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.
Ever
since I played Kara no Shoujo I’ve been hungry for another mystery themed
eroge. Of course I could always get something from Innocent Grey’s library, but
I wanted to see if any other companies had anything to offer. After a bit of
looking, I found Caligula Soft’s Shinsetsu Ryouki no Ori, a remake of a game
from Nihon Plantech that came out in 1995 under the name Ryouki no Ori. I admit
what got me to take a look at it was the 90s style anime artwork for the
characters, but the story was what got me interested in trying it out. Having
completed it, I can say it’s a pretty good game overall, but…
Pros: Story is interesting for the most of the game, core
cast is memorable and interesting, really good artwork, excellent voice acting.
Cons: The true ending route, the free roaming game mechanic
starts to get annoying after a few playthroughs, the side heroine routes are
hit or miss storywise, insultingly short ero scenes.
WTF?!: An amusement park with an attraction area based off
the Cthulhu mythos?* If only Astroworld had had that it would still be
around... ;_;
*Not joking, Misuzu’s saying that the next attraction
they’re going to is “Shoggoth’s Tea Party” in the R’lyeh Area.
In
Shinsetsu Ryouki no Ori you play as a detective (who you can name) hired to
investigate a series of mysterious disappearances that have occurred in the
Zeroshiki Department Store for the past 15 years. Said detective is to go
undercover as a new employee in order to conduct the investigation and has nine
days to try to solve the mystery.
When it
comes to story, SRO does a pretty good job for the most part. The mystery
surrounding the disappearances is intriguing and each revelation you uncover
related to it from multiple playthroughs does have you interested in seeing the
resolution. Each of the main heroines is tied somehow to the mystery
surrounding the disappearances and completing each of their routes gives you a
feel as if you’ve obtained another piece to a puzzle that will come together
into a big reveal. It also helps that most of the main heroines’ stories are
interesting by themselves and the relationships they form with the MC are
believable from their interactions with one another to the protagonist’s role
in helping them deal with a major problem.
Ignoring
the True Ending route (which I’ll get to soon enough), my route preference is
as follows:
1)Tsukasa
2)Nobuko
3)Makoto
4)Akira
5)Shizuka
6)Rebecca
7)Uzuki
8)Misuzu
9)Yori
10)Kurara
To be honest, Tsukasa and Nobuko
almost tie for first place as I enjoyed both of their stories from how their
stories are tied to the main mystery to the role that the MC has in solving
their problem and how that leads into a pretty satisfying conclusion to their
character arcs. What makes Tsukasa win out over Nobuko though is I think her
relationship with the MC is better developed; while over the course of both
routes the girls open up to him, Tsukasa’s scenes do a better job at showing
how close the two become. Makoto comes in third as her route does a really good
job in getting you interested in what the true ending of the main mystery could
be thanks to the story revelations in it, plus the chemistry between her and
the MC is really nice too. Akira’s route I like for similar reasons, but I feel
like it focuses a little too much on the mystery over the relationship
development which makes it feel a bit unbalanced compared to the previous
three. It’s the opposite with Shizuka’s route, which has some good character
development, but the mystery sadly takes a back seat to it. Rebecca and Uzuki’s
routes come in next as they both have good stories for side routes that don’t
really have anything to do with the main story and the relationship they form
with the main character is pretty believable, though between the two I’d say
Rebecca’s route has a more satisfying conclusion. As for Misuzu’s route…I’ll
talk more about that in a little bit but as a route it’s just okay, but is
pretty mediocre as a main story route. Yori and Kurara’s routes are sadly the
weakest as both are very short storywise and because of that and the fact that
they have no connection to the main plot makes both routes feel out of place.
Of the two of them though, I suppose Yori’s is a little better since that route
seems to at least have some hints of effort at telling a complete story.
Having
said all that, you can probably guess that one of the things that help to make
this an enjoyable read throughout each route is the game’s large cast of
characters, and that doesn’t just include the heroines as throughout the
game you can have the MC interact with the store’s security guards, different
shopkeepers, and even a burglar to name a few. Such a large cast helps in
giving the store setting a populated feel with each having their own unique
personality to match their looks and the number of different scenes you can get
through interacting with these characters at certain times of the day does help
to enhance the replay value be they serious scenes that may or may not shed
light on the case or lighthearted scenes such as a race through the store on
forklifts (and of course…).
