I recently started playing Dragon Raja, a full featured MMORPG on smart mobile devices.
Overall Score: 75/90 83% B “Very Good Game For Girls”
Overview: 10/10 Dragon Raja is a beautiful game with amazing character customization and open world environment. Play as one of four starting classes and three “races” (male human, female human, or a kawaii lolita race (all of my characters are loli because they’re sooo cute!!) The character customization is the highlight of this game to me. Story, Gameplay, and Music are all pretty great though really.read more
The sequel to KLab’s smash hit Love Live School Idol Festival, Love Live All Stars takes it to the next level with fully animated Live2D characters that dance around on the screen.
Like its predecessor, Love Live School Idol Festival, Love Live All Stars is a card collecting rhythm game with cute anime girls to collect.
The new installment in Love Live has a few key differences from the original, most notably is the animation. There’s also costumes you can unlock for your girls to wear and a new voltage gameplay system that allows you to score more points.read more
I received this copy of Maitetsu Pure Station in exchange for a review. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Title: Maitetsu Pure Station
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: January 2020
Genre: Visual Novel
Overall Score: 87/100 87% Very Good Game For Girls
Geeky: 5/5 This game is educational and full of both history and sci-fi elements.
Sweetie: 5/5 This game also has adorable cute anime characters and stunning graphics. The story is good with a lot of emotional and cute scenes. The production values are high and the music and voice acting are all well above average. read more
I recently received Starlight Stage A Pop Idol Card Game from RightStuf. RightStuf is one of the oldest and largest distributors of Otaku merchandise in the US. Check out their website at www.RightStuf.com for everything from anime, manga, action figures, Japanese candy, games, and more.
I decided to purchase Starlight Stage because I’m a fan of mobile idol games and idol anime such as Love Live, Utapri, Bang Dream, Ensemble Stars, and yes, Idol M@ster.
I do not know for sure if this board game is based on Idol M@ster but I suspect it is, since one of the early and most popular Idol M@ster mobile games is titled Idol M@ster Starlight Stage. For whatever reason though, if it is in fact at all related, they stripped it of the Idol M@ster title and just dubbed it Starlight Stage. Either way, related or not, if you love the mobile games or anime idol games, you’ll love Starlight Stage Card Game by Japanime Games.read more
I just started playing Sweet Dance, a pretty cute mobile game with a variety of music hits from around the world. Songs include English hits from the US and Europe as well as Chinese, Korean, and Japanese tracks.
The game has several different dance modes. In the first dance mode, bubble mode, you must simply tap the bubbles on the screen. In Trail mode you must tap left, right, or both sides of your screen depending on the colors of the bubbles. Pink is Right. Blue is left. Yellow is both. The beginning mandatory tutorial only makes you play Bubble mode so I was confused when I played Trail mode but eventually figured it out. There’s also a beat mode which is like DDR for your fingers. In beat mode you must quickly punch in a sequence of arrow movements and then lock in your sequence at the right time with the beat button (The right time is when the red dot is near the white line). read more
Make the fashionable outfits with friends all over the world ! Change clothes freely with your moving avatar. Let’s become more fashionable together! ＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿ Dress-up with everyone “”Unit outfit”” ! You can create “”Unit outfit”” with your friends with the avatar you made. The “”Un…
I’ve been playing a new mobile Dressup game called CocoPPa Dolls. As its name suggests it is by the creator of CocoPPa Play although this new title plays a lot more like Love Nikki or Romantic Diary than CocoPPa Play.
The gameplay is simple. You play Gacha to get new items for your avatar to wear. Some Gacha are time limited and some have rare items and others are always available with less rare items.
Ok so I know what you’re thinking. That sounds just like CocoPPa Play but that’s about when the similarities end.
From here you have a few different unique features… Let’s look at them briefly. Pictures may not be related to the text here I’m just sharing cute screenshots I took while playing.read more
I had previously played the Japanese version briefly of A3! Act, Actor, Addict, an otome simulation game that puts you in the role of a young woman looking for her father who went missing 8 years ago.
