Haruka Asamiya is bored with her school life and decided to have some fun by starting the UFO-dan together with Jun, Kurumi Kohinata and Miyu Nagase…

The game cost ï¿¥1,500 excluding tax. You can find some NSFW CGs on the official website. I need to find the time to obtain a copy of this from somewhere.

Anyway, as you can probably guess, I’ve been quite busy in the real world. I spent 80% of my waking hours during the weekends away from home and barely managed to clear the new episodes that came out last week. I have applied primer to my Miina, but that post will have to wait. I got home at, like, 10.30pm today because I was celebrating a classmate’s birthday. I still have undone school work due tomorrow. I want my hikikomori life back…

P.S. Something good will probably happen tomorrow and I may be blogging about it. :P

ICHIGO PANTSU RABU!

Of course that’s all a huge lie and the game is really about Asa-senpai and how hawt she looks with long hair. :3

The game starts off pretty normally. You meet your other childhood friend, Sakura Yae, whom you somehow forgot to mention in the previous games. She’s pretty cute, but I have a thing against Aoi Nishimata‘s design in general.

“Rin-kun, how could you forget about me for the past two games?”

So, ignoring the huuuuge plot hole and the fact that Sakura wants to jump your bones too, let’s talk about RiaRia’s unique point compared to the previous two games. In Tick! Tack! you have to gauge your dialogue options against a clock that shows you Nerine’s current status, which brought some uniqueness to an otherwise plain AVG. RiaRia takes this a step further by introducing a completely new gameplay system.

Well, to explain this requires a tiny spoiler. It shouldn’t detract from the game since it happens right at the start of the whole story.

Due to a magic accident, Kaede loses consciousness. Her memories have been mixed up and she is unable to wake up until they have been restored. Rin and company enter her mind to unravel each memory and to fix the erroneous memories.

Usually two or three memories are available for you to enter at a time. You are free to select which one to enter first, although sometimes you may need to unlock certain paths before others. Memories come in three categories: childhood, middle school (with Asa-senpai!) and high school (present).

After entering a particular memory, Rin and the rest all play the roles of themselves (or how they appear to be in Kaede’s confused memories.) So depending on how screwed up that particular memory is, hilarity ensues to various degrees.

MEIN EYES!

Just like that. This just goes to show what Kaede spends her free time thinking about.

So anyway, how do you repair the memories? This is where the fun comes in.

No, you do not journey through different dimensions collecting feathers. Instead, you look for keywords in the game. A keyword is a piece of information about an event or a person familiar to Kaede. You gain them automatically after progressing through certain parts of the game.

At certain key conjunctions, you will be plunged into the “Really Zone”. This is like the Twilight Zone except less creepy. Basically, when Kaede (in her memories) says something that is factually wrong (such as Itsuki being a girl), you have to correct her by throwing her the right keyword from your collection. The keyword will jolt that memory back to normal. Or as “normal” as Kaede gets.

“Rin-kun, I think I’m pregnant…”

Not only do you have to use the appropriate keyword at the right Really Zone, you also have to select the statement that you are correcting. Each Really Zone spans several lines of dialogue and you have to scroll to the correct one before using your keyword.

“REALLY?”

After selecting your keyword, this is where the cheesy “REALLY?” sound clip comes in. Now you know why the game is called “Really? Really!”. Doesn’t this remind you of that detective game?

If you chose the wrong keyword or the wrong line, Kaede DIES!!! Okay not really. You only lose the game after four mistakes. (Or was it five?)

If you know that you don’t have the required keyword yet, you can escape from the current Really Zone and come back later.

“Oh yeah, it was a safe night.”

Once you have corrected the mistaken memory, a lot of changes may take place. For example, if you corrected a misconception about a certain hawt character’s hair length, then this change will be applied to all the memories where that character appears in.

Because the memories are often (read: almost always) linked, if you hit a dead end in a memory, it means that you should probably try another one first.

Above is how unlocked memories look like. Yeah, you collect cards instead of feathers. :P You can click on a card to playback the memory in its corrected form. You view the memories from Kaede’s perspective this time and Rin’s lines are voiced! (But not by Kyon.)

So basically, that’s what RiaRia is all about. Pretty cool concept.

NEKO NEKO WAI WAI

As you may have guessed, the story focuses on Kaede and Rin’s past, especially the cause of Kaede’s oyashiro mode. Because of the unique gameplay system, the story is not told in a linear format, so some scenes may be confusing if you do not know the context.

I can’t say for sure, but I imagine that RiaRia’s story would be really hard to follow if you have not played at least Shuffle! and preferably Tick! Tack! too. Knowing the right time to throw your keywords requires you to understand the background story of the franchise pretty well. Even if you use a walkthrough, the fact that the game jumps around to different time periods means that it’s difficult to follow the story if you don’t know anything about Shuffle!.

NEKO NEKO NEKO WAI WAI WAI

Also because of the new system, there are no alternative endings to the game. (Except the bad ending after you used up all your Really Zone tries.) Some dialogue options will affect the CGs you get, but that’s really inconsequential since you just need three short reloads to get a 100% CG collection.

