Heroine Spotlight: A Nancy Drew: The Final Scene Retrospective

I’m ending my long break to not talk about dating sims, but instead to show off one of my favorite adventure games, Nancy Drew: The Final Scene! With over 30 games in the Nancy Drew (ND) library, I had a hard time picking which one had the most influence over me. The Final Scene is one of many games I consider picking up when I want my mystery fix, but it never fails to blow me away.

Nancy is off to St. Louis, Missouri to visit her friend, Maya Nguyen. She accompanies Maya to the old Royal Palladium Theater. It is the venue of famous heartthrob Brady Armstrong’s new movie, Vanishing Destiny, but also once held famous magic acts including Harry Houdini. Despite all this history, the theater is set to be demolished in three days. Though we are unsure of Maya’s angle with her article, she is off to interview Brady, and Nancy is off to do what we would all do in this situation, get snacks, but suddenly she hears Maya scream. Nancy opens the dressing room door and Maya is gone. The phone rings and a distorted voice tells Nancy that the demolition of the theater must be stopped or Maya will go down with it.

This is a pretty big pill to swallow and what differentiates The Final Scene (FIN) from other ND titles is that the pressure is on right from the beginning. Stopping the demolition is no small feat. The local historical society is working to get the theater declared a historical landmark, but is being delayed with the usual government red tape. An activist group called HAD IT (Humans Against the Destruction of Illustrious Theaters) is also working to stop the demolition. That’s where Nick Falcone, leader of HAD IT comes in.

The kidnapping is extended to three days, as that’s when the theater will be demolished. The police refuse to believe this is a real kidnapping as Nancy is the only witness. The evidence found by Brady is moved so Simone can take a photo of it with Brady in better lighting.

I wish no ever has to go through the fear of a loved ones death in the matter of FIN, but I admire Nancy’s forcefulness in this situation. She never backs down when Simone is eagerly thinking of all the publicity Brady will get or Nick’s flippancy regarding his reputation with the police. It’s almost baffling to see the blase’ attitude of most of the characters regarding Maya’s kidnapping. Almost everyone is discouraging Nancy and acting as if she is making up the kidnapping.

Each character has their own motivation for this: Simone wants to make money off of the kidnapping and get publicity, Brady wants to feel in control of a situation for once, Nick wants the demolition stopped to keep the art his grandmother created in the theater up, and Joseph has worked at the theater most of his life and doesn’t have an exit plan. Everyone is selfish in some way. While Nick and Joseph are kind to Nancy, she can’t fully trust them and wonders what they aren’t telling her. Nick has a history of extreme tactics such as kidnapping to stop demolitions (yeah that’s super suspicious) and Joseph lied about his brother being alive and going to live with him after the theater is gone.

When Nancy finds a hidden room with Maya’s shoe left in it, there is finally enough proof to bring the police over. But on the day of the demolition, Nancy comes back to find the police found nothing strange in the room. She is told by multiple characters she must be lying or hallucinating.

One final clue is sent to Nancy; the floor plans of the theater with another hidden room. Nick is the hero and tells Nancy to hide while the building is being cleared so she can race to it and find Maya moments before the building was to be destroyed.

There are situations that are maybe less serious but also cause this sort of non reaction. It’s frustrating and hard to know if you are going the right thing if you are steadfast in your beliefs. Think what would have happened if Nancy gave into what other people were trying to persuade her to think, that she was wrong about all the evidence she found that Maya was still in the theater. They would have caused Maya’s death. This sort of reflection is what makes the game re-playable over 20 years later. I’m sure quite a few people struggled with believing in themselves when they were Nancy’s age (who is forever 18). Whenever I had people trying to tear me down, I remembered the beloved Nancy Drew series and the words she said in FIN in particular. I may not have always been right nor did I “win” every battle, but I held onto the belief that I needed to be my best advocate and Nancy is the one to show you how with her balance of clear cut words and empathy for others.

