Release Date: 30th August 2016
囚われのパルマ (Toraware no Paruma*) is an upcoming mobile game by Capcom. It is an Adventure game that follows the story of a young man called “ハルト” (Haruto), he has amnesia and is under surveillance by you, who is also trying to help get his memories back. Upon release, only the prologue and the first episode will be available. Every Tuesday (Japan Time) they will release a new episode starting from Episode 2 until Episode 6 (there will be 6 episodes to release on iOS and Android). The prologue and first episode will cost 360 yen and episode 2 & onwards will cost 360 yen each (about 2,160 yen for all episodes).
*Not sure whether to write it as “palma”, “parma” or “palm”, however palm would be incorrect because it is spelt as パルム. But according to the website’s html it has the word palm so it might have something to do with the game so ??? // Ok just to clear things up パルマ is “palm”
If you haven’t noticed by the title I’m starting a new segment. “Otome Watch” will be a form similar to “Spotlight” posts except it will continuously update until a game/drama cd/etc is released or until there is no news to talk about. It’ll focus on things I’ve become interested in/researched into and will take info I’ve learnt from magazines etc.
It may replace magazine posts like Dengeki Girl’s Style & B’s Log and may contain some magazine scans as reference.
When a post is updated I’ll put a sticky note so it’ll stay at the top of older posts and will put this -> ✨ emoticon next to it, alternatively I could just write up a post saying which posts are updated. Updated posts will stay on the top for about a week.
Table of Contents
Story
Haruto Side——
A mysterious love story about uncovering the hidden past of a young man with amnesia.
You, the player, who had been brought to a solitary island in the distant sea, encounter Haruto–a young man with amnesia, who had caused a certain incident and is currently detained.
The player had been promised that they could leave the island on the terms of bringing back his memories. However, as they explore through his lost memories, they slowly realise the mysterious powers that he holds.
Aoi Side——
A sorrowful love story that starts from a lie with a young man who had lost his memories of his lover.
On a rainy day, you jump onto the road in hope to help a young man who seems to have gotten himself in an accident. However, because of that, you, who has no knowledge about it, become involved in the suspicion of the incident.
Having being brought to a solitary island’s detention centre, a man appears before you who says he can clear your name. All that he asks of you is to find hints on the whereabouts of a certain missing woman by extracting information from Aoi.
However, thanks to the convenience of the other day’s accident, Aoi, the man in question, no longer remembers anything concerning the missing woman.
In order to clear your name, you reluctantly take the role as Aoi’s lover and come into contact with him…
+ Information translated from here
Characters
CV: Yuichiro Umehara
A youth with memory loss who had been imprisoned in the wake of a certain incident.
Silent, doesn’t show much emotion, reserved and blunt. There seems to be a reason as to why he refuses to have relations with people.
■ Profile
Height: 178cm
Weight: 68kg
Blood type: O Type
Favorite Food: Nothing in particular
+ Information translated & Haruto image from here
CV: Yuma Uchida
A youth who had lost his memories of his lover from an accident on a rainy day.
Accustomed when handling the ladies, he can brightly come into contact with people he has met for the first time with an openheart. But, it seems like he draws the line somewhere…
■ Profile
Height: 180cm
Weight: 68kg
Blood Type: A Type
Favorite Food: Meat, Fish
+ Information translated & Aoi image from here
Gameplay
+ Image credits from official website, found here
At certain points in the game you will be able to communicate to Haruto face to face. This is the “Visiting Room”, however despite being so close the both of you are separated by a pane of glass. During these events you will have a conversation with Haruto, possibly helping him triggering past memories and is also provides a good chance to have ‘skinship’ events.
When the palm icon comes on you can choose whether to press your hand on your mobile screen or ignore it. The choice is yours and either choice will create a reaction from Haruto. If you’re extra lucky you’ll get special events, such as pressing your forehead on Haruto’s when prompted. Of course, you have to physically place your forehead onto the screen, a light tap with your finger won’t suffice. It may be embarrassing but I guess it enhances the experience.
Your time in this room is limited, so make the best of it.
