Kin’iro no Corda 2ff is the updated remake of Kin’iro no Corda 2 (La Corda d’Oro 2) for the PS2. The original was remade for the PSP as Kin’iro no Corda 2f which was then updated with more CGs and characters as Kin’iro no Corda 2ff. I played the original extensively earlier this year, and I’m sure readers were glad to see the back of it when I finally put it away. Too bad guys, it’s baaaaack! And in a newer, shinier skin. But it’s still the same game so I’m having a good time all over again.
Changes I noticed and liked
★New CGs for old events! New CGs for new events! Many, many more date spots and date events, including a monthly exhibition. I appreciated the weekend events the most because I got tired of going to the same places.
★Three new guys to get, and they’re not too hard either. Etou is a brat, but Fudou seems nice and it’s good to finally get Kira after his high-and-mighty attitude in the original.
★I like the new ending theme. Very “boy band,” which is the effect they were going after.
★The new graphics are crisper, brighter and more polished than the old ones, but not by much. What really stood out were the clearer backgrounds and the increased detail during events like the school festival and Christmas. And I very much prefer the detailed art and relatively muted colors to the garish, simplistic, generic anime brightness of Kin’iro no Corda 3 and 4. Not that I won’t play them, though…
Kin’iro no Corda 2ff Goals
Getting the “love chain” endings, i.e. the true endings that eluded me last time. Which means I have to watch the love points like a hawk. 300-400 will trigger Love Chain 3, but anything over 400 will close that route off for good. And taking part in contests raises those points, so you have to make sure the guy in question likes you but not too much going into the concert. Which means you’ll have to avoid some events, not walk home with him, turn down date invitations, etc. if necessary. I’m sorry Tsukimori-kun, it’s not that I don’t like you. Things are just moving too fast!
I actually lost Kaji by failing to police his points. Yeah, just like the first time I played the original. And I was too lazy to redo a whole month of work so I let him go and got his regular lovey-dovey route. I also lazily answered Ousaki’s emails and got his route again. Same as the old route but with several more emails. At least he doesn’t pressure you or guilt-trip you about not answering his messages.
I also got Kira’s route without really trying. His is virtually automatic because he shows up on set dates and you just have to answer correctly to trigger the next event. The game clearly tells you if you mess up completely on a route so there’s nothing to worry about. Note, however, that you can’t get both Kira and Kanazawa on the same playthrough for story reasons.
Now for the endings I got in order of getting, excluding Kaji and Ousaki because I’ve covered them before.
Etou Kiriya
Little punk… Putting on airs and talking like a big shot, but he’s actually two years younger than Kahoko. That’s Hino-senpai to you, young whippersnapper! I wasn’t too excited about having yet another violin player in the series anyway. If they have to double up on an instrument, of course it must be the piano ♥.
Anyway, Etou’s story is that he’s a genius violinist who lacks stimulation because no one in Japan is a match for him. Really, Etou-kun? I’m pretty sure Ousaki-senpai could smoke you in a contest, how about giving him a try? Long story short, Kahoko’s unskilled but impassioned performances move his heart somehow or the other and he realizes… something. I forget what he realized. I think he realized what he was missing but I was too busy fuming at his disrespectful airs to pay attention. In the end he says he’ll be applying to Seiso Academy next year and looks forward to being with Kahoko. I look forward to putting you in your place, punk.
Kira Akihiko
As I mentioned, his route is almost automatic. When you talk to him in the church, he admits that your music touched and changed him, but doesn’t talk about love. Fair enough. It’s not a romantic route at all. But then after the credits, you get a scene where he’s lying on a couch holding your hand. Whoa! How did we get there? On one hand, kyaaa! On the other hand, ewww!
I… really don’t know how to feel about a romance with Kira, to be honest. I liked him more as a cold, professional adversary rather than a love interest. He actually had a very valid point about separating the school into two separate institutions for greater specialization and higher profits. It’s just that the story revolves around magic and music instead of common sense and money so I was forced to stop him.
In any case, once Kahoko softened him up with the power of music, my work here is done. What is there left to talk about? What hand-holding is there left to do? Kira, I didn’t know you were that kind of guy, I’m very shocked. Though I shouldn’t be, since one of the earliest things he does is take you to a bar for drinks…
Christmas Party ending
If you ignore absolutely everyone asking you out and choose a guy who doesn’t like you at the end, you’ll get a CG with everyone at the Christmas Party. I’d never seen it before because it had never occurred to me to aim for a Forever Alone end before. It’s always something that just happens to me when I’ve got loftier ambitions. But it takes all of 5 seconds to check it out and it’s a very nice CG so I’m glad I saw it.
Tsuchiura True End
Yay! At last! Getting it was a pain. I kept a separate save every time I successfully saw a Love Chain event. I also had about 10 other saves at various points for easy backtracking. I’d always wondered why otome games had so many save slots, now I know. For all my carefulness I still had to reload and redo a previous concert period just to get that LC3 triggered, but after that it wasn’t too bad.
Tsuchiura’s true ending is very similar to the normal end, but with added details. If you’ve been through all his events, you know about his ambition to become a conductor one day so he talks a lot about that in his ending. He also gives you the music box you found at the church bazaar as a present. Most importantly he finally remembers – or claims to remember – you watching him play Für Elise ten or so years ago. A likely story, Tsuchiura. You guys will say anything to get a girl, won’t you?
And after all that, he still doesn’t say he loves Hino. He’s grateful to her, he’s happy she’s around, he supports her, but love? All right, fair enough. If he doesn’t love her, he doesn’t love her. Just don’t get jealous if you see her together with Tsukimori in the manga, okay?
