What kind of game am I playing? Or, things that creep me out about Atelier Rorona

I had a lovely, in-depth post all ready to go about my impressions of Atelier Rorona so far, but since it was such a meaty piece I decided to hold onto it and develop it into a full-fledged review for www.videogamewriters.com. I’ll probably chop it down and do a shorter version for this blog later in the week, after I’ve played a bit more of the game (I’m about 1/3 of the way through at the moment).

Nevertheless, I have quite a few things I could say about Atelier Rorona, so I don’t really see the harm in making two posts about it! I thought I’d share with you all some of the weird stuff I’ve come across in the game so far. Before you read on, keep in mind that I am seriously enjoying this game, so while the following quibbles may bug/slightly disgust me, it certainly isn’t detracting from me having more than a little fun synthesizing item upon item and meeting all the request deadlines.

First thing’s first, here’s a quick rundown of the game: Atelier Rorona follows Rorona, an apprentice alchemist under a woman named Astrid at a workshop in the kingdom of Arland. The king of Arland has decreed that unless Astrid can complete 12 assignments given to her over the course of 3 years, the workshop will be shut down. Astrid, being more interested in napping than doing anything the king asks of her, passes the task on to Rorona. Right now I’m just over a year in, and the combination of expertly-voiced story sequences, adorable artwork, catchy music, countless items to synthesize and requests to fulfill is definitely keeping me busy.

Creepy observation #1: It’s more than a little obvious that this game caters towards a certain type of male-dominated Japanese nerd culture, and I was well aware of this when I started playing the game. What I didn’t know is how much creepy innuendo was going to be a part of the game’s humor! A lot of the story features older women more or less hitting on Rorona, and while I know that’s a cultural thing to a degree (nothing wrong with a 20-something woman calling a 14-year-old girl cute, I guess), sometimes it gets a bit out of hand. Alright, ok, I know what I was getting myself into, so I won’t say much more about this (to each his/her own), but how about: 

Creepy observation #2: Some of the female characters are more than a little well-endowed for their age. I usually file these observations in the back drawer, except for when those in charge of the character models deem it appropriate to animate one of said character’s bobbing breasts even when she is standing still. Good thing for me I don’t really like said character very much and as such will probably not make her a member of my party very often, but seeing her undulating chest in every single battle is as much a turn-off for me as any.

The character in question, Lionela, is a traveling performer.
I guess I’m not the only one who noticed how her breasts seem to have minds of their own (cute cats, though)

Creepy observation #3: I’ve saved you the best for last. Last night when I was playing, I was happily introduced to my new workshop assistant, who was created for Rorona by Astrid using alchemy. Ever-curious and eager to learn, Rorona does some research into the recipe that was used to create Hom, the homunculus assistant. Ingredients include horse droppings… And in the case that horse droppings aren’t available, the use of human semen is said to also be possible. Let me reiterate that for you. The recipe that was used to create Rorona’s assistant calls for horse droppings and human semen. Just what sort of game is this?!?

Depending on how you answer Astrid when she asks you whether you’d like a little brother or a little sister, you can have either a female or male version of Hom, the horse-poo-infused assistant. I answered “sister,” but after seeing the two designs, I wish I had ended up with the male one!

 Even though I’m enjoying poking fun at the game, I’m honestly having even more fun playing it. It’s just the right recipe of pretty visuals, lighthearted story, and engrossing gameplay for me, and these weird, uh, quirks make it all the more the odd yet engrossing experience. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the end of my creepy observations, though… I’ve still got 2 years of game time to go!

Tutorial: How to make a Japanese iTunes Account to Download Free Apps

Hey there! I recently completely revamped this guide for 2015. You can head over to the new version by clicking on this text. You won’t be disappointed!

To start, open the iTunes store on your computer. Once it’s loaded, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the flag displaying your current regional settings on the right (mine is currently USA).

