Utawarerumono

I played this a long time ago, before I lost my hard drive to a crash and wasn't able to find it again. (I got really far too). I had trouble with combos early on too. I got the hang of it eventually, but I can't for the life of me remember how

I was digging through my Photobucket for some images I made when the animation was still new.

Eruruu's love life, part 1◊

Eruruu's love life, part 2◊

Eruruu's lov--Gosh Hakuoro you're such a dick sometimes◊

Well, it was true in my case.◊

...Or your legs, head, whatever.◊

Really, you're not gonna run away or something?◊

Ill girls are not safe from the internet hate machine.◊

A concerned citizen takes me to task for that last one.◊

edited 30th Apr '11 1:02:01 AM by LedWalrus

OK, I finally finished the game. My thoughts:

1). I'm amazed at how tightly the anime followed the game. Almost every non-"fluff" scene (fluff: Tuskuru shows Eruruw how to grind medicine. The three spoiled little sisters read books. Kuuya's small talk Things that can be ignored without the plot suffering) I could fill in the dialogue with my memory of the show. Well, I recently bought the DVD's and started watching them again.

2). That said, there are some stories that weren't resolved as well in the anime as in the game (I'm thinking of the war with Kuccha Keccha) and now I see why, back when the anime was new, there were complaint about the show being rushed, especially the Kunnekamun arc. In the anime the battle at Saharan island was completely offscreen. What is really grating is that this is where we learn of Hien's driving motivation (shame that, despite being a descendant of the world's greatest warrior, he's a lowly bunnyman) and of his connection/contract to Diy. There's also his duel with Genjimaru which would have been neato to see animated. And yet the scene in Kunnekamun palace where Genjimaru scolds Hien and Hauenkua for siding with Diy is exactly the same in the anime as in the game—which doesn't make sense since in the anime we don't know why Hien is obligated to Diy. Hauenkua—well, up until this point we think that Diy's whole M.O. is just to side with crazy, murderous people.

3). I actually think the anime handled the ending exceptionally well. In the game, Hakuoro is presumably speaking to his followers through his dismembered Godzilla form. That just seems... unsettling. In the anime, he speaks through a spirit of his more familiar form, and of course there's that final scene with Eruruu.

I also didn't care for the part with Oboro with Yuzuha's baby, as I hated that sex scene and hated the rationale behind it.

4). As for gameplay.... Nothing too difficult, though I found myself flanking my enemies a la FFT even though that doesn't actually do anything. My top characters were—Oboro, Karura and DORIY. Yes, DORIY. That long range comes in rather handy, even if his low Tech ultimately limits him. I didn't like Urutori and Kamyu and hated the levels where they were mandatory. But to my surprise Oboro was my top character (he seemed like such a bitch in the anime) as I maxed out his tech and attack and reasonably could have soloed some of the bosses.

Yuzuha seemed like The Artifact to me, really. She served as motivation for Oboro early on and then what?

Now I don't think that's fair. There was no "need" for Kurou to hang around after the fall of... well, the country that Tusukuru used to be and there was likewise no "need" for the Archery twins to be there at all. Yuzuha after all became Aruruu's and Kamyu's friend. And perhaps show us the extent that Oboro's control freakdom goes (seriously, who lives so sheltered a lifestyle that she doesn't even know what a "friend" is?)

Kurou became one of your units and was thus a combatant. Also, he worked for Benawi in the same way Benawi worked for Hakuoro. More or less. The archery twins were just minor characters designed to give you ranged attackers. Since they can't just be left without personalities, they're retainers for Oboro. However, Yuzuha is not a unit and serves little purpose in the story after the wars start. If you simply cut her from the story after that it would be little different.

She seems like a textbook case of the artifact to me.

edited 3rd May '11 12:14:25 AM by Arha

But you get to shag Yuzuha. I hated it, but still.

Anyone think that Kuuya was supposed to be a love interest?

...I can't remember anyone's names.

Kuuya is female bunny emperor who uses the white Evangelion-like thingy.

Yuzuha is blind girl who has the incurable disease.

I think that, even if Kuuya was intended to be a love interest, I like how they handled it in the final version more.

Yeah. She pretty obviously loved Hakuoro but their relationship is basically about as star crossed as you can get. Not only are they rulers of enemy nations, Hakuoro is the deity her country despises. Not that she knows that.

I have a question about Genjimaru that wasn't answered by playing the game. Why did he make a pact with Dii?

Also, there has been a cult to keep Witsarnemitea sealed since the present day, and perhaps eons before that. The scientist who killed that man who would be Iceman/Hakuoro? Part of it. Since apparently Witsarnemitea was supposed to be the catalyst of the evolution from ape to human, and (as shown in the flashbacks) from human to Kemonomimi, this has been going on for a long time.

I wonder if Word of God confirms that. And I would like to know where I can find Word of God, if possible.

The pact was in exchange for receiving the Av Kamiw.

I know that much, but why would Genjimaru want the Av Kamu for Kunnekamun? The terms of the pact I remember are:

Give: Av Kamu Take: Enslave the entire Bunny race

This seems more like something between the Bunny race and Dii, rather than Dii and Genjimaru. If those were the terms then if Genjimaru ever screwed up, he wouldn't personally suffer (even though Genjimaru's betrayal cost him his life, that seems more like changing the goalposts at the last second).

And I'm not sure what Genjimaru meant by his "I am a criminal" line. Nor why an Evenkuruga would want anything to do with the Bunny people.

No, it wasn't the enslavement of the bunny race. It was Genjimaru's servitude. However, in a way you can think of them as being the same thing. Diy has no claim over their souls like he does Genjimaru but if Genjimaru were to betray him he can take the Av Kamiw away. Without those they're screwed.

And the Evenkurga don't seem to have their own country. He just served the bunny people. When did he say the 'I am a criminal' line?

Bumping to note something that was said in the general thread: A Utawarerumono 2 has been announced.

A bunch of posts above seems to state that the anime is pretty good adaptation of the VN.

Is it good to watch as a substitute over the VN? I don't really like strategy (RPG) games that much especially in V Ns.

It's okay, I guess. It's not that hard of a game unless you are playing on Harder Than Hard difficulty.

Well it's not really difficulty in Strategy games I'm against, it's more that strategy games don't always hold my interest since sometimes battles can go on for quite a bit. (and if I have to restart for whatever reason it's even longer)

I feel like it get in the way of the pacing of the story in the VN, especially since I'm used to V Ns where I just read and sometimes pick choices.

edited 31st Oct '12 11:52:08 PM by superangelo128

Second and third game announced for Western release on the Vita and PS4.

Just picked up the second game. I've been looking forward to it, especially since the anime adaptation kind of sucked.

How is it? I never played the first but I'm tempted to get this one at some point.

I can tell they both added and removed scenes from the anime, but I haven't gotten very far yet. The anime was okay, but it spent too much time on the wrong kind of stuff by emphasizing the girls being yaoi fangirls and wasting everyone's time on that instead of the actual plot.

Okay, the game is definitely much better. The anime screwed up a lot and cut out some very important scenes. Just finishing now.

edited 26th May '17 7:15:47 PM by Arha

Finally got myself a copy of Mask of Deception. I'm only a few minutes past the opening cinematic but if there's one thing the anime has over the game it's that I prefer its opening song. Game has the better opening visuals though.

I don't remember the anime OP at all.

Can't find it on Youtube but I really like the first opening for the anime. Not so much the second one.