Lijakaca’s Otome Gaming Blog

Whew, there is so much beautiful art available in the mags for this game, I just spent a significant amount of time scanning it - this post will be image-heavy because I couldn’t decide what NOT to show.

As mentioned when it was announced, Hakuouki, being released September 19 for the PS2, takes place in the Meiji Bakumatsu, or the end of the Meiji era. The Shinsengumi was a group of samurai policemen infamous for its strict rules, its ruthlessness, and the fact that it was the only samurai group that allowed commoners to join - the samurai class was usually restricted to the aristocracy.

The Shinsengumi’s leader was Kondou Isami, and his lieutenants were Hijikata Toshizou and Okita Souji. They and other famous members are all main characters in Hakuouki.

Hijikata Toshizou (CV: Miki Shinichirou) - The second-in-command of the Shinsengumi. Strict but thoughtful.

Okita Souji (CV: Morikubo Shoutarou) - The captain of the Shinsengumi’s first regiment (troop? team?). Laidback and nonchalant.

Comc Garden, and Summer Sales!

The cover for Hoshizora no Comic Garden, coming out in September for the DS, is now available. I also have a couple of cute screens from this month’s B’s Log:

A regular dialogue screen - the characters look very good for a DS screenshot!

And a very cute CG of Ryou and the main character as kids. Ooh, I love this art!

I also found the OP movie, but…it’s kind of boring so it only gets a link here, not an embed Hoshizora no Comic Garden OP

Heh, so right now I’m kinda playing Drastic Killer and WoW at the same time, it works pretty well! I’m now trying to get Aki using a guide, so we’ll see if it works. Sometimes he’s not where he’s supposed to be so that’s annoying, but hopefully I can still get him.

I also hope that I’m supposed to be doing Love Steal whenever I can, cuz that’s what I’m doing…heh I still feel clueless about this game. Apparently you can only get Riku after getting Ren, or failing at Riku first.

LOL, I just did Aki’s second or third Love Steal, and once you get up to his thighs, there’s a montage of body parts (I’m serious here, don’t laugh), and then it skips to his chest. Heh, I guess they had to figure out a way to do that somehow. I also got the 2nd piece of the picture (which is OBVIOUSLY of the king, but since Touko has never seen him I’ll give her a pass on this one), but I still don’t even know what this picture is supposed to be of?? Unless I missed some explanation, which is quite possible.

Hmm, I really need to concentrate on Drastic Killer this weekend because I am still not even halfway through I think. I need to start over and be careful about saving and stuff instead of just randomly going around and meeting all different characters. But I did finally see Nagi do some magic! Touko still hasn’t seen the ‘princes’ yet or figured out the brothers’ identities yet though.

I did one love steal, but I still don’t have any memory fragments yet, or any info about my mom. I did find out that Seyne is gay - but since I know he’s capturable, I’m sure it’s just an act.

Hmm, not much other than that - I’m still being distracted by WoW, hehe.

Since I haven’t gotten my October mags yet, I figured I’d continue a bit with my Drastic Killer commentary.

I finally got to a Love Steal, though I wonder if it was just for practice because even when I thought I was going slowly, the gauge kept filling up. But anyways, yes it is tiring!! And very long! I think I’m going to have to take breaks after each one, because just doing one wore me out.

So far I’m just choosing where to go and having little dialogues with whomever’s there - since I’m not using a guide, it’s pretty random. Then you choose to either be angelic, devilish, or neutral - each guy seems to prefer a certain style, but I guessed right on 3 already. Then you have a little “episode” where you suck some energy from a guy unintentionally. You find Grude and he tells you that your power hasn’t awoken fully, and that’s why you feel thirsty. He says you need to absorb affection from people until you have enough to activate your power, and until you do, you’ll keep feeling strange. So there’s the reasoning behind Love Steal.

For anyone who’s interested in Drastic Killer, I thought I’d do a little synopsis of the plot - just the beginning, since I haven’t even gotten to the real play part yet

The first thing you have to do when you start is answer a series of questions about your reactions in certain social situations. The questions are to determine your “koakuma”, or little devil, amount. Some examples are: Your crush is talking to you about his hobby, which you don’t care at all about. Do you a) change the subject, b) pretend to be interested, or c)tell him that you’re bored. Or, Your crush is talking animatedly with another girl. Do you a) ask them what they’re talking about, b) walk away, it doesn’t bother you, or c) hide and watch what happens. I got 65% koakuma I’m not too clear on how it affects the game, but they were fun questions.

The game starts on the night of Touko’s 16th birthday. She’s kind of asleep, so she thinks she’s dreaming when a man calling himself Grude appears. He tells her that he’s come to get her as was promised, and she follows him into her mirror. They come out in another world, where the man tells her that she’s not dreaming, and she’s actually only half-human. Her mother came from this other world, Inorald, and it’s her destiny to marry one of the world’s princes. Also, everyone in Inorald has their own power, and they need to perform a ceremony for hers to awaken. They’re in a holy place, and Touko still can’t quite believe what’s going on, but she plays along, and the ceremony scene is kind of funny, because while Grude is solemnly speaking to this stone statue, Touko is praying - but for things like making new friends, finding out her mom’s background, and that the princes are nice.

Whee, I finally started playing Drastic Killer, and I wish I had done it on the weekend so I’d have more time! I haven’t gotten to a real Love Steal yet, but so far I’m really enjoying it - the characters are a lot of fun, and the choices are good as well - I think I might try this one…without a guide! Shocking, I know!
Right now my fave is Eva, the ‘mysterious’ guy that’s not one of the princes. I dunno if I can get him first. But I also like Aki, the oldest prince - his arrogance kind of reminds me of Tsubasa from Vitamin X.

Tomorrow I’ll write up a little synopsis of the beginning story - it’s too late right now, hehe. I need my beauty sleep!

Don’t we all have a list? A list of games that we haven’t quite finished, or (ahem) haven’t gotten around to yet? So for a Sunday night, here’s my list…at least the first 10, haha.

1. Harutoki 3 Izayoiki - I can’t believe I haven’t finished Shiro yet! I honestly tried, but I got stuck somehow - I think I may have to start over again. But this is definitely important - as one of my favourite games, I’m REQUIRED to finish everything possible, well, except the normal hachiyou - most of their special endings aren’t supposed to be that good. I finished Yuzuru’s, and the extra scenes were extremely meh.

2. Last Escort 2 - this is actually in my PS2 right now, and my first playthrough is getting about halfway through (I think?) Hopefully I’ll get at least one route done this time, and then I’ll see whether I want to continue.

Since I missed yesterday again, I think I will make Fridays my day off from posting. But more importantly, Real Rode has a release date of December 4th!! You can check out the latest info on the Real Rode website - it has voice samples up too. Yay, perfect timing for Christmas!

I was so tired last night that I went to bed 2 hours earlier than usual and was actually able to fall asleep - usually I’d just lie there for hours. So anyways, nothing special to post on, except that I got my copy of Drastic Killer! So I’m going to try it out this weekend and see how it is - I hear that Love Steal can tire your fingers out.