First up, we’ve got Star Project VS. My Candy Love. They’re
both girly online dating games, each with a different kind of appeal. That is,
aside from the fresh meat random guys on offer. Since my personal opinion on
which of these two is the superior game is so
obvious, I’ll just cut to the chase...
Go and play Star Project now. NOW! NOW! NOW! DON’T DELAY! Why are you still here, even??
... And if you have some extra time, you might as well sign up for My Candy Love too.
That concludes my concise opinion. Thank you for acknowledging my existence. :)
That concludes my concise opinion. Thank you for acknowledging my existence. :)
*** Obligatory Possible Spoiler Warning ***
Basically, if you like Asian anime/manga/pop stars/actors, Star Project should be right up your alley. It’s set in Japan (or Korea if you’re playing the untranslated version) and you play as the manager of a talent scouting corporation. So you’ll get your novice stars and hopefully train them up to become famous idols. Or you could just marry/molest/overwork/exploit/enslave them.
Clothing and dialogue choices don’t really have too much of
an impact on your game progress. Instead, your star’s talent bars and affection
level for you do. But that’s not to say dialogue choices aren’t relevant or
needed, as they do play a big part in helping shape your star’s mood and performance
ability. A really unique thing about Star Project’s writing is that there is no
fear of choosing an ‘incorrect’ response. You don’t need to know exactly what
to say and when to do certain things before events occur. Even though some answers
do result in a minor setback, you can always make up for it by buying your star
a meal or taking him out somewhere. I found the forgiving nature of the dialogue
selections to be a great feature, as it allows players to fully explore the
game with ease.
My Candy Love has a more European/American feel to it. You’re
thrown into a high school with all the familiar stereotypes to deal with as you
wish. You’ll meet the serious guy, the angry loner, the nerd, the artist, the
nice one, the feisty one, and even that group of plastic Barbie dolls who all wear far too much makeup. I’m almost certain that the jock, the cool kid, the exotic one and the
surfer are going to show up somewhere later. You’ll have to watch what you say,
wear and do in order to impress specific characters. Provided that you care
about popularity, that is. Otherwise, you could always be like me and ignore
everybody except two people.
The most irritating aspect of My Candy Love is the point and
money systems. You can’t progress at all without having a high amount of both,
and it can take you several days or even weeks to accumulate enough free daily
refills to play the game. Of course, if you have real money to spend it would
be relatively simple to buy your way through. As for me, there’s just no way I
can justify spending actual money on this game, especially since I think it’s significantly
more inferior to Star Project.
~~~~~
Star Project
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I was really impressed by this
online game. It’s well written, the characters are fun to interact with, the
background music is awesome, the games are cute, and the art is pretty. And by
Dragonite, it’s funny. Do you know
how hard it is to find a game like this that’s genuinely funny?
But wait... There’s more.
Star Project is free to play! You can actually sail quite
nicely through the game without having to painstakingly grind, spend actual
money or wait it out for days on end. Go on, compare it to My Candy Love. I
can’t even spend five minutes trying to progress though that game without
running out of ‘Action Points’ and being directed to a Paypal checkout system.
Feh.
Art
I personally much prefer the character design styles Star
Project has going over the ones in My Candy Love. The characters from both
games are drawn in a manga/anime style, but Star Project just feels more like
an authentic otome to me. My Candy Love reminds me of a western art studio
trying to replicate Japanese anime, in a similar manner to such titles like
Totally Spies!/Ben 10/Avatar. I believe the original creators of the Star
Project are Korean, while My Candy Love was translated from French.
The quality of the CG artworks offered in Star Project are
very much like the ones in more well known games such as Tokimeki Memorial or
Starry Sky, which I think is a big achievement for a free online game.
Gameplay
Star Project doesn’t seem to specifically target itself
towards lovesick teenagers. There’s more to the game than just putting fresh
meat eligible guys in a display window. It’s more about you managing your clients
to nurture their talents, and getting to know your stars. Everything else is meant
to be secondary to your business ambitions.
You can increase your star’s energy by playing during set
meal times. When you go back to the office, your character will comment on
eating and you can recover energy depending on how much money you are willing
to spend. Unfortunately, you have to calculate the difference between your
local time and the game’s clock to take advantage of these meal breaks.
