Game:

Puyo Puyo Sun (1996)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 1:34:29

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A somewhat mediocre all-ages port of an adult PC eroge that was originally released in 1999. The game is developed by prolific adult game studio "Mink", who was originally established in 1993 as one of the cornerstones of the industry (starting with "Bomber Quest" and "Wonpara Wars" and is best known for "Yakin Byoutou / Night Shift Nurses" as well as Doujin releases such as "Akihabara Hot Love Inception"), and published by Takuyo a year later in 2000. The name was originally "Nekopara" and changed to "Netto de Para" due to the inclusion of network features and online multiplayer (though the original name is still on the case: "Nekosogi Paradise").

I'm not sure what possessed them to port this to console... it's not a horrible title, but 99% of Mink's portfolio is PC/DVD/Adult exclusive... a 1:1 conversion was impossible as it would be banned, so concessions were made to tone it down and just the thought of this being one of their only all-ages games is hilarious. Honestly, you can probably tell just by looking at the characters that the game isn't really missing anything without said content and I would argue that the game is better for it. The basic premise is that two schools, one for boys and one for girls, suddenly get merged together during our protagonist's (Koji Kawamura) final year of high school. Elated by this event, he chases after the girls with his libido at an all-time high as he has one year to fall in love and confess during graduation.

Of course, you're not alone in this pursuit as you have a few rivals to contend with and hidden characters as well, and you'll need loads of items and every trick in the book if you want to succeed. NdP is a Sugoroku / Board / Game of Life and dating simulation hybrid, and while it is not the first game of this type, it is the only game of its kind for the Dreamcast, so NdP has the luxury of saying it has no competition on the system. The player will roll dice, grab loads of treasure or items, build relations with the other characters, learn their idiosyncrasies, witness special events, play a lop-sided mini-game, and slowly make their way across the playing field which acts as your in-game calendar. To the game's credit, there are a lot of tactics available to the player from the variety of items and presents you'll randomly acquire (which gives you a great degree of control in terms of tailoring your interactions) and even a "Combo System" based on how many girls are on the same space as well as how many times you interact with the same girl consecutively.

You will build compatibility points as you engage females but also as they engage each other (how nice), but your rival will knock off a hefty amount from any prospective girl they encounter and they also have a knack for targeting the last girl you talked to (to spoil the odds of getting a good combo chain going). That said though, the game is not especially difficult and a single playthrough can last several hours. There is save clear system data and in-game saves which will require at least a third of your VMU storage, and the game logs your relationship points into service points to unlock new content for subsequent plays. The game's single mini-game, working at a fast food burger joint, is a simple memory-matching game that can reward you with a TON of items if you master it, but it will still reward you with an item or two if you do well. Mastering this mini-game will effectively break the challenge and each copy of the game came with a random mini-strategy guide for each of the game's interactive characters (detailing their personal info, three sizes, likes and dislikes, etc.).

The initial game sees you wooing your stereotypical characters, but you can also have a bromance with a guy, meet a cross-dressing male, have a romance with your teacher / guidance counselor and even pursue a magical girl from another world. The game supports VGA and has really nice sprite work and high-res illustrations, but the in-game animations are, for whatever reason, insufferably choppy barring a few (possibly due to trying to load the whole map into memory). There are settings to tweak the animation, but none of them are what I'd call acceptable, and you can fast-forward through the opposing players to make things go more quickly, but it is not nice to look at (the game even freezes and glitches periodically, such as text going out of boundaries). While the opening theme is decent and the character voices help, the actual OST is also not too good either, most of it sounding of midi quality (although there are some REALLY GOOD midi tracks out there, so this comparison is kind of a disservice).

Overall, the game is ok, though it does have offline multiplayer at least. This is a video showing different aspects of the game. Enjoy.

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