Update?

Well, let's see.
Let me talk about where I was the past days first.
I was in a camp so yes, no internet/computer. Sorry about that.

I'll be posting a review about X-Note.

Let me update you about the translation status of the japanese otome games:
The following are being done by Twin Project
>Prince Panic
>Kimi Iro Puromunaado
>Bloody Call
>Monochrome Heaven
>Ikusei Nikki
>Majo mo Arukeba Akuma ni Ataru
>Magic Romanesque
>Okotoba Desu ga
>My dear 2 -love once again-

>Black Wolves Saga 
> Hitofuta Kitan
>Starry ☆ Sky ~in Summer~
>Starry ☆ Sky ~in Autumn~ - 10%
>Starry ☆ Sky ~in Winter~ - 5%


>Diabolik Lovers - this has a fickle situation and it seems that the translators don't want their work to be made into patch.
                           - last time I checked, it was already at 18%
>Lucky Dog 1 - same situation as Diabolik Lovers
>OZMAFIA - Legal translation. This isn't really confirmed but there's a possibility. Don't get your hopes up. It's just a possibility. It depends on how the game hits. We'll just cross our hands and buy a copy.
The team that is doing Starry Sky ~in Summer~ are looking for more J>E translators as well as programmers and hackers to make the patch. I'm not sure which of which are to be made into patches or just available as translations in wiki. Please offer your help to the teams doing the work if you can.


To make up for my absence, here's some new updates about the otome game that we plan to make. This is a WIP (work-in-progress. I'm not yet done, okay?) character design. In other words, it's not the official character design yet. I have to confirm with my partner first.

So sorry for amateurish art yet again. I totally suck at digital coloring.
 If somebody wants to offer their services, you are very much welcome.
click for enlarged pic.

Yes, we have a typical delinquent-kun. But don't write him off yet, there's more to him than his looks. Or attitude. Sorry, no name yet and as for his story... let us polish it off first before I provide more sneak peeks.

Are you excited about this project? Tell me your thoughts people! I'd love to hear from you!


See ya! Await the next spoils. Huehuehue. >:)

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I'm sorrryyyyy!!!

I'm really sorry if I'm still inactive today. Life is hard if it's forced on you. I am currently not a hikikomori  right now. I am currently staying in Australia for seven more weeks. Yes, yes, it's not my home country. I do apologize for having a life right now. Life means little or no internet involvement at all here where I'm staying'.

To apologize for that, I bring you information about the new hakuouki game: Urakata Hakuouki
[Urakata is somewhat like "Reverse" or "on the other side" (?). Sorry, crappy Japanese skills here. I just know that it entails that this story is all about the other side of the army: Choushu and Satsuma.]
They already released the opening movie for the said PSP game. If you want to watch it, go here:
http://www.otomate.jp/hakuoki/urakata/special/
This will be released on May 30, 2013.

Here are some CG samples, brought to you by our beloved Otomate.

"They" made it seem that the girl is really skilled in sword art. Let's just hope that she uses those swords for real and not for some damn decoration. (Hello Yukimura Chizuru) Let's also hope that she's not a "Mary Sue".

Probably the Mr. Nice Guy who turns out that he isn't all that.

Jinguji Ren type. That sweet-tongued guy. No pun intended in regards to the picture.

Why am I already hating this bastard guy when I haven't played his route yet? I'm getting the feeling that he is this really arrogant guy who think he can get all of that but softens up when he falls in love. Hello otome standards.

Most likely a Saitou equivalent. Ninja. Yum.

Yeah. That's it. Not exactly new new but I compiled the information.

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The Host Holic Review GET!

FINALLY! NEW UPDATE! Sorry for the long inactive period. Both I and Black Angel had a life, thus, slightly-inactive blog. I finally graduated from highschool and since there's still time before my departure for Australia, I'm taking the chance to update. 

Oh yeah, the main point of this update is to tell you about my The Host Holic review! Check that genuine English otome game. It's worth the play. If you're not sure, consult the above-mentioned review. 
(Check my Love Revo!! Review too please! ~BlackAngel)

Well, if you're wondering about my own otome project, we're struggling with the initial character designs. It's really hard to do this stuff if your irl best friend, to whom cellphone and internet are rare beings, simply vanished from you. No contact whatsoever. (-_- )Remind me to throw her cellphone and laptop and to hack her Skype account (does she even have one? I don't think so.) and Facebook. Oh, and let me rip her internet cables while I'm at it since she currently shows no proof that she's utilizing it whatsoever. 

