The Sakura blossom was a symbol of the Samurai representing how fleeting life is. They bloom breifly and wither away. The imagry of the fleeting blossom brings to mind tragic heroic figiures like Yamato Takeru, Minamoto no Kuro Yoshitsune, and of course the Shinsengumi; figures who shone brillantly and were cut down in the end. Hakuoki is a game that starts as the Shinsengumi reaches the peak of their glory and goes on to show their tragic fall.
So far i've only gottan game overs in Hakuoki, however, unlike in most games I've played where it only brings frustration, in Hakuoki i find them to be intresting and varied. Instead of saying oh game over and not giving you a conclusion of sorts you get an ending. Some beautifully tragic and satisfying, some tragic and leaving you feel empty and robbed, and some tragic and gruesome leaving you criging. The endings are varied and intresting depending on your choices.
Actually I have to say i find the endings more satisfying then some of the story itself which at times i found to be bland or cheesy in places. At times the game would skip months of time and give you a brief explanation which I'd have rather have had some interaction with. But for the most part I'm satisfied with the game. It's intresting to see how differently one choice you make can make the enitre game. It's intresting to see all sides of what happened to the Shinsengumi. And all the different options the heroine has for the future.
It's intresting how they take history and weave it with a supernatural theme. The next part will contain spoilers. The shinsengumi who as history knows were used and then eventually abanndoned by the Shogunate were pretty tragic. But in the game not only were they loyal samurai working to protext Kyoto for the Shogun but they were being experimented on using western medicine. So you have monsters amoung the shinsengumi, who are stornger, heal faster, and harder to kill. The only problem is that theirs bad side effects. First off they are sensitive to sunlight and secondly they slowly loose to the madness of bloodlust. The heroines father is the one who admistered the drugs to the men. RPG fan's review described them as Zombies in their review. But after playing I'd say I don't think they are quite zombies. They have a thirst for blood, silver injures them as well as holy weapons, and they have a weakness to the sun. Sounds more like vampires to me. In the game a man from the demon race, Kazama calls the Fury --as the men who were experimented on were called--fake demons.
Yes the Fury are not the only non-human players. The demon race are also a player. In fact the heroine is also not human but a pure blood demon. They don't like to get involved in human affairs but they were persicuted and some ended up helping on both sides. For revenge or to advance their own agendas. Depending on what path you take what happens with the Fury and Demons can vary in intresting ways.
The only problem with the game is the soundtrack as I mentioned before. The music is annoying and there isn't a lot of variation. The only reason not to just hit the mute button is the wonderful voice acting. Which is very very good. I just with the music was better.
Overall I think this is a good game. It has a lot of replay value since so many things are variable, though some key scenes remain intact you can have vastly different experiences each time you go through. Even though i haven't managed to get a good ending yet--I'm wondering exactly what a good ending is considering how most of the love intrests died historically as well as the fact that they furies have a vital weakness that doesn't seem to lend itsef to a happy ending. None-the-less if i had been looking for a happy ending I definetly wouldn't be playing a game about the Shinsengumi thats for certain. For the Shinsengumi were just like a Fleeting blossom. They bloomed and then faded away.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Hakuoki: Shinsengumi and Zombies oh my
So yesterday I recieved my copy of Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom limited edition. This is a Otome Visual Novel or the dating sim type. So basically its a game made for girls thats like those choose your own adventure books. This takes place in the Bakumatsu starting in the year 1854, so one year after the arrival of Commadore Perry in Japan. Since I know the history of the period--I did write my seinor thesis on the Bakumatsu--I have had no issues with understanding the time setting. Now for people who have never studied the time period the game has a nice little handy encyclopedia. As you go through the game you unlock entries and so you can save your game and go look at it in your leisure time.
Besides there being Zombies the history part looks good to me so far. The premise at the begining of a girl desgiesing herself as a boy and ending up with the shinsengumi reminds me a bit of the Kaze Hikaru manga. However, its also a bit reminisent of Peacemaker Kurogane. In a way its like Chizuru takes the place of Ichimura Tetsunosuke--who is an actual historical figure not just fiction--since shes told to be a page to Hijikata Toshio. However, her role is vastly different from the main charachters of both manga series i mentioned. We have a girl who is searching for her missing father who is a doctor. When in Kyoto she is accosted by some Ronin who want her kodachi. She is saved but only momentarily by some zombies who then attack her. Okita and Saito save her just in time but since shes a witness to some kind of secret they need to decide what to do with her. So thinking shes a boy they are planing to kill her, but on learning shes a girl and the daughter of the man they are looking for they decide to help her. They said her father was loyal to the Shogun and that he disappeared.
The story is very intresting. Even though you don't see any graphically violent images. The description of the fights and how the blade slices the bodies is enough to make you cringe. Plus theres a splat sound everytime you get to a part of the text where someone is cut down. I don't think the text is bad. Its a nice clear text. Its dark brown on a sandy colored background. The still images are very beautiful. Though most of the time unless theres a coversation your looking at just surrounding images, for instace a room, or a vauge crowded street. The music on the other hand is really lame. It's probably one of the worst game soundtracks i've heard in a while.
