天下制覇

 

 Oh, the places you’ll go…

Whilst I tend to avoid the copious amount of dubious content (and dubiouser content) that most of the western world seems to enjoy with Comiket, it’s always fun to thumb through the games section and see if anything neat catches my eye. Okay, it’s pretty fun to thumb through the sketchy parts too. It is vaguely terrifying to realize exactly how much porn Japan produces at these things though… to say nothing of the 50 (!) pages of Touhou booths on day 2 alone. Ye lords. To be fair, I remember only seeing about a page of stuff on day 3 (aka, the porn day), but still… Oi.

In any case, in no particular order, just some stuff that caught my eye as I was thumbing around. If there’s something cool I missed, let me know… or not. Whichever. Comiket’s next weekend, so we’ll find out soon enough.

Rosenkreuz Stilette -Freudenstachel-
erka:es
http://kurotama.sakura.ne.jp/product/rks_freu/

Pseudo-sequel to the excellent Megaman clone from a year and a half ago. The levels are redesigned and there’s a new protagonist with new robot masters bosses, but otherwise, like Megaman, the majority of the graphics are all recycled, which I personally find a little disappointing. A demo was released last Comiket (not freely available.)

Nekomiko Booster
Momo-kan
http://momo-kan.sakura.ne.jp/index.html
Trial

Not too bad of a little action game if there’s something more than just the jetpacks eventually, but the repetitive music was slowly driving me insane.

Touhou Hisoutenkosoku
Twilight Frontier
http://www.tasofro.net/touhou123/index.html

 

A massive (and badly needed) update and re-engineering of Scarlet Weather Rhapsody with new characters and a new story.

 

 Axis Poses
Zatei Kikaku
http://zantei.sakura.ne.jp/eng/axisposes.html
Trial

Not something I’d actually recommend, but something I did find hilarious. The site does have a "NSF <18" warning, but it’s so not worth the half gig download to check out the trial and find out exactly why. Just to warn you though.

Grana Embrace
ClassiC
http://classic-shikoukairo.jpn.org/

An SRPG from the makers of Crescent Pale Mist. They released a trial version (not freely available) at the last Comiket, but I wasn’t really overly impressed. Nice soundtrack though.

Yatagarasu
PDW
http://styleos.blog.shinobi.jp/

I always find the little fighters fun to mess around with for an hour or two, although this one certainly lacks the polish of Vanguard Princess or the goofy charm of Fuuka Taisen.

 deSpraiso
Platine Dispositif
http://www.platinedispositif.net/games/mqp/

    

When last we met with a trial at the previous Comiket, this was just a dungeon crawler. Now apparently it’s maid themed. Oooookay?

RefRain ~Prism Memories~
RebRank
http://www.rebrank.org/

I just feel like mentioning this because it’ll be the fourth Comiket in a row where they released an updated trial of this. Go RebRank.

The Light You Saw
Usimitu Banana
http://usimitu.com/

Just another STG^tm. Good for rainy days.

Fairy Bloom Freesia
Edelweiss
http://edelweiss.skr.jp/works/fbfreesia/index.html

 

They’re just releasing an updated version of the trial they released last Comiket. Ho hum.

Undefined Fantastic Object
Team Shanghai Alice
http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/

Do I really even need to describe this? The latest core Touhou game. Now with ALIENS.

 Mechanization Girl Lyrical Subaru NumberS
Digital Wasabi
http://d-wasabi.sakura.ne.jp/game.html

   

Just going to be a release of the ‘prologue,’ but it appears to be an over the shoulder action game with everbody’s favorite lesbian cyborg.

Alternative Sphere
Eikyuu.Loop
http://blue.sakura.ne.jp/~loop/game/as/index.html

  

By the makers of TWINS and TWAIN, two recent STGs that I really enjoyed. Designed as a spinoff to TWINS… not like anybody pays attention to the stories in this stuff.

Type-A
Black Sheep Symphony
http://blackss.oxyhost.com/
Trial

And why? Although their English is surprisingly decent. Edit: Apparently this is some Americans trying to live a dream of selling something at Comiket. Uh, okay?

Touhou Kitougeki 3
Aquastyle
http://www.aquastyle.org/

The above is Kitougeki 2. Not actually a game, just a series of SRW styled neat animations. Always worth checking out though.

Magical Cannon Girl 2
Kit-Station
http://www.kit-station.com/mcg2/

   

Well, at least it looks quite a bit better than the first one. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Scarlet Symphony
Frontier Aja
http://aja-games.chicappa.jp/blog/
Trial

 A Castlevania clone with Touhou characters. Giving Reimu a whip and axes is so unnecessary.

This isn’t comprehensive either. Aside from me just likely overlooking some stuff or their adverts in the catalog being really lame so I didn’t check further, we’ve got Nekomimi Kakera showing off their new game at their booth, other groups releasing updates for their older games, Daisessen‘s got something new, and just about all the Touhou doujin games are off mixed in somewhere in the 50 page monstrosity of Touhou stuff which I so do not care to parse through.

Hopefully I’ll have some spare time next week to play through some of the releases if I’m not crushed by real life… which unfortunately is a very strong chance for at least Thursday through Tuesday. Ah well, c’est la vie.