a weak spot for 2D animu boys with animal ears. Call me Animu-Furry McGee.

I bought four out of six CDs (I was planning to buy just half of the series but ended up buying the last one too). Tbh I liked it, it was a nice introduction to drama CDs for me. Its quite an innocent&cute drama cd series in comparison to Diabolik Lovers and Midnight Jiangshi. I’d laugh all the time whenever they have the running gag where the youkai & you go to animate and the youkai boi is like “What is this… animate?” almost every time in a CD. Talk about product placement.

It was great fun listening to them, felt a bit short but thats just me and most drama cds, I never want it to end. I’d love to see it in other media like a game or something one day.

✦

Enemy Coupling

Baby’s first accidental R18+ Drama CD™.

Let me clear things up, when I saw this in B’s Log I was like ‘aw cute, what a nice premise’ and didn’t see any text saying it was R18, nor did I look carefully on the official website to see the sample audio and fine printed warning saying 18 years or older. Now I know I’m legal enough to purchase this but not like this man, I thought this was gonna be about a cat and a mouse that don’t get along but then do in the end but I guess I was wrong on both the story and it being non-R18+. I could’ve canceled my order, yeah, but I had it shipped with Iriya’s CD (Yuugen Romantica) and I didn’t want to cancel that too.

So in the end I got it shipped to me, listened to it once and put it in storage to never be heard from again. No comment on what the story was about, just want to forget it. If I wanted an R18+ CD I would’ve bought Reversible Vol.4 as my first R18 drama cd, which has the same voice actor as this guy. Not like this, accidentally buying it. If I bought Reversible instead I would’ve been happier.

Now that I’ve learnt from this accident, I know now not to trust B’s Log when it comes to most Drama CDs it advertises because even tho the cd jacket may look cute, if the seiyuu’s name looks weird (like Peroperochiino) or they have no cast photo when doing an interview then it must be an R18 drama cd.

✦

Love Cuisine ~Monsters Recipe~

Oh how much I love this series. Prolly my fav drama cd series this year, maybe even for my whole life. I don’t want to go into too much detail about this because I want to do a proper post about it. But yeah, I never thought I’d have so much fun with just listening to these guys talk about food. Just thinking about it puts a smile on my face. I think I listen to it 4 times per CD.

Tho the ‘past story’ of Love Cuisine (vol 5&6) felt a bit weak, I’d recommend trying it out. And ngl, I cried when vol 4 had all the guys saying goodbye, like I don’t want this to end…

This one I feel strongly about when I say “I wish this was in other mediums like a game or something”. Kinda want to buy some of the merch too if I can. Really good stuff right here.

✦

Nadenade CD -Another- Yandere Akuma-chan ga yoshiyoshi

I bought this CD based on its jacket illustration alone. Note to self, don’t do that ever again. I was happy to see the seiyuu is Toshiki Masuda (whom I was introduced to in Possession Magenta and from there on I liked his voice work) but for some reason in this CD it was quite draining to listen to him. I guess its because I marathoned two volumes of Love Cuisine late at night and I played this at 1am.

Tho, my expectations for the cd’s premise crashed to the ground. The character seems to be a bit confused wether hes willing to kill for your love or not, like ‘am i a yandere?? did i kill that guy i was talking shit about a few minutes ago?? I dunno, you tell me’. Also the way how hes already saying he likes you a few seconds into the intro and as the cd progresses nothing prompts you to like him back. What redeeming qualities does he have other than being a maybe-yandere demon? I dunno.

It was kinda disappointing, but that jacket art tho.

✦

Bara no Kousui Shi – № 03 Dia Gingetsu

Another cd I bought based off the jacket art, but this time this one ended up being really interesting. Its about coming back to your grandma’s place, who was a perfumer, and your instructions were “Take care of the Roses”. You meet other perfumers who worked under your grandma’s teachings and kind of live at her place (I’m imaging she lived in a huge mansion). Apparently you have no memories of your time as a child when you stayed at your grandma’s, in this very place.

