a twist of otome

At the heart of Anslem village stands a 17th century English mansion that is rumored to be cursed by a vengeful spirit. Various disappearances had been linked to the mansion, while people living near the vicinity spoke of seeing and hearing unearthly things. Dismissed as a hoax, the mansion was listed for sale by Briar Realty Corporation. Before its grand opening to the public, Isabella Santos, an agent under BRC, was double-checking the place when she accidentally uncovered a letter that said “HELP ME” over and over again. At the bottom of the letter was the phrase “Send this to 5 people or else...”

Once upon a time, the d'Lockes, a prestigious family, became the receivers of a terrible curse. No one has heard of them since then. Seven years later, their mansion remains standing in the dark forest with no signs of life inside. Nobody even dares to go near it. Until one day, a girl named Aura stumbles across the house, and is greeted by a family of... talking plush toys?!

Join Aura as she struggles to find out the truth behind the curse and break it.

Out of Sight is a supernatural otome game by GlassHeart. It has seven endings, and since I had fun playing it the other night, I decided to try to get all of them. This is not the official guide, nor are the steps here the ONLY way to get the certain ending, but it is the way how I got them, so... there's that.


Warning: This is not spoiler-free. Skip the paragraphs if you don't want to be spoiled.

To those who have played Death Room, I'm sure you know how hard it is to get the endings you want (huhu, I learned this the hard way), so the developer, Dreamgazer, provided a mini-walkthrough for the game. This isn't the actual mini-walkthrough, but this is a sort of romance walkthrough, and I think most people who'd check out otome games would be more interested in this, anyway. :D Do note that this game has no happy endings. If you use this walkthrough, then you'll see the sort of romantic parts, but that's that. If you want something a little happier, you can check out the Extras section of the game.

First of all, I want to congratulate Dreamgazer for their first game! I think I just heard about this last week, and now it's getting released. Yay for that!

GAME INFO

Name: Death Room
Developer: Dreamgazer
Release Date: Nov. 1, 2015
Genre: GxB, BxG, Paranormal, Suspense


You wake up in a room.

Four white walls. Four strangers. Countless weapons around you.

This is a highly interactive game. Your choices decide whether you live or die. Can you escape the Death Room?

GAME INFO

Now, before you say anything, I know what you're thinking.

It's Pokemon, yes, I know! Pokemon! *squeals and does a little happy dance*

So, as some of you may know, I'm a huge Pokemon fan, and I've been a fan of that franchise for more than a decade... and a half. Hahaha, I practically grew up watching Pokemon, collecting Pokemon cards, and of course, playing the games. I couldn't be prouder to say that I own at least one game in every single generation of the Pokemon games, (Except XY, as I am still waiting for Z, hahaha) from the Gameboy to the Nintendo 3DS. And even until now, as a broke (usually, hahaha) young college student, I make sure that I always have spare money for Pokemon releases. Gotta catch 'em all! (Oh, wow, if you know me in real life, well... please don't tell anyone else about my hidden nerdy side! Hahaha, kidding.)

That said, I have to warn you guys that I might be a little biased about this game here, because... hey, it's Pokemon! <3 And a Pokemon SCHOOL, too, no less. Ahhh, just thinking about it sends the fan girl in me squealing her lungs out~

Ahem. Anyway, I've already talked too much. Let's get on with the review, shall we?

Oh my gosh, just look at the-- the backgrounds are just placeholders; don't worry about it!

Before I get into another fangirl spiel, let me just get this out: Pokemon Academy Life is just a fan game, and the developers are in no way connected to Pokemon, Game Freak, or Nintendo whatsoever. As said in the project's development thread on LemmaSoft Forums, it's a fan "game made by a fan for [existing] fans." It's not a legit Pokemon game or anything. That said, most of the in-game assets (including the logo, music, font) were taken directly from the Pokemon franchise, so a little part of me is worried that Nintendo might shut this project down. I sure hope not, though, as I'm sure the concept of a visual novel where you can play as a student in a Pokemon Academy is just too amazing for Pokemon fans. <3

THE STORY

THE CHARACTERS

THE WEBSITES

Who is Mike?

