Cafe Rouge: Chapter One

Author: Farway Studios
Availability: Free, Online/Browser
Format: Visual Novel, Cooking Game
Genre: Supernatural
Rating: Teen
My Scores: (Writing: 3, Art: 4, Gameplay: 1)

Found at:  http://www.newgrounds.com/ OR http://www.bestonlinerpggames.com/

Summary:

In Cafe Rouge, you are Isis Black, an ordinary teenager with a rare condition that makes you pass out at the merest scent of blood.  You've been granted a job interview at a restaurant called the Rouge Cafe, but there's something not normal about this place.

Review:

The Writing:

This opening chapter was short, but set the stage well enough.  The writing overall was okay, though I felt it wasn't as strong as the art.  Also, I was a little confused by a segment in which Isis aims a kick below her (male) friend's belt, "accidentally" hits the only possible target that would be below the belt, and apologizes despite being really "only half sorry".  It's apparently not a case of playing a sociopathic character, since the boy himself also laughs it off.  Now, I don't know how much something like that would actually hurt, so it's possible that this is the more realistic reaction.  Still..."accidentally"?

The Art:

The art is beautiful, especially considering the limitations of most flash games.  The music is well chosen: during the introductory movie, it perfectly captures the sense of a French cafe full of spooky secrets and possible romance, and the background music during the game proper is soothing to listen to.  There are a couple of annoying sound-effects; mainly the sound when you run the cursor over the menu buttons, and that sharp, high-pitched screeching sound that plays when the game starts.  There's also an irritating alarm-clock, but, well, alarm-clocks are *supposed* to be irritating.  Aside from this, the game has lovely backgrounds, well-done characters, and generally creates a good audio-visual experience.

The Gameplay:

I waffled over whether it was right to give such a low score here, but ultimately, I gave it a 1 for committing the same sin as Fatal Hearts: If you fail the mini-games, you can't proceed.  What makes it a little worse is the fact that although the tea-making game is broken down into several levels, failing at the end takes you all the way back to square one.  I realize that the mini-games are meant to be part of the game-play, much like how they were in Outsmart, but I point out that in Outsmart, is was still possible to finish the game even if you couldn't do the mini-games; you might not have gotten the best ending, but you could still crawl to the finish line.  Then there's Festival Days, which also uses a cooking mini-game to put you in the shoes of a girl who, like Isis, is supposed to have some kitchen skills; but again, although there are benefits to succeeding, the games are not mandatory (and also, not *timed*).

My open plea to authors of these games is: Please give us the option to skip the puzzle.  Maybe there can be a standard ending that we'll get if we do everything right *but* the puzzles, so that we have incentive to try for the gold.  Or maybe, after the second or third try (and I really wouldn't go farther than three, personally), just give us the option to skip it and pretend our character won anyway.  This might seem like cheating, but for some of us, seeing the rest of the story is more important than how well we can drag a mouse along an invisible line in under ten seconds.  Some players are easily frustrated, and will completely lose interest in the story if they have to try the same challenge over and over and over again with no sign of being rescued from their doomed predicament.  I know.  I'm one of them.

Lastly, I find it interesting how the game tries to let you "walk" to the character's destinations, but I don't think it's pulled off very well, here.  It's not always terribly clear what the arrows are supposed to lead you toward, and there's a snag in one of the exits where going forward takes you to the school, and backing up from the school takes you home instead of back to where you were.  Of course, there's no penalty for getting completely lost, and it's a short enough map that you probably won't stay lost for long, anyway.  It's a neat little bit of immersion, but I felt that there should be more things to explore if we're going to be allowed to wander.


TLDR:

To sum it up, Cafe Rouge is a nice enough game if you have the patience and/or skill for timed mini-games.  The art and music are lovely, with only a couple of brief sound effects that are annoying to the ear and soon passed.  The writing is okay, and the story is pretty interesting.  Overall, it's worth checking out.

As usual, this is all just my opinion; feel free to serve up your own in the comments. :)

Kaleidoscope Dating Sim 2

Author: Bomee, Mayuiki and Kyo
Availability: Free, Online/Browser
Format: Dating Sim
Genre: Supernatural
Rating: PG
My Scores: (Writing: 2.5, Art: 5, Gameplay: 2.5) out of 5

Found at http://nummyz.com/ OR http://www.newgrounds.com

Summary:

In Kaleidoscope Dating Sim 2, a gender-flipped sequel to Kaleidoscope Dating Sim, you are Soffie.  Once fond of singing, you became mute at the age of five and thus started retreating into a dream-world in your head.  One day, a fortune-teller gave you a magic potion.  You drank it, and now you've found yourself in the dream world!  You have 30 days to find a soul-mate here. If you succeed, you'll return to reality with your voice back.  If you fail, you'll become a dream soul and be trapped here forever.

Review:

Writing:

I wasn't too sure what score to give this at first.  On the one hand, I certainly can't accuse the writing of being too sparse on details.  Also, the characters are sufficiently different from each other in terms of personalities and "voice", which is important in a dating sim.  You'd be able to tell Gabe from Cero even if you couldn't see who was talking.  (Fun fact: Cero, winnable here, is also the protagonist of the prequel to this game).

The plot itself is a bit baroque, but whether this is a good thing or a bad thing may simply be a matter of taste.  There are a lot of different elements cobbled together, both in the intro and, to a lesser extent, in the love-interests' story-lines.  To someone like me, it can seem a bit overly much.  Unlike Winter Dance Sim Date, though, these odd bits aren't merely blurted and forgotten; they get brought up again in dialogue, and overall, it's hard to point out anything as completely irrelevant.  If anything, I'd say this game tries to cram a novel's worth of plot and characterization into something the size of a short story, and the result is that bits are sticking out every which way.  Of course, this style may have as many fans as it does detractors, and I've graded according to my own personal taste.

Art:

The art in this game is amazing!  There's something very life-like about the characters.  The expressions are subtle and nuanced, and there's a bit of animation that breathes further life into them with blinking and facial twitches.  Also, the backgrounds are nice, and the music is gentle and ambient.

Gameplay:

Mini-games again.  Urgh.  At first, I though "Oh, good!  All the mini-games have been neatly swept into a corner so I don't have to bother with them."  Well, that is not true.  Unlike many dating sims with currency involved, there is no job mechanism in Kaleidoscope 2.  The closest you can get is picking mushrooms in the forest to sell, but you are only allowed to do so once per day.  This means that you will have to play the mini-games.

And you will have to play the mini-games, because this game puts a really high emphasis on buying presents. In order to get the best ending for a character, you have to buy ALL of the types of presents that they like.  Each character has, I think, five gifts that you'll need to purchase for them, and the shop has about eighteen items to choose from.  While a couple of items can be intuited (I was able to figure out who would have a need for spray-paint, and it's a fair assumption that the articles of women's clothing are for one character in particular), the rest are found by trial and error (or by looking up a useful walkthrough on DeviantArt).  As with Re: Allistair, it's a bit frustrating in that you need to buy certain items but are not given enough clues on what to buy.  It'd be nice if there were hints dropped in dialogue or something.

Also, I am not a fan of the soul doors.  In most dating sims that I've seen, you're given a choice of locations to visit, and generally, there's one person who is always at that location.  Usually, these locations are "dressed up" somehow: it's the person's home, or their workplace, or a place they visit often.  It's woven into the story.  In Kaleidoscope 2, however, the notion of "Go Here to Visit X" is completely reduced to just that.  "Okay," the game says, "Do you want the person behind Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3?"  For all the details that went into the intro, this whole bit with the doors just seems too bald.

So why did I not give the gameplay a 1?  Because for all its mini-gaming faults, this is actually a very well-balanced dating sim.  The 30 day time-limit is neither overly long nor overly short for all the things you have to do. This also seems to be the first dating sim I've played where the dialog, gifts and dating all matter.  You do need the gifts in order to get the best ending, but in order to reach any kind of ending with the characters at all, you have to build up the relationship enough to be able to choose them.  You can't just spam one interaction until the game ends.  Also, if you're fond of the mini-games, it's fairly easy to win enough money to try the spaghetti-at-the-wall method of gift-buying; so that balances out, too.  It's just a shame, then, that I really do not like having to play stupid mini-games.

