This is a reblog of my site http://geekysweetie.com – Other stuff may appear here such as reblogs from other wordpress.com sites. I blog and reblog about anime, video games, kdrama, toys, technology, and kawaii fashion and decor.
I fell in love with the Japanese version of Idoly Pride. It is quite similar to other already existing idol simulation games such as Idolm@ster and Love Live or Bang Dream Girls or Colorful Stage. I think what makes Idoly Pride stand out for me is the very high-quality graphics. The music is good, but the cute idols is what pulls me in like “WOW!!”
Like those other games, there’s also an anime based on the franchise. I am not sure which came first the game or the anime. I have not watched the anime yet. If it’s anything like the game, I’m sure it’s very cute!
Take a look at the screenshots below and read-on to see how you can Pre-Register for the English version of Idoly Pride:
I just started playing the game last week and took over 600 screenshots the first day because the graphics blew me away.
I can’t comment on story since I can’t read Japanese… but in a promising twist of fate… The “sea” server is listed as having English language on the Korean IOS app store. You can easily create a new account and pre-register for the Korean Idoly Pride which will debut on 04/30/2022 – We can only hope it will indeed be in English.
Even without being able to read or understand the game, I am enjoying it fully. The music and dancing and cute idols are just too much.
Some gameplay mechanics include but not limited to: drawing cute idols from gacha pulls – some more limited than others. Limited ones will include new outfits for dressup (another gameplay feature), You can level up your idols, engage in meet and greets and training activities for in game items to help level them up, Talk to your idols to increase your relationships, and of course dance on stage to catchy JPOP music.
Gameplay is simple which is why it’s possible to enjoy the game even not in English. Still an English version would be nice. I am very interested to see if this Korean version will have English or not, and if so, why they wouldn’t want to release it in the US as well?
As you may know from my blog, Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side is one of my favorite game series. I’ve played all 4 of them now – although none to 100% completion (meaning all routes). The fine folks in the fan translation community have translated all 3 of the first games and I have had the pleasure of playing each of them. I bought the 4th game as soon as it released and have been using Google Translate on my phone and aiming it at my Nintendo Switch.
I’ve used both a lazy neck holder and a snake like clamp holder with varying degrees of success. Both of which I bought on amazon. You just need to make sure the holder you buy does not cover the back camera of your phone because you need that camera to use the Google translation app.
The translation is not 100% accurate, but it is instantaneous and I’d say like 85% or more accurate. And that’s good enough for me, since we’ll likely never get any Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side games officially released in English.
Sprinkled in here are some screenshot’s from my phone’s translation. I said “Hey, Siri, Take a Screenshot” so many times I lost count lol. If you’re wondering how I purchased and translated this game, take a look at my review for Angelique which will go into detail how you can play any Nintendo Switch game in English.
Onto the review!
Overall: 65/80 81% B- “Very Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 2/5 – unless you’re into stat raising simulations and visual novels – this is a pass – no combat etc – doesn’t bother me – but just a heads up for those unfamiliar with this type of game. The graphics are kinda hit or miss for me too… They tried a different artstyle I think, compared to the past 3 games. Probably new graphics engine, and it feels stiffer to me and not as cute and nice as the first several games. But your mileage may vary. Maybe you’ll prefer this newer art style.
Sweetie: 5/5 – of course 5 out of 5 – dates with cute anime boys, hundreds of dressup items, part time jobs, stat raising school simulation, yup a must play for shoujo fans.
Gameplay: 10/10 – As always – 10 out of 10. There’s just literally nothing else like this on the market anywhere! Dressup, go on dates, touch the boys, get good grades in school, part time jobs, female friends and rivals too. Holidays, school festivals, events around town – ah so much to do! Your love life and how you do in school and at jobs affect your endings you receive. Super high replay value. Crazy high replay value really. Simple fun relaxing cute gameplay. Definitely one of my favorite game series of all time just for how unique it truly is. You can join clubs, make valentines chocolate, run a 3 legged race, go to all kinds of date spots, and more. Truly unique wonderful amazing highly recommended game for girls. I do feel like the dressup system in this particular version is more complex and interesting and challenging. I enjoy dressing up according to season, my date’s preferences, style trends, etc. And this particular installment of Tokimeki lets you layer more tops and bottoms and outerwear and accessories in creative ways.
Story: 7/10 – EHHH I want to give this higher rank – but really can’t – Story isn’t really this series strong suit. It has a little bit of story – but largely is focused on allowing YOU to create and live out YOUR OWN story. There is some mystery always in every game with some characters and a legend about a church – this game too uses that same story more or less.
Characters: 8/10 – OMG Himuro became president of the highschool – He was a dateable boy in one of the last games (can’t remember if it was 2 or 3 now honestly) – and you can pet and poke him all you want to in a Skinship tutorial. And he has a super cute nephew as a datable boy in this game too. And in previous installments the principal is always a secret datable character – and in past installments – the principal is a fat creepy pedo like guy – I’m happy to see Himuro is now the principal lol. – All of that aside, there are so many cute boys I dunno my favorite. I’m torn between Honda and Kizuma but I also like Nana and the new Himuro (or even old Himuro lol). Plus there’s lots more boys I haven’t met or unlocked yet. I’m aiming for Kizuma the childhood friend cannon route on my first playthrough but I had Himuro and Honda confess feelings for me too. I deducted two points because there’s only the 2 girls for friends. All previous games had much more variety of female friends that would be your love rivals and I miss that aspect. Also they removed the little brother to help check for bombs. I don’t even know if bombs are a thing in this game. Bombs were jealous boys who you weren’t spending enough time with before. Now the two twin female friends can give you fashion advice or show you “flowers” which are the boys feelings for you. Meh. They like to invite you and 2 guys to the amusement park and create love triangle drama lol. But not between them and your crush, but between the 2 crushes and you. Little bit different than before.
Graphics: 8/10 – They’re not terrible but they do feel different from the last 3 games – and I dunno if it’s a change for the better to be honest…. lol.
Music: 5/10 – Not bad, not fantastic, just kinda there… nice appropriate background music, but nothing memorable.
Voice Acting: 10/10 – One of the best parts of these games is that they are 100% fully voiced – and the acting is fantastic. And I think they brought back Himuro’s voice actor – so kudos there!
Replay Value: 10/10 – If I could give it a million out of ten I would. I almost NEVER complete these to 100% because there’s soooooo many endings. There’s best friend endings, rival endings, single endings, true love endings, marriage endings, and different endings for careers, and more. SO MANY ENDINGS – I do think deep down that this 4th game probably has less endings than its predecessors because of getting rid of most of the rival girls and the girl “friends” or “rivals” endings that were in each of the previous games. Still this game does not disapoint in replay value.
I’ve spent several hours and am on my third life in the new “child raising” sim game, Growing Up, available now via Steam. This game reminds me a great deal of Chinese Parents. Both games use a “brain map” type of setup to unlock skills. Both continue on forever as each life ends and a new life begins. Both have you balance your mental health and parent’s satisfaction. Both games involve dating and friendships and schoolwork and exams. Yes both games are incredibly similar. It’s hard to believe that they are different games or by different developers… but you know, Great minds think alike!
