Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai Portable
So I finished the new Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai game for PSP. Well, I didn’t 100% it but I saw all the “true” endings except for Manami’s and that’s good enough. It’s not a bad game if you are into AVG but its primary purpose is basically fan service.
Story
The game takes place about one year after the start of the anime. I have no idea what is its place in the novel timeline. There are two major changes that I think probably took place in the light novels: Kuroneko is now a highschool freshman in Kyousuke’s school and calls him “senpai” and Ayase is somehow acquainted with Manami and calls her “oneesan”. (She still calls Kyousuke “oniisan”.)
The story is divided into two portions. The first part is common to all the characters and is relatively short. It consists of two major events: Kirino and gang taking part in a Siscalypse competition and Kyousuke going on a school trip to Kyoto.
The story branching depends on whom Kyousuke teams up with for the competition (or if he takes part in it at all) and the souvenir he decides to buy in Kyoto (every girl wants a different thing).
After Kyousuke returns from Kyoto, the story branches into the respective character paths. The main branches are for Kirino, Kuroneko, Saori, Ayase and Manami. Each character has around 3-4 endings, usually with one true ending, one good/normal ending and some bad/weird endings in between.
Paths
Plenty of spoilers. Continue at your own peril or skip to the next header.
Kirino: In a subconscious bid for Kyousuke’s attention, Kirino loses all her otaku-related memories, including those of Saori and Kuroneko. Kyousuke has to convince Kirino, a fashionable girl with good grades and a modelling career, that she is actually an otaku. Hilarity ensues.
True ending involves a semi-kokuhaku from Kirino at Comiket. Bad endings include Kirino forgetting about her true self and her otaku friends forever.
Kuroneko: Kuroneko is working on a new doujinshi for the upcoming Comiket. She sees herself as the tragic creator whose source of creativity is her suffering and loneliness. Although she is falling behind the deadline, she refuses to ask for help from the others and actively avoids Kyousuke. It is up to Kyousuke to smack some sense into her if you know what I mean — I don’t.
True ending involves Kyousuke pledging eternal allegiance to the fallen angel.
Saori: Saori, who is actually the ojousama of a rich family, is pushed into an arranged marriage with a 40-year-old paedophile princeling of a large conglomerate who wants her to stop her childish hobbies. Not an assertive person and obedient to her parents’ wishes, Saori gives all her precious otaku goods to Kyousuke for safe-keeping and bids everyone farewell. Kyousuke has to convince her that her wishes are just as important and she should stand up for herself.
True ending involves Kyousuke and Saori getting married out of the blue. Seriously.
Ayase: She has arguably the most romantic path in the game, though still kind of weak by most AVG standards. She seeks Kyousuke’s help in her attempts to understand Kirino better but ends up falling for Kyousuke. She is afraid of revealing her feelings because she thinks that Kyousuke is only teasing her when he does things like calling her “Lovely My Angel Ayase-tan”. Unlike the other girls, Ayase gets a proper kokuhaku scene.
True ending involves Ayase getting knocked up and living happily ever after with Kyousuke. Bad ending is yandere ending with off-screen stabbing action. There is also a weird ending named the “Forbidden Yuri Ending”… I leave that to your imagination.
Manami: Did not play her path. Meh.
Kanako: There is an ending for her that branches out towards the end of Ayase’s path. It is actually somewhat interesting. Heh.
End of spoilers. Continue from here.
Gameplay
The gameplay is hard work if you don’t use a walkthrough. There are two main mechanics involved.
The first is collecting titbits of information called O.R.E. (I can’t remember what it stands for) and deciding whether to use them when prompted to change the direction of the story. The second is a system called Two Shot where you have a face-to-face conversation with a girl and have to decide whether to tsukkomi her via quick-time event or not at certain points of the conversation.
The O.R.E. (silly acronym is silly) system is persistent across replays so you get to use information you obtained in previous playthroughs to change the direction of the story. For example, Ayase’s true ending can only be obtained if you have an O.R.E. obtained from Kirino’s true ending.
The Two Shot system is kind of arbitrary. It is more trial and error than anything. Sometimes an obvious tsukkomi produces a negative reaction for no apparent reason and sometimes an apparently hurtful tsukkomi is exactly what the girl wants. I suppose it’s like real-life except that there is a quick load button that lets you jump back to any of the last thirty scene changes or gameplay decisions.
These modern AVGs have it good. Back in our days we had to walk uphill both ways just to find a save button and we were happy with our three measly save slots.
Thoughts
There are some genuinely hilarious moments in the game, particularly if you get the otaku-related allusions and occasional 2ch lingo. The dialogues are witty at times and live up to expectations set by the anime.
The gameplay is somewhat reminiscent of Really? Really! which in turn is a derivative of Ace Attorney, except that it is not as fun. You will fail repeatedly at the Two Shot system until you learn the true meaning of hate and just wiki the solution.
The endings are kind of lacklustre. As mentioned, I feel that Ayase is the only one who gets the proper heroine treatment. I suppose this is why she calls herself the “hidden heroine” at some point in Kirino’s path. Saori looks really gorgeous without her @ω@ glasses though.
Character ranking:
- Ayase
- Kirino
- Kuroneko
- Saori
- Kanako
- Minami
Ending ranking:
- Ayase
- Saori
- Kanako
- Kuroneko
- Kirino
Yeah I really can’t motivate myself to play though Minami’s path.
I like Kuroneko as a character but her path is probably the least interesting one. Kirino’s path is more entertaining and emotional, but the ending is one huuuuuuge cop-out. Not that this is unexpected, but I was hoping for a more…unorthodox resolution.
