Ai Yori Aoshi (game)

[PyTom]

Just thought I'd mention that Ai Yori Aoshi is available at Hirameki's store, http://www.akibaotaku.com. I got it, installed it, and have played it for a while. Works find under vmware.

I might write a longer review later, but the short version is that you should expect from this what you get from an episode of the AYA animes. There's no doubt as to which of the girls Kaoru will be winding up with at the end of a game, but you do get some control over the intervening course of the story, who it features, and what happens in the interim.

I have seen both AYA series, various specials, and have all 10 translated volumes of the manga. So I got the interactions between the characters right away. I'm not sure how accessible these games would be to someone who hasn't seen AYA or read the manga, especially since there isn't really anything introducing the characters to people meeting them for the first time.

[mikey]

I have seen both AYA series, various specials, and have all 10 translated volumes of the manga. So I got the interactions between the characters right away. I'm not sure how accessible these games would be to someone who hasn't seen AYA or read the manga, especially since there isn't really anything introducing the characters to people meeting them for the first time.

Hmmm, that's the huge problem, I was kind of afraid of that. It will make for something like Girlfriend Of Steel then... A kind of a spinoff/alternative episodic thingie...

The one important thing that worries me, as I have no reliable, let alone first hand info is that supposedly this is a no-choices title, is that right?

[papillon]

.... most of the info *i* have on it is that a lot of people seem to be having trouble installing it from the discs they received.

[PyTom]

Mikey >> AYA has choices, as well as mini-games that seem to influence the outcome. These pick the path through the game, and what seem to me to be the ending. The only problem is that all endings I've encountered so far (admittedly, only 3) have Kaoru winding up with Aoi. I don't think it would be an AYA game if Kaoru wound up with one of the other girls.

I think the "another episode" thing is probably the right way to look at it.

Papillion >> Works for me, and I'm running it under Vmware under Linux.

[shaja]

No problem with installation or playing it for me, on a standard WinXP-SP2 system.

The only thing about it that seems odd to me on the technical level is that the voice files don't seem to have been all normalized to the same level. So, there's loud voices and quiet voices.