Both games, to somewhat of a lesser degree remind me of Princess Maker (but Princess Maker is much better than both of these games.) And also somewhat similar to Ciel Fledge. Another child raising simulation is Little One. I have played all of these.
So if you like any of those games, check out the others on my blog too.
For me, I think child raising games might be one of my favorite game genres. They’re so unique… and so many possibilities and high replay value – and well they’re strange and fascinating.
Ok but back to “Growing Up” – In this latest child rearing simulation, you can either select your gender and parents at the beginning of your first playthrough or leave it up to fate. I selected my stuff. On subsequent playthroughs it’s always left up to fate (well fate and your choices on the previous playthrough.)
On my most recent playthrough I had two girls fighting for my love and attention. One was a childhood tomboy friend and the other a preppy popular cheerleader I just recently met in highschool. They couldn’t have been more different. I went with the childhood friend, it just felt like the right thing to do. The pretty girl, was well prettier of course. Especially at the “adult” age. Damn my wife is ugly as a mudboard fence, not gonna lie lol. That cheerleader’s looking pretty good right now. The childhood friend was kinda attractive, even as a teenager, long brown hair, and a charming smile. Then she cuts it off almost into a buzzcut and – uhh lets just say she did not age well… at all.
I also have a bit of a problem with how “woke” this game is. Why must EVERY thing be about race…. I’m sick of it. I’m not racist. I’m in a real life biracial marriage, and hopefully someday will have real life children (biracial or maybe adopted maybe a completely different third race lol). I am SICK AND TIRED of all this political bullshit. Yes, I’m sorry the majority of the world are complete fucking assholes and that they treat people of different races poorly. But we get enough of that shit in real life. I play games to escape that shit.
I appreciate you wanting to make a game focused on inclusivity – lots of different races, a girl with one arm, lesbian and gay romance options – cool, awesome. But I think there’s a better MORE POSITIVE way to encourage acceptance instead of have the black one armed girl complain about “mean white girls” – REALLY? you REALLY went there? As if to say all white girls are rich or racist or stuck up. WHY MENTION THEY’RE WHITE. Why not just “Mean girls” Why “Mean WHITE girls?”
They had plenty of reason to tease/bully her – she had ONE ARM for fucks sake. Why make it about skin color. I just don’t get it. In addition to one arm, she was a fucking recluse, she was obsessed with horror and cultish shit and avoided people. ALL reasons someone would get teased in middle and high school. But nope, you decided that the only reason they’d tease her is because she’s black and they’re white. Really? I’m pretty sure at THAT AGE, that there would be plenty of black and brown and asian girls teasing her too because of her fake arm and reclusive antisocial behaivour, not just because of her SKIN COLOR. Let’s just STOP MAKING EVERYTHING ABOUT RACE?! OK?
Fucking face palm. I am sick and tired of this political shit being shoved down my fucking throat. We get it OK? Blacks (and browns and asians and indigenous people and every other fucking whatever race you are) have it harder than white people. White people have a privilege. Never said we didn’t. But jesus fucking christ. I didn’t ask to be born white. I can’t help being white anymore than you can help being whatever race you are. Stop making me feel “bad” just for being born white. That’s fucking bullshit.
They say reverse racism doesn’t exist, but yet here we are in a world with media, popculutre, video games, portraying white as “bad” “mean girls” “white mean girls” (direct quote there) and black as good, black as victim or hero, and white as a villain. Knock that shit off already. There’s good and bad people of every fucking race.
There end rant.
Sorry but it needed to be said, I’m not the only one sick of this whole “woke shit”. It needs to go away. It’s not the right way to deal with racial diversity and adversity. Making one race feel bad to make another race feel good is never the right answer, no matter what races are in that equation.
Back to the game itself…
The game is a lot of fun – but it does ultimately get repetitive. I’m not tired of it yet – but I would have liked even more choices/options/opportunities for interaction sequences, choices and consequences, and so on.
But at its heart it’s a fun and challenging game.
Like all the child raising simulation games before it, you start with a baby and your options are limited. As the child grows, new options, new skills, new friends, and new romances are unlocked, and at the end, you find out what career your baby has pursued and also whatever happened to the friends and romances along the way.
One of the biggest reasons it gets repetitive is the parents expectations and parents dialougue choices and sequences, they are VERY repetitive, not enough different parent/child interaction – AND if I’m playing the PARENT, I feel like I should have some options on how to interact with my child. In this case it almost feels more like I’m playing the child, instead of raising one.
Once you start school and meet new friends and so on, that’s when the story gets interesting – it can even get emotional and deal with some heavy topics.
The characters are very well fleshed out – each one is unique and has an interesting personality. These are no Mary Janes. They have flaws and things that make you dislike them honestly – but that makes them more real. My first playthrough, my love interest had autism or aspergers or something similar making them hate physical interaction and be very socially awkward. In that same playthrough I met the one armed girl who aside from angering me with the political racial issues, was actually a very interesting character, a rebel, and a sorta “badass” sassy girl. On that playthrough I also met a stoner punk rock girl who was adopted and seeking her birth parents even though she had a loving family already. Very complicated characters and relationships.
On my next playthrough I was born as a boy and had a tomboy female best friend, and later met a cheerleader whose brother was sick and dying and who herself was anorexic or bulemic. I also had a male best friend who was blaming himself for his parents divorce and caught in the middle of toxic fighting parents arguing over custody.
I mean these are all some really deep and interesting issues. It’s nice to see a game with characters that feel Real in that sense.
Gameplay, as I said, you work on a grid, unlocking “bubbles” for stat boosts until your energy runs out. You can buy items to increase your energy cap. You balance your happiness (extracurricular) with parents expectations (education). You interact with characters and dialougue prompts to make key choices to drive the story in various directions. You date, fall in love, and have a child – and the journey continues, on and on – forever.
For that reason, replay value is through the roof – possibilities nearly endless – and hopefully maybe we’ll see even more choices in the form of DLC in the future.
Here’s my score:
Overall: 54/70 77% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 2/5 – Gameplay is slow and can get repetitive. Graphics are still and although detailed, do feel dated. Only play this if you like child rearing sims (which I do, so it’s all good).
Sweetie: 4/5 – This would be 5/5 if it got rid of the racial “wokeness” – and added a few more diverse options for interacting with the parents.
Gameplay: 5/10 – There isn’t much gameplay wise honestly, but that’s not why we play these games. There are a lot of skills and places and locations and even some dressup options – so really, for THIS TYPE OF GAME – Gameplay is really good, honestly.
Story: 8/10 – I’d give it 10/10 if it got rid of the political “wokeness” – and added a few more different parent dialougue sequences
Graphics: 6/10 – I’m over these “static” graphics. Don’t they know about “Live 2D” – you can do 2D graphics and have them fully animated. If free mobile games are doing this – why aren’t ALL games doing this? But the graphics aren’t bad – They’re colorful. The backgrounds are especially crazy detailed, and the children and adult portraits are nice. No complaints. It’s not MY style (I prefer anime style over western style) – but I’m not gonna deduct points for that as it’s a preference.
