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http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b264/Rihochan/Ojomasu.png Now, this was a game I didn't really have high hopes for, but I am glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised. While this falls short of kamige level (primarily due to the disproportionately short epilogues), it is definitely an interesting take on the trap protagonist ojousama-ge. Generally speaking, trap protagonists and ojousama-ge go together like hot fruit pie and ice cream. While the formula (begun with the original Shugotate by AXL) hasn't changed significantly since it came into existence, it has a lot of minor variants. However, in this case they took a rather unusual path with the character settings... for one thing, the protagonist is not the timid type in any way, shape or form. For better or worse, most of the trap protagonists in these games are somewhat timid but talented and deeply kind-hearted or are actually almost afraid of women (for hilarity's sake). The protagonist in this game, Hajime, is an agent for an organization that primarily involves itself with money and politics, for no apparent goal beyond gathering power to itself. Is it an evil organization? The question is hard to answer based on what comes up in the game, but I sort of lean toward yes, considering what gets revealed in Arika's path. Hajime is cool-headed, ambitious, and pragmatic on most issues. He does have a tendency to help people where he can, but he doesn't go out of his way to help people that aren't actually in front of him. He is also capable of being coldly manipulative when responding to the orders of the organization. He also has none of the usual hesitations or inhibitions this type of protagonist tends to have about sex (he rather casually mentions he enjoys it but is quite capable of going without... and proves it). This makes for some... interesting situations. This definitely isn't a pure love game, but it isn't a nukige by any stretch of the imagination either. The common route is seriously long... While there are numerous characters in this game, there are only three heroines. They are: Arika (the granddaughter of his organization's leader), Benio (a young girl from an influential kenjutsu/kendo dojo), and Peko (the princess of a fictional East European country). The other girls are basically Hajime's targets... he needs to gain influence over them for the sake of his mission, but they aren't love interests in the context of the game. In fact, he rather coldly manipulates some of them, albeit not in a way that harms them (he actually helps them, in his own way). Arika is... one strange girl. In some ways, she is reminiscent of Kamio Ami from Semiramis no Tenbin. However, she is far more open about her nature (she is a mischief-maker who just enjoys making situations more chaotic for her own amusement), and she isn't a near-sociopath. She simply displays her affections in ways that are extremely troubling to anyone and everyone involved... or even merely in the vicinity. She is also extremely lazy about anything she doesn't have an interest in. Benio is Arika's opposite. She is simple, straightforward, and rather obvious about everything. She is a lover of the way of the sword and has no real hesitation about living to become the next head of her rather large clan's dojo. That said, she is rather blind to anything that isn't on the surface, and she frequently gets into fights with Arisa, who seems to take an endless pleasure in setting her off. Peko is perhaps the most easy to understand heroine in the group. She is very kind-hearted and sensitive, with a strong sense of compassion and dignity fitting for postmodern royalty. That said, she also has a surprisingly strong will hidden under that soft surface, and it comes out in full in her path. Overall, I found this game to be an immensely pleasurable experience, and while I could have used more action scenes and perhaps more cold-blooded manipulation on the part of Arika and the protagonist... this still turned out to be a game worth remembering. I'm glad that this month already has at least one solid VN of the Month candidate, hahaha...

This is a theme that actually doesn't come up very often in my reviews/commentaries on VNs these days, primarily because most VNs use what settings - whether those of the characters or of the game itself - to at least an adequate degree. There are actually very few VNs that include setting elements that are interesting but never end up used... because it irritates the hell out of people who actually pay attention. The most recent example, which made me go off on a foul-mouthed tirade in private and a bash-post in my blog, is Hanidebi. Just as an example is Aoi, one of the heroines. Aoi is from a family that is extremely old (think the tenth century) and powerful/wealthy. Even today, such families tend to exert a ridiculous degree of influence/control over their kids, especially their daughters. In VNs, this tends to be even more extreme... so why is it that the only element of such a family that is used in the game is her moral upbringing, rather than her ties to her family or other issues that might have come up as a result of the type of family she was raised in? Most VNs, even if they don't make it central to the story, at least would deal with the family issues (getting them out of the way) during the course of the game. Moreover, she also has a yandere yuri kouhai who was supposed to be an ongoing source of humor for her path... but who mysteriously faded into the background early on in her path. That is failing to utilize the setting. The same goes for Eufonie's other work, Koiken Otome, where they dramatically speak about the monsters who threatened the world and the purpose for the powers the characters possess... and then keep the game a fantasy version of a slice-of-life charage from beginning to end. OK, it is perfectly fine to use such a setting in a fantasy charage... but when you introduce something like that, it is only natural to use it at some point in the story... This is a relatively rare issue... but when it does come up, it is rarely as bad as the two games above. Most of the time, it is simply 'not going far enough'. However, every once in a while, I come across games like these, that fail utterly to use the elements they presented. I felt worse than the first time I ran across an NTR nukige by accident.