As anyone who plays these games would know, it is important to go outside the "trusted" companies every once in a while, if only to get an idea of what product quality is like and to (hopefully) find a good title that not many people may know about. In the case of yours truly, voice cast and who is involved in production usually holds weight when looking around.

In an attempt to try something a little different, I've decided to take a peek at the company Marmalade. What I have found based on things I've seen online is that their games are more remembered for their artwork over their story. Such seems to be the case with Konneko and Lyrical Lyric/DS, which are their more remembered titles. Seeing my tendency to let curiosity get the better of me, I decided to give one of their more recent releases a try to get a feel of what they're capable of. Going by the fact that this production crew has no one I am overly familiar with (outside of the voice cast, anyways), I'll try to take a bright-eyed approach to Marmalade's sixth title, Love 2 Quad.

Game: Love 2 Quad

Love 2 Quad (AKA L2Q) was released on September 30, 2011 by the studio Marmalade. The game features art by Naruse Hirofumi, with scenarios by Kuroshiro Sen, Yoshikawa Yoshie, Mikkadou, Fukayama Yuuki, Saitou Kenji and Kimura Koroya. The presentation of the game itself spoofs the way Intel markets their products, with a jingle similar to the one used at the end of commercials for Intel products as well as the fact that 2, Quad and the extra route i7 are all references to Intel's Dual, Quad and i7 core processors.

The protagonist is Toudou Wataru, a high school student that finds himself dragged into the ongoing battle between the organization Cradle and the creatures known as 4D that threaten to destroy the world. As he quickly finds out, his role is not combat-related, but more as a source of energy and power to the real fighters within the organization, the girls known as "Layers". To his own shock, the Layers include his childhood friend (and pseudo-imouto) Honoka, the girl that lives to give him grief known as Ermalit, a girl from the future named Mirai, and his own (very very very distant) ancestor named Chitose.

With Cradle's purpose clearly stated, Wataru finds himself in a situation where he has to cooperate with their efforts and fulfill his role as "Folder", giving him the ability to link with a particular girl, strengthening and even helping her reach new levels of power. To his own dismay, all this involves sex with any and all of the Layers. His reluctance to get close to any of the girls due to his own expectations on love and romance don't help matters...

The Players

Toudou Wataru Wataru earns his own section due to being slightly more complicated than the average eroge protagonist. To start, Wataru's mother had wanted a daughter the entire time he was in the womb, and as such for the first years of his life he was exposed to the more feminine type of mentality. This was further developed when he picked up the habit of reading shoujo manga. As such, Wataru's outlook on things is very different from other boys his age. Where any other would eagerly jump into the role of Folder expected of him, our protagonist is overly reluctant because he still expects relationships, love and attraction to play out like they do in shoujo manga. This means that Cradle's goals are obviously at odds with Wataru's wishes, and do cause events to play out differently (not to mention some compromises on Cradel's end). That is not to say he thinks like a girl; As it turns out, he also has a very perverted side, and his tastes span from kyonyuu to tsurupeta and everything in between.

Ermalit de Blanchefort C.V.: Gogyou Nazuna (under the alias Kitami Rikka) Ermalit is a girl from a wealthy family that starts out as a constant antagonist to Wataru, often choosing to put him down when given the chance. To everyone outside the protagonist, Ermalit comes off as a very polite, proper and friendly girl, but only Wataru knows what she really is like once the "mask" comes off; a prideful, sharp-tongued, self-centered girl with a superiority complex. She does show some sort of consideration for the other members of the cast, but justifies the way she treats Wataru as her own special way of relieving stress. Her rather difficult personality aside, Ermalit is at first very reluctant to let Wataru anywhere near her, even after Cradle discovers that his power as Folder could turn the tide of the battle against the 4D. The commanders at Cradle manage to convince her to live in Wataru's house in hopes that proximity to each other would be enough to create a link between her and our protagonist without her needing to have sex with him. As she gets to know him a little better, she begins to loosen up, but continues to put him down when given the chance. We eventually discover that Ermalit actually has liked the protagonist since the day she met him...in her own twisted way ("I kept thinking to myself, how would I torture him? How would I make him scream in pain? If I were to kill him, how would I do it? I just couldn't get you out of my thoughts. That's when I realized I was in love with you."). Beneath her steady and prideful demeanor, Ermalit is burdened by what she feels is her failure to live up to the example set by her older sister, who was also a Layer and died during a battle against the 4D ten years before L2Q begins. Though she's knowledgeable with firearms, Ermalit goes to battle wearing her sister's armor and wielding her sister's rapier. Likewise, her polite and friendly demeanor is a copy of how her sister used to behave around others.

Kamishiro Honoka C.V.: Akazawa Kaede (under the alias Natsuno Koori) Honoka is Wataru's childhood friend, and has known him the longest out of the heroines. Her family has always been good friends with the Toudou family, and due to her being a year younger than our protagonist, she has taken to calling him "Nii-san". As is common in osananajimi, she has actually been in love with Wataru since they were children, and even got the protagonist to promise that he would marry her when they got older. At present, she usually takes it upon herself to wake him up in the morning and cook for both of them. Honoka is overly bashful when it comes to her relationship with the protagonist, as she wants to be more than just a sister-like friend but has a lot of difficulty telling our protagonist how she feels. Her bashfulness at times hits critical mass, causing her to go into rants about whatever embarrasing situation has just presented itself, and almost always end with her stating that she and/or Wataru will die. After her family's shinto shrine is destroyed during the first 4D attack, Honoka is given the option to live in pre-assigned quarters at the Cradle base, but can also move into Wataru's house if our protagonist ends up choosing to link with her. As such, her route focuses on the slow transition from childhood friend to girlfriend. Seeing that she is not willing to let anyone else be with the protagonist, Honoka is tasked with becoming stronger in order to do the brunt of the fighting against the 4D. To compliment her upbringing as a shinto priestess, Honoka enters battles dressed in decorated miko attire. Unlike the other Layers, whose powers manifest through weapons and martial prowess, Honoka's power comes from her traditional dances.

Tsukuba Mirai C.V.: Nogami Nana Mirai is introduced as a soft-spoken girl that comes from the distant future. As we later discover, the reason Mirai made the trip back in time was to help Cradle defeat the 4D threat and avert the outcome of the battle against the 4D in her own time period (it is implied that humanity is losing the battle). Unlike the other girls, who show some sort of hesitance to linking (AKA having sex) with Wataru, Mirai seems to look at it as simply a requirement to winning the battle against the 4D. For her part, she is ready and waiting for the protagonist to come to her, and at times even tries to get things started to meet her goal. Seeing that she is from the future, Mirai has access to a considerable amount of gadgets and other machines including her personal mobile armor named Miraioh. Unsurprisingly, she does not hesitate to use them to make things easier for herself. Of course, at times the devices create problems of their own (like the universal translator helmet that makes Honoka's dog talk like a biker gang member). Something to note is that Mirai seems to know a lot more than she lets on, but refuses to elaborate on certain things in order to avoid a time paradox or unintentional changes to the timeline. Because of the circumstances that caused Mirai to travel back in time, she is very focused on "protecting the future". This is not limited to just the people she fights alongside, but also the many innocents who are caught in the middle of the battle against the 4D. At the same time, she is also aware that if Cradle wins the war in the "present", she might not have a future to return to, or may even cease to exist. On a side note, Mirai's design is completely original and is not based on or influenced by anything.

