Rozen Maiden: Duellwalzer probably 66% completed?

(tags game, PlayStation 2, Rozen Maiden, anime, love-sim, shmup, 声優, character goods)

Why did I call Rozen Maiden Duellwalzer a "bomb" in my last post? Another anime o-baka-san told me that the game wasn't up to snuff. Framed with that opinion, I still paid the 9000+ yen to bring home a copy of the game.

Have you already watched the first Rozen Maiden series? Would you like to see it with subtitles and sub-par animation (really really sub-par)? That pretty much summarizes this game. Mainly you read the story and select action/phrases like in love-sim games. This determines which ending you get, but unlike in love-sims it doesn't change the outcome of the story. It's like the series distilled, really, but the best episode "Staircase" (5), is here intact and funnier than ever. It has a roulette-like game that adds a little bit of chance and frustration, but it also explicitly shows your "success" meter for each doll. And finally, get this, the main "game" part is a shmup! Hahahaha. It would be interesting if it weren't so easy and amateur. I will probably describe this joke of a shmup in another post.

As far as the scenarios are concerned, there is "Shinku", "Hina-Ichigo", and probably "Suiseiseki". It took a week of on-again off-again playing to finish the "Shinku" scenario. I was actually aiming to complete "Hina-Ichigo" first. You get a couple of new animations and CGs, but really the quality is not very good. It's shocking to see the lack of emotion in Shinku's face in some of the new animations. In the anime, her face is not static like a doll's, but lively. I then completed the "Hina-Ichigo" scenario in about 4 hours. The change in the scenario is just the shift to Hina-Ichigo, but the plot is exactly the same. There was like just one new CG! Ha, what a letdown.

Shifting to the voice actresses, I have no problem the artists themselves: Asami Sanada (真田アサミ)'s Jun, Miyuki Sawashiro (沢城みゆき)'s Shinku, Sakura Nogawa (野川さくら)'s Hina-Ichigo, Natsuko Kuwatani (桑谷夏子)'s Suiseiseki, etc. I really like listening to Shinku and Suiseiseki, and I like Hina-Ichigo, though grating sometimes, is very very cute. There are no new characters unless you count the more detailed Detective Kun Kun adventures. Ha. I do have an issue with the recording. It seemed most of the lines came from the anime itself, and the voices seem to be positioned in front of my head. But most of the new lines seem to come from a different position, like the middle of my head or the back. It's not too annoying, but it's something that makes me wonder.

The music is rehashed. The in-game music is forgettable. The opening song is from the first season, that wierd Ali Project number. The ending song is a new song from Haruka Shimotsuki (霜月はるか). I just don't understand why I don't give her a 5 star rating on any of her songs. Wait I lied, I like her song "Little Primrose", which was the opening song for the anime Eternal Alice (鍵姫物語 永久アリス輪舞曲).

To sweeten the deal (this is the polish on the turd, so to speak), there is a "conductor" watch omake with an engraved serial number. I got is something like 6304 out of 10000, it isn't anything special. The other omake is the Sofmap special telephone card, which is just the cover of the limited box. I saw at Gamers that their special was a telephone card with the cover of the regular edition.

Overall, let's give this game a 3 out of 5 for not botching it up too bad.

When I spend that four hours to finish the last scenario, "Suiseiseki", Rozen Maiden will be over for me. Oh wait, I'm still watching Rozen Maiden Traumend on DVD, but I can imagine the how it will end. I just can't imagine anything else that will make this story interesting for me. That's pretty sad considering I probably put a lot of money into it.