Yet another crappy game. Do I know how to pick ’em or what?
For those not in the know, Nanatsuiro★Drops is a game/anime series about a boy named Tsuwabuki Masaharu who drinks soda from another world and is cursed to turn into a stuffed animal every night. He needs to collect seven “star drops” before he can go back to normal.
Nanatsuiro★Drops started out as an adult visual novel which was then made into a PG anime. Said anime was then made into a video game for the DS, which is what I just played. Logic suggests it would have been better to port the original game (sans adult scenes) to the DS instead of making a new one, but logic never applies when it comes to quick cash tie-ins.
Btw, I watched a bit of the anime prior to starting this game, just try and get a sense of what I was in for. Hmm? “Watched?” More like “suffered through” honestly. I’ve never liked the magical girl genre. I’ve tried several: Card Captor Sakura, Pretear, Nanoha, etc, but I never get far because quite frankly, they all suck they’re just not my thing. Nanatsuiro★Drops was not an exception. Sure it was boring, sure it was repetitive but the really annoying part was the main girl Sumomo Akihime with her faux-cute faux-hesitant demeanor, generic “cute anime girl” looks and sickeningly squeaky high voice. From now on my requirements for picking up anime series will “must not have any shy, stammering girls with stupidly high-pitched voices that JUST WON’T SHUT UP!”
Back to logic though, surely logic suggests that if I hated the anime that much I would hate the game too. As usual logic was completely right. I’m starting to think I have a masochistic streak. Or maybe I just played it to confirm that my Sucky Game radar wasn’t broken after all, what with the Tactical Guild incident and all.
If that was the case then my fears were for nothing; my radar is fine. It’s probably working overtime to compensate, in fact, because there wasn’t that much wrong with the game. The main issues I had with it were the incomprehensible plot and the stupid mini-games. Oh wait, that’s all there is to the game. Right.
First, the game will make very little sense unless you’ve watched the anime. Nanatsuiro★Drops is less of a video game and more of a whirlwind tour through several famous (?) scenes from the anime. And not in any proper order either. A random scene here, a random character appearance there, that sort of thing. They used some animated footage directly from the anime, which came out pretty well, but logic suggests anyone who wants to see anime footage would be better off just getting the anime. But of course, logic is ignored as usual. Poor logic.
Anyway, I plodded through the random scenes and eventually got the bad ending where Tsuwabuki loses his memory, tries to recall what happened in the past six months and eventually decides it doesn’t matter. Wait, that’s not a bad ending, that’s a good ending! Banzai! Afterwards Nona had the gall to tell me if I’d done better in the mini-games, I would have gotten a better ending. Nona dear, there’s no better ending than forgetting about Akihime forever, trust me.
Those mini-games, though. Man. The subtitle Touch de Hajimaru Hatsukoi Monogatari roughly means “First love that starts through a touch,” so somehow doing the same weeding games and math games and music games and sheep-counting (yes, sheep counting) games will somehow win you Akihime’s love. If they were serious about that, logic sugg– wait, no it doesn’t. Logic has gone on strike. All right then, in my opinion, this game needed better mini-games and a bigger variety too. The weeding game is okay, if a bit frantic. The math game is straight out of Brain Age, it’s okay as well. Sheep-counting is exactly what it sounds like.
The worst game is the music game, though. It’s like Ouendan-gone-crazy, with the stars flying like crazy all over the screen (allegedly in tune with the music, but this is a filthy lie) and Akihime gasping irritatingly every time you miss one. Which is often. The best I managed in those was 0 points – yes, that’s a good score – after which I resolved “Never again!”
Enough about Nanatsuiro★Drops, I can’t believe I wrote such a long post for such a crappy game. Looking ahead, I want to play a plain old turn-based jRPG, but I’ve almost exhausted the DS’s supply of those, apart from Dragon Quest VI which I can’t play so soon after DQV. Play-Asia has Level 5’s Ninokuni on sale (i.e. $50 instead of $80 -_-), but I’m hoping it will come out soon in English. *fingers crossed* That leaves me with the action RPGs, a few strategy ones (Rondo of Swords!) and several visual novels I’m not really looking forward to. Well, I’ll find something eventually.
