Has anyone ever played Viper series games?

I’ve heard from various sources that Viper games tend to be really skimpy on the stories and gameplay, but the character designs are very good and the animation is just gorgeous. This true? I’m not fond of anime with thin plots, but if Viper manages to strike a balance between gameplay and plot I may be able to make a compromise. I’m considering getting Viper M1 just because it’s priced lower, but I heard Viper V16 is far superior and has better story as well as better gameplay.

Having played various Viper Games…The only advice I can give you is this.

Pros
1.Decent Animation
2.Some of the Games have good plots/concepts.

Cons
1.Stories tend to be short
2.Excessive amount of Rape Scenes

Viper V16 is pretty good Storywise for both Imagine and Rise. I’d recommend getting it to see what a decent Viper Game is like.

IMHO I’d stay away from Viper M1 due to the fact that the plots on My Mothers and The May Works are really weak. Green Boy is very good but it can’t carry the rest to have me change my opinion.

[This message has been edited by Doug (edited 11-08-2001).]

quote:
Since animation hogs memory, you also lose resources for indepth storylines. Again, a typical OVA has perhaps 500 lines of dialogue, but a script like Snow Drop has thousands and thousands of lines. Tokimeki has almost 40,000 lines for its script file.

but ive got...over 300 megs of RAM
and script is just text right? it shouldnt be a problem
maybe the real limiting factor is the budget for a project, not the computer

Well, I knew about Variable Geo, and it’s not unheard of for companies to capitalize on the popularity of other franchises, since it caters to the current market preferences. (Angels in the Court with its Love Hina-esque character designs come to mind.) Still, Viper doesn’t warrant that much merit as an Anime packaged as a game huh? That’s somewhat disappointing. I was just curious since Viper has a heck of a lot of games in their Hyper Animation Series. The “Viper Gokuraku” looks like a lot of fun though.

I’d recommend getting only one of the games in the Viper Gokaraku series (Paradise, Lanjerie Red, Black, and Purple) Since basically all your getting is the same game but with different animated cut scenes on each of the discs. So It’s best to pick one and stick with it.
To put it into perspective it’s basically Monopoly Viper style, and a decent board game at that.

quote:
Originally posted by Kumiko Kamiyama:
Umm... well, character designs and such are not gorgeous at all, really. Actually, what Sogna did with Viper is rip-off the Advanced VG game characters (at least the main ones.)

Wait, which Viper games are you talking about? The only ones I recall with Advanced VG game character-like designs were V16 Rise, GTB, and GT1. There's a very good reason for that: the character designer for those games was Awaji Sugawara, which is the pseudonym for Takahiro Kimura. Kimura-san was, in turn, responsible for the character designs of Brave King Gaogaigar, Dirty Pair FLASH, and, among others, Variable Geo. So it's probably inevitable that Akira from V16 Rise looks just like a redheaded Yuka from VG, considering that they were both drawn by the same man.

One other Viper game done by "Awaji Sugawara" is the rather infamous F40, whose lead character is a ripoff of Utena Tenjou. The fact that the voice actress for Utena also does the voice of the F40 lead doesn't help matters any.

quote:
Originally posted by Jeffrey:
Wait, which Viper games are you talking about? The only ones I recall with Advanced VG game character-like designs were V16 Rise, GTB, and GT1. There's a very good reason for that: the character designer for those games was Awaji Sugawara, which is the pseudonym for Takahiro Kimura. Kimura-san was, in turn, responsible for the character designs of Brave King Gaogaigar, Dirty Pair FLASH, and, among others, Variable Geo. So it's probably inevitable that Akira from V16 Rise looks just like a redheaded Yuka from VG, considering that they were both drawn by the same man.

I can now look at Dirty Pair FLASH in a new light. ;-)

One other Viper game done by "Awaji Sugawara" is the rather infamous F40, whose lead character is a ripoff of Utena Tenjou. The fact that the voice actress for Utena also does the voice of the F40 lead doesn't help matters any.


