Chatting with Lijakaca about Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom

Hello friends! I'm sure you didn't actually think the Hakuoki release would come and go without me having something to say about it, right? Of course not! I was lucky enough to snag a review copy of the game for the ever-awesome Game Critics, but unfortunately it hasn't gone up on the site yet. But never fear – I have plenty of things to say about the game in the meantime.

First off, I had the fabulous oppertunity to ramble about Hakuoki and all things otome with the lovely Lijakaca of Lijakaca's Otome Gaming Blog. She is a mecca of otome gaming knowledge (her blog is a must follow for fans of otome games), so if you thought I knew what I was talking about, just you wait! (hint: I don't, usually) We had a great discussion about the game itself and also delved into otome game topics in general, so if any of that catches your fancy, I heartily suggest you check it out! Click on the handsome Hakuoki men below to give it a listen! Please be sure to tell me what you think in the comments... I'm still very new to podcasting, so any tips you may have that I can keep in mind for future endeavors would be greatly appreciated.

So what did I think of Hakuoki in the end? I'd like to save my final evaluation for the review when it goes up, but I do have some points in particular I can share:

• As if you couldn't tell from the screenshots floating around the internet and the art above, the game looks gorgeous. Though I didn't find the music particularly memorable, it wasn't grating, either.
• The story is engaging, and surprisingly in-depth, particularly for a game where many assume the main goal would be to hook up with the guy of your dreams. That incentive is there, but the romance aspect of the game is actually not quite as prevalent as I would have thought – a bit to my dismay, but will probably make the game more palatable to those who are not as interested in drooling over 2D hunks as I am. All in all, I think Aksys found a nice middle ground by choosing this as their first otome game. And yes, there is swearing!
• Speaking of swearing, I was a bit iffy on the localization at times. Though it is undoubtedly written well, I couldn't help but feel that Hijikata swore a bit too much and some of the written dialogue just didn't match up with the spoken Japanese in a way that sat well with me. That said, it's throughly enjoyable and immersive for an English-speaking audience, and I get that that is what Aksys is going for. Kudos to their awesome editor and translators for not botching it up. 
• So far, I've only "gotten" two of the six obtainable guys. I've done Heisuke's good and bad endings, and Hijikata's good ending. Though I liked Heisuke notably more than I liked Hijikata (he's a real jerk), I didn't find either of them to be particularly great. I hear Souji's where it's at, so I plan on making him my next conquest. For those of you wondering how much gameplay there is – one playthrough probably takes anywhere from 5-8 hours depending on who you choose, with Hijitaka's story being the longest. Once you've played through the 1st four chapters for one character, you'll probably want to skip through most of the dialogue during subsequent playthroughs, which cuts down on your play time significantly. 

All in all, I enjoyed my time with Hakuoki. I definitely suggest anyone who wants to try an otome game to pick it up, and would even recommend it to those who don't if they like a good story set in feudal Japan. My only wish was that it had more romance! And, in all honestly, a supernatural story mixed with historical fact isn't exactly my kind of thing, so I probably wouldn't have picked this up if it weren't for the fact that it was the first big name otome game to be released in English. 

But wait! Before you go, Video Game Writers is doing a giveaway where the prize is the game of your choice! So you could very well win a copy of Hakuoki, if you want! All you have to do is sign up for VGW on Google Currents for your iDevice or Android phone. An added bonus is you'll get to read news and reviews written by me (and some other people) in the palm of your hand! Neat, eh? 

Have any of you had a chance to play Hakuoki yet? If so, let me know what you thought! 

4 games I'm looking forward to in 2012

This post is coming a tad bit late, but who said I had to follow the herd, eh? As the title suggests, I've wrangled up a few games that I'm particularly looking forward to in this hopefully epic year of the dragon. It should come to no surprise to any of you that all of these are Japanese games. I am very predictable.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance


Or Kingdom Hearts 3D, as it is also known... Get it?? Ahaha... Anyways, pretty much anyone save die-hard fans will tell you that Kingdom Hearts has been on a downward spiral littered with obsolete and downright unnecessary plot threads with still no true Kinghdom Hearts 3 (that 3D may be as close as we're ever going to get). But I've been playing some Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep over the holidays and I have to say, its rekindled my Kingdom Hearts spark. And besides... The World Ends with You character appearances? A Hunchback of Notre Dame world? I was in before Disney could utter "Frollo."

Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom


Why look, it's another predictable title on Anne's list. I think all that needs to be said here is "first major English otome game." If you want to read more about otome games, I've written plenty about it. Here's a sample of what I'm looking forward to:

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy


Dream Drop Distance, Theatrhythm... Japan will never get over its absurd use of English in game titles. If you're wondering, the official Japanese site states that "theatrhythm" is a combination of "theater" and "rhythm." Well, it helped me remember exactly how to spell the title, at least.

As a fan of both rhythm games and Final Fantasy, this one is yet again another no-brainer for me. I am decidedly not a big fan of the cutesy art style used in the game's character art, but I'd be willing to overlook that if the game plays as well as I'm hoping. And with three different modes to play all of my favorite Final Fantasy songs in, it should provide many hours of fun.

