Has anyone played Kawarazaki-ke no Ichizoku 2 (?)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMfLXVZ8NBY
http://www.elf-game.co.jp/net_shop/soft … ki2_1.html
http://www.elf-game.co.jp/net_shop/soft … nter2.html

Alright eroge experts, I desperately want details on this game cause it looks awesome 8). Baldo, I know you’ve got details cause I saw your YouTube comment :P. For those who don’t know it, from what I understand, it’s a dark-horror themed title (PC, obviously) where your male protagonist and some girls visit a mansion and get trapped. There’s apparently a lot of murder, so if you have a murder fetish, this might be an ideal game :P. Some of you might also recognize it from an anime sharing the same name.

I want to know as much as anyone can tell me about this title (a mini-review would be awesome). Preferably the following:
1.) Is the game good, bad, or mediocre? How would you rate it?
2.) Does the male protagonist have the choice of either condoning the violence or playing along with it? If so, do you get to PICK people to murder?
3.) Is the knife wielding maid a romance option? If so, do you get to torture the girls with her?
4.) Does anyone have the name of that song in the YouTube link? God it’s awesome :P.

Anything would be helpful, even translated tidbits from the links, since I don’t know Japanese, thanks.

I can help with this one, because the video was linked in another thread and I asked the exact same question. The song is Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (yes, of the game/anime/etc. of the same name, though the music is only from the anime), and is performed by Eiko Shimamiya.

http://erogamescape.dyndns.org/~ap2/ero … ?game=2787
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~poko2/revie … zaki2.html

That YouTube fan movie touched a nerve, I see :wink: .
I’ve no time for a mini-review (besides, I’m writing a full review for another game right now), but I can give a few short, spoiler-free replies to your questions:

1): The storyline is maybe more intriguing than original, with only ONE (1) ending, but ALL THE REST (music, voices, sex, animated graphics, game engine) is NOTHING less than excellent.
2): Basically, the male protagonist struggles against Evil, but the flesh is weak in MANY ways (one ending only but LOTS of messy deaths otherwise, for example)…
3): The ending doesn’t contemplate this possibility, but you CAN try :twisted: …
4): viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5149&p=76103&hilit=kawarazaki#p76103

Oh wow, that was FAN-MADE? The music was so synchronized to the visuals that I thought it was the original! Then when Kimu pointed out “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni” and I saw the original anime intro the song derived from, I thought, “The anime doesn’t make good use of the song. The anime doesn’t do the song justice.” The Kawarazaki-ke no Ichizoku 2 video did though :lol:.

I’m assuming you own this game, but are you sure there’s only one ending? If so, what I don’t understand is the game gives you dialog options according to these screenshots:
http://www.elf-game.co.jp/net_shop/soft … nter2.html
http://www.elf-game.co.jp/net_shop/soft … nter3.html

Do your dialogs and choices all lead to one ending then but you just pick up different cg’s along the way? If so that kind of sucks. It wouldn’t keep me from playing the game though :P.

Probably because you didn’t understand the lyrics, nor do know about the anime/sound novel? They fit Higurashi’s OP perfectly.

You’re right, but have you noticed those little (red) dots in the first linked image and how many they are?
That’s the flowchart, and the dots are the various scenarios: the game has an ENORMOUS number of scenarios and LOTS of “choice options” linking them together.
The minimum hard drive space required for game installation is 1.5 GBs, after all…

…However, you “obtained” that game in a manner that I DO NOT APPROVE :roll: (and besides, what’s the point in getting stuff that you can’t read/understand?).
Yeah, I only found out today (during one of my random netsurfing sessions) how/where/for what you used my short description of this game :roll: , although I admit that your enthusiasm is ALMOST laudable (but those AGTH translations range from bad to awful :shock: … ) and the 4-pages-long thread mostly from puzzled pirates made me laugh :stuck_out_tongue: (I assure you that the game plot makes sense and IS NOT a “dream”).

Oh well, if you or those other guys are SO puzzled, I will reveal the “truth” here, but please note that reading the following text will ENTIRELY spoil Kawarazaki-ke no Ichizoku 2 since it’s ENTIRELY based on this final revelation:

ALL the characters appearing in this game (yeah, also that old farmer) are ghosts, restless spirits doomed to repeat the events happened in a certain, fateful day of their common past, FOR ALL ETERNITY.
Only two people have the power to reverse this awful fate (because they managed to flee from Kawarazaki House before their death during the original massacre -these specific events are only hinted in the game-), but, of these, only Yuuma, the protagonist, is really interested in finding salvation (and even the true ending doesn’t give 100% absolute guarantee of the real “return to life” of those poor souls :wink: )…

By coincidence, i’ve being playing this game lately. :slight_smile:

I don’t exactly like dark-themed violent eroges, but so far this game is really good. The artstyle is great and the story is interesting. ELF games are really something. :wink:

More than anything the protagonist is a victim just like the girls. The bad guys here specially like to force him to do the nasty things and he has no choice other than accept, otherwise he or the girls he tries to protect will suffer.

So far, the only thing i got from her is blackmail, raep or she killing my character. :lol: I doubt she is interested in romance… she prefers S&M (with capital “S”). If there’s a woman who deserves a good kick in the face, it’s her. :?

This time, I will try to remember to avoid your big spoiler until i can finish the game, Baldo. :roll:

I understand your plight, padawan, after all the Force is for the strong-willed :twisted: :wink: , but still I AM curious to know if you will agree/disagree with “my” version of Kawarazaki 2’s true ending, after the completion of the game :slight_smile: .

After I finish the game i will check your spoiler and tell my thoughts, IF i understand something. :wink:

So far i’m still at the beginning - in the third or so “scenario” - and trying to figure how the f**** Anna was staying in her “uncle”'s mansion and never noted how twisted sick and perverted that old bastard was!! :lol:

Really smart girl…

Yes, this is an awesome game.

To say the truth, Anna lived only for a short time in the Kawarazaki villa before her mother, one of Nawatsuna’s adopted children, managed to flee from the house (the real challenge here is to figure WHY she said nothing to Anna about the real nature of the Kawarazaki family :? … ).

However, yeah, Anna is too much innocent for this game :stuck_out_tongue: , but this is also an IMPORTANT part of the plot, as you’ll see :wink:

You know, this game is making me REALLY depressed. :frowning:

I thought an ELF game would be a little more… pure.

[spoiler=what i saw so far]No matter how much he struggles, try to resist or try to save someone, the “hero” Yuma is just owned by the bad guys every f***ing time.

I already saw him to die, to be drugged, to be raped, to be forced to sex/rape some innocent girl or simply be forced to watch Anna (the girl he loves) or any other girl beind raped or assassinated in front of his eyes with him unable to do a thing so many times… and i’m not even halfway!! :cry:

And the worst thing is, all the girls and the protagonist are innocent and likable. Even during some scenarios when Yuma was being a jerk somehow he redeem himself… to become a victim short after.[/spoiler]

As for what i understood from the plot so far…

[spoiler=my thoughts so far]… it seems to me it’s all happening inside Yuma mind. All the “Blank points” and he going back and forth to some story points is him allucinating. Even the scenarios where he is being a jerk could be because he’s under drugs effects.

The crazy hentai people inside the mansion - Mika, the old geezer and the gay buttler - has been drugged him with that “strange water with a lemon taste” at the momment he put his foot inside the mansion.

There’s some things he really did - like the memo and the picture alone with Anna - but don’t remember at all because the drugs are causing him memory blackouts.

In other words, it’s not like he’s reseting the same happenings over and over again, it’s him forcing his mind to remember all the events happening to him because the drugs and allucinations.

As for the hentai people of the mansion, probably it’s all the old geezer doing. He was a sick twisted pervert since his youth, so when got his hands in Mika and the gay buttler when younger, he trained them to become his allies in perversion. Probably he want to make the same thing with Suzune and Tomoki, who remembers him when younger.

Many years ago he met Anna’s mother and had a sick love for her, but she - just like Anna - loved someone else, so he did all that sick things with her and her boyfriend, but they got to escape. Apparently, his obsession is to break lovely couples.

Now he’s trying to break Anna and Yuma in the same way. The funny is, why her mother never told her anything…

I have the impression there’s another sick twist happening here. I think before running away, Anna’s mother suffered the same thing Anna is suffering now. And if the old geezer raped her mother many times like he’s doing with her, maybe he is not really just Anna’s “uncle”, but actually her true father. In other worlds, knowing or not, he’s raping his own daughter.

That’s all i understood so far. Don’t know much more because i’m trying HARD fast-forwarding most of the sick events and keep plot enough to understand the game. :shock:[/spoiler]

God, after such dark scenarios, i think i will give a break in this game and play something more light, like a renai game to clean my mind. :lol:

Uh? elf made the *saku and the shimai series! Besides, really, the original “Kawarazaki-ke no Ichizoku” was anything but pure!

Blame your soft Jedi heart for that :stuck_out_tongue: , but you CAN NOT deny that those “sick events” are beautiful, in their way :twisted: . And be warned that “fast-forwarding most of the sick events” can also be counter-productive since a few elements of the plot are hidden there (Mika’s motives, for example).
About the rest…

As I’ve said before, you have to see the ending to fully grasp the plot, but rest assured that it’s ALL real, not a hallucination or whatever.
BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEEEEEEEEEP the renai games :evil: , aren’t you curious to see WHAT happens at the end? :idea: :wink:

You’re right. I forgot these… i think after games like Dokyuusei 1&2, Kakyuusei 1&2, and so on, i was expecting something more like a mistery romance or something like that.

To tell the truth, KnI2 is nothing like any other dark-themed eroge i played before. It has a really strong story with every thing serving a purpose inside the plot. Really well made, despite the circunstances.

I will not fall to the dark side that easily, Sith!! 8)

As for Mika’s motives, yeah, i remember she was talking about …

…how much she dislikes dicks… and after that sucking her boss’ dick and playing with the protagonist’s - actually, more like torturing him and talking about cutting off… I think she’s a lesbian at heart, but forced to go to the “other side”.

Would be better for Yuma and the girls if that was all an allucination. :?
Well, i will know the truth… someday.

For now, i really need a break, and a good night of sleep. I need to prepare my Jedi heart to my next fight with the dark side. :lol: