It appears that I have Sakura Wars on the mind a LOT lately.
Still cranking away at Sakura Wars V, with the full intent of doing multiple playthroughs. As the last post might have hinted at, Rikaritta Aries was the first character I completed the game with... not that I'd really planned to. Thankfully, Sakura Wars V is a good enough game. Looking at the GameFAQs reviews, the largest complaint I've seen is this: "It's based in New York, but it's obviously not New York! It's New York seen through Japanese eyes, and it's all crazy and stuff! They should've done more research."
... well, yes, and the France-based entry in the series turned the Arc de Triomphe into a revolver cannon capable of firing mecha across the Eurasian landmass with pinpoint accuracy, and mutated the Eiffel Tower into a lightning-shooting twin-headed steel monstrosity, and I don't think anyone complained when reviewing THAT game. Furthermore, the Imperial Capital installed a city-sized blimp launchpad in the busiest street in Ginza, and hid a secret government mecha-carrying train station the size of a skyscraper inside Tokyo's subway system! I THINK THE SERIES REQUIRES SOME SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF.
Ahem. Anyways.
When it comes to these kinds of games, the first playthrough is always a crapshoot for me- I never know which heroine I end up gravitating towards, mainly because I always end up jumping into the game without knowing a thing about any of the characters. And when I do, it's always the least expected outcome.
In Comic Party, it was Yuu Inagawa: though I'd initially dismissed her as a stereotypical Kansai-ben character, she almost perpetrated a homicide using a harisen cracked me the hell up. In Galaxy Angel, I thought that Forte's trigger-happy style (and ludicrously awesome mecha) would tide me over, but Mint's 'iron gauntlet beneath a silk glove' way of doing things drew me in.
It's even worse with the Sakura Wars series. For 1 and 2, Kanna Kirishima distinguished herself by being the most unconventional heroine I'd seen- and the only person to kick off a romantic reunion not with "Oh, (insert name here), I've missed you so much! *heart*", but "Um, heya! *awkward silence* WE MUST KUNG-FU FIGHT! HRAAAAHHH". For 3... Coquelicot, because her mecha uses circus magic as its fighting style, and on top of that, it's equipped with cannons that, as far as I can tell, shoots giant cats at demons.
... looking back, the pattern that emerges is 1) Comic Relief, 2) Unconventional Badassery, and 3) Either Pilots an Awesome Mecha and/or Can Break The Protagonist's Mind. Following that train of logic, Rikaritta in V was all but a given. Not only is she adorable, but she's... oh lord is she ridiculously hilarious. Driven solely by food, trigger-happy like nothing else, and the type of person who doesn't use as much of her brain as she should.
The only pet peeve I have with the dating sim (whether it be mixed with mecha strategy, based off of or spawned an anime series, or otherwise) is its one make-or-break weakness: the fine line separating it from ye olde harem genre. At the bad end of the spectrum is Sakura Wars 4, which presents the following: thirteen heroines who, despite all evidence to the contrary, are sweet for Ohgami-san for no reason whatsoever except the fact that 1) he's the protagonist, and 2) he's their trusted and beloved commander etc. Naturally, this is aggravating because it more or less destroys characterization, or throws the dynamics of interpersonal relationship into the realm of the unbelievable. I can understand someone going from distrust to grudging respect to trust, especially following a good bout of 'we saved the Imperial Capital/Transbaal Empire/etc from massive destruction', but not distrust to trust to 'one step away from love-love'. Granted, Sakura Wars 4 suffered from rushed production (end of the Dreamcast?) and the writers writing themselves into one hell of a tough situation, but still.
To date, the best I've seen is Comic Party: you literally HAVE to focus on one character. Heck, it's nigh-impossible to MEET all of the characters in the game in one playthrough, and it's more than easy to break any and all friendships (or higher levels) that you have with one unthinking word or action. If you hurt someone's feelings, you have to work to regain their trust; if you REALLY strike a nerve, you shut down any chances that you have, end of story. Granted, this isn't at all possible in Sakura Wars or Galaxy Angel, where the characters' combat stats are entirely dependent on such friendships, as amusing (or not) as it would be to get completely stuck on a boss battle where all your pilots have stat bonuses into the negatives.
Having finished Rikaritta's route, I find myself compelled to go through the other characters' stories as well- a feat that I've yet to accomplish with other games in the genre. Thankfully, it's simpler to do in SWV- not only is there a text skip option, but all of the protaginist's stats are carried over between games. Being able to destroy a half-hour-long boss battle in under five minutes is a universally good feeling. Regardless, Gemini's route is next, mainly because she's a Texan samurai cowgirl whose sensei was some freakish synthesis of Obi-Wan, Volcott, and Happosai. How can you NOT win with something like that?
Following that... hmm. I'd initially dismissed Subaru as the token Japanese girl of the game, maybe with a dash of "I'm a genius!" thrown in. However, she's becoming more and more like the game's last boss in my mind ... a pretty interesting, if somewhat frightening, enigma. Not only is her age unknown (my theory is that Subaru's immortal), but her gender is quite literally unknown. It's generally assumed that she's female, with a scattering of evidence to match; however, she's given quite a few subtle AND not-so-subtle clues that could prove otherwise. Heck, even series canon doesn't confirm it one way or the other.
Granted, there's something horribly amusing about reading Japanese fanfic that have to label themselves "Subaru (Female) x Shinjirou" and "Subaru (Male) x Shinjirou), where- for once- BOTH possibilities could very well be canon.
... well, yes, and the France-based entry in the series turned the Arc de Triomphe into a revolver cannon capable of firing mecha across the Eurasian landmass with pinpoint accuracy, and mutated the Eiffel Tower into a lightning-shooting twin-headed steel monstrosity, and I don't think anyone complained when reviewing THAT game. Furthermore, the Imperial Capital installed a city-sized blimp launchpad in the busiest street in Ginza, and hid a secret government mecha-carrying train station the size of a skyscraper inside Tokyo's subway system! I THINK THE SERIES REQUIRES SOME SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF.
Ahem. Anyways.
When it comes to these kinds of games, the first playthrough is always a crapshoot for me- I never know which heroine I end up gravitating towards, mainly because I always end up jumping into the game without knowing a thing about any of the characters. And when I do, it's always the least expected outcome.
In Comic Party, it was Yuu Inagawa: though I'd initially dismissed her as a stereotypical Kansai-ben character, she almost perpetrated a homicide using a harisen cracked me the hell up. In Galaxy Angel, I thought that Forte's trigger-happy style (and ludicrously awesome mecha) would tide me over, but Mint's 'iron gauntlet beneath a silk glove' way of doing things drew me in.
It's even worse with the Sakura Wars series. For 1 and 2, Kanna Kirishima distinguished herself by being the most unconventional heroine I'd seen- and the only person to kick off a romantic reunion not with "Oh, (insert name here), I've missed you so much! *heart*", but "Um, heya! *awkward silence* WE MUST KUNG-FU FIGHT! HRAAAAHHH". For 3... Coquelicot, because her mecha uses circus magic as its fighting style, and on top of that, it's equipped with cannons that, as far as I can tell, shoots giant cats at demons.
... looking back, the pattern that emerges is 1) Comic Relief, 2) Unconventional Badassery, and 3) Either Pilots an Awesome Mecha and/or Can Break The Protagonist's Mind. Following that train of logic, Rikaritta in V was all but a given. Not only is she adorable, but she's... oh lord is she ridiculously hilarious. Driven solely by food, trigger-happy like nothing else, and the type of person who doesn't use as much of her brain as she should.
The only pet peeve I have with the dating sim (whether it be mixed with mecha strategy, based off of or spawned an anime series, or otherwise) is its one make-or-break weakness: the fine line separating it from ye olde harem genre. At the bad end of the spectrum is Sakura Wars 4, which presents the following: thirteen heroines who, despite all evidence to the contrary, are sweet for Ohgami-san for no reason whatsoever except the fact that 1) he's the protagonist, and 2) he's their trusted and beloved commander etc. Naturally, this is aggravating because it more or less destroys characterization, or throws the dynamics of interpersonal relationship into the realm of the unbelievable. I can understand someone going from distrust to grudging respect to trust, especially following a good bout of 'we saved the Imperial Capital/Transbaal Empire/etc from massive destruction', but not distrust to trust to 'one step away from love-love'. Granted, Sakura Wars 4 suffered from rushed production (end of the Dreamcast?) and the writers writing themselves into one hell of a tough situation, but still.
To date, the best I've seen is Comic Party: you literally HAVE to focus on one character. Heck, it's nigh-impossible to MEET all of the characters in the game in one playthrough, and it's more than easy to break any and all friendships (or higher levels) that you have with one unthinking word or action. If you hurt someone's feelings, you have to work to regain their trust; if you REALLY strike a nerve, you shut down any chances that you have, end of story. Granted, this isn't at all possible in Sakura Wars or Galaxy Angel, where the characters' combat stats are entirely dependent on such friendships, as amusing (or not) as it would be to get completely stuck on a boss battle where all your pilots have stat bonuses into the negatives.
Having finished Rikaritta's route, I find myself compelled to go through the other characters' stories as well- a feat that I've yet to accomplish with other games in the genre. Thankfully, it's simpler to do in SWV- not only is there a text skip option, but all of the protaginist's stats are carried over between games. Being able to destroy a half-hour-long boss battle in under five minutes is a universally good feeling. Regardless, Gemini's route is next, mainly because she's a Texan samurai cowgirl whose sensei was some freakish synthesis of Obi-Wan, Volcott, and Happosai. How can you NOT win with something like that?
Following that... hmm. I'd initially dismissed Subaru as the token Japanese girl of the game, maybe with a dash of "I'm a genius!" thrown in. However, she's becoming more and more like the game's last boss in my mind ... a pretty interesting, if somewhat frightening, enigma. Not only is her age unknown (my theory is that Subaru's immortal), but her gender is quite literally unknown. It's generally assumed that she's female, with a scattering of evidence to match; however, she's given quite a few subtle AND not-so-subtle clues that could prove otherwise. Heck, even series canon doesn't confirm it one way or the other.
Granted, there's something horribly amusing about reading Japanese fanfic that have to label themselves "Subaru (Female) x Shinjirou" and "Subaru (Male) x Shinjirou), where- for once- BOTH possibilities could very well be canon.