Cybrid has now released an English version of the game, which is good, because this one has almost no gameplay, and tons of reading (as most Otome and Visual novels). Which is why I only played the JP version very briefly, because I can’t read Japanese, and with little gameplay, and no story (since I couldn’t understand it) it became boring quickly. But now that it is in English, I’m enjoying it quite a bit.read more
I just recently purchased the Fairy Pink Tamagotchi On from Barnes and Noble. Here’s my thoughts after the first 24 hours. I did a lot of research prior to purchasing Tamagotchi On. Tamagotchi On is also known as Tamagotchi Meets in Japan and Tamagotchi Some in Korea. The Tamagotchi Meets has a lot of bugs which were all fixed for the English Tamagotchi On. The bugs included things such as draining the batteries in just a day or Tamagotchis getting glitched when they evolved.
I also read that a lot of people received used looking Tamagotchi On from amazon who had badly scratched screens despite being brand new. Luckily mine was in perfect condition. I don’t know if the scratched screens were just from Amazon, or maybe a bad batch, afterall it’s been out for about 2 months now so my tama is from a different manufacturing batch.
I chose to purchase from Barnes and Noble because you can get 30% off your first toy order when you join the free kid’s club. Tamagotchi On are pretty pricey around $50-60 so saving 30% is a big deal.
I also prepared for my Tamagotchi’s arrival by buying a “case” which as far as I can tell is just a decorative touch. It might offer some protection but not much. When it comes to Tamagotchi “cases” there’s 3 basic types. Silicone which is what I bought – I picked out a pink Pusheen case which still isn’t here. Crochet cases from places like Etsy – many of which have cat or rabbit ears. And Bath and Body Works Hand Sanitizer holders which people are using mostly as wrist straps. Unlike the original Tamagotchis of the 90s, the new ones are not keychains. They do have a place you could attach a chain, wrist strap, or lanyard though. Or just pop your tamagotchi into the Bath and Bodyworks hand sanitizer.
The other ways I prepared for my Tama’s arrival include buying a tiny screwdriver and some rechargeable batteries. The battery door is secured with a tiny screw. I bought an eyeglass repair kit. If you live in the united states you can buy these at the dollar tree store. It comes with 2 screw drivers that fit the tiny screw and a cleaning cloth that you can use on the screen. And it only costs a dollar.
I dunno about you, but I am a 90s kid. I grew up with the original Tamagotchi. The new Tamagotchi On is very similar to its 90s counterpart. The basic concept of the game remains the same, you navigate the menus with 3 buttons. The first button toggles through the menus, the 2nd button confirms your selection, and the third button cancels and goes to the previous screen.
The gameplay also has not changed much on the surface. You feed, play with, and clean up after your virtual pet. The big differences between Tamagotchi On and the 90s version are that the Tamagotchi On is in full color and has a backlit screen. The Tamagotchi On also features some new gameplay elements, the biggest of which is the ability to connect to the Tamagotchi On app and play minigames to earn coins, or meet other players from around the world. Once your Tamagotchi is an adult, you can even marry another player’s Tamagotchi and have babies, including twins. The genetics of the parents pass down and there are over 1 million different combinations and ways that your Tamagotchi can look. You can use the coins from the minigames to dressup your tama, decorate your room, buy toys or food for your tama, or put your Tama in a daycare so you can take time away, perfect if you have to leave your tama when you go to work or school.
If you have 2 Tamagotchi they can have playdates or communicate when you connect via infrared. You may want 2 Tama anyways because there are 2 versions *and more in Japan* with exclusive places you can unlock and a few Tamagotchi exclusive to each version. And in some cases (in Japan) there are rare genes in the special versions. The two places you can visit right now are Magic Land in the Purple or Green Magic Tamagotchi On US versions, or Fairy Land in Pink or Blue Fairy versions. The fairy version has more cute type Tamagotchi while the Magic version has more cool type tamagotchi. So which version you get may be influenced by what type of Tamagotchi you like best. If you like cute things like unicorns, or cool things like bats, vampires, witches, etc. But in the end it really doesn’t matter since you can marry and have babies and get the genes from all of the versions, even the Japanese exclusive versions, so you should just go for the shell color you like best. The white Magic one was limited in Japan but it’s now going to be an amazon exclusive in the US and Canada.
