Double Babel

28 10 2012

When someone mentions Babel, I always think of a tower that looked like pancakes stacked on top of bigger pancakes (it’s actually the tower of Hanoi).

The tower of Babel, in the Biblical story, is actually a tower made by men to “make bricks and build a city and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for themselves, so that they not be scattered over the world”. In His infinite wisdom, God determined this “stairway to heaven” would only lead the people away from God, so he confused their language so that they could not understand each other. As a result, men scattered over the face of the earth, and stopped building the city.

Ofcourse, an individual wouldn’t be a creative VN scenario writer to not spin a twist of this wonderful premise. So today, we’ll look at two of them that had the theme of “Babel”.

Tokyo Babel Sinclient
Company= propeller

Scenario = 東出 祐一郎 (Higashide Yuuichirou) (the propeller 燃えseries writer)

Artist = 石井久雄(Ishii Hisao) (new artist? Confirmed to have already worked on s;g. His website says he is also working on Lass’s new work)

Genre = sf (science fantasy), battle, apocalyptic action all-age galge with a Biblical flavour.

What’s so special = Voiced protagonist, all star seiyuu line-up, battles all around, I am Gundam, pseudo-routes. Spoiler warning!

 

Company= boost5 (5pb 18+branch)

Scenario= 谷崎央佳(Tanizaki Ouka) (Steins;gate writer)

Artist= れーさー

Genre = mystery, suspense, sf (secretly fantasy)  cop/detective/spy game, battle, action eroge with only a hint of biblical implications at the prologue.

What’s so special =  Whodunnit, one linear route, the staff are actually from FLAT, and misuse of snipers…oh wait.

 

Foreword and Disclaimers

This will be my first time trying this, so please bear with me if things seem different than usual. There really is /barely/ any connection between the two games other than a) they both have “Babel”, and b) I played them in almost succession. Left hand side will be for Tokyo Babel, and right hand side for Sinclient throughout this post.

Synopses

Taken and slightly edited from VNDB.

“Catastrophe”

The event could only be described as such. A sudden end to the world as we knew it. It was said the Catastrophe was caused by none other than God himself. With heaven locked, hell submerged in water and the infinite parallel worlds thinning out, the surviving angels and demons gathered with one final hope: to ascend all seven levels of the floating purgatory known as Tokyo Babel.

“Son of men, pilgrimage! Through seven test, and the heaven’s door may open.”And that was all the gospel said.As such, angels and demons started summoning the keys from parallel worlds to the pilgrimage, “humans”, banding together hoping to  clear the task and prevent apocalypse.

However, it’s been years after their attempts. They’ve sent in their best of the best, but none has returned. Worst off, some of them has took over the levels of Tokyo Babel as “Dominators” of the floor, killing pilgrims that try to pass by. Just what is going on?In the midst of the see-saw battle, a lone young man Setsuna was saved from a perishing world. Together with the “Witch of the Night” Lilith who had rescued him, he took aim at traversing Tokyo Babel, while searching for the reason of why he keeps on living.

“The Seven Deadly Sin Serial Murdering Case: a strange case involving brutal, inhumane, killing in a room where one of the seven sins is written on the wall with the victim’s blood. The case has once happened in London, the case was never closed. Now killing with the same style seems to be happening in Yokohama, Japan”Amnesia.Tooru is but another man who woke up in Yokohama with such illness. However, it wasn’t  being  chased by men in black with firearms that made his rough awakening so much as seeing multiple fake ID’s in his wallet, having a strange address book on his cellphone, and reacting perfectly calm in the face of gunfights. The only thing he knew, was that he was anything but an ordinary man.Upon further investigation, Tooru discovered that he had a hotel room key in his pocket. He visited said hotel, and entered the room, he was appalled to find a murdered woman with the word ‘Pigrizia’ written on the wall in blood. This was part of the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ murders that the public had been abuzz about. Finding a memo on his cell phone that looked like a murder plan, he began to suspect whether he was the serial killer. Then he met a man that looked like the spitting image of himself…

Characters

I’ll do three, protagonist + my favourite 2. I’ll go insane if I had to do all of them. Disclaimer for the character section: I’m actually not a huge guru about voice actresses and names, but if I do sound like I’m talking on that level it is because a) I need substance to fill space b) they were knowledge that were passed to me by other seiyuu enthusiasts.