Alternatively, you can purchase an energy drink on your
profile page which replenishes your star’s entire energy meter. This costs Gold
of course, which means you’ll have to spend real world money on the game to
play it more. It also costs Gold to change your star’s stage name, so think
over your naming carefully.
If you schedule too many appointments and overwork him,
Touya’s mood decreases and he becomes unhappy. The only way to really fix this
without spending any Gold is to take him to all the date locations and trigger
as many positive events as possible. If asked for a date course, the expensive
option saves the most energy. Only proceed with the course if the success
rating reads 80% - 95% though, otherwise you’ll just waste money and worsen Touya’s
mood. Another thing to be wary of is his energy level. As the meter approaches
0, he sometimes passes out when you return to your office, which will decrease
his memory points.
The major issues with Star Project are related to mini-game
design. Most noticeably, the singing instructor (Yuri) can level up your star’s
singing ability by holding piano key and voice synching lessons. The problem
with this is that Yuri does not musically sing on key, and in the later levels
of the mini-game, players are forced to blindly guess what piano notes she is
singing. However, this could be quite easily fixed by replacing Yuri’s voice
with the actual notes produced by the piano keys.
There are also a few small hiccups with the mini-game
instructions being somewhat unclear and lags in timing. For example, if your
internet connection drops in speed during DJ Ken's dance routine, then your click will be slower to register
with the footsteps in the game, which will result in a failed lesson attempt.
Characters
There are at least five stars available to be contracted to
you in the game, but so far it looks like only two have been introduced into
the English version of Star Project. Luckily, Touya is the default guy who
stays around forever, and he’s still my favourite character.
Touya
Touya reminds me slightly of Kyo from Fruits Basket. Except he’s less dynamic and more wussy. Normally I wouldn’t be so fond of someone like Touya, but for some various reasons unknown to me, I do quite like his character. Hmm... I got it! He's a younger version of Tamaki from Ouran High. That explains everything.
It’s not that he’s weak or a coward (in fact, quite the opposite) but he doesn’t pretend to be anything he isn’t. Touya is a fairly bluntly honest guy. He’s not too conceited, he doesn’t try to deceive you, and he’s a little too simple-minded to put on an act anyway. When he’s tired, he’ll keel over and whine because he’s tired. When he’s hungry, he’ll roll about on the floor and complain that he’s hungry. If your cooking sucks, he’ll tell you exactly how much it sucks without ever holding back.
Touya’s comparatively innocent mind pairs really well with your
heroine’s more depraved character, leading to some absolutely hilarious and
sometimes wildly inappropriate scenarios. A lot of the fun you get out of Star
Project is generated by Touya and the heroine simply interacting with one
another. In addition, he really seems to hate his older brother, whom he refers
to as a ‘stalker’. This situation really shouldn’t be comical, but by Arceus, the
way it unfolds just makes me spew my drink everywhere with laughter.
Touya has talent in a few useful areas such as singing,
dancing, and cooking. However, he is poor at acting and has difficulty
memorising lines. Fortunately, I don’t think much of actors anyway, so I’m
doing fine at crafting Touya into a singer. Screw Justin Beiber, this guy
should definitely be the world’s most admired pop idol. :D
Ren
Ren is a jerk of the highest degree. To the point where I’d say that he’s more like a dentist drill than a human. Strangely, even though in most cases I tend to like cold characters, I think Ren goes a bit too far. There were times where I could describe his behaviour as distastefully psychotic. The storyline slowly peels off some of his unpleasant outer layers, but in the end he’ll always still be an onion. Did I just quote Shrek? Um. Let me try rephrasing that by stating an easy way to evaluate just how much of a jerkface a given character actually is: Expose them to small children and/or animals in order to judge their reaction.
Ren is a jerk of the highest degree. To the point where I’d say that he’s more like a dentist drill than a human. Strangely, even though in most cases I tend to like cold characters, I think Ren goes a bit too far. There were times where I could describe his behaviour as distastefully psychotic. The storyline slowly peels off some of his unpleasant outer layers, but in the end he’ll always still be an onion. Did I just quote Shrek? Um. Let me try rephrasing that by stating an easy way to evaluate just how much of a jerkface a given character actually is: Expose them to small children and/or animals in order to judge their reaction.
