Sunday, November 22, 2015

Dollargame Episodes 3-6: Heartache 101 "Review"

Heartache 101 is a game I happened to find when I was searching for visual novels. It's a dating simulator. I don't play these because I'm desperate or anything. I know I haven't actually had a girlfriend before, but whatever. I'm not lying. Since the game takes place in first person, I'll be mostly talking like I'm actually in the game.

          The story begins with me showing up to school late. Not long after that, I encounter my childhood friend, Miki, well if I can call her a childhood "friend", I guess. She comments on my hair and then we exchange insults. Then, both of us head to class and go through more introduction stuff, I'm a sophomore... whatever. This school divides genders for some reason. So most classes only have one gender of students. There are a few exceptions, though.

          Apparently, I have a crush on a student in the grade above me. Here name is Shihoko... I'm not sure if I pronounced that right. That's what I get for playing a "Japanese" game, I guess. Anyways, once the first class is over I head out into the hall expecting to see Shihoko, but we bump into Miki instead. She soon realizes what I was doing and tries to make fun of me. She says that I  "can't get a girlfriend" and then I tell her that I don't want a girlfriend. ...That sounds like something I'd actually do in real life.

          Once the day is over, I decide to head home, only to encounter Miki and her best friend... uh, Keika...? Why does everything have to be hard to pronounce in these kinds of games? Anyways, the two of them propose a competition: who could get into a relationship in 101 days... me or Miki. I accepted. Then, I get home and ask myself a question that will determine what trait of mine will be the strongest. Looks, personality, soul, athletics, and mind. ...And with that, the first day of the competition begins!

          This is where the game play changes. Now we're playing on a board map, similar to Mario Party [I guess], but unlike Mario Party, people wouldn't make fun of you for playing this alone. They'd just give you that whole "you're playing this because you're desperate" speech, unless these people are actually nice to you or something.

          The first options the player has are "move" and "wait". "Move" is exactly as it sounds and so is "wait". When you "move" the number of spaces you move is generated by chance. Choosing to "wait" you'll just stand still and the girls on the map, which I'll talk about soon, will move around. As you get further, you'll have some more options on the board map parts of the game. You'll be able to use items that you pick up at "item" spaces as well as use special moves that you obtained from spaces on the map. 

          When you walk to one of the girls on the map, as in land on the space that they're in, you'll trigger an event, whether story-driven, or just a quick "what do you want to say to her?" thing. If you land on arrow,  you'll be given a couple of options: a certain amount of spaces that you can move back or forward if you want. The amount for forward and back isn't always going to be consistent, though.

          Landing on a question mark will trigger a random event. It can be something like an amount of spaces you'll have to move, wiping chalk stains off of yourself to look better, losing money to irresponsible classmates, as well as many other things. Lastly are the bugs. If you land on them, you'll get sick and have to spend the rest of the day out him. I don't why, but whenever these are on the board, I always end up going home sick. 

There was so much to cover in this game. So much story. And that's not even all of it. Thankfully, I'm not going to cover it all! Anyways, when you beat the game you can come back and try to get the other several endings and story branches. It's worth coming back just to see what happens if you're actions are a little different.  
         
You can even add your own characters and story to the game. If you're not that creative, you can download custom characters and story to the game. Once you've cleared the game once, you'll unlock "clean mode" which will allow to play through the game using custom characters only... except in the intro. That's the only exception.
          
I haven't really played around with that yet, but I've had a lot fun with this game so far. In fact, I got kind of addicted to the game at first. I had trouble closing the game and doing other stuff for a bit. The gameplay is good, and doesn't have many notice-able flaws. 

The dialogue in this game is perfect. Hardly any noticeable grammatical errors or any kind of typos. The dialogue never had me confused as to what was going on. It all made sense and felt fitting for each character that it was written for.
          
Visually, the game is great for the most part. The board map looks okay in my opinion, but the locations and NPC's look good. Speaking of NPC's, the only ones that actually show up are the girls. Now, I know the game focuses on the girls, but it really would be nice if I could see the guys too, since I believe in gender equality. I can only see them on the map. It makes sense that I can only see the guy I'm playing as other, but way less with the NPC's. Then there's the soundtrack - It's full of really good fitting music. 

Watch All 4 Parts for More Details

 








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