Toudou Chitose C.V.: Sasa Rumiko Chitose is Wataru's ancestor from four hundred years ago. Her younger sister would eventually continue the branch of the Toudou family that would lead to Wataru, making her our protagonist's great^19 aunt. After being sealed in a block of ice for four centuries, Chitose was thawed out by Cradle to help against the 4D threat. Because she grew up during the Edo period, her outlook and expectations on things are rather different from the rest of the cast. Still, she is surprisingly modern in how she thinks, while at the same time having a little difficulty understanding some of the mindsets of the present. Looking at Wataru, she is a little disappointed in what the Toudou family has become in the last couple of centuries. Even though she does her best to adapt to the new world around her, Chitose does feel a little displaced. Her focus on the battle against the 4D keeps her from dwelling on it, but Wataru notices that deep down she is rather normal and wants the same things any girl would want out of life. Seeing that she is Wataru's ancestor, Chitose generally treats our protagonist as a kid. At times, her dissapointment in him being the "heir" of the Toudou family shows, as she expects him to be stronger and more decisive ("Kids these days are so weak..."). To compliment her Edo era "theme", Chitose enters battles armed with her katana, and is technically the strongest Layer in the group in terms of raw potential. As it turns out, the reason she was sealed away was because she failed to destroy a creature similar to the 4D four centuries ago. Knowing that only a member of the Toudou family would be able to take on such a creature, Chitose willingly sealed herself away in hopes of awakening during a time where she could find her enemy and destroy it once and for all.

Yanagi Aoi C.V.: Aoyama Yukari Sub-heroine. Aoi is introduced as a rather popular teacher at Wataru's school. Additionally, she is the vice-commander of Cradle, second only to commander Sekigahara. Though she often comes off as a playful, flaky and slightly perverted woman, she is very serious when it comes to Cradle's battle against the 4D. As she was a Layer before becoming vice-commander, she also lends a hand on the front lines when necessary. Aoi's main focus is trying to nudge Wataru and whoever he has chosen to link with together. Ideally, she would not mind all five Layers (including herself) "linking" with Wataru, but does all she can to respect our protagonist's wishes. Though she doesn't look it, Aoi is a very powerful martial artist and enters battles dressed as such. Comically enough, she is often the butt of jokes about her age, and is very sensitive about the use of the word "old" while she's around. Spoiler: Ermalit's route reveals that Aoi was part of a trio of Layers that fought against the 4D ten years ago; the other two being Aoi's older sister (whose name is not revealed) and Fracoise de Blanchefort (Ermalit's older sister). As there was no Folder around at the time to boost their powers, the battle did not go well, and Aoi is the sole survivor of that encounter. It is because of her own experiences fighting the 4D that Aoi places great emphasis on how important Wataru is in the current battle.

Story & Structure

The game starts off with several scenes that foreshadow the big change that is in store for our protagonist and the heroines, with most people involved mentioning that the time has come. This leads to the prologue, which is rather lengthy and introduces the player to the cast, the organization Cradle as well as the 4D. Progression into the "main" story is somewhat quick, and the premise of the game becomes apparent once it is revealed that Wataru's presence is what will make the difference in the coming battle.

There are no dialogue choices, and instead the way L2Q pushes the player towards a particular route is through a questionnaire presented during Wataru's physical examination after officially joining Cradle. The questionnaire is centered on situations, stereotypes and tastes of the player/Wataru in the form of True/False questions. After answering all questions, the heroine is chosen and the route begins.

Because L2Q is advertised as an "H training" game, Cradle's training program is also a big part of progression. In predetermined intervals, the program will initiate and present the player with situations the protagonist and his heroine must act out to strengthen the link between them.

Adding a final layer to the game, during 4D attacks the player is presented with a charge gauge that needs to be filled up while the heroine is charging her final attack against the current 4D monster. Should the player fail to charge the gauge to max level, the player is defaulted to one of three bad endings. Filling the gauge to max, on the other hand, allows the heroine to defeat the current 4D and continues the story. Something to note is that while the 4D attacks are the same regardless of route, their resolutions are obviously different depending on the heroine.

Overall, the way the story is structured is that you have the standard interactions between the characters, and once in a while Cradle's program will kick in to give our main couple the proverbial kick in the rear they need to "link". The 4D will attack, which leads to some player interaction needed to win each battle.

Artwork

This is my first Naruse Hirofumi game, and as such I have to admit the artwork is very impressive. Proportions are not overly exaggerated while giving the heroines and other characters particular traits to help each stand out.

Sound & Video

L2Q is fully-voiced. The cast is composed of well-known talent, provided some research is done. The easily recognizable names include Nogami Nana, Aoyama Yukari and Kawashima Rino. Then we have Gogyou Nazuna and Sasa Rumiko (best known for playing Wang Chunhua in Kazoku Keikaku), as well as Akazawa Kaede (best-remembered as the voice of Sakaki Shinobu in Tenshi no inai 12-gatsu). Lastly, we have Hirose Masashi, who (using the alias Yamanaka Souichi) voiced commander Sekigahara Lohengrin Housen. I could say most seiyuu buffs know him best as the voice of Lieutenant Ramba Ral from the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series.

Music is credited to Asano Akira. Personally, the music was very decent in certain points and good in others. The character themes are very well-composed, and truly compliment the characters. Action and "battle" themes are also fitting. I can't think of a moment where the music used felt innapropriate or out of place.

As for video, we have the OP movie, which can be seen here. It was deemed good enough that a parody was made shortly before L2Q was actually released.

Omake

Aside from the standard art gallery and scene selection menus, L2Q's only real notable extra is the scenario titled "Love i7" that is unlocked after getting the four main endings. Li7 is basically a harem route that involves the seven heroines (four main heroines, three sub-heroines) in a relationship that starts when Wataru awakens to find that Cradle has won the war against the 4D, and the Layers and he are treated as heroes who saved the world.

Verdict

This was another one of those games that pulled me in due to the "I found CGs on 2ch" excuse. I had also heard Misono Mei was in this game, but didn't know it was in such a minor role. The characters, interactions, and use of comedy are great, but the overall premise is just simply lacking. I don't know if it's because of the shallow motives behind the story or because everything about the game was bogged down due to the whole "H-training" thing, but this is one of those titles you'll go through for the art or voice talent. I was also very disappointed with the fact Aoi did not have a route of her own, as she had a past that was ripe for exploration. The two Cradle operators (voiced by Kawashima Rino and Misono Mei) should have been kept as pure support characters instead of being elevated to sub-heroines for Li7.

That being said, I should give the writers credit where it is due. Characterization was pretty good, and to my own shock I did not find myself disliking Wataru despite his hesitance and obsession with shoujo manga. I also really liked Honoka and was surprised to find myself liking the ending for Chitose (in before "OMG he liked something that had nothing to do with kyonyuu?!"). I just wish that artwork could have been put to better use. Anyway, that's my two cents on the matter.

-Moroboshi Yuumei
The hand that rocks the Cradle...

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Busy with work, busy with other things, but still playing eroge.

Just not as often as I'd like.

2011: A year in eroge

I've managed to stay under the radar for most of this year, and seeing how things have gotten busier and more demanding, I just simply could not do what I was aiming to do as far as game clears. I did manage to find some interesting titles that I definitely want to continue playing....provided I don't run into more "full games" that are actually demo versions.

Granted, my selection of games has been somewhat meh this year, between Dotei na joshi-tachi to boku (good concept, bad everything else), Love 2 Quad (good artwork and characterization, bad premise and story) and Toraba (which I've yet to finish, but is not very impressive). Toppara turned out decent, and Amatsu misora ni! was impressive in its own way. At least I managed to bury the hatchet with Yoyogi Hitozuma Senmon Gakuin (which I've been meaning to write about since I featured Sakura Kyoko).