Some intresting features are that you can actually set it to auto advance the text. That way you can just sit back and rest your hands until you have to make a descison. This eliminates a lot of button pushing. Since the PSP isn't exaclty the most comfortable thing to hold this is a great option.
So I did get the limited edition. The artbook is defintely one of the better ones I've gottan. Its soft cover, but compared to Atllier Totori, whose art book was tiny and you couldn't read the text, this one is far supiror. its much thicker and a bit larger then totoris. Actually its thicker then the one that came with the Limited edition for FFXIII-2, and Fate/Extra as well. Though i have no complaints about FFXIII-2 and Fate/Extra's limited editions. The soundtrack on the other hand didn't even come in a hard cover. It came in a paper slip cover. No soundtrack art, no soundtrack listings just a plain white paper slip cover with a clear plastic window so you can see the cd. The Cd itself has an intresting image on it, but the presentaion and storage of the Cd was a bit disapointing. It's like they put all the work into the art book and the OST was a side thought. Not that the music is all that great to begin with.
Overall, I think this game is great so far. I'm looking forward to getting the multiple endings and seeing how the Zombies tie into the story. And yup I'm aiming for Hijikata.
edit:
Egad! Yesterday since I was sick I took some codine cough syrup and I misread the date on the game. My brain went on vacation since I was so tierd. I should have realized the date was off since that was way too early for the shinsengumi to have even been formed. But the game takes place in 1864 which is 11 years after the arrival of Commodore Perry. Ok now its time to take some more medicine.
Besides there being Zombies the history part looks good to me so far. The premise at the begining of a girl desgiesing herself as a boy and ending up with the shinsengumi reminds me a bit of the Kaze Hikaru manga. However, its also a bit reminisent of Peacemaker Kurogane. In a way its like Chizuru takes the place of Ichimura Tetsunosuke--who is an actual historical figure not just fiction--since shes told to be a page to Hijikata Toshio. However, her role is vastly different from the main charachters of both manga series i mentioned. We have a girl who is searching for her missing father who is a doctor. When in Kyoto she is accosted by some Ronin who want her kodachi. She is saved but only momentarily by some zombies who then attack her. Okita and Saito save her just in time but since shes a witness to some kind of secret they need to decide what to do with her. So thinking shes a boy they are planing to kill her, but on learning shes a girl and the daughter of the man they are looking for they decide to help her. They said her father was loyal to the Shogun and that he disappeared.
The story is very intresting. Even though you don't see any graphically violent images. The description of the fights and how the blade slices the bodies is enough to make you cringe. Plus theres a splat sound everytime you get to a part of the text where someone is cut down. I don't think the text is bad. Its a nice clear text. Its dark brown on a sandy colored background. The still images are very beautiful. Though most of the time unless theres a coversation your looking at just surrounding images, for instace a room, or a vauge crowded street. The music on the other hand is really lame. It's probably one of the worst game soundtracks i've heard in a while.
Some intresting features are that you can actually set it to auto advance the text. That way you can just sit back and rest your hands until you have to make a descison. This eliminates a lot of button pushing. Since the PSP isn't exaclty the most comfortable thing to hold this is a great option.
So I did get the limited edition. The artbook is defintely one of the better ones I've gottan. Its soft cover, but compared to Atllier Totori, whose art book was tiny and you couldn't read the text, this one is far supiror. its much thicker and a bit larger then totoris. Actually its thicker then the one that came with the Limited edition for FFXIII-2, and Fate/Extra as well. Though i have no complaints about FFXIII-2 and Fate/Extra's limited editions. The soundtrack on the other hand didn't even come in a hard cover. It came in a paper slip cover. No soundtrack art, no soundtrack listings just a plain white paper slip cover with a clear plastic window so you can see the cd. The Cd itself has an intresting image on it, but the presentaion and storage of the Cd was a bit disapointing. It's like they put all the work into the art book and the OST was a side thought. Not that the music is all that great to begin with.
Overall, I think this game is great so far. I'm looking forward to getting the multiple endings and seeing how the Zombies tie into the story. And yup I'm aiming for Hijikata.
edit:
Egad! Yesterday since I was sick I took some codine cough syrup and I misread the date on the game. My brain went on vacation since I was so tierd. I should have realized the date was off since that was way too early for the shinsengumi to have even been formed. But the game takes place in 1864 which is 11 years after the arrival of Commodore Perry. Ok now its time to take some more medicine.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Final Fantasy XIII-2: that moogle is uber cute
So anyone who played Final Fantasy XIII knows how anoying it was. Heck no deviation from the path, no NPC's, crappy battle system, and no towns or shops or whatever to explore until after like 50 hours of game play and then its just a dead world. Luckily I liked the story enough that I didn't find it a total waste of time. Though the scoreing on the battle system was really disheartening heh.
