by Melody Muse » Jun 01, 2010 12:56 am
Edit: I know double posting is bad, but I wanted you guys to hear this, so I figured making a new post would be better than just editing the old one and letting is go unnoticed.
Today I ordered 3 games you might be interested in. Date warp (otome), Flower Shop (boy-wooing-girls, but let me explain why I'm putting it here, and Yo Jin Bo (otome).
I thought you guys might be interesting a little bit more of an in depth review. I haven't gotten YoJinBo yet, so I can only talk about the other two.
Flower Shop actually feels rather like Harvest Moon, because it has a farming simulator. It's a much smaller simulator though; more of a garden one. And to be fair, the girls are rather typical fare, but they still have fun quirks (EG the innocent flower girl flares up if you bring up unnatural medicine to her), and such. There are only 4 girls; essentially the normal, the bookworm, the flower-girl, and the sporty one. You get a nice little relationship bar for every person, not just the girls, so it's interesting to keep that in mind, and you really do have to take time into consideration (EG if you talk on the phone too long it will get hung up on you). The idea is that your girlfriend dumped you, and your grades are horrible, so you're going to the country to do some real work, courtesy of your father's orders. I haven't gotten terribly far but I figure you wouldn't want a ton of info on a non-otome game anyway. But I will say the gardening/farming simulator is fun! The art is just gorgeous; I adore all of it from the backgrounds to the character portraits! Plus having the main guy you play as looking cute doesn't hurt either. The main character feels pretty darn realistic too, even if he makes you groan in a "typical boy attitude" at the beginning; the idea is to swing that around. XD
Now onto the big one, Date Warp. Let me say I am so glad I decided to splurge and get this one as well as the other two! It has great music, and the art is very good too. I've seen slightly better art, but not by much, and this game has full facial expressions/mouths move realistically with the dialogue. Plus there are plenty of random CG scenes; not just ones that happen because you wooed the guy, which is great! The characters can roughly be summed up as mad scientist/lecher, jock/overprotective, anti-social/aloof, meek/quiet-ish, and kind/older brother type. They are fairly standard, but what makes this one fun is how you choose the paths; you do a sort of connect the pipes puzzle game each time. (Once you unlock a part you can skip it on replay).
The charters have quirks which give them much more of a 3D feel. I can't express enough how many different facial expressions they give the characters. Although the scientist has one that just freaks me out... I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but it turns into a sci-fi/mystery, and I'm a huge fan of otome games with actual plots, and this one has by far one of the best I have seen. The main girl, Janet, is pretty realistic too, and has the cutest character design, although sometimes I feel she is a bit too study oriented. XD They guys are all really bishie too... I don't mind it but I wouldn't want all of my games to have it.
Another note: Sometime it seems hard to get the guy you want. I was going for one and got the other guys FIVE TIMES. So the choices aren't so obvious; you really have to experiment. Also let me just say that.... there are a lot of unexpected twists. I normally am pretty good or at least decent at figuring out plot predictions, but on these I couldn't, on any of them. But it was in a good way.
Overall my only Date Warp objections are: the artist draw feet awfully plainly for the rest of the game (you only notice it in a couple pictures though) and I don't think you can go back and see all of the CGs you've unlocked.
Minor Date Warp Spoiler:
It's a pretty dark game actually... Sometimes to get the guy you have to do something unheroic, or sometimes earlier decisions can affect the relationship later (or that's my guess; one of them plummeted due to an in game event that I didn't know what decision triggered it).
MAJOR DATE WARP SPOILER:
It involves time travel. You go back into the year 1984, and compare your universes. And no that's not even the main plot point... Also: FREAKING A I KILLED TWO OF THEM!!! What the heck... *bangs head into desk* What did I do wrong??? It was all :"oh hey you totally FAILED to woo this guy so we're going to KILL THEM OFF TO PUNISH YOU!"
To sum it up I've been so hooked on Date Warp I've been up for several hours playing and haven't even touched Flower Shop again (or gotten email with YoJinBo dl link) yet... I FINALLY got the guy I wanted after about 5 play-throughs... It's really good if you like unusual games with some mind-screwing, though.
