Highschool DxD New Fight

Another social game wonder of the year. I am a fan of the Highschool DxD franchise, I even read the light novels, from time to time, but social games were, as you know, something I didn’t like much.

First thing I though about the game – hey, what kind of Million Arthur clone is this? And it really seemed so. The same dungeon(Quest) system, same idea of battles. It seemed to have nothing of it’s own, until a certain moment.

The breaking moment was the Dress Break system, which would be the central concept of the series, as it is the ONLY magic that the original protagonist of the series, Hyodou Issei, managed to learn. And, as the name suggests, it literally…breaks the clothings of the opponent. Only used on females, tho. In HSDDNF(an abbreviation of the game’s name that I use, Marvelous, the developers and owners of the Vita game, abbreviate it as DDNF, indicated by the official site. Mobage is abbreviated as HSDD) the Dress Break is a touching mini-game that occurs after you beat a Story Boss(100%) or a Raid Boss(random encounter, around 40% chance for it to trigger), in which you must swiftly touch the magic circles on the screen with your finger(tongue, penis, breasts, whatever) and touch enough within the time limit(which can go bitch on ya, so be careful). After the TOUCHING phase is over, the  second phase goes. In that phase you must literally rub a singular magic circle.

After that, Issei snaps his fingers, and the line “Dress Break Success” appears, followed by the Dress Break CG of the girl. CGs are rather…lewd, hehe. Well, that’s what we came for.

Besides pretty awesome additions to basic gameplay idea taken from Kaku-san-sei Million Arthur, the game has pretty good story.

So, the protagonist, YOU, the player, is killed by a Fallen Angel, and gets resurrected by the good old Rias Gremory. Since the player character is inexistant, you do not get a rank, nor a place on the “chessboard”. Then again, how could you, considering storywise Rias is out of Evil Pieces.

Issei(original series protagonist) then explains a lot of crap, like how to do quests, beat bosses etc., and then suddenly you fight Rias, then Issei Dress Breaks her, netting you your first R card. The first Dress Break Chance cannot be failed, but further can.

Unlike most social card games, R(are) cards mean NOTHING here. They are lying on every corner you go to. The player will have to aim for higher rank cards like HR(High Rare), SR(Super Rare) and SSR(???)/UR(Ultra Rare). While an R card can be pretty strong, an HR will be better, cause it can go 10 levels higher than an R card.  Same comparison for HR and SR, SR and SSR.

Like in the mentioned Million Arthur, there are systems like Evolution and Combine. I do not remember Strenghten system in MA, so I’ll consider it something original.

Evolution, like always, is combining 2 of the same cards to get a higher rank card. Rx2=HR

HRx2=SR

SRx2=SSR

Or so the player might wish, but that doesn’t go so easy at all times. Cards can evolve to the same rarity as they were, so chains like R->R->HR->HR or HR->HR->SR->SR or HR->HR->SR->SSR or HR->SR->SR->SSR are possible too.

Each card has it’s own set limit of evolutions, with maximum being 4.

Evolving a card of a girl, you also get to make them “improve by Dress Breaking”, so ones with 4 evolutions are likely to change costume, pose etc.

Combine is the same good old Level Up system for the social games. You take one card, put a lot of other cards into it, and it levels up. The difference is that when you level up a card to the Maximum level, a line saying “Create Boost Item” appears, and you literally…Create a boost item.

Strenghtening

Boost items aren’t a waste of space(not that there is any kind of inventory space, only card amount is limited). They can be used to strenghten a card.

Each card has some Slots (0-5) for Boost items. By going into strenghtening menu, you can apply those to the card improving it’s stats greatly.

As far as I know, the maximum amount 1 Boost Item can give is 1000 Attack Power OR 1000 HP.

Helps a lot in high level dungeons with high level bosses.

