otakuxgamer

The Wii version of this visual novel did what no other visual novel has done before – it got a perfect score from Famitsu. Of course, in many peoples’ eyes, Famitsu’s scores don’t hold as much weight as they used to, but regardless of how one feels about the magazine’s credibility, its scores are still important enough that any game that receives a perfect from it deserves a closer look.

428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de has you playing as five different characters, with each decision you make with one character affecting the other four characters’ stories in one way or another. It is set up in such a way that you must play through a one-hour chapter for each character in order to get to the next chapter. This being a visual novel, a big part of its success hinges on its story. Luckily, at least according to a few places, not only is the story great, but it also contains a lot of humor despite the fact that it revolves around a kidnapping.

Unfortunately, it is very doubtful that 428 will ever see the light of day in America thanks to the huge amount of text that would have to be translated as well as the general apathy people over here feel for visual novels in general. But you never know – maybe we’ll see a fan translation some time down the line.

The Anime Connection:

Both of Type-Moon’s cofounders, Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi, worked on one of the scenarios for the game – Kinoko on the story and Takashi on the character designs. That scenario was later adapted into the recently aired anime, Canaan.

Tears to Tiara was originally an eroge SRPG that was developed by Leaf back in 2005. It was followed by a PS3 port in 2008 with all of the adult content removed. Tears to Tiara Gaiden: Avalon no Nazo is pretty much a side story that adds Decimus, a character who first appeared in the Tears to Tiara anime, to the cast.

On a related note, Dakkodango Translations has a Tears to Tiara patch that allows you to enjoy the original PC game in English. Check it out if you can get your hands on a copy of the game.

This is the second Spice and Wolf game to come out on the DS, and it looks as if it plays pretty much like its predecessor. In this half-merchant, half-romance sim, you as Lawrence go from town to town, buying goods and finding out about other towns that you can visit and trade with. Prices for the goods that you’ve bought fluctuate and are often different depending on where you currently are, so snappy business decisions are needed to make a profit in a timely manner. There are also some visual novel-like elements which allow you to get closer to Horo.

As a fan of the anime, this is pretty much the type of game that I’d want to play, so kudos to the developers for sticking to the same formula as the first game.

The Idolm@ster series first began in the arcades back in 2005. Since then, it has appeared on both the Xbox 360 and PSP as well as in anime form. Now the series is set to reach new heights on the DS.

Dearly Stars is different from its predecessors in that you now play the game from the idols’ point of view. While it stars three new characters to the series, personalities from the other games will appear from time to time to give you advice. As with the previous games, your goal is to prepare your talent for stardom by teaching them how to dance, sing, etc.

Apparently, this is region locked for DSi systems, but not for the original DS or DS Lite. So, you can still play it if you have either of those. However, you will be missing out on the game’s DSi-specific features.

Based on music selection alone, this is one of the more interesting SingStar compilations to come out this year besides SingStar Queen. It’s just too bad that we aren’t getting it any time soon. Luckily, there is a PS3 version, so importing is easy for those who don’t mind paying a little extra. Here is the track list -

David Ruffin – Put A Little Love In Your Heart
Diana Ross & The Supremes – Reflections
Jimmy Ruffin – What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
Lionel Richie – My Destiny
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas – Jimmy Mack
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas – Nowhere To Run
Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On?
Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston – It Takes Two
Mary Wells – My Guy
Rick James – Super Freak
Smokey Robinson – Being With You
Smokey Robinson And The Miracles – The Tracks Of My Tears
Stevie Wonder – For Once In My Life
The Commodores – Brick House
The Commodores – Easy
The Contours – Do You Love Me
The Four Tops – Reach Out I’ll Be There
The Isley Brothers – This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)
The Jackson 5 – ABC
The Miracles – Love Machine
The Supremes – You Can’t Hurry Love
The Temptations – Get Ready
The Temptations – Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone
The Velvelettes – Needle In A Haystack

Goddess of Destiny is a remake of SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu for the Gameboy. Most will remember it as Final Fantasy Legend II since the name was changed to capitalize on the popularity of Final Fantasy at the time. This remake was directed by the original game’s director and features cel-shaded graphics, a different encounter system, and an improved leveling-up system.

This is essentially a disc that will load all four chapters of the Raspberyl scenario as well as the Prinny DLC onto your PS3’s hard drive. I guess it’d be cheaper to purchase this than to use Japanese PSN cards and get them all separately. So, if you imported Disgaea 3 and wish to get more out of your game, this is an easier way to do so.

The PS3 port of Tales of Vesperia sports a new character named Patty Fleur, full voice acting, new cut scenes, and more quests and side-quests. Actually, there is a lot more “new” in this update to the 360 “exclusive,” so much so that places like Sankaku Complex are proclaiming that those who bought the 360 version were essentially beta testers whose suggestions helped to make the PS3 port the version to get.