Ren ignores and then proceeds to yell at bleeding children
lying in the street. Therefore we can assume, with reasonable accuracy, that he
truly has the empathy level of a serial killer. In addition to this, he’s
working for your company because you look eerily like his deceased mother. But
all of those disturbing warning signs aside, some players will be inevitably enticed
by Ren’s tragically twisted character. And I guess I have nothing against him,
even if there’s no way in Hell I’m going to pay a boatload of money to extend
his contract. After all, he is pretty.
Music
I love the BGM
tracks in this game, but I couldn’t find them for download anywhere. Since Star
Project was originally a Korean game, chances are the sound files exist
somewhere on the internet. Since I failed at finding them, I decided to just
record the background music and upload them myself in .mp3 format:
Enjoy! :>
*Disclaimer: All tracks were composed by the creators of the
Star Project game. Credit to Audacity for allowing me to extract them.
~~~~~
My Candy Love
In contrast to Star Project, My Candy Love is structured in
a noticeably different style. It advertises itself with vague promises of
flirting and finding love by ‘conquering’ the hearts of your victims. Here,
you’ll need to buy outfits and perform menial tasks to increase affection
levels and progress further through the story.
The first episode consists of players wandering the map in
search of an ID photo and a paper clip to complete an enrolment form. Exciting, no? You may
meet some of the other characters while doing this, and the dialogue options
you choose will influence how they feel towards you. At the end of the episode,
you will go out on a ’date’ with the character who displays highest affection
rating for you.
Some players prefer this type of game, but I’m way too old to
really get into the gossipy-girly-flirty high school setting on offer here. I also
found the dialogue to be pretty crude and impolite, especially with regards to
the speech options. Sometimes the only dialogue options you get are just
downright nasty, so even the heroine herself is quite rude.
You’d get your ass thrown out of school for spouting such
insolence. Particularly on your very first day. Do you know any mentally-balanced
people who actually speak like this?
Nonetheless, My Candy Love can still be an entertaining experience provided
that you have enough Action Points and money to actually play through an
episode. To be fair, it’s probably a game directed much more towards a younger pre-teen
audience.
The game art in My Candy Love isn’t bad, although Star
Project is clearly done more professionally. Fortunately the CG art is better, even
if there don’t seem to be that many illustrations available. Too bad I can’t comment on the background music, because
it doesn’t exist. :P
You need both Action Points to move around the map plus
money to play My Candy Love. Whenever you run out of either, the game stops and
you will be directed to a payment options page. You must buy an outfit from the selection presented in order to go out
on a ‘date’ at the end of an episode. If the character you are searching for does
not show up on the map as scheduled, you will have to keep saving up and
wasting your Action Points until they eventually appear. By logging in daily,
you gain a small amount of Action Points and money to play with. I suggest that
you save up enough of these to get through an entire episode before attempting
to play through it. :<
At the beginning of the game, you get a choice out of three
guys: The straight-laced student council president (Nathaniel), the angry
loner-jerk (Castiel) or the geeky-glasses nerd (Ken). I imagine most players
would go for either the council president or the jerkface, taking both looks
and personality into consideration at this point.
Nathaniel
Behold, it’s your uptight student council president. He
shuffles papers, acts serious and presumably has good grades. I’d say he’s the
most logical choice. Good prospects, decent person, sense of justice,
blah-blah-blah. More importantly, I also found a CG of Nathaniel with cats all
over him. Hoohoo, there’s no chance of this cat person escaping my dark clutches
now. Thus, Nathaniel is now the chosen one who will lead us to glory. Need I
say more?
I can really only see two downsides to Nathaniel so far. The
first thing is that his whole family seem to have a genetic predisposition for
allergies. The second thing is that his younger sister is the ringleader of the
‘mean girls’ trio. They hate everyone, by the way. Especially you. Neither of
these negatives are actually Nathaniel’s fault, so he’s definitely still my
pick. Yes, even though he hates sweets. And no, I don't know why the heck half his shirt buttons are undone in the above CG.
Castiel
Yep, he’s the jerky one. He seems to enjoy conflict and
punk-goth rock bands. I’m guessing he’s probably some sort of emo rock musician
without any loving parents.
