Year End Review-Visual Novels

Visual novels have always been a part of my life for a very long time,but oddly enough it seemed like this year was the year that I bought a ton of them, and oddly enough almost all of them were translated into English.

I initially just preordered Steins;Gate the limited edition because JAST USA made it sound like the only people who were going to get a physical copy of the game (at the time when this was in golden master) were the people who jumped in and bought limited editions. So of course I went ahead and preordered a copy of the limited edition, though now there is Steins;Gate coming out for almost everything and that a standard edition of the game exists as well. Though I don't regret getting the limited edition, it looks really nice and everything. I wish that they made more of them like this, I really like the way the box looks.

Honestly though, if you haven't picked up Steins;Gate for the PC yet, or if you don't want to play VNs on your PC, there is going to be a few releases next year of the game on IOS, PS Vita, and PS3. So in 2015 no one will have an excuse to not have played a piece of otaku history.

When I was at Sakuracon in the spring I ended up buying Kara no Shoujo for the PC as well. It only happened by chance because I was just walking through the dealers hall at the convention and ended up finding the Mangagamer booth. The only thing I was kind of interested in was Kara no Shoujo so I picked it up for $50 for the limited edition of it as well. Though it was a limited edition, it's not as good looking as the Steins;Gate one. And to be honest, it was much of an impulse buy than anything else because I want more VNs to come to the US and international, I knew enough about it that it's an eroge but nothing else.

Of course after that I bought another Hakuoki game, this time for the PS3 just for the fact that I love this game series even though we end up getting the same game over and over with just added content.

I'll buy it because not only do I like the story of it being taken a part in an alternate history in Japan. There's freaking Oni and pseudo-oni people in it. And if that wasn't enough fun, then I don't know what is. But to be honest it is an Otome game and there aren't many of those existing in general; even in Japan. So I feel like I got to buy this game to boost up the numbers. But it actually is a good story, so it's a win-win situation.

Though with how niche the PS Vita is, I don't see why AKSYS hasn't gotten the copyright to release an English version of the Sweet School Life version of Hakuoki. Because who doesn't like an alternate reality where everyone in the Shinsengumi is in high school, or teaches in high school. Are you kidding that would print instant money. Seriously, every fangirl would get to live out their dream of being surrounded with cute boys doing stuff.

The last thing I have bought this year in regards to VNs was another impulse buy it was Littlewitch Romanesque released by JAST USA released on the 23rd of December. The only reason why I think I bought it was because I was on JAST USA's page and saw it was getting released this month. And to my honest surprise it was. I have the game downloaded right now on my computer but I am still waiting for my physical copy, though I just looked it up on J-list itself and saw they have addressed the problem. I don't know when I will be getting the physical one but I hope it is soon, because I want to see how the case is and I hope it is akin to the one they did for Steins;Gate.

I did get past the intro to actually save the game and I came across this cute little thing.

I really have no idea what it is, but doesn't it kind of look like a Moomin? A Moomin that looks like he's made out of chocolate...

From what I've seen so far, I like how the story is shown, with it going more for a living manga style where speech bubbles appear than just a box with text. And the voices are great so far. I am especially glad that the main male lead has a voice, as that is the number one deal breaker for me. If I play a game and the main male has no voice... It just stops me in my tracks and then makes me want to mute all the characters. Because if I hear someone talking and the response to it is just a wall of text that I am suppose to read, and then goes back to voices. It just breaks immersion. There is an all-ages version though coming to Steam via their Greenlight system, so if you're interested in the story without the eroge contents there's that for you.

I am excited for 2015 since there will be a lot more VNs on their way, including Clannad from Sekai project, and not to mention (hopefully) the release of Hanachirasu from JAST USA. Also more Steins;Gate which is good too. But most of all I am excited to see what will get the potential go from either kickstarter or from independent small groups making their own VNs.  It seems as if VNs have found their way into the hearts of people outside of Japan. And I'd like for it to keep growing years down the line.

Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi, A story, and a review

Now I am not a person new to the whole doujin soft/VN scene. I have been playing these games since about when Melty Blood came out in fact I just recently found my copy of it in my room. But that is not what this is all about.

Toshizo Hijikata and his fury form on the front cover

When Hakuoki:Stories of the Shinsengumi came out my friends were ecstatic for it, since not many Otome games get published for probably one of two reasons 1.Otome games are an even bigger niche in a niche market or 2. Too damn cliche for anyone's taste (seriously why is every man an extreme tsundere or yandere in womens works?)

