Sorry about the late comments, as I’ve been in pixel land myself lately. (Just playing a few items I picked up for Xmas from Jlist now. 8))

WRT Dragonblooded PCs in D&D, I suppose it can work, but it takes a very experienced DM (Dungeon Master) to handle it. And only for parties of extremely high experience with the correspondingly difficult challenges. (In old 80s D&D talk, probably late green, black or gold box characters; aka levels 20 to 36 and immortal PCs)

I have the English translated Japanese Ero games from the defunct Megatech that have ‘bad’ English voices. 8) (Cobra Mission, Metal & Lace, PowerDolls, Knights of Xentar) IMO, they should have saved the money by just keeping the better Japanese voices instead.

p.s. I know they’re not eroge per se. 8)

>>hanako
Can you hold that thought for a few (10, 15) months? ^^;;

>>Richard “Pocky” Kim
I didn’t have the time for it either, but I’m glad I carved out the space for it… It seems I needed something like this to help me refocus on what I’m doing here.

>>Sennarli
It’s a sign that I’m interested in trying to license it, but all I can do is make suggestions to the powers that be. I’m hoping a license ends up happening but there’s really no way to know whether it will at this point.

>>haderach
I’m curious to find out how your sentence ends…

Great review, as always. お疲れ！

There aren’t enough selection points to make you feel like you’re really in control of the protagonist, are there. As mentioned in the review I don’t think this is a bad thing, as long as you don’t view it as a “game” per se; I was happy to be along for the ride without participating very much.

>>astrange
I would say that while it’s typical of eroge ADVs it’s not typical of Japanese fantasy narratives overall. Eroge settings are constrained by the number of background CG that need to be drawn, and traditionally have settled on a city or town as a setting of manageable scope for a game for this (among other) reasons.

By contrast, fantasy eroge RPGs and SLGs such as Seinarukana and Sengoku Rance are able to tell epic stories that span countries and alternate dimensions, as are fantasy anime such as Juuni Kokki, Last Exile, and Record of Lodoss Wars.

I may be missing your point here; if so, please correct me.

>>Nargrakhan
I don’t really see Bullet Butlers as a “dark” title per se; the world feels too well-rounded to me, a balance of light and shadow. It doesn’t have that gothic / postapocalyptic / axiomatically evil / psychotic feel I’d associate with games that operate in worlds with priorities other than those of this one we live in.

It certainly has dark elements, but the world feels so resilient to me that I get the impression that if even if the heroes did not emerge victorious at the end, the forces of law would eventually close around and heal the wound. I’m not sure if that makes sense…

Anyway, I can understand your distaste for the SD cut-in scenes, and while I don’t mind them I don’t see them as a huge selling point for the game either. I hope they won’t be a turn-off for those in search of a serious story.

I look forward to reading your review when you get around to putting it up!

>>blacklotus
There’s never been an eroge released in English that didn’t leave the original Japanese voices in place, so you can rest assured that if we do license it they’ll be firmly intact.

You raise an interesting point regarding the unbalancing effect of dragon blood in the game; if the Dragoneut race were to be ported to D&D it would have to be emphasized that they’re essentially humans (only without the human “quick adoption” bonuses) and that taking dragon shape isn’t something one can do in polite society. Letting PCs be Favnir would be out of the question, I’m thinking.

>>Dagger
I agree, the supporting cast is rather more colorful and interesting than the main characters (though this is the curse of most anime/eroge, is it not?).

I’m with you on that first ero scene, too. It seemed entirely random, like it was put there for exactly the purpose you suggest. I think they really should’ve cut it; it wouldn’t have hurt to begin that scene with the implication that sex was had, and I think it would’ve made the story flow better, but meh… a minor flaw all things considered.

>>Anon
Doh! Thanks for catching that mistake. I blame it entirely on my loosening grasp of the English language… I’ve substituted “crimson” for “azure” in the review, I’m guessing that’s the word I wanted from the beginning anyway. Thanks again.

# of a deep somewhat purplish blue color similar to that of a clear October sky; “October’s bright blue weather”
# a light shade of blue
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Some of the ero scenes (especially the very first) gave me the sense that they were trying to say, “Don’t worry, we know it’s a long game, but we haven’t forgotten about the ero, so just sit tight.” ^^;;

(My last novels were the Dragonlance Dragons of Summer Flame and the Majere Twins 2-part series; I just cannot bring myself to love the new surviving characters as much as the old cast. The old gang (Tanis, Raist, Tika, Caramon, Takhisis, etc disappeared after Summer Flame; Died, joined Paladine on his eternal journey, etc.) 8(

For the significant majority, I totally agree with your assessment of Bullet Butlers. It is truly an epic game; with tremendous back story that rivals that of any full fledge fictional setting. The guys are manly, the girls are sexy, and the beasts are utterly badass. The creative visual effects – as you already pointed out – are also an impressive feast for the eyes! I especially loved the creation of an “original” world, vice the implementation of the story on an “alternate” Earth… sci-fi people know what I’m talking about. ^_^

Above all else, this title is an EXCELLENT alternative for those gamers who want a suitably dark and moody setting, but without the negatives of overboard violence and mutilating sex. It clearly harkens to the time when eroge that explored evil and wickedness, did not flood the senses with guro, vore, and other disturbing scenes. That alone is worthy a testament of praise.

However I am one of those detractors who found the SD artwork and insertion of slapstick humor, as something I would have been happier without. Not to say I don’t like jokes… but if you’re going to have a Tale of Darkness™, keep it dark IMHO. Have humor in the dialog exchange like action and horror movies do it. Nonetheless, the sheer list of positives in Bullet Butlers greatly outweigh the handful of negatives. Plus I’m kinda biased since I tend to like my coffee extremely dark and devoid of sugar, if ya catch my drift.

Meh… I shouldn’t highjack someone else’s review, so I’ll shut up now and write my own sometime. But to sum it all up: Narg likes Bullet Butlers! Plus it has twins. You can rarely go wrong with twins in my book. ^_-

Isn’t this what Japan does for everything? I’m not really impressed by epic fantasy slice of life more than any other kind…

What I felt that the game lacked was more waypoints which allowed the player to choose how the story would continue on. Other than that, I enjoyed it.