TLDR:

This game is interesting.  It's very well-balanced, but could probably benefit from a job activity that isn't limited to one turn per day.  The story, in my opinion, tries to do too much at once, but some may actually find this a plus.  The art is definitely the best component of the whole game, and I give it a standing ovation.

So what do you think?  Is this game a sweet dream or a nightmare?  Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments.

Pytho’s Mask

Author: Emily Short
Availability: Free / Download
Format: Text Game (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery
Rating: Everyone
My Scores: (Writing: 4, Gameplay: 3) out of 5

Found at http://ifdb.tads.org/ or http://www.wurb.com/if/index

Summary:

In Pytho’s Mask, you are Soteria, an agent of the secret Order of the Phoenix.  A mysterious masked man has invited you to the royal celebration of a comet that appears once every hundred years.  Your orders are to use this opportunity to investigate a possible threat to the king, which may have something to do with the comet...

Review:

Pytho’s Mask is a text game.  Although the more popular term for this genre is apparently “Interactive Fiction", I personally prefer to stick with “Text Games”:  arguably, most of these games are interactive works of fiction.  The main difference is that while most of these games have graphics and clickable items and whatnot, text/IF games deal primarily with, well, text.  The narrator gives you a description of where you are and what’s going on, and you type what you want to do in response.  True, some may have illustrations; but it’s like the difference between a book with pictures and a comic book.  Anyway, since Pytho’s Mask is all text with no pictures whatsoever, the Art score is absent for this review.

I like the writing in this game.  The plot is interesting, the mystery is well-clued without being too obvious, and the strange setting is beautifully detailed.  While some details can seem confusing at first, one quickly and easily gets a feel for this fantastic alternate-Earth.  Better still, the story and setting seem to “bleed off the page”, as it were;  hints of old stories and personal dramas creep in, giving the feeling that there’s more in the distance.  The characters are nicely distinct with strong personalities, requiring only a couple of sentences to establish just what sort of people they are.  And yet, there is more to each of them than meets the eye, for this game is all about hidden facets and dualities.  Also, I like that the main character is a bit like a Renaissance noble-woman version of Batman: Soteria doesn’t just idly solve mysteries as a way to pass the time between harpsichord lessons; she is a highly-trained agent whose job it is to kick butt.

The gameplay, on the other hand, I consider to be middling: not very good, not very bad.  One of the problems text games face is that they are highly vulnerable to “What Am I Supposed To Do Here?!” and its cousin, “What Am I Supposed To Type?!”.  Pytho’s Mask does a fairly good job of prodding you in the direction of the plot.  Admittedly, there are moments where you feel the game putting you on rails, but this is balanced out with times where you get to wander and explore at your leisure.  As for typing, there are blessedly few commands that you will actually need, although first figuring out how to phrase some things was a bit of a hiccup for me.

>Read Guide To Spotting Conspirators
What do you want to read that in?
> ???

Bear in mind, this is usually the fault of the tools used to make the game more than the author him/herself.  I currently recommend TADs, as it has a decent system for handling and creating actions, and it doesn’t ask me what I want to read things in.

One bug that’s more likely to be on the author’s shoulders, though, is the tendency to try to pick up a given book in the library only to later find yourself holding a completely different one.

On the shelves, you notice The King In Yellow.
>Read King In Yellow
(First taking The King In Yellow) It details how to roll out the dough, and what ingredients to use for sauce.
>Inventory
You are carrying a copy of How To Make Pizza.
>??!

Fortunately, things like that do not make up the majority of the game.  If anything, you spend most of the game talking to other characters.  The conversation system is introduced very early on, and it’s actually an NPC who initiates your first conversation.

Conversations are mostly handled in dialogue trees.  You first address a character by typing “Talk To (Character)", and then you’re given a choice of things to actually say.  You choose by simply selecting A, B, C, etc.  This helps make conversations easier to navigate, as it solves the “What Am I Supposed To Type?!” problem.  I discovered by accident, though, that you can also introduce different topics by typing “T (ThingYouWannaTalkAbout)”.  It took me a while to figure out what T was supposed to stand for (Talk About?  Tell About?); then I stumbled across a help section that said T was short for Topic.  “Topic Prince”?  Weird.

On that note, some of these characters have unusual names.  While that’s par for the course in fantasy, it brings up the problem of actually being able to remember said names.

>Ask Minister About Venetia
Who?
>Vedalia
Who?
>Viviwhoseewhatsis 
Who?
>The Hussy Hanging All Over The Prince
Who?
>!!!

As it happens, though, the aforementioned Help section -- which I found so late in the game, that it’s embarrassing -- disclosed that, at any time, I could have typed “P” and been given a handy list of all the characters I’d met so far.  Why, oh why, did it not occur to me to type “HELP” sooner?  It could’ve saved me so much headache.

The last minor complaint I’ll bring up is that it’s a bit tricky to keep track of where the exits are.  Some text games have a built-in compass that tells you which directions you can go at any given time:

You are in a dungeon.  Exits are North, South, and Dennis.  
 Exits: North, South, Dennis
>Go North
You come to a room with an inadequately written description. 
 Exits: South, West

The version of Pytho’s Mask which I played (on Frotz) has no such function that I could detect.  Exits were only mentioned as the room was being described (“to the west is a door, and you see a...”), and room descriptions only appeared automatically when you first visit a room.  This means that if you go back to a room you’ve already been to before, you’ll have to explicitly type “Look” (or just “L”) to see where you can go from there.  (Or, of course, you can try going in a direction that doesn’t exist there, and thus be told “You can’t go that way.  You can only go North, South, or Dennis.”)  It’s a minor-to-moderate inconvenience, but it doesn’t make the game unplayable.

There are multiple endings to be had in this game, and at least two different men you can end up with.  Several of the endings fork from the same point.  Basically, toward the end of the game, you have to switch one item with another, and what you switch it with will determine the outcome (And let’s just say you really want to have a grip on who’s who at this point).  Of course, merely figuring out whodunnit isn’t enough to ensure everybody goes home safe and happy...

TLDR:
Pytho’s Mask is a fantastic intrigue flavored with romance and a little action.  It has its share of hiccups, but nothing so debilitating that you can’t finish the game.  “HELP” is your friend, and will save you from much woe.  On the whole, it’s worth checking out.

The Fortune Teller holds up a card.  On one side is an image of a reader agreeing with everything that the girl with the blog has just said.  On the obverse is an image of a reader shaking their head, tossing the blogger out of a convenient window, and going off to start their own blog, a better one, that will have blackjack and hookers.

My Sunshine

Author: YavMamemo

Availability: Free, Online/Browser

Format: Dating Sim

Genre: Summer Romance

Rating: Everyone

My Scores: (Writing: 3, Art: 3.5, GamePlay: 2.5)

Found at http://www.girlsandgamez.com/ OR http://www.deviantart.com/

Summary:

In My Sunshine, you are Alice. After four years of being separated from your best childhood friend, You have come to Sunshine Harbor to reconnect. Your friend has invited you to a party she is throwing in 30 days, but since it's a couples' costume party, you'll need to find a date!

Review:

Writing:

This game is definitely meant to be light-hearted fluff. There's no major, epic drama going on here. However, the characters knowing and talking about each other still gives this piece a very nice sense of consistency, giving the sense that this is a world and not just a series of unrelated characters and locations. You're in your old town for the summer, meeting up with familiar faces and some new ones, and the game does a good job of getting that across.

I sort of like how the author tried to weave the game instructions into the dialog, having Alexa tell you about the party instead of just sticking a note to the player in front of the game. It's a neat idea, but I don't think it was pulled off all that well; so much of what was said sounded a little bit like "As You Know", though maybe that's just the result of many hours wasted on TVTropes affecting my mind. Regardless, some of the opening dialog just didn't seem quite natural.

Art:

Speaking of not seeming quite natural, I'm not quite sure how I feel about the art in this game. It seems to be well done, but the style -- Western, slightly 3D with soft outlines-- just seems a little bit uncanny-valley to me. Maybe it's just the result of getting so acclimated to anime/manga style art in most of these games; I don't know. All I know is that it looks fairly well done, but something about it put me off when I first saw it.

