Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People- Fullvoice ReBORN Review

Title: Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People- Fullvoice ReBORN
Original title: 赫炎のインガノック -What a beautiful people- Fullvoice ReBORN
Alias: Inganock of the Brightest Flame Fullvoice ReBORN
Release date: 2007-11-22 (2011-12-22 Fullvoice ReBORN Edition)
English release date: 2009-12-18 (2012-11-20 Fullvoice ReBORN Edition)
Developer: Liar-soft
English publisher: Amaterasu Translations (as a fan-patch of both Regular and Fullvoice ReBORN Edition)

Oh, the fantastic, the unbelievable and the magical - those are the words that characterize the stories of fantasy. The books of that genre are supposed to immerse you in a world very unlike our own and let you forget the mundane and the boring and whatever anyone would say, visual novels are just books in a different medium. Sadly, only rarely can visual novels truly unleash the magic upon you.

Even some of the best novels like “Tsukihime” or “Fate/Stay Night” didn’t manage to tell stories without relying on character routes and romance subplots, but SnI does away with that. In this aspect, “Sekien no Inganock” can be truly called a Visual Novel as it does away with the pretence of being a game and is simply a book about beautiful people.

Hakuouki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom Review

Title: Hakuouki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom
Original title: 薄桜鬼 新選組奇譚
Alias: Hakuouki ~Shinsengumi Kitan~
Release date: 2008-09-18
English release date: 2012-02-14 (both as a Standard and a Limited edition)
Developer: IDEA FACTORY & Otomate
English publisher: Aksys Games
Platform: PSP

I can’t claim that I have played many otome games, because that simply wouldn’t be true. Up to now I have only read “The Second Reproduction” and I liked it quite a bit. It stands to reason that I would then try “Hakuouki” – probably the most famous otome game released in the West. Not that there are much hardships to become the most famous, when there are only two games of this ilk released commercially for the gaijin audience (the other one being “Yo-Jin-Bo”, of course).

A guide how to emulate Hakuouki on a PC

Yeah, you probably know Hakuoki (or Hakuouki), one of the very few otome VNs commercially available in the West. You might also know that it was only released on PSP (and PSVita as a downloadable title). What you might not know, though, is that a PSP emulator has already advanced so much, that you can play the game with almost no problems on a personal computer.

The Space Adventure Review

Title: The Space Adventure
Alias: Cobra: The Legendary Bandit
Original title: コブラII―伝説の男― 寺沢武
Release date: 1991-06-07
English release date: 1994 (NA) / 1995 (EU)
Developer: Hudson Soft
English publisher: Hudson Soft (NA) / Virgin Interactive (EU)
Platform: Sega CD / Sega Mega-CD

"The Space Adventure"  is actually the second part of a duology of video games based on famous manga/anime series about an uncatchable space pirate known only by his alias Cobra. Sadly, the first game never made it's way to the Occidental part of the world and thus "Cobra II: The Legendary Bandit" got renamed "The Space Adventure". Luckily the storyline is self-contained and you are not required to play the first part to understand everything, even if some small references to the events a few years back are made in the beginning.

Lunatic Fantasy Review

Title: Lunatic Fantasy
Release date: 1992? (2012-05-18 in English)
Developer: Studio Light Cross
English publisher: Stardust Crusaders & Eien Ni Hen (as a fan-patch)
Platform: Sharp X68000

I just love emulation. I have played countless of games through ePSXe or Zsnes, but I admit that this is the first time for me when I tried to play an X68000 game.

Nichiei Taiyaku Deathtopia Review

Title: Nichiei Taiyaku Deathtopia
Original title: 日英対訳デストピア
Release date: 2001-02-09 (original version) / 2004-03-26 (dual language re-release)
Developer: Gaia & Vega
Publisher: Gaia

Oh, how I love in-house translations of eroge! They manage to invoke such unintentional comedy that I internally dubbed it Uwe Boll effect. "Deathtopia", on the other hand, is not hilarious but simply sad, as it is a fundamentally broken game.

Adrift Review

Title: Adrift
Release date: 2011-12-25
Developer: Tall Tales Productions
Publisher: Tall Tales Productions

At the moment I’m still squeezing the lifeblood from “Baldur’s Gate”, which I can’t seem to finish, so I decided to play a short VN I would be able to review on my blog in the meantime. And what would be a better choice than a futuristic sci-fi story set in an underwater amusement... er, the wrong game; I meant in an underwater city, where some terrible things have been happening recently.