Well for whatever reason Aksys released it for the PS3 even though the game has been released on the 3DS and the PSP before, each game with slightly more material or options which means for a VN collector, you're going to get all of them for the material not found in the other games.

Well going back to my friends, one has sort of experience playing these before but she's an odd typical fujoshi as every VN she's ever played has been a BL/yaoi game and the other has never had played these games before. This second friend, talks to me and asks how to get Souji Okita's ending because she keeps having trouble as she only gets either the bad ending with Okita or the regular ending where you just follow around Kazama. The first question I asked her was she saving or quick saving at every flag and she just looks at me blank...

My reaction to her expression

...I then realized how much my love of VNs are that what seemed like common sense to me just didn't make sense to her. After explaining what flags were in a VN context, I then began to ask her if she tried different combinations of options, even though I knew it was the last flag that pretty much determined if you were going to get a good ending or not. I just didn't want to straight out tell her.

Eventually I just gave up and gave her a guide on what to do to get Okita's ending. Oddly or rather typical friend that she is...She hasn't looked at the guide or finished it yet, instead just complains about the endings she did get.

As for the review...

It's a Otome game so you have a lot of men that you can fall in love with, and as with everything you should find the guy that makes you heart bump and try to please him. For me that was Hijikata.

Commander of the Shinsengumi

Yeah he does look like that typical tsun-pretty boy that all the girls clamour for but I actually enjoy his depth a lot and how you see that cold side melt or rather gradually fall apart. Also Hijikata's route is the longest out of all the routes since he's actually our "main male" as far as Otomate is concerned.

There isn't much to the gameplay as it's just a VN and it's a little bit interesting playing them on the PS3 but I can see why this is a good way to market the game to a bigger audience than just a computer, where even less of a female market is there.

Story wise, Hakuoki is expanded on again in this version with the Stories of the Shinsengumi added in with also the fandisk SSL stuff (Sweet School Life). For me these little bit of extras were the main reason for me to purchase the PS3 version of the game even though I have the PSP version (which was the first one to come out in the US).

I can honestly say this isn't for everyone, but if you like VNs Hakuoki's story isn't a bad one on its own, without the romance, and the actual romance itself paces at a realistic rate (as far as anime things go) and more supplemental information is added with the Stories of the Shinsengumi extras which leads to even more realistic feelings of the male characters and the lead female as well.

It's an interesting story that is vastly superior in VN form than its anime counterpart. If you're going to chose one or the other, I suggest the VN if anything.

Samurai Jam:Bakumatsu Rock- Feelings so far

Well I may be one of the few... But I really like this show. Overall for me it's a breath of fresh air in what seems like a huge stagnation of forced drama in a whole bunch of shojou/josei shows. Honestly I've read a lot of peoples reviews about the first episode and everything talking about how corny it is and bad animation.

Sometimes it's good to have a little fun, yeah I know premise doesn't sound all that promising when it boils down to...

Japan wants to control the people by using a song called "Heaven's Song" and quickly outlaw musical instruments and Rock n Roll.

Now here's the thing, it's originally a PSP rhythm game, now the plot doesn't sound so out of place. A rhythm game for girls dealing with guys who rock out against the system, that sounds like a totally viable idea.

As much as I seem to enjoy this there are a few things that make me frown. First off is the weird use of 3D in the musical performance scenes. You can see it episode 1 when they Ryouma first sings Rolling Thunder and again when the main three play against Hijikata and Okita with all of them singing Intersect.

Rolling Thunder is actually a really fun song and you get to hear Ryouma sing, while I hear a few friends of mine say he sings funny I rather enjoy his accent.

While I do enjoy the main three and their designs I have to say that so far, I hate the Shinsengumi designs as a whole and I'll show you why.

 First of Hijikata just... He looks like an old man, but they gave him a deep voice so it works at first. But then you hear him sing... And then it just seems, so off and weird. Also the Shinsengumi uniforms are very western (how backwards) and look like they come from Nazi Germany. But Hijikata isn't my main problem.

It's Okita that I have a beef with. He looks like a Visual-Kei ripoff of Gakupoid. Also got to love that his special skill is winking and he likes taking baths. Now I usually like Okita whenever he's in things, but this is one incarnation of Okita I really can't seem to deal with.

Even in Intersect I loved listening the rock side more than the Shinsengumi side, but it is all down to preference.

Overall I am enjoying this, and I hope that others will give it a try. Even if it is for something that is a little bit different.