Angel's Feather
Jul. 7th, 2005 01:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gogmagogWell, you may be wondering why I've been a complete nonentity online over the past few days. In part it's because I've been kinda busy - a little housecleaning, running errands, driving practice, a free scrapbooking class, that sort of stuff.
However, there's also another reason. I recently downloaded a BL game called Angel's Feather. And it has eaten my SOUL. But to be specific about the reason I've been Persona non grata: to install it I had to switch to Japanese, which screwed up my DSL. I can play it normally, though (in fact, it actually plays better in English), but I only switched back recently.
Anyway, now I'm going to talk about AF. This is the first BL game I've ever played - I'd played some "girl's side" dating sims before, like the SNES Marmalade Boy, but that was pretty much it. This, on the other hand, is a full-fledged BL game. To be more exact, it's a BL RPG/ren'ai game, which basically means a gay dating sim with an RPG attached. (Or like Thousand Arms with all guys.) And seriously, it's like CLAMP (their darker stuff, anyway) in pure liquid form. Lots of bleeding girly-looking gay bishounen schoolboys with wings (both white and black), boatloads of angst, et cetera. If you like their stuff, this is probably right up your alley.
The game starts with Robere, a prince of the White Wings, under attack by Ran of the Black Wings. It's revealed that back in the kingdom of Winfield, where both clans hail from, Ran had led the Black Wings in a massacre of White Wings. Robere had fled to the human world - along with his wife Mari and his twin infant sons, Shou and Kai - to escape the massacre, but didn't manage to stay hidden for long. Ran wants to take the twins - he apparently has his own nefarious purpose for them - but Robere sacrifices his life to help Mari and the babies escape. Even that doesn't hold off Ran for long, though. Ran comes upon Mari and the babies and mortally wounds Mari, but is driven off in the nick of time by Robere's subordinate Sena. Sena, who seems to be in love with Mari, makes a promise to her that he'll protect the kids, then takes off with them.
Cut to years later, and the real start of the game. Young Shou Hamura is starting at the exclusive Yuusei Academy on a sports scholarship (he's very good at kendo). It's his first day as a transfer student, and he pretty immediately bumps into an INCREDIBLY girly boy (who looks like Read or Die's Yomiko Readman with Sephiroth hair) named Anri Chikura. Excitable, flute-playing Anri makes friends with Shou, and they get along pretty well. Shou also runs into a friend from his old junior high school, Naoto, who's also in the kendo club here.
After class, Shou sees Anri being bullied by two punk students who want money from him. Shou leaps to Anri's defense, and kicks the punks' asses. They run away and end up falling into a crevasse in the ground (opened by a sudden earthquake, maybe?). Shou goes down to help them get out, while Anri goes for help. Shou and the punks are startled to find that the cave is infested with fantastic monsters, but fight their way through it (this is the first RPG section). But when they reach an exit they discover a powerful boss monster who goes through them like butter. Shou's pendant from his mother starts glowing, and he sprouts white wings. Looking all bloody and badass, he gets much more powerful, and kicks the bad guy's ass before collapsing.
Meanwhile, Anri has happened upon an upperclassman, Kurisu Ohsaka. He gets his help and that of a teacher, Shion Toudou. The three of them go down after Shou and co. (Kurisu is another good swordsman, while Toudou fights with his fists and Anri either plays healing music on his flute or flails furiously at the enemy. XD) Once they get to the end, they discover a wingless Shou and the two punks all lying unconscious. Kurisu seems to recognize Shou's pendant, and talks to Toudou about it before they bring them all back up.
Then we get a flashback of Shou's. It's to when he was a child, playing with his younger twin brother Kai. They're all cute and sweet, but it turns out that they're to be separated. Kai starts crying about it, but Shou is determined that he be strong. They promise never to forget each other, and the flashback ends.
Shou wakes up in the infirmary. Once they determine that his wounds aren't serious enough to keep him, Anri takes him to the dormitory. It turns out that the two of them are roommates. Outside the dormitory, Shou meets a mysterious boy named Nagi who runs away every time someone tries to talk to him. Also, I think around this time there's a bath scene with Shou and Naoto, where Naoto makes inappropriate remarks about how Shou is hung like a little kid and snarkily remarks that he hopes Shou's a grower. XD
That night, we see Naoto being molested (in a PG-13 way; sadly, I don't have the 18+ add-on disc) by Ran, who is blackmailing him to do something to Shou (and to let Ran molest him) by threatening his father.
The next day, Naoto talks to Shou about the Seven Rumors of Yuusei Academy. One of them (I think) is about one of the more famous students: a rich young man named Misonou Kai. This is, of course, Shou's twin brother. However, when Shou meets him and attempts to talk about it, Kai appears to have no memory of Shou and gets irritated with this crazy kid, calling Shou "sports-baka."
Naoto runs into Shou and Anri, and Naoto and Anri kind of clash (because Anri is shooting jealousy beams and possibly because he's ruining Naoto's plan). Eventually, after some argument, the three of them agree to go and investigate one of the rumors. They go into the forest to do so, but Naoto is "kidnapped" by a monster and taken to...an abandoned temple, I think? Or maybe the kendo dojo? Anyway, once Shou and Anri get there to rescue him, Naoto grows black wings (along with an eyepatch and a tight outfit) and attacks Anri and Shou. Shou defeats him, and the ever-angsty Naoto vanishes. Shou doesn't know whether Naoto is even alive or not and is heartbroken at Naoto's betrayal, but Anri comforts him.
The next day, the teacher announces that Naoto will no longer be in class, and Shou and Anri start to grow suspicious that something is up at Yuusei Academy.
...I'll stop there, because this is getting long and I still haven't even talked about what I like about the game yet. (Don't worry, though, I will complete my summary whether you like it or not!)
The graphics are beautiful - the 3D are nice, but the crowning jewel is the 2D CGs, which are gorgeous. The art is in typical shoujo/BL style (wispy angsty bishounen). The voice acting is good, and notable examples include Kappei Yamaguchi (a.k.a. "Ranma") as Shou and Hikaru Midorikawa as the ever-snotty Kai. The plot is fun, if not horrifically original, and the characters are likable. (Well, Kai hasn't gotten particularly likable yet, but I'm still not that far into the game and I hear he'll improve.) My favorite character so far is Anri, who's cute without being cloying; I also like Shou and Naoto, though. (This is probably not hurt by the specialness of some of their conversations together. In fact, there've been several Special scenes so far in this game. XD)
...You know, I always find BL and yaoi funny. You have these wispy bishounen, but they must be into D/S because they always have very defined dominant and submissive roles. As a rule, taller = seme (dominant) and shorter = uke (submissive). Actually, though, apparently Angel's Feather is unusual due to the number of "reversible" pairings. Of course, this only goes for certain characters - you're probably not going to see the eternal uke Anri getting all dominant anytime soon. (Then again, you never know...there's some official art from the new AF game that apparently shows Anri molesting Shou. *sniff* Our little uke finally grew up to be a seme! I'm so proud!)
...I'm determined I'm not going to play any more BL games. One is enough, dammit. I've got plenty of others to play. Though![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umechan's talk about Enzai has made me curious to try that one...
However, there's also another reason. I recently downloaded a BL game called Angel's Feather. And it has eaten my SOUL. But to be specific about the reason I've been Persona non grata: to install it I had to switch to Japanese, which screwed up my DSL. I can play it normally, though (in fact, it actually plays better in English), but I only switched back recently.
Anyway, now I'm going to talk about AF. This is the first BL game I've ever played - I'd played some "girl's side" dating sims before, like the SNES Marmalade Boy, but that was pretty much it. This, on the other hand, is a full-fledged BL game. To be more exact, it's a BL RPG/ren'ai game, which basically means a gay dating sim with an RPG attached. (Or like Thousand Arms with all guys.) And seriously, it's like CLAMP (their darker stuff, anyway) in pure liquid form. Lots of bleeding girly-looking gay bishounen schoolboys with wings (both white and black), boatloads of angst, et cetera. If you like their stuff, this is probably right up your alley.
The game starts with Robere, a prince of the White Wings, under attack by Ran of the Black Wings. It's revealed that back in the kingdom of Winfield, where both clans hail from, Ran had led the Black Wings in a massacre of White Wings. Robere had fled to the human world - along with his wife Mari and his twin infant sons, Shou and Kai - to escape the massacre, but didn't manage to stay hidden for long. Ran wants to take the twins - he apparently has his own nefarious purpose for them - but Robere sacrifices his life to help Mari and the babies escape. Even that doesn't hold off Ran for long, though. Ran comes upon Mari and the babies and mortally wounds Mari, but is driven off in the nick of time by Robere's subordinate Sena. Sena, who seems to be in love with Mari, makes a promise to her that he'll protect the kids, then takes off with them.
Cut to years later, and the real start of the game. Young Shou Hamura is starting at the exclusive Yuusei Academy on a sports scholarship (he's very good at kendo). It's his first day as a transfer student, and he pretty immediately bumps into an INCREDIBLY girly boy (who looks like Read or Die's Yomiko Readman with Sephiroth hair) named Anri Chikura. Excitable, flute-playing Anri makes friends with Shou, and they get along pretty well. Shou also runs into a friend from his old junior high school, Naoto, who's also in the kendo club here.
After class, Shou sees Anri being bullied by two punk students who want money from him. Shou leaps to Anri's defense, and kicks the punks' asses. They run away and end up falling into a crevasse in the ground (opened by a sudden earthquake, maybe?). Shou goes down to help them get out, while Anri goes for help. Shou and the punks are startled to find that the cave is infested with fantastic monsters, but fight their way through it (this is the first RPG section). But when they reach an exit they discover a powerful boss monster who goes through them like butter. Shou's pendant from his mother starts glowing, and he sprouts white wings. Looking all bloody and badass, he gets much more powerful, and kicks the bad guy's ass before collapsing.
Meanwhile, Anri has happened upon an upperclassman, Kurisu Ohsaka. He gets his help and that of a teacher, Shion Toudou. The three of them go down after Shou and co. (Kurisu is another good swordsman, while Toudou fights with his fists and Anri either plays healing music on his flute or flails furiously at the enemy. XD) Once they get to the end, they discover a wingless Shou and the two punks all lying unconscious. Kurisu seems to recognize Shou's pendant, and talks to Toudou about it before they bring them all back up.
Then we get a flashback of Shou's. It's to when he was a child, playing with his younger twin brother Kai. They're all cute and sweet, but it turns out that they're to be separated. Kai starts crying about it, but Shou is determined that he be strong. They promise never to forget each other, and the flashback ends.
Shou wakes up in the infirmary. Once they determine that his wounds aren't serious enough to keep him, Anri takes him to the dormitory. It turns out that the two of them are roommates. Outside the dormitory, Shou meets a mysterious boy named Nagi who runs away every time someone tries to talk to him. Also, I think around this time there's a bath scene with Shou and Naoto, where Naoto makes inappropriate remarks about how Shou is hung like a little kid and snarkily remarks that he hopes Shou's a grower. XD
That night, we see Naoto being molested (in a PG-13 way; sadly, I don't have the 18+ add-on disc) by Ran, who is blackmailing him to do something to Shou (and to let Ran molest him) by threatening his father.
The next day, Naoto talks to Shou about the Seven Rumors of Yuusei Academy. One of them (I think) is about one of the more famous students: a rich young man named Misonou Kai. This is, of course, Shou's twin brother. However, when Shou meets him and attempts to talk about it, Kai appears to have no memory of Shou and gets irritated with this crazy kid, calling Shou "sports-baka."
Naoto runs into Shou and Anri, and Naoto and Anri kind of clash (because Anri is shooting jealousy beams and possibly because he's ruining Naoto's plan). Eventually, after some argument, the three of them agree to go and investigate one of the rumors. They go into the forest to do so, but Naoto is "kidnapped" by a monster and taken to...an abandoned temple, I think? Or maybe the kendo dojo? Anyway, once Shou and Anri get there to rescue him, Naoto grows black wings (along with an eyepatch and a tight outfit) and attacks Anri and Shou. Shou defeats him, and the ever-angsty Naoto vanishes. Shou doesn't know whether Naoto is even alive or not and is heartbroken at Naoto's betrayal, but Anri comforts him.
The next day, the teacher announces that Naoto will no longer be in class, and Shou and Anri start to grow suspicious that something is up at Yuusei Academy.
...I'll stop there, because this is getting long and I still haven't even talked about what I like about the game yet. (Don't worry, though, I will complete my summary whether you like it or not!)
The graphics are beautiful - the 3D are nice, but the crowning jewel is the 2D CGs, which are gorgeous. The art is in typical shoujo/BL style (wispy angsty bishounen). The voice acting is good, and notable examples include Kappei Yamaguchi (a.k.a. "Ranma") as Shou and Hikaru Midorikawa as the ever-snotty Kai. The plot is fun, if not horrifically original, and the characters are likable. (Well, Kai hasn't gotten particularly likable yet, but I'm still not that far into the game and I hear he'll improve.) My favorite character so far is Anri, who's cute without being cloying; I also like Shou and Naoto, though. (This is probably not hurt by the specialness of some of their conversations together. In fact, there've been several Special scenes so far in this game. XD)
...You know, I always find BL and yaoi funny. You have these wispy bishounen, but they must be into D/S because they always have very defined dominant and submissive roles. As a rule, taller = seme (dominant) and shorter = uke (submissive). Actually, though, apparently Angel's Feather is unusual due to the number of "reversible" pairings. Of course, this only goes for certain characters - you're probably not going to see the eternal uke Anri getting all dominant anytime soon. (Then again, you never know...there's some official art from the new AF game that apparently shows Anri molesting Shou. *sniff* Our little uke finally grew up to be a seme! I'm so proud!)
...I'm determined I'm not going to play any more BL games. One is enough, dammit. I've got plenty of others to play. Though
umechan's talk about Enzai has made me curious to try that one...
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Date: 2005-09-26 03:19 am (UTC)Japanese Language
Date: 2006-03-15 07:20 pm (UTC)