Tendou Setsuna- the protagonist of Tokyo Babel.

That’s right, SETSUNA. The seiyuu voicing him (Kamiya Hiroshi) is actually Tierria in 00, but similar short, succinct speech patterns, monotone, and living by the mission style of character (as well his “sitting in the warzone CG” made me think he really wanted to voice Setsuna back then and this was the result.

Also, if you want more crude observations, his hair style makes him look like Araragi, and you’ll get the same general feel when they are in comedic mood since he does the sharp, speedy, intonated innerself tsukkomis.

Right, information actually about the character. Setsuna is essentially a superhuman, an artificial god made by a parallel world of futurians who never believed in religions. He manipulates the nanomachines in his body to do superhuman deeds, such as spitting fire, gaining strength to split earth, or travelling three times faster than original. His main purpose in the story was to try to redeem himself if a little bit by saving another world since his died, however this altruistic sacrificial mindset contradicts with the very “theme” of Tokyo Babel and that is to find one’s own “Raison D’être”.

Ikemori Tooru- the protagonist of Sinclient.

Losing his memories, the only memory he can recall about himself is his name.

On his soul search, he got heavily involved in the mysterious organization named “BABEL”, including several incidents that utilized his unusual repertoire of abilities.While certainly not as colourful as the other side, Tooru’s “act before think” mentality is one that is actually quite amazing. “Betray my friends to help my lover? No problem.” “Betray my organization and listen to a suspicious stranger giving me instructions, you got it.” “My sister just shot my dad, oops.”

Well, the big surprise is that he wasn’t actually all that amazing as he lets on as the enemy become stronger. So in a sense it is refreshing to see a protagonist not be so incredible until it really counts (i.e. showdowns). I don’t dislike this notion, heroes are meant to only function in pinches!

sorami miina
Kugutsu Sorami- Heroine of Tokyo Babel.Sorami was one of the “sacrifices” summoned by the “dominator” of the first floor of Tokyo Babel. A regular, red twin tailed ingenuous girl who when rescued by Setsuna and co. realized that she (get this) has no memories of the past (similarity)!Whether it is because she has no memories or not, she is oddly tough mentally and is able to absorb and deal with the abnormalities of Tokyo Babel with little problem.When I think of Itou Kanae I think of Nobuna, and then I nod at how cute her voiced characters can be. Sorami is arguably the best heroine in Tokyo Babel of the three because of her easy going, happy go lucky attitude and yet a very aggressive style of approaching Setsuna, who is the king of slow intake on these type of messages.

She sticks to Setsuna like a royal puppy and is one of our main facet of exploration with her curious nature. Her route is somewhat of a tease though (well technically the whole game is, since all ages) as there is a good amount of time where Setsuna is separated from Sorami and you don’t get the bickering/bantering between them as much. All in all a good girl though: pure, naïve, but fun.

Ougi Mina- Heroine of Sinclient.Miina is a lovable dedicated supportive kohai who is prepared to go to lengths of pretending to NOT be your lover at school just so you can two time her. Reliable, but doesn’t mind showing you her weak side, Miina is just an adorable angel worthy of being voiced by Ogura Yui…Or is she?Hah, first off it is most likely a different Ogura Yui than the one you are thinking about! Well, spoilers be spoiled she is actually one of the “seven sage” in the mysterious organization of “BABEL” and has played you as the gullible chick you are. She is a evil, mean spirited, do-S, twisted yandere who just wants to screw with your mind so she achieves her goal of a) accomplishing her mission as “sage” and b) completely control you so she can “love you”.
Man, evil possessive gals are scary but at the same time kind-of-want since they don’t mind expending tons of effort to express their love. Right?
hagane mai
Oshiba Hagane- One of the classmates in “Pandora” that is thought to be a “dominator”. Seemingly a well educated, well performed, and well mannered youth but has an obsession with the future, while hating on the past. Uses a Nodachi as a weapon.

