My valiant pursuit of otome games with actual gameplay continues! Not that I won’t ‘play’ otome visual novels, and not that there aren’t some very good ones out there, but when I pick up a handheld or a controller, I want to play something, not read for 10 hours. And so it is that I find myself trying almost any otome game that promises even a hint of gameplay, which brings me at last to La Corda d’oro, a.k.a Kiniro no Corda.

The story

The Main Character – I wanted to name her Bolo Yeung but it was too long so her name is Bolo Yu – is a regular student in an academy split into a regular and a musical department. Bolo is roped into taking part in a music competition because she can see a fairy. The fairy gives her a magical violin and a musical score and sets her loose on the musical world. And if she can win the hearts of her fellow bishies in the process, all the better!

It’s not bad as far as otome premises go. I mean some games don’t even bother, they just plop you down and let you chase guys for three years. The only issue I had was one of guilt. I felt kinda bad pretending to be competing when I was actually using a magical violin. The other contestants are so passionate, so hardworking and here is Bolo just blatantly cheating her way through the contest and daring anyone to call her out on it.

That’s why I was happy when the magical violin broke after a few uses and was replaced with a normal one. Aha! The gig is up! Now what’ll Bolo do? Answer: absolutely nothing, because absolutely nothing changes. Either she was a genius violin player all along or the magic leached into her soul and made her a maestro in two weeks. Either way she continued to dominate the contests regardless. Nobody bothers to ask where she learned to play the violin and no parent or guardian or sibling turns up to ask any uncomfortable questions. It’s a very drama-free game in that respect, which I’m half-pleased and half-disappointed by.

Despite my best efforts to woo guys, Bolo ended up forever alone at the end. Maybe the guys suspected her all along but couldn’t say it, so they just retaliated by playing hard to get? Either way, in the end she sweeps all four selections and wins the grand prize, which turns out to be… absolutely nothing. The fairy congratulates her and tells her to keep loving music, the end.

Gameplay! Actual stuff to do!

And plenty of it, too. More than I’d expected when I picked up a musical otome game. If you want to win the four selections that make up the whole competition, you have your work cut out for you. It’s not enough to merely play a piece. You have to practice it to perfection and you also have to add your own interpretation. Not just any interpretation either, but one that brings out certain emotions/concepts as you play. Evaluation is done on the basis of i) The difficulty of the piece ii) Your mastery of the piece and iii) Your ability to evoke certain emotions through your interpretation. That means to prepare for each of the four contests, you have to do all of the following:

1. Receive the theme and keywords for that particular contest from your teacher.
2. Practice an old score. Each time you practice, you get 10-20 seconds to run around the map looking for fairies to give you new scores.
3. Repeat step 2 until you collect all the pages of the new piece you wish to present. You usually have between 3 and 6 pieces to choose from, though only 3 will be of the required difficulty.
4. Practice your chosen piece until you’ve reached a mastery of 20 for all the pages. If your skill level isn’t high enough to play that piece, you might have to grind a bit on older pieces. Grinding? In an otome game? It’s more likely than you think!
5. Once you reach mastery 20, interpretations become available. Roam the map searching for fairies to give you interpretation ideas.
6. Watch those interpretation ideas, which play out in the form of short historical skits. Each one will give you one or two keywords that match the theme of the concert.
7. Practice your piece till you hit 100 mastery. Practice your interpretation until it is perfect and evokes all the required keywords. This takes a lot of practice, just like real life.
8. If you practice your interpretation near the guy you like, he’ll fall in love with you. In fact, the best way to make him love you is to follow him all over the map playing your violin relentlessly.
9. When the day of the contest arrives, pick your musical piece and your preferred interpretation. Pick an outfit and accessories to wear on stage, tailoring them to match your guy’s tastes.
10. Go out there and win! I swept all four selections just by making sure I had the pieces and their interpretations fully mastered at all times. It’s hard to lose as long as you keep practising.

It’s a lot to take in all at once, but it doesn’t take too long once you get the hang of it. The other thing to be aware of is the Bravo Point mechanic. Bravo Points are the currency of this game. They can be spent in secret fairy shops to buy skills, doping items (double EXP, etc), clothes, accessories and presents to give to guys. They’re very, very important. You earn BP by playing music with and for other people. Not just the named characters but also the many, many NPCs you find loitering the map. A circle appears around you when you play and everyone within it gives you BP depending on how good you are. It follows therefore that a large part of efficient gameplay consists of wandering the map looking for large clusters of people so you can stand in their midst and show off. If the group involves your sweety-pie, all the better.