Well, that's it! Ja ne!  Read More →

Host Holic

            Host Holic is developed by VisualNovelGames.com. Since English otome games are really rare, we have something to be thankful for. Well, I'm not really gonna talk and steal their spotlight, so I'll let their official site do that talking: complete info here.

            I was supposed to do this review last October 2012. It's late March-early April now. Oh God, I hope Lex-shi forgives me. (>o<;) I'm really sorry for my poor time-managing skills. School forced me to have a life. *sigh* First update in a while!

                 Well moving on.

SYNOPSIS: 
            You travel to Japan for one year to teach English, and quickly become culture shocked by the dating scene in downtown Tokyo. After a few failed attempts at blind and Internet dating, you decide to try your luck at the most popular host club in town.

           Manage your daily life as a foreign teacher in Tokyo by controlling your wild students and maximizing your return rate to ensure your performance bonus. Can you balance your job and navigate this new dating world?

           Discover the secrets to becoming a successful teacher by day, and surround yourself by a group of professional playboys at night in this original and exciting dating-sim and time management game.

TITLE: Host Holic
DEVELOPERS: VisualNovelGames.com 
GAME LENGTH: Medium (10 - 30 hours)
http://vndb.org/v11156

REVIEW:

           Target Audience: Well, one thing for sure, this is not for those young ones. I wouldn't go as far as to say that this game is a rated 18+ game but it does contain a mild sexual context that surprised me. The site's own rating of 16+ really suits it. (Thank goodness I'm 16+) Just don't play this if you are not prepared for a shocking plot. 

           Story: How do I say this... Let's say, the story is very unexpected. In what way? In a lot of ways. Sorry for the stupid vague answer but that about sums it all up.  The story is not really that special, frankly speaking. It borders normalcy however, the plot twists are really something. I was thinking of giving it a good thrashing (if I happen to buy this) if it weren't for those awesome twists. Man, thumbs us to the scriptwriter. He/She managed to get me to "SHOCKU" mode. ∑(O_O；)

           Characters: I commend the attitude of the protagonist. She's very brave for a foreigner in a foreign land. +1 point for a one less doormat heroine in games. Thank goodness. Plus, she's the kind of teacher most students would be lucky to have. Where the heck will you get a martial art-capable beautiful and smart teacher nowadays. *sigh* I hope my school (right. I just recently graduated.) Alma Mater had a lot of teachers like that. ANYWAY. For the hosts, I found it a hard time to get Rui's way of thinking. I still can't, to be honest. That's one more target in my Agenda list.

           CG/Art: The art is very well-done, considering that this came from an indie company. Which means, little or no initial funds/time/help/staff for that. I like the light colored art style. It's ironic that the the art style is very light yet the story is so dark though. Haha. Another surprise element. The character designs are unique for the main characters. I can't say the same for the kiddos. Change the hairstyle, eye color or color of the top/shirt and that's basically it. They all have the freaking face it's freaking scary.  I can accept the clothing if they just wore a uniform instead of just changing the color. I think there would be less hassle that way too, anyway.

           Music: Same goes for this one. It's a trap. The music is very light-hearted, amusing even (for the classroom music bg), that it covers the dark plot twists. Blame yourself if you fall for it like how I did. Console yourself a bit since it sheds a bit of its trap-ness when it comes to the dark part since well, the music is dark creepy too.  It matches.  

           Setting: Maa-maa (So-so), I guess. There's just basically four most important places to you anyway: school, home, night market and of course, holic.

           Difficulty Level/Gameplay: It's a bit higher than average, I guess. Host Holic features a common visual novel element with mini-games that can go from the following rating: a.) cute, b.) so-so, c.) useless to d.) annoying. I can't help the "d.) annoying" part since I'm not a big fan of stat-building. I prefer in-depth story so yey to typical visual novel choices. I hate stat-building. It takes more time for me to achieve the story that I'm drooling for. I also hope that there's more interaction with the students or at least, paid more attention since they're practically the supposedly selling point of this game. Instead of the uncalled-for dress-up thing, we could have more student interaction. I prefer more time spent in wrecking my mind on how to handle the kiddos than playing shopping with the host. One more thing that can get more work done is the user interface. I can't save anytime I wish. No quick save/load either. It definitely sucked when I had to leave it for a short while and found the laptop dead on me and I haven't reached the savepoint yet.