There's also Dengeki Striker, which is awesome up until the point where I get the "this was only a demo. Go buy the real thing!" screen. Guess what I'm looking for as I write this...

2012: The Path Ahead

I am having some PC problems that are leading to me having to put a new rig together. So I'm going light on the games until I can do that. BootUp announced an after-story H's game for Futa Ane, for which I have mixed feelings; the only real hope behind that game would be the possibility of a fulfilling after-story for Ayame. 2012 is mostly going to be me trying to catch up on stuff once I get the new rig together, and hope that life and work don't get too much in the way. Just to give an idea of how backlogged I am:

- Azrael
- Kissing! -Under the mistletoe-
- Aiyoku no eustia
- Akiiro Renka
- Toraba!
- Tasogare no Shinsemia
- Hadaka no ousama
- Dengeki Striker
- DEAR DROPS
- Kyonyuu Fantasy Gaiden
- CARNIVAL
- Figurehead
- Reconquista

I admit, if I run into something that piques my interest, I may play through it (just like I did with Amatsu misora ni!) and put everything else aside.

Non-sequitur: A fellow reviewer asked me what I would consider my ideal or "perfect" harem. It's a rather difficult angle for me to mull on, so I've decided to list five heroines I liked with some actual opinions from yours truly.

Name: Yukishiro Asuka Game: Kisetsu no Hanayome I covered a good chunk of Asuka's backstory in a post last year. Asuka could be called the sole reason why I have a weakness for older female characters in-game, as she was really the first older character that I liked (the first character I was exposed to was Iino Chigusa from Green Green, by the way). She doesn't come off as an intimidating authority figure, but instead comes of as someone who is indirectly on the same level as the protagonist. At the same time, Asuka does show a degree of responsibility and is loyal and dutiful. The latter is the reason why she is so engrossed in protecting the protagonist from harm, especially after her mistress and creator goes berserk. This means that despite her own weaknesses (Asuka is not the smartest person in the world, can be clumsy, and easily loses arguments against her daughter Natsumi), she has managed to pull ahead and survive.

Name: Mikami Mika Game: Rakuen ~Ai kawarazuna boku no baii~ It should come as no surprise that due to my being an Oukawa Mio fan, I would hold the very first character I heard her voice in high regard. Mika is someone who develops an interdependence with the protagonist; the protagonist being there for Mika and getting some fulfillment in helping her out, while Mika herself is just not very good at many things. If asked, I can definitely say Mika is the more dependent of the two, though in a way her achievements as an artist are a quasi-motivation for the protagonist (once he stops whining about never being able to catch up to her, anyways). What I really liked about Mika is the fact that she accepts the protagonist despite his own faults and lacking achievements (very meaningful, specially in a culture where men are pressured to get "good" and "stable" careers). While Boku worries about how they would (not) make it together, feeling that he would bog her down, Mika simply doesn't care about that because what's important to her is being with Boku. Our protagonist puts it best when saying that while her approach to their being together is focused in the now without thinking about much in terms of circumstances and "future", it is just like her to see things that way.

Name: Hasegawa Nano Game: Yukiuta Nano could be called one of the few loli characters I have respect for. She comes off as a happy-go-lucky girl that actually harbors a lot of doubt and insecurity. Most of this stems from the fact that the very mother that abandoned her did so because she felt Nano was in the way. It is because of this that she goes to pieces if she even gets the hint that she might be troubling someone, out of fear of being abandoned again. That being said, she is a bit on the needy side, yet is enthusiastic about helping out (though she really does have some growing up to do). As shown in her route, Nano is also very willing to do whatever it takes to help the protagonist in times of need, feeling that she has to contribute in some way. Despite her simplistic route, I really liked how complex she is as a character.

Name: Rio Barone Game: Pygmalion -The Dark Romance- If there is a character that I had to genuinely feel bad for, this would be it. In a way, Rio is a victim of circumstance as well as being in the wrong place at the wrong time. All she really wanted was to be an opera singer, and her desperation is what summoned the demon Bell, who in turn granted her wish without even mentioning what the price would be. What makes it worse is that despite her playful nature, she seems to be a decent and very dedicated person once she sets her mind to something (like changing her entire lifestyle in order to fulfill her promise to Julietta that she'll look after Johaan). The guilt she feels once she starts a relationship with Johaan does become evident past a certain point. There's one scene where Rio looks at a picture she keeps of Julietta while saying "No, you can't have him back!". She eventually puts the picture away because she can't bear to look at it. Her guilt hits a high point when she sees Julietta's "ghost" in the audience during one of her performances (to which she says "Now be a good girl and stay in your grave"). This same specter shows up once more during the performance where Rio dies. What's really tragic about the whole thing is that Rio never knew about Bell, or the pact, or the fact that her entire career was started with an incoherent sentence she screamed into the darkness after one failed audition too many. To add insult to injury, the last thing Rio thought of before she died was that Julietta had given her blessing by "saving" her (Long story short: During a performance, the light fixtures that hang over the stage fall. A split second before they did, Rio spotted Julietta's ghost in the audience, and the surprise cause her to take a step forward, which was enough to save her from fixtures that landed right behind her. While Rio is relieved that Etta saved her, we see one of the left-over iron bars fall from what remained of the fixtures, impaling itself on Rio's head).

Name: Itakura Masumi Game: Kazoku Keikaku Rounding up the five, Masumin is a very likeable character that just happened to go through a lot before finding her path. Like most people in the real world, Masumi made some mistakes along the way. In her case, it was giving too much trust and money to her high school sweetheart, who spent the money she gave him on rich-quick schemes that never worked. She tolerated being used by him because of her need to be with someone. Even when she was in trouble, she lied to her mother that everything was fine, and continued digging a deeper and deeper hole. Despite her mistakes, the one thing that pushes Masumi to regularly contemplate suicide is the shame she feels over the fact that she lied to her own mother about many things when it came to her life. Her own reasoning is that she didn't want to worry her mother. Of course, what created the massive amount of regret she feels is that her mother died sometime before Kazoku Keikaku begins. This in effect means Masumi will never be able to set the record straight. Even in her ending, she is still pained by the fact that her mother is not around to see her having finally found happiness. What's really interesting is that despite the big role money played in her route, Masumi's issues are intangible in nature. In fact, money seems to be the least of her worries by the time the family project begins (Masumi reveals that she paid off all her debts before the story began). In a way, I can say that she managed to turn her life around 99% of the way, with the missing 1% being contributed by our protagonist being with her.

New Year's Video

Probably the greatest Christmas video I have ever seen...well, if you're into Silent Hill, anyways. Can't think of a more amusing way to close the year...if you're into Silent Hill, that is.

That's it for today. I thank all my readers for their comments and support, and look forward to the coming year with whatever it may bring.

-Moroboshi Yuumei

As many of my readers (and anyone who plays eroge for that matter) might have noticed, a good chunk of settings for games tend to be in places away from the influences of the rest of the world. While some are pretty obvious in their own right (Green Green's Kanenone Gakuen being out in the middle of nowhere), others tend to be a little more subtle (Boy Meets Girl's setting in Tokimori). The setting is effectively its own world, unaffected by whatever may happen outside.

