Gametalk 2: Tenshin Ranman HGL and…Mass Effect

I’ve said many times before that if I was given a choice, I would have loved to own a videogame blog. But videogames are expensive, they cost at the lowest in new condition at $35 and the highest being $60. Games are expensive and I cannot play too much because I would run out of memory on my PS3 and I try to refrain from playing on weekdays to catch up on my studies. Anime and manga on the other hand is pretty free on the internet so I have no complaints there. Back in the days when there were 4 writers, not many of the other members played a lot of games or were not-lazy enough to write anything about them

Anyways today I want to just lightly talk about the two games I’ve been playing the most. Actually there are 3 games I’ve been playing a lot but only 2 have story.

The first game, Tenshin Ranman HGL (Happy Go Lucky)

If you happen to recall “our” post on Games and Figures (which I plan to update with 2 more pictures) Light talked about this game here and another game, Mashiro Iro Symphony: Mutsu no Hana. A few weeks back, we hanged out at my house (because my house has the most sources for entertainment e.x: GAMES). I traded over my Luminous Arc 2 with Light for this game. Light has gotten his beloved PSP but he hasn’t been playing it often. If I haven’t told any of you, I got my PSP from one of my friends who didn’t want his anymore.  Anyways, You could consider this a “review” but I don’t currently have the USB to get some screenshots that I have taken in-game.

Tenshin Ranman Happy Go Lucky is a PSP Adaptation from the PC game Tenshin Ranman Lucky or Unlucky. Tenshin Ranman for PC is an eroge while PSP basically replaced those “ecchi” scenes with some more love love, so it’s a galge. The PSP version has one more character route making the grand total of 6 routes.  To be completely honest, this is actually the first “formal” galge/light novel game. Most of the games I usually play are action games and strategies but seeing how I’ve had my eyes on this game for a while I decided to ask Light if I could borrow it for a while. Another thing I wish to admit is that I don’t FULLY understand Japanese. Although my native tongue of Korean is very similar to Japanese, I still haven’t gotten around learning the language. Watching anime has helped a small bit but I would be a fool if I said I learned Japanese solely through watching anime. Anyways, Tenshin Ranman from my best effort in understanding the game is about a guy named Chitose Haruki who simply has the worst luck. Falling into manholes, crap falling out of the sky, even puddles being splashed on him when there was no rain. One day a package arrives to his house and out pops out a girl who proclaims she is a goddess that will drain his bad luck out of him. Thats where the story goes and you now have 6 choices of how the game will end in a good way. The 6 characters you can up with are

(Blonde-Sana, Silver-Ruri, Dark Brown-Hime, Light Brown-Aoi

• Hime (her full name/title being Unohana no Sakuyahime): Basically the first I went for. Hime is a goddess that tries to help Haruki get rid of his bad luck. I just looove her personality. She’s the kind of character who would tease you, then act embarassed, and go right back to teasing you because you fell for ploy. She’s such an entertaing character and I like her even more when she goes “dere” on you. Out of the 6, she’s Number 2!
• Ruri: Ruri basically shows up in yet another box a few days after Hime arrives a similiar fashion. She’s a fox spirit and she can change between fox and human. I like her monotone voice and is pretty cute but then again I only played her route just so I could finish the CG gallery. I can’t decide if I liked Ruri or Sana better. But I guess Sana’s route has more of a better “Conclusion”.
• Sana: Sana is the non-blood related younger sister of Haruki. She’s obviously, madly in love with her brother. There is a very small tsundere side to her but thankfully the dere overwhelms the tsun. She’s pretty nice but she was already in love with you to being with.
• Aoi: Arguably the longest route, actually no, it is the damn longest route. Aoi is the childhood friend of Haruki and constantly tries to help him with his crap luck. It takes a damn while for her to realize that we’ve been on her route and thus going for her. Anyway, the route is pretty draggy but her dere side is impressive. Number 5
• Mahiro: Mahiro along with Yukari are the two sub heroines you can gun for their endings. Mahiro is the student council president and her route is focused on working with her to prepare the school’s festival and her personal bouts. Mahiro is…I guess the proper word is slow. She’s pretty calm and is a likeable character. Number 4 (not pictured)
• Yukari: Yukari is Haruki’s hot teacher. She’s pretty lazy and the youngest teacher in the school. In her route, she teases you A LOT. She’s also a sadist/masochistic but it’s fun to watch when you start teasing her instead of the over way around. Number 2 (not pictured)
• Wakaba (full name/title Itsukishishihime no Mikoto): The PSP exclusive character who like Hime is a goddess. She’s like Hime in terms of teasing you but I generally like her more. She has the teasing ability while remaining extremely cute and dere. She’s so nice too, she has the big sister type feel around her. Number 1~~

Hime is voiced by Itou Shizuka who also voiced Tamaki from To Heart, Hinagiku from Hayate, and a bunch more. Wakaba being voiced by Yukana who also voiced NANASAKII, C.C from Code Geass, and Cecilia from IS. Yukari is voiced by Taguchi Hiroko who also voices Yutsuki from Mashiro iro which im trying to pry off Light’s hands.

In my short and humble words: MAKE IT AN ANIME, it’s one of the very few titles where I actually like the main heroine

Anyways, allow me to make a dramatic change to another game.

