Review: Hinatabokko

Your friendly gamerhood, TheNationMaker with another review for Your Very Own Gaming Bro. While Kayjee is still contemplating with what to review, I present thee another review of my own.

Now don’t get me wrong on my sudden taste of this game. I’m taking you on a tour about a PC game called… Hinatabokko.


*SPOILER WARNING*

Taking a look at the mainstay eroges which I am forbidden into playing, I managed to snatch up and download myself a rare eroge with a simply-put decent storyline with a sense of Slice-Of-Life. Yes, I adore those kinds of anime and manga; even in things such as this. No rape, no cheating, no murder, no tentacles, no bondage, no S&M, no bestiality, just simple straight-forward relationshipping between the main hero and the heroine so-the-player-chooses.

Going straight to gameplay because nothing much is said; for a typical eroge hentai game is a simple click of a button to advance to the next slide of the story as you progress. And at times when you come across a point where you are given options for what the hero should pick, it determines the path of the certain girl you wish to choose.

I’m excited that this is probably my first ever eroge hentai game I could get my hands on since I might never get anything like this in my local store, or maybe downloadable on the net. To be given an idea how it usually plays like, I’ve gone through the whole game of each girl in general and finally review it.

The Story So Far

We find ourselves seeing a young man named Natsuki Hayami, a college student who lives with his sister Koharu. In a state of confusion that he and his sister are supposed to move out of their home during a renovation, he stumbles upon his former teacher Hinata Hiiragi. Wishing to rekindle his feelings for his teacher, he accepted the offer to work at her café, as well as accepting the offer to live with her. In a new life where he and his sister now live next to the Hiiragi family while living in a room a floor above a café, our love-driven hero contemplates on who he should go out with. His former teacher Hinata Hiiragi, his former teacher’s sexy sister Natsuki Hiiragi, his step-sister Koharu Hayami, his closest friend Koori Kujou, his aikido friend Suzuno Kisaragi, or maybe go gay with his best friend Shizuma Kisaragi?

In a fun fact, Hinatabokko means “Which Girl Should I Choose” and somehow has the main heroine Hinata matching the title’s name. In another instance, the main hero Natsuki also matches with Hinata’s sister Natsuki. And in another instance the café that the Hiiragi sisters own called “Koharu Biyori” also matches with our main hero’s sister Koharu. Name issues much? One could wonder.

The Characters

Natsuki Hayami – The main hero who wounded up in a situation of finding work and a place to live as his home in going under renovation. He has two good friends and a sister of that matter, and usually it’s like he has a more sincere, serious and decent personality altogether. His face is seen in some parts of the game, but it’s a good idea how he should look like. He kinda looks like Makoto from School Days but I really liked him because of the whole decency he has. Besides, F*CK MAKOTO, F*CK SEKAI, F*CK SCHOOL DAYS, Natsuki's a perfectly sane guy. I grew to like him.

“Huh? Hayami-kun?”

Hinata Hiiragi – The main heroine and title character of the game. A former teacher of our main hero who now works at a café called the “Koharu Biyori”. You see her pretty face more like a teenager, but she is older than looks itself. She’s mature in every way and does her job in all of her hard work. Should Natsuki decide to rekindle his relationship with Hinata, it sure as hell crosses teacher/student relationship but both can acknowledge their feelings for each other.

“Sooooo, you’re Natsuki too, huh?"

Natsuki Hiiragi – Hinata’s twin younger sister. A typical flirt, and in actuality is struggling herself into writing a novel. She supports her sister in whatever way she can since she too used to make coffee before. Should Natzuki choose her, she first gives him advice of coffee-making, then she becomes more open to become closer to him.

“Eating my sandwich~!”

Koharu Hayami – Natsuki’s child-acting younger sister out of the blue hair of it all. In actuality she is Natsuki’s step-sister, from which Natsuki was adopted into the Hayami family. After both their parents died in an accident, she’s been close to her step-brother like an actual one, even calling him “Natsu-nii”. Should Natsuki choose her, Koharu wanted to be close to him but at a lost about their blood-relative issues. It all ends well as Natsuki accepts her feelings.

“Sleeping again, Natsuki? Geez…”

Koori Kujou – Natsuki’s friend. Tomboyish and freely-open in some terms. The other thing is her being tsundere on Natsuki and violently punching him in the gut onto some screw-up he did. Secretly she works at a restaurant and couldn’t let anyone know about it. Should Natsuki choose her, Koori will reveal that she had a crush on him even through from those bad times she had with him, and yeah, Natsuki accepts her for that.