Now, THAT is the big question.

And to be honest, in the end, I still don't know exactly the answer to the main question in this VN. Who IS Mike?

It's the first day of October, and... oh my, look how fast time has flown! This semester ends in two months and a half... woooo~

Backgrounds by the really amazing Van (fateline-alpha)!

Hi everyone!

Today's the first day of school, and to "celebrate" my second year at the university, here's a new visual novel demo "review" for you guys, hahaha.

No, actually, today's Friday, and I was supposed to post this four days ago. I really thought this would be a wonderful semester. Dundundundun... I just realized that this semester's schedule actually sucks.

But anyway, I believe it's better late than never (excuses, excuses) so... here's something for this blog!

I have to give a disclaimer, though: I only found out about this game because the writer of Studio Elfriede (this game's developer) sent me a message linking to the demo for me to write a review about it. It's an otome game, and it did seem pretty interesting, so I decided to try it out. Nevertheless, all the words here are mine, and I wasn't influenced by the developers in any way whatsoever. They just asked if I would like to check out the demo, and hey, it's an otome, and I love otomes, so I checked it out. Everything that you'll read here is my completely honest assessment of the demo.
Because We’re Here ~ Mohnblume und Blauerose is an upcoming visual novel otome game for Windows, Mac and Linux, following neurotic postwoman Elfriede Rauss as she navigates the battlefields of an alternate First World War. While investigating the harsh realities of her country’s involvement in an unwinnable war, Elfriede is given the opportunity to grow close to - and even romance - a variety of eligible gentlemen; from childhood friends to aristocrats to corporals to cowards.

Likes:
- it's different, not like the others, which is a nice change from the normal slice of life otome game (that I'm guilty of making too, hahaha)
- all the characters seem to have sprites. =) Yay for effort!
- yay for original soundtracks!
- blaurose-- literally blue rose. <3 Nothing, I just love blue roses, that's all.

Dislikes:
- the filtered backgrounds don't fit the sprites, at all.
- the resolution is way too small for my tastes. (800x600?! Even my phone's resolution is bigger than that huhuhu)
- GUI looks pretty unpolished (read: outdated)
- no auto-read function. WHY? WHY?!

Developer: Winged Clouds
Pairing: GxB
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Language: English

Likes:
- such pretty pretty art
- plenty of CGs, considering its length

Dislikes:
- too short, huhu
- some parts of the story felt tacked on
- plot feels too shallow

I don't like being so blunt that I come off as "mean" already. I write "reviews" mainly to document my experiences with the game, as my online journal of sorts, and that's the truth. (Yeah, I just like reading old blog posts here and reminiscing about the time I spent playing the game.) Partly, I suppose it's to help other people to improve on their own games. After all, when I write these blog posts, I also learn a lot about visual novels in general, so there's that. But it's never my goal to discourage anyone from playing, or creating visual novels. Actually, it's quite the opposite. I really hope more individual developers would dabble in visual novels. (So that I'll have more to play! *insert evil laugh here*)

That said, there are times when critiques can be helpful, I think. I myself, as a [really, really, teeny-tiny] small-time indie visual novel writer(?), appreciate all sorts of comments, especially the ones that point out what went wrong in my work and how I can improve on them for next time.


Anyway, I'm here to review an otome game, Daisuki Dayo ~in spring~, by mitsukeru73.

A girl named Midori Aichi has a crush on a guy named Saito-senpai, who doesn't really know her. Another guy, Kou, who knows Saito-senpai, enters the picture, and... well. It's an otome game, so of course, a love triangle is bound to happen!

Likes:
+ it's quite cute~
+ art is okay.

Dislikes:
- there are some scripting issues.
- writing is... not so good.
- pretty unpolished.

It's another Ex Astris post!