Pokémon x Nobunaga's Ambition

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a shameless Pokémon fan. Okay, there's not much shame in that, as most of my video game loves are based on silly reasoning, but here's one to take the cake: After I saw these two character designs from Pokémon x Nobunaga's Ambition, I was sold. Also, Pokémon combined with feudal Japan? A fresh take on the old Pokémon formula? Sign me up!

 

Of course, there are plenty of other great looking titles that I am very much looking forward to this year, including, but not limited to: Atelier Meruru: Apprentice of Arland, Final Fantasy Type-0, Rhythm Heaven Fever, and Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure. 2012 is looking to be a great year indeed!

Is Atelier Elkrone's protagonist a Rorona clone?

Ok, if you haven't seen me tweeting like a mad fiend about the recently-announced otome Atelier game, then, well, I suppose you haven't missed out on much, unless you're living under a rock and didn't know that an Atelier otome game was recently announced. It's big news for me, at least, seeing as I'm a recently-converted Atelier Rorona fan and long-time otome game enthusiast. Tthere are probably at least 2 other people in the world excited for this game besides me, I'm sure.

So far there hasn't been much news about Atelier Elkrone aside from the fact that it will somehow combine traditional otome game elements, allowing you to pursue the love interest of your choice, as well as some aspect of the alchemy gameplay from the Atelier games. How much alchemy will be involved has yet to be seen, and I'll admit I'm a little worried the most "Atelier" we're going to get in the game will be in the form of character designs and story elements, but who knows. Call me a cynic.

Speaking of which, I'm already seeing some Atelier Rorona in Mery, Atelier Elkrone's protagonist:

Atelier Elkrone's Mery

Atelier Rorona's Rorona

You may have bought a new hat, Rorona, but you can't fool me! I would've been fine if they had come out and said the game was going to be about Rorona again, but making an entirely new character that still manages to look almost exactly like Rorona seems a bit like a cop-out to me. In fact, I don't think I'll be able to think of Mery as anything but Rorona, actually! It's literally hard to tell them apart!

I did some snooping on the NISA forums (NISA is the company behind the localization of Atelier Rorona and Atelier Totori) and apparently Idea Factory, the company working on the Atelier side of things, has a reputation for recycling their own material? I'd love more information on this, but I can't say I've played a ton of Idea Factory games myself, so I can't really comment. Of course the art in Atelier Rorona and Atelier Elkrone looks like it's done by the same artist, but that doesn't excuse them for being lazy! Well, if nothing else, this guy looks interesting enough:

Digging the steampunk goggles!

There's still a lot to be seen regarding Atelier Elkrone, but even if the protagonist looks exactly like Rorona, knowing me, I'll probably give it a shot.

Otome Game Primer

As a follow-up to my previous post on boys' love games, I thought I'd dedicate this post to one of my favorite game genres: otome games. Don't worry, I'm not done talking about BL games by any means! It's just that a certain piece of extremely exciting otome game related news has got me rearing to talk about otome games today. If you're too lazy to click on the link (which leads to a Video Game Writers article on the subject written by me, so shame on you), then I'll sum it up for you: one of the most famous Japanese otome games is getting a localization (picture below), and will be released in the US for the PSP sometime during quarter one of 2012! For someone who never thought otome games would ever get translated, this is awesome news.

So, what are otome games? I'm going to be lazy and quote what I wrote in the aforementioned article: "Otome is the term most often used in Japan to refer to romance, or dating, simulation games that cater towards a female audience. In these games, you control the actions of the main character, who is always female, as she navigates through the game’s narrative, making decisions along the way that will ultimately decide which male suitor, out of a number of possible options, she will end up with at the end of the game." If you read my BL article, the gameplay in otome games is often very similar, but the relationships that form the plot are heterosexual, rather than homosexual.

While many otome games tend towards the visual novel side of things, with lots of text and few options to change the course of the narrative, some have more simulation elements such as stat raising. The Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side games excel in that they provide more engagement than their visual novel counterparts, which is why I own not one but two of them for the DS. They also have a unique feature called "skinship" where you utilize the touch screen to interact with the various male characters–different types of touches in different locations (get your mind out of the gutter, this game is PG!) will elicit various reactions depending on the guy's personality, which can be quite a bit of fun.

While unfortunately BL games seem to be neglected when it comes to English releases, otome games are slowly gaining ground. Besides the wonderful news that an official Japanese otome game will be getting a localization, there are a few independently-developed indie English otome games. One such game is called X-Note, and you can even try a demo of it on the site to get a feel of what to expect with otome games in general. It notably lacks voice acting, which provides much of the charm of the male suitors in Japanse otome games, but otherwise it seems like a very solid game with nice artwork, and at the very fine price point of only $15, anyone who has an interest in otome games should definitely consider checking it out. What's even more impressive is that the game was created by a team of only two people! Wow.

X-Note is one of only a few English otome games

There's a Japanese otome game available for the iPad and iPhone as well, and it includes not only an English translation but the ability to switch between the two. This one's only $3.99, but unfortunately I don't have an "i" anything, so I can't give it a try. If anyone does check it out, let me know what you think!

Heian Love for the iPhone/iPad

I could go on and on, but I think I'll have to leave things here for now. Atelier Rorona, my new gaming obsession, is calling me! If you have anything in particular you'd like to know about otome or BL games that you'd like me to cover in a future post, let me know in the comments!