In using such a setting, a story can then introduce whatever elements it could possibly want without fear of over-stretching the imagination of the player. Obviously, the elements that happen to benefit the most from this are things we would normally never see in a composite type of setting. Mainly sci-fi elements, magic, spirits, ghosts and other phenomena.

In following the above formula, the studio Clochette has brought upon us a story revolving around one such setting: an island that is its own world. By playing on the concept of humans, spirits and gods sharing the land in some way, we are presented with a good number of existential and character dynamics. Now whether everything comes together to bring about a good product remains to be seen, but Clochette's fourth title, Amatsu Misora ni! does hold some potential and promise.

Game: Amatasu Misora ni!

Amatsu Misora ni! (Amamiso for short) was released on May 28, 2010 by the studio Clochette. The game features art and character designs by Shintarou (Boy Meets Girl, Shiritsu Akihabara Gakuen) as well as a scenario by Aki Fuminori, Seo Jun, and Himenogi Aku. The title being written in hiragana is meant to show that there may be more than one meaning to it, but translates to "In Heavenly Mizora!".

The game takes place on Mizora Island, a fictitious island off the coast of Japan and the player is placed in the shoes of Kanzaki Takahisa, a native of Mizora Island who leads a normal life with his younger sister Miyu and their childhood friend Kanna. The three have been together since they were children, and have endured both the good and the bad as a family, moreso after Takahisa's parents died in an accident several years ago.

Takahisa himself is a second year high school student, and seems to embrace the concept of life on the island for the rest of his days. He has no real interest in venturing to the world outside, and is even a little behind in terms of technology to the extent that he prefers to read books over watching television or using the internet. As such, he is actually very well-read, with a slight focus on history and local legends. Consequently, he sometimes takes issue with what he considers to be "outside" influences, specially when it comes to Miyu (who regularly leaves the island because of work). His interests aside, Takahisa also has the ability to sense spiritual energies and can tell when there's otherwordly creatures nearby.

Our protagonist's monotonous life reaches a turning point after a new miko arrives on Mizora Island. The winds of change brought upon by her affect not only the lives of Takahisa and his family, but those of other beings and regulars on the island as our protagonist is presented with five girls to choose from, allowing the player to learn and discover the secrets, wonders and aspects of everyday life on this small island.

The Players

Hitotsubashi Kanna C.V.: Oukawa Mio Kanna is introduced as a girl that lives in the Kanzaki house, and has been good friends with Takahisa and Miyu since childhood. The story hints that she was taken in by our protagonist's parents many years ago. As we progress through the main story, we also learn that Kanna is actually Nigishi kamunahime no mikoto, the goddess of Mizora Island. Despite having divine powers and a great amount of knowledge, Kanna has decided to live amongst the humans because she feels the modern world has no need for the divine. To meet her goal of becoming more human-like, she goes to the same school that Takahisa and Miyu attend, has developed a knack for computers and even got herself a part-time job doing web and graphic design. Though she often comes off as a non-serious person that runs away from responsibility and wants absolutely nothing to do with religions, shrines and priestesses (Kanna claims to be an athiest), Kanna will not hesitate to use her powers to protect Takahisa and Miyu. Her relation to the protagonist is often misunderstood as romantic, though she claims that she looks at "Taka" as a brother. That being said, she has a very special place in her heart for our protagonist, which is a source of comfort and some angst as her route begins to unravel. As we discover late in her route, the reason Kanna refuses to take on her role as goddess of the island is because deep down she fears her responsibility would eventually separate her from Takahisa and Miyu, whom she considers to be the only family she's ever known. In fact, outside of her own route Kanna never really reclaims her title of goddess of the island, and instead vows to use her power to protect those she loves.

Kanzaki Miyu C.V.: Shimizu Ai (under the alias Mitsubishi Ai) Miyu is Takahisa's younger sister and the quasi-caretaker of the Kanzaki home. Outside of her duties as cook and keeper of order in the house, Miyu is also an idol singer. As mentioned in-game, her "image" is that of a shimako kyonyuu idol (large-breasted island girl). Over the years, Miyu has developed a strong attraction to the protagonist that she does her best to keep under wraps. Despite her attempts to keep things fraternal between herself and the protagonist, Kanna is well aware of how she feels and tends to lightly encourage her. Likewise, Miyu is aware of the possibility of a romance between Takahisa and Kanna, which she seems to be prepared to accept. As the keeper of order, Miyu is the responsible member of the trio. Because of this, her word is law in the Kanzaki house, and most outsiders notice that she is like the mother of the family (even if she is the youngest of the three). It is because of this that Takahisa and Kanna do all they can to avoid angering her. Later on in her route, we discover that Miyu is part of a hebimiko bloodline. Hebimiko blood passes down through the female members of a family, and as such Miyu inherited this trait from her mother. Aside from the negative social stigma that burdens those from such a bloodline, there is a considerable physical risk attached to being a hebimiko. To ensure Miyu's well-beign, Kanna used her power to create an ushirogami to look after her. Note 1: To explain, a hebimiko is a subsect of what is known as tsukimono tsuji, which is a term used to refer to hereditary witches that employ animal familiars. In the case of hebimiko, their familiars happen to be snakes. Note 2: Yes, Miyu is related by blood to the protagonist.

Tobari Chisa C.V.: Kimura Ayaka Chisa is a stoic and seemingly-cold girl that also happens to be Takahisa's childhood friend. Though she has little patience for the fooling around of the other characters (she's usually the one to tell Kanna to quiet down), she will not hesitate to take some playful jabs at the protagonist every once in a while. By the time the story begins, Chisa is already loaded with responsibilities between being the iinchou of Takahisa's class, a member of the archery club, on top of working at her family's minshuku (word for a private home that offers tourist lodging). As such, she is often doing her own thing and has little time to waste. Incidentally, she and Takahisa have somewhat grown apart. Beneath her dry exterior, Chisa is actually very insecure of herself and even feels as if she doesn't deserve to be happy. The reason behind all this is revealed to be Chisa's sister Kuu, who died seven years before the game takes place. As recalled by our protagonist, Kuu fell into a river and drowned. While no one blames her for it, Chisa feels personally responsible for the death of her sister, and is convinced her own carelessness is what led to Kuu's death. To make matters worse, Kuu's spirit never moved on to the afterlife and instead wanders Mizora Island. Thus, the later parts of Chisa's route deal with the conflict she feels over the problems created by her sister's ghost, culminating in a painful parting once our main couple discovers that Kuu's ghost needs to be put to rest to prevent it from becoming an evil spirit.

Kiyosumi Serika C.V.: Matsuda Risa Serika is introduced as Miyu's best friend and a rather enthusiastic admirer of Kanna. An active, energetic and compulsive girl, Serika is a member of the Megurimiya Academy's tennis club. While most of her screen time is spent following, harassing, and making passes at Kanna, she also holds Takahisa in high regard, and has taken to calling him ani; one could say that Serika considers herself Takahisa's surrogate younger sister next to Miyu. Given her one-track-mind, Serika is more often than not treated as part of Amamiso's comic relief. One of her bigger motives in the story is to recruit Kanna into the tennis club to give their school a rather unique edge (after all, not every school can claim to have a goddess on their tennis team). Takahisa at times takes advantage of her admiration for Kanna to get her to do things she normally would not do, or to put her in (comically) bad spots. At times, her one-track mindset gets her into trouble on its own, usually involving the captain of the tennis team (who often scolds her for not focusing). That being said, none can question her physical prowess, and is on average stronger than most of the cast (barring Kanna for obvious reasons). Deep down, Serika is actually a very envious person. She can't stand the thought of being second to anyone, and while this drives her to push herself to become better, it also makes her berate herself for not being "good enough". This is what eventually leads to her being first the victim of a mokumokuren, and later becoming a vessel for it. The real risk is that if left alone for long enough, Serika would eventually be consumed by this creature entirely. What makes things even more difficult is that Serika's desire to be in the "eye" of others feeds and strengthens this particular mokumokuren, which gets worse once she starts a relationship with the protagonist and becomes obsessed with being the only girl in his life.

