Okay, I DIDN’T die, but Gift crashed and died on me today. Relentlessflame had the same problem, but I was kind of hoping that it wouldn’t happen to me. Unfortunately, it did, and I’m returning the iTouch to my friend tomorrow (I guess I’m just not destined to play this game). Anyway, this is unfortunate, because the drama just started, and the story’s quite interesting (I laughed really, really hard when the main character dressed up as a girl and almost won a beauty contest). Anyway, I might try to finish this game if I ever get the chance, but it’s sengoku rance for now (Kana little sister if I can’t get past the battles, and Memories off 2nd if I finish Kana, then Scarlett, 12Riven, and other stuff).

So…yeah, don’t expect a post from me until I get through my backlog of games, ciao~

A few days ago, a rich friend of mine got Gift for his iTouch and lend the thing to me for the weekend. I have spent a couple of hours on it. It lags, it’s slice of life on top of slice of life, it took me over 5 hours to get through the prologue and it feels like the rest of it is going to take me until the end of the year (not even F/SN’s prologue took me that long). Also, the translation feels like a 12 year old guy from Singapore using babelfish. Even with my absolutely rudimentary understanding of Japanese I can tell there are mistakes within the translation, in fact, you don’t even need to know Japanese to see the mistakes.

It’s not just the grammar, which is horrendous, by the way. For some reason, our protagonist is sometimes called a “Jolly dog”, and when his besi friend says “Amami-kun”, the text says “Dengkai”. The characters will often say things like “half a jiffy”, a dojo is somehow a “stable of kendo”, manga is “animation book” while shoujo manga is “lady comic”, and there are sometimes random lines of code. Let’s also remember the spelling mistakes (there has been every mistake from November to Gundam). The writer loves to use the word “Nuts”, and uses it ib the place of “what?”, “What the hell is that?”, “really?”, “NO!”, “too bad”, and “that’s not right”. And I’m always left wondering what the characters are really saying when they ramble on for half a minute with only 1 short sentence on the screen (the voice says “That’s not all it is”, the text says “And,”).  Girls are often called “he”, and vice versa. There has been many cases where I guessed more of the meaning from the character’s voices than the test itself because it’s so bad.

And did I mention that it LAGS?

The music is generic and the art is generic (see the above CG? They’re so cheap that they didn’t even bother to draw the background or use any interesting angles). The whole thing seems like it was ripped off from Da capo, and staring at a small screen puts a big toll on my eyes.

After going through too much Memories off, I am just sick and tired of happy slice of life, especially one where I have to read “I am thinking of free task of summer vacation” or “Now I should often memo for it” WHILE the words don’t match the character’s voice or expression.

But I feel had at asking the friend to get the game, and then not going anything. And I’ve read that this has a yandere in it. If the story’s actually good, I can always wait for the Chinese translation (which has already started by a translation group, it won’t strain my eyes, PLUS it won’t have all the translation mistakes, PLUS it won’t lag, PLUS there are more save slots in the PC game). So, any advice? Should I continue on with Gift or not? Is it worth playing on the iTouch? Is it worth waiting for a translation that might never come out?

Meanwhile, I’ll try to finish Kana little sister (finished the first 3 endings when it first came out but then got bored and deleted it, starting it again because I felt like it).

Released in 2007 by Pajamas Soft, ピアノの森の満開の下 (under the blossoming forest of piano), is a cute little story about love set in Japan a few decades ago.

Story:

Ryutaro cares about his younger sister Sakuno more than anything else in the world. But, she has an incurable sickness eating away at her. When the doctor announces that she only has a week left to live, he takes her to a sanitarium with some mysterious tickets, seeing is as her last hope. Upon arriving at the secluded building, tucked away in the mountains, they are greeted up Konohana, the nurse in charge and the only human nearby. With only seven days left, just what can happen? Just what can be done?

Sakuno dies. I’m telling you this because she dies in the first scene and nothing you do will be able to change that. However, the writer uses some pretty interesting writing to work with that. In the first 2 days at the sanitarium, the mood is actually pretty light, with no shortage of comedy. The atmosphere the game gives is also worthy of praise, full of emotion, bittersweet flashbacks and constant growth of character, though it could have gone without some of the more fanservicy events. As Sakuno’s health deteriorates, the mood gets consistently darker, with small hints at what is really happening to the characters and their world. There is only one achievable ending on the first play through, but after that there are 2 more unlockable endings, adding up to an explanation of the mysteries surrounding the sanitarium, with no shortage of surprise to the reader (remember, every little detail adds to the truth).

However, there were flaws. The fact that it could have been better with less h-scenes is one, but I think that the most important thing is the fact that it lacks a certain something. The story is cute, it’s romantic, it’s bittersweet, it makes you go “awww….”, but it’s missing that one vital little spark of emotion that brings the reader to tears. This was quite a pity too, because I thought it really had nakige potential. However, all siscons will find this story to be satisfying and filled with moe and bittersweet tears (the protagonist is a siscon, in every sense of the word, you will not understand until you’ve completed more than one ending though).