Throughout the game you are expressing what kind of person you are to Haruto. Whatever dialogue choice you choose with Haruto helps create a better understanding as to who you are and what are your likes. Haruto will remember dialogue choices and bring them up during conversations that may relate to the information he knows, such as if you say you prefer tea rather than coffee and then message him saying you tried out coffee he’ll comment about it while referring to the information you gave him that you liked tea.
It is recommended to play as yourself rather than a person that suits Haruto’s personality and tastes.
The realistically alive Haruto’s living arrangements – Monitoring Haruto
You can surveillance Haruto during the times the both of you cannot meet through surveillance cameras planted in his (possibly temporary) living arrangement. He spends most of his time here and does not know that he is being monitored, nor does he know where the surveillance cameras are. There are three camera positions so far: Wash Basin (focuses near main door where packages are received), Desk (focuses on desk) and Bed (focuses on the bed that Haruto sleeps on ;^) ).
When you send him messages and gifts you can watch his reactions in real time through the surveillance cameras. If you ask him what is he doing right now through text message and he responds with “Just cleaning”, you can check the camera and will most certainly see him cleaning. If you send him a gift and he receives it, you can watch him interact with it.
There is also “Surveillance Quests” that are triggered during conversations between him and you, usually asking you to get him a certain item. Completing the quest will reward you with a CG (a hand drawn still image) that will be viewable at all times in the gallery tab. What kind of image you’ll get will depend on what quest you completed…
↑ Here we get a CG of Haruto sweaty after working out, a reward for completing his quest ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Connect with him through smartphone messaging – Communicating with Haruto
There is another way to communicate with Haruto besides meetings through the visiting room, you can also talk to him through sending texts. Depending on your relationship, he will either answer texts slowly if your relations aren’t deep or as soon as possible if he likes you enough, just like real life! lol. He will also have variations to his answers, if your relationship isn’t in too deep and you send a message “I’m tired”, he’ll answer “You ok? Don’t overwork yourself”. However if he likes you enough he’d answer more worried and give advice, for example: “… Something happened, right? Even if you’re hiding it, I can tell. Don’t think unnecessary stuff right now. Just rest your body is all I ask of you.” (These examples can be found in the bottom of this page).
You are usually the one who starts the conversations with Haruto on the phone and to start conversations you need topics. You can receive conversation topics when going outside and exploring the island and talking to its quirky inhabitants. You can gain all sorts of conversation topics to use on Haruto, from “About your hobby” to “About romance” to “About your way of thinking of things” etc. These are usually triggered by certain events so keep an eye out and explore the island.
Also take note that during text messaging you get to choose your replies for the most part (or so I’ve seen so far).
Other than finding conversation topics you can also find items to send to Haruto as gifts in different places of the island. There are also special collab items based off real life brands that you can get in game. Some of these brand items are wearable by Haruto so stay tuned…
↑ Collab boxers with BETONES modelled beautifully by Haruto (you can purchase these boxers in real life too, comes in mens and womens size)
Upon clearing the prologue you will unlock 夢アプリ(Dream App). It is a minigame based on a delusion of waking up Haruto, which prolly means none of whats happening in Dream App is canon to the main story. The rules are easy, wake up Haruto within the time limit by tapping the “places that feel good” on Haruto and filling up the gauges. There is a bonus gauge that once filled up you will get ‘bonus time’. Once he wakes up you’ll get a sweet wake-up greeting from Haruto.
When equipped with collab glasses from ALOOK gained from Episode 1, Haruto’s personality will change to an ‘Ore-sama‘ character when in the Dream App.
+ Images gained from official tweet
The whole mini-game is fully voiced so enjoy your sweet time with moaning Haruto lol.
Extras
There is a personality test to diagnose what kind of person you are. It has 25 questions where the 25th question is asking you which Guard Officer you want to examine you/tell you want kind of person you are. The stern looking guard does not mince words when telling you what he thinks of you while the young rookie is more laid back.
You can take the test here (click the button directly below the picture of the guards to start the test). The questions and answers are in Japanese but you can translate the page, even tho its a bit of broken english thanks to google translate it might help you enough to decide which answer best suits you.