Hazuki Mikage C.V.: Kazane Mikage is a girl that moves to Mizora Island during the prologue. She enrolls into Takahisa's school as a third year student, and is later revealed to be the miko (priestess) presiding over the Kamina Shrine. Our protagonist first meets Mikage during the welcoming festival that is held for her. Though she seems like a mature (if a little air-headed) girl, the cast quickly learns that Mikage has a tendency to establish her own flow, and more often than not easily sweeps everyone around her into it. Takahisa himself also discovers that she's actually very attentive and astute, to the point where she can easily turn a conversation around by using key words from the other person's argument. Aside from wanting to be part of the community that lives on Mizora Island, Mikage's mission is to help the shrine earn respect and recognition. At the same time, she does what she can to lure the island's deity (AKA Kanna) back into what she believes to be her rightful place. Unfortunately, this causes Kanna to avoid Mikage like the plague. Despite having no powers of her own, Mikage is the vessel for the dragon deity Yae no mizuhaya shirogane no miko. Much like Mikage, Shirogane no miko (or Gin ou, as called by Takahisa) is convinced that Kanna needs to return to her place as the goddess of Mizora Island. In the meanwhile, Gin ou possesses Mikage's body on occasion to seal and defeat any spirits and other threats that lurk in the island. Seeing that they share the same body, Mikage is not aware of Gin ou's existence.

Story & Structure

The story begins with a simple introduction to our protagonist and Kanna while they're eating lunch at school. The rest of the cast is quickly introduced, with Miyu being one of the last characters to make an appearance (Kana mentions offhand that she's on tour). The game then continues into the prologue, which starts a little over a month before summer break. With the prologue finished, the OP movie plays and segues into the main story. The main story continues setting up the character dynamics for the individual routes and introduces the player to the extras and other regulars of Mizora Island.

Amamiso does not follow anything resembing daily progression, and instead presents scenes in a specific order depending on which route the player has chosen. At times we get scenes that happen one after another within the same day, while other times we have scenes that are several days apart. Dialogue choices in the post-OP part of the game determine which route the player will be following, pushing our protagonist to one of the five heroines.

Something to note right off the bat is that the game is what some fans call a kyarage (chara-game), as the meat of the game content is not the story, but the character dynamics and interactions. This style makes Amamiso somewhat peculiar, since the character interactions make up for what are otherwise very weak stories in terms of conflict and subsequent resolutions. While Chisa and Serika's routes had very relevant risks involving the heroines, Miyu, Mikage and even Kanna's routes (to an extent) were truly lacking in terms of meaningful conflict. Incidentally, this means that while I was curious to see how the story ends, I often had a good idea of where it was going and at times found myself asking "is it over, yet?".

A common pattern in the routes involve the heroines running into some sort of problem that draws the attention of our protagonist. He then actively joins whatever that particular heroine is into, which allows the story to progress. An example would be that for Serika's route, Takahisa joins the tennis club and develops feeling for Serika due to spending so much time with her. Likewise, Mikage's route has our protagonist help her out around the shrine and become part of the preparation crew for the big summer festival. Not necessarily a bad thing, but is reminiscent of older dating sims like To Heart.

Whatever problem the heroine had at the beginning of the route is delved into. We discover the problem is of supernatural nature, which leads to Kanna or Ginou getting involved in trying to resolve it. Even then, Takahisa's presence is what makes the difference and helps bring the routes to a resolution.

Despite the weakness of the routes, the character dynamics do in part make up for this. Good use of comedy and puns are also worthy of note, as are subtle references to current games, anime and 2ch memes. My only real complaint was that the endings follow the tried and true "the beginning of a long journey" approach. I would have liked something a little more substancial, considering how much is on the line and how unusual the set ups for the routes are. Kanna's epilogue leaves some questions unanswered, but Miyu's route wins the "I really wish I could see how this all turned out" award.

Artwork

Shintarou is credited for the character designs and art in-game. I liked these designs a little better than those of his past games, though I guess some people with better eyes than mine would have a problem with the whole "same face, different eyebrows, hair and hair color" bit.

Audio & Video

The game is fully-voiced, including all extras. The only real "newcomer"--as in "no previous roles under that name"--would be Mitsubishi Ai (whom some fans have taken to calling kuruma no hito, or "the car person"). Even though she basically did a variant on her Itsuki voice from Patvessel, I was pleased with Oukawa Mio's performance as Kanna. Likewise, Kimura Ayaka impressed me with her portrayal of stoic and cold Chisa (a huge contrast to the characters she normally gets cast to play). Aside from the VAs cast for the heroines, we have Maki Izumi and Himari among the voices for the supporting characters in-game.

BGM is credited to Yamasaki Kyou and FaSolLaSi Do, while the insert songs are credited to Yuuki Shinichi (OP), Sakai Youichi (ED), and Toriumi Takehisa (Miyu's ED song). The soundtrack for the game is rather lengthy, and pretty good for the most part. The use of music is also very impressive. The insert songs themselves are alright, but nothing absolutely amazing (and could be considered a little on the throw-away side). For all my gripes with the story, the standard ED song did succeed in making me sad to see each route end.

As for video, we have the OP for Amatsu Misora ni!, which can be viewed here.

Omake

Amamiso doesn't have much in terms of extras, aside from five mini-scenarios that are unlocked after clearing the routes. Each mini-scenario is focused on the existance of a CG imagine for each heroine, explaining how it came about. Aside from that we have the standard scene selection, CG selection, and interaction mode viewers that are unlocked as each route is completed.

Verdict

I can confess that the two reasons why I picked up this game were because I found one of the CGs posted on 2ch last month, and Oukawa Mio voicing the lead heroine sold it to me. That being said, I have mixed feelings for how this game plays out. The character interactions are very good, and the cast itself helps give everyone from the protagonist, to the heroines, to the extras a considerable amount of depth and truly makes the "community" within Mizora Island believable. At the same time, I could not help but frown at the strange pacing that envelops this game's story, and the fact that the conflicts are so minor that I can easily classify this game as pure slice-of-life.

Of course, those of us who see the cons in this game may be in the minority, as Amamiso is getting ported to PSP set for release this December. I have my own concerns attached to that (Miyu's route and most of the endings would have to be rewritten, for one...), but it goes to show that other fans out there really liked this game.

As far as whether I'd recommend it...it depends on whether you're a stickler for story like I am or get more of a kick out of character dynamics. Amatsu Misora ni! is not a really bad game, but it's not Hakagi or Light quality, either (still better than Hoshiuta, though...). Anyway, that's my two cents on the matter.

-Moroboshi Yuumei
くそぅ俺の嫁かわいすぎ!

Been a while, indeed. In trying to stay recent with the times (hah, fat chance of that happening), I've taken the opportunity to look at other games not on my list of things to do while looking back at some older titles I've neglected for more reasons than I can count.

I know, I'm horribly behind on everything, but oh well.