“Nii-sama…”

Suzuno Kisaragi – Natsuki’s childhood friend and Koharu’s classmate. She and her older brother Shizuma currently work in an aikido dojo which previously owned by their grandfather. Kind-hearted in terms of personality, and in the oddest reason calls Natsuki “Nii-sama” by honor due to her fondness over him. Typically stern towards Shizuma however. Should Natsuki choose her, Natsuki visits the dojo to train himself while getting close to her. And Suzuno would confess her feelings to him based on a long time promise.

“Heh, can’t you tell by my looks?”

Shizuma Kisaragi – Natsuki’s other friend and Suzuno's older brother. A tall blondie-cutey with a nice chest and somewhat wise figure among Natsuki and Koori. There is a yaoi route for those who wanna see Natsuki and Shizuma together… By god I went through that route. I was scarred for life… NAH I’M JUST KIDDING! Should Natsuki choose him, you’ll realize HE was a SHE. Apparently she was hiding her gender because of something.

Koori, you never cease to amaze me.

Overview

As far as graphics of this game are concerned, it shows decent background of some various houses, streets, shops, and probably other background stuff which you walk on the roads on. Each of them can go up to morning/afternoon, sunset, nighttime and that’s about what I can mention; usually I should think it gives the feel how time usually passes as some certain stories progress through. Music is rather redundant as it mixes with some scene such as normal-life, comedic moments and of course the dramatic moments. There’s even one track that has vocals which move me a bit. Voice acting from the seiyuus are interesting in variety if you enjoy the glorious sounds of their cute voices; hearing some exotic mature voices to childish voices and sometimes nasal voices. Overall they tell the personalities of each of the girls.

Understandably that the most canonical ending to me would have to be the one with Hinata Hiiragi, to the fact that in that route shows a more detailing relationship between Natsuki and Hinata on how he yearns for her and her returning his feelings despite a teacher/student complex. However it’s not the kind of couple I wanted. In favor of which girl to choose from, I think it would be Suzuno. Sure she sounds innocent, young and timid yet mature and reasonable at the same time, and one plus factor is that she does aikido. Forgot to mention she has the tendency to calling out Nii-sama everytime, beating that from Natsuki’s step-sister Koharu calling him Natsu-nii. Complexes, complexes...

To me, this feels like a fairly decent eroge with a nice range of hentai bits of pure sexual content. At least it gives me an idea how something like this operates. Having the contents of a simple slice-of-life, I claim this to be one of my favorites for safe keeping. What's really impressive is that it does not feature in any bad endings as far as this is concerned, so I'm just happy about it.

My rating for Hinatabokko: 7/10

9-10: GYEAHHH!
7-8: Pretty good
5-6: Should’ve been better
3-4: Good for a laugh
1-2: Waste of a PC game
0: What has gaming come to?

Review: Dissidia Duodecim

Again filling in for the gaming bro is his cousin, TheNationMaker. Today we take another PSP game review on Dissidia 012: Duodecim Final Fantasy... In which I like to call it Dissidia Duodecim.

*SPOILER WARNING*

You might wonder, with a completely new cast of characters ranging everything from the first NES Final Fantasy to the current Final Fantasy XIII on the Playstation 3, would you ever think they’d all come together and kill each other in M.U.G.E.N style fighting? That’s what you get when Square Enix released Dissidia Final Fantasy, exclusively for the Playstation Portable. Why? We have yet to find out. But as we play it anyhow, we slowly start to feel that the game has an interesting storyline, you can level up your favorite hero or villain to an extent, and possibly rack up more than you can get your hands on and challenge online friends to matches.

Dissidia features a 20-man cast of characters, 10 for heroes and 10 for villains, as they battle each other in an epic struggle for good versus evil. As you can progress, you can also gain access to 2 additional characters to play as, both hero and villain respectively. Having to the addition to Dissidia Duodecim, they add in 6 extra heroes not just to even out some odds, but they serve a purpose to the prologue of the first installment. AND NO it does not stand as another game itself, it’s an add-on of combining both stories; Meaning you’re busy going through the prologue of the story first, then playing the main game itself as if you’re playing the first one EXCEPT there are new features that keep you on your toes filled with excitement.

Terra, a Warrior of Chaos. Why you ask?