For a simulation game veteran, the gameplay isn’t too difficult. But it’s still interesting, and time management can be challenging sometimes. You only have from 3pm to 6pm to practice on weekdays, 12 to 6 on weekends. Talking to your guy can take 10-30 minutes off the clock. Getting involved in a skit can take another 30 minutes. Playing an interpretation takes 50 minutes. Regular practice, 20-30 minutes. Before you know it, the days and hours are ticking by at an incredible rate. It’s a great balance between not being so easy that it’s a cakewalk and not being so hard that it’s a turn-off. I really hope the sequels aren’t dumbed down in response to player complaints.

As an aside, one thing I really like about the academy is the sheer number of students in it. I’ve played a lot of games set in a high school, and most of them look deserted. In contrast La Corda d’oro has at least 100 student NPCs, all of them with names and lines. The school and town feel really populated, almost crowded even, which is great. It’s a nice extra touch.

The bishies! Why won’t you love me?!

As this is an otome game, it goes without saying that the other contestants are hot guys (and one girl? Trap?). It also goes without saying that they fall all in love with MC if she raises the right stats and stalks them long enough. The main guy, Len Tsukumori, is a complete ass as main guys often tend to be, but the rest are decent enough. It didn’t take me long at all to set my sights on the green-haired beauty on the right: Ryotaro Tsuchiura. Why Tsuchiura? *shrug* Why not?

Actually I did have a few reasons. Firstly, he’s the most normal and well-rounded guy of the lot. The others are too absorbed in their music, but Tsuchiura has a life and a world outside of music. Plus he plays the piano, my favorite instrument wot I used to play IRL until 10 years ago when I got too lazy and gave it up. His theme is piano music, and I love to hear it whenever he shows up. On top of all that, he’s in Bolo’s class so they can be together longer and graduate together and go to college together and on and on and on. Sounds like a match made in heaven, right?

So how did I end up forever alone? What went wrong? ;_________; Nothing, I just left the romance too late. Getting a guy in this game is a matter of repeated and persistent stalking, nothing more and nothing less. You need to raise his Love points so he loves you and Rivalry Points, so he respects you (optional, but apparently required for a better ending). Rivalry points are easy: raise certain parameters, win contests and collect lots of Bravo points. Getting Love points is just as easy, but more involved: talk to him, play your instrument next to him, play your instrument with him, give him presents and wear the clothes he likes. If you do all that, no guy will ever be able to resist you.

Except for one little hitch: certain events that randomly trigger that you need to see to get the guy’s end. In my case, the problem was a particular piece of music Tsuchiura wanted me to play at the final contest. La campanella. I left raising his affection so late that there were only 4 days left in the contest when he sprung this bit of news on me. There just wasn’t enough time to find all the pieces, practice them to perfection and practice the interpretation perfectly as well. In retrospect I really should have tried, but either way it just didn’t work out.

I tried again with a slightly older save, made just after the 3rd contest, but that still wasn’t enough time to get Tsuchiura’s LP and RP high enough to trigger the event (which is random anyway) and fulfill all the requirements. I only finally, barely got him to the stage where he walks to me all the way home the day before the final contest. Far too little far too late. Another forever alone ending for Bolo Yu. Does that mean I’ve given up, though? By no means! For this playthrough, though I’ll have to let things go. I’m taking the first run as a learning experience. Next time, for sure, he will be mine. Prepare yourself, Tsuchiura!

Thoughts

I didn’t get the romantic ending I wanted, but I had a great time nevertheless. It goes without saying that the music is excellent. I’ve always loved classical music. The graphics are great as well. While the character designs aren’t as polished as in the La Corda d’oro sequels and other later Neoromance games, there’s still plenty to like. The backgrounds in particular are as gorgeous as ever. What voice-acting does exist is pretty good, but voiced scenes are sadly quite rare. The gameplay is fun all the way with only one or two minor issues. As a final bonus each playthrough doesn’t take too long, maybe 5-7 hours at most, so it’s very possible to replay it and get all the endings. La Corda d’oro is a great game all around, and I’m definitely going to pick up the sequels as soon as I can. Good show, Koei!

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La Corda d’oro – Tsuchiura GET! La Corda d’oro – Yunoki true ending and Hihara date ending GET! La Corda d’Oro – Shimizu GET! La Corda d’Oro – Tsukimori Len GET!