Dia’s volume is really interesting, I don’t want to spoil it or anything but I think if I just had this as my one and only volume from this cd series I’d be happy, even tho (spoilers ahead, don’t read if you’re interested in buying) [the CD ended by revealing a big mystery that left me with my mouth agape. I did not expect this, nor did the website allude to this. I’m not gonna say what it is, because it’d ruin the surprise, just saying this series has a deeper darker secret just gives away the cliffhanger at the end]. Dia is one of those erogaki’s, his speciality is scent and upon talking about how in night crawling the girl would sometimes put on perfume/scent to make it easier for the guy to find her and “lavish her”, Dia is like “*whispering in ear* How about I night crawl you tonight? *audible wink*”. This erogaki tho www.

But yeah, it was a pleasant drama cd. I wish I could buy the other CDs too, not sure if CD Japan has it still in stock. Worth a look.

✦

Diabolik Lovers Bloody Bouquet – Shin Tsukinami

Bloody Bouquet feels like its not worth it if you’re gonna buy a bunch of them because I think they’re all gonna follow the same formula: On the brink of death thanks to the bouquet of death, guy tries to save you by sacrificing his self, hes dying thanks to that but with his last few breaths hes like ‘yo lets get married, im dying lol’ and then the curse lifts and everyone lives happily ever after. Thats what I think most of these cds might be about. Which is sad because my Azusa tho….

I bought Shin because hes my guilty fav character like how Diabolik Lovers is kind of my guilty pleasure, also because Showtaro Morikubo. Most of the time he was an asshole, what do you expect tho, and then the rest of the time he’s dying. Tbh Showtaro’s voice acting was the saving grace of this, but no bad writing can save this cd from being disappointing. Doesn’t help how its under an hour (the extra track is 5 minutes out of 1hr2min of track). Still prolly gonna buy Azusa’s and thats it, I’ll be washing my hands from Diabolik Lovers after that.

Also, bonus:

When ya too lazy to draw, trace another work poorly
No one will know pic.twitter.com/pSH8LaGVwK

— bilby (@otomebunny) October 12, 2015

I’m still trying to differentiate who’s the real Satoi (I’m terrible at spotting copycats, I know). The inside of the jacket credited illustration to Satoi so I’m guessing the one on the left is the true one and the one on the right is the copycat.

I kinda wanted to make a post on this CD but I guess this will satisfy as a review. Its not quite worth your money, just buy one CD if you want and thats it. The main scenario is prolly copy and paste.

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Bunny’s Rankings – 2015 Edition

My personal rankings for 2015, which is based on my tastes so I apologize for my shit taste in advance. Might add some new categories as the years go on, maybe. Tbh I’m really awful at ranking things because I don’t like numbering my favs to highest to lowest, they’re all my favs.

Enjoy.

Top 5 Otome Games (vita)

1. Binary Star
2. Code:Realize
3. KLAP ~Kind Love And Punish~
4. Shinobi Koi Utsutsu -Setsugen Kakkkoi Emaki
5. Yunohana SpRING!

Top 5 Anticipated Otome Games (2016)

1. Kenka Banchou Otome
2. CollarxMalice
3. Nämlich Shirayuki/Kyoukai no Shirayuki
4. Brothers Conflict – Precious Baby
5. Dance with Devils

Top 5 Apps/Browser Games

1. Ensemble Stars
2. Yumeiro Cast
3. Touken Ranbu
4. Idolish7
5. Tokimeki Restaurant

Special Mention: Ai Chuu

Top 5 Drama CDs

1. Love Cuisine ~Monsters Recipe~ (Vol.1-4)
2. Honey Liar!?
3. Yuugen Romantica
4. Bara no Kousui Shi
5. Midnight Jiangshi (????? I guess?)

Top 5 2D Bois

※One fav male character per series, “Bae of the year” is the ultimate rank of this category & therefore isn’t listed here

1. Kamakiyo Yuri (Shinobi Koi Utsutsu)
2. Subaru Jogasaki (Yumeiro Cast)
3. Franklin Greenwood (Love Cuisine)
4. Camil Settselin (KLAP ~Kind Love and Punish~)
5. Rayla Konomi (Binary Star)

Special Mention: Azusa Mukami (Diabolik Lovers)

Top 5 Heroines

1. Anzu/Transfer Student (Ensemble Stars) [don’t judge me pls]
2. Cardia Beckford (Code:Realize)
3. Koyomi Yamashiro (KLAP ~Kind Love and Punish~)
4. Fuu Sorano (Binary Star)
5. Yunoha Sanjo (Yunoha SpRING!)

