so these games have been available for purchase for at least a week, but i don’t see any opinions of them yet…I just bought them last night, so don’t have them yet, but was hoping for an opinion or two from those who have received the bounty of bishoujo
Not a real review but something like one, maybe
I am still playing Hourglass of Summer it is a very enthralling game to me perhaps the best DVD game of the lot and easily taking a spot in the upper ranks of my favorite games. Below is a little bit of why it is ranked that high when it is such a new game.
There many choices which seem to have drastic effects on the possible endings including letting you play a long way to get a bad ending, which some might not like but I think is a mark of a great game, it is not obvious which path leads to the bad ending. Also perhaps one of the best features is the ability to get a password whenever you want, though you might not be able to save during the middle of a day, you can before a choice is made and at the start of each day or if the day goes to evening or something similar. That is a wonderful feature and the closest I have ever seen in DVD games to a save feature. It also seems to have a lot of effort put into plot and a lot of possible twists and turns.
One other thing to note, as mentioned I played it for a few days, a couple hours each day and got the bad ending first, so it is not one of those games with choices which are as easy as those as we all have seen in some games before at such times as you’ve just been asked if you like the food a girl you like has made and these two choices pop up, “tell her it’s a good lunch” or “tell her starving wild animals wouldn’t touch her food” . That too is a plus in my book for Hourglass of Summer and when playing for one of the good endings it has once again been a few hours over a few days, with a nice fully voiced soundtrack. Music which is there but never gets too loud and never drowns out what is being said, a compelling plot, as said this is perhaps the best of all the games they have released.
As of this time I have less in-depth to say about Tea Society of a Witch other then the fact that no where but the box is it called by that title, all other places it is called the more correct(?)Witch’s Tea Party. From playing it there seem to be more endings a lot more scenes then would be evident from the main three choices each time, but the plot seems more straight forward perhaps which will make it the quicker of the two games to play and finish. Each of the choices is more obvious and seemingly less critical in what choices it will next lead you too because they are more obvious and the main effect seems to be which character you choose to ‘interact’ with at the start of each day.
Sadly within this game the passwords are not able to be gotten when you want them. As for the music it is good, the opening theme is nice but the character music can be too loud and at least with one of the characters seen early on, seemingly far too loud that along with blocking what the character is saying can get annoying because of the volume. So it and perhaps other music does drown out what some of the characters are saying from time to time, nevertheless overall this game does seem to have it’s moments and is a good game if slightly more straight forward and more along the lines and style of those we have seen in the past.
From the lesser time I have played it Tea Society of a Witch is very enjoyable but Hourglass of Summer is far more enjoyable, and seems a major step up from the previous DVD games with the password ability, the in-depth story and plot, and other features worth seeing rather then reading about in text.
{Edit} Something I did not notice until it was in Hourglass of Summer but particularly with the DVD games, it is very nice to have all the text on the screen read, and have the PC actually have a voice of his own, rather then just blank moments of quiet followed by one of the other characters speaking.
[This message has been edited by SCDawg (edited 08-03-2004).]
LadyPhoenix, what was wrong with my topic? :’(
http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001942.html
Anyone try to play these games on a computer with a software dvd player?
quote:
Originally posted by Benoit:
LadyPhoenix, what was wrong with my topic? :'(
http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001942.html
Different question I think is why she put it in a new topic.
No, I played it on a DVD player so not sure about the computer software. Oh another thought about Tea Society of a Witch they have a border that is always or close to always around the picture that so far as I can so far tell cannot be gotten rid of, but it might be possible it is not really annoying but it is something that should have been mentioned, Hourglass of Summer has no such border.
[This message has been edited by SCDawg (edited 08-03-2004).]
Well, one of my online friends loves Hourglass, as I’ve Sound does the soundtrack.
Yes I can also recommend the music, highly recommend the opening theme and Kaho’s theme as personal favorites there are others but that involes minor spoilers.
Thank you SCDawg…
That’s very refreshing after my last DVD game attempts which made me swear I’d (edit) never (end edit) buy another DVD game… I think you’ve just renewed my hope… I thought Hourglass sounded good and I was hoping it would be as good as it sounded, but I wasn’t going to bite on it until I heard some feedback, which you’ve wonderfully supplied. Again, many thanks!
[This message has been edited by ScorpioMysterica (edited 08-03-2004).]
You are welcome.
