Demo Impression:
Eroge! ~Sex and Games Make Sexy Games~
Earlier
this week, Managagmer announced the release date of their first game from their
new partner Clock Up!, “Eroge ~Sex and Games Make Sexy Games~”, which will be
September 13, 2013. Along with the announcement came a demo for this game,
which I’ve played…and boy do I have some things to say about this game.
Pros: The concept is interesting, Nene and Iori seem like
they could worth reading more about, music is nice.
Cons: Kisara and Momoko.
WTF?!: You know if you had more likable heroines I’d have a
more positive answer…
In
Eroge! you play as Tomoya Mochizuki, an avid eroge player who wants to enter
the eroge industry. Unfortunately for Tomoya he has not been able to find any
work with any of the companies as he doesn’t really have any game making
skills. His chance seems to come when he’s able to land a job at an eroge
company called Flower…until it’s revealed that said company is facing going out
of business unless their next game sells well. Upon discovering the problem
lies with how each of the girls in charge of making the games is talented in
their field but not very good at applying it to making eroge, it’s up to Tomoya
to use his vast knowledge of the genre to help ensure a good game is made.
From
what I’ve played of the demo, I have to say the story concept is interesting as
it provides a look at how an average eroge company goes about making a game and
I can’t help but notice similarities between that and how an indie developer
works. Also having a light hearted take on it would help to give players a look
while at the same time keeping them from feeling bored. Sadly, whatever
enjoyment I could have had of the demo’s story was ruined by two characters
that made this feel like more of a chore than cleaning a bathroom.
Before
I begin though I should point out that of the four heroines of this game the
other two weren’t so bad. Nene for one came off as a pretty funny character and
I am interested in seeing just how she got into the role of president of an
eroge company, and Iori I could at least appreciate for making me interested in
her (though part of that concerns I’ve heard…things about her route). The same
cannot be said for Kisara and Momoko who I quickly despised soon after they
were introduced and the demo does nothing but add to my dislike for them.
My main
reason for disliking these two characters is quite frankly there just isn’t
anything to like about them. They both treat Tomoya like absolute crap, and
with practically every other line they have to say being an insult it gets old
and annoying really fast plus it ends up taking you out of the story. The fact
that this seems to be their only character trait (aside from their role in
making their companies game) really weakens whatever character they’re supposed
to have because it makes them seem like they’re the same character, the only
difference being that Momoko is the slightly nastier of the two. When you have
heroines that are one note and annoying like that it really doesn’t give player good
prospects about playing their routes. Now I’m sure some of you are probably
thinking that “Maybe this is a phase that they’re going to develop out of”, but
I should point out this demo does skip ahead after the first available
character interaction and subsequent ero scene. From what I could see that may
apply to Kisara, but in Momoko’s case the scene seems to take place further
into her route…and not much has seemed to change about her character.
In the
area of presentation, this game does alright. The music is pretty good so far
and the voice actors did a good job. The artwork I’m not sure about yet; it’s
been okay to good for the most part but a couple of the character portraits
look a bit off at times. I’ll have to play the actual game before I can give a
solid opinion.
As for
the ero scenes (yes there are ero scenes in this demo), well Iori and Nene’s
were decent. Unfortunately the first ero scene you get is one played for jokes which sadly aren't very funny. As for Kisara and Momoko's I'm afraid my dislike for the characters carried over to their ero scenes.
In Conclusion:
Eroge!
is a game I really want to like, not just because the concept of the game’s
story was interesting but also because the company behind it, Clock Up, has
several interesting looking games in its library and if this bombs we probably
aren’t going to see them localized. Unfortunately the demo for this game isn’t
doing much to impress me with two of the four winnable heroines being downright
insufferable. My advice to anyone thinking of getting this game, at least play
the demo before putting down forty dollars on this.
When
you play a particular game genre for several years you end up getting so used
to its tropes that you get this feeling of knowing what to expect whenever a
new game of that genre comes out. However, there will inevitably come a game
that will surprise you by doing something different from what you’d expect and
in a good way. This particular surprise was Caramel Box’s Otome wa Boku ni
Koishiteru, released by Mangagamer on November 23, 2012 under the title
“Otoboku – Maidens Are Falling For Me!” (in case you’re curious Otoboku is the
standard abbreviation for the game with the subtitle being the literal
translation of the original title). I admit I probably shouldn’t have been
surprised since after its original Japanese release of January 28, 2005 the
game not only received multiple ports and an anime adaptation, but was also the
second best-selling PC game in Japan at the time and would appear in the
national top 50 sellers several times. Yet somehow it flew past my radar until
now…but that aside, Otoboku has truly proven to be worthy of all that praise
and I’ll explain why.
