Someone asked about this game in another thread and I cannot resist a chance to talk about this game. I won’t make this too pointlessly long.
*Story (no spoilers)
You play this game as Hakuoro. You wake up one day with no memory of who you are or where you came from. Eruruu is taking care of you. You are living an what appears to be ancient times. People are wearing tribal type clothing. Everyone except for Hakuoro has some sort of animal feature. Of course, this is used to make all the girls really cute. (omg, it works too!) After Hakuoro recovers he meets the vilagers and eventually helps to defend the village against beasts. Now, all this happens before the opening song is even played, so you know this game is somewhat lengthly. I’m not going to talk about the rest of the story, but if someone buys the game I can PM you about it if you’re curious as to what’s going on. I don’t remember everything, it’s been a while since I played it.
*Gameplay - ADV
Most of the game has the typical ADV setup. You know, you see people and you’re talking to them. You can’t really mess this up because the story is linear. There are not alternate endings. There are lots of times in the game where you can choose to go here or there. You’ll see different little things but in the end the same results will happen no matter what you do. This is perfect if you’re interested for us because we can understand the basic story and play the game for its beautiful artwork and fun battles. You don’t need to worry about making wrong choices in the ADV part of the game. You will get all the H scenes in one play through the game. This game was originally made to only be played one time.
*Gameplay - battles
The only way to loose the game is to die in battle and I died a lot when I played so don’t worry if it happens to you as well. The thing that makes it difficult is that although your characters level up, you cannot fight as much as you want to level them up. You only fight certain fights as the story progresses. In a way I didn’t like that because I love to power level. But also, each battle in this game is part of the story. There are no “random” (pointless) battles. I’m noramlly really busy but I’m gonig to have some time off from work and school over thanksgiving and I’ll get some screen caps of the battles to send to anyone who is interested. But anyhow, I’ll do my best to describe it here. The battle is set up like a table RPG. It’s turn based. The battle ground is divided into squares like a chess board. You don’t normally see them, only when you want to move your character. The squares will light up and you can click on one of them and your character will walk to that square. Certain characters can mover farther per turn. It depends on the character. The amount of squares that a certain character moves per turn cannot be increased. Most characters are melee fighters. Hakuoro is a melee fighter. To attack an enemy, the enemy needs to be in the square directly in front of him, behind him, or to the right or left. They attack you in the same manner. All of your characters are revived and given full health after every battle. The game is over if Hakuoro dies. Sometimes there are battles when two of your characters are required to stay alive. Usually for some event scene. The enemies always go stright for the characters that you’re trying to protect. It gets a little more complicated because some characters have magic or bows and arrows. But, it’s all pretty simple when you consider that there is no equipment screen. You get battle points at the end of every battle, and you can decide to power up your character’s attack power, defense, or magic defense. There is also a special attack that you can put your points into. It’s more like a combo attack. You start off with only one hit, meaning that you only get one attack. If you power up you special attack with your battle points, you can get more attacks per turn. A red circle will zero in on the enemy and you have to click the mouse at the right time to continue the combo. It’s easy, but fun. The extra hits hardly add any damage at all, but when you level your special to it’s maximum, you are able to do the true special attack. They look really cool and do tons of damage. I have never heard anyone give a bad review of this game. I’d recommend it to everyone.
*notes
There are two versions of the game. There is the original CD-Rom version, and the newer DVD version. The DVD version has a lot of extra CDs and also harder levels of difficulty. The thing is, they are too hard for me. You get to unlock special CGs for clearing the harder levels but I think it’s impossible. There isn’t any “new game +” or anything like that. You don’t keep your levels. I’m a big fan but my gaming skill is only average. I think maybe some of you could do it. Also be aware that there are NO voices in this game. If there is any flaw, that’s it. I love this game so much, but it would have be so awesome with voices. Everyone who plays it agrees. Oh well. It could be re-released with voice someday. That’s what happened with “Snow.” So, questions, comments, complaints or corrections can be posted here. If you want to see battle screen caps or the beautiful CGs, PM me. Thanks everyone.