Spoiler ahead.
I find the final scene in Ayase’s true ending strangely thought-provoking. (Click on the button to see it.)
Spoiler Alert |
In a way, Ayase is a proxy for Kirino’s love for Kyousuke. Ayase and Kirino both love Kyousuke and at the same time they also love each other, but only Ayase can cross the last barrier. The last scene feels almost touchingly poignant in a zen-like way, if you can remove your worldly preconceptions and that feeling of creepiness lurking at the back of your mind long enough to ponder over it free from prejudices.
Okay, maybe I am reading too much into this shit as usual.
When Kyousuke spills the beans about his relationship with Ayase to Kirino in the true ending, Kirino is initially upset and asks him if things would’ve still been the same if they weren’t siblings.
This is probably the most overt acknowledgement of the unspoken nature of their mutual love that can be found in the game, and of course it’s not even in Kirino’s own true ending.
Unrelated but amusing: in Kuroneko’s true ending, where Kuroneko and Kyousuke get together, Kuroneko proclaims herself the older sister of Kirino and teases her about it. Her closing line is, “watashi no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai.”
End spoiler.
The game also comes a Breakout-clone mini-game, a short in-character voiced commentary for every single unlocked CG in the album and a full plot diagram to show you the paths/endings you are missing. Not too shabby in terms of extras.
Screencaps
I took way too many screencaps so I’m just going to dump everything here. Some of them may be considered spoilerish even without context.
Spoiler Alert |
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Phew. Most screenshots ever?
Now back to Valkyria Chronicles 3…
February 1st, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Too bad the anime will never be as interesting/funny/win as the PSP game, judging from the landslide of spoilers I’m seeing/hearing about it.
ALSO CAN WE GET THE KIRINO X AYASE YURI ENDING WHILE KYOSUKE X’ES KURONEKO!?
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February 2nd, 2011 at 2:04 am
The most excellent Toradora Portable made me reconsider the “shitty tie-in game” genre. I wish I could take real screenshots though. I use the new firmware, so can’t wait for those PSP keys start trickling down into useful applications.
February 2nd, 2011 at 7:18 am
I quote, “Okay, frankly, I didn’t care about her. Shoot me. D:” in response to my post about Saori.
February 2nd, 2011 at 11:01 am
New? How new? Homebrew enablers exist for 6.20 and 6.35.
February 2nd, 2011 at 11:45 am
but damn, lack of Manami makes this Kyosuke x Manami shipper sad. ;_;
February 2nd, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Most screenshots ever, and bestest game ever. Holee…
February 2nd, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Oh…the childhood friend route ;_;
February 2nd, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Bestest game ever? I won’t go that far.
Scarlett by the former Neko Neko Soft is the best AVG ever in my book.
February 7th, 2011 at 12:44 am
I’ve already got the O.R.E 64 “Ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai” but it won’t show up in the end for me to get Ayase Happy Ending. Why?
February 7th, 2011 at 11:40 am
I believe that you need to play the entire game from the start instead of reloading a partial save. This only applies to the “oreimo” ORE.
February 7th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
need a guide for Saori’s route the only route i haven’t finished T_T
February 9th, 2011 at 5:56 am
was Minami’s route THAT boring?
…Ayase looked rather off character here than from the tv series, what happened between them anyway?
February 9th, 2011 at 10:40 pm
Please write a guide for Kanako route!Please please please!
February 9th, 2011 at 11:18 pm
Kanako route saikou!
February 10th, 2011 at 1:28 am
For some reason a lot of people are asking me for guides lol.
There’s a perfectly good one at http://masterwiki.net/oreimo-game/
If you read enough to navigate the game menus, you should be able to follow the charts in the wiki. Use 共通パート guide for the common portion of the game and the あやせルート part for Kanako’s ending, which is a small branch off from Ayase’s path.
The basic idea of the guide is to follow the RED words for the best ending. 実行 means you use the ORE and スルー means you pass the ORE.
Also I will not go so far as to say that Kanako’s route is 最高… Just that it is more romantic than most of the other routes other than perhaps Ayase’s.
Minami’s route is probably fine. I just don’t like her character one bit.
February 10th, 2011 at 2:42 am
@DarkMirage
haha, you don’t have to take everything at face value
when people says bestest or saikou that doesn’t mean it’s the best thing in the whole universe or in the entire history
it’s just the impression we got when we felt extremely happy, like when I went down Kanako route, true there are many other games that rival and surpass this as a VN, but now at this moment, this is the best for me
you don’t have to seriously affirm or deny it :D
February 11th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Did you play the EX Imouto to Koi Shiyou too?
I’m having hard time getting Finale 2 and 3 ending, I always end up get Finale 1 for every character 1 (though most of finale 1 are awesome, I like Ayase and Kirino’s, incest ending at last XD)
Can’t read/understand the guide from masterwiki for the EX part. Can you please translate it if you have time? ^^
February 13th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
I’m not going to translate it. Which part do you need help with?
Also I did not play EX.
February 14th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Only the part to unlock Finale 2 and 3 ending ^^
フィナーレ2:好感度1位かつレッスン6を見た所で止める(最後の選択肢をミスればMAXでもおk)
フィナーレ3:好感度1位かつレッスン5を見た所で止める
Thanks in advance ^^
March 6th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
Could you link up a diagrams of the routes you played? Pls
June 1st, 2011 at 4:01 pm
fraked out when it turn into “supernatural ending”
they are going to merge xD