Pros: Likable and memorable cast of characters, overall
story is well told, excellent artwork, good music, great voice acting.
Cons: Ichiko’s route is disappointingly weak, the later
parts of Yukari’s route are pretty bland, would have been nice if Kimie had a
route.
WTF?!: Do they actually make these kinds of chocolate? If so
I really want some…
In
Otoboku, you play as Mizuho Kaburagi, an effeminate young man and heir to a
prosperous corporation. Upon his
grandfather’s death he is informed that his grandfather’s last wish was for him
to attend an all-girls school. With the help of his childhood friend Mariya,
Mizuho is able to make for a very convincing girl, so convincing that a series
of misunderstandings leads to his being elected as the school’s “Elder Sister”,
the school’s idol. And this is only the start of the misadventures that await
Mizuho…
When I
first heard about this I was kind of expecting the story would be something
similar to Edelweiss’ slice of life humor with a lot of jokes centered around
narrow escapes by Mizuho of being found out, but to my surprise I was
completely wrong. Otoboku surprised me many times with how well written its
story turned out to be, often times doing things I wasn’t expecting and doing
them well. The writers (for the most part) do a good job at integrating drama
into a pretty light hearted story overall as the drama focused story elements
are around for just the right length of time, not coming across as dragged out nor
do they seem like a sudden sharp contrast to the light hearted slice of life
prevalent in the story.
Speaking of which, that brings us to
another aspect of the story that managed to remain consistent throughout the
entire game: the air of elegance of the setting. Basically the setting being a
high class all girls’ school creates this as a precedent for the students in
terms of mannerisms, school traditions and the like, but it integrates well
with the light hearted-ness of the story that it feels natural and never really
comes off as oppressive (unless you count one particular early story arc).
Really this combination kind of comes off as relaxing (I’d dare say this may be
one of the most relaxing things I’ve ever read, and that counts books), kind of
giving a feeling of being at some high class establishment where all you feel
like doing is drinking tea and taking in the atmosphere (which is really weird
considering I’ve never been in that situation in real life). Of course, the
game’s story takes full advantage of this setting, using it to create
interesting story arcs, character interactions and moments. I’d have to say
some of my favorites involve how naturally the “Elder Sister” position ends up
fitting Mizuho, sometimes a little too well for our hero’s comfort…
Of course a game with a good story
should have good characters to drive it, and I can say that Otoboku has an
amazing cast behind the wheel of it (click here for profiles). Every major and
semi-major character is a joy to read about once the story kicks off from the
mysterious Shion to the occult infatuated Kei to Takako’s character development.
Each of these characters have their own unique personalities and quirks, and
most of them have their own interesting little stories to read before any real
route begins. This helps to establish a very believable circle of friends for
Mizuho and also makes for the right setup for the romance to begin whenever the
heroines’ routes start.
Moving on to the heroines’ routes,
let’s start with how I rank them:
1)Takako
2)Shion
3)Kana
4)Mariya
5)Yukari
6)Ichiko
Beginning
with Takako’s route, I have to say that not only is her route my favorite of
the game, but if I were to make a top ten list of favorite routes I’ve read
through in the visual novel genre then this one would definitely be in there.
This route manages to do everything required to make a good route in a visual
novel right, and with flying colors. To begin with, the chemistry between
Mizuho and Takako is great to read from Takako’s confusion in regards to her
feelings towards Mizuho before her route starts in not knowing he’s really a
guy to how well the two interact with each other once they begin a
relationship, which subsequently makes it very believable. The character
development Takako goes through in her route is also well handled, matching
well with how the pre-route story content sets things up for her to question
and change her viewpoints on things such as rules and traditions. The changes
she goes through feel natural and their being connected to her relationship
with Mizuho actually help in establishing said relationship as one where they’re
both equal partners. Finally, the story in the route is just plain enjoyable as
it’s packed with so many interesting things that just make you want to read
more of it. We get to see Mizuho be badass, some of the funniest scenes in the
entire game are in this route, and the subplots involving the student council
aren’t just interesting but also wrap up really well with the ending of the
route to make it unique, satisfying and actually feel like the most natural
conclusion.
