Ok so I got the game Saturday WoooHooo I was only able to play for a little while last night and tonight but I’ll give you my impressions about this game anyways
Well if you want a brief story overview go to g-collections to read what they say, It’s pretty accurate But basically your gonna try and fall in love with 1 of the five girls in the game. But I do have to say right now the plot is definately more serious and not fluffly like tottemo or kango. The main character finds out something about himself rather early in the game that is a little tramatic. Anyway enough of the partial spoiler, Now let’s get on with the game impressions…
Graphics-Artwork is very nice. Since it’s a pretty new game(wasn’t it origionally released in 2002 in japan?) the CGs are clean and the colors are good. I really like the char designs of this game. The style reminds me of Fruits basket manga, with the sharp chins. Of all the DO games I have (which really isn’t that many since g-collections only released what 3 DO games) Cresendo has the nices looking women Their school uniforms are nice with women wearing a blazer instead of sailor fuku.
As for nookie CGs, I’ve only seen 1 CG at the very beginning. I think this game is alot like Kana where there aren’t many “Money Shots” But I think the payoff will be worth it.
Music- As for the music and sound So far most of the bgm is piano based music which sets the tone and atmosphere really well. All the characters except the main character is voiced. They seemed to have done a good job voicing this game with nothing sounding over the top, well at least not yet.
Gameplay- It’s your standard ADV where you read the story and during certain points in the game you make your selections. I do have to say though it’s pretty intresting how they incorporated flashbacks in this game. You get alot of flashbacks(at least up to where I’m at) and in these flashbacks you have choices you can choose which will affect what happens in your present. I.E. you talk to one of the girls you flashback to when you first met, you choose what action you took when you first met that changes what happens to the story now.
I can’t remember if Kana was like this or not but there is no text window in Cresendo, or rather the entire window is a text window. When people are talking or narration the window darkens and text overlays about 1/4 from the top of the window on down. Unfortunately this tends to coverup alot of the characters faces and you end up having to right click and select clear window or hit the esc key to get rid of the text to see the CG. A text window at the bottom of the screen would have been soo much better.
There is also a wierd quirk in the narration as it’s permanately in the 3rd person. It really took me a while to get used to “And Ryo doesn’t understand but pats her on the head” or “Ryo and Kaho meet in the library” and type narration. It would have been much cleaner if they used 1st person for actions that you do. Oh well, as long as I can understand what’s going on it’s all good
Even with these quirks, this might end up being one of my favorite games. The story so far is very strong. The plost is realistic, there is some tension and sadness even in the beginning, but it’s not tottaly depressing like Kana. The girls are cute and their personalities are not over the top. Looks like this one is a keeper for the romantic bishoujo gamer. I know I’m gonna be playing this for many nights