Characters: 9/10 – minus 1 for being too politically “correct” – or “wrong” if you ask me. Otherwise, as mentioned, these characters are very real and troubled and have some realistic issues going on. Still waters run deep.
Music: 10/10 – Honeslty, 10/10 – I love the music. It’s so great and catchy and it gets stuck in my head. Love love love that most of it is vocal tracks. My favorite one is the one that goes “Don’t you love these rainy days?”.
I recently started playing Angelique Luminarise in English. The game was just released in May of 2021 in the Japanese Nintendo Eshop. It is not available in English. Not commercially – and not fan translated either. So how am I playing it in English?
Well it ain’t pretty, and it ain’t perfect but here’s how. Pretty simple really. The main thing you need is a smartphone with the free Google Translate app. I like to download the Japanese language pack for offline viewing too – but you don’t have to.
The other thing you’re going to need is to create a Japanese Nintendo Eshop account. This process is easy.
Enter or create a new email address different from your existing nintendo email address
If it asks for a street address, you can use Tokyo University (just google the address) (this also works when creating Japanese Itune accounts)
Now on your nintendo switch create a new user account and link it to the new account you just created.
If any of the menus or text on screen is in Japanese, now you can get your phone and use live translation to convert it to your native language (which for me is English)
When you want to purchase games in the Eshop you will need a Japanese Nintendo Eshop Giftcard – I buy mine at Playasia and recommend them. I’ve bought probably over $500 in Japanese Egift codes from them and never have had a problem.
I would just use Paypal but Nintendo refuses paypals from my country (USA)
So I buy my giftcards at Playasia.
You can enter the giftcards into the Switch OR you can access the Nintendo Japanese eshop at https://store-jp.nintendo.com/ and add your balances or buy your games even this way. I find this easier – since with Google Chrome it automatically translates my screen without me needing to fumble around with my phone.
Even if you buy the games on the computer, you can install them remotely from your computer to your Nintendo Switch.
Very easy to buy Japanese games this way.
Now that you have the Japanese game you want to play, the awkward part may be trying to work two devices. I prop my Switch Lite up a bit – Switch users can use the kickstand, or play off their TV. I keep my Switch Lite in my lap, and in one hand I hold my phone with Google Translate running automatically.
Now in the case of Angelique you will want to go into settings and turn off the automatically advancing text option – use your phone to find it – It is on by default – and Google Translate is not fast enough to translate the screen before the text changes. Once you turn it off, you will have to press A to advance the text. It’s tedious but much better translation this way.
In my screen it says “Automatic Feed” TURN IT OFF!!!!!!! OFFFFFFF!! – You can thank me later lol.
Some scenes will still be “lost in translation” – not only because it’s machine translated and not 100% perfect – but because also some scenes are video and voice without text etc.
But nonetheless – this lets you play Angelique – and virtually any other game you can think of – in about 95% decent English.
The translation is pretty decent most of the time.
The funniest thing I saw was when playing Monster Rancher – the trainer introduces herself by saying “Hi, I’m Horrifying” instead of “Hi, I’m Holly”. After a few seconds google translate corrected itself – but it still made for a funny screenshot.
But no, in Angelique, from what I’ve seen with my brief like 15-minute journey into the game before work this morning, the translation is decent. I get the main gist of the intro story.
It starts out with a girl (that’s you) being soundly asleep and woken by a loud very rude kinda pompous and demanding character. He accuses you of being rude for not greeting him properly but says since you’re new he will forgive your rudeness. He introduces himself as the God of Light and one of 9 Gods in this universe and that he has taken you as a queen candidate from another world.
You meet a girl who arrived one day before you who is also another queen candidate and you meet a butler – who is also a God who gives you some paperwork to file. You enter your name, horoscope, blood type and answer a personality quiz.
After this, you’re taken to see the God of light again who explains the test you are about to face. You and your rival will be developing a nation using the powers of the gods, and whosever nation is more developed at the end will be elected as the new queen.
All of the screenshots that you see in this post were taken by me as I was playing Angelique Luminarise for Nintendo Switch. These are not edited in any way. Except for my featured image – the text is all correct – I just cropped it to fit as a featured image – and it was too funny and too appropriate not to use! “What the hell are these people saying? I have no idea” is exactly what I would be saying if I didn’t have my smartphone translating everything lol. So yes, that is what the character is saying in that scene, and every other image here. This is how it appears on my smartphone, replacing the text on the screen with English.
You don’t need to take photos – It does it real time. I just took a bunch of photos to illustrate on my blog here. I mean it’s not awful for machine translation. I have seen worse! And it’s better than being in Japanese – I have tried to learn before but it’s hard when it’s not just another language but a different alphabet – in fact… three different alphabets all of which can be used interchangably and like wtf… lol. Google you’re doing a good job. Keep being a bro.
It can be tricky especially if there is a glare or trying to get things at just the right distance or angle to translate properly. But it does in fact work, with a little finessing and fanangling.
What games will you be playing in English now?
I’m still most looking forward to Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 4th Heart this October and Air I think in September – but for now, Angelique will keep me busy.
Japanese games are expensive I feel like… I feel like I’m spending $70-80 for one game – where in USA I’m used to spending about $50-60 – But still worth it. Because most of these games will never come out in English.
Angelique has been around for 25 years. Angelique Luminarise is part of a 25th birthday celebration. But we have never received a single Angelique game in English.
Another game series I treasure is Idol M@ster. I think there are ways – probably with android more so than IOS – to automatically translate the text on the phone screen while playing games – I do know there’s a new (or remastered) Idol M@ster coming out soon – or recently released for PC and PS4 – but I am happy with my many different Idol M@ster games on my phone. I haven’t figured out a good way to translate the phone app simultaneously as google translate and the game are running. I imagine there’s apps for that on android – or people are using bluestacks. I just do it the tedious way by taking a screenshot, translating it in the app, and repeat forever.
It’s different now on the Switch or other device because I can LIVE translate, so I don’t have to take screenshots or exit and re-enter the game. I can do everything on the fly.
Plus if I’m being honest….
I skip almost all the dialogue in games like Idol M@ster, Love Live, Bang Dream Girls, UtaPri, Ensemble Stars, etc…. Even when English versions are released because it’s not that interesting? LOL….. It’s really not. – I play to collect the cute girls (and cute guys) and enjoy the music… I think maybe it’s the way the text is divided or structured – forcing you to read bits of it to unlock the next scene or song – and wanting the rewards etc. I just skip all that shit – am I the only one? And I love story driven games – but damn, I just feel like all those mobile apps, the story slows down my gameplay and I just want to play and not be bogged down. Maybe because it’s slice of life? But that’s my preferred genre when reading manga or watching anime – I dunno what it is – but really – I’m not missing much by Idol M@ster not being in English – I’d be happy just with an English menu patch/release really. Good enough for me lol.
Other games like Angelique or Tokimeki Memorial or Air or Kannon etc where the story is actually interesting and good – I’ll use my smartphone to be able to enjoy the story – even though it’s inconvenient.
I already know I’ll buy Air and Tokimeki Memorial.
I’m thinking of buying Memories Off Historia 1 and 2 (a total of about 7 or 8 games there).
Plus lots of other Japanese games.
