A playable demo has been released. Unfortunately, the main impression I got from it is that a lot of the standing poses of the characters are really stiff and static. The picture below isn’t even the worst example either :(. Will still be getting the Hinakin box, but mostly for MDB + expansion.
So anyone played this new Shikigami yet? How is it?
I don’t have my copy yet…
Some early Erogamescape ratings are in the 70 to 79 range.
The original was only rated as a 60 to 69.
Honestly though… I don’t trust Erogamescape when it comes to dark eroge. They tend to rate first class titles a bit low… and don’t get me started on Dies Irae. :roll:
Neither Shikigami nor Shikigami 2008 are what you’d call dark eroge, though, are they? And EGS likes Black Cyc’s titles quite a lot, judging from the ratings.
Dies Irae didn’t sink because it was dark, it sank for the same reason Touka Gettan, Garden etc. sank - because it didn’t match the game fans thought they were getting. EGS is very unfair to perceived disappointments.
Depends on what term of dark we’re using here. Brutal and gory? Of course not. Sober and vindictive? Very much so. Dark doesn’t mean violent, as much as violent means dark. White Cyc are dark titles (just plain 'ole Cyc is the lighthearted stuff), they’re just not brutally violent like Black Cyc… which is why I believe the company is putting some effort into resurrecting the White line again - creating serious supernatural titles that don’t focus on rape and tearing people’s limbs off. I also don’t think Black Cyc should count as a measurement of how Erogamescape’s view of general dark ero. It’s like using a Lamborghini to determine how people rate sports cars: anyone who says a Lamborghini sucks to other fast cars, shouldn’t be taken seriously. I know I’m incredibly biased for them, but Black Cyc is one the best.
In any case, I’m not saying that I disagree or agree with the rating that EGS has given Shikigami - I just wanted to point out that EGS should not be considered the end all, be all for how good an ero is. I’m sure dozens of us here can happily rant off dozens of titles EGS has rated as average or below average, and agree that EGS got it wrong. On the flipside, there are titles EGS claims are near perfect, but cause many of us to wonder what the Hell they were smoking. Not only are Japanese erogamers spoiled in that they get more games that we do, and casually brush off good stuff - they also have a different mindset than Western erogamers as well.
Which is why I said don’t get me started on it. 
You rate something on the merits of what it is; not on what it mythically could be. If I judge great world leaders and scientists on the merits of what they could have been, then they wouldn’t be great anymore… in fact, I could even paint them as pathetic. That’s what EGS did to Dies Irae. It’s like whining humanity didn’t harness steam powered engines in the 1st century like we could have, and every human accomplishment in the modern age is a pathetic worthless sham, because it could have been better.
But I’m sure I’ve beaten this horse dead already, in the old Dies Irae thread that’s buried somewhere. OLF and myself had differing views of that. 
Oh yes, I absolutely agree. There’s an insanely long list of titles that I think either were unfairly treated by erogamescape, or were raised above other, far worthier titles. However, individual erogamescape reviews… particularly the long ones, are utterly awesome for working out what’s worth checking out.
For example, thanks to EGS, I know that the new Ninetail title, Amatsukaze, is probably a LOT better than I expected, and as a result I’ve bumped it right to the top of my currently-released-most-wanted list. Sorry, MYTH, but I couldn’t find you cheaply enough 
Naturally, though, it’s not just EGS that by nature exhibits these faults - anything with scores given by the masses will have it. For example, I just popped over to gamespot.com and did a search for ‘Daikatana’. If there was ever a case of a PC title being treated unfairly because of expectations…
It’s probably unfair for me to say too much about Shikigami '08 at this stage, as I’m nowhere near clearing it (and haven’t played the original), but here are my impressions so far…
The art has similar strengths and weaknesses to her other work. The CGs are nice, but the character sprites have some really awkward and ungainly poses. On the plus side, there are a few alternate costumes for most of the characters. They’ve added SD art on all of the scene change screens, but there’s no gallery for it :(.
The music is a mixed bag - there are quite a few good tracks, but there are a few that are really cheesy (mostly for the daily life segments), or that seem to have a much poorer sound quality than the others.
The story has been good so far, and the characters are quite likeable too - the new character Miyu (loli without DFC) is probably my favourite.