Quartett!: I somehow missed the release of the english patch for this brilliant game, and as such I want to present it here. Zalas, who is a senpai of mine in the eroge world, was involved in the localization process. Can't really help with distributing anything, so all I can do is encourage those who want to play the game without having a kanji dictionary in hand to give the patch a whirl. Makes a game that was worthwhile even moreso.

Toraba!: In what seems to be strike three for BootUp!, we have a return to the classic love-ero formula that made the AneImo games popular in this recent release.

The story focuses on Shunsuke, the only son of the Imamura family whose parents work abroad. Because of this, the two women who kind of look after him are his next door neighbors, Ren (the widow next door) and Ai (Ren's daughter). As would be expected of an oyako-type eroge, both Ren and Ai have a thing for our protagonist, and as the story begins to move forward, Shunsuke has to decide which of them he wants to be with. At the same time, we have additional heroines joining the fray to help make this a complete eroge.

So far, I'm not very impressed. Ren's route is okay until you realize the writers over-thought certain parts of her situation with the protagonist; mostly the fact that (unlike other games with mother characters that are purposely ambiguous about this) Ren and the protagonist's mom were schoolmates and are thus the same age, and that Shunsuke's attraction to Ren stems from the fact he and his own mother don't have the best of relationships. Her age is treated as a bit of a joke (Ren's character intro voice sample even has her say "Let's not talk about age..."), but becomes a mentioned concern during the climax to Ren's story.

The casting choices are somewhat questionable. Mostly Kawashima Rino playing Ren, but then, I'm so used to seeing Kawashima-san play onee-san characters that perhaps I haven't accepted her transition to mother character. On the other hand, Shunsuke himself notes that Ren and Ai look more like sisters rather than mother and daughter, so the casting decisions may have been made to compliment that.

At least Fujimori Yukina and Oukawa Mio are also in this game to liven things up. That aside, BootUp! decided to work with someone other than Shinonome Kazuhiko for the game's artwork. Still don't know how to feel about that, since the artwork is a bit on the odd side.

Doutei na Joshi-tachi to Boku: From the "wasted potential" bin, we have this game from MBS Truth that touches a very interesting concept but then bogs it down with yaru elements instead of further developing the idea.

The game focuses on Yukito, a high school kid that after a freak occurrence involving a train accident finds himself in a parallel world where the roles of men and women are for the most part reversed. Women are the "dominant" gender (they are sexually aggressive, indiscriminate, are the breadwinners, and so on) while men are the "fairer sex" (reserved, associated with housework, are expected to have "male modesty", even the men's bathrooms are pink with flowers). Not long after overcoming the shock, he meets a cat demon named Mimi who explains that he was actually killed in the accident, but because he was not supposed to die yet, she tried to save his life. In doing so, reality was warped to its "current" state.

The big premise is that Yukito has about 30 days to impregnate one girl of his choosing to somehow be able to restore the world to normal, or have his spirit collected and sent to heaven or hell. Of course, the challenge comes in the fact that while several girls are interested in the protagonist, his indecisiveness towards them does nothing to help matters (much to Mimi's chagrin). And so, the journey begins...

I'm currently 3/8, and so far I'm iffy on this. One route in particular had elements VERY relevant to our protagonist's situation and a rather touching ending, while the other two played on character traits to move the game along. Again, the concept is very interesting, but meh...

Featured Character:


Name: Maple
Game: Hime to BOIN
Voiced by: Tamiyasu Tomoe
Designed by: Sano Toshihide
Character type: Imouto/otaku-type heroine

Princess Maple is introduced to Hachiouji Kenichi during the first day of the summit, as the princess of the Cosmos kingdom. Kenichi classifies her as the "Japanese-type princess" due to her choice of clothing. Her speech pattern is strangely a "mismatch" for her status as a princess, seeing that she speaks like a samurai from a jidaigeki film (including stereotypical things like ending her sentences with "de gozaru").

Kenichi at first sees Maple as a strangely curious girl who, unlike the other princesses, is not intimidated by the reputation of the prince our protagonist is impersonating. Aside from that, she seems to be enthusiastic towards being chosen to be the bride of the prince, and has apparently done research to meet those ends.

Unlike her "rivals", Maple figures out on her own that Kenichi is not the crown prince, but instead a boy from a different world (or as she refers to him, "a prince from another world"). This is just testimony to her notably high intellect, complimented by her ability to figure out the intricacies of any situation or scenario within seconds. Kenichi himself notes in the data notebook he keeps on the princesses that Maple has or is close to having genius-level intellect.

This same intellect, combined with her talents as a fast learner eventually lead to her developing a very strong interest in the otaku culture, specially once she follows our protagonist back to his original world and discovers "anime", "manga", and "doujinshi". Should Kenichi choose her, their honeymoon destination turns out to be what Maple calls the "holy land"...as in, the holy land of otaku, Akihabara.

On a side note, yes, all girls outside of Juliette, Etsuko and Tetsuko are named after things that go with coffee...

That's it for today.

-Moroboshi Yuumei

Having done this for the last couple of years, the occult is not a new genre when it comes to eroge. While things like ghosts and other elements are often used as part of a story, it is another thing to see them come en masse when talking about the potential heroines for a game.

This in itself should not really be a surprise, since I guess it could be called part of the whole obake/mamono genre that certain eroge studios focus on. In a way, girls based on youkai could be put on the same echelon of heroines currently occupied by goddesses, succubi, lamia and several other supernatural creatures. Now whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen, but recognizing the popularity of super-natural characters, I'm sure things will turn out for the better.

The game I will cover today earned some interesting remarks from fans of the Touhou Project, to the point that comparison videos sprouted on NicoNico Douga. That is not meant to detract from what this game brings on its own, but to claim that Caramel Box's Toppara ~Zashikiwarashi no hanashi is a pure and original work would be folly.

Toppara ~Zashikiwarashi no hanashi

Toppara was released on September 26, 2008 by the studio Caramel Box~Strawberry Flavor. The story features a scenario by Yui Masayuki, Minakata Kanaka and Natake, with character designs by Amakura and Kurosaki. The title literally translates to "Toppara ~The tale of a Zashikiwarashi~".

The player takes the role of Itsukaichi Keiji, a teenager that lives by himself in the town of Tokieda, with his closest living relative being his grandfather, an author and researcher of the paranormal. Our protagonist has the peculiar ability to recognize supernatural beings with ease as well as the ability to see ghosts and other entities not visible to normal humans. Due to a complicated set of circumstances, Keiji has a strong hatred for ghosts and phantoms (also known as youkai), blaming them for the problems in his life.

Keiji's life has taken a bit of a downturn since the death of his parents, and is generally seen as a loner that makes little effort to interact with others. His life suddenly changes direction when a kage-onna by the name of Mikage appears in his house one day, claiming that she is bound to him and that she will be keeping him company.

Mikage's appearance is only the beginning, as our protagonist crosses paths with eight heroines in total as he discovers love, learns why things are the way they are and grows to accept his reality.

The Players

Name: Mikage Race: Youkai (kage-onna) Voiced by: Samoto Fuuri Mikage is introduced at the beginning of the story, waking our protagonist up in the morning and informing that she is bound to him and his house. This, in effect, means that no matter how much Keiji would want her to leave, she would not be able to do so for as long as our protagonist lived. While initially seen as a bother by our protagonist, Mikage eventually grows on Keiji, taking care of the house and doing the kind of duties that would be expected from a housewife, including cooking, cleaning and laundry. She seems to be focused on ensuring that Keiji is happy, and at times has to act as the keeper of order in the house, specially after Sachiko is discovered. Mikage is for the most part docile and willing to go along with Keiji, though there are certain moments where she has to put her foot down or take action against anything that might cause harm to the protagonist. Bonus data: Kage-onna literally means "shadow woman". Kage-onna are weak apparitions that haunt houses that have been around for a long time. A kage-onna is usually an omen that the dwelling in question will soon be haunted by more powerful youkai. The game adds to this the rule that kage-onna have a tendency to haunt houses dwelled by single young men, and often take it upon themselves to take care of the house as if the kage-onna were the young man's wife.

