Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 4 was such a mess story-wise that I feared the worst when I picked 3 up, but it’s actually pretty good. Good enough that I actually contemplated going for 100% completion, which would be the first time I’ve ever fully completed an otome game. And I would have done it too if I hadn’t posted about it last time. Somehow writing about things I’m going to do makes me feel like I’ve done them already, so that’s the end of that.
Story: Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3
Akane and her childhood friend Yuzuru end up on the side of the Genji, where she discovers she’s actually the priestess of the white dragon. Masaomi, their other childhood friend and Yuzuru’s brother, ends up with the Taira. And then there’s all kinds of back and forth action that mainly consists of Masaomi trying to use his knowledge of history to bring victory to the Taira while Akane uses her hax priestess powers and a magical scale that can wind back time to thwart the Taira’s ambitions and bring victory to the Genji while chasing bishies at the same time because it’s that kind of game.
Apart from time-traveling bishie-chasing action, Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3 has additional gameplay in the form of turn-based battles. It’s just normal JRPG stuff and like most otome RPGs it’s very easy to play. I set the battles to Hard right away, but even then most enemies die in one turn, two if they’re really stubborn. There isn’t much to explain, but since I received a question about it last time I’ll try to describe it a little more thoroughly.
This is what the overworld map looks like:
The glowing purple spot in your next objective. The little white spots are stops along your way. The red and green balls of flame represent places where battles may or may not occur. The color of the flame shows the enemy element. There are five elements in the game: fire, earth, water, wood and … uhh… something. Anyway, instead of an element triangle you have an element star and stuff is stronger/weaker than other stuff, etc etc. Look at the star on the right side of the screenshot below:
Every character in the game belongs to one element or another. Thus you get access to different element attacks when you have different guys in your party, but you can rotate people in and out of battle on the fly every turn. The little numbers next to each element are skill points, more or less. You use them to teach your party members new skills or to level up the skills they already have. E.g. for more HP you might need 20 of every element, that sort of thing.
Unlike many RPGs with element-systems you do actually have to pay attention to elements this time.Using the same element against an enemy does very little damage while hitting it with something it’s weak against hits it for massive damage. It’s the same in reverse. But as long as you hit it with that weak element you can clear the field in one or two attacks, no problem. Here’s what combat looks like, btw:
From right to left (everything in this game reads right to left, top to bottom) – Attack, Skill, Cheer (refill guy’s MP, get slight affection boost), Formation (change formation), Escape (lowers affection), Information (enemy info). So as I said it’s just standard JRPG stuff but without levels or items or equipment or dungeons. The encounter rate is pretty high too. One of the characters has a skill that wards off encounters for a while, but 1) It takes a while before he learns it and 2) He leaves your party either temporarily or permanently on most routes. Still, the battles are over so quickly that fighting didn’t bother me, even though I must have played at least 30 hours of this game. Besides, I enjoy systems where you spend skill points to boost your stats/skills.
Now, before I close, a quick word about the various characters and routes I did. In the end I got almost everyone except Tomomori and the bonus endings. Tomomori’s route was a PITA because his affection bar is hidden and there’s only a small window for raising it. If you miss it, you have to backtrack a couple of chapters and redo several events to have another shot, which is so annoying that I just gave up. I might also be required to use some ‘MobileJoy’ password thingy in addition before I can unlock his route, but I don’t care any more.
Favorite characters/routes
Atsumori, because I like his voice. And he’s just a cool guy all around. I did both his regular and bonus endings because I liked him that much.
Same with Kurou, a.k.a. Minamoto no Yoshitsune, which makes this one of the few times I’ve actually liked the ‘default’ guy in an otome game. I suppose part of it was a desire to help him avoid his real-life fate, which was quite unhappy to say the least. Saku’s route is cool ‘cos she’s a real friend who is not secretly after your man. Shirogane’s route was fun. I didn’t really care about the guy himself, but there was a lot of drama and tension and many “What’s going to happen next?!” moments. Too bad there was no Yasuhira route.
Least favorite characters/routes
Yuzuru. As a support character he’s cool, but once you go on his route you realize he’s one of those creepy ‘nice guys’ who are always doing a girl favors she hasn’t asked for and then getting sulky or outright belligerent when she dares to hang out with any other guy, even though the nice guy hasn’t given her any indication of his non-platonic feelings for her. “You know how I feel about you!” No I don’t, get off me! I didn’t like Hinoe much either because he’s a playboy who just hits on Akane from start to finish. I only did his route for the sake of completion.
A harem full of ex-boyfriends
The main character can travel through time because of a magical scale she has. Ostensibly this is supposed to allow her to win the war by avoiding disaster for her army. For example if they get caught in an ambush at a particular spot, she can warn them against taking that road the next time. They can even turn the tables on the enemy and strike where they were least expected, etc etc. In that respect it’s a useful ability.