That
said, the game has its share of story problems, most of them concerning the
true route. Now I’ve mentioned before the general problem I have with a
multi-route game with a true ending and how it can end up cheapening, or at
worst invalidating, the other routes. Sadly, SRO’s true ending is the kind that
completely invalidates the other endings and doesn’t even seem to acknowledge
them in any way. This really devalues the playing of the other routes if you
played them first as the buildup that they seemed to hint at just falls flat as
a result, and if you just play the only route necessary to unlock it, Misuzu’s,
then play the route it makes playing the other routes seem pointless because
now that you’ve solved the mystery the other routes just come off as fake and
pointless in the end.
Speaking
of Misuzu, this is where I’ll be talking about why her route doesn’t rank very
high amongst the others in my book as the true route is essentially a truer
version of her normal route.To put it
simply, as a heroine Misuzu is pretty boring for this kind of game. Unlike the
other main heroines, Misuzu doesn’t have any personal secret tied to the main
mystery, her only connections to said mystery are really through her parents and
as a result her involvement in the overall story is next to nil. I get that in
the true route the writer was probably trying to portray her as a normal
innocent girl suddenly thrust into the events store’s dark and ultimately
tragic history by circumstances beyond her control, but it’s Misuzu’s normalcy
that ends up foiling that, especially if you’ve played the other routes. In
those routes, the heroine’s having some sort of personal connection to the main
mystery (in most cases a personal problem) actually helps to create an extra
stake in the case other than just solving it as you now want to see things turn
out well for said heroine too. Basically you get more invested in the story
this way, but with Misuzu not really having that the only thing you have to be
invested in is in seeing the mystery itself solved. And sadly, the true route
manages to fumble that too…
The
main reason the main mystery doesn’t turn out so well is because a lot of it is
dependent on the reveal of another culprit aside from the one revealed in the
other main routes. This is supposed to be a big plot twist, but unfortunately
it’s not a very effective one for a few reasons. First, while the reveal makes some
sense initially it raises several questions concerning how it relates to the
overall plot that really make it seem like the only reason the culprit wasn’t
revealed in the other routes was a series of really hard to swallow plot
conveniences. Second, the secret culprit’s motivations are pretty weak
considering who that character is and even weaker when compared to those of the
main culprit in the other routes. Third, the reveal only serves to create too
many villains, and since the revealed culprit isn’t a very effective one you’re
left wondering if this reveal was really necessary.
Another
fumble on the true route’s end is that it tries too hard to play up the tragic
elements of the story by trying to make the player feel sorry for the villains.
It wouldn’t be a problem if it were done well like in Detective Conan ,
but SRO’s villains just aren’t that sympathetic. The secret culprit’s
motivations don’t really show that character as anything but despicable, one of
the villains just comes across as a raving lunatic (and that seems to be his
main motivation too) and not very sympathetic, and one villain who’s really just
a henchman kind of villain doesn’t get much in the way of personality or story
outside of his being a flunky until right before he dies where he does a
ridiculously long inner monologue of his life story (and yes, that scene is
meant to be taken seriously). Only one villain character comes off as being
anything close to sympathetic, and that ends up being undermined by the fact
that in the bad endings that character does some pretty nasty things to the MC
and the heroines without a moment’s hesitation and even ignoring those endings
what sympathy you may have for that character pretty much goes away when you
consider how that character’s actions will affect another of the characters.
Concerning
the gameplay element, when you’re in the department store you actually get
control the MC from an isometric perspective where you click to where you want
him to go and proceed to other rooms and floors by clicking an icon that
appears above the MC’s head. This is also how check for clues, talk to people
and even find some hidden secrets and characters throughout the building. What
you find and who you meet are determined by the time of day, which passes
according to where you go to and how much time a scene can take. There’s also a
database on the characters you meet in the store that updates as you go along
in the game. For the most part this makes for a fun way to explore, but it
sadly starts to get tedious after a few playthroughs, especially when you’re
trying to get to specific events so you can unlock a route. In fact, the true
end route practically demands perfection when it comes to the scenes you have
to see and the times you need to make, and even with a walkthrough handy (which
belive me you WILL need) it
still feels like a chore considering if you miss even one of these scenes
you’re going to get a bad end. Also there is a bit of a problem where sometimes
the game doesn’t detect your clicking the icon and instead moves the character,
but it doesn’t happen that often. The game does give the option of using a map
of the store to fast travel to whatever area you want to go to, which does make
things a little less tedious.