It’s awkward and cumbersome – but yes – for the most part “This will do”.
I recently shared news of the launch of Alice Closet, a new free mobile game with anime artwork by famed manga artist Arina Tanemura. Arina’s works include Full Moon Wo Sagashite, Phantom Thief Jeanne, and Time Stranger Kyoko, just to name a few popular shoujo manga by this artist.
I have been playing the game since launch and I am loving it so far. I did purchase some of the cash items admittedly, but the game is free to play and the cash items are totally optional.
The game offers a lot of dressup options by allowing you to control 4 characters at once pretty early on in the game.
Gameplay: 10/10 Gameplay is similar to other anime dressup games. You play gacha or complete story levels, quests, and achievements to unlock new outfits for your characters. You can piece together unique outfits from multiple layered items such as Hair, hats, headbands, hair accessories (yes you can wear all 3 of those categories at once if you want), shoes, socks, pants, skirts, dresses, coats, leg accessories, arm accessories, hand held objects, floor objects, etc. Objects are ranked based on scores such as fancy, cute, elegant, cool, warm, rural, etc.
Use your outfits to complete story driven levels, or go head to head with other players in fashion battles. The fashion battles reset weekly with prizes going to those who rank well. You can see how you rank with friends or against the whole server.
You can unlock limited time titles, event items, and more by participating in the frequent time limited events and other special content. Since the game just launched, there are a lot of events going on right now. Some examples of in game events currently being held include a themed cafe “mini level” where you earn “cake”. It plays similar to the story levels of the game, all single player. You can trade the cakes for limited time outfits. You are also scored and ranked based on how many cakes you’ve collected throughout the event.
Other events include time limited gacha outfits that only stay around for a few days at a time. There’s also more permanent gacha and some even offer free spins every few hours.
Other gameplay elements include running your own store. You must serve NPC customers who come to your shop by fulfilling their requests by dressing them in your existing items (don’t worry you aren’t actually selling or losing your items). Example, a customer might request elegant hair accesories and socks and a budget of 5,000 gold.
After you serve your customers, you will earn points and again be scored and ranked each week for how successful your store is. You might also encounter VIP customers who if you service them repeatedly will reward you with rare outfits and more.
Story: 5/10 – A twist on Alice In Wonderland. I did read the story up through chapter 1-5 or so, I saw the berserk Alice and thought that was interesting. But at some times – most of the times honestly – the story drags. I started skipping story, but will occasionally read it still if something looks interesting.
The basic premise is that you are from Earth and meet a young man from another world when both of you suddenly get teleported to his world. He tells you about mana and seeds and Alice. Alice are lifelike dolls, and the world is full of Alice owners. Alice owners love to challenge eachother to dressup battles to see whose Alice is the most powerful. Meanwhile you’re searching for a way home.
Early in the game, there is a lot of foreshadowing about berserk Alice and bad things happening a long time ago. It begins to repeat itself but you and your Alice save the day. Shiki seems strange after that and mumbles about having seen something like that before. Edgar also seems to know more than he tells you.
After learning about the legendary Alice and berserk Alice, you are invited to a special Alice competition by invite only. A Strange rabbit appears too.
Characters 6/10 – The characters are all based on Alice in Wonderland – There’s Gren the mad hatter, Shiki (I dunno if he is the white rabbit or if the rabbit is the white rabbit), Edgar (I haven’t figured out who he most closely resembles, maybe the catepillar?), The queen of hearts, a Lolita girl (also haven’t decided which character she is supposed to be). Etc. I like this twist on a new Alice in Wonderland story. It’s something I’ve seen before in other anime and otome, but not quite like this. I also love the Alice(s) themselves as I collect real life anime dolls, so the game fondly reminds me of my dolls. And dressing up and customizing the Alices is the best part. Ultimately though the story and character development are too slow to grow deeply connected to any of the characters.
Voice Acting: 8/10 The characters are partially but not fully voiced. There are a few typos in dialogue and the voices are in Japanese only at this time. The voice acting is actually good though.
Music: 6/10 Not many tracks, but the ones that are there are very nice.
Graphics: 10/10 – definitely the highlight of this game is the gorgeous artwork by Arina Tanemura. I would play this game just for the artwork alone. Some items are even animated. So many options with layering and other things too. It’s a beautiful game, especially for shoujo or lolita fans.
Replay Value: 10/10 – so many events, limited time items, quests, and daily tasks. I’m a daily player already hooked. Love it.
Community: 4/10 – No guild system? Or I’m not far enough to have unlocked it? No chat system. They do have an official facebook page for fans. And there are plenty of ranked and scored competitions with other players. You do have a large friendlist capacity up to 200 people, but seems you can’t do much besides send eachother stamina, view photos/outfits, see your rankings, and vote/compete in the online competitions with your friends. Seems they could’ve done more here honestly.
I think Flipped In Love, Project Star, and Starry Love are all the same game – but different! The gameplay in Flipped In Love (and possibly Project Star, I haven’t gotten far enough to unlock it yet) allows you to breed rare cats that get genetic markings and stats from their parents. Obviously, that’s not the main feature in Flipped In Love. But it’s probably my favorite feature in the game.
Flipped In Love is first and foremost an anime dressup game. You unlock rare outfits and accessories and dressup your avatar to compete in fashion battles. You recruit team members, join guilds, garden, cook, and as mentioned raise cats. But the other big chunk of the game is that it’s also an anime otome dating sim game. There’s 4 guys you can date from the childhood friend to the tsundere to the childlike one to the artistic one. These 4 stereotypes are featured in multiple similar games, Flipped in Love, Project Star, and Starry Love, as well as Wannabe Challenge and Mr Love Queen’s Choice… and probably many more games.
The reason that I’m fairly certain this little trio of games is somehow related is that the story and premise in each of them are almost identical. Flipped In Love and Project Star literally have the exact same story. You fall into the water and die. In Flipped In Love you wake up in someone’s body. In Project Star you wake up in your own body but 5 years in the past. Starry Love has you run into traffic and get hit by a car and wake up in your own body in the past also. In each case it is your boyfriend who betrays you who leads to your death and your goal is to become a top star to get revenge on your ex. All 3 games you’re an idol. In Project Star and Starry Love you’re a live streamer. In Flipped in Love I think you’re an idol singer but still similar concept. The gameplay in Project Star and Starry Love has you performing live streams. All 3 games let you admire other players in the rankings for free diamonds. Flipped in Love and Starry Love have the lifetime membership card to get rid of ads with a one time purchase (and other benefits). Flipped In Love and Project Star have a cat raising feature I think (I have to get to chapter 9 in Project Star to unlock the cats). Gameplay is similar in all 3 games. Dressup, play gacha, date, build a guild, fashion battles, story progression, etc.
I’ve seen this before. Romantic Diary also had another version of the game, with a different name, both available in the US app stores. But Romantic Diary and its clone were exact clones. That’s NOT the case with Flipped In Love and its similar entries. Here’s how they differ from each other. Each of these games has completely different graphics. That’s the most notable difference. Project Star has very cute pastel kinda more anime looking graphics. Completely different character designs in all 3 games. Different character names. Different fashion items. Flipped In Love is still anime, but more modern like real red carpet type looks and less anime or fantasy looking items. I would say the same is true also of Starry Love. Yes it’s anime still but less of the big round cute eyes and more realistic looking hair and eyes and so on. And each game has a different soundtrack and different voice actors too.
Perhaps they were part of a series of games, and each installment in the series got picked up for localization by a different company and hence the different names and different graphics and so on.
Anyways regardless, all 3 games are a lot of fun and highly recommended to all girl gamers who love anime dressup games or otome dating sims. I’ve put the most time into Starry Love since I played it first. I had the other apps on my phone but didn’t get around to checking them out until a few days ago. I think out of the 3, Project Star is my favorite for the graphics, and Flipped In Love is my favorite for the gameplay – but if I get further into Project Star and see the cat feature is the same or better than Flipped in Love, I’d definitely recommend Project Star as the best of the 3. But I won’t stop playing any of them, especially not Starry Love because I’m in the top 20 players in the world in that game.
I do recommend the lifetime pass for both Starry Love and Flipped In Love. It’s so nice to play without ads! And it’s just a one time $9.99 price – worth it! Plus you get free items and diamonds every day. I did not buy the monthly passes – I have enough monthly subscriptions as it is already. LOL. But I’m tempted to buy it in Flipped In Love to get more diamonds so I can unlock more cat feeding slots in cat city.
So let’s dive into looking at Flipped In Love.
Overall:
Geeky: 4/5 – Flipped In Love’s gameplay outshines the other similar games. It offers so many gameplay features that they recently redesigned the interface because it was becoming cluttered with buttons. It’s still a casual mobile game at heart, but for a dressup game there’s a lot of stuff to do. One of the best features is raising and breeding cats. Extremely addictive and unique gameplay. They are working on improving the game all the time. Right now they are offering rewards to help them with typos or Engrish since English is not their first language.
Sweetie: 5/5 – So cute, so many outfits, so many things to do. The cats! The cats! Did I mention you can breed cats? LOL I like that almost more than the main gameplay lol.
Gameplay:10/10 This game offers so much to do that it can be a little overwhelming. Here are just a few of the things you can experience in Flipped In Love. The most important feature is dressing up your avatar. You can unlock new outfits by completing story or event challenges, as well as through quests and leveling up. But, the most common way to earn new outfits is by playing the Gacha which rewards random items.
The next big aspect of this game is that it is an otome dating sim game for girls. You can date 4 different cute guys to get to learn more about them, unlock event scenes, and level them up to help improve your overall market value.
Market value is used to rank you online with other players. You can increase your market value by unlocking new outfits, dating the guys, completing quests and events, or progressing through the story.
There are also several side characters who will join your team. These, like the guys, can also be leveled up to increase your market value. Side characters can take classes at a university to boost their stats, or you can spend experience points to level them up.
The guys and various side characters have skills that unlock as they level up which boost other party members’ skills and abilities.
Take your team into battle in story mode against NPCs or PK red carpet events against other players. There’s also guild events such as team building and team battles to see whose guild is the best.
There’s a chat system in the game, and unlike the other 2 similar games, you can upload your own photo as your avatar – mine is of my cat right now. You can change chat bubbles and frames just like in Starry Love.
Eventually your characters will need to be promoted to unlock new levels and higher skills. The trophy items can be combined to merge them into higher level items to keep progressing. This is also the same in Starry Love.
Wishing for new outfits in the gacha system is way easier and quicker in Flipped In Love. Starry Love gives you one free gacha draw a day, but Flipped In Love has special wish tickets you can earn fairly easy. I get multiple 10-wish draws (for 4 star items) each day. On top of that, Flipped In Love lets you play two different Gacha for free each day.
Speaking of free – Flipped In Love also lets you play the cat blind box for free about once every 2 days. Right now there’s 3 or 4 different themes going on – I don’t know if they are limited time themes or a constant in the game. Each theme has 10 different cats to collect, including one rare 5 star cat in each blind box.
You can also go on tour, where you will find many nice items, including rare cats, each day for absolutely free. You also find diamonds, coins, stamina, and props for your characters.
But back to the cats. There’s a place in Flipped In Love called Cat City. Here’s where the magic happens. LOL. It’s my favorite! Any unnamed cats you’ve found will be waiting for you in the cat hostel. Give them a name and start feeding them to level them up to maturity. Even if you don’t or can’t feed them, they will eventually mature on their own. But feeding them speeds up the process a great deal. It’s still really slow though. I paid a lot of diamonds to unlock about 10 slots to feed multiple cats – and they’re all full right now and waiting to grow up. I have one unnamed cat waiting for me back in the cat hostel. I think the tutorial said you can have 200 waiting for you. If for some reason you don’t like a cat, you can sell them to the NPC to get cat coins which can be used to purchase fertilizer, seeds, cat food, or cat bells.
The seeds and fertilizer are used in cat city to grow ingredients to make your own cat food. Seeds still grow even without fertilizer, but again, fertilizing the fields speeds up the process. You can then harvest and take your ingredients to the chef who will create cat food.
The bells are used to find a mate for your adult cats. Now here’s the really cool part!! You are breeding them with another real life player who is also breeding their cats. Different levels of cat bells can be used to find more rare cats. Cat bells, and food, and seeds can all be merged to level them up. The higher the better.
After mating, you and the other person both select one of the two offspring to raise. First come first serve, so be fast to get the cat you really want! The cat will automatically go to your hostel where it will wait for you to give it a name and start leveling it up.
The kittens through breeding inherit the parents markings and also statistics.
And the process continues.
After a cat has been mated one time, that is it. It is retired and goes to the cat hostel where you can still view them. Remember your hostel is limited to 200 cats – whether they’re retired adults or unnamed kittens – so eventually you’re sadly going to have to sell some of your cats.
I think it’d be fun and neat if we could adopt other players’ cats but that’s not a feature (yet) in Flipped In Love.
So that’s it for Cat City.
Back to some of the other features of the game. There are parties which help you earn items and increase your market value. Some of the parties are even cross server. Parties are one of the big features of the game. You can even chat with other players during the parties.
There’s also events to praise or gossip about different players or fight for advertising space. It seems also a new feature is coming soon called Group Battle. All of these things help improve your rank, lower opponents ranks, and bring in coins, diamonds, or rare items.
I think that covers the basics of gameplay.
Story: 7/10 – There are some typos and weird little awkward moments in the story due to the translation. But, the creators are aware and working hard to improve these mistakes. They’re actually offering rewards right now for helping to find such mistakes so that they may be fixed. The story is good, but not unique at all. When I played Flipped In Love the next game on my Iphone right next to Flipped In Love was Project Star… I played Flipped In Love for maybe 20 minutes the first time I launched the app. Then I closed it and opened Project Star…. and woahhhhh Deja Vu…….
In both games you drown in the water. In Flipped In Love you wake up in a stranger’s body. In Project Star, you are still you, but you have traveled into the past 5 years ago. Both games you’re an idol. Both games your boyfriend betrayed you ultimately leading to your death. Both games you want to become an idol to get revenge on your boyfriend.
