Hitomi - My Stepsister is out

Just finished this game. Yuki’s routes are hiliarous. The stepmom is scary though. I guess I should say anymore to keep from giving stuff away.

[This message has been edited by Sousuke (edited 12-30-2004).]

quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:
[quote] Otaku Publishing ceased translating h-games into English (and French) b/c of pirating. They are probably most known for Paradise Heights.

Objection!
True Love is their key game. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/biggrin.gif[/img]
[/quote]

Objection noted. I wasn't sure if True Love was an Otaku release or not. I stand corrected. lol [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

quote:
Originally posted by Sousuke:
Just finished this game. Yuki's routes are hiliarous. The stepmom is scary though. I guess I should say anymore to keep from giving stuff away.

[This message has been edited by Sousuke (edited 12-30-2004).]


Yuki's route was certainly my fav. Unfortunately, it ended too soon for me. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img]

quote:
Originally posted by dummygirl:
I just wasn't feeling the love for the prostitute girl, cause I'd rather she have self-respect in the first place, take responsibility for her actions, or just love sex and making money. The whole I wish I were an angel bit is a little too much for me. And she wasn't even saving up the money she got from prostituting herself for anything. I don't believe in this whole cleansing thing. You dirty, and you can never go back again. What you need to do is move on. I especially wasn't feeling the love cause my favorite girl, the tall one, had a two second story when the prostitute girl's was longer than all the rest combined. And why can't prostitution be a good thing? There are girls who love sex, so they want to make money doing what they love. But these are high class call girls who don't make chump change. I don't see a difference between that and all these rich old dudes buying the young trophy wife who doesn't work and just spends all his money. Hey, at least the call girl has her freedom and being with the same old dude must get boring after awhile.

Sorry if you feel that throwing in a bit of reality is not appropriate for this thread/forum. My take on prostitution is that there are many reasons why gals (and guys too) take up this occupation. And often, choice isn't one of them. Also, a New York Times article on prostitution within the tri-state area (I think it came out in early December) mentioned that call girls pay a lot of fees to madams, and the take for these girls are half or less. Also, some clients aren't appropriately screened by the madam, and sometimes violence (and worse) will be the result of having a call girl alone in a room with an unruly client. In addition, what if the client refuses to use a condom? will the prostitute still perform a sexual act and risk getting AIDS/STD?

going back to the topic of Hitomi -My Stepsister-, my review has been posted at gamefaqs.com:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/review/R83099.html

Please feel free to comment on it at this bbs, or at gamefaqs.com boards.

Sousuke, I’m with you on Yuki and the stepmom.

Ecchifan, I don’t feel anything of the sort. And I’m not disagreeing with your take on prostitution. It’s pretty wack over here. I’m also repeating what some call girls said. Keep in mind that they serve special clients. We’re talking Columbia and NYU kids or businessmen. It’s sort of like the drug dealer situation at NYU and Columbia where they deal to classmates just to support their own habit during school when they’re trust fund babies anyway. They aren’t the usual drug dealers in the ghetto. Same thing with the strippers that support themselves through school. In any case, I’m only talking about kids I knew from or through classmates at school, all of whom I admit are not the norm. No, they don’t represent the whole population, but they do represent themselves, their experiences, their views, and what they feel about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Either way, they’re out there and I’m sharing their opinions that they’re not all the same, they enjoy sex and making money, and they’re not ashamed of it nor do they feel that they should be. Are you from the tri-state area, too?

Nice review, Ecchifan.

quote:
Originally posted by dummygirl:
Ecchifan, I don't feel anything of the sort. And I'm not disagreeing with your take on prostitution. It's pretty wack over here. I'm also repeating what some call girls said. Keep in mind that they serve special clients. We're talking Columbia and NYU kids or businessmen. It's sort of like the drug dealer situation at NYU and Columbia where they deal to classmates just to support their own habit during school when they're trust fund babies anyway. They aren't the usual drug dealers in the ghetto. Same thing with the strippers that support themselves through school. In any case, I'm only talking about kids I knew from or through classmates at school, all of whom I admit are not the norm. No, they don't represent the whole population, but they do represent themselves, their experiences, their views, and what they feel about what they're doing and why they're doing it. Either way, they're out there and I'm sharing their opinions that they're not all the same, they enjoy sex and making money, and they're not ashamed of it nor do they feel that they should be. Are you from the tri-state area, too?

Of course, there are "abnormal" circumstances, like the girl who got caught dealing drugs from her dorm room at NYU; she didn't have a "normal" childhood though. I know of students who got into NYU on scholarship, and lost it b/c they chose doing drugs (i.e. marjuana (sp?)) over maintaining studying/maintaining their grades, and dropped out b/c they couldn't afford to stay. Ultimately, these students made their beds, and they have to lie in them.

at the same, I totally understand the money issue (you referred to previously in a post) w/ prostitutes. For an ultra "high class" escort, the rates reach $1,000 and up easily for "discret" service. Who could afford this kind of service? Businessmen, professionals, pro-sports athletes (steroid/performance enhancement use notwithstanding).

Anyway, I think we're drifting OT again. And I would prefer to move further discussions privately via email (my address is posted in my profile) before Lamu locks up this thread.

[This message has been edited by Ecchifan (edited 12-31-2004).]

Ecchifan-san,about the hitomi review you wrote that,
“A particularly notable scene involves phone sex, which had not appeared in any other English translated bishojo games thus far.”