Just a disclaimer: I absolutely loved the first one, so I may be a little biased with these two sequels. I'll still do my best to be as objective as possible, though, because this is basically a documentation of my own experiences with these games, then I guess you can expect more "feels" than objectivity. =)

Anyway, since these games are just sequels of the first Ex Astris game, I decided to just do one whole blog post for them.

Dear Mariko is a short, simple game about a girl who comes home to find a goodbye letter from the one she loves.


Likes:
+ Hihi, I just love Coren's art style. <3
+ There's a mini-game! (of sorts) Well, I liked it.
+ SPOILER: Good adaptation of a [pretty well-known] creepypasta.

Dislikes:
- Low-res.
- No instructions whatsoever. I was really confused about what to do in the game.
- Not your usual set of controls, but no information regarding that either. :(

Thoughts:

Nowhere Safe 3 is the third installment to the Nowhere Safe series by Red Panda Studios.


Likes:
+ I love the soundtrack. <3
+ Some voice effects.
+ I liked the animations! Hahaha.

Dislikes:
- The first Nowhere Safe game that I actually like, and it's so SHORT.
- Still no keyboard control. :(

"Kimiko Yui has been unable to leave her house for over ten years. When her daughter comes down with a mysterious mental illness that requires a chaperone at school, Kimiko finds herself more desperate than ever to conquer her agoraphobia once and for all."


Likes:
+ Hi.

Dislikes:
- Logic is not this game's strong points.
- No keyboard control. :(

Hates:
- The protagonist.

Nowhere Safe is the first game out of a (so far) trilogy.



Likes:
+ Hello.
+ The music was okay.

Dislikes:
- Missing: Logic
- Wasted potential

Thoughts:

• Disclaimer: I absolutely adore stories set under the sea, so please forgive me if I adore this VN way too much.
• The story was really awesome! (Okay, maybe I'm biased. But really, it was quite good.)
• Lovable and unique characters-- each one was really interesting, with a background story of his/her own.
• I just love the art style~
• The morality meter is a new feature that I've only tried in one another VN-- The Pirate Mermaid, which is also a story set under the sea. (Somehow)

• It's incomplete. </3 I would have loved to play the boy route and get to know the other boy, too. </3
• I personally think that Orla's sprite is too small compared to the other sprites, but maybe that's just me.

Orla? Wherefore art thou, Orl-- oh, there you are. Um, Soren? You arm is... um.

Thoughts:

Hi everyone!

Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, there was this little girl, who was about 10 to 11 years old, and who loved everything about anime. Her favorite back at that time was a pretty well-known series called Naruto, followed by Naruto Shippuuden. There was one character in particular that she liked though, and that guy's name was Uchiha Sasuke. She had just graduated from Friendster and had started exploring the rest of that wonderful new world called the Internet. She loved writing, so she got herself FanFiction and FictionPress accounts, and signed up for Tumblr and Blogger as well. But she was stumped. Both Blogger and Tumblr asked her what she name she wanted. "What name?" The young girl was confused. So she typed the first name she could think of. "Uchiha Ran", because... "Well, wouldn't it be fun to have Uchiha Sasuke as a husband?", her kiddie mind thought. Since then, the name Uchiha Ran stuck, and she started using it for all her profiles. And that is the story, of how a single character, managed to become a part of the little girl's online persona, until she grew up, and resigned herself to the fact that... meh, Sasuke and her would (and could!) never get married anyway, so what's the point? =)

But anyway, kidding aside, hahaha, that's the real backstory to why this blog was named "uchiharan"... up until today, that is.

Hi guys!

It's July 1st! Here's to hoping that we'll all have an awesome July~

So, anyway, last night I fell asleep really early, like 6PM I think? So it's no wonder that I woke up at around 4 this morning. It's still pretty early... like around 5AM here in my country, and since classes don't start until 9AM, I decided to play a short visual novel just because. =)

And it should be fairly obvious while I chose to play this one, right?

Original Title: 人魚と海と少年の夏
Official Description: Summer has come and people are off to enjoy their summer vacation. A boy was dragged along to a trip that he isn't excited about and little did he know, it will be a trip full of surprises.