There are also many special events that happen. Like right now it is fall time and sometimes a tamagotchi will visit mine and they will go harvest fall food from the trees. Sometimes my tamagotchi will play hide n seek, or play with bubbles, or try to talk to me to get my attention.
It is a simple cute game with the object being to reach adulthood and breed and aim either for genes you like, or for rare genes that you want to collect.
Is it worth the high price? It faces a tough market, saturated with apps on the phone, some including other virtual pets, or even more complex games, all for free. each day new apps release, and kids have cell phones these days. But maybe Bandai never intended to target kids in the first place; perhaps they’re banking on people like me who collected the first tamagotchi to be willing to pay for the new Tamagotchi On.
What I like about Tamagotchi On is the feeling of nostalgia, the cuteness, both of the graphics, and the outer shell, and the ability to breed and see genes pass down to the babies. I also like that I only need to spend a few minutes a couple times a day checking in on the Tamagotchi. It doesn’t require much time, effort, or thought. It’s just a simple cute game. I like the feel of the egg in my hand, and the buttons are comfortably placed. This Tamagotchi is larger than the 90s version and seems a perfect fit for my hands. The color backlit screen is also a big improvement over the 90s version.
What I don’t like about Tamagotchi On is no built in keychain/wrist strap/lanyard mechanism, and sadly, I think I’ll enjoy the game for a few weeks and then bore/tire of it quickly because it’s just too simplistic. But on the plus side I do think I will revisit the Tamagotchi from time to time, whenever I feel like playing a cute and carefree game.
BTS now has an official visual novel style game that puts you in the role of managing your favorite boy band. Unfortunately, it is a great concept but has poor execution. There are lots of features which sound fun, but somehow still miss the mark. Even if you love BTS, which I do, this game still feels dull and boring. But somehow it’s cute, and I still find myself playing it and hoping it will get better. I’m grateful they made this game and took time to translate the text to English. Even if it is rather mediocre at best.
Check out the full review below.
Name: BTS World
Genre: Visual Novel / Otome Game / Dating Sim / Manager Sim
The game has only been out for about 2 weeks at this point, so hopefully they can keep adding new updates to make the game more exciting. The first chapter is especially dull. It needs a better introduction to the game, because no one is going to stick around to keep playing when the first dozen or more missions are so lackluster. I keep playing to see the cute boys, but you could just watch BTS youtube videos and get the same effect lol.
Geeky: 2/5 – Gameplay is bad, story is boring, but yet, it is definitely geeky, only geeky girls (and guys?) who love BTS will play this game.
Sweetie: 5/5 – The game is cute, with each member being featured in their own chapters and putting you in the middle of their story – even though that story really isn’t good at all. I like being able to pretend to text/chat with BTS, and watch their cute reactions. Who is your favorite BTS member? I like Jimin and Jin. They are so cute.
Gameplay: 4/10 – I want to rate this higher… but I just can’t… It has so many features, collecting cards like in Love Live, visual novel/otome story like idea factory games, dressup minigames like love nikki, chatting/phoning like Mystic Messenger…. yet… somehow… even though it draws inspiration from all of these amazing popular games that I love… it somehow… feels flat to me… The features are there… but they lack heart if that makes any sense?
Also one thing that drives me crazy is we can’t take screenshots, and can’t share our cards / brag about rares, etc on social media; that kills a lot of the fun for me.
Story: 3/10 – The story is bad… really bad… Almost can’t force myself to keep playing the game because the story is so slow, boring, dull, just blah…. You guys know I don’t like giving spoilers when I review a game, I like to let you discover the stories for yourselves… I should add I’m not very far in the game yet? Maybe about half way through? Maybe it will get better?
To give you a “highlight” of the story “concept” BTS World takes place in an alternate universe where BTS has never met. You receive a strange message on your phone telling you that you have won a free ticket to a BTS concert, but when you arrive, it’s only a single member, who is waiting to sign a contract which you somehow mysteriously have been carrying around.
Surprise, you’re BTS’ manager. Only you have any memory of who BTS is in the “Real World”. Here in this alternate universe, you work at Big Hit and have been tasked with recruiting talent for a new boy band who will eventually become what we know as BTS.