Erowise - I’m not sure why some of the scenes are so poorly done - Tsukasa probably needs to get some treatment for his premature ejaculation :lol:. In another scene there’s a CG of the girl undressing, then it cuts to the highly erotic view of an empty classroom whilst they start having sex, and when they show the new CG, he’s already applied some face paint to her :P.
I guess the overall impression I’m getting is that it’s: 1. Not as good as Black Cyc. 2. Not as good as some of the other recent titles in this overall ‘genre’. Amongst the games that I’ve played or am playing that have a similar sort of mood, I’ve found/am finding Dies Irae, 11 Eyes and G-Senjou no Maou to be (much) stronger games overall. I’m not trying to imply that Shikigami '08 is bad… more that it doesn’t appear to be as good as some of the recent competition.
So a failure on the attempt of White Cyc to improve themselves? Sad that a total remake still leaves a lot to be desired.
Also, the artist should have been using the time to produce MinDeaD 2 artwork.
Before Dawn Daybreak is just around the corner. Seeing as how Yami no Koe Zero didn’t get uber acclaim, I guess Cyc’s hope for a 2008 smash hit lies with BDD. 
Yeah, I’m not getting much out of Shikigami 2008 either (it’s not in my sig because I’m not really playing it actively at the moment)… the character designs don’t really make me fall in love with the characters, and to be honest I don’t know where the story is going at all.
So is there any real difference between this and the original version? The main reason I’m asking is if there’s a walkthrough for the original game, can I play the 2008 version without any problems?
They changed too much for an old walkthru to be 100% useful. Some of the story arcs and answers to questions remain the same, but the inclusion of new characters and plot elements has changed their ordering or rendered some obsolete. There’s the whole mini-game thing as well. Skikigami 2008 has large chunks of differences from the original Shikigami. It’s like how the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds is similar, but very different from the original British radio broadcast.
So are these changes, in your opinion as you’ve played the original, a good thing or a bad thing? I’m basically asking to know whether this is good enough to play or if I should just stick with the original (remakes of a good game don’t always turn out good, and don’t even get me started with movies, take Rumble Roses XX for example…).
I think that, if you’ve already played the original, it’s probably better to save your money and get something new you haven’t played.
Not worth it.
I haven’t gotten a 100% complete on Shikigami 2008, but the game doesn’t really appeal to me. I can see why they packaged MinDeaD BlooD with it in the special edition… because you really bought it for MinDeaD BlooD.
Save your money for Before Dawn Daybreak. You’ll thank me for it… especially if you’ve seen the BDD playable demo on the official site. 8)
http://ninetail.tk/clip/clip.cgi
Yeah, I’m sure that Amatsukaze and the other Ninetail/Dual Tail games have been a (commercial) success, because today the entire(?) development team has announced “resignation effective October” from the company to pursue an independent career (a brand-new eroge company looms on the horizon… ).
What’s happened to the “Japanese workers’ famed loyalty to his company”, lately ?
I’ll third what Lancer-X and Narg have said - it’s not worth getting. I’ve finished Miyu’s path, and while it was decent enough, it wasn’t particularly good either - definitely a bit on the short side as well. Judging by that, Shikigami '08 probably doesn’t add 9240 yen worth of new content to the original :?. The other major change they’ve made by getting rid of the card battle system completely is kind of a stopgap solution. While in one way it improves the game, it also takes away the unique gimmick of it, but more importantly, the ADV combat segments that have replaced it are rather dull and often feel somewhat tangential to the story. On the whole, it’s disappointing, but since I bought the special edition of Shikigami '08 primarily for MinDead Blood + expansion, I shouldn’t complain too much :P.
Well, since I haven’t played the original, if I played this game would it’s story still be good or was the original game’s story better?
Honestly, I think you should just pass on Shikigami all together. It’s really not worth spending the beans for. I love Cyc like the next Cyc lover, but the White branch has generally been disappointing. Shikigami was their first real “passing” title, so I thought the remake would be kick ass. Turns out that despite the extra cash and time the developers spent, it’s still average.
Don’t get either Shikigami, and find a better made title. That’s my suggestion.
In my opinion, I think Cyc should just retire the White brand, and focus on their Black and regular Cyc lines. Maybe another Rose title, given how much acclaim their singular release got. Given that Shikigami 2008 used the same artist who was involved with MinDeaD, its really disappointing to see they wasted their resources on such a blah product, rather than giving us fans what we REALLY wanted.
Hahaha, I’d heard about that. I’ll keep a watch out for whatever they end up forming.