As any Social game I know, HSDDNF has a Guide for helping(or annoying, at times) the player. Considering this is franchise related social game, it’s obviously that Guide Characters will be girls from the original series. Currently 8 girls are available as guide:

Rias Gremory(the main heroine of the series. King)

Himejima Akeno(Ultimate Do-S Queen)(the costume is a special one that was unlocked for participation in Pool event)

Toujou Koneko(Everyone’s cute school mascot. Rook)

Asia Argento(the loli-face nun. Bishop)

Zenovia(the always annoyingly wanting to copulate. Knight)

Shidou Irina(crawling near you, the self-proclaimed Angel and the follower of the Protestant Church)

Ravel Phoenix(the elegant pretty little lady of the Phoenix clan)

Amano Yuuma(yep, that girl)

But just touching them to see the reaction they can give out is boring right? So GP(Guide Point) system is introduced. Guide Points is one type of the in-game currency to use to buy something in game. GP are specifically used for buying things like Seasonal Welcome Voice Set, Advice Set or Costumes.

GP are gotten by completing quest locations(20 per location) or by winning a Rating game(5 per victory). By getting more and more of them, the affection of the heroine towards you will increase.

The affection is represented by Hearts in the Guide menu

The higher the heroine's affection is - the more lines she has to say when you're touching her.

The girls are pretty fun to interact with, and I enjoy seeing their reactions to me touching them, hehe. Still wondering if they'll ever introduce Shitori Souna, Shinra Tsubaki and/or other members of the Student Council as Guide characters.

All that summed, and you get a great game that is fun to spend time on.

Same as with LLSIF, the game can be completed(as in get Platinum trophy) for completely free. Yes, if you pay money that’ll be a bit easier,  but I prefer some CHALLENGE.

Also, it is pretty much the only social game I know that HAS a platinum trophy.

Marvelous, who owns this one, are constantly adding new things, like systems, story etc. Well, no wonder, but all of the cards they add are straight from the mobage, which has…a lot.

ハーレム王に！俺はなる！

Love Live! school idol festival

A game, and a franchise, which caught me off-guard. I wasn’t expecting it.

Around May 2014, I suddenly felt  the need to watch Love Live! School idol project anime, and…got kinda addicted. Love Live! school idol paradise was already announced for Playstation Vita, but it was still ways before release. And so, I googled, and stumbled upon LLSIF(the abbreviation for the game’s name), which was out on iOS and Android.

Just to mention, I never had an iOS device, and I hate Apple as a company. Not that it matters. I do have a so-so powerful Android phone, on which I downloaded the game.

The game came off as a complete surprise to me.

You see, I am an an old acquaintance with browser games, MMO and other types of social games, of which LLSIF is closer to a browser game…without needing a browser.

First which surprised me – being a social card game, it has gameplay. Yes, GAMEPLAY. It plays like a touchscreen-based rhythm game. Played Utakumi 575 on Vita? same shit, gameplay-wise.

Besides gameplay, the game also has STORY, yes, STORY. While nothing serious, and seems completely unrelated to the main story of the series, like a spin-off – it’s still pretty interesting, and after a year(when I started, the game was out for a year in Japan) the story went so far I’m still not done with it. 20 chapters already.

The game also offers side-stories for every character, be they canon(existing in the series. that’s only the 9 main heroines), or just added for card amount(do not exist in the series). To open a side story, you need to perform Special Training(特別練習) with that card(ultimately it means fusing 2 of the same card) and then, through playing some Lives, form a Bond(絆) with her.

What’s a bit disturbing – main heroines side-stories make them act like the player is their boyfriend or something. I do not really want that, but the developers already made them, can’t really complain.

As any proper social game, the game offers Events regularly, allowing players to get stronger cards, Loveca Stones(a type of Premium currency in the game) etc.

There are 2 kinds, and a 3^rd was added recently – Score Challenge, Event and FES(tival). Each having it’s own mechanic.

Score Challenge is, as the name suggests – a score challenge between 4 players each round. A song is chosen randomly, and the player must choose the best unit suiting the song then beat it with maximum score possible.

Event is, again, as the name suggests – an Event. The player will gather event points on normal songs, then spend them to play the Event song to get more points. Near the end of the Event a 4x event song will be added. It takes 4x the points to play, but gives 4x points earned.

FES(tival)’s are…well, festivals. The idea is that the player chooses if to play 1, 2 or 3 songs consequentially, makes some arranges(really, it’s just paying money for some POSSIBLE bonuses) then, of course, plays the songs.

The most surprising for me in LLSIF was how addictive it is. It’s like I started today, and whew, here I am, months later, playing without missing a single day.

Besides gameplay, there’s one more factor that might be keeping me in – I like j-Pop. Not only, to be exact, I just like japanese music, and japanese vocals in songs.

It’s hard to judge the game, but I can only tell it’s very good, and very addictive.

Another thing about the charm of the game and the franchise are the songs themselves. Yes, I mentioned I like J-POP just now, but it’s a bit different. Here’s how:

The songs in Love Live franchise feel really…nostalgic, somehow. Some remind me of those I’ve listened to in my young days, when I just started being a japanese game/anime fan, and some, somehow, remind me of music I’ve heard in 90s here in Russia(for example the recent lily white single – Aki no Anata no Sora Tooku, both songs on the disk are REALLY nostalgic and reminding me of something in 90s, though I can’t remember what. I’ve asked my mother and many people who lived longer than myself, but no other info besides that it’s something from that time period. No one can remember what is it so similar to, or why is it so familiar).

And I love it for that. Nostalgy is the biggest weak point of a Russian man. Believe me on that.

IslandDays

A completely unexpected purchase based on my glorious sixth sense. First of all, I’m not really a fan of Days series, even though I’m a person who is quite familiar with it, and achieved all endings in all Days games except Cross Days.

Now then, why is it so unexpected if I am such a person?

Thing is, Island Days is a mix of Tower Defense, Visual Novel and resource/time management.

To make it clear, I HATE Tower Defense genre, or HATED, for one certain reason. TD is mostly western genre, and it doesn’t have a story, so I see no meaning in playing it. I love games with story, giving a meaning to my actions.

Well, Island Days provides it and Tower Defense gameplay, while being easy for most part, inevitably gets incredibly hard near the last day.

The story premise is happening somewhere either before School Days itself, or before Summer Days. Hard to tell, because it seems all the characters know each other, but no relationships have been clearly established yet.

So, Ito Makoto wakes up on a cruise boat going to an uninhabited island, suddenly finds out that all the possible girls he knows are there too, then KABOOOOOOM, the boat crashes to pieces and everyone washes ashore of the said uninhabited island.

Pretty standard for Eroge, but for Tower Defense? Not really.

In this game, Makoto is not only the pimp, but also a very useful member of the established society of those who washed ashore the uninhabited island. He shows pretty good skills in simple craftsmanship, planning, dirty jokes and strategy.

The idea behind the gameplay is to survive on the said uninhabited island and/or get out of there. The group finds an abandoned house, with some provisions and tools, but ohoho, not everything is so easy.

Wild beasts also want food, so they will come to assault group’s food storages.

That’s what the TD gameplay is for. Girls and Makoto will take weapons(from wooden sticks to grenades and pistols) and try to defend the food with all they’ve got.

The game is split between exploration and TD gameplay. Each day will start with 2-3 explorations, which will be carried out by Makoto and one of the girls, then a TD stage will follow.

By exploring the island, the group will find new weapons, or replenish food supplies.

Besides simple things like that, there’s a hidden factor – girl’s mood. Knowing the cast of Days series, the girls are holding a devil within themselves.

That means if you try to only give your attention to one – you have a good chance she will be killed around 17^th-19^th day.

The key is to give attention to everyone or nearly everyone equally. Well, to be honest, the only ones who ever killed someone for me were the glasses girl, Kotonoha and Sekai. Kokoro, Setsuna, Hikari etc never did so even if really mad at me. Perhaps it’s impossible.

But let’s not forget Days series is originally an H-game series. The roots still hold even on 3DS. No, of course no direct sex scenes are involved, that’s prohibited, but the game still implies Makoto and the girl of player’s choice had sex. Behind the scenes. And yes, Makoto yet again gets a chance to get some loli sex with Kokoro.

Ohoho, I really want to comment on this one, but I don't know how.

The game’s story and overall game flow are really catchy, I’ve played until I got most of possible endings, even accidentally getting some bad ones, and it was really fun.

Here are some images(Nintendo, once in a while you do allow screenshots where I freaking need them)

How does he even plan to survive? He has a 14-years old girlfriend now, and
a lot of jealous girls who can easily kill him.

MUST...TOUCH...LOLI...BUTT!

SAIKOU DAZE!

Yes, all of the loli-endings pictures were chosen(and taken) intentionally.

But not just the gameplay was enjoyable. I truly enjoyed story scenes too, and the ways of getting your ass out of that island.

First of all, Makoto can leave the island alone with or without one of the girls. That requires fixing a boat they find on the beach.

Second, they can use the start-pistol(like one used for races) to get attention of a passing boat, and then all who are alive at that time will get out of there.

Third, they can find a radio in the second abandoned house and use it to transmit a SOS signal, thus calling help. Also gets everyone out.

I think there’s a 4^th way, but I never found it.

Of course, there’s also an option to never leave the island and live there happily.

And…the option to die, for everyone. If 2 or more characters die, you get the ending where everyone killed each other eventually.

I generally greatly enjoyed the game, despite hating the tower defense genre. Probably it’s because it included 1)Cute girls 2)Time Management(my favorite gameplay element)

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment

SAO:HF, a game the west, SURPRISINGLY, got, but with google translate instead of translation(thank gods, west deserved it).

A lot of people just skipped it, because it’s related to SAO franchise. Not me here. I didn’t read SAO light novels, neither I watched the animated series. I knew absolutely NOTHING about the series, and yet my sixth sense said “GET THIS GAME AT RELEASE!” and I did.

I said my sixth sense is the only friend I can trust in terms of games? Yep, I did, probably.

It wasn’t wrong. SAO: HF offered me a lot of what games in present world lost – tons of content, over 100 hours of gameplay for FIRST playthrough(I finished first in 200 hours), a lot of events to see and trigger,massive large locations to explore, real-MMO-style Raid battles, terrifying bosses and, of course, cuties.

A lot of people would say last is NOT a good thing, because the girls are this, that, another that, and awful because of that. I did NOT know it, and I DO NOT know it even now, so the game is still awesome for me.

Also, a common misunderstanding is that Hollow Fragment is a sequel to Infinity Moment. No, no and no again. Hollow Fragment is an expansion to Infinity Moment, offering better battle system, a whole new location to explore(with new events to see) – Hollow Area, a debuggers/developers zone of SAO, a long new story revolving around the new girl called Philia and a lot more.

The story of HF happens in PARALLEL with IM, and the game leaves the choice which to finish first to  the player, however finishing HF story BEFORE IM has it’s benefits. Like if you finish HF before IM, after last battle of IM, you will have a battle with Konno Yuuki(a girl from ALO arc, as I knew from forums and twitter). In case you win, she will join the harem on second cycle.  I’d advise to read her background first, though. Doubt many would call her their waifu, after knowing she has A… ah, well, learn about it yourself.

A complete surprise was finding Sachi in the Hollow Area(well, I didn’t know who she is, but I was aware of such a person existing, due to her “last message” stored in my inventory). She has a pretty sad and dramatic story in Hollow Fragment, and after the big update the game got in July(in Japan), you can date her in the new location. A bit of a spoiler – she’s not the real Sachi who is dead.

The game has what a lot of games in present world have lost: 

World. The world in Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment is vast and massive. It takes A LOT of time just to run through it.

Exploration. No game made after like 2004 was truly enjoyable and interesting to explore, be it MMO or  an offline game. Or had much to explore, for this matter.

Battle system. The Infinity Moment Battle System was quite interesting as it is, and it reminded of real Asian MMOs a whole lot, but, as much as it did, it had the same fallback – it was slow, and had no dynamic. Hollow Fragment made it much better, and it really reminded me of years I played…a non-Asian MMO called World of Warcraft. Playing as a tank was really similar to how it happens in Hollow Fragment. And since I enjoyed MMOs(a long time ago, though) I couldn’t dislike Hollow Fragment in any possible way

Characters. Again, an arguable point, but to a person who picked the game up randomly, I would assume characters are easily likeable. That is, however, for people who do not have particular dislike for harem settings, as SAO is ultimately one of them, even though Kirito x Asuna is being prioritized.

Play time. This is a game I didn’t feel bad about spending a lot of time on.

Story. Quite enjoyable one, really. Having a solid main storyline, with a lot of things to get into and a lot of side-events to see. Well, this point is just for mentioning, as games with good story aren’t in decline, honestly.

Variety. A point that can keep certain types of players playing the game more and more. You see, Kirito can use a lot of types of weapons, not only doing 二刀流(double sword style) all the time. Shamshir, daggers, spears, axes, 2H swords – all is available to the player. And it really gives a variety in both skills and play styles.

And all of this give an excellent game in sum. Yep.

The game itself will be excellent no matter how much you dislike SAO franchise, characters, setting or whatever people can dislike.

It was an excellent game to play, and I loved it greatly. Might actually finish the platinum trophy one day.

Oh, and a bit of a word about the shitty localization west got(and deserved, in my opinion) – my friends gave me a lot of screenshots of the translation as examples. And in a lot of cases, it really seemed like the translation was done by…RUSSIAN FREELANCERS, because the sentences sounded a lot wrong in english, but made perfect sense in Russian(I am native Russian, you see). 

Well, I do not have any feelings for the people who are forced to play with such translation, they deserve it.

It’s words of wisdom of my parents – who WANTS will find a way, who DOESN’T want will find a reason. I never understood these words as a child, but now I get it. And that’s exactly how I came to know japanese. I found a way. People who say “I don’t have the time to learn” or “japanese is too hard” or “I’m too old to learn a new language” are just finding a reason(not to do something). I do not have any remorse in bashing them. And will never have. They deserve everything they have and will have.

Zero ~Nuregarasu no Miko~ (零 ～濡鴉ノ巫女～)

*WARNING* Story spoilers are included, it was hard to describe how good the game is without them.

Then again, why care, if you haven't played it already - you never will, so read freely.

Anyways, let's start.

The latest installment of Zero(零) survival-horror games series, developed and released exclusively for Nintendo’s first HD console – the Wii U.

It is highly praised by journalists, and the idea to use Wii U gamepad as a camera is said to be really good.

Well, can’t deny, that was an awesome experience.

There is a lot to say about this game.

Koei Tecmo really went all out on Wii U hardware in terms of graphics, and the game looks really good.  When the game was in development, it was advertised that it will use some system from Dead or Alive 5 games.

And that system is “Wetness”-system, allowing characters/characters’ clothing to get wet in the rain/water/by touching ghosts. It is quite an important addition, considering that the game’s theme is “rain”, and the game is called “濡鴉ノ巫女”(literally – Shrine Maiden of the Wet Crow), which has a double meaning. One is in the captions, second would be “Black Haired Shrine Maiden”, because 濡鴉, besides literally meaning a “wet crow,” also means a hair color, and was used in ancient Japan to describe women with VERY black hair.