You do this by progressing through a visual novel style game, although there are few choices along the way.
The game assumes alot about you as the player. It assumes you already know who BTS is, and that you have in depth intimate knowledge about each of the members of BTS. The game doesn’t really provide you any of this information, because why would you be playing this game unless you love BTS right? (that’s their thinking not mine, I personally “like” BTS, but I’m not really knowledgeable about every single member).
I think the story could be improved by assuming less. Giving the characters more… character? I want to learn/know more about each member of BTS while I’m playing… but I feel like it doesn’t really tell me much… which leaves me feeling uninterested…
The games first several missions are literally like “OMG it’s xyz Member, what’s he doing here? Oh he signed my contract, and teased me because I’m freaking out again. I’m a really bad manager. I will do my best to help BTS”
I rather it assume that the player only has minimal knowledge – or better yet even, no knowledge, of BTS. I rather see the members introduced doing things they enjoy/love, like what’s their favorite food, what other hobbies do they have aside from kpop, like maybe playing video games, playing basketball, reading, volunteering with animals, I dunno, whatever BTS does in their spare time.
I feel like that would add some… heart… or humanity… or something to this game…. Give me a reason to care about the characters….
The target audience of this game, the millions of ARMYs are probably perfectly happy with this game, as evidenced by the 4.8 rating on Google…. I don’t consider myself an ARMY… but I do consider myself a fan of BTS – as evidenced here the last month or two that I’ve been sharing my listening habits with you readers, you can see I constantly list BTS (among also other KPop artists).
But even though I’m a fan, I couldn’t tell you too much; hell I can’t even name every member honestly – sorry, I’m not like die-hard… I’m just kinda a casual fan… but I would like to play this game too… but it just… frustrates me that I feel detached from the story and characters because the game does nothing to introduce them, tell me about them, let me “get to know them”.
Which leads us to…
Characters: 7/10 – I’m rating this highly – I am taking points away for the lack of character “development” – but the characters are actual BTS members and they have made videos and pictures etc just for this game, which is really cute, where they speak right to you as a manager. And you can see cute clips and introductions and it’s very cute. I love the cute boys. That’s the only thing saving this game. lol.
Graphics: 8/10 – Sometimes… the graphics look very cheesy in the novel (main gameplay parts), because they are so stiff. I’m used to Live2D where the characters move fluidly… But… in other sections, even some high level cards, there is real video clips, and BTS is so cute, who couldn’t love the Graphics, really?
Voice: 10/10 – BTS provides voice clips for the game too. You can hear BTS talking to you :).
Music: 10/10 – What BTS game wouldn’t have good music? duh lol.
Replay Value: 2/10 – I’m not sure… it’s only been out for 2 weeks – will they have time-limited cards, special events, etc? I hope so, otherwise once you complete the story (which isn’t even that good in the first place) I see no reason to keep playing the game.
My Score: 51/80 64% D “Average Game For Girls” – Yeah, I’d say this game is really just Average. Much better games out there… but if you love BTS – and know a lot about BTS – like I know Millions of ARMYs do – then you will probably super love this game. For me, it’s just kinda cute/amusing but ultimately not a very good game at all, despite that I like BTS quite a bit, but my lack of intimate knowledge of the band and its members ultimately hurts my enjoyment of this game. Your mileage may vary, especially if you’re a BTS super fan. lol.
A Doki Doki Representative reached out to me and offered me a choice of Doki Doki, Japan Crate, or Gacha Gacha Crate to review for my audience at Geeky Sweetie. I had subscribed to Doki Doki a few years ago and I was curious if it had improved any since then. So I selected to receive Doki Doki Crate. It just arrived the other day and I have mixed feelings about this crate.
If you like what you see here, you can sign up to receive this May Sweet Dreams Crate on Doki Doki’s website at https://japancrate.com/dokidoki
As always, it was packed super well. The entire crate was stuffed full of kawaii cute items. The crate itself is bright pink and always includes a full color booklet showing the items inside the crate, and showing the lucky crate that one subscriber receives each month. Also if you share photos of your crate on social media you might be featured in the book next month and receive a special item as a thank you.
