Pyrite Heart: Otome game review

I'm back from the dead!  Yes, this might as well be an April Fool's joke since last I saw, I posted way back in April 2013.  My interest in otome games was re-ignited when I saw Pyrite Heart, voiced, clean art, and best of all- free!  It started with stumbling on Guardian's Spell, a WIP by Winged-Cloud on Kickstarter.

Review

The game itself is really short with an hour max for each of the two available guys featured on the cover (depending how fast you read).  I missed the hype train before the game without voiceovers came out, so I'm not struck down with disappointment.  However, do not play this game thinking it's the next Hakuouki, Tokimeki, Hiiro no Kakera, or whatever big name otome game you fancy.  The art is very pretty and clean, sure, but it doesn't save the cookie-cutter plot.  The premise is very simple, you play as Ahri Remono, princess to whatever European-style royalty family there is in Japan, who challenges her brother to a survival contest outside of her palace for one week.  The two guys you can pick are the loyal servant Kenta or the school president Ryuu.  I think the team must have placed most of their time and resources into the art and voiceovers because the story is painfully short given the designated time and simplistic plot devices.  You get the cosplay, doing-an-activity-thus-bringing-intimacy-together, accidentally hitting someone or getting hit yourself, and other plot devices.  There's no greater conflict other than Ahri getting by for one week without the comfort of her servants or palace (and that conflict quickly slams on her 2/3rds of the way into the story).  Kenta's story was kind of cheesy, because it takes on the master-servant relationship plot down to the tee, including implied reprecussions of breaking the taboo at the ending.  Ryuu's story was a big more refreshing to Kenta's with a resolved ending.  It pains me to admit that Ahri is a nice change of pace to the passive, Mary Sue heroines in many otome games, but at the cost of being a stuck-up, clueless bitch given her background.  The music fits, but nothing sticks out. Speaking of audio, while I appreciate the voiceovers, the volume was very inconsistent.  Not only was there no speech volume adjustment, but I had to deal with constantly adjusting the volume when one character spoke too loud and another spoke too low.  I have to give a hand at the female voice actor for making Ahri REALLY sound like a stuck-up bitch, but she kind of reminded me of Amanda Lee or other NA-based (or otherwise English) female voice actors.  Overall, I'd say give this game a whirl if you're craving for an otome VN fix that's free, in English, and killing time for a short story.

Bento Fever!

So... to be honest, I have been playing games and reading manga... But I haven't actually gotten around to reviewing more for some reason...  I really should get back to reviewing stuff... and making my visual novel, but COLLEGE.  Anyways, in the meantime I have been making efforts to bring stuff from home and what better way to put my need to make things presentable than going the way of the bento?

"Memories are forgotten soon" explains why you need to check off what you have on the lid.

First off, I got my first bento box from Tokyo Lifestyle for $15 which comes with 2-tiers, smaller-than-average chopsticks, and an insulated bag.  The brand is what I presume to be Ag+ "Men's bento box" at the volume of 850 mL.  The plus side was that it was microwaveable with the lid off and it could fit in my messenger bag.  The downside was that it was a bit too skinny for my needs if I wanted sandwiches or salads.  But now I want to get rid of it by selling it on Craigslist or something because I found something better for my needs.

Ta-da!  Meet Lock & Lock's lunch box set with a volume of 1050 mL, which is perfect for the whole day I'm stuck at school.  It even comes with a neat pair of fork and spoon, but I was desperate to find a pair of collapsible chopsticks to put in the bag.  Alas, I guess I'll stick to wrapping full-size chopsticks in napkins and stick it in my schoolbag.  The bag is what I believe to be better insulated, sturdy, and snug so the containers don't move around the bag.  It's big enough where I can still put an ice pack inside.  For the price of $16, I feel like I got a better deal but I live within limits where I can drive to Asian communities that have these stores to cut down on shipping costs from purchasing one online.