Top 5 Seiyuus

1. Shinichiro Kamio (Kuro from Ensemble Stars, actual magician & babe)
2. Tasuku Hatanaka (Subaru from Yumeiro Cast, national treasure)
3. Wataru Hatano (Adonis from Ensemble Stars, Loup from Love Cuisine)
4. Takahiro Sakurai (Zakuro from Yuugen Romantica, Osomatsu from Osomatsu-san)
5. Showtaro Morikubo (Makoto from Ensemble Stars, Impey from Code:Realize)

Top 5 Illustrators/Artists

1. Kinako (Iwatooshi’s Character Designer, Kyoukai no Shirayuki)
2. Ensemble Stars’ Artists (Unnamed)
3. RiRi (Yunohana SpRING!)
4. Makoto Senzaki (Konbini Kareshi, Tokimeki Restaurant)
5. Kagerou (Reine des Fleurs, Wand of Fortune series)

Top 5 2015 Anime

1. Death Parade
2. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – Stardust Crusaders (Season 2)
3. Onepunch Man
4. Yurikuma Arashi
5. Osomatsu-san

Special Mention: Dance with Devils

Top 5 Popular Blog Posts of 2015 (yankeebanchou)

1. [Mobile] Breakdown – 夢色キャスト – Yumeiro Cast
2. [Mobile] Review – アイ★チュウ – Ai Chuu (I Chu)
3. [Mobile] Breakdown – アイ★チュウ – Ai Chuu (I Chu)
4. [Game Diary] あんスタ – Ensemble Stars | September《#02》
5. [Game Diary] あんスタ – Ensemble Stars | October《#03》

Top 5 Disappointments of 2015

1. Dropping out of/failing Games Design Course
2. Possession Magenta
3. Writing/Story/Scenarios for some of the games I’ve played through
4. Ai Chuu being unstable on my iPod, to the point where I can no longer play it
5. Persona 5’s release date moved once again, not mad just a bit disappointed

No.1 BL Game I wish I could buy but don’t want my bank to know I’m spending my savings on smut

No, Thank You!!!

Long story, I’ve been wanting to play this game ever since they announced the game and so I waited for a fan translation of the game, apparently it took too long so I just forgot about it until it resurfaced when a company bought localisation rights and localised it. The thing is, once they bought the rights they took down any fan translation thread in Aarin fantasy, so I ouldn’t download the english patch nor download the japanese copy illegally.

So my only choice is buy the english ver through the website, apparently its the uncensored version too. Now, I would buy it ASAP but that would mean putting my credit card details/having it in my bank statement history & paypal won’t secure me because purchasing “pornographic content” through paypal is against policy or something. So its a pipe dream, wanting to get this game.

Goodbye, my lovely baras. Goodbye, SWING! shirt guy… (I would prolly buy that shirt if I could).

Bae of the Year

Adonis Otogari (Ensemble Stars)

No surprise there. He’s just the sunshine in my life and all I wish for is his happiness. Got no words to express how much he means to me…

He’d prolly be the bae of the year for next year too, who knows.

 

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And that was 2015… What a roller coaster of a year.

This is prolly the longest post I’ve ever written (10,000 words). Its also my 50th post, yay! Thank you to all who stuck with me from start to finish, I appreciate it, I really do.

I remember I promised to do more drawings, seems like I didn’t fit the quota for this year but I’ll try my best next year. Its been a bit hard to work with wordpress in the remainder of this year because they changed their format and everything is so weird now, its like they took out some functions as well. Why.

Expect more content next year!

I wish you all a happy new year. Stay tune for a 2016 Overview very soon! Thank you again for sticking with till the end of the year. Its been a pleasure writing for you all.