Alright simple enough. There’s a lot of drama and sneaky people who pretend to be your friends but really jealous of your fame, beauty, and success. There’s a whole lot of backstabbing in this game. But it does make for a deliciously devious game of cat and mouse.
Characters: 5/10 – The characters are stereotypical of these types of games and don’t really shine or stand out in any way from other Otome games. There’s also one plus sized NPC who the others treat rudely, which as a plus sized woman myself, that kinda offends me. The artwork is good, but not as good as some other games.
The guys you can date are handsome, but very much cookie cutter. The tsundere that everyone seems to love – which I can’t stand because I’ve been in physically and mentally abusive relationships – this is not cute or romantic. I know Tsundere or TsunTsun is typical in anime and Korean dramas, but I don’t like those characters. Ugh. He is the most popular by far, as evidenced in the “cheer for him” event going on right now.
Then there’s the childhood best friend – he’s actually my favorite – but still so stereotypical. Every Otome game’s got one, and it’s usually the main cannon route. Plus side, he’s a hot doctor too haha. I like him. He’s sweet. Romance should be sweet. Not Tsundere and rude / borderline verbally abusive.
I think so many people are drawn to Tsundere because on occasion they do show a tender soft side. They do love the main character. And they get embarrassed easily and can’t open their hearts easily which makes them act cold. OK I get that there is some fantasy about “the one who got away” or “unrequited love” or something of that nature that girls feel drawn to these “challenging men” not just in this damn game, but in real life.
I’ve dated probably each and everyone one of these stereotypes in real life, from the childlike happy go lucky type to the “dark mysterious brooding” type – and I have seen that dark mysterious brooding – can well, as the description says – be too dark sometimes. But I’ve also dated someone that maybe just wasn’t great at expressing their feelings and emotions (which could fit the Tsundere also) – and as women we want to nurture and create a safe place for our partners. But at that time, I was also closed off and hurting and not the most open person.
The me now, would have been really good for that person back then to get them to feel comfortable and vulnerable, but the me now, is only the me now, because of the different life experiences the me now has, that the me then was lacking. I do think back like if I had done this or done that or said this or that, things maybe would have went differently. But I am completely happy and marrying my “best friend” in 3 short months now. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to the best friend type of guy in this game. Everyday, smiling and warm, and cute little inside jokes and sayings and things. Every day lots of cute texts and checking in on me. Reaching out to me, expressing their feelings, etc. I need that “reassurance” – but I never have to ask for it – it comes naturally every single day. I’m so thankful for that. It’d been a few years since I’d had that before meeting this person. I like the calm, gentle, constant compassion and love.
I’m done playing guessing games and chasing after people who are hot and cold – maybe that’s why I hate Tsundere and TsunTsun characters so much – hits too close to home maybe.
But to each their own. With 4 guys to choose from in the game, you can find the one you like best!
By the way, I didn’t rate it low because it had a Tsundere. I rated it low because every one of these Otome Games have the same stereotyped characters: Tsundere, childhood friend, sportsy active competitive type, and arrogant artist type. Like literally every Otome has these – including some of my favorites like Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side.
The story is mildly interesting, and creates drama and backstory for the characters which does help them to stand out a little bit, but just not enough. In the end, they all feel pretty flat still, especially when compared to other Otome Games. If you’re going to be “basic” you have to be “a better basic bitch” lol. You have to be the best at what you do. And uhm no, sorry. There’s not like award winning writing here for story or character development. That’s a hard fail. If I want to play a game specifically to enjoy these stereotypes for story and character alone, this won’t be top of my play list. But, I think the reason I keep playing is because of gameplay.
The characters are “good enough” but far from great. Especially when there’s legit like 3 games that have the exact same story and characters just different names and different artwork (and thankfully some different gameplay) That’s why it’s a solid 5 here for characters. Just kinda middle of the road.
Graphics: 10/10 – I can’t complain about graphics. Lots of dressup items – more than in Starry Love – and the cats are so cute and plump I want to hug them lol. There are some super cute dressup items too. Panda purses, cat purses, mickey like ears, etc.
Music: 5/10 – It can be repetitive – especially when mating the cats. I feel like its a 5 second “song” on loop, with a very obvious “stop” and then the music resumes after a split second. One and on for several minutes. And it’s a very… odd… song. With cats meowing. It could be cute but ventures into annoying quickly. The main theme when in the city is VERY pretty and relaxing – but also similarly short – but less abrasive. Less obvious when it’s beginning it’s reloop. It’s a soft beautiful piano theme. I really love the main theme. But most other music – I’ll pass on it. It’s all much too short. Anti-Fans theme is another example of a “song” that’s less than 10 seconds long.
Voice Acting: 7/10 – I think it’s good. I’m not used to hearing Chinese as much as I am used to listening to Japanese (anime) or Korean (Kdrama and Kpop), but I think it seems to fit the characters. I just wish there were more lines that were voiced really.
Replay Value: 10/10 – I’ll play with the cats every day – they’re so cute. I like that you can make totally unique random cats by breeding, which opens up way more possibilities than the basic cats or blind box cats themselves. Nice. My first baby was a male who had glasses and brown “bangs” or “fringe” and flowers on his head and like… christmas lights on his tail…. and tiny rainbows on his feet…. I named him Elton after Elton John – it seemed fitting LOL. I had already found one cat on tour who was blonde with cat-eye shaped sunglasses that I’d named Gaga – so they can sing “A Sine” I guess lol. XD.
But cats aside, there’s other great reasons to play this game, constant events, rare gacha for limited items, dressing up, progressing through the story, chatting with and playing with (or against) other players and so on. The gameplay in this dressup game definitely shines. I find myself playing it more than a lot of my other dressup games when I get a chance. Check it out, I think you will like it too. Just search for Flipped In Love in the IOS or Google game stores.
One good kickstarter deserves another I guess. This is the second kickstarter I’m blogging about today, and is in some ways quite similar to the previous Ova Magica. Both kickstarters are still active at time of this posting.
This next kickstarter is titled Coral Island, and it aims to make inclusivity a big focus of its game. Bringing in characters of different races and ethnic backgrounds.
Stairway Games is raising funds for Coral Island – reimagining the farm sim game on Kickstarter! A re-imagined farm sim game inspired by classics. Grow crops, nurture animals, and befriend the islanders.
The gameplay itself looks fun. You date the townsfolk while tending the farm. You even have children and watch them grow into teens. And the other people of the village also grow older as well.
The one thing I really dislike is how slow the playable character walks – I hope they speed that up because that will annoy the hell out of me otherwise.
Still a cute game with a lot of promise. Already successfully funded. Check out Coral Island on Kickstarter.
I just started playing “Starry Love” yesterday after seeing a Facebook ad. It’s a brand new game from someone named Modo Games whom I’ve never heard of.
The gameplay is quite similar to Love Niki, or Mr Love Queen’s Choice or Wanabe Fashionista… all of which I’ve reviewed here and all of which I definitely recommend.
When I started playing Starry Love there was only one review and it was a one star rating. Maybe someone was confused and thought one meant good and 5 meant bad.
There’s not much bad about this game so let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.
The worst part of this game is the chat filters which block weird common words such as game or server as well as av such as the word have will be h**ve making it difficult to chat in the game.