Lastly, I just discovered this mythical Daiso store while traveling with my family.  I said,"Hey, since we're in the area lets check this store out."  I keep reading people's comments about getting their bento gear from Daiso and I've only been to Marukai and Mitsuwa.  And then I found the glorified bento section:

A whole aisle dedicated to bento gear unlike Marukai and Mitsuwa having a much smaller selection.  Everything you could want for bento gear from a value store with prices starting at $1.50 unless otherwise stated.  Bento containers, individual elastic bands, chopsticks w/cases, mini squeeze bottles, reusable silicone cups of the right size (maybe a bit too small), disposable colorful paper cups, disposable and reusable picks of colors and themes, petite cutlery, molding cutters for animals and shapes, carving knife for decoration, colorful and cute lunch totes, insulated (but ugly) bags, sleeves for thermos, and reusable cups for "mayo and ketchup" that looks like individual half-and-half creamer cups.  If a Daiso store is within your reach, you can get whatever bento accessory or container for cheap at $6 or less.

This blog isn't going to turn into a bento blog, but I did say this blog would have ramblings.  I think my bento mania died down for now until I see another Daiso store at a more nearby location.

Manga One-Shot Dump #1

My 1/3 Boyfriend

You know what's a nice change of pace in this one-shot's environment?  Everyone in high school is wearing NORMAL CLOTHES like the students over in the U.S (at least).  Why does this warrant a color change?  Because at least in the U.S, it's common for lots of public schools to have students wear their own clothes instead of a uniform.  99% of the time, I see the manga's environments take place in a school full of uniformed students, not that I actually have a problem with the clothes.  The flip-side is that everyone looks like they should be in college, even though they're all featured to be in their final year... in high school...  Ok, you know what?  Back to the main point of this one-shot which is that Fukuda Rei, our hapless romantic heroine, openly declares that she's the only one who probably doesn't have a boyfriend (not that having a boyfriend matters in high school... seriously it doesn't 95% of the time because COLLEGE).  Suddenly, a guy named Kogure Yuuya takes a liking to Rei and asks for her picture.  Then blackmails Rei into meeting Yuuya because her skirt was caught up with her arms carrying a box, revealing the holy teddy bear undies wholly loved in shoujo manga.  The reason why I would feature this one-shot is the pacing that leads up to a twist I didn't see coming because I anticipated the other way around.

Puri * Puri

If this was rated R, Bodyguard Puri would be missing a chunk of his head and none of this would be cute.

Simply put, it's a one-shot about the tried and true (Student Council President x Lower Ranking Student) formula with the Lower Ranking Student being the Vice Prez instead of a lowly peasant student.  As you can see, VP loves reading a manga about Prince and Princess Pudding anywhere at any time and the President hates that.  I say I like this one-shot because of the hilarity the male lead emits over his princess pudding obsession.

Shuko's Snack

This is  the most vanilla of all the one-shots, as the romance isn't gushing out at your eyes every other page.  Kenji is a delinquent out of a neglected childhood and Shuko is the complete opposite.  Yet, Kenji can't figure out why Shuko keeps bringing him sweets because he hates sweets.

Kami Sonata

I love, love, LOVE the amount of detail Ichinose Kaoru, the author and artist, put into her stories.  Mishounen Produce was sweet, but lacked some substance in some places aaaaaand that's a different discussion for another post.  Ichinose seems to be better at taming her stories in one-shots.  Aside from the art, Kami Sonata begins with Shouko who was trapped inside a church and died out of giving up on life because of bullying.  10 years later, Kei shows up at the same spot and doesn't take well to seeing Shouko's spirit showing up again.  Shouko thinks the violin is meant to be soothing and fun, but Kei thinks it's a weapon to destroy those who harm him.  Both of them have been bullied, but will Kei make the same mistake as Shouko?  The climax hit me in the feels and that's all I gotta say for this one-shot.

