[Discussion] Beat Blades Haruka

[Nhadala]

Name: Beat Blades Haruka

Developer: AliceSoft

Publisher: MangaGamer

Tags: Action, Fantasy, Monsters, RPG, Male Protagonist, Shinobi

Description: Evil ninja have invaded Japan to try and conquer it with their devant ideals and revive the ancient creature that grants them power! And the only way to stop them is to co-oparate with your own Ninja to find victory, our protagonist is living an everyday life before he meets a girl who introduces herself as Haruka and he falls in love with her at first sight, that very evening, our protagonist and his friend are attacked by evil Ninja, only to be saved by Haruka clad in Kunoichi gear, it turns out that our protagonist is the heir to an ancient Shinobi clan whos purpose is to save the world from the evil Ninjas.

My thoughts: An important title for both MangaGamer and fans of visual novels because AliceSoft, which is a big developer in Japan, is testing out the western market by making a partnership with MangaGamer, if this game does well, other AliceSoft games will be translated as well, i personally think they chose the wrong game to test out the western market with personally, the Rance games are a lot more popular over here with several being translated to English by fans despite them being big games, they would have had much more success with a recent Rance game than with Beat Blades Haruka, but the game itself is still solid with quite a lot of CGs to collect and a basic, but interesting storyline, worth picking up from MangaGamer just for the sake of showing that theres a market for these games here so that we can see more AliceSoft games brought to the west.

This thread is meant as discussion for the game, but we arent allowed to mention anything regarding Sexual Content, so please keep that in mind in this thread so that i dont get castrated by moderators, i want to be able to discuss these games with you guys.

Thanks for understanding and i hope we have a good discussion.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Nhadala

[Tomas Elliot]

I AM NOT THE ONLY EROGE FAN! <3

Ahem.

Haven't tried this particular one. You say that we shouldn't talk about the sexual contents, but the fact is that those play a major part, when it comes to deciding whether or not I should play a game.

See, the fact is that, for some reason, loli scenes are big in Japan. As a result, every eroge out there is guaranteed to have at least one loli scene. But the fact is that loli scenes greatly offend me, so I always make a point to gather info about those: if I learn that, in a particular game, there aren't ways to skip, miss, or otherwise avoid loli scenes (meaning, the game forces you to see at least one), then I just don't play the game. I have actually passed on universally acclaimed titles for this very reason, that is just how much loli scenes offend me.

So yeah, I apologize but, for a matter of personal policy, "are there unavoidable loli scenes?" is something I must ask, even before asking "what is the plot about?". Because if there are, there is no way I am getting this.

With this being said, let me comment the few lines you posted about the plot: sounds like your bread and butter uppity and adventurous, if a bit cliché, story. I take it there is an actual gameplay? As in, it isn't JUST a visual novel?

[Nhadala]

I AM NOT THE ONLY EROGE FAN! <3

Ahem.

Haven't tried this particular one. You say that we shouldn't talk about the sexual contents, but the fact is that those play a major part, when it comes to deciding whether or not I should play a game.

See, the fact is that, for some reason, loli scenes are big in Japan. As a result, every eroge out there is guaranteed to have at least one loli scene. But the fact is that loli scenes greatly offend me, so I always make a point to gather info about those: if I learn that, in a particular game, there aren't ways to skip, miss, or otherwise avoid loli scenes (meaning, the game forces you to see at least one), then I just don't play the game. I have actually passed on universally acclaimed titles for this very reason, that is just how much loli scenes offend me.

So yeah, I apologize but, for a matter of personal policy, "are there unavoidable loli scenes?" is something I must ask, even before asking "what is the plot about?". Because if there are, there is no way I am getting this.

With this being said, let me comment the few lines you posted about the plot: sounds like your bread and butter uppity and adventurous, if a bit cliché, story. I take it there is an actual gameplay? As in, it isn't JUST a visual novel?

Yes theres gameplay in it, hence the RPG tag and dont worry, AFAIK theres no such scenes in this game, at least as far as ive played i didnt witness such things.

[Tomas Elliot]

I finally got around to start this, but... How can I put it... Remember when you said that you wanted to discuss eroges like you'd discuss normal games, without bringing up the h-scenes? Well, I am not sure this is the most indicated title to do that...

[Nhadala]

I finally got around to start this, but... How can I put it... Remember when you said that you wanted to discuss eroges like you'd discuss normal games, without bringing up the h-scenes? Well, I am not sure this is the most indicated title to do that...

While i admit that this game isnt really the best for what i intended to do, it was still a decent start to people opening discussions about these games and how to do it/what to be careful of.

My intention was half that and the other half to discuss this game.

Such as optimal strategies, or what route is good and what is bad, what route is unlocked early or late and how, comments about the characters or story, etc...

Lots of things to discuss.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Nhadala

[Tomas Elliot]

While i admit that this game isnt really the best for what i intended to do, it was still a decent start to people opening discussions about these games and how to do it/what to be careful of.

My intention was half that and the other half to discuss this game.

Such as optimal strategies, or what route is good and what is bad, what route is unlocked early or late and how, comments about the characters or story, etc...

Lots of things to discuss.

Fair enough. My impressions so far:

1) The protagonist has a name and a defined personality, with both positives and negatives to him. This is a serious set up compared to many other games in the genre, so yeah, hooray for that.

2) The titular character is kinda boring. Her relationship with Subaru is built on tropes I have seen a trillion times, and she is a complete doormat in her interactions with anyone else. The only interesting twists to her personality come from that part of the game we agreed not to explicitly discuss (but again, that is a big, BIG part of the game), so yeah...

3) Narika is easily the most interesting character, as she plays the tsundere persona in a very unique way. She is not stereotypical, there are things to her that are worth remembering, which is frankly more than I can say about Haruka. She's also stronger in battle, because she has far better speed (if you choose your abilities right, she basically dodges everything, triviliazing virtually any boss fight), can make up for her mediocre attack by using that special of hers that permanently boosts her damage output, and while she does have low barrier, that doesn't make any difference because you can just train.

4) Subaru is a character I am not sold on. She surely is unique and memorable, it's her dynamics with the rest of the cast I am not sold on. As mentioned, her relationship with Haruka is something I have seen a trillion times, and while it is nice to have a mature love option, she is mature only in a "battle hardened" way, we never see her show her maturity in fields other than battle-related matters and sex. Also her missing arm turns me off.

5) The baddies are possibly the best thing about this game. Every single villain is unique and memorable, from the mooks who always scream "nunja" to the quirky mini bosses to the big bad bosses. Orochimaru's humanization felt kinda rushed at times, but hey, given the genre, it was interesting to see a male, and not a female, get the inevitable heel-face turn.

Still haven't cleared it, so I can't say which ending is the best. But well, considering that Narika is the most interesting character AND the best one in battle, I see no reason for choosing any route other than hers. I am not interested in the "dark side" routes either, because tentacles are not my cup of tea, if you know what I mean.

[Nhadala]

Fair enough. My impressions so far:

1) The protagonist has a name and a defined personality, with both positives and negatives to him. This is a serious set up compared to many other games in the genre, so yeah, hooray for that.

2) The titular character is kinda boring. Her relationship with Subaru is built on tropes I have seen a trillion times, and she is a complete doormat in her interactions with anyone else. The only interesting twists to her personality come from that part of the game we agreed not to explicitly discuss (but again, that is a big, BIG part of the game), so yeah...

3) Narika is easily the most interesting character, as she plays the tsundere persona in a very unique way. She is not stereotypical, there are things to her that are worth remembering, which is frankly more than I can say about Haruka. She's also stronger in battle, because she has far better speed (if you choose your abilities right, she basically dodges everything, triviliazing virtually any boss fight), can make up for her mediocre attack by using that special of hers that permanently boosts her damage output, and while she does have low barrier, that doesn't make any difference because you can just train.

4) Subaru is a character I am not sold on. She surely is unique and memorable, it's her dynamics with the rest of the cast I am not sold on. As mentioned, her relationship with Haruka is something I have seen a trillion times, and while it is nice to have a mature love option, she is mature only in a "battle hardened" way, we never see her show her maturity in fields other than battle-related matters and sex. Also her missing arm turns me off.

5) The baddies are possibly the best thing about this game. Every single villain is unique and memorable, from the mooks who always scream "nunja" to the quirky mini bosses to the big bad bosses. Orochimaru's humanization felt kinda rushed at times, but hey, given the genre, it was interesting to see a male, and not a female, get the inevitable heel-face turn.

Still haven't cleared it, so I can't say which ending is the best. But well, considering that Narika is the most interesting character AND the best one in battle, I see no reason for choosing any route other than hers. I am not interested in the "dark side" routes either, because tentacles are not my cup of tea, if you know what I mean.

Haha yeah the bad guys are very interesting and unique.

Theres also brutal endings to each route, are those the "dark endings" you mentioned? You get them by getting enough brutality points(99 i think) with the girl you want before the final boss and u also have to do the punishment scenes with them, might be interesting to explore.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Nhadala