Shion’s route comes in at a very
close second as her route’s story is extremely close to being just as good. It surprised
me by doing several things I didn’t expect like approaching an story arc in a completely
different way from the other routes without necessarily feeling like a cop out
or how it seemed to be going in the direction of a very over used trope in this
genre, but suddenly stopping short of it and going in a more interesting
direction. The chemistry between Shion and Mizuho is also good and I liked how
their interactions matched well with how they were both keeping secrets, which
later end up tying together into a very satisfying plot resolution late in the
route. For those reasons I can say the story and conclusion of the route are
good and satisfying, but I have to say what keeps Shion’s route from tying with
Takako’s is it slows down a little at the end. It’s understandable why
considering the events late in the route do bear some character moments in its
aftermath, and to the route’s credit it does well with that. The problem is I
think it takes a little too long to move on from that and to the ending,
whereas Takako’s route had its share of subplots but none of them felt too
long. Still, I’d only consider this a minor flaw as I think the route was still
an enjoyable read all the same.
Kana’s route comes in at third place
because it’s unlike the previous two it’s simply a good route. The relationship
she has with Mizuho I think is very cute and one of the best parts of it story-wise
I found was the unlikely friendship that forms between her and Takako. Its only
flaw for me was that aside from those two things, the route’s story didn’t really
do anything to wow or really grab my interest like the first two. Moving on,
Mariya’s route I consider a decent as I did find her character alright, her
relationship with Mizuho had interesting points, and her story of trying to
find a lot in life to be satisfied with was a good one. The route’s main
problem for me was that it didn’t really do much with the aforementioned plot
elements aside from what was necessary, whereas at least in Kana’s route it had
two plot elements to catch my interest.
Now we come to the last two routes
in the rankings: Yukari’s and Ichiko’s, and to put it frankly, these were the
two most disappointing routes in the entire game (yes, even compared with the
extra mini stories you unlock after completing the main story routes). I will
say Yukari’s route has a good start as it does a good job building up the
relationship she has with Mizuho and even has her involved in an early story
arc in a way she wasn’t in the other routes that I really liked. What shoots
this route down is the fact that out of all of the routes in the game this is
the only one that overdoes it in the drama area of the story, electing to
wallow in the melodrama brought on by Doug Walker’s second most hated cliché:
the liar revealed. Pretty much every reason for why this cliché is groan worthy
(detailed in this
video (14:40 if you want to skip) can be seen in this route, and the fact
that unlike movies this goes on longer than ten to fifteen minutes doesn’t make
it any better. It’s also not helped by all the other routes where this could
have come up simply skip over that cliché and move on with their stories.
Finally, with Ichiko’s route what
puts it at the bottom of the list is because it disappoints because it does
nothing with its main heroine. Considering how significant a character Ichiko
turns out to be later in the story for both Mizuho and most of the heroines,
particularly in a scene in each route that I can only describe as heart
wrenching even though you know what’s going to happen, you’d think the game’s
writers would do something interesting or different with her in her route yet
for some reason they don’t. They never really approach any opportunities for
drama such as being a ghost and how that could affect her relationship with
Mizuho, nor do they try for any moments of comedy such as having her interact
with characters she doesn’t in the other routes of the game (I’m sure I’m not the
only one who wanted to see her meet Takako after the latter’s reaction to the
possibility of the existence of ghosts). All that happens in the route is we
get some very short story scenes, a couple of ero scenes, and then it’s off to
the end scene and credits.
Thankfully, I can say that because
those last two routes are minor ones they don’t really impact your enjoyment of
the game that much and are only the real faults Otoboku has in the story
department. If I was going to nitpick, I’d say the only other flaw for me would
be that Kimie doesn’t have a route since the game does make it obvious she has
a thing for Mizuho and Takako’s route shows she’s an interesting character too
(and to anyone asking why I’m not complaining about Shiori, Kei, or Michiko not
having a route the game’s story gives a good reason why). Maybe someday the
folks at Caramel Box will give us a fandisk with a route for her, but I’m
afraid that’s less likely than a Sacchin from Type Moon.