Soleil

Another tried and true shipping formula is the Mistress x Butler (points at InuxBoku SS...).  The story takes place in 18th century France where the heroine decides to sell her body.  Yes, you heard it here ladies and gentlemen, she decides to enter PROSTITUTION.  Nah, I'm just kidding... somewhat.  Well it's more like she will marry the guy who bids the most for her title so it's kinda like that one part in "TAKEN".  Anywho, she sold off everything but the house and land of her family, the Bartleys, so she tries to get by with selling paper flowers which she fails at.  Meanwhile, her only butler, Jack, is still around making inventions and helping his mistress get by.  It's a typical shoujo one-shot (until the end) and I liked it because of the art.  I forgot to mention the artist seems to have a neck problem of sorts... since the heroines sometimes look like their heads are too big.

Koi no Akashingou

The manga-ka sure took the liberty of taking nosebleeds to great heights with this one-shot.  The heroine avoids a particular boy like the plague because every time he's nearby she gets massive nosebleeds.  Now both of them are in high school, the boy thinks she sees him as a freak, and he's annoyed with that.  I busted my gut reading the climax of the story because of how over-the-top the nosebleed was taken.

13

13 is just a name the main hero, Mondo, picked up after becoming the king yankee.  Mondo had a crush on Izayo, but after trying to befriend her by giving her a sour candy, Izayo barfs a la Hideaki Sorachi style followed by Mondo barfing on her.  After much humiliation, Izayo vows to kill Mondo for the humiliation.  She gets her wish when both of them go to high school and Mondo transformed from a plain ol' boy into a yankee with his sidekick he beat to a pulp over erasing his game saves (Life lesson:  Don't intentionally erase someone's game saves, the owner will be out for your blood).  There's a love story thrown in there, but if you like Gintama's wackiness you'll like this one-shot.

Dandelion: Wishes Brought to You (Demo) Review

Developer: Cheritz

Official Website: http://dl.cheritz.com/en

Ay, this demo was hilarious after playing it for 5 hours with all the guys' routes.  The first time was an hour long of playing, and then the skipping feature came in handy when I tried to get as many affection points (I'm looking at you, Jiwoo).  Dandelion is originally a Korean VN developed by a group called Cheritz that used Ren'py, the same program I'm using for my VN as well as many others, and made a polished product which unfortunately I yearn for more, but I'm so poor...  Anyways, it was awesome of Cheritz to fully translate this Korean VN into English.  Since I can't buy the game, which is $30, I'll just review the demo hoping that this post can encourage others to try the game out.

Heejung concocted a nasty plate of chestnut shells, apples, broccoli, aloe juice, etc., nearly choking Jisoo and Jiwoo to death. Jiyeon just hisses while Jihean and Jieun eat the apples. There's a funny conversation later about the incident.

Story: So far, the demo presents the everyday lifestyle for our protagonist, Heejung Kim.  The demo takes place a bit after Heejung takes in a basket of 3 rabbits and 2 cats.  She's a college student who is graduating soon and hasn't figured out what to do with her life afterwards.  This kinda hit me in the feels as I'm worrying about just trying to achieve what I'm planning.  Heejung lives alone in order to escape from her perfectionist mother breathing down her neck over grades and career.  One look at her mom and you can tell based on her attire and brand name bag that her mom fits the bill of a strict Asian woman who likes to keep up with fashion trends like all the other Korean women I've seen in SoCal strutting around Cabazon during a Black Friday sale.  For now, Heejung has a particular interest in art, but doesn't do anything extraordinary with it yet.  After she wishes for her life to stop being boring, she gets what she asked for when the animals she took care of turn into men.  Supposedly, the story turns into fantasy and gets a bit dark, but I wouldn't know until I bought the full game.