While there are other big name seiyuus in the characters (such as Rasiel-Hana Kana, Samael-KitaEri) Oshiba Hagane and his Nodachi left a stronger impression on me. Aside from being absolutely badass with the Nodachi, he is also a very interesting character for me with his view on future.“(regarding recipes) useless information that people from the past wrote to remember how to cook.” even though he was the one who used the recipe to make the lunch he was eating.

At some point I think he is true that in order for humans to live on (especially in the context of crisis/apocalypse) they need to gaze in the future and not delve in past. At the same time the past is used so that mistakes wont be made/more efficient learning for progressing.

Ah well, loved the battle between him and Setsuna none the less.

Yanase Mai- Heroine of Sinclient. One of the dorm mates of Tooru. Likes to tease Tooru and Miina for their raburabu relationship but not in one herself. Has a energetic personality and seems a rough/rowdy one but she is actually very calculated as a CIA agent.If I had to give a reason why Mai was my second favourite, it would be because it looked like Mai would be the “fang character” from judging the cover. Obviously was dead wrong, and I got triple shafted from then on:

1) Hscene was a delusion
2) No route
3) Hscene was a delusionYou have Natsuno Koori voicing a character, you bench her to the side and then you do a delusional H-scene? What is wrong with the director and why is her English name on the official website spelt “Yanasa Mai”.

Oh my lord, the injustice towards unwanted characters.

System

Oddly enough, this is where Sinclient seems to triumph over Tokyo Babel; just seems to be using a better vn engine overall.

    • 1024×576
  • standard configuration options (text, sound, overall)
  • extras include weapon/special terminology glossaries, but no scene recollection (well, no H I guess)
  • aesthetics follows theme, but not all that impressive
    • 1280×720
    • more configuration options (such as customizing what the space key does)
    • extras include standard gallery, scene recollection, music library and the unlocked extra scenarios
    • overall aesthetics looks neater:

Art and Animation

Comparing apple and oranges,

“The problem with artists nowadays is that they can draw females fine, but not many can draw males that others think are cool.” One of the quotes that stays with me since it is a great observation but I can never remember where I read it from.Ishii Hisao, who I think is a new artist in the industry, seems to be the exact opposite of the trend though. Maybe it is just how the game lends out to masculine, alpha-male duels, but I feel that his male characters have better facial expression and body proportions than his female characters. And well…I actually find it really unique!You can check his stuff here: http://bit.ly/V3FWNBThere are also non-human art CGs designed by Yoshizawa Tomoaki, which I didn’t pay too much attention to. Cerberus is cute though.Unfortunately there weren’t much much (if any) animation in the game. Plenty of battle effects though, making the battles feel that much alive. For better or worse, the art in Sinclient reminds me of Secret Game:Code Revise.I also seem to have this strange feeling that the heroines tend to be abit more “glossy”, in that they seem to let of a strange radiant glow sometimes…might be just me though.

The art is pretty consistent throughout, whether it is CG or sprites.

Music

I actually enjoyed both the battle tracks in both quite abit, daily life tracks weren’t all that memorable though.

  • 30 tracks including all OP/ED
  • 50% battle tracks!! Mainly rock.
  • シリーウォーク.ワンダラー is a pretty trippy song that just needs a banjo to become a masterpiece
  • 30 tracks not including OP/ED
  • 80% daily life tracks
  • 我が内なるロード is a pretty upbeat song with a fast tempo.

Story and Impressions (Spoilers)

Let’s start with Tokyo Babel.

As an avid Chuuouhigashiguchi fan, I was abit worried when I found that Tokyo Babel was drawn by another artist, a pretty new one at that. However, as I progressed I found to be able to come to terms with it (or rather, other aspects of the game sucked my attention away). The usual quality of the propeller brand, and moreover Higashide Yuuichirou’s fine writing still prevalent throughout the game: an intricate world setting that is only fully explored by completing all 3 routes (more on story structure later), strong but likable characters (complimented by the all star seiyuu lineup), and the locution flourished battle scenes that recounts the intensity and tempo of the battle so vividly.

