Random Rant: Quickies and then some!
Ok, so I'm taking a bit of a break after plowing through my Rakuen replay and Patvessel. I did want to talk about some of my current games and maybe spoil some stuff from Pygmalion in this post, though.

Don-chan ga kyuu~: The long-awaited spin off title to light's Sakashiki hito ni miru kokoro has finally been released (I think the game has been pushed back twice sinte it was announced). As the title would suggest, the game would be centered on one of Sakashiki's minor characters, Sumi Noriko (AKA Don-chan).

I'm installing the game as I write this post, so I can't say much aside from the fact that the game is notably bigger than Sakashiki was (Sakashiki was around 500 MB or so. Don-chan ga kyuu~, on the other hand, is twice that size when installed).

The plan at the moment is that since Sakashiki (and assumingly Don-chan) are relatively simple in structure, I'll do a two-for-one review. It should work, especially since both games share characters (the only difference is that while Don-chan focuses on the title character, Sakashiki focused on Magara Arimi).

Mama LOVE: This is an odd game released by Hermit...well, this is hermit's second game, being released after Folklore Jam but before Sekai de ichiban NG na koi.

While the title is somewhat suggestive, the game revolves around a guy named Sakuragi Kouji. Kouji lives with his dad in a seemingly ordinary apartment building, leading a seemingly ordinary life. He goes to school (hurray high school student protagonists...), puts up with his dad's antics and deals with the people the live on his floor (including his best friend Koyuki and his next door neighbor Kaori). Of course, what sets the story into motion in this case is that, under everyone's noses, Kouji is having an affair with Koyuki's mother, Ryouko.

Anyway, what made this interesting is that the game seems to be presented as a romantic comedy TV show of sorts. The game engine even has a built-in TV frame around it, there are audience reactions (mostly canned laughter) and (once again) the story is separated into episodes.

The game is amusing enough that it warrants a review.

Pygmalion -The Dark Romance-: To start, I'm beginning to hit roadblocks with this game. I'm also beginning to run out of ideas as far as how to progress past certain points in the story. This is because the way the story progresses seems to be dependant on several factors.

Where Johaan stands with certain characters is one such factor. The presence of certain characters in his life also affect where the story goes (for example, the only way Johaan can meet Accele is if Roze and Asia leave the story). To add yet another layer, the player has the option of breaking the contract Johaan made with the demon Bell. This can rush you to a "good" ending with the heroine that has most affection with Johaan, can lead to the doll killing Johaan, or will cause him to return to his shut-in ways, making a new doll based on Julietta.

At first, I figured Johaan would be the only Faustian character in the game. However, as I got further into certain routes, I found that many people in the story have made some pact with Bell. This in a way takes away from his role in the story, but also adds a touch of complexity to the cast members that have given up something important in exchange for something else. I will speak of two such characters (chances are I'll copy these bits into the review for Pygmalion, if I ever get around to making one):

Rio Barone: Rio was a friend of Julietta back in college. While Julietta went on to meet Johaan Argent and make her own life with him, Rio pursued her dream of becoming an opera singer.

By the time she is introduced in the story, Rio is already well-known in the music world and hailed as a prodigious vocalist. As would be expected, she has a good following and is a stereotypical artist in the truest sense: she's whimsical, spoiled and impulsive.

At first, Maya (Rio's assistant) has to basically look after her off-stage by making sure she wakes up on time, cooking for her and ensuring she behaves overall. As we follow Rio's story, we see that Julietta spoke with her before passing away. Etta's last wish was that Rio look after Johaan in her absence. This last wish is what drives Rio to become less dependant on Maya, and is further driven once she develops feelings for Johaan. Thus, Rio forces herself to wake up on time, learns to cook and improves herself in hopes of someday being able to look after our protagonist. This desire to follow up on her best friend's final wish sours as we progress, and turns into antagonism towards the memory of Julietta once she falls in love with Johaan.

During Rio's route, one can see that a part of her feels like she's betraying Julietta by falling for Johaan and wanting to be together with him. One of the last chapters that focus on Rio even has her "see" Julietta sitting in the audience during her performances. Despite initial shock, Rio finds the nerve to tell this specter "Now be a good girl and stay in your grave".

Aside from the obvious, Rio is a generally cheerful person. She likes doing things her way (which often collides with what the directors want from her), and is somewhat of a practical joker. She usually gets a kick out of poking fun at Johaan, specially by using her acting skills to make scenes in public places (or to fluster him in general). She's also very passionate, and is unwilling to give up once she finds something she wants.

Rio's Pact - Rio unknowingly made a pact with Bell when she was just getting started as a singer. During an audition, Rio called out into the darkness for the strength to become a good opera singer (this is after she had been turned down several times). Bell answered her call, and listened to her as she proclaimed that she'll do anything to become an opera singer. Afterwards, her name was called out, as "Entry #13, Rio Barone". The price for her success was left unknown for a good part of the story, until Bell herself decides to simply kill Rio and take her life as colateral.

Something to note is that the opera that Rio performs in-game is called La Tragedia di Tohreit. This is composite in meaning, since it literally means "The Tragedy of Folly" (Tohreit being german for folly/foolishness). In context of the opera, Tohreit is the lead character, which happens to be played by Rio. Talk about symbolism, right?

Accele Romero: Accele is introduced as the owner of the restaurant/cafe Santa Alte. While she has a motherly aura, and often looks out for her employees, most tend to think of her as a bit of an airhead and eccentric.

She is initially treated as the employer of Johaan's younger sister, Roze. Roze sometimes mentiones her to Johaan, but Johaan and Accele do not meet until after Roze decides to return home to her parents.

Incidentally, what attracts Johaan to Accele is her uncanny ressemblance to Julietta. He at one point wonders if she is an older sister Julietta never mentioned, but quickly corrects himself. Accele takes a liking to him for reasons unknown, though at times she thinks of him as "a child looking for his mother".

Accele's Pact - Accele is the only character that could be called the "end result" of a pact made with Bell. Accele was originally married to a very abusive man that would beat her regularly. She eventually got tired of the life of pain and misery she was living, and called out to anyone who could help her get out of it. Bell showed up and made a pact with Accele.

As it turns out, Accele was pregnant at the time, and after making the pact with Bell, her husband suddenly died. Nine months later, she gave birth, but the baby was a stillborn. Amidst the doctors and nurses in the room, our favorite demon shows up and, grinning behind her surgical mask, simply says "payment collected".

"New life for new life". Accele eventually managed to set out on her own, and opened a cafe/restaurant that does fairly well. Of course, she owes her stillborn child for the stability in her life, and is very regretful of how things turned out. She looks at Santa Alte as her "child", doing her best to make sure her business continues to grow, but her life is scarred deeply. Bell visits her on occasion, to both mock her and see if there's anything else she might want.

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So yeah, that's some information right there. Seeing as the only OP movie I've found for Pygmalion is on niconico douga, which requires a membership to be able to view, I'll post this vid of Sakakibara Yui (Rio's VA) singing the OP song for Pygmalion. Just picture a bunch of floating doll parts and dark-colored liquids moving about the screen, and you have something close to what the OP movie for the game is like.


And that's that. For those of you who want to hear the full version, that can be found here. That's it for today.

-Moroboshi Yuumei