Characters: There are 5 guys with the standard archetypes: Arrogant, docile, polite, gluttonous caring, and happy-go-lucky carefree (I don't know about this guy based on a CG I saw...).  Respectively, the men all start with the first two letters "Ji" and then deviate into different combinations: Jiwoo, Jieun, Jihean, Jisoo, and Jiyeon.  I'll elaborate more on the characters in the storytelling portion of this review.  All the characters are fully voiced during cutscenes, but not everyday events and the voices are paired with a nice touch of basic lip movement.

From left to right: Jiwoo, Jiyeon, Jisoo, Jieun, Jihean

Art: Like other Ren'Py-made games gone commercial, the art production is very good for character designs and the backgrounds are crisp and clean.  The GUI is just right with its simplicity according to the theme of stationary and isn't cluttering the rest of the art.

Gameplay: Dandelion is also a small stat-raising sim with 3 stats to raise: Art, beauty, and femininity.  The other two meters are stress and pressure which are both meant to be kept down and can pose a challenge to working on the 3 stats.  The game also has an inventory feature where Heejung can inspect a location and get whatever random things are on the ground as useless as a thread to something valuable such as a pearl.  Heejung can also give the things she found on the ground to the guy she likes (pff, "Here Jisoo, I found this seashell on the beach which was actually stepped on and covered in dirt so unsanitary") or sell them off at a store.

If Heejung is low on cash, she can work at an art gallery (see a form of interest here?) to get more money so she can buy expensive beauty products and books.  Aside from working, Heejung can choose to go out with her pet/guy to a location and pick one of two actions followed by another action or scavenging for items or character stickers to unlock bonus stuff in the gallery.  At home, she can choose to raise her stats or lower her stress/pressure.  Stress accumulates from studying, but pressure accumulates from procrastinating.  Aside from the traditional homework or studying, there's the educational channel which somehow counts for studying in real life...  Apparently, someone managed to make Heejung get killed from too much stress or pressure, but I don't dare go near game overs.

During the animal portion of the game, Heejung can max out relationship points to get a gift from one of the animals.  The entire game has the characters randomly moving through each room in Heejung's apartment throughout the phases of the day.  So it could be difficult when I want to pursue, say, Jisoo but he's nowhere to be found for a day and then the next day he's in the living room then later on he's in the bedroom.  It's difficult as in you gotta try and get to the minimum stat requirements while accumulating relationship points when your guy is either gone or moving into a room where your activity isn't available.  I totally sucked at the animal interaction part where most of the time, I guess the desired skinship/interaction wrong and Jiyeon's the only guy you can't go wrong with.  How was I supposed to know Jiwoo's weakness is his belly or Jieun's is his forehead?  A few activities raise the heart meter, when full, that allows the player to unlock 1 of 3 activities or upgrade the stress/pressure inhibition level.  Most others will either slightly, moderately, or greatly increase the 3 desired stats while lowering stress/pressure at the same time.  I didn't realize watering the plants or watching animal documentaries count for femininity...  Or talking to plants raises beauty and femininity LOLOLOL.  Always check the Status notebook to see if you meet the satisfaction of the 3 stats because not all the guys' demands are the same and you don't want to waste time going over a stat.  The notebook will tell you how much the guy likes you and if you're good to go in the progression of the relationship.  As animals, however, none of them are picky yet.

Overall: Definitely give this game a chance by playing the demo.  Although some players might have experienced connection issues because the full game requires the creation of a user ID (yeah I don't know what's up with that).  Nonetheless, Cheritz has a troubleshooting FAQ for such a problem.  Dandelion is the real deal with full voice-acting, nice art, and (according to Tumblr) tons of feels to experience.  It's a shame I can't buy the game because it's a lot to put down even though the hours are promised at 30-40 hours if you play all the guys.