The world, as mentioned in the synopses, is based loosely off the stories in both the new and old testaments. Many of the angelic characters, while already anthropomorphized, still retain their system of ranks, relation to other angels according to the scripture, and most importantly their faith (and reliance) on god, which makes for an interesting speculation when the events of “catastrophe” happens.

Characters are as likable as they are strong. This means that, yes, Setsuna does start out with 1000 in all his stats, perhaps even the ability to duel wield, which may lead to belief that there are lots of eighth grade syndrome elements in the game. The short answer would be yes, but the long answer is that under the action genre there tends to be more or less such elements (shounen genre afterall!). Rather than judging by the existence of the dreaded chuu2 virus, usually I like to see if the execution is reasonable: Nobody likes a show off, but people can relate to standing up to hardships. For Tokyo Babel, and Setsuna himself, I found that overall Setsuna does execute discretion and modesty…though I’d say Tokyo Babel relies just a little too much on power levels/new super powers trumping over old ones.

Structure of Tokyo Babel goes like: Rasiel > Sorami > Lilith routes, and is essentially linear. The unfolding of the world also accompanies with each route progression. Spoiling abit, Rasiel’s story involves finding out what exactly went on behind the “catastrophe”, Sorami’s route focuses on Setsuna’s backstory, as well as the angel’s intentions for dealing with the aftermath, and Lilith’s route serve as wrap-up, the reveal of the mastermind behind the curtains. However, looking back, I also found that the 3 routes separate nicely into Christmas Ghosts: Rasiel’s route is about discovering the lost “past”, the main theme in Sorami route is the “future”, and Lilith’s route is talking how one should live the “now”. Granted I could be reading too much into these themes, but it is some very nice layering by Yuuichirou.

It is not without flaws though. Perhaps it is just my limited understanding, but I felt there were several unanswered question/unexplained behavior that remained even after finishing the entire game. First off, I’ll just say I am biased for Sorami so that route is perfect. So I was quite happy going into Lilith’s route, but I was struck by so many added developments on that route: another Babel underneath the ocean, in hell? What and why would anyone do that? Lilith being a clone whose main is…Tiamat. Let’s put aside preconceived notion of whether god has existed before her story since the story did indicate that Tiamet was an older god, and god might be actually inserted afterwards (from future). Seems odd that an omni-potent vessel can be corrupted so easily, let alone if god was traversing all time planes, why didn’t it “rid the threat” when Tiamet was weakened after her defeat from the humans. The confusion of all these “rules” that seemingly govern the world is in fact manipulated to fit the story structure…which unfortunately doesn’t really click all together. Furthermore, Lilith’s (fused) sudden revelation that she is not Lilith nor Tiamat and thus is not mind controlled but refuses to give up on destroying the world segment contradicts the later part where she did separate from Tiamat. I understand at some point you let the power of love win, but the earlier segment is not really needed if that is the case. Perhaps this is just so everyone gets to fight one another…

Overall, Tokyo Babel is still about the fights, which it does oh so well. It is a game where even the supporting characters all took lessons in badassery, and can get you attached to everyone. I do think the final segment could use alittle more touch up though, with a “culprit” that paled in comparison to previous route’s final boss, and this “parallel world” ending seemingly diminishing the importance of saving the old Tokyo Babel world (hey, we are just going to go to another one!), there is room for improvement.

“Loved how the writer is portraying the fear and scariness of amnesia. This is about the level of paranoia that should happen (in my view).” –my naïve self, after finish playing the trial for Sinclient

Sinclient is, probably not intentionally, a sinful deceptive fraudulent game both within the game and meta-speaking. Ok, perhaps that is over-exaggerating as most trials tend to all be more juicy than the average content within the game, but Sinclient’s story actually breaks into 2 episodes with the first episode essentially made up entirely by the trial, and the two episodes are rather disjoint from each other in terms of writing style, plot direction and suspense levels. So you have the unsuspecting player (myself) going in expecting to play lonewolf criminal survival only to look like a fool as from episode two onward the suspense is all lifted up to reveal a typical cop flick.