My result was “Stubborn Domino”. The first few lines of my diagnosis is like “Exactly what do you do all the time when you’re holed up in your house? I have a feeling that you pour your whole life into your hobbies” and that “I have no interests in humans”. If that isn’t accurate then I don’t know what is lol. Of course I chose the rookie to diagnose me because the blunt guard would prolly throw insults at me, maybe.
Please do try it out, you might be surprised with your result.
↑ Isolated video of the Toraware no Palm segment from 17th August CapcomTV stream
So I stayed up watching all of the segments for about 2 hours until they finally went to the nitty gritty stuff and showed some actual footage/gameplay. Tho I have to say, I am kinda interested in that new Basara game and maybe even that Monster Hunter 3DS game lol. I guess they left it to last so they won’t lose viewers before Basara and Monster Hunter had its segment. Either way it was worth the trouble.
I love how its easy to tell that the host on the right is really excited for this game 😆 same. The hosts for this segment were also commenting on how Haruto sounds eroi/sexy, glad to see they go the right man to voice Haruto.
Also if you’re wondering, when they went to the coffee shop they had to speed things up a bit because a story event triggered and would prolly be spoiling the story, so they had to rush it. As you can see in the demonstration when they sent Haruto a message he takes his time before checking his phone, also everything is happening in real time so thats interesting to experience.
Some things to note about the game that I didn’t talk about in the gameplay section:
- Only Haruto is fully voiced, other characters are not
- You have a ‘guide character’ called “Sabo-chan”, looks like a cactus and is mainly there on your menu screen
- During this demonstration and in some of the screenshots on the website they call the heroine “Capko”/”Capco”, which is Cap from Capcom and “ko” (usually added at the end of girls’ names)
- Of course, the heroine is based off of you so you can name her after yourself, or call her anything. Theres no right or wrong answer
- You can only send gifts at night, they are arrive to his place in the morning
- There are three sections per day: morning, noon and night.
- Haruto can also initiate messages, for example when you send him gifts he texts you thanks and then something extra to start a conversation
- Seems like the heroine calls Haruto “Haru” (one of different name variations you can choose from to call him)
During the visiting room scene, the heroine seemed to caught a cold and Haruto wants to see if she has a fever by taking her temperature forehead to forehead lol (Haruto thats impossible with a glass inbetween y’all). As you can see you have to really put your forehead onto your screen, he’ll know if you tapped on the screen with your finger so theres no fighting it lmao.
Haruto also gains a bit of his memory when he had a fever and his mother would do the forehead thing too (is there a term for putting foreheads together to see if someone has a fever?). The host in the middle says that even after their visiting hours is over, Haruto would prolly text the heroine asking if her fever is gone and continuing the event. So thats something to look forward too lol.
If I remember right, they said that Toraware no Paruma will be playable at Capcom’s Booth at the Tokyo Game Show 2016. I wish so much that I could go there and play it myself, but I’m stuck here because its next month and I have classes to go to. Plus I don’t have the money lmao.
A short cast comment video with Haruto’s voice actor Yuichiro Umehara. In this video Umehara talks about Haruto and does a little line reading.
To be honest, compared to the other characters I’ve heard Umehara voice, Haruto is prolly the most soft spoken/timid one so far…. tho I’m sure he’s done more characters similar to Haruto but I’ve yet to hear them. It does seem like Haruto gets less timid as the story goes on, I played Episode 2 and sometimes he sounds a bit different in the Visitation scenes tho maybe thats just me.
Yuma Uchida will be the voice actor for the latest character to be implemented in Toraware no Palm (when he will be implemented I dont know…). I only know him from Ai Chu as sloth man Futami, but I’m still unfamiliar with his work. Still, I think he’s doing a good job as Aoi.
A short video series from Capcom where the voice actors of Haruto and Aoi play Toraware no Palm. So far they’ve released Yuma Uchida play around with Haruto (and catches him after a shower and almost naked lol). They haven’t released Yuichiro Umehara playing the game yet but I have a feeling he’ll be playing around with Aoi.