           Opening Video:

           Screenshots:

DOWNLOAD LINKS:

           Too bad, I won't support piracy here. Believe it or not, I still avoid it as best as I can, okay? Unlike with Japanese otome games, it will contribute little even through buying since you, English-speakers, are not the target audience.  Though it may cause them to think to license the game, the market for them would still be generally for the lucky Japanese-speaking folks. Here, this is a different matter. Since there is a means to get a legal English game through legal buying, of course, I would point that. Seek my help only for hopeless Japanese games.

Demo (Click the "Free Demo!" button from their site, of course): 
http://visualnovelgames.com/VN-Host-Holic.html Read More →

Heroine Character Design

I'm really sorry for my skill. huhu TT^TT
Everything was done by my hand so forgive the unstable lines.
I promise I will practice more. 

Just an update.
I finished coloring after 3-5 hours. Snack breaks included.  (>w<)b

Sorry for my incompetent skill. I promise to practice more so that the CGs won't be as unsatisfactory as this one.

Criticisms? Of course, I'm very much open for that. Still, it's hard to accept a criticism phrased in a rude way. Please, help me. I believe in manners.

Can you guys recommend a good name for her? ^o^ Read More →

Girlish Love Revolution!! DS

                   
           I'm finally back!!!! Sorry for the long wait, so let's just get on to the review. Black Angel~               

                     
                           


                  Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo!!, translated to Girlish Love Revolution DS!! (which I will call Love Revo in this review for simplicity) is an otome game first released on PS2 in 2006 and then re-released two years later for the Nintendo DS. It's also released on PC and PSP, but only the DS version was translated (thanks to the altruistic translation team, we are forever grateful). There's also a drama CD and a manga adaption for this game, which actually contributed to my procrastination on this review :p. Unlike the Tokimeki Memorial series, this is just a stand-alone game, which I'm glad about. Not that this was a bad game, it was quite good; it was interesting. This is quite the unique otome game, which was what intrigued me to try it. I played this game without reading any background information, which was fortunate because if I had I probably wouldn't have picked it up so early on (actually, I take that back, I might still be too curious about it to let it go); so when I started playing I was like "Wait, what?!" and literally just rolled on the floor laughing. Well, I won't keep you in suspense any longer, let's get to the point.

Summary:
              You are a fat girl. Yes, you heard (or should I say seen?) me right. Not only are you fat, you are pretty immense, at 100 kg (220 pounds for us stupid Americans who don't use the metric system). You were a pretty girl who used to win all the beauty pageants, but after a whole lot of sweets and doting from your hot onii-chan    "You're really cute, and you look cuter when you're eating!" you've become pretty careless about your self-image and succumbed to food. Until one fateful day, when your family decides to rent rooms, and the No.5, whom are the hottest five boys at school (funny how hottest automatically became bolded...I'll keep it that way). That's when you decided to shape up to acquire the boy of your dreams!!! You spend the rest of the game on your diet plan, becoming the beautiful girl you once were.

Characters: 
(even more guys than TMGS (one more to be exact)...)

 Hitomi Sakuragawa
The main character, played by you. I'm sexy and I know it~

 Ren Ichinose
He's the first of the No.5 (oh by the way, the numbers go by ranking of hotness). Hes the typical perfect, rich, honor student everyone strives to be, and of course he's extremely cold towards you. Okay, fine I'll admit he's really hot, but he's so mean! Still, he has a really interesting (and rather sad) past, and he gradually opens up to you, I absolutely loved his ending, it was so cute!

Masaki Kahara
The second of the No.5. He's generally an easygoing, friendly, happy-go-lucky guy, which is really amusing to watch. I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say appearances aren't all what they seem. He didn't impress me that much, but he's an okay character.

Souta (the Shouta) Fukami
Ah, the shouta. I love this guy. No, it's not because I have a thing for younger guys or that I think he's really adorable, but I love him because he accepts me for who I am!! Right from the beginning he's nice to me and defends me from the evil girl bullying me about my weight. He's the third, and he's always encouraging me and even gives me sweets, so cute. He's really energetic and sporty, what a handful. Okay fine, I'll admit I also love the fact that he's the easiest to obtain.

Kennosuke Tachibana
His smile, it's blinding me! The fourth most popular, Kenny is usually a cool, collected dude which is why this scene of him smiling is a rare, rare sight; he likes playing basketball. It's so cute when he blushes, I just want to ruffle his hair! His ending is super adorable too. This guy, this guy people, you need to go through his route. And I'm not usually crazy about the cool, collected types.

