Leaderboard

I should note that I've been following this series since I played the third game two years ago, and I'm going to rehash some of my feelings about it as a whole. The first three games of the Sangoku Hime series had a number of good and bad points, even if I don't compare them to the Sengoku Hime series, which has been refined a great deal more due to it already being on its seventh installment. Pros 1- Male sprites are... badass cool, in general. Insanely detailed, actually impressive, though they contrast greatly with the more moe-type female sprites. 2-Ginga, the protagonist of the first three games, is a pure warrior general, with his abilities almost as extremely designed as Lu Bu's (Ryofu Housen), with high tactical and military skills (insanely high) and relatively low intelligence and politics skills. This actually makes him amongst the five most powerful frontline generals in the game. In addition, Ginga's psychology and life, as it was described in III, is just... cool. 3- First-class prologues and endings. For the first three games, moe-bait was avoided assiduously outside of the romantic side-episodes. The prologues of these games were great intros and the endings were powerful, emotional, and sometimes even inspiring. 4- in 3, at least, you could alter the fates of certain doomed individuals (in particular, the Sun family), though this often cost you others. 5- Numerous unit types, all with their own unique abilities and uses. 6- Absolutely perfect portrayal of Cao Cao's feminized character, both in personality and in art (She makes Karen from the Koihime Musou series seem pathetic). Cons 1- Way too much sex, way too many 'romantic' side episodes with random female generals. This was also the case with the early Sengoku Hime games, but the amount of text and time spent on h-scenes actually outweighs the main story of each path. 2- Almost nothing in the way of the story after you 'settle in' (conquer the first two or three provinces, reach the story's first turning point after the prologue). 3- Romantic elements mostly feel forced. 4- Illogical handling of public order system and conscription (this is common to 4 and 5 as well). 5- Game difficulty skyrockets about one third into the game, and resource management is made insanely difficult by random bandit attacks stripping your treasury. Hard to Judge (for both) 1- 'Architect' skill system, which allows for you to improve your characters by using points gained from battles, training, and political actions, allows you to customize story generals to some extent. In 1-3, this meant you could turn any character into an all-powerful demon lord, but this has been greatly nerfed in 4 and 5. 2- Elemental affinities are just an unnecessary complication... and generally too much trouble to bother with, since you have only a limited number of actions per turn to move troops around. For 4 and 5 Pros 1- H-content and romantic side-episodes have been greatly reduced in number, thus reducing fatigue. 2- More 'directed' story campaigns, which don't leave you trying to fight enemies on all sides without being able to secure a buffer of resources and generals. 3- Toutaku (Dong Zhuo), after being feminized, goes from a nihilistic dickhead to a Reinhard Heydrich-Class possessive yandere (If you betray her by stopping being hers, she tortures you horribly so that your last thoughts are of her, so making you belong to her even in deaht). 4- Akito, unlike Ginga, is a more flexible character, though less exhilarating as a protagonist. As a generalist, he is actually an excellent general, though his starting troop class is the somewhat mediocre light cavalry. 5- Improved story to gameplay balance (massively improved, in some of the paths. 6- Lu Bu now has a measurable brain, so she is actually useful outside of battle... though she isn't as cool. Cons 1- Cao Cao's makeover. To be blunt, the new Cao Cao, is so... stereotypical. 2- Nerfed Architect system. To be blunt, the architect system is one of the few advantages you have over everyone else, in a game where strategic options are limited in the first place. The degree to which it has been nerfed in these two games is ridiculous, considering the turn limit. 3- Weakened story generals. While this isn't true of all of them, most story generals are weaker than their counterparts in 1-3. This is especially marked with Cao Cao, the Sun Family, and Guan Yu. Since they are the only generals you don't have to bribe to like you, this can be irritating. 4- Male sprites are now moe-bait. 5- Endings and prologues, while still decent, no longer have the impact of 1-3. 6- The mouth movement gimmick in these games sucks donkey ass. 7- Sun family personalities are now moe. (blech) 8- Troop class advantages, other than that of the sorcerer (which curses enemies so that all damage they receive is doubled) are nerfed. 9- Stories now start later in the history (meaning that you miss a lot of the best parts). 10- 5-specific bug where Akito's Architect grid resets after the final turning point in each story path, thus eliminating a ton of hard work. Moreover, where other characters inherit their Architect grids across multiple playthroughs, he doesn't... which is weird, since he is the protagonist. On 5 specifically I've already expounded on the gameplay above, now I'll go over the story. I've played two of the six paths in this game (the sixth being Ryofu Housen's path, which branches off from Toutaku's). The two I played were Toutaku and Cao Cao... Toutaku's path is a masochist's wet-dream, since the protagonist is essentially in a controlling relationship with a possessive yandere who generally loves and is possessive of everyone who serves her or lives under her rule. Considering Toutaku not only raised but educated the protagonist (in multiple ways, including sexual and more mundane meanings), her being dominant wasn't a surprise. However, the sheer one-sidedness of her possessiveness was awe-inspiring at times, especially toward the end. There are also times in this path where the faint of heart will probably drop it outright. Akito's role in Toutaku's court is as an assassin, spy, general, tactician, seducer... and torturer. In comparison to the kind-hearted, easygoing