2.     A list of countries will appear, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Japanese flag at the bottom left to access the Japanese store.
3.     You will now be in the Japanese iTunes store. Before creating an account, you need to select the FREE app you want. Here I downloaded ポケモン言えTAP? 
4.     Pokemon Ie Tap? should appear in the search results. Click on the “free” button to be prompted to make a Japanese iTunes account.
5.     Click on “Create new account.” Then select “continue.”
6.     At the top of the page it will say: “If your billing address is not in Japan, click here.” Disregard this, as you will not be entering your credit card details and do not need to provide an address.
7.     Agree to the terms and select “continue.”
8.     Fill out your personal details and select “continue.” If you already have an iTunes account for your current region of residence, you will need to use a different email address when creating a Japanese account.
9.     For “Credit Card,” select “none.” If the “none” option doesn’t appear, that means you’ve made a mistake somewhere along the way­–you probably didn’t select Pokemon Ie Tap? in the iTunes app store. Remember, you need to have started from a free app in order for the “none” selection to appear.
10. You’ll have to enter an address, so use your Google-fu to look up a legitimate Japanese zip code (example: 100-8994). The rest of the address can be made up, as you won’t be using it. For your phone number, you must also come up with a legitimate-looking number. One possible area code is 03 and then the following number should look like this: xxxx-xxxx.
Note: For Phonetic First and Phonetic Last, you can just reenter your name. This is for Japanese kanji where there can be more than one potential reading for the same characters
11. Click “continue,” and if you have entered the address correctly, you will be met with a screen telling you to verify your Apple ID by checking the email address you provided at the beginning.
12. You should have received an email from Apple. The subject will be in Japanese but will begin with the words “Apple ID.” Open the email, and click the link highlighted in the image below to verify your account.
13. You will be directed to a page where you need to sign in using your email address and password. Click in the blue button after you have done so.
14. A green check mark with text will appear. Click the blue button to return to the iTunes store. If iTunes doesn’t open automatically, go ahead and access the store in iTunes yourself, and sign in by clicking “Sign In” at the top right corner.
      Congratulations, you now have a Japanese iTunes account! Now you’ll need to find the app you want again to download it. Paste the title into the search bar one more time. Once it comes up, all you need to do is click on it to be prompted to enter your password and start the download! Try all different types of searches to unearth some fun and quirky free Japanese apps! Enjoy!

Japan Envy: Monster Hunter Diary G Orange Juice

This may or may not turn into an ongoing thing, but I know a lot of bloggers out there have themed posts, so I’m going to try my hand with a series called “Japan Envy” to compile all the things that make me wish I was living in Japan. Otherwise this would just be a “hey look at this cute orange juice bottle” post (which it basically is, but I can get away with it now that I say I’m going to do it as a regular series).

Monster Hunter Diary G, aka Monhon Nikki Poka Poka Airuu Mori G, is an adorable Animal Crossing-esque Monster Hunter spin-off game featuring chibi versions of the game’s mascot, Felyne (known as Airuu in Japanese). Now, I’ve never played a Monster Hunter game, nor have I played the original Monster Hunter Diary, but I am super-duper excited about Monster Hunter Diary G‘s August release. Seeing this gets me even more excited:

source

That, my friends, is Felyne orange juice. Feast your eyes on that adorable packaging! What I wouldn’t give to be in Japan right now so I could drink cold orange juice out of a Felyne-adorned can. Now, I don’t know anything about this brand Bireley’s, but from the looks of things it appears to be regular old orange juice to me.

So, in all honesty, I could care less whether Monster Hunter Diary G is a quality game or not. I mean, I’m sure I’ll get much enjoyment out of it so long as it’s not horribly misguided. But regardless of gameplay, if it inspires adorable orange juice bottles and does crossovers with My Melody, well then by golly, it deserves my attention!

Japanese visual kei bands sing Disney songs for new album?

Yesterday, I was privy to some surprising, and slightly disturbing, news. For those of you who are unaware, ‘visual kei’ is a specific type of Japanese rock music that is characterized by the fashion the band members wear. Musically, they often sound something like a mix of glam rock, punk, and metal (thanks Wikipedia!), but more than the music itself, visual kei is defined by the flamboyant clothing, makeup, and stage personas of the members. I myself have my roots in visual kei–I appreciate the style and a number of bands that define themselves as visual kei, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m a huge, die-hard fan of the movement. My tastes run more along the lines of a certain band called Buck-Tick (a band that is actually credited as being one of the founders of the visual kei movement, but I digress).

