Tuesday, November 05, 2024

itunes-love-plus

The iPhone has been successful in application (app) sales since the App Store launched in 2008.  With over 200,000 apps available for purchase or download, more than 30,000 apps are games.  The increasing popularity of the iPhone has caught the Japanese game industry’s attention, and within the last year, began porting or developing games for the iPhone. We have decided to feature various games developed by Japanese companies in an ongoing multipart segment.

Kira?Kira (eng)
Developer: Overdrive
Publisher: M-trix co.
Availability: US and Japan

Description:

Kira?Kira (?????) is an adult Japanese visual novel game for the Windows platform. The iPhone version is identical to the original, except without the adult scenes. The game play is an interaction between the user and the game. At times, the game will ask the player to make a decisions that will make the story progress further. Each decision is very important to how the story unfolds.  The game controls take advantage of the iPhone touch capabilities, so the decisions are made by tapping on the response. A feature in the game allows the user to skip any scenes/dialogues that they have already seen or read, especially when a decision wasn't the best choice and decided to reload the game. Kira?Kirahas a great story complimented by well-composed music that fans of visual novels should look into this game if they haven't played it before.

 

Gift (eng)
Developer: Moonstone
Publisher: M-trix co.
Availability: US and Japan

Description:

Gift is an adult Japanese visual novel translated into English that was ported originally from the Windows PC. Opportunities to make decisions on dialogue choices throughout the game to progress the story, usually from two or three choice; these choices point the storyline in a specific direction. For added replay value, there are five main plot lines in the game for each of the heroines.  As for the controls, Gift takes advantage of the iPhone touch capabilities: the game is played by tapping on the screen.  A feature in the game is that there is a fast-forward option to skip any scenes/dialogues that the player might have already seen or read.  For those who enjoy playing visual novel games, Gift is a great game to try since it has multiple stories to unfold.

 

Final Fantasy
Developer: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Availability: US and Japan

Description:

Final Fantasy is a fantasy role-playing video game that was first released in 1987.  The iPhone version contains the same storyline with additional dungeons and upscaled graphics.  The controls of the game are slightly unresponsive.  The keypad is located at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, but sometimes it doesn't respond when I want to move in a certain direction.  In addition, during battles, I sometimes have to tap multiple times to target an enemy. Besides the problem with the controls, however, the graphics are usually great.  The game runs smoothly throughout the play, but the frame rates drop while in town and worse when sprinting.  Even though Final Fantasy has some issues on the iPhone, players will enjoy the story that made the genre popular.

 

Final Fantasy II
Developer: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Availability: US and Japan

Description:

Final Fantasy II is a fantasy role-playing video game that was first released in 1988.  Similar to Final Fantasy, the iPhone version contains the storyline identical to the original's with additional dungeons and upscaled graphics.  The story is about four youths who lost their parents due to an invasion by the empire of Palamecia.  The four main characters are teamed together to defeat the Dark Emperor who plans to destroy the world.  Fans of the Final Fantasy series should definitely include this in their collection.

 

Chaos Rings
Developer: Media Vision Inc.
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd
Availability: US and Japan

Description:

Chaos Rings is a role-playing video game available exclusively on the iPhone.  The story consists of five pairs, one male and female , that are forced to face enemies in dungeons and tournaments to escape death.  Similar to some role-playing games, the player's goal is to find the person responsible for everything that has happened.  There are no cities to explore as everything is available at the Ark Arena.  The shop updates their inventory with better items as each dungeon is completed.  Chaos Rings takes full advantage of the iPhone's touch screen capabilities, and it works very well. Frame rates can drop a little depending on the dungeon's environment, but otherwise, the game has excellent 3D graphics.  The game uses a traditional turn-based battle system , so any role-playing game fan can easily pick this up and enjoy the game.

 

The Day of Sagittarius III (TDOS3)
Developer: Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd.
Availability: US and Japan

Description:

The Day of Sagittarius III is a simulation game that made its first appearance in the popular anime series, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.  The purpose of the game is to defeat the enemy fleet using five different formations: normal, offensive, defensive, high speed, and storming.  In each mission, the player is allowed to have 5 fleets to defeat the opponents.

For those interested in seeing the gameplay in The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, The Day of Sagitarrius III is featured in the eleventh broadcasted episode of the series, or the thirteenth DVD episode.

 

Love Plus Apps
Developer: Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Availability: Japan Only

Description:

Love Plus is originally a dating simulation video game on the portable handheld Nintendo DS.   The game takes place in Towano City where the player is the protagonist who just transferred to Towano Private High School.  At school or part time jobs, the player encounters three girls, Manaka Takane, Rinko Kobayakawa, and Nene Anegasaki.  The player's decision to court one of the three girls ends the prologue chapter.  After the decision, the game officially starts portraying your never ending love story together with your dream girl.

Fans of Manaka Takane, Rinko Kobayakawa, and Nene Anegasaki now have the chance to see more of them outside of Nintendo DS.  The iPhone apps: Love Plus iM, Love Plus iR, and Love Plus iN are the applications that features Manaka, Rinko, and Nene respectively.  For example, if the player purchased Love Plus iM, then Manaka's voice will inform the player of the time and sometimes start small conversations when upon a tap on the screen.  Another feature is that the player can input the schedule into the calendar in the application, and Manaka will recognize it; she will support the user through their daily life.  In addition, the player can take pictures with her using the augmented reality camera.

Note, all games were played and tested on an iPhone 3GS, OS 3.1.2.