The Mermaid, the Sea, and the Boy's Summer

Likes:
+ It's fully voiced. <3
+ The art is just... so lovely.
+ I like the sound effects. Very soothing!

Dislikes:
- way too short
- no keyboard control. :( I like having control over my keyboard. Bwahaha. No, actually, it does have some, but not your usual Ren'Py controls, hahaha. When I play, I just rest my finger on the space bar, haha, so it's just something I'm used to. =)

Thoughts:

Hi there everyone~
First of all, I want to say that this is not an otome game. This is not even a visual novel. =)

I had been looking for new visual novels to download when I came across the Global Game Jam website. Basically, it's a website that compiles different games from a huge game jam event from all over the world. The next game jam will be on January 14-16th, 2016, by the way. :)

But anyway, I saw a couple of visual novels there, and also, I came across this little gem, called "Ich". It looked really cute, and you guys know I can't resist cuteness.

Je, 私, Ako, Ich, I.

Official Description: "A "thing" wanna find out what it is, and will look for evidence of its nature inside a mazz,[sic] full of traps and enemies."

Hi guys! Remember me?

Hahaha, okay, so um. I'm really, really, really sorry for suddenly disappearing like that, but I'd just like to say that I'm alive and well. Hahaha. So... just an update... my first year as a university student is already over! Thank goodness! <3 I'm currently taking midyear classes (huhuhu) though, so I still don't have as much free time as I had back in high school, but thankfully, I'm a lot less stressed now than during the regular semester. </3 I'm actually supposed to be on vacation from school (Vacation? What is that? Is it edible?) but I'm taking a few classes in advance in order to make next sem a little more bearable for me. Honestly, I really felt so drained during the first two semesters! So many things I wanted to do, but there were also so many things that I had to do first.

Anyway, this is one of those things that I had wanted to do but couldn't do... so I'm doing it now. Hahaha. A visual novel review!


Tomato Soup for the Heart is a 2015 NaNoRenO release by Synokoria, the same creators of the game A Halloween Otome. It's pretty short, as apparently, it was mainly meant to try out some game mechanics for a longer game-- which I am looking forward to, by the way. Hahaha.

Evie (default name) is in danger of failing all her subjects in the magic school she is currently attending. Her teacher gives her an ultimatum: a month to study with the rumored Demon, Tomatosoup, or a failing grade for all her exams. Of course, she has no choice. But would an excellent Demon like him actually tolerate a failing student like her?

Pizz'Amore is a short visual novel set in a pizzeria in the heart of New York City.


Likes:
- I like how you can play as both a girl, Maria, and a boy, Mario, in this game. While I am not usually a fan of BxG games, sometimes, especially when a game is interesting, I like seeing things from a guy's perspective.


- The voice acting was superb! I absolutely love Dough's and Mario's voices-- both were really quite hot and had their own appeal to me. The female voices were also nicely done. I'd say that voice acting is probably the strongest point in the game. Without it, this game wouldn't be half as good as it is now, in my honest opinion.

Has it really been this long since I last posted here?

I'm really sorry for the delay! Man. "Sorry for the delay" sounds so much like my motto for the latter part of 2014, as I have made admittedly slow progress in so many visual novel related stuff for the past 5 months or so. I'm really hoping all of that will change in 2015, though! New year, new habits, new goals!

Anyway, as a busy college student, I haven't had much time to play visual novels, unfortunately, so I also apologize for all the unfinished requests out there. Believe me, I really appreciate all the suggestions you guys have given me, and I will do my best to make a review of your favorite visual novels sometime in the near future! Thank you so much.

I still do try to play the shorter visual novels though, as they provide me a good way to relax in the midst of all the normal college stuff-- term papers, projects, exams-- and I have one here that I recently played.


A Simple Love Story does seem simple enough, but frankly, I don’t see the “love” part of the game. At the very most, I guess this game shows exactly what teenage romance looks—and feels—like.

And come to think of it, I think it’s a lot similar to wind. Almost always too fast, and rarely serious.