Tuesday 19 June 2012

rose colored rear view mirrors

Vaguely glancing at the Let's Play True Love thread is a bit of a shock.

I remember liking this game.

This shouldn't be a shock, it's a pretty clear influence on a lot of my work, Summer Session being the most obvious. (For some people, it was TokiMemo that was the big influence, but I've never played it, even the girls sides, and don't know all that much about it.)

So it's a surprise to me to look back at this game and go "Wow, that's awful."

The art really hasn't aged well. It's not just the number of colors, which wasn't really their fault, we did have more technical limitations then. It's not just the particular style of huge eyes and harsh technicolor highlights which was in vogue in that particular era of anime but makes people cringe nowadays. Even my untrained eye is finding the anatomy pretty ropy.

And that protagonist... what a creeper!

I liked this game? I must have been seriously bored.

Of course, compared to the other h-games of the era, it doesn't look quite so bad. Some of those ancient relics are truly... special. Someone even mailed me a free legit box copy of DOR once just to prove how painfully bad it was. (AND IT WAS.)

Really, it's hard to imagine how I got into this field when I look back at what I had to try and catch my interest!

2 comments:

gaiaswill said...

Hahaha. Yes, nostalgia is a harsh mistress. It makes me feel a bit grateful that my first game was Season of the Sakura, which aged only *slightly* better.

Milki said...

Oh, I still enjoy True Love every now and then... it was my first stat-raiser and got me addicted to the genre at the tender age of 14... XD

I occasionally go back to the game every few years and giggle about it's sillyness. It IS an awful game.. and the protagonist is a creeper. But I still find it highly amusing and the stat-raising was good. 8)