On a side note, I’d like to thank nyo who’s letting me use his blog because I’m obviously too lazy to make my own. (Additionally thanks to the previous statement, no one will think he’s the one who wrote this, thus thinking he’s into otome games. Be grateful onii-chan~ I’m thinking about your reputation.)

** GAME INTRODUCTIONS **

> Starry☆Sky~In Spring~

STORY:

The game is set in a former all-boys school: Seigetsu Gakuen (星月学園), which specializes in astronomy, astrology and other sky-related stuff. As it has only become a mixed school recently, Yahisa Tsukiko (夜久月子), the main heroine, is the only girl in the whole school (lol or what.). She’s a second year studying astronomy with her two childhood friends. A French student transfers to Tsukiko’s class and claims he has come back to Japan just to meet her again. The story basically focuses on the whole love polygon that is formed.

CHARACTERS:

There are 3 potential love interests available in the game:

(From left to right: Tohzuki Suzuya, Nanami Kanata and Tomoe Yoh)

** Tohzuki Suzuya / 東月錫也** (CV: Ono Daisuke)

>> Star Sign: Cancer

Suzuya is Tsukiko’s osananajimi, really nice and mature. He’s the one who always stops Kanata and Yoh when they are having a fight and he is also really good at cooking. Due to his caring personality and cooking skills, he’s seen as a mother figure by the others :’). Basically, he’s been in love with Tsukiko for like forever but he just represses his own feelings (Baka >.>) and of course Tsukiko is so dense, there’s no way she would notice it (Oh you, Tsukiko…)

Suzuya is… lovely. Really, he’s so sweet and caring, he was my favourite guy from this game and I enjoyed his route the best. Plus, he’s voiced by Ono Daisuke <3

** Tomoe Yoh / 土萌羊** (CV: Midorikawa Hikaru)

>> Star Sign: Capricorn

Yoh is a transfer student coming from France. He met Tsukiko back in the days when he was living in Japan but later had to go back to France. He returns to Japan at the beginning of the game just to meet her again (way to be passionate) and he’s always reminding her how much he cares for her and stuff.

I am not really a big fan of Yoh. He is way too clingy for my taste. And he looks like he’s on Prozac most of the time xD (No seriously, I so wanted to slap him and be like “Oh god, but wake up already ffs”). I was not familiar with his seiyuu as he mostly voiced characters from shows I haven’t seen, so I didn’t have any expectations whatsoever, but in the end I think he did a good job.

A little trivia: Yoh speaks French here and there in the game, which makes sense as he’s supposed to be French in the first place… but unfortunately his French sucks xD

** Nanami Kanata / 七海哉太** (CV: Sugita Tomokazu)

>> Star Sign: Pisces

Kanata is, like Suzuya, Tsukiko’s childhood friend. He has had some kind of illness since his childhood and as a result he always tries to act tough and all to make up for it, as he hates to make others worry about him. He’s really jealous and at first doesn’t get along with Yoh and always tries to pick a fight with him, when the latter is flirting with Tsukiko.

Kanata is a cute character, I liked his blushing and tsundere moments a lot when he tries hard to hide his feeling for Tsukiko. On a side note, he’s voiced by Sugita Tomokazu in a very Gintoki-ish way (Gin-sannnnnnnnn <3).

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> Starry☆Sky~In Summer~

STORY:

Pretty much the same setting as the first game except the story is almost only focused on the Kyuudou (Japanese archery) club activities and their training for the upcoming Inter-High competition. Once again, there are three different routes available in the game. A nice feature in this game is the addition of 3 funny side characters, namely the ‘Baka Trio’, which spices up the story a little more.

CHARACTERS:

Once again, 3 different love interests.

(From left to right: Kanakubo Homare, Kinose Azusa and Miyaji Ryunosuke)

** Kanakubo Homare / 金久保誉** (CV: Hoshi Souichirou)

>> Star Sign: Taurus

He’s the captain of the archery club and is one year older than Tsukiko. He’s really gentle and mature. He cares a lot about the other club members and always stops Kinose and Miyaji when they are fighting. He however breaks down quite easily under the pressure and gets really nervous during competitions. (Homare-senpai ganbatteeeeeeeee ;___;)

I was not really familiar with his seiyuu but OMFG, I liked his voice so much. I could have sworn my brain was melting every time he was speaking. *brain melts again* This even made me buy his drama CD as a result (Good job Honeybee, you got me). Moreover, most of his scenes were really sweet.

** Miyaji Ryunosuke / 宮地龍之介** (CV: Kamiya Hiroshi)

>> Star Sign: Scorpio

Vice-captain of the archery club or “the demon vice-captain” as he’s called by the Baka Trio. Miyaji is really strict about archery and easily gets mad at the other members when they are fooling around during practice (especially the Baka Trio). He likes sweets a lot and his daily meals usually consist of parfaits and cakes (Way to go, Miyaji!! xD) Despite his serious appearance, expect a lot of blushing as he easily gets embarrassed (So moeeeee I died >△<) Over-blushing is definitely the way to go~ I tell you. Oh and important point: his seiyuu is Kamiya Hiroshi whom I like a lot. Just because of this, I knew from the start, I’d like Miyaji for sure and, I was damn right.