Gameplay:

I hate mini-games. Did I mention that I hate mini-games? I do. So here's my reactions when I discovered:

1) Working a job requires earning points on a mini-game.

Me: *groan*.

2)Playing the minigame requires switching from the mouse to the keyboard

Me: "Say wha--?!"

3)After all that, the minigame doesn't even work anyway.

Me: "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"

4) #1-3 is true for every. single. job.

Me: ............ (Response omitted)

Yes, this game is broken. What makes the working-bug worse is that unlocking one of the boys requires a swimsuit, which requires money. However, the reason I didn't give the gameplay a 1 is that, despite this bug, the game is still playable; it's relatively easy to find a cheat that will give you $1000, and the other two boys are still available regardless.

EDIT: Apparently, other people are able to play the mini-games just fine. I'll have to see if there's a problem with my computer. In the meantime, an extra half point has been awarded in good faith.

One other thing that annoyed me is that sleeping forces you to wait for 10 seconds before continuing the game. There is a star-moving-around sticker-type thing that you can do while waiting, but I find it to be pointless and not very fun, and having to wait 10 seconds every single time you progress through a day -- for 30 days -- just seems like cruelty.

TLDR:

This game isn't very deep, but it doesn't need to be. It's light and fluffy, but still cohesive and tells a story. It has its flaws, and a major part of the game itself is broken, but regardless, it's still playable, and a fun way to waste an afternoon.

Of course, this is all just my opinion. Feel free to spout your own in the comments. ^_^

Perfect Date

Author: ???

Availability: Free, Online/Browser

Format: Dress-Up Game

Genre: Modern Romance

Rating: Everyone

My Scores: (Writing: 2, Art: 3, Gameplay: 3)

Found at http://www.play181.com/ OR http://www.games2win.com/en/

Summary:

In Perfect Date, you are expecting a gentleman caller to come over for dinner. Everything about this evening must be arranged perfectly in order to win his love.

Review:

Writing:

I hate the premise of this game. Let me just make that clear from the get-go. I concede a 2 to the writing score, because it has an adequately written plot (for a dress-up game) and synopses for the datable guys, but as a modern woman with feminist leanings, I am angered by the ideas this game puts forward and would like to simply give it a 0.

As a hopeless romantic, I can understand the desire to dress up all pretty and make dinner for a guy you like. I can understand wanting everything to be "just so". I get that. But the game makes it clear that failure to do these things will not only sway whether the relationship advances, but whether he realizes that you're even interested in him in the first place!

Men, if a woman invited you to her house for a candle-lit dinner, would you spend the evening wondering if she was interested in you romantically? Would you assume that, because she didn't wear your favorite color that night, that she must be completely repulsed by you? True, men have a reputation for being dense (particularly where matters of the heart are concerned), but this is just stupid.

It suggests an extreme level of shallowness, which is what I find frightening. It suggests that a girl has to be "on" all the time---not even: it suggests that a woman has to cater to her man's every whim and fancy just to be noticed. Is that not a dangerous message to send to young girls? "Do everything he likes, the way he likes it, or he won't love you."

...And who wallpapers their house for a dinner date?!

Art:

The art is so-so. It's definitely Western in design, and sort of reminds me of those E-Surance commercials. It seems to be of a professional quality--smooth, clean, okay proportions, etc.-- although it doesn't really seem to have a lot of life in it. Also, the girl and her dates seem to be drawn in two different styles, which is a bit odd. Overall, I give it a resounding "Meh."

Gameplay:

Most dress-up games are more like toys than games. Perfect Date does get points for actually having win/lose conditions. There isn't much challenge once you take into account the little red bar that fills up further when you choose a correct item, and some levels have more than one "correct" selection, which gives you a little more choice. There is also a little mini-game involving heating up dinner in the microwave; but be careful not to burn it, Ladies, since no man wants a girlfriend who can't cook!

TLDR:

Admittedly, this game has a lot more substance than most dress-up games do; it has a plot, some flavor text for the guys, and winnability. It's not just a paper doll. Unfortunately, the insane shallowness in the premise makes me lose all respect for this game, and I find myself wondering what is wrong with Western society that this is the only girl-oriented dating game I could find that isn't based on something Japanese.

But then, this is just my opinion. Maybe you'll think I'm over-reacting, and that I shouldn't get so worked up over a light piece of fluff. Or maybe you'll want to see this game tossed into the deepest, darkest pits of the internet. Feel free to speak your mind in the comments.

Chrono Days Sim Date

Author: Pacthesis

Availability: Free, Online/browser

Format: Dating Sim

Genre: Sci Fi

Rating: Teen

My Scores: (Writing: 4, Art: 4.8, Gameplay: 5) out of 5

Found at http://www.deviantart.com/ or http://www.newgrounds.com/

Summary:

In Chrono Days Sim Date, you are Saige. A hole has appeared in the sky, leading 100 years into the past, and your friend's brother has invented a device to let you jump through it. What--or who--will you discover?

Review:

Writing:

One thing that impresses me about the setup is the fact that, in this game, at least three characters are candidates for "The Canonical Love Interest". Generally, in these sorts of games, either all of the suitors are equal, or one is considered "canon". Here, though, out of eight possible love interests, you have one childhood friend with a marriage promise, one long-time acquaintance with an obvious (and possibly mutual) crush, and one kind but lonely stranger who takes you into his home. The game hasn't started, and already, feelings are on the line. Let the shipping begin!

The characters themselves are well written and interesting, and it's quite easy to develop an emotional attachment to them. What's more, the cut-scenes go a long way toward developing the characters and sense of story. I'm not saying that every Dating Sim should have cut-scenes throughout, but they are something to consider and are used to very good effect here.

The time-travel concept is interesting, but the game obviously doesn't take itself too seriously here. Apparently, there is only a 100 year span between The Old West and a Jestsons-like future with AI Robots and time travel. The approach here is almost child-like, actually, with little or no attempt at basing the setting on any real or recognizable history. What's more, everyone Saige meets in the past seems pretty open-minded about her being a time-traveler from the future.

Art:

The art and animation here are exquisite. However, I wouldn't dare to call it perfect. There are a couple points where characters are, according to the context of the scene, supposed to be bending or moving somehow, but the animation consists of tilting a static figure back and forth, making the characters seem like blocks of wood. This is especially odd in light of the other cut-scene pictures and animations in the game which have the characters in different poses. In other words, it could have been done differently, in a way that didn't look so clunky. Personally, I think one or two still drawings would've had a much better effect; sometimes a simple technique used well is more effective than a fancy technique used poorly.

Also, I had to take off part of a point for the music in one scene. You may call me pedantic, if you like, and I probably am. Still, it bothered me that a clearly tragic scene - with a beautiful job on the tears, I might add - was scored with the same cheerful background music as other parts of the game. Again, since the soundtrack does change in places, this is not excusable as something the creator "simply couldn't do".

Gameplay:

This game blew me away. I feel like, for the first time, I've seen what Dating Sims have the potential to be, and it is more astounding than I could have ever expected.

This game uses its concepts. The time travel plot isn't merely a premise that introduces you to a dating sim scenario and then leaves until the epilogue; it comes back. The cut-scenes move the story along, and characters are introduced at different points, keeping it moving. You end up being able to shift between two wildly different settings at a whim, and are able to bring objects from one time into another in order to impress the locals.

Best of all for a time travel game, you can actually influence the future a little by your actions in the past. A man is going to another city. He arrives, settles down, gets married and has children, and one of his descendants returns to the old town and meets you. OR: A man is going to another city, but he remembers he made a promise to a strange girl he met before leaving.... And suddenly history is changed. It's beautiful. It's what a time-travel plot should be.

What's more, there are multiple unlockable characters, some more difficult to attain than others, giving a nice bit of challenge for those who seek it without alienating those who don't.

TLDR:

This game is a Must Play. It's not infallible, but it shows the heights Dating Sims can reach, while leaving room for others to go even higher. It's very rich in story, uses its premise beautifully, and does more with this medium than I had come to expect. Whether you're a DS fanatic or just a casual game player, I highly recommend this one.

Of course, this is all my opinion, and I'm not infallible either. You might decide it's not worthy of all my hype. Feel free to state your own opinions in the comments.

2nd Teen Story: Xmas

Author: Nyu
Availability: Free, Download
Format: Visual Novel
Genre: Romance (with some Horror/Mystery)
Rating: Teen
My Scores: (Writing: 2.5, Art: 3, Gameplay: 3)

Found at --Apparently, this game has been taken down from its original locations.  If anyone has any information, please share.

Summary:

In Xmas, you are Nguyet Ly. It's the night of December 24th, and you currently have no plans for Christmas. What will you do? And will you find love while doing it?

Review:

Writing:

In my last Nyu Review, I lamented the general lack of information surrounding our protagonist. In Xmas, though, that problem is finally solved; our girl has a name, and she definitely lives in Vietnam. For a game of this type, that is the perfect amount of flavor.

The English is still imperfect and peppered with anime smilies, but it's readable. Also, the story contains actual dialog this time, so hooray! There were still parts where the dialog was cut in favor of a summary, but as these mostly boiled down to recounting what would surely be a long story, it's more excusable.

As for the story itself, it had its share of strengths and weaknesses; but for what it's worth, I actually found myself caring about the characters, and as that is the primary goal of any author, kudos must be awarded. There were parts that caused me to laugh out loud; for example, the fact that Nyuget basically prevents a guy from killing himself by beating him up. That has got to be the most unorthodox suicide prevention method I've ever heard of.

The santa-murderer plot was an interesting change of mood, and possibly genre, taking us from a light-hearted romance into a dark murder mystery with possible supernatural overtones. It almost seemed like it shouldn't be part of this game; the tone is just that contrasting, although it keeps the motif of meeting and hanging out with a cute boy. I actually think it should be extrapolated into a game of its own; it's creepy, interesting, and I would love to see more of it.

Art:

The art is much better than in the first game. I like the style; it has a few elements vaguely reminiscent of manga, but it's longer and thinner, with a bit of sketchiness about it. I really like it. I'm also crazy about the art in the menu and option screens; Nyu seems to have pulled out all of the stops.

The photo-backgrounds are also less annoying. They help establish the setting further, giving us the sense that, yes, we are in Vietnam. They're also interspersed with black-and-white drawings. Personally, I think the lack of color in the drawings makes for a more intense contrast with the full-color photographs and keeps in step with the rough, informal feel of the rest of the game's artwork, but your opinion may differ.

There were a couple points where the anime-esque expressions creeped me out, though. The eyes and mouth would suddenly get too big, too white, and stare out from a body that simply did not match the superimposed face. It was...disturbing.

Gameplay:

The gameplay is simple; there are only two choices in each menu, and choosing incorrectly may loop you back around to someone else's path as a sort of second chance. It doesn't drag like the last game did, though I admit that the change in mechanics compared to the last game did initially feel like a step backward to me. It seems to work, though.

TLDR:

I like this game. While it has room for further improvement, it's a definite step up from Lolipop Love. The mechanics are simpler than the first game, but this allows more story to exist in what would otherwise have been empty space. Overall, it's short and compact, but still satisfying. The Santa murder path was an incongruous yet fascinating change of pace, and I hope the author does something more with it.

Once again, of course, this is all one girl's opinion. Your experience may well differ, so feel free to share in the comments section.

1st Teen Story: Lollipop Love

Author: Nyu

Availability: Free, Download

Format: Dating Sim (Stat-Based)

Genre: School Romance

Rating: Teen

My Scores: (Writing: 2, Art: 2.5, Gameplay: 2)

Found at http://www.creanyu.tk/ or Lemma Soft Forums

Summary:

In 1st Teen Story: Lollipop Love, you are a teenage Vietnamese girl attending school. You've never had a boyfriend before, but now, that's about to change. You have three guys to choose from.

Review:

Writing:

First of all, let me say that my interest perked up when I learned that the protagonist is Vietnamese. This is something you don't see everyday in dating sims; the usual nationalities for characters in this genre tend to be Japanese, American, Unspecified-but-similar-to-either-Japanese-or-American, and Fantasy-Land-ian. Having our protagonist be Vietnamese, then, is a welcome break.

...Or at least, it would be. Much to my disappointment, we get no cultural flavor outside of a few names; and even there, the protagonist herself appears to have no name at all. If the narrator didn't specify that she was Vietnamese, we could just as easily have filed this under one of the "Standard Dating Sim Nationalities" mentioned above (well, except for possibly the fourth one). Now, I'm not saying the game has to take us on a field trip to Hanoi, but a little bit more identity would be nice. For one thing, I don't know if this game is actually set in Vietnam, or if the character is ethnically Vietnamese but living in another country. Either scenario would have its own impact on the character. It brings me back to my complaint about Winter Dance Sim Date: If you have an unusual setup or character hook, don't just blurt it and ignore it; take it and run with it.

As for more legitimate complaints, the English here is horrible, hard to read, and often vaguely reminiscent of internet chatspeak. While that can be excused by the author being young and/or not a native English speaker, the one thing not remotely excusable is the complete lack of actual, quoted dialog. Instead of seeing what characters have to say, we are instead given the information second-hand, kind of like this:

"He said that he liked my top so I thanked him and he said I was welcome." (Not an Excerpt)

That's basically how the dialog is conveyed. Not only do I find it annoying, but it also short-changes the reader. What exactly did that person say? This can reveal so much about their character! To keep with this hypothetical example, there are many ways our "he" could have expressed his liking of the top:

1. "Um...hey, uh...*blush*...that's a....that's a nice, um, shirt you're wearing."

2. "Hey. Cool top."

3. "Fair maiden, the colors of the cloth that girds thy bosom brings out the wondrous hue of thy eyes and strikes my heart with rapture at thy beauty!"

See? One sentiment, three different personalities. This is why exact quotes are important in character-driven works such as dating sims. And if the lines in the game are exact quotes, then why are there no quotation marks? Is it really so much to ask?

Art:

Once again, I found myself with a non-uniform opinion of the art. I like that it has a paint and colored-pencil look to it; there's a sweet, bright, and informal quality to much of the artwork, and I love the cute little icons that appear when you try to quit from the game. However, the characters' proportions are very off, and they tend to look downright odd to me. Granted, drawing people is hard (oh, how it's hard), and there seems to be some stylization going on here but...well, I'm sorry, I just think it looks off. After much waffling, I ended up giving it a slightly lower score on the basis that the backgrounds are obviously photos run through a Photoshop filter. Yes, I'm aware that game creators often use this technique, but my complaint is that I can tell.

Gameplay:

If you make a dating sim or visual novel, please don't ever make the first sentence "What should I say?". When I first started playing, I thought the game had glitched and I was about to be confronted with dialog options for a conversation I knew nothing about! Fortunately, that was not the case, though it did make for a startling/irritating first impression.

My next major impression here was "Holy Cow, it's the Renpy DSE Engine!" I don't know how many of you are familiar with renpy; it's the game-making program most associated with LemmaSoft Forums (which many of these reviews link to, you may notice). Since its main purpose is actually for making visual novels, a framework was specially constructed for making dating sims: Renpy DSE. I didn't know what to make of this discovery. While the game's underlying structure was baldly obvious (to me, anyway), even introducing a character in a way that echoed the DSE's sample game, there ought to be no shame in using a tool (I've been working with this one myself, in fact), and there clearly was some tweaking done. Still, it was an odd feeling, like that moment when Santa Clause enters the room and you immediately notice he's wearing your dad's belt buckle.

Aside from that, I found the game to be rather slow and drawn out, and engaging in social/intellectual type activities causes the conflicting stat to drop by a ludicrous amount. Going out one time after school causes my IQ to drop several points? Why? Is the park near a noxious chemical plant or something?

TLDR:

The game looks cute, but I found it to be dull and a bit frustrating, both in the gameplay and the writing. It's okay for a first try at game-making, but I wouldn't exactly recommend it to all of my friends. Of course, all this is just my opinion, and you may think that I'm completely off my rocker.

Feel free to discuss your thoughts in the comments.

