Category: Nyu-Media

Cherry Tree High I! My! Girls! (Steam Store)

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After Mairu finally starts her comedy club, a teen idol visits in order to join. Unfortunately, Chitose doesn’t want that to happen and will stop at nothing to destroy Mairu’s club once and for all. To make a bad situation worse, the president of the Classical Comedy Club has it in for Mairu, and wants to bring her club down.

That’s right; Cherry Tree High Comedy Club got a sequel. This game is unusual in one aspect. You know how, in some reviews, I skip the paragraph that explains the plot of the video game because there’s no plot to be found? This game has no game play to be found. It’s purely visual novel without even letting you choose where to take the story. Contrary to what the summary would have you believe, the main conflict isn’t about Mairu. It’s actually between Ai (the pop star) and Hoemi (Mairu’s best friend). Ai wants to be a comedian and replaces Hoemi as Mairu’s partner in a comedic duo due to having better chemistry with her. Hoemi has no desire to be a comedian but is afraid that Ai will replace Hoemi as Mairu’s best friend. Eventually, it leads to an argument between Hoemi and Ai with neither side being right and neither side being wrong. The game also has side episodes that explore the relationships between the other characters, such as Mai and Ravian trying to find a tutor for school subjects they are both hopeless at. That’s actually much better than it sounds. In other words, this is not a video game. It’s a slice of life anime in visual novel form.

This game is entertaining and amusing. I give it 9 out of 10; definitely worth looking at.

Cherry Tree High Comedy Club (Cherrytreehigh.com)

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Miley Verisse wants to start her own comedy club, but she needs five members by April 31.  Can Miley meet the deadline or will she have to run an unofficial club?

Miley already has one person in her club, her sidekick Harriet.  She also has six people she can recruit for her club, Sara (the shy new girl), May (the little sister surrogate), Cindy (the upcoming rock star), Vivian (the Swedish exchange student), Tyler (an aspiring talent agent), and Curtis (a disgruntled comedian’s son).

In addition to Miley’s story, each one has a story of their own.  Sara’s trying to adjust to her new life.  May’s unsure about running her grandparent’s candy shop.  Cindy’s trying to make her dream come true.  Vivian wants to explore her new home and figure out her life’s calling.  Tyler wants to stalk all the girls in his school so he can figure out which ones will become famous.  Curtis is trying to deal with his father issues.  Miley and Harriet try to help each one of them with their crisis.  Miley has an ulterior motive but an interesting thing is that when May offers to sign up right off the bat; Miley won’t take her application that easily.  Instead, she decides to give May some time to think it over.

The game is a side-scrolling RPG, only instead of battling monsters you’re trying to build up your friendship with various people.  You can talk to them about a certain topic or just have a regular chitchat.  Your friendship level advances depending on two things, how much you know about the topic and how much the person you’re talking to enjoys it (a lot like real life).  You can also level up your knowledge of certain topics by reading magazines, going to the arcade and various other things you can do around the city.

Did I mention that you can go to certain areas in Cherry Tree by going straight to the map?  Oh, and those things you have to do cost money, but you can easily earn some by cleaning the shrine, making jewelry and later in the game working at the museum.  You’ll also have homework throughout the game, but just get it all done as soon as you can.  I’d tell you to do the same in real life, but then I’d be a hypocrite.  Chances are you won’t be able to recruit all six people before the game ends, but the game will let you save all the progress you made regarding your conversation levels as long as you have three people or more.  Problem is you’ll have to reread the same dialogue and there’s no option to skip what you’ve already read.

The game is funny and addicting, I give it 7 out of 10.  Just one warning, you can’t get a demo of the game so you’ll be taking a gamble here.