When characters get wet, random encounters with spirits will occur much more often. Yes, unlike previous installments, there is a real bunch of random encounters in this game. If in Zero 2 it happened in certain areas, or in Zero 4 it happened quite rarely(maybe certain areas too, don’t remember), in this game I managed to get tired of them at times and just ran from spirits to conserve film.

The story revolves around 3 characters, and the Mountain where no one but people going to commit suicide go – Hikami Mountain.

The 射影機(lit. Projection Machine, officially called Shadow Obscure in Zero 3) makes a return, of course, since it’s the central concept of the series, and what’s more – in 2 varieties.

One is used by Kozukata Yuuri and Hinasaki Miu(who “borrows” it from Yuuri), and it is the usual model we all know and love, with a ton of different Strenghtening Lenses and functions.

Another one is the one used by Houjou Ren(a male. Yep, another one. Then again, males have been in the series since Zero 3, I stopped caring), and it’s only Strenghtening Lens allows 4 quick consecutive shots.

Speaking about characters is necessary as there is a bit of confusion in people’s minds, regarding playable characters. There are 3:

Kozukata Yuuri – a girl who has the ability of 影見(kagemi, lit. Shadow View). Kagemi allows Yuuri to follow the “shadow” of what/who she seeks, or see the past of people/objects she touches. Her mentor, Kurosawa Hisoka, however, warned her never to get into searching for missing people, as that may lead to her seeing something that shouldn't be seen. 

Houjou Ren – an old friend of Yuuri and Hisoka, a writer. He actually is a relative of the Asou family, a relative of Asou Kunihiko, the maker of the Projection Machine.

He follows his friend to the mountain Hikami, following a trace of a strangely beautiful Funeral Photo he received from him.

Hinasaki Miu – her name is written in a way that it can also be read as Miku, but she, in fact, is the daughter of Hinasaki Miku we know. She is in search for her mother who went missing, and who, supposedly, went to the mountain. She works as a gravure model.

The game goes in a mission-based fashion, with each chapter being a “mission”, which, however, doesn’t damage the atmosphere, somehow.

There were a lot of moments that really scared me, like when ghosts came literally to the Antique Café Kurosawa to attack. There was also an all out attack on the café when all of the characters gathered there during the Oomagatoki(逢魔時). The funny thing, Ren managed to drive them off until the very end…but during both attacks on the café, he managed to fall asleep in the end.

No really, if ghosts in spiritual places like the abandoned hospital, or in Village that Disappeared from the Map, or in the Mansion of Dreams, seem pretty far away from home, where characters (and the player) can feel at least a bit safe, this game destroys the illusion of being safe at home, as spirits, ghosts can come there to attack. Brr, just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.

There also is a bit of things that I didn’t find an answer to in the game.

For example, in Miu’s good ending, she and Miku walk towards the “hidden world”(underworld, really), and the player knows Miku wanted to go there(literally die, yes) to meet her brother, Mafuyu, who supposedly died in the very first game, Miu says a strange line “Mother has father, but for me there is no one to go to the underworld for”. Has me wondering if the game implies Miku managed to concieve a child from her brother, or that Miu’s father, someone we don’t know, is dead too.

Or a pretty scary thought, in Yuuri’s good end, while the nightmare does end, unlike other games, the movie doesn’t show spirits being put to rest. Does it mean that it’s just not shown, and together with black water, the Bride sealed them too? Or does it mean that the spirits still wander on mount Hikami? No answer found

But the question I, and probably most players, want to know the answer to – WHICH of endings is CANON?

In this game, ending is decided by player’s actions, not by difficulty the player played through the game on, so it cannot be as usual, with BAD endings being canon. Or...maybe it can.

This game is really worth owning a japanese Wii U for. Too bad it didn’t sell that much. Well, I hope it’s enough to get me a 6^th game, and not enough to get it localized. Such great games must not reach heretics on western shores.

But...I forgot to mention a really small part of the game, and yet quite surprisingly interesting. By request of Hayashi Yosuke, Ayane, a character of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series was added to the game.

She has her own story and gameplay. The gameplay reminds of Choushiro, as Ayane uses a Spirit Stone Flashlight.

However, unlike Choushiro, Ayane cannot defeat spirits, only temporarily stun them, so she has to use the flashlight to stun them and sneak while they are stunned.

Her story takes approximately 20 minutes to finish, and means exactly nothing to the main story.

While I do not really approve of the crossover, it was sure an interesting experience to play as Ayane in a stealth mission, where she can’t fight(the first cut-scene in her story is hilarious, how she tried to cut up a ghost, and got beaten to a pulp, because she cannot CUT a ghost).

SoniPro Review(Kuro Game of the Year 2014)

Announced together with Motto! SoniComi for PS3, which is a port of older PC game called SoniComi, it was a completely new game about Super Sonico, Nitro+'s digital mascot.

She has made numerous appearances in both Nitro+ games, and as a cameo, but that doesn't really matter, does it?

So, the game, as implied by the title Super Sonico in Production(abbreviated as SoniPro), is about Super Sonico entering the idol industry.

The protagonist, or the avatar of the player in the game world, is her Producer-to-be, or at least he(the Player) will be her producer.

The story turns out NOT IMPORTANT at all. The game is all about characters, character interactions, character development and, of course, Sonico herself.

The producer has  the power of choice of how to produce Sonico. There are 3 ways of doing It, represented by 3 colors – Peach(Pink), Black and White. Depending on the color Sonico has more, Color Events, as well as the way she’ll achieve success(even if only a minor step to a bigger success we won’t see) will change.

Depending on Color, the songs Sonico will sing also change. For example, as Momo Sonico, she will mostly sing ones that she already knows – the songs of Daiichi Uchuu Sokudo, the indie band she is in with her friends. However as Black Sonico or White Sonico, she will sing new songs, positioned as “songs unrelated to Daiichi Uchuu Sokudo”.

Color disambigation is an interesting way to represent Sonico changing as an idol. As her natural image turns out to be not enough to attract much audience, she is forced to change her image, and either become a girl who gives energy to everyone with her songs(Momo Sonico, Pop-style), or bold, dominating girl (Black Sonico, Rock-style), or a cute “big child”(White Sonico, Techno-style).

However, while her image as an idol changes, Sonico herself doesn’t really change, which is something I can nod to, somehow. I feel she shouldn’t change, at least not so fast. People do not change much within some months, right?

The game features quite a bit of new characters, as well as quite a bit of characters we should already know and welcome warmly.

New ones:

Amagi Sakura – she is the head of Laputa Productions, the company the protagonist is in. Her head is filled with strange ideas she just can’t wait to have Sonico do. No, seriously, a tambourine girl?(girl having tambourines instead of clothing) or tube girl(a girl purposedly letting others see her panties through a tube)? She’s really strange.

Miya Miyako, a.k.a Myako-san – the owner of NyanQ, a cat café…a literally CAT café, as it’s filled with cats, and Myako-san does everything else by herself. She apparently can communicate with cats through a strange shamanic dance, and understands them natively. She also keeps a tiger.

Kamijou Kurumi – the owner of ChaotiCrush(カオティっクラッシュ) club. She is quite a fan of Rock music, as well as has a sharp tongue. She wears a cap that looks like a wolf’s head in reverse, and her forelock acts like a dog’s(wolf’s) tail.

Komatsuri Hibiki – the annoying store manager of the CD Shop “Jet Records”. She is one of those people who speaks so fast, that you lose your composture and either buy the thing they recommend, or leave the shop.

Muse – the goddess of music in Greek mythology. She gives the Destiny Ticket to the protagonist, saying that it will guide him, and that his destiny, as well as HERS(of course Sonico), depends on him. A bit later she runs an in-game shop(Muse Shop Direct), selling a lot of useful things. Seems she has sisters.

