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Ojisama Lv. 1.5 (BL game from Alice Blue)
Not a direct sequel to Level 1 but more like an "omake" (extra) disk, Level 1.5 contains four small games, a gallery of desktop wallpapers, and random related things like progress reports of the game-development by Itoh, fanfic/fanart, feedback cards from users, etc. That doesn't mean this is a disk you can browse though and finish in an hour or two, though, because all four games are fun and/or difficult in each their own way.
Ojisama ikkagetsugo is a semi-RPG (semi because the story only goes in one direction) in Celesto's POV. It's set one month after Level 1, and the pretended objective of the game is to help Celesto's sister convince their father that she should be allowed to marry her lover. This isn't a difficult task at all, and although the new characters prove to be interesting, the real objective of this game is to get Canan and Celesto into bed.
The game can be configured so that it's either Celesto x Canan or Canan x Celesto (or to being neither, but what's the fun of that?), but I tried both. I don't really have a personal preference regarding the seme and uke of this pair, but it seemed to me that the Celeste x Canan scene was longer them the Canan x Celeste scene. (Probably because it's more mainstream.) The sex is okay. It has what I find annoying in visual BL, namely the sudden disappearance of male genital organs (they're literally transparent), which I don't get especially because this game is rated NC17, but I guess that's how most Japanese girls want it. (Weirdoes ... eh, sorry.) Celesto's POV is funny because he keeps talking to and about Canan with exaggerated politeness even when doing him from behind. Like, relax, man ...
Reading and looking at the sex-scenes made me realize why it is that the player isn't the protagonist in this game, and why there is no "choose what to say/do" option; if this had been the case the player would actually have had to initiate sex with a character (like in NC17 games for men ... eh, I'm guessing), and I think most girls/women would feel uncomfortable about this. It again proves my theory that the key element of yaoi/BL is the mental distance between spectator and subject.
But anyhow.
Hakuoh no kobun-tataki isn't an RPG at all but rather a "hit the bandits over head" action game. If you do well, you get to see Hakuoh have sex with Ax. (Big surprise there.) I'm not really good at these sorts of games, because I don't really care about high scores and the lot, but there is an easy mode for people like me. One disadvantage: if you use the easy mode, the CGs in the gallery will have a pooing bear in the corner. Once again the game can be configured to either Ax x Hokuah or Hokuoh x Ax. Frozen (the boy monster) has a small part in the latter, if he's your thing. I'm sure this is a good game for people who like these sort of games, but I don't.
Ojisama 1/16 is another type of game I don't really enjoy, namely simulation. As the title says Canan has shrunk to 1/16 of his normal size, and in this game you are Celeste who has to raise him for 30 days. It's pretty much like a Tamadotchi, you can feed the prince, play with him, bathe him, train him, etc., and depending on some factors that are beyond me the Prince will react in different ways, different events will unfold, and after 30 days the prince will evolve to a specific type of character (my prince became a lone wolf). Although I'm not into this sort of game, just looking at the 1/16 Canan made me a bit happy. He's really cute, dresses in all sorts of cute clothes, and does weird yet cute things. This is just cute.
The last game is Spy Itoh no "Quiz! Ore ni saborasero", a trivia quiz of the Ojisama games (Level 1, the add-on, and the Ikkagetsugo part of Level 1.5). The objective is to get Spy Itoh to his work place, namely the Blue Alice development team (where he mostly slacks off, sometimes paints CGs, and leak information to the net), and in order to do this you have to answer a whole bunch of quizzes for various unconvincing reasons. This is for hard-core fans only; most of the questions are really trivial. But if you get through all six stages, you'll get to see four CGs in all for each 800.000 points you collect. When writing this I have gone through all six stages, but not collected enough points to see even one CG ... Suffice to say, this sort of game isn't really my thing, either. The absurd storylines in-between the quizzes are fun, though.
The wallpaper gallery has 12 .bmps for use on screen resolution 800x600 and 1024x768, with practically every memorable character from 1 and 1.5. My favorites: the boy monsters, and Lucias and Roy.
To sum it up: this doesn't have nearly enough game-play that I normally enjoy, but the cuteness and the tongue-in-cheek stories made me enjoy it nonetheless. And although they weren't my thing all the games have been developed well and include many hours of enjoyment. Except the trivia quiz, this game also has quite a bit of fun for people who don't read Japanese. If you liked Level 1, you'll have to try this. It's not just an extra disk to cash in money until Level 2 comes out. Though it probably will make you impatient for Level 2 ... I know I am.
Category: Miscellaneous | Posted by Alicia at October 1, 2004 11:54 AM