Full FeedImportant Importables: Neo Angelique Special for PSP review
Title: Neo Angelique Special
Price: $48.90
System(s): PSP
Release Date: September 20, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Koei (Koei)
ESRB Rating: N/A, Cero B for ages 12 and up.
Pros: Character art is gorgeous, battles are fun, and the story is a well written. Full voice acting. 4 extra guy endings added for the PSP release
Cons: Dinner dialogues aren’t exactly thrilling. You’ll also need to find a guide online to get a good end.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
Koei’s Angelique games were typically simulation games, with visual novel elements. You’d play Angelique, one of two teenagers chosen to try and become Queen of the Cosmos. Most games in that series are part Civilization/SimCity game, and part otome game.
That changed with Neo Angelique, which takes the series in a new direction. The star is still a girl named Angelique, however this time she has a purifying power than can wipe out monsters attacking the world of Arcadia. So instead of helping create a world, you’re instead stepping into the shoes of a RPG heroine and saving it.
Purify the world
Angelique’s story begins somewhat tragically. Her parents were killed by monsters known as Thanatos, and now she’s attending a boarding school, training to become a doctor. She’s visited at school one day by Nyx. He’s the founder of Aube Hunters, a group of Purifiers - the only people in Arcadia with the power to defeat Thanatos. He thinks that she has potential, and asks if she’ll join group and help him. She turns him down.
The next day, her school is attacked by Thanatos. Angelique is devastated by what’s happening, and she suddenly discovers and uses purifying powers she didn’t realize she had to safe the day. It turns out that she has the Queen’s Egg purifying abilities, and is Arcadia’s only female Purifier. She joins Nyx and Rayne, and later J.D. and Hyuga, to eliminate Thanatos.
Easy to play, but a challenge to master.
While the Tokimeki Memorial: Girl’s Side DS games are the best choice for beginning otome players, Neo Angelique Special is a very close second. For the most part, it is a typical RPG, where you go around with one of your Purifier friends at a time, trying to defeat Thanatos. The battles are fairly easy - you get a nice visual tutorial before your first one, and its fairly standard RPG faire.
When you’re not going around, visiting villages and helping people, Neo Angelique Special takes the visual novel approach. Characters appear before you, you answer their questions, and the story progresses. Occasionally, you have dinner with your four party members, which gives you the opportunity to make them like you more.
If you don’t read Japanese, you can still enjoy the game. It’s incredibly easy to save and load a game, so you can be ready when a choice comes up. Then, there are two ways you can try and get the correct answer. First, you can check Angelique’s picture - her face will change for each answer, so you can see which emotion would fit the moment best. Second, if you’re talking to one of the guys, he’ll either have a happy pink cloud or sad blue cloud appear after the answer, telling you if he likes you more or less.
It’s a beautiful title, with full voice acting, elaborate characters, gorgeous environments and a wonderful story. The CG scenes for characters are beautiful and a wonderful reward for choosing the right paths, and the music is also very soothing. And just how detailed is it? The character’s lips move in time with the words when they “talk”
The only quirk is, endings can be a bit tricky to get. I’d recommend checking online for some sort of guide to help you find the code words for each guy. I’d recommend visiting Angelique Guide for help, if you find yourself getting a bad ending.
If you’ve never played an Angelique game before, now’s the time to start.
Unlike the other Angelique games, which could get tricky due to the city management and development aspect of the game and large number of guys to build relationships with. Neo Angelique, on the other hand, is absolutely wonderful and easy for people who do and don’t speak Japanese to play and enjoy. The characters are detailed and engaging, the RPG quest aspect is fun, the battles have an interesting mechanic and the voice acting is spectacular.
However, Neo Angelique Special for the PSP is essentially a port of the PS2 game Neo Angelique Full Voice. The only difference is, four new characters from the Neo Angelique ~Abyss~ anime series were added in. So if you don’t own Neo Angelique Special (PS2) or Neo Angelique Full Voice, it’s a great game to buy. If you own one of the other versions, it really isn’t worth it. Erenfried, Jet, Mathias and Roche, the four newly added guys, aren’t actual party members and only have three events each.
