That's right, it's finally out, and I am way too excited to finish my painfully long Princess Waltz LP before I start this one. Yousei, a commercially available game by Sakevisual, is the third in an ongoing series beginning with Jisei and then continuing on into Kansei, both of which you may notice I've already LPed. Go ahead and give them a quick read through, or even a reread. I'll wait. ... ...... Screw it, I'm starting without them. It's Alex Kangai, whose real name we totally don't know because I didn't do that route in the LP, and his little sister! Now, for those of you who have only read my LPs, this clearly continues from the good ending of Kansei, where it turned out Kangai's little sister was alive and well the entire time. Definitely not some kind of mildly depressing flashback to when they were younger and happy-ish. All the jokes my mind reflexively comes up with here are offensively dark, and since I'm not Ozzo, I'll skip them. Good, other characters in these games tend to be terrible. Not really. The volume's maxed and it's still just kind of soft music. This scene isn't even voice acted. The Nothing? Quick, we need Bastian Balthazar Bucks! "You're worried about that Naoki kid stealing your hairstyle, right?" Oh, somebody's mutant powers have come in. Let me guess, intangibility? Fireworks? Maybe she turns into sand? Ah, siblings. You're sitting on her hand. You jerk. WHAT?! I never! HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME- wait, I haven't had homework in ten years. Well, too be fair, she may not have known any better, seeing as she's blind. Insensitive. As plain as the eyes on her fa- wait. Headaches when people lie? I'd have to place that as slightly worse off than "Pass out when someone dies" and slightly better off than "Feels other people's emotions as her own in a confusing out of control stew" as far as psychic powers in this game go. "I mean, I did just take blood from twenty random hobos to get it for you." I would not look forward to her entering the dating scene. You might think I'm foolish Or maybe it's untrue You might think I'm crazy But all I want is you
"Tired of your crap, maybe. Oooh!" Unfortunately, like Uncle Ben and the Waynes before you, you're suffering from Death By Origin Story. You probably won't even get a name any time soon, since you are literally just Kangai's dead little sister. Which is a trope into and of itself, but one link should be enough to destroy all the free time of anyone who enters this thread. Yeah, that's the spirit, Kangai. Next why not promise her she'll be all better soon and that you'll take her on a picnic to the park next year. Yeah, it's not like she's going to die and your last memories will be of abandoning her to go have fun! "Then I'll abruptly stop and instead focus on banging this really cute Chinese girl. Who may or may not be legal at the time." Awkward Scene Transition, Ho! I'm not sure if that's a trope, but it should be. I have to assume this view of the living room is inaccurate, or Kangai has added freakishly long arms to his list of superpowers. "Hello, I'm looking for Hugh Jass..." Our hero, ladies and gents. I'd snark at that, but frankly, after months with Arata, it's nice to have Kangai back. And I was so not expecting Marissa to be a recurring character. Way to go, cute reporter lady. But it is 20% of your daily riboflavin. See what I mean about having Kangai back?
At this point, Kangai gives a quick summary of the past two games in order to establish what Marissa could be talking about. Given that these summaries are so devoid of details that our not having gotten the real ending in that Kansei playthrough doesn't matter, I'll skip the recap. Suffice to say, Kangai solved two murders and it's been a week since the events of Jisei. Tommy Kangai can you hear me? Can you feel me near you? "Although, apparently, some guy named Ryu thinks you must defeat him to stand a chance." Hey look, it's my first impenetrably obscure reference of the game. As far as I can tell with ten seconds on google exhaustive research, that means Kidney Gate. Shen Guan also sounds like something a Chinese doo-wop group should sing. "Ah shen-guan guan guan, a shen-guan guan!" "Their sponsor, the Umbrella Corporation, claimed that anything less than two thirds fatality rate was unacceptable." I think Kangai has spent enough time talking to his Johansen, thank you. That's why we're perving on Li Mei so hard. Convenient. Much less convenient. "You have seventeen hours and twenty three minutes to make contact. Mission START!" "Extremely important, time limited mission that may hold the key to the over arcing mystery storyline. Got it." And then he tries to go back to sleep. Dammit, Kangai. Luckily for the plot, sleep might make Kangai happy, and Aki isn't going to take that risk. It's not so much that she's a morning person as that she feeds off your annoyance. "One day only, vitally important to the plot, probably going to get killed while he's here. Something stupid like that. Now let me sleep." I'm still not sure how big Edgewater is supposed to be. Probably about the same size as Springfield. "There's no way I'm getting all these pages in for the holiday special AND doing my weekly chapter without more assistants." If Naoki shows up with a hangdog expression and a helicopter, it will be the most awesome thing. Well, I am kinda holding out for a Li Mei route, but if there's no progress there I suppose- Oh, a favor. Missed that part. Oh, I'll wake her up all right. If you know what I mean.
