YvoCaro

Kuukan Sagashimono Kei review

| Bri Bri

Guest blog by @YvoCaro, find more of my gaming ramblings on www.ladiesgamers.com (for guys too).

By now you may have noticed that I frequently review Japanese (3)DS games for Japanese3DS.com. And you may have noticed too that most games aren’t the latest released. There are just so many Japan-only releases for the handheld device, that not all of them get the attention they might deserve. So sometimes I come across a gem that has been out in Japan for some time, but that never got into the West, and BriBri has kindly sent me some of his backlog to review. If you see his collection, you won’t be surprised that he can’t review them all himself!

This game that I’ve been giving a try now is Kuukan Sagashimono Kei: Nouryoku Kaihatsu 3D Nou Training, a game that was released in April 2011, so shortly after we got to experience the 3DS and its many features. You’ve got to keep that in mind when you pick up this title. Back then we were still much in awe by the many cool features that the 3DS brought us. Remember when you first gave Face Raiders a try? I do, and I remember thinking how on earth they could have these images on a screen that was clearly my own living room. Well, picture this game as a sort of educational Face Raiders.

You are greeted by a cute pig that invites you to a sort of target shooting. Targets that float in front of you in the skies. Not your average clay pigeons: no, you get to shoot men’s shirts, balloons, playing cards and other things that shouldn’t be floating in the sky. But the game isn’t only about shooting stuff, you have to shoot them in a certain order, or you have to shoot something specific, like a blue shirt instead of a pink one. 

There are six categories with a total of 180 stages provided, and you can keep on bettering yourself in time needed to achieve your goal.

The game plays smoothly, and though it’s not exactly my cup of tea (I don’t like time pressure in games, gets me very nervous) I can see where this game was making the best of the new feature the 3DS had to offer back then. But still, it seems to me that there were other educational and brain teasers out there at the time. So I’m going to give this game a 5 out of 10.

For more information on Kuukan Sagashimono Kei: Nouryoku Kaihatsu 3D Nou Training go to http://www.iek.jp/3d-training and buy your own copy here

Girls Mode guest blog

| Bri Bri

Guest blog by @YvoCaro, find more of my gaming ramblings on www.ladiesgamers.com (for guys too).

On April 16th Girls Mode 3, or Wagama Fashion: Girls Mode (わがままファッション ガールズモード) has been released in Japan. The title threw me for a little while, until I found out it’s the third installment in a game that we know as Style Savvy (USA) of Style Boutique (Europe). That got my interest! Despite the fact that I’m not into fashion at all and I don’t particularly like squealing girls that jump up and down in excitement for every new garment, this is a game that I enjoy a lot. Because underneath all the cuteness and teenage enthusiasm, it’s a management game that makes excellent use of everything the 3DS, StreetPass and online wifi has to offer.

The first game was first released at the end of 2008, developed by syn Sophia  and published by Nintendo, and I still remember why I decided to give it a try back then. In an interview syn Sophia highlighted that although it was aimed at teenage girls, a lot of people would find the gameplay enjoyable. And she was right, it’s quite addictive. The game features your own fashion store, which you have to stock through the Buyers Center, making sure that you have enough variety in clothing articles and style, because you want to keep your customers happy. You can make advertisements to send out, while you make sure your storefront looks attractive. The interior of your shop can be changed, and you take part of competitions where you get an assignment to match a certain style. The second game (released in 2012) added men’s fashion to the mix, used the 3D camera to take screenshots and used the ‘?’ AR Card. It had a good StreetPass function where you could exchange Stylist Cards, which contains personalized information about your character and offers a link to the player’s Web Shop. You can create it in the Fashion Plaza, customizing a store front and create three outfits to sell to others. You can also access others’ Web Shops. And in true style, some well-known real life  clothing designers had some items which you could get through SpotPass.

And now there’s the third installment, only released in Japan at the moment. The game seems to be constantly evolving, looking for new ways to make the game even better. They’ve added Make-up artist and Hair stylist jobs, and the most intriguing little Miniature House. You can chose hairstyles for the clients too, as well as makeup. Makeup isn’t unlocked immediately, but you can add to your color palette by registering pictures with the right colors in it. They’ve made this game real-time based again like the first one was, which is nice when you want your clothes to reflect the real seasons. I’m not very enthusiastic about that though, because I don’t want to be hindered when I can only play during the evening. But it seems that it’s not a problem, only where special events are concerned. The game uses amiibo to unlock special clothes and accesoires based on Super Mario Bros. and the Kirby series. For instance, Peach unlocks a Peach crown and Luigi unlocks a star shaped brooch.

The miniature house is a sort of magic house, and I do find that a fascinating feature. When you start the game you get an envelope from your Grandma with a little key inside. The key gives entrance to the little house, and you will find yourself in Luminous Town. The fun thing is that by decorating rooms in that little house, you can create you own favorite life size room too. The possibilities seem to be endless, with some 1.700 pieces of furniture! Make me think of Animal Crossing! You can even rent the rooms out to people in town, and with StreetPass you’ll exchange your favorite room with other people. When you’ve passed someone in StreetPass, you can even buy the furniture they have in their room!

I don’t know about you, but while I’m not a teenager anymore (haven’t been one for a very long time!) I’m really looking forward to this game here in the West! And if it takes too long for it to be released here, I might even buy it for my Japanese 3DS.

BUY New Nintendo 3DS and Girls Mode 3 Kirakira Kode

Exstetra review

| Bri Bri

Exstetra: old school RPG with a Kiss

Guest blog by @YvoCaro, find more of my gaming ramblings on www.ladiesgamers.com (for guys too).

Recently I got the chance to try my hand at a little known title that was released in November 2013 for the 3DS and the PS Vita in Japan, called Exstetra, or エクステトラin Japanese. To play it on the 3DS you need a Japanese 3DS handheld, but for those of you who own a Vita and want to give it a try, you can go right ahead, as the Vita isn’t region locked.

When you start up the game it throws you right into the action: you wake up as the main character Ryoma, who finds himself in the woods and meets the priestess Sereen, right before they get attacked by monsters. It should come as no surprise that Ryoma is experiencing memory loss, and doesn’t really know how he came to be in Ameijia, an otherworldly land that’s somehow been fused with modern day Tokyo. It turns out that Ryoma is a Prisma Knight, and the only one who can make potential Prisma Knights into the real deal by kissing them. And the Prisma Knights are the only ones who can save this world, hence the subtitle of the game: “saving the world with a kiss”. Well, well, what will they think of next?

As for gameplay, the game is an old school RPG with good graphics and nice music in the background. You explore the dungeons, finding treasure chests and random enemies along the way. Your party and your enemies party is displayed in rows on the battle field, and depending on the range of your weapon or your special attack, you can do damage to the front enemies or even to the ones in the back. This ads a bit of a strategy twist to the turn based battles. In your first dungeon you find Mizuki, the girl who is your classmate in real life, and who came to Ameijia with you. And that’s where the game gets to be different: Ryoma kisses her, and by doing so reveals her to be a Prisma knight too.

Ryoma now has the special attack to kiss: it’s a special attack that doesn’t use up any MP, but is a sort of minigame where you time holding the A button long enough until the heart is filled. Doing so several times levels up the attack. This kiss isn’t just an attack, it’s also the way to reveal that seemingly ordinary people are Prisma Knights that join you on your quest.  And you will find that you don’t just have to kiss girls, but guys as well. Because the developers have given the bosses a sort of gas attack that only effects girls. So if you don’t balance your team well, and start kissing men as well, you will find yourself without any party members that are still standing after the first counterattack. Balancing the team and thinking about your strategy is the way to go to be able to defeat the bosses that get stronger and more difficult fairly soon.

So, a good RPG with a peculiar twist that gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

Review by YvoCaro. For more information on Exstetra go to http://exstetra.furyu.jp/ and for more game related posts by YvoCaro go to http://www.ladiesgamers.com

BUY New Nintendo 3DS and Exstetra