That particular bias aside, Sinclient’s strength lies in being able to link everything together somehow, though sometimes abit forcefully. When Miina said, “This dorm can’t possibly be all occupied by special people,” the author really took the verbal irony to heart and made everyone in the dorm some undercover agent working for different agencies all coincidentally gathered in that particular dorm. Not only restricted to dorm, everyone you see in the game is essentially tied to the plot, if not now then later on. Now, I don’t mind exercising Chekov’s gun in a story, in fact it is the basis of a good detective story to foreshadow. However, the repeated “Surprise! He’s actually X, an important figure central to the plot” in Sinclient takes away the novelty of deducing the regular passerby from the killer. Perhaps the greatest offender of the act is the main villain, “mother”. Not only is she (spoilers ahead) the older sister of our main heroine, but also she’s come back from the grave to take revenge on the prime minister (who is her father) who attempted to killed her, by forming a super secret villainous organization called the “BABEL” which houses “gifted” children grown to teenagers who now rebels against the world. I just wonder how an average citizen, who can’t be aged past 20, can get through all odds of escaping national security, breaking through international top secret laboratories, steal all the knowledge she needs to know about the secret society of both the Free Masons and the mad doctor’s associates, and still at the end of it all was too naïve to shoot her own sister so she can finish off this ridiculous family feud that involved putting the world in peril. At this point you can’t help but be amazed at how small the (Sinclient) world is.

As mentioned about the discontinuity of the two episodes before, unfortunately all the crimes that had to do with the seven deadly sins had very relevance with the story, so there really was nothing else “Babel” about Sinclient. The antagonists of Sinclient all seem very fixated on killing the prime minister despite the segment of how all “sages” act independently of “mother”, when all he has done is actually what all politicians do anyways: wanting to fix up the country, so borrows abit of “power” from shady sources. But if anything, I’ll give Boost5 props for having the queen be a freemason and kidnapped by the IRAs, it was amusing.

I’m being abit jaded about Sinclient since I expected more, but to be fair Sinclient does have lots of other good points. The suspense in episode 2, while not as paranoia-inducing as episode 1, is consistently maintained throughout the story, which makes for a very interesting detective style mystery, and leads to a thrilling cop chase afterwards. Tooru is actually just like any other characters: a trained agent, nothing more special and nothing less. As shown in the fight with “21gram (coffee brown)”, he really is just alittle more gifted than the others, but nothing superhuman. His thought process (if it isn’t to just “rush in and save the princess”), is rather logical and reasonable for readers to follow. And I didn’t mention in the Tokyo Babel segment, but at least there are bit more drama and raburabu in Sinclient, even though it is for Shizuku only (hey, Kiritani Hana right?) So don’t be so quick to jump the boat without first seeing if you like the trial, it is still quite fun compared to chara-ges imo (just suspend your beliefs about the fact that top intelligence agencies seem to be weak against hacking+logic bombing).

Conclusion

I had fun playing through both of these games, and hopefully the review is indicative of that. You can find a more detailed account of spoilers at Asheld’s blog (in the archives now probably) and his thoughts on the two. To think these were my top two picks for the month, I must’ve been really hungry for some chuu2 (though I really shouldn’t be with SAO each week).

And what have I learned through all this? The tower of Babel is not hanoi. Whoops.


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22 responses

29 10 2012
aquaspirit39

凄く器用だな。。。2games in 1 review…流石先輩、超尊敬します。XD
Setting that aside, ARGH….WHY NO MINA ROUTE? look at that description of yours:
“She is a evil, mean spirited, do-S, twisted yandere who just wants to screw with your mind so she achieves her goal of a) accomplishing her mission as “sage” and b) completely control you so she can “love you””.
F*CK!!!!! *goes into rampage*

29 10 2012
Asheld

Nice review and I whole heartedly agree with Sorami being the best heroine in Tokyo Babel. To the point that I was convinced she would be the main heroine… until, well, I found out otherwise. By the way, don’t you have the wrong picture for Tooru?

And at Aqua: Mina route would have been a hundred times better than the actual heroine of the story. Towards the end it felt like they were deliberately rubbing it in, depressing just recalling it.