Unfortunately, I don’t know much else about Castiel because to date a jerkass, you must be a jerkface. Don’t worry, I’m sure his fangirls will soon discover that he’s not actually that unpleasant deep down. Somehow.
Unfortunately, I don’t know much else about Castiel because to date a jerkass, you must be a jerkface. Don’t worry, I’m sure his fangirls will soon discover that he’s not actually that unpleasant deep down. Somehow.
Kentin
Ken is like Melvin from Sailor Moon – He’s the dud. Or at
least, that’s what they would have you believe.
My advice is for you to try and treat him like a fellow human being from the very
start. And not just because I feel you should behave in a civil manner towards
a fellow human being, but also due to what I’m about to reveal shortly.
Ironically, there doesn’t appear to be a female equivalent
of the dud date. Possibly because it’s more accepted that guys might have a
nerdgirl fetish? Anyway, Kentin is apparently more like Naru from Love Hina.
Someone sends him off to military school for a while and a totally different
person returns in his place. Strip away the Coke-bottle glasses and bowl haircut,
then BAM.
I’m sure many players are regretting brushing him off now.
Some actually preferred him as he was before. And I sure do respect
those players, for I could never hope to be so non-superficial.
Ken’s motives seem to become increasingly weird and creepy
after his magical metamorphosis. My observation here is mostly based on hearsay
though, which I pieced together by reading a few YouTube comments on the
subject.
~~~~~
RE: Alistair ++
Alistair ++
is surprisingly well made, especially for a free game. I would recommend it to all otome fans. ^^
It’s really a game within another game. Your objective is to
find out which of the guys stole your item in an online game (Rivenwell) you’ve
been playing. The option to grab one as your boyfriend is also on the table,
but that isn’t necessarily your main focus.
The story begins with you playing Rivenwell Online in the
school computer lab. Some boofhead with the username ‘Alistair’ cuts in and
takes your kill, stealing your loot.
Now it’s your mission to gather clues on each of your
suspects. If you ask me, these guys all seem pretty suspicious, especially
since all of them try to hide the fact that they play Rivenwell online from
you.
Travis
The president of the computer games club. Damn, I wish we actually
had that club in high school. Oh, wait. Probably nobody would have joined except
me.
Past regrets aside, here’s Travis. The only catch phrase I
can think of to describe him right now is that he’s a lean, mean fighting
machine. Let’s roll with that.
He’s the grumpy jerk of this game. Except that he’s actually
not. I think you’ll grow to like him, at the very least in a strange, distant-admirer
kind of way. I went through the Travis route on my first play-through, and it
seems to the most interesting and fleshed out one of the three. I also think Travis
is the most appropriate guy for the heroine, and the benefits he brings are
just endless. He helps look after the
computer lab, he cooks to help out his family, he scares your enemies away for
you, he virtually stalks you, you’re both into playing games, he knows secret game
hints, he’s a Rivenwell mod... What else could you possibly want?
Shiro
The quiet, studious one. He hardly ever speaks, and is overly
shy. Ergo, a lot of players like him. He possesses high grades, so you’d better
work your butt off on that school project just to impress him.
Shiro resents his parents for being away all the time, but
later realises that maybe he should just try talking to them and telling them
about his concerns. You know, instead of just studying like a maniac to hide
his abandonment complex all the time.
The biggest surprise for me in the entire game was finding
out who Shiro’s Rivenwell IGN was. Yep, he’s a probable closet crossdresser.
And is it just me, or does Shiro look disturbingly like a girl?
Derek
The basketball jock. Or is he? Although he denies playing
Rivenwell at first, you will soon discover the awful truth.
Derek is apparently under a lot of pressure from his perfectionist
parents to be the best at everything. (Why does that sound so familiar to me?) Unfortunately,
his grades kinda suck and they keep sending him vicious self-esteem lowering
text messages to his phone. Bummer.
As it turns out, Derek is a little deranged as a result
of his torturous upbringing. For some reason he likes ‘mature women’ even
though an individual who acts the way he does clearly has the mental age of a
small orphan boy. Sigh.
You want to know who Alistair is? Let me give you some hints
to point you in the right direction. And the culprit's reason for stealing your Blessed
Stone? Evidently, he’s an idiot.
Now maybe I’m too conventional, but I just don’t trust a guy
with a tuft of pink hair and a face which contorts in ways that would scare small children.
I don’t feel like this online bully deserves to be
forgiven so easily for acting like such a giant wanker.
I say you should just let them banhammer his ass from Rivenwell.
Remember kids: Treat others like you would wish to be treated
yourself. Especially online.
The background music is pretty nice in Alistair ++, even if
I don’t really remember any of the tracks except for one. But I swear that one BGM
tune sounds oddly similar to Avril Lavigne’s Complicated.
Now... Have some stat and item requirements:
Travis
|
51 Network
Rep
|
36 Intelligence
|
17 Social Rep
|
Game: Demon of Edo
Clothes: Sweater + Track Pants
|
Shiro
|
51
Intelligence
|
36 Network
Rep
|
17 Social Rep
|
Book: Greek History
Clothes: Spring Dress + Butterfly Skirt |
Derek
|
51 Social Rep
|
36 Network
Rep
|
17
Intelligence
|
Clothes: Evening Gown
Clothes: Tank Top + Trendy Capris |
~~~~~
Idol Crush
I’ll get straight to the honest truth with this one. Idol Crush is
a poorly written and put together game. And if you’re lucky, it might keep you entertained for
15 minutes. The experience is so short that there isn’t time for any character
establishment, let alone any personality developments. Still, the art is okay.
Even if the characters all kinda look like the same person but with different
hair.
Ichiro – Mr. Perfect Prince.
Yadda yadda, student council president, basketball captain, perfect looks, totally available, yadda. I feel like no original thought was put into this character, and he's the second best option on the table. :P
(I love how they talk him up so much in the first scene, and you
can get his ending two minutes later.)
Go to Library -> Get locked in Library after dark -> ‘Wanna
be my girlfriend for no reason?’ -> Good Ending
Kan – The (Assumed) Reclusive Badass.
Everybody thinks this guy is gangster for some reason. He just seems to like quiet places while disliking other people. Therefore, Kan isn't a badass at all, but a mistakenly designated badass. Like Fujioka from Minami-Ke. I still have no idea how such a rumour could spread about this pale, delicately built boy.
Everybody thinks this guy is gangster for some reason. He just seems to like quiet places while disliking other people. Therefore, Kan isn't a badass at all, but a mistakenly designated badass. Like Fujioka from Minami-Ke. I still have no idea how such a rumour could spread about this pale, delicately built boy.
Go to Rooftop -> Ignore Jun -> Spill your lunch all
over Kan -> Insist on replacing his shirt -> ‘Date’ -> Ramen ->
Trip Over -> Free piggyback ride home -> Lunch Buddies -> Amusement
park date -> Magic House Love -> Expensive necklace -> ‘But we only
just met... I mean, go out with me?’ -> Good Ending
Jun – The Playboy Jerk. (A filthy-mouthed one, at that.)
Here's your childhood friend. He's actually a pretty big twat, and my personal advice would be to disassociate yourself from him as soon as possible. There are many retarded and/or criminally insane fangirls who are ready to sacrifice their souls to the devil for a crack at Jun. Leave them be. They deserve this idiot, while you should salvage the remainder of your dignity.
Rooftop -> Go home with Jun -> Harass over the phone for a home visit -> Video game -> Beat his ass -> Stupidly rushed confession -> Run away like an idiot -> Receive note on desk -> Go to pool -> Get pushed in by murderous psychopaths -> Jun’s CG drowning rescue -> Refuse to go to basketball game -> Go anyway -> Playground meeting -> ‘Spontaneously go out with me?’ -> Good Ending
Rooftop -> Go home with Jun -> Harass over the phone for a home visit -> Video game -> Beat his ass -> Stupidly rushed confession -> Run away like an idiot -> Receive note on desk -> Go to pool -> Get pushed in by murderous psychopaths -> Jun’s CG drowning rescue -> Refuse to go to basketball game -> Go anyway -> Playground meeting -> ‘Spontaneously go out with me?’ -> Good Ending
(If for some reason you say you’ll go to the basketball
game, you’ll get an Uncertain Ending instead. You’ll go anyway though. What
the...?) Also, these CGs don't really resemble the characters they dumped into this game. Maybe I just have poor character recognition.
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