Edit: I know double posting is bad, but I wanted you guys to hear this, so I figured making a new post would be better than just editing the old one and letting is go unnoticed.
Today I ordered 3 games you might be interested in. Date warp (otome), Flower Shop (boy-wooing-girls, but let me explain why I'm putting it here, and Yo Jin Bo (otome).
I thought you guys might be interesting a little bit more of an in depth review. I haven't gotten YoJinBo yet, so I can only talk about the other two.
Flower Shop actually feels rather like Harvest Moon, because it has a farming simulator. It's a much smaller simulator though; more of a garden one. And to be fair, the girls are rather typical fare, but they still have fun quirks (EG the innocent flower girl flares up if you bring up unnatural medicine to her), and such. There are only 4 girls; essentially the normal, the bookworm, the flower-girl, and the sporty one. You get a nice little relationship bar for every person, not just the girls, so it's interesting to keep that in mind, and you really do have to take time into consideration (EG if you talk on the phone too long it will get hung up on you). The idea is that your girlfriend dumped you, and your grades are horrible, so you're going to the country to do some real work, courtesy of your father's orders. I haven't gotten terribly far but I figure you wouldn't want a ton of info on a non-otome game anyway. But I will say the gardening/farming simulator is fun! The art is just gorgeous; I adore all of it from the backgrounds to the character portraits! Plus having the main guy you play as looking cute doesn't hurt either. The main character feels pretty darn realistic too, even if he makes you groan in a "typical boy attitude" at the beginning; the idea is to swing that around. XD
Now onto the big one, Date Warp. Let me say I am so glad I decided to splurge and get this one as well as the other two! It has great music, and the art is very good too. I've seen slightly better art, but not by much, and this game has full facial expressions/mouths move realistically with the dialogue. Plus there are plenty of random CG scenes; not just ones that happen because you wooed the guy, which is great! The characters can roughly be summed up as mad scientist/lecher, jock/overprotective, anti-social/aloof, meek/quiet-ish, and kind/older brother type. They are fairly standard, but what makes this one fun is how you choose the paths; you do a sort of connect the pipes puzzle game each time. (Once you unlock a part you can skip it on replay).
The charters have quirks which give them much more of a 3D feel. I can't express enough how many different facial expressions they give the characters. Although the scientist has one that just freaks me out... I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but it turns into a sci-fi/mystery, and I'm a huge fan of otome games with actual plots, and this one has by far one of the best I have seen. The main girl, Janet, is pretty realistic too, and has the cutest character design, although sometimes I feel she is a bit too study oriented. XD They guys are all really bishie too... I don't mind it but I wouldn't want all of my games to have it. :lol:
Another note: Sometime it seems hard to get the guy you want. I was going for one and got the other guys FIVE TIMES. So the choices aren't so obvious; you really have to experiment. Also let me just say that.... there are a lot of unexpected twists. I normally am pretty good or at least decent at figuring out plot predictions, but on these I couldn't, on any of them. But it was in a good way.
Overall my only Date Warp objections are: the artist draw feet awfully plainly for the rest of the game (you only notice it in a couple pictures though) and I don't think you can go back and see all of the CGs you've unlocked.
Minor Date Warp Spoiler: [size=50]It's a pretty dark game actually... Sometimes to get the guy you have to do something unheroic, or sometimes earlier decisions can affect the relationship later (or that's my guess; one of them plummeted due to an in game event that I didn't know what decision triggered it).[/size]
MAJOR DATE WARP SPOILER: [size=25]It involves time travel. You go back into the year 1984, and compare your universes. And no that's not even the main plot point... Also: FREAKING A I KILLED TWO OF THEM!!! What the heck... *bangs head into desk* What did I do wrong??? It was all :"oh hey you totally FAILED to woo this guy so we're going to KILL THEM OFF TO PUNISH YOU!"[/size]
To sum it up I've been so hooked on Date Warp I've been up for several hours playing and haven't even touched Flower Shop again (or gotten email with YoJinBo dl link) yet... I FINALLY got the guy I wanted after about 5 play-throughs... It's really good if you like unusual games with some mind-screwing, though.