On the plus side, the chat is active and community seems friendly. Today there was discussion about Kdrama and Anime which is right in my wheel house of interests.
The search function and guild function is also pretty flawed making it darn near impossible to recruit people for your guild or find a guild to join.
Another negative is a lot of game’s content is only unlocked later into the game’s story. There is plenty to do, but it might not seem that way at first.
Lastly, the writing is hit or miss with some glaring typos or awkward wording. The story itself is pretty interesting.
You are a model who under distress from catching her boyfriend with another woman, runs into the road and is hit by a truck. When you wake up, you’ve gone several years into the past when you were just getting started as an online streamer.
Most of the activities revolve around this streaming and modeling theme. You can get ideas for new live streams, invite cohosts, talk to your fans, join other live streams, and so on. It’s worth mentioning that this is all within the context of a fantasy world and fantasy characters and you yourself need not appear on camera or anything yourself.
You recruit other characters to help with your live streams and some of them you can even date. All of them you can level up to increase your overall stats and popularity and viewer count. Also they will be useful later in fashion battles and server events.
Speaking of server events, there are a lot of them. There’s four going on right now, some focus on story some focus on spending in game currencies and some focus on community events.
You can unlock special outfits titles and items by participating in these events.
Artwork is all very cute and colorful. Again it is similar to love niki or mr love queen.
Overall: 54/70 77%
Geeky: 2/5 Artwork is good but chat and community features are severely flawed and limited.
Sweetie: 5/5 Cute graphics and interesting story. Dressup game is sure to please fans of love niki and mr love Queen’s choice.
Gameplay: 9/10 I think once you get far enough into the game to unlock all the content there is plenty of things to do from modeling to fashion battles, dating, story events, photo shoots, live streams, cohosts, support crew, tea parties, shopping, and more. It honestly in my opinion has more things to do than love niki or mr love Queen’s choice. The only option it may be missing is to decorate your room or house like love niki has, and it seems like that gameplay element could fit well with boosting stats and live stream concept to me. Maybe we will see it in the future as this is still a new game.
Story: 7/10 I like the theme of reincarnation or alternative reality and there are currently over 30 chapters to read. But the story is pretty flawed by typos and some grammar issues.
Characters: 6/10 Most of the characters are interesting and developed well as the story goes on. Sometimes some of the characters including your main character are rude or mean, I’m not sure it’s intentional or if it comes across wrong due to being lost in translation but it can put me off. And much like a game I recently reviewed it, this one also makes fun of overweight characters which is not very appealing .
Graphics: 9/10 Enjoy the graphics a lot, some do get reused a bit but the graphics are one of the highlights of the game for me
Music: 6/10 Slightly above average, not annoying, peaceful music that sets the tone of the themes in the game.
Replay Value: 10/10 with numerous events and new content added all the time, some of which is very limited, sometimes even one per server, this game has a high replay value.
Overall: 54/70 77%
If they fix up some of the actual interface and gameplay mechanics it’d easily be in the 80s or 90s ; it’s a super fun game. Check it out if you get a chance.
I just started playing “Starry Love” yesterday after seeing a Facebook ad. It’s a brand new game from someone named Modo Games whom I’ve never heard of.
The gameplay is quite similar to Love Niki, or Mr Love Queen’s Choice or Wanabe Fashionista… all of which I’ve reviewed here and all of which I definitely recommend.
When I started playing Starry Love there was only one review and it was a one star rating. Maybe someone was confused and thought one meant good and 5 meant bad.
There’s not much bad about this game so let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.
The worst part of this game is the chat filters which block weird common words such as game or server as well as av such as the word have will be h**ve making it difficult to chat in the game.
On the plus side, the chat is active and community seems friendly. Today there was discussion about Kdrama and Anime which is right in my wheel house of interests.
The search function and guild function is also pretty flawed making it darn near impossible to recruit people for your guild or find a guild to join.
Another negative is a lot of game’s content is only unlocked later into the game’s story. There is plenty to do, but it might not seem that way at first.
Lastly, the writing is hit or miss with some glaring typos or awkward wording. The story itself is pretty interesting.
You are a model who under distress from catching her boyfriend with another woman, runs into the road and is hit by a truck. When you wake up, you’ve gone several years into the past when you were just getting started as an online streamer.
Most of the activities revolve around this streaming and modeling theme. You can get ideas for new live streams, invite cohosts, talk to your fans, join other live streams, and so on. It’s worth mentioning that this is all within the context of a fantasy world and fantasy characters and you yourself need not appear on camera or anything yourself.
You recruit other characters to help with your live streams and some of them you can even date. All of them you can level up to increase your overall stats and popularity and viewer count. Also they will be useful later in fashion battles and server events.
Speaking of server events, there are a lot of them. There’s four going on right now, some focus on story some focus on spending in game currencies and some focus on community events.
You can unlock special outfits titles and items by participating in these events.
Artwork is all very cute and colorful. Again it is similar to love niki or mr love queen.
Overall: 54/70 77% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 2/5 Artwork is good but chat and community features are severely flawed and limited.
Sweetie: 5/5 Cute graphics and interesting story. Dressup game is sure to please fans of love niki and mr love Queen’s choice.
Gameplay: 9/10 I think once you get far enough into the game to unlock all the content there is plenty of things to do from modeling to fashion battles, dating, story events, photo shoots, live streams, cohosts, support crew, tea parties, shopping, and more. It honestly in my opinion has more things to do than love niki or mr love Queen’s choice. The only option it may be missing is to decorate your room or house like love niki has, and it seems like that gameplay element could fit well with boosting stats and live stream concept to me. Maybe we will see it in the future as this is still a new game.
Story: 7/10 I like the theme of reincarnation or alternative reality and there are currently over 30 chapters to read. But the story is pretty flawed by typos and some grammar issues.
Characters: 6/10 Most of the characters are interesting and developed well as the story goes on. Sometimes some of the characters including your main character are rude or mean, I’m not sure it’s intentional or if it comes across wrong due to being lost in translation but it can put me off. And much like a game I recently reviewed it, this one also makes fun of overweight characters which is not very appealing .
Graphics: 9/10 Enjoy the graphics a lot, some do get reused a bit but the graphics are one of the highlights of the game for me
Music: 6/10 Slightly above average, not annoying, peaceful music that sets the tone of the themes in the game.
Replay Value: 10/10 with numerous events and new content added all the time, some of which is very limited, sometimes even one per server, this game has a high replay value.
Overall: 54/70 77% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
If they fix up some of the actual interface and gameplay mechanics it’d easily be in the 80s or 90s ; it’s a super fun game. Check it out if you get a chance.
I spent the weekend with my Chinese Parents… video game for Nintendo Switch that is. There are many aspects of this game that I really enjoyed. It is quite addicting. I probably sunk 20 hours into the game and am on my 5th generation. I’ve sprinkled some random screenshots throughout my review. At the end of the review is our score card and final verdict along with a gallery with all the screenshots I’ve taken so far. (Gallery is having some errors, too many photos, so I will try to add it in later).
What is Chinese Parents? Chinese Parents is a game for the Nintendo Switch in which you raise a baby and guide them through preschool through Gaokao which I’m guessing is like highschool graduation. After graduation, if you’re lucky then your child will get a good job, have a happy marriage, and have a child of their own, and the game continues… I’m not sure if there ever is an end to the game or if it just continues for infinity. It does get a bit easier on future generations as they can inherit some traits of their parents.
There are a few things I haven’t figured out yet. Dating as a man is hard. Much harder than dating as a girl. When I have a female child, I almost always can get the men to accept my proposal. On the other hand, I have yet to in 5 generations, ever once get a girl to accept a proposal when playing as a male.
I also don’t know why, but I think that sometimes the background images look different. I do know there are different schools, public schools, private schools, etc. and you can live at home or in a dorm. But there’s different baby nursery backgrounds too. I don’t know if that’s maybe determined by your parents stats, parents careers, which spouse you choose, or if it’s completely random maybe lol.
The mother and father character portraits change based on who you choose to marry and are much more attractive than the “stranger” and “starting” parents lol. But I don’t think your child’s appearance ever changes, which is a bit disappointing when in other simulation games like princess maker the child’s appearance changes based on stats. And there is a store to buy various items, but no dressup items.
The store is still useful though as you can buy items to unlock new skills which you can fill your schedule with. The basic gameplay is deciding your schedule for the week. You can follow the game’s recommendations or do your own thing. There are goals that give you bonuses which you can chase, or you can ignore those goals and live your own life your own way, but it’s usually beneficial to try to accomplish the goals.
This game plays like a mobile game and when I search for Chinese Parents on my iphone, I do see a game, that looks quite similar, but also different in some aspects, and that game appears to be in Chinese, so I haven’t tried it yet.
Playing like a mobile game isn’t a bad thing, really. I enjoy casual games. The object of the game is to balance your stress with your parents satisfaction, and be careful to not become too stressed or you will get a game over. Yikes. I think the game saves automatically. I haven’t figured out how else to save the game yet, so reaching a bad end would be very bad. But I think its quite easy to avoid this bad end, because in the store you can purchase things to lower your stress.
The game offers a good – perhaps stereotypical – look at the life of a Chinese family with a unique look into their culture and society. There are things like Chinese new years, but it’d be nice to see additional Chinese holidays and customs added to the game. There’s also the concept of saving face, and face battles where you choose your childs talents to brag about, and if you win, you earn face, and if you lose you lose face lol. There’s also a Chinese talent show like American idol. It’s very hard to win that portion even with epic or legendary traits.
The game is difficult in some ways, easy in other ways. The basics are easy, but I think to master the game is very difficult. There is a goal to master gaokao, but it says no one can really master it. I wonder if there is an end game at some point where you’ve maxed all stats and traits and done everything right and lived the perfect life, but I don’t think I’ll play enough to ever see that, because eventually, yeah it gets a little boring. There’s just not enough new content on new generations. There are numerous stats, skills, and traits, way more than can be experienced in 1, 2, or even 10 generations… and numerous endings and jobs, probably 50+ maybe even 100+. Similar in ways to Princess Maker.
This game is very fun. There are a few typos, grammar errors and some words that need a space between them, some random punctuation symbols appearing especially at gaokao. But I think these errors do not detract from my enjoyment or understanding of the game.
I’m definitely recommending this one to my readers. I’ve enjoyed it but after 5 generations and just starting my 6th generation, I’m ready for a break and to play other games for a while, but I think I will go back to this one from time to time. I really like life simulation games like this and we don’t get many in English – so thank you to whoever published this game.
Overall Score: 64/90 71% C- “Good Game For Girls
Geeky: 2/5 – no action but still challenging gameplay elements. There is a puzzle like element and some other things to mix it up so its not just all reading.
Sweetie: 5/5 – I love life simulation/school simulation games, we definitely don’t have enough of them in English, so 5/5 from me here. It’s no Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side, but I’ll take it, and pray that eventually other similar games make their way stateside.
Overview: 8/10 – I think overall, this game is unique, fun, and addictive. It is not without flaws though such as grammar and typo issues. Also there is some missed potential like lacking the ability to change your character appearances/dressup, lacking more late game content, like new features/random events etc on future generations, and just more story content overall.
Gameplay: 7/10: Gameplay consists of choosing what to study or how to spend your free time. I like these types of games, and we don’t get many of them in North America. But as mentioned above there were some things that could have made gameplay more enjoyable that are missing such as seeing your characters appearance change based on stats and traits, or dressup options which could have added another bonus also to stats and traits. And most importantly, the game is missing enough random events/random encounters, or late game content, which after 5+ generations it becomes too repetitive. This could have been avoided by having things like holidays, and teaching us more about Chinese culture, or things like school trips, or other things, having us join a club, or get a part time job, that would influence story elements, and our traits and stats, etc. So many missed opportunities. It’s still a fun game, but it could have been great. It falls just short of that greatness.
Story: 2/10 – There’s really almost no story… there are glimpses of a story, but no really, it’s not a story driven game which is a shame. The closest it comes to telling a story is through dating sim elements. And that part of the game is too small to really count as a story.
Characters: 8/10 – Despite not having much story, there are classmates, romantic prospects, your parents, your teachers, your children, etc. The characters in this game are cute, and they do evolve… for example, one of the characters is a bit Tsundere. He seems very cold, but after enough dates, he begins to really care for the player character, he loves her so much that he helps her study hoping they can go to the same university. There’s also both a male and female geek type character, the male is into video games and programming and the girl is into idol concerts and cosplay. There are male and female jock types, and I assume artist types – I met the male artist but not the female one yet. I like all the characters 🙂 And their stats do influence your next generation which is a nice touch.
Graphics: 7/10 – Most of the graphics have a very cute anime look. The teacher, starter parents, strangers to marry, etc all have a much more rough look. The romantic partners all have very nice artwork. The background art is also really pretty. The children are cute and there is a bit of animation here or there. I take points away again for lacking any change in characters appearances based on their stats and lacking any dressup abilities which was also a missed gameplay opportunity as the dressup items could have also offered a stat or trait bonus too. Boo.
Music: 5/10 – It has cute but very basic chidlike music. It is ok. there is no voice acting.
Replay Value: 10/10 the game has hundreds of skills, traits, and things to unlock, that’s the best part of the game. Despite lacking, more story/encounters/random events or things that would make future generations a little more unique, I still gotta give full marks just for the sheer amount of traits and school and career paths and multiple dating partners, etc. That’s part of the charm and fun of this game for sure.
Uniqueness: 10/10 – We do not get many school simulation games in North America. I can really only think of Princess Maker and some indie kinda Princess Maker Clones, and Graduation back in 1995. There was Lucky Rabbit Reflex, but it just made me want an official release of Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side even more. I’ve played the fan translations of all of them, and they are my favorite games. I want to see more games like this. I’m really praying Konami will release Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side 4 finally in North America or at least with an English option on the Switch…. But I don’t want to hold my breath, I might die. Lol. So I am awarding Chinese Parents 10/10 for being brave enough to publish their game in North America. I hope to see a sequel maybe some day with the missed opportunities I mentioned here.
kawaiifluff 