Tag: life simulation

Always Remember Me (Winterwolves.com)

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Amy’s a simple girl with an ordinary life until her boyfriend Aaron gets into a car accident.  Not only does he not remember her, but Aaron’s ex-girlfriend Abigail lied and said they were dating.  Will Amy help Aaron regain his memories or will she find love in another man?

The story’s simple, there are no demons, no aliens, just a city girl trying to live her life.  Amy works at an ice cream shop, she dreams of being a writer and she has her own blog.  Amy has four men to choose from, her shy co-worker Lawrence, the chivalrous pervert Hugh, the workaholic doctor Eddy, and her amnesiac boyfriend Aaron; so it’s like an interactive soap opera.  You can tell that the game sees Aaron and Amy as the official couple, especially when you listen to the theme song.  In my opinion, Aaron seems like kind of a jerk because in one scene, Abigail called Amy average looking right to her face and Aaron doesn’t rush to defend her.  You can argue that Aaron doesn’t remember Amy, but if my boyfriend said something like that to another guy’s face, I’d be pissed.  There’s also a scene where Amy said that Aaron would get jealous if she so much as associated with other men.  Amy also believes that her looks are average and in some scenes wonders if she belongs with Aaron; then again, that could be Abigail and Osher’s (Aaron’s father) fault.  Lawrence seems sweet, but he’s too much of a dogged nice guy.  There’s one scene where he secretly follows Amy, but you can’t call him out on it because it lowers your relationship level with him.  In another scene, Amy screws up at her job and Lawrence takes the fall, but if you try to set the boss straight, Lawrence gets mad at you for not acting like a helpless damsel in distress.  Eddy and Hugh seem more normal compared to them.  Hugh’s just a tiny bit more controlling because he ordered pizza for Amy without asking her if she wanted any.  No, you can’t call him out on it because it lowers his relationship level with you.  The worst Eddy’s ever done is get ready-made food and try to impress you by pretending he cooked it himself.

Every weekday morning you have to work at the ice cream shop.  Other than that, you have free range until after sunset.  You can update your blog, work overtime, go shopping and more.  Some of these activities actually increase a stat that helps get a special ending with the character that stat is associated with; Eddy’s discipline, Aaron’s romance, Lawrence’s culture and Hugh’s creativity.  You can also talk to each character at their respective places, the hospital (Aaron and Eddy), the mall (Hugh) and the ice cream shop (Lawrence).  If you’re on Eddy’s path, you can eventually talk to him at his house.  Each character has scenes that activate in various locations and can give you more relationship points based on how you respond to them.  If you pursue another character besides Aaron, you get an extra scene where you have to decide to give up on him completely.  The scene’s supposed to be heartbreaking, but it’s hard to feel sorry for Amy when you haven’t gone to see Aaron once in your entire play through.  If you fail to win any of the other character’s hearts, you get the alone ending.

An escapist video game that doesn’t offer anything to people who prefer girls, but if you prefer guys this is your game.  I give this game 5 out of 10.  If it weren’t for this, I wouldn’t have a blog.

Cute Knight Kingdom

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When you were a child, a strange creature told your adoptive parents that one day you would find your wings. Travel the kingdom and discover your destiny.

Like the last game, the story depends entirely on how you play it. Except this one has more suitors to choose from, and one of them is a girl. Another difference is that the last main character had no one to go to while this one has parents that are always there for her. There is just one thing that makes this game inferior to the last one. Cute Knight had two funny endings, one of which was laugh out loud while this one doesn’t. There is one ending that tries to be funny, but it just falls short.

Again, you have a choice of many different endings, and every single one that you collect ends up in the gallery. There are many different event endings, and if you turn 21 before reaching the end of said event, the game ends. Instead of clicking on random places, you are actually taking control of your character by moving her around the 2D graphic kingdom. You have many choices of classes and jobs, but you have to actually expend energy and concentration in order to do well in either one. What stats you have determine what ending you get when you turn 21.

Not very different from the last game, except for a different style and having to actually contribute to your jobs and classes. I give this game 7 out of 10, not worse than its predecessor and not better than it.

Cute Knight

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When a young girl leaves the orphanage, her fairy godmother tells her to go to the next town and find her destiny.  She just isn’t sure what her destiny is.

You’re probably wondering if there’s actually a story going on in this game, and it really depends on how you play it.  There are fifty endings in the game, and some of them rely on what events you set in motion.  There is only one ending that fully explains the main character’s origin, but there are still questions that remain unanswered until you achieve two other ones.  If you turn 21 before reaching an event ending, the game automatically ends and what happens to the main character depends entirely on how you played the game.

The game itself has many career options available.  You can work in the library, assist the doctor in the slums, work in a store and even go pillaging in the dungeon for treasure.  You can even attend classes in college to bring up your fighting skills, your magic skills and many more.  You also have a dream skill, which decreases when the main character fails at a job and increases when she succeeds.  The higher your dream, the better your ending.  You even have a stat known as sin that increases as you steal or kill and decreases as you do jobs at the church and volunteer for the doctor.  There is sin required for some of the more evil endings.  Each time you get an ending, you add a picture to the gallery section of the game.