But it had,Gibo had one phone sex scene so we can’t say it hadn’t appeared

Just a little correction from me

Just thought I’d comment about your review, Ecchifan (major spoilers for those who haven’t played the game):

I thought the girls’ interest towards the main character was justified well enough. After being abused, Hitomi was a girl who craved kindness and attention. It’s only natural that she would fall for the main character, who treated her like the big brother she never had but so desperately needed. Throw in a little “crush on first sight,” and I think her feelings are understandable. As for Yuki, from what I understand, she only seemed popular from our point of view as the main character. In reality, she was just an overly talkative person who knew everyone, but was close to no one. Even the main character, who had a crush her, grew weary of her incessant babbling. It wouldn’t be surprising if others did as well, though politeness perhaps kept them from showing it (or they did, and the main character didn’t notice). I’m not sure if that totally justifies Yuki’s feelings, but realizing that she wasn’t necessarily popular is a start anyway.

Actually, my major problem was with Hitomi’s good ending (I haven’t gotten to an ending with Yuki yet). I don’t have a problem at all with how Hitomi reacted to the main character’s change of heart. It’s obvious that she never gave up on him. My problem is with the main character himself. I simply can’t believe that a person that did the horrible things he did, and in an extended, premediated manner, could have such a sudden change of heart. The first time he raped her, and felt awful…that was understandable. The first time was a moment of passion, and he felt regret. After that, though, everything he did was in cold blood, and he was completely unremorseful. I can’t believe that the situation of watching a stranger getting ready to rape her would single-handedly provoke a change of heart in such a person. At the very least, such an “epiphany” should have taken time. The vague feelings of dissatisfaction he’d been having don’t cut it in that regard. For these reasons, I think the bad ending where Hitomi regresses to a child is far more believable and appropriate.

[This message has been edited by Dark_Shiki (edited 01-01-2005).]

quote:
Originally posted by RedHell:
Ecchifan-san,about the hitomi review you wrote that,
"A particularly notable scene involves phone sex, which had not appeared in any other English translated bishojo games thus far."

But it had,Gibo had one phone sex scene so we can't say it hadn't appeared

Just a little correction from me



I wondered if I hadn't heard that comment before... Hehe, now I know I was right. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img]

Well, for the record, I haven’t played Gibo, so I wasn’t aware there was a phone sex scene there. I stand corrected.

As for the Dark’s points, a major problem I had, as you noted, was the transition from the rape scene and moving forward w/ Hitomi’s route. I did not mention it in the review b/c I didn’t want to spoil it for readers (although I DID mention there was at least one unavoidable rape scene for a certain character). Also, the male character didn’t really agonize enough over the misunderstanding. It’s a story development issue, in my view.

It was kind of weird that through the Hitomi route even if you pick all the positive choices, the main character still ended up raping Hitomi. Well, it is a dark game so I guess it is a bit understandable.

quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:

Just a little correction from me


I wondered if I hadn't heard that comment before... Hehe, now I know I was right. [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img][/B][/QUOTE]

So very true.If I remembered correctly,on Gibo's review they write the exact same thing,so maybe that's why I got a feeling of de javu reading Hitomi's review.A little thinking and.. voila,it's Gibo :P

quote:
Originally posted by Ecchifan:
I guess it depends on how old you are. heheheh An old foggie like Wanu is old enough to remember the old anime like Star Blazers, Voltran, and American products like Flintstones, G.I.Joe, Smurf, He-Man, etc. We're talking late 70s, early 80s.

Manga has been around since the early 90s through Viz (i.e. Ranma 1/2 in comic book format) and Dark Horse (think Ghost in the Shell).

H-games started coming to the States in the early to mid-90s through JAST and Otaku.


Who is this wanu you speak of, I'd like to meet him [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img] Actually there was a company before that called megatech? they released a few games like metal & lace, Cobra mission, and Knigts of xentar before they went belly up [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img] and I actually still have those games somewhere in my garage [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

quote:
Originally posted by Ecchifan:
To me, Robotech became a wee bit too complicated (storyline wise) to follow. It sux when it appeared as 1/2 hour shows on tv, and I'm not around to watch every single episode. Transformers certainly had tremendous appeal for kids---cars and planes that transformed into cool looking robots!!!

If you look at these titles from the viewpoint of kids, transformers was the better product for the U.S. market, imho.


No, definately transformers is a better product for little kids. There isn't death to deal with in transformers and the Yucky love triangles [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img] But Robotech is the better product for non kids who still watches cartoons [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

Played Hitomi for a couple of hours this morning and came away fairly impressed. It could do with more dialogue branches but the art and character designs are very nice. Yuki’s design strongly reminds me of Akane from Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, which is no bad thing at all… And I wish there were more characters like Yoko in bishoujo games (talking about her behaviour rather than appearance)

On another note, is this the first English bishojo game to be in 800 x 600 resolution? Finally I can play in window mode and have full resolution without squinting to see the text

[This message has been edited by Darc (edited 01-04-2005).]

quote:
Originally posted by wanfu2k1:
Who is this wanu you speak of, I'd like to meet him [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/tongue.gif[/img] Actually there was a company before that called megatech? they released a few games like metal & lace, Cobra mission, and Knigts of xentar before they went belly up [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/frown.gif[/img] and I actually still have those games somewhere in my garage [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/wink.gif[/img]

Megatech sounds right. You've been into h-games longer than me, apparently. old foggie. :P

I thought I was one of the only ones that thought Yuki looked like Akane.

quote:
Originally posted by Ecchifan:
Megatech sounds right. You've been into h-games longer than me, apparently. old foggie. :P

Actually, MegaTech is right, and I suppose that I should be sad to say that my copies of Cobra Mission, Metal & Lace, and Knights of Xentar are not out in storage, but are quite accessible.

Now pardon me while I go take my Geritol...