Winter Dance Sim-Date

Author: Solstiyce

Availability: Free, Online/Browser

Format: Dating Sim

Genre: School Romance

Rating: Teen

My Scores: (Writing: 2, Art: 2.9, Gameplay: 2)



Found at http://www.newgrounds.com/

Summary:

In Winter Dance Sim Date, you are Lily. You and your friend Fiero attend a boarding school called Summer College, but when the school mysteriously burns down, its sister school Winter College agrees to board the students. Also, you are invited to Winter College's school dance at the end of the month! Yay!

Review:

Writing:

The writing here makes for a good study of what works for a story and what doesn't. Many people don't quite grasp how difficult writing actually is. Even if you learn what parts go into a good story, making those parts work together is crucial.

In this story, Lily lives with foster parents while her biological parents live overseas. I don't know if this is something that's representative of the author's life and therefore something that Solstyce deemed mundane enough to just mention off-hand (similar to saying "So I was staying at my Dad's for the weekend..."), or if it was a deliberate attempt to give the character unique traits. If the latter, then this is indeed a valid "good writing" technique; the unusual family situation certainly captures my attention. Except...this unusual situation then has no bearing on anything else in the game. It doesn't affect anything. It's thus the equivalent of going to get your taxes done and seeing that the accountant is inexplicably wearing a large fruit hat. What should have been interesting instead becomes distracting and irrelevant.

In general, there seems to be a large disconnect between the story that apparently exists in the author's mind, and the story that plays out in the game. Many of the dialog options refer to information that the player was never made privy to. For example: in one dialog path, you tell a boy that you've been having nightmares since the fire. What nightmares? The time period in which this supposedly happened is covered by the gameplay, and yet we never see any nightmares. The only reason they exist is because we tell the boy they exist. Likewise, there are many bits of personal trivia that we choose to share despite having no clue if we're making the character lie or tell the truth.

That's the problem right there: by not having the necessary information before-hand, the player isn't able to make a true choice. If I have to pick between "Say you like apples" or "Say you like oranges", the choice is only meaningful if I already know that my character hates apples and is an orange-devouring fiend. In that context, choosing to say I like apples is a deliberate lie, and the outcome should reflect that. However, if I have no clue what my character's fruit preference is, then my choice is nothing more than a blind stab in the dark, and it thus becomes unfair when the NPC chews me out for lying. After all: from my end, it was an honest mistake.

Art:

I keep wanting to do away with the decimal scores and just have nice, clean intergers wherein '1' is awful, '2' is "I didn't care for it", '3' is okay, '4' is good/great, and '5' is mind-blowingly awesome. Unfortunately, this nice, clean numerical system makes no account for the artistic inconsistencies within a single game. So many of the games on this blog will have something beautifully rendered here and then something poorly drawn there, and then I end up averaging it out and coming up with cockamamie scores like 2.9.

Ranting aside, I wasn't terribly impressed with how the characters themselves were drawn. However, for the most part, the props and buildings seem nice and cleanly drawn, and the more muted coloring scheme is a welcome break from the look of the other flash games I've reviewed. It's clear that effort was put in, but its also clear that more learning is needed.

Gameplay:

What is the point of the classes, really? On the one hand, it's nice that the jobs require certain stats in order to work them. On the other hand, it is entirely possible to get through this game without ever working once; or going on a single date, for that matter. Even if I decided to work all the jobs, there's still the do-nothing "wealth" stat. Did I miss something? What the heck is "wealth" for, why is there a class for it, and why does this class actually cost me money?

TLDR:

To sum it all up, the game has quite a few decent elements, but the whole of it just doesn't quite hit the mark for me. It could definitely use some improvement in all areas. Still, it is pretty cute, and doesn't enrage me the way some of these works do. Also, it gets points for having a setting that isn't America/Japan/Fantasialandia, although for the life of me, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be Brittain or Austrailia. Still, it does something different, and that's a good thing.

Rose Destiny 2 Dating Sim

Author: Chickslovegames

Availability: Free, Online/browser

Format: Dating Sim

Genre: Fantasy, School Romance

Rating: Teen

My Scores: (Writing: 2, Art: 2, Gameplay: 2) out of 5

Found at http://www.newgrounds.com/

Summary:

In Rose Destiny 2, the sequel to Rose Destiny Dating Sim, you are still Rose. This time, your father has gone away and "forgotten" to take you and Adrain. But no worries; he has arranged for you to stay at an all-boys school for demons while he finishes "errands".

Review:

Writing:

Wait...someone please tell me that the main character's last name isn't supposed to be Destiny...*sigh*.

Possible names aside, this game is a lot more cleaned up than its predecessor. Adrian's name is consistent, and we get more hints about what the heck is going on in this world. I actually found myself becoming interested in the suggested story.

In my review of the first game, I pointed out the oddness of a father wanting his daughter to find a boyfriend. In Rose Destiny 2, however, his motivation seems to be along the lines of wanting his daughter to marry into comfort. Much more plausible. Furthermore, I find it intriguing that they are broke and constantly moving while her father tries to wheel and deal. It makes me think exciting things are happening in the grand scheme.

That said, this game is still not perfect. For one thing, the spelling is horrible, and I want to fly into a violent rage every time someone discusses the prospect of "Marridge". M-A-R-R-I-A-G-E! Admittedly, I'm the last person who should be griping about spelling (For years, my attempts at "Scissors" caused pointing and laughing, and even now I still balk), but if *I* can tell that a lot of words are misspelled, then it's time to start using a dictionary.

Also, and this applies to both this game and the prequel, I feel that Adrian should be explained a little earlier on. If he is supposed to be the main character's adopted brother, then this information should be made fairly clear to the player at the beginning, as it is information that the main character knows. That's always a problem when it crops up in writing; how to convey to the audience information that the character already knows and thus has no practical reason to discuss. I think in this case, though, a few words in the intro would have covered it.

Finally, while there are some interesting possible plot threads, questions are not satisfactorily answered and too few explanations are given, leading me to wonder if there actually *is* a plot or if the author is just pulling things out of a hat (to use a polite form of the expression).

Art:

I still don't like the art, but at least it doesn't cause physical pain to look at, as in the first game. I can't put my finger on exactly what makes it better, but at least that awful font from the main page is replaced by something prettier, and that eye-straining "notebook style" intro is out. There also seems to be more in the way of backgrounds, and the characters aren't as short and squat as they were in the previous installment.

Also, it's time for me to adress a peeve that many artists are guilty of: If your character has hair covering an eye, we should not be able to see that eye. I think Aurelius from Frozen Essence has this problem, and I forget where else I've seen it, but it looks wrong and annoys me to no end. It's like the character had no eyes, combed their hair down, and then glued eyes onto their face. It's creepy, artists; please stop doing it.

Gameplay:

Most of the bugs from the first game are gone, although there are still a couple, such as the fact that choosing "Date" for someone you can't date yet results in repeating the first dialog with that character.

Speaking of dialog, though, let us REJOICE, for the dialog tree has been improved with relevant responses to your choices! Now, when you choose poorly, the character will tell you why this response was inappropriate....sort of. While some of the responses cause me to see the logic at work, others just serve to highlight the arbitrary nature of some of the branches. To give a made-up example:

Choice: "I like pudding" vs. "I like Mustard"

You select: "I like Pudding."

Hottie Responds: "Yay! Me too."

...Nothing happens. Next turn:

You Select: "I like Mustard"

Hottie Responds: "OMG I love mustard too! It is my favorite condiment! <3" (+10 EXP)

Game Progresses.

So....Okay. Now that's out of the way, there was one thing I forgot to mention in the last review, and that's the 10 gold rent charged in both of these games. I actually find it to be an interesting mechanic; it forces you to pay attention to something other than the Talk button, and with some extrapolation and tweaking, could make for a nice balance sim.

TLDR:

To Sum It All Up, we get more story and better flow in this game, though too much is still left hanging. The art is more tolerable, but still needs some improvement. Also, the gameplay is much improved, but still a little buggy. The game and its author show much potential, though, and I think that if a third installment were to come out, I would be interested in playing it.

Do you agree?

Rose Destiny Dating Sim

Author: Chickslovegames

Availability: Free, Online/browser

Format: Dating Sim

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: Teen

My Scores: (Writing: 1, Art: 1, Gameplay: 1) out of 5

Found at http://www.newgrounds.com/

Summary:

In Rose Destiny Dating Sim, you, your father, and your brother have all moved to a new kingdom. Your father wants you to find a boyfriend, preferably in time for the ball.