Characters:

Kamimori Ryutaro

Siscon, through and through. He can also play the piano and is kind to people despite having a perverted side. But other than that? Siscon, through and through.Kamimori Sakuno (Seiyuu: Sakakibara Yui)

The sickly younger sister. She loves to sing and play the piano, but often can’t due to her illness. However, she has extraordinary motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and would have been an excellent athlete if she had a healthy body. Because of her illness, she hasn’t developed physically as much as she should have (though she’s at least 17). She is well mannered, hard working, and well meaning at all times, and of course, she loves her brother.

Konohana (Seiyuu: Sakakibara Yui)

The mysterious woman in charge of the sanitarium. For some odd reason, it seems like she knows everything and can do everything. She can predict the weather, cook delicious food, appear and disappear without a sound or effort, and can be summoned with with a hand bell, no matter the distance, within minutes. She also knows just about everything there is to know involving Sakuno’s illness, and is a gentle, caring, and overall soothing person.

Master

3 words: creepy as hell. Master (whose full name is a pain to remember) is a cat who can understand human speech. Konohana describes him as the master of the sanitarium, though at first, no one knows why…

Sound:

Sakakibara Yui voices both Sakuno and Konohana, and she does a great job at it. Both voices fit so well, and I didn’t even consider the possibility of them having the same seiyuu until I saw the credits. She also sings both the opening song and the insert song, which I don’t love as much. The opening song has a great first 20 seconds, but the rest of it is really generic. The insert song is much better in composition, though the voice she uses is her squeaky acting voice.

The title has piano in it, and certainly, many of the pieces contain piano. I especially like track 11: “scattered cherry blossoms”, though all the piano tracks are good. The same can’t be said for the more comedic (and more generic) tracks, however, and I have to say there was some wasted potential there.

Art:

The background art is absolutely stunning, with glowing watercolor like strokes, soft colors, and brilliant lighting.

The character art is kind of doujin and cheap looking.

Unfortunately,  it seems like this kind of discrepancy continues throughout the whole game… However, the character art IS cute, and it is pretty good once you get used to it…Could have been much better though. The event CGs are inconsistent and the nurse outfit is hideous.

System:

Excellent.

The menu is simple, but well designed. It is semi transparent, so whatever screen you were on will show through somewhat, like the text box.

This is the “appreciation” menu. Here, you can play music, l0ok at CG, review certain scenes, etc. However, this game has a little extra involving Sakakibara Yui.

You can see the sketches she drew while going through the game along with a full interview. I’m a big fan of her, so this is a really nice bonus for me. Of course, I was pleasantly surprised at how good her drawings were (she could have made it as an artist if she wanted to).

The in game system was pretty nice too. It was subtle, non-intrusive, and overall fit the gentle atmosphere nicely. During important scenes, there was this special panning effect which I especially liked, and of course, the cherry blossom petals falling down were nicely done, unlike certain other game which I shall not name.

Story:8.5×5=42.5/50

Art: 8.5×3=25.5/30

Sound: 9/10

Programming: 10/10

Total:87/100 A-

Overall, a nice, short, little story you can finish in a single afternoon. Could it have been better? Yes. But if you want a short story with nice art, great music, and a touching story, there are few better than this.

So the wonder twins Kisame and Samehada activate their powers, form of SHARK!  Who ever would have guessed -_-

Okay, okay sarcasm aside, nothing really goes on this chapter except for the continued battle between Kisame and Killerbee. Killerbee levels up and strikes a definitive looking blow on Kisame, only sharkface isn’t so down and out.

He converts his oponents chakra to increase his own stamina, as they become weaker by wasting their chakra on him, he becomes proportionally stronger by absorbing said chakra. Which is why they call him the beast with no tail.

Destroying Samehada may well be the only way to defeat him, which might be difficult, seeing as he has merged with the sword and taken a new form…

Keh! So apparently Pain wasn’t the only ridiculously strong one, seriously if they are this damn badass why the hell do they even need to be part of Akatsuki.

Also if they are this strong and they let Madara run them, then how ridiculously powerful must he be, in which case, what hope can Naruto and Sasuke have of defeating him?

Don’t worry no spoilers, since I’m sure a lot of you are also watching the anime. I just finished reading chapter 22 and it really kind of hammered home just why I love this manga/anime so much.

I won’t go into detail about the circumstances behind the picture since I don’t want to spoil anyone, except to say the girls have been worried about Chizu.

Back when Toradora aired, one of the things I liked most about that show, is that even though the main plot point seemed to be about romance, and Taiga and Ryuuji’s pursuit of it, what also shone through was the friendship between everyone.

I think its for this same reason that I really love the manga/anime of Kimi ni Todoke. Of course the main plot revolves around Sawako and Kazehaya and their growing feelings, but the theme of friendship is also strong in this series.

Sawako is opening up to the world thanks to Kazehaya, but her friendship with Chizu and Yano is also helping her to grow as a person.

Whether its Sawako and Kazehaya, Chizu and Yano, Sawako, Chizu and Yano, Kazehaya and Ryuu or Chizu and Ryuu. There are so many different friendships here, separate from one another and yet also together.