Ah yes, Mass Effect 2, the sequel to the hit game Mass Effect released by Bioware in 2007 and prequel the final installment which pits all the species in the galaxy against an army of immortal sentient starships, allegedly waiting in darkspace. We’ve dismissed that claim.

Anyways, I’ve played Mass Effect 2 (or completed it) around four times. First on my brother’s comp, twice on my own, and once on my PS3, currently I am on my Isanity Run (hardest difficulty) on my PS3 version. Why do I care so much about playing this game? Well allow me to go on

(SPOILERS)

Back around 2008, my brother was going crazy with the game Mass Effect. I have heard about the game’s controversial “blue alien sex” scene, but I wasn’t so intrigued with the idea. It would be around a year after my brother had come from college 2 summers back did he introduce me to Mass Effect 2. The gameplay, the story, and its amazing feature. But to get to that feature allow me to quickly summarize the first game, I’m going to challenge myself but summarizing the game within 200 words.

Mass Effect is a game sci-fi, 3rd person shooter game that places you in the boots of Commander Shepard (gender is your choice) who is a human commander onboard the SSV Normandy. The universe of Mass Effect focuses on technology created by an ancient alien race called the Protheans , who were mysteriously wiped out, but have left machines for inter-galatic travel. The humans on Earth discover Prothean technology on Mars and has used the technology to travel the stars. They would meet with other galatic civilizations and would join the “Citadel” or the organized capital of the galaxy. As Shepard you command an elite squad of your choice to combat Saren, a rogue Citadel agent (a Spectre). Shepard fights through Saren’s army of synthetic organisms known as Geth and discovers a horrifying truth to the universe. Saren’s ship, Sovereign, is a Reaper, the race of sentient starships that destroy all organic lifeforms once every 50,000 years (or so), which reveals that the Prothean technology is actually the Reapers and that the Citadel is a huge teleporter that will transport the Reaper army. Shepard then races back to the Citadel to stop Saren and Sovereign from the galaxy’s annhilation. 197 words, eh

Mass Effect introduced me to an extremely complex universe filled with personality. We have alien species such as the Turians, Hanar, Drell, Geth, Quarians, Krogan, Vorcha, etc. So much culture and lore are present that it boggled my mind when my brother urged me to play it when he got back. But the TRUE reason that got me playing was its special feature. What is this feature you ask?

Simply put: Mass Effect’s story does not end there. In the end, you defeat Saren and Sovereign with the combined might of the Human Alliance fleet and the rest of the Citadel. There are key parts within the game but I just needed to tell you the story. Now back to my point. Mass Effect is one of those games where choices are availible for you to pick. Some choices are extremely more difficult to make but each choice counts why? The choices you make in Mass Effect 1, will affect the storyline (which is phenomenal thanks to the colorful cast of characters) in Mass Effect 2. That blew my freaking mind when it was revealed to me. Some characters can die in Mass Effect 1 and they will be unavailible for interaction in 2. But 2 doesn’t have TOO many connections to the first game, I mean there are a handful of noticeable ones but the next part is even better.

But before I go on, it’s time to summarize Mass Effect 2, in 200 words or less (it’s a sci-fi and the sequel to Mass Effect 1 and I ain’t repeating that for obvious reasons)

ME2 continues the story of Commander Shepard who has defeated the Reaper threat. During one of many missions to quell Geth resistance, Shepard’s crew is attacked by a mysterious ship. Shepard is able to save the surviving crewmen but ultimately perishes. Shepard however is brought back through miraculous means by the Lazarus Project headed by Cerberus, a pro-human organization. Shepard reawakens and finds that the station he’s in is under attack. Shepard meets a few people and leaves the station to meet the Illusive Man, Cerberus’ leader. The IM tells Shepard that he was brought back to lead humanity to safety as human colonies have been disappearing. Further investigations conclude that an enigmatic race known as Collectors are behind it. The Collector’s base of operations is accessed by the Omega 4 Relay, which no ship has ever come out alive from. Shepard is given the task to build a formidable team of badasses to stop and ultimately go through the relay to stop the Collectors. Shepard’s crew goes through the relay and wipes out the Collector threat. The ending clip rolls and, hundreds or even thousands of Reapers are shown approaching the Milky Way. 193, nice

Anyways, there are even more epic characters to get to know and that literally forms the bulk of the game. Recruiting them and doing missions to gain their loyalty. The game however is not as simple as the first one though. In the first game, there is a single scripted character death in ME1 and one choice (with requirment conditions to save or not to save) for a character to live or die. However, ME2 could literally end with everyone of your crew surviving, all your crew dying, or the worst yet, YOU DYING. Character deaths are determined by upgrades and their loyalty.You might say, big deal. But you should realize, the Reapers are coming and you aren’t alive to fight them.

And that amazing story of galactic extinction cycle told by 2 games comes to an epic conclusion with Mass Effect 3 where the Repears invade F*CKING EARTH. You must return to Earth, with every single ship with every single race behind you. If you’re character died in ME2, you better have a new customized safe file or just start a default ME3 game. Characters that didn’t make in both ME and ME2 it will not appear in ME3. The big choices you made in ME2 and ME will determine the fate of the galaxy in the most epic conclusion that I can only curently imagine. ME3 will be released in early March and I cannot fu*cking wait.

I would go more deeply into the game, but I’m saving that for my planned Gametalks. There are 3 planned ones currently and 2 out of the 3 will talk about a little more “thematics” than just summaries.

Anyways, thanks for listening