The Story So Far

Running down through the storyline first and gameplay later on. The whole story of Dissidia Duodecim picks off where there are a number of cycles of war where Warriors of Cosmos and Warriors of Chaos; for the gods of harmony and discord, Cosmos and Chaos respectively, are in struggle for supremacy to determine the victor. As Duodecim stands, it has its 012, which means you get to see the 12^th cycle of the war, where Lightning, Vaan, Kain, Tifa, Laguna and Yuna all gather together to stop the threat of your everyday generic enemies called “manikins” as throughout the course of the game, meet other heroes and villains of the game, and also revealing Terra still under the influence of Kefka, Cloud who apparently ended up on the forces of Chaos, and Tidus being a brainwashed ass as he still wants to settle the score with his father Jecht. It all comes down to Lightning and company as they fight their way through until they gave up their lives ending the 12^th cycle, and beginning the 13^th cycle of war. Sadly put, they’re never seen again after that.

Now the story goes on to the main game itself; Dissidia, which in fact is the 13^th cycle which the 10 warriors of Cosmos search for the crystals to put an end to the war for good. You have Cloud who wanted to avoid fighting, Onion Knight (Luneth) who denies his heart for his mind, Terra who struggles not to be a puppet of Kefka, Cecil under conflicts with his brother Golbez, Tidus who still has some beef with Jecht, Firion who wants to realize his dream, Squall about his solitude, Zidane who is more concerned about his friends, Bartz in his quest of all things, and finally the Warrior of Light (Name currently unknown) as he holds by his duty. After they all conquer their doubts, faced their enemies and obtained their crystals, everything seemed to be a trap as Cosmos was killed off by Chaos and the warriors of Cosmos set out to defeat their respective enemies one final time before ending Chaos and the war for good.

And that folks is the whole of Dissidia Duodecim and Dissidia in a nutshell.

"Lance of the Covenant!" -Kain

And We Have Gameplay

Of course we have ourselves the gameplay of the fabled Dissidia wars. Of course we all know in every Final Fantasy game, you have your typical RPG style of gameplay and you constantly have to go through turn after turn as you struggle yourself against the enemies you try to beat. Now slap that nonsense away and add in the action-based combat system where you unleash hell. Jump around, hack apart, and put an end to your foes upon your wake. Though one thing to keep in mind is that you have Bravery and Health Points to take out on. Bravery in which you hack away onto your opponents with the circle button as your numbers grow, and Health Points as you unleash devastating attacks that eat away the opponent's HP with that number of Bravery you've used up.

Every character you choose determines the play-style. In fact every character selection you have consists of styles they pick up on and you have to painstakingly work your way through these guys. Here are some of my favorites that I find able to master.

Zidane - Yeah, possibly the shortest among the humanoids (third shortest since Luneth and Shantotto come after) but he packs very quick attacks that keep opponents in the air. Basically the master of air-attacks in every way possible.

Tidus - Sure I might not like him, but damn, every attack he uses up dodges anything. You first see him do a dodge at first, in case the enemy would strike first. He makes up a good distance until he strikes them.

Yuna - Don’t be fooled by her weak appearance. She literally summons her Aeons to attack the opponents. They cover up a good range while they attack, giving Yuna some distance.

Kain - The master of lances and jumping can use up an attack and then closes in on his enemy for another bashing combo by the press of the triangle button. Really good if you want to keep those pursuits up.

Tifa - She uses hand-to-hand combat, but what makes it interesting of her is that she can use feints by pressing the X button which makes her cancel/teleport in case her opponent were to strike her first. Good to confuse your enemies.

Golbez - What I liked about this guy is that not only he attacks at close range with his hands, some certain forms of magic attack simultaneously at a range along with his melee. So attacking close and long range seemed interesting much.

One thing to note is that there are interesting unlockables if you have enough points called the Player Points, which you can unlock new characters, contents, icons, play systems, everything else you can get your hands on. Although you have to rack up your score on the main game, and of course The Untold Tale where you can challenge yourself against higher-leveled enemies while getting the stuff you need. You can only go far getting a grand total of 30 characters, but would you even go that far getting a secret character with such overwhelming power that you can almost clobber everything in place? Let’s put that to the test.

The battle ain't big enough for anyone else.

Overview

I really how things really improved from the first Dissidia to the second game. All it does is putting in the prologue and main story together in one game, and adding in extra contents which makes things exciting. I can even get some play-style add-ons with I can equip myself to level against others. Only drawback was the jumping feature which you immediately fall while jumping a few times. The only thing you could do was air-dodging to keep yourself in the air. I’m really interested in the set of characters they put up, even some of those which you can hit and run like Tidus, enter combos of sorts like Kain and Tifa, or have anything else that gets me anything to gain the upper-hand. Environments can be destructible, there’s an awesome OST to listen to, and a cast of voices that even include the man-whore Johnny Yong Bosch. I would even joke Superman playing as Sephiroth, but hell, anyone can beat Sephiroth now anyways. And sure, JD Cullum did turn in his lines early, but it's disappointing he sounded more bad WHEN UNPREPARED TO GET IN CHARACTER! Anyways, I recommend this game to anyone who can get their hands on it, by store or download. There will always be surprises as you play through, sets itself in an interesting storyline where everyone’s all there, and for all those who can’t beat a single Final Fantasy game in your life (like me sadly) can beat this game with ease.