In the area of presentation, Otoboku
does well on all fronts. Not only is the artwork for the characters and event
CG really good, but the game also uses its own uniquely drawn SD character art
for comic effect very well in the comedic scenes (they even use CG with stick
figures for that well too). The voice acting is superb, with the entire cast
(including Mizuho) being voiced with each VA perfectly capturing and portraying
the right emotions for their characters in each scene they feature in. The
music is good as it sets the right atmosphere for each scene, unfortunately none
of the tunes are good not enough to stand out on their own though.
As for the ero scenes, they’re all
really good in both the art and voice acting department and I can also say
their well placed in the story. I do find it kind of odd that Kana of all the
heroines has the most ero scenes (and the kinkier ones too).
In
Conclusion:
Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru is probably
one of the best acquisitions that Mangagamer has made in the past couple of
years. Here we have a game with a largely excellent (and funny) story, a cast
of memorable and likable characters, and great artwork and voice acting. I’ll
admit the story isn’t perfect, but at least the two disappointing routes are
short and easily overshadowed by all the other routes. It’s definitely worth a
read and to be honest if you were going to start playing eroge, then this would
make for a good starter game.
Final Score
8/10 Awesome
Author Recommendation:
Buy it now.
Should point
out that Mangagamer has a physical release out that you can buy here (warning page contains NSFW
images).
As for the
anime, it’s actually pretty good (follows Takako’s route in the end), though I
do think it could have been longer. Will admit it is a bit weird hearing
different VAs from the game play some of the characters, but you do get used to
the changes quick enough. There’s even an extra omake episode that’s pretty
funny.
Well,
what do you know? Another review up in such short a time…and, that’s mainly
because the game I’m about to talk about is pretty short. I present to you
Orion Heart, originally released in Japan by Portion a sub-branch of Liquid, and
released in English by Mangagamer on May 24, 2013.
Pros: Good character artwork by Hokuto Saeki, voice acting
is good, music has some nice tracks.
Cons: Story is weak even for a dark sex romp.
WTF?!: Sorry, this is only in the light novel.
When it
comes to story, there really isn’t much to talk about. This is your standard
story of a demon taking sweet tentacle filled revenge on the magical girls that
wronged him prevalent in hentai OVAs and dime a dozen dark sex romp games everywhere.
If you don’t like this kind of stuff, this game certainly isn’t going to change
your mind. Having said that, I have to say that even for this kind of sex romp
eroge Orion Heart is pretty weak in the story area, and I know how that sounds
given I just said this genre doesn’t have much story to talk about but I’ll
explain.
While almost every game in the dark
sex romp genre of eroge lack a story to write home about, the good ones at
least establish the right context for the upcoming string of ero scenes at the
start. Games like Black Lilith’s Taimanin series or Liquid’s own Conquering the
Queen (original Japanese name “Mashou no Nie”) had a good setup at the start so
we got a good feel for who the heroines were and how badass they were. For
those who favor this genre of eroge this setup helps to make the ero scenes all
the more satisfying in the way the heroines fall to the villains. Orion Heart
only provides hints about the battle the two heroines had with the demon Gildart,
with so little explanation I wondered if maybe MG had licensed a sequel to
another eroge by mistake. Thanks to someone asking on MG’s forums, I found out
that all the backstory hinted at is all told in a light novel released as a
promotion for this game’s original Japanese release. Whether or not the light
novel would have made for a better game I don’t know (but the pictures in the light novel sure make me wonder), but the lack of backstory
really only serves to help make this game get lost in the endless sea of other
eroge of its kind.
While
Orion Heart is weak in the area of story, Portion thankfully spared no expense
when it comes to the game’s presentation. The character artwork is done by none
other than Hokuto Saeki who has done artwork for many well known top tier eroge
such as Rui wa Tomo wo Yobu (check out the
OP here), Comyu (OP here), and the much
desired Shin Koihime Musou (OP here). The background
music is also nice with a relaxing yet catchy background in the beginning to
some really nice piano music that does a good job in setting the atmosphere of
later scenes.The voice acting is also
really good with the main heroine Yuka being voiced by Miya Serizono who many
of you may recognize as Rin Rin from Koihime Musou and/or Sakura from
Edelweiss, and while this role doesn’t give her much chance to stretch her
acting chops her performance is still really good, almost enough to make you
forget about the mediocre story.
As for
the ero scenes, they’re pretty much what you’d expect for this genre, though I
can say they’re really helped by the aforementioned good artwork and voice
acting.