YESSSS OMG I am so glad this is here. I played the demo of Yousei last night and had crazy good fun. I read your LPs of the previous two games (lurked only, sorry, 'cause I was reading them so long after you made them) but I'm happy to be participating in this one! Onward to murder-mystery-solving adventures! Ganbatte!!
Closet door? Do you guys keep her in the cupboard like a hot, Chinese Harry Potter? If you know what I mean. Okay, I'll stop now. ... No I won't. Yeah, I remember how Kansei ended. Understatement of the year. Wait, big surprise? But Li Mei doesn't respond well to -*knife'd!* Aki's on the phone here, probably with Gurski though that's never mentioned. Hopefully that's Gurski's entire involvement with the plot. "Shit, what was elven for Friend again?" Cue angry Tolkien fans correcting me that Tolkien's elfs speak elvish. Followed by the even worse Tolkien fans telling them it's Quenya. Which just goes to show that Barack Obama is a half-elf. Explains the bonus to diplomacy. I'd tell him to Knock a little louder, honey, but I'm pretty sure acknowledging the B52s ever existed restores part of their power and summons them to once again spread terror across the globe. I don't think I've ever encountered a low-pitched squeak. I'm kind of surprised she leaves her blinds raised. She doesn't seem like a sunshine type of person. "What's the password?" "Swordfish." Yeah, that happens with a lot of my jokes. That's why I make so many, so they get laughs by sheer weight. Use more force, Luke Kangai. Yeah, she's a bit crazy... crazy adorbs. R. Kelly? And we're not stabbed. Good work, Kangai! Cause if so, there may be another obstacle besides the question of her age to our continuing pursuit... I don't even, guys.
Yay! Did Kangai dye his hair since the last time I saw him? Because I came here just after finishing Anabanana's thread (you know which one), I sit patiently waiting for the Ozjo bickering to begin.
This is the first game in which I ever noticed the difference in his hair color, and I only caught this time around it because it's going to get pointed out to us in a bit. Spent all this time just thinking it was gradient shading... Turns the ends of his hair are supposed to be noticeably black, yeah.
It's like his roots are somehow showing up backwards. "Wait, no, stop, I want to be open! I want the freedom of the hall-" *click* Swift precise footsteps or smooth gliding. Those seem contradictory to me. Unf. No, wait, I mean UNF. If she's gonna dress like that all mystery, my skills of observation are gonna be down the toilet. Kangai's still focused on the whole sleeps in her closet thing. I'm starting to think either she is, in fact, underage so the game doesn't want him to react in any way to how she looks, or Kangai's just asexual. She's wondering about the hair dye thing, too. Or else the still unexplained bandage that probably should be gone by now. Brace yourselves for incoming Naoki. And no helicopter in sight. He's already failing me. I guess I get the whole dressing alike thing semi-identical twins do, even when they're different genders, but you'd think it'd get old fast. Though in Naoki's case I have no doubt that Aki makes him do it. What about Mimi? Wow, I doubt even my fellow Canadians remember that show. Because she's underage? Or because she's an adorably creepy robot girl with stabbing issues? Leaving Li Mei home alone. Given that her problem solving skills are avoidance and stabbing. You'd come home, find her locked in her closet looking upset, with the pizza delivery guy dead in the living room and a knife sticking out of the microwave. I tried Tornado chasing once. Unfortunately, I never figured out what I was supposed to do with the one I caught, so I just jammed it into a tea pot. Ever since Aki decided if we're visiting the university we're using wacky hijinks instead of going there openly and honestly. This is the title of the e-mail Aki and Naoki were looking at when we came into the scene. Aki believes it answers all our questions. So, wait, despite the whole living on your own and having passed for a college student in the first game thing, you guys are young enough to make passing for high schoolers the easier con? Now I really suspect Li Mei isn't legal. Well, legal for Kangai to date, but not in general.
I swear Naoki's thumb-twiddling portrait gets more adorable in every game. ... I am going to be commenting on Naoki a lot. Just bee tee dubs.