Sawako and Yano feel like failures as friends because they don’t know what to do for Chizu in her situation, but relax as Kazehaya provides a friendly ear and points out Chizu will be okay, because they are her friends. So even though Kazehaya isn’t really close to Yano, there is still a friendship there of sorts, friends can be bridges to making other friends. Would Kazehaya have said anything if Sawako wasn’t also in that equation?

Whether they are cheering each other on, silently wondering how to help, picking fights in order to get their friend to confront their feelings, or just listening and giving what advice they can, the feelings of friendship clearly shine through.

Hopefully we all have friends like these in our lives

Very, very moe. Especially that hat, I love that hat.

Have you ever watched one of those sappy dramas where the girl dies in the first scene and the whole thing’s a flashback? Nevermind. Have you ever seen a girlfriend…forget it. Just know that this game starts to tug at your heartstrings from the first scene. Piano-wait, the name’s just too long. Piano Shita should be fine. Piano shita is one of those games with a really good atmosphere, complemented by the music, the art, and the writing.

The title has piano in it, and certainly, there are some absolutely beautiful piano pieces (the more comedic pieces aren’t too shabby either). The younger sister of the main character (and the focus of the story) has this squeaky voice, but it’s not too bad, and the nurse/caretaker/maid has this really soothing voice which makes me just want to relax and look at clouds for a while. As you can see from the screenshots, the menu and the text box are well places and stylish. The writing itself has that relaxed feeling, describing confusion clearing away “like ink dissolved on an inkstone”. I am very aware that the vast majority of you have never seen an inkstone, let alone used one, but I’ve taken a good number of calligraphy classes while still in China, and the image of inkstones gives this sense of serenity and assurance that I can’t quite describe.

Now, the art. As far as I can tell, you can only see 2 characters, the caretaker/maid/nurse and your sickly younger sister. When I first saw the art, I thought that this was a doujin (especially with the nurse), but after a while I’ve been impressed with the movements and detail that went into it.

I love the backgrounds. They have this light, watercolor feeling, and the splendid placement of color is really refreshing, especially after staring at stuff like Memories off.

All in all? Great atmosphere crafted with loving hands. I’m just waiting to cry now.

The Chinese translation just came out yesterday, and I’m taking a break from everything and just playing this game. I forget where, but I’ve read that this has a good story and it’ll be a nice break from everything. Taking care to not have my hopes up too high though, this is from the maker of Prism ark…

Moonstone’s game Gift can now be bought for $9.99 IN ENGLISH for the iphone/itouch. The game was originally 18+ but since then has had a few all ages ports, and this iphone version is also for for all ages (12+, to be exact). This doesn’t benefit me at all seeing as I don’t have the luxury of having an iphone, but seeing its score on VNDB and erogamescape and seeing the fact that I can’t even find a review of it convinces me that I’m not missing out on much. However, this is definitely a step in the right direction (for both Apple and Moonstone, who had blocked foreign servers until just a little while ago). Unfortunately, it seems to have used the same translators as Mangagamer.

“You feel most shameful in your life that you have never put on bra till you were in the second year class of senior middle school.” Don’t you?”

*cringe

Even so, I’ll be hoping for a PC port. If nothing works out and this game actually happens to be really good, I can always get a friend to get it or wait for the Chinese translation to finish.

What do you think about having VNs on the iphone?

I finally got a long break to work on stuff, but there’s too much, and I only get 5 days (school district’s out of money, so there’s a break from Remembrance day to Sunday. You won’t BELIEVE how much money it costs to run a school for a day). But I want to play games! I want to finish the lineart for Sepia tears! I want conecpt drawings for Fuyu-maiden’s project! I want to re-draw Impz for Lolikitsune! I want to watch Canaan, Haibane Renmei, and cross game! I want to catch up to manga! I want to draw!

Too much stuff…too little time…

Memories off is KID’s trademark series, along side the infinity franchise (never7, ever17, remember11, 12riven, etc). Now, as you know, I have played and enjoyed the fourth and fifth games. And as you also know, I spend a good deal of time on various Chinese forums. Whenever I come across Memories off I see nothing but praise, especially for the original game. In fact, I’m pretty sure that memories off has a higher place in Chinese otaku’s hearts that Kanon or Tokimeki memorial. But, I haven’t played it. Why? Because the art is crappy (I do not and will never like Sasaki Mutsumi) and the music isn’t much better (I do not and will never like Takeshi Abo). However, I thought that I’ve put it off for long enough, and installed it on to my computer.

I was disappointed. There was too much slice of life, too much comedy that isn’t to my tastes, too much angst that never gets anywhere, and not enough of the fluffy romance or edge of the seat drama, which is what I’m playing it for.

Left: improved version for MO Duet; Right: The one I'm stuck with

Throw on top of that the ugly and minimal programming and the fact that I have the early version, before they fixed much of the mistakes in art, and I have, on my hands, disappointment on a CD. I am now going to try 1 more story. If that still doesn’t work out I’m just going to delete this game from my computer and never think about it again.

…Sigh…this is why I don’t like to play old games…