Review:

Writing:

Notice how I didn't use any names in that summary. The dialog in the game doesn't make it very clear who's who and what's going on. Generally, you can figure out the boys' names by checking the stats sheet immediately after talking to one of them, but this brings up a hilarious inconsistency with the brother; throughout the game, your brother is referred to as Adrian, but the stats sheet lists him as Alex. This makes me think of a scene from a Cheech and Chong movie: "Dude, you never told me your name was Alex!" As for our "shy" but totally-willing-to-break-into-people's-houses-and-start-bossing-them-around protagonist, I think her name is supposed to be Rose, but I wouldn't bet my life on it.

As you can guess, I don't much care for the writing, but there are a couple places where I must give credit. One thing that impressed me is that one character has an attempted female-on-male rape in his backstory, and it is treated as something to be taken seriously. Often in fiction, and real life, the concept of women sexually attacking men is either not addressed, downplayed, or laughed off. We assume that women are too weak, or that men only respond when they want to, and neither of these assumptions are true; but because of them, a serious crime will often go unreported or unbelieved. As women, I think it's time we took responsibility and acknowledged the heinous things we are capable of.

Soap boxing aside, there was one other interesting bit that warrants half a point: The fact that Rose's father wants her to find a boyfriend. This is unusual, as parents generally either don't want their children dating (as the game mentions), or they want their children married off (mainly for status and/or money). Why this obsession with Rose finding a boyfriend as opposed to a husband, then? What does he have to gain? This would be very interesting if I didn't think it was merely an excuse for the dating sim setup, but if the author ever wants to do some serious retooling, she has the material for an intriguing story.

Art:

The art here is harsh, and also a bit confusing. The first time I played this game, I didn't see the "leave" option in the corner and thus couldn't figure out how to exit the house. Also, the intro to the game is hard on the eye and thus difficult to read.

Gameplay:

This game is broken. Choosing to work takes away hp more than once (after you click the button, and after it tells you how much you earned), and choosing to date someone who is not yet datable also results in a glitch. Also, it is possible (and easy) to end the day with -10 hp.

This game also commits the sin of having two nearly identical responses to pick from, one of which is wrong. Furthermore, the game won't tell you why it's wrong. Often, it feels like the author has written a script, and the point of the game is to guess what my exact lines are.

One more issue I have is with the lesbian in the market place. Some games have gay options; others don't, and that's fine. But why have a lesbian character, build up how much she's madly in love with you, give her Talk and Date buttons, and then have it come out that she's not actually an available character? Friends, when it comes to things like sex scenes and gay options, let us remember the words of Yoda: "Do or Do Not, there is no Tease."

TLDR:

In short, I found this game difficult to play and enjoy. In many ways, it reminded me of Dating Sim Academy, and has some of the same flaws. Still, as much as I hate both of them, I'm certain that every game has its audience. As long as there are redeeming qualities in a piece, there will be someone who can appreciate them; and when a piece has no such qualities, there will be someone who can enjoy it ironically. Alas, that someone is not me, but maybe it can be you. Feel free to say what you think.

&lt3

Author: Mole-Chan

Availability: Free, Download

Format: Visual Novel

Genre: Sci-fi / Workplace Romance

Rating: Teen

My Scores: (Writing: 2.5, Art: 3.5, Gameplay: 2.5)

Found at http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/

Summary:

In <3 , you are a computer named Ime. Your owner has abandoned you, and so you find yourself working at a facility that traps computer viruses. The latest threat going around is the <3 virus, which causes AIs to fall in love!

Review:

Writing:

For some reason, I was expecting a completely different story when I downloaded this. Ah, well. Suffice to say, the <3 virus is basically just a McGuffin that gives you an excuse to get close to people.

I had a hard time getting into the story, personally. The characters and situations felt a bit under-developed; not flat, mind you, but like we weren't given all the necessary data about them, which made it harder to care. There were too many loose ends and unanswered questions. Why was Ime abandoned? What's going on with Vaquita's owner? Who broke in and why? WHY SMASH THE MONITORS?

I'm also not clear on the exact nature of these computer people. The concept seems to be similar to Chobits, where a "personal computer" is basically an android, with laptops and hand-helds corresponding to tinier androids. The computers in <3 , however, seem to be much more human than machine, and I don't just mean in the romantic "Robots can feel!" sense. These "computers" go out for dinner and eat fast food. They get tired, sleep in beds, and have issues with privacy and "funny business", just like humans. Why? Why do they behave like organic life-forms, instead of charging up, running as long as they have access to electricity, and just powering down in a corner when they run out of juice? This is not answered. For the record, robot-girl Ping from MegaTokyo eats food, but this is explained in the strip: It's a necessary function for a Dating Game accessory to have (since dating usually involves eating), and she is able to internally process sugar into electricity. <3 doesn't address the issue at all, unless I missed something crucial; so I'm left with the impression that Ime is just an ordinary girl with amnesia and a CD slot.

Art:

The art is anime/manga style. It has some strong points, but the score ends up being pulled down by one stupid detail: female anatomy. The women in this game look like they have oranges glued under their necks, near their armpits. It's jarring. You may scoff, but I find it very distracting, and thus it sinks the art score like a rock.

Gameplay:

While quite a few games have a gay/lesbian option, this is the first one I identify as being both GxB and GxG. There are four people you can end the game with, and it's an even split between the boys and the girls. Granted, one girl's ending is platonic, but this is balanced out by one guy's path being so short that it almost feels like a non-standard Game Over.

That guy's path really annoyed me. It was so short, that I barely learned anything about him at all. His ending has Ime comment about him "finally wanting something for himself", but at that point, he hadn't really done anything to establish his character, let alone mark him as being selfless. It was only on other characters' paths that I got to see a glimpse of what the author was talking about. This goes back to what I was saying about the writing; the story doesn't give us all the information we need about the characters.

Also, the game didn't really feel very cohesive to me. There were little inconsistencies, like the fact that one character dies when you don't revisit them, even though visiting them just shows them being saved by someone else. Oh, and this supposedly non-dangerous computer virus will kill you if you don't choose a character's path. All in all, it just didn't line up quite right.

TLDR:

To make a long post short, I was disappointed with <3 . It left too much unexplained; I had a hard time getting into the story and characters, and the boobs on the women seriously need to drop down a few inches (middle of the rib-cage should be about right). Also, while the game's name is fairly clever, its similarity to an incomplete HTML tag caused me to lose half of my saved draft of this post, and that makes me angry. (Edit: Much thanks to my friend Anna for telling me how to get the < / > symbols up.)

Of course, that's just me. You might decide that you like, love it, and/or want some more of it; or maybe you hate this game and think that I wasn't harsh enough on it. Feel free to point this out in the comments!

Secret Santa

Author: Eternal Dreams

Availability: Free, Download

Format: Visual Novel

Genre: School Romance (If that's not a genre, it should be.)

Rating: Everyone

My Scores: (Writing: 2.5, Art: 2.5, Gameplay: 2.5)

Found at http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/ OR http://eternaldreamswonderland.blogspot.com/

Summary:

In Secret Santa, you are [Insert Name Here]. Your school has a Secret Santa program, and you've been assigned to get a gift for a boy you have a crush on. Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to win his heart?

Review:

Once again, we have a proclaimed First Attempt at game-making, and once again, I try not to let that color my ratings, although it is a nice first try.

Writing:

Proof-read, authors, proof-read! Is that so much to ask? The English here isn't as bad as in some of the games I've reviewed; I get the impression that the author is a native English speaker, albeit fairly young (I could be wrong on both counts, though). While it's comprehensible, there are still enough spelling/grammar problems to make my inner grammar nazi cringe.

The story itself is simple and cute, and captures the feelings of young kids experiencing puppy love in a way that feels mostly honest, and only a little bit wish-fulfilly in terms of Haruta's* character. I like the fact that winning him over doesn't result in him instantly falling head over heels for you with hearts and flowers and ponies; instead, he just agrees to give you a chance. Just a chance. It's a small step that grows into something more, in a way that's plausible and beautiful.