There are ero-scenes for Asa, Kaede, Sakura, Nadeshiko, Primula and Mayumi. They ALL take place in the same path. All but two of them in Kaede’s mind. This proves that Kaede is a closet nymphomaniac.

Art-wise, RiaRia is pretty darn good. I just love Hiro Suzuhira‘s art. Kaede is still fugly as usual. The Asa CGs are godly.

RiaRia uses pretty much the same sound tracks as Shuffle!, with some additions. The OP theme by YURIA and the song played at the story’s climax are pretty awesome, though.

PANTSU!

So all in all, the game is pretty darn awesome thanks to the game system which is actually pretty fun. This has been one of the rare times where I didn’t feel compelled to use a walkthrough and actually tried to figure out the right options on my own. :)

BTW I don’t recommend this game to people new to the franchise or not very comfortable with reading Japanese. The game can often become very confusing if you miss anything important. Try playing Shuffle! first.

Now I’ve ran out of things to say, but I still have a lot of pictures left. Everyone loves pictures, right?

SPINNING THUNDER KICK!

P.S. Am I the only person who thinks that the title “Shuffle!” would have been soooo appropriate for this game?

Well, apparently Dengeki G’s Festival Vol.6 will come with…

A FEENA PILLOW COVER!!! o___o

It will be out on 30th Nov and the pillow design has yet to be released. But considering how these magazine bonuses tend to be too lazy to commission new art, I’m betting that the pillow cover will be reusing this picture…

Click for full version

The price is around ï¿¥2,000. So… who’s getting one? :3

I wasn’t expecting much from a doujin game, but Yuuetsu has surprisingly high production value. The game is fully-voiced and the art, especially the background art, approaches commercial level (then again, most commercial AVGs aren’t that high quality either).

The game is very short, but you can tell that quite a lot of thought has been put into the script. Most of the dialogues are very appropriate and feel like they could have come from the novel itself. The grammatical quirks that each character has are all preserved faithfully and it really helps to make the game feel like the original.

Basically the story is about Haruhi winning free onsen tickets in a lucky draw and the whole SOS-dan going on an onsen trip. I think you can imagine the rest…

Personally I quite like the in-game art, especially event CGs for Mikuru and Haruhi such as the two below. Well there are plenty of ero-scenes too but they seem to be of a lower quality than the non-ero CGs. Maybe it’s just that the flaws in the art are amplified when you remove the clothes, or maybe the artist just can’t draw H.

Voice-acting is really, really good for a doujin game. I can’t stress this enough. Although I won’t say that they sound just like the original cast, the seiyuu do a superb job of imitating the style of each character according to the anime adaptation. The only problem I have with the voice-acting is that the seiyuu for Tsuruya sounds like she’s trying too hard…

…and Itsuki is gay. Gay as in not happy or lame, but homosexual. I’m pretty sure there’s yaoi somewhere but I shall not confirm that.

Music-wise, the game consists mostly of remixed tracks from the TV series. They could have been better but they do the job so I’m not complaining.

The ending was kind of abrupt but Haruhi’s tsundere-ness towards the end was the win. ^_^ Taken from the manual that came with the game:

Ｑ　なんかハルヒがただのツンデレキャラなんでããŒã€‚
Q. Why does Haruhi seem just like a generic tsundere character?

Ａ　作者の妄想でãã€‚お察しください。
A. Please respect the author’s fantasies.

Oh oh oh! Here’s another funny one:

Ｑ　俺のみくるんは、あんな積極的な子じゃない！！１１！
Q. My precious Mikuru isn’t that kind of girl!!11!

Ａ　俺のみくるんは誘い受けだと言ってるじゃないでãã‹ï¼ï¼ï¼
A. Didn’t I say that my Mikuru is a sasoi-uke!!!

For those of you who do not know what’s a sasoi-uke, maybe it’s for the best…

I end this review here with screenshots from the ending sequence.

I finished Nanaka’s path for Da Capo II today. Nanaka forever!

Although Nanaka’s power is similar to Kotori’s, her story is somewhat different. In many ways, it can even be said that she is better than Kotori. (forgive me Kotori. ;_;)

Well, I’m too lazy to write a proper review now, especially since I haven’t played through any other paths, which I will only do after a full walkthrough is released. For now, here’s a bunch of pictures of Nanaka! イエー！～

It’s very loosely related to the original To Heart, one of the games which Leaf is best known for. Other flagship titles by Leaf include Comic Party, Utawarerumono and Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu.

Typical gameplay screen

A visual novel refers to a specific sub-genre of AVGs where the text is superimposed over the art instead of occupying the bottom half of the screen. Leaf was the first to employ such a system and it continues to be part of Leaf’s unique style. As far as I can tell, this arrangement has no real advantage over the textbox used by most games on the market, so you can say that it’s purely a personal preference whether you like it or not. It does obstruct the art, but you can hide the text anytime. And I suppose such a system allows the script to be, as the name suggests, closer to an actual novel (albeit one with a lot of dialogue). Other companies have also released visual novels subsequently, although it remains a minority sub-genre. Crescendo was quite a memorable non-Leaf visual novel for me.