Our Crossing Paths Otome Visual Novel Project Updates (Updated without going into hiatus)

• (5/6/12) Finished Alan’s neutral sprite
• (5/23/12) Finished René’s neutral sprite
• (7/31/12) Right now, I’m taking a summer session at Uni where biology is my biggest weakness. Because of the heavy work load, psych lab research, and readings, there will be even less time to even draw the characters. I’m still in a rut as to figure out how to fill out between major events. I subscribed to my own thread so I can be motivated to even attempt to finish 25% of the story done, I didn’t know 2 or 3 more people commented in July. It’s nice to know people still notice, maybe not as much since I’m working alone and progress is slowing down. But I’ll do my best to pull my weight and give a sprite to each character so when a demo comes, stick figures won’t be the temps.
• (9/28/12) I finally have a freakin’ logo up. It was bugging me so I made one just so it feels like it’s a bit closer to completion.
• (10/15/12) I know I haven’t been writing the story further at all so I said,” F this” and put in whatever major plot points for each route and all the bad endings I know fresh in my head. I tell myself it will probably be easier than staring at the road bump forever to figure out how to get out of exposition.
• (1/3/13) As the title update suggested above, I’m writing out kissing scenes. Why? It came more naturally than figuring out how to fill in the more normal stuff. And I also completed all the bad ending scenarios. I haven’t done the good ones yet. Just to say that this project isn’t completely dead yet and shouldn’t be mentioned in the dead projects thread yet.  So far, Alan and René both have 8 CGs planned for them and I’m working on the other guys’ storyboards.

Mass Effect Trilogy Review (PC)

Developer: Bioware

I don't know why I feel like doing a "review" on the ME trilogy.  Maybe it's because my blog is severely lacking these past few years.  Oh well, I do what I want "foo".  

For those who are unfamiliar with the ME series, ME is a sci-fi adventure game with shooting elements.  The game advertises itself as having a choice system where the player's choices will transfer through each save through all 3 games, shaping the ultimate outcome of the whole galaxy.  I never regretted getting into this series and finishing it; regardless of the pick-your-color endings.  You take control of a male or female Commander Shepard, tailoring him/her to your tastes in terms of appearance and skills.  I kinda went backwards by playing ME2 and then the 1st one, which was a bad idea in the beginning.  

Review time:

Story: The lore of the ME universe was interesting enough to make me care about the end of the game.  ME1 focused on stopping the baddie, Saren, from restoring the Reapers (gigantic, mechanical squids) to full strength.  ME2 had a story that was essentially a spin-off of sorts where Shepard sets off to stop the Reapers' lackeys called the Collectors.  ME3 was the finale where the story went back on course to eradicate the Reapers once and for all.  In a more minute detail, Bioware had done a good job on personal interaction with the NPCs and teammates as well as the interactions between every race.  The main storytelling focus, for me, lie in the conversations taking place among the crew and acting as a diplomat (or not) in the universe with the attempt to unite everyone against the Reapers.  The entire lore built up in the ME trilogy is also something to note.  Although the lore might be confusing at times, it still made the ME universe believable to a certain extent (until Bioware botched it towards the very end).  ME2 and ME3 heavily emphasizes character relationships between Shepard and the teammates.  Specifically, ME2 was character backstory-heavy with the loyalty missions.

Characters: This trilogy is story-heavy so characters are to note for the creation of the ME universe.  Shepard is essentially a blank slate so the player can make Shepard totally good or bad.  ME1 did fine keeping things neutral, although it's hard to get what you want out of the story if you stay neutral.  ME2 and 3 practically halved the amount of neutral responses and left it as paragon or renegade.  By picking either side, Shepard becomes the goody-two shoes or becomes a rebelling soldier with a streak of badassery in ME2 and early ME3.  Here's a little taste of what would happen if you wanted to raise Shepard to be a renegade in ME2:

Some like Shepard's personality in this manner, and some don't like the restrictive personalities in the sense of gaining paragon/renegade points.  Most of the squad mates, to me, were a likeable cast.  ME had Wrex/Garrus/Tali/Anderson (from popular observation) to ME2's Mordin/Liara/Grunt/Thane.  ME3 almost had a cast of returning characters with the exception to the useless Diana Allers as a new character.  The romantic relationships were also icing on the cake, especially for characters who have stuck around from beginning to end.