Name: Sachiko Race: YoukaiKami (yakubyougami) Voiced by: Kimura Ayaka Sachiko is introduced when Keiji and Mikage discover that the noises coming from the attic of the Itsukaichi home are actually her sneaking around. After a quick introduction, Sachiko reveals that she has been living in Keiji's house for the last six months, and claims to have been summoned by our protagonist's bitterness and pessimism. Despite being a yakubyougami, Sachiko's power seems to be tied directly to the way our protagonist feels. This means that while our protagonist being content and happy weakens her, she becomes stronger when Keiji is angry or feeling any negative emotions. Aside from her power, Sachiko is cheeky and quick-witted, but prefers to stay in the background to point and laugh at our protagonist and Mikage. There are very few entities that are actually treated with respect by her, including Seori and Touka (both of whom are arguably more powerful than she is). Still, she can be coerced to follow instructions, and seemingly behaves herself enough so that Mikage will continue cooking food for her. Bonus data: Yakubyougami literally means "god of pestilence". As suggested by the name, yakubyougami bring disease and misfortune to a location. Perhaps as a play on irony, the kanji used for Sachiko's name include 幸 or kou, the kanji for happiness/fortune; the very thing she is supposed to drive away.

Name: Isora Race: Youkai (kappa) Voiced by: Nakagawa Rie (Under the alias Mikagami) Isora is a kappa that lives in the Motoki River, north of Tokieda's residential area. As a child, Keiji spent a lot of time playing with Isora and developed a sort of friendship with the kappa. With ten years having passed since her days of playing in the river with Keiji, Isora is looking to pick up where they left off. To her surprise, Keiji being older means his interests are elsewhere now. She makes a couple of attempts to adjust herself to an older Keiji, but tends to come up short because her efforts don't really hit home with our protagonist. As the osananajimi character, she has had a thing for Keiji since he was a child, and can be notably jealous when she sees our protagonist around other girls. In fact, Isora is one of the few characters that Mikage will pick on due to this. To further complicate matters, Keiji at first thought Isora was a boy, but later learns that kappa have no real gender. This also explains why her design leans somewhat towards androgenous. Bonus data: Kappa literally means "river child". Kappa are considered to be mischievous youkai that reside in bodies of water and are generally blamed for drownings. The shirikodama (a mythical ball inside the anus) that kappa love to extract from humans is of etherial nature in the game, causing a person to temporarily lose the use of their lower body if removed.

Name: Touka Race: Youkai (kitsune) Voiced by: Aoyama Yukari Our protagonist first meets Touka while using the hot springs that are adjacent to the seemingly-abandoned Fujiyu Shrine. Touka has actually been a resident of the shrine for several centuries, but has made little to no effort to venture beyond the shrine itself. Touka's past turns out to be rather complicated as Keiji tries to learn about her, discovering that she actually is Tamamo no Mae, what is considered the most famous kitsune in Japanese folklore. In accordance to the legend, Touka stopped haunting the stone known as Sessho-seki and is instead bound to it. At present, she is simply trying to put her sins behind her and become more like a zenko (or, as she puts it, a good fox). On a side note, she seems to have developed a fear of men due to the fact that the warriors who killed her were both men and the Buddhist priest that faced off against her and eventually bound her to Sessho-seki was a man. There is also her slight frustration with men in deciding to blame her for certain parts of her own legend (Touka's own words, simplified: "When men found me attractive, they would think I bewitched them. When something bad happened, it somehow fell on me despite having nothing to do with me. And no one bothered to listen to my side."). Additionally, her servant (a youkai rabbit named Suzuikohime) secretly thinks of Touka as a hikikomori due to her never leaving the shrine. Bonus data: Kitsune are generally classified in two different categories. Zenko or good foxes (which are seen as celestial and associated with the god/goddess of rice Inari), and yako or field foxes (which are capable of harming humans). Touka happens to be of the latter, as reflected by her being Tamamo no Mae.

Name: Chizumi Race: Youkai (tsuchinoko) Voiced by: Kaneda Mahiru Chizumi is introduced late in the game's prologue, as a girl that randomly appears behind our protagonist and glomps or tackles him. Keiji claims to not know her, but she seems to suggest otherwise. The only real clue for most of the story is the fact that Chizumi refers to Keiji as "master" before our protagonist orders her to call him by his name. As the plot moves forward, we discover that Chizumi's overt reliance on single-word sentences and tendency to quickly forget everything and anything are the result of her straining herself as well as her power as a youkai. Unfortunately for our protagonist, Chizumi cannot remember what it was that caused her to use up so much of her power in the first place. Given her cheerfulness and playful demeanor, Chizumi is very gullible and will listen to Keiji's orders and follow them to the dot. She also instinctively brings Keiji what he later discovers to be good luck charms; at one point she gives him shedded snake skin, and just before he throws it in the trash Mikage informs him that it is a good luck charm to keep in a wallet, as shedded snake skin is supposed to attract money. In the end, Keiji discovers that Chizumi is a tsuchinoko. Not just any tsuchinoko, however, but one he found and kept as a pet ten years ago (yes, this is a play on the "girl that used to be an animal but was in love with the protagonist" story type). Bonus data: Tsuchinoko (lit. hammerspawn) are mythical snake-like creatures that are the Japanese equivalent of Big Foot (that is to say, people claim they exist but there have been few, if any, sightings). They supposedly resemble a snake but are much thicker in the middle of their bodies, with thin heads and tails. They are rumored to have the ability to speak and a great fondness of alcohol. Neither of which was a pivotal element in Chizumi's route.

Name: Seori Race: Youkai (hashihime) Voiced by: Asai Harumi (Under the alias Fukai Haruka) Seori is a hashihime that has been around for a very long time. She claims to have lost track of how long exactly, which leads to her to say "somewhere between 2000 and 3000 years" when talking about her age. Keiji at first refers to her as a homeless person, seeing that she lives in a tent under the bridge that is her haunt. Later on he takes to making snide remarks about Seori's age (all of which earn him a smack, a kick or a punch from Seori). Often seen as the older sister of the group, Seori's primary focus seems to be her distaste for affection and love between couples. Despite her purpose as a hashihime, she's actually good-humored and has a tendency to be playful. Her interest in Keiji stems from the fact that he is a human that can see her and talk to her on a normal level. The fact that she is lonely and bored is also something that helps her sympathize with Keiji. Spoiler: Seori's route reveals that she is more than just a hashihime, and her age seems to span back all the way to the "creation" of Japan. The reason she dislikes love (and subsequently became a hashihime) is because she was apparently dumped by a sun god that chose his duty over her. In her own words, "He was a god of the sun, but because everyone wanted a goddess of the sun, he decided to become one". This may be a subtle reference to the goddess Amaterasu. Bonus data: Hashihime literally means "bridge princess". They haunt bridges and come out when a couple passes over it, seething with jealousy at the affection and love between the couple in question. It is said that a couple that encounters a hashihime must break off their relationship or they will both die.

