Now, the moment you've all been waiting for (or I've been waiting for)...
My first ever game review!
Yeah, yeah; I'm not famous enough or qualified to give game reviews, but I'll do it anyways.
*sticks out tongue like a little kid*
I'll be doing this now and then when I come along with a game that I have.
I can foresee that most of it would probably be Japanese visual novels, but there might be occasional XBox 360 games popping up or even PSP, that is if I get the console.
The game that I would be reviewing today would be Heart no Kuni no Alice (no, duh).
And to make things clear from here on out, I will not be explaining about the game plots, strategy or even the endings in any of my future reviews.
My reviews would be entirely on my thoughts on the game plot, graphics, gameplay and soundtracks.
I will, however, make posts about the routes of the game that I've played; but that depends entirely on whether I liked it or not. (For those who wants CGs and spoilers, this is what you should wait for.)
I don't plan to waste my time on things that I don't like.
Game Title: ハートの国のアリス～Wonderful Wonder World～
Title: Ha-to no kuni no arisu ～Wonderful Wonder World～ (Romaji)
Title: Alice in the Country of Heart (English)
Game Developer: QuinRose
Language: Japanese (Not available in English)
Voicing: Partial Voicing (heroine remains mute)
Genre: 乙女 AVG
CERO: C
...Ok, now that takes care of all the formal stuff.
Well, this is my first review of a game and my first ever visual novel; not to mention my first game in a foreign language.
...That's many firsts...
Anyways, this game is the first of the Wonderful Wonder World series.
It is not known how many titles that will spawn from this title, but I get the feeling that it'll be somewhat like 金色のコルダ.
Many have mistaken クローバーの国のアリス or ジョーカーの国のアリス as the first, which I can't see how that it possible.
I mean, even the title of its 漫画 kinda gave away the order of the game.
This game came to me not in its original form, but in 漫画.
It was after I read it that I found that it was adapted from a game.
The rest was pretty much history.
Plot:
The plot is like a breath of fresh air to me, since I was getting sick, tired and almost died being smothered by the vampire craze of the west. *coughtwilightcough*
I simply love the person(s) who thought of the idea to revamp the classic Through The Looking Glass.
*finds a way to transmit a mental tackleglomp and huggle to the plot creator*
Characters:
As said above, the characters from the classic by Lewis Carroll is replaced by drool-worthy 美少年 with a really weird outlook on life; somewhat destructive and macabre, that is. The heroine is a good one, unlike most of the 乙女 game out there with the dumb-blond type. She actually retaliates and packs a rather mean punch.
Gameplay:
It's a rather simple game, actually. Your keypad/ keyboard is practically useless, since the only time you ever need to use it is to type your name. I highly doubt that you'll change it from 'アリスリデル' (the default name of the heroine). All you need is a mouse, AGTH (for those who wants to hook up the english translation of it) and a comfy pillow; perhaps I might mention about the strategy guide, but that's only when you've gotten tired with bad endings or you don't know what the hell you're supposed to do.
Graphics:
It was one of QuinRose's first few games, so the programmers weren't really good at the graphics department yet. The improvements are very obvious in their sequels, which I would be reviewing sometime soon. The CGs are beautifully done, not to mention a bit uhh...suggestive. That's why CERO rated it as a C. I'll explain about CERO later.
Best played in full-screen mode so that you can scrutinize the details of the CG, and perhaps stare at it for a while. XD
Soundtrack and CV:
I don't know where to start with this. It's really beautiful; the opening, the BGM and the ending. Thank goodness I have the OST or else the program and my laptop would be on until I get tired of it.
As for the CV, I'm more than satisfied. I can practically melt into a puddle whenever I hear them speak. I'll be elaborating my thoughts on each and every 声優 when I'm doing the posts on routes.
My thoughts
I'm pretty satisfied with everything except for one, saving the game; but they did fix that problem in the sequel. The game saves by the last verse on the display (what the characters are saying) and for those who don't know how to read Japanese, it'll be a huge bummer. Thank goodness for the six years of Chinese School hell and three years extra of Sec school classes or I would have been scratching my head with the kanji and hiragana.
As I've mentioned above, the game is rather easy to play. All you have to do is to decide on which of the eight bishies (or if you're into older guys, there's one おやじ) to chase after and make choices whenever they ask you a question. Remember the mentioning of a strategy guide? Well, you need to know what type of answer to give, since the ending is based on whether you've gotten the guy to fall for you by the end of the game. And then there are some conditions to fulfill so that you can get the guy.
I've played the two sequels and can say that ハート is probably the hardest, since there are many conditions to fulfill to get the good ending, and there's also a whole lot of sub-plots; that means there's a whole lot of CGs to grab and also mean a whole lot of reloading of scenes and making a different decision to get the alternative CG.
I really enjoyed the game and am really eager to get the fourth installment of the series which is coming out on White Day, I think. It's the remake of this title but with new routes and more CGs.
It has also helped me in the process of learning Japanese, mainly in hiragana (no surprise). And since I had to write down my decisions on a notebook (for future reference and comparison), I can write the characters with ease now.
*huge grin*
My rating: 4.25 out of 5
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