Game Title: 誰にでも裏があるTrue or Lie～
Title: Dareni Demo Ura Gaaru True or Lie～ (Romaji)
Game Developer: Amedeo
Language: Japanese (Not available in English)
Voicing: Partial Voicing (heroine remains mute)
Genre: 乙女 AVG
CERO: C
Well, this game has been sitting at the back of my cupboard ever since I got it sometime around last year. Since I was swamped with college and all, I didn't really get to playing it until I had the time.
When I did have the time, I was playing other games instead.
...I think it was somewhat of a gamer's sixth sense as to why I avoided playing the game for a while.
Please be warned that this is my take on the game. They are solely based on my judgment alone and it should be nothing more than an overall guide to whether you want to get the game or not.
Plot:
There's no overall plot, hence no overlapping plots. The character plots are standalone and have no whatsoever relation to each other; the only relation is that they come in contact with the two sisters of the story, Momoko and Nanoko.
In this game, both sisters are playable. Momoko is the elder sister who works as a teacher in the high school where Nanoko is attending.
There's also two unlockable characters, which is limited to only one sister each. For Nanako, it's 李光明 while for Nanoko is ハル.
As always, each character has a certain problem or complex... I find the ones for Nanako's routes a little too aggressive.
I couldn't take the names seriously so, I changed them when I was playing through the game.Character:
First thing's first, I don't like how some of the characters look. Like 闇乃雪也 and 石川類 looks. Heck, even 李光明 looks too over-buffed and rigid.
To me, I don't consider them as eye-candy and that probably caused my liking for the game to drop even more.
Gameplay:
Like all the other 乙女 AVG that I play, it's click-to-decide. I find it rather annoying that they have these intermissions and that I have to click every time it goes to a new day. Sure it does load eventually but it takes some time before it does it automatically.
You don't actually see the options because it's in your right-click. I like that it limits the number of tabs that you see on the conversation tab and that you have far more control over the settings of the game, like the refresh rate. You can also choose a different skin for your conversation bar, which is something new to me.
What I didn't like was that I couldn't close the conversation bar whenever I wanted to.Graphics:
The CGs are good, but I just can't stand the characters in non-CG mode. And I kinda agree with 御門君's take on calling Nanoko カッパ. Her fringe is cut in a way that it looked like a bowl was placed on her head when she went for a haircut. In other words, coconut head.
For Japanese-culture illiterates, カッパ or Kappa is a mythical creatures that lives near lakes, similar to the Scottish Kelpies. For more info: Kappa
Soundtrack and CV:
The soundtrack is good, but not impressive. The only ones I actually liked was the theme for 御門君 and the theme when the mood was mischief. I don't see the point of having a wedding-like BMG when they're knocking each other up. Yeah, in this game, they actually do show it... But the CG is the morning-after.
My thoughts:
Judging from my lack of enthusiasm and meager words in this review, I think you are safe to say that I did not enjoy this game.
And yes, I didn't.
I felt that it was unfair that the routes for the elder sister had far better CGs and that it's actually supporting the boy-toy/ cougar trend. The whole thing felt like it was leaning towards the elder sister instead of the younger one.
I think the only route I actually liked was 御門's for the younger sister and 李光明 and 闇乃雪也for the elder sister, because it made more sense that way.
I don't think it's advisable for a young girl of 17 to be dating a teacher that's 29 (yeah, 闇乃雪也 is 29) and a teacher who is 22 dating a young guy of 17.
My limiting age is 8 years apart between the guy and girl; and it's the guy who is the older party, not the girl. Even if the girl is the older party, it shouldn't be more than 2 years.
I know that I should be a little more open minded, but considering real-life scenarios, younger guys are just plain immature.
Heck, the culture and generation gap between my 先輩、後輩 and I are really huge.
Based on music culture, my 先輩 lived in the age of Britney Spears (back when she wasn't a spiraling disaster waiting to happen) and Christina Aguillera, I lived on Avril Lavigne and Vanessa Carlton while my 後輩 is all about Miley Cyrus (shudders), Lady Gaga (double shudders) and Kesha (going into an epileptic shock).
So tell me, how the hell are you going to find things in common to speak of?
And no, love does not transcend everything like all the cheezy love songs or Valentine cards say.
I felt that the game was leaning towards the elder sister instead of being fair on both sides. The CGs were far better in hers than in the younger one.
Heck, even the endings for all the characters were more complete in the elder sister's route than the younger one.
Even worse, the unlockable character for younger sister didn't really get her in the end.
I think they should have just stuck to having the game be about the elder sister instead, since they are impartial to her.
I would have enjoyed it if they had the elder sister play a part in helping the younger sister getting her classmates and the younger sister helping her get the other two teachers instead of this.
I look forward to having another game by AMEDEO and cross my fingers hoping that it won't be something like this, again.
My ratings: 3/5
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