Let my start off by saying that I don’t pay attention to the who the scenario writers nor the illustrators are. While I would like to say that this gives me a less biased views on games I haven’t played yet, but truth to be told, I’m just lazy and never paid any attention to those matters. My brain can’t handle all that information; I’m merely a player not an analyst. I only look at the gist of a story to decide whether I’ll play it, besides, one can’t tell for certain how good a story is unless it is experienced firsthand. But for illustrators it’s less of an issue. Appealing art is appealing art no matter who drew it, and you can see it easily before begin playing a game by going to that game’s site.
Back on to topic now. I’ve just finished Akari’s route in Noble Works, in which the broke protagonist Takumi essentially trades places with a rich guy to protect him. That was one run of the mill ojousama route. Not many words are needed to describe it – arranged marriage, rich people, damsel in distress. You get the idea, nothing you couldn’t see coming a mile away. Is this route suppose to be the featured route seeing Akari sitting prominently in the middle in that picture up there? If so, it is unfortunate how lackluster this route turned out to be. I would like much more interactions among the classmates after they start going out as the character interactions are what make a game interesting.
After reading this route, I still have a question lurking in my mind. Why would a girl fall in love with a random guy from the street? Because thats pretty much what happened, in a nutshell anyway. Well, I guess I shouldn’t expect things to adhere to common sense in eroges, much weirder stuff than this happens. But it’s not all that bad though, the game still has some merits.
To start with, Akari herself is criminally cute, childlike, and gullible. She even thinks kissing will result in pregnancy. And here I am thinking that holding hands will do the same thing. The good morning chu~ is as adorable as always. I also love it that she “studies” doujinshi in order to please Takumi. Too bad her route is a let down.
First thing I noticed is that I can see the character’s backs! The characters turn to their backs when they’re talking to someone else on screen instead of the protagonist, or whichever point of view you’re in. I much appreciate this feature as this makes them look more realistic as they look like they’re actually talking to each other. However important the protagonist may be, he has to understand that he cannot always be the center of conversation. It also helps in understanding the situation as in who is talking to who.
Two lolis in one game. What a treat for all those lolicons out there. I like Hinata the pink haired kouhai better though. This is all purely personal preference however.
Putting those aside, the best thing about the game without a doubt is the common route. Granted I haven’t played any of the other routes, but I’ll just revise my statement if needed later on after I make myself play through 1 or 2 more routes seeing how disappointing Akari’s route was.
The broke protagonist Takumi masquerading as the heir of a big business brought constant laughter for me. I like this protagonist, who is surprisingly not a totally useless hetare like in most other games. He has a plethora of experiences working in places like restaurant, housing cleaning, cafe, nursing homes, and more. This enables him to do any housework and he made good use of those experiences. He is also not the perfectly nice guy protagonists tend to be; he cracks jokes at other people’s expenses but never harmfully. I loved it when he knocked out Hinata for almost exposing him.
The rest of the characters are delightful as well. The head maid who claims she is the best is a hilarious doS; she carries a stun gun and is not afraid to use it even on her boss. The other maid has the wildest delusions whenever she hears anything that can be remotely connected to anything ecchi. Makoto the red haired girl loves seeing and touching girl’s underwear all in the name of the designer that she is. And those are just some of the examples. This crowd make a entertaining game, in the common route at least.
Let’s hope the power of love will carry me through at least 2 more routes, so I’ll have a chance at doing a more thorough review. Don’t disappoint me again, I beg you!