I
should point out that the game does have a few system problems such as occasionally
crashing when saving or loading, plus the skip function skips over any text
when selected regardless of whether or not you’ve read it before. Unfortunately
there doesn’t seem to be any way to change that in the configuration menu. This
makes for a problem during replays as it means you have to commit to memory
whether you’ve seen certain scenes before or not and also keep an eye out for
any changes to scenes depending on what you’ve done previously. Fortunately
there weren’t very many cases of that which I could remember.
In the
area of presentation, SRO does a good job for the most part. The artwork for
the characters has that 90s anime look about it which really helps in showing
how the characters are all drawn in a unique way. The music is probably the only weak point when
it comes to presentation as it’s really just okay and not very memorable
(though the opening was pretty good). The only track I wasn’t fond of was the
ending theme as it just seems to go on forever much like the credits it
accompanies. The voice acting is great all around with everyone but the MC
being voiced and the voice actors all do a good job with the roles they’re
given. The one voice actor that does stand out though is none other than THE
Norio Wakamoto himself as security guard Takeshi Saito, giving a good performance with both the
funny and dramatic scenes that his character is in with the voice that many of
us otaku have come to love.
As for
the ero scenes, they’re not bad, but most of them are extremely short,
consisting of 1-2 CG and some lasting only a few minutes. For a game that came out
in the 90s that’s fine, but considering this is an updated remake you’d think they’d
extend the ero scenes even a little bit more from that.
Characters:
Makoto Zeroshiki:
In charge of the department stores owned by the Zeroshiki
family, and the one who hires the MC to investigate the disappearances. While
her job managing the stores keeps her busy, Makoto makes it her business to
know her employees and their concerns.
Tsukasa Takenaka:
In charge of the meat department on the lower level of the
store, Tsukasa began working part time at Zeroshiki while a student and became
a full time worker after graduating. As a result, she’s a very experienced
worker despite her age and hard working to boot. Many of the customers and
employees know her for smile and positive attitude.
Akira Kono:
In charge of the women’s clothing department on the ground
floor of the store, Akira is considered the “face” of the department store due
to her looks and talents which have made her very popular with customers,
especially women. Many who know her
describe her talent as being able to approach and handle any situation calmly,
like a machine.
Tamaki Ayamoto:
In charge of the men’s clothing department on the second
floor, Tamaki is one of the senior members of the staff, having even worked as
an assistant to Makoto’s grandfather, the previous owner of the department
store.
Misuzu Ayamoto:
A second year student working in the department store part
time, Misuzu’s main responsibilities are assisting her mother, Tamaki. A
cheerful and upbeat girl, Misuzu gets along well with most of the staff and is
good friends with Tsukasa and Akira.
Shizuka Kisaragi:
The head chef for the department store’s Italian restaurant
located on the fourth floor, and was hired due to her studying cooking in
Italy. Has a fine sense of cuisine, but has a tendency to be blunt about
things.
Nobuko Maeda:
In charge of the pet shop “Puni Puni” located on the fifth
floor, Nobuko can be described as an animal lover (especially of cats) and is very
devoted to her job. Despite her tomboyish personality,Nobuko is very sociable and gets on well with
both customers and colleagues alike.
Kurara Sanada:
Zeroshiki Department Store’s elevator girl, Kurara is very
popular with the male customers due to her looks and voice as her duties also
include giving information to new cutomers about the store.
Uzuki Bando:
The younger sister of Hayato Bando, one of the employees
working in the women’s department store. Hangs around the department store as
it’s a convenient place for her to meet her brother who she seems to idolize.
Rebecca do Monpal Nasu:
The daughter of one of the senior employees in the men’s
clothing department, Rebecca is considered a protégé for having studied abroad
at a prestigious university in the UK. Isn’t very good at socializing with
others and is usually seen helping her father.
In Conclusion:
Shinsetsu Ryouki no Ori is overall a good, but very flawed,
game. While its true ending is its biggest hiccup and the time management
aspect can make things tedious, there is a lot to be appreciated from its
interesting cast of characters, its 90s style artwork, and the many extra
scenes one can unlock by simply exploring the store. I would say it’s worth
getting should you happen across it on an import site, but be sure of both the
price and the flaws I’ve mentioned before you get it.