Unfortunately Akane decides (and make no mistake it’s a willful decision) to see what it would be like to date everyone in her party with no consequences. It is blatantly clear that she remembers everything that happens on every route, so in theory there should be no need to redo the game once she gets one guy’s ending. For example on Rizvan’s route they kill the bad guy Taira no Kiyomori and everyone lives happily ever after. Yet if you go back in time, Akane is more than happy to chase Kagetoki instead, or Hakuryuu instead, even though she knows what’s going on with Rizvan, what he’s trying to do and how he feels about her.
Though it’s a perpetual mystery how Yoshitsune feels about this… outfit, for lack of a better word.
How do I know she remembers everything? Because she says so, that how. If she learns something new on someone’s route, she’ll bring it up on your next route, showing she does remember. For example if you progress Atsumori’s story far enough, you find out he’s the monster you fought in Chapter 3. Next time you face that monster Akane thinks “That’s Atsumori!” and new options pop up that allow you to try to avoid the fight. Or another example, once Akane learns her old buddy Masaomi is the dreaded Kairinaifu or that Hinoe is actually the leader of Kumano, she smirks about it to herself next time she meets them, though she refrains from mentioning it before they do. She even does a pretty good job of pretending to be shocked at the revelation on Masaomi’s route, even though she knew it all along.
I forgot to mention the combo attacks. Well, whatever.
Of course you can’t put 100% of the blame on Akane. After all, I’m the one making her go back and date other guys after each happy ending. I’d say it’s about 50% me and 50% the Koei writers who chose to make her fully conscious of all her actions and decision instead of conveniently giving her amnesia. I must say I admire her poker face, or maybe her cruelty, as she deals with these guys whose deepest, darkest secrets she has heard without even batting an eyelash. She’s got guts, I’ll give her that.
On the other hand I say it might be cruelty not only because she ignores the feelings of those she knows have loved her all along (e.g. Rizvan, Yuzuru) but also because she doesn’t lift a finger to save anyone whose route she is not on, even if it might lead to their doom. Even if the Genpei war ends successfully, there’s a good chance that Yoritomo will be after Yoshitsune’s life soon enough, but that’s totally not Akane’s problem. On Kagetoki’s route we find out Yoritomo is holding his mother hostage. We save her on that route, but on all other routes Akane doesn’t bother because, why should she? And if she cares that much about ending the war, she could do it very quickly by blabbing Masaomi’s secret and getting him arrested in Chapter 2. But of course she doesn’t do that because, well, why should she? She’s pretty hardcore.
Any other notes
I had fun. I enjoyed the way the characters don’t outright worship Akane even though she’s the main character in an otome game. They’re not afraid to criticize or contradict her as the situation calls for it, and she isn’t portrayed as a perfect madonna who can do no wrong. She’s just a high school girl with a high school girl’s intelligence who just happened to get a bit of power. I quite like her actually, even when she’s being immature.
As with all time travel games there are a couple of plotholes and events that don’t make too much sense. However it’s easy to overlook them firstly because they aren’t that major and secondly because the game is fun enough that I can afford to turn a blind eye to a few holes. My only niggling hangups occur on the routes where she doesn’t go back to Japan, because I’m sure her family will be worried sick about her. On the other hand, on the routes where she does go back, I’ve gotta wonder how she explains her new love interest to her friends and family and the authorities.
The game also stays fresh for quite a while, but eventually having to view the same events over and over again can be a little… GEH! 1952 words already?! I said I wasn’t going to write much about Harutoki 3! Okay, that’s it, I’m done. It was fun, I liked the characters, the routes were short, the battle system wasn’t a chore and all its flaws were minor enough to overlook. Done. Just under 2000, phew!
I kind of feel like the part where the main character comments on things that she knows from the other routes to be sort of interesting from a “programming effort and planning” perspective although I do agree it really makes no sense for a romance game because then it basically turns the MC into a bit of a jerk (as opposed to the usual handling, which is that all individual routes are contained in its own “continuity” so to speak)… well, perhaps unless it’s handled in a way that they don’t love you UNTIL events in their route happens which would cause so but this doesn’t quite seem to be the case.
They usually start showing signs of affection even before you get locked into their routes. Plus a few of the guys are revealed to have had crushes on Akane all along, and she knows it. More importantly, she evidently returns their feelings on their routes, swearing her undying love and moving earth and heaven to be together with the guy of her dreams… only to toss him over for the next prospect.
But yeah, it’s really cool to see her apply her knowledge of past events to the future. And everyone’s like WHAAA, how did you know that? And sometimes they think she’s quite crazy but they just play along. It’s lots of fun.
I remember this otoge series as it had nice art and VAs 😀 OK, that and the original company is fairly famous overseas too.
Although, I do find it awkward how the MC remembers each past route each time. Now I feel a bit conflicted since it means MC might not have been serious about each character and does that mean as the player cheating on him by proxy?! orz
Uh, I may be overthinking this and thanks for the review :>
No, you’re not overthinking it and it does feel like she’s deliberately playing with their feelings for the lulz. It was probably unintentional on the part of the writers, seeing the lengths they went to correct this in the sequel.