Tears To Tiara.
Rating: 18+[ is yet another VN of the eroge genre]
Ever heard of a Visual Novel and RPG hybrid? These gems are rare to come by, but most of them don't have the story to back them off. Fortunately, Tears To Tiara stands out as one of those games in the detested eroge genre which has a mediocre gameplay, a good story, and enthralling OST to back it off. Yes, this isn't another random hentai fap material teeming with s** scenes and nothing else. It's partly a Turn-Based RPG too, albeit that was kind of surreal of Leaf to add, in my opinion.
Those who've watched/played Utawarerumono might have a bell ringing in their head at this moment. That's right; this is the same Leaf behind Utawarerumono's game we're talking about here. If you've played that, you should have an idea about how this'll turn out[ gameplay wise, of course; there are no plot elements continuing in either series].
So, while I was craving for some 'colourful' animations to keep me occupied for a long time, I stumbled upon this. And boy, was I wrong with the first impression.
This is NOT as colourful as it looks like.
It's got an intriguing story which progresses at a satisfying rate[ if you're going to put aside the fact that the role-playing elements CAN get infuriating at times, and that there is no way to skip them either].
First of all, let's talk about the settings. It's set in an almost medieval setting, quite typically in the same fashion as most of the 'royal' shows are set. The concept of king, slaves, henchmen; it's all there. Still, there's pretty much a lack of enough bloodshed to account for the era, so you can expect a cleanly wonderful experience if you're not comfortable with gore and stuff.
Now, the actual game.
It's not actually made up of the same elements as most visual novels are. There are no choices to branch the story towards different endings. However, the RPG system accounts for that sufficiently. Dare I say, it's quite an addition, even if it's kinda surreal, as I've aforementioned.
Here's a screenshot depicting the visual novel part of the game:
http://fuwanovel.org/assets/images/vn/111/screen03.jpg
Well?
See that slightly blurry sprite behind the two easily visible sprites?
The characters in the role playing mode will be like that.
In order to simplify things more, here's an example screenshot for the RPG mode:
http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo294/megavikingroar/untitled.jpg
The gameplay aside from the VN part's pretty different to those typical old-school RPGs that did NOT let you wander around the entire world with one click, which this one bails.
You go around navigating in various towns, buy weapons, man up, go kick some ass[ or get your ass kicked in the process], come back, keep pressing space, save, quit, get on with your life.
...I guess I disclosed a little too much there.
Now, about the OST. It's quite good, to be honest. Not to mention that it perfectly matches with the surrounding atmospheres, but most of the BGMs spark that virtual flare in you to just...."do" something.
You'll get what I'm insinuating once you decide to take this one on.
Now, about the eroge side of the game.
If you have a PC and it's located in a room which everyone visits frequently, then you're better off skipping this game[ unless you're up for loosing a tooth or two by being sucker punched by your family for treading close to such an erotic material]. Although it's censored a bit, s** scenes appear out of the blue. Literally. You get NO indication whatsoever at times, and spontaneously, you'll see two people *beep* *beep*
...You get the gist of it, right? It's pretty unreliable to play it on PC, or so I believe. I had a notebook, so I easily took care of this one on it. There is no patch to remove the ero-scenes, nor can they be skipped altogether. Not even on a second playthrough. Nice move, Leaf.
With all that under consideration, I guess I can give out the verdict now.
7/1O.
Not shabby at all, but still not close to being "great".
Pros:
-Good visuals.
-Good story.
-Great OST.
Cons:
-Too much role playing elements unnecessary for a Visual Novel.
-Erotic scenes can't be skipped, and they seem to be forcefully inserted into the game.
That's it.
Oh, and this game is also available on PSP, aside from PC.
But the PSP version is in Japanese, and is a Strategy-Role Playing Game, almost devoid of any visual novel elements. I suggest you go for the PC version if you're going to play this. The requirements are minuscule, so you should be able to run this without any problem.