Addendum:

I had written the above before the following occurred. What makes this even more painful to replay now, is that it reminds me so much of medical staff and doctors dismissing my mother’s illnesses, and culminating in her death. I feel the parallel of what happened to her and The Final Scene strongly, only this was the bad end where Nancy didn’t save Maya, I did not save my mother. It is not my fault but I see the selfish motivations of Brady, Simone, and Joseph reflected in those that interacted with her in the events leading up to her death. I can never click second chance in real life, but  I will carry this painful lesson with me. Nancy had to pick herself up and keep living life when her mom passed away and I have been trying to do the same.

What Toma Means to Me

This was originally posted on Tumblr in 2016.

Trigger warning for abuse. This is a personal narrative about how I related to Toma while I was in a bad situation.

My thoughts on the Amnesia Memories Guys

This originally appeared on the askamnesiamemories tumblr.

Overall, each guy delights and frustrates me at the same time. I’ve spent a lot of time going over each route since starting this blog. Each time I pick up on a tibit for one of them that I squirrel it away in my brain because I want to understand the good and the bad of each character. And they all have good and bad in them. I’m not going to debate who is the worst, because in my opinion they can all suck at some points. That being said, I love learning about a character’s flaws. Rather than recoiling and not wanting to play the game anymore, I hunt for more info so I can draw my own conclusions as to understand why did he did that. Onto each guy:

Shin: I started [the ask blog] with great hesitation about role-playing this guy. I hadn’t really “chilled” with him like I did with Toma, Ikki, and Kent. Shin is actually one of the guys, alongside Toma, that requires a lot of patience and understanding. Shin is great at many things, he’s smart, he stays calm when times get rough, and he has a great work ethic, especially for someone so young. I think once I realized the trait that is not said directly about Shin in the game, that he is shy and not used to dealing with people really clicked with me. He is me when I was his age, angry, hurt because of the years of hell he faced due to his father’s jail sentence, unsociable, and not able to really smoothly go through social situations, but he’s still gonna blast through and come out on top. He’s my bro now, and he is really funny in other routes, especially when you hang out with Shin and Toma in Joker World.

Ikki: I started the game with Ikki, and I initially wasn’t too impressed with him. I was expecting romance, and it felt so weird with the fan club! I’m not one for polyamory, which is what the route felt like at first, but polyamory is suppose to have all the parties consent, and the fan girl thing was weird. I can see this is a man that has low self-esteem and is afraid to face his demons. Who among us hasn’t felt that way at some point? Those of us of drinking age have probably drank to forget at some point (i like vodka and gin pure from the bottle to the glass). Though he certainly dragged his feet with doing the right thing, he did it, eventually. But Ikki is very helpful here on the blog when the other characters get embarrassed and I think that reflects his desire to help others in game, especially in Diamond World. It’s frustrating to see him drag his feet on the fangirl thing, but he does have a caring nature and I hope he can work through his guilt about hurting the fangirls’ feelings to reach his happy ending.

Kent: Good old reliable Kent. Kent’s route was nice and very calming, with many cute moments from him and all the characters really. It was just a sweet route. I think it was a little disappointing to my odd self because I like to ruminate over characters, and Kent was so straightforward that I don’t have much to ruminate over. If anyone has any thoughts about this, please let me know, I’d love to here them. But what I like best about Kent is his dry sense of humor, and I’ve tried to expand on that on here.

Toma: I’ve said a lot about Toma. My brain feels depleted talking about him at the moment, so I’ll say that he is complex, the game needed a few more hints about his backstory, and actually he is the reason this blog exists. I was so curious about why he is the way he is, and now here we are. I don’t believe the game would have been as fun without Toma because I love horror and unexpected twists. Amnesia is not about perfect guys and flawless endings, it’s about going through hell and fighting for the person you love.

Ukyo: I’m working on my theories about Ukyo. He is the guy I’ve spent the least time with. He makes me laugh, first and foremost. Before the whole game started, he really had a gentle personality and was probably burning toast and being homeless. I got to replay he good ending with a friend and it helped bring a lot of stuff about him to light. I’m working on my understanding of him and hope to write more about him soon.

Amnesia Shopping Guide for the First Timer

This was originally posted on the askamnesiamemories tumblr.

So you want some Amnesia merch and have no idea where to start? Here’s a post that might help based on my experiences as a complete noob.

Ebay is the main way to go, just search “Amnesia [Character of your choice]” and be amazed at the plushies, key chains, drama CDs, artbooks, and other neat stuff you’ll find. Many of the sellers are located in Japan, but there are a few American sellers too. You can check Amazon in your country too, but whatever’s there tends to be overpriced.

Now, if you want the harder to find stuff, say Amnesia Crowd merch, then you’re going to have to look at Japanese websites. But many don’t ship internationally so you’ll have to use a forwarding service. I’ve used White Rabbit Express, but I’ve heard a lot of people use Tenso.

Some Japanese Sites where you can find Amnesia Merch:

http://www.stellaworth.co.jp/shop/

https://www.amazon.co.jp/ Some of it you may be able to have shipped from Amazon Japan, but not all sellers will

http://www.animate-onlineshop.jp

https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp

Even though those sites are mainly in Japanese, you can just type in Amnesia to get the goods. But if you want to look for a particular character, you will need to search with their name in Japanese. I’ve included their names below:

Shin: シン

Ikki: イッキ

Kent:  ケント

Toma:  トーマ

Ukyo: ウキョウ

Orion:  オリオン

Waka: ワカ

Heroine: 主人公

Sawa:  サワ

Mine: ミネ

Rika:  リカ

Tell me about your finds and experiences with shops and forwarding/proxy services! I’ll be showing my recent haul soon. A word of warning-forwarding services can be really expensive, especially with the shipping cost to you. So enjoy your wallets depleting and happy shopping!

Heejung from Dandelion-The best Otome Heroine?

This is a repost from my tumblr that I wanted to expand on. It discusses verbal and emotional abuse.

Dandelion: Wishes Brought to You is available on Steam

Company: Cheritz

Release Date: August 27, 2012

One of the best otome heroines in my opinion is Heejung from Dandelion: Wishes brought to you. While some may cringe at the thought of this, (“She’s so meek! She won’t stand up to her mother! She doesn’t understand when a guy is hitting on her!”) I would like to make the case for Heejung being an awesome heroine.

Heejung starts off unsure of how her life should be, and what would make her happy. . Her mother is a villain in this story. The mother constantly put Heejung down and controlled every aspect of her life, from her schoolwork, to her friends, to her free time, and her appearance. She tells Heejung she is gaining weight in a flashback and Heejung thinks she must lose weight to make a good impression. Heejung is completely indoctrinated by her mother’s abusive thinking. I’d like to point out that her disbelief that any guy would be attracted to her is most likely linked to her mother’s constant criticism of her appearance.

With the delivery of the cute fluffy bunnies and kitties, Heejung is able to disconnect from her abusive mother and begin to live her life as she wants it to be. With the stat raising, she is initially stressed out by not studying, and feels pressure when she does. But as the game goes on the stress and pressure lessen. Heejung realizes there are things that make her happy, like her art and the guys.

In all of the guys routes, Heejung’s mother comes over and Heejung is able to defend herself. This can result in her mother slapping her and saying she will never speak to Heejung again. But Heejung is not alone now thanks to her love interest.

Heejung’s progression is how protagonists should be. They start off in a bad place, work through their conflict, and triumph. It’s also great to see an example of someone who overcomes abuse. If you have a controlling parent like Heejung, you are not alone.

Anyone who wants a heroine whose history is a driving force in the story should check out this game.

Gochi-Show! for Girls -How To Learn Japanese Cooking Game-Snapshot Review

To get myself out of my writing funk, I’m going to briefly talk about a game that’s kind of otome-Gochi-Show! for Girls. Disclaimer: I  have not finished the game so this will be about first impressions.

Steam Store Link

Gochi-Show! for Girls was released on Steam in Sept. 2016 and on mobile at some point, which surprised me that it blew past me. Developed and published by Creative Freaks, who also brought us “Burn Your Fat With Me” (exercise otome-lite game), Gochi Show is an otome-lite game. It gives us a background story of you, a college student working with her mother and Kanata, a fellow classmate/part-time worker, at the family’s cafe while her father works overseas. But suddenly your mother is going overseas to stay with your dad! And you insist on being acting manager. Problem is, you have zero idea how to cook! Customers are disgusted by your monstrous dishes and leave. Thankfully, Kanata is going to show you the ropes so you don’t destroy your family’s precious business! As you unlock more of the story, you will get some other guys, Ayato and Reo, to work at the cafe who will show you even more recipes.

Wait, why isn’t Kanata doing all the cooking if he knows how and already works there? Well, then I guess there wouldn’t be a game!

There is a story mode and a recipe section. You unlock three recipes after the prologue, and have to earn points by “making” the food (really you just have to go through the recipes and tell the game you made it). An annoying thing is that you don’t earn points when you go through a recipe in story mode. So you have to review it again in the recipe section to get points. But you can review the same recipe over and over and accumulate points.

The story mode is divided into four sections, the beginning where you meet all the guys, then three other sections for each guy. Each section has several chapters to show you a recipe. The game will show you Japanese, Western, and Chinese dishes as you continue to unlock the story.

What makes this an otome-ish kind of game is that you do get to choose responses to the guys and the game makes a happy ping or disgruntled EH depending on your choice. And the guys seem to gain more affection for you as the story goes on. As I have not completed the game, I am not sure if you get any endings.

This really is a game for someone who wants to learn how to cook Japanese food. If you’re looking solely for otome, this is not going to do it for you.

As for the cooking itself, I haven’t tried to cook anything as I need to track down some of the Japanese spices, but the instructions are clear and the guys will also give you advice the very basics, like how to chop things in different ways and heat up the pans. They assume you know nothing because the MC knows nothing. It can be helpful for the novice cook who has no idea how to grease a pan, roughly chunk, grate, and julienne things (I always forget what this means). So the game has some extra value there with the basic cooking hints. At the end, you can get additional advice if your dish had an issue, like being too sweet or spicy.

At $4.99 on Steam, if you don’t know how to cook at all and/or want to learn Japanese cooking in particular, I’d say this is an entertaining and pretty cheap way to do it. And if you have made something with the recipes, I’d love to see it!

Why You Should Play Period Cube (It’s because of hot guys, and a good story.)

Official Site.

You know, there is nothing better to be wrapped up in a great game. What’s even better is to be taken by surprise by a game’s twists and turns. And I am happy to say Period Cube is one of those games.

Period Cube was localized by Aksys Games in April 2017 and developed by Idea Factory’s Otomate division for the Playstation Vita. You play as the heroine, Kazuha (re-namable as usual), who is a high school student looking for her brother, Shiki. Her childhood friend Hiroya, thinks his disappearance has something to do with the RPG game called Arcadia. With his help, you create your character, enter the new server called World V, and off you go. You get onto your suitor of choice’s route very quickly, based on how you handle the first few battles (See my guide here if you are stuck.)

There are seven routes altogether and each suitor has a good and “merry bad end”. There’s quite a diversity among the personalities of the suitors and each one is more or less a different type. Rather than going route by route, I’m just going to talk about my top three guys, Astrum, Radius, and Poyo-poyo, and why I liked them.

Look how happy he is to slay monsters.

Astrum is just an all around good guy. Reminiscence of Kent of Amnesia: Memories, though he is much sweeter and more bitter at the same time. He has a hilarious scream when he’s frustrated. It’s just…easy to relate to him. He’s sweet in World V but very aloof in the real world. He’s resentful of certain things, and his bad end is, well, crazy.