guy he is in the other paths and in 4, it was a bit shocking, even for me. I mean, he casually mentions that he seduced a man's wife, had her poison the husband, then killed her afterward... and feels no guilt for it whatsoever, because Toutaku told him to. lol Cao Cao's path is much more mundane, in comparison. It starts right before Cao Cao initiates the campaigns against Yuan Shao (Enshou), thus leaving all the events around the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo in the dust (along with the fun involved). I'll be straight, while the character interactions in this path are frequently amusing and I honestly liked things most of the time, the inclusion of moe-aspects into Cao Cao's personality is a non-starter. Cao Cao's crueler side never comes to the surface in this path, and Akito's hero worship turns to love in the most cliched way possible. In other words... this path was entirely unlike Cao Cao, and thus, I deem it a failure, despite its good points. I also played Choukaku's path up until the turning point... and I dropped it like a hot potato. To be blunt, I found the mewling idealism that suddenly surfaces in that path about halfway to be repulsive (in another game, I probably wouldn't have minded as much... but Zhang Jiao/Choukaku basically closed her eyes to rapine and plunder on a massive scale for years before Akito turns things around, so I thought it was all a bit too convenient). Overall, I give high points to Toutaku's path and intend to go back and play the Ryofu path that branches off from it at a later time... but Cao Cao's path has made me tired. Choukaku's path made a shot at the 'redemption from darkness' thing, but it fell flat to me so badly that I couldn't bring myself to go any farther. It didn't help that they killed off two of your most valuable generals in a path where you only have five story generals (as opposed to the 8-13 seen in the other paths) right before opening you up to invasion from five provinces at once.

Yo people! I'm back! This time, I prepared a list of VN hybrids for everyone who appreciates a bit more than just picking choices and still wants some boy x boy action. This list is rather limited, sadly, but I still manage to find a game to each degree of gameplay you might like! Here we go! I want just some stats rising and manage daily life: Seiyuu Danshi This counts? Yes, it does. Some people just play Persona because of its "Friend Simulator" mode. But unfortunately, Atlus didn't give us the option to date boys in their game while playing with the male MC (actually, you CAN hook up with your childhood male friend in Persona 2, but that game is very different from newer Persona, I still recommend it though). So, how about we, instead of living the life of a high school kid, live the life of guy trying to become a voice actor? That's what this game promises you. But what will you do to make your wish come true? Train a lot? Take tons of jobs? Or leave it all to chance and only date every single guy you encounter? You decide! This game features an interactive map and even have side quests! And the most interesting/different feature is the foreplay mode, you know, a part of the h-scenes BL games loves to neglect, totally interactive here! The game is NOT OUT yet, but their KS was successful and you can play the demo in english already! I want RPG battles: Angel's Feather This game got you covered! It have swords, princes, fantasy aspects, angel magic, map movement, all your good old RPG have! Sure, it looks a bit outdated (it's from 2003 actually), but this is inda charming like that, right? At least for me. It have plenty of romance in the plot and all sexual content is avoidable, if you're not in the mood for it (it happens). Only in japanese for now, but there's people interested in translating this in BL-oriented forums, so maybe we'll have a patch soon? Let's pray! Supposedly, there's an OVA of this, but it's too rushed >.< I want Point and Click/ Adventure style: Bizarre school exploration of Kazuma and Kugayama From doujin circle Sakuraprin, this game may have better porn than exploration. But the horror atmosphere they create, even with 8 bit graphics, is outstanding! Well, they clash a bit with the CGs and sprites, but we can't complain about their voluptuous guys (dem thighs) and fantastic ahegaos. In this game, not only we interact with the creep school scenery, but also with our hero Kazuma. We can raise our affection points with him... poking him. Just don't be rude, guys. And be prepared to CG hunt, because they stuff their game full of CGs! Also, this game is free! I want fast minigames: Chiralmori Nitro+Chiral, the giant of the BL market, wouldn't be out of this list. Before making DMMD fan disc (that also have minigames, but you have to actually read DMMD first to fully appreciate all there is here), they released this short cute game. It's pretty much a glamurous poker and tetris game with TnC and Lamento characters, without sexual content, but can a fan of these series really ignore this adorableness? It's good to kill some time and a way to not waste money in poker. It also includes a typing mini game, but... I have no idea how this works, nor why N+C have such a obsession with typing mini games... I want something really unusual: The Chiral Night Rhythm Carnival How about some BL themed Guitar Hero then? No, seriously. Released back in October, this game contains music from the four major series of N+C and a story mode that put all the boys from those games together, Chiral Cafe style. No sexual content, but still a very fun game! Sadly, there's no sign of a hard copy and N+C site doesn't ship to my country, but there's a demo available in their homepage that contains the intro songs of the four games! If anyone ends up playing, feel free to ask for my high scores for comparison hehehe! I'm not that good though. Anything else? Not VNs, but you can also find your share of BL in Dragon Age or Mass Effect series. Naturally, they have tons of gameplay. Those should keep us occupied for a while, so let's end here! Next time, otome news: and KS campaigns! Until then! EXTRA: If you want a bit more action with gay subtext, try Metal Gear Solid. It's glorious!