29 10 2012
warum

The way it was setup with Sorami appearing at the beginning, I thought the same as well. And yes, that is the wrong picture haha.

That end…that end. Not saying I entirely agree with Miina’s mind control tactics, but she was much more interesting (and moe) than Shizuka at the very least.

29 10 2012
warum

Can’t believe you didn’t play it at the end :(. I BELIEVED IN YOU AQUA

29 10 2012
aquaspirit39

WUT?! Of course, you expect me to play a game that doesnt have a happy end for my favourite heroine??? That is really against my religious belief.

29 10 2012
小石川玉美 (@ShinJiwon)

Lies! No way in hell an eroge protag isn’t a bishie. *glares at おっさん picture*

29 10 2012
thinkerbee

Sorami and Mina are so moe! <3

Gah, this shall be my 3rd Propeller game, and I dare say they are improving in quality. Oh, I actually loved the art this time… Might be clashing opinions since I thought the art in BB is quite plain (though unique).

*Sigh* I shall see if this would get PSP version, and hopefully it will, probably /w the addition of Mina's route pfft.

Thanks for the super-long, yet enticing review.

29 10 2012
warum

Hey hey, thanks for replying and welcome to the fray.

Regarding art tastes, it definitely is subjective and I might be talking with my nostalgia glasses on. BB is, in the general opinion, one of the plainer games from propeller :P.

As for Mina’s route, it’d be really nice if they could do it, though I think there’ll be quite a few changes to the scenario if that was the case.

Spoilers: You see, Miina was essentially out of the picture (stuck in jail), for the entire middle part and only makes a small return at the end.

It’s still possible though, we can only dream.

31 10 2012
thinkerbee

Oh, actually I’ve been lurking around your blog for quite some time (for VN recommendations), but thank you for the heart-warming welcome.

I see. Well, Christian mythology actually scares me away, furthermore they are in Japanese. I was hoping for the characters to back up the enjoyment, since I enjoy psychological depiction and err, playful heroines? Lol.

Maybe something like SubaHibi? Too bad Mina was unavailable for the most part eh… *slight disappointment*

Anyways, I was wondering if you’ve heard of School Days? I really, really want to buy it, though I never came across any bloggers with recommendation, not even review on the game, which worries me.

However, I heard that the game’s quite appealing in psychological department, which is why I want to try it out. If you ever played it, could you write a review for it.? Even just, ‘I really like it, you should play it’ is enough to convince me since our taste in heroine is quite the same…

I admired your list of preference since deredere is rarely up on your top picks, which is… refreshing!

31 10 2012
warum

School days is uhh…a really special game. I don’t think I’ll be able to explain fully the phenomenon but if you are interested here are some things you can google up:

1) the “Nice boat” incident
2) the protagonist, Ito Makoto’s family tree.
3) Its successor, Cross Days made by the same company 0verflow.

The game itself is alright I think. You have fully animated scenes (usually just characters nodding their heads and talking), pretty complex characters that don’t really follow any archetype template, and a complex web of relationships. What I think School Days is famous for is its “bad ends”, which can get alittle gory.

It’s definitely an interesting franchise if you don’t mind alittle mind twist and follow up on the reactions that it incurred.

29 10 2012
chipp12

erogamescape says that both 石井久雄 & 谷崎央佳 worked on Steins;Gate before. Also is it me or the main character in Sinclient looks like him (http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTP_4B7KRS8HEzLEPdtkxaAzpou9CVEBye50wseSfw9ZzXnGD6uDg-ZEr60vw) and not like the one you posted? I haven’t tried the game yet but posters and trailers gave me that opinion.

29 10 2012
warum

Yeah you are absolutely right. My motivation at the beginning for playing Sinclient was actually because 谷崎 央佳 was the scenario writer…can’t believe I forgot to put it in. As for 石井 久雄 , I’m not sure if Ishii-san was in charge of character design in S;G since my impression was huke did the main designs. He is definitely listed under the credits for being a staff on S;G though.

Will post a reply to everyone about the wrong character below, but yeah the main character is actually the one you have in the image.

