Amigami Eb Kore Plus
Amigami is a visual novel that is the spiritual successor to Kimi Kiss, the dating simulation game. The game was developed by Enterbrain, the game development division of Kadowaka. To play this game in North America, I had to get the region free version for the PSP as PS2 is region locked. The PSP version fixes the bugs that was in the original PS2 game and it adds new story parts and girls to date.
Most of the game, including the menu is entirely in Japanese and it took me a while learning the menu and how it worked.
The game focuses on Junichi Tachibana, a student of Kikito High school who was stood up on Christmas Eve and he has hated Christmas since then. Junichi has been avoiding romance for a while but plans to start dating again this winter. Its main story theme is about moving forward and giving love a second chance again. The story is told in a non-linear format and time management is very important as you have limited time to the girl you want. The story could unfold in many unpredictable ways due to the non linear nature.
You can select which tiles on the scenario map to see what would you like to do throughout the school day. Completing each tile successfully allows you to explore more chances to develop your relationship with the characters. The tile system takes a certain amount of time getting used to. Hearts means romance, and song symbols mean friendship.
There is a conversation mini game that appears in certain parts of the story. By matching the color of the missing tile, you could make the character become much happier to talk with you. Sometimes no color will appear so you are really going to have to take a random guess. Depending on how well the conversation turns out, more events become available for you to participate in. When you reach a certain level, the rainbow star becomes available to use. The rainbow star makes the love interest more likely to fall in love with you. Your relationships and love interests' moods are heavily affected by this minigame so pick wisely and use memory to do so.
The game is very long and it has to be played in bursts as it can drag on for a bit.
You could fast forward time and at the end of the day you can relive that day or progress. You could skip dialogue you have already read as is the norm in many visual novels. You can also turn voices on or off. In addition to saving anywhere and anytime you could also look at the history to what has happened during the day. On weekends, you have a chance to encounter your love interests from school at the local mall and this chance meeting helps boost the relationship.
Junichi is the typical visual novel protagonist seen in many other visual novels. Nice guy who’s loyal to his love interests and if he feels lonely he looks at “cultured content”. The characters are typical of a visual novel and well they are based on ideal dating types but in reality, not all of them seemed like ideal dating types. Karou Tanamachi is hardworking girl who enjoys picking on Junichi from biting his ear to playfully punching him. Tsuakasa Ayatsuji is really a toxic manipulative blackmailer who makes Junichi her slave. Overall, the characters are the same kind of characters you could see in just about any other anime or visual novel in existence.
There are multiple endings based on the decisions you made and how close you are with the love interests. I liked the art style the visual novel uses. The facial expressions were fairly expressive. The voice acting as expected it is entirely in Japanese and it sounds quite authentic. The music score wasn’t too bad its easy to listen too.
The game has a good amount of replay value in it. By the save during play and the system save that occurs when each ending is reached, all the history selected in the past play is recorded, and it is the lap after selecting a certain action It will be reflected in the play, and even in the same situation, another option may be added.
It is necessary to create various situations in order to fill all the squares of the action map, and there are plenty of replay elements that go beyond simply capturing all heroines and collecting event graphics. The lighthearted humour borders on the ridiculous and seems forced at times. Amagami EBKore is the third Japanese import I have played I enjoyed the experience.
It gets 4 out of 5 stars.
There are 2 anime adaptations and 6 manga based on the visual novel. So if you do enjoy romance visual novels feel free to pick this up.