I purchased the Collectors edition of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Its really beautiful. It has a nice hard slip cover, and the hard covered booklet folds out. One side has the game, surprizingly the Xbox 360 version is one disk. Considering the first game was 4 disk I was very surprized. There is a pocket on the game disk side for game information. Then in the middle is the artbook with concept art. The print quality is really nice. Then the last section that folds out has the four disk sound track. And the music is really good as expected of a final fantasy game the sound track is beautiful. It has to be the nicest special edition game I've bought so far.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a big improvement. You get NPC's to talk to. The battle system is still the annoying paradim shift thing but its been tweeked. You have more freedom of movement instead of beening herded along the railroad track. So you can go back and forth to times you've been before as well as side quest missions you can pick up from the begining. I like how you have the option to make the text bigger. Plus theres a section called the beginers guide which tells the whole stroy from the first game. Also when you continue from a saved game file it starts out like some tv show "the story so far . . ." and theres a breif explanation and some action scenes. I see this as a great feature for those time when you get annoyed and put a game aside for 2 months to play something else and then you come back and know whats happening still. Unfortunately there is no bonus from having a saved completed FFXIII game to carry over the hard work from the first game. But I don't really thing the normal mode is all that hard really. One intresting thing is the cinimatic actions. Where you push the buttons to make the scene go a certain way in a battle scene. Or where you can determine the conversation, it gives you a bit more control.
One thing to remeber is there are no save points really. You can save in the time gate, you have auto save, and you can save in the start menu when you pause in a lot of places even in the middle of a dungeon. So unlike in the first game you have lots of places to save.
Now the story takes place 3 years after the end of the last game. However, things are strange. No one remebers that Lighting was with them at the end and even gave her blessings to Serah and Snow to get married. Everyone thinks that she also along with Vanille and Fang is holding up Cacoon. Only Serah remebers. She has a vision of Lighting fighting Caias is Valhara and of Noel meeting her and being sent to her. And it turns out its real. Noel is a time traveler from the future, where he's the last living human and he travels back in time inorder to change that fate. On meeting Lightning she sends him to fetch Serah who will help him. So basically its lots of time travel. heh.
Its intresting how its all tied together, plus you get to revist places that you see in the last game. I'm only about 6 hours in. So far I really think its intresting. Though i had some trouble reading some of the text in the menu even though I now have a 32 inch HDTV as oppssed to the 26 inch ancient thing I used to have. I couldn't read the menus at all on that thing. But on my new tv some of its hard to read still. I'm really liking this much more then the first game so far. Once I finish i'll give my final impressions. For now I'm going to play and enjoy the beautiful world and the cute bishonen Noel.
I purchased the Collectors edition of Final Fantasy XIII-2. Its really beautiful. It has a nice hard slip cover, and the hard covered booklet folds out. One side has the game, surprizingly the Xbox 360 version is one disk. Considering the first game was 4 disk I was very surprized. There is a pocket on the game disk side for game information. Then in the middle is the artbook with concept art. The print quality is really nice. Then the last section that folds out has the four disk sound track. And the music is really good as expected of a final fantasy game the sound track is beautiful. It has to be the nicest special edition game I've bought so far.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a big improvement. You get NPC's to talk to. The battle system is still the annoying paradim shift thing but its been tweeked. You have more freedom of movement instead of beening herded along the railroad track. So you can go back and forth to times you've been before as well as side quest missions you can pick up from the begining. I like how you have the option to make the text bigger. Plus theres a section called the beginers guide which tells the whole stroy from the first game. Also when you continue from a saved game file it starts out like some tv show "the story so far . . ." and theres a breif explanation and some action scenes. I see this as a great feature for those time when you get annoyed and put a game aside for 2 months to play something else and then you come back and know whats happening still. Unfortunately there is no bonus from having a saved completed FFXIII game to carry over the hard work from the first game. But I don't really thing the normal mode is all that hard really. One intresting thing is the cinimatic actions. Where you push the buttons to make the scene go a certain way in a battle scene. Or where you can determine the conversation, it gives you a bit more control.
One thing to remeber is there are no save points really. You can save in the time gate, you have auto save, and you can save in the start menu when you pause in a lot of places even in the middle of a dungeon. So unlike in the first game you have lots of places to save.
Now the story takes place 3 years after the end of the last game. However, things are strange. No one remebers that Lighting was with them at the end and even gave her blessings to Serah and Snow to get married. Everyone thinks that she also along with Vanille and Fang is holding up Cacoon. Only Serah remebers. She has a vision of Lighting fighting Caias is Valhara and of Noel meeting her and being sent to her. And it turns out its real. Noel is a time traveler from the future, where he's the last living human and he travels back in time inorder to change that fate. On meeting Lightning she sends him to fetch Serah who will help him. So basically its lots of time travel. heh.
Its intresting how its all tied together, plus you get to revist places that you see in the last game. I'm only about 6 hours in. So far I really think its intresting. Though i had some trouble reading some of the text in the menu even though I now have a 32 inch HDTV as oppssed to the 26 inch ancient thing I used to have. I couldn't read the menus at all on that thing. But on my new tv some of its hard to read still. I'm really liking this much more then the first game so far. Once I finish i'll give my final impressions. For now I'm going to play and enjoy the beautiful world and the cute bishonen Noel.
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