My rating for Dissidia Duodecim: 9/10

9-10: GYEAHHH!
7-8: Pretty good
5-6: Should've been better
3-4: Good for a laugh
1-2: Waste of a UMB disc/downloadable game
0: What has gaming come to?

Review: God Eater Burst

Filling in for the Gaming Bro is his cousin, the prestigious TheNationMaker of voice acting fame, here to fill in you peeps with a review on God Eater Burst released on the PSP.



*SPOILER WARNING*

This game has its highs and lows at times living up to expectations and at times falling way below them. I understand BURST is an add-on to God Eater adding a new story arc and missions. Granted it's released in the US way later before the JAP release, but it actually saved us trouble from having to get 60% of the full story then buying an extra 40% of storyline. After completing the game and someday try finishing up the missions, all I can take to review is list some factors of the game.

Character customization is decent enough as you can change your outfit to any of your choice, includes hair, skin, and the voice sample. What's not fun about your character is that he/she doesn't speak during cutscenes. The only ones I've heard were his/her grunt and scream on one cutscene, and a "DON'T RUN AWAY!" line. It's not like Shepherd from the Mass Effect series, and I just wished they would have that kind of improvements.

Weapon customization is low in standard, but wide in variety as you gain some materials and monster materials to make up your desired weapon. There are blades, guns, and shields that are blended into one weapon known as a God Arc, and you can customize and upgrade whatever shit there is to your liking and fighting style if you see fit. Out in the field you switch constantly from blade to gun forms while attacking that certain monster. Wasting bullets deplete a certain gauge called the OP gauge, so you use your blade form to attack whilst replenishing your gauge.

The most interesting feature I find having fun to are the bullet customizations. They give you an option of creating your own bullet sequence to further make it flashy yet powerful. Despite this, there are some limitations like how much you've waste on in through a bullet gauge, amount of "clips" and of course the 8-slot limit that forms your bullet. There are difficulties to your bullet as to painstakingly position each bullet and timing to each bullet before they collide with each other making it useless.

The story from what I can tell is on a post-apocalyptic world. The whole of civilization and cities were ravaged by a breed of monsters known as Aragami. They range from velociraptors, flying eggs with teeth looking like nude women, nun-camouflaged pods, gorillas, mutant gators, kung-fu birds, giant lions, giant scorpion-men, and the list goes on... What you do is just down down these monsters in each missions and rack up some materials to make your weapons. You might wonder if this is something like Monster Hunter, but no, you don't break your weapons, ever. There are two parts - The first part of the story is how you start out, realizing some of your teammate's situation, finding a strange NPC and a certain plot twist that has something to do with the mastermind of it all. The second part is when you realize one of those dead teammates is alive and slowly becoming Aragami and you have to save him.

The characters in the game are an interesting lot, but I find it sad for very little interaction choices in this one. Sure, they're there, but they don't affect the game in some way. Even if you try going out with a team of girls with you, none of the relationship-making elements are there. Some scanty-clad clothing of them made you wish you wanna do them, but sadly no. You have some of them like a cute Russian girl, a hipster from a back-alley, a busty medic, a cold-blooded Squall and the rest goes on. You only come to realize that there are recognizable voices there gave these monkeys some personalities, mainly because BangZoom! Entertainment lent their actors in this project. You got like Crispin Freeman for instance, note the menacing voice somewhere. You could even hear that young ridiculous-ass voice of Johnny Yong Bosch - that manwhore - playing that cool role. Yuri Lowenthal's in it, even my friends' buddy Kyle Hebert is in the works. Being an amateur voice-actor, I can recognize them and feel kinda jealous.

MY REVIEW SCORE: 6-7/10

It's a good range being from 6-7 out of 10 in my opinion because there were some promising moments, yet there are some let-downs that made you wish it's getting repetitive due to some missions you have to repeat all over again whilst racking up materials. There's a good cast of characters yet interactions seem dull, bullet customizations are fun but very time-consuming how you want them to turn out as, and if you ever wonder about what else would happen after you complete the game, nothing much but you do some challenges and face a hidden boss monster.

In other words, it's pretty good but it should've been better.

9-10: GYEAHHH!

7-8: Pretty good

5-6: Should've been better

3-4: Good for a laugh

1-2: Waste of a UMB disc/downloadable game

0: What has gaming come to?