Video Games in Japanese: Digimon Adventure and Atelier Meruru

Studying abroad in Japan, a two month spring break has started for me. This is therefore the perfect chance to start back up on the All Japanese All the Time (AJATT) method of studying in earnest. My method of choice, video games, and mostly Otome games at that, although not today. The starting plan is to give a running review as I go. So let's kick things off with and "Digimon Adventure" and "Atelier Meruru"!

To start: Digimon Adventure is a PSP game following the first season of the anime. 

 

And I mean follows it. We start off with an intro about the world's weather being particularly weird that summer, with droughts in Asia, floods in the Middle East, and record cold summers in America. Our characters are introduced at their summer camp, they get their digivices, and we're off! Scenes from the original anime are spliced in well, when they're transported to the digiword, that's when the intro plays and it feels like "Yes! Something big is starting!" and when the giant red bug is chasing them off the cliff, they pull that scene in as well.

 

I picked up the game for nostalgia's sake, but while I was expecting a reader's digest version of the anime, and for Tie to be the main character, I was pleasantly surprised on both accounts. The monster fighting leaves me with no complaints, but what really pulls me in is the way they handled the character development. Each chapter so far has followed a different kid as party leader. I'm at three: Tie, Joe (Mini-chapter), Mat, and it looks like Sora's next. There are a couple places where your group rests and you get a chance to talk to the other members of your party. If you say the right thing when the options come up your relationship increases, and that in turn increases the chances of your digimon doing combo attacks in battle.

I'm actually growing rather attached to Joe, when in the anime he didn't really leave much of an impression on me. His chapter involved him and Gomamon going off to the beach to look for clams to give to the "marching fishes" as a thank you for saving them. Gomamon gets him rilled up and he runs off to the beach to spend the day digging because of his "manly fighting spirit". In the anime he always struck me as a useless worry-wart who thought he was in charge, but now I'm really enjoying the interplay with him and Gomamon, as well as the rest of the group as well. If this keeps up his dorky, well-meaning attitude may even bring him into competition with TK as my favorite character...

I've hit Aguman and Gabumon's digivolutions story wise, but I'm not sure how to activate them again. For now I'm just going to run with the theory that, like the anime, they can't simply transform at will for a while.

In the future as I go though the game I'll give more of a play-by-play of the action I'm at, but for now I'll end with that catch up of about where I'm at.

Not so much needs to be said about Atelier Meruru, since it's already available in English for the PS3, and the gameplay and story are more or less the same. It is one of my favorite games and the PSVita handheld version is available in Japan. So far it seems the two differences here are the extra party characters available via download are already added and there's more voice acting. Time will tell if more differences pop up as I progress through it. So its worth mentioning.

As far as other things I have, they are

Otome Games

• Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 1
• Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 3
• Ouran High School Host Club DS
• Hetalia
• Starry Sky In Spring: Portable
• 乙女的恋革命★ラブレボ！
• Maiden carp revolution ★ Love Revo! 
•  (Which I know as the game for the "Ugly Ducking" manga)

Non-Otome Games

• Baka To Testo Portable
• Digimon Story: Lost Evolution
• DETECTIVE CONAN: AOKI HOUSEKI NO RINBUKYOKU

Also, not a game, but I got the Shin Tenchi novels as well.

I hope you enjoy reading my gaming adventrues!