My personal favourite route for this game. I was right to play it last uhuhuh~

** Kinose Azusa / 木ノ瀬梓** (CV: Fukuyama Jun)

>> Star Sign: Sagittarius

Kinose is a first year who joins the club at the beginning of the game. He is, due to his talent, considered an archery genius, which leads him to have a big emo phase during the game (>.>) because people have too many expectations and stuff (This part was annoying as the whole story basically revolves around Kinose and his “slump” and this even if you’re playing another guy’s route >.> Goddammit, Kinose, stop stealing people’s thunder). The rest of the time, he’s a really carefree person and is constantly hitting on Tsukiko, which of course kind of pisses Miyaji off. He later develops a rival relationship with the latter.

Kinose is quite an annoying brat imo and I didn’t like his route that much even though I have to admit he had some cute moments. But, I guess I’m just not really into bold and clingy characters (I felt the same about Yoh in the first game). I liked the way he was voiced though. Fukuyama did a good job and it doesn’t sound too much like the usual “Fukuyama Ledouche voice”©

**Baka Trio**

Inukai Takafumi / 犬飼隆文 (CV: Yoshino Hiroyuki)

Shiratori Yahiko / 白鳥弥彦 (CV: Kondo Takashi)

Koguma Shinya / 小熊伸也 (CV: Horie Kazuma)

(From left to right: Koguma, Shiratori and Inukai)

They are members of the archery club. Inukai and Shiratori are second year students, and Koguma is a first year. They are supporting characters but contribute a lot to most comedy moments.

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** OVERALL IMPRESSIONS **

Regarding graphics, I really liked the art. Most CGs feature a wonderful starry night sky (Yeah, starry sky, it kinda was a given, I guess) and being an astronomy addict, needless to say I liked the whole atmosphere a lot (Yay for stargazing sessions and astronomy-related convos)- I wish I could have attended that kind of school. Only bad thing I can think of is that Tsukiko is a faceless heroine. It unfortunately kinda wastes some awesome CGs potential. And as a result, most CGs are like seen from Tsukiko’s point of view or have her face blocked in some way (Seriously, she needs to have her bangs cut xD) Too bad~

Music wise, it’s nothing extraordinary but most background tunes are enjoyable and they fit the atmosphere quite well. Both Spring and Summer opening songs are really good. (I have a slight preference for Spring OP though)

Overall, both Spring and Summer were cute little games with a nice storyline and interesting characters. I enjoyed them a lot, though it felt they were a little bit short~ But well, those games are supposed to be some kind of bonus to the drama CD series, so we can’t really blame Honeybee. Out of the two games, I guess I liked Summer a little better. It had a little something more than Spring. Most scenes were so much cuter and well, it had a lot of Miyaji and Kanakubo goodness. What more can you ask for?

In short, I’d greatly recommend these games to any otome game lovers out there, given they can understand Japanese decently as no English translation is available to this day.

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A little trivia: Honeybee seems to like using English a lot, or I should rather say Engrish. Seriously, though English is not my mother tongue, even I can tell their English sucks. It’s so bad it’s funny.

I’ll let you see by yourself:

Random quote: “I will be tender rain and then satisfy you” >>> Dear Lord, WTF is this, I don’t even… x_x

See? It is unique.

The same goes with French, but to a lesser extent. They used French in the first game and it was full of grammar and spelling mistakes. I won’t even mention Yoh’s Drama CD track list. Even a Google translation would have ended up being better than this (or maybe not but still…).

If you can read French, look at this, it’s just awesome xD

For people who can’t read French, I’ll just detail the best part. They wrote the equivalent of “Truck List” in French instead of “Track List”. Gawd, it made my day.

The track names are not correct either but at least they remain somewhat understandable.

That being said, I guess we can somehow conclude that people from HB suck at foreign languages.

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A French version of this post will come later if I feel like translating everything, that is. >.> *lazy inside*

Well, that’s all for this review. I guess, I’ll write a combined review for Autumn and Winter too, but it will come later as I need some more free time (´_ゝ｀) – I can’t wait to write this one, as Winter features my favourite guy of the series ~Tsubasaaaaa-pyon ( ＞△＜)o うぬぬぬ~ * cough *

See you next time~

On a side note, Honeybee is planning to release a new drama CD series – Seiza Danna – featuring SutaSuka guys once again. First CD release is scheduled on February 26, 2010 and features both Capricorn and Aquarius. Fellow S☆S fans, let’s rejoice ＼(*^ o ^*)／ (Moarrr Tsubasa goodness to come, OMG HB I love you so~)

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PS: Special thanks to: Honeybee for creating スタ☆スカ, Pepperidge Farm for the awesome chocolate chips soft baked cookies I ate while writing this, nyo onii-chan again because I know he likes to be thanked, you because you theoretically managed to read this post and go through all my fangirl craziness (and that’s quite the achievement if you ask me).

PS2: Excuse my English

PS3: Happy Birthday to Aquarius people – And of course, Happy (belated) Birthday to Tsubasaaaaa~ お誕生日、おめでとう。 </fangirl>

PS4: Not released yet, just blame Sony. (And I guess you can blame my lame sense of humour as well but I really can’t do any better than this right now~)

Since I got my dedicated server some months ago I resuscitated it there. For some reasons this and the recent events made me want to blog again, maybe it’s just a short-lived hype but well we’ll see…

(Actually this is just to create a post, otherwise the wordpress feed would be broken)