I’m sure most of you have seen the official Doki Doki promo movie for this Month’s Crate. It has a Slumber Party theme and is packed full of cute items that you might need for your next slumber party.
The Kirby lamp and Kirby eye mask were my favorite parts of May’s Doki Doki Crate. They were super cute. I wish I would have gotten the pink Kirby lamp but the blue/white one is cute too! I feel like the lamp alone is well worth the costs of the subscription box itself. It’s fairly large and gives off a lot of light.
I am really into Idol M@ster Shiny Colors. Unlike other Idol M@ster Mobile Games or Love Live or Bang Dream, Idol M@ster Shiny Colors is not a rhythm game. Idol M@ster Shiny Colors is a simulation game. You are a producer and “hire” idols to work in your studio. You draw the idols from gacha.
Please note – I did not realize this when I played, but on your first 10 play gacha, you get UNLIMITED REROLLS by pushing the YELLOW BUTTON on the left. Once you are happy with your cards press the PINK button on the right. I didn’t know, I pushed the pink button and I only had one SSR. I have been thinking about starting over (and still might) but I think I had some pre-registration bonuses and other things I don’t want to lose by restarting the game. So definitely do not push the Pink button until you have the cards you want.
Collecting and dressing girls is the main appeal of the game. But what do you do once you have a team of idol girls? You can plan their schedule – like a true sim game. You can have them practice, give interviews, or other activities to promote their stats.
The stats also can be increased in a final-fantasy-style skill tree system where you spend skill points to unlock stat-bonuses like +20 vocals, +30 dance, +20 vitality, etc. Depending what “path” you take in the skill tree your girls will develop in different ways.
You have one main girl, and several other backup idols. The main girl is the one to gain from this skill tree system.
Performing a live show is quite different from other mobile idol games. It’s more almost like an RPG battle. You tap a girl’s face below the stage and then tap a “skill” along the left such as vocal, dance, etc. Then a colored bar will appear on the screen, try to time it right and tap the screen when the needle on the bar is in the white color. White will give you the highest bonus. Purple the least, and yellow a medium boost. You can also “link” your girls’ actions to perform together in one attack. On the right hand side of the screen are some other bubbles. i think, but could be wrong since I do not read Japanese, but think that you are competing against other idols, and as you perform these skills you can defeat the idols to the right hand side. But if you miss, you will notice your own idols on the left dropping off the screen. Once all the idols either on left or right are gone, the performance ends.
The artwork in the game is very kawaii, and SSR and higher cards have movie animations, both when retrieving from the Gacha and also when performing a live show. All of the idols are animated with Live 2D which brings the characters to life on your screen. Many of the cards have “multiple characters” on one card, and when performing a live show, or meeting the idols out in town, you may see special scenes featuring the characters all together.
The voice acting and music is also top notch as you would expect from an idol game.
Replay value is high due to limited time events that offer rewards such as gacha tickets and gems.
My only complaint is a lot of the gacha are for paid gems only. However, the gems are fairly cheap, you can get a few hundred gems for under $10 – I haven’t bought any yet.
Will we see Idol M@ster Shiny Colors get an English release? Probably not. They tried years ago to release some Idol M@ster games in English and it flopped – however, they wanted $65 for a mobile game – And worst of all, after it flopped, they pulled it down and even if you had paid for it you could no longer play it!!! I wish they would try again but with some of their “FREE” mobile games, either Shiny Colors, Theater Days, or Cinderella Girls. — But my hope is slim… However there are 2 things that give me a little bit of hope. 1.) They seem to understand that there may be English speaking players playing Shiny Colors, when the visual novel aspects come up and the choices appear, they show in English an emoji and English words that say “Perfect” “Good” “Normal” so even if you can’t read the choices you can pick the best response still. And when purchasing diamonds, the currency is shown in US Dollars, not in Yen, which is odd. I’ve literally never seen that ever before in any Japanese games. Which is a nice touch so I don’t have to try to convert it, if I ever decide to buy diamonds. And 2.) I have hope because we are getting more and more and more English idol games, with the upcoming Revue Starlight Re LIVE, or last year’s Bang Dream Girl’s Band Party and Utapri, or the ever popular Love Live School Idol Festival, we continue to receive more and more games in this genre, but we have yet to receive any of the free Idol M@ster games… Shiny Colors is only a few weeks old in Japan, maybe in a year or two we could hope to see an English release? But it is still fairly easy to play even in Japanese. But it would be nice to be able to enjoy the story! I’d be more likely to buy paid gems if the game was in English.
