A Midsummer Day's Resonance

• Title - A Midsummer Day's Resonance
  
• Author - Kagura Saitoh
• Style - Linear Visual Novel (non-interactive)
  
• Engine - ONScripter
  
• Price - Free
• Get - Web Download - http://altogether.insani.org/2005/resources/index/phase02-resonance.html http://visualnews.net/doujin-downloads/#midsum
  

A Midsummer Day's Resonance is a sweet story about a girl who falls in love. A (somewhat) science-fiction story filled with romance and surprise. I enjoyed it thoroughly, from beginning to end.

Graphics - The sprites were very cute and simple. The art for each chapter header was very nice as well. Backgrounds were also well done, high in detail, and helped a lot in conveying emotion. The only irritant was that the characters were consistently displayed in as a hologram which is consistent with the story, but somewhat awkward looking. 9/10

Music/SFX - The music was pleasant and subtle, so it didn't disrupt the game. There was a large variety of music, and it didn't feel overplayed. The sound effects however, were kind of disruptive, and could sometimes ruined the mood of the situation, like in a sad scene, where everything is silent and then you hear this loud *shiiiing*. 8/10

Story - The concept was original and the writing, even the science fiction bits, were easy to understand. The story was paced nicely and written well. There were some parts where improvements could be made in terms of conveying emotion. Some parts needed to be more sad, like the parts where the connection cuts out; while other parts needed to be more happy, like the parts where everyone was together. 8/10

System/Extras - This release has all the expected features of an ONScripter game but the "hide text" ("Clear" in the right-click menu) function doesn't work properly. The extras include a gallery mode for the chapter illustrations and a music mode. There is also an additional extras menu (rot13 for puzzle spoilers) juvpu jnf npprffrq ol tbvat gb gur tnyyrel naq ivrjvat gur PTf va gur beqre tvira ng gur raq bs gur tnzr. This menu had rough sketches, a character sprite gallery, and some additional humorous scenes. 4/5

Score - 29/35 - 83% - Good

Planetarian ~The Reverie of a Little Planet~ CD-ROM Edition

• Title - Planetarian ～ちいさなほしのゆめ～ (Planetarian ~The Reverie of a Little Planet~)
  
• Author - KEY - Kinetic Novel
  
• Engine - RealLive (does not require JP enviroment after patching)
  
• Style - Linear Visual Novel (non-interactive)
• Trial - Yes http://visualnews.net/demo-downloads/#planet
  
• Website - http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/product/planetarian/ http://planetarian.insani.org/
  
• Price - ¥1,395 download edition; ¥2,940 CD-ROM or PS2
  
• Get - Editions and methods will be discussed below
  

Planetarian is the story of a dying world, a living robot and the man who interacts with both. While it is a short piece and a simple piece it is one of the best works in English today.

Graphics - The graphics are simply wonderful. The art is detailed and lively. Event CGs are interspersed through out the story and the sprites vary frequently. No skimping on backgrounds either. 10/10

Music/SFX - The music is very good, setting the mood quite well. I have found my self sitting and just listening to the jukebox mode over and over. 10/10

Voice Acting - This is the main difference between editions. The download editions have no voice acting (except the first line in the prologue ?), the CD-ROM edition has voice acting for Reverie (Yumemi) only and the PS2 has full voice acting. I am reviewing the CD edition. Reverie's voice was done excellently by Keiko Suzuki. I am looking forward to her performance in Little Busters! as well. The voice fit perfectly and added significantly to certain scenes in the story. Only downfall was the lack of voicing of other (albeit very minor) characters. Partial voicing tends to bug me (Except the protagonist. I don't like them voiced) but I understand it since these characters consisted of maybe 15 minutes of the entire work. 9/10

Story - The story is a bit slow to take off but pays off entirely. Reverie as (practically) the only other character is developed magnificently. This is a very character driven story. If you don't like such things make sure to try the trial before you decide to buy this or not. Insani's translation also is wonderfully done, with such details as adapting the characters name. (Something I don't normally agree with but the meaning of it is important to the story.) 10/10

System/Extras - All the normal features of a modern professional game engine (RealLive) including auto-mode, skip mode, log mode but also with a chapter list for loading and a beautiful GUI for the save/load menus. The extras are the usual Music and CG modes. 5/5

Overall - Wonderful game. Us English speakers should feel grateful that someone went through the effort to translate and release a patch to us no matter how difficult acquiring a copy can get.

Score - 44/45 - 98% - exceptional

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How to get a copy of Planetarian

Insani's patch is designed for the original download version of Planetarian. However this version has been replaced by a new DRM system . The patch no longer works for the new system. Due to much piracy of the original version, Insani (understandably) refuses to release anymore commercial patches including ones for other versions of Planetarian and does not condone any other patches with their translation. However it is quite possible to patch the CD version and this is what I have done to play this story. There are instructions on how to do that here. The CD version is available from Himeya Shop here. If you can read Japanese you can purchase the new download edition here or the PS2 edition here.

Midsummer Haze - the long awaited review

• Title - Midsummer Haze
  
• Author - Sakura Shima
• Style - Short branching novel (interactive)
• Engine - KiriKiri2 (requires Japanese Enviroment)
  
• Price - Free
• Get - Web Download - http://at2006.haeleth.net/game.php?id=13

Midsummer Haze.....I look forward to finally being able to delete this game after 3 long months. MH has a one choice with two options.....and four endings....yes four. To get the third ending you have to play one of the paths around 50 times and to get the fourth you have need to stall at the choice until it is triggered. Now this is very clever but the story isn't.

Graphics - Solid art, nothing special. Fairly colorful. The backgrounds are stock images. There are no event CGs I can remember. 8/10

Music/SFX - The music is good and appropriate to the scenes except the final ending song which is techno. Sound effects are appropriate. 8/10

Story - Story..... there was one....kinda. The idea was good but the implementation is boring at best and the plot twist invokes more of a "huh?" than the intended "oh" . The only part of it that I enjoyed was the third ending but it was rather incongruent to the story. 3/10

System/Extras - This is a KiriKiri game (Japanese environment required). The system is straight forward not a pretty GUI but it's simple and easy to use. The ending system is pure undiluted evil tho. As I mentioned before, you have to play the one path about 50 times to get the only ending worth anything in this game. Thankfully there is a fast-forward button. After you get this ending you unlock the extras which are a postscript, translator's note, and extra story which would be good except, at least in my case, you will hate the characters by that point. Then there's the fourth ending with the techno theme and you're done, no extras after that one. 2/5

Score - 21/35 - 60% mediocre