Why? I mean, yes, odds are good he's going to turn out to be some kind of nutcase evil scientist type, but if we pretend for a second he were just a university professor, how would asking him openly if he remembered a former student and the experiment they did be a bad idea? You just like playing dress up. Also, the flaw in this plan from the other side of things. I really am glad to have him back. "Don't bother me with details, I have wacky hijinks to plot!" Place your bets now, folks. Overly cheerful and doing this for extra-credit, or grumpy and disgruntled doing this because a professor forced him to. In the first game, I thought he had narcolepsy. By now, it becomes clear, he's just lazy. Three bedrooms and their own laundry room? This is a really nice apartment. Especially for three unemployed people who may or may not be high school aged. I'd assume they were being put up by the government, but the police couldn't afford this place. Or in other words, "The only part of my outfit that's visible on the sprite won't be changing, but I promise everything else is clean and getting changed regularly." He also mentions grabbing a toothbrush. Just in case you were worried about that. ... Ah, a clever attempt, Aki, but regrettably for you, like Kyon before me, I don't have a glasses fetish. Matching outfits, hipster glasses, and a sultry expression. You? I do like Aki's "Look at our master detective here." expression. As a Superman fan, I'm obligated to point out that he also slouches, wears baggy clothes, changes his hairstyle, and acts and sounds completely different when he wears the glasses. Or, alternatively, has super-hypnosis at all times. It depends. Read this chart from top to bottom. Thanks for leaving it up to me, Tweedles. And by up to me, I mean up to you, Broken Forumerites. Shall we indulge Aki and be nice to the twins, thus also potentially gaining Megane!Kangai, or shall we go with Kangai's natural instinct to roll his eyes and blow off attempts to have fun?
Ridiculously complicated plot proceeding in 5...4...3...2... edit: Why not? This decision has absolutely no bias from my glasses penchant.
Whether protag-kun bespectacles himself or not is purely a cosmetic choice, the creators vouched. They are also visible in CGs, if that sways your choice any. I like glasses. o3o Especially on Naoki. Ehehehehe. On Kangai, they're a new and unseen novelty, so I say go for it!
GLASSES GLASSES GLASSES GLASSES GLASSES GLASSES I mean. Spectacles would be a pleasant addition, yes.
Naoki. Naoki. I would steal you away andkeep you locked up so I can play with your hair all. day. long. Also, Why not ! I suspect incomming glasses related hijinks. I like hijinks.
Valentine's Day shenanigans from the Sakevisual blog! Found here (there are Re: Alistair ones, too~).
As determined by your votes, Kangai is an easygoing person who is happy to participate in Aki's silliness. I'm pretty sure we're Kangaing wrong. Aw yeah, we're gonna party like it's 1286. The, uh, year glasses were invented. In Italy. ...Shut up, it sounded funny in my head. Come on, Groucho specs. I'm pretty sure if this were one of those action/platforming games with the corruption meters, we'd have just gained 5% Hipster Corruption. Oi, that's Nerdist. I'm reporting you to the ACLU. There's the stick in the mud we all know and love. I wanna go all the way Taking out my freak tonight I wanna show all the dirt I got running through my mind, whoa I had to google that for this stupid joke and now I feel dirty. I hope you appreciate what I go through for you people. Ha-ha! It's funny because he sleeps a disproportionate amount for someone his age. Wow, that's... that's... that's really blocky. I normally have nothing but praise for the art in these games, but wow. I made SimCity SNES cities that were more rounded than this place. Also, those of you who had Upbeat and Eager to help may cash in your tickets now. "And then Li Mei stabbed him. We should probably get a leash for her or something." Chipper Guy needs to grow a goatee, really sell the look he seems to be going for. As you'll note, Aki's already mimicking his posture and facial expressions, a technique used by pick-up artists to put girls at ease. So at least she's not mind-whammying this one into the closet. If he gets two more Fire Spirits for his deck, no one will stop his Raviel, Lord of Phantasms combo. I'm not going to rule out the possibility Naoki is also flirting. Recycling aliases is a good way to get caught. Also known by the portmanteau shipping name, Haruzaki. "We could have told you this sooner, so you could actually be prepared and not give away the game by reacting in surprise, but I think it's hilarious to watch you improv." But thena lot of the big cons either did away with Artist Alley to save space or only accepted famous, professional artists, and well, here we are. Indeed, almost the Taco Bell Meat-Like Taco Filling side of the law.