Scorecard:
Overall Score 70/80 88% B+ “Very Good Game For Girls”
Geeky: 5/5 – collect virtual waifus. very geeky. And simulation aspects set this game apart from other idol games.
Sweetie: 5/5 – the girls are adorable
Gameplay: 10/10 – finally a true simulation game, similar to Princess Maker or Tokimeki Memorial, you schedule your idol’s activities and watch their stats grow. I enjoy this much more than just a tappy tap rhythm game. Your girls develop in different ways based on your choices and I love that.
Story: 0/10 – I can’t read Japanese so this may not be a “fair score” but until an English version exists I can’t judge the storyline.
Characters: 10/10 – cute, gorgeous artwork, huge diversity of girls.
Artwork: 10/10 – cute, live 2D, SSR and higher cards have full movie animation sequences.
Voice Acting: 10/10 – all of the girls sound so cute.
Music: 10/10 – of course a game about idols is going to have catchy and cute music.
Replay Value: 10/10 – Lots of events, they give a lot of SR tickets and free Gems and the fact that this is a simulation game also adds replay value because the girls change based on decisions you make.
Overall Score 70/80 88% B+ “Very Good Game For Girls”
Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists Ateliers Of The New World
Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists Ateliers Of The New World is a brand new game by Koei Tecmo Games to celebrate 20 years of the series. Wow has it been that long already? I still remember the first 2 games way back when. And you know what else I remember, a little-known Nintnedo DS offshoot game in the Atelier Series called Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island which came out about 10 years ago.
So why Am I mentioning Atelier Annie? Because, if you’ve ever played it, then you know what to expect from Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists. Both games are unlike any of the rest of the Atelier Games, and instead put you in a role of managing a city and completing missions to advance.
Nelke has some really negative reviews – at least on Steam, but I purchased Nelke anyways, on a hunch it’d be like Atelier Annie, and you know what, I’m not disappointed. If you liked Annie, you’ll like Nelke. Conversely, if you hated Annie, you’ll hate Nelke, and if you’ve never played either game, well there’s only one way to find out then, and that’s by giving it a go for yourself.
The reviews on steam are complaining how different Nelke is — and to some — how boring it is… But honestly Atelier Annie was one of my favorites in the series. I loved the humorous story / humorous main character, and yes, I enjoyed the more “Sim Like” gameplay of building a city.
Nelke is not without flaws however; Unlike Annie, it lacks the humor and charm, and feels a bit dry and dull so far in the story. I’m 4 hours in at this point… which brings to another flaw, in that 4 hours in, I’m still in the tutorial… This game is very very very linear in the tutorial… Like almost everything will be on lockdown… for a long while… expect your first 8+ hours to be linear AF….
After that though there really is a TON of stuff to do in this game. It is NOT boring at all. You can craft items, gather materials, build new buildings, talk to your villagers, discover new recipes, sell items in your shops, and invest in new routes and tools to use in your adventures. There are simplistic turn based combats and different characters to recruit to your village.
You have to complete some required, and other optional tasks within a set number of days within the game. This can make it difficult and frustrating, so save often and in multiple save slots to try to minimize time lost if you miss a goal.
The game either runs slow on my laptop, or just is really slow by design, to the point where its a little frustrating. It may just be my laptop though and can probably be improved if I adjust some settings.
The main complaint a lot of people have is that while exploring you do nothing but watch your characters walk by on the screen. They will converse, gather items, and occasionally run into random enemy encounters. The battles are also slow and tedious. I do agree with these basic gameplay flaws. However, they don’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the other aspects of city building and mission completing and watching my city grow and evolve based on my decisions and choices made in where to invest and what to build next, etc.
The graphics are insanely adorable as always with the Atelier series.