Ayato Kamishiro
Ayatoooo-sempaaaiii <3. Marry me maybe? The fifth most popular, for what reason I have no idea why, because he's number one in my books (see what I did there ;)). Oh well, more for me. He's really sweet and nice to everyone and is always sitting somewhere reading a book. Unfortunately, he's rather sickly which is the reason why he doesn't like being close to anyone. He's my favorite out of the whole game, I've spent way too much time on his route...even though his ending is, well, okay awesome.


Done with the F5!! Let's go on to the others!

Kaede Tokita
 A transfer student that also resides in your apartment soon after the game begins. Despite his megane and passion for books, he's actually really airheaded and careless....or is he? Anyways, he might be my second favorite (tied with souta) since he's so adorable with glasses (and I have a huge glasses fetish), but when he takes them off and ties his hair in a ponytail. He.Is.Sexiness. Literally, my mouth dropped when I saw him that way I was like "Woah, where'd that come from?!" I highly recommend his route as well.

Toru Kinomura
Hitomi's childhood friend. This guy just pisses me off. He's her childhood friend who's not even good-looking, so his parameters shouldn't be all that high right? WRONG. He has pretty high standards, I don't even know what he's thinking. I've played his route once, but I was bored to death and wasn't interesting in the least. Sorry Toru, but you're a no-go. (I didn't enter a CG for him because they were spoliers)

Ryutaro Wakatsuki
"S-sensei! What are you doing?!" This guy is the school nurse, and well, let's just say if he was my school nurse, I'd be sick every day. He's probably the most teenage-like out of all the characters, ironically. He's childish and loves to tease, and always has his headphones either on his ears or around his neck. He's a good-hearted guy though and helps Hitomi during her diet. He smokes though, blegh, what a turn-off. Have you ever kissed someone who smoked? It's nasty! (Not speaking out of experience by the way o.o)

Takashi Sakuragawa
Onii-chan!! Yes, this is your helpful older brother who is the one of the causes of your huge weight gain. I'll admit, when i first met him I though "Please let him be an obtainable character! >.<". Yes I know that sounds really messed up, but he's really hot!! And nice!!! And he loves me (he has a HUGE sister complex if you haven't guessed)!!! So imagine my surprise when he appeared to be an obtainable character on my third try playing? Yes, Black Angel was very pleased :3. He does your monthly charts of how well your ranking to the other guys.

And that's all folks!! On to the analysis!

Game Length: It's not all that long. To be exact, it took me 3 hours and 30 minutes to finish one route only skipping most of the introduction (yes I played this game until 3 in the morning...playing the whole route in one shot....two nights in a row, not a very good idea). For a first-timer it'll probably take around an hour more, but no more than that. The reason this game is pretty short is because it takes place over one year (unlike TMGS where it's 3 years)

Target Audience: The same as always. teenage girls. If anything, you need a good sense of humor to play this game. It doesn't have any mature scenes or anything, so it's 13+

Gameplay: Obviously, as I had already mentioned, you spend most of this game trying to lose weight. When you decide to exercise, there will be a selection of exercises you have to choose from, each of them designed specifically for a purpose (full body, arms, legs, face, muscles etc), to fill your parameters. The less hungry you are, the more you will get out of your exercise. However, once you become really hungry, you will have to succumb to the sweets, and make sure they're as low-calorie as possible to prevent any serious weight gain. The only other parameters are general studies, PE, science, and social science, so count on a lot of parameters you have to fill, almost double that of TMGS. Also, at the end of each month, Onii-chan will create a little note about how well (or rather, not well) your parameters are to the guys. Although, exercise isn't the only thing that will help you lose weight, you can also go to the gym and buy health foods for a hefty price, but it'll help you lose weight quickly. On the weekends, you can choose to go on dates or visit the boy of your dreams, and now you can just knock on their doors and ask, which is a nice change of pace. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of options for date place and not much variety in conversation, with the right choices staying consistent through the game, so you don't get to enjoy much interaction with the character until pretty much the end, where all the important events happen. Also, it's hard to know whether you picked the right choice or not by the visuals, there will only be a "ding!" noise when you get the right answer, so keep your volume on! There's a lot of endings though, with multiple bad endings for each guy, a normal ending, and a good ending, so that should keep you entertained. Also, I love how it had a "Quick Save" and a "Quick Load" which I extremely over abused in case something went wrong, it was so handy!

