Spoiler warning! You have been warned.
Duel Love: Koisuru Otome wa Shouri no Joshin*
Developer: Namco Bandai Games
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Plaform: Nindtendo DS
Those of you familiar with the game industry may have heard of this title before. It's that Japanese game where you wipe sweat off shirtless guys. Well, being some sort of female adolescent secret pervert I simply had to try it at least once. Okay, the general understanding of the game is that you're a transfer student at a new school. It starts off in the way an otome usually would. Your attractive teacher makes some overly-friendly looking girl (who is neither hot nor ugly) show you around the school and help you get to your classes. Along the way, you run into all the
Now, I don't understand a single Japanese character. This game would be GREATLY enjoyable if I understood some characters. So in terms of the storyline, I have no idea what it's about outside of what I told you in the above paragraph. If you're in it for the storyline all I can tell you is, "Learn to read Japanese characters." I don't even know if it was in hirigana or katakana. Kanji? For those of you who don't care you can skip most of the dialouge and take your chances when someone asks you something and you're staring at the bottom screen at some Japanese in two little pink rectangles. Or you can make up a storyline and stare at pretty pictures.
I decided to put in my own storyline, it went something like this. I am an EXCHANGE student who has limited (practically none) understanding of Japanese. Some times the characters would talk to me in cute broken english or talk to each other in Japanese when they don't want me to understand. I decided that my character volunteered at the school clinic/sick bay/doctor's office and I had to help treat the fighters. The wiping down was just a plus. My guy helped me learn a bit of Japanese as the friendship/relationship developed.
Now, onto gameplay. Duel Love is pretty standard otome style. It's a visual novel, you read some storyline and look at pretty pictures and occasionally hear some of the characters talk in Japanese. At certain times you change location through a map system; that is you select a location on the map then you're there. Plot continues. The mini games are kind of fun, but, wear headphones if you play t in public. The guys make awkward moans and groans, especially during the massage mini game. There are several mini games including, wiping sweat, mending injuries, training, cheering, shower spying and the massage game. All these games take advantage of the DS touch screen or microphone. For example, in the shower game, you have to blow into the microphone to 'blow away' the steam. Considering the otome genre isn't well known for using these features of a DS, this is pretty innovative.
Duel Love is a fun game, mixing beautiful boys, love and a hint of perversion into a neat little package. It's great if you are a hetero-girl or homo-guy who can understand Japanese. I would love to see more games of this nature, preferably in English.
Well, that's all for now,
Miss A. Marcellus
P.S: I'll re-post with pictures, if I get to it.
*Using online translators, you get something like "Duel Love: The young girl whom is in love with is a goddess of the victory" It's actually alittle accurate considering the general gist of the story.
**I honestly don't know if it's an underground fight club or not because the ring they hold the fights in is pretty much a boxing stadium. It's got lots of seating and flashy lights; it's in it's own building on the school grounds.