Summary
Uninteresting adventure with an uninteresting story
The Good
If you are familiar with my other reviews, you might have an impression I am too mild as a reviewer. The overwhelming majority of my reviews are very positive, and I usually write much more in the "Good" section than in the "Bad" one. In reality, I don't consider myself more mild than any other reviewer out there (I only don't like using bad language and writing phrases such as "this game is total crap"). I simply know what I like, and usually know beforehand which game I would like and which not, that's why I normally play only good games as a result. When I buy a game, I usually do it because I'm sure I'll like it. And in most cases I really do, although there were exceptions. Unfortunately, "Kyuusei Koushu" belongs to them.
I cannot say the game is
bad. It is better than 90% of the games out there, which are, in my humble opinion, either useless or damaging. More than it is bad it is
weak - not satisfying, not interesting enough.
To the best things this game has to offer belongs the voice acting. Every single line of dialogue (those, of course, don't include Yakumo's own thoughts and descriptions) is voiced, and the voices are quite good. Even the unimportant characters have their own distinct voices and say their phrases pretty well.
The graphics are very good. Character graphics could be more expressive, but the backgrounds are beautiful. The backgrounds are pre-rendered and there is no animation on them, but even as still shots they are impressive.
The Bad
When do we consider an adventure game great? Or, better to ask, why do we like adventure games? Either because of gameplay, or because of the story, since adventure is a particularly story-driven genre. If an adventure fails to deliver good, interesting gameplay, we can often find consolation in its story. Japanese adventures have a tradition of being incredibly simplistic and unchallenging gameplay-wise, compensating this flaw with exciting stories. Unfortunately, "Kyuusei Koushu" offers neither. I don't mind clicking my way through such a thriller as
Eve Burst Error. I have nothing against sitting back and reading the touching
Kana - Little Sister, occasionally making a decision and discovering various endings later. But the story of "Kyuusei Koushu" is simply not interesting enough to make the player forget he is hardly playing it. The basic gameplay system is the same as in "Eve Burst Error", i.e., there are menu options which tell you what to do, you select them, and after you have examined and talked to everyone on screen, the game continues. There are no decisions to make and no alternate paths to choose like in digital novels. There are no puzzles to solve and nothing to do beside selecting "look" or "talk" options and reading descriptions or listening to conversations.
As I said, that alone would have been half the trouble. In "Eve Burst Error", the story was so fascinating that I didn't mind this kind of "gameplay". But the biggest problem of "Kyuusei Koushu" is its story. First of all, if you are a 3x3 Eyes fan, forget about playing the story of 3x3 Eyes. This game is more like a side-story to the main plot, two small episodes that have nothing or little to do with the actual story. In
Seima Densetsu (a much better 3x3 Eyes game, a RPG for Sega CD), you played the whole story of 3x3 Eyes, from the beginning to the end, from Pai's first encounter with Yakumo to the final confrontation with their archenemies. "Kyuusei Koushu" merely tells a couple of pretty ordinary episodes from Yakumo's life: in fact, those are just two missions he receives while working at monster-hunting society by Lingling. Sure, there is Benares (who this time is accompanied by his "greedy concubine" Lanfei), and there are some references to the main plot, but the game tells nothing about the relationship between Yakumo and Pai and their quest for the lost humanity, which is the series' cardinal and most interesting aspect. Other characters just appear without any background given before, and talk to Yakumo like old friends, without introducing themselves. Who is Naparvha? Who is Han? Who is Steve Long? I might have known them because I played "Seima Densetsu", but a person unfamiliar with the series would certainly feel uncomfortable. In short, the whole game seems like some sort of a "playable" add-on to 3x3 Eyes, a kind of "extra" for hardcore fans.
But even with all those flaws, "Kyuusei Koushu" could have still been a fine game. The side episodes could have contained an interesting, thought-provoking story, and the pure artistic value of an animé game could have saved it. But alas, there is nothing of the kind in "Kyuusei Koushu". The story is told in a primitive, simplistic way. The dialogues are so simple and straightforward that I rarely even needed a Japanese dictionary to look up unknown words:
"Hi, Yakumo. I found out that the problem must be the Eastern Forest. There was a monster seen there recently"
"Eastern Forest?"
"Yes. You should talk to people to find out more about that"
"I understand!"
"So, what will you do now, Yakumo?"
"I'll talk to people to find out more about the Eastern Forest!"
"That's right, Yakumo! That's what we are going to do!"
"I understand!"
"So let's go, Yakumo!"
"Let's go!"
Great, isn't it? "Japanese Made Easy", lesson IX. And now, dear children, we'll learn how to conjugate verbs! Wakaru - wakatta - wakatte iru - wakarou...
...Okay. You can say that such or similar dialogues are a common phenomenon for Japanese RPGs. And you would be absolutely right, but the problem is - this is
not an RPG. Playing a RPG, where dialogues are usually much more rare and play a much less important role than in such adventures as "Kyuusei Koushu", you pay much less attention to them and can even forget their low quality, because there are other things to do. Here, there are no other things to do, and you are stuck with those plain dialogues without a hope for a better life.
The story itself, the actual plotline, could have also been thinkable within the frames of an RPG, but it is way too weak for an adventure. There is almost zero psychology in the game, a fact that kills immediately its mood. There are very little feelings shown and very little emotion involved. We play such games for a killer plot twists and turns, or
at least for some good romance or an interesting idea. There is nothing of all this in "Kyuusei Koushu". What we have instead is an ordinary monster-fighting mission that has only very little to do with the actual story of 3x3 Eyes, or with anything interesting, for that matter.
But at least we get to see some cool animé, right? Wrong! What we see is a collection of pre-rendered backgrounds - granted, quite beautiful ones - with dialogues spoken and written in text boxes, with pictures of the heroes' faces above. It is true most Japanese adventures work like that, but since there is no story and no gameplay worth mentioning here, I would except at least a gorgeous collection of animated sequences. Well, surprise, surprise - the animated sequences are indeed quite numerous, but each one lasts about two-three seconds. I'm serious - the moment you are ready to watch, the sequence is over. But what is worse is the nature of those sequences. And here we come to the game's most annoying side.
You see, there are battles in the game. If those were real battles, action-like, such as in
Policenauts, or strategy-like, such as in
Shadowrun (Sega CD), they could have been the game's saving grace. Instead, they are somewhat of a last nail in its coffin. The battles
imitate turn-based combat, such as seen in most Japanese RPGs. Instead of fighting yourself, you are forced to watch Yakumo and the others performing their special moves, automatically, turn after turn. You don't command them anything - they do whatever they like, and the battle develops according to its own pre-programmed laws. Each move is shown as an animated sequence. So instead of being real story-based cut-scenes, the animé sequences in the game are mostly nothing more but fancy presentation of attack moves. And since there are quite a few "boss battles" in the game which take quite a few turns (for the game!) to finish, you are obliged to watch
the same attack animations all over again. If they insisted on those battles being automatic, at least they could have made them to short movies, each battle having its own individual one. But no, instead we watch Yakumo using his Juuma technique for three seconds... another three seconds loading time... three seconds of the monster's attack animation... rinse and repeat.
The Bottom Line
I wanted to like "Kyuusei Koushu", because after the excellent
Seima Densetsu I already began to feel like a true 3x3 Eyes fan. Unfortunately, "Kyuusei Koushu" is far from being a masterpiece. Several nice scenes don't save this game from being a boring reading of unexciting 3x3 Eyes side episodes. It is equally weak as an adventure game, as an animé, and as a "digital story". If you are not a die-hard 3x3 Eyes fan who simply must have everything based on the series, don't bother with this one.
