Okay, I confess –- I’m on a bit of a Game Boy Advance kick. Ever since I got my hands on
a hot pink GBA micro, I’ve been itching to add a few more GBA titles to my collection. And, since we all know I’m a huge fan of otome games, it was only a matter of time before I acquired a GBA otome game.
Well, in the case of Angelique, I really should say the otome game. Angelique was originally released for the Super Famicom in 1994, and is generally regarded as the first dating sim title to be marketed specifically towards girls. Players assume the role of Angelique, a young girl who has been chosen as a candidate to become the next queen of the Cosmos. Becoming a queen isn’t easy, however –- Angelique must face off against her rival, Roselia, in a race to see who can populate their country the fastest. Both Angelique and Roselia can call upon the aid of nine elemental guardians to either increase their own country’s stats or inflict damage on their rival’s lands. The otome aspect comes from the fact that the nine guardians are hot men who are all potential love interests for Angelique and Roselia… The catch being, however, that if you choose love, you must forfeit your title as queen.
The GBA version is a direct port of the Super Famicom version, and a bare-bones one at that. There aren’t any additions whatsoever to this version, but that’s fine by me, as the portability is a great bonus and the box art, which totally screams 90s shōjo manga, is completely adorable.
I plan on doing a separate post about the gameplay, but for now I’d like to share some of the great illustrations in the game’s guide!
First up are a series of illustrations from the manual’s opening pages, which introduces the premise:
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| The art reminds me a lot of CLAMP’s early work! |
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| Incoming rival alert! |
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| Angelique and Roselia face the nine guardians/suitors |
It’s interesting to see the emphasis placed on quality illustrations inside the manual. Modern otome games have the technology to actually replicate manga/anime-style art in the games themselves, but the Super Famicom couldn’t really give the same effect, so the images in the manual really mimicked manga styles of the time.
Next up are a few guardian profiles. Each guardian has a specific element he resides over, which is generally reflected in their design and personalities.
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| Randy, the wind guardian |
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| Olivie, the dream guardian |
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| Traditional shōjo alien hands |
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| Closeup of Lumiale, the water guardian,’s profile |
Finally, here’s just one sample page of the instruction portion of the manual. Not quite as interesting as the above sections, as pretty much all of the pages look the same, but they’re very colorful and littered with screenshots and quaint illustrations.
Overall, I’d say it’s a pretty nice manual! In an upcoming post, I’ll talk about my first playthrough of the game (Ever! Can you believe it?). Do I choose to become queen, or elope with one my guardians? Stay tuned!
By the way, have I ever mentioned that I’m complete rubbish when it comes to making up titles for these posts? I probably would’ve had this posted days ago if it weren’t for the fact that I couldn’t come up with a witty title. I’ve toyed with the idea of doing something similar to The Gay Gamer’s Acquisition #123 series, but I don’t really plan on posting every time I get a new game… Any thoughts/suggestions? Leave them in the comments!
Well, I certainly love that you’re currently in love with the GBA, Anne. What a great system! The Micro, especially 🙂
As for this game: I’ve always been curious about the Angelique series, but I’ve stayed away from it so far because of the language barrier.
Anyway, I’m curious to learn more about the gameplay in this one. Are there RPG elements, or is it only a dating sim?
Oh, and I love the looks of the manual! Really nice illustrations 🙂
As for coming up with a name for this “series”: Hmmm, what about something that includes the work/phrase “pick-up” in it? Or something involving “manual,” if that’s the way you want to go?
You don’t have to post every time you get a new game, by the way. I don’t really do that myself, to be honest — I mostly just let folks know when I buy interesting games (imports especially).
Bryan – Yes, the micro is so much fun! I went down to Sydney for an extended weekend and it was the only system I brought… but I wasn’t disappointed! The only issue I have is that I do tend to put it a bit closer to my face than I do other handhelds, so I try not to play it for extended periods of time. But it’s definitely perfect for on-the-go, which is how a handheld should be!
It’s a shame none of the Angelique games never made it out of Japan. Apparently Koei mentioned a number of years ago that they were considering bringing one over if interest was great enough… But since nothing ever came of that I assume they deemed it wouldn’t be profitable.
Gameplay-wise, it’s a bit different from a normal dating sim, but there aren’t any RPG elements per say. In order to get your country populated, you need to go to one of the nine guardians every day and ask them to give you their power, and at the end of the day both you’ll watch the guardians bestow their energy on both your and Roselia’s country. At certain intervals, establishments related to the power of the guardian will be erected, which bring in more people and change the “disposition” of your country, the overall goal to being to reach a higher population than Roselia at the end of exam so that you can become Queen of the Cosmos (sounds nice!).
As you visit the various guardians, though, your affection levels with them also rise, which is where the dating sim elements come in. Once you get a guardian at a high enough affection level, they might randomly bestow their power on your country, which is a great way to boost your population (you only have a certain amount of energy yourself, so you can only ask one guardian a day for most of the game, but this is a way to get two or three guardians to give you power every day).
Then you have the option of hanging out with the guardian of your choice on your day off, and sometimes guardians will drop by your house for a visit and you have to decide whether or not you want to waste a day hanging out with them or if you want to decline their invitation and put more energy into building your country.