I will only add this edit to what I have already said, there are the occasional times I have found where the choices (in Hourglass of Summer) might seem obvious, but without giving anything away, nothing is what it seems, that is they often are not as obvious as some might appear, is perhaps the best way to say it without giving anything away.
Off topic slightly but I also understand this game spawned an anime in Japan and numerous drama CD’s, perhaps because the game itself is so much of a story it easily lead to these other formats. Also at least as far as the drama CD’s go, I have learned one of them picks up after one of the game endings. To me all of this is further evidence of a good and very popular story.
[This message has been edited by SCDawg (edited 08-03-2004).]
If no one minds… ive got a small favor to ask about Tea Society of a Witch…
as you guys play, can you count the number of endings? and as you get each ending credits sequence… take note of the chapter listed and the start and ending times?
I like listening to ending songs… since the disk is kinda… scrambled, its hard to find them tho…
Well, you guys have convinced me… I went ahead and bought Hourglass of Summer, and I’ll give it a try… it’ll be my first DVD game… at least that I can read…
Possible nice surprise spoiler
Oh something else to mention, I just won with Kaho-chan’s ending and guess what, you get a password which leads to her CG gallery, you get all the CG images of her that appeared in your game.
quote:
Originally posted by exoarchaeologist:
If no one minds... ive got a small favor to ask about Tea Society of a Witch...as you guys play, can you count the number of endings? and as you get each ending credits sequence.... take note of the chapter listed and the start and ending times?
I like listening to ending songs... since the disk is kinda.... scrambled, its hard to find them tho....
[edit] Oops sorry thought you meant the other game. As for Tea Society of a Witch it seems there are only three endings from what the ending themes read, but something tells me there has to be at least one other ending perhaps two other endings.
[edit] Below is for Hourglass of Summer.
Well I can say, not counting the bad, there is at least three endings, perhaps four or five other possible endings.
As to the songs, there is a password you can get which will lead you to all the music, you don't get the credit roll with it, or what images might show during the credit roll but you do get the music. Personally I think the opening song is excellent but might be nicer with the images that come with it.
[This message has been edited by SCDawg (edited 08-05-2004).]
based on the sample mp3s on Frontwing’s site, i suspect that there are more than 3 ending to Tea Society of a Witch
however… during the game theres only 3 chars selectable at the end of each day
or have i simply not activated the correct branch yet?
i’ve still only done Nee’s ending in Tea Society…been too busy with Hourglass…what a wonderful game Hourglass of Summer is!!! it kind of reminds me of Season of Sakura somehow
To anyone living in Canada, is there a local distributor for either game? Regular b-game distributors (Canadahentai, et al), does not seem to carry it, nor regular DVD merchants (The CNL, Amazon.ca, et al). Though I could order it from J-List/PeaPri, I am trying to avoid customs (I have been hit hard by brokers and/or customs in my last couple of international orders). Any suggestion appreciated…
Edit: Strangely enough, I asked the same question a year ago…
[This message has been edited by fxho (edited 08-15-2004).]
Anyone playing Hourglass of Summer have you gotten the Tomo-chan ending? Believe it or not that is the one I am fixated as one of my last ones and I cannot get it, each time I try it gives me the bad ending.
Hmm…
Well, technically, it fits under this topic.
Here is the website for the Hourglass of Summer OVA.
I’m not quite sure how to react to this news, considering how KSS’s adaptation of Phantom of Inferno turned out. (Review found here.) Mind you, I haven’t seen it personally yet, so I can’t say, but…
quote:
Originally posted by woodelf:
As long as you get them sent air mail you should have no problems other than taxes on the items. Now I live in Western Canada so customs may be different in the East.
Yeah, I know, just that, well, some times, I am just unlucky on things like this. Oh, BTW, last time I checked, BC is to the WEST of Alberta! (unless you want to go around the world!)
Ive been playing Tea Society a second time thru
and since I keep logs of what choices I make in a game, im noticing…
that they seem to be using the password as a ‘girl points’ counter
with Nee as the first letter, Manamu as the second, and Drill as the third
If this theory is correct
then it implies there are indeed only 3 endings for the dvd version of the game
anyone played the origional?
just How Much is missing?
im guessing more than half…
…this seems to be a trend for dvd games… much more limited branching, probably due to the limited ability of dvd scripting…(tho if youre clever you really Should be able to do a lot with just a password as a state register)
as much as I liked this game, I’m probably going to have to stop supporting the dvd versions…