That's surprising. Then again the actress that played Belldandy (Kiroko Inoue,I think I got her first name wrong) was in Ogenki Clinic. That puts Ah! my Goddess in a new light too. ;-)

quote:
Originally posted by Mecha00:
That's surprising. Then again the actress that played Belldandy (Kiroko Inoue,I think I got her first name wrong) was in Ogenki Clinic. That puts Ah! my Goddess in a new light too. ;-)

Inoue Kikuko was probably desperate for money at the time that she did Ogenki Clinic. She will never do those kind of roles again. While she does ecchi-like characters (like the sexa/saber-dolls in the Saber Marionette series), she will not do any hentai anime anymore.

quote:
Originally posted by Kumiko Kamiyama:
Actually, Kikuko Inoue also does the voice of the lead woman in Nitro+ release of Phantom Of Inferno, which will be being released here as a non-adult interactive DVD game by Comunet. However, the original game is most definitely adult bishoujo, and came out last year in Japan.


If you're saying that Inoue Kikuko had to say, "Uuuuunnn!! Motto, motto!" then I'll have to see it to believe it.

She is a legend in her own right, and she has no reason to be in those roles anymore. She has an excellent voice, in both singing and speaking, and she has been in a number of famous roles. I am downright shocked if she had to revert to her past life just to make some yen. Hentai is designed for minor seiyuu and ones that don't mind having a dirty image. I would think that she has a reputation to protect, and that means no hentai anime which will damage her "wholesome and innocent" image that she continues to push onto fans. (Despite that she is already married and has a kid).

In Adam The Double Factor, I know that either Mitsuishi Kotono or Iwao Junko does the voice of the primary heroine Marina. Now Marina has a number of sex scenes in the game, naturally. However, Marina's voice is never supplied in these scenes; in fact, Marina's voice is never supplied in the game until she runs into Kojiroh (which happens only once). This is one way how a seiyuu can be in a hentai game, with even a hentai character, but not have to do anything embarrassing.

Sometimes voice actresses do grunt work that helps them pay the bills just as any actors and actresses would, sometimes it’s just really personal preferences. I mean, what is so really shocking about Kikuko Inoue doing voice work for Ogenki Clinic? It’s really funny stuff, chock full of Japanese cultural references and sexual mythos. Acting is acting. Oh yeah, Kikuko Inoue does the voice for the Ojousama in “Miyuki-chan in Wonderland”.

Actually I think it’s natural for some people to get an actor or actress confused with the role they play. No One would expect Belldandy to be doing voice overs for adult animation!!! (It’s kind of like the people who thought Jim Backus and Natalie Schaffer were actually married because of the roles they played on Gilligan’s Island)

quote:
Originally posted by Doug:
Actually I think it's natural for some people to get an actor or actress confused with the role they play. No One would expect Belldandy to be doing voice overs for adult animation!!!!


But, you must take in account when she did her role of Ogenki Clinic and her role in Aa! Megami-sama! Now backing up what Kasumi wrote, Ogenki Clinic is the only "adult" anime she has been. She was played the role Narusawa Misako in Doukyuusei 2, and that didn't involved (AFAIK) onee-chan doing any of "that" type of voice acting.

Anway, if you think doing voice acting (specially this type of voice acting) is sort of scary, now how about a bit of cosplaying? Check this:

http://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/manbow/report/r4_c0401.html

quote:
Originally posted by kasumi:
In Adam The Double Factor, I know that either Mitsuishi Kotono or Iwao Junko does the voice of the primary heroine Marina.

Er, the word should be "neither". Neither Mitsuishi-san nor Iwao-san did Marina in ADAM; the cast was mainly composed of no-names. The only character who retained the original seiyuu from the EVE series was Chief Kono. Most of the characters actually had their lines redubbed by a new seiyuu crew that included such names as Koyasu Takehito, Kotono Mitsuishi, and Chieko Honda when ADAM was incorporated into EVE: The Fatal Attraction.

[This message has been edited by Jeffrey (edited 11-12-2001).]

quote:
Originally posted by Doug:
Actually I think it's natural for some people to get an actor or actress confused with the role they play. [b]No One would expect Belldandy to be doing voice overs for adult animation!!!! (It's kind of like the people who thought Jim Backus and Natalie Schaffer were actually married because of the roles they played on Gilligan's Island)[/b]


Excuse the lateness of this reply.