Characters: These characters are super hot obviously ;). There's a reason this game was chosen to be English-patched. To my VERY VERY disappointment, the DS version of this game wasn't voiced, only the PSP and PC version were :(.  Other than that, I don't have any complaints about the characters. They pretty much covered all the areas that a girl's type would be, they have the cold one, the happy one, the shouta, the sexy megane airhead, the cool one, the quiet bookish one (<3), and the childhood friend otaku...yeah pretty much. So I'm loving this cast of characters, and I'm pretty sure you will too. (It was them after all, that made me want to play this game). They even have a mean antagonist girl, which can get pretty heated up and funny.

Story: There isn't an overall plot like the PC games, but like I repeated before, each guy has his own route that you follow and uncover his own story. Some are better than others, but I overall liked each story. And of course, there's the whole main story of you losing weight, so I like that (and trust me, you will SUBMERGE yourself into losing weight, I felt as if I was actually the one losing the weight during this game. A little more, just a little more >.<)

CG/Art: The art is AMAZING~. It's so pretty, bishies everywhere. Did you look at those CGs?! They're so amazing, I just keep scrolling up to look at them (well more like Ayato, looks like someone's getting a new wallpaper <3). The CGs are hands down one of the best. My only complaint about the in-game art is that the characters seem...to light to me. Maybe it's just me because they're so small (since the DS isn't portrait-style like TMGS) but the colors don't seem bright or vivid, but instead blending into the surroundings. Anyways, you get used to it, so A+ on the art.

Music: This game doesn't really have an opening or ending theme song, so I can't really comment. The music during the game is okay I guess. I'm too zoned in the game to pay attention :3.

Difficulty: Did I mentions that this game is the HARDEST otome game I have ever played? The third time was the charm in this game, when I finally managed to capture Souta, did I mention he was the easiest character in the game?! This game is super difficult when it comes to balancing your weight, keeping your parameters high, AND trying to get the guy to fall in love with you ALL at the same time. You need to plan it really well to get a good ending with your guy, and I'll just say hats off to you if you manage to capture Ren *takes off hat and bows*. So I wouldn't recommend this game unless you're an otome game rookie. However, it's the challenge of the difficulty that keeps you coming, so it's refreshing.

That's the end of my review!! Hope you enjoyed  ^_^.

Rom Download Link:
Girlish Love Revolution DS!!

I already English-patched it so you don't have to worry about that :). Go to the NDS Emulator Tutorial on this site to figure out how to play it.
























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How about a new otome game? :3

Sorry for amateurish art. What can I do? I don't have a pen tablet.

             Well, as you can see, I'm not even done with the coloring. I already spent an hour on this and I'm not even close to finishing. I and my irl best friend are planning to make a new otome game.

             Hopefully, that caught your attention.

             The girl you can see above is one of the proposed character designs for the heroine. In other words, you. I also have the character sketch for one of the boys. We initially planned to have three boys with different endings: bad ends, normal ends and, of course, good end for each. I prefer to think of myself as a meticulous writer and I hate shitty character or developments. Sorry for the word but you get my drift. I really detest doormat heroines or Mary Sue characters . That is to say, I will try my best to write a story about a girl that deviates from the cliche shoujo heroines we were bombarded by mangaka/writers who does not believe in realism.

              I mentioned " initially planned to have three boys". You got that right. We can also add more capturable hot guys depending on our time. Hopefully, we would first be able to achieve our number one target in our agenda: three capturable hot bishounen.  This may vary since we are doing this game with a two-man (err, woman) team. And we're not aiming for too short otome games that we already experienced. (We know that the players would kill us for not having a worthy game length). Just imagine the hard work involved: character sprites, backgrounds, game layouts, CGs, scripts and programming. We will try our best with regards to the art style but don't expect too much. We are amateur artists. (Refer to art above). Of course, we'll be using Ren'Py since we would just be wasting our efforts to program a game through Java when there's a very capable game engine available for free already.

             Since you read this far, I will give you a bonus. Here is the story's synopsis. At least, for now anyway.

             Meet our heroine [insert name. We haven't decided yet.], a strong-willed, slightly cynical but nonetheless, a kind-hearted and gentle girl of modern times. There was a rumor in this girl's family about a mysterious power. As the modern person she is and as fate would have it, she did not believe this. Until one supposedly uneventful night she fell asleep. She found out that she can exchange her consciousness with her selves from different lifetimes. Is this a mean to change her lives' tragic fates or to find the one meant for her?  Is she willing to take a risk to fight for what she desires: may it be her right to life or  right to be with the man she loves? If so, who and what will she fight for: past, present or future?

              How's that? Comments, suggestions, reactions, anyone? We love to hear from you. Help us achieve a worthy English otome game for every otome gamer.  Read More →