Despite the game’s simple premise, it’s still challenging trying to get certain endings.  I can spend hours trying to collect every ending.  The better endings are harder to come by, like trying to get what you want out of life.  I give this game 7 out of 10, fun with many possibilities.

Spirited Heart

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In the land of Aravorn, there is a town called Triberg.  Pick your character, choose your background and fulfill your destiny.  Your destiny is all up to you.

When the game starts, you are given a choice of controlling an elf, a human, or a demon.  Then you get to choose where your character was raised, but it makes no impact on the game.  The elf is submissive, while the demon is arrogant and possibly sociopathic.  The human is somewhere in between.  My personal favorite is the demon character.  You’re also given twelve suitors (six boys and six girls).  Each gender has two human characters, two elf characters and two demon characters.  It kind of kills the point of demons being rare and not wanting to walk among other races.  Not to mention that the game says that Triberg has a prejudice towards demons, but we see no evidence of that.

After you finish character creation, you are given a variety of jobs.  Each one helps increase your skill, and if you’re tired, you can choose to take a vacation.  You can also use whatever money you earn to train yourself in a certain skill.  Every few weeks, you have to pay taxes, and the character mentions that she hates bureaucracy (something that plays no part in the game whatsoever).  There is a dice system in the game where you have to reach a certain number in order to do well with the job.  The number is completely random, but you can just save right before doing a job and keep loading the game until you get the perfect score.  It gets repetitive after a while, and chances are you’ll get bored with doing that over and over.  When your character turns twenty two, the goddess of the race you’re playing shows up and offers to grant one wish if you obtain the title she asks you to obtain before you turn thirty.  If you can’t do so, the game ends automatically.

As I said, you have a choice between six men and six women, but the men’s stories aren’t really that interesting.  All you really discover about them is that they like your character and are passionate about their jobs.  There’s only one exception, but I don’t want to give away anything.  There was more focus on the women’s stories, and even more romance there.  My favorite is Hade, the geeky demon with no social skills (she reminds me of Sheldon, except for not being asexual).  Sometimes you do have a rivalry with a potential suitor on the girl’s romance, but they’re all fat perverted men.  No wonder your female romance choices all prefer women.  Your character does interact with other people in the girl’s romances (something missing from the boy’s romances), but occasionally, the artist doesn’t bother to draw a picture of said person.  You’re also told that a character’s wearing a different outfit, but the artist didn’t bother to draw them in one.  Not to mention there are quite a few spelling errors in the game.  Apparently the writer doesn’t have spell check.

The game can be a little repetitive, and chances are you’ll give yourself carpal tunnel with all the clicking.  However, the game is still something to do when you’re bored.  I give this game 3 out of 10, it can be fun, but it gets boring really quickly, especially when you’ve already completed the romance endings and the three goddess endings.

Magical Diary: Horse Hall

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When you were thirteen, you had a choice to attend a school to learn magic, or forget about magic and continue living your life as an ordinary teenage girl.  You chose the former and now you make friends, find romances and your teachers throw you into a dungeon for your exams.  Be careful, or you could end up on the wrong path.

If this sounds like a Harry Potter fanfic to you, let me tell you that it practically is one.  They based the game off fanfiction in general, and they admit it.  You can create your character to look however you want her to look, and her default name is Mary Sue.  Not to mention that everyone’s life seems to be hell until she comes along.  It has everything a fanfic has, the student/teacher romance, the girl that redeems the bad boy and brings the shy quiet girl out of her shell and even fixes the lives of her best friends.  The best part is that the game doesn’t take itself seriously.  The makers know that it’s nothing more than an escape fantasy and drags you along for the ride.

As for the romance able characters, each one has their own charm.  Professor Grabiner is the strict and sadistic professor with a secret heart of gold (like the Professor Snape we see in fanfics).  Damien is the troubled but cute half-demon that everyone tells you to stay away from (he’s also my personal favorite, because I liked screwed up stuff).  Donald is the lovable prankster just trying to find an identity for himself.  Virginia is your tomboyish roommate with a love for sweets.  Ellen is the shy bookworm you help bring out of her shell.  There’s also a secret character, but I’m not going to tell you who that is.  If you want, you don’t even have to romance any of them.

The game plays out like a visual novel mixed with life simulation.  Every Sunday, you can choose your schedule.  You can learn five types of magic, workout at the gym, study, or just sleep in.  Every Saturday, you get to either visit the mall or stay in and study.  You even have two extra attributes, cute and weird.  You can choose how to respond to various conversations and sometimes your responses drive up either your cute points or your weird points, based on how you respond.  You can even collect pictures to put in your gallery and win various trophies based on certain actions you take.  Try to collect them all.  Wow, I sound like an ad for a Pokémon game.

There are some scenes that make the magical world seem like 1984, but the game is still a fun play through.  I give this game 7 out of 10.