That's true. I will always think of Kikuo Inoue as Kasumi and Belldandy, two of the nicest (if somewhat "square") girls in anime and not as a porno actress. Up until Evangelion, I thought Megumi Hashibara only did tomboy type characters. Now she does characters that are different from Ai and Ramna-chan. I guess they want to strech their wings.

Will I Played little bit of viper series and it is good game. The only one thing I don’t like is the characters. Some of the characters are not cute.

quote:
Originally posted by Kumiko Kamiyama:
FYI, there are various adult seiyuu who are most certainly legends in their own right and justly so. It is no longer a negative thing as you seem to imply. This is brought out by Hitoshi's synopsis of the Doukyuusei event where everyone was quite happy to see the woman who plays Kurumi-chan, but who began her career in 1984 by playing one of the most famous (if not THE most famous) adult heroine of all time, Nonomura Ami from Cream Lemon.

I remember reading in Hitoshi Doi's webpages that she enjoyed playing Ami. I belive she played Mai in End of Summer.

([i]edit comment from Kumiko:[/i] no, she played Kurumi-chan... [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img] )

quote:

Back then, she had to hide her name and what she did, but that is no longer necessary - she is very well-loved and well-respected for her work. There are various seiyuu who do both adult and non-adult roles, so let's not imply that there is some sort of negative stigma attached to them for the adult roles they perform.

As I said, they probably want to stretch their wings. Playing such and such a character gets boring after a while.

([i]edit comment from Kumiko:[/i] yes, this is true for every seiyuu, or any artist - for example, you often hear actors who become popular due to a certain role complain about not being able to shake the image and move on to other roles [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img] )

[This message has been edited by Kumiko Kamiyama (edited 11-12-2001).]

quote:
Originally posted by Jeffrey:
Er, the word should be "[b]neither". Neither Mitsuishi-san nor Iwao-san did Marina in ADAM; the cast was mainly composed of no-names. The only character who retained the original seiyuu from the EVE series was Chief Kono. Most of the characters actually had their lines redubbed by a new seiyuu crew that included such names as Koyasu Takehito, Kotono Mitsuishi, and Chieko Honda when ADAM was incorporated into EVE: The Double Factor.[/b]

Actually, it would be EVE : TFA and if Chieko Honda did the voice for Yayoi, She was the Voice for Yayoi in EVE burst error. Check out the end credits at the end of Ebe if you don't believe me.
(****On a side note Chieko Honda was also the voice of Kurumi Kasuga in Kimagure Orange Road)

[This message has been edited by Doug (edited 11-11-2001).]

Oops. Mind wandered there for a moment. Anyway, right off the top of my head, here is a partial cast list for EVE:TFA.

Koyasu Takehito - Kojiroh Amagi
Kotono Mitsuishi - Marina Hojo
Chieko Honda - Yayoi Katsuragi
Naoko Matsui - Kyoko Himuro
Yuka Imai - Kyoko Kirino
Yuko Mizutani - Queen Pricia/Priscilla
Sakiko Tamagawa - Ami Kurisuno
Norio Wakamoto - Preacher

That’s all I can remember for now. But still, that’s a pretty heavy-duty lineup. I think that throughout the EVE series, most of the characters retained their original seiyuu. (I can’t be sure because I haven’t played EVE: The Lost One yet.) The only notable change I can make out is the replacement of Junko Iwao by Kotono Mitsuishi as Marina Hojo. I don’t have anything against Mitsuishi-san, but for some reason, I feel that Iwao-san did a better job with the character.

Hee hee, this is turning into the ‘Seiyuu’ topic instead of Viper. There’s pre-order for a new Viper, I wonder if it will be better than the last one V16, which I’ve never played before but heard it from various sources that it’s the best Viper so far.

Honda Chieko was also main character seiyuu for Silent Moebius (TV and Movie)'s Nami and Chou Kuseni Narisou’s ??? as friendly rival.

Wait a minute… I noticed Kumichan’s anime picture reminded me that I saw it two years ago as I forgot who is she. Hey, Kumichan, are you relative of Chou Kuseni Narisou’s main character (I forgot her name) as idol singer, and judo master.