The heat wave continues, and with it so do my sleepless nights. It's not doing great at putting me in a eroge playing mood though, but thankfully Eushully is always here to provide games that just make time disappear. Without further ado, some comments about what I've been playing these past two weeks :
ちっちゃな花嫁 ～まだまだつぼみだもんっ～ : I was always curious about Galette's lolicon games, and since I definitely seem to favor younger heroines in "standard" eroges, I decided to give it a try. From what I've played, about a quarter of Haru's route up to the first ecchi, it's... weird. It's a lolicon game for people who don't want to admit they are into lolicon, which is strange considering the company history and the game itself. The protagonist is a working adult and yet, nobody questions why he hangs around girls half his age. Further contact is actually encouraged by the surrounding adults, be that the shop owner who suggests he has a romance with one of them, or even one of the kid's mom...
Maybe I'm wrong, but being recognized by the world as a lolicon (no drama needed, but some teasing at least...), and pursuing the romance still is part of the appeal. Kinda like a brother/sister romance that doesn't have anyone flinch at the abnormality of the situation, it's missing something and makes the characters feel... alien. I don't really feel like continuing despite having barely scraped one route, I guess this is a game for people who want to romance kids, without feeling the "stress" of society's views on it. It can be done stress-free and humorously though, like Mahiru in
Sukisuki for example. Anyway, not recommended.
創刻のアテリアル : I started this, after reading about a Eushully game not involving high-fantasy, and with proper routes to boot. The story follows a rather standard chuuni template, with the humans awakening to superpowers, fighting demon and angels etc..., nothing new here. There are a lot of heroines in this one, and the game branches off in three different directions at about the halfway point. You can choose to ally with one of two faction, or remain neutral, which is what I did since both factions seemed like absolute dicks without a care for the humans' situation. Despite the game offering proper character routes, there's actually quite a lot of mandatory ecchi, be that with Akari at the beginning, or with Narumi and Sayane later on. These latter two are really awkward, as they take place right after the MC confesses to Arisa (my heroine of choice for being the most mysterious, though her story isn't that fleshed out), Eushully will always be Eushully... I finished the human path and seen one epilogue, but there's still barely a third of the CG filled. However, I really don't want to continue playing the game, and for one simple reason : the card battle system has outlasted its welcome.
It's not a bad system at first, and learning its ropes was actually kinda fun. However, after playing one route, I feel I've seen most of what it can offer already in terms of tactics. There are still a lot of cards I haven't seen yet, but from what I can guess, most of these will be unplayable 5+ cost units that are a real pain to summon and will more often than not just sit in the hand, only to be usable when they are not needed anyway. That's in large part due to the leader I had being stuck at 1 command point, I imagine leveling up the card would raise that at some point but it takes so long that I don't feel like finding out. Adding to the repetitive system itself, the game has many occasions in which you have to play with a specific leader and deck. Most of these are awfully bad (special mention for the angel bear deck, the hardest fight in the game), filled with high cost cards that can't be played and with questionable leader abilities. Replaying the game means you often have to use these decks again, and can't use your hand-crafted end-game one. One time was enough for me.
But what really killed the battle system for me was the terrible, terrible AI. It's just dumb, not even able to retreat its leader when he's wounded, summoning cards at apparent random whenever it's possible... They manage to provide a bit of a challenge because they have about double the leader health pool and command points of the human leader's, but that doesn't make the game interesting for it. Imagine playing Hearthstone against an Innkeeper with 60 health and drawing two cards a turn : that won't make the game any more interesting, and will only serve to point out the crippling lack of competence of the AI. This AI can be seen in action with player decks by using Auto-Battle, and watching it barely winning against foes that are otherwise no threat is funny... once.
Most of the heroines are walking stereotypes anyway, so I don't have a strong incentive to bear with this system for any longer. The human ending hinted at some more development, probably unlocked later, and the appends apparently introduced past-Eushully game character in New Game+, but the 40-ish hours I've poured in the game are enough for now.
神採りアルケミーマイスター : I've only just started, but the resemblance to
天結いキャッスルマイスター is striking. Everything, be that the battle system, crafting, menus, skills, is so similar, it's hard to believe the games are 6 years apart. The only option I'm missing is the ability to not cut out voices by advancing the text, but otherwise it feels like... playing an alternate story of Eushully latest game. I had read comments noting the lack of evolution between the two, and I have to agree. Still, since grinding the same maps for levels isn't my thing, it at least provides me with a fresh set of units and maps to go through. The story so far is generic but not too bad either, and I like the costume changing system. Money also seems to be have much more of an impact. So far, this older entry seems... better than the new one.