"And then Li Mei stabbed him. Maybe Aki should search her for knives later." Ole! And Kangai is apparently using his real fake name instead of a fake fake name for purposes of being undercover. Kangai has no need of your pathetic hew-mon pleasantries. Gosh, now I feel silly for making those jokes about Li Mei being the one randomly stabbing people. Seriously. Kangai's outgoing and friendly facial expression looks more like the guy who e-stalks your facebook account and leaves messages about how soft your skin must be and how he'd like to wear it. It was ONE TIME and it was just an observation and all of a sudden she's talking to the Police and I'm on some kinda watch list. ;_; I like how Aki and Naoki look so pained and Shawn's just grinning merrily through it all. "As you can see, this university takes a wide variety of credit cards as well as debilitating student loans..." He explains that these are ID cards and keys for the electronic locks all over campus. But I seem to have missed that screenshot somewhere. It says something about how I approach mystery stories that I immediately made note of that in case it becomes relevant. Shh! We're not supposed to know about that, these LPs skipped the bonus content from the last game. And because she's terrible at naming things. Almost like it was someone who recognized you from your previous exploits. Someone like, I dunno... Chance! I mean, Gurski. It's been a while since I played these things, it's a little rusty. "You'll be staying with the Phi Eta Sigma Fraternity House. They need to come up with some way to raise ten thousand dollars by the end of the semester or they'll be shut down for good, but don't worry, I'm sure there will be no wacky hijinks while you're there." "At which point the whole building turns into a two-hundred and fifty story tower full of monsters and lengthy speeches about nihilism, so you'll want to be out before then." Aki of course choose that major for them all just so she can hit on guys with "And I'd like to major in your biology." And you don't get your own comic if you get bitten by a radioactive wall. You just get laughed at. Oh, Naokizaki. You so easy. And honestly, sitting in a classroom with radioactive walls three times a week for three or four years is probably safer than having a bottle of Mountain Dew once a day. Or Code Red once a month.
"You know, in case any of you want to go nuts and snipe people." ... What? Too soon? "If rung, it summons the Master Chief. We all still die, of course, but he usually gets the bastards." I don't think there's anything I could say that would make that more ridiculous. That's about when I get to sleep when I need to be up for eight, I don't see what you're complaining about. They've walked great distances while standing there motionless in that same spot, staring right at us. Which is a real shame, because that webcomic was terrible. Dramatic door unlocking scene, go! And now I'm sure the keycards and locks will never be relevant to anything again. Kizaki and Kangai get to be bunk buddies! And Li Mei returns to the screen just in time to go away for a long period. Dorm buddy so sounds like a euphemism. Son of a bitch, Shawn stole our ladies. Guy is good. Although looking at Aki there, he may just have Rohypnol. Kangai, if you're gonna wait for Naoki to step forwards boldly and take the initiative, you're gonna be waiting a long time. No. Wait around out here for your Dorm Buddy to open the door to leave, then grab him and drag him inside for interrogation. Lazy versus Timid, one round only. Who will give in and act first? Aki doesn't so much make plans as set goals and then leave her underlings to flounder. Naoki and Kangai were never seen again. Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were called in to investigate the disappearance, but despite Mulder's insistence it was aliens, no proof was found.
Asian, weird highlights in his hair, glasses... I can't help but think this guy's going to be popular with my readers, yet I dislike him already if just for that smile. "You can come in... anytime..." Well, Kizaki's the uk- not what you meant. Yeah, he probably figured by process of elimination. Asian, weird hair, glasses, and he makes noises like a pigeon. Yep. Definitely going to be popular here. "Actually, it is. I've got letterheads and everything." Really not. There's a free bunk in the room, mind, he's just making both of them sleep on the floor because it's funnier. Featured: The kind of Quality Control you've come to expect from my LP's. He says classroom. Or something. I took these screenshots two months ago. Kangai owns nothing because he's a drifter. Naoki owns nothing because anytime he buys something, Aki pushes him down and claims it as the stronger twin. "If these end up on the internet, you die, Camera Guy." Naoki's not used to being exploited by anyone but his sister, he's got no idea these are going to be on CuteNerdsUnpacking.Org in an hour. "Oh god. The cursed camera I found in that abandoned house is back. You guys have to stop me, before you Say Cheese and Die... Again!" So close to almost standing up for himself. Of course, Aki crushed all those instincts out of him ages ago, but still, the thought counts. Shall we defend Naoki's sensitivities, or be nice to Camera Dou- Guy? And as the generous LPer I am, I promise another two months of time to vote, just in case. <.<
Dude, I say let him keep taking them and just ask if it's a hobby. Chances of Pigeon-Hipster-with-Same-Name-as-my-Boyfriend-so-it's-Kind-of-Awkward capturing photographic evidence at some point during this game are approximately 103%, so letting him take as many as he likes might actually help us. oh, and edit: Welcome back!! Missed ya!
I swear to God JohnStargazer, if it wasn't for the fact that I had to look around YouTube to get a glimpse at the true ending, I would have believed you. Except for the Alex part though. I still believe in it now. Are you, by any chance, related to Aki or something?
I thought Aki was Naoki's sister? Isn't Naokizaki worried about these pictures getting spread? Uncomfortable
Ask him if it's a hobby, that way you can get him to stop for at least a little bit. Besides, more photographic evidence ALWAYS helps in murder cases right?