Yuichiro Plays:
Yuichiro plays around with Aoi in Dream App. He chose Aoi to wear a ribbon which changes his dialogue to sound like a rich, sophisticated lady (you know, with the ara or the ~kashira feminine way of talking). Its interesting to see how they make Yuichiro and Yuma do diverse role acting with these items lol. I’ve only experienced demon lord (demon wings item), sadist (the collab glasses item ) and imprisoned slave Haruto so I’ve yet to experience Haruto or Aoi with a cold in the Dream app lol.
A random Animate employee Plays:
I wonder why they asked an Animate employee to play (tho I guess he fits the ‘ikemen’ role). Maybe the happened upon him while shopping at an Animate store and was like “You’re ok, get in”. Jk, in the end he was there to promote that Animate is selling some Toraware goods and to come visit him lol.
I think he has the longest video, he gets to listen to a phone call with Aoi and also gets to do a Visitation session with him. He chooses to call him “Ao-chan” (which what I would choose too, so high five there Animate employee guy) and has a cute scene with Aoi where his tummy rumbles aw.
Anyway, too bad the videos are so short tho lol. They could’ve started a Lets Play from start to finish with all these ikemens but oh well.
Back at it again at Capcom TV.
In this video the girls take a look at one of Episode 1’s (?) Visitation Scenes where Haruto isn’t wearing his hood as requested by you 😆 For those who haven’t played Episode 1/Prologue, when you first see Haruto in Visitation he would wear the hood of his jakcet on at all times and would avert your gaze. We also get to see what happens when you extend your Visitation, here we can see my fav scene where Haruto has a bit of his hair sticking out (the one I mentioned in my review). I don’t think they mentioned in the video that you have to pay to see this scene… Still, its one of my fav scenes so far with Haruto, even if I had to pay to see it. Too bad they didn’t choose my option where I was like “I was thinking how cute you are”, they chose the “youve got hair sticking out” option. Tho its always nice to see the girls react to Haruto’s cute moments.
They also show off the Dream App minigame, which is a bit embarrassing to play in public with everyone watching you lmao. The guest host seems to be an expert with the minigame 😆
The final segment of the video is of them showing off the merch for Toraware no Palm, especially the collab products that show up in the game like the glasses and underwear. Gotta get more money out of us somehow lol.
Toraware no Palm got a special segment on Capcom’s stage at TGS this year, showing off the gameplay, goods and also a new character!? (I called it in my review lol) Yuichiro Umehara and the new character’s voice actor also appeared on stage.
Yuma Uchida (Futami Akabane from Ai Chu, Kaoru Sakuraba from SideM)will be voicing Aoi, the newest character to be monitored in Toraware no Palm (Go to 13:49 on the video for Aoi’s PV). Seems like he also has memory loss possibly from a car accident and now you have to pretend to be his girlfriend (?), it seems like you were ordered to pretend to be his lover in order to get his memory back… but I’m not sure. There were words in the PV saying that “no one can certify his alibi” so maybe theres more to this than it seems.
He seems to be kind of the opposite in terms of personality to Haruto, hes more like an extrovert and it’ll be nice to see a change. He kinda seems like a nanpa type lol, tho its interesting to see in his PV how he walks out during a Visitation like, what got him so shook. When they got Yuichiro Umehara to play a Visitation scene with Aoi, it was interesting to see that when he asks for a kiss on the cheek that he won’t accept you tapping your finger on the glass so ya gotta legit kiss your mobile screen 😆 Too bad Umehara didn’t kiss the screen on stage (jk). Tho its got me wondering how does the game know if you’re kissing the screen or not, maybe its a screen sensitivity kind of thing that it picks up.
Also my favourite part of this segment was when they showed off the Haruto dakimakura. It was bound to happen. It has a removable cover, underneath the first cover is a Haruto with just his underwear on. So you could prolly take off the pants part of his cover and have him wearing just his jacket and his underwear or you could take off the top so its just him half naked 😆 or just take it all off. It seems like it’ll only be sold at Capcom’s online shop so I’ll update y’all if they release more info like how much it’ll cost etc.
There will also be a serialised comic with an original character “Hachi”. The name of the comic will be “Toraware no Palm ~ Chuusei no Kubiwa (Choker)~” (Imprisoned Palm ~Choker of Loyalty~) and is pretty much surveillance of this guy called ‘Hachi’ who has a collar for some reason. It will be published monthly in “Monthly Comic Zero Sum”, first comic to be released in its November issue on 28th September. The mangaka is Yuzo Natsuno, one of their works is a BL manga of a crossdressing maid so I wonder what this comic will have in store lol.