He works alone, and does it with style.

I was very hesitant to start Radius‘ route as I heard he was a just a basic tsundere, and that type just isn’t my thing. But I feel Radius has a ton of kuudere mixed in, he is mean at first, but it thankfully tapers off quickly and he is more distant and hesitant. He is an idol in real life, but does not seem interested in attention, which was a great relief for me as I don’t like the “player” stereotype in otome games. He also admits that the way he treated you in the beginning was mean, which doesn’t always happen with the nasty guys, and that’s soften my cold heart towards him. Plus, he’s hot. When he uses that shadow’s edge, *swoons*. His bad end is also very swoon worthy.

And my final favorite is Poyo-poyo. Major Spoilers ahead.

Review: Matches & Matrimony-A Jane Austen Dating Sim

Are you a Jane Austen fan and have always wanted to date Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, steal Mr. Bingley from Elizabeth’s sister Jane, or just die alone while doing needlepoint? Well, now you can with Matches & Matrimony: A Pride & Prejudice Tale!

Official Website

Matches & Matrimony is a Jane Austen dating sim developed by Reflexive Entertainment in 2011. There are 6 gentlemen you can pursue and three of Jane Austen’s novels are represented: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion. The game starts off as if you are Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, but depending on your choices, you can branch off into the other book’s stories. You may date not only the main love interest from each of those novels, but a few other characters as well. The game starts with your mother, Mrs. Bennet telling Mr. Bennet how a single rich man has purchased the local estate Netherfield. If you have read Pride and Prejudice, this is like seeing the novel come to life. The dialogue nearly word for word from the book, though mostly condensed and the narrative is now in the first person. You will play as Elizabeth Bennett, the middle sister of the Bennett family, or whatever you would like to name her.

Why not be as immature as you like?

This is a stat raising dating sim, so to pursue the man of your dreams you must plan your week’s activities accordingly. The game gives you a detailed tutorial at the start to help you understand the stats and how it affects future events.You also have an energy bar so make sure to rest once in awhile. The stat raising is not difficult once you get a hang of it, but there are key points in the game where other routes will be closed off to you if you did not raise a certain stat. If there is a certain gentleman you have in mind, you may want to look up what stats those are. Also, you will need to make friends with certain people to gain access to routes i.e. you aren’t going to be invited to visit Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte later in the game if you told her she’s old at the beginning.

A little too bitchy there, Lorelai BitchFace

At the end of each chapter, you can check on potential suitors affection and as well as friends and allies.  Darcy is the only suitor that you can’t see if you increased or decreased affection with him until the very end of each chapter where you can check on everyone’s affection level by clicking on their portraits. The top row portraits in blue are potential suitors and the bottom are potential friends who will help “guide” you to certain gentlemen.

There’s a cute affect of the character either smiling or grimacing depending on how they feel about you.

It is easy to offend people and not work on the right skills, so if you’re not careful, you will get the old maid ending, or worse-Mrs. Collins! The game has a built in hint system once you complete an ending to help you reach each guy. There’s also a single and happy ending, but I won’t spoil how to get that ending. I believe there is only one way to do so.

The Suitors

First, we have Mr. Collins. Like it or not, he will propose to you no matter what you do! A hint, on matter what route you want, work on willpower no matter what otherwise you will end up as Mrs. Collins. But that was a nice touch of the game; that everyone needs a certain degree of willpower to get what they want in life. Like not marrying this boring guy.

Mr. Bingley is the “new” option, as Elizabeth certainly never had any designs on him in the book. He is very kind, and as you learn, very shy. His route wasn’t too different from the other suitors that you meet in London.