Unlike a lot of the other games in the Atelier Universe, this one does not have English voice acting. I do like to have the original voice actors, but I also sometimes like to have an English cast too. I was disappointed they didn’t offer both.
I assume replay value is high because each city you build will be pretty unique and you will attract different stores, different npcs, and different quests based on how your city is developing.
All and all I’d rate the score card like this:
Title: Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists – Ateliers Of The New World –
Platform – (for this review The PC version was used.) It’s also available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
Geeky: 3/5 – Points for bringing back some of the popular characters from this series over the past 20 years.
Sweetie: 5/5 – For the casual gameplay and kawaii art
Overall: 53/70 78% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Gameplay: 7/10 – I do love the sim aspects, having been a huge fan of Atelier Annie (easily one of my top 3 games in the Atelier universe). But I do agree that the game is slow and the wait for the payoff/reward is pretty steep. The game also doesn’t run great, can’t tell if it’s just my PC though maybe.
Story: 3/10 – I’m not loving the story, or lack there of. I’m 4 hours in and there’s not much of any story to be found; it does keep hinting at solving a mystery about a fruit from a legendary tree. But compared to other Atelier games the story feels less engaging so far.
Characters: 10/10 – I love seeing popular characters from the Atelier games return all in a brand new game. I also love the new characters that were created just for this game.
Voice Acting: 7/10 – The original Japanese voice cast does a great job and sounds super cute, but where’s the dual English voice acting? A bit disappointing especially for a 20th anniversary edition, you’d think they would have put a little more time and effort into the localization on this one. It feels cheap and rushed to not have both to choose from.
Music: 10/10 – Always love the music in the Atelier games, and Nelke doesn’t disappoint here either.
Replay Value: 8/10 – I think replay value will be very high, but I’m not looking forward to dredging through 5+ hours of linear handheld tutorials each time.
Overall: 53/70 78% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Overall I would recommend this game to anyone who does not mind slower paced casual simulation games, or to anyone who remembers playing Atelier Annie on the DS. I like Atelier Annie a lil bit more because of the humorous story; but Nelke’s story may pick up and become more interesting. I may come in eventually and update my review scores if I find the story to improve as I get further into the game. Gameplay wise though it is almost identical to Atelier Annie, so if that’s your thing, be sure to check Nelke out.
Around Christmas time I bought myself a “Dream Fairy Doll” on Aliexpress – At the time it was on sale, $59.99 for fullset. I bought it mostly for the outfit as I didn’t care that much for the face. But I figured the outfit alone was worth $59.99 and free shipping.
She comes with a faceup, shoes, socks, underwear, dress, accessories, 2 pairs of hands, rooted hair head (not a wig sadly), eyes, and even a painted manicure on one set of her hands. And she’s huge at 62 cm.
She was packaged very nicely and the doll and her dress are high quality.
From my understanding, and what other people have told me, Dream Fairy Dolls are not Recast, they are a cheap ABS doll similar to Hujoo but cheaper. I don’t really care if it is recast because I’m pro recast or recast friendly, but I know a lot of people are pro artist / anti-recast. So they should know that (from what I understand) Dream Fairy is not a recast which makes it a good solution for a cheap doll body for anyone regardless of where you stand on the recast debate.
It is no longer on sale, and now ranges $89-$100 for a full set, or you can get just the body for around $35. I would recommend waiting for a sale. Aliexpress has sales pretty frequently. I’m betting some dolls will go on sale in a few weeks for Valentine’s Day or in a few months again for Easter. $100 is still pretty cheap for a fullset non-recast doll. But they have sales like super often. By time you read this it may be on sale again.
The following URLs can help you find Dream Fairy Dolls – or you can do a search for Dream Fairy 1/3 in dolls on Aliexpress.
Here is a link to the doll I purchased on Aliexpress:
What I noticed though is perhaps the best / most exciting part about these dolls. While browsing facebook, I came across someone selling a dollfie dream body and I noticed that the neck piece looked similar to my Dream Fairy neck piece.
This got me thinking… Could a Volks Dollfie Dream head fit on my Dream Fairy Doll Body? I decided to try a little experiment… And discovered that yes, it fits without needing any kind of attachment.