*At this point, I must ask, since it's crossed my mind many times: Why do all of these games give the characters Japanese names, regardless of where they're set? I've been chalking it up to the fact that the visual novel/dating sim formats originated in Japan, but it still doesn't make much sense. If any authors/game makers are reading this, I challenge you: Make a game with no Japanese names in it. Maybe have some ordinary Georges, Bills, or Harrys (Harries?), or heck, use names from another country like France or Mexico. For extra hilarity, have the game be set in Japan.

Art:

Well, the art isn't exactly Disney quality, but I don't mind it too much. Yes, it's wonky and out of proportion in ways that reaffirm my "Young author" conclusion, but it's also bright and cute. The over-all effect reminds me of Bomee's My Cup of Tea. Also, the music is nice.

Gameplay:

I'm not quite sure what to make of the gameplay. It's certainly not perfect, but I can't exactly peg what's wrong. Perhaps the best way to describe it is that while a good multi-ending game encourages replaying, this game pretty much requires it. On the first, cold play-through, the options (with few exceptions) seem to amount to "Door #1, Door #2, or Door #3?" You have no idea what's behind any of these doors; why any choice would be better than another. Of course, once you've seen the consequences of your actions and gotten a feel for the characters, the correct options suddenly become a lot more obvious.

TLDR:

Like I said, this was a good first try. Over all, it strikes me as a fairly middling game; it has its flaws, but it's still cute and worth playing.

That's my opinion. What do you think?

Kingdom Days Sim Date

Author: Pacthesis

Availability: Free, Online/browser

Format: Dating Sim

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: Everyone

My Scores: (Writing: 3.5, Art: 4.8, Gameplay: 3.5)

Found at: http://www.deviantart.com/ and/or http://www.newgrounds.com/

Summary:

In Kingdom Days Sim Date, you are Rose. You used to live in an orphanage, until one day you met a strange boy who revealed that you're the long-lost daughter of the king and queen, and he himself is your servant. Sometime after this, though, war forces you to flee from your castle and take shelter with a king who will only allow you to stay if you marry him at the end of a month. Will you go through with it, or will you find a future with someone else?

Review:

Once again, I found myself waffling over the numbers, so take them with a grain of salt. I may have to change my rating system again.

The Writing:

At first, I thought the whole bit with the orphanage was superfluous. Since the premise essentially boils down to "You are a princess", it didn't make sense to have such a long introduction sequence catering to the "Orphan has royal parents" fantasy, which probably hasn't been relevant since the 1800's. However, while this background doesn't have much bearing on the game in general, it becomes absolutely crucial for one character's path. Even so, it probably could have been handled differently - either introduced more subtly, or made more relevant to different parts of the game - so that it doesn't seem like a massive weight pressing down on the game with just one character path acting as a load-bearing pillar. Other than this, the game has Pacthesis' usual interweaving plot threads, attention to detail, and odd humor, all of which I've come to love.

The Art:

I almost gave this a 5. Almost. Had the art for some scenes been just a liiiiittle bit tighter, it would have been perfect; as it was, it was impressive. From the use of monochrome in the beginning, to the animation during the escape, to the detail of Rose and Lewis being spattered with mud as they run through the woods, it's clear that a lot of effort was put into this. The characters and scenery are lovely, expressions and wardrobe change quite a bit, and overall, I am just very impressed.

The Gameplay:

THE STATS DO SOMETHING! Finally, a Dating Sim where the stats actually do something: Charm is required in order to go on dates, Wisdom is required to work the better job, and Magic is used to unlock the cheat codes. Granted, the system is not above criticism, but it is a huge step up from the mostly decorative stats in Pacthesis' other games.

Like Idol Days, there is one hidden character who must be unlocked, and one character who shows up at the half-way point, meaning you have less time to complete his path. The game is also nice enough to tell you when you've completed each path. Also, there are no pesky minigames! Hooray!

Unfortunately, the endings are less satisfying once you realize that the *relationship points* mean nothing. Oh Pacthesis, why did you give me ice cream and take away my cake? The mechanics of the game appear to be rigged so that when you progress to a certain point in a character's path, you invite them to your wedding, which means that they show up at the church and can thus be selected for an ending. While this may seem a perfectly acceptable way to do things, there are two characters (The king and your servant) who will *always* show up at the church, regardless of your relationship with them. This means that you can pretty much approach a person you've had nothing to do with all month and say "OMG I love you! Let's get married and live happily ever after!" Compare this to Idol Days and Wonderland Days, where all of the characters show up to wish you well and only the one(s) you have a high enough relationship with will cart you off into the sunset. Since Kingdom Days is entirely dependent on the dialogue path/church mechanic, there's no purpose to the gifts or dating, and no sense of accomplishment when you "win" either the king or Lewis.

TLDR:

To sum it all up, it's pretty clear that Pacthesis keeps getting better and better at making these games. There are some new things being tried out here, some of which work and some of which don't. The writing isn't perfect, but it's nice; the art is impressive and shows a lot of attention and effort. I'm not a fan of the game's method of handling relationships, but it plays all right, and generally makes for a lovely and relaxing way of passing an afternoon.

As always: This is just my own opinion, based on my own experiences and biases. Feel free to share yours. :)

Idol Days Sim Date

Author: Pacthesis

Availability: Free, Online/browser

Format: Dating Sim

Genre: Musical Fiction

Rating: PG

My Scores: (Writing: 3.5 Art: 4.5 Gameplay: 3) out of 5

Found at http://www.deviantart.com/ and/or http://www.java-gaming.com/

Summary:

In Idol Days Sim Date, you are Lexie, a teenage girl who moved to the city with dreams of playing the guitar in a band. Through sheer luck, you happen to run right into a member of a local band whose guitarist just left, and they have a big concert coming up in 30 days.

Review:

The Writing:

The story is pretty unashamed wish-fulfilment; after all, who among us hasn't dreamed of playing in a band? And Lexie pretty much walks right into a sweet gig without even having to audition. It's one of those setups where you can hear the suspension of disbelief snapping, but don't care because "Rock Band! YAY!" Also, once again, I adore the sense of cohesion and unity that Pacthesis puts in her games by giving each character a piece of a larger story. If any would-be dating sim authors are out there taking notes, circle that part and underline it three times; it really improves the feel of the game.

That being said, there were some bits of the writing that I didn't personally care for. For one thing, the secret character seems a little bit *too* wish-fulfilly. I return a celebrity's wallet, and all of a sudden he's constantly gushing about how awesome I am? Maybe others would find that to be wonderful escapism, but I just found it to be strange and a little nauseating.

Also, you might notice that I rated this game E 10+ (Edit: Changed to PG because of html issues). The author herself declares it to be an all-ages game, but I gave it the more conservative ranking because of one character's interrupted attempt at suicide (described in text, but not shown). Apparently, it's very easy for an author to think of suicide (attempted or successful) as a shorthand way of saying "This character is very sad and/or had his feelings very hurt." While I'm reluctant to call it poor taste, it is an immature view; unrealistic without the counterbalance of wish-fulfillment (rare fetishes aside, unless I'm really missing something here). Suicide tends to be the result of very deep problems, either mental illness or a life so bleak and pain-filled that normal coping mechanisms no longer work. Figure, the human aversion to killing is very strong, and the aversion to dying even more so. This is why true suicidal thinking is considered a medical emergency. The game, however, doesn't treat it as anything more significant than wearing black and reciting bad poetry, which bugs me, and Pacthesis certainly isn't the only one to do so, which bothers me. Perhaps we should have a "Suicide Awareness Week" in schools?

Art:

The art is very decent, with some nice effects. Once again, it's anime style, so haters beware. The concert at the end has...um...an attempt at animation, which I feel was more to the game's detriment than its betterment. The musicians just kind of stand there, looking blankly off into the distance, while their hands move a little. Also, having dealt with silent characters all this time, it felt very weird for one character to suddenly sing in a voice that sounded nothing like I'd imagined him having. Fortunately, this music video is skippable, but it still makes me wince a little thinking about it.