Name: Shirasawa Sakuya Race: Youkai (hakutaku?) Voiced by: Maki Izumi Sakuya is introduced to our protagonist as a girl that is looking after the Shirasawa convenience store in the residential area. As the story progresses, we discover that Sakuya has taken over for the old lady that was known to the locals as Shirasawa obasan, who died sometime before the game begins. While most of the residents believe Sakuya to be the granddaughter of Shirasawa obasan, Keiji recognizes her as a youkai not long after meeting her. She eventually reveals herself to be a hakutaku, and proves to be powerful enough to make herself corporeal (unlike other youkai, who can only be seen by Keiji). As a hakutaku, Sakuya has the ability to make predictions and is quite knowledgeable overall. Spoiler: In reality, however, Sakuya is a kudan. While similar to hakutaku in that both are interpreted with bovine features, the predictions made by kudan are related to tragedy and misfortune. Bonus data: Hakutaku (lit. White Marsh) are usually depicted as bovine creatures with multiple horns and sets of eyes. They are considered to be very wise and known to make predictions. They are also known for being benevolent and willing to protect humans (or provide them with the knowledge needed to protect themselves).

Name: Mizuhara Honami Race: Human Voiced by: Agumi Oto Honami is a girl that attends Tokieda Academy and is president of the Youkai Kenkyuukai/Kyodoshi Kenkyuubu (Society for the study of youkai/Local history research club). The former is the real intention of her club (as she has a thing for the occult), while the latter is the official name of the club for purposes of having it registered at school. According to her route, she inherited the presidency of the club when the former president graduated, being the only other member in the club at that time. She eventually manages to convince Keiji to join, and is specially drawn to our protagonist's ability to see and interact with youkai. As part of her hobby, Honami is also a layman miko, and often tests her abilities against the numerous youkai that Keiji knows. Seeing that she's a layman, the results vary from having no effect (Mikage) to greatly weakening (Sachiko) or even scaring away (Touka) youkai. She also seems to be overly enthusiastic about charms and trinkets with special powers. By her own admision, while she can easily get along with others, she has few real friends because of her interest in the occult. Interestingly enough, Honami's route leads our couple to a point where the youkai in Keiji's life decide to leave altogether, causing him to forget about them. By the same token, Honami forgets about her hobby for youkai as a result of her relationship with Keiji.

Story & Structure

The story starts off with a dream sequence introducing our protagonist and the zashikiwarashi named Midori. Midori, as explained in the prologue, haunted our protagonist's home and was friends with Keiji. In fact, while his parents always thought he was playing by himself, he was actually just playing Midori. Eventually, an argument broke out between Keiji and Midori that ended with Midori leaving the house. A zashikiwarashi leaving the home it haunts is said to bring ruin to that household, and shortly after Midori's departure Keiji's parents die. We thus learn that Keiji's hatred for youkai comes from the fact that he blames Midori for his parent's death and the end of the happy life he had up until then.

He at some point moved out of Tokieda and has spent close to a decade away from the little town, but as the real story begins he has been back for about three months. One morning near the end of April, Keiji awakens to find a girl looking over him. Due to his ability, he instantly recognizes the girl as a youkai and demands that she leave him. The girl states that she is a kage-onna named Mikage, and that she is bound to him and his house. Keiji eventually decides to tolerate her until he can figure out how to get rid of her, taking note than she happily starts to take care of the house and cook meals for him. The other characters are subsequently introduced, surrounding our protagonist with youkai girls of different origins, different powers and very different outlooks on things.

A common theme in each route is our protagonist coming to terms with how he feels about youkai and (through the support or affection of the chosen heroine) move on and overcome his bitter outlook on life. In turn, each girl either learns something about themselves or overcome the standard rule set for youkai by being with the protagonist.

Admitedly, the set up is very much slice-of-life stuff, with the routes playing out individually from each other. There are moments where the heroines meet and interact, but the meat of the story is really about the protagonist and his chosen girl. This all being said, the tales are relatively well-written, if a little too long in certain parts. Mikage's route in particular seemed very drawn out, despite being one of the more important routes in the game. Aside from that, I think the player would need to ignore certain parts of the actual lore behind youkai (kage-onna and tsuchinoko, in particular), as some were obviously modified to fit better into an eroge.

While there are dialogue choices here and there, that is not really the main device through which the story moves forward. Instead, there is a character selection screen that depicts the heroines for the player to select, taking the story in that particular girl's direction. Interestingly enough, the game does NOT have a "bad" or "alone" ending. Instead, should the player fail to lead Keiji to a particular girl, the game instantly defaults to Mikage's ending.

Outside of the youkai girls, we have Honami, whose route was a dissapointment given all the build up that was given to her being a layman miko with an access to powerful charms and relics. She (unknowingly) almost destroys Mikage and Sachiko by way of paper ward or fortune cat, and is even hinted to being somehow connected or related to Gen no Osho, the Buddhist priest that confronted and won against the vengeful spirit of Tamamo no Mae. This is literally thrown out the window the moment Keiji and Honami start their relationship, which definitely irked me.

Something interesting to note is that the game engine definitely takes Keiji's ability to see youkai into account. During interactions with other characters, the player (since they look at things from Keiji's point of view) will sometimes see super-deformed versions of other youkai kind of pop up for a couple of seconds here and there. Sometimes it's tanuki, sometimes it's tengu, other times it's tsukumogami.

Artwork

Character designs were provided by Amakura, with Kurosaki being credited for SD characters. I liked the fact that there was a good amount of detail put into making each character look like they should. The use of colors was also clever in helping each character stand out.

Audio & Video

The game is partially-voiced, with the heroines and all female extras having VAs assigned to them. While I recognized Maki Izumi, Aoyama Yukari and Kimura Ayaka right off the bat, I was surprised to see Samoto Fuuri (who played Yui in AneImo2) in this game. Agumi Oto (who played Maho in Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu) also came as a surprise. Kaneda Mahiru kind of got the short end of the stick here, though, seeing as her character relied on one-word sentences for the most part and had a really annoying voice. I'm really starting to think that outside of her role as Aki in Rakuen, there have been few opportunities for her to use something other than the high-pitch range.

Music is credited to FunczionSOUNDS. The soundtrack is actually pretty decent, if a little too short and overly reliant on the character themes. Still, the instrumentations were very nice. Both ED songs (one plays for the eight heroines, the other plays only for Midori's route) are pretty good, but the OP song is just...

Speaking of which, we have the OP movie, which can be seen here.

Omake

Midori's route, which is seen as the true ending to the game, can only be unlocked once the player gets the endings for all the heroines. Aside from that, there's a small staff commentary section that opens up after clearing the game once, with messages from the creators of the game congratulating the player as well as providing some extra artwork not seen in the game.

Verdict

In all honesty, this game has several good elements and is definitely something to consider if one is looking to just randomly play an eroge. At the same time, this is not good enough to say one should look for this game in specific. While the routes are decently structured, the lack of actual endings kind of hurt the game overall. Even Midori's ending itself lacked any type of resolution outside of the main couple being together from that point on.

I can commend the game for having a decent amount of comedy, and could even treat this as a crash course on youkai for people who are not familiar with the term, as Toppara goes to great lengths to explain the nature behind the youkai characters seen in-game.

To close, those of us who are familiar with the Touhou Project can easily tell it influenced certain parts of this game. Still, Toppara has enough merit to stand on its own as a game to kill time with when there's nothing else going on. Anyway, that's my two cents on the matter.

-Moroboshi Yuumei
なんて、この東方ｗ