In Conclusion:
Orion
Heart is at the end of the day a short (it took me about three hours to clear)
average tentacle eroge. The bizarre decision by its creators to relegate the
more interesting sounding story of the girls’ conflict with its villain to a
light novel tie in would have in any other case sunk this game, but the good
art, music, and voice acting manage to save it from being a bad game, but not
enough to make it anything special. If you like this genre then this game is
certainly for you, but only if you think it’s worth your $25.00.
Of the
three initial softhouse-seal titles to come out from Mangagamer, this is the
one I was the most optimistic about. Having watched my share of spoofs of the
spy genre from Get Smart to the Naked Gun series to Austin Powers, I was
looking forward to what jokes softhouse-seal had to tell to match the ero
content, so on its release date of April 23, 2013 I began my playthrough with
high hopes. I mean how on earth could anyone screw up spoofing the spy genre?
Years of spoof movies and shows can show it’s as easy to make fun of as…you
already know where this is going don’t you?
Pros: The Lestie/Maimi route is actually good, Nana’s VA
turns in a good performance, the artwork is good, a couple nice tunes on the
music end.
Cons: Largely fails at telling jokes let alone spoofing the
spy genre, for the most part the main character is unlikable, the Kusakabe
sisters’ routes.
WTF?!: You know what, just take a look at the basis for this
game in picture form…
Continuing
from that, you play as Iiyama Hunt, the top agent for said organization, and
their goal of bringing pleasure to all women is opposed by an organization
known as…you know what I’m going to need to show another picture…
Now I’m
sure after seeing what the premise for this game is, some of you might say in
response to my soon to come criticisms on this game’s failings that I should
have expected this. To that I say…you’re probably right, but in my defense both
of the previous releases from softhouse-seal have stupid premises but both were
able to use that well for comedic effect in their games (admittedly Sexy Demon
Transformation did it a lot better than Boob Wars) so why shouldn’t I expect
the same level of quality?
By and
large what makes SSSS fail is it’s just not good at telling jokes or spoofing
the spy genre. The majority of the jokes just aren’t funny, and most of them are
more focused on sex related jokes rather than ones parodying tropes from spy
movies or shows (and anyone who’s at least seen the James Bond movies knows
those jokes don’t have to be mutually exclusive). The humor isn’t helped any by
the fact that our “hero” Hunt is not a very likable character, not only having
all the characteristics that often make a perverted protagonist annoying but
also coming across as a complete ass in regards to his interaction with the
other characters.All these failings are
most apparent in the Kusakabe sisters’ routes, which are so terrible I have to
give it its own paragraph.
With
this route (I’m only going to refer to it as a single route since the plot
divergence is at the end anyway), everything that is wrong with this game is
brought to the max. There is only one joke that gets even close to being funny
wherein out hero defuses a dildo bomb, mainly because that’s the only spy genre
related joke in the entire route (and one or two throwaway line references
don’t count). The rest are simply unfunny regardless of whether they make sense
or not from some odd references to the Vietnam War (which I guess is because
that’s when the spy genre was in the height of its popularity) to an analogy of
a character and curry that I still can’t make any sense out of. Moving on to
our main character…while his behavior for most of the game is groan worthy with
his acting like a jerk because the writers thought it would be funny, it’s in
this route where he’s at his worst. It’s not just that he has no chemistry with
either heroine, it’s that he seems to have no positive regard for them at all.
The best example would be with how after he first meets one of said heroines,
Ruri, and finds out about a certain mental problem she has his only thought is “I
don’t have time to deal with this space case”. If that’s meant to be a joke it’s
not funny and to be honest kind of offensive, but it’s not like this is a one
off joke I can let slide since later on near the end of the route when said
affliction is brought to a head in a scene that’s trying to be dramatic (and
not doing very well at it) and Hunt is turned to in order to help do you want
to know what the response is from our “hero”? He not only refuses to help, but
also complains and tries to deflect the responsibility to someone else.The fact that the route still leads to a good
end for this guy that I’m supposed to appreciate and then ends on what’s
practically an “f--- you” to the player really had me steamed when the credits
rolled and I had to stop playing right there and I did not even want to touch
this game for weeks, I was that pissed.