Location selection

Gameplay is limited to the typical dialogue and location selection. As with most games, each location is marked by a chibi avatar of the character whose event you trigger if you go there. Pretty much standard fare.

The semi-loli imouto-kei osananajimi character, Konomi Yuzuhara

There are many girls to choose from and each one of course has her own backstory. Unlike games like Air or Shuffle!, there is almost completely no supernatural elements in the game so the stories revolve mainly around your daily school life with the girl and her sad-and-tragic past / dark secret / promise to go to Toudai together / whatever. Nothing that will be out-of-place in a normal high school romance drama.

The maid-(robot-)maniac best-friend sidekick character, Yuuji Kousaka

Well, other than that one maid robot in the game. The single difference between the To Heart universe and ours is the existence of maid robots. But we all know that it was all just an excuse to have Multi in the original game. For continuity’s sake, TH2 makes occasional references to maid robots and even has one as a minor character.

Character-wise, almost every stereotype is well-covered here. Please note that I have only completed the paths for Tamaki and Yuma.

Konomi is your neighbour and childhood friend and a bit too loli for my taste. She’s also whiny and noisy, often mistaken for cuteness. She’s supposedly the heroine for this game, but whatever.

Hands down the best girl in the game, Tamaki Kousaka

Tamaki is the goddess and she owns my heart and soul. <3 She’s also your childhood friend (or rather, the childhood bully) and the elder sister of Yuuji. She’s older than the main character by one year. She recently transfered to your school after spending seven years in an all-girls boarding school located in some remote mountain area that is two hours of bus ride away from the nearest town (I kid you not). The main character calls her “Tama-nee”.

Karin is some weirdo girl who tricks you into joining her “Mystery Club” (which has only two members. Including you) and possibily attempt to seduce you during those quiet club meetings when you are all alone with her in some old PE storeroom cum clubroom. Actually, I won’t know since I didn’t play her path. Her hair is a mystery best left unexplained.

Sango and Ruri are the obligatory twin loli-sister combo. Get two for the price of one. Well, three actually if you include the maid robot. Beh. The twins also speak with an annoying kansai accent. (My personal opinion. There are probably people who like it. You weirdoes)

The main character’s stubborn archrival, Yuma Tonami

Yuma is your sworn enemy at school. She challenges you to everything and loses everytime, but she never admits defeat. (これで勝ったとは思うなよーっ！) She also wears spectacles occasionally to please the meganekko crowd. My second most favourite character in the game, though quite a distant second from Tama-nee.

Lucy is the mysterious-type girl with a funky foreign name and she “talks” to animals. I’m somewhat interested in her story, but I’m not sure if I want to play through the game again.

The clumsy iinchou character, Manaka Komaki

Manaka is clumsy and shy in a really annoying way. I hate that. But most people seem to like her. Another mystery for Karin.

Sasara is a new character introduced in the PC version. She’s the president of the student council and is one year older than you. She’s cool (in the tsuntsun way).

Yuuki is some mysterious girl you meet in school at night. Whatever.

Tama-nee forever!

The ero-scenes added in the PC version are drawn in a noticeably different (arguably better) CG style from the rest. There is only one scene per girl (Himeyuri twins count as one) and they are all fully-voiced.

One interesting bit to note about the game is that it retains the PS2 original cast (credited under pseudonyms), which means that Hitomi Habatame (Mikoto from School Rumble, Yuuna from Maburaho, Aruceid from Tsukihime) still voices Yuma…… Mikoto/Aruceid fans, you know why you should play this game. <_<

I made Tama-nee cry… ;_;

As I mentioned, I’ve only played through Tamaki and Yuma’s paths. Despite the fact that pretty much nothing happens throughout the game in good old To Heart fashion, the script is somehow quite well-packed. I would even go a step further and say that it’s quite well-written too. But that’s probably just my inner Tamaki fanboy speaking since I really loved the confession scene for her path. <3

Of course, if you’ve completed the game a few times and find that the other girls don’t interest you (like me), there’re two minigames that can keep you entertained… for a little bit.

Super Sweets Scramble

Super Sweets Scramble is vertical scroller. You can choose to play as any of the girls whose ending you have unlocked in the main game (except Konomi, who is unlocked right from the start). Each of them has a different special attack so I suppose this is somewhat of an incentive for you to play through all the endings… or you could download a complete saved game.

Tama-nee forever!

The rounds are time-based and you try to rack up the highest score within a round. Essentially there’s not much game content since you replay the same stage over and over again. Gets old sort of fast.

Dokidoki Panic Library

Dokidoki Panic Library is an average match-those-colours puzzle game. Nothing much to say.

Tama-nee forever!

Objectively speaking, To Heart 2 offers nothing new or creative and belongs to a subgenre that has been done to death. Well, I really only got this game for Tama-nee, so I’m quite satisfied with it. If you read through my character introduction and find that none of the girls seemed interesting, then you should probably stay away from this game. There isn’t much of a story to keep you entertained if you don’t like the characters.

And to end off my horribly-biased review:

TAMA-NEE FOREVER!!!