Game-play:

The game-play is about on par with the other dating sims on this blog. The time management is a bit tighter than in Festival Days, there's no cheating via food items (that I could figure out, anyway). There are a few bugs, though, such as missing dialog in the dating scenes for a few of the characters. Also, the second workplace does not function, which means the stats are entirely unnecessary. (Fortunately, it is entirely possible to get by with only the first workplace, which makes this bug fairly unintrusive.) Guitar skill makes a slight difference, as your band-mates' praise after the concert will change depending on whether this stat is high or not, but it otherwise doesn't do much. The music video is the same, the romantic ending is the same, and even if your skill is 0, it's impossible to fail the concert.

TLDR:

In short, this is a cute game. It's not realistic at all, but that's okay. It has its bugs, but it's still playable. There are a couple things that annoyed me, such as the suicide plotline and that music video, both of which I feel the game would be better without. But again, all of this is my own opinion, and you may well tell me to stuff it and stop talking out of my hat. You can state your own opinion in the comments.

Castle Chase

Author: Makio-Kuta and Racheal

Availability: Free, Download

Format: Dating Sim / RPG

Genre: Fantasy/Humor

Rating: PG

My Scores: (Writing:4, Art: 4, Gameplay: 6 5) out of 5

Found at http://www.castlechase.com

Summary:

In Castle Chase, you are Princess Monica. Your future, as it has been planned for you, involves marrying some prince from another kingdom and becoming a queen. That doesn't strike you as appealing, so you duck out from your studies for the day with the intent of going on a date! The problem is, who with?

Review:

My reaction upon seeing the game's home page: Yikes, who let the dogs out? Ugh, the English on this page is worse than a five-year-old's. And what the heck? "Two hour contest"? Is that how long they spent making this thing? Aw man, this is going to suck....

My reaction upon actually playing the game: OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST GAME I'VE EVER PLAYED IN MY LIFE!!!

--The following review is brought to you by Esther D. Bum, with many apologies to Doug Walker.--

There's this princess, and she looks like a bizarre anime character, which would suck if this was a romance game, but it isn't really a romance game! It's a comedy!! And she meets this guy who looks a lot like a girl, which is amazing since all the girls look like guys anyway! But she only looks bizarre when she's talking, because the rest of the time, she's a cute 8-bit rpg character like from the 80s or 90s! I was an 8-bit rpg character once, but then I got eaten by a turtle! And the music is all midievally and stuff!! It's amazing!!!

So the princess wants to go on a date even though dating doesn't exist yet, and everyone is like "NO! STAY IN SCHOOL!" But she says "Screw you I'm the Princess! I'll do what I want!" And she walks around the castle looking for someone who wants to date her, because she doesn't know princesses are hot stuff, and every time she talks to somebody, plot happens! And sometimes the plots are sweet and sometimes they're hilarious, and sometimes they're sweet AND hilarious, like chocolate-covered clowns!!!

So she's walking and walking and then she walks some more, because the castle is really, really big, and it's just like Legend of Zelda except that she doesn't fight anything! Or smash any pots! So it's not like Zelda at all! And she finds these objects everywhere and she gives them to people to make more plot happen, but some of the objects are red herrings, and one of them actually IS a red herring! So she walks around and sometimes people follow her, and different things can happen based on what she did and who she talked to, and then she gets an ending and the game is like "Okay, You're Done!" HOORAY!

This is Esther D. Bum saying CHANGE? You got change?? Aw, c'mon, help a girl out!!!

----

Seriously, this game was a lot of fun once I figured out the keyboard commands. (X is inventory and S is use, by the way; or at least it is on my copy.) Also, this is the last time I shall attempt to rip off Doug Walker's "Bum Reviews".

Frozen Essence

Author: VenusEclipse

Availability: Free, Download

Format: Visual Novel

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: Teen

My Scores: (Art:3.5, Writing:3.5, Gameplay: 2) out of 5

Found at http://unbrokenhours.com/

A big Thank You to Anviel for suggesting this. :) Ray mentioned it too, though I didn't see that comment until after this post was written. Thanks anyway, Dude!

Summary:

In Frozen Essence, you play a girl named Mina/InsertNameHere. You've spent the last 1,000 years sealed away, and during that time, you've completely forgotten who you are. Now somebody's broken you out, other people are chasing you, and you have no idea why any of this is happening.

Review:

The Writing:

I've been very ambivalent about what kind of score to give the writing, so take the number up there with a grain of salt. First of all, let me just say that I'm a sucker for original worlds. The drawback of such settings, however, is that they tend to require a ton of exposition, which the reader/player may not enjoy.

The story itself, while interesting, is hard to follow on the first run-through. You spend much of the game not knowing who anyone is, what's going on or why, and your character is in the same boat. So, points are given for immersion, I guess, but then taken away for the hinderance to comprehensibility. What makes it worse is the English. I'm guessing that the author is not a native English speaker, based on the strength of the substance but the weakness of the form. Like Requiem of the Abyss, imagine taking a good book; only this time, instead of running it through Babelfish, chop it up to make a nice salad. It makes an already mysterious story even harder to keep up with. After my first play-through, I was ready to give it a 2.

That said, the game becomes immensely more enjoyable on replay. The background is solid (minus a minor inconsistency about whether the East is the Earth region or the Air region), and there's a kind of thrill from catching a subtle reference that you missed or didn't understand the first time around. The more endings you get, the more you understand the world you're in, and the more satisfaction you get from the story.

Be forewarned, though, this story is long! It puts the "novel" in Visual Novel. One thing that annoyed me slightly about the game was the way the endings would seem to be drawing to a close...and then the story would continue. This cycle would repeat a few times until I was practically shouting "SOMEONE KILL HIM, ALREADY!"

The Art:

Bonus points to the creator for composing music instead of just yanking something off the "free music" shelf. Not only is it a nice touch of effort, but it's one that paid off. It captures the story perfectly. When someone walked in while I was playing this and asked what tone of story it was, (Drama? Comedy?), I replied, "Just...listen to the music. It's exactly what the music sounds like."

The backgrounds and special pictures were very lovely. However, the effect was ruined as soon as I saw Rune. The characters, while not bad, are sometimes a little wonky. I almost feel bad saying that, though, since it's clear that a lot of effort was put in. The art is anime/manga style, as seems to be usual for Visual Novels, and it's worth mentioning how deceptively difficult that style actually is; though stylized, it still requires a firm basis in real human anatomy, and is far less forgiving than most western cartooning styles.

There are quite a number of poses and backgrounds, though occasionally, it's obvious that a backdrop has been recycled. All in all, I think the most egregious flaw in the art (and I use the broader definition of "art" in this review) is the "Thwap" sound effect. It often sounds like people are randomly hitting Mina, themselves, and each other. What's really hilarious is the way Oryon keeps slapping himself during battle, due to an unfortunate combination of the "thwap" and a hand-clutching-chest pose.

The Gameplay:

The game is easily divided into two parts. Part one has you choosing your suitor, and part two has you playing out that character's ending. Part two has a bit more of a Kinetic Novel feel than part one -- lots of reading, with very little interaction. However, the level of interaction in either part leaves something to be desired.

Much of the initial interaction basically boils down to dialogue trees, and you explore each branch in order to get the exposition I mentioned in the Writing section. For the other interactions, it tends to be immediately obvious when you've chosen a "wrong" answer (e.g., you make Rune leave in a huff), which causes me to simply reload and choose a different track instead of exploring to see how the story unfolds with that choice in effect. (On the other hand, this may be better than simply making a character "unwinnable" without telling you, so take that as you will.)

There's also a sense of "railroad tracks" in the game, which rather annoyed me. It's one thing to have a series of events that must always happen, but it's another thing to "override" the player's choices. I outright hated when my choosing "Tell The Truth" resulted in something to the effect of "Oops, Telling the Truth sucks. I'll lie instead!" If you were going to have her lie anyway, then why even ask me?!

TLDR Version:

To sum it all up, Frozen Essence has a number of strengths and weaknesses. It benefits immensly from Multiple play-throughs, and the Death ending is easily the most fun and cathartic after you've gotten the other endings and seen the crap these people put Mina through. It could definitely be much improved with a good proofreading by a native English speaker, though. All in all, I think this piece shows some excellent potential, and I look forward to any future works from this author. Also, the Water path definitely did not make me cry. Not even a little bit. ...I need a tissue.