When I
did finally muster up enough endurance to play this game again, I’ll admit I
played the Lestie/Maimi route first, but I’d like to talk about the Nana route first
to get it out of the way. I can say that both of these routes are thankfully not
as infuriatingly terrible as the Kusakabe sisters’ and they both actually
manage to tell jokes that are related to the spy genre. The thing with Nana’s
route though…even succeeding at that, her route isn’t very good. While part of
the problem is that the ending is pretty bland and there’s not much in the way
of chemistry between her and Hunt (which is still better than none unlike…that
other route), another problem I have with it is how mean spirited the humor
gets in regards to the enemy organization. I can understand why it’s there
since this game came out in 2010 in Japan and that was when the whole Rapelay controversy
was in full swing and we had a bunch of people claiming to represent feminist
groups (should note, actual feminists that I talked to pretty much said these
were just idiots who wanted to be on TV) raising a fuss over hentai in general
and were calling for the Japanese government to ban it entirely, or for the UN
to impose sanctions on Japan until it did so, or for fictional characters to be
given human rights, and otherridiculous
stuff. All in all it got blown out of proportion because some Japanese
politicians actually listened to that and while cooler (and smarter) heads
prevailed during that time this whole controversy was picked up by the denizens
of 4chan and 2chan and
I don’t think I need to explain what happened next. Basically the humor in
this route is obviously supposed to be directed at the bunch who raised the
fuss about Rapelay (which I’m not going to review since it’s a third rate
chikan eroge that I found boring), and whether or not the writers bought into
the “feminazi” stereotype the controversy sadly helped to reinforce, it
probably portrayed feminists (to them) as people who wanted to destroy their livelihood
and I doubt anyone would take kindly to that. …And I’ve been talking more about
an old controversy than the route in question…so yeah, Nana route: better than
the Kusakabe sister’s but still not very good, especially in the humor
department. Moving on…
Finally
we get to the Lestie/Maimi route, which I did not have very high hopes for
since I’d just completed the Kusakabe sisters’ route but much to my surprise
this route was actually good. While I admit the Maimi ending is kind of bland,
the overall route path works for a few reasons. First, it does a pretty good
parody of “the spy’s organization going too far and said spy goes renegade’
story trope complete with a pretty wacky chase scene, plus following into the
Lestie end we get a decent parody of the bizarre gadget trope of the genre too.
Second, following the former trope actually helps to make Hunt a likable
character for once considering in this case he’s actually doing something
genuinely good for another person (in this case Maimi) and we the players
actually get to sympathize with him a little. Third, we actually get some
decent character moments between not just Hunt and the heroines (finally some
chemistry, especially concerning Lestie), but with the friendship between Maimi
and Lestie that gives the story a little heart and even bits of character development
on Lestie’s end (though I do admit the route could have stood to have more of
that). So all in all I can say that at least with this route my money wasn’t
entirely wasted.
In the
area of presentation, this game does well enough. The artwork is good and there
are a couple of good tunes with its music, especially in its opening theme
which does a nice mimic of the James Bond music at times. The voice acting is
also good, and I should mention that whoever the voice actress is for Nana, she
does an especially good job pulling off the comedic scenes she’s in. There’s
just something in the way she pulls off the line that would make a normally
lame scene funny. Sadly even her talents can’t save this game.
As for
the ero scenes, they’re good as ero scenes go with good artwork and voice
acting. I think I’ve already said enough about the scenes in between most of
them.
In Conclusion:
Super
Secret Sexy Spy is a largely unfunny comedy that I would not recommend to
anyone. While there is one good route and the voice acting is good, it’s still
not enough to save it as we have two other routes that just plain suck. Buy
anything else in Mangagamer’s library, but not this, and if you want a good spy
genre parody watch any of the three things I mentioned up in the intro or
Linkara’s S.C.I. Spy reviews (click here
for the first one).
As I’ve
admitted before, back when Mangagamer announced its partnership with
Softhouse-seal, I wasn’t that thrilled about it since the lineup didn’t exactly
look that enticing. Sexy Demon Transformation however managed to prove me wrong
and now I have to admit I’m looking forward to what this new company has to
offer (and anyone else who’s been paying attention to MG’s plans for 2013 can
see they have quite a bit down the line). So as you can expect, I had good
expectations once I’d downloaded and installed my copy of the next in the
Softhouse-seal English lineup, Boob Wars, released in English on October 19,
2012. After playing it…I can at least say it’s a decent time killer.
Pros: Fun card battle system, good artwork, some of the
jokes are funny, Teresa makes for a good heroine.