Suffice it to say, when I heard that Disney was going to release an album called “V-ROCK Disney” in Japan, I was shocked. Disney songs sung by… visual kei bands? Alright, Japan, you’ve come up with a lot of wacky Disney crossovers that were almost universally panned when they were first announced (Kingdom Hearts, I’m looking at you), but this might be taking it a step too far. Here’s a couple of images to help illustrate Disney x visual kei for you all:

 The members of this band, Nightmare, will be singing…

 … “A Friend like Me” from Aladdin? 
Of course you can’t get a proper idea of what kind of music Nightmare does from an image, so here’s one of their more popular songs for your consideration:
Don’t get me wrong, I actually love this song (you may recognize it as the opening theme to the anime Death Note), but when I think about them doing a cover of an Aladdin song… I don’t know what to say about that. 
For anyone like myself who has a morbid curiosity in this CD, it will be released in Japan on September 7th, and shops such as CD Japan will probably stock it in the future for international buyers (it’s not listed yet, however). You can also see a full track list and bands it will feature at this Tokyo Hive article. 

Otome Game Primer

As a follow-up to my previous post on boys’ love games, I thought I’d dedicate this post to one of my favorite game genres: otome games! One of the most famous Japanese otome games, Hakuoki, is getting an English localization, and will be released in the US for the PSP sometime during quarter one 2012, so there’s never been a better time to get into the genre! For someone who never thought otome games would ever get translated, this is awesome news.

So, what are otome games? Broadly, otome games are romance, or dating, simulation games that cater towards a female audience. In these games, you control the actions of the main character, who is always female, as she navigates through the game’s narrative, making decisions along the way that will ultimately decide which male suitor she will end up with at the end of the game. If you read my BL article, the gameplay in most otome games is often very similar, but the relationships that form the plot are heterosexual, rather than homosexual.

While many otome games tend towards the visual novel side of things, with lots of text and few options to change the course of the narrative, some have more simulation elements, such as stat raising. The Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side games excel in that they provide more engagement than their visual novel counterparts, which is why I own not one but two of them for the DS. They also have a unique feature called “skinship” where you utilize the touch screen to interact with the various male characters–different types of touches in different locations (get your mind out of the gutter, this game is PG!) will elicit various reactions depending on the guy’s personality, which can be quite a bit of fun.

While unfortunately BL games seem to be neglected when it comes to English releases, otome games are slowly gaining ground. Besides the wonderful news that an official Japanese otome game will be getting a localization, there are a few independently-developed indie English otome games. One such game is called X-Note, and you can even try a demo of it on the site to get a feel of what to expect with otome games in general. It notably lacks voice acting, which provides much of the charm of the male suitors in Japanse otome games, but otherwise it seems like a very solid game with nice artwork, and at the very fine price point of only $15, anyone who has an interest in otome games should definitely consider checking it out. What’s even more impressive is that the game was created by a team of only two people! Wow!

X-note screenshot

There’s a Japanese otome game available for the iPad and iPhone as well, and it includes not only an English translation but the ability to switch between the two. This one’s only $3.99, but unfortunately I don’t have a device that can play it, so I can’t give it a try. If anyone does check it out, let me know what you think!

Heian Love for iOS

I could go on and on, but I think I’ll have to leave things here for now. Atelier Rorona, my new gaming obsession, is calling me! If you have anything in particular you’d like to know about otome or BL games that you’d like me to cover in a future post, let me know in the comments!

Introduction to Boys’ Love Games

 

I could spend a whole entry (or entries, even) explaining what boys’ love, or BL, is, but for the purpose of keeping things short I’ll provide a simple explanation: BL/yaoi/shonen-ai is a sub-genre of Japanese manga, written by women for women, that focuses on the romantic and often sexual relationships between men. The genre has expanded to games, and since I feel in the mood to talk about BL games (thanks to The Gay Gamer, who inspires many of my posts these days), that’s what I’ll be covering today. This is by no means a definitive guide or anything, I’m just getting things started.

Have you ever heard of the genre of games called “dating simulation”? If you haven’t, it’s because they are virtually non-existent in the west, due to presumed lack of interest, I would believe. They’re very popular in Japan, though, with names like Love Plus for the DS garnering all sorts of international news coverage for spurring some men to do various amusing public proclamations of their love for the game such as marrying their virtual girlfriends.

Well, just as there are dating sims for heterosexual men, so are there dating sims for women (bet you didn’t know that). Not only are there games for girls where you control a female avatar as you try to win over the love of the man of your choice, but there are also games where the main character is male. These are BL games.