+ Check here for a little bit more info on the official website
Another capcom TV segment happened at TGS, the girls showd off parts of the TGS demo’s Visitation scenes and also tore apart the Haruto Dakimakura’s outter cover 😆
The girls show off Aoi’s Visitation sessions a day after Haruto’s final episode released. Funny that the representative tells us now that theres 3 endings to Toraware no Palm lol. Here I thought we’d get one big happy ending but I guess I was naive.
They show off the Visitation session with Aoi that was showed off at TGS with Yuichiro playing it and Aoi asking you for a kiss lmao. Sadly, the girls weren’t up for kissing an iPad live on stream so we’ll never know until we try it ourselves.
Next time they’ll show off what its like to play the Dream App with Aoi.
“Weekly Haruto・Aoi Surveillance Diary” is a 4koma by a ‘very normal(?) mangaka that lives alone’ (thats exactly how it describes her). It releases once a week when a new episode comes out and is published on the official website of Toraware no Palm and its twitter account.
Its a 4koma where the mangaka retells bits and pieces from the game in their perspective/how they felt. Its all in Japanese but if you can read Japanese and have already played the game then you’ll pick up on the references. The comics are somewhat relatable to be honest 😆
+Edit: Now they draw 4koma for Aoi’s episodes
The official website also revealed who this very normal (?) mangaka is: Machiko Tamiya. Now I know who to thank for when a good 4koma comes out. So thank you Machiko! If you’re interested to follow their twitter account its here.
Please do check it out here.
On 30th August, 2016 Toraware no Palm finally released. If you want specifications on what model of iOS devices and android devices are acceptable to play this game check this link here.
As I mentioned before upon the release you will get the prologue and episode 1. After that, on every Tuesday they will release a new episode. Episode Releases and prices are as followed (may or may not change):
Prologue & Episode 1 – 30th August 2016 / / 360 yen
Episode 2 – 6th September 2016 / / 360 yen
Episode 3 – 13th September 2016 / / 360 yen
Episode 4 – 20th September 2016 / / 360 yen
Episode 5 – 27th September 2016 / / 360 yen
Episode 6 – 4th October 2016 / / 360 yen
*Note that these dates are set for Japan time
Other in-game payments which are optional include:
- Visitation Extension — 120 yen each
Extends your time with Haruto during ‘Visitation’ segments - Memorial Visitation — 240 yen each
A extra visitation that is unlocked after completing a certain surveillance quest - Special Visitation — 240 yen each
A special visitation where Haruto isn’t himself… ‘What if’ situations such as Vampire Haruto etc - Telephone Event — 240 yen each
Each telephone event has a different situatuion E.g. ‘Wanting Haruto to Praise you’ Phone calls… This is particularly a treat for those who are fans of Yuichiro Umehara, just to hear his voice and hearing him praise you or cheer you up - “Dream App” Exclusive Accessories — 120 yen each
Accessories only wearable during ‘Dream App’… Depending on the accessory it will change Haruto’s speech/lines accordingly
Stay tuned for updates on this post and thanks for reading!
» If you’re interested in more information on Toraware no Palm, check out my review on the prologue and episode 1
ときめきレイジーライフ💛 
Hi, i really wanted to play this game until i get the shocking surprise that i am not in Japan therefore i can’t play the game …..*cry* i was ready to pay *sigh*
Thing is how can i do to get the game even if i’m not from Japan? is there a way to play it? your post was so helpful, i can’t use the precious info TvT
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If you have an iOS device then all you need to do is make a japanese apple account and buy japanese itunes cards (because they dont accept foreign credit cards as payment with japanese apple accounts).
As for Android devices, it might be a bit tough to purchase something from Japanese Google Play. There are ways to get free Japanese games but I’ve still yet to find a way to purchase Japanese games on android devices.
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thanks, i have android and i found by luck a tutorial to how to get stuff from japanese google play, it works fine now, the game is really beautiful, i can’t wait for more!
thank you again for the reply!
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