Rating: 18+[ is yet another VN of the eroge genre]
Ever heard of a Visual Novel and RPG hybrid? These gems are rare to come by, but most of them don't have the story to back them off. Fortunately, Tears To Tiara stands out as one of those games in the detested eroge genre which has a mediocre gameplay, a good story, and enthralling OST to back it off. Yes, this isn't another random hentai fap material teeming with s** scenes and nothing else. It's partly a Turn-Based RPG too, albeit that was kind of surreal of Leaf to add, in my opinion.
Those who've watched/played Utawarerumono might have a bell ringing in their head at this moment. That's right; this is the same Leaf behind Utawarerumono's game we're talking about here. If you've played that, you should have an idea about how this'll turn out[ gameplay wise, of course; there are no plot elements continuing in either series].
So, while I was craving for some 'colourful' animations to keep me occupied for a long time, I stumbled upon this. And boy, was I wrong with the first impression.
This is NOT as colourful as it looks like.
It's got an intriguing story which progresses at a satisfying rate[ if you're going to put aside the fact that the role-playing elements CAN get infuriating at times, and that there is no way to skip them either].
First of all, let's talk about the settings. It's set in an almost medieval setting, quite typically in the same fashion as most of the 'royal' shows are set. The concept of king, slaves, henchmen; it's all there. Still, there's pretty much a lack of enough bloodshed to account for the era, so you can expect a cleanly wonderful experience if you're not comfortable with gore and stuff.
Now, the actual game.
It's not actually made up of the same elements as most visual novels are. There are no choices to branch the story towards different endings. However, the RPG system accounts for that sufficiently. Dare I say, it's quite an addition, even if it's kinda surreal, as I've aforementioned.
Here's a screenshot depicting the visual novel part of the game:
http://fuwanovel.org/assets/images/vn/111/screen03.jpg
Well?
See that slightly blurry sprite behind the two easily visible sprites?
The characters in the role playing mode will be like that.
In order to simplify things more, here's an example screenshot for the RPG mode:
http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo294/megavikingroar/untitled.jpg
The gameplay aside from the VN part's pretty different to those typical old-school RPGs that did NOT let you wander around the entire world with one click, which this one bails.
You go around navigating in various towns, buy weapons, man up, go kick some ass[ or get your ass kicked in the process], come back, keep pressing space, save, quit, get on with your life.
...I guess I disclosed a little too much there.
Now, about the OST. It's quite good, to be honest. Not to mention that it perfectly matches with the surrounding atmospheres, but most of the BGMs spark that virtual flare in you to just...."do" something.
You'll get what I'm insinuating once you decide to take this one on.
Now, about the eroge side of the game.
If you have a PC and it's located in a room which everyone visits frequently, then you're better off skipping this game[ unless you're up for loosing a tooth or two by being sucker punched by your family for treading close to such an erotic material]. Although it's censored a bit, s** scenes appear out of the blue. Literally. You get NO indication whatsoever at times, and spontaneously, you'll see two people *beep* *beep*
...You get the gist of it, right? It's pretty unreliable to play it on PC, or so I believe. I had a notebook, so I easily took care of this one on it. There is no patch to remove the ero-scenes, nor can they be skipped altogether. Not even on a second playthrough. Nice move, Leaf.
With all that under consideration, I guess I can give out the verdict now.
7/1O.
Not shabby at all, but still not close to being "great".
Pros:
-Good visuals.
-Good story.
-Great OST.
Cons:
-Too much role playing elements unnecessary for a Visual Novel.
-Erotic scenes can't be skipped, and they seem to be forcefully inserted into the game.
That's it.
Oh, and this game is also available on PSP, aside from PC.
But the PSP version is in Japanese, and is a Strategy-Role Playing Game, almost devoid of any visual novel elements. I suggest you go for the PC version if you're going to play this. The requirements are minuscule, so you should be able to run this without any problem.
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