COMING NEXT WEEK: Stop by for a review of Vampire Knight DS (aka Vampire Kishi DS), the otome/life sim based on the manga and anime series Vampire Knight. If you don’t miss a single installment of Important Importables, or want to know right away when the next column is up, then sign up for the Gamertell Newsletter and RSS feed.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Last week Important Importables talked about video games with Japanese theme songs, and talked about the artists behind them..
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Thanks for the review! I’ve been wanting to get this game but haven’t had the chance to so you’ve definitely put it on my “to-play” list. :D
on February 10, 2009 at 03:05 AM - LINKGlad you enjoyed it!
Its really a wonderful game, and if you enjoy RPGs and visual novels, you’ll really enjoy it.
Plus, I found that the kanji wasn’t too overbearing, and the fact that Angelique’s portrait helps connect each of her answers to questions to an emotion really helps make it easier to play.
If Play-Asia still has it on sale, you may want to check it out.
on February 10, 2009 at 12:51 PM - LINKI would actually argue that the original Angelique series is far easier to get the hang of and more importantly doesn’t really require the heavy use of guides to help you but great review nonetheless.
I own the PS2 version so I haven’t bought that and don’t intend to for the same reason you gave.
I personally find the original series to be better. Much better characters and as the games progress so too does the story which I liked. Though to be fair there’s a lot more variety in terms of the characters than Neo Angelique.
on February 27, 2009 at 07:05 PM - LINK@ Amy - I’ll have to take your word on it. I’ve never been able to play an original Angelique. I watched a friend in high school play one, but back then I didn’t speak/read any Japanese and it seemed on a whole other level to me. I’ve always had an easier time making it through import RPGs than simulations, so I’ll admit a bit of a bias.
Yeah, the content added in isn’t substantial enough to warrant another purchase for you. Especially since you own the original.
The original Angelique has a lot more male character options, definitely.
I think we can both agree that the Koei Neo Romance games are, in general, a great line of games. :D Have you ever tried the Harutoki games? The manga didn’t appeal to me, so I never really considered that line of games.
on February 27, 2009 at 09:25 PM - LINKI adore the Neoroma line of games.
Again, like you, I’m biased since Angelique was my first game I think that is my favorite. I do have to admit though that Corda undoubtedly has the best gameplay out of all three series (or four if you class Neo Angelique as a seperate line).
I have played HaruToki. It’s not a bad game but can get a tad repetitive. That said so could Ange but I adore that series. I would say that the Ange games do change over time though and are split into arcs though the basic concept remains the same of cultivating either a planet or in the final game the universe ^^v.
There’s a RPG for Angelique as well in the same type of style as Final Fantasy with multiple endings for all the guys.
Getting back to HaruToki it’s the characters really that endeared me to it. I really did like the anime as well but I’ve never read the manga so can’t comment on that.
If you want any more info on HaruToki or any of the other Neoroma games feel free to ask. I’ve played virtually all of them. ^_~
on February 28, 2009 at 02:15 PM - LINKCorda is really wonderful. That was the first Neo Romance game I ever played.
There’s a FF style Angelique? I had no idea! What is it called, and is it available on a region-free handheld?
I’m keeping an eye on eBay for a cheap DS or PSP HaruToki game. Probably after tax time I’ll splurge on one.
It’s one of those things were you look and see how interesting it seems, but it you wait to kind of research to see which one would be best.
I’m limited though, since I could only play the DS and PSP versions.
on February 28, 2009 at 04:31 PM - LINKDoes this game have an english version for the US?
on May 12, 2009 at 09:01 PM - LINKSadly Keira_Matsura, it does not. If you can find and print out a Japanese guide, you should be able to make it through a playthrough of the game.
on May 12, 2009 at 09:59 PM - LINK