![Nijiiro Dodgeball: Otome-tachi no Seishun [虹色ドッジボール 乙女たちの青春] Game Sample - Playstation](/images/yt/4o/nijiiro-dodgeball-otome-tachi-no-seishun-game-sample-playstation-oyblp.jpg)
Nijiiro Dodgeball: Otome-tachi no Seishun [虹色ドッジボール 乙女たちの青春] Game Sample - Playstation
46WHOA, how did this Game Boy Advance game get on my Playstation!?
All jokes aside, "Nijiiro Dodgeball: Otome-tachi no Seishun" (or "Rainbow Colored Dodgeball: Maiden's Youth") is a cool dodgeball game with minor dating and growth simulation elements released late in the Playstation's life in 2002. As a collaboration between Atlus (Of "Persona" and "Shin Megami" fame, among many others), Million Co. Ltd. (an enthusiastic bunch who bought the the IPs and hired many of the former employees of the great "Technos Japan", though Arc System Works owns them now) and Will Co., Ltd. (who have touched base on a lot of projects from "Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam" to "Galaxy Fraulein Yuna"), the game is a retooled and expanded version of "Super Dodgeball Advance" with an all-female main cast, more advanced A.I. and some spoken dialogue.
The game also features illustrations from a variety of popular artists of the time (such as Yukinobu Azuki (安曇 雪伸) who did art for "Scrapped Princess" and Takeshi Iizuka 飯塚武史 / Kouhaku Kuroboshi who is best known for "Kino's Journey: the Beautiful World" and designs for the "Summon Night" series). The animations are mostly the same as the GBA game, though the game is a bit more colorful with new music, sharper visuals and a few additional icons on the HUD. There are also easter eggs you can discover (listed as different things, such as a girl's "phone number") and even post-credit choices to get some much-needed closure on your teams (if you choose correctly, and it is NOT easy...).
The player assumes the role of a trainer who works with one of three selectable Team Managers (one who knows little about sports but is optimistic and cheerful, one who is a natural athlete with some dodgeball background, and a calm and cool American with good technical knowledge) and one of four default teams in the game's "Venus League" mode (essentially the meat and potatoes story mode). The previous owner, 32 year old Shizuka Takasuga, owes your family and by extension, you, the opportunity to take the new Youth Teams to the Pro League. Of course, you can be selfish and only think of hooking up with cute girls, but you also realize that raising a team to greatness is a noble task... so why not do both? Balance training with flirting in this title where you have six months to whip them into shape.
The game has one of the easier sim modes, but not without its secrets; depending on your team manager and team, players will have different default regimens, taking a lot of the guesswork out of training and allowing you to focus on the girls and fostering relationships, but you can of course deviate from the plan, and you "will". As success in the various events is random (and failure causes more fatigue than normal), you'll want to switch things up every so often, as preset rest days hinge on total success (but you'll usually need to rest one or two weeks sooner than planned). You'll raise a variety of stats from jumping, dodging and throwing, strength, and more, but the stats that are most important to the sim mode is "Physical Condition", "Teamwork", and "Reliability" as they fluctuate the most. These stats will influence what happens during major events and what girls, if any, decide to hang with you during spare time. There are several events that are completely miss-able which not only boosts one or more girls' affinity towards you (denoted by different emoticons), but also special training regimens that have more profound effects on your stats.
It should be noted, however, that those looking for a fulfilling gal-game experience will be disappointed... there is almost no resolution with the girls and most things only escalate to "reliable friend" territory, which seems odd considering the amount of effort put into the sim aspect, and is best viewed as a mild addition to Super Dodgeball Advance than anything. As such, the actual dodgeball mechanics are sound with all sorts of tricky moves to execute (Shinobu's "Three Hit Shot" is particularly tough for example) and even the ability to load up one of your four souped-up teams from the Venus League to go against a friend or CPU. Some teams like the True Crusaders will show no mercy with their beefed stats and ruthless Dodgeball technique, but it's still fun to figure out what works and what doesn't. I also like how each team member has their own distinct little details and shots between them. You can also use the top buttons to call a member into position to set up trick shots and to select which rival to target.
This game has gone on to become a bit of a collectors item due to its ties to Atlus/Million/Will and SDA, so if you like mild gal games with good ol' dodgeball mayhem, then you'll probably like this title. This is a video showing some things in action. Enjoy.
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