Note: Some dolls that are listed as “Dream Fairy” are not Dream Fairy – you have to be careful to read the descriptions fully – for example, icy dolls and Dairy Queen / Diary Queen dolls are often listed as Dream Fairy and they have different neck pieces. When in doubt look for the one in my blog post in the pink dress with yellow hair. It for sure has the right neck piece as of time of this blog posting. Of course manufacturers sometimes make changes to their designs if parts/prices change in the future to maximize their profits or improve their dolls.
For my experiment, I bought the DDH10 head from www.VolksUSA.com – Blank heads are available for around $40. So for under $95 you can basically have a Dollfie Dream. The Dream Fairy doll body probably isn’t as flexible, good at posing, or as stable/sturdy as a Dollfie Dream, but for $59, when the Dollfie Dream is about $400 for a body – the Dream Fairy Doll presents a good option for those who can’t afford a Dollfie Dream.
It is not a good color match, the head I bought was a DDH10 Semiwhite. I wonder if just white would have been better.
Also I am a super bad faceup artist – sorry for my amateur work.
And I couldn’t find my MSC Mr. Superclear – I used a can of krylon topcoat that my grandma had… Don’t ever use it on dolls – in my opinion it dries sticky – Even a week later, and I did stand back and only use short quick sprays – and due to the stickyness – it picks up hairs and dirt. And I think it has a slightly yellow hue. If you look at the back of my head with the neck/body the color match isn’t as bad.
The color match is worse with the flash of your camera… (FYI Flash was on in the picture above showing back of head – and it’s STILL not THAT bad – so I think a lot of the yellowness is from the krylon I used for the sealant.) Here are some more photos with and without flash. You’ll see the yellow hue I mention below.
Anyways, having seen that my experiment in creating a hybrid was a success aside from my awful faceup skills, I bought a custom DDH2 head from Buyee.jp and waiting on it to arrive. They are a proxy bidding service for Y! Auctions Japan, Yahoo Japanese auctions.
Even with the proxy fees and international shipping, it was cheaper than I could find any second hand or custom dollfie heads for in the states. I paid about the equivalent of $108 for the head + insurance/package inspection (could have saved about 6 dollars without the insurance, but it was worth the peace of mind, because if there is a problem, the proxy can communicate with the seller in Japanese to resolve any issues).
The proxy just received my package today, with no issues, and I paid about $20 for shipping and handling – cheaper options existed but this one was reasonably priced and said it will arrive in 2-4 days.
So I paid about $130 for the head + shipping + insurance + tracking — which isn’t bad. If you look on Etsy and Facebook and elsewhere rarely do you see a custom head going for that cheap. Most of the custom heads that I see on Etsy are $200+. Especially if they’ve been heavily modded like mine to have mouth parts or sanding/reshaped.
I will use Buyee again in the future. Also for those wondering, someone told me that the auction was from a popular Japanese instagram faceup artist named doll a holic. Some of you may want to check out their instagram here. https://www.instagram.com/doll__a__holic/
So that’s how I am now the owner of 2 dollfie dream hybrids – I will eventually buy another dream fairy body for the other head – but until then they can easily share the one body. the head just squeezes/slides/wiggles over the neck attachment that looks kinda like a grooved pe— err p–iece of male anatomy 🙂 lol.
PS: someone on Instagram asked me if the hands are changeable – I believe the answer is yes. It came with an extra pair of hands which seem to be using a “peg” system. See photo of the extra hands below:
Will it work with Volks hands parts? I dunno – I am tempted to find out.. I believe it will work with this item which on one end has a long peg and the other end has a ball joint and “square” type attachment, and then you order extra hands that I assume slip over / snap onto the square like piece?
I may buy a few and try out this theory – I will update this once I know for sure if it will work, but looks like a strong possibility just from the photos. – They could probably be sanded or cut and/or lengthened/plumped with clay etc if the pegs are too thick or thin or too long or short.
There are a lot of cute hand attachments. The internal piece and all of the attachments can be purchased from Volks at the following page:
https://volksusastore.com/webstores/dollfie/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=826read more