Kanazawa End
I totally ignored him in the first La Corda d’Oro. He was too lazy and scruffy and kinda gross-looking. This is where the better, less fuzzy graphics on the VITA come in handy. Now he doesn’t look quite so bad. His re-recorded voice also sounds a little less lazy. Plus I was a little bit intrigued by what Kira mentioned about his throat. He’s a heavy smoker, of course there’s something wrong with his throat. Or is there something else I should know?
Well that “something else” turned out to be Kanazawa’s history as an opera singer in Europe. Eeeeeeh??? THIS GUY?! Wow. You really can’t tell by looking. He developed polyps in his throat and refused to have surgery, which would have ruined his voice anyway. Which was already ruined. Either way he was sunk, and his lethargic attitude reflects it. However, seeing Hino work so hard encourages him to reconsider medical treatment. In his post-ending scene, he’s at the airport on his way somewhere but he promises to come back for her someday.
Aww. It was actually kinda sweet. And a lot more wholesome than some endings I could mention, hmm Kira?
Other stuff to mention
I’m not done yet! I’m already working on Tsukimori’s route. I was trying to get everyone to join my ensemble by the second concert so I could get Fudou Shouma’s ending as well, but I didn’t start wooing Hihara-senpai early enough. Also Tsukimori’s affection is already 326 in October, way too high to be safe. So I’ve got to rewind a bit and plan my concert properly. Once I’m done with Tsukimori and Fudou, I’m hoping to tackle Kaji again and maybe get Fuyuumi’s friendship ending to see what that’s about. I won’t be getting Hihara (already done), Yunoki (too mean) or Shimizu (too slow) this time.
For those of you thinking, “Hey, weren’t you playing Demon Gaze?” The answer is I’ve been playing both interchangeably. When I get tired of reading, I switch to Demon Gaze. When I’m bored with killing palette swaps, I switch to Kin’iro no Corda 2ff. The PSVITA system makes it really easy. Not like the days where you had to get up and switch CDs or cartridges. Viva modern consoles.
That’s enough out of me for one day. See you later!
Yah I do this all the time myself, alternating between VN and gameplay game so I don’t get burned out by either…
I often switch types between consecutive games, but deliberately playing two very different genres at the same time is a first for me. I often plan to do it, but I end up focusing on one game instead, usually because the games are on different systems. This might be the wave of the future.
Getting closed to finishing Operation Babel that I got on discount the other day; I’ve got only the final post-game boss rush left to do now. Looks like it’s going to clock around 50 hours for me, much shorter than Abyss since Abyss was basically a remake of 2 game while Babel is only the remake of the 3rd one.
One nice thing is that Babel spends a lot less time on dialogues/story than Abyss and just throw you into the dungeons without many of the more annoying mechanic like the level cap in Abyss. They also added a Muramasa Tower that has 9 floors and is filled with a bunch of gimmicks that you can start accessing pretty early; it feels like a much better version of the Babel Sphere from Abyss. After credit rolls, you go into post games, and they give us 7 different post game farming maps which is very nice for variation. They’re a bit of a pain to get to and a few are just way too simple, but they’re none the less fun enough if you feel like filling out all the map while getting some sweet loot.
Personally, I think the biggest problem this time is how many times they make you fight the same bosses, there really isn’t a lot of enemy variety and having access to Cross-Blood (dual class) just let you break the game too easily too quickly. Having a Wizard with Cleric subclass and 41 wisdom means your mana will just refill every turn and you can spam the silliest stuff to absolutely wreck everything. Honestly, I’d say it’s a comfy Experience Inc game to play when you feel the itch to do some dungeon crawling but don’t expect anything outside of the usual. I’m probably going to move onto Labyrinth of Refrain next. Disgaea games are the only NIS games I’ve played so I’m curious to see what they’ve done with a DRPG game.
Sounds like something I’d enjoy if I didn’t expect too much. And something I wouldn’t feel too bad if I didn’t finish. Speaking of finishing, I killed the last boss in Demon Gaze a few hours ago and now I’m taking a quick stroll through the post-game dungeon before calling it a day. The dungeons are very short and shallow compared to Entaku but it wasn’t a bad experience.
And speaking of bad experiences, I don’t have a good history with NIS games, so unless you give Labyrinth of Refrain a “WOW! AMAZING! BEST EVER!” kind of review I’m gonna pass on that one.
Hi, I’m trying to unlock all Tsuchiura’s CGs, events and ending. I’m one event short, and I FORGOT HOW TO INCREASE 評価 without the automatic increase after a concert! Help! His closeness is maxed out but I’m still short in evaluation point 🙁
難度がある値以上の愁情の曲の習熟度を上げて、練習を聞かせる = play his favorite kind of music (愁情) at a high level of mastery.
Every time you raise it, the requirements get higher so check his character page for the exact numbers.
Thanks! I ended up raising a lot of Tsukimori’s closeness level in the process too hahaha
Oh by the way, were you able to clear all events of one character in a single play? I often have to play more than once to unlock all the CGs and events of one single character 🙁 It’s like one moment the 攻略 says to wait for more time to pass for it to happen, the next moment an event happen, there will be a events few that turns 発生不可 D: I don’t have this problem with コルダ 3 and 4, just 2ff ._.
I’ve never tried to get all the CGs of any character in any otome game I’ve played. It’s partly because I don’t like using FAQs unless I’m stuck or struggling, partly because I like to leave the door open for future playthroughs, which I won’t do if I got 100% the first time.