Ikamono Tantei is one of those games that come from the golden age of when Japanese game companies didn't need to make money overseas but then again CyberFront is gone so maybe they did need the money. This game isn't even very good and I would've been quite upset if I bought it at full price in 2008. Fortunately, I was too busy working 12 hour days as a salaryman corporate slave back then to buy low budget DS titles on day one. Anyways, the main appeal of this game seems to be the cross-dressing main character: Kai.
Oh the resetera threads I could make with this
The actual offensive thing about the whole poking game (or "non-consensual gaming" as Sony Cali would label it), is that it's just a cheap token segment that appears exactly once and has nothing to do with the rest of the game design. The gameplay is the weakest part of this mediocre game as it consists of you tapping highlighted key words in the dialogue and selecting the right key word at the end of each chapter to solve the mystery.
The dialogue won't progress until you tap the keyword so you can't miss them though then it begs the question,"why can't the game just pick it up for you?" This is yet another one of those games that just annoys you by having to touch the screen every once in a while. Not utilizing hardware gimmicks effectively seem to be a common theme for most games on every Nintendo platform starting from the DS and Wii.
INNOVATION!
Other than the pointless "gameplay", I thought the characters were pretty funny. The story tries to be unique in that you are solving silly and pointless mysteries apparently called "ikamono". For example, in the second chapter, there's a weird man dressed as cat that refuses to leave the Iriomote cat exhibit. The character illustrator for this game worked on the original novel illustrations for Boogie Phantom, yet another anime I need to watch one of these days.
Looks way better then Chrono Cross at least
Anyways, the best part of this game if you bought it used for about $5 like myself, is that you can finish it in like 5 hours. However, if you want to unlock the last 4 omake episodes, you need to collect ALL the keywords in each of the 4 chapters. I successfully did this for the first chapter but gave up after trying to visit every location on the map dressed as both male and female and still ended up missing some keywords.
Each of the total of 12 omake episodes are just a small bit of dialogue and I'm OK with only having read through 9 of them. I only have so much time left to play all my shit after all.
Score: 2 yet another game nobody cares about (including myself) out of 5
On a completely random side note, I played through Heavenly Sword after this game and it also has a character named Kai. What a weird coincidence!
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely
I've heard great things about Ever 17 and been wanting to check it out for a while. Of course, as you can probably guess by now, I'm going in order by first playing Never7 -the end of infinity-. Originally called just infinity for the PS1, it seems to have been ported to every platform imaginable since it's original release in 2000. According to Wikipedia, extra scenarios were added at one point, the OST was re-arranged in one version, a new ED theme here, a new movie there... WHATEVER.
Normally, I would pick the PSP version any day but I got the PC download for free as a promotion when it went on sale online. Unfortunately, the PC version kinda sucks balls to put it mildly. While there is an option to skip text, there is no backlog, no rewind, no auto mode, and no record of which options you've chosen previously. Though bizarrely enough, there IS an option to have a separate font for the girl's dialogue text???
No Option umm... option and context menu doesn't really add much
The inadequacies of the specific version I played doesn't really matter I guess as long as you pick a better version. I'm sure the Android app (region-locked BARF) has all the features you would expect by now including fancy extras like an alarm clock.
All you have to do is get an alien registration card,
open a bank account, and buy a phone in Japan for these nice extras
(FU Google)
The worst part about this version is the inability to adjust the BGM volume down to better hear the dialgoue which is a shame because this game is fully voiced (doesn't include the protagonist). I dunno what it is but something about voice acting from before all the moe shit really appeals to me. Even though it came out in the year 2000, this game definitely reminds me of them old animes I grew up with in the 90s.
I played through Yuka's route before I finally gave up on the PC version. Going through the game over again without being able to fast forward to unread text was a deal breaker. I tried fast-forwarding to the next dialogue option and checking the back log but yeah, screw that. PSP HERE I COME!!!
Hey Yuka, don't be made at me, I'M not the one that picked your crazy swimsuit.
And thank god for the mighty PSP, because the PSP version has every ADV feature that you could want: auto mode, volume controls, it even lets you use the analog stick to see the whole image. I thought that worked much better to deal with the different aspect ratio than a static background image on either side or just chopping off the image like other PSP ports. Unfortunately, taking screenshots is a pain on the PSP so enjoy the rainbow dialogue screenshots from the PC version.
AHAHA an alcoholic! ...oh that's not very funny at all
Putting aside all this talk about ports, PC master race, blah blah blah, how was the game itself? Well, if you enjoy reading about college students enjoying exciting activities such as fishing, tennis, and barbecues, you're in luck. I obviously went to college in the wrong country if attending what they call a "zemi" (short for seminar) is basically a free island vacation complete with private cottage accommodations in the woods.
No seriously, the first 5-10 hours of the game is probably one of the most boring segments I've gone through in an adventure game. The pacing of the game is SO slow, it only drops tiny hints of something fishy going like once every few hours between long stretches of dialogue involving things like shopping for rice, making breakfast, and eating lunch. Zzzzzzzzzz
At least you get can a good fill of that ol' imouto goodness. Even though most of the characters are college age or older, Kurumi, a senior in high school decides to call you oniichan for no reason whatsoever. Even though she's supposed to be a senior in high school, the game still somehow manages to make her seem like 15 years old. #jailbait
YEEEAAAAAH, (fake) IMOUTO TAIMU!
I really liked that the branching paths were not too simplistic like Harvest Overlay and yet was not stupid random nonsense like '&'. I was able to play through all scenarios without a guide and even though I got stuck a bit in one part where hanging out with Izumi went into Kurumi's route and vice-versa, the rest was easy to figure out just with a bit of trial and error.
PS2? pffft! I play all my PS2 games on the game gear
Score: 2.5 goddamn I went to college in the wrong country! out of 5 (30 hours to beat)
Overall, the game had some interesting ideas besides the renai dating aspect. You can definitely see that this is Uchikoshi's early work. There are several theories in the game as to what's going on in the story and in true ADV style, any of those theories could be true depending on your route.
As for the renai portion, the characters were likable enough and while the illustrations were rough at times, it had its charm. The music was better than the usual ADV generic crap but not much more so. I really like the quality of the voice acting and while I was bored to death in the beginning, there were brief moments where I really wanted to find out what happened next.
I thought Never 7 was worth playing but I definitely wouldn't call this game spectacular. While there's extra "Append" scenarios at this point, I'm so sick of playing through the same 6 days over and over that I don't think I can touch it without a least few years break.
It was at least something to play while I'm sitting here waiting for my copy of Zero time dilemma (those goddamn "reviewers" with their early, free copies!!!). We'll see how Ever 17 shapes up. For you non-jhipsters, the game was at least interesting enough for someone to make a fan translation patch (if you can find it).
Some additional screenshots for um... investigative purposes.
Yup, still an alcoholic.
This girl is TOTALLY 18, right guys? *wink wink*
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely
