An Otome Game Review from a BL Fan’s Perspective: Starry☆Sky ~in Summer~Portable PLUS Halloween Extra!

So, ever since I started playing visual novels, I’ve only played BL ones. It wasn’t until I met my lovely frilly fujoshi sistah, Yami, a year ago that I was convinced to play my very first otome game: Starry Sky. I picked ~in Summer~ purely because I was curious about the Scorpio character (being a Scorpio and all :P), and since I had just bought a PSP (yes, I know, I’m late) I bought the portable version. So this review will be a little different, and as far as an actual review…Yami’s would probably be better…but, this will be a different perspective at least~ 

Story

Tsukiko Yahisa is in her second year and it also happens to be summer~ (See Yami’s ~in Spring~ review for a more in depth Starry Sky explanation XD). She has been in the archery club for a year now along with her senpai, Homare Kanakubo, the club’s president and same year Ryuunosuke Miyaji (the vice president), and other members (lol side characters): Takafumi Inukai, Yahiko Shiratori and Shinya Koguma (the Baka Trio XD). This year however, they have a new member, 1st year student, Azusa Kinose, who despite being a new member is quite the archer. Most of ~in Summer~’s story focuses on the archery aspect and their work toward winning the main competition. Even between the main guys’ routes, the story stays about the same, with the same sort of bench marks (3-legged race, summer festival, shopping etc etc), but of course each character has their own personal conflicts within the paths (Homare's weakness to pressure, Miyaji's anger problems, Azusa's slump), so that makes it a little more interesting. In general, the story is pretty simple, not too much drama or anything. It’s RIDICULOUSLY cute though XD Plus, the characters pretty much MAKE the story.

Tanabata festival!!

Characters

Like I said before, I picked ~ in Summer~ just because I was curious about my own sign, but after meeting all the guys, I was INSTANTLY in love with Homare, the Taurus. But then I realized…since I am a Scorpio…of course I’d like the Taurus the most!! XD He’s definitely the caring niisan type. The kind of guy who keeps all his problems to himself and smiles all the time~ I’m such a sucker for those types… After Homare, I did Miyaji’s route, and I ended up liking him more than I thought I would. But since I'm the same sign, I had to be extra critical of his character and felt like he could have been WAY MORE SEXY! But, I did like his serious-business-but-actually-cute/awkward personality. Also as a Scorpio, I wasn’t immediately attracted to Azusa, the Sagittarius, even though he was SO CUTE. It’s that overly confident attitude of his that turned me off to him, but I did end up liking him. In the end, I really do like pushy shota characters XD The Baka Trio were also super entertaining as side characters. They had me ROLLING. I loved how they liked to mess with Miyaji…cause it’s SO easy XD As for Tsukiko…to be fair, as a female character I was all ready to dislike her from the start. Even as I played I had no reason to like her. I didn’t care for her much because she was just SO oblivious ALL the time, BUT I didn’t hate her as much as I thought I would. I kind of liked how her personality would actually change depending on whose path you went on. I hated her personality the most during Homare’s route because she was such a cry baby. I liked her personality the most during Miyaji’s route because she was a lot more casual around him, and would actually tease him and stuff. She was sort of so-so in Azusa’s route, she tried to play the neesan role, but totes doesn’t work with mature-beyond-his-years Azusa XD. All in all though, the characters pretty much MADE the game~ Loved them all!! (sans Tsukiko XD)

Left to Right: Koguma, Azusa, Homare, Shiratori, Miyaji, Inukai

Gameplay

Super basic visual novel style. So basic, it’s kind of hard to mess up…The only choices that can kind of trip you up are the “where to go” and “what to pick” type of choices. Also, despite what makes sense to me, when they ask what element of the zodiac signs you are, pick the one that’s the same as your target. Silly ol’ me thought you should pick the element that’s compatible with your target (or your own). Clearly I was over thinking it XD There's 4-ish different endings, one with each guy and one with the Baka Trio (and Azusa has a TRUE ending with an extra scene). Something I really did like about the game though was the Planetarium, where all the extras were at. Of course it had the usual CGs and Recollection sections, but it also had character info, extra scenes, extra audio tracks, poems, and wallpapers.

*IMMEDIATELY DOWNLOADS HOMARE'S*

Art

I actually REALLY like the artist, Kazuaki. Her only weakness seems to be necks, but other than that, love everything about her work~ Everything else was also really nice, from the opening graphics, to the design of the menus~ I’ll give otome games that, their art tends to be the things that draws me in first~

Kazuaki Lamento Fan Art...be still my kokoro D:

Music

Definitely not one of my favorite soundtracks. It could have been a lot worse though, so I guess I can’t really complain. Since it was so generic I mostly drowned it out anyway. The opening is okay. I don’t love it, but it goes really well with the graphics, so it does its job! 

Voice

Honestly, the only voice actor I was familiar with right away was Jun Fukuyama as Azusa~ But, I loved everybody’s voice actors by the end of it (and Tsukiko’s lack of one ohohoho). My favorite had to be Homare’s (Souichirou Hoshi) ridiculously cute voice. It was pretty much perfect for his personality, and he has THE cutest laugh, oh gaaaawd. Jun Fukuyama was pretty much PERFECT as Azusa (course, I love FukuJun as shota boys…(*cough*Rin*cough*). But FukuJun is Yami's hubby, so I'll stop having dirty thoughts about her man, before she cuts me XD Miyaji’s (Hiroshi Kamiya) voice was SO amazingly deep which made the romantic parts EXTRA doki-doki. The best was when he was angry though~ The Baka Trio had pretty awesome voices too, Inukai (Hiroyuki Yoshino) being my fave. I just loved his super smug voice. Koguma (Kazuma Horie) being my second fave, because in my terrible BL fan mind I could only hear rape-able uke shota voice (I’m going to hell XD). I give Shiratori’s voice actor (Takashi Kondo) props for being able to scream like he does…@___@ Anyway, it’s pretty much a love fest for your ears. Honestly, since I started playing mostly full voiced games, I found it kind of difficult and awkward to have a voiceless main character…but when I think about how ANNOYING Tsukiko’s voice could have been….I was actually thankful she was voiceless XD (Then I heard her voice in the anime, and was rightfully so).

CUTE.CUTE.CUTE

Reccomend?

So, would I, as a diehard (depraved) BL fan, recommend this fluffy, sexless otome game? Surprisingly, yes. When I really think about it though, there’s really no reason for me to like this game given my usual preferences, but…I actually really enjoyed it. This was definitely a good otome game to start with. I think what sold me the most (other than beautiful art) was the fact that the guys were based off the zodiac, and I’m such an astrology nut XD Since the story is so simple, it REALLY needed to have amazing characters, and it did. I was so entertained by the characters and their interactions that I could overlook most of the things I tend to dislike about the otome game genre. The whole game brought me back to that nostalgic feeling of playing Harvest Moon as a kid. Courting the ladies was always my favorite part, even though it was just cute and innocent. But once I became a terrible person/adult caught in sea BL and eroge, I never thought I could enjoy that innocent doki-doki feeling again :P Starry Sky ~in Summer~ definitely proved me wrong and I found myself giggling like a school girl during the romantic scenes XD Course, that doesn’t mean I don’t wanna find/make steamy BL fanart/doujin of it, HA. So yeah, I would definitely recommend it, even to someone more interested in the 18+ games. The game is short and sweet, with pretty basic Japanese, so even if you don’t know much or no Japanese at all it’s pretty obvious what’s going on~ So definitely check it out!

OTP: HomarexMiyaji (Cute pairing!), MiyajixAzusa (Angry boyfriends XD)

EXTRA!!

As you know, yesterday was Halloween! Well, honeybee, the creator's of Starry Sky, had a Halloween Event! It's a super cute event where you choose Trick or Treat? If you choose Treat, you will be able to download adorable wallpapers and icons of the Starry Sky boys in their Halloween costumes in chibi form~ BUT, if you pick Trick (you should DEFINITELY choose Trick XD), you will be lead to the haunted school where the boys (in all their chibi cuteness) are waiting for you (to click on them XD). Since it is Trick, they will give a little speech about how they'll "TRICK" you, which by Starry Sky standards...is pretty steamy XD So, as a special treat to you, our readers, my sistah Yami and I will translate some for you! Yami and I will be doing more throughout the week, and the Halloween Event will be up until the 7th! Here's a sneak peak, my translation of Homare's TRICK~

Are you enjoying Halloween?

Me?

Fufu, I'm having fun.

I seem to be an exorcist or something.

How amusing.

So, you chose trick and came to me?

I feel bad playing tricks on you, but

it's Halloween,

so we have to play tricks.

Now then,

what sort of trick should I play on

this cutie before my eyes?

Let's see...

What about a trick where I

pinch your cheeks?

Or.......

How about I lay a mischievous kiss

on those adorable lips?

What?

I just want to kiss you.

It's not a trick,

I really do want to kiss you.

This has nothing to do with Halloween.

But, I think,

that's still okay.

If I can kiss you............