Old(?) news

These will be old news to some people, but… there’s an ENGLISH otome game out for NDS, albeit one aimed at younger children. There are screenshots and overview of Princess Debut which you can see for yourself. While it seems like a very simple game, I read somewhere that the dance movements were motion-captured from professional dancers. So at least, the dancing sequence itself should be quite interesting… I’m tempted to get it just for that reason alone (which probably is the wrong reason .__. )

Also, Hiiro no Kakera is getting ported to PSP (release date 18/12/2008). And apparently, the limited edition for this version will have better goodies than the limited edition for NDS… which is making me conflicted, somewhat. Should I get this one for the goodies, despite the fact that I can’t stand the main character…?

Also, seeing the port progression: PS2 -> NDS -> PSP. …I’m hoping it’d get ported to PC next. Because then I’d have a real reason to buy it (ie., because then I can play it with AGTH). …I guess the first Hiiro no Kakera was the best seller in the series, but still… porting the same game to different platforms… I wonder if they’d ever port the other game in the series. Probably after they ran out of platforms to port the first Hiiro to… <_< ?

There’s also Vampire Knight for NDS (release date sometime in December?), although I have no interest in this one… I read the first manga, and for some reason just can’t find enough love for the characters to throw my money away for the game .__. …but that “genre” that the website listed for the game (if I didn’t misread)… “Bloody Love” o__O ? Somehow that brought to mind a more morbid imagery, but I think that’s just me .__.

Island of Happiness – Impression

For people who play a lot of Harvest Moon series (or at least the PS one), below is my impression of Island of Happiness. I played the PS version a lot, played the ported version on NDS, played Harvest Moon DS Cute and Rune Factory (also played the one on SNES and Gameboy, but let’s ignore that one). And Island of Happiness… is a tough game to play .__. The info below you can easily find on Fogu if you read through everything there. Since this is only my impression, I’m only going to list the ones that I found surprising (both in a good and bad way).

Summon Night Twin Age

…I’m putting all of my games on hold to play this one. Because it’s just too, too addictive… says the person who stayed up till 3AM to play this game and got to work an hour late this morning.

Hiiro no Kakera (NDS)

NDS owners looking for otome games to play can now rejoice…
…sort of.

Hiiro no Kakera from Idea Factory has been released (recently, not sure when’s the exact date). Now, some points of consideration…

• – … Game is on NDS, which means you can’t drool on the pretty pictures on your 15+ inch monitor.
• + … NDS games are cheaper than PS2 or PC games… plus this one also includes Hiiro no Kakera – Ano Sora no Shita.
• – … Game is on NDS and not on PC, which means you can’t use AGTH to translate the text.
• + … Game will be voiced, which should help you understand what’s going on somewhat better.
• – … Game has its own dictionary to explain the terms inside the game… which means the story won’t be easy to understand unless you understand Japanese. And if I guess correctly, it’s a mainly ADV game…
  

Seems like there will be more otome games for DS in the future. I’m hoping they will port more PS2 otome games to NDS… since there are still a lot of titles on that platform which I want to play. For instance, that game where you become a mermaid… (title escapes me at the moment).

Duel Love

Finished the game once, started a second playthrough and stopped halfway… and just never regained the vigour to finish it. It’s filled with interesting mini-games, yes, but apart from that…

Seems like main character was a transfer student. First day of class, she was introduced to and got along with the customary good/best girl friend, walked around the school and got introduced to other characters, walked around the town and got introduced to the rest… and then (I’m not sure why; was she told to return at night…?), at night she returned to her new school to find it buzzing with life. Joining the other students, she found something that was basically a ‘fight club’ in the school, where pants-less pretty boys students fought each other in the ring smeared with Jell-O.