Cons: Not as funny as I was hoping, characters aren’t really
used that well, the harem ending pretty much makes the other two endings kind
of pointless.
WTF?!: I hear this every time I tell people I don’t really hate
Mass Effect 3’s ending with the Extended Cut…
You
know considering there wasn’t much point in a summary for Sexy Demon
Transformation, I’ll opt to quote Mangagamer again:
“At the beginning of the 22nd
Century, an anomaly began occurring in the bodies of women...
All the women of the world became either E Cups and up or A cups and under.
"Big Breasts" and "Flat Chests"... Due to their division
into these two groups,
the debate over which was superior began.
After the first incident of armed conflict, known as the "Nyuuhen
Tragedy,"
the entire world was split between the Big Breasts Tribe and the Flat Chests
Tribe and an intense conflict ensued.
87 years later...
The secret organization of Erorists, "Eagle", has ordered our
protagonist Takamura Manabu to pursue the mission of his career: "Seduce
Queen Milk Elioto of the Big Breasts Tribe and Queen Teresa Premadasa of the
Flat Chests Tribe and bring this war to a close."
"Eagle" immediately sent the Erorist, Takamura Manabu, to the two
queens!!
Can Manabu stop the two queens and bring this war to an end!?”
And
that’s basically this game’s story…but considering this is softhouse-seal, a
story with depth is not to be expected. Really, in a light hearted sex romp
game like this, what you should hope for is that the characters are likable and
the humor works. As for how Boob Wars handles those…I’d say it really only does
an okay job. With the characters (click here for profiles), most of them are
just passable since while all the characters with a character portrait are
given a personality, it’s really only Milk and Teresa who get the mostsignificant screen time while Suzuka and
Sophia get significantly less. This is further confounded by the fact that Milk
isn’t all that interesting as a character either. Really, aside from Teresa the rest of the cast
is pretty forgettable.
Now
I realize that this game isn’t supposed to have deep characters considering its
genre and shortness, but SDT was able to have characters that were memorable
and they all got a fitting amount of screen time and humorous scenes and it’s
about the same length as Boob Wars. While we’re comparing the two though, I
should also point out the Boob Wars isn’t as funny as SDT. Don’t get me wrong,
it has a good enough amount of jokes to make me chuckle, but for every funny
joke there’s a joke that falls flat or I simply just don’t get. I think part of
the reason is because the jokes in SDT had a better focus on what it was making
jokes about: the ridiculousness of the monster rape genre of eroge.
Concerning
the routes of this game, there sadly isn’t much to talk about considering the
individual endings for Milk and Teresa are obviously fake endings with the
harem route being the true ending. I can say that if not for the last part of
it, Teresa’s route is pretty good considering she has some good interactions
with Manabu that I found cute and kind of funny. Can’t really say the same for
Milk since like I said before she isn’t that interesting and the same can be
said of her route. The harem route, while better than Milk’s, is just okay.
As
for the gameplay, this is where Boob Wars actually does its best as throughout
the game you battle enemies in a card based game similar to Princess Waltz
where you and your opponent alternate between attacking and defending,
receiving two randomly picked cards each turn. In each phase you can use up to
three cards and the combined numerical value of each card determines how much
damage you do when attacking and how much you block when defending. If the
value of the attack exceeds the defense, a lot of damage is inflicted but if
the value of the defense is higher then only a few points of damage are dealt
if any. While the battle system is simple it can actually be pretty fun,
especially on hard mode where you actually do have to put some strategy into
fights such as how may high number cards should you use for attack vs. defense.
If you don’t want to play the story again, but want to just play the card battle’s
there is a free battle mode in the extras section.
In
the area of presentation, I’d say the artwork is pretty good as is the voice
acting even if the music is pretty forgettable. As for the ero scenes, they’re good, but
nothing special.
In Conclusion:
Boob
Wars is an overall okay game that won’t be a waste of your money if all you’re
looking for is a sex romp game. The gameplay element is a nice addition and may
have you playing the game even after you complete the story mode. I will admit
some of the humor may not be for everyone, but it gets enough laughs to be a
passable comedy in my book. There are better games in MG’s lineup though, so I
recommend only getting this if you want something to pass the time until the
next big title releases.