29 10 2012
chipp12

Well it’s the same stuff with Phenomeno (dunno if you heard about this game though):
Character designer is 安倍吉俊, but the ones that were in charge of art in the novel are 安倍吉俊 (again), 田中雄一 & なまにくATK.

30 10 2012
warum

Fixed up the post alittle (though I prefer not to change it more as my handle on html tables is not the best, and for some reason each time I update there is a risk of table elements not formatted properly, sorry about that) to reflect the points you brought up.

As for Phenomeno, I actually haven’t heard of it, but I see how it may be a similar case. Essentially the designer is like a supervisor while the other artists act like assistants? Might not be the best interpretation.

Anyways, thanks for pointing it out.

29 10 2012
warum

Regarding Tooru’s character picture:

The story is that when I was searching for the picture, all the others had a nice portrait already there on getchu but the protagonist. I suspect this is to not give away too much of the protagonist’s identity seeing the first episode is all about his identity crisis.

Being the lazy bum that I am, I saw another character’s portrait, Naufuaru(sp?), a very minor villain in the story. I remember watching the video commentary on the website (http://boostfive.com/SINCLIENT/download.html#commovie), and heard the seiyuu for him saying he’ll try his very best to make sure he leaves an impression of his character with the few lines given to him.

I felt sorry for the seiyuu, so I wanted to make his existence abit more known (even if a little), by placing his character’s image where Tooru’s is supposed to be, for the above reasons.

Sorry about the confusion! Man didn’t think there would be so many people noticing D: Poor ossan…

30 10 2012
izmos

“I’ll do three, protagonist + my favourite 2″ <= and no Cerberus or Samael? Noooooo, unpossible. They were the best part of the whole game IMO. I summarized me own feelings on TB on http://visualnovelthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/東京バベル-thoughts/ if you are interested.

"There are also non-human art CGs designed by Yoshizawa Tomoaki, which I didn’t pay too much attention to." <= I reckon those were the best part of the art by far. I really liked the detail those were painted with, some of them literally took me breath away.

Still got a wee bit left on Sinclient (currently at the final climax I'd say), so I won't read those bits yet.

30 10 2012
warum

Guilty as charged >_<.

I uh, was mostly absorbed by the action and at times can really miss out on details on screen especially on non-animate objects. But you are right, Tokyo Babel would not be the same without Yoshizawa Tomoaki's art.

As for Samael and Cerberus, I was actually on the look out for Samael for both of Rasiel's and Sorami's route (mainly because the seiyuu, KitaEri, is rather famous). So by the time I got to Lilith's route it really felt like a much deserved screentime :P, which is perhaps it didn't felt as surprising as the other two on my list. But definitely ALL the characters in Tokyo Babel were memorable. I'd say even Kuma sensei was one of my favorite if I wasn't limited to two.

As for Lilith's route, I guess not having a full belief that Lilith actually has a romantic relationship with Setsuna really hindered me from enjoying this more than Sorami's route. What can I say? It's easier to understand Sorami than Lilith!

1 11 2012
izmos

Sinclient was alright too I guess.
Main heroine irritated me, not that I really liked any of the females (unless Nagi was a girl?), but the game came together nicely I reckon, even if some parts didn’t really matter in the end (like the Unknown “ark” for example, or the seven sin crimes as you said). Was kinda refreshing reading a VN without any choice again. Still as far as Spy eroge goes (quite rare niche actually), I’d say Scarlett is more enjoyable in my opinion.

4 11 2012
warum

Don’t think Nagi is a girl…though nowadays I can’t say for certainty anymore.

I’d have to pile Scarlett on the list of eroges to play someday!

8 11 2012
izmos

Have you seen the TB vote results by the way?
http://www.tokyo-babel.jp/vote/index.html
http://www.tokyo-babel.jp/vote2/index.html
Samuel only second place, and Astaroth only the 8th what the hell.

9 11 2012
warum

Interesting results

28 11 2012
DarkAkira

Hello, tell me please, comparing to Midori no Umi how hard is japanese level(vocabulary, grammar) in Tokyo Babel. Thank you very much!

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