Most BL characters could easily be mistaken for girls.

Most BL games are relatively explicit in nature, and are thus limited to PC-only releases due to the strict ratings system for game consoles. Nevertheless, there are a few tame BL games available for consoles, mostly the PS2 and PSP (yes, they still make plenty of PS2 games in Japan).

Perhaps the most popular BL game developer is Nitro+chiral, with titles like Lamento and Togainu no Chi garnering tons of fans in Japan. You can find censored versions of Togainu no Chi on the PSP and PS2, but Lamento (see first image) is too explicit to port, so it remains PC-only.

But never fear! There are, well, two English BL games (I was convinced there were more but as of writing this I did a 30 minute Google search and couldn’t find anything else). Absolute Obedience for the PC is one, and in my opinion, the better-looking of the two. JAST USA, the company behind the localization, is also behind the first BL game commercially available in English, Enzai. Sadly, though the company has since localized quite a number of male-oriented eroge (“erotic games”), these two titles remain the only BL they’ve released so far.

BL games are, on the whole, visual-novel style, meaning you’ll mostly be reading through dialogue and textual descriptions, occasionally being prompted to make a choice, and then for all your efforts you’ll be treated to a number of lovely CGs along the way. Characters are, on the whole, fully-voiced, and voice actors play a significant part in the popularity of the games themselves in Japan. Each game features numerous potential partners for you to choose from, some varying in difficulty as to how tough they’ll be to “get.”

In closing, I’ll confess that I’ve never really played a BL game. Sure, I know a lot about them, and I own the PS2 version of Togainu no Chi, but I haven’t played a significant amount of it. I have played the heterosexual, or otome, counterpart to BL games, where you play a female avatar who is out to find herself a male partner, simply because I quickly tire of visual novels. When I play a game, there is only so much reading I want to do! Otome games are much more interactive, for whatever reason, and offer various stat-maxing options and mini-games to keep you interested enough to play them through until the end. But I’ll save that for another post! Here, have some Togainu no Chi! Let me know who you’d go for if you were to give it a play.

Who would you pick? (image courtesy of NCSX)

Slow Monday

Today literally was slow! I made my first stew, an Irish lamb stew from Frankie magazine, which was quite simple, took 3+ hours to cook, and tastes pretty good! Not that I have many stews in my repertoire to compare it to, but it’s a start. Ok, now that I’ve got that bad pun out of the way…

In gaming news, I finally updated the eShop and downloaded my free copy of Excitebike as well as the 3D Pokedex. I’ll admit, I wasn’t that excited for Pokedex 3D (I’d rather play an actual Pokemon game then just look at 3D models of them), but I’m all for free things, so I couldn’t pass it up without checking it out. Excitebike, on the other hand, was exciting and new for me (ok, I couldn’t help it), as I’ve never played the original before. And after fooling around with it for a few minutes, I’ve gotta say, it’s quite difficult! I don’t really understand the mechanics yet, so I either go horribly slow and get bored or try to go too fast and just end up crashing and then cursing at myself for having to wait to go again.

Have you heard about the lack of a save file delete/reset option in Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D? This is another shameless plug, but just today I wrote a pretty in-depth post at VGW if you’d like to read more about it. Basically, though, as a way to combat used-game sales, Capcom decided to give players only one save file, which cannot be erased or reset, so you can only play through the game from scratch once. I personally think this is a horrible decision and will definitely deter me from buying the game in the future (though I admit I wasn’t particularly leaning towards a purchase in the first place), but what do you all think? I know used game sales can hurt the developers and publishers, but you shouldn’t punish consumers, and rather reward them to provide incentives to buy new games, such as exclusive DLC, etc.

In other news, Shaun and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2 over the weekend. I enjoyed the original well enough, but wasn’t going to see the sequel except I kept hearing rave reviews right and left that assured me it was actually better than the original. Story-wise, I’m not so sure I’m convinced it was better, but the animation was so beautiful I didn’t really care. Give me fuzzy computer animals and a peacock villain voiced by Gary Oldman and I will go home a happy woman. The fight scenes with Lord Shen, the aforementioned main villain, were mesmerizing. If you want to see some gorgeous animation, then definitely consider seeing this on the big screen (I didn’t see it in 3D so I can’t comment on that), but otherwise you may want to wait for a rental or skip it altogether.