Gameplay: ME1 had, unfortunately, the most elaborate skill system compared to the other two installments, but it also had some minor flaws in the shooting department.  ME1 had things like weight capacity, weapon attachments, and about 10 + skills/traits for upgrading.  Compared to ME2/ME3, the first installment had an issue (for me) during battle where the default keyboard layout was slightly inefficient and needed personal keybindings.  Also, if you were out of ammo, you were out of ammo.  ME2/ME3 allowed Shepard to take cover and leap over certain obstacles as well as having universal ammo to make reloading easier.  ME2 lowered the amount of skills per class for upgrades, but the upside is that Shepard gains a bonus ability from any loyal squad mate.  Lastly, ME3 simplified the skill system significantly by making each 6+ skills a single thread that branches out to 2 paths for the last 2 upgrades.  It's essentially level up > pick skill to be upgraded > level up to the next stage > pick 1 of 2 perks from the upgrade.  Some people might be picky about this super streamlining system, but I don't really care.  To me, the shooting wasn't clunky and worked fine.  ME3 stepped up in terms of gameplay with multiplayer that affects the ultimate outcome of the trilogy.  Multiplayer consists of making your own character and then playing up to 4 players against AIs while completing escort, collection, and hacking tasks on a map.  Multiplayer is important for ME3's "galactic readiness" where the percentage is multiplied with the total war assets that make up the overall score that determines the amount of damage Earth, Normandy, mass relays, and team takes.  The higher the score, the less damage will be inflicted.

Overall:  I'd say definitely get the ME trilogy.  It may not be Game of the Year-worthy, but it is definitely a good series for the ride.  There will be at least one or two characters who will stick on you.  Some people feel like the choices they made didn't matter and drastically altered the ending at all.  I didn't follow Bioware's advertisement about the choices influencing the ending, but the choices did affect how the player plays through the story?  Don't want to have to pick one race over the other?  No problem, if you did certain things in ME1 and 2, then you can have both sides on top of picking paragon or renegade.  If you wanted the "happy" ending where everyone lives, then you have to use a walkthrough to make sure whatever choices you did fall into the category of plan A or B.  An example would be killing A and keeping B, and then you can lie to C and sabotage D in order to get both races to cooperate.  But if you want to be a bit masochistic, you can make whatever choices and see if there are any alternatives left to make everyone happy to make it a real twist.  In my Paragon run, I didn't have an ME1 save so I was out of luck, had to lose someone to win over a race, and didn't get the support of the other.  Remember, the choices you made affected how the story laid out and did not directly affect the endings.  The endings are still ok... if you install the Extended Cut DLC from Origin into ME3.  Also the EC hit me in the feels saying goodbye to my love interest, but that's in the story-telling section.

IROSAMIIIIIIIII

The Legend of Korra is long overdue for discussion ever since its conclusion in the summer.  Personally, I've been an avid shipper of Makorra because it was pretty transparent that they were getting together at the end of the season.  Even the alluring Asami can't tear them apart.  But poor Asami couldn't catch a break because of stupid Mako stringing her along and not settling for Korra in the first place.  When General Iroh II showed up, however, fangirls everywhere on the globe were falling head over heels for him.  I thought he was good-looking since he is Zuko's grandson and he was supposed to be the manliest of all the characters. But Dante Basco's voice just wasn't cutting it because it was immersion breaking hearing adolescent Zuko in manly Iroh II's body.  Nonetheless, it never occurred to me that Iroh x Asami shipping could occur during the show until after seeing all these fanart of them.  And now I'm guilty of being an Irosami shipper too ><.  Here's my favorite fanart of them so far from deviantart:

Artist: Silver

Artist: kyrad2008

Artist: kelly1412