Sorry for the long-winded explanation – I hope that makes some sense! I’ll have pictures to go along with it in my upcoming gameplay post, so it should make more sense then. In terms of a dating sim, this one doesn’t have a lot of story, and it’s very easy to navigate. It’s also relatively short, and quite repetitive, so I think it would be a good choice for someone who doesn’t know Japanese but wants to give this sort of game a go (plus, you can always emulate it!).
Bryan – Oh, I almost forgot! Thanks so much for the title suggestions! I really like the phrase “pick-up.” I’ll try to come up with something catchy that involves that 🙂
Thanks for the explanation, Anne! It certainly sounds … interesting. I mean that both seriously and facetiously, actually. I can’t imagine playing it without knowing Japanese, though, as wouldn’t it be kind of boring as a result? Anyway, I look forward to seeing and learning more about it 🙂
I’ll try to come up with some nifty title suggestions for you this weekend, if you’d find that helpful. I’ve always loved that sort of thing, so it wouldn’t be a bother. What would you like the title to focus on, BTW — acquisitions/pick-ups? Manuals? Boxes? Something else entirely?
Bryan – Well, admittedly… it is a bit boring even when you know Japanese, haha. There’s very little story, and your interactions with the characters are pretty bland… Dates/outings consist of a few lines of dialogue and maybe a screen depicting the guy throwing a frisbee, or something. I wouldn’t call it riveting, that’s for sure!
I do get a huge kick out of the fact that when you’re at a certain affection level with a guardian, they’ll treat you to a couple of voiced lines whenever you see that character. The thing is, each character only has one sound clip… But man, I bet that was such a treat back in the day. Quite a big difference from today, where fully voiced otome games are the norm!
Hm, as for a theme… I’d like to focus on games that I’ve recently acquired… Maybe with a retro twist? I like posts like these where I show off the box and the manual, and I can’t see myself doing that for any modern titles, considering how bland the packaging is these days! Since I think the games I’ll be talking about will probably be lesser-known or Japanese-only, I’ll then have a follow-up post detailing the gameplay, or talking about my impressions… But not a review per say, just something so people can get an idea of what it’s like.
Thanks for taking the time to help me out! I really appreciate it! I’m horrible at titles.
Excuse me, I have something to ask you…
I’ve play the GBA version but in the end there only one option if you win is to become the queen, why I can’t find the option to stay with my lover?
Sorry for my bad english 🙁
Cun – Hello! Thanks for your comment.
Unfortunately I haven’t gotten to the end of my first playthrough yet, but I’m very close and will try to do so in the next day or two so I can get back to you with a concrete answer.
Perhaps you didn’t have a guardian at 200 affection at the very end? That or perhaps for some reason they took out the option to stay with your lover in the GBA version of the game!
Sorry I can’t be of more help, I’ll get back to you with a better answer soon.
Thank you for answer ^^
I’m 100% sure that I have a guardian at 200 affection, but still…maybe they really took out that option after all….
But thanks anyway :”D please let me know if you have any new information ^^
Cun – Sorry for taking so long to get back to you! I finally got to the end of my playthrough! I ended up with a guardian, but my character had to confess to him for me to get that ending. On the day off I went to see the guardian I was pursuing, and it gave me the option to “confess,” and that was how I got that ending. I’m not actually sure how you get the normal queen ending! Do you know what population your country has to reach? Perhaps if I play through to the end of the week, I will see that end.
Unfortunately I’m not exactly sure what you need to do to get a guardian ending. I tried going to another guardian I had 200 affection with, but I did not get their romantic ending, just a normal event. Perhaps whether or not you can have the good ending with a character depends on if you’ve done certain events with them over the course of the game?
I hope that helps a little!
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Thanks for the guide, thought I still didn’t see any “confess” option in the day off, just normal event like you say, even I already had 200 afection with him. :(( Well, maybe I need to try more…
If you want to get the normal queen ending, you just need to take the center point of two country first ( around 7000 population as I remember), must say It’s really easy ^^
Cun – It seems pretty confusing… I thought it was just a normal day, but then all of the sudden I had the option to confess to him! I do wonder if it has something to do with the amount of events you’ve seen with the character. In the case of Randy, which is who I got, I saw two separate special events for him before the confession. Not sure how they were triggered, though…
I’ll load up my last save and try for the normal queen ending, now! I only had about 5000 population for my romantic ending.
I wish I could help more! Sorry!
Hey, guess what! I just have my guardian ending, thanks to your advice ^^
It’s strange that I not go to see him but he came to see me instead, but It’s so great anyway :”D
Thank you again ^^
Here is my ending: http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p125/cun10294/love.png X”D
Cun – Yay! I’m so glad you got it! And what a nice image, too 😀 Are you going to try for any of the other guys?
Also, I see you’re playing on an emulator… Were you able to speed up the sequence at the end of the day when the different guardians give their power to you and Roselia? I played an actual copy of the game and that was always soooo slow, and there’s no way to skip it. Makes me a little adverse to playing it through again, unfortunately.
Oh by the way, my ending with Randy is at the end of this post: http://www.chicpixel.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/angelique-gba-gameplay-and-impressions.html
I think I’ll left Angelique for a while, since I try to get my ending in 2 long weeks ^^
Must say I always speed up that “power show” part haha X”D
Btw, nice picture ^^ He sure a sweet guy :”>