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Kanojotachi no Ryuugi -Their Styles-
130cm Getchu Himeya
Introduction:
Kanogi caught my eye back in April, when I was cruising Getchu for games that had decent OP movies. The awesome OP theme, along with the interesting characters and pretty art got me interested, and I was hooked after playing the demo. Yay for weird loli vampire mystery, and all that.
Just a warning though, the name of the game is incest. Akane and Tobari are Kotarou’s sisters by blood, and share both parents without any of the copouts that are usually seen in games like this. Plus, he gets molested by them four times, in scenes that you can’t avoid.
Yay for the skip option.
In any event, I’ve been sitting in front of my computer steadily going through the game since the minute I got it, and managed to get 100% complete a few hours ago.
Though I have a few other games, this is the first game that I actually finished in its entirety, much to my amazement.
This is also my first review, pardon me if it sucks as much as I imagine it does.
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Packaging:
The game comes in a well-made box with the standard “18+, not for kids” warnings and a collage of erotasticness on the back.
It’s one DVD, and comes with a few manuals that don’t really fit into the DVD case indentation, much to my regret.
Thanks to my preordering this thing a month before the release date, Himeya got me all the preorder bonuses, which include a CD single of the Supar Awesome OP theme and its remix, along with a very nicely made omake artbook with some guest illustrations, cast interviews and lineart. I also got an eroero teleca of Akane, featuring an original CG by Miyama-Zero.
Story:
After his parents divorced, Togetsu Kotarou’s mother took him with her when she left, while his two sisters Tobari and Akane stayed behind in the family’s mansion. After five years, Kotarou’s mother died, and he came back to live in the Shirogane family’s mansion…
…Even though five years passed, both Tobari and Akane look exactly as they did before Kotarou left. And to make things even more strange, Tobari is extremely cold to him and rarely even acknowledges his existence. But one day…
Characters:
Togetsu Kotarou-
The protagonist. A bishounen, he’s forced by Tobari to join their school’s theater club and act the role of their play’s heroine, Ceres. He doesn’t really want to, but since Tobari is actually speaking to him now…
Shirogane Tobari-
Kotarou’s older sister, she keeps the name of their father. Outside of class, she’s usually seen with her older twin sister, Akane. Usually quiet and withdrawn, it’s a surprise to see that she’s the theater club’s president and its best actor…
Her interests are theater, oyaji TV dramas, and… Kotarou.
She’s also really warped.
Shirogane Akane-
Kotarou’s oldest sister and Tobari’s twin. Her personality is completely different from the stoic Tobari. Very energetic, she says that she can do anything that Tobari can… including Kotarou.
When she was little, she was constantly bedridden… thanks to this, she’s in the same grade as Kotarou.
Also, she’s a lot smarter than she lets on…
Oh yeah, she and Tobari are both vampires.
Yumihiki Honoka-
The Shirogane house’s maid, she’s been taking care of Akane and Tobari since their father died. Now that Kotarou’s back, she does the same for him. Cooking, cleaning, being freaking awesome, she’s good at everything.
She rides a motorcycle, which she’s very protective of.
Also, her room is forbidden territory. Does it hide some terrible secret, I wonder…
Note: Her path isn’t available until after you finish Akane’s, much to my annoyance. -_-
Kayou Chisato-
Kotarou’s osananajimi, she’s had a crush on Kotarou for what seems like forever, though she’s too shy to admit it. When they were younger, she, Tobari and Kotarou were inseparable. Nowadays, she sees Tobari as a rival for his affections.
Her family runs an aikido dojo, but she regularly hurts Kotarou with pro wrestling moves.
My #2 favorite character.
Yuki Seseri-
She’s madly in love with Kotarou, and will never give up until she’s won him over, or so she says.
A member of the theater club, she makes the costumes but her real aspiration is to act.
She’s best friends with Suzutsuki, who is always looking out for her. But it’s actually the other way around…
Akina Suzutsuki-
Seseri’s best friend, she acts as her surly bodyguard. Because Kotarou made Seseri cry when he refused her at the opening of the game, she hates him a lot… or so she says.
Thanks to him mistaking her family name with her given name, she started calling Kotarou “Usagi,” after the first kanji in "Togetsu."¬Åu"e¬å¬é¬Åv When he pisses her off, she also insults him with lots of rabbit references that Kotarou doesn’t even understand.
Her angry facade is hiding a painful past… also, she’s a pervert.
When dealing with her, you’ll hear “Anta nanka daikirai!” a lot.
My favorite character. So cute…
Shibahara Iori-
Kotarou’s only male friend, he’s also gay for him. He constantly makes advances at him, seemingly not caring that Kotarou isn’t into guys. Despite this, they remain friends… probably because he’s actually useful once in a while.
Overall:
Kanogi is a standard ADV game, with a bunch of paths and a few extra things you can unlock after finishing certain characters’ paths, including a 3P Supar Incest H-scene with Tobari and Akane.
The first thing one will probably notice when starting is that all of Kotarou’s lines are voiced. Thanks to the “theater” element of the story, it really wouldn’t work anywhere as well if his lines weren’t voiced.
After finishing each route, the title screen changes and unlocks the “true” path, which starts off with the events of 10/30 from Tobari’s perspective. Then it gets kinda weird…
…though I really dislike Tobari as a character, I will say that the true ending is very nice, and wasn’t disappointing at all.
Though I really enjoyed the game as a whole, Suzutsuki, Chisato and Honoka’s paths in particular, I have to admit that there was an apparent lack of budget in a few areas.
For one, none of the male characters outside of Kotarou are voiced at all, and Iori’s the only one outside of the main characters that even has a character model. Lesser characters like the other theater club members just have character portraits.
Also, near the end of both Chisato and Honoka’s paths, there’re scenes that would have really been better off if they had at least one CG. It would have definitely added to the whole “OMG” factor of the scenes if I had a pretty picture to look at, instead of just reading along while looking at the character models.
Despite this, though, those scenes were still really cool, and the game itself was definitely enjoyable. Just… not perfect.
In any event, any game that references Saint Seiya in a manner that only a true fan of the series would even notice automatically wins in my book.
[ 06-29-2006, 04:17 AM: Message edited by: Dark Lord Zenigame ]