Hoshikage Versta – self-proclaimed rival to Super Sonico. While she calls Sonico her rival, she’s quite fond of her. In yuri way. Versta is half-russian, but lived in Japan for her whole life. Still loves russian cooking, it seems. Also, look at those breasts...I don't believe she is even half-russian, full-russians rarely get such big ones.

Returning ones:

Kitamura Manager – the Manager of Sonico as a gravure idol. He wears a strange Oni mask.

Watanuki Fuuri – Sonico’s close friend, a member of Daiichi Uchuu Sokudo. She loves to eat.

Fujimi Suzu – Sonico’s close friend, the leader of Daiichi Uchuu Sokudo. She loves games and cosplaying. Constantly cosplays as a nurse.

The gameplay includes 4 parts:

Scheduling(Time Management)

Live(Rhythm)

Gravure(Photo)

Challenge Mission

Before explaining the Scheduling, the way the game’s calendar works should be explained.

The week is split into 4 parts – Mon/Tue, Wed/Thu/Fri, Sat, Sun.

During Mon/Tue and Wed/Thu/Fri, the player chooses an action, but Sat and Sun are already decided without him. Saturday is the Gravure Photoshoot day, Sunday is Live day.

So, Scheduling part has player choosing what Sonico will do during current time period. Besides that, the player can communicate with Sonico, like talking with her, taking her to one of: NyanQ, Jet Records, ChaotiCrush, to meet one of the 3 supporting characters, or giving her presents.

Live part is a usual rhythm game we all know. It’s similar to Hatsune Miku Project Diva by gameplay, but I actually prefer SoniPro in terms of this. Reason is – I hate arrows that represent timing in PD. SoniPro uses expanding circles which are easier to follow for me.

There are 2 Difficulty settings – Normal and Hard. Normal is…normal, while Hard is something out of my league. I can clear some songs well, while I’ll never be able to keep up with others, it seems. While you cannot completely fail a song, the evaluation you get (E, D, C, B, A, S, SS) affects how will the story turn out at times.

Also, a honorable mention should be made to the Free Mode, which allows you to replay a song as much as you wish, as if you'd played a usual rhythm game. Some gaems should learn from this.

Gravure part is a reminiscence of SoniComi, where the player has to take the camera in his hands, and shoot some awesome pantyshots of Sonico in different costumes. Of course the costume Sonico wears is up to player to decide.

In Challenge Missions, Sonico will try herself in different roles, such as Race Queen, NyanQ’s manager, Reporter etc. to understand different “hearts”, or experience.

It is up to player to help her decide how to do it at some points. Like how to attract customers, or if to accept a photosession etc.

Besides just doing everything the game offers, one can go for sub-events, like if you choose to rest at the end of the week, you’re likely to encounter a  Holiday Event, which always includes a Touch event(hehe, don’t touch Sonico’s breasts, you beast).

The game is really going for a variety in gameplay, as well as development of Sonico stage character.

To sum up my feelings about this game – it is the best game of this year for me. I can’t add anything else, as “it’s GREAT” or “it’s AWESOME” or “USDAYDIOASDASHKDJAHSDTHEBESTGAEMEVER” won’t describe how good it is. It’s just not enough to describe my feelings.

I picked up this game following my sixth sense. I felt it’s a great game, I felt I will like it, I knew it’ll give me what I longed for this year, but didn’t receive in other franchises’ games.  It did.

My sixth sense wasn’t wrong. Then again, it’s NEVER wrong. My sixth sense in gaming is the only friend who’s opinion I can rely on.

If you're still doubting whether to get it or not - be no more. Here, have some Sonico butt to convince you. Not really the best picture, but thanks Nintendo I can't do a proper screenshot, because you disabled screenshots for it on Miiverse.