They made Mr. Darcy the hardest to get onto for a reason: he’s the most popular and most kundere. His route follows the book, with some things dropped. I’ve gotten onto his route before this replay for reviewing, but was not able to get sufficient stats and had to restart at an earlier point. But I enjoyed his route the most, it was long and I love the tense confrontations you have in his route.

I have actually never read Sense and Sensibility, but I saw the movie many years ago. Colonel Brandon is the older suitor, who is also kind of a kuudere. But if you pursue him, you’ll find out that he’s very sweet! He was one of my favorite routes.

Mr. Wickeby is a combination of Mr. Wickham from Pride and Prejudice and Mr. Willoughby from Sense and Sensibility. He is quite the snake in grass but if you are really that insistent on pursuing him, you will follow the Sense and Sensibility plot line. He does not offer too much new content based on my knowledge of the book.

Mr. Wenworth is the suitor from Persuation, and it is also difficult to get onto his route. If any other man likes you, he will refuse to meet you! Not only are your stats important, but how you respond when others ask you your opinions on love will determine if you get to be Mrs. Wenworth.

If you haven’t read any Jane Austen novels, you will feel lost at first at the significance of certain characters and may not appreciate some of the line for line dialogue. But worry not, the game tells you to save often and use the scroll up on your mouse if you need to redo an answer.

A note-this game was designed for Windows 7, and I just replayed this on Windows 10. It was too stretched out on my flat-screen monitor for me to properly play the game, but once I set it in compatibility mode and got it in windowed mode (by initially running it in 640×480 screen resolution), the game ran smoothly.

Overall, I’d recommend this game to any Jane Austen fan, even if you have never played a dating sim before. The game gives tons of explanations on what to do and was actually one of my first dating sims. While it doesn’t offer a lot of new content, what it does offer is fun. It’s great to see the characters come to life and have a hand at Elizabeth’s future. The game is about $7 as an Amazon download, so enter the regency life and get a husband or grow old and grey trying today!

Guide: Period Cube ~Shackles of Amadeus~ Getting Onto Routes COMPLETE

To get onto a certain characters route in Period Cube, you need to select certain ways of dealing with the monsters you meet and say certain things.

Here is a guide to get onto all of the character’s routes:

Astrum: Run, Dodge, Harp

Zain: Run, Use Knife, Run or Crouch down, Run, Run

Hiroya: Knife, Knife, Say “Don’t attack Hiroya”

Libera: Knife, Knife, Say “I think this person is right”

Radius: Knife, run, use harp

Demento: Get onto Astrum’s route, keep affection with him low (I’m not sure that matters), In Chapter 5, say “You’ve already finished it” when you deal with Demento, in battle increase ally strength, then choose “Demento, stop!”

Poyo-poyo: Finish Hiroya’s and Libera’s routes, then Poyo-Poyo’s route will unlock. Use knife, use knife, and then a third option will appear when Hiroya and Libera are arguing. Do not agree with either of them. I recommend you save this route for the end.

 

Review: Don’t Take This Risk

This post discusses suicide and Toma from Amnesia: Memories.

Don’t Take This Risk is a short visual novel developed by Poison Apple Tales. You play as a young woman who picks up the phone in the middle of the night and hears a hesitant man with a french accent ask you if this is the suicide hotline. Right from the start, the game fills you with tension and does not let up. You don’t want Unknown (who will be referred to as Blanket Guy in this review) to kill himself, right? But what are you willing to sacrifice to make sure that doesn’t happen? And make sure you answer quickly, many answers are timed.

You may pick from two actors who voice Blanket Guy (I personally like Cool and Alluring, but Fun and Charming has some better delivery). There are nine endings in total and they are all terrible, save one which is a tad less terrible but still creepy. Based on this description, you may think I hate the game, but that is far from the truth.

While I have been less than impressed with some Original English Language Visual Novels (OELVNs), who sometimes miss the mark on developing an intriguing plot, Don’t Take This Risk pushes all boundaries and sheds light on an important subject without being preachy or heavy handed.

Spoilers ahead: