Vedict: OMG!! Legendary!Okay, this was an amazing experience, and it's clear a lot of effort went into it, and the end result is beautiful. This game is almost twelve years old already, yet it stood the test of time beautifully.
The musical hints and the very well made graphics make for a sweet, awesome, and fun presentation, with lovable characters, each with a distinctive personality, and very nice hentai scenes that one really must put some work to get. This game looks and sounds great, but it also plays fantastically well. Like other dating sims, this game is about balancing between acquiring skills, buying things and interacting with potential mates, but the story is so involving, with so many amazing scenes and characters, so many sad and happy moments, and so much overall emotional involvement it adds a lot of motivation to the game as a whole. Also, a generous handful of collectibles, secrets and mini-games to discover and to help in getting the girls also add a lot of replay-ability to such a short and lovely game, all of which must be unlocked by completing special quests involving the girls. Another thing I like is how each different girl plays differently. What I mean is that in most dating sims, all characters play the same, all you have to do is talk, buy gifts, date and kiss, but in here, we have to interact differently with each character, for instance, helping Ami build her time machine will lead her to lover status, while helping Karin recover her memories will lead to a sweet slave-master relationship, before she finally remembers everything and walks away (I couldn't find out how to get her to lover status, though) so this is not one of those generic dating sims in which you interact in the exact same way with all the girls. The endings are beautiful and emotional, and I do recommend that people try out all of them, amazing stuff. I did Ami's first, and I was speechless, it was a roller coaster of emotions I won't spoil. I couldn't activate the social network functionality, most likely because this game is already so many years old, but I sure wish I could, just so I could know how that worked. I didn't plan on writing such a long review on this game, but it really has touched my heart in numerous ways, and for that, I can only praise SimMan for the great work he did so many, many years ago. Newgrounds.com Gretgor
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Verdict: OMG!! Legendary!The StoryThe story is, in my opinion, one of the most important parts of any media. Audiences will be more than happy to overlook flaws in the media, and be a lot more enduring if the story itself is good. The best examples of this is the comic Shapeshifter, and video game Monster Girl Quest. Both are XXX titles and had their fair shares of problems however they’re regarded as some of the best stories in this field and their audiences are more than willing to overlook these problems. This is proof, in my opinion, that even in XXX games people want a good story they can get sucked into. If you want to sell a ton of your media, the answer isn’t in the graphics/artwork, it isn’t in the gameplay, it isn’t even in your Adult content or lack thereof of, it’s in the story. A great story that touches people, that people can relate to, WILL sell your game, period. So with all that being said how is SimGirls story? ….Well, it’s solid. The game is a fandom of DNA2 Angel and as a result follows the same basic plot with the player character taking over for the main character (although strangely he’s still in the game). You begin the game as a loser who can’t get a girlfriend. Cue girl from the future who believes you are going to one day become the Super Mega playboy who’s sexual conquest are so numerous that you cause serious overpopulation issues in the future. In order to solve this problem future girl (aka Karin) shoots you with a DNA bullet, a bullet designed to rearrange your DNA into that of a normal person. Something though goes wrong and the DNA bullet reacts in an unexpected way, accidently making you the Super Mega playerboy. You now have 100 days to get the ending you want (day 100 is Valentine’s Day). This plot isn’t bad but it’s certainly not thrilling. The problem is that this kinda of plot is very heavily character driven, however the game is setup in classic Sim dating style where little to no information is given about PC (playable character) in order to better allow the player to imagine he is the PC. There are both pros and cons to this approach but we’ll talk more about that in the next section of the review. The only other real problem with this plot is that there’s really no reason to actually get a girlfriend by day 100. Oh don’t get me wrong, each girl (with the exception of Sana and Tomoko) does have a reason why you need to get them to fall in love with you by day 100 but there’s no reason plot wise why you should get a girl by day 100. Character - TomokoTomoko – By far the most interesting character in the game. Tomoko is very sexually open, and has a sly fox like intelligence (not to be confused with Ami’s more book smart intelligence). However it’s her backstory that’s real interesting, her parents are divorced because her father cheated on her mother. Tomoko now lives with her father who is neglectful and simply tries to buy his daughter’s happiness rather than spend time with her. At the same time in school she notices boys constantly hitting on her and trying to sleep with her because of her looks which leads Tomoko to have some rather interesting insecurities about her own body. The playful banter and insecurities are showed pretty well in her plotline and all her endings are well done. The only possible improvement I can think of is that we actually have the PC/her confront her father but even without this Tomoko and her plot line are the best in the game in my opinion. Character - SanaSana – One of the few original characters in the game. Sana is a collector and occultist. A bisexual leaning towards lesbian (as evident by her attraction towards Tomoko) she tends to be pretty cold towards strangers and doesn’t trust them often, which could be because of her past. She does however warm up towards friends and has a very outgoing and sexually active personality. Sana also has a voyeur fetish and is Akira’s modeling apprentice (although the exact nature of their relationship isn’t known. They’re at least sexually active with each but other than that we don’t know much about the two). While much of her background is unknown she works for SimMan (in game character). What we do know is that Sana was originally an “escort” who always wanted to travel the world and was taken in by Sim Man to live out her dream. Now while some would argue that just like Karin, you’re required to at least partially complete Tomoko and Kotomi’s plotlines in order to progress with her, I would disagree. For starters Sana’s restriction at least make sense, she’s a collector and wants you to give her items the girls have which you can only get by dating them. The second difference to note is that Sana’s progression isn’t tied to the status of the other girls like Karin is, it’s tied to the items themselves which is an important distinction to make I feel. Also due to Sana’s cameras she’s well aware that the PC is going around picking up every chick he can, and her thought of the matter on it is, well if you want to have sex with me I want to at least get something out of this. Her ending is also very touching and sweet (and requires you to collect items in new and unique ways). Overall I say she’s the second best character and plotline in the game, right after Tomoko. Character - KotomiKotomi – Ami’s best friend and a gymnastics person who wants to take her hobby to the next level and become a professional. Kotomi is the most balance of the characters in terms of intelligence, looks, and sexuality. She’s another character pulled from DNA2 and is pretty solid, although a little one dimensional. The problem with Kotomi’s storyline is that the PC doesn’t really do anything for her. The PC doesn’t actually help her overcome her problem of farting whenever she gets nervous, nor is there any real conflict in her plot line. Oh sure we find out that she’s leaving on day 100 to go study in Germany but that’s not a real conflict we solve, it sort of just takes care of itself in the ending. If I’m not mistaken in DNA2 the PC actually helped her win the competition which results in her being sent away, which was a great source of inner-conflict within the main character…..as well as the fact he had to fight this psychic guy who could read his mind if I recall correctly. Adding this to the plot I think would go a long way to make Kotomi’s storyline a lot more interesting. ArtworksThe graphics in the game are good. Characters’ have a good number of facial expressions, sex scenes are done well, body proportions look right. There’s only one piece of art in the whole game which I think is bad, and that’s Sana in the black leather dress. I have no idea why but during the scene when she finally tells PC her backstory Sana looks awful in that black dress. The picture is all fuzzy and looks to be sketched which clashes badly with the rest of the artwork throughout the game. It’s so fuzzy that you can barely tell distinguishing features, including what exactly her black dress looks like. Hell it doesn’t even look like Sana in my opinion. This is the only time this picture is used, and I just don’t know what happen or why SimMan choose to use such a bad piece of art. Game Mechanicshe meat of the game. While looking simple at first there’s actually a lot of elements going on in Simgirls and it does require a little bit of planning to get the ending you want. The PC is given a set amount of energy he can use per day. Actions in the game such as talking to girls, making money, and improving stats require energy to use so the player must plan what he wishes to do first in the game. The player can recover their energy by sleeping, and by Karin during the late game. Talking to Tomoko and Kotomi raises their relationship level with the goal of the game to get the girl (or girls) of your choosing to become your lover by the end of the game. The player also has three stats, intelligence, strength, and charm. With these stats affecting how much you raise Kotomi and Tomoko’s relationship level when you talk with them. Int is used to determine if you pass your exams, and Str affects your endurance and punching power during the fight mini-game. You also have a variety of jobs you can choose from to make money for items you can use during mini-games and gifts to increase your relationship level. Smuggler, salesman, tutor, modeling agency, trading and the fighting competition. At the beginning of the game you are asked to pick your player class (Criminal, Playful, Intelligent and Casual) which affects the rates at which you can raise your stats and how much money you make from a job. You also assign your beginning stat points to one of your three stats. While this does affect your early gameplay an experience player can easily work with any classes since it wouldn’t make a difference middle to late game. Most players I know choose the Criminal class for the bonus you get for the Smuggler job but I normally pick Casual and go with a balance stat list. Simgirls suffers, in my opinion, from an inherence problem. You can sort of think of the game like a pyramid with each new version of Simgirls building itself on top of the previous versions. Which is perfectly fine, the problem though is that we have several features and mini-games within the game that just haven’t age well in time or Sim Man planned to expand upon later and never did. The first example of this is with the stat and class mechanic, as I said above I normally pick Casual and go with a balance stat list. I do this because your class and stats don’t really affect how your play the game. I mean yes it affects early gameplay when you’re getting your stats up but once your stats are up your class is pretty much pointless. Your stats themselves are very narrow with what they actually do for you. Yes they all affect your relationship level when you talk with girls but that’s pretty much it, and later on the bonuses they give you are pretty much worthless compared to the other ways you can increase your relationship level (mainly through dating and giving gifts). Strength is your most useful stat, it helps with the fighting and swimming mini-game. The fighting mini-game pops up the most frequently and is the most useful for getting money during the early game when you get the hang of it. Intelligence is for your exams. When you get an A on your exam you get money and a relationship bonus. Outside of that though it’s pretty useless stat. Charm is the most useless stat. It increases the amount relationship points you get from talking to girls but like I already said that becomes next to nothing for higher level relationship status. I recommend that something be done with the stats and class, to retool them somehow to make them still useful during the end game. Maybe have them give bonuses to some of the mini-games like having int and/or charm increase the amount of money you get for the trading mini-game. As for your jobs, tutor and Salesman are useless. Experience players will never use them. Smuggler or the fighting mini-game just gives you way more money early game and once you have enough money you start the modeling job. The modeling job requires a lot of money to even start and does take a little bit of time to make a good amount of money in, but once it gets going you’ll make more money than you know what to do with. Hell I’d even go as far as say the Smuggler job is useless too. You make more money in the fighting mini-game to start with until you get two items from the girls, but once you get those items your pretty much ready to start the modeling job which makes the Smuggling job useless by that point. This is made even worst by the fact all the jobs now have their own building in the map which you can click on to view. In previous versions of the game you just had a “City” section you clicked on which brought up all of the jobs you could use. This was very simple and efficient. Here though every job now has its own section of the map you click on first to get to it and I just don’t see the point of why? Do you plan on using the convention center for anything else? Junta’s house? They just feel really empty with only one job to click on, and since those jobs are useless I end up ignoring it for the most part anyway. At the very least the tutor and Salesman job need to be tweak, perhaps offering items or stat points in addition to money would make them a worthwhile option to consider. As is though most experience players will just use their starting money to stock up on items they need for the fighting mini-game, max out their strength and just challenger Bloody King for the largest reward when they need money. As for the trading jobs, trading with the chef is useless and done only if you get the items when you go searching for the black stones. Chef offers you way too little when compared to the other jobs and isn’t even worth looking at. The Black Stone trader is where you will make the most amount of money possible in the game, but since it requires you to be Sana’s lover it only becomes available too you late game. And by that point you’re already making more money than you know what to do with the modeling job so you’ll probably only use it if you’re going after Sana’s ending which does make sense. Tomoko and Kotomi’s dating mini-game is good for the most part. I like how during the dates now the questions are phrased to look more conversational and not like she’s giving you a quiz. With that being said I strongly hate the fact their questions are now random. Yes it’s supposed to stop cheating, but guess what, people are going to cheat anyway if they really want to so all this does is serve to punish players replaying the game, because let’s face it, the dating mini-game is not the most fun part of the game. Oh sure it’s fun and cute the first time you play the game, but after that you just want to get through it. The swimming, car, fighting, and café mini-games are all great, and easy once you get the hang of them. The farting and puzzle mini-games are just useless. They don’t really DO anything. The puzzle mini-game at least gives you a nude picture of Tomoko, but the farting mini-game doesn’t do anything at all……you just make Kotomi fart with a feather…… The most disappointing mini-game though is the Social Networking app. This is the one game feature which requires you to get a password by signing up on Blackspears and it’s kinda disappointing. The girls only give one quick line each with the exception of Tomoko who we actually get to learn more about. It also provides a key role for one of her endings. I just wished it contributed more to the other girls besides Tomoko, I mean it requires a password after all. Items in the game are pretty good and useful with specific functions for each item. The cellphone idea to pull up your stats, and calendar and other main menu stuff was an excellent idea. The game’s save feature sucks balls. Tide into your cookie history, and only allowing for one save file it forces you to replay it if you make a single mistake. A frustrating aspect given the game’s length. Sadly if I’m not mistake there’s no way you can fix this without rewriting the entire game on a whole new engine, something that is not going to happen so yea better get used to it. The calendar and events aspect of the game is incredible, and I’d almost say groundbreaking. The fact you have actual events (that can change depending upon your relationship with the girls) the PC plans around make for a great gameplay dynamite and is something I’ve never seen before in any other Sim Dating game. My only compliant with it is that I want more events (cue joke music). ConclusionIn conclusion Simgirls is an excellent game that shines above the rest and while it’s true that all areas of the game have their flaws that can be improved upon, its good points shine through. I recommend this game to gamers looking for a good story; Tomoko’s pure love ending in context with what you learn about her character is excellent; for gamers looking for just some XXX scenes, Simgirls might make you work for it but the XXX’s in it for the most part deliver and are well worth the effort; and for gamers looking for creative and interesting game mechanics the calendar and date mechanic is both an impressive and rare feat in games that’s worth checking out here.
A wise person once said that a review is only worthwhile if it helps someone, so it’s my sincerest hope that this review has/will help SimMan and other creators with their future projects as well as the common gamer wondering whether or not Simgirls is a good game to get. From Freedom Wall Alexandar04 |
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All
DSRG Rating LegendOMG!! LEGENDARY!
OH! I'm in LOVE